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Maps to the Stars (2014)
Great Acting - Confusing Plot and Theme
Map to the Stars was worth it to me to see Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikovska, and John Cusack act well in very interesting roles. I also adored Sara Gadon as a phantom from the past. Robert Pattinson had a relatively small, outsider role, and I wish he had been used as a narrator who gets involved with these people and helps us understand or ponder the ambiguities - Kind of the role of Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby.
I would have thought the movie was an exaggerated take on Hollywood, but I heard the actors in an interview saying it was not at all like Hollywood.
I didn't quite understand what happened to the stage mother (also John Cusack's wife) at the end, and why R. Pattinson at first was standoffish with Mia W. and then became more involved - did something crucial get cut out by an editor in either of these situations?
I am eager to read other people's reviews. I don't mind intentional ambiguity, but I'm not sure here if it was mean to be intentional.
For No Good Reason (2012)
One of the very inspiring people that Johnny Depp "collects"
Johnny Depp, who is intriguing himself, seems to collect other intriguing people as friends. This documentary is about his friend Ralph Steadman, the artist who collaborated with Hunter S. Thompson and did a range of other fascinating work including illustrations for children's' books.
Steadman demonstrates his creative process, discusses his love/hate relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, and talks about what he was and still is trying to achieve with his art.
If you enjoy explorations into the intimate, fascinating details about artists and their work, you will love this film. If you've read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it will be all the more interesting.
I appreciated that Johnny Depp remained as invisible as possible, making sure Ralph Steadman took center stage. By the end of this movie, I was fascinated by the artist, and I am planning to view some of the books he has illustrated.
Detailed documentaries about artists and their thought processes are not for everyone, but if you are fascinated by this type of film, you will not be disappointed in this one.
Her (2013)
Ingenious Exploration of Our Relationship with Technology
"Her" works on multiple levels, and once again, proves Spike Jonze's ingenuity. Jonze wrote and directed the movie, which takes place in the near future or in a slightly absurd version of the present. Regardless, it's a time when people can own smart operating systems that learn more about their needs the more they get to know them. The atmosphere is close enough to ours that the story becomes a metaphor for our love and dependence on our technology, forcing us to ask if our reliance on our email and social networks is wrong or acceptable.
Joachim Phoenix does a great job playing Theodore, a man who is confused about his feelings of commitment and falls in love with his "smart" operating system, Samantha. He's sensitive and convincingly embarrassed to be in love with an OS, but unable to resist Samantha's charm. Helping him is Scarlett Johanssen, who is perfect as Samantha, the super-nice OS with a great sense of humor.
The screenplay and acting are so good that Samantha and Theodore seem wonderful together, and we're never quite sure if she's developing human feelings or just perfectly reflecting his own needs.
True, there are many other movies and books that explore how inextricable our lives are with our technology, but Jonze's is unique because it is an exploration into all sides of that relationship and doesn't use it to create a horror story in which computers take over the world or dissolve into pure comedy, although it is comic.
Another facet of the movie is its examination of human relationships. By forcing us to critique a human to artificial intelligence relationship, it demonstrates that what we seek in human partners is as unrealistic and blind. We want our partners to figure out what we want and need, and we choose to ignore the qualities we don't like until they become too obvious. This is underlined when Theodore meets with his wife, who is in the process of divorcing him, and she insists he only wanted her to be cheerful and light, but never unhappy or uncertain.
I was surprised that some people I talked to about "Her" found it sad and depressing, assuming it was simply a portrayal of a man who could not interact with other humans. For me, the movie was much more significant in its attempt to explore the human/AI relationship than to judge it.
The Rover (2014)
Loved Everything About This Movie
As soon as I saw how slowly this movie moved in the beginning, I knew I was going to like it. It's a serious film that doesn't care about having popular appeal.
The writing, directing, and cinematography are all great, but the acting by Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson is flawless. They do a tremendous job, together, of showing what causes each subtle change in their relationship that leads to a much larger shift in their feelings about each other.
I have to admit I am the mom of a special needs kid, which may have made me really focus on the great job Robert Pattinson did of portraying Rey. The way he showed Rey's desire to be liked by someone who didn't want a friendship with him brought tears to my eyes. And he was so real when he showed Eric (Guy Pearce) and the audience that Rey was much more capable than he seemed. I keep thinking about his speech problem, and that David Michod (the writer and director) and Robert Pattinson were so accurate when they initially allowed us to view him as more disabled than he was because he couldn't express his thoughts.
In an interview, Robert Pattinson pointed out that Rey couldn't do anything without someone telling him to, meaning that Rey couldn't function in a practical sense without another person. I think he is so close to the character he created that he doesn't see how complex he made him. The feeling I had was that Rey could function in a practical sense alone, but emotionally, he couldn't function without companionship. And that's a big theme in the movie.