Now that I don't work in the entertainment business anymore, I've had to give up the perk of seeing movies for free. Alas, now I have to pay to see movies like all the rest of you poor saps. But I still do it -- even if I'm more selective than I used to be -- because ultimately, I still love movies.
I have a friend who hasn't been to the movies in years because he thinks it's a "scam," preferring instead to watch movies on HBO or STARZ. I'd argue (and did) that he spends more money every year on those two premium channels than I do on going to the movies. Sure, ticket prices have gone up, and not everyone wants to pay that much money for something they can see a few months later for less; but going to the movies isn't a scam. I know exactly why I'm going, what I'm paying for and what I'll probably be getting.
If the movie is terrible, it may be the director's fault for making a bad movie, or the screenwriter's fault for penning leaden dialogue, or the studio's fault for marketing or producing it badly, or the actors' fault for being overpaid and undertalented. It could even be my fault for not checking the reviews to make sure the movie's not a dud. But it's not a scam. I made my decision; I paid my money. A scam would be if I paid to see "The Avengers" in 3-D, and the screen was showing some recording a dude had made with his cell phone, and the 3-D part consisted of a theater worker throwing things at me from the front row. (Actually, I might argue that "Clash of the Titans" in 3-D was a scam, because I kept taking my glasses off and the screen looked exactly the same as it did when I had the glasses on. Bleah, that movie was awful. Thank goodness I was seeing it for free.)
Seeing a movie in a theater can be fun. Given the budgetary choices we all have to make these days, I'm not going to try to convince anyone that they should plunk down $16 to travel somewhere and sit still in the dark for two hours. For some people, bombarded with the luxury and abundance of choice -- cable TV, HBO and Showtime, Netflix, Amazon Prime, video on demand, Hulu, Apple TV -- the luster has worn off of moviegoing, which is the reason studios are now struggling and prices are so high. But I still enjoyed watching "Magic Mike" in a theater full of laughing, screaming women instead of home by myself (laughing and screaming by yourself can be embarrassing if the walls aren't thick enough). I wanted to see "The Dark Knight Rises" on a big screen, the action literally larger than life. I'm no fan of "Avatar," but I'll admit it was worth seeing -- but in glorious IMAX 3-D, and not as the flattened-down, story-deficient version that my TV would have offered up.
Or maybe sometimes I just realize I have to get out of the house.
That's all just a long way of saying that, because I didn't have other plans, I saw a lot of movies this weekend -- most of them at home on Netflix Instant, but one of them in a theater. They were all pretty good, which is fortunately what happens when you choose to watch movies for fun, rather than because you have to cover them for work. Here's what I saw:
"Margin Call"
Thriller about the 2008 financial crisis. Yes, that sounds about as dull as dirt. (Duller, even.) But it was quite good. Stars Zachary Quinto and Penn Badgley (who looks very short next to Zachary Quinto) as young risk analysts at a firm that's meant to resemble Lehman Brothers; Stanley Tucci as their boss who gets laid off in a scene that felt all-too-real; Paul Bettany as the guy who steps in as their boss after that; Kevin Spacey -- spoiler alert, not playing the bad guy -- as Paul Bettany's boss; Simon Baker as their boss; and Jeremy Irons as everybody's boss. Also Demi Moore. That sure is a lot of people who normally play villains, in a movie in which, ultimately, the real villain is the firm itself.
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
This is the movie I saw in a theater, at BAM. It was a hit at Sundance, and I'd heard glowing things about it, which made me afraid because I didn't want to be underwhelmed after all the hype. Indeed, halfway through the movie, I thought, I'm not being blown away the way I thought I would be. But then I was. By the end, I couldn't stop crying.
It's a low-budget film about a young girl, Hushpuppy, who lives in The Bathtub, a mythical community in the swamplands beyond the reach of (what is supposed to be) Louisiana. It's sort of about Hurricane Katrina, but sort of not. It's magical and mystical and it will wreck you. Hushpuppy is played by Quvenzhané Wallis, who'd never acted in a film before, and she's extraordinary -- she's the one I'll be rooting for come Oscars time, and if she is nominated, she'll be the youngest Best Actress nominee ever. Her alcoholic dad is played by a New Orleans baker who'd never acted before, and he is also wonderful (I'm betting he'll be nominated); and though the film isn't perfect by any means, I loved it. It's probably tied with "Moonrise Kingdom" for my favorite film of the year, though "Moonrise" may just edge it out.
"The Lincoln Lawyer"
There's just something about Matthew McConaughey as a lawyer. Really, this movie -- a thriller in which McConaughey plays a bottom-feeding defense lawyer whose rich client (Ryan Phillippe) claims he was set up -- was not bad at all. Marisa Tomei, as his ex-wife prosecutor, is one of those actresses who gets better and more attractive as she gets older, and I love her for that. As for McConaughey, it's not surprising that he gives a solid performance (as does William H. Macy as his private investigator); what has been notable lately is that he's stepping away from the romantic comedy genre and doing more interesting work. In many ways, this is his year. He was arguably the best thing about "Magic Mike" (sorry, Channing Tatum's abs), and I hear he's terrific in "Killer Joe" as a killer for hire. We always knew, since "A Time to Kill," that the man had acting chops, and I guess I can't blame him for coasting on his considerable charm in stupid movies for such a long time. I'm just glad he seems to be snapping out of it, even if it's just temporarily.
"Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks"
Part of ESPN's "30 for 30" series of sports documentaries. A whole bunch of them just got added to Netflix Instant (see "The Two Escobars" -- it's outstanding), and I'd heard this one was good, but I thought, an entire movie about Reggie Miller playing basketball against the Knicks? How interesting could that be? I was wrong. This is one of the most entertaining documentaries I've ever seen. I don't think you'd have to like basketball, or even know who Reggie Miller is, to enjoy it. That said, this film reminded me of just how much I haaaaate Reggie Miller. I'm not alone, of course, and filmmaker Dan Klores ("Crazy Love") interviews all the players (pun intended) in the intense Pacers-Knicks rivalry, including John Starks, Patrick Ewing, Larry Brown, Pat Riley and Spike Lee, all of whom can fortunately now joke about those thrillingly tense playoff games and moments when they wanted to punch Reggie Miller in the face. Spike Lee, a lifelong Knicks fan, is responsible for the best part of the movie: In Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, Spike spent the game taunting Reggie Miller, who got inspired and proceeded to sink 25 points in the 4th quarter, turning to the director and making the "choke" sign and grabbing his balls. The Pacers won; the city of New York blamed Spike. Ah, sports.