I have always enjoyed Pixar films and Toy Story 3 is no exception. A well-executed film with lots of film trope references and a heart warming message. That being said I don’t ever really consider children’s films to be high art-thus they never find their way onto my top list of films.
Another plane film I saw was Cyrus, which seemed as though it had tons of potential to be really funny. I really like all the leads-John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, and Marissa Tomei. But I think it would have been much netter if they had gone the goofy all-out comedy blitz of say Stepbrothers rather than the dramadey route-a missed opportunity in my mind.
I was intrigued to see what Olive Stone had to say in his sequel to Wall Street, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Stone has some interesting things to ay about the sub prime melt down, but unfortunately the film fails because the drawn out story doesn’t engage the viewer. There are some interesting scenes, impressive cinematography, and a nice cameo with Charlie Sheen, but overall it is a slow moving film with too many talking head scenes and it is 30-45 minutes too long.
Paris Je'Taime was very entertaining to me for two reasons 1) I have a special appreciation for the ”City of Light” even though I have only been there twice and 2) there is a wonderful assembly of directors and actors. Some of my favorite directors took part: Joel and Ethan Coen, Gus Van Sant, Christopher Doyle (also known for his work as Wong Kar Wai’s cinematographer), Alfonson Cuaron (Children of Men), Olivier Assayas, Wes Craven, Alexander Payne, Tom Tykwer. There is also a great ensemble cast with the likes of: Juliette Binoche, William DaFoe, Steve Buscemi, Nick Nolte, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Emily Motimer, Rufus Sewell, Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara. There are a total of 18 short films collected in this film and not all of them are successful, but there is a lot of great scenery and several great shorts some of my favorites include: “Pere-Lachaise” surprisingly directed by Wes Craven in which the spirit of the great Oscar Wilde saves a romance, “Pace des Feles” which is a beautifully tragic short by Oliver Schmitz, “Fauborg Saint Denis” is probably the most modern take technically but not without heart, “Quartier Dela Madeleina,” a gothic love story featuring a vampire directed by Vincenzo Natali, “Tuileres,” featuring Steve Buscemi in a Coen brothers farce, “Loin Du 16e,” is story directed by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Daniela Thomas about a domestic worker dropping off her baby to care for another, “14th Anrrondissmente,” directed by Alexander Payne exploring the sense of contentment a postal worker from Denver gets from her first visit to Paris.
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