Don’t Think Twice. Mike Birbiglia, Dir. I liked the characters, the plot not so much. An improv acting group dies a slow death when one actor (Keegan-Michael Key) hits the big time. The ending is as unsatisfying as the plot. That said, there are positives. This movie gives you a bittersweet and realistic glimpse into the hard life actors face in the competitive NYC theater world. Tami Sagher is great as the rich Westside pothead and Kate Micucci’s deer-in-the-headlights ingenuous eyes never cease to amaze me. This is almost a Woody Allen flick: lots of New York angst masquerading as comedy.

The Light between Oceans. Derek Cianfrance, Dir. My kneejerk reaction: ho-hum, another sappy Nicholas Sparks-type romance novel goes to Hollywood. I was half-wrong; the second part of the movie is that bad, or maybe worse than Sparks’s schmaltzy stories. The first half is slow and boring but saved by scenery and lush photography, an Ansel Adams goes to Australia, but in pastels. The author of the novel (not Sparks) the movie’s based on just about plagiarized familiar stories form the Bible: the foundling Moses in a boat is there, and Solomon is sorely needed to arbitrate between the birth-mother and the wannabe mother (it’s Hollywood, so why not twins in the boat?).

The most interesting thing for me was figuring out the title: after putting on my imaginary Sherlock Holmes cap and sucking on that imaginary pipe a bit, I concluded that the game afoot was that “the light” is what’s in the lighthouse. The second most interesting thing: lighting the light in the lighthouse, which I had to wait a long time for. OK, this flick might actually be better than Sparks’s efforts, but are those Aussie accents real? (Fassbender has my same genetic background, German-Irish, but there’s probably a reason his character doesn’t speak much in the film.) Swedish ex-dancer Vikander was better in Jason Bourne, although miscast there too, while I just don’t understand Fassbender’s popularity.  Guess they liked their roles as lovers, though—they’re continuing them in real life (without the pathetic pathos, I hope). Go see this flick if you need a two-hour nap in the AC (back to summer heat this weekend). My problem was staying awake so I could write this review!

In libris libertas!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9th, 2016 at 4:00 am and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.