Movie #287 - Human Nature

Human Nature
2001 - Rated R - 1 hr 36 min
Director: Michel Gondry
Starring: Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Hilary Duff, Peter Dinklage, Rosie Perez, Miranda Otto

This movie's so bizarre.  I don't know why I liked it so much the first time, or how it ended up on the shelf, but this revisit wasn't all bad.  Actually, it's kinda funny.  It's an excuse to "study" human relationships and dynamics, but it's really just a messed up love square.  Yes, a square.

So one girl's been super hairy her whole life, gets outcast by other people and ends up living in the forest, writing nature books.  She winds up with a doctor trying to teach table manners to lab mice.  Who has an assistant that worships him and speaks with a fake French accent.  When they find a man in the woods who was raised by his father to be an ape, all hell breaks loose.

Yes, it's super weird.  But it's kinda fun to watch this complicated story unfold.  And the ending is just twisted enough to be worth watching the whole movie.  I'm sure most people won't, but I like it.

Movie #281 - Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
2007 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 54 min
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish, Rhys Ifans

Yay! We added the sequel to the wall (finally) after I watched the first and regretted its absence. Of course, it's one more movie to watch. But I guess as long as it's good, it's fine.

In this movie, Cate Blanchett reunites with director Shekhar Kapur to reprise the role she was born to play: England's Queen Elizabeth I.  Honestly, she's just phenomenal.  More gushing, just like the review of the first. I can't help myself.

Here, she battles a whole new cast of enemies, deals with more court intrigue, and continues to grow as the greatest ruler England has ever known.  She's more fierce, more devoted, more powerful.  And all of this growth is evident in Blanchett's flawless performance. 

I'm so glad to have this one up on that wall!