Quick Review: Inception

If you're looking for a complex film that will make you think, "Inception" may be your film. Honestly, though, while there's much to like about it, the extreme complexity at times worked against it for me. Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb, a thief who, because of something that happened involving his late wife (Marion Cotillard), is unable to return to the USA to be with his children. What he steals, it seems, is ideas. With the help of some sort of device and some sort of sedatives, he and his team are able to enter a target's dream and manipulate things in order to learn some piece of information that the target is trying to keep secret. Cobb's team (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy) is hired by a businessman named Saito (Ken Watanabe) to do something different -- instead of taking an idea from someone's mind, implant an idea instead. This is what the title refers to. The target is a rival businessman (Cillian Murphy), and if Cobb and the team are successful, Saito will arrange things so that Cobb can reenter the country and be reunited with his kids. There are various levels of dreams, and time advances more quickly in deeper levels, and...well, I can't do it justice. It is, as I think I've made clear, really complex. It kind of takes a leap of faith to accept everything without wondering about the rules of the dream states that are presented. Also, normally in a film you're rooting for the protagonists to succeed. In this case the protagonists are essentially criminals. As it went on I wasn't sure if I wanted them to succeed or not. Still, it is visually brilliant and well-acted, and the ending is certainly worthy of debate...although just before the very last scene played out, I knew exactly what would happen. My grade: B-plus.

Quick Review: Whip It

I am bound and determined to catch up here, so here's the first of three movie reviews for tonight (I hope).

"Whip It" is Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. Not being a filmmaking expert I don't know how one determines if a movie is well-directed or not. For me, a great movie must mean a great job of directing. Yet I'm sure there are plenty of occasions where a film wins major awards for best picture but not best director. I'll just say that I liked the movie but didn't love it, so I guess for a first-time director Drew didn't do a bad job. Film aficionados please feel free to educate me.

Ellen Page ("Juno") stars as Bliss, who doesn't really fit in with the crowd in her small town. Her mother is pushing her into entering beauty pageants, but she isn't really into it. On a shopping trip she discovers a flier for a Roller Derby event in Austin, and attends with her best friend. She loves it, and is encouraged to try out herself by one of the Derby participants. Since she knows her family won't approve, she hides her involvement. The whole thing plays out much as expected, with the appropriate messages for young girls about female empowerment and being yourself and so on. But it's somewhat enjoyable. One thing that I liked about Page's performance is that Bliss isn't quite Juno -- she's not yet confident, self-assured, quick with a smartass comment, and so on. Page needs to avoid being typecast, so this is a step in the right direction. My grade: B-minus.