Stone V. Fallon

High Flying Adored Superhero

I didn't think a Spidey reboot was necessary but I wanted to see The Amazing Spiderman because of the solid cast.  I love Andrew Garfield and his real life leading lady, Emma Stone, so I celebrated the 4th of July by watching a British actor play one of the most popular American comic book superheroes.  And I had an amazing, spidey-senses-tingling good time!

Robert Parker (Campbell Scott) works for Oscorp, a bioengineering company. After a break-in at their house, the eventually orphaned Peter is left in the care of Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen).  The 28 year old Mr. Garfield is very convincing as a lonely, gawky, socially awkward teenager. You see him gain confidence as he becomes the crime-fighting webhead.  He also happens to have great comedic skills, and not just when delivering Spiderman's snappy one-liners to the villains---an element missing from Sam Raimi's trilogy.  The scenes where he learns of his growing powers are hilarious. But when he's in dramatic scenes, he's utterly devastating and always made me teary-eyed. I always thought Spiderman was the superhero I could most identify with, because he is human and lived an ordinary life.  (Unlike Batman or Iron Man with their wealth, or Superman the alien.) We see this here a lot, as Peter comes home hunched over, bruised, sheepishly grinning, to a worried Aunt May.

There aren't any new origin story revelations but it was a good idea to set the story in high school---although I missed J.K. Simmons as  J. Jonah Jameson. (Denis Leary's Captain Stacy is on hand to order the arrest of the masked vigilante.)  We meet Peter's first girlfriend Gwen Stacy.  She is a strong and intelligent young woman as played by Emma Stone, so different from Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane. We see the science genius as he figures out his father's work, and creates his own web-shooting device.  There's plenty of live action and acrobatics, instead of obvious CGI.  Much of the CGI was probably reserved for Robert Parker's colleague, Dr. Curt Connors (a tortured and conflicted Rhys Ifans).  In yet another cautionary tale of human arrogance and science gone wrong, he transforms into The Lizard terrorizing the Big Apple.  (Side note: Pat on my back for recognizing C. Thomas Howell as the father of Jack, a boy trapped in a car dangling off the Williamsburg bridge.)  Irrfan Khan plays Norman Osborn's enforcer, Rajit Ratha, who we can safely blame for all the mayhem.

So ignore holes in the plot and implausibilities, go see this film and just enjoy the ride with a web-slinging man flying through New York City.  And watch out for what is probably Stan Lee's best cameo. EVER.

The Help

I didn't get to read the book but I've had several recommendations about The Help from friends and people I work with so I got the dvd from the nearest Redbox. I have to say, I do like Emma Stone and Viola Davis is a good actress specially in this film.

The Help is an ensemble drama set during the civil rights movement in Alabama during the 60's. It features the unlikely friendship between a privileged white young woman named Skeeter (Emma Stone) with Aibeleen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer), black maids of her bridge club friends, Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Elizabeth (Ahna O'Reilly). Aibeleen has spent most of her life caring for children of white families while Minny is constantly getting into trouble for her sassy mouth but is much valued because of her cooking skills.

Skeeter comes back home from college and finds out that Constantine (Cicely Tyson), their black maid who practically raised her, is gone and has moved to Chicago without her being informed of it. She also becomes uncomfortable with the attitude of her privileged friends toward their black maids. In fact, her friend Hilly Holbrook comes up with the "Home Help Sanitation Initiative" which is a bill that promotes separate bathrooms for the black help, as she surmises that "they carry diseases different from us". With this, Skeeter decides to write a book from the point of view of the help in collaboration with Aibeleen and Minny. A peripheral plot involves Celia Foote (the wonderful Jessica Chastain) who marries Hilly's former boyfriend Johnny. Hilly regards her as "white trash" so the bridge club treats her as a social outcast and is excluded from all their activities. Celia eventually hires Minny to work for her after Hilly fires her. These two outsiders are then placed in a situation where they spend much time with each other. As the film goes along, Celia proves to be a very considerate and understanding employer who longs for companionship and finds it in Minny.

It's a poignant story of unexpected friendship and of characters that surprises you with the amount of kindness they possess. Go see it and be touched!

(For theatre fans out there, also keep an eye out for LaChanze in this movie)

Crazy, Intelligent, Love.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is touching, enjoyable, and genuine.  Athough a bit off-color at times, it never really resorts to crazy, stupid rom-com cliches.  It stars Steve Carell as Cal Weaver, whose wife Emily (the always excellent Julianne Moore) decides to end their 25 year marriage.  Cal drowns his sorrows at a bar where he meets smooth operator Jacob Palmer (a wonderful Ryan Gosling in a rare comedic role), who takes him under his wing.  The two actors have incredible chemistry.  Mr. Carell tones down the comedy and does exemplary dramatic work, while Mr. Gosling amps up the funny.  It's almost unbelievable that future lawyer Hannah (the quirky and terrific Emma Stone) would manage to resist Jacob's lady killer ways at all.

The cast is rounded out by Marisa Tomei as Cal's first successful pick-up after his Jacob make-over; Kevin Bacon as David Lindhagen, Emily's new man.  The Weavers' 13 year old son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) is besotted with their babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who in turn is infatuated with Cal.  Of course, all sorts of complications, shenanigans and plot twists occur, which I will let you enjoy on your own.  All in all, a charming, non-formulaic romantic comedy that makes truthful-if-painful statements about love.

The DVD is out in stores.

(photo from Movie Poster DB)

The Force of Good is Strong with this One

Go to Stand up to Cancer to donate.

Rumor has it...

Easy A should be allowed to join the pantheon of best high school movies ever. Think Mean Girls, Clueless, John Hughes's '80s films, Election, Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Say Anything.

The high-larious Zombieland first introduced me to the charms of Emma Stone. In Easy A, she plays Olive, a smart, virginal and totally anonymous teenager whose white lie about losing her virtue, permanently stains her previously held non-reputation. Perhaps exhilarated by her newfound popularity (or notoriety) as the school hussy, she charitably starts to pretend to do the deed with unattractive, unpopular or suspected gay male schoolmates, in exchange for gifts or money. Well, mostly gift cards. And predictably, things quickly spin out of her control.

This is a break out role for Ms. Stone, one of those A-Star-is-Born performances. Her loving, supportive, and too-cool parents played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, provide some of the film's funniest moments. Penn Badgley plays her romantic interest, Todd, the school mascot. Thomas Haden Church is her favorite teacher, Mr. Griffith. Amanda Bynes is her self-righteous torturer (reminiscent of Mandy Moore in Saved!.) It was a pleasant surprise also to see Lisa Kudrow in an unlikable role.

Like Clueless which was based on Jane Austen's Emma, the plot loosely follows Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. (Olive starts to proudly wear a letter A on her clothes, a redesigned wardrobe that her parents non-judgmentally tell her makes her look like a stripper.) It combines it with our obsession with voyeuristic technology, for living our lives on the internet and on the blogosphere, with common high school issues like bullying, hypocrisy, gossiping, and peer pressure. The dialogue is witty and sharp, much like Juno was. I give this film an A.





(photo from filmofilia)