Burn After Reading by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

A pantheon of actors including John Malkovich, Richard Jenkins, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton. An imaginary story of the intertwined fates of employees of a certain gym and employees of the Pentagon. It is fairly hard to imagine them crossing paths in any ‘normal’ circumstances. The connecting clue is a dating website and in an unlikely fashion a CD with data gathered by the unfaithful wife to blackmail her husband becomes a toy in the hands of a middle aged gym employee who tries to gather funds for her cosmetic surgeries. A twisted story without a clear message. What stays with you for a long time is John Malkovich’s voice dropping the f bomb every other word. The role was written specifically with the actor in mind. Other actors also deal with out of the ordinary roles – Brad Pitt as a retarded gay obsessed with his looks is very convincing. It’s worth a watch.

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Moneyball by Bennett Miller

Brad Pitt is nominated for the Oscar as the Best Actor for this one. Script is also nominated as best adapted screenplay.

I am not a baseball fan, even more – I don’t think I understand the rules of baseball.

Aaron Sorkin co-wrote the script, but the pace of the film is very far from his usual.

I hope Brad Pitt does not get the Oscar for this film. He is definitely a great actor, but this does not show in this movie.

The Tree of Life by Terence Malick

It’s an organic cinematic experience where little can be explained by reason and a lot is felt rather than understood.

A large portion of the film is set in flashbacks of family life in 1950’s/1960’s South. Another lot though, is set in an unspecified time and space. Be it the internal life of stem (?) cells, the outer space, erupting volcanos, jungle, rocks, salt desert, mountains, ancient temples and the postmodern city jungle of skyscrapers.

The image of family life is intense and slowly unveiled onscreen.

This is not a film for everyone. Not much actually happens. A lot is anticipated. Little is told.

 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by David Fincher

As much as I appreciate Fincher’s work, this one was a disappointment.

This film is too long and at moments truly unbearable. Guess the amount of time the crew and casst spent at the make-up room somehow had to be translated to the length of the film. I cannot see any other explanation.

A spectacular project which is really not worth the whole effort. The plot is so expanded that at times it is really hard to say how much time a given scene took. Cate Blanchett on death-bed is purely abominable. The plot does not justify many elements in the film.

Cate Blanchett has beautiful red her throughout the majority of the film. Brad Pitt is mainly an old man with grey hair.

As much as a curious case this is, I wouldn’t say that the story was told interestingly enough. It’s a ‘to be missed’ Fincher.