Script review - "Blue Moon" by Robert Kaplow

 It’s not very good. As in, it’s bad. Feels like a play. Too much like a play. No use of visuals, Nothing at stake. The girl isn’t stakes because he’s not going to be with the girl. The partnership with Rodgers not really at stake bc he’s going to die. Why not use his mother as a character more? Ducks Hart's homosexuality. Makes it more about his drinking and height. I liked seeing Sondheim and George Roy Hill but both could’ve been cut from the film.

Movie review - "Before Midnight" (2013) ****

This series keeps surprising me - whenever I watch the later films, I'm about to write them off, but then it will bounce back, often within the same scene, with something magical and spot on. There is inherent charm of course in seeing Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy age, and Richard Linklater continues to direct beautifully. This has the added attraction of Greek scenery.

Very often this clunked - the early bits involving them and their friends, especially with Hawke getting involved with conversations about what a sexual wild man he is, and talking about the plot of his novel (it felt like an actor who occasionally wrote talking about his novel); and I didn't like the way the character of Hawke's ex wife was slagged off so much (she's a drunk and a bad mother). But whenever it's him and Delpy its on firm ground, especially when they just talk. I loved the unexpected honesty of the attempted sex scene, including her toplessness - and the romanticism of the final chat.

Movie review – “Me and Orson Welles” (2009) ***1/2

Sweet film which feels like it’s directed by Woody Allen rather than Richard Linklater. Zac Effron is likeable as the school student who gets involved in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar - although it would have been a better movie if we had more of a sense of Effron's character (where he came from, etc). Christian Mackay's Orson Welles is brilliant - very hard to do, but he pulls it off. Clare Danes is a bit of a nothing in her part (an easy one to play); excellent support cast, including Eddie Marsden as John Houseman and James Tupper (a real find) as Joe Cotten. The re-production of Caesar is excellent.

Movie review – “School of Rock” (2002) ***1/2

Jack Black finally made the transfer to full fledged star with this entertaining comedy especially geared to Black’s talents. He has a brilliant time as the erratic teacher who finds a genuine gift in bringing the gospel of rock to kids – not rap, or musicals but good old fashioned rock. The other delight of the film is the little kids. A film about a “rock school” you’d expect it to feature students who were teenagers, and there’d be a little romance and all that stuff. But the decision’s been made here to have them actually be little kids, played by actors who are little kids. And it works a treat. The kid actors are amazingly good – the precocious organiser, the rebel, the chubby Chinese kid, etc. They’re all fabulous – well, except for the pretty bland bass player who seems like a 'tween MTA. Loosely plotted but full of memorable sequences and this gave me new appreciation for Stevie Nicks.

Movie review - "The Bad News Bears" (2005) ** 1/2

Hollywood's recent obsession with remakes of the 70s - that also saw Amityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Assault on Precinct 13, The Longest Yard, etc - continues with this un-needed redo of the 1976 Walter Matthau-Tatum O'Neal hit.
The film should really have been called Bad Santa Meets the Bad News Bears, as star Billy Bob Thornton reprises his Bad Santa persona (and the Bad Santa writers worked on the script). Actually maybe it's more Bad Santa Meets the Bad News Bears Meets School of Rock, as the director is Richard Linklater.
In School of Rock Linklater showed a good eye for kid casting and he's done that again here as well. Everyone turns in professional work but you can't help the feeling that everyone is slumming it - slumming it professionally, but still slumming it. It really is the same old crappy sports movie (recruitment then thrashing then low point then turn around then improvement montage then obstacle then climax) with a couple of really funny gags and moments inserted. The kid in the wheelchair is pretty funny, as is Thornton's taste in women and his habit of dumping rats in eskies.
The sort of movie I would have enjoyed more if I'd watched it at a hotel or on a plane. Greg Kinnear is a good villalin opponent coach.

Movie review - "Before Sunset" (2004) *** 1/2

I loved Before Sunrise so much I was nervous about seeing the sequel. What if they stuffed it up? For one thing, Ethan Hawke was now credited as one of the co-writers and he’s become such a wanker. Well, this is an entirely worthy sequel. It has its flaws but it fully respects the original and has many lovely moments. It even dares to be a bit different in that it is done in real time, whereas the original took a bit longer.

Questions from the original are satisfactorily answered, and Julie Delpy is as captivating as ever. Ethan is a bit irritating (“I spent some time in a trappist monastery”, “I was in a band”) and has that skinny look that looks like a holdover from Assault on Precinct 13 but still works. Main debit for the film – Ethan’s crapping on about how his marriage is basically dead. I wanted to believe him but couldn’t shake the feeling that if his marriage was fine and he just wanted a holiday root he’d say exactly the same thing (and Ethan’s breakdown in the limo is the only really jarring “actor”-y bit out of it).

I didn’t like the ending that much when I saw it but it’s stuck with me ever since and now I love it, if that makes sense.