"Carnage" Review

Hello All!
Its me Jacqui. I am sorry I have been away. I started a new job a few months back and I have been trying to get used my new schedule and fitting my movie habit into my new "life". Well, we'll just say the past couple weeks I have gotten some more movie time in.. This is review 1 of 3!



First up on the Jacqui magical movie tour is "Carnage". This is Roman Polanski's newest film starring Christophe Waltz, Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster and John C. Reily. The movie is based on the french play, "Le Dieu du carnage" aka "God of Carnage".

The movie begins with group of kids fighting on a playground in Brooklyn. All of the sudden, one grabs a stick and strike another. The next scene (and the rest of the movie) is a meeting at the home of Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Foster and Reily) with the Cowans (Waltz and Winslet).  What started as a reasonable conversation about getting one boy to apologize to the other turns into an exploration of life, values and the relationship of the two couples.


This rarely happens with me and movies so get ready... 5 Stars. Yes, I give this movie my highest rating. There is no fancy special effects. Just four actors doing their craft and a great script. Fans of one liners and zingers, will love this movie. But again, don't go in expecting anything extraordinary besides the acting. I would highly recommend this movie be seen in theatres.

The Help Review

Justin and I just got back from seeing The Help on August 12, 2011. This was a phenomenal film!! The movie centers around two themes: Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan's ambition to be a journalist and write serious pieces of work and the racial schism prevalent in the South during the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. Emma Stone's breakout role may have been in Easy A, but this is the movie that will cement her career. She showed that she has great acting chops and she is becoming a favorite of mine with her last three films from Easy A, to Crazy, Stupid, Love to this. She wants to gain the perspective of the African American women who work as maids for the white upper/middle class families. They look after the babies and raise them to become members of society. I think this movie produces some of the best acting I've seen in quite some time. I think the greatest parts of this movie lie with three people: Viola Davis (Adelaide), Octavia Spencer (Minni), and Jessica Chastain (Celia), along with Stone's part. The movie plays with your emotions so well and does an excellent job of portraying society during the time period. The main antagonist, Hillie Holbrook, played perfectly by Bryce Dallas Howard makes you love to hate her. She is pure racist through and through and does a great example of how the babies that the African American maids looked after and cared for them grew up and became uncaring much like their parents had been. You can just sense the tension on the screen when she and Adelaide or her and Minni (well basically anyone of the African American maids she shares a scene with) are together. My personal favorite part is the relationship between Minni and Celia. There is respect between the two and each helps each other in perfecting their life. Celia resembles Marilyn Monroe almost to a T in my opinion. I must point out that I thought Alison Janney's role as Eugenia's mother was great. Janney has always been great from the West Wing, to Juno (of course starring my favorite actress Ellen Page), and how can we forget 10 Things I Hate About You? It got me emotional because her character has cancer throughout the movie and though she lives in the old ways of society, she learns that her daughter is right in her views. Sissy Spacek was pure comedy gold in this movie and the audience couldn't get enough of her. There were some powerful scenes, especially Adelaide's relationship with Elizabeth's daughter is so amazing as well as Eugenia's relationship with Constantine, who was her maid when she was younger. Also, be on the lookout for a brief cameo by Nelson Ellis who some may know as Lafayette Reynolds in True Blood. Ironically enough, he plays a cook. Some other scenes that are amazing are the infamous pie scene as it will be known I'm sure, the charity fundraiser, Adelaide and Elizabeth's daughter having a personal bond with the phrase "I is kind, I is smart, I is important" and Alison Janey confronting Hillie basically ready to deck her while she is battling cancer. Great, raw emotion, excellent cast, AMAZING acting (if there are no nominations for this movie it's beyond ridiculous). This movie earned a 5/5 and every piece of this movie was amazing.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Justin and I just got back from seeing the last movie of the Harry Potter franchise. I loved everything about this movie. I have been an avid fan of the films since The Prisoner of Azkaban. The battle scenes were incredible. There was so much emotion in the characters when the Hogwarts army were slain. Voldemort's army represented evil incarnate which is how they should be portrayed. Ralph Fiennes does such an amazing job in the role. I have enjoyed watching Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint evolve on the screen. These three are loaded with great acting abilities. I like how their relationships are depicted and the casting choices ended up working very well. I am really hoping that they end up getting some great roles after this. Neville Longbottom was awesome in this installment as he was able to do alot more and actually plays a very important role. I love the Hermoine/Ron relationship as it started out with the teasing you'd see on the playground but evolved into love. Harry and Jinny are a perfect combination. The audience was applauding at everything towards the end. It was great being a part of that atmosphere. Alan Rickman and Michael Gambon perform very well in their roles of Severus Snape and Albus Dumbeldore respectively. One scene in particular that I loved was the Snape flashback scene. It was so well done and really helped tie everything in. The movie was well done with amazing visuals, superb acting and capped off an amazing decade of magic that will be loved by generations. This is my favorite movie series of all time and there are quite a few I am fond of. There were so many times in this movie where you couldn't help but start tearing up whether it was out of sadness or joy. It just took you on an incredible journey aboard a Nimbus 2000 or whatever broom you can place here haha. I just have been captivated and am even more impressed at how J.K. Rowling created such creative stories. I can only hope that she decides to write more with the introduction of their children. I honestly would love to see more Potter related stories. I give this movie a 5/5. It will be rare that I give a 5/5, but this deserves it in my opinion. This was my favorite movie I've seen this year besides Super (not Super 8 which I thought was terrible) and Water For Elephants.

Gerard Verterano