Friday, December 2, 2011

Thoughts on "The Muppets", "My Week with Marilyn"

"The Muppets" is simply a joyous reunion tour, a get-the-gang-back-together send-off like no other, and I say this as someone with almost no prior exposure to the original TV show and subsequent movie spin-offs throughout the 80 and 90's. 
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Jason Segel, who stars in and co-writes along with Nicolas Stoller, brings his doughy sarcasm both behind and in-front of the camera, managing to make the film both earnestly nostalgic and blithefully self-aware - it's hilarious, it's catchy and it's irresistibly endearing. [B]
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Contrary to what you may believe, "My Week with Marilyn" is not a sequel to "Me and Orson Welles", although the two are nigh copies of one another, both middling, compelling-but-slim reenactments that will titillate classic film enthusiasts and the non-educated alike, at least for their meager durations. 
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Like Christian McKay's Orson Welles personification, Michelle Williams bravely inhabits the title role here of Ms. Monroe, capturing her playful, voluptuous sexuality and her frightfully flimsy self-image, yet the film is so positively scant of any everlasting substance, that it practically wilts as you walk out of the theater. [C]

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