Avatar Review

The 3-D version of this movie is quite striking when you first see it on the big screen. The waterfalls and foliage were just breath-taking. However, the ooo-ahhh factor wears off after about 20 minutes. I am all for escapism, but I do like a movie to be based in the real world so I can dream of living in it one day. The genre of fantasy is not for me unless that fantasy includes built-in bookshelves and a handsome non-blue, non-tail-bearing man who wears nice clothes. The bodies on the Avatars were mouth-wateringly yummy. However, their faces are not nice to look at and the fact that they are blue and sport TAILS - yuck! Tails on any sort of human-like figure are off-putting. I am definitely not a fan of the half-animal/half-human at all. Centaurs and “Goat Boy” from the old Saturday Night Live sketches make me want to become physically ill. They are VILE! I do like the idea of having an opportunity to experience life through an artificial body, however, I would not sport a tail.

Nine Review

The preview of this movie is gorgeous and the movie itself is equally as attractive (I hate it when you are tricked by lovely trailers for hideous-looking movies). I loved the dazzling costumes, spiffy cars, exquisite architecture and dimly-lit places. Being a fan of musicals, I appreciated the dancing and choreography which make a movie look absolutely stunning. Daniel Day Lewis was quite handsome, and there were many pretty ladies in this film as well. I have heard talk that Nicole Kidman was very botox-enhanced in this movie, but I felt she looked quite lovely. Everyone just looked so clean. In reality, of course, this would not have been the case (given all the cigarette smoke and body odor that was probably associated with Felini’s life). However, this was why I enjoyed this movie – it left reality aside and focused on making things look phenomenal. WARNING: The jarring images of Sophia Loren, were a frightening distraction. I believe that her very appearance should classify this movie as a horror flick.Sophia Loren in Nine; Linda Blair in 

TheExorcist-Can you see a difference?

Article from the Winnipeg Free Press

Check out this article from Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press:


Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

I love my life, but oh, you kitchen
By: Alison Gillmor

9/01/2010 1:00 AM

It's Complicated, the latest rom-com from Nancy Meyers, might seem like a grown-up film. After all, it has grown-ups in it -- including women over the age of 45, a rare sight in today's Hollywood -- and it deals with real-world things like family and friendship.
But make no mistake, this SoCal fantasy is for 50-something women what Transformers 2 is for teenage boys or the Twilight saga is for teenage girls. It's pure escapism, and while romance plays some part in this, the purest form of wish fulfilment in Meyers' work is of the house-and-garden variety. Love is swell, Meyers seems to say, but marble countertops will never let you down.
The film's opening shots linger on the terra cotta roof of a 1920s Spanish-style bungalow in Santa Barbara. Meyer's almost erotic interest in tiles makes sense when you consider her oeuvre, which includes decor-porn classics like Something's Gotta Give and The Holiday. Meyers' characters and dialogue sparkle while the film is rolling but tend to evaporate like champagne bubbles soon after. Her sets, on the other hand, with their linen slipcovers, cashmere throws and tufted velvet ottomans, have amazing sticking power. People are still walking into designers' offices and asking for the Something's Gotta Give kitchen.
In that 2003 movie, Diane Keaton juggles dreamboat Keanu Reeves and serial womanizer Jack Nicholson. Never mind these kooky romantic problems, though. The real love object is Keaton's Hamptons beach house -- and by "beach house," we mean huge $10-million mansion -- an exquisite arrangement of shifting shades of ivory, sand and marine blue that was featured in Architectural Digest.
The Holiday (2006) is memorable mostly for its decor double act. Cameron Diaz lives in a Golden Age L.A. mansion designed by Wallace Neff, while Kate Winslet is holed up in a historic cottage in Surrey. To get over their respective broken hearts, the two women swap houses sight-unseen in what has to be the most successful international home-exchange ever devised. I think Jude Law and Jack Black are also involved, but I was too busy clocking the seagrass rugs and Colefax & Fowler draperies to notice.
In It's Complicated, Meryl Streep's character Jane Adler is a divorcee -- her husband dumped her for a younger woman -- with three grown children and a seemingly recession-proof bakery business. Jane's ex (Alec Baldwin) is now deeply unhappy with his skinny trophy wife and her monstrous toddler and wants Jane back. (I'm sure the fact that Meyers' 68-year-old former husband is remarried with three-year-old twins is just a coincidence.)
Diverting as this storyline is -- in a First Wives' Club revenge-fantasy sort of way -- it keeps intruding on the really important stuff, like Jane's reclaimed oak refectory table and her rambling vegetable garden. (Meyers' attention to detail is so exquisite that she used special effects to eliminate "spiky plants" in Jane's yard.)
Jane's kitchen, which snagged a layout in Traditional Home, features an eight-burner stove and a double oven flanked by open shelving -- something that never works in real life but in a Meyers film is an artful array of cream-coloured French crockery and porcelain cake stands. As fabulous as it all looks, in Meyers' terms this is just a makeshift room: One of the subplots is set in motion when Jane commissions "a real kitchen" from architect Steve Martin.
According to Meyers, all this fabulous decor is the medium that helps "soften the message" of her films. Unfortunately, the filmmaker's unerring eye for expensive stuff means that the medium has become the message. Whatever Meyers wants to say about older women's strength and sexiness and independence is overwhelmed by the fever dream of consumerist desire. Her women are what they own.

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 9, 2010 F3

Daybreakers Review

Gross! Gross! Ick! There is nothing nice to look at in this movie. If there is, it is eventually covered in blood or exploding vampires. And Willem Dafoe…come on! Not recommended.

Up in the Air Review

Who can complain about looking at the handsome George Clooney for almost 2 hours? Certainly not me or any other female with a pulse. And what is more gorgeous than a man in a suit? THIS lovely man in a suit. He even sports a classic three-quarter length winter coat in some scenes. Breath-taking. On the downside, the clothes Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) wears during his casual time are not very exciting. I would have loved to see him in some jeans on occasion and in some shirts that weren’t such drab colors. However, when you see him tucked under the sheets with his chest exposed, you forget about any desire to see nice clothing. Jason Bateman, who is also a great-looking guy, is in this movie as well. However, I hate to inform you that he is quite scruffy with a mild beard of sorts. Disappointing. Vera Farmiga is just gorgeous in this movie – especially when she is out of the business attire. I must say women’s business is very dull on the big screen. Poor Vera and co-star Anna Kendrick look like flight attendants throughout most of the film. Most of the hotel rooms that Ryan Bingham visits in this movie are quite lovely. However, the one in the town where his sister is getting married is somewhat revolting. Ryan’s apartment will absolutely make you want to kill yourself. The first time we see it he pushes aside an accordion wall. Is there anything more sad than an accordion wall in your home? No wonder he never wants to be there. There are some definite upsides to the life that Ryan leads (aside from his apartment choice) and therefore I can see wanting to live his life. Money, travel, a possible book deal, motivational speaking and, of course, looking so fine. The HUGE downside to me would be the constant fear of beg bugs. That would be too worrisome to be able to sustain his lifestyle. One thing that left me curious was how Ryan and his sisters, especially the older one, were from the same gene pool. See it and you’ll know what I mean.

It's Complicated

I cannot say enough about how gorgeous the houses are in this movie. Great bookshelves, furniture and home accessories abound! A definite must see for the lover of beautiful architecture and design. From the houses, to the bakery Meryl Streep’s character owns, to the hotel rooms to the gardens – wow, wow, wow. Plenty of mini-lights at parties, gracing outdoor patios. One downside, not much eye-candy for the under 50 crowd, but with all those gorgeous homes, who cares? As for nice clothing, there is also not much for the under 50 crowd either. I would love to live in any of the homes in this movie. I would love Meryl Streep’s character’s life since she owns her own bakery (I would love my own business). I would also love Steve Martin’s character’s life as I would love to be an architect. See it. You won’t be disappointed. Mini-lights-Partay time!