Top 5 Thursday: Movies I Watched for My Challenge (September 2014)

I’ve already reached my 100 movies, but still I’m enjoying watching all those films. It’s not a must, it’s a joy! Here are the five best movies I’ve seen in September, which wasn’t the best month by the way (no five star ratings).

5. North By Northwest

Hitchcock did it again, another movie of his made it to my monthly top 5. I prefer “Rear Window”, but “North By Northwest” was a very strong thriller.

 

4. Unforgiven

A very good western, with a strong cast. Clint Eastwood didn’t disappoint as an actor and director.

 

3. We Need to Talk About Kevin

What a creepy kid that Kevin. This movie gave me the chills, that kid really freaked me out. I had read the book before I saw the movie and it’s pretty close to the source.

 

2. Het Diner

I never thought a Dutch movie would make it in one of my top fives, but it did. “Het Diner” was surprisingly good and it kept my attention at all times. Great thriller!

 

1. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Off course I had high expectations, but I never thought it would top the original. Like the first movie “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” amazed me with its visuals. And in 3D it was even more amazing!

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: War Horse, Cuban Fury

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 111: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Director: Lynn Ramsay

Genre: Thriller/ Drama

Runtime: 112 minutes

Year: 2011

Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller

Description: Eva (Tilda Swinton) struggles to love her strange child Kevin, despite the increasingly vicious things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin (Ezra Miller) is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined.

Review: Could she have prevented is? Does she feel guilty? Could she have seen it coming? These are the questions Eva Katchadourian asks herself. Her son Kevin was a troubled child. When he gets older, his behavior becomes unmanageable, manipulative and obstinate. At age sixteen he kills nine classmates and the families despise Eva ever since that event.

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” is based on a novel written by Lionel Shriver. It shows the battle Eva is fighting with her own demons, but also how she’s trying to deal with society. It’s hard to translate the story to film, because the book is told through letters from Evan to her husband Franklin. Director Lynn Ramsay uses flashbacks and the story isn’t told chronologically. She mixes the events and trusts on the intelligence of the audience to put the pieces of the puzzle together. You feel her fear, sorrow and tension, Eva is a wreck. From the moment she finds out she is pregnant, she is filled with doubts. There are plenty of moments where we can see how she is struggling as a mother and that Eva doesn’t always make the right decisions. As Kevin grows older, Eva even feels fear of her own son.

Teenager Kevin is played by Ezra Miller, and very convincing may I say. He is also very scary and manages to keep up with veteran Tilda Swinton. Swinton however is the star of the film. It doesn’t take long before she wins over your sympathy. But the further you get dragged into the family history, you start doubting her innocence.

The movie is pretty heavy and disturbing. Ramsay’s approach is brave and could seem a bit pretentious. “We Need to Talk About Kevin” gets its power not just from its complexity, but also from the great performances by Miller and Swinton. It’s a beautiful movie that gets under your skin. Fascinating and disturbing all together.

Rating: 4/ 5

50 Books Challenge 2011 - # 57: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Title: We Need to Talk About Kevin
Author: Lionel Shriver
Story: Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
Start: november 21st 2011
End: november 27th 2011
Comment: On april 8th 1999 Kevin Katchadourian kills seven classmates and a teacher. Eva is his mother. She writes letters to her husband Franklin and she describes her relationship with Kevin, Franklin and her daughter Celia. She talks about the doubts she always had about being a mother and the mixed feelings she had ever since Kevin was born. Eva describes Kevin as a bad child, but Franklin sees it differently. He sees him as an All-American-Kid and himself as an All-American-Dad. You never find out if Kevin was just born bad or that he was raised that way. Eva is constantly asking herself if the lack of motherly love has made Kevin lose it. As a reader you can go two different directions: You either think it was Eva's fault because she was cold and arrogant and never really loved her son. Or Kevin was bad from the beginning and no mother can help that. This is a book you shouldn't read before having a baby, because it's chilling. **SPOILER ALERT** In the letter before last, we find out that Kevin didn't only kill his fellow students, but also his dad and his little sister Celia. That isn't even the most shocking part of the story, because in a sick way Kevin did always love his mother more than his dad. A very well written book with a great climax and I can't wait to see the movie.
Rating: 4,5/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (10)

This weeks trailers are about are mother and son relationship, Reynolds and Washington teaming up, an overextended couple, cops undercover at a high school and an old crook returning to his old neighborhood.

We Need to Talk About Kevin
Description: Always an ambivalent mother, Eva and Kevin have had a contentious relationship literally from Kevin's birth. Kevin (Ezra Miller), now 15-years-old, escalates the stakes when he commits a heinous act, leaving Eva to grapple with her feelings of grief and responsibility, as well as the ire of the community-at-large.
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller
Trailer: Trailer "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
Comment: Looks chilling.

Safe House
Description: For the past year, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) has been frustrated by his inactive, backwater post in Cape Town. A "housekeeper" who aspires to be a full-fledged agent, the loyal company man has been waiting for an opportunity to prove himself. When the first and only occupant he's had proves to be the most dangerous man he's ever met, Weston readies for duty. Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) has eluded capture for almost a decade. One of the best ops men that the CIA's known, the ex-intelligence officer has given up assets and sold military intel to anyone with cash since he turned. From trading secrets to North Korea to aiding splinter cells, the damage he's done to the U.S. is immeasurable. And he's now back on the reservation with a secret. As soon as Frost is brought in for debriefing, mercenaries come and tear apart Weston's safe house. Barely escaping, the unlikely partners must discover if their attackers have been sent by terrorists or someone on the inside who will kill anyone standing in the way. Now it's up to Weston to figure out who he can trust before they're both eliminated from the game.
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepherd and Robert Patrick
Trailer: Trailer "Safe House"
Comment: In my experience Denzel Washington doesn't make bad movies.

Wanderlust
Description: George (Paul Rudd) and Linda (Jennifer Aniston) are an overextended, stressed out Manhattan couple. After George is downsized out of his job, they find themselves with only one option: to move in with George's awful brother in Atlanta. On the way there, George and Linda stumble upon Elysium, an idyllic community populated by colorful characters who embrace a different way of looking at things. Money? It can't buy happiness. Careers? Who needs them? Clothes? Only if you want them. Is Elysium the fresh start George and Linda need? Or will the change of perspective cause more problems than it solves?
Director: David Wain
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, Malin Akerman and Alan Alda
Trailer: Trailer "Wanderlust"
Comment: Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston already proved they were a great couple.

21 Jump Street
Description: Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind.
Director: Phil Lord adn Christopher Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Dave Franco, Ellie Kemper and Johnny Depp
Trailer: Trailer "21 Jump Street"
Comment: I can't stand Jonah Hill, because he's always trying so hard to be funny. Maybe in this movie he will proof me wrong.

The Last Rites of Joe May
Description:Despite all evidence to the contrary, aging short-money hustler Joe May (Dennis Farina) always believed he had a glorious future ahead of him. Now in his sixties, Joe is released from the hospital after a long battle with pneumonia and forced to confront the harsh reality of his legacy: everyone he knew had assumed he was dead, and life had gone on around him without missing a beat. Returning to his old neighborhood in Chicago's "Patch" district, he finds his car gone, all his worldly possessions pawned by his landlord, and the apartment he's lived in his entire adult life rented out to a single mother named Jenny and her eight year-old daughter Angelina. After a rough night's sleep outdoors, Joe reluctantly moves in with the new tenants of his home - at least until he is able to get back on his feet. Even as Joe doggedly pursues his comeback, he finds the odds stacked drastically against him. He gets no respect from his old supplier, his best friend and partner in crime has moved into an assisted living facility, and even Joe's prized pigeon coops have fallen into disrepair. Throughout this ordeal, Joe's one lifeline is his burgeoning friendship with his co-tenants. So when things turn ugly between Jenny and her boyfriend - a crooked detective with a penchant for domestic violence - Joe is determined to take a stand for his unlikely new family, and perhaps take one last shot at redefining his legacy.
Director: Joe Maggio
Starring: Dennis Farina, Gary Cole, Chelcie Ross, Ian Barford and Jamie Allman
Trailer: Trailer "The Last Rites of Joe May"