Welcome to Me (2014)

Directed by Shira Piven
Written by Eliot Laurence
Starring Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Linda Cardellini, Wes Bentley and Joan Cusack

When Alice Klieg, a woman living with borderline personality disorder, wins the Mega-Millions lottery, she immediately quits her psychiatric medications and buys her own talk show.

I could rant for a good while about how many problems I had with this film. Everything from the technical aspects to how painful it was watching this movie. And not painful in a good way, or an awkward way. While the subject matter was meant to be awkward and induce the same kind of reaction you get while watching Michael Scott on the Office, it's was just poorly made. About as poorly made as the TV show the protagonist of the movie created.

The owners of the TV studio she has help her in creating her passion project have no idea how a TV studio is run. Failing to achieve even the most basic knowledge of film law, such as slander, defamation and animal cruelty, these studio heads leave no mystery as to why their studio is failing. Only it's not portrayed as some grand comedy of errors. It is presented as this big surprise that the audience shouldn't have seen coming.

In a film that seems like it wants to bring an awareness to mental illness, it definitely succeeds in doing that. Only not for the better. It does more harm than it does good in it's portrayal of a woman with borderline personality disorder. She is given no redeemable qualities, not to mention any human qualities. She's seems more like an alien from outer space and even when she is given the chance to redeem herself, she fails miserably with empty gestures and actions that just reflect everything she did wrong prior to her conflicts.

Pictured: The lack of a character arc.

I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of Kristin Wiig. In fact, the only thing I've liked her in was "The Skeleton Twins". But I had such high hopes for this movie. I went in wanting to love it. I gave it a fair shot. And it just completely disappointed me. It had nothing to say that had any value. This is the first movie I have seen in a long time that I have no idea how it got made.

My Rating: 1/10

There Be Dragons (2011)

Written and Directed by Roland Joffé
Starring Charlie Cox, Wes Bentley, Dougray Scott and Rodrigo Santoro

Arising out of the horror of the Spanish Civil War, a candidate for canonization is investigated by a journalist who discovers his own estranged father had a deep, dark and devastating connection to the saint's life.

A film about the Spanish Civil War that is not only in English, but plagued with terrible Spanish accents as well. A story that is so intriguing is filled with questionable choice that create an underwhelming film. It is obvious while viewing this, that it had the potential to be so much more than it turned out to be.

With a script fit for a Telemundo Soap Opera, forcing the performances of otherwise decent actors to become bland, it is seemingly impossible to connect or even care for most of the characters. It is undoubtedly epic in it's scale, but painfully melodramatic throughout most of the movie causing the intense and impressive scenes comedic to some degree.

There is so much wrong with this movie, yet despite that there is also a lot of substance and the foundation of a great movie, so it isn't all lost. I just feel that the director lost his bearing somewhere along the way. And it's such a shame, because the title is awesome. It deserves to be attached to a great movie.

My Rating: 5.5/10

The Better Angels (2014)

Written and Directed by A. J. Edwards
Starring Braydon Denney, Jason Clarke, Diane Kruger and Brit Marling

The story of Abraham Lincoln's childhood in the harsh wilderness of Indiana and the hardships that shaped him. His rocky relationship with his father, the tragedy that marked him forever and the two women who guided him to immortality.

The beautiful tragedy that was Abraham Lincoln's childhood always struck me with inspiration. When I first read about his pre-political life, I was dumbfounded that a man who had achieved so much greatness came from virtually nothing and gave himself every single bit of knowledge he would need to become the man that this country owes so much to.

Although, many parts of this movie were undoubtedly fictionalized for the sake of the story, I know for a fact that the main plot points of this film are accurate. And the monologue of the narrator is so incredibly poetic and adds so much to the incredible cinematography that this becomes more of a work of art than entertainment.

"There ain't nothin' worth talkin' about. 

Nobody much worth talkin' to… since he's gone."

Produced by Terrence Malick, I was skeptical of this film, regardless of the fact that it was about my favorite historical figure during the time in his life no one talks about. I am usually not a fan of his style of film making and although he did not direct this, it was shot much like a Malick film.

Perhaps it is my love for Lincoln or perhaps this was just done better than any Malick film, but this was a gorgeous movie. I can't quite pick out what is different from this compared to all of his other movies. Perhaps his protégé just has a better grip than he does at his own style. Maybe it's the lack of pretentiousness that is synonymous with Terrence Malick. Despite what the answer to that is, I love this film. 

"I asked him where'd he get so many blatant lies. 

He told me 'when a story learns you a good lesson, it ain't no lie. 

God tells truths in parables.'"

My Rating: 8/10