La La Land (2016)

There were many scenes in this movie that were gorgeous.  Just stunning.  The way they were lit were great.  This movie made Los Angeles look like a magical city.

However, I wasn't overly impressed.  The story line involved Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a struggling jazz musician, and Mia (Emma Stone), a struggling actress, following their dreams of stardom.  When they first meet, she flips him the bird during a traffic jam.  They keep running into each other after that, and a relationship begins.  Cue the music.  Gosling and Stone have great chemistry together, and they have passable singing voices.  But I didn't leave the movie theater humming any of the tunes.

A few days before I saw this movie, I overheard a guy telling everyone nearby how happy the movie had made him.  The guy looked younger than I, so I figured he didn't grow up during a time when movie musicals were made on a regular basis.  I grew up during the tail end of Hollywood producing movie musicals.  I could only guess that the guy was impressed by this movie because the concept of movie musicals is very new to his generation.  Interesting film, but I wasn't overly impressed with it.

J.K. Simmons and John Legend do fine in their small roles.

The Amazing Spiderman

In the beginning of this reboot of the super hero franchise, we see a young Peter Parker discovering that his house has been broken into.  Specifically, someone has ransacked his father's (Campbell Scott) office.  Peter is left to stay with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), while his parents leave town under mysterious circumstances.  Years go by, and we learn that Peter (Andrew Garfield) has been living with his aunt and uncle permanently.  His parents died in a plane crash.

While cleaning out the flooded basement in the house, Peter finds a briefcase that belonged to his dad.  The information inside -- a formula his dad was working on -- leads him to a former colleague of his father named Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans).  Peter is unaware that Dr. Connors is doing some under-the-table work involving genetics.  While at the scientific corporation where Dr. Connors works, Peter snoops around in an off-limits area.  Peter is bitten by a spider being used in an experiment, and soon afterwards, the teenager finds he has some pretty amazing powers. 

Those powers are seriously put to work after Uncle Ben is killed on the street by a store robber.  Peter turns vigilante in an attempt to find the culprit, but the police don't appreciate the interference.  Dr. Connors dangerous experimentations, and the fact that Peter's love interest, Gwen (Emma Stone) is the daughter of a cop (Dennis Leary), add to the super hero's problems. 

I didn't go in with high expectations, having been spoiled by the first couple modern Spiderman movies starring Tobey MacGuire (as well as the old 1967 Saturday morning cartoon show).  But this wasn't bad because it focused more on the characters and their motivations as opposed to derring-do and special effects.  The early scenes where it's clear that Gwen and Peter like each other but are awkward around each other felt real.  I liked that Uncle Ben and Aunt May were portrayed as regular folks, which is very close to how those characters were done in the comic books. 

What I had a little problem with was that Peter Parker's status was raised a little bit among his peers.  In the comic books, what makes Spiderman appealing is that Peter Parker is a geeky, somewhat socially challenged guy underneath the costume.  Most can relate to Peter being out-of-step and picked on by everybody.  Making him one of the cool kids as the storyline went along didn't feel right. 

There's a funny cameo involving Stan "The Man" Lee, the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, as well as the co-creator of the Spideman character.  C. Thomas Howell, who starred in The Outsiders (1983), was unrecognizable in a small role.

The Help (2011)

I resisted seeing this movie for a long time.  Wasn't really interested in seeing yet another story about mistreated Black folks in the South, during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement, who are saved and/or aided by a sympathetic white person.  But then this movie and two of its actresses were nominated for Academy Awards.  "I guess I'll go see it so I'm informed on Oscar night," I thought to myself. The performances of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were good, as well as that of most of the other players such as Emma Stone, Allison Janney, Brice Dallas Howard, Sissy Spacek, and a woman whom I consider a queen, Cicely Tyson. 

Based on the popular book of the same name, the plot concerns college-graduate Skeeter (Stone) who is inspired by the abrupt absence of the maid who practically raised her, and the third class citizenship of the maids who work for her friends to write a tell-all book from the maids' point of view.  It's tough going because the maids don't want to speak out.  They could lose more than just their jobs in early 1960's Mississippi.  It is also a story about Skeeter's independence and different way of thinking that sets her apart from her Southern belle friends, who are happy with the "separate but equal" situation of the times.

Yes, the movie is good, but not great.  The character of Hilly (played by Ron Howard's daughter Brice) is at times like a female Simon Legree, sneering and gloating over how she treats her maid, Minnie (Spencer).  She's the typical example of racism-served-with-Southern-hospitality, which we've seen in similar films before this one.  You know that some characters will be redeemed, some will become strong, and still others will continue on in who they are before the film is over. 

Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

The opening scene tells that something's wrong with Cal (Steve Carrell) and Emma's (Julianne Moore) marriage:  all the other couples around them in the restaurant are playing footsie.  They're not.  Emma blurts out that she wants a divorce.  On the ride home, she admits to having an affair with David (Kevin Bacon), a co-worker of hers.  Cal is devastated, and he leaves the house that night. 

Cal starts spending his evenings in a trendy bar where a smooth playboy named Jacob (Ryan Gosling) is very successful with picking up women night after night. Jacob notices Cal moping around and telling his marital problems to everyone in the place.  He decides to make Cal his project by changing his look and teaching him how to get lucky with the ladies.

This is not your usual romantic comedy.  There are no "meet cute" moments, and none of the usual contrived obstacles that people have to overcome to get to true love.  Instead, characters muddle around -- like in real life -- to try and sort things out and handle the changes and surprises along the way.  The 'B' stories support the 'A' story very well: the love that Cal's son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) has for his babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), unaware that Jessica loves someone else close to him and Hannah's (Emma Stone) lackluster relationship with a clueless lawyer named Richard (Josh Groban). 

I like Steve Carrell (Get Smart, Little Miss Sunshine) because he always has this hangdog look about him when playing characters who have been put upon.  Emma Stone (The Help) is good as a woman who's dangerously close to settling for the wrong man.  Marisa Tomei ("A Different World") makes the most of her role as a woman whom Cal meets after his break-up with his wife.