Still Alice

It's almost time for the 87th Academy Awards and it took me this long to see Still Alice. Now that I've seen it, it's time for the review.

Dr. Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a respected linguistics professor at Columbia University. Her husband John (Alec Baldwin) and their three grown children are happy and healthy. Everything is normal for Alice. At least she thinks it is.

Alice begins to have periodic memory lapses. She's soon diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease. Her prospects look grim as her cognitive abilities fade away. But her family is there by her side. She won't have to get through the disease on her own.

Lisa Genova's 2007 novel was brought to the screen by married filmmakers Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (The Last of Robin Hood). Glatzer himself suffered from ALS which made the film personal for them.

Julianne Moore's performance is what makes the movie work. As Alice, we know her first as a warm, caring person. It's awkward when the disease first manifests but it quickly turns nightmarish. All the while, we understand how someone in her position must feel. We worry about her safety.

Her on-screen family also stands out. They always mean the best even if their desires conflict with Alice's. John wishes to move to Minnesota for work and financial security. Alice feels comfortable where she is. John's decision isn't vilified; we sympathize with him too. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Lydia (Kristen Stewart) doesn't always get along smoothly with her mother. But she proves quite selfless in the end.

Still Alice is an inherently sad movie about a woman's decline into senility. It's also a hopeful movie about how one copes with dire circumstances. Its message is that it's possible to face a grim diagnosis with dignity and support. It's an all-around well-acted drama.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

Nickelodeon's number one star SpongeBob SquarePants last made it to theaters in 2004. Things changed since then but the show's cast and 2D animation style haven't. One thing different? This big-screen entry, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, is available in 3D or Flatscreen.

It's the same as always in the undersea town of Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob is the fry-cook at The Krusty Krab restaurant, home of the Krabby Patty burger. Mr. Krabs keeps the Krabby Patty formula in his vault. Sheldon J. Plankton, restaurateur of the abysmal Chum Bucket, wants the formula for himself. Also in town are SpongeBob's best-bud Patrick Star, astronaut squirrel Sandy Cheeks and cynical Krusty Krab cashier Squidward Tentacles.

The evil pirate Burger-Beard (a live-action character played by Antonio Banderas) enters the scene. He acquires a magic book which realizes whatever text is written in it. The dastardly villain writes himself in-possession of the Krabby Patty Formula. The town descends into chaos and Mad Max aesthetics in a split-second. Really, it does!

Krabs accuses Plankton of the act but SpongeBob knows better. It's up to him to convince Plankton to help him find the formula before all is lost.

The film needs little effort to acquaint new viewers to the franchise. It's that kind of show. SpongeBob and Co.'s antics and eccentricities are sure to entertain young kids the most. I got a few good laughs from a few gags (including Burger-Beard's attempt to roll credits a half-hour in). If you know what you're getting into, you'll come out unharmed.

Once Burger-Beard steals the formula, he sits on the narrative sidelines until the SpongeBob cast comes to confront him. We don't even get much explained about his book. It felt like an extended segment of the show. At least it was 92 minutes, which meant it wasn't that long.

Antonio Banderas delightfully hams it up as Burger-Beard. Everything he says and does is with gusto. This pirate's bravado lets him look at danger and tell it to scram. One can tell that Banderas is having fun here.

SpongeBob's latest screen adventure is nothing but silliness. You'll get your money's worth if silliness is what you're looking for. But if SpongeBob's brand of overactive silliness isn't for you, don't fret. There's a few more family-oriented films on their way this year.

Seventh Son

The dark fantasy adventure Seventh Son fought a long fight to theaters. I've devoted a whole paragraph to it:

It was first scheduled for February 2013. It went to that October to give bankrupt FX studio Rhythm and Hues more time and resources to complete their work. It went off the schedule when production company Legendary Pictures moved from Warner Bros. to Universal. And now it's here. And it's average.

It's still better than dull.

Directed by Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains, Mongol), this is yet another rendition of a young adult novel. In this case, it's The Spook's Apprentice, the first of The Wardstone Chronicles by Joseph Delaney. The plot is on the next paragraphs.

Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) is an average farmboy. He's also the proverbial seventh son of a seventh son and that qualifies him to be Master Gregory's (Jeff Bridges) apprentice. Master Gregory is a Spook, the last of a knightly order of monster hunters. And he needs an apprentice who won't die like the others.

Master Gregory once left a dangerous witch, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), in a pit. Malkin breaks out and sets out for world conquest. She'll be all powerful once the "blood moon" appears. Gregory has to make a fine Spook out of Tom before that happens.

The visual effects get the job done. The CGI allowed for a few convincing monsters and shape-shifting effects. One of Malkin's goons was a four-armed swordsman and that was seamless. Only a few cases of CGI were far too obvious.

As Master Gregory, Jeff Bridges is reliably eccentric. He's a drunk who knows when to get to business. The weird voice signifies his eccentricity. Julianne Moore's evil villainess Malkin is subdued but still cruel. There's a deep history between the two, but Malkin is so wicked it's sometimes hard to feel sympathy for her.

Its story of destiny and evil rising were familiar. You might find nothing new with the story. There was one thing that kept me invested for the 102 minute runtime. That thing was the relationship between Master and Apprentice. There was so much tension between them that I was surprised the Apprentice either didn't quit or got sacked for the sake of plot. That was one thing right, I guess.

Seventh Son is finally here. It's worth-seeing at least once. If you wish to see it more than once, you're more than welcome. As per custom, it's on both Flatscreen and 3D.

Jupiter Ascending

It's real hard to come up with an overall positive for the space epic Jupiter Ascending. It was supposed to land last July but wound up here to give it more time in post-production. Maybe they should have spent more time in Pre-Production.

Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) was born to a Russian mother and a dead father. Years later, she cleans houses in Chicago with her mother and aunt. No one on Earth thinks much of Jupiter. So imagine her surprise when everyone in the universe wants her dead or alive.

Jupiter is genetically-identical to the Queen of the Abrasax Dynasty, the biggest Royal House in the Galaxy. That means she's entitled to the Earth itself under Galactic law. The Queen's evil children don't want Jupiter to have it. And also, humans are the special ingredient of their immortality potion.

The evil prince Balem (Eddie Redmayne) sends some goons after Jupiter. The other prince Titus sends the half-wolf rogue Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) to bring Jupiter alive. There's also some other folks who have interest in keeping Jupiter alive. Good luck keeping track of those. And Jupiter finds herself attracted to Caine.

Did you get all that? I think I did.

There's no doubt that this is a good looking movie. Sibling directors/writers Andy and Lana Wachowski populate their movie world with wondrous alien worlds and creatures. The makeup department created many of the imaginative alien monsters and alien humans. One such alien human was a cameo by filmmaker Terry Gilliam, a fact I didn't realize until after the film. No complaints with the visuals.

But the script was dull. I didn't find myself invested in the plight of these characters. All. Of. These. Characters. It was quite hard, to say the least, to keep track of these characters and their motivations. Balem, whom the film presented as an entitled jerk, had a sympathetic backstory revealed in his last minutes. Most of the film's funniest moments were probably meant to be serious.

But it's 127 minutes long, which means it knows when to quit. It's a far cry from The Wachowskis' Speed Racer, which at 135 minutes, was far too long for a kids movie. But unlike this movie, Speed Racer's aesthetics helped me overlook its flaws.

2015 has a few more films held-over from the previous year yet to come. Let's hope any of them are better than Jupiter Ascending. Let's hope any of 2015's other movies are better than this.

Whiplash

It took forever before Sundance favorite Whiplash became available to me. It came out in way-limited release in October and will come to DVD this month. Now that I've seen it in a theater, here's the review.

Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) is a first year at New York's Shaffer Conservatory school. Andrew wants to be the best Jazz drummer ever. He'll do whatever it takes to be great. And for this reason he makes the mistake of enlisting in Terrence Fletcher's "studio band."

Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) is Shaffer's most highly-regarded music teacher. Fletcher is affable in public but a tyrant during practice. Expect all sorts of physical, verbal and psychological torture when one practices under Fletcher. "It's all about pushing people beyond what's expected of them," Fletcher later says.

Andrew has to practice hard to reach Fletcher's ludicrously high standards. But will he crack before Fletcher's hard exterior does? Probably.

Writer/Director Damien Chazelle previously filmed a portion of the script as a short film. It also wowed Sundance audiences but cost the final film an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay (it's up for Adapted Screenplay instead). Technicality or not, it's still an excellent script. Its dialogue is memorable and the plot moves quickly and effectively.

Andrew's story is an excellent deconstruction of determinism. We want Andrew to succeed but not with great physical and psychological damage; and especially not to please a teacher who changes the goalposts each second. The audience can feel it as he strains under pressure.

J.K. Simmons is a formidable villain as Terrence Fletcher. All Fletcher wants is to drive his students to perfection. You'll earn his respect as long as you reach his high standards. But as the film progresses, and especially at the end, you'll question his good will. He's purely unpredictable and vicious.

Editor Tom Cross keeps the film going at a breakneck speed. The sound designers let you hear each instrument loud and clear. It's appropriate as it lets you feel what Andrew is thinking. You'll feel the tensity in his practice sessions. The final concert is an exercise in rising tension expressed in Jazz.

Whiplash is a pretty brutal movie. Look elsewhere if you want a calmer motion picture. Those who can stand it will be glad they did. It gets its points across with drum-smashing success.