Change Your Image
missflickdiaries
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
The Big Short (2015)
Financial Crisis for Dummies
As you follow the non-fictional story of 'The Big Short', you tragically realize how easy it was for director Adam McKay and his writers to create a comedy out of such an insane reality.
The film follows the life of those who were able to predict the crash of the housing market three years before it happened, back in 2008. But this is not a movie about heroes or fighters for the truth. It's about a diverse group of despicable money managers and traders who decided to profit from catastrophe through an erratic financial system.
As terrible as it is to see how the action unfolds into disaster, it is also a useful lesson for those (like me) who don't comprehend the financial lingo and never completely understood what caused the recent stock market crash. The plot is presented in a rather simple narrative and, along the film, you are provided with a couple of humorous intermissions where some unexpected celebrities dumb down the financial terms and concepts that are being introduced in the story.
So, it's not just about Steve Carell showing you how good of an actor he is by making an everlasting bad hair day work or about Ryan Gosling showing you
well, himself. The movie is a rather functional and entertaining tool for those who want to grasp what the insane reality of Wall Street really is.
Now You See Me (2013)
Look at My Big Balls
An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track "The Four Horsemen", a team of hand-picked illusionists who uses daring performances to pull off bank heists and steal money from corrupt men. The premise seems exciting and yet, a few minutes after the movie starts, you realize you are just about to see a "my balls are bigger than yours" movie.
Among a whopping visual spectacle of glitz and glamour, a group of forcibly cool, "slow motion" type characters seems to be part of a strange reality where people only have empty conversations, failing to convince us of the "magic" within and between them.
In a script filled with idiotic statements and forced sexual innuendos, the story never really sets its eyes on just one side of the cat and mouse game played between the avenging group and the FBI. That ambiguity could really be an interesting approach, you say, but it only manages to distance us from the boring set of characters and shamelessly unfolds into a predictable "reverse psychology" conclusion. Despite the visual paraphernalia and the impressive cast, there really was no magic there. And that's a shame.
The Bling Ring (2013)
Why am I so Cool?
Gucci sunglasses, Chanel purses and exquisite jewelry appear on the screen to the noise pop of "Crown On The Ground" by Sleigh Bells. A parade of luxury introduces you to "The Bling Ring" (2013) in the same passion for still life that we've seen in "Marie Antoinette"(2006) with that lavish wardrobe and cupcakes sequence, perfect to the sound of "I Want Candy" by Blondie.
The movie introduces you to a group of teenagers who doesn't really know how to have a serious conversation about anything besides Dior dresses and Paris Hilton's DUY. An obsession for fame and fashion is what triggers them to track celebrities on the internet in order to rob their homes.
Throughout the movie, we never really understand who these kids are. Apart from Marc (Israel Broussard), who seems to occasionally reflect about the consequences of their actions, they are simply portrayed as flat personalities, plain selfies, aiming for the celebrity lifestyle. They are just visual figures, perfect in the slow-motion moments captured by Sofia, like the long walk of Rebecca (Katie Chang) holding a cup of coffee under the California sun.
Emma Watson as the self-centered Nicki was a nice surprise. Well, maybe not a surprise, as she played bitchy Hermione for 10 years in the Harry Potter Series, but she captured the character's essence very well and we can see why she's a great actress. Newcomers Katie Chang and Israel Broussard were also flawless in their parts. Let's see where this takes them.
You do feel uncomfortable with such shallowness and lack of judgment, but you also feel conflicted with a strange attraction for their "don't give a dam" attitude. By the end of the movie, I admit I was struggling with this feeling for the "Bonnie and Clyde" spirit, but I immediately realized why I was having it. The fact is that all the characters portrayed by Sofia Coppola always look cool, no matter what. We all fell completely in love with awkward Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and strayed Bob Harris (Bill Murray) in "Lost In Translation" (2003) and Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) looked like a rock star after being portrayed by Sofia in the 2006 movie. For God's sake, she turned suicide cool with the Lisbon girls in "The Virgin Suicides" (1999) !
So yes, apart from this dark humor, I can understand why some people may see this movie as a dangerous glorification of a wasted Millennial Generation. Despite the detachment and the lack of emotional involvement we have with the characters, there's an attraction in the reckless lifestyle and the perfect, visual way it's portrayed, that speaks to the back of your mind.
A few months after the movie was released, a group of random girls crashed into a party in Paris Hilton's Malibu house, went into her bedroom and tried to steal bikinis, handbags and framed pics. They where unsuccessful in their plan, as they were caught and ran away, leaving the loot behind, but they were clearly Bling Ring wannabes. They were just girls, probably in the same age range and maybe seduced by this cinematic portrait.
But blaming Sofia Coppola, the actors and all the people who made this movie seems out of place. The fact is that this is, without a shadow of a doubt, an accurate portrait of a self- obsessed, social media generation, completely dominated by reality shows and celebrities. And Sofia made it to perfection.
Morning Glory (2010)
Caffeine and TV
"Morning Glory" (2010) is a romantic comedy about the frantic world of morning television. When TV producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is fired from a local news program, her career seems to reach a desperate point. A job at "Daybreak", the last-place national morning news show, becomes the turning point and she commits to bringing it back from the dead. In order to do that, Becky decides to recruit, by force, Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford), a legendary TV anchor who considers himself too important to cover shallow morning news, filled with celebrity gossip, cooking ideas and DIY segments.
Back then, when the movie was released, The Guardian called it a "disappointing TV-studio-set romantic comedy" where "nothing about the chemistry works" and the NY Times defined it as "passably amusing". I don't really understand why the movie was so poorly accepted back then. Sure, it fits perfectly into that romantic movie/sitcom template that we all have seen 1000 times (and yes, there's the "running for you because now I understand" scene in the end), but the difference remains with the set of actors. Keaton, Ford and McAdams show a perfect chemistry while delivering a funny, unpretentious script filled with amusing moments and hilarious sarcasms regarding the world of morning TV.
Rachel McAdams is flawless, linking everything together with a true, great performance of a passionate, rather caffeinated, TV producer constantly over the edge. Diane Keaton was born to play this confident/control freak woman (a character in which she's been strongly typecast) and Ford is perfect doing this self-centered, grumpy, old-school journalist who doesn't say the word "fluffy".
In the current world of romantic comedies that delivers poor snooze fests like "27 dresses" (2008) or "You, Me and Dupree" (2006), "Morning Glory" (2010) seems to reach its goal with a strong cast and a funny script. It really is just that: a fun, witty movie. And that's OK.