The Pelican’s Perch

(500) Days of Summer
Perch Score:  9.459/10

I both loved and hated this movie, which was what I expected.  I loved it because it was damn good, from the acting, to the story, to the themes.  And the themes and situations found in the movie so perfectly represented things in my past that I found myself hating how much I related to them.  The music was great, and you can’t beat the scene where they had his expectations of the night side by side with reality and I couldn’t help but laugh because that’s happened to me, and most likely you, countless times.  It may sound like I’m sort of talking bad about this movie, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.  I loved every second of it, and it’s the sad reality that all of us can relate to many things throughout the movie that makes it a classic indie love story in my mind.  It’s refreshing to see a movie that gets that “indie/trendy” label, like Juno or Nick and Norah, but keeps a level head about it without going overboard with the indie lingo or themes.  I’m guessing 99% of people that see this movie walk out enjoying it immensely and I can’t recommend it enough.

Gigantic
Perch Score:  8.233

(500) Days of Summer didn’t help this movie’s score out in the least, but for the most part I thoroughly enjoyed Gigantic.  Paul Dano is stranger than normal, Zooey is still cute as ever (definitely more innocent this time around than in “Summer”), and John Goodman is hilarious as Zooey’s dad.  I read reviews saying it’s a good movie but the cast brings it down.  I don’t necessarily agree.  I just think it was a movie that tried to be sort of deadpan, especially with how Dano’s character was, and went a bit overboard.  Worth a viewing for sure.  Will it be one I grab on dvd and watch multiple times.  Eh, probably not.  But still worth seeing.  Especially for you Zooey fans.

The Brothers Bloom
Perch Score:  9.329

I loved (500) Days of Summer in a completely different way than I loved The Brothers Bloom.  It’s a quirky, yet amazingly well told and acted, story of the Bloom brothers (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody), and their quest for the ultimate con.  They are world renowned con men and the story begins with Brody tired of not having his own life and always playing the parts his brother makes for him each con.  The introduction of Rachel Weisz’s character, Penelope, is when the movie goes from good to great.  She’s a shut in millionaire that they decide to take on an adventure, of course, to eventually get some of her money.  But when she takes to their style of life a bit too much, what ensues is funny, heartwarming, and just plain fun.  I realize that sounded like a line from the movie’s poster or something, but believe me when I say it’ll most likely be one of the better movies you see in a long time.

District 9
Perch Score:  9.299

I’m not sure what it is lately, but I’ve just been seeing a ton of great movies.  And the best part is how they’re all from genres all over the map.  District 9 from the dark sci-fi spectrum.  I expected good things going into this movie, but I left simply blown away.  I’ve been told my reaction was a bit overboard, but whether you thought it was just meh or not, I sure loved it.  The movie is filmed in a fake documentary style and makes you think that this could very well have been real.  This was Neil Blomkamp’s test from Peter Jackson to see if he could do a Halo movie or not, and even though he decided not to pursue directing Halo, you can see the game’s influence all over District 9.  The minute they start using the alien weaponry and their mech fighting machines, I couldn’t help but smile to see Halo style guns pulled off in a movie so well.  District 9 won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, as most sci-fi movies aren’t, but this one stands in a class all its own and should find even the most casual moviegoer leaving very satisfied.  I sure haven’t seen anything like it, and I’m sure most of you haven’t either.

World’s Greatest Dad
Perch Score:  7.032/10

I watched this last night expecting good things.  The red band trailer had me plenty excited to see Robin Williams in another dark comedy, and even more excited that he didn’t seem near as creepy as his role in One Hour Photo.  But alas, after a solid two weeks of seeing one great film after another, the stream finally came to an end.  This isn’t a bad movie at all, it just feels more like a good B-movie with Robin Williams heading up the cast.  Bobcat Goldthwait wrote and directed the film, and you definitely leave the movie thinking, well, I guess if I had to envision the kind of strange movie Bobcat would make, this would most likely fit the bill.  The more I think about the movie, the less I dislike it, but overall there were too many things that bugged me for me to let them slide and give it a decent rating.  Robin Williams was good as the down on his luck, nervous, and lonely dad.  The kid who played his son bugged the crap out of me.  I realize he was supposed to be a D-bag and a jerk to his dad, but I just felt like he was trying to be immature like Will Ferrell and John C. Reilley in Step Brothers, only he did a bad job and wasn’t funny.  “Oh yeah dad?  Well, only losers would do that.  Why don’t you make me.”  And so on, and so on.  The pacing was also really slow, but considering the material and the boundaries it eventually did end up pushing, I’ll give it some slack.  Not the best movie, but I’m sure you’ll be left scratching your head wondering if it was the great climax to the movie at the end that won you over, or if you did, in fact, actually enjoy the movie.  I’m putting my money on the former and calling it a day.