Coco Before Chanel

Coco Before Chanel is a moderately interesting biopic about one of the most influential female figures in the 20th century. Bright eyed French ingénue Audrey Tautou does a competent job portraying Chanel, but the film is bogged down by the melodrama of Coco’s love affair with Boy Capel. My favorite part of the movie is Benoit Poelvoorde’s down-to-earth portrayal of Baron Balsan. He effortlessly conveys a complicated feeling that Balsan has for Chanel. I would love to see more of him in any language films.

In the Loop

British political comedy In the Loop deals with an unnamed war in Middle East. For American audience, it may take a while to get used to the British accents and British humor. There are not many laugh out loud moments, but it is amusingly poignant and timely in our current political environment. It portrays the government officials who run our countries as just average joes, or maybe, dumber than average joes. It is scary and funny to see that for bureaucrats, planning a war is like an everyday job for you and me.

A Serious Man

A Serious Man is a seriously boring man. For me, Coen Brothers have never captured the magic and ingenuity they sparked in their first movie, Blood Simple. That movie has suspense, interesting characters and cinematic styles. Their latest work seems to question all the ironies in life, but it simply doesn’t make a captivating story on screen. Too many directors want to use screen to make statements about life and they forget that movie is a type of entertainment. They need to make movies entertaining and thought provoking at the SAME time.