Motherless Brooklyn (DVD)

A captivating noir-style detective movie.

Ed Norton is great in every movie. Interesting movie worth the watch.

After my son was diagnosed with Tourettes our cousin suggested we watch this movie. Lionel is so accurate to the reality of the condition. We loved the ideas presented for living and thriving with the condition such as when he pretends he is sneezing into his sleeve when inappropriate things come out of his mouth such as the scene where he says, "Big t*ts!". My son loved the "If" tic. It really made us both laugh. The idea of chewing gum to keep the mind busy was another fabulous idea we want to try. I myself love how the actor playing Lionel was so careful and considerate and compassionate when presenting this condition. He didn't make fun of it but rather presented it as a part of him that he simply cannot control and explained it to people around him in a way they could easily understand and accept. This movie also illustrates, loud and clear, that even with Tourette's one can have a fabulous career, a bright future, and even get the pretty and smart girl! Basically, this movie illustrates that it is OK to dream big even with a disability because really the disability isn't holding you back. In the end, it is only you that is holding you back!! This movie is a true inspiration to my son and I and I really cannot thank our cousin Donna enough for pointing us in the direction of it. Oh, by the way, a lot of Tourette's people have a whistle and click tic which is one that my son has. Also, sometimes things get confused in their brains such as saying thank you to my son means flipping you the bird. So it can be a bit uncomfortable at times. A nice sheriff helped him with a Tourette's spell the other day and he flipped him the bird as a thank you. Thankfully, professionals are trained to know these things so the sheriff took it for what it really was and asked us to have a wonderful day, which we did thanks to his kindness. We are finding the best thing to do is find humor in it, laugh at yourself and do what the main character did, name the disability! My son's is Harry and well Harry can be very naughty but Harry also gives all of us a good laugh and makes us learn to lighten up a bit. Also, keep in mind Tourettes is very common in Aspbergers kids, which my son is. Aspbergers kids are brilliant with abnormally high IQs but are socially awkward. I honestly think the main character portrayed here is Aspbergers with Tourettes just like my son based on how he can memorize things eerily accurately but has trouble socializing with people, especially in a crowded room. Oh, also, each person has a thing that triggers them. This character had music, a girl we know of has eggs, my son is stressful situations. Each one has a trigger and, when it triggers it can get interesting!

Never finished.

good movie

There are times when the only way to make right the really big wrongs of the real world is to do it with fiction. In this case it took a movie. The 50s noir setting was a perfect background to transform Jonathan Letham's novel into a vehicle to represent a slice of history that was so darkly evil that even now it defies comprehension.I'm currently reading Robert A. Caro's opus on the era of Robert Moses in New York City and listening to the 99% Invisible podcast about the year long project devoted to this impressive work. Edward Norton's performance along with of the rest of the cast was perfect for his treatment of the material. Seeing this movie now was an amazing find and well worth sharing.

This is a great throw back to films like Casablanca or even Chinatown. It's not as "good" as those films, and some of that has to do with casting, but it has a lot of heart which goes a long way for me.This film isn't particularly lacking per say- even with the casting (which feels like the "friends of Edward Norton club" given that I can place all of them in other films from 20+ years ago minus one person) it still feels right.The writing is mostly fine, and I enjoyed the mystery of most of it. There is a few minor twists that were completely obvious from the beginning (if you didn't see Bobby Cannavale having a turn in the film then you haven't seen how that's his character in everything he's in), but overall it's not so much a film where twists are the draw so this is slightly nitpicky. The overall mystery is fun to play along with and out does Rian Johnson's awful take on a mystery in every conceivable way (because it turns out Rian Johnson is a something something who thinks telling you the ending at the beginning of a movie makes for a good mystery).I wouldn't say it's the best movie I've ever seen, but it was fun to watch. The only thing to hate is the casting of Leslie Mann, who is still one of the top 10 worst actresses of all time. I am quite shocked she was given a role in this given that she STILL appears to think reading your lines is acting! It's been over 20 years and she STILL DOES THIS! IT'S SO SHOCKING!Sorry. She's so god awful that you can forgive how bad Gugu's acting is. It's pretty clear this is why Leslie Mann's character was mitigated to only a couple of very short scenes, but it's still shocking she's in this at all. I know a lot of people seem to dislike working with Edward Norton these days, but he can still most likely do better.Anyway, it's overall a fun movie, and I'm a sucker for characters with interesting quirks that somehow get treated like they're fairly normal minus their major quirk even though it doesn't work like that in real life. It's a fantastical, tad bit romanticized, view of reality that's fun to live in for a little while before we go back to the real world where everyone pretends no one else exists in the real world unless they're forced to acknowledge that you actually do.Meaningless ranting aside- this is a fun slow afternoon film. Worth checking out.(Edited to slightly remove my meaningless personal comments about Rian Johnson's IQ which, while true, are unnecessary)