Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Q: What’s the movie about?

A:  Based on a book by John Le Carre, this story chronicles the uncovering of whether or not there is a double agent at the highest levels of British Intelligence who is working for the Russians.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Dencik, Stephen Graham, Kathy Burke, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Peter Kalloy Molnar, Konstantin Kahabenskiy

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A:  Proceed with Caution.  Bring your intellect, your patience, and try to have read the book 5 or 6 times already if you plan on understanding anything that goes on in this spy thriller.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Yes, but mostly at your own thoughts about how confused you are.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A:  Yes, because the above noted thoughts of confusion will probably lead you directly to thoughts about how dumb you must be.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A:  This definitely gets the award for Fastest Movie to Put Me Out.  I was snoozing before the opening credits came on, and leading up to this point, I had not had a very hard day.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: All of these top notch actors have very little to do that's challenging.  Sure one or two of them cries here and there, but mostly they all just stand around looking like tough-guys who can keep a secret or two.

Q: How is the Directing?

A:  It's a beautifully shot movie, but as it goes back and forth between the past (1950s) and the present (1970s), it's not always clear which one we're in.

Q: How is the story/script?

A:  Mostly incomprehensible.  Assuming that the book makes enough sense to have become a best-seller, which in turn would have attracted a film company who wants to capitalize on that by making it into a movie, I would venture to say that the screenwriter didn't dumb it down enough.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A:  I just realized that reading the Wikipedia page is a great help in understanding this story.  They explain all the "inside lingo" that you're supposed to understand without ever having it explained to you.  Perhaps  read that before you go see this. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Wikipedia Page

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Trailer

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Another Year

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: An old married couple (Jim Broadbent & Ruth Sheen) deals with all the tragically desperate single people around them.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Oliver Maltman, Peter Wight, David Bradley, Martin Savage, Karina Fernandez, Michele Austin, Phil Davis, Imelda Staunton

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. It's tragically long and desperately tragic, but the acting is so mesmerizing, that it's almost worth enduring.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Isn't "desperate" a quality that's always funny?-- I mean, when it's another person's desperation.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Okay, you're right, desperation is tragically depressing regardless of whose it is.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: This film may actually contain this year's Best Performance by a man or a woman. But Leslie Manville will probably get screwed out of her deserved Academy Award because Natalie Portman's got all the hype. My advice, go for Supporting and win!

Q: How is the Acting?

A: A series of well executed subtle and not-so-subtle shared looks and glances tell stories more complex than any words ever could.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: In making movies like Happy-Go-Lucky and Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh has tried to fool us into thinking that he makes upbeat spirited movies, only to lure us back into his original world of movies with the word "Bleak" in the title. Thankfully, he puts hyphens in the titles of his upbeat movies, and not in the titles of his downbeat ones, so in the future, we'll have to pay closer attention to that, if we don't want to find ourselves in a 2hr 20mn exploration of desperately tragic loneliness.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The dialogue is well written and perfectly executed by the actors, but the ending doesn't give you a lot of hope for these tragically desperate characters... which I guess is the point, since after all, it's not called "A Pivotal Year," it's just Another Year.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: The Brits are known for having bad teeth, but some of the teeth in this film are distressing enough to be showcased in some kind of bizarre human museum, like Ripley's Believe It or Not. Even the normal-looking teeth are shown filled with scraps of food for entire scenes at a time.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: Another Year Trailer

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Four Lions

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A group of British Jihadists prepare to blow themselves up, but based on their behavior, they could just as easily be preparing for a Vaudeville act starring Larry, Curly, and Mo.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Riz Ahmed, Kayvan Novak, Nigel Lindsay, Arsher Ali, Adeel Akhtar, Preeya Kalidas, Julia Davis, Benedict Cumberbatch

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. The idea behind the idea is pretty genius, once you're in on the joke, but it's really challenging to figure out the joke.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: If you can get past the language barrier, and the style of the humor, I'm pretty sure this movie is drop dead hilarious. As for me, I understood about every third word, despite it supposedly being in English.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: The saddest thing about it is that many of the moronic things these would-be suicide bombers do and say are inspired by true events. Like the time the jihadist was on a bicycle, on his way to deliver a bomb, and he veered to avoid a pothole running right into a lamppost. Boom! True story.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: The Wash Your Mouth Out with Soap Award. Thanks to this movie, prematurely exploding doesn't have to be sexual innuendo anymore!

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Nigel Lindsay stands out as being Ali G level funny. Kayvan Novak and Riz Ahmed have the looks to be big stars-- which isn't to say that they weren't funny as all Hell, too. And Julia Davis is just... wow, she has a timing all her own.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: The directing is one of the few aspects of the film that is totally amateurish. You rarely know where the characters are in relation to each other or the room, and the look is of embarrassingly low quality. Director Chris Morris comes from a TV background in Great Britain, which is notorious for putting shows on the air that look like they were shot on a 1980s camcorder... but the poor resolution may also have been due to the projection system in the dumpy rent-a-theater I saw it in.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: It's particularly hard to figure out if these guys are serious about martyring themselves, or if they're just making some kind of a film within a film about what it would be like if they were. That said, some of the dialogue is pretty brilliant. In a nonsensical way.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/four-lions/10024302/trailers

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Young People F***ing

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Five intercut stories, about five different types of sexual relationships (the Couple, the Best Friends, the Exes, the First Date and the Roommates), as they each try to experience a night of pleasure.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Aaron Abrams, Diora Baird, Sonja Bennett, Callum Blue, Kristin Booth, Josh Cooke, Josh Dean, Ennis Esmer, Natalie Lasinska, Peter Oldring, Carly Pope

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! While the concept of examining these various different types of relationships is interesting, and the structure of "Prelude, Foreplay, Sex, Interlude, Orgasm, and Afterglow" is original, the film is neither insightful nor titillating, and it won't add much to your life besides a few new mental images of bouncing breast... Hey, that might be enough for some of you.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: With a subject matter this relatable, they can't help but muster a few good laughs. By the same token, there should've been a whole lot more.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: If you're in a couple, the poignant reminders of how hard it is to keep your sex life interesting once you know all your partner's tricks could be saddening.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: In a sea of indy films that will never see the light of day, this one is lucky to be released at all. And the filmmakers should consider that to be the highest of honors.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: The story, having clearly been written and conceived by actors, plays like a series of scene study exercises. Thankfully, this cast is made up of the star-students from each acting class.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: For a movie that's supposed to be about Young People F***ing, there sure are a lot of talking heads! And unfortunately, I am talking about the head bone connected to the neck bone.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: If you're gonna give your film such an edgy title, you'd better have something new, clever and deeply perceptive to say about sexual relationships and how they improve and/or ruin a person's life. Otherwise, the title just seems like a marketing ploy, making your audience feel like the suckers who fell for it. I've been had.

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Run, Fatboy, Run

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A man (Simon Pegg) leaves his pregnant fiancee (Thandie Newton) at the altar, and then regrets it, and decides to run a marathon to get her back.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, Hank Azaria, Dylan Moran, Harish Patel, India de Beaufort, Matthew Fenton

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! First, look at the description of the film. Does that make any logical sense? To clarify, the main character's thinking is, "If I run a marathon, the girl I humiliated about as badly as you can humiliate a person, who is now dating a hot, rich guy, is going to take me back."... Aside from the imaginativeness that went into thinking that hypothesis would make for a good movie premise, there is nothing original or funny in this movie.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Only if you're still in the theater by the end of the third act, which you won't be.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Yes. It's that bad.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Is there a Miracle of Science Award? Because this movie combines the hypothetical sperm of Simon Pegg (who is white) with the hypothetical egg of Thandie Newton (who is half-black), and with it creates their hypothetical son, who is white. Don't get me wrong, Matthew Fenton, who plays their 5-year-old son, is one of the highlights of the movie. But was the casting director on crack? How hard is it to find a kid who's the right color? Are there suddenly no light-black kids in England? Or maybe the Brits just think they're too good for the whole 'dominant-recessive gene thingy' to apply to them.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: The leads don't have the necessary chemistry with each other to make us believe that she would ever take him back-- with or without a marathon.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Good, so long as you overlook the fact that a white man and a black woman have created a son without any trace of Africa! Yeah, Schwimmer, the casting is your fault, too.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: I hate to pan a comedy. Especially one by Simon Pegg and Michael Ian Black, who I love-- but only because they're geniuses... But seriously, guys, could you try to use your comic genius for good? There was not one unpredictable moment in the whole movie.

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