Revolutionary Road
The Suburban Jungle
Trailers & Mo | Official Website
April (
Kate Winslet) and Frank Wheeler (
Leonardo DiCaprio) and their two kids move out to a sunny home in the suburbs in hopes of achieving the American dream. What they didn’t realize was that it was going to be a total nightmare (including dinner parties with some overly friendly/annoying neighbors played by rising star
David Harbour and perky
Kathryn Hahn) and a place where all their dreams would die.
Sam Mendes reunites the
Titanic pair (and his wife), along with
Kathy Bates (what, was
Billy Zane not available?), in the screen adaptation of
Richard Yates‘ celebrated novel of the same name (one we actually read before we saw the film), and this time the ship is their relationship, well on its way to hitting an iceberg… several icebergs. April comes up with the crazy idea of moving the family to France in hopes of reigniting their passion for life and love. No one they know takes the idea seriously, and after Frank’s rise at the company he can’t stand and April’s unwanted pregnancy, they begin to agree that it may be a fruitless venture. The price of their shattered dreams is their love, and its undoing is udderly heartbreaking. Good thing then that everyone, including the film itself is an absolute thing of (50s American) beauty, as everything else goings on is purty darns ugly. Winslet is stellar as always, and DiCaprio finally has material that perfectly suits his boyish becoming mannish traits, but the performance that grabs the most attention is
Michael Shannon‘s, who as Bates’ psychologically damaged son seems to be the only one able to see through everyone’s rosy exteriors, straight to their dismal interiors. Like with
Viola Davis in Doubt, Shannon’s work is brief, but unforgettable. They both could easily walk away with Oscars, but then again, wees aint they ones handing them out.
Rev Road aint nuttin revolutionary (it’s like
Mad Men, with equal amounts of smoking, but less sex and more yelling), and even if the road traveled is a little too bumpy to be fully enjoyed, the drive is juss too scenic to pass up
Behind Blue Eyes: now that baby blue-eyed cutie pie Zooey Deschanel‘s been snapped up by Mr Death Cab For Cutie, we’re transferring all our love to another baby blue-eyed cutie pie, Elia Kazan‘s granddaughter Zoe Kazan (she plays an airy NSFW secretary that DiCaprio lets sharpen his pencils)… that is until she ties the knot with her hipster man, Paul Dano
Verdictgo: Breast In Show
Good
The Good/Bad German
Trailers & Mo | Official Website
Good is a film based on
CP Taylor‘s 1981 play that is not great and not bad, but juss plain ole good.
It stars
Viggo Mortensen as a writer whose novel about euthanasia catches the eye of the Third Reich. They want him to write a medical paper on the subject, and also for him to join their ranks. He really isn’t interested in their politics, but they assure/shut him up by giving him an honorary title that will satisfy both parties. As Viggo’s career keeps on rising, and as he becomes accustomed to a better life (with beauty
Jodie Whittaker in hand) he starts to turn a blind eye to his former ideals and his Jewish friend (
Jason Isaacs). By the time he wakes up and smells the Sanka, it’s too late to be good anymore. Today marks the release of
Good as well as
Defiance (eventually to be reviewed when eventually seen), cause nothing ends a year on a thigh note quite like yet another Nazi-themed film.
Good is also the last of them Nazi films this year that shares the view of the victimizers, following
The Reader and
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. All three shed a well welcomed different light on a familiar topic, and all three are worth your peeperers. So where do Nazi-themed movies go from here? How about on a vacation, as wethinks we could all use a break from never forgetting
Trap The Fly Venus: Whittaker first turned heads and thighs opposite Peter O’Toole as the title character in Venus. Peep how her butt stacks up against Velásquez’s original
Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers
Good joins Rev Road currently playing in limited release
stay tuned for our wrap-pup of all things filmatic from the year that was ‘008
and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…
08. Jan, 2009 
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