Laura Sees Movies: Drive

I know I should have posted this earlier in the week but I've been terribly lazy.

Drive is phenomenal. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It feels timeless as if you are finally getting around to seeing a movie you've always known was great. Classic.

I rushed out to see it last weekend due to trusted buzz and this outstanding review by Roger Ebert whose words rang in my head as I watched the film.

Extremely quiet, extremely violent, and extremely simple, this movie is perfectly executed. A story that leaves you wanting more yet provides all you require to be entirely captivated. Nothing is given away and all of our emotions are earned. Well done.

Drive will be remembered as one of this years most unique and refreshing movies. Finally!

Laura Sees Movies: Our Idiot Brother

Isn't Paul Rudd charming? Gosh he's doing so well these days. I am so happy for him. Honestly, I think he seems super nice.

Anyways, Our Idiot Brother is a pretty decent flick. I enjoyed it thoroughly and although it does not exactly paint it's female characters in an attractive light, it ultimately has a payoff that is worth the huff and puff.

The opening is set up perfectly with our protagonist selling weed to a uniformed officer. The scene is written so well and executed so perfectly, it's 100% believable and you immediately know that our hero, Ted, is a great guy who's only fault is that he has faith in people.

More of a statement on the world than upon the 'idiot' this movie is about how much we all forget how nice our lives actually are, how we take our families for granted, and how we make fun of the honest people who truly enjoy the simple things.

Ted is loyal, sweet, and fiercely honest. His sisters are not. His sisters, however, do not seem to be 'idiots' by society's standards and therefore thrive where Ted fails. It's an interesting movie about interesting people who seem real.

The only sore spot is how much they bothered to 'lesbian up' Rashida Jones with costumes for her role as Zooey Deschanel's girlfriend. Her entire 'look' just felt a bit pushed to me, but I suppose I'll let it slide.

Additionally, I must mention Kathryn Hahn's appearance as Ted's ex. Hilarious and steals every scene she is in, I cannot wait for her new sitcom to hit my TV, she is currently my favorite working actress.

A summer sleeper worth seeing, Our Idiot Brother is quite nice.

Laura Sees Movies: The Help

Emotionally manipulative and basically boring, The Help is an ok movie with great performances that has spurred much controversy. Kathryn Stockett's novel has been criticized, and mostly because it was written by her, a white woman, and the story is heavily about the struggle of black women. I don't blame people for getting worked up.

My problem with this film has not much to do with Kathryn Stockett's whiteness, although I do find it odd that she would desire to tackle this material, my problem is with the overall dullness of the story. All emotion and almost no heart, the story of Skeeter and her beloved maid is overshadowed by the side stories and crowded out by fillers.

As a viewer I desired so much more to see truly where Skeeter came from, why she felt so connected to her own maid as a mother figure and how that would drive her to write a book. Instead Skeeter is beautiful, yet we are supposed to believe she is plain, she is a strong single character, yet we are forced into an empty love story that goes nowhere, and mostly it seems that she simply gets lucky and her book happens to be a success. She lacks the strength and conviction I believe this character would have to possess to pull off this publication. This should truly be Skeeters story, and it is not successful. I didn't connect to her journey at all, and I was heavily distracted by all the more interesting stories she was surrounded by.

All of the acting is excellent, let me say that first and foremost. Viola Davis is, as ALWAYS, a powerhouse of truth, and shoots Aibileen's arrow straight into our hearts. Bring tissues. Emma Stone is great too, despite that lack of depth that has been written into her character. Bryce Dallas Howard is delightfully hate able, Sissy Spacek and Allison Janney both sneak in as scene stealing mothers, and my favorite performances belong to Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer whose touching story could have been a delightful movie all by itself.

There is too much happening, it all makes you cry, and yet it all feels meaningless. It lacks authenticity, and a genuine heartbeat. Dull, pushy, sappy, and too long, this movie is pretty lame. I'd love to say it was great, it had plenty of potential, but I wasn't happy for anyone at the end, nor did I care much what had happened. A wonderful display of great acting, it's a shame it had to come in such a crappy candy coating.

Laura Sees Movies: The Future

Miranda July's sweet and amazing new movie is showing in just a select few cities, but if you visit her website you can check out her blog and see where it's going to be.

This movie is just wonderful. I read several marvelous reviews before I saw it. That combined with my friend's fondness for Miranda July in general is what got us to go out.

I'm so glad we did. The movie is hard to describe in any way that could possibly do it justice but I will try. It is heart-wrenching, sweet, hilarious, complicated, sad, goofy, simple, and strange. The word I've heard several other reviews use is whimsical. Our heroine, Sophie, is so sympathetic I felt as though her struggles were mine. Her sweet boyfriend Jason is the same, someone I felt very connected to and understood.

The story is narrated by an alley cat who is currently under medical supervision in a shelter that Jason and Sophie have agreed to adopt. They realize taking in a sick cat will change their lives and decide to live it up the final month they have to themselves before he joins their family. The cat himself as a character moved me in the most surprising way. I adopted an alley cat myself this year and Pawpaw's journey gave me insight into her scarred soul and previous life on the streets in a way I'd never imagined. I was dying to come home and see her once the credits rolled.

This movie will touch your heart. It carries you off to a world that feels familiar as though it's happening somewhere we all have been. Lovely and powerful, it is by far the best movie I've seen this summer.

Laura Sees Movies: Captain America

Ok guys, I realize you all must think that all I do is see comic book movies and then develop huge crushes on the actors who play the heroes but lets be clear here. My crush on Captain America goes WAY back.

Well, my crush on Chris Evans goes way back. Sigh. C'est la vie. I could not love him more. Handsome, funny, and literally in this movie they have him play the nicest guy in the world and then use chemicals make him the hottest man in the world (kind of like the Stepford Wives except way better and for ladies). Oh dear lord. Be still my heart.

I want to talk about the movie here but it's difficult. I saw this on my birthday with two of my girlfriends, who are naturally also quite enamored of our protagonist due to his hysterical turn in Not Another Teen Movie. (that's right, this crush is 10 years old. take that Twi-hards. your Pattinson love has got nothing on my Evans love). I digress. We saw it in Times Square which is a terrible location to see a movie and a bunch of weird distracting stuff happened.

Before the movie started something major went down in an adjacent theater and all the managers and staff went running in, and then, during the movie, in the midst a major action sequence, someone threw a soda on us. Us and like half the other people in the place. It was definitely a large. A lot of people flipped so naturally, my attention was split. One girl even had the manager come in so she could complain in front of all of us in the middle of the movie.

Basically I spent the entire movie thinking about having sex with Chris Evans. Honestly I thought of little else. Except occasionally wondering who threw the coke and what kind of drama was happening next door.

I need to sum up. Did I like it? Hells yes, Chris Evan is so badass and he makes a great Captain America. His love interest was a highlight as well, played by Haley Atwell, an incredibly beautiful woman who actually looks like she consumes more than 800 calories a day and was believable as a solider herself. However, I can't in good conscience say that I have much of a clue as to what actually happened plot wise.

I will say this. After the credits there was another Avengers teaser, essentially an Avengers trailer. I think this Captain America flick was sort of a throw away for me (maybe Hollywood too? yes? no?) because basically we just needed his story to be set up so we can go watch the Avengers movie now. Which, for the record, looks phenomenal. SO EXCITED.

Laura Sees Movies: Cedar Rapids: Movies on a Plane Edition

Cedar Rapids. I was half interested in watching this when it came out, it looked funny enough, I like that Ed Helms, and I'm partial to anything that makes fun of small town life. (hint-I am from a small town)

I didn't see it for whatever reason, but it probably would have snuck on to my netflix queue eventually so I was glad to see it as an option on the digiplayer.

Cedar Rapids was much darker then I expected it to be, and honestly a lot more interesting. The dark vibe set in fairly early in the story as Ed Helms's character is chosen to go to Cedar Rapids for an insurance conference due to his fellow salesman's untimely death via autoerotic asphyxiation.

The stakes are high, especially given our leading man's innocent nature, and you quickly learn that he has entered a rough and tumble conference of his peers who operate with an attitude of "what happens at Cedar Rapids, stays at Cedar Rapids." Small town ideals are shattered, and the curtain is pulled back as our protagonist reveals the corruption of his professional superiors.

John C Reilly shines as an unhappy alcoholic, an almost unrecognizable Anne Heche is surprisingly sympathetic in an ugly role, and Alia Shawkat (remember Maeby from Arrested Development?) makes a standout appearance as a prostitute in an intense drug addled party sequence.

I enjoyed Cedar Rapids thoroughly. It has a star studded cast (did I mention Sigourney Weaver?) and it tells a classic story. A small town man goes head to head with the big city bad guys. Will he hold on to his ideals? Who wins in the end? Does it change him for better or for worse? I don't want to tell you cause it's good and I want you to watch it.

Yes Cedar Rapids. You are very interesting and I like you.

Laura Sees Movies: Diary of a Wimpy Kid-Roderick Rules: Movies on a Plane Edition

Diary of a Wimpy Kid! I LOVED this movie when I first saw it. Ironically I saw the original Diary of a Wimpy Kid on a plane because I thought it looked cute. I figured, eh, if it sucks, I'll switch to a different movie. IT DOES NOT SUCK! It's so cute and good and funny and Steve Zahn is in it! Love it!

Anyways, when I saw that there was a sequel coming out, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules, I was super excited. I was glad to see so many other plane riders had enjoyed it too and I couldn't wait to go see it. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult to convince a friend to go see the sequel to a kids movie with you because you saw the original on a plane and are insisting that it was great, so I never caught it while it was in the theater. Take note that I wanted to though. Happily, I would have paid full theatre price to see this, I just didn't end up making it. You can imagine my thrill when I saw it was an option on my flight.

Roderick is our hero's older brother. This movie focuses on the relationship between the two boys and takes them through a few ups and downs. It does not start out strong. It seems a little corny and several moments in the opening sequences feel a bit forced. Hey kids, it's the same cast! Remember this guy? And so on.

However, as it gains momentum, the charm and genuine likability of the original movie returns. And as the meaning behind the title 'Rodrick Rules' is revealed, the fun begins. There are more young adult themes to this story, Greg has a crush on a pretty blonde girl, Rodrick and his family address his desire to be a professional musician, and there is a classic John Hughes-esque house party.

Overall I enjoyed it. There is a worth-the-wait payoff in the climax which despite all that has happened, causes you to fall back in love with Greg, Roderick, and their mom and dad. And a few of the seemingly forced moments make great callback jokes later which can almost allow me to forgive their awkward introduction.

I say watch it! Actually, watch the first one, cause it's amazing, and then if you like it, watch the second one. It's a solid sequel, it has all the qualities I loved from the original and told a new story at the same time. Part 2 is not as great, but if you love the original it's worth watching.