Movie Monday - 11/24/2014

In Boyhood, we follow a boy for about several years of his life from age six. What is interesting about this film is that it was shot over a twelve year period, a couple of weeks per year and using the same actors throughout.  The boy, as well as everyone else, age naturally. Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette star in the movie and all do a good job. It was good.

Colin Firth, Emma Stone and Hamish Linklater star in Magic in the Moonlight - an entertaining rom-com by Woody Allen.  The movie is set in the French Riviera during the 1920s. Firth plays a famous illusionist who is hired to discredit Stone, a psychic medium. Jacki Weaver, Eileen Atkins and Marcia Gay Harden also star in this film. I really liked it.

Vincent (Bill Murray) is an unlikely choice for a babysitter, but single-mom Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) has no one else to watch her 12-year-old son in St. Vincent. Naomi Watts should garner a supporting actress nomination for playing a Russian prostitute who "dates" Vincent. She steals the show from Murray and McCarthy. I'm not a big fan of Watts. I think she's a little over-rated as an actress, but not in this film. She was funny. Chris O'Dowd delivers another wonderful comedic performance. I really liked this movie.

MK out.