Jette Kernion
- http://www.cinematical.com/bloggers/jette-kernion/
Jette Kernion is a film critic and feature writer in Austin, Texas. She grew up in the New Orleans area, and has been writing online since 1998. While her high-school classmates were reading Seventeen and V.C. Andrews, Jette read Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, in which Harlan Ellison's "Watching" essays inspired her to see and write about non-John Hughes films. Some of her favorite movies (this week) are Holiday, Some Like It Hot, The Wild Bunch, Evil Dead 2, and Brazil. In her free time, Jette also edits the Austin film blog Slackerwood.
by Jette Kernion Nov 20th 2009 // 9:03AM
Filed under: Sports, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Theatrical Reviews, Family Films
The trailers for
The Blind Side triggered my "oh geez, another sports-related Triumph of the Human Spirit" cynicism, and I might not have seen the film at all if I hadn't been assigned to review it. That would have been my loss, and I experienced the lovely surprise of having a movie turn out far more enjoyable than I expected.
The Blind Side has no twists or gimmicks other than being a very good example of a sports-related family film, with quality performances and writing.
The movie's title is a football reference, which the voiceover of Leigh Anne Touhy (
Sandra Bullock) explains at the beginning. Michael Oher (
Quenton Aaron) is sweating out a tough but unspecified situation in an office, when we flash back a few years and meet him as Big Mike. An African-American staff member at a mostly white Christian private school is trying to get his athletic son into the school, and the school's coach also spots some athletic potential in Big Mike, granting him a scholarship. Big Mike has terrible trouble keeping up in school, and when his friend's family stops helping him out, he is virtually homeless -- sleeping in the school gym, eating popcorn left there after events, wearing the same thin clothes daily.
by Jette Kernion Nov 13th 2009 // 3:48PM
Filed under: Animation, Fandom, Exhibition
Dear Alamo Drafthouse or any other movie theater that serves food with movies,
I just saw
Fantastic Mr. Fox and afterwards I realized something that no one seems to have mentioned so far: This is totally a foodie movie. It's not foodie like
Julie & Julia, where the characters are baking desserts and decapitating ducks and invoking the spirit of Julia Child ... but food is a central part of the story . The three main bad guys each are rumored to only consume a single type of food or drink, and Mr. Fox is obsessed with getting his paws on some of these delicacies. There are feasts, there are large plates of French toast and desserts, there is a significant cider incident -- in short, this movie is awash in food and drink.
Therefore, I strongly suggest that you offer a feast to accompany some screenings of
Fantastic Mr. Fox. It took me days to recuperate from Alamo's feast for
The Simpsons Movie, but boy was it worthwhile. Alamo does feasts for all kinds of fancy foodie movies, and any other movie it likes ... this is one I hope is not forgotten, even though it is opening in Austin around Thanksgiving, when people have turkey feasts on the brain.
by Jette Kernion Nov 13th 2009 // 11:15AM
Filed under: Posters
Okay, maybe I'm crazy. Some people have suggested that, throughout my life. But I had a very strange moment earlier today, looking at the character posters for the upcoming
Sherlock Holmes movie as I left a theater. Maybe you've seen these posters -- I've cropped one in the image on the right. Before my inner Robert Downey Jr. fan could coo "oooh" at the image of the actor, my inner New Orleanian spoke up and said, "Holmes? As in D.H. Holmes?"
If you grew up in the New Orleans area and are a certain age, you may understand. D.H. Holmes was a popular department store when I was young -- in fact, it was a small chain that had stores in a number of Southern cities. The most famous D.H. Holmes was on Canal Street, where Ignatius Reilly waited under the Holmes clock in the novel
A Confederacy of Dunces. Dillard's bought the department-store chain awhile ago, and the store on Canal is now a swanky hotel (they kept the clock, though).
by Jette Kernion Nov 11th 2009 // 11:02PM
Filed under: Fandom, Lists
Yesterday, we posted a
very funny video from College Humor that resolved some classic ambiguous endings in film:
The Graduate, Lost in Translation, and so forth. But it reminded me that sometimes these vague endings can be truly irritating and frustrating. I hate sitting through what is shaping up into a good movie experience, then the end negates the whole film, makes no sense, or just plain ends without warning or closure.
Sometimes these ambiguous endings are great: I felt the ending of
The Wrestler was just right, and I also liked the way the recently released
A Serious Man concluded. Sometimes these unresolved endings are meant to pave the way for a sequel, which is great if you happen to have the sequel there with you, but when it's a new movie, you just want to throttle the filmmakers. Here are 10 movies with endings that make me want to throw a popcorn box at the screen, or find the filmmakers and demand an explanation. It goes without saying that I'm about to spoil the endings of 10 films, so you've been warned.
by Jette Kernion Nov 11th 2009 // 3:02PM
Filed under: Animation, Awards, Oscar Watch
I'm so pleased to learn
from IndieWIRE that five animated features will probably be in the running for a 2009 Academy Award. If fewer than 16 films are eligible, then only three films end up on the list of nominees. But the shortlist
released today by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences includes 20 films eligible for Oscar nominations, assuming that all films on the list have a qualifying run in Los Angeles before the end of the year. That means five films will be nominated for Best Animated Feature.
Of course the list includes lots of big animated films: Pixar's
Up, Disney's
The Princess and the Frog, Henry Selick's
Coraline, Wes Anderson's
Fantastic Mr. Fox and Dreamworks's
Monsters vs. Aliens, among others. But I may or may not have squealed and bounced in my seat to read one unexpected candidate:
A Town Called Panic, the Belgian animated film that won the Audience Award at Fantastic Fest this year, and which
I reviewed. I hope the film will hit L.A. for the required time, and although it is the world's biggest longshot, I'd love to see it get a nomination. The Best Animated Feature category needs something this bizarre, original and creative. We'll find out for sure when Oscar nominations are announced on Feb. 2, 2010.
by Jette Kernion Nov 5th 2009 // 10:32PM
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Cinematical Seven
I think it's safe to tell you, without spoiling the movie, that
The Men Who Stare at Goats includes a couple of scenes with Jeff Bridges and George Clooney dancing around. The scenes are amusing and a little strange -- why are soldiers dancing? But they did fit consistently with the film as a whole. However, I was reminded of moments in movies that aren't musicals, but suddenly shift to some crazy kind of dance or musical number. I love these moments, and in fact I wish the dance scenes in
The Men Who Stare at Goats were a little less toned-down and a little more "WTF?"
Okay, I'm kind of BS'ing you here.
The Men Who Stare at Goats is a flimsy excuse. I really just wanted to write about surreal dance numbers in otherwise straightforward movies, because that can be so much fun. Last year's Adam Sandler vehicle
Bedtime Stories was an annoying dud ... except for one glorious, shining moment where Guy Pearce launched into a song-and-dance number. Sometimes these dance moments are the best part of a movie, sometimes they spoil the mood and sometimes they're just one more weird aspect of an altogether bizarre film. Here are seven of my favorites.
by Jette Kernion Nov 4th 2009 // 1:32PM
Filed under: Festival Reports, Austin
In Austin, you can set your watch by the fall film festivals. We don't just have SXSW in the spring. Starting around Labor Day, it feels like we have a film festival practically every week, from Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) to the Austin Polish Film Festival, Austin Asian American Film Festival and of course Fantastic Fest. One of the oldest and biggest of these local autumn fests is
Austin Film Festival (AFF), which spans eight days and seven screening venues, and includes a screenwriters' conference. In 2009, AFF celebrated its 16th year.
AFF focuses on screenwriters even in its film programming selections, as was evident with the opening-night film.
Serious Moonlight is best known as the last script written by the late actress/filmmaker Adrienne Shelly. I admit I
wasn't fond of the movie, but director
Cheryl Hines was a trip -- mock-vampy on the red carpet (as shown above), and full of excitement about her film. Her screening was up against heavy competition: Matthew Weiner brought an episode of
Mad Men to the festival and didn't reveal which one until just before it screened. (It turned out to be this season's "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" episode.) Weiner also was featured in panels during the conference portion of AFF.
by Jette Kernion Nov 1st 2009 // 3:02PM
Filed under: Documentary, Theatrical Reviews, Austin
It's not uncommon to hear people discussing -- or complaining about -- the ways in which Hollywood celebrities are involved in politics, whether they're airing their opinions during a concert or speaking in public on behalf of a politician.
Barry Levinson (
Diner,
Good Morning Vietnam) thought this was an interesting enough topic to address in his documentary
Poliwood, which focuses on the 2008 national Democratic and Republican conventions. Unfortunately, the documentary shows us little that we haven't already seen, and tends to preach to the converted.
Poliwood is subtitled "a Barry Levinson film essay," which signals us that this will be a more personal style of documentary. Levinson opens the movie with shots from his 1990 feature film
Avalon and uses this footage to discuss the ways American lives have changed because of television. His focus is on the Creative Coalition, a non-partisan organization of celebrities that focuses on issues such as arts education. The documentary shifts to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, where Creative Coalition members such as Anne Hathaway, Tim Daly, and Ellen Burstyn talk about how they include politics in their lives. It's especially surreal to see Richard Schiff at the convention after his role on
The West Wing -- in one scene, someone from the Clinton administration walks up to him and says "You played me!" -- but Schiff handles it all with good humor.
by Jette Kernion Oct 29th 2009 // 8:32PM
Filed under: Comedy, Magnolia, Theatrical Reviews, Austin
The first thing everyone seems to mention about
Serious Moonlight is that its screenplay is the last one written by the late
Adrienne Shelly. Actress
Cheryl Hines, who had a role in Shelly's film
Waitress, is making her feature directorial debut with the dark comedy, which stars Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton. The movie opened Austin Film Festival this year. It sounds like a sure-fire comedy, but unfortunately it just left me with a headache.
Serious Moonlight focuses on a married couple, Louise (
Meg Ryan) and Ian (
Timothy Hutton), who are supposed to meet in their country house for a rendezvous, but both arrive a day early. Louise wants to surprise her husband, but finds out that he also has a surprise: he's leaving her. She refuses to accept this, and ends up cracking him on the head with a vase, binding him with duct tape, and refusing to let him loose until he comes to his senses and realizes how much he loves her and wants to stay with her.
by Jette Kernion Oct 23rd 2009 // 9:03AM
Filed under: Drama, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, Fox Searchlight
The new biopic about Amelia Earhart,
Amelia, succeeds in portraying the famous aviatrix in a whole new light ... as a mundane soap-opera character with relationship issues. The movie looks beautiful and is obviously being released now with Oscar hopes, but it is a dull, uninspired recounting of the less interesting parts of Earhart's life.
The plot is structured around Earhart's final attempt at flying around the world, then flashes back to tell her story starting from her first meeting with George P. Putnam (
Richard Gere) in 1927 about a transatlantic flight, and looping back to that final flight and the mystery surrounding it, in 1937. It's a standard structure for biographical films, but is confusing at times. For one thing, I couldn't tell you whether the round-the-world attempt that the film flashes forward to periodically is her first one, or her last one. Near the end, they start to blend confusingly. The film also includes a lot of voice-over from Amelia Earhart (
Hilary Swank), which I presume is probably taken from her real-life letters and diaries.
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