THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY

Cole's Rating: ★★★ ½

Director: Ben Stiller
Year: 2013
Cast: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig
Genre: Adventure/Comedy/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG

I’ve endured years of watching Ben Stiller on the big screen. I’ve chuckled at his decent romantic comedies, I’ve enjoyed his voice work in animated films, and I’ve winced at the ones that needed work, but The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is his first movie that blew me out of my seat. To people who haven’t seen this motion picture, it is, understandably, nearly impossible to fathom the beauty of what inhabits the silver screen. Stiller made a movie that is utterly genuine. As an audience member, I haven’t been moved by the honesty of people and their actions as greatly as I was here since I saw Silver Linings Playbook. 

In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter is a humbled Life Magazine worker that faces a generational difficulty when a young hotshot comes in, takes control, and transforms the company into an online program. This results in the firing of many devoted, “old-fashioned” employees. Walter’s job, for the last print issue of Life, is to find a missing negative (photo) that would prevail as the cover photo. He embarks upon a journey, a real one, that allows him to break free of his obsessive daydreams (to which he has fallen subject to over the course of his life). 

Along with a simple, yet intricate screenplay and astounding visuals, Ben Stiller is what makes this film so candid. His character is so believable because it feels like he’s effortlessly playing himself on screen. In short, he comes off as a veteran actor here, capable of encasing any role and making it as personable as possible. As a director, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is, for the most part, a job well done. Though there is a sense of unsteadiness in the mood of the film as it progresses, and it feels like he hasn’t quite identified what makes his style of shooting his own. In a 114 minute vehicle, there is a large amount of visionary techniques that aren’t exercised to their fullest potential.


       Moreover, despite this, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty clocks in as the third best movie of the year for me. Taking in all of what it has to offer: mesmerizing cinematography, an incredible story of self-discovery and real-world encounters, exceptional performances, and an overall highly thought-provoking film, it’s fair to say that this exquisite, brilliant piece of art is the strongest chapter in Stiller’s book thus far.

-Written by Cole Pollyea

AMERICAN HUSTLE

Cole's Rating: ★★★ ½

Jesse's Rating: ★★ ½

Director: David O. Russell
Year: 2013
Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: R

        Long before the widely praised American Hustle came out, I, as an unconditional lover of film, was infatuated with Christian Bale’s purported charisma in the sneak peeks (trailers) that detailed very little of the movie itself. And, long after seeing the movie, his performance had the same effect. Coherently, this is another one of David O. Russell’s crisp, accurate films that was anticipated before its arrival, and greatly commended afterwards. In short, American Hustle gave film lovers something to look forward to, and it didn’t let us down.

        Within seconds of the opening shot, awe plastered itself upon the width of my face. “Who starts a movie off with some guy fixing his fake combover?”. The quiet brilliance was nearly too much to handle, so when very next shot displayed a trio of some of the finest living actors throwing around potent lines of dialogue, I knew I was going to love it; I don’t stand corrected.

        Often times, people use the phrase “before its time” as a complement, and understandably so. For film, when a large quantity of it (stylistically speaking) has gone downhill since the 90’s, it would be more than appropriate to say that American Hustle is after its time. Truly, that’s what I enjoyed so much about it. I’m not sure if it was his intention, but David O. Russell modeled his newest film’s structure after that of Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (though it was far from derivative), opening with a shot in need of explanation from a linear structure, starting from the beginning. Then it took us back through that scene again, and continued the story. It was, quite honestly, the best way this movie could have been written, and it was presented very well.

        But it did feel like I was sitting in the theater for a long time. Admittedly, it’s not as engaging as his other works (specifically Silver Linings Playbook), a result of the inability to identify a protagonist or main conflict in the story until about an hour or so into the picture. However, it kept me entertained (for the most part), and it was so well made that whatever lags that may have occurred in the development of the plot can and should be dismissed.

        Of course, it’s not just the steady, evocative direction that makes it among the best films of the year, though. Probably the two most evident aspects of this motion picture that qualifies it as such are the powerful performances and the artistic costume design. Not a scene went by when I wasn’t in awe at the beauty of the wardrobes and the craft of the hair styles, or, on another note, swept away by the accuracy of the time period captured.

        So, will it win Best Picture? To answer with words said by the movie’s own (Bale), “people believe what they want to believe, but the guy who made this, was so good...” that it sure has a solid chance.

-Written by Cole Pollyea

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE

Cole's Rating: ★★★

Director: Francis Lawrence

Year: 2013

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence

Genre: Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi

MPAA Rating: PG-13

       Before teen dystopian novels became dull and redundant (yes, I’m talking about Divergent), there came a trilogy of teen novels called The Hunger Games. As they caught publicity and the eye of certain filmmakers, it seized its opportunity upon the silver screen. For a follow up to a good film (The Hunger Games, 2007), Catching Fire isn’t bad. It showcases a lot of the same stylistics used in it’s predecessor, and offers new insight, too. What’s more, it’s also very entertaining.

        To begin, after a performance beyond anyone’s wildest expectations in the 2012 masterpiece, Silver Linings Playbook, everything Jennifer Lawrence stars in is worth seeing. Her talent continues to be displayed as she sustains the character of Katniss Everdeen, “Girl on Fire”, who, here, is re-entered into the Hunger Games, a 75th anniversary that supposedly would solve all of the governments revolutionary problems. But things are not what it seems, and Katniss, yet again, is put against the odds.

        But it is a sequel, so it can’t just get off scott-free (haha). While this element was more evident in the first film of the series, it still irked viewers including myself here, that being the lack of adult material. Of course, it was put out to attract a teen audience (job well done), but the way it avoids the intimacy and violence is a clear indication that reigns were applied. However, it is important for there to be some films that earn that PG-13 rating, but it is one thing that held Catching Fire, and The Hunger Games for that matter, back from being better.

        As I sat with my class of students on a field trip we attended to see this movie, I heard whoops and cheers all the way throughout the duration of the movie. Some of those whoops and cheers came from kids who had seen the film multiple times before. It is a movie that is, by no means, a masterpiece. For example, it’s structured rather awkwardly in some portions of the film. Nonetheless, it’s a successful chapter in the creation of Suzanne Collin’s dystopia. To conclude, I would say that it caught fire with the fans, and spread like mad.

-Written by Cole Pollyea

DRACULA (1931)

Cole's Rating: ★★★ ½

Director: Tod Browning, Karl Freund

Year: 1931

Cast: Beri Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners

Genre: Horror

MPAA Rating: Approved

Tod Browning’s vision of Dracula is a landmark in filmmaking. It’s not only a breakthrough in horror pictures of its time, but also an excellent showcase for the wildly talented Beri Lugosi. While it is unfaithful to the details of Bram Stoker’s masterful novel, it still delivers the story of the Transylvanian nightmare, the vampire who could control minds, possibly the most popular antagonistic fictional character of all time, Dracula.

The events of this film are as follows (however, they differentiate from what takes place in the novel), Renfield, a real estate agent (of the time), goes on a journey to Transylvania, where he attempts to make a sale in London to Count Dracula. Little does he know that The Count is not what he appears, and before long, he is taken under his influence and thrust into the living nightmare that is victimization. When he returns to London, along with The Count, Dracula has his motives aimed at a family who administer mental care to patient Renfield. Eventually, when worse comes to worse, one Dr. Van Helsing is sought out to protect the family from the vicious beast.

What’s amazing is that Lugosi wasn’t even supposed to be in the film at first, and after a rather haunting viewing of this motion picture, it’s hard to believe that it would be the same without him. The power behind his lack of dialogue is shockingly immense. Instead of caressing “Madam Mina” with his words, as it is displayed that he does in other adaptions, he instills fear into her and her protectors silently; his performance is brilliant, to say the least.

It’s easy to point out the cheapness, unbelievability, or cheesiness of some set designs in earlier films, but not here. From scene one, it purports a grainy, old-fashioned feel that never quite fades. What’s more, as a result, the viewer’s expectations for production design are considerably low, so when the journey to The Count’s lair takes place, and the eery, well done sets are shown off, viewers are catapulted into palpable fear.

Dracula (1931) is among Roger Ebert’s list of “Great Movies”, and that’s quite understandable. No other adaptions are quite as mesmerizing as such, and with the mark this film left, it’s hard to say that it shall be beaten in years to come. Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula may surpass it in production quality and faithfulness to the novel, but Tod Browning’s imagining is engrossing and far more well made, a film for the ages. To that, I saw bravo.

-Written by Cole Pollyea