Me & 3 Music Movies

I’ve seen a couple of music movies lately. No, not musicals, but movies where music is the theme. In many different forms too. Here are the three movies I watched.

A Late Quartet

Genre: Drama

Year: 2012

Director: Yaron Zilberman

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots, Wallace Shawn

Description: Members of a world-renowned string quartet struggle to stay together in the face of death, competing egos and insuppressible lust.

Opinion: A fantastic drama featuring some of the greatest actors of Hollywood. Surprisingly good movie!

Favorite character: Peter Mitchell (Christopher Walken)

Most memorable quote: “You treat him like a doormat and he's going to start to wonder what's outside the door”. – Alexandra Gelbart -

Best scene: The last concert that the famous quartet plays together.

Begin Again

Genre: Drama/ Comedy

Year: 2013

Director: John Carney

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Catherine Keener, James Corden, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, Mos Def, CeeLo Green

Description: A chance encounter between disgraced music-business executive Dan (Mark Ruffalo) and young singer-songwriter Greta (Keira Knightley) turns into a promising collaboration between the two talents.

Opinion: A great feel-good movie for music lovers, a film that puts a smile on everyone’s face.

Favorite character: Dan (Mark Ruffalo)

Most memorable quote: “You know, I wasn't trying to win you over. I was telling you to fuck off.” – Greta -

Best scene: Dan and Greta walk the streets of New York and share headphones to listen to music together.

Pitch Perfect

Genre: Comedy/ Romance

Year: 2012

Director: Jason Moore

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Camp

Description: Beca (Anna Kendrick), a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

Opinion: If you like the TV-show “Glee”, you’re gonna love this one. If you don’t, skip it.

Favorite character: Beca

Most memorable quote: “You guys are gonna get pitch-slapped so hard, your man boobs are gonna concave.” – Fat Amy -

Best scene: The moment where Beca starts singing “Don’t you (forget about me)” by the Simple Minds.

Favorite of the 3: “Begin Again”

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 138: Pitch Perfect

Director: Jason Moore

Genre: Comedy/ Romance

Runtime: 106 minutes

Year: 2012

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Ben Platt, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins

Description: Beca (Anna Kendrick), a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

Review: “Pitch Perfect” usefully plays in on the success of the TV show “Glee”, that also centers around an a-capella groups of students. The popularity is thanks to the catchy songs and the ‘underdog’ characters. In “Pitch Perfect” the characters are a bit older, but the tenet is the same. Throw in a bunch a quirky characters, mix modern songs and a little bit of romance and everyone will be singing and swinging. The makers of the film never seem to know if they should parody or praise the a-capella groups though.

As a comedy the movie is pretty good. Rebel Wilson shows us that, in every scene she steals the thunder and I love her self-mockery. The movie is sometimes a bit predictable, but somehow it doesn’t bother me that much here. Even the cheesy boy-meets-girl storyline puts a smile on your face.

The lead role is played by Anna Kendrick, who we know from “Up in the Air”. The character of Beca fits her and she also has an incredible singing voice. I really liked her in “Pitch Perfect”. Together with the ever so charming Skylar Astin, she forms a great duo.

“Pitch Perfect” is a pleasant film, filled with catchy tunes. Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson are the big plusses. If you like “Glee” you’re going to love “Pitch Perfect”. If you don’t, you better skip it.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (50)

This weeks trailers are about a reporter hunting down a former robber, a cold blooded killer who wants to live a normal life, an American soldier helping his friend to find the girl of his dreams, a singing group and a ten year reunion.

The Company You Keep
Description: When Jason Sinai (Robert Redford), one of the last Vietnam-era fugitives still wanted on murder charges for a robbery gone wrong in 1974, encounters a young newspaper reporter (Shia LaBeouf) in search of a story, he must abandon years of safe underground life for the dangerous life of the road, traveling across American and deep into his past.
Director: RObert Redford
Starring: Shia LaBeaouf, Robert Redford, Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie, Stephen Root, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terence Howar, Anna Kendrick, Richard Jenkins
Trailer: Trailer "The Company You Keep"

The Iceman
Description: We follow Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) from his early days in the mob until his arrest in 1986. Appearing to be living the American dream with his beautiful wife, Deborah Pellicotti (Winona Ryder) and their children, in reality he is a killer-for-hire able to keep his "job" hidden from his family. When he is finally arrested by the feds in 1986, neither his wife and daughters nor their neighbors have any clue that he is a murderer. Why did he do it and how did he get away with it for so long?
Director: Ariel Vromen
Starring: Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta, Chris Evans , James Franco
Trailer: Trailer "The Iceman"
Comment: Michael Shannon is in almost everyhting.

Love and Honor
Description: A young soldier (Liam Hemsworth) helps his best friend re-capture the heart of his girlfriend on a clandestine trip home from the warfront in Vietnam during a time of protest and social revolution, and in the process finds true love for the first time.
Director: Danny Mooney
Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Austin Stowell, Aimee Teegarden, Chris Powell, Wyatt Russell
Trailer: Trailer "Love and Honor"
Comment: I only posted this because of Liam Hemsworth and that one moment where he doesn't wear a shirt... Because it actually looks pretty cheesy to me.

Pitch Perfect
Description: Beca (Anna Kendrick) is that girl who'd rather listen to what's coming out of her headphones than what's coming out of you. Arriving at her new college, she finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together. When Beca takes this acoustic singing group out of their world of traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of the cutthroat world of college a cappella. This could wind up either the coolest thing they'll ever do or the most insane, and it will probably be a little of both.
Director: Jason Moore
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Rebel Wilson, Alexis Knapp, Adam DeVine, Freddie Stroma
Trailer: Trailer "Pitch Perfect"
Comment: Tried to avoid posting this movie, but I have to admit that I really like this trailer. And Anna Kendrick.

10 Years
Description: We follow a group of friends on the night of their high school reunion who, a decade later, still haven't quite grown up. Jake (Channing Tatum), who is deeply in love with his girlfriend (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) and ready to propose, until he runs into his high school flame (Rosario Dawson) for the first time in ten years. Jake's friend Cully (Chris Pratt) married his cheerleader girlfriend (Ari Graynor), and has been looking forward to the reunion so he can finally apologize to all the classmates he bullied in high school. However, after a few too many drinks, the jock-turned-family man ends up reverting back to his old ways instead. Meanwhile, longtime rivals Marty (Justin Long) and A.J (Max Minghella) spend the night still trying to one-up each other to impress the coolest girl in class (Lynn Collins), who now has a secret. The famous one of the group, Reeves (Oscar Isaac) is now well-known musician, but is still too shy to talk to the high school crush (Kate Mara) who inspired his one hit wonder.
Director: Jamie Linden
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Chris Pratt, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Oscar Isaac, Kate Mara, Ron Livingston, Lynn Collins, Ari Graynor, Anthony Mackie, Max Minghella, Aubrey Plaza, Scott Porter, Brian Geraghty, Aaron Yoo, Eiko Nijo, Nick Zano
Trailer: Trailer "10 Years"
Comment: Pff... why not.