Pete Croatto, Film Roundup, August 2014

An ICON contributor since 2006, Pete Croatto also writes movie reviews for The Weekender. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Broadway.com, Grantland, Philadelphia, Publishers Weekly, and many other publications. Follow him on Twitter, @PeteCroatto.

Mood Indigo (Dir: Michel Gondry). Starring: Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh, Omar Sy, Aïssa Maïga, Charlotte Le Bon. I’ve never read Boris Vian’s novels, so I cannot say how faithful Gondry is to this adaption of L’écume des jours. What I can say with certainty, even though it may get me eyerolls from the world’s cultured cats who have admired Gondry since he was directing White Stripes videos, is that the movie exhausted me. Gondry uses the whirlwind romantic life of a wealthy Paris eccentric (Duris) and his slowly dying wife (Tautou) to assault us with rudderless, unrestrained quirk. It’s like watching a Wes Anderson movie where the budget all went toward twee. Look, Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind) has a knack for dazzling visuals, and Mood Indigo features memorable, herky-jerky fever dream imagery: a dance that causes its participants legs to elongate, an apartment with a subway car hallway, a race to the altar featuring go-karts. But without a break, or sympathetic characters and a discernible story structure, Gondry creates a world that no one wants to inhabit. With English subtitles. [NR] ★ 

Magic in the Moonlight (Dir: Woody Allen). Starring; Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Eileen Atkins, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver. Allen’s latest takes us to the south of France in 1928. World-famous magician Stanley Crawford (Firth) is recruited to expose a fraudulent medium (Stone) who is beguiling a wealthy widow (Weaver) and her dullard son (Linklater) out of their fortune. As the severely pragmatic Stanley gets closer to his target, he discovers that this young woman might be the genuine article, which rocks his cynical worldview—though it may not be enough for him to see the budding romance. Charming, bubbly romantic caper feels like summer thanks to its lush, sun-dripped scenery and the tart chemistry of the two leads, who joust and flirt with aplomb. Firth, in particular, is outstanding. Watching him submit to life’s pleasures by relinquishing his need for control provides a nice philosophical counterweight to the movie’s ingratiating breeziness. Only flaw: Allen’s decision to bathe the baby-faced Stone in soft lighting shaves ten years off the 25-year-old, making Firth occasionally look like her father as opposed to a suitor. [PG-13] ★★★1/2

Alive Inside (Dir: Michael Rossato-Bennett). Dan Cohen has found a simple, ingenious way to revive the spirits—and the memories—of nursing home residents: give them an iPod loaded with the music of their youth. Cohen’s project is remarkable. The only remarkable aspect of Rossato-Bennett’s documentary is its smug, pandering approach. In his quest to dredge hoary sentiment, the director bulldozes the purpose of Cohen’s project and any meaningful takeaways. Forget about Cohen’s struggle to raise money or getting a glimpse into America’s struggling healthcare system. They’re just entry points to squeeze our tear ducts dry, all part of a weepy sales pitch. That’s the objective as Rossato-Bennett can’t stop adding his two cents either by his PSA-style narration (example: “Unless you understand the isolation of their everyday life…”) or employing sudsy camerawork—lots of slow zoom-ins on solemn, craggy faces against dark backgrounds—that turn Cohen’s patients into caricatures in a non-stop pity party. Like Bully, this is the documentary as emotional cudgel, as shameless beggar for your sympathy. Can this not become a trend, please? [NR] ★1/2

A Most Wanted Man (Dir: Anton Corbjn). Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Willem Dafoe, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Homayoun Ershadi, Mehdi Dehbi. Here’s a fascinating look at the politics behind the politics directed with assurance and restraint by Corbijn (The American). In post-9/11 Hamburg, awareness over terror plots has escalated. So when a Chechen-Russian Muslim (Dobrygin) immigrates illegally into the German city to claim a small fortune, hard-living anti-terrorist official Günther Bachmann (Hoffman) sees an opportunity to eliminate a bigger, less apparent threat. His superiors, however, want to make their own bold statement on the war on terror. Bachmann has three days to complete his mission while contending with the immigrant’s attorney (McAdams) and an opportunistic U.S. official (Wright). Intelligent, crackling espionage tale keeps you guessing, but a large part of its brainy appeal is seeing how these nuanced characters navigate patriotism’s realities. At the heart of both is the late and brilliant Hoffman, who turns the haggard Bachmann into a riveting figure of discontent: a man trying to keep his country safe without completely losing himself. Based on John le Carré’s novel. [R] ★★★★