Inside Llewyn Davis

I love most of this film.

The one thing that annoys me, though, is the Carry Mulligan character, Jean. Whenever she is on screen she is very angry. And I am not sure what the point of this angry character is and why she does not seem to have any redeeming features other than being pretty (apparently everyone wants to fuck her, we are told frequently).

Other than that, things are pretty near perfect. Oscar Isaac is wonderful. He is also a great singer. I love folk music, especially the kind from the 1960's, so the music in the film is right down my alley. And the nod to Bob Dylan in the end is nice.

The story is that of the title character sort of drifting through life, here represented by showing 'a week in the life of'. He hops from couch to cough and does in fact not have a set address. Every now and again he will get a paying job, however ridiculous ('Please Mr. Kennedy'). On occasion he will take chances, like hitching a ride to Chicago which in the end comes to nothing.

There is a host of strange characters along the way, as are in most Coen Brothers films. My favorite is probably Roland Turner, played by John Goodman, who sits in the backseat during the drive to Chicago and shares life lessons Llewyn is not really interested in hearing.

Also, a cat.

And wonderful singing, especially by Oscar Isaac.

8/10

The Internship

Alright, if it is free I might as well go watch an Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn comedy. Even though I hated The Wedding Crashers and normally don't get the funny in what they do.

So, I did not expect anything. This is probably the best possible mindset as it frees you to enjoy the few jokes that are actually funny.

The premise is stupid. Two salesmen get canned after their boss closes down the business without bothering to tell them. They have no skills (other than selling stuff) to speak of so one of them decides to make an application for an internship at Google that may or may not lead to an employment.

Because, see, the way they do that at Google is they split the interns into teams and give them challenges (like writing an App - most downloads win - or playing Quiddich) which will lead to one team winning and all their team members getting offered jobs.

I'm sure that is exactly what Google does.

Will Wilson/Vaughn be on the winning team?
Will whatever team win in the nick of time?
Will the kids get the Flashdance references?

Nailbiting. Totally.

4/10

The Hangover Part III

The third part of the comedy series has something the second part didn't - a plot.

It starts with Alan's family and friends staging an intervention. The wolf pack sets out to take him to a treatment facility in Arizona. On the highway they get pushed off the road by a truck and then brought in front of one Marshall, who has some beef with the evil genius that is Mr. Chow. Chow recently escaped from a Thai prison and has disappeared before Marshall could get back the gold Chow had stolen from him earlier. The only one that has had contact with him, apparently, was Alan.

Doug gets taken (again) by Marshall, who threatens to kill him unless Alan, Phil and Stu bring him Chow. The search leads them first to Tihuana and, after unwittingly assisting Chow in stealing the remainder of Marshall's gold, once again in Las Vegas.

The wolf pack manages to return the villain to Marshall, but soft hearted Alan saves Chow's life, giving him 'a fighting chance'. Marshall and company bite bullets.

And Alan finds romance! Good for him!

6/10

Argo

Think what you will of Ben Affleck's quality as an actor, but the man is a brilliant director. I will fight you tooth and nail on that. He has to date made three feature films and I enjoyed all of them immensely. Actually, I believe he got better with every film.

Anyway, my point is Argo is a great, great film.
It tells the true story of a covert mission to free six American citizens hiding in the residence of the Canadian ambassador to Iran. The six individuals fled the US embassy in 1979, while it was being stormed by angered Iranians that demanded that the US return the former Shah so that he could be properly tried in Iran. In the ensuing chaos the fact that six personnel of the embassy are missing goes unnoticed for quite some time.

Meanwhile, back in Washington the government together with the CIA is trying to devise a plan to free them. The plan they eventually go with is so ridiculous yet still makes more sense than some of the other options they entertain. The plan is to pretend to make a sci-fi film called Argo and pass the six off as part of a film production group scouting locations in Iran. To make this airtight a production company is formed, offices and all, a producer is found and actors are cast to perform a table reading for press.

They really did this in 1980 and the operation remained classified until the late 1990s. Up until then people were led to believe that the coup was thought up and put into action by Canada.

The climax will have you worried, even though you know that they will eventually all get to safety.

9/10