The Critical Filmmaker

Call me a cynic, but this film didn't grab me at all.  I guess it's really designed for people who are a bit more involved in politics or have strong ideals about their candidates.  For me it was just a fictionalized account of events that have happened in politics within the past few years.  The only shocking thing was the ending which felt like it was saying, "Hey look, this is what it's like.  Life goes on." I had expected more from this film.  I thought it would be more of a thriller with twists and turns, but it didn't thrill me at all.  The acting was great, but the plot fizzled for me. Personally, I think I'm more of a realist than a cynic, since I do lean toward positivity.

I remember watching a young George Clooney early in his career in several TV appearances.  I liked a few of them, including a failed TV series called - believe it or not - ER.  But it was a different ER.  This one had a slash through he middle (E/R) and it was a comedy. Flash forward years later and the other ER - the one everyone knows about - launches his career into the stratosphere.  Does anyone remember him in Facts of Life? I've seen a few of Clooney's post ER films and one thing I've noticed is that while many are quite enjoyable, and he does give a convincing performance overall, there is this sameness between the characters.  It's as if he's playing the same character in different situations.  His narration is also a bit stiff.  In Up in the Air and The Descendants, it's as if the same character has been transplanted from one film to the next.  When the narration started for The Descendants, I wondered if his character portrayal on ca...

Film: Up in the Air Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, and Jason Bateman. Director: Jason Reitman Screenwriter: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner   An Oscar nominated film sparks so many thoughts in my mind, including the key one:  "Well, it must be good!"   Was it?   I'm not sure.  When first asked what I thought about the film, I said tentatively that I liked it.  The theme had taken me by surprise a bit,  and I wasn't sure what kind of message it was sending.  But after I thought about it for a few hours I came to realize that while the film was entertaining, the contradictions within it were too perplexing for me to give it a whole-hearted positive response.   Let's take Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), a young woman, fresh out of Harvard, who creates a computer program that promises to save her company money by delivering bad news via the internet rather than in person.  You see...