New-to-me movies watched in May

1. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
2. This is the End (2013)
3. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
4. Godzilla (2014)
5. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

REVIEWS:

1. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
I was thrilled when this won Best Picture. While it’s hard to watch this kind of cruelty toward humans, this is a fantastic movie. Stunning cinematography, amazing acting, wonderful direction. One small flaw is that it’s a little hard to follow the progression of time, as in how many years have passed as the story goes on. However, it doesn’t take away from the power of the story and even adds to feeling of uncertainty and sense of time passing, the interminable hours, days, months, years of captivity.

Lupita Nyong’o deserves her best acting award, and Chiwetel Ejiofor draws us into Solomon Northup’s inner realm, revealing the emotional depth of his experience. I definitely want to read the book now.

2. This is the End (2013)
A group of comedians get together and imagine what they would do if a biblical apocalypse were to happen. Not many people have the ability to play out their “what if” imaginings and there’s no telling whether such a movie will work, especially with the actors playing themselves. This was so funny and a lot of fun. I recommend it for those who like similar movies by this group, such as Knocked Up or Your Highness.

3. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
Fantastic movie. It Really surprised me, in terms of all the things I didn’t know about Mandela’s life and I find myself wanting to read his autobiography. Idris Elba is amazing, as is Naomie Harris. Because it was so focused on the life and personal journey of one man, it was hard sometimes to keep track the historical events, which seemed to happen of out of context for someone who doesn’t know much detail about the history of apartheid. Still a great movie, though.

4. Godzilla (2014)
Giant monster movie! I don’t know that there’s much else to say. It was better than I thought it would be and hugely entertaining.

It is not nearly as good as Pacific Rim, the other giant monster movie, though, which I watch in a rigid upright position with a look of GLEE on my face the entire movie. IO9 has a great analysis as to why Godzilla succeeded in theaters, while Pacific Rim flopped, even though Pacific Rim is a more emotionally and intellectually complex movie.

5. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
A group of newsies decide to investigate a newspaper ad, in which a man claiming to be a time traveller is looking for a partner to travel through time. Little indie time travel movie, oh, how I adore you! It’s mostly quirky comedy in the normal everyday world with hints at the possibility of scifi happening, but it was just so great. This is how to make clever, really low budget scifi work. It was fun and a delight and wonderful.