My Mom and I Review Some Movies and TV Shows

There's been a new addition to the Tableau family (that's a link to a generic baby, in case you don't know what a baby looks like), which means that, over the last month, my mother has been in my neck of the woods way more often than usual. And, since I don't really know how to communicate with people without talking about movies and television, my mom and I have been consuming a lot of pop culture together.  Here's a breakdown of some of the fluff we imbibed:

Cinderella (2015)

This live action adaptation of Disney's classic film adds some modern touches and nixes the songs.

Mom: The transformation scenes are amazing.

Tableau: When Cinderella and her mice and lizards are magically changed in time for the ball?

M: Yep. Compared to the other movies, you could actually see the changes happening. You can see the animals morphing into their human/horse counterparts, yet they still maintain elements of their original features. The lizards, especially.

T: The transformations scenes are both really beautiful, and Helena Bonham Carter as The Fairy Godmother is a lot of fun. She is certainly having a good time.

M: Cate Blanchett, too. She's over-acting in the best way. I also like that they show more of Cinderella with her mom (Hayley Atwell). 

T: It helps strengthen her character, and it helps to sell the idea that Cinderella would stay with her stepmother after her mother and father die, since her mother was all about being kind and courageous. How about Cinderella (Lily James) and Prince Charming (Richard Madden)? Do you buy their romance?

M: Meh. They are okay. Nothing to write home about.

Cinderella? More like Seen-it-derella!

This weekend, we welcome the latest in a long series of Cinderella movies: Disney's Cinderella, a live-action adaptation of the 1950 Disney film of the same name. Like most film adaptations of this classic tale, this newest Cinderella boasts an impressive cast and a substantial budget. Also, like most adaptations, it exists for no reason.

The tale of Cinderella has been told and retold countless times through generations, passing through oral tradition and written word for centuries. The story shifts and changes depending on who is telling it (and what message they want to impart), with the Brothers Grimm favoring a three three-day ball, a magical tree, and feet mutilation and Perrault favoring a glass slipper and fairy godmother. The core of the story is about a young girl being misunderstood, abused, and unwanted despite her many attempts to be anything but, and the prince who finally sees her for who she really is. It's a pretty simple tale, which makes it easy to adapt. Need to make it a morality play about the joys of being dutiful and subservient? Cinderella's got you covered. Want it to be a story about making your own decisions and self-empowerment? Cinderella's your gal. 

So many movies have been made with Cinderella at the center, but which adaptation is the best?  Let's take a look. For this incredibly scientific study, I'll be focusing on Disney's Cinderella (1950), Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997), Ever After (1998), A Cinderella Story (2004), Ella Enchanted (2004), and Sondheim's Into the Woods (2014), because they're the ones I like. Sorry, CinderFella.

Trailer Dump: 2015 Sequel Edition

Sometimes my brain is tired, and I need to unwind with a good movie trailer. There's nothing like a 2-minute dose of movie wonder to jog me out of a funk. The spectacle! The CGI! The voice over work! The soaring score! The over-explaining of plot to the point that it ruins the movie! Thankfully, in the past few weeks, we have seen the releases of exciting trailers for movies that plenty of people are waiting to see, myself included. 2015, like 2014 before it, will be another year full of sequels, prequels, and reboots of some of the largest film franchises of all time. In an era increasingly defined by unearned nostalgia and Buzzfeed listicles, next year will possibly be the apex of our growing need to mix the new with the familiar. Let's take a look at what the new year has to offer, and judge harshly and preemptively:

The Academy Awards: The REAL Winners and Losers

It was a weird night of television, and, as we predicted and despite a Best Director snub, Argo won Best Picture at the Academy Awards last night/this morning, and most of the other people who were going to win Oscars won Oscars. Instead of looking at the winners and losers, we're going to look at the real winners and losers, the people/trends that really stood out during the ceremony:

Quick Reviews: Best Picture Nominees, Part 3 of 3

Where did we leave off? We've looked at the films nominated for Best Picture about LOVE, and we've looked at the films nominated for Best Picture about AMERICAN HISTORY.  So, we guess it's time to look at the straggler films, the films that don't really fall into any category. We were thinking of calling them ‘Magical Realist’ films, because most of them employ magical elements within a realistic framework. One has pig-monsters as big as a house, the other has a house for two that's no bigger than a boat, and a third has truly terrible singing from Russell Crowe. The third is probably the most magical, because, as someone once said, nothing is more magical than singing! (Just because that person was Hitler doesn't mean that it isn't true)

Now that we think of it, though, the thing all these films might have in common is that they all feature water and boats in a big way. Boats that are massively important in these movies, whether people are living, pulling, or adventuring in them. So here we go, looking at Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, and Les Miserables. Let's climb aboard the review boat! Raise the anchor, full speed ahead!

Film Review: Les Miserables

The best thing that can be said of Les Miserables, the movie directed by Tom Hooper based on the musical of the same name (which itself is based on a novel by Victor Hugo), is that it doesn't fail for lack of trying. Sure, some of the performances are a little lazy, but at least it feels like work was put into the staging and execution. The film tells the story of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a man who commits himself to God and goodly works after his release from jail and his fleeing from parole. He inadvertently wrongs the angelic and

Hit or Miss: Quick Movie Reviews 3!

Tableau Your Mind reviews movies fast so that you can get on with your day!

Dark Shadows

Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter

do the best they can with what they're given

The Story: Escaped from a coffin after a two-century long imprisonment, vampire Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) seeks to reclaim his family's good name and take down the witch (Eva Green) who cursed him to haunt the night.

Pros: The ladies in this film totally kill it. Helena Bonham Carter and Michelle Pfeiffer are amazing, but MVP goes to Eva Green, who is as fierce and charismatic a villain as has ever

1 Year? Really?

Things get interesting after the jump...

Film Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

It still beats Apparition

The eighth film in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, starts off directly after the events of Part 1. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley go in search of the last Horcruxes, blindly following the orders of Albus Dumbledore, who has been dead for about a year. It's a bit ridiculous to summarize the events of the film, because fans of the book are undoubtedly familiar with most of the plot contained within the movie. And that's part of the fun. Audience members sit in anticipation, wondering, not what will happen, but how the events will play out. How will Molly Weasley's final confrontation with a particular Death Eater play out? How will director David Yates make the magical battles, which have historically been difficult to film, as exciting and epic as they are in the book? When and where will Neville strike? And how on earth is screenwriter Steve Kloves going to make Wandlore interesting?

Snape, Snape-ing it up

The film acts as a long goodbye. Almost every character gets a farewell, whether it's Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey staring out at the destroyed Hogwarts, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan fighting Death Eaters with verve, or Professor Trelawney (Emma Thompson) saying a quiet goodbye to one of her beloved students. Other characters get

Harry Plotter: Movie 5

Molly Weasley fighting a Boggart: Cut Scene, but not forgotten

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the first movie in the series directed by David Yates, and the man wastes no time in making his mark. With Chris Columbus’ childish films HP1 and HP2 fading into unhappy memory, Alfonso Cuarón’s powerhouse directorial work in HP3 unfortunately forgotten, and Mike Newell’s direction of HP4 acting as a filmic palate cleanser, Yates was able to enter the arena on relatively solid ground. Unlike so many franchises that buckled under the pressure of repetition, the Harry Potter films still feel fresh, uninhibited by ridiculous side plots and accepted (and often beloved) by fans.  Still, the final three films represent a dramatic change in the series, shifting from the fun and not too

Harry Plotter: Movie 3

I really want to keep writing and reading about Harry Potter, but writing in great length about the books and movies has gotten a tad tedious. I spend time trying to write and craft a review, only to realize that every thought I have has been expounded upon (at great length) by the Harry Potter Wiki or one of the innumerable blogs dedicated solely to all things Potter.  Thus I came to a decision: I will still be reading, watching, and commenting on the Harry Potter series. My comments, however, will be much more brief, and hopefully will just highlight the series and not over-analyze the series. Frankly, I think it will be good for all of us. (Spoilers Ahead)

Lily, James, and Sirius Black, in happier times

The third movie is such a welcome relief from the first two, which were so tedious. Director

The King's Speech Wins Best Picture

[Spoiler Alert] Best Picture Nominees #10: The King's Speech

And we come to the end of the review bonanza with The King's Speech, which is probably the best film of the year and is favored to win Best Picture at the Oscars. At its heart, the film stands as a testament to classic film-making and story structure. It unfolds as any