Two Cent Tuesday: The Help

Two Cent Tuesday where I review a movie I have seen recently.

My mom and I have a tradition to go see a movie every time she comes out and visits. The past couple of times we have seen a movie it has gone on to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. So this year when she wanted to go see The Help I thought that might continue our streak because it has been getting some Oscar talk.

Based on the book of the same name The Help is about black maids in the South during the 50’s. When Skeeter (Emma Stone) comes home from college and gets a job at the local newspaper she gets assigned to the cleaning column. Not knowing much about cleaning she starts to ask Aibileen (Viola Davis) the maid at her friend’s house for tips. As Skeeter starts talking to Aibileen she begins to see things differently and realizes how badly the help is treated. As the racial tensions increase and blacks are more and more segregated Skeeter decides to write a book from the perspective of the help. She asks Aibileen to share some of her stories for the book. At first reluctant Aibileen realizes that the book could make more people aware of the situation in the South when it is published. With the help of her friend Minny they begin to compile stories about raising white kids and being forced to use separate bathrooms. To help get the book published they convince more maids to tell their story and they get a large group of maids to tell their stories. After the book is published they are forced to deal with the fall out even though it was published anonymously. Their biggest nemesis and Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) wants to get revenge for them writing the book since there is a particular story in there that she knows is about her.

Seems like my mom and I might be continuing our track record as this is a great movie. I love all the acting and wouldn’t be surprised to see a few acting nominations come from it. Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Bryce Dallas Howard are all amazing. The story itself seems fresh even if the theme is familiar. The movie balances the humor with seriousness very well a balancing act that is often difficult to do. There has been some controversy surrounding the movie. Anytime a white person writes about the lives of a black person it is going to create some controversy but I think the fact that it is creating a dialogue about race relations is a good thing. I also think that the controversy will help people keep talking about it and it will get nominated for Best Picture but the same controversy will keep it from winning.
Overall Rating A

Two Cent Tuesday: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Too Big To Fail

Two Cent Tuesday where I give my review of movies I have seen recently.

I finally got to see Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps this week on HBO.  Which also reminded me of another movie I recently saw on HBO called Too Big To Fail.  Since both movies have similar themes I thought I would compare the two.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps starts with Gordon Gekko(Michael Douglas) getting out of jail in 2001 after being imprisoned for insider trading.  Flashforward to 2008 with the world on the brink of a financial crisis. Gordon Gekko is now an author and a icon to young stock brokers.  One of the young guys that idolize him is Jake Moore(Shia LaBeouf) who also happens to be in love with Gekko daughter Winnie(Carey Mulligan).   As the company that Moore works for gets caught up in a scandal and begins a quick decline into bankruptcy (loosely based on what happened with Lehman Brothers).  The head of the company ends up committing suicide and Moore takes it personaly and wants to take down the guy who he blames for the downfall of his company.  Moore and Gekko make a deal where Moore will help Gekko reunite with his daughter and Gekko will help Moore get his revenge.  The bad guy in the movie is Bretton James(Josh Brolin) who represents all that is greed on Wall Street.

Michael Douglas was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the first Wall Street and he reprises it here.  He is back and just a ruthless and greedy as ever.  The dialogue is fast and furious even if a lot of the financial mumbo jumbo went over my head.  But the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  The revenge aspect didn't work for me. Or it could be that I wasn't paying that close attention because I was putting together baby furniture.

There is a scene early on in the movie where all the head of finanial institutions are around a table trying to decide how best to stop the financial meltdown.  This scene was a reenactent of what happened during the financial bailout.  Too Big to Fail takes that one scene and makes a whole movie out of it.  In Too Big to Fail we get a behind the scenes look at the negotiations that went on to try and save Lehman Brothers in 2008 that eventually led to the TARP financial bailout.  The movie focuses on Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson as he tried to find a way to save Lehman Brothers and other banks and investment firms that are rapidly losing money.  The movie does a good job of explaining all the mumbo jumbo like derivatives.  The movie also has an incredible cast with James Woods, William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub, and Topher Grace.  It really gives some insight to how intense those negotiations were and how close the whole financial system came to collapsing.  It is nominated for four Emmy awards including Best Made for TV Movie, Outstanding Lead Actor in a TV Movie for William Hurt, and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a TV Movie for Paul Giamatti and James Woods.

While the two movies revolve around some of the same issues I think Too Big To Fail is better and more engrossing.  Maybe because it is based on fact but also has a great cast.  Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps with all its snappy dialogue losses momentum part way through.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: C+
Too Big To Fail: B+