Must See Moveeees!

I occasionally write about movies here, but only occasionally. Mostly because I don’t get out much any more, but also because being a movie critic—let me amend that—being a good movie critic is a tricky art.

I truly feel that to be useful as a critic you have to look at what the writers and directors were trying to accomplish and then analyze whether they achieved their goal. This means going a fair bit beyond “two thumbs down,” as it were—and it also means you have to suss out what their point was in the first place.

I think a lot of useless (or actually cruel) reviews start with lousy trailers. Back in the days before a certain diminutive, bespectacled Disney executive allegedly decreed that trailers must follow the “In a world without laws…” formula, trailers were allowed to be inventive or even, dare I say it, interesting. They were allowed to hint, to give a flavor for a film, and of course, sometimes to just be odd. If you ever rent a DVD that includes old trailers—watch them! Zowee.

But I digress.

If the trailer sets the movie up incorrectly, then the reviewers will think that the trailer is what the directors were after and they might review the movie’s ability to achieve what the trailer promised. My husband and I have noticed this problem most markedly with Adam Sandler films, of late. Spanglish and Click are not his normal fare. They have some depth to them. They have Actual Uncomfortable Adult Moments. They are not a string of fart jokes, is what I’m getting at.

So.

The Thanksgiving season brought us two kid-friendly-films (thank God!).

Did they achieve their goals?
I think so.
Did the trailers do them justice?
I think so. The trailers were definitely trying not to give away too much.

And thus, I now give you…

My Movie Notes for Post-Thanksgiving Movie Madness

The Latest Muppet Opus: Go. Go see this film. Go see and enjoy and weep if you’re old enough to remember the original Muppet Show. We need to thank Jason Segal, James Bobin, and Bret McKenzie for proving that there is room for sweetness and hope and joy and music and humor—all without any ironic wink at the audience. It’s just good, clean, fun with no snark anywhere to be seen.
And God Bless Them for leaving in Chris Cooper’s hilarious, “Maniacal laugh… Maniacal laugh…”—when I worked in Hollywood certain diminutive, bespectacled Disney executives would have cut the line because the word “maniacal” was too hard for kids (or perhaps because he needed someone to explain the vocabulary to him?). And yes, everyone in the audience old enough to have children were singing along, “It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights…”

My husband and I despaired after the last Muppet film we saw (Gonzo doesn’t need a back story, guys, and he certainly doesn’t need one that makes kids cry!), fearing that all the love and generosity of the Muppet spirit had indeed died with Jim Henson.

Not so!
It lives!
Go see!
(PLAY DRUMS! PLAY DRUMS!)

And OOOH! I just found this page where you can hear the faux Barbershop Quartet (Sam the Eagle, Rowlf the Dog, Link Hogthrob, and YAAAYYYY Beaker!!!) cover Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”—I don’t think you get to hear this much of it in the film, so it’s nice to have the whole cover.

Hugo:
If you have kids who are old enough for the story and they haven’t at least flipped through the gorgeous pencil drawings in Mr. Selznik’s book, then get thee to a library! (You’ll probably have to put a hold on the book. Though I heard from our school’s librarian that he has a new and even better book out now! Squeee!)
Hugo is gorgeous! Hugo is heartbreaking! Hugo is magical! Hugo is better than you think a movie with Sacha Baron Cohen could be!
Take your tissues and go see this film.
It is utterly impossible to pigeon-hole this film except to say it’s a wonderful children’s adventure with all the regular YA requirements (missing parents, a mystery, nifty “romantic” location) but it goes so far beyond those simple bits, you’ll just be mesmerized. The movie sticks to the book remarkably well (at least the first half. I finally wrested it away from the kiddos and have only made it halfway as of today) and the film quite literally uses the art as storyboards for the movie. We all owe Mister Scorsese a debt of gratitude for not messing with perfection.
And Ben Kingsly!
Ah!
And the story of Papa Georges Méliès!
Ah, toujours triste!
Or something like that.

(I took Spanish in school)

And the children!
And Missus Malfoy (ha! You couldn’t figure out where you knew Mama Jeanne from, could you! I had to IMDB her.)
And how VERY nice to see the the sweet and marvelous Michael Stuhlbarg next to actors as luminous as he. (He played the only Romeo I have ever enjoyed when we were back in college–and I watched that #*%^*#* Balcony Scene every performance from the wings (I was doing costumes on the show) because he was seriously that good.)

Go!
Go!
Go see Hugo in 3-D (it’s beautifully rendered and really actually adds—dare I say depth—to the visuals)!
And enjoy!