Silver Linings Playbook

2012 best picture nominee

Rating: 15/20 (Jennifer: 19/20)

Plot: Pat, a substitute teacher who spent a few months in a mental institution after beating up the man his wife was sleeping with, moves into his parents' attic. He tries to figure out a way to reconcile with his wife, a difficult task because of a restraining order. He meets a friend of a friend who happens to be a friend of a friend of his wife. She's got problems of her own, and the two figure out they're in a romantic comedy. Things progress from there.

Boy, was I wrong about this one. One, I assumed that I wouldn't like it, an odd prediction since it has Bradley Cooper in it. Two, I thought for sure it was setting up for a Shamalammadingdong-esque twist where protagonist Pat was just imagining all of these people. I'm still not entirely sure I want to believe that everything that happened in this movie actually occurred in the movie's reality. I want there to be something a little deeper with this story, I guess. The main character is bipolar, so I guess hallucinations or delusions wouldn't really have fit. Still, that cop who keeps popping up at just the right moments, Chris Tucker's character--the lone black man in Philadelphia, it seems--showing up inexplicably in all these places, all the pieces falling together so unnaturally. It's hard to take at face-value, isn't it? As pure rom-com cotton candy though, this is really pretty good. I really liked the performances. Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence play characters who really should be unlikable, but their performances here are a testament to how good looking they both are. I'm not sure I'd call what Lawrence did best-actress-award-worthy, but she's good and really easy to like and root for. And there are all these gratuitous shots of her posterior which the Academy Awards people must have enjoyed. Bradley Cooper might have been a little too wide-eyed at times, but he wears a trash bag better than anybody I know. De Niro and Jacki Weaver plays his parents, the latter more in the background but very funny when talking about her crabby snacks and homemades. De Niro's character is sneakily nuanced, his performance barely under control. He's good though. It's a great ensemble cast that really helps this thing swim, and the thing just was refreshingly entertaining despite the pain that some of the characters were suffering. It does kind of hit a point--the "parlay bet" scene--where things get a little too unbelievable, and after that, it all feels a little too much like a movie. Again, those pieces fall into place a little too neatly. You really almost expect that you're being set up for a devastating ending to this thing, at least for a handful of the characters. But they're all so likeable that the Hollywood endings slapped on this ends up being satisfying.

Or maybe the complete lack of a twist is the twist? That this so comfortably embraces its Hollywoodness should maybe be applauded.

Here's a twist--I'm giving movies Bradley Cooper bonus points from now on. In fact, I might do it retroactively. I'll have to find my A-Team write-up.

Singin' in the Rain

1952 musical

Rating: 18/20 (Jen: 17/20; Dylan: 10/20; Emma: 6/20; Abbey: 6/20; Buster: 5/20)

Plot: A movie studio and its stars try to adapt to the talkie phenomenon.

The first sign this is a movie that Shane will like: Zelda's walk about a minute and a half into the movie. It's not a sexual thing here, more about the flamboyance, making something that ridiculous the focal point of a scene that early in the proceedings. No, the sexual thing comes later with the movement of a green dress and some rhythmic coin flippage. It's so awkward getting an erection on family movie night. The reaction from my family during this was fun. Dylan, during a kid tap-dancing scene in a pool room, said, "I don't feel comfortable about this," and later exclaimed, "Oh no! He's going to sing!" Emma also yelled a "No! Why does he have to sing again?" at one point. Later, the kid who gave Dr. Strangelove a 6/20 and forever ruined his credibility, complained that Gene Kelly was a bad dancer. He also claimed he was going to give this movie a 0/20 for "unrealistic violin playing" but reconsidered later. Jen was really looking forward to the "Singin' in the Rain" number, and when it began, she emitted a for-some-reason gravelly "Alright!" Buster's reaction was the best. She loved watching this despite her 5/20 rating. I wish I would have videotaped her imitating "Make 'em Laugh".

But I digress. This would be a classic even without that aforementioned green dress and coin flippage scene because of the "What's you hitting him with--a blackjack?" guy. But it's filled with a lot of memorable moments--the talking picture demonstrator, like Vincent Price with bad teeth; the way Gene Kelly assaults Debbie Reynolds a few times, just because he's Gene Kelly and, like John Wayne, he can; Gene and Cosmo's walk through a studio where several movies are being filmed at once, a scene put in there just for movie lovers; that exhilarating seersucker violin tap-dancing number that looked like it came straight out of Spike Jones; lines like "I can't make love to a bush" or "I make more money than Calvin Coolidge combined"; the spoken argument during the silent scene of The Duelling Cavalier; Cathy's dress blown by a fan; a way-too-close close-up of Gene's face, a shot that made me as uncomfortable as Dylan probably was while watching a little kid tap dance; the hilarious sound issues during the premiere of The Duelling Cavalier, the "No! No! No!"; the "Broadway Rhythm" sequence set designs and dazzling colors. The best musicals, at least for me, are the ones that manage to have a buoyancy throughout, not just during the song and dance numbers. This one's got that buoyancy and pours on a little extra during some of those song and dance numbers. I nearly creamed my britches during the "Mose Supposes" sequence, one that makes me realize that the same exact part of me that loves watching kung-fu movies also loves to watch tap-dancing. Singin' in the Rain's got a cool story despite being sort of artificially created around songs that already existed, and it's hard for me not to watch and recall my childhood, the days when people destroyed their homes with lethal tap routines and then collapsed giggling. That happened all the time when I was a kid! The world would be a better place if they'd just stop what they were doing and watch Singin' in the Rain once or twice a year.