A lot of ‘The Glorias’ seem like a good idea – Julie Taymor directing, Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander sharing roles as adult Gloria Steinem, an all star supporting cast – but how come the movie falls flat? The film has a feel of a Wikipedia page, and Moore looks bored in the role. It’s a shame because Steinem is certainly an important figure in modern history, and surely there has to be more to her than this lifeless biopic?
The first half tracks better – we see her childhood and her relationship with her father, played by Timothy Hutton. Vikander is helped by a more interesting plot line, but when Moore comes in, the script goes nowhere, as Steinem just goes from one rally to another, without any interesting narrative to go with it. Taymor tries to keep things busy, with whimsical fantasy sequences that seem to come out of nowhere (and feels a bit out of context, top be honest) Bette Midler and Janelle Monae are both breaths of fresh air, having fun in their roles as Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Bella Abzug (Doesn’t Abzug remind you of AOC?) but their presence are brief to be truly meaningful. When you see the real Steinem towards the end in a 2017 rally appearance, you get a glimpse of the energy of what the film could have been.
I know that ‘After The Wedding’ is an American adaptation of Susanne Bier’s film, and some people do ask – is there a need to Americanize these films? But I racked my brain and realized I have never seen the original, so in this particular case, and for purely selfish reasons, I welcome this. And anything with Juliane Moore and Michele Williams will catch my attention. And to start, they are both great here – when they are in a scene together, just the two of their characters in front of each other already creates so much tension – you really do feel you are in a showcase of two of the greatest actresses working today.
When I first saw the trailer for ‘Gloria Bell’ a couple of months ago, I told myself, this is my kind of movie. I mean, a middle-aged woman singing along to ONJ’s ‘A Little More Love? ‘ I may or may not have done the exact same thing in real life. So in some way, this movie has already already spoke to me. In most ways. I am Gloria Bell.
Sometimes when bad movies happen to good actors, they give bad performances. Julianne Moore’s performance is ‘Bel Canto’ isn’t good, and at times it felt like it was given by an amateur. She seems disconnected and uninspired, which may or may not have been the case, but to me, it certainly felt so. (Even her miming to Renee Fleming’s voice seemed out of synch) I am mostly baffled that she could give such a bad performance, to be honest.
The concept and plot of ‘Wonderstruck,’ isn’t normally something I would be interested at, but I went because it is directed by Todd Haynes, whose work I really do admire. In this movie, we have two parallel stories of a child in search of something. It is based on Brian Selznick’s novel of the same name. One part is set in 1927, about Rose (Millicent Simmonds) who takes the ferry from Hoboken, New Jersey to New York City in search of an actress, Lillian Mayhew, played by Julian Moore. The second part of the story is set in 1977, where a boy Ben (Oakes Fegley) takes a bus from Minnesota to Manhattan in search for his father. The first part is shot in black white, like a silent movie (Mayhew is a silent film actress) while the latter is in glorious seventies color. I thought the production values here were excellent, especially the scenes from the 70s, which really made you feel like you were there at that particular time.
However, neither of the stories moved me. They just weren’t interesting enough for me and I have to admit that some parts made me literally doze off. It was quite slow, and the payoff, especially the big reveal in Ben’s storyline, not worth the whole effort. I thought it extremely long, and pointless. I really wanted to like this film, but ended up thoroughly disappointed and frustrated with it. And perhaps because of this, I find I can never remember the title, mistaking it for Wanderlust, or Wonderscene. It’s Wonderstruck, and I just wasn’t.
I really wanted to love Rebecca Miller’s new movie ‘Maggie’s Plan,’ and halfway through the movie, as I am realizing I don’t even like it, I started to question myself why. Maybe it stems from my irrational dislike of the actress Greta Gerwig – there’s something about her that annoys me and thus I never could get into – much less believe – any of her characters.I tried giving her the slack so many times here, but with her as the heroine of the film, I just couldn’t go on-board. I was banking on the idea that Julianne Moore will steal the film from her, but her character her seems to be a SNL parody, though she tries very hard to give it vulnerability, and nearly succeeds. I read a comment about the movie that it is a “New Yorker short story,’ and I think that’s an apt description, but I even think the magazine would reject this. There’s just so much good things here that did not account to a great whole that I couldn’t help but feel so disappointed. I wanted to feel characters that are New Yorkers – neurotic, sophisticated, pedantic in the most appropriate way – but here we get neurosis and no backing behind them. I just imagine how this film would have fared in the hands of Noah Baumbach, or Woody Allen (though the latter doesn’t seem to be doing New York movies anymore) and think there could have been real gold in here.
Luha Thoughts 