Newspaper Club: Movie Reviews

May, 2014

The English Teacher

This movie is filled with smart people humor, public school problems, and Julianne Moore's ugly crying. While scrolling through my Netflix I happened upon the movie "The English Teacher" starring Julianne Moore, Michael Angarano, Nathan Lane, and Greg Kinnear. The film is director's Craig Zisk first movie; though he is highly noted for having a hand in many famous television shows. The movie starts off with Linda Sinclair inner monologue (who sounds like the Queen of England, but is really just Mrs. Dursley from the Harry Potter movies) talking about how lonely Linda's life is. It isn't until one night she encounters one of her former students named Jason. Jason (Michael Angarano) is the stereotypical failed play-write who comes back to his home town because his father (Greg Kinnear) wants him to enroll in law school. He gives Linda one of the scripts he has written. The play moves her so much she brings it to the flamboyant drama teacher (Nathan Lane) who is also evenly moved and wants him to use it for the school play. After passing the a vanguard play by the school principle, they start to work. All in all I would give the movie a 5 out of 10 stars. If you're bored and want an easy movie to watch, check it out, maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The movie is full of David Bowie references and other artsy stuff "cool people" like. While on our overextended Christmas Vacation I saw the movie everyone has been taking about, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". Director star of the movie Ben Stiller takes and 38 page short story by James Thurber and creates a remake of a movie that came out 66 years ago. The cast includes Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, The movie is about a man named Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) who works for Life Magazine. In the beginning we find out that Mitty is a bit of a daydreamer. No that's an understatement, throughout the movie Walter leaves his boring life and enters an fantasy world were he is everyone's hero. Walter's daydreamer only starts to decrease when he enters a outrageous quest to find the picture for the last Life Magazine cover. What this movie lacks in script and character development it makes up for it in its beautiful cinematography; hands to you Stuart Dryburgh. Five minutes into the movie I knew how it was going to end. If you want a nice way to kill 2 1/2 hours, than this is the movie for you. I would give this movie a 6 out of 10 stars.

Captain Phillips

Step aside American Hustle, Captain Phillips staring Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi is making its rounds to all the award shows. When I saw that Billy Ray was writing the screen play I got a little scared because he is famous for writing the screenplay of the first Hunger Games movie that thankfully never became a reality. The film is based off of the true events that took place in 2009 of the shores of Somali. I not sure if the directors wanted you to feel more sorry for the Somali pirates rather than Captain Phillips but that's how I felt after seeing this. I would give this movie 8 out of 10 stars.

Blackfish

Save the whales! This in depth documentary by Magnolia Pictures and directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite has been causing quite an uproar on the internet. This film sheds light on the corrupt ways of Sea World and others and what they do to the whale in their performances. The documentary follows the story behind an orca in captivity named Tilikum. Now Tilikum has been involved with three gruesome deaths of "whale trainers". Now I say "whale trainers" because in the film interviews past employees of Sea World how talk about the requirements of being a trainer. They are; have good swimming skills and a great personality. One trainer says she knew nothing about whales when she started working. This movie is so inspiring that someone did their public policy paper on this subject. This is an eye opening documentary that I think everyone should see. I would give this 9 out of ten stars.

Room 237

If you want to see the most confusing movie you have ever seen, then check out Room 237. This film is a documentary about trying it figure out different imagery in the 1980's cult classic The Shining. Even. Though this movie is only 102 minutes long it feels like 4 hours. I had to watch this movie twice and I still don't get all of the conspiracies the people in the film think that the director of The Shining used. There was one theory that said the director put a certain canned food in the movie with a picture of an Indian on it to symbolize the destruction of Native Americans. Crazy right? I have no idea how these people come up with this stuff. If you want to exercise your brain then check out Room 237. I would give this movie 5 out of 10 stars.

Wolf of Wall Street

I'm not sure how much I can say about this movie because this is a school newspaper after all. The Wolf of Wall Street starting Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese is based off Jordan Belfort's life. As a young, money hungry stockbroker, Mr. Belfort's climbs the the Wall Street ladder. The movie is full of drugs, swear words, money, and pretty women. We see just how bad addictions can get wether it be money or cocaine. I personally think it got the oscar nomination because of its shock value and not the movie itself. I would give this movie 7 out of 10 stars.