A quick report card for some recently viewed movies...
Walk The Line: Joaquin Phoenix does as good a job as anyone could do portraying the Man in Black. Too bad the movie wasn't a little better. I think Jon Stewart called this "Ray with white people" at the Oscars, and that's about right. The music scenes are great, the standard self-destructive rock star stuff is sort of a drag ... bottles are broken, a sink is pulled out of the wall, drugs are abused ... yawn. Also I wasn't buying the love story between Johnny and June - thankfully their real life relationship was deeper than this.
Grade: C
Match Point: Woody Allen trades upper-crust Manhattan for filthy rich London, scratchy old jazz records for scratchy old opera records, and his trademark neurotic "Woody Allen character" for - well, thankfully nobody... and while it ain't quite as bleak (or brilliant) as Interiors, there are no laughs (or even giggles) to be had. Match Point is an expertly crafted short story heavy on character development, dialogue, and exposition (but perhaps it's too talky for some — five people left the theater before it was over.) I still don't understand what the big deal is about Scarlett Johansson - sure, she's pretty but just so... vacant and distant or something. Otherwise, certainly the best thing Woody Allen has come up with in at least ten years.
Grade: B
Find Me Guilty: Wow, it's Vin Diesel actually acting instead of just blowing shit up. A refreshingly straightforward mafia/courtroom drama, sort of a Sopranos episode without the flashbacks, dream sequences, and psychological pretensions. True, the bad guys are too good and the good guys are too bad - but you'll definitely be on the edge of your seat by the time the verdict is read. They don't really make 'em like this much anymore ... well done! (Interestingly, there's very little sex and violence by today's standards, but all the profanity earns Find Me Guilty an R rating anyway.)
Grade: B+
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