The Girl On Fire is back in the second installment of the Hunger Games Trilogy, and she’s ready to start a revolution. The movie starts with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) in her hometown of District 12, part of the nation Panem. After winning the Hunger Games, she and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are expected to live a life of relative safety. However, when it’s announced that the tributes for the 75th Hunger Games will be picked from past winners of the Games, Katniss and Peeta are forced back into the arena.

The first half of the movie is slow paced but keeps the audience emotionally involved with Katniss’s interactions with Peeta, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), and her sister Prim (Willow Shields). While you see deeper into the relationship between Katniss and Prim, I was taken out of the story because there wasn’t much chemistry between the two. However, Lawrence blew me away; Katniss is initially presented as a victim of PTSD and is haunted by the previous Hunger Games. In spite of that, she finds the strength to protect her family rather than take flight and run from Panem altogether. She shows the empathy and determinism that allow her to “remember who the real enemy is” and fight not only for her life, but also for the citizens of Panem.

While the plot is very similar to the first installment in the trilogy, it is refreshed with a new arena, new tributes, and a new Gamemaker (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Some old favorites return as well, such as Effie (Elizabeth Banks), mentor Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), and fashion designer Cinna (Lenny Kravitz). And what would a dystopian society be without a manipulative leader? President Snow (Donald Sutherland) returns and makes a convincing tyrant.  I was impressed by the elements of foreshadowing in the first half of the movie as well as the attention to detail throughout its entirety.

As the subtle hints of rebellion from the first movie turn into a full-on revolution, the Girl on Fire becomes a symbol of hope for the citizens of Panem. While not a perfect movie, Catching Fire ends on a tense cliffhanger that leaves you wanting more.

Grade: A

Based on Brian Selznick’s graphic novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is a departure from his other works. It follows Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), a twelve-year-old orphan who resides in the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris, as he attempts to complete his late father’s final project.

Following the death of his father in a museum fire and the disappearance of his alcoholic uncle, Hugo hides himself in a maze of ladders and passages while continuing his uncle’s job of maintaining the clockworks of the railway station. To avoid being sent to an orphanage, he must do all of this while remaining undetected by the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). Hugo’s most prized possession is the automaton his father found in a museum attic. Guided by the insight of his father’s notebook, he reconstructs the automaton by stealing bits of machinery from the shop of the toymaker, Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley). One day, the harsh toymaker catches Hugo stealing from him and confiscates his notebook. He looks through it and is deeply affected by it. He threatens to destroy it and Hugo follows him to his house.

After failing to persuade Georges, Hugo meets his goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), and she promises to help him get his notebook back. Georges tells Hugo that he may earn his notebook back if he works to pay for the items he stole. Meanwhile, Hugo’s work on the automaton is completed with the exception of a missing piece: a heart-shaped key that starts the machine. Hugo and Isabelle grow closer as they try to unravel the mysterious relationship between Georges and the notebook.

The world of Hugo is a fantastic blend of realism and myth. From the elaborate design of the railway station to the flashbacks that trace the history and career of Georges, viewers cannot help but be pulled in with childlike wonder. Hugo is a celebration of the birth of cinema and a humbling homage to this timeless art form.  

Grade: A-


NUFEC is screening Hugo at AfterHours on Friday at 7pm, more info here.

When the film premiered at Sundance this past January, Fredrik Bond’s directorial debut was titled The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman. Someone must’ve realized this title may encourage disenchanted critics to comment on how unnecessary this movie is, and thus it simply became Charlie Countryman. The film features a stellar cast, but they can’t overcome the jarring, overwrought soundtrack and preposterous storyline that missed the mark when trying to be endearingly unrealistic. Thankfully, the notoriously self-serious Shia Lebouf held the film together with earnest sincerity.

Following the begged-for advice of his recently decreased mother’s ghost, Charlie Countryman (Shia Lebouf) embarks for Bucharest (she meant to tell him to go to Budapest). While on the plane, he meets a Romanian man, and after a jovial conversation he awakens to the man sleeping dead on his shoulder. He again converses with a dead person—note that interactions with both his dead mother and this dead plane passenger occur after he’s taken a number of sleeping pills—and the man asks him to deliver a silly hat he bought to his daughter.

Charlie then meets the man’s daughter, Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood). She’s beautiful, mysterious, and plays the cello in the Bucharest Opera House. Oh—and she’s married to a Romanian gangster (Mads Mikkelsen), who she warns will kill Charlie within a week if he doesn’t leave her alone. Obviously, he falls madly in love with her within a day.

Charlie’s days then become a blur of pursuing Gabi, taking drugs with his hostel mates (Rupert Grint and James Buckley), and evading the Romanian mobsters chasing him. At one point, he begrudgingly leaves Gabi (at her request), is soon thereafter hit by a car, and then awakens in his hostel where his hostel mate tells him to take a codeine (“If I can’t travel freely with my trunk of drugs then the terrorists have won.”) and get ready for a titty bar because his other hostel mate’s taken six Romanian Viagras.

Believing each ridiculous moment after the other, Shia Lebouf delivers an earnest performance, even through the Bourne-like chase sequences, that keeps the audience in their seats but cannot save the film from an overall disjointed effort. Charlie represents every twenty-something with the luxury to search for themselves by immersing in another culture – but immersing into this movie seems like an even more difficult task. Sorry, Charlie.

Grade: C+

The film opens at the AMC Methuen today, and is on various VOD channels including iTunes.

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film, Biutiful, is a love story between a father and his children. It follows Uxbal (Javier Bardem), a separated father of two and black marketeer, as he learns of his terminal prostate cancer and embarks on a journey to atone for the life he has lead.

Uxbal earns his living by securing work for illegal immigrants as well as managing a group of Chinese workers producing forged designer goods along with the African street vendors who are selling them. As Uxbal’s health deteriorates, he struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, crime, and guilt amidst the shady underground business in Barcelona, Spain. Moved by the sentence of death, Uxbal attempts reconciliation with his bipolar and alcoholic wife. He also seeks to improve working conditions for the Chinese immigrants; however, both of these attempts end tragically, leaving Uxbal with only anguish.

Iñárritu follows Uxbal’s last days with great intimacy. Here, we see a man whose sickness is reducing him to a failing body and whose love is made more desperate as his final days inevitably approach. The film’s most emotional scene takes place when Uxbal’s daughter, Ana, confronts him and confirms his impending death. He tells her to look upon his face and never forget him, and the camera lingers on one of their last embraces.

The loss of innocence of both children really resonated with me. Through their mother’s relapses and father’s dealings in the black market, the children come to find that the adults in their life do not have divine intelligence and that their judgments are not always wise. That safety net is gone and things are never quite the same again. It is an aching kind of growing that the film captures masterfully.

Biutiful explores our humble impermanence. It is not until the end that our existence is revealed to us in its effable brevity, and this is, perhaps, one of the most painful reconciliations to make. What are we to do in our final days of life? Will we live on in the memory of the ones we love most? As Iñárritu puts it, Biutiful is not a film about death, “…but a reflection in and about life when our inevitable loss of it occurs.”

Grade: A

JFK Remembered shows history as it occurred. Consisting almost entirely of real clips from JFK’s presidency, the film presents JFK in his own words as no historian or politician interviews interrupt the stream of media clips. While I appreciate the film’s objective tone, its awkward clip structure and jarring transitions serve to give the film an iMovie-like production value. It also feels inharmonious thanks in large part to a cacophonous score that is a bit bizarre and hard to follow, but the narration, while at times awkward, provides some overall cohesion to the stream of media.

While JFK Remembered provides some background of his family life and ends with clips of notable moments following his assassination, it largely focuses on key moments throughout JFK’s 1000-day presidency. His presidential campaign receives some attention, especially regarding how he addressed his religious affiliation on the campaign trail. During my interview with director Robert Kline, he made it clear that his intention was to let JFK explain JFK, meaning he wanted to use real clips of JFK speaking rather than rely on interviews with historians to explain JFK. In this endeavor, the film succeeds at objectively presenting both lesser known and widely known clips of JFK, allowing the audience to see what Americans in that time period saw of JFK. Still, the film could’ve benefitted greatly from less discordant score and more adept use of the narrator in providing more transitional assistance, as the topic tended to change quickly and the music was more distracting than enjoyable.

Learning about history is a beautiful endeavor, but this film’s route was quite gravelly. If you’re looking to watch clips of John F. Kennedy during his presidency and don’t want to go to the JFK Library to do it, this film might be for you; just don’t expect to be wowed.


Grade: C+

JFK Remembered Director Robert Kline, On Responsible Documentary-making and Why No Hollywood Films Have Properly Captured JFK

Mary Tobin: There have been a lot of depictions of JFK in film, especially in the last couple of years. How do you think all the different Hollywood versions compare to the man himself? Are there any movies that you think got the idea of him right?

Robert Kline: No. I believe that JFK in his own words is better than Rob Lowe and Martin Sheen can be. I’ll give you a perfect example. Why didn’t Nixon do well commercially? Because Anthony Hopkins was doing an imitation of Richard Nixon. Every time I see Rob Lowe, who is doing a miniseries, go on a talk show and try to sound like John Kennedy, I wince. I’d rather John Kennedy be John Kennedy. I think JFK in his own words represents JFK much better than an actor doing the voice. I’ll tell you what captures him. Why did Mitt Romney fail so badly trying to reach the 47%? Because there’s nothing common [about him]. Jack Kennedy, one of the wealthiest people in America, was told by Richard Daily in 1960—Daily was a Catholic—but the Pope himself could’ve come into Chicago, and Daily would’ve said, “Unless [Kennedy] shows he can win protestant states to overcome the anti-Catholic bias, I will not deliver the Illinois [votes].” Kennedy went into West Virginia, a democratic state, 95% Protestant, and very anti-Catholic, and he walked around with coal miners and he talked to them and had a beer. What made him so believable? He was unpretentious.

What are your major inspirations as a documentary filmmaker?

I want to inform, I want to educate, I want to inspire, and I want to entertain. Because remember your good college professors? If they didn’t entertain the class, you were going to tune them out. Likewise, whereas I agree with Michael Moore in many political areas, I think for him to move some of his images around, like in Fahrenheit [9/11] having the Saudis up at Walker’s Point in Maine and then showing their jet leaving America after 9/11—meaning the Bush Administration got the Saudis out—is not responsible documentary-making. I remember when we did the only documentary series ever done on terrorism for the Discovery Channel and they were getting calls Monday morning from Muslims, pro-Israelis, Afrikaaners, et cetera, [saying], “We want to know where to reach Bob Kline, who defamed Islam.” And another call, “We want to know where Bob Kline can be reached, who defamed the Israelis.” [We knew] we did a good job of being balanced.

Why do you think people connect with Kennedy so strongly?

He, to me, represented youth. The first vote I ever cast was for JFK. Nixon was only four years older and he seemed like his father. I’m not talking politically; he just seemed older. Kennedy was not just a democratic politician; he was somebody different. First of all you’re talking about a war hero, a legitimate war hero; you’re talking about a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for Profiles in Courage; you’re talking about somebody whose intelligence and sense of humor was on a different level. It’s important for people to know that Kennedy was not this flaming liberal because he brought the largest tax break per capita in the history of the country and we have that on film. But I’m subjective, I’m a child of the 60s, Kennedy inspired me, I look at his speech on space and going to the moon at Houston and I’m thinking ‘Wow, he had a power behind him.’

JFK Remembered is being released as part of the JFK: 50 Year Commemorative Ultimate Collector’s Edition box set, which includes the director’s cut of Oliver Stone’s award-winning film JFK, Stone’s JFK: To the Brink, new documentary JFK Remembered, documentary John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums, and feature film drama PT 109. In addition, the box set includes commemorative items from the Kennedy Presidential Library: collectible reproductions of family and presidential photos, a campaign poster from the 1960 presidential campaign, and a copy of Kennedy’s historic inaugural address. Lastly, there is a 32-page book of famous quotations, and a 44-page JFK movie photo book. You can find this collection for sale on Amazon, among other places.

When an actor’s filmography boasts such horrors as Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Sahara--a movie so atrocious that I documented my anguished mental commentary on three full pages of a legal pad to avoid the otherwise-certain accidental groan of withheld misery, which would’ve tarnished an otherwise pleasant night of family movie-watching — you might understandably hold low performance expectations for said actor’s future films. But Matthew McConaughey’s stellar recent performances in films like Bernie and Mud turned the tide, giving substance to his typical good ol’ boy persona and setting the stage for him to take on more challenging and complex roles.

Enter Dallas Buyers Club, which features a powerhouse performance from the stand-alone star as an unlikely hero of the alternative medicine movement in the 1980s. McConaughey famously shed 40 pounds to portray his AIDS-affected character, but his physical transformation—while astonishing—is not responsible for his ultimate triumph. McConaughey shows amazing restraint and control while fury builds in his eyes and occasionally settles in his fists. A constant undercurrent of tension and frustration, expertly managed by the screenplay, does not drown out character actions and other motivations. McConaughey’s performance, featuring spontaneity, passion, and fury, may be the best of his career.

The year is 1985, and the AIDS virus is in full swing. Rob Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) is a whisky-drinking, bull-riding, sex fiend electrician who spends his free time gambling and high on cocaine when a workplace accident lands him in the hospital. Already skeletal and featuring a lung-wrenching cough, doctors inform him that he has contracted the AIDS virus and they estimate he only has 30 days left to live. After initially cursing at the doctor for supposedly accusing him of being gay, Woodruff bursts from the examination room saying, “Fuck this. There ain’t nuthin’ out there that can kill Ron Woodroof in 30 days.” This is perhaps the cornerstone of McConaughey’s performance—as he plays into the immediacy of his situations, he keeps the film from stumbling into typical Hollywood uplift and instead brings a sense

As his friends and neighbors abandon him—believing he could’ve only garnered this diagnosis through homosexual relations—and his doctors prescribe only support groups, he seeks alternative ways to access life-saving drugs. In an era when 94% of those diagnosed with HIV died within 6 months, he knew his chances of living with the disease were slim, so he makes a deal with a janitor at Dallas Mercy Hospital to provide him with AZT from the hospital’s clinical trial. After the hospital cracks down on the stolen AZT, Woodruff begins making regular round-trips to Mexico to access vitamins, herbs, and medications unapproved by the FDA. He and his unlikely transsexual business partner, Rayon (Jared Leto), both use the drugs they procure and sell them to other desperate AIDS victims who become members of his “buyers club.” He is soon traversing the globe to obtain the best AIDS medications available while continuing his crusade to bypass and degrade the US medical establishment, by whose rules and regulations he would’ve died years before.

Dallas Buyers Club never allows the audience to forget that it’s set during a staggeringly tragic epidemic, but it also doesn’t allow traumatic context to overshadow Woodruff’s daring and heroic journey. Dallas Buyers Club lets McConaughey shine as the fact-based film beautifully portrays both the challenging life-and-death circumstances motivating AIDS-affected characters and the misguided medical system that treated them as lab animals and signed their death certificates before they’d stopped breathing.

Grade: A

The Asgardian brothers are back! Thor: The Dark World starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman and Anthoney Hopkins. Hollywood does it again, bringing marvel fans the action packed, fun filled, epic adventure with Thor and his battles against evil across the 9 realms. The movie was an awesome hybrid of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings with its extensive swordplay action and its wide spread conflicts and gun battles taking place on multiple planets.

In this movie, Thor is up against an ancient evil, the dark elf Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston, who plans to bring the universe into total darkness. In order to stop this from happening, Thor will have to recruit the help of his brother Loki, who cannot be trusted.  Will Loki betray his brother?

Unfortunately the complicated relationship of Oden’s sons were not a featured element of this story. The plot was ripe with potential to explore the meaning of being a brother and forgiveness, however Hollywood proceeded to sweep meaning under the rug.

As we know, what makes a roller coaster ride fun is that there are breaks in between the ups, downs, twists and turns. In some ways, that’s what comic relief does for drama in a film. But the writers (of which there are many, by the way) flooded the script with comedic moments. Now, all of these moments were funny, well performed, by the entire cast (almost literally), but there were too many of them. This is not a complaint but also not a compliment, more of a surprise.

 TV veteran famous for directing episodes of Lost, Game of Throne and Rome, Alan Taylor was a perfect fit to direct. The movie looked great, and contained many creative shots. This is a must see for everyone in your family and all of your friends whether or not you are a fan of the comics. My only warning is that the marvel movies are now dependent upon knowledge of history and events of the avengers and other features so make sure to be aware of the previous events in order to get the most out of these movies!  


Grade: B+

This second installation of the Thor franchise starts off with a slew of pretty typical storylines: a budding love triangle, the damsel in distress schlock, a literal (maybe?) Oedipus complex story, the disobedient son that is ultimately correct and victorious in the end, the whole primogeniture thing, the fighting to protect one’s home (or, in this case, the entire universe). But what does one expect? This is a work of marketing genius, riding the wave of success from The Avengers, and the effective marketing is apparent throughout: there are several references to the story events in The Avengers, twists galore, and tantalizingly great teasers at the end.

The film begins with an ancient mythic battle scene with Asgardians fighting the evil Dark Elves, who are some foreign race helmed by some megalomaniac who, of course, wants to take over the universe with the most powerful weapon known to mankind. Even despite the literal universal threat, the stakes feel low; we, the audience, are not consumed in suspense. The action itself is good, but the humor in the film takes us out of the potential suspense and seriousness of the plot, and, at the end of the day, we are more concerned with the characters and the relationships between Jane and Thor and, even more importantly, between Thor and Loki.

In fact, this movie is the triumphant return of Loki. Who could’ve imagined his prominence in the franchise at large from the first Thor? I could. Tom Hiddleston portrays the lovable villain expertly, giving him such dimension; Loki is by far the most developed and interesting character (which is no fault of the other actors- for example, Chris Hemsworth is still great as Thor, and Idris Elba manages to bring more life to Heimdall), and, this time around, he is bitter, snarky, defeated, and a prisoner of Asgard. He is the source of most- if not all- of the great twists that the movie contains, and Hiddleston along with Loki’s original introduction make you just want to love him. Yes, he destroyed New York (and by the way, this time, London is the chosen city for complete annihilation), yes, he has all the attitude and self-righteousness of a proper villain (and he probably literally enacts his Oedipal complex…), but, for a second, he reveals his true self; he can’t be all bad, right? I still love and believe in the character, and he shows no signs of fading away.

There is also a refreshing change of scenery in the film. We spend much more time in Asgard and other fantastical worlds, which allows for some beautiful 3D spaces (even though I ironically found an establishing shot of London to be the most beautiful use of 3D in the entire film). There is a great action sequence in Odin’s castle and throughout the entire kingdom, allowing us to see more of Asgard; all of this aesthetic brilliance culminates in a particularly beautiful and spectacular funeral sequence.

Yeah, the movie is typical and expected, but it’s done well and generally effective. The creators obviously have expansive source material in the comics, so they have a great starting point in producing an excellent product. Thor: The Dark World is definitely a must see; it won’t disappoint. It’s all fun; it does what it’s supposed to do and makes you excited for what’s to come.

Grade: B+/A-

“What if you could relive any moment in your life until it was perfect?”

The latest (and supposedly last) British romantic comedy from director Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill), About Time, explores the trials of love, family, a bit of sci-fi, and the importance of living in the now. The film stars Irish up-and-comer Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Anna Karenina) as Tim, a young man whose life changes when his father spills the family secret: the men in the bloodline can travel through time.

Of course, there are a few stipulations, including the granddaddy of them all: You can’t travel forward in time, so you can only visit events from your own lifetime experiences. Naturally, Tim sets his sights on what any reasonable 21-year-old would do with such a gift: a girlfriend.

After testing out his time travel sea legs, Tim lands the girl of his dreams when he meets Mary (Rachel McAdams). Perhaps McAdams has found her niche in the rom-com-time-travel corner of the industry, because as Gleeson’s partner in crime, she does just fine. Her adorable Zooey Deschanel-esque bangs and mousy demeanor paint her as quirky yet reserved: just what Tim needs. Unfortunately it’s difficult to root for the relationship to succeed, since Mary remains blissfully unaware of Tim’s unique ability.

Often times, things feel uncomfortably normal for a film about time travel; Curtis hands us a slew of stereotypical and terribly familiar supporting characters. However, Bill Nighy delights as Tim’s cheerfully animated father – would you expect anything else? – and lesser-known Lydia Wilson makes us wish we had a sister as wild and free as her.

Be prepared to scratch your head in confusion when a plot hole presents itself on a silver platter (hint: it happens a lot); Curtis has sacrificed sci-fi accuracy in exchange for a multitude of adorable half-glances and awkward social confrontations. But though Tim consistently breaks the rules, Curtis conveniently glosses over them in an effort to keep the film from dragging (in which he almost succeeds).

About Time will make you laugh, cringe, and maybe cry at the sentimentality of it all. Further, it’ll leave you wanting more from breakout star Domhnall Gleeson, whose ginger locks and charming presence will appeal to most audiences everywhere.

Rating: B

A small indie film from Pakistani-American filmmakers Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, These Birds Walk pushes us into the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, a section of the world so war-torn and impoverished that it’s near impossible to consider the concept of raising a child there. The co-directors highlight the difficulty of growing up here, where your choices are either to stay in a bare-boned hut with no electricity or gas, or run away to a children’s home where at least you’re guaranteed a meal.

We follow one particular housing location of the EDHI foundation, created by seasoned saint Abdul Sattar Edhi, who provides a safe haven and shelter for people with no better resources. As well as Edhi and the children, the film introduces us to the exhausted and jaded ambulance drivers in their quest to make a living.

These Birds Walk is much less a documentary than it is a portrait of modern-day Pakistan. Taking place over three years, we say hello and goodbye to the boys who are returned to their families – and sadly, in some cases, we want to protest (upon one boy’s return, his uncle states that it’d be easier if EDHI had returned a corpse instead).

Providing zero narration, backstory, or explanation, Mullick and Tariq make us understand the children’s desperation, kneeling us down to their eye level, watching them grow in an all-too-familiar manner of “boys will be boys,” except it hurts. Their play-fighting stems from a place of survival. Their insights put them way ahead of their time. They talk of being “real men”, the importance of religion, the desire to be safe at home.

At only 71 minutes, These Birds Walk is definitely something to check out. It’s gritty, natural, and all too real while handing you a dose of perspective – and it looks pretty while doing it. It’s definitely a tearjerker for the faint of heart.

Grade:  A-