November 21, 2011 | 3:57 am

Two Jews on Film: ‘My Week with Marilyn’ review

Posted by Joan Alperin-Schwartz (video by Joan and John Schwartz)

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Michelle Williams and Dougray Scott as Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller respectively on the film set of My Week with Marilyn, which was being filmed in London in October 2010. Photo by David McKears/Wikipedia

When the film ‘My Week With Marilyn’ directed by Simon Curtis, begins…we see Marilyn Monroe on a stage singing ‘That Ole Black Magic’...That’s who I thought it was, anyway.

It actually took me a few seconds before realizing that I was watching not Monroe, but Michelle Williams…That’s how good she is in her portrayal of the damaged, insecure, extremely sensual, extremely vulnerable Hollywood icon/sex symbol known as…Marilyn Monroe. Or to put it simply, Michelle William’s performance blew me away.

And the rest of the film is pretty wonderful as well. ‘My Week With Marilyn’ is based on two memoirs by documentary filmmaker, Colin Clark.

The year is 1957 and Colin (Eddie Redmayne) 23, has a dream…to make movies. So Colin says goodbye to his super wealthy family, leaves his super sized mansion in the country and heads for London.

As soon as the charming Colin arrives, he uses his powers of persuasion to finagle a job with Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) The job…Working as his 3rd assistant director…aka a goofer…on the film ‘The Prince And The Showgirl’ which Olivier is not only starring in, but directing as well. Oh, and the female star just happens to be…

Miss Marilyn Monroe.

Story continues after the jump.

Marilyn arrives in London with her new husband, the great playwright, Arthur Miller (Dongray Scott) as well as her super possessive acting coach, Paula Strasberg (Zoe Wanamaker) and the head of her film company, Milton Greene (Dominic Cooper).

She also brings along all her bad habits which includes pills, tardiness and an extreme fear of not being a good enough actress.

Marilyn’s dependence on The Method are just a few of the things that start to drive Olivier absolutely crazy…while the rest of the cast, including Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench) seem to be enamored with her.

Of course, the main story here, is the relationship between Colin and Marilyn. Olivier assigns him the job of babysitting Marilyn and it doesn’t take long before Colin falls madly in love with her. Can you blame him? Unfortunately, this upsets his girlfriend, Lucy (Emma Watson) Can you blame her?

Anyway, a real friendship develops between the two of them and for a short time, Marilyn actually feels protected and accepted for who she truly is.

‘My Week With Marilyn’ is a film about love…falling in love for the first time and what it’s like to never really feel loved…even though you are loved by everyone.

The film ends the way it began…Michelle Williams, on stage surrounded by dancers, singing ‘We’re Having A Heat Wave’ and watching her perform…we understand why Marilyn Monroe was and will always be…Hollywood’s greatest sex symbol.

‘A Week With Marilyn’ opens in limited release, Wednesday November 23, 2011. Check out our video to see how many bagels John gave this film. Needless to say, I don’t agree with his rating.

November 9, 2011 | 3:03 pm

Two Jews on Film: J. Edgar’ review

Posted by Joan Alperin-Schwartz (video by Joan and John Schwartz)

Every once in awhile, you experience a performance by an actor that simply blows your mind…And that’s exactly what happened to me, when I watched Leonardo DiCaprio portray J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s new film, ‘J. Edgar’.

What makes a great performance are the subtle things an actor does…things that inform the character…a gesture, a look, body language, the tilt of the head…and DiCaprio obviously understands this…Because he absolutely nails the part.

Equally brilliant, is Armie Hammer (The Social Network) as Clyde Tolson, Hoover’s long time companion, second in command at the FBI and perhaps…his lover. For me, I found their relationship the most interesting aspect of this film.

Okay so anyone can google J. Edgar Hoover and get a slew of facts about the man as well as contrary opinions regarding his sexuality. But one thing is for sure…

Story continues after the jump.

J. Edgar Hoover was a monster…a blackmailing, lying, egotistical, cunning, sexually repressed, control freak who was badly in need of a good shrink.

All you have to do is observe the interaction between J. Edgar and his mother, (the wonderful, Judi Dench) and you’ll understand where J. Edgar got his insanity from. Mother Hoover was a super religious, dominating woman, who brought up her boy to believe that he was a God.

In all fairness, J. Edgar was quite intelligent. He came up with some of the most innovative crime fighting techniques that the FBI still uses today.

And thanks to his infamous ‘Confidential File’ which contained dirt on practically everyone, Hoover managed to stay the head of the FBI for almost 50 years…through 8 different Presidents and three wars.

There are so many good things in Eastwood’s film…the cast of famous historical character we get to meet…Charles Lindberg, the famous gangsters of the 20’s, 30’s, Emma Goldmen, Dorothy Lamour, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Nixon. Eastwood takes us from the early 1900’s right up to the 70’s.

The cast of supporting characters are wonderful, including Naomi Watts as Hoover’s loyal, long time executive assistant, Helen Gandy, who worked by his side most of her adult life.

The only problem I have with the film is that everything feels a bit too tidy…too measured. That might have to do with the screenplay, written by Dustin Lance Black (Milk) I had moments when I found myself wondering what this story would have been like in the hands of some wild Europeon filmmaker.

It’s for that reason I gave ‘J. Edgar’ 4 bagels out of 5…

Also, please check out our video to see how many bagels the other half of ‘Two Jews On Film’ gave ‘J. Edgar’ Hint: Once again we weren’t even close.

‘J. Edgar’ opens in theaters, Wednesday November 9, 2011. Put it on your ‘must see’ list for sure.

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November 4, 2011 | 2:02 pm

Two Jews on Film: ‘Tower Heist’ review

Posted by Joan Alperin-Schwartz (video by Joan and John Schwartz)

All I can say is…thank the Movie Gods for Eddie Murphy…because he single handedly put the funny in this new so-called, comedy entitled, ‘Tower Heist’, directed by Brett Ratner.

So here’s the story in a nut shell…

There’s this super sleazy, super rich, Wall Street dude named, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) - No, this film isn’t a fantasy. Sleezy Wall Street dudes really do exist.

Arthur occupies the Penthouse apartment of New York City’s tallest high rise called ‘The Tower’. Arthur is charming, friendly to the staff, loves to play chess with the help and would steal the last penny from his dying mother’s hand if given the chance.
Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) is the over efficient GM of The Tower. He runs the place like a well oiled machine, making sure the staff caters to the wealthy tenants every whim. Josh and the workers at ‘The Tower’ are one big happy family….Until…

Arthur gets arrested for orchestrating a Ponzi scheme and swindling millions of people out of their life savings, including the entire staff of ‘The Tower.’

Story continues after the jump.

Seems Josh made the mistake of entrusting Arthur with their Pension Fund and now they’re all broke.

There’s only one thing left for Josh to do…TAKE REVENGE.

Here’s where Eddie Murphy comes in and here’s where the movie starts to get funny…Unfortunately, the film gets unfunny whenever Murphy is off screen.

Eddie plays Slide, a wise cracking career criminal. Josh enlists Slide, as well as…his brother-in-law, Charlie (Casey Affleck), the Conceirge at The Tower, Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe) a Jamacian maid who just happens to be an expert safe cracker, a mild mannered businessman, Mr. Sims (Matthew Broderick) who’s just lost his money, his job and his family, along with a few other Tower employees, to rob Shaw’s Penthouse where he has supposedly hidden $20 million dollars in cash.

Not a bad premise…

But a premise doesn’t make a film. ‘Tower Heist’ is not as funny as it could be nor is it as clever as you want it to be. It’s for that reason, the ‘Two Jews On Film didn’t give it a very high bagel score.

Check out our video to see what John thought about it. Hint: He gave it one less bagel than I did.

‘Tower Heist’ opens in theaters Friday, November 4, 2011. Wait for the DVD.

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