Midnight in Paris

Four Stars: ˜˜˜˜

The first four minutes of B roll of Paris pedestrians set to jazz would have been sufficient to make this movie fabulous but they proceeded into the past. Then they pushed even further back. As the characters each search for their own Golden Age in the past (from 2011 to 1920 to 1890 to 1760), the audience confronts their own denial. After all, the danger of nostalgia is that in an effort to escape the pain of the present, you also miss all the possibility.

TRAILER

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“I actually had a professor that dined there and saw James Joyce like a million years ago and apparently James Joyce was eating sauerkraut and frankfurters.”

“The artist’s job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence. Don’t be such a defeatist.”

“You always take the side of the help, as usual—that’s why Daddy says you’re a Communist!”

The Big Year

Four Stars: ˜˜˜˜

This movie was not what I was expecting from three such comedic giants—it was more. The story was about so much more than ornithology or “birding” as they call it. It was a journey along the thin line between passion and obsession. Each of the characters is into bird watching for different reasons, but the motivations behind their hobby are universal. This film makes you question why you live your life the way you do, since that is much more important than the how.

TRAILER

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“No prize money but the bird seed endorsements are huge!”

“I’d like to see the birds of China one day. Know anything about them?” – “Peking duck?”

“They’re men, dear. If they ever stop competing, they die.”