May 3
Generation Um...: I know two things about this one. It stars Keanu Reeves, and it's ostensibly about three adults during a single day in New York City, one filled with sex, drugs, and indecision. That's not enough. (Pass)
Greetings from Tim Buckley: A rock-and-roll biopic about the 1991 tribute show that brought Jeff Buckley into the New York City music scene. Zzzzzz....... (Pass)
The Iceman: Does he cometh? This one is the true story of Richard Kuklinski, a notorious contract killer. When he was finally arrested in the mid-80s, neither his wife nor his daughters had any clue that he'd been caught up in such evil work. It's a fascinating story to consider - I'm thinking about my mild-mannered friends and family, and trying to imagine them secretly being hitmen/hitwomen. Michael Shannon can definitely pull off a creepy, violent character. This one looks like it's worth a Netflix viewing. (Rental)
Iron Man 3: Even if I didn't feel it was necessary to see Iron Man 2 before seeing this (which I do), I doubt I'd have much interest in it. Iron Man works well when he's in a group movie like The Avengers, but like Thor, I don't really care much about him when he's off on his own. (Pass)
Love is All You Need: A widower (Pierce Brosnan) and a married cancer survivor (Trine Dyrholm) meet when their children get engaged, and travel to Italy for the wedding, where they fall in love. This movie is being sold as a romantic comedy, and from the scarce plot details I've seen, it reminds me a lot of Under the Tuscan Sun, which was so-so. There seems little reason to see this in theaters, and I doubt I'll be prioritizing it on the Netflix queue, either. I certainly won't discount it entirely, though. It seems inoffensive enough. (Pass)
Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's: A documentary on the Manhattan department store with interviews from an array of fashion designers, style icons, and celebrities. The Olsen twins are billed second. Yeah, I don't think so. (Pass)
What Maisie Knew: Alexander Skarsgard and Julianne Moore are a couple going through a bitter divorce, and their daughter is caught in the middle. I'm still trying to get over Kramer vs. Kramer, and that was released in 1979. So by that estimation, I'll feel ready to settle in for this movie in 2047. (Pass)
May 10
Aftershock: In Chile, a group of travelers who are in an underground nightclub when a massive earthquake hits quickly learn that reaching the surface is just the beginning of their nightmare. One look at the promotional photo on IMDb should instantly tell you whether I'm going to see this or not. (Pass)
The Great Gatsby: I don't even know where my head is at on this one. I love the book! But I also love Romeo and Juliet, which Baz Luhrmann ruined. Leonardo DiCaprio has gone up in my estimation! But really just in Inception. His other roles lately have completely turned me off. It's filmed in 3-D! Why? Its release date was pushed back five months! Why? This film has the potential to either be one of the best or the worst of the year, and I have no idea which. (TBD)
No One Lives: A gang of ruthless highway killers kidnap a wealthy couple traveling cross country only to discover that things are not what they seem. It sounds like a hunter-becomes-the-hunted kind of story, which can be cathartic, but it'll all depend on whether this falls on the thriller side of the divide, or the horror. (TBD, but probable Pass)
Peeples: Craig Robinson plays a nice guy with an unimpressive job who goes to his girlfriend's family reunion to impress them and to ask for her hand in marriage. I like a lot of the actors in this movie (Craig Robinson, S. Epatha Merkerson, Malcolm Barrett), but haven't seen any trailers or anything yet. If it looks funny, I'll probably rent it at some point. If it's nothing but wacky shenanigans, a la Meet the Parents, I won't bother. (TBD)
Stories We Tell: If I judged purely on the IMDb summary, I'd be all over this, because it sounds like fiction: "A film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers." But it's not fiction. It's director Sarah Polley's documentary exploration of her own family, and frankly, vanity projects tend to leave me cold. (Pass)
Venus and Serena: I'm not interested enough in tennis or the people who play it to have the patience for a documentary about them. (Pass)
May 17
Black Rock: Three girlfriends go camping, and find themselves under attack from hunters bent on committing sexual assault (and probably murder). Rather than hiding or running, the girls launch all out warfare in order to survive. If this were a thriller, I'd admit to being pretty intrigued, but it's being sold as horror, so I'm going to skip it. Even if it's not underdeveloped like most horror movies are, it'll likely be too gory for this wuss. (Pass)
The English Teacher: An English teacher (Julianne Moore) encourages a former student to mount a play in her hometown after failing as a playwright in New York. This looks like it has some promise, based on the cast list. (Rental)
Erased: An ex-CIA agent and his estranged daughter are forced on the run when his employers erase all records of his existence, and mark them both for termination as part of a wide-reaching international conspiracy. Well of course it's an international conspiracy! It's funny that my first though upon reading the plot synopsis for this movie was "Hmm. How much shaky cam can I expect?" If people seem to like it, maybe I'll rent it someday, but since my initial reaction was to assume this is a Bourne knockoff, it doesn't inspire much confidence. (Pass)
Frances Ha: Noah Baumbach movies are always a fraught experience. Characters in a Baumbach film are rife with dysfunction, and the awkward situations they get into can work in a movie's favor (Margot at the Wedding) or just leave me depressed and empty (The Squid and the Whale). In this newest movie, Greta Gerwig plays a dancer whose career aspirations are becoming less attainable by the day, and who cannot figure out how to live separately from a friend. Unless this movie takes the critical world by storm, I doubt I'll need to subject myself to what seems like another huge downer. Hell, I might skip it even if it does take the critical world by storm - I still haven't seen Amour. (Pass)
Populaire: A French secretary in 1958 is encouraged by boss to enter a speed-typing contest. That's not much to go on, but from what little I've seen about this movie, it looks pretty adorable. (TBD)
Star Trek Into Darkness: A full scene of this movie was shown as a trailer in front of something else I saw, and I remember it more than whatever movie I was at the theater to see. It takes a lot these days to really make me sit up and take notice, but this certainly did the trick. I liked the first Star Trek, too, and even though J.J. Abrams' work has been kind of hit-or-miss with me lately, nothing I've seen regarding this movie makes it seem anything other than awesome. (Must-See)
May 24
Before Midnight: Despite being so thoroughly lauded, I still haven't managed to see Before Sunrise or Before Sunset yet. I definitely will at some point, but until I do, I certainly can't watch the third movie of the franchise. (Rental)
Epic: An animated movie about a group of miniscule Leaf Men and a human girl who is shrunk down to their size. So basically, this sounds like an amalgam of Rise of the Guardians and A Bug's Life. If it gets good word-of-mouth, I'll probably toss it on the Netflix queue later down the line, but it's unlikely that I'll feel the need to catch it in theaters. (Pass)
Fast & Furious 6: No. (Pass)
Fill the Void: A devout Israeli woman is pressured to marry her late sister's husband, because she cannot live independently in Tel Aviv's Orthodox community. I've been noticing lately that I'm becoming less and less inclined to watch Important Bummer Movies, which makes me feel stupid and unsophisticated. That still doesn't mean I'm going to force myself to spend two hours on this downer. (Pass)
The Hangover Part III: I have similar feelings about this as Iron Man 3 up there. I never saw the second one, and don't really plan to. The first movie was amusing enough, but not to the point that I felt the need to spend more time with these characters. (Pass)
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks: As with Venus and Serena, I'm not interested enough in this subject to watch a documentary about it. (Pass)
May 31
The East: A private operative hired by corporate bigwigs worms her way into a radical, anarchist fringe group which has been launching attacks on greedy businesses. The plot summary mentions that the spy's loyalties start to shift once she's ensconced with the group, and the whole thing sounds very V For Vendetta. I like Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page, but I'm not sure whether or not I'm really sold on this yet. (TBD)
The Kings of Summer: Three teenage friends, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land. If this movie centered around the adults (Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, and Alison Brie), I'd be at the theater in a flash. I'm not sure I'm as invested in the main storyline, but it's worth a second look when the release date rolls around. (TBD)
Now You See Me: Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco pull off a string of bank robberies, and Mark Ruffalo is the FBI agent pursuing them. The twist on this is that the robbers are all magicians. It's an interesting premise, and there's a good chance I'll either catch this with my dad (who is a magician himself, though I doubt he's been robbing banks lately), or at least find myself settling in for it some rainy Sunday afternoon. (Rental)
The Purge: One night every year, all crime is legal, and a family is tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the outside world breaks into their home. Now this is one of the most interesting story ideas of the season. I guess it'll all come down to the writing, but if this shows even a hint of promise in execution as well as the concept, I'd like to see it. (TBD, but probably good for at least a Rental, and an outside possibility of Must-See)
Shadow Dancer: Set in 1990s Belfast, an active member of the IRA becomes an informant for MI5 in order to protect her son's welfare. I like Clive Owen and everything, but I'm gonna need to hear more about this one. (TBD, but a probable Pass)
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