Straight A's (2013)

Anna Paquin scores Straight A's in a spot of cock-teasing with Ryan Phillippe.

At a glance:

Wanna fall asleep like Ryan Phillippe in the movie?
Don't blame ya.

Perhaps more worthy as a grammar debate than a feature movie, the thematically loose but well-edited Straight A's (2013) is about ne'er-do-good lifelong substance abuser Scott (Ryan Phillippe) who suddenly appears on horseback at the doorstep of his brother's Shreveport house, tryin to connect with the family he turned his back on years ago. Packin nothin but a bag of pills and ganja, he's haunted by the spirit of his dead mother and struggles to redeem himself with his brother (Luke Wilson) and also his brother's wife (Anna Paquin), the latter with whom he was formerly an item. The brother is a high-flyin businessman who's out of town for a few days, so Scott sticks around the house and finds himself bondin with the kids and the help. We learn about a strained marriage, disillusioned children and broken relationships. However, the standoffish family patriarch, sick grandfather (Powers Boothe) holds the key to uncoverin some secrets that might heal the whole family.
Bad news on the doorstep:

"You fuckwit son. Whaddya think this is? The Simpsons?"

Only managed a DVD release - and for good reason. Frank Veenstra at Bobafett1138 summarises bluntly: "Nothing against this movie but sometimes I just don't get why certain movies get even made! There is truly nothing special about this movie - its story, characters or drama. To make things worse, it handles things poorly, making this a mostly shallow and bland movie experience." Indeed there's a pronounced lack of urgency to the characters and their story, despite a highly watchable cast and their committed performances. This isn't Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and an unneeded Korean soap twist to its climax further highlights a problem in tone and direction.

Perennial wonderment:

Why didn't Ryan Phillippe and Anna Paquin become bigger stars? These two are extremely commandin and seductive performers who definitely peaked too early.

Reminds me of:

Some families I know. God save them and God save us from them.

Watch out for:

Powers Boothe as the bitter father. He gets a significant supportin role here.

Seems like it was just yesterday I watched Cruel Intentions.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Trevor Anderson at Movie Mavericks writes: "As much as Straight A’s reaches for spirituality, it lands far from its goal and comes off as a trite movie that doesn’t understand the values it purports to have. The ending is also incredibly contrived and drawn out, it doesn’t fit with the rest of film. Or maybe it does, as every choice here seems to be the safe one. Nice direction and strong acting can’t save this snooze-fest of unrelenting nothingness. With characters that are drowning in self-loathing, for which no great reason is ever revealed, the title Straight A’s must be referring to the expletive rather than the grade. Although I’d never give this movie that much credit."★★

Margaret (2011)

"Because this isn't an opera! And we are not all supporting characters 
to the drama of your amazing life!"

Anna Paquin

At a glance:

If you're wonderin why Anna Paquin and Matt Damon look so young in this movie, look no further than the production dates. Margaret is indeed the troubled project that was filmed way back in pre-True Blood 2005 and went through the post-production hell of havin a director (Kenneth Lonergan, usin most of the cast from his 2000 debut You Can Count On Me) who reportedly couldn't be happy with whatever cut he came up with, thus suspendin release for years and got himself embroiled in multiple lawsuits. I've seen the 150-min studio version and it's rather drainin, to say the least, so God knows what's in the 186-min Blu-Ray extended cut release. On the surface, it's a drama about a disaffected young woman (Anna Paquin) who unintentionally distracted a bus driver (Mark Ruffalo) and contributed towards a fatal traffic accident, thus bein thrown into a frenzied state of self-reflection and bizarre catharsis. After about an hour in though, you get the feelin this is almost a Mike Leigh movie about guilt, atonement and brokenness, not to mention other darker aspects of the human condition, built on the back of post-9/11 anxieties in Manhattan. Movie title is a reference to a poem read out to the main character - Gerard Manley Hopkins's Spring and Fall: To A Young Child.

"We do the American thing. We sue!"

Bad news on the doorstep:

Variety's Justin Chang impressively summarised it as a "time-capsule that arrives bearing all the scars of its difficult gestation... hyperarticulate but rarely eloquent, full of wrenchingly acted scenes that lack credible motivation or devolve into shrill hectoring" and also that it's an "angry, cacophonous storm of a movie, and like the horrific bus accident that sets it in motion, hard to turn away from, though only self-selecting pockets of the arthouse faithful will likely strap themselves in to begin with." I have more sympathy for the movie but it's still a muddled picture that asks too much from an audience. Man must have thought it was a theatre play. Oh, no surprise - I just read that his background is in theatre!

Perennial wonderment:
It's heartenin to see Anna Paquin return to the kind of angst that made her a record-settin young Oscar-winner in The Piano (1993). Since then I've only seen her hammin it up for inconsequential roles like Rogue in the X-Men movies but I do remember her memorably seducin an older man in The Squid And The Whale (2005). She's always playin angry characters, so perhaps there's a range limitation here? I don't watch TV so I don't know about how she is in True Blood. In any case, she's a mum now, so let's hope that will add some depth to her future roles.

Reminds me of:

Why is Mark Ruffalo always playin a reckless killer driver? I'm thinkin Reservation Road (2007). Are there more? Let me know.

Watch out for:

J. Smith-Cameron (Man On A Ledge, 2012) offers a wonderful, layered performance as a detached mother with her own relationship issues while Jean Reno, Matt Damon, Allison Janney and Matthew Broderick play out some half-significant support.

Most memorable line:

No spoilers now.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Next Projection's Kevin Ketchum went through the DVD specs and ultimately found the extended movie to be a resoundin masterpiece, callin it a "transcendent... once-in-a-generation distillation of an era". That wonderful, huh? My review is based on the 150-min version that I watched and on the strength of that, I'm not about to see the full intended film to find out. ★★1/2

Open House (2010)

You like underwater sex in other people's swimmin pools, eh?

"I must be allergic to this fabric...
and good movies."

At a glance:

Not to be confused with a video release of what Najib and Rosmah shamelessly do in their public-funded residence durin Manchester United matches, Open House (2010) nevertheless starts off on a similar premise - it's about fools who visit a house inhabited by fools. A less-than-lovin couple tries to sell off their love nest via a property agent amidst nasty divorce proceedings but is visited by a woman and a man under sinister circumstances. Sounds like a dodgy movie already.

Bad news on the doorstep:

It is a dodgy movie. What you get is Andrew Paquin writin and also directin a movie which has his illustrious sister Anna bein roped in to market the film despite appearin for only a minute or so, while Anna's husband Stephen Moyer is the lead. The story itself is pretty ordinary and its token twist doesn't really do anythin for the movie.

Perennial wonderment:

Playboy model Tricia Helfer is definitely hot in TV's Battlestar Galactica but in this movie she looks like an old and ugly man version of Amanda Peet. She's still got that killer body but we don't get to see much of it so what's the point of this movie?

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Kudos to Brian Geraghty for at least gettin the looks down as a killer and suggestin that somethin interestin might actually happen. Frustratin movie.★★
Trailer for the curious:

Bonus material:
Here are more Tricia Helfer stills and also a bonus clip from the movie I found for you - Tricia Helter Pre-Underwater Sex Flirting 101. Look, then skip the movie.

Tricia Helter Pre-Underwater Sex Flirting 101

Hi. I'm Tricia Helfer and this is my house...

I just love a man who wants to use a Merlot for lubricant!