I didn’t have high expectations going into this summer movie season. There seemed to be action movie after action movie on the menu for summer entertainment, and although I love action movies as much as the next girl, I didn’t think there would be anything to really capture my intellectual attention. Luckily however, I found that there were actually several great movies this summer (including, of course, the final chapter of “Harry Potter,” which I faithfully attended at midnight and will say no more about, as it speaks for itself). So here’s a rundown of what I specifically saw this summer in no particular order:
CRAZY STUPID LOVE
I didn’t expect this movie to be very good, as the ensemble-type comedy can be particularly hard to pull off (don’t get me started on this winter’s upcoming “New Year’s Eve”), but this film did it very well. Steve Carell, who also produced, leads a highly skilled comedic team through the highs and lows of love at every stage, from sweet high school crushes on unattainable older folk to the bitter disappointment of divorce. The characters have their hearts broken and their conceptions of love crushed, but in the end, everyone learns that love is something worth pursuing and cherishing, no matter the consequences. What keeps this film from veering too heavily into the cliché is some excellent comedic writing, mostly stemming from Jacob’s (Ryan Gosling, who to my surprise is actually a very effective arrogant romantic lead) attempts to transform downtrodden Cal into a lady killer, “40-Year-Old Virgin” style. The film loses its steam and originality about three-quarters of the way through, but its still a fresh take on the romantic comedy.
BAD TEACHER
I didn’t want to see it, and if I had my way I never would have, but what can I say? I have friends with bad taste in movies. There were some good moments—who doesn’t love a teacher smoking pot in front of her students? Ahh, public school, but overall, the plot of a rather unlikeable Cameron Diaz chasing after equally unlikeable substitute teacher Justin Timberlake (I really wish people would stop putting him in movies) for his inherited fortune got stale after about the first ten minutes. Diaz’s character wasn’t a hilariously bad teacher but more of a depressingly bad one who fudges her students’ scores on a national exam and frames another teacher for marijuana possession and then faces absolutely no consequences for it… Hilarious?
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Again, not a bad movie (and actually a very well-executed one). But as this list really reflects my personal opinions, I didn’t find “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” to be a particularly enjoyable movie. Essentially it boiled down to James Franco talking and a beautifully monkey-ifed Andy Serkis (of Gollum fame) reacting with meaningful facial expressions. The scenes of animal testing and abuse were particularly squirm inducing and while obviously intrinsic to the plot, kept me from happily reaching for the popcorn. It’d also be nice to see Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) try his hand at a less repulsive character for fear he will be typecast as the jackass for the rest of his career. Regardless, the team did an excellent job of breathing new life into an old franchise.
THOR
It wasn’t a bad movie, per se, but a movie with limited aspirations. “Thor” was a bit of a cotton candy movie: fun and fluffy but ultimately forgettable. The casting choice of Natalie Portman as a brainy love interest for Chris Hemsworth’s charmingly arrogant Thor was hilariously misguided. However, the richly-imagined fantasy world of Asgard was excellent eye candy for CGI fans and the plot was simple enough to be easily followed by audiences with unfamiliar with the character, both of which combined to make an enjoyable summer movie experience.
SUPER 8
I was hoping that “Super 8” would be the perfect blend of art and entertainment, what “Inception” was for me last summer. While it didn’t quite live up to my lofty expectations, it was a great movie (that you can see in the Film Series in a couple weeks if you missed it). The main critique that I heard was that it felt like director JJ Abrams trying to do Steven Spielberg, his mentor and producer. There are certainly a lot of similarities: a plucky band of kids on an adventure, a la “The Goonies;” a “Jaws”-like monster that derives its fear from the unknown; the obvious extra-terrestrial element, etc. I thought “Super 8” was both a highly entertaining film with plenty of suspense and a faithful examination of adolescence in the 1970s post-Vietnam era. What made the film for me were the preteen heroes, led by newcomer Joel Courtney. Their distinct personalities and humorous take on the horror happening around them felt real and exciting.
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Woody Allen, once a great pinnacle of cinema, has had some flops over the recent years (I’m pretty sure I’m the only person under the age of 50 who saw the creepily semi-autobiographical “Whatever Works” in 2009). “Midnight in Paris” was kind of my dream movie, combining my unabashed adoration of everything French with my love of everything literary and my passion for everything cinematic. A dreamy, wistful Owen Wilson plays a Hollywood screenwriter who yearns for the artistic world of 1920s Paris and is transported back in time to live out his dream of hobnobbing with icons such as Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. My favorite part of the film was the intellectual exercise of determining who the famous characters of the past were before being explicitly told (look out for a wonderfully hilarious Adrian Brody playing Salvador Dali). I also loved Allen’s joyful celebration of a fascinating city during an equally fascinating period of history, as Wilson’s character Gil learns how to transform his nostalgia for a grander time to an appreciation of out often mundane modern world.