#1 Birdman
What does it mean to be "firing on all cylinders"?
In car terminology, it refers to the engine functioning as a unit. I know this because I recently had to repair a coil pack on my cadillac, because half of the cylinders were not firing correctly. The car would sometimes shake and shudder at stoplights.
When I think of the idea of a movie firing on all cylinders, Birdman comes to the front of my mind. This cast...wow. The cast is so good that Michael Keaton's may not even be the strongest performance. The script? Besides director Alejandro G. Inarritu, its credited to a total of five writers, and they churned out dialogue that was so natural it could have been entirely improvised. The cinematography? Please. Best of the year, no question. The always formidable Emmanuel Lubezki killed it. The direction? Inarritu's vision somehow is executed in a way that the entire movie feels one long take. Part of that is because this backstage movie was rehearsed like a play; it had to be. Actors reportedly had to get to precise marks at precise times or the entire take would be ruined.
It sounded absolutely rigorous to make, but the story of Riggan Thomson (Keaton) was totally worth the work. By now, you probably know that the movie revolves around Thomson, who decades previous had starred as superhero "Birdman" but had since slipped into obscurity. His limelight comeback rests solely on his effort to mount a broadway show based on the Raymond Carver short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" is slowly killing him, as he tries to focus and simultaneouslyjuggle the anxiety of star Lesley (Naomi Watts), the wanton ego of the other star, Mike (Ed Norton), the realistic worries of his producer, Jake (Zach Galifinakis) and the behavior of his erratic, fresh-out-of-rehab daughter, Sam (Emma Stone). It doesn't ruin anything to tell you that their preview performance is a total disaster, and we watch, through backstage follow shots, trips to the bar next door, aimless wanderings through New York, and super meta internal voices that we see Thomson unravel even further. How far is too far, and what will he risk to make his play a success?
You have to see it to believe it. If you're a fan of movies, if you're a fan of all things self-reflexive, of all things meta... It's almost intimidating how well-executed Birdman is. I can't wait to see it again.
*****
Thanks a lot for reading this year, you guys. I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoyed it. I'll back tomorrow to wrap up 2014!
title
Sunday, February 22, 2015
2014: #3 and #2
In order to finish this thing out appropriately, I made a decision to write up these last three movies and that's it. Usually, I list out everything I've seen for the year in one list, write up a "movies I wish I had seen" list, and detail the annual best picture-nominee themed dinner we do. Right now, I have 72 minutes, so I'm going to prioritize, and I'll do all that stuff in a wrap-up post tomorrow.
Cool? Good, let's get this show on the road.
I realized a little bit ago that the final three films on this countdown all have a common thread, and that is that they pose a question: How far would you go in order to be the best, and what or who would you sacrifice along the way?
#3 Whiplash
Our first study in this question puts the uber-talented Miles Teller front and center as Andrew Neiman. a student at an ultra competitive, Juliard or Berklee-like music conservatory called Shaffer in New York City. He is a jazz student, who, other than the occasional movie with his dad (Paul Reiser), focuses all of his energy on playing drums. When a spot opens up in conductor Terence Fletcher's (J.K. Simmons) studio band, he sees firsthand just how demanding he is; on the first day of rehearsal, he hurls a chair at him for tempo issues (see link above). From that point forward, it's mindgames galore between the two. The more he builds Andrew up, the more he breaks him back down. What does Andrew Neiman sacrifice, all in all? His girlfriend Nicole (Melissa Benoist), for one, who he dumps while citing "not having enough time". Also, his sanity, his physical well-being (at one point he ends up nearly getting killed, won't spoil how) and his reputation, all to be the golden boy in the eyes of Fletcher. Things spiral a little bit out of control after a performance and things from Fletcher's past come to the forefront, all building toward a totally thrilling confusion.
In terms of style, Whiplash is a movie of "'ics". Frenetic. Hectic. Eccentric. Manic. Cathartic. Damien Chazelle's studio debut is full of incredible musicians and flashy lights and a plenty of anxious suspense. I know people who got physically sick from this movie, and it doesn't surprise me in the least. The back and forth between Teller and Simmons is nothing short of sociopathy on both ends, and I couldn't get enough.
#2 Nightcrawler
I make no bones about the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal had me at Darko. His career has always been about taking chances, and he has never strayed away from the dark and unusual as the suicidal boyfriend ( The Good Girl), the gay cowboy in a straight world (Brokeback Mountain), sleepless cops both paid and amateur (Zodiac, End of Watch, Prisoners) and doppelganger (Enemy). I'm not saying he didn't do Prince of Persia and Bubble Boy, but as a whole, he picks the right projects.
In Nightcrawler, his mentality falls somewhere "on the spectrum" as we say in the education business, meaning the spectrum of autism. With his character, Lou Bloom, it's probably an adult form of asperger's (and trust me, I don't mean to make light of this). We first meet him as a grifter and loner, doing odd jobs like stealing pieces of fence to sell to construction sites. After the sale, he happens to see a car on fire and talks to Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), a cameraman collecting footage for local news stations. He wants to join his team, but Loder says no. Looking to start his own "nightcrawling" enterprise, he steals a bike on the beach and sells it for the money to buy a camera and a police scanner. Lou gets great footage of a man fatally shot, and goes in the wee hours of the morning to channel 6, getting news director Nina (Rene' Russo) to buy the footage. He becomes addicted, hiring an assistant to handle directions around the L.A. metro, Rick (Riz Ahmed, who's criminally underrated), who gets $30 as an "intern". Lou, and by default Rick, will slash and burn everything in their path to become the top nightcrawlers in the city. They catch a big break shortly thereafter, and it comes at a huge price.
Written and directed by Dan Gilroy (real-life husband of Rene' Russo), a veteran screenwriter making his debut behind the camera, the movie's tone is dark, gritty and surreal, with great night shots of the sprawling L.A. landscape. Gyllenhaal takes a twisted role to the next level, keeping his fast-speaking, calculated, emotionless tone from the opening to the credits. An outstanding thriller--I was grinning practically the entire time.
Next...#1!
2014: #6- #4
We arrive at the top 6. The reason it's 6, and not 5, is simple: the more I kept thinking about it, the more I thought you could make an argument for any of these last 6 to be the best movie of the year. I figure that at least one point, each of them were under consideration in my head for the coveted #1 spot. If you have been reading the blog at all, and if you have followed the race this year, you'll know that a couple of obvious ones have not been listed yet. For as much as I try to avoid it and go my own way every year, movies are acclaimed for a reason. Every now and then, generation Y-er that I am, I wish there could be ties at the top.
But there can be only one. Here are my five runners-up:
#6 Selma
Ava Duvernay is no fool. In a recent interview with "Entertainment Weekly", she claimed to have known early on that she'd be a long shot for best director this year. "It's math," she says. To say the director's branch of the Academy has a No Girls Allowed in Our Treehouse vibe to it would be putting it far too gently; 9 out of every 10 of them is a male, and, to make matters worse, 9 out of 10 are white. And white guilt will only take you so far in Hollywood without Brad Pitt attached as a producer (though you would think having Oprah attached might have helped). Only four females ever have been nominated for the prize, and Kathryn Bigelow made history only a few years ago with her win for Zero Dark Thirty. The Academy just simply isn't ready yet, and that's a damn shame. Bennett Miller and Morton Tyldum, who both did fine jobs but nothing groundbreaking, should have been tossed in favor of Duvernay and Fincher, but I guess that's just me.
The Oscar snub that got even more press is David Oyelowo not getting nominated for best actor. I still don't know if any us plebes quite get what went into this ludicrous oversight. Oyelowo, who is British, emulated MLK so precisely that I forgot I wasn't actually watching MLK. Because of the way he is revered by so many in our country, it has been dangerous territory to put any sort of mainstream biopic about him out. Good thing this isn't one. Selma focuses on one major moment in the Civil Rights movement. When Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey) is refused the right to vote in Selma, Alabama, Dr. King pays a visit to president LBJ (Tom Wilkinson) to ask for voting rights to be granted. When LBJ says he has bigger fish to fry, he and his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) link up with some of his fellow SCLC clergy members (played by Common and The Wire/Treme's Wendell Pierce, among others) and takes their cause to Selma, After their first attempt to march to slimy Governor George Wallace's (Tim Roth, who does an outstanding job) house in Montgomery is disastrous, the movement becomes national, and bus loads of liberal college students and families of all races come down to help out.
(Side note: I found out recently that my uncle went down to Selma at that time to march with a group from his Chicago area temple. He said it was very eye-opening, and that he had to take night shifts to stand guard outside the church they were staying in, which was awfully nerve-wracking for a teenager. Pretty cool, no?)
Oyelowo is not just a snub, he's a revelation as a vociferous leader who is equal parts commanding and humble and scared. In short, he's human and he carries plenty of doubts and worries along with him, and just as importantly, he recognizes that he makes mistakes.
#5 Top Five
Hands down, the comedy of the year. Not even close. Lego Movie was outwardly clever, We Are the Best! was innocent and naive, but Top Five is gut-busting throughout. Touted occasionally as the black Annie Hall (which has a little bit of truth to it), Top Five has writer/director/star Chris Rock as Andre Allen, and it goes without saying that it's more than a little autobiographical. Allen, who started out as an edgy stand-up comic, has made millions as the face of Hammy the Bear (read: Grown Ups, Madagascar), a gun-toting vigilante bear, who is more Rambo than Ted. He is tired of going out and people shouting "Hammy!" at him on the street (much like Chappelle going into hiding when people yelled "I'm Rick James, b**ch!" at him in front of his kids at theme parks), and he wants people to take him and his new film Uprize, about the Haitian revolution, seriously. To the world, he is Hammy the Bear and the fiancee' of reality TV star Erica Long (Gabrielle Union), who is about to get married on live television, a la' Kim and Kris "72 days" Humphries.
Enter journalist Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), who he reluctantly accepts an interview with. They walk around New York the entire day, talking and visiting some of his old hangouts in Brooklyn, including an impromptu drop-in on his friends and family (Jay Pharaoh, Tracy Morgan, Leslie Jones, Hassan "Wee-Bay Brice" Johnson) and she gets a little more insight into his roots. She asks him the tough questions, like "Why aren't you funny anymore?" and, knowing that he and she are both recovering alcoholics, "When did you know you hit bottom?" Throughout the wild day they are all over the city, promoting Uprize on radio spots, hitting press conferences, walking through parks, dropping in on her mom and daughter at her apartment, and all over. The interview takes a scary turn when he admits his fears about the wedding and they both realize their feelings for one another.
It's as if Rock called in every favor he had for this movie. Beyond the actors I've previously listed, Top Five features (deep breath): Kevin Hart (his agent), JB Smoove (Silk, his bodyguard/driver and best friend), Romany Malco (Erica's manager), UW Alum Anders Holm (Chelsea's beau Brad), Cedric the Entertainer (his friend in Houston), Brian Regan (a radio engineer), and, all playing themselves--Jerry Seinfeld, Whoopi Goldberg, Adam Sandler, Charlie Rose, Taraji P. Henderson, Gabourey Sidibe, Sway and yes, DMX. Everybody adds a little something, but Rock has stated in interviews that he wouldn't have done the movie unless he had landed Dawson, a good friend of his offscreen. Onscreen, their chemistry, bantering and spats feel totally real, so I can see why he waited. The title, by the way, refers to something that is often done in the hip-hop community: Stating and making the case for your top 5 MCs of all time. This starts when Chelsea and Andre visit his old friends and becomes a running theme throughout. Make sure you wait to watch the credits, because about halfway through, Seinfeld delivers his top five, and it's phenomenal. Save a couple of low-brow grossouts, all of the laughs are more than earned, and the dialogue-wise, it may be the best written this year.
#4 Boyhood
"So leeettt me goooooo, I don't wanna be your...hero..."
Get ready to hear the Family of the Year song that has become the award-season theme for Boyhood piping out of the speakers of the Kodak Theater plenty of times tonight. Most importantly, it will probably be the song you hear at the end of the broadcast as Linklater and his producers and actors rush the stage to accept the final award of the night. Boyhood has a very good shot to win best picture this year. I was talking to my mom yesterday, who sees almost as many movies as I do, and we both said that we would be fine with that as an outcome. "Just the dedication alone over a twelve year period makes it seem justified," she said. If Boyhood wins tonight, it will be more about the commitment and the concept than the movie itself. And honestly, I have nothing but respect for Linklater and the job he took on, and like everyone else, I agree: The idea behind it is fascinating, and I have never seen anything quite like it.
But what about the movie itself?
The detractors vs. gushers argument surrounding this Boyhood is always the same--"Well, nothing really happens." against "That's life, you know? Just a series of moments." I see both sides of the coin on this one. The thought that there aren't really any climactic events is more or less true. However, what unfolds on screen is engaging enough to make almost three hours never feel like it drags. Each vignette of Mason's (Ellar Coltrane) life is probably in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 minutes long, so that helps push things forward. He and his sister Samantha (the director's daughter, Lorelai Linklater) are growing up with a single mom (Patricia Arquette) who struggles to find love and herself as she works her way through motherhood. Their dad (Ethan Hawke) pops in and out intermittently as the "fun" parent, taking them bowling and to Astros games on alternating weekends. Maybe a third of the way into the movie, his mom starts dating her professor, Bill (Marco Perella), and they eventually get married and move in with him and his kids, Mindy (Jamie Howard) and Randy (Andy Villareal). After a couple of years, the mixed family dynamic rears its ugly head and things go south in a hurry; Mason, Samantha and mom escaping his abusive clutches may be the only scene in the movie that could be considered a climax.
As Mason gets thinner and taller and longer in the face, he also gets a little more brooding and cynical, wanting to pursue art but not always willing to put in the time. She marries again, this time to Desert Storm vet Jim (Brad Hawkins) and so does Dad, to Annie (Jennie Tooley). Sam and Mason's parents are more grown up, but it doesn't exactly mean they've got it all figured out. Maybe they never do, and both Hawke and Arquette convey this "we're doing the best we can with what we've got" notion wonderfully throughout. The last half of the movie, without really giving anything away, focuses on teenage-to-college-freshman Mason, as he experiences random make-outs, beer, weed, road trips, love and heartbreak and light debauchery for the first time.
When your cast and crew only gets together for a week or two throughout the year, your options are going to be limited, and though there are decently seamless transitions, Boyhood can't help but feel like vignettes. The choices that Linklater makes to connect the story are minimal, and that's a good thing. Much of the time, you only know what year you are in by the song that soundtracking the scene. In a particularly funny section early on, the viewer gets the true time capsule feel when Samantha slaps Mason in his bunk bed and begins singing "Oops, I did it again."
There is a crew of 8 or 9 of us in my grade who all became friends in middle school and stayed friends throughout high school and somewhat in college. I still talk semi-regularly to just about all of them, a couple more than others, certainly, but no love lost--6 of them were in attendance at my wedding. Looking back, more than half of us were living with divorced or separated parents through our formative years. So to me, the strength of Boyhood (and everyone approaches the relative strengths of this film differently) was the ability to see certain aspects of my own upbringing in Mason's. As a filmmaker, that's really all that you can ask for.
But there can be only one. Here are my five runners-up:
#6 Selma
Ava Duvernay is no fool. In a recent interview with "Entertainment Weekly", she claimed to have known early on that she'd be a long shot for best director this year. "It's math," she says. To say the director's branch of the Academy has a No Girls Allowed in Our Treehouse vibe to it would be putting it far too gently; 9 out of every 10 of them is a male, and, to make matters worse, 9 out of 10 are white. And white guilt will only take you so far in Hollywood without Brad Pitt attached as a producer (though you would think having Oprah attached might have helped). Only four females ever have been nominated for the prize, and Kathryn Bigelow made history only a few years ago with her win for Zero Dark Thirty. The Academy just simply isn't ready yet, and that's a damn shame. Bennett Miller and Morton Tyldum, who both did fine jobs but nothing groundbreaking, should have been tossed in favor of Duvernay and Fincher, but I guess that's just me.
The Oscar snub that got even more press is David Oyelowo not getting nominated for best actor. I still don't know if any us plebes quite get what went into this ludicrous oversight. Oyelowo, who is British, emulated MLK so precisely that I forgot I wasn't actually watching MLK. Because of the way he is revered by so many in our country, it has been dangerous territory to put any sort of mainstream biopic about him out. Good thing this isn't one. Selma focuses on one major moment in the Civil Rights movement. When Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey) is refused the right to vote in Selma, Alabama, Dr. King pays a visit to president LBJ (Tom Wilkinson) to ask for voting rights to be granted. When LBJ says he has bigger fish to fry, he and his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) link up with some of his fellow SCLC clergy members (played by Common and The Wire/Treme's Wendell Pierce, among others) and takes their cause to Selma, After their first attempt to march to slimy Governor George Wallace's (Tim Roth, who does an outstanding job) house in Montgomery is disastrous, the movement becomes national, and bus loads of liberal college students and families of all races come down to help out.
(Side note: I found out recently that my uncle went down to Selma at that time to march with a group from his Chicago area temple. He said it was very eye-opening, and that he had to take night shifts to stand guard outside the church they were staying in, which was awfully nerve-wracking for a teenager. Pretty cool, no?)
Oyelowo is not just a snub, he's a revelation as a vociferous leader who is equal parts commanding and humble and scared. In short, he's human and he carries plenty of doubts and worries along with him, and just as importantly, he recognizes that he makes mistakes.
#5 Top Five
Hands down, the comedy of the year. Not even close. Lego Movie was outwardly clever, We Are the Best! was innocent and naive, but Top Five is gut-busting throughout. Touted occasionally as the black Annie Hall (which has a little bit of truth to it), Top Five has writer/director/star Chris Rock as Andre Allen, and it goes without saying that it's more than a little autobiographical. Allen, who started out as an edgy stand-up comic, has made millions as the face of Hammy the Bear (read: Grown Ups, Madagascar), a gun-toting vigilante bear, who is more Rambo than Ted. He is tired of going out and people shouting "Hammy!" at him on the street (much like Chappelle going into hiding when people yelled "I'm Rick James, b**ch!" at him in front of his kids at theme parks), and he wants people to take him and his new film Uprize, about the Haitian revolution, seriously. To the world, he is Hammy the Bear and the fiancee' of reality TV star Erica Long (Gabrielle Union), who is about to get married on live television, a la' Kim and Kris "72 days" Humphries.
Enter journalist Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), who he reluctantly accepts an interview with. They walk around New York the entire day, talking and visiting some of his old hangouts in Brooklyn, including an impromptu drop-in on his friends and family (Jay Pharaoh, Tracy Morgan, Leslie Jones, Hassan "Wee-Bay Brice" Johnson) and she gets a little more insight into his roots. She asks him the tough questions, like "Why aren't you funny anymore?" and, knowing that he and she are both recovering alcoholics, "When did you know you hit bottom?" Throughout the wild day they are all over the city, promoting Uprize on radio spots, hitting press conferences, walking through parks, dropping in on her mom and daughter at her apartment, and all over. The interview takes a scary turn when he admits his fears about the wedding and they both realize their feelings for one another.
It's as if Rock called in every favor he had for this movie. Beyond the actors I've previously listed, Top Five features (deep breath): Kevin Hart (his agent), JB Smoove (Silk, his bodyguard/driver and best friend), Romany Malco (Erica's manager), UW Alum Anders Holm (Chelsea's beau Brad), Cedric the Entertainer (his friend in Houston), Brian Regan (a radio engineer), and, all playing themselves--Jerry Seinfeld, Whoopi Goldberg, Adam Sandler, Charlie Rose, Taraji P. Henderson, Gabourey Sidibe, Sway and yes, DMX. Everybody adds a little something, but Rock has stated in interviews that he wouldn't have done the movie unless he had landed Dawson, a good friend of his offscreen. Onscreen, their chemistry, bantering and spats feel totally real, so I can see why he waited. The title, by the way, refers to something that is often done in the hip-hop community: Stating and making the case for your top 5 MCs of all time. This starts when Chelsea and Andre visit his old friends and becomes a running theme throughout. Make sure you wait to watch the credits, because about halfway through, Seinfeld delivers his top five, and it's phenomenal. Save a couple of low-brow grossouts, all of the laughs are more than earned, and the dialogue-wise, it may be the best written this year.
#4 Boyhood
"So leeettt me goooooo, I don't wanna be your...hero..."
Get ready to hear the Family of the Year song that has become the award-season theme for Boyhood piping out of the speakers of the Kodak Theater plenty of times tonight. Most importantly, it will probably be the song you hear at the end of the broadcast as Linklater and his producers and actors rush the stage to accept the final award of the night. Boyhood has a very good shot to win best picture this year. I was talking to my mom yesterday, who sees almost as many movies as I do, and we both said that we would be fine with that as an outcome. "Just the dedication alone over a twelve year period makes it seem justified," she said. If Boyhood wins tonight, it will be more about the commitment and the concept than the movie itself. And honestly, I have nothing but respect for Linklater and the job he took on, and like everyone else, I agree: The idea behind it is fascinating, and I have never seen anything quite like it.
But what about the movie itself?
The detractors vs. gushers argument surrounding this Boyhood is always the same--"Well, nothing really happens." against "That's life, you know? Just a series of moments." I see both sides of the coin on this one. The thought that there aren't really any climactic events is more or less true. However, what unfolds on screen is engaging enough to make almost three hours never feel like it drags. Each vignette of Mason's (Ellar Coltrane) life is probably in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 minutes long, so that helps push things forward. He and his sister Samantha (the director's daughter, Lorelai Linklater) are growing up with a single mom (Patricia Arquette) who struggles to find love and herself as she works her way through motherhood. Their dad (Ethan Hawke) pops in and out intermittently as the "fun" parent, taking them bowling and to Astros games on alternating weekends. Maybe a third of the way into the movie, his mom starts dating her professor, Bill (Marco Perella), and they eventually get married and move in with him and his kids, Mindy (Jamie Howard) and Randy (Andy Villareal). After a couple of years, the mixed family dynamic rears its ugly head and things go south in a hurry; Mason, Samantha and mom escaping his abusive clutches may be the only scene in the movie that could be considered a climax.
As Mason gets thinner and taller and longer in the face, he also gets a little more brooding and cynical, wanting to pursue art but not always willing to put in the time. She marries again, this time to Desert Storm vet Jim (Brad Hawkins) and so does Dad, to Annie (Jennie Tooley). Sam and Mason's parents are more grown up, but it doesn't exactly mean they've got it all figured out. Maybe they never do, and both Hawke and Arquette convey this "we're doing the best we can with what we've got" notion wonderfully throughout. The last half of the movie, without really giving anything away, focuses on teenage-to-college-freshman Mason, as he experiences random make-outs, beer, weed, road trips, love and heartbreak and light debauchery for the first time.
When your cast and crew only gets together for a week or two throughout the year, your options are going to be limited, and though there are decently seamless transitions, Boyhood can't help but feel like vignettes. The choices that Linklater makes to connect the story are minimal, and that's a good thing. Much of the time, you only know what year you are in by the song that soundtracking the scene. In a particularly funny section early on, the viewer gets the true time capsule feel when Samantha slaps Mason in his bunk bed and begins singing "Oops, I did it again."
There is a crew of 8 or 9 of us in my grade who all became friends in middle school and stayed friends throughout high school and somewhat in college. I still talk semi-regularly to just about all of them, a couple more than others, certainly, but no love lost--6 of them were in attendance at my wedding. Looking back, more than half of us were living with divorced or separated parents through our formative years. So to me, the strength of Boyhood (and everyone approaches the relative strengths of this film differently) was the ability to see certain aspects of my own upbringing in Mason's. As a filmmaker, that's really all that you can ask for.
2014: #9, #8, and #7
Oscar day is here! Nine more movies before the broadcast starts. Can it be done?
#9 Locke
#9 Locke
Let me ask you a hypothetical: Suppose I said to you "You've got a chance to watch a movie where one actor drives in a car taking calls on his bluetooth system for eighty-five minutes." You'd probably ponder for a second before returning "Does it lead up to a massive fiery car crash?" "No," I'd say. You'd nod, scratch your chin, look up quizzically. "Is there a big blaze of glory shootout with the cops?" "Nope, not that either." "It's really just one guy, driving and talking on the phone for an hour and a half?" I'd think for a second. "Pretty much, yeah."
Probably wouldn't be knocking the elderly out of the way or cutting lines to get to your movie theater seat in time, would you?
In reality, Locke is so much more than that, and it's a shame not many people saw it because it boasts one of the finest acting performances of the year. Since busting on to the scene as droll con man Eames in Inception, Tom Hardy has showcased his range, turning in performances as a convincing Brooklynite (The Drop), a mixed martial arts champion (Warrior), a rom-com CIA agent (This Means War), and a cheerful Darth Vader (The Dark Knight Rises). Never has he been so good or so multidimensional as he is in Locke. The movie begins with Ivan Locke taking off his bright yellow construction vest and hardhat (he's a site manager) and putting on a suit to get in his car and drive to London. The timing isn't great; he's got a bad cold and the biggest construction project of his career starting tomorrow and he can't be there for the concrete pour. These are the calls he handles first, talking on his car speaker to his right hand man, Donal (voice of Andrew Scott) and his boss Gareth (voice of Ben Daniels), who are both confused and upset at his absence. He works at assuring them that all will work out before hanging up and calling his family. There's a huge football match on, and he has to first break the hearts of sons Sean (voice of Bill Milner) and Eddie (voice of Tom Holland) by telling them he can't be there for it before asking to speak to their mother, Katrina (voice of Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson). It's at that point, between his conversation with his wife and another mysterious call that the audience is shown why he is ditching his obligations to drive to London, and everyone is gobsmacked about it.
I don't want to say any more because I think you should see it. Hardy and director Stephen Knight are literally given one set piece to work with and within that car they manage to convey tension, loads of suspense, heartbreak and occasional laughter. Ivan Locke's drive to London runs the gamut of human emotion, and I don't know if Hardy could have been any better. In a sense, Locke is like Redford in last year's All is Lost, by himself and captaining a sinking ship, doing everything he can to plug the leaks. Locke, shot entirely at night, also looks beautiful, with streetlights whizzing by and coordinated reflections on the dash and along the window behind his head. Kudos to both Knight and Hardy for taking a chance on the unconventional and pulling it off.
#8 We Are the Best!
The best buddy comedy of the year does not feature Hill and Tatum, nor does it put New Girl stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. on a crash course with police academy, or send Rogen and Franco to North Korea to assassinate its dictator. The leads in the best buddy comedy of the year are two thirteen year old Swedish girls. Introducing: We Are the Best!
It's the early '80s in Stockholm, and Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) is a shy young girl who looks a lot like a young dude--short hair, John Lennon glasses, baggy sweaters. She lives at home with her single mom, who is always having adult parties in their apartment and auditioning new suitors. Bobo's best friend is Klara (Mira Grosin), equally androgynous but with much more punk flair and a haircut that looks like she just walked out of a Dead Kennedys show. They are outcasts in every situation, laughed at in school and feuding with teenage metal band Iron Fist at their rec center. Klara decides they should start a band to piss off their competition, who constantly remind them that "punk is dead." Klara, far more outspoken and political than her counterpart, handles lyrical duties. After an incident in gym class, she comes up with "Hate the Sport", a hilarious and brilliant attack on pervasive sports culture. Around this time, they pick up a third, a quiet girl named Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) who they see nail a classical guitar performance at their school talent show. Once they are a trio, the movie gains even more steam, tackling theological differences (Klara=atheist, Bobo=agnostic, Hedvig=Christian), style (an unfortunate haircut incident), and romance (Klara and Bobo vying for the attention of the same punk-rock boy) on the way to a gonzo conclusion at their first rock gig in a Stockholm suburb.
Out of the four films I saw at this year's Minneapolis St. Paul Film Fest, this was my favorite, an absolute riot. Just writing about it makes me want to see it again. Do yourself a favor and track it down. It doesn't disappoint. But if it does, make sure to write me a punk rock letter illustrating your disdain for me.
#7 Gone Girl
I know a certain someone who got this book on their kindle and read it in one three-and-a-half hour sitting. You have to give it up for Gillian Flynn, the ex "Entertainment Weekly" columnist who churned out the beach read of the last three years, a propulsive, addictive psychodrama about the pitfalls of marriage. Or, more specifically, the pitfalls of marrying the wrong person.
Gone Girl the movie was, to a degree, critically underrated. I saw it on very few top ten lists this year, and it deserved to be. The David Fincher/Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross machine,now on their third straight collaboration (The Social Network and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) continues to improve, to fine-tune itself and create a tone that matches its content. The pacing of Gone Girl, with Fincher's seamless movement between scenes and Reznor/Ross's blippy electronica and industrial flourishes of terror, is nearly perfect. Fincher's lighting and framing, going all the way back to Se7en almost 20 years ago, finds a way to coax out the darkness of every interaction. Considering the pitch of the book, I couldn't think of more capable people to take on the adaptation, and the hype surrounding it was well-rewarded.
Of course, it helps to get good performances out of your actors. Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) have a meet-cute in New York City and get married. When Nick's mom gets sick, they pack up the U-Haul and move back to rural Missouri to be there to help out. Amy gets resentful and bored, and their marriage becomes strained. On their fifth wedding anniversary, with Nick all set to go on the annual scavenger hunt that she puts together for him, she disappears. He reports it to the cops, Boney (Kim Dickens) and Gilpin (Fugit), whose distrust for everything he says is practically written on their faces. When it becomes a national story, Nick is in the crosshairs with not much stopping him from being the only suspect. Smack in the middle of the movie is the giant twist that sets the entire second half into motion, and if you've read the book, let me assure you that this section is not only handled masterfully, but probably my favorite part of the film.
Good-to-great performances come from: Carrie Coon, Nick's put-upon twin and co-owner of their bar, Margo; Tyler Perry as lawyer/PR mogul Tanner Bolt; Casey Wilson as Noelle Hawthorne. a concerned neighbor with ambiguous intentions; and Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collings, an ex-boyfriend of Amy's who wants to get involved. There are others, but mentioning them would give away important plot points. I refuse to be the guy who gives away the 'twistery" of the last half-decade.
Only six more to go. There will be an good explanation for why I chose to save my top 6 instead of my top 5. At least I hope there will be. Stay tuned throughout the day for more!
Probably wouldn't be knocking the elderly out of the way or cutting lines to get to your movie theater seat in time, would you?
In reality, Locke is so much more than that, and it's a shame not many people saw it because it boasts one of the finest acting performances of the year. Since busting on to the scene as droll con man Eames in Inception, Tom Hardy has showcased his range, turning in performances as a convincing Brooklynite (The Drop), a mixed martial arts champion (Warrior), a rom-com CIA agent (This Means War), and a cheerful Darth Vader (The Dark Knight Rises). Never has he been so good or so multidimensional as he is in Locke. The movie begins with Ivan Locke taking off his bright yellow construction vest and hardhat (he's a site manager) and putting on a suit to get in his car and drive to London. The timing isn't great; he's got a bad cold and the biggest construction project of his career starting tomorrow and he can't be there for the concrete pour. These are the calls he handles first, talking on his car speaker to his right hand man, Donal (voice of Andrew Scott) and his boss Gareth (voice of Ben Daniels), who are both confused and upset at his absence. He works at assuring them that all will work out before hanging up and calling his family. There's a huge football match on, and he has to first break the hearts of sons Sean (voice of Bill Milner) and Eddie (voice of Tom Holland) by telling them he can't be there for it before asking to speak to their mother, Katrina (voice of Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson). It's at that point, between his conversation with his wife and another mysterious call that the audience is shown why he is ditching his obligations to drive to London, and everyone is gobsmacked about it.
I don't want to say any more because I think you should see it. Hardy and director Stephen Knight are literally given one set piece to work with and within that car they manage to convey tension, loads of suspense, heartbreak and occasional laughter. Ivan Locke's drive to London runs the gamut of human emotion, and I don't know if Hardy could have been any better. In a sense, Locke is like Redford in last year's All is Lost, by himself and captaining a sinking ship, doing everything he can to plug the leaks. Locke, shot entirely at night, also looks beautiful, with streetlights whizzing by and coordinated reflections on the dash and along the window behind his head. Kudos to both Knight and Hardy for taking a chance on the unconventional and pulling it off.
#8 We Are the Best!
The best buddy comedy of the year does not feature Hill and Tatum, nor does it put New Girl stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. on a crash course with police academy, or send Rogen and Franco to North Korea to assassinate its dictator. The leads in the best buddy comedy of the year are two thirteen year old Swedish girls. Introducing: We Are the Best!
It's the early '80s in Stockholm, and Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) is a shy young girl who looks a lot like a young dude--short hair, John Lennon glasses, baggy sweaters. She lives at home with her single mom, who is always having adult parties in their apartment and auditioning new suitors. Bobo's best friend is Klara (Mira Grosin), equally androgynous but with much more punk flair and a haircut that looks like she just walked out of a Dead Kennedys show. They are outcasts in every situation, laughed at in school and feuding with teenage metal band Iron Fist at their rec center. Klara decides they should start a band to piss off their competition, who constantly remind them that "punk is dead." Klara, far more outspoken and political than her counterpart, handles lyrical duties. After an incident in gym class, she comes up with "Hate the Sport", a hilarious and brilliant attack on pervasive sports culture. Around this time, they pick up a third, a quiet girl named Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) who they see nail a classical guitar performance at their school talent show. Once they are a trio, the movie gains even more steam, tackling theological differences (Klara=atheist, Bobo=agnostic, Hedvig=Christian), style (an unfortunate haircut incident), and romance (Klara and Bobo vying for the attention of the same punk-rock boy) on the way to a gonzo conclusion at their first rock gig in a Stockholm suburb.
Out of the four films I saw at this year's Minneapolis St. Paul Film Fest, this was my favorite, an absolute riot. Just writing about it makes me want to see it again. Do yourself a favor and track it down. It doesn't disappoint. But if it does, make sure to write me a punk rock letter illustrating your disdain for me.
#7 Gone Girl
I know a certain someone who got this book on their kindle and read it in one three-and-a-half hour sitting. You have to give it up for Gillian Flynn, the ex "Entertainment Weekly" columnist who churned out the beach read of the last three years, a propulsive, addictive psychodrama about the pitfalls of marriage. Or, more specifically, the pitfalls of marrying the wrong person.
Gone Girl the movie was, to a degree, critically underrated. I saw it on very few top ten lists this year, and it deserved to be. The David Fincher/Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross machine,now on their third straight collaboration (The Social Network and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) continues to improve, to fine-tune itself and create a tone that matches its content. The pacing of Gone Girl, with Fincher's seamless movement between scenes and Reznor/Ross's blippy electronica and industrial flourishes of terror, is nearly perfect. Fincher's lighting and framing, going all the way back to Se7en almost 20 years ago, finds a way to coax out the darkness of every interaction. Considering the pitch of the book, I couldn't think of more capable people to take on the adaptation, and the hype surrounding it was well-rewarded.
Of course, it helps to get good performances out of your actors. Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) have a meet-cute in New York City and get married. When Nick's mom gets sick, they pack up the U-Haul and move back to rural Missouri to be there to help out. Amy gets resentful and bored, and their marriage becomes strained. On their fifth wedding anniversary, with Nick all set to go on the annual scavenger hunt that she puts together for him, she disappears. He reports it to the cops, Boney (Kim Dickens) and Gilpin (Fugit), whose distrust for everything he says is practically written on their faces. When it becomes a national story, Nick is in the crosshairs with not much stopping him from being the only suspect. Smack in the middle of the movie is the giant twist that sets the entire second half into motion, and if you've read the book, let me assure you that this section is not only handled masterfully, but probably my favorite part of the film.
Good-to-great performances come from: Carrie Coon, Nick's put-upon twin and co-owner of their bar, Margo; Tyler Perry as lawyer/PR mogul Tanner Bolt; Casey Wilson as Noelle Hawthorne. a concerned neighbor with ambiguous intentions; and Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collings, an ex-boyfriend of Amy's who wants to get involved. There are others, but mentioning them would give away important plot points. I refuse to be the guy who gives away the 'twistery" of the last half-decade.
Only six more to go. There will be an good explanation for why I chose to save my top 6 instead of my top 5. At least I hope there will be. Stay tuned throughout the day for more!
Saturday, February 21, 2015
2014: #10
It's here! The top 10!
(confetti rains down)
(a cheer erupts)
(t-shirt cannons are fired)
Well, that was fun. Let's get to it.
#10 Foxcatcher
One of the moves that the Academy always likes to pull is to nominate an affable, lovable actor that's known for comedy and whimsy and such who then takes a dramatic turn. Bill Murray, Lost in Translation. Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls. Jamie Foxx, Ray. Dan Akroyd, Driving Miss Daisy. Robin Williams, Good Morning Vietnam, and others. Every now and then, they actually win. This year's model: Steve Carell, who won't. Not to take anything from him. He performed his ass off in a challenging role, but if it were my squad, he'd be sixth man, maybe seventh.
The question in Bennett Miller's slow, quiet, eerie film poses is this: How far should you have to go to be a champion?
Not long after taking home the wrestling gold medal in 1984, Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is already forgotten, being mistaken for his also-a-gold-medalist brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), whom he also trains with. One night, while sitting in his empty, depressing apartment eating ramen noodles when gets a phone call out of the blue from the assistant of lonely millionaire John du Pont (Carell). He's invited to his Foxcatcher Farms estate in Pennsylvania, where he's being wooed to train for the 1988 Summer Olympics. He'll take care of the lodging and the food and support him financially, and the only thing he has to do is represent the US of A for team Foxcatcher. He is instructed to entice Dave to join him, but he politely declines, citing wife and kids as reasons to stay in Wisconsin.
It isn't always clear to Mark what du Pont's motivations are, but he decides to roll with it anyhow and ends up taking the world championships in 1987 as a member of Team Foxcatcher. They become closer, sharing buried secrets, giving each other haircuts and doing lines of coke. In a different film, this might veer toward buddy comedy, but that is absolutely not the case here. They're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, finding kindred spirits in each other. That is, until Mark gives his team a day off and makes du Pont feel disrespected. He ups his offer to Dave and the next thing you know, he and his entire family are walking out of a helicopter on the Foxcatcher Farms grounds, shaking hands with du Pont and the rest of the team. Not Mark, though. He's less than thrilled to be replaced by his brother as John's new unhealthy obsession. Mark becomes standoffish toward both parties and begins training on his own. The rift only grows bigger in the months leading up to the '88 games and the months after, which will eventually produce tragic consequences for this bizarre triangle of bromance.
If you're familiar with the story of du Pont and Foxcatcher, than you know how the movie ends, but if you don't, I certainly won't spoil it. For a movie this low and atmospheric, it manages to move at a decent clip without sacrificing its tone. And know this: All three are very good, especially Ruffalo, whose even-keeled decency provides the heart in an otherwise cold space (if it weren't locked up months ago by JK Simmons, you might see him in the mix for a statue tomorrow). You've never seen Tatum show quite this much depth and range, and you've never seen Carell look or act anything quite like this. A week or two later, this one truly registered for me, but once it did, I couldn't shake it.
We're almost there! See you tomorrow and we'll put this thing to bed for the year, yeah?
(confetti rains down)
(a cheer erupts)
(t-shirt cannons are fired)
Well, that was fun. Let's get to it.
#10 Foxcatcher
One of the moves that the Academy always likes to pull is to nominate an affable, lovable actor that's known for comedy and whimsy and such who then takes a dramatic turn. Bill Murray, Lost in Translation. Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls. Jamie Foxx, Ray. Dan Akroyd, Driving Miss Daisy. Robin Williams, Good Morning Vietnam, and others. Every now and then, they actually win. This year's model: Steve Carell, who won't. Not to take anything from him. He performed his ass off in a challenging role, but if it were my squad, he'd be sixth man, maybe seventh.
The question in Bennett Miller's slow, quiet, eerie film poses is this: How far should you have to go to be a champion?
Not long after taking home the wrestling gold medal in 1984, Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is already forgotten, being mistaken for his also-a-gold-medalist brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), whom he also trains with. One night, while sitting in his empty, depressing apartment eating ramen noodles when gets a phone call out of the blue from the assistant of lonely millionaire John du Pont (Carell). He's invited to his Foxcatcher Farms estate in Pennsylvania, where he's being wooed to train for the 1988 Summer Olympics. He'll take care of the lodging and the food and support him financially, and the only thing he has to do is represent the US of A for team Foxcatcher. He is instructed to entice Dave to join him, but he politely declines, citing wife and kids as reasons to stay in Wisconsin.
It isn't always clear to Mark what du Pont's motivations are, but he decides to roll with it anyhow and ends up taking the world championships in 1987 as a member of Team Foxcatcher. They become closer, sharing buried secrets, giving each other haircuts and doing lines of coke. In a different film, this might veer toward buddy comedy, but that is absolutely not the case here. They're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, finding kindred spirits in each other. That is, until Mark gives his team a day off and makes du Pont feel disrespected. He ups his offer to Dave and the next thing you know, he and his entire family are walking out of a helicopter on the Foxcatcher Farms grounds, shaking hands with du Pont and the rest of the team. Not Mark, though. He's less than thrilled to be replaced by his brother as John's new unhealthy obsession. Mark becomes standoffish toward both parties and begins training on his own. The rift only grows bigger in the months leading up to the '88 games and the months after, which will eventually produce tragic consequences for this bizarre triangle of bromance.
If you're familiar with the story of du Pont and Foxcatcher, than you know how the movie ends, but if you don't, I certainly won't spoil it. For a movie this low and atmospheric, it manages to move at a decent clip without sacrificing its tone. And know this: All three are very good, especially Ruffalo, whose even-keeled decency provides the heart in an otherwise cold space (if it weren't locked up months ago by JK Simmons, you might see him in the mix for a statue tomorrow). You've never seen Tatum show quite this much depth and range, and you've never seen Carell look or act anything quite like this. A week or two later, this one truly registered for me, but once it did, I couldn't shake it.
We're almost there! See you tomorrow and we'll put this thing to bed for the year, yeah?
2014: #11
#11 The Lego Movie
Says the Lego universe's most popular song. So simple, and somehow so brilliant. Construction worker and Lego man Emmett Brickowski (Chris Pratt) is a less-than-brilliant simpleton who lives life by the manual, literally. In the morning, he wakes up and his lives his life by the directions in the manual, step-by-step like the ones that come in the boxes for models that kids around the world buy; it's hysterical when he tries on various outfits until he ends up in his construction uniform. One day's on the site and discovers goth chick Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) digging around looking for "the piece of resistance" that will keep evil President Business (Will Ferrell) from using the Kragl (Krazy Glue) to end the world as they know it. After Emmett mistakenly finds it instead, he becomes "the special" that has been prophesied about and is tasked with saving the world, despite the fact that he is anything but, brain-wise (besides his ingenious plans to build a double-decker couch,which come in handy later on), Along for the ride to defeat Business and his right-hand man, Bad Cop (Liam Neeson) are wizard Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), spaceman Benny (Charlie Day), sunshine-and-rainbows creature Unikitty (Allison Brie) and Batman (Will Arnett).
There were a couple of glaring Oscar snubs this year, and Lego Movie not being nominated for best animated feature just may be the most glaring-est of them all. Phil Lord and Chris Miller (behind the Jumpstreet reboot as well) created an often hilarious movie with heart to spare, and the way that the lego animation is manipulated is also on a virtuouso level. Shame on you, Academy.
The top 10 is coming in an undecided amount of installments to you very soon! Get excited!
There were a couple of glaring Oscar snubs this year, and Lego Movie not being nominated for best animated feature just may be the most glaring-est of them all. Phil Lord and Chris Miller (behind the Jumpstreet reboot as well) created an often hilarious movie with heart to spare, and the way that the lego animation is manipulated is also on a virtuouso level. Shame on you, Academy.
The top 10 is coming in an undecided amount of installments to you very soon! Get excited!
2014: #12
I had a grand plan to write about a bunch more movies for this post, but Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammed are out of cat food, and they eat this special stuff that only my vet carries, and my vet closes at 1 on Saturdays. Pretentious, right? Worry not, more later.
For now...
For now...
#12 The Grand Budapest Hotel
Is there such a thing as too much Wes Anderson? Is it possible to be Wes Anderson'd out?
That was my thought leaving the theater following his latest, I felt like his elaborate set pieces and visual symmetry and quirky dialogue and quick pans and wide-angle lenses had all worked to smack me around and leave my head spinning. And don't get me wrong--Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom are all top-five finishers. The dichotomy of Anderson fandom is that you hope he pushes the envelope, branches out a little bit, but you ultimately go to see his movies because you know exactly what you're going to get.
In "Zubrowka" lies the Grand Budapest Hotel, a dream set for history-loving Anderson, full of lush carpets and chandeliers and big stairs and wealthy upper-crust socialites on vacation. We are first introduced to it in 1968 through the eyes of Author (Jude Law), who visits the once prominent resort to find it somewhat bleak and empty. There he meets Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), the owner of the hotel, who he convinces to tell his story about how it all came to be. This takes us back to World War I, where a teenaged, pencil-mustachioed Zero (Tony Revolori) works as the lobby boy for Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), the sharp-talking concierge who is carrying on a relationship with the elderly Madame D (Tilda Swinton, in makeup and prosthetic). Fiennes' advice and mentoring of Zero are a thing of beauty as he loads him up with more and more responsibility. Shortly thereafter, Madame D has died back at her estate, and they travel there to be present for the reading of her will. In an amendment, her attorney says that her most valuable possession, a painting titled "Boy with Apple" is to be bequeathed to Gustave and not her son Dmitri (Adrien Brody). Refusing to wait for the matter to be investigated. Gustave and Zero take the painting off the wall (the painting they replace it with is the film's funniest sight gag) and run for it. From there the movie turns into a madcap caper, involving Dmitri's evil henchman (Willem Dafoe) and Inspector Henckels (Edward Norton) consistently tailing them, a prison break, vaults and lots of pastries.
This is a pretty great movie that would only be good were it not for the fantastic Ralph Fiennes. He is without a doubt one of my favorite actors working today, and as Gustave H, he carries the movie on his smarmy back, even in the moments when his confidence and charm are humbled. True, Anderson is in his comfort zone, in full auteur mode, but with the rest of the talented bunch (save Revolori) playing paperweight caricatures, it's only a bunch of pretty scenery without Fiennes.
Back with more later!
Friday, February 20, 2015
2014: #14 and #13
Apologies, folks. Had a busy night yesterday and I had to give a big presentation at work today.
It went well, thanks for asking.
We are about 48 hours away from the Oscars and it's time to finish this thing out!
#14 Guardians of the Galaxy
The newest money-grab for the Marvel comics/production company puts together a group of galactic lovable losers. Chris Pratt is Star-Lord, who listens to Blue Swede and Bowie on a cassette tape and walkman as he searches space for a mysterious orb that he knows will make him a bunch of money. Right after he snatches it out of a laser cage, Korath (Djimon Hounsou, of course) and his goons try to intercept it. They're unsuccessful. After Korath reports his failings back to evil space badass Ronan (Lee Pace), he sends Gamora (Zoe Saldana), daughter of Thanos (a big deal, if you read Marvel comics growing up) to get the orb. In a real Cantina on Mos-Eisley situation, both Gamora and two bounty hunters Rocket Raccoon (a gun-toting rodent voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (a regenerating tree voiced by Vin Diesel who knows how to say exactly three words) converge on Star-Lord while on planet Xandar to try and grab the orb. In the ensuing mess, all four are arrested and thrown in prison, where they meet Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista). Many prisoners, including Drax, are of the anti-Thanos POV, and before they can kill Gamora, they plot a ridiculous prison escape. The team is thusly formed.
It's a fun movie and a good romp through space. Dug the action, dug the visuals, dug the wittiness. Good times at the cineplex, and even if it got way too self-referential at times, it made a case for itself as a franchise that'll be around for a little bit.
#13 Interstellar
After the relative success of our production company's original musical "Oil Tutor" at the 2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival, I began getting my pitches ready to my two creative partners about what our entry could be for the summer 2014 edition of the annual theater smorgasbord. "It's called Noah's Spaceship," I told them. "It's a retelling of Noah's Ark, but on a spaceship. So there's this guy Noah, right? He's this hotshot engineer on a space colony who gets tasked with returning to an uninhabited earth to pick up the animals from the last remaining zoo and bring them back."
"So why aren't there animals on the space colony?" one of them asked.
"Well, they do have hologram animals," I said, digging myself further southward. "The thing is, they're getting bored with them because they only know how to do a couple of different motions."
"I'm confused. Does it take place on scorched earth, or on a colony, or what?" wondered the other.
"The first act would be them trying to convince them to get on the ship, kind of like the traveling salesman in The Music Man--"
"Wait...this is a musical?"
Not shockingly, it was a hard pass for both of them.We went on to make a much better play called "Comic-Con Clue", a riff on the board game/movie, only the murder takes place at a Comic-Con afterparty at a secluded mansion with guest of honor George R.R. Martin there to sign books. In some ways, it did even better than "Oil Tutor". I'll still make "Noah's Spaceship:the Musical". Someday.
I bring it up because I relayed this same story to a friend of mine, and when I got to the part about space colonies, he said "You mean like Interstellar?" At this point, the premise and plot of Interstellar was still being closely guarded surrounding the film's release. Unlike The Dark Knight and Inception (both #1s for me in their respective years), which more or less told you what was going to happen in their TV spots, all most of us knew about Interstellar was space, Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and an enormous, otherworldly tidal wave.
Here's what it is about: Cooper (McConaughey) and his kids Murph (Mackenzie Roy) and Tom (Timothee' Chalomet) are living on a planet that, exactly unlike Snowpiercer, is dying from being too hot and dry. Corn, still successfully growing, is served for every meal (hey, I like corn as much as the next guy, but every meal?) Meanwhile, Murph is freaking out that a ghost is haunting her room, shaking books around and causing general mayhem. They find that the force has written coordinates in the dust on the floor, leading them to drive to a fence. Deciding that the force probably wanted them to open the fence, they push through and end up at the new NASA "headquarters", where they find professor and former colleague John Brand (Michael Caine), his daughter (Hathaway) and scientists Doyle (Wes "flying plastic bag" Bentley) and Romilly (David Gyasi). Brand tells him he needs him as his pilot to take a ship through a black hole and to three potentially inhabitable planets to look into setting up--that's right--a space colony. The conundrum for Cooper becomes "do I try to save humanity, or do I stay here with my kids on this lousy planet and eat corn fritters?"
He chooses the former and the movie gets off and running. A fatal trip to Miller (the one with the tidal wave) has them trying to grab the previous astronaut's data while burning time; they calculate that one hour on this planet is equal to 7 years on earth, and they spend just over three hours. Now twenty-three years later, we meet Murph as an adult (Jessica Chastain) who is working for a much older Brand on trying to launch space stations. She sends video messages to Cooper, who absolutely loses his sh*t when he sees her grown up. But they've got one more planet to get to before they run out of fuel, and the results there are equally catastrophic.
I'll leave it at that...maybe I've Michael Stipe'd it and said too much. Interstellar is my least favorite Nolan movie, but that doesn't mean much and I enjoyed it all the same. At 2:49, it's a good 40 minutes too long, especially some of the scenes on earth that felt bloated and unnecessary. And for someone who had no qualms believing a giant pillar of smoke could chase Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly around a forest, I found aspects of Interstellar to be beyond far-fetched. That said, good performances, great to look at and listen to, and a father-daughter story that connects the whole thing like a constellation.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
2014: #15
It was the "year of compound word" in film titles. Including last night's The Overnighters, exactly half of the remaining movies on the countdown have compound words in their names.
I just blew your mind.
Next one up-
#15 Snowpiercer
Over the last decade or two, South Korea has truly carved out a niche for itself as an often dark, always-inventive producer of films that manage to stick with you. Movies like My Sassy Girl, A Tale of Two Sisters and Oldboy have all been attempted remakes, with some (A Tale of Two Sisters was remade as The Uninvited) more successful than others (Spike Lee's Oldboy reboot was apparently atrocious).
At the heart of the Korean new wave movement is director Bong Joon-ho, whose The Host, a 2006 sci-fi/horror mashup about a monster coming up from the Han river to wreak havoc on Seoul, is the highest-grossing Korean language film of all time. Snowpiercer is his first English-language film, and it's great. It's the year 2031, and thanks to a government overcorrection to try and block the advance of global warming, the whole planet is a ball of ice. The only survivors are circling the globe on the titular train, and it is set up in a fashion that reflects society: lower classes in the back of the train and the upper-crust up front. Chris Evans stars as Curtis Everett, an everyman who along with Edgar (Jamie Bell), Gilliam (John Hurt) and Tanya (Octavia Spencer), leads a revolt against the guards when they come to deliver protein blocks. From there, they free prisoner Namgoong (The Host star Song Kang-ho), the man who put together the security doors on Snowpiercer, and his daughter, offering them a stash of pure Kronole (futuristic cocaine) to unlock the doors as they move forward. Standing in their way are Mason (a grotesque-looking Tilda Swinton), the spokesperson and day-to-day operations manager for commander Wilfred, a terrifying armed schoolteacher (Alison Pill), Mason's top henchman Franco the Elder, and a seemingly endless supply of security personnel.
The film's tagline "Fight your way to the front" is exactly what they do, with Curtis refusing to stop until he gets an audience with Wilfred, regardless of body count (it's big, but who's counting?). It turns out the man behind the curtain has some information and horrifying secrets of his own about how his system has been built and how his engine runs. Korean filmmakers are known for blurring the line between genres, and somehow Snowpiercer manages to be a sci-fi thinker, an action-filled shoot 'em up, a social commentary and even in some instances, a horror (a fair amount of pretty gruesome axe/hatchet deaths and a couple of de-limbings). Its crazy resolution will play out in your head at least a few times once you've wrapped up. Bong Joon-ho is here to stay, folks.
I just blew your mind.
Next one up-
#15 Snowpiercer
Over the last decade or two, South Korea has truly carved out a niche for itself as an often dark, always-inventive producer of films that manage to stick with you. Movies like My Sassy Girl, A Tale of Two Sisters and Oldboy have all been attempted remakes, with some (A Tale of Two Sisters was remade as The Uninvited) more successful than others (Spike Lee's Oldboy reboot was apparently atrocious).
At the heart of the Korean new wave movement is director Bong Joon-ho, whose The Host, a 2006 sci-fi/horror mashup about a monster coming up from the Han river to wreak havoc on Seoul, is the highest-grossing Korean language film of all time. Snowpiercer is his first English-language film, and it's great. It's the year 2031, and thanks to a government overcorrection to try and block the advance of global warming, the whole planet is a ball of ice. The only survivors are circling the globe on the titular train, and it is set up in a fashion that reflects society: lower classes in the back of the train and the upper-crust up front. Chris Evans stars as Curtis Everett, an everyman who along with Edgar (Jamie Bell), Gilliam (John Hurt) and Tanya (Octavia Spencer), leads a revolt against the guards when they come to deliver protein blocks. From there, they free prisoner Namgoong (The Host star Song Kang-ho), the man who put together the security doors on Snowpiercer, and his daughter, offering them a stash of pure Kronole (futuristic cocaine) to unlock the doors as they move forward. Standing in their way are Mason (a grotesque-looking Tilda Swinton), the spokesperson and day-to-day operations manager for commander Wilfred, a terrifying armed schoolteacher (Alison Pill), Mason's top henchman Franco the Elder, and a seemingly endless supply of security personnel.
The film's tagline "Fight your way to the front" is exactly what they do, with Curtis refusing to stop until he gets an audience with Wilfred, regardless of body count (it's big, but who's counting?). It turns out the man behind the curtain has some information and horrifying secrets of his own about how his system has been built and how his engine runs. Korean filmmakers are known for blurring the line between genres, and somehow Snowpiercer manages to be a sci-fi thinker, an action-filled shoot 'em up, a social commentary and even in some instances, a horror (a fair amount of pretty gruesome axe/hatchet deaths and a couple of de-limbings). Its crazy resolution will play out in your head at least a few times once you've wrapped up. Bong Joon-ho is here to stay, folks.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
2014: #17 & #16
I've got a new chant. Ready?
British! Actors! Playing flawed geniuses!
British! Actors! Playing flawed geniuses!
British! Actors! Play-
#17 The Imitation Game
Our second "actor plays flawed British genius" movie in a row on the countdown is also the second Oscar nominee in a row. Remember when all Benedict Cumberbatch was doing was reinventing Sherlock Holmes as we know it? Well since then, the kid's been busy. Beyond outstanding supporting turns in Twelve Years a Slave and August: Osage County, he's taken on infamous real-life villainy (The Fifth Estate), space-icon reboot villainy (Star Trek Into Darkness) and giant CGI fantasy novel icon villainy (The Desolation of Smaug). This time, he gets to be one of the good icons, British hero Alan Turing, whose code cracking of the Nazi Enigma is credited for helping to end World War II. And, oh yeah-he's also considered by just about everybody to be the godfather of modern computers.
So did Cumberbatch do him proud? Hell yes. The social anxieties are on full display as Cumberbatch demonstrates a man who can't quite connect with people because he can't figure out a way to break them down into algorithms. And unfortunately, neither can the movie; Turing's (with the possible exception of Keira Knightley's Joan Clarke) is the only character who isn't completely underdeveloped and one dimensional. That, the fact that the movie tiptoes lightly around Turing's homosexuality (which eventually led to his demise), and the cut-aways to "war" footage which looked remarkably like close-ups of model tanks and B2 bombers in an 11-year old's bedroom were the detractors in an otherwise great movie that educates us feeble-minded on what Enigma was without making us feel stupid. The spotlight belongs to Cumberbatch, in one of the most perfectly calculated and skillfully restrained performances in recent memory.
#16 The Overnighters
At the heart of most religions lies one basic ideal: love thy neighbor. Pastor Jay Reineke, of Williston, North Dakota makes the case again and again in a captivating documentary called The Overnighters. At the height of the recent oil boom, his church offers refuge and housing to the packs and packs of men descending on the community hoping to make a life for themselves or money to send back to their families.
The principles of supply and demand have clamped down their unruly claws on the town, and there isn't a bed or piece of land in town that isn't laughably overpriced. Reineke's church, over the course of a two-year period, allows around 1,000 men to sleep in the cafeterias and gym. They sleep on mats, sleeping bags, towels and whatever else they can find, in exchange for some light help around the church. The film spends the majority of its runtime focusing on Pastor Reineke, but there are fascinating stories shared with both him and the director by the men who have sacrificed their livelihood to be in the middle of nowhere. Their outlooks run the gamut of discouraged and desolate to willing and able, and both the gleam in their eyes and the lack thereof are as real as it can be.
After a while, the church begins to question Reineke's motives, especially after he offers to house a ex-con in his family's basement. He responds to their criticism with the rhetorical "So if we're supposedly good Christians, then why are we turning our backs on these men?" He argues that everyone deserves a fresh start, and in an unexpected and shocking way, eventually becomes his own self-fulfilling prophecy. It's a movie that leads to big-picture discussions and moral-compass checks, and one that you won't be able to shake. If you can find it, it's a must-see.
2014: #18
It's at this point in the countdown where things sort to start of wash together. 18 are left, 7 of which are nominated for best picture, and it feels like one has to sort of nit-pick to make their points as to why they are further down the list than others. It's a bit of a challenge; in grading terms, everything from here forward would probably be a B+ or higher. By all means, argue away.
And speaking of best picture nominees...
#18 The Theory of Everything
The only acting race left that isn't a forgone conclusion is for the best actor statuette. It's a two-man round of the final curve for Birdman's Michael Keaton, the grizzled veteran, who shockingly has never to this point been nominated, and Eddie Redmayne, the bright-eyed youngster who devoted himself to learning and practicing each and every tic of famous, debilitated scientist Stephen Hawking. It's been a pretty even award-season split, even down to them both winning best acting Golden Globes, Keaton for best performance in a musical or comedy and Redmayne for best dramatic performance. If I were voting, I give the nod to Redmayne, who was absolutely remarkable. If the film itself were quite as staggering as his performance, you'd be reading about this bad boy in a few days.
Biopics are often tricky business. How do you do the real, true to life human being that your protagonist is based on justice in telling their story, and are you finding ways to keep the material accurate? What are your focal points? What's the thesis statement of your photo essay? The Theory of Everything is based on his ex-wife Jane Hawking's memoir Traveling to Infinity, which chronicles their life together over the course of their 30-year relationship. The film came under fire for Hollywooding the story more than it should have, especially when it came to the treatment of Jane (Felicity Jones) herself. Yes, it got the Hollywood treatment. It's a MOVIE.
Quick hits: Stephen meets Jane at Cambridge in 1963 and they fall quickly in love. He is a promising young physicist at this point who is wowing all of his professors and colleagues. A couple of years later, after a slow-motion fall, he is diagnosed with motor neuron disease and his body and vocals begin to rapidly deteriorate. Through all this, Jane sticks by him and they begin a family, all while Stephen develops his theory that black holes were present during the creation of the universe. As he gets worse, he manages to gain more fame, which furthers her from her own personal ambitions. She finds extracurricular solace in church choir conductor Jonathan (Charlie Cox), who eventually comes to live with them and help out as well. They admit feelings for each other, but manage to keep it above the waist. In 1985, Stephen gets pneumonia and nearly dies; the only thing that saves him is a tracheotomy that will knock out his voice and eventually lead to the advent of his now-famous computerized voice. Not too long after, Stephen bonds with his personal nurse Elaine (Maxine Leake) and decides to leave Jane for her.
The movie does get trapped in the biopic blueprint, and I found myself wishing there were more sequences with Hawking explaining what was churning around in that wonderful brain of his. But wow, is Eddie Redmayne terrific, especially from a physical standpoint. And as a wife who couldn't possibly be more put-upon, Jones is nearly his equal. They both deserve the accolades they are getting. I read somewhere that Hawking a) wrote to director James Marsh and said he thought was watching himself, and b) shed tears at the first screening. Doesn't get much better than that.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
2014: #19
#19 Begin Again
'07 was potentially the best year for film in recent history. Two movies--Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood--are certain to go down as New American Classics in our cinematic lexicon. Beyond that: Juno, the too-real take on teen pregnancy that sent Ellen Page and Minnesota's own Diablo Cody hurtling into pop-culture infamy; Michael Clayton, one of the best performances of George Clooney's career as the titular corporate fixer; Gone Baby Gone, Boston noir at its absolute finest and Ben Affleck's directing debut; and plenty of other standouts like nature confessional Into the Wild, family dramedy The Savages, animated political commentary Persepolis. The list goes on. Even with all of that, my favorite movie of that year--and honestly, it wasn't even close--was a little indie musical from Ireland called Once.
The man responsible for bringing Once to the big screen is John Carney, ex-bandmate of star Glen Hansard in the Frames. His latest music movie, Begin Again, came in with an $8,000,000 budget, roughly 45 times the budget of his previous one. If Clerks and Jar-Jar Binks taught us anything, bigger budgets does not always a better movie make. I had impossibly high expectations for this one, so disappointment would be considered a relative term.
Gretta (Keira Knightley) and Dave (Adam Levine) are living in New York after he has recently signed a big time deal. Eventually, he gets a case of the wandering eyes and Gretta hits the bricks, lost and distraught. Equally lost and distraught is record exec Dan (Mark Ruffalo), who can't seem to bring once-subordinate-now-boss Saul (Mos Def/Yaasin Bey) any worthwhile music. He's struggling with raising Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) and keeping ex-wife Miriam (Catherine Keener) off his back. Possible salvation comes in the form of Gretta, who he stumbles upon singing in a Soho nightclub. He convinces her to make an album with him in a truly organic fashion (including a cool montage in which they record outside), and it just might be the thing they both need. Everyone is good, especially the leads, and though it didn't come close to resonating with me emotionally in the same way that Once did, it was a fun, uplifting romp through New York in the eyes of musicians.
Back here with more tomorrow!
'07 was potentially the best year for film in recent history. Two movies--Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood--are certain to go down as New American Classics in our cinematic lexicon. Beyond that: Juno, the too-real take on teen pregnancy that sent Ellen Page and Minnesota's own Diablo Cody hurtling into pop-culture infamy; Michael Clayton, one of the best performances of George Clooney's career as the titular corporate fixer; Gone Baby Gone, Boston noir at its absolute finest and Ben Affleck's directing debut; and plenty of other standouts like nature confessional Into the Wild, family dramedy The Savages, animated political commentary Persepolis. The list goes on. Even with all of that, my favorite movie of that year--and honestly, it wasn't even close--was a little indie musical from Ireland called Once.
The man responsible for bringing Once to the big screen is John Carney, ex-bandmate of star Glen Hansard in the Frames. His latest music movie, Begin Again, came in with an $8,000,000 budget, roughly 45 times the budget of his previous one. If Clerks and Jar-Jar Binks taught us anything, bigger budgets does not always a better movie make. I had impossibly high expectations for this one, so disappointment would be considered a relative term.
Gretta (Keira Knightley) and Dave (Adam Levine) are living in New York after he has recently signed a big time deal. Eventually, he gets a case of the wandering eyes and Gretta hits the bricks, lost and distraught. Equally lost and distraught is record exec Dan (Mark Ruffalo), who can't seem to bring once-subordinate-now-boss Saul (Mos Def/Yaasin Bey) any worthwhile music. He's struggling with raising Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) and keeping ex-wife Miriam (Catherine Keener) off his back. Possible salvation comes in the form of Gretta, who he stumbles upon singing in a Soho nightclub. He convinces her to make an album with him in a truly organic fashion (including a cool montage in which they record outside), and it just might be the thing they both need. Everyone is good, especially the leads, and though it didn't come close to resonating with me emotionally in the same way that Once did, it was a fun, uplifting romp through New York in the eyes of musicians.
Back here with more tomorrow!
2014: #20a
Readers, I've miscounted again. Can you believe this s*@t?
I assure you, it will all add up/work out in the end.
Get it together, Mulhern! (shouts profanities, headbutts mirror, etc.)
#20a How to Train Your Dragon 2
There's a scene in Clerks where Dante and Randall are discussing the merits of Empire Strikes Back vs. the merits of Return of the Jedi. Before Randall launches into his brilliant take on the construction politics surrounding the building of the second Death Star, he simply asks "Which one you like better? Empire or Jedi?" Dante, ever the cynic responds: "Empire...it has the better ending. Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets froze and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's all life is...a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of muppets."
If the lovable Dragon series goes trilogy, which I imagine it will, consider the second installment its Empire Strikes Back. The tone is twice as serious and glum as the first, and it made watching it at times a little more excruciating. We have fast-forwarded a few years in the future, and Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is still attached at the hip to his Night Fury dragon counterpart Toothless. Now that the village has come to revere the scaled beasts, dragons are being utilized for recreation, racing and companionship. Stoick (Gerard Butler) is hoping that Hiccup is ready to take the reins as the leader of their Viking clan when the time is right, but Hiccup has other ideas. One day he and Astrid (America Ferrara) are out exploring ice caves with their dragons when they come across dragon trapper Eret (Kit Harrington, AKA GoT's Jon Snow) who is working for evil warlord Drago (Dijmon Honsou). They fly back to warn Stoick and co. about it, and though he tells them to help fortify the town, they defy him and go try to talk to Drago instead. On the way, they're captured by a different trapper--an older woman named Valka (Cate Blanchett) who turns out to be Hiccup's long lost mother. Soon after, Hiccup, along with both his parents, Astrid and others, are in a deadly trap set by Drago, who boasts a gargantuan Alpha dragon (the mothership, essentially) named Bewilderbeast.
Baruchel nails the confusion and angst of Hiccup as he works through the pitfalls of Viking adolescence. Everyone else is serviceable, and obviously Honsou's voice alone can move animated mountains. There are sad moments throughout, but the toughest part comes when our prodragonist Toothless, under the mind control of the Bewilderbeast, does something unthinkable. The biggest strength may just be the animation itself. If it's more complex than the first, it looks even better, with the seas and mountains of Scandinavia appearing inherently real and the flight of the dragons a thing of beauty.
I assure you, it will all add up/work out in the end.
Get it together, Mulhern! (shouts profanities, headbutts mirror, etc.)
#20a How to Train Your Dragon 2
There's a scene in Clerks where Dante and Randall are discussing the merits of Empire Strikes Back vs. the merits of Return of the Jedi. Before Randall launches into his brilliant take on the construction politics surrounding the building of the second Death Star, he simply asks "Which one you like better? Empire or Jedi?" Dante, ever the cynic responds: "Empire...it has the better ending. Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets froze and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's all life is...a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of muppets."
If the lovable Dragon series goes trilogy, which I imagine it will, consider the second installment its Empire Strikes Back. The tone is twice as serious and glum as the first, and it made watching it at times a little more excruciating. We have fast-forwarded a few years in the future, and Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is still attached at the hip to his Night Fury dragon counterpart Toothless. Now that the village has come to revere the scaled beasts, dragons are being utilized for recreation, racing and companionship. Stoick (Gerard Butler) is hoping that Hiccup is ready to take the reins as the leader of their Viking clan when the time is right, but Hiccup has other ideas. One day he and Astrid (America Ferrara) are out exploring ice caves with their dragons when they come across dragon trapper Eret (Kit Harrington, AKA GoT's Jon Snow) who is working for evil warlord Drago (Dijmon Honsou). They fly back to warn Stoick and co. about it, and though he tells them to help fortify the town, they defy him and go try to talk to Drago instead. On the way, they're captured by a different trapper--an older woman named Valka (Cate Blanchett) who turns out to be Hiccup's long lost mother. Soon after, Hiccup, along with both his parents, Astrid and others, are in a deadly trap set by Drago, who boasts a gargantuan Alpha dragon (the mothership, essentially) named Bewilderbeast.
Baruchel nails the confusion and angst of Hiccup as he works through the pitfalls of Viking adolescence. Everyone else is serviceable, and obviously Honsou's voice alone can move animated mountains. There are sad moments throughout, but the toughest part comes when our prodragonist Toothless, under the mind control of the Bewilderbeast, does something unthinkable. The biggest strength may just be the animation itself. If it's more complex than the first, it looks even better, with the seas and mountains of Scandinavia appearing inherently real and the flight of the dragons a thing of beauty.
Monday, February 16, 2015
2014: #22-#20
Congratulations to Ben Gurstelle, who answered the trivia question correctly and won himself a signed copy of Everybody Wants You Dead, and congrats to me who doesn't have to spend any money on postage to send it!
The correct answer, by the way:
The two films of the last 50 years to "sweep" the Oscars were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Meanwhile, let's move toward the top 20, shall we?
#22 American Sniper
The last of the Oscar nominees for me to see, and quite frankly, I may end up pushing it up in the rankings before I finalize it. That's because I saw it today. #22 is probably fair, but I may think on it a little more.
To Clint Eastwood's credit, I don't think he took a political stance here. Knowing he and his empty chair, I was kind of surprised that he didn't take the opportunity. This is an objective, fact-checked account of the life of Jesse Ventura-punching military specialist Chris Kyle. I don't think it's any secret that Eastwood considers Kyle a hero, as do many Americans, but him being presented in such a human way was pretty refreshing. The main problem I had was that the film held probably a 60 to 40 combat-to-stateside ratio, and the material back home was in my opinion, far stronger and more compelling.
The story is a pretty simple one. Chris Kyle, originally a rodeo cowboy with little direction, joins the military at age 30. While training to be a navy seal, he meets Taya (Sienna Miller) at a bar and, not long after they drink until she vomits, they begin dating and eventually marry on a ship. While on the ship, one of the homies gets a phone call: They're being deployed. From there, Eastwood toggles between combat (lots and lots of combat), Kyle's childhood, and the big moments back home. He's deployed four times total, and over the course of those deployments, he's credited with 160 kills, which to me is unfathomable. Eastwood focuses on a few of those greatest hits, including ones that are terrible to watch (one of the early sequences shows him choosing to pull the trigger on a grenade-carrying child and mother) and even harder for Kyle to live with.
Bradley Cooper ranged from good to great, but I think he occupies a nominee slot that two men, who will be mentioned later, deserved more (one obvious and controversial, the other a little less so). You could tell through his breathing and technique that his portrayal of Chris Kyle showed a lot of tension and restraint in regards to the job he had to do. Where he really shined, thought, was as a man trying to adjust and make sense of a life without his rifle. His thoughts and confusion were conveyed simply by the look on his face.
#21 The Fault in Our Stars
Fault in Our Stars over American effing Sniper? What's wrong with you, Mulhern?
I guess all I can say is "Haters gon' hate hate hate hate hate..."
This book was cheap on my Nook, so I bought it a while back when I saw one of my 6th graders reading it and wanted to check it out as well. John Green's book is great at capturing the skepticism of teenage life, regardless of the fact that his main character Hazel happens to be dying of cancer. Director Josh Boone, who's last credit was the quiet indie Stuck in Love, is true to both the story and the tone of the book without sacrificing a whole hell of a lot.
Shailene Woodley is Hazel, and Ansel Elgort is Augustus "Gus" Waters. They meet at a cancer support group in the basement of a church through mutual pal Isaac (Nat Wolff) as Patrick (comedian Mike Birbiglia) guides them through "sharing" time. When they meet outside, he has an unlit cigarette in his mouth. "The cigarette is a metaphor," he tells her. "You put the thing right between your teeth that has the power to kill you, but you never let it do the killing." They both have their simpatico "cancer perks" issues--plus his prosthetic leg and her oxygen tank--and they certainly crush on each other, but they don't truly bond until they both read Dutch author Peter Van Houten's (Willem Dafoe) An Imperial Affliction, he for the first time and her for the umpteenth. He decides to use his Make-a-Wish wish on a trip to Amsterdam to go meet Van Houten, with Hazel's mom (Laura Dern) cautiously chaperoning. The trip and subsequent meeting has its ups and downs, and they return to America with their hearts damaged nearly up to the stunning conclusion.
I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't a tearjerker, but in many ways it feels equally as life-affirming. Most of my issues with the film are issues that stem from reading the book (I feel like no one could possibly be as charming as the Gus character in real life, and I got really sick of him calling her "Hazel Grace" instead of just Hazel, and her calling him "Augustus Waters" instead of just Gus; I found it trite). All in all, a very solid cast and a well-structured adaptation that, from all that I've read, satisfied its readers.
#20 The Skeleton Twins
I'm a sucker for Bill Hader. Who isn't? Without him, how would we know about New York's hottest nightclubs such as Wesh, Kevin? and Your Mother and I Are Separating? Where would we get our passwords into said clubs? How would we know the definition of the "Human Roomba"?
Stefon gaffs aside, Hader stepped boldly into new territory in playing one half of the skeleton twins, Milo Dean. We meet him in his Northwest apartment, blasting music and getting in the tub. Offscreen, he cuts his wrists and the water turns a bright red. Meanwhile, on the other end of the country his twin sister Maggie (Kristin Wiig) is getting ready to pound a dangerous amount of pills when her phone rings. She flies off to visit Milo in the hospital and it becomes clear early on that their relationship has been nonexistent for the last decade. She takes one look at his suicide note ("To whom it may concern. See ya later.") and invites him back to their hometown in upstate New York to stay with her and her husband, the obnoxiously affable Mitch (Luke Wilson) until he is back on his feet. There are unresolved issues both past (Milo's affair with his high school English teacher, played convincingly by Ty Burrell) and present (Maggie's dalliance with her scuba instructor, played by Boyd Holbrook) that come to the forefront early on, and are confronted throughout the movie. Their being back together after so long is equal parts comforting and caustic, and eventually their meddling in each other's stuff brings up a number of past issues (exacerbated by a dinner visit by their awful mother) that threaten to split them up up once again.
Both Wiig and Hader are outstanding and worthy of much more recognition than they got as the fragile, damaged-goods, acerbically witty Dean twins. And Burrell, who has trailblazer a career path entirely on being goofy, nailed a dramatic turn. It's a movie that is at times hard to watch but always captivating, the perfect balance of drama and comedy, anchored by these talented SNL vets.
Back tomorrow with more!
The correct answer, by the way:
The two films of the last 50 years to "sweep" the Oscars were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Meanwhile, let's move toward the top 20, shall we?
#22 American Sniper
The last of the Oscar nominees for me to see, and quite frankly, I may end up pushing it up in the rankings before I finalize it. That's because I saw it today. #22 is probably fair, but I may think on it a little more.
To Clint Eastwood's credit, I don't think he took a political stance here. Knowing he and his empty chair, I was kind of surprised that he didn't take the opportunity. This is an objective, fact-checked account of the life of Jesse Ventura-punching military specialist Chris Kyle. I don't think it's any secret that Eastwood considers Kyle a hero, as do many Americans, but him being presented in such a human way was pretty refreshing. The main problem I had was that the film held probably a 60 to 40 combat-to-stateside ratio, and the material back home was in my opinion, far stronger and more compelling.
The story is a pretty simple one. Chris Kyle, originally a rodeo cowboy with little direction, joins the military at age 30. While training to be a navy seal, he meets Taya (Sienna Miller) at a bar and, not long after they drink until she vomits, they begin dating and eventually marry on a ship. While on the ship, one of the homies gets a phone call: They're being deployed. From there, Eastwood toggles between combat (lots and lots of combat), Kyle's childhood, and the big moments back home. He's deployed four times total, and over the course of those deployments, he's credited with 160 kills, which to me is unfathomable. Eastwood focuses on a few of those greatest hits, including ones that are terrible to watch (one of the early sequences shows him choosing to pull the trigger on a grenade-carrying child and mother) and even harder for Kyle to live with.
Bradley Cooper ranged from good to great, but I think he occupies a nominee slot that two men, who will be mentioned later, deserved more (one obvious and controversial, the other a little less so). You could tell through his breathing and technique that his portrayal of Chris Kyle showed a lot of tension and restraint in regards to the job he had to do. Where he really shined, thought, was as a man trying to adjust and make sense of a life without his rifle. His thoughts and confusion were conveyed simply by the look on his face.
#21 The Fault in Our Stars
Fault in Our Stars over American effing Sniper? What's wrong with you, Mulhern?
I guess all I can say is "Haters gon' hate hate hate hate hate..."
This book was cheap on my Nook, so I bought it a while back when I saw one of my 6th graders reading it and wanted to check it out as well. John Green's book is great at capturing the skepticism of teenage life, regardless of the fact that his main character Hazel happens to be dying of cancer. Director Josh Boone, who's last credit was the quiet indie Stuck in Love, is true to both the story and the tone of the book without sacrificing a whole hell of a lot.
Shailene Woodley is Hazel, and Ansel Elgort is Augustus "Gus" Waters. They meet at a cancer support group in the basement of a church through mutual pal Isaac (Nat Wolff) as Patrick (comedian Mike Birbiglia) guides them through "sharing" time. When they meet outside, he has an unlit cigarette in his mouth. "The cigarette is a metaphor," he tells her. "You put the thing right between your teeth that has the power to kill you, but you never let it do the killing." They both have their simpatico "cancer perks" issues--plus his prosthetic leg and her oxygen tank--and they certainly crush on each other, but they don't truly bond until they both read Dutch author Peter Van Houten's (Willem Dafoe) An Imperial Affliction, he for the first time and her for the umpteenth. He decides to use his Make-a-Wish wish on a trip to Amsterdam to go meet Van Houten, with Hazel's mom (Laura Dern) cautiously chaperoning. The trip and subsequent meeting has its ups and downs, and they return to America with their hearts damaged nearly up to the stunning conclusion.
I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't a tearjerker, but in many ways it feels equally as life-affirming. Most of my issues with the film are issues that stem from reading the book (I feel like no one could possibly be as charming as the Gus character in real life, and I got really sick of him calling her "Hazel Grace" instead of just Hazel, and her calling him "Augustus Waters" instead of just Gus; I found it trite). All in all, a very solid cast and a well-structured adaptation that, from all that I've read, satisfied its readers.
#20 The Skeleton Twins
I'm a sucker for Bill Hader. Who isn't? Without him, how would we know about New York's hottest nightclubs such as Wesh, Kevin? and Your Mother and I Are Separating? Where would we get our passwords into said clubs? How would we know the definition of the "Human Roomba"?
Stefon gaffs aside, Hader stepped boldly into new territory in playing one half of the skeleton twins, Milo Dean. We meet him in his Northwest apartment, blasting music and getting in the tub. Offscreen, he cuts his wrists and the water turns a bright red. Meanwhile, on the other end of the country his twin sister Maggie (Kristin Wiig) is getting ready to pound a dangerous amount of pills when her phone rings. She flies off to visit Milo in the hospital and it becomes clear early on that their relationship has been nonexistent for the last decade. She takes one look at his suicide note ("To whom it may concern. See ya later.") and invites him back to their hometown in upstate New York to stay with her and her husband, the obnoxiously affable Mitch (Luke Wilson) until he is back on his feet. There are unresolved issues both past (Milo's affair with his high school English teacher, played convincingly by Ty Burrell) and present (Maggie's dalliance with her scuba instructor, played by Boyd Holbrook) that come to the forefront early on, and are confronted throughout the movie. Their being back together after so long is equal parts comforting and caustic, and eventually their meddling in each other's stuff brings up a number of past issues (exacerbated by a dinner visit by their awful mother) that threaten to split them up up once again.
Both Wiig and Hader are outstanding and worthy of much more recognition than they got as the fragile, damaged-goods, acerbically witty Dean twins. And Burrell, who has trailblazer a career path entirely on being goofy, nailed a dramatic turn. It's a movie that is at times hard to watch but always captivating, the perfect balance of drama and comedy, anchored by these talented SNL vets.
Back tomorrow with more!
2014 Movies: #25, #24 and #23
Readers, the Mulhern at the Movies blog has just gone over 5,000 hits! I guess it's not all that impressive when you consider that this is over the course of 89 posts, so the average is something like 60 hits per post, but hey-sometimes in life you have to celebrate the little things.
And in celebration, I am giving away a free signed copy of my mystery/thriller Everybody Wants You Dead to the first person that can correctly answer this Oscar trivia question:
*A so-called "sweep" of the Oscars is when a movie takes home awards for best film, director, actress, actor and screenplay. In the history of the Academy Awards, this has happened 3 times, and only twice in the last 50 years.
Can you name the two movies that "swept" the Oscars in the last fifty years?
Send me a message with your guesses. If you are correct, you will win fame, glory and a signed book!
Good luck. Let's start the top 25 of 2014, shall we?
#25 Edge of Tomorrow
There is a part of me that remembers the permeating preview for this movie more than the movie itself. You know, the one where Emily Blunt does this move? And some auto-tuned EDM artist sings "This is not...the end" over and over while gatling guns pop and mecha-robot aliens loom over Tom Cruise and buildings explode? The first time I saw this preview was while several of us were watching Desolation of Smaug at Eastgate Cinema circa Christmas 2013, and one friend turns to me and says "soundtrack by Antoine Dodson." I have seen the preview for this film almost as much as the one for the $82 million juggernaut Fifty Shades of Grey, which I can almost quote in its entirety.
"I have a very...singular...taste. You...wouldn't understand"
We're getting off topic. Edge of Tomorrow pits Mr. Cruise against a race of "Mimics", an alien race that has come to earth via meteor strike, which feels slightly like something out of a scientology text. Much like the X-Men vs. the sentinels in Days of Future Past, human soldiers throughout the world have been getting their asses handed to them, despite being outfitted in battery-powered mecha suits. Cruise plays William Cage, a military public relations officer, who is ordered to report on a battle on the beaches of Northern France (why screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie chose to draw parallels to the storming of Normandy is beyond me). When Cage refuses, General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) has him marked as a deserter and he is sent to Heathrow Airport, where Sargent Farrell (Bill Paxton) has a battle suit strapped on him to storm the beach with the rest of them. In the catastrophic assault, Cage kerplodes a giant mimic but is sprayed with its acid-blood as a result and dies in the wet sand.
Dies, as it turns out, is a relative term; he wakes up back at Heathrow, having the exact same conversation with Farrell that he had earlier that morning. "This is going to fail," he tells them. "How else would I know exactly what you're going to say before you say it?" Their attitude is something along the lines of "Well, that is a strange coincidence, but get on that plane and go kill some meteor aliens for us, would ya?" This is when the "Live. Die. Repeat." slogan begins to rear its catchy head, as each time Cage dies on the beach, he wakes on the same luggage bags at Heathrow, left to come up with some way to alter the course of his dystopian Groundhog Day narrative. Finally, a cog in the gears--he meets war hero Rita Vrataski (Blunt) who tells him that she knows what's happening to him and to "find her again when he wakes up." She adds, "I'll probably be sweaty and doing this." When they connect again, she tells him he knows his skill of being able to reset the battle and make adjustments because until she received a blood transfusion, she had the same skill; he got it from the Mimic's blood that he killed on day 1. This information takes the film in a more lighthearted direction. Now each time he dies and wakes up, he seeks out Vrataski to get training, and the sequences are humorous and clever.
Ultimately, they figure out a way to take down the Mimics, and it's kind of dopey and convoluted. But the ride up to that point is highly entertaining. Edge of Tomorrow is based on a Manga graphic novel called "All You Need is Kill" that draws comparisons to both Starship Troopers and the video game Halo. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Edge of Tomorrow is very much like watching a video game unfold on screen. You screw up, you die, you start over, this time trying not to make the same mistakes. Everyone has to get hit by a few fireballs before they teach themselves how to take down Bowser, right? It's all part of the process.
#24 They Came Together
In 2001, a little indie movie called Wet Hot American Summer made its way to the big screen briefly before it almost disappeared forever into obscurity. Then, a funny thing happened: It got new life as a massive cult hit. A friend of mine once showed it to me in her sorority bedroom (it wasn't like that, you guys) and we laughed like crazy. I guess part of me couldn't quite understand why it wasn't bigger, either. The cast was insane! It featured, among others, Janeane Garafolo, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Meloni, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. It's just been announced that they will be making a miniseries continuation on Netflix with just about all of the principal players returning, and plenty of cult cinephiles are drooling already.
I bring this up because Wet Hot was written by Michael Showalter and David Wain, with Wain also handling directorial business. More than a decade later, the duo teamed back up for They Came Together, starring WHAS alums Rudd and Poehler. They Came Together is a spoofball satire of romantic comedies, with one friend of mine drawing comparisons between it and Airplane! I didn't know what to expect, but I guess I figured that with Rudd and Poehler at the helm, it would be worth a watch. Turns out I was right-I guffawed and chortled and hit just about every point on the laugh spectrum.
Joel and Molly (Rudd and Poehler) are out to dinner with friends (Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper) when they are asked how their relationship came to be. Then it's a he-said, she-added-on retelling of how they met, each cliche' more spot-on than the next. They meet and dislike each other immediately--he is a corporate schmuck who is trying to buy out her specialty candy store. They unknowingly show up to the same Halloween party in matching Ben Franklin costumes and deny vehemently that "they came together". It is mentioned about 100 times that one of the characters in their love story is New York City, and plenty of formula interactions with the Big Apple ensue: talking to strangers, juggling fruit at a corner market, playing basketball in the park, getting splashed with taxi puddle water. Of course they eventually fall for each other, and every romantic comedy move is employed, down to the "her making him taste pasta sauce on a wooden spoon" and "awkward fall down the stairs after getting herself dolled up." The supporting cast, like Wet Hot, is enormous and features Keenan Thompson, Ken Marino, Jack McBrayer, Melanie Lynskey, Colbie Smulders and WHAS returns Meloni and Michael Ian Black. The detractors of this movie, and there were plenty of them, didn't care for it simply because they expected something different and got a rom-com send up. If you take that knowledge with you going in, you'll laugh until it hurts and see that Rudd and Poehler have the ability to make even the most stale look fresh and new.
#23 Pride
In 1984, under the iron-fisted rule of Margaret Thatcher, British miners went on strike to protest the closing of 20 coal pits that would lead to thousands and thousands of layoffs. Also being brought under attack by Thatcher: the LGBT community throughout the United Kingdom. Searching for kindred spirits to help bring their voices to the forefront, a group fronted by activists Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) and Mike Jackson (Joe Gilgun) start raising money for the miners and try to form an alliance. Their efforts are shut down by members of the National Union of Mineworkers, who don't want to be openly associated with the gays. Instead, the Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners campaign crew takes a bus trip to a small mining town in Wales and ultimately forges a connection with the down-and-out coal miners and the surrounding community. Every now and again they come up against the close-minded and are bombarded with nastiness, but for the most part, the queries about the differences in lifestyle are dealt with in an innocent and accepting fashion.
This is a true story that is handled extremely well by director Matthew Warchus, who is most known for his stage adaptations for Royal Shakespeare company and various award-winning British musicals. Much of the story is told through the eyes of the one fictional/composite character, a teenager named Joe Bromley (George MacKay), a gay teenager who experiences his first activism and love as their Support the Miners crusade takes them from inception to completion. Schnetzer and Gilgun are both outstanding as two heroic young lads who put everything on the line to champion their cause. The heroes on the Welsh side of things are portrayed convincingly by veterans Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Paddy Consindine, who approach the situation with varying degrees of concern and humility. Another standout is Dominic "Jimmy McNulty" West as Jonathan Blake, an older member of LGBT community who helps bridge the two factions as somewhat of a figurehead. It's not altogether too surprising, unfortunately, that there was controversy surrounding the release of the film in oft-uptight Britain; it was given a R-rating almost entirely because of a couple of homosexual kissing scenes, and descriptor "a group of Lesbian and Gay activists" was changed to "a group of London-based activists" on the DVD banner. That didn't stop it from a standing ovation at Cannes, one that was entirely deserved for bravely taking on what is still a sore subject in many sectors of Britain.
More to come! Stay tuned!
And in celebration, I am giving away a free signed copy of my mystery/thriller Everybody Wants You Dead to the first person that can correctly answer this Oscar trivia question:
*A so-called "sweep" of the Oscars is when a movie takes home awards for best film, director, actress, actor and screenplay. In the history of the Academy Awards, this has happened 3 times, and only twice in the last 50 years.
Can you name the two movies that "swept" the Oscars in the last fifty years?
Send me a message with your guesses. If you are correct, you will win fame, glory and a signed book!
Good luck. Let's start the top 25 of 2014, shall we?
#25 Edge of Tomorrow
There is a part of me that remembers the permeating preview for this movie more than the movie itself. You know, the one where Emily Blunt does this move? And some auto-tuned EDM artist sings "This is not...the end" over and over while gatling guns pop and mecha-robot aliens loom over Tom Cruise and buildings explode? The first time I saw this preview was while several of us were watching Desolation of Smaug at Eastgate Cinema circa Christmas 2013, and one friend turns to me and says "soundtrack by Antoine Dodson." I have seen the preview for this film almost as much as the one for the $82 million juggernaut Fifty Shades of Grey, which I can almost quote in its entirety.
"I have a very...singular...taste. You...wouldn't understand"
We're getting off topic. Edge of Tomorrow pits Mr. Cruise against a race of "Mimics", an alien race that has come to earth via meteor strike, which feels slightly like something out of a scientology text. Much like the X-Men vs. the sentinels in Days of Future Past, human soldiers throughout the world have been getting their asses handed to them, despite being outfitted in battery-powered mecha suits. Cruise plays William Cage, a military public relations officer, who is ordered to report on a battle on the beaches of Northern France (why screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie chose to draw parallels to the storming of Normandy is beyond me). When Cage refuses, General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) has him marked as a deserter and he is sent to Heathrow Airport, where Sargent Farrell (Bill Paxton) has a battle suit strapped on him to storm the beach with the rest of them. In the catastrophic assault, Cage kerplodes a giant mimic but is sprayed with its acid-blood as a result and dies in the wet sand.
Dies, as it turns out, is a relative term; he wakes up back at Heathrow, having the exact same conversation with Farrell that he had earlier that morning. "This is going to fail," he tells them. "How else would I know exactly what you're going to say before you say it?" Their attitude is something along the lines of "Well, that is a strange coincidence, but get on that plane and go kill some meteor aliens for us, would ya?" This is when the "Live. Die. Repeat." slogan begins to rear its catchy head, as each time Cage dies on the beach, he wakes on the same luggage bags at Heathrow, left to come up with some way to alter the course of his dystopian Groundhog Day narrative. Finally, a cog in the gears--he meets war hero Rita Vrataski (Blunt) who tells him that she knows what's happening to him and to "find her again when he wakes up." She adds, "I'll probably be sweaty and doing this." When they connect again, she tells him he knows his skill of being able to reset the battle and make adjustments because until she received a blood transfusion, she had the same skill; he got it from the Mimic's blood that he killed on day 1. This information takes the film in a more lighthearted direction. Now each time he dies and wakes up, he seeks out Vrataski to get training, and the sequences are humorous and clever.
Ultimately, they figure out a way to take down the Mimics, and it's kind of dopey and convoluted. But the ride up to that point is highly entertaining. Edge of Tomorrow is based on a Manga graphic novel called "All You Need is Kill" that draws comparisons to both Starship Troopers and the video game Halo. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Edge of Tomorrow is very much like watching a video game unfold on screen. You screw up, you die, you start over, this time trying not to make the same mistakes. Everyone has to get hit by a few fireballs before they teach themselves how to take down Bowser, right? It's all part of the process.
#24 They Came Together
In 2001, a little indie movie called Wet Hot American Summer made its way to the big screen briefly before it almost disappeared forever into obscurity. Then, a funny thing happened: It got new life as a massive cult hit. A friend of mine once showed it to me in her sorority bedroom (it wasn't like that, you guys) and we laughed like crazy. I guess part of me couldn't quite understand why it wasn't bigger, either. The cast was insane! It featured, among others, Janeane Garafolo, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Meloni, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. It's just been announced that they will be making a miniseries continuation on Netflix with just about all of the principal players returning, and plenty of cult cinephiles are drooling already.
I bring this up because Wet Hot was written by Michael Showalter and David Wain, with Wain also handling directorial business. More than a decade later, the duo teamed back up for They Came Together, starring WHAS alums Rudd and Poehler. They Came Together is a spoofball satire of romantic comedies, with one friend of mine drawing comparisons between it and Airplane! I didn't know what to expect, but I guess I figured that with Rudd and Poehler at the helm, it would be worth a watch. Turns out I was right-I guffawed and chortled and hit just about every point on the laugh spectrum.
Joel and Molly (Rudd and Poehler) are out to dinner with friends (Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper) when they are asked how their relationship came to be. Then it's a he-said, she-added-on retelling of how they met, each cliche' more spot-on than the next. They meet and dislike each other immediately--he is a corporate schmuck who is trying to buy out her specialty candy store. They unknowingly show up to the same Halloween party in matching Ben Franklin costumes and deny vehemently that "they came together". It is mentioned about 100 times that one of the characters in their love story is New York City, and plenty of formula interactions with the Big Apple ensue: talking to strangers, juggling fruit at a corner market, playing basketball in the park, getting splashed with taxi puddle water. Of course they eventually fall for each other, and every romantic comedy move is employed, down to the "her making him taste pasta sauce on a wooden spoon" and "awkward fall down the stairs after getting herself dolled up." The supporting cast, like Wet Hot, is enormous and features Keenan Thompson, Ken Marino, Jack McBrayer, Melanie Lynskey, Colbie Smulders and WHAS returns Meloni and Michael Ian Black. The detractors of this movie, and there were plenty of them, didn't care for it simply because they expected something different and got a rom-com send up. If you take that knowledge with you going in, you'll laugh until it hurts and see that Rudd and Poehler have the ability to make even the most stale look fresh and new.
#23 Pride
In 1984, under the iron-fisted rule of Margaret Thatcher, British miners went on strike to protest the closing of 20 coal pits that would lead to thousands and thousands of layoffs. Also being brought under attack by Thatcher: the LGBT community throughout the United Kingdom. Searching for kindred spirits to help bring their voices to the forefront, a group fronted by activists Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) and Mike Jackson (Joe Gilgun) start raising money for the miners and try to form an alliance. Their efforts are shut down by members of the National Union of Mineworkers, who don't want to be openly associated with the gays. Instead, the Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners campaign crew takes a bus trip to a small mining town in Wales and ultimately forges a connection with the down-and-out coal miners and the surrounding community. Every now and again they come up against the close-minded and are bombarded with nastiness, but for the most part, the queries about the differences in lifestyle are dealt with in an innocent and accepting fashion.
This is a true story that is handled extremely well by director Matthew Warchus, who is most known for his stage adaptations for Royal Shakespeare company and various award-winning British musicals. Much of the story is told through the eyes of the one fictional/composite character, a teenager named Joe Bromley (George MacKay), a gay teenager who experiences his first activism and love as their Support the Miners crusade takes them from inception to completion. Schnetzer and Gilgun are both outstanding as two heroic young lads who put everything on the line to champion their cause. The heroes on the Welsh side of things are portrayed convincingly by veterans Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Paddy Consindine, who approach the situation with varying degrees of concern and humility. Another standout is Dominic "Jimmy McNulty" West as Jonathan Blake, an older member of LGBT community who helps bridge the two factions as somewhat of a figurehead. It's not altogether too surprising, unfortunately, that there was controversy surrounding the release of the film in oft-uptight Britain; it was given a R-rating almost entirely because of a couple of homosexual kissing scenes, and descriptor "a group of Lesbian and Gay activists" was changed to "a group of London-based activists" on the DVD banner. That didn't stop it from a standing ovation at Cannes, one that was entirely deserved for bravely taking on what is still a sore subject in many sectors of Britain.
More to come! Stay tuned!
Saturday, February 14, 2015
2014: #27 times 3 and #26
We are officially 8 days away from Oscar madness, folks. The excitement is almost too much to bear!
As per usual, I've screwed myself over with not knowing how to count (obviously this is problematic, being that I am an elementary teacher), but I have actually seen 63 movies this year, not 60. I'll give a small amount of lip service here to 3 different #27s and a #26 and then re-rank accordingly. This will at least take us to the top 25 in an...interesting fashion, right?
Get it together, Mulhern! (slaps face, headbutts mirror, etc.)
#27a Bad Words
As per usual, I've screwed myself over with not knowing how to count (obviously this is problematic, being that I am an elementary teacher), but I have actually seen 63 movies this year, not 60. I'll give a small amount of lip service here to 3 different #27s and a #26 and then re-rank accordingly. This will at least take us to the top 25 in an...interesting fashion, right?
Get it together, Mulhern! (slaps face, headbutts mirror, etc.)
#27a Bad Words
Jason Bateman is Guy Trillby, a degenerate 40-year old copywriter who exploits a loophole in the annual Golden Quill Spelling Bee: you have to have not graduated 8th grade in order to compete, and Trillby never did. In a slow-mo sequence involving him grabbing the giant trophy and running, sliding along the hood of his journalist "sponsor" Jenny's (Kathryn Hahn) car and jumping in the passenger seat while pissed-off parents shout and pummel the vehicle, he says via voiceover "Maybe I didn't think this through." On the plane to the nationals with Hahn (who is interviewing him for a story), he meets his #1 competition, an adorable Indian boy named Chai Chopra (Rohan Chand) and tells him to "turn his curry hole toward the front of the plane before he tells the stewardess he heard his back ticking." These are the kind of crass one-liners--Michael Bluth meets Andrew Dice Clay, maybe--that Bateman fires off throughout the film, and they rarely seem stale. He eventually warms up to Chai, but is it genuine, and are his motives pure of heart? Of course not. It eventually becomes clear that he is there to exact revenge for a past transgression, and he will burn every latin root and overworked preteen in his way, antidisestablishmentarianism be damned. Not always the strongest, plot-wise, but laugh-out-loud funny and worth a watch.
#27b The Boxtrolls
Isaac Hempstead Wright is the voice of Eggs (named after the box he wears), an orphan who is raised by a number of friendly creatures who have built a home out of discarded junk underground; in one particularly touching sequence, Fish (Dee Bradley Baker) puts him to sleep via a record on an old 45 machine. Eggs and his boxtroll family are targeted by the vile and sinister Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), a large man with greasy hair and several protruding growths. With his team of "Red Hats", comprised of Mr. Gristle (Tracy Morgan), Mr. Trout (Nick Frost) and Mr. Pickles (Richard Ayoade), they swear to town mayor Lord Portley-Rind (Mad Men's Jared Harris) that they will take down the boxtrolls, who are threatening the city's cheese supply and well-being with their nightly escapades. Their extermination plots begin working and they eventually snatch up Fish, leaving Eggs, together with Portley-Rind's small daughter Winnie (Dakota Fanning), "scrambling" (get it?) to save his surrogate dad and his homies. A fun romp, The Boxtrolls is stop-motion animation, and visually it is a triumph, especially the machine used to round up the Box Trolls. The overall tone, though, is dark, surreal and incongruous. It's almost entirely at night and underground, which makes gives it a unique touch but one that I would caution Pixar-heads to look into before watching it with their four year old.
#27c 22 Jumpstreet
Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller along with screenwriter Michael Bacall pose to the viewer a simple question: Can the same jokes work twice? For the most part, the answer is yes. Now that it's taken them two times to graduate high school, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are put back into Jump Street with captain Dickson (Ice Cube), now across the street at 22 after the 21 building has been made unavailable. Their mission? Go back to school (again), this time as college kids, to infiltrate the dealer of a mysterious drug (again) called WHYPHY. Jenko connects immediately with his jock roots, befriending football players named Zook (Wyatt Russell) and Rooster (Jimmy Tatro), who may or may not be leads in their case. Meanwhile, Schmidt finds himself in the artist scene, hooking up with Maya (Amber Stevens) after pretending to be some sort of a white Saul Williams slam-poetry connoisseur. Her roommate Mercedes (Jillian Bell) doesn't approve, but Schmidt notes something fishy about her. The pursuits of Mercedes and Zook eventually lead them to the kingpin, a mysterious figure named Ghost; tracking him takes the duo to a full-fledged college Spring Break, where the ridiculous climax of the film comes to a head. Hill and Tatum earn the A's in comedy that they couldn't quite achieve as fake high school students, and they play the rift growing between them masterfully throughout. Just like last time, the film relies on sight gags, buckets of blue language, a couple unexpected twists and rampant bromance to carry it to the finish line. For most intents and purposes, this is the same movie as the first. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
#26 Chef
If Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler doubled as an analogy for the life and career path of Mickey Rourke, I think that to a much lesser degree, the same could be said about Chef and Jon Favreau. Here you have a promising young New Yorkian who, with the help of buddy Vince Vaughn, takes the indie world by storm with Swingers, subsequently adding "you're so money" and "Vegas, baby, Vegas!" to the lexicon of ubiquitous late '90s quotables for high schoolers and frat boys alike. Next up was Made, less impressive but still in the Swingers ballpark, and a memorable guest appearance as himself on The Sopranos, further establishing his street cred. Since then, he's been decidedly hit-or- miss, scoring big with Elf and Iron Man, making a decent family film with Zathura, and more recently, committing crimes against humanity with Iron Man 2 and Cowboys & Aliens. Unlike Rourke, who disappeared for decades amidst personal and professional failures, Favreau, despite being commercially successful, seemed to be losing sight of who he was and what got him there in the first place.
Enter Chef, Jon Favreau's first time with leading man/director duties in over a decade. He plays Carl Casper, a renowned chef with a team of trash-talking cooks on his squad (Bobby Cananavale and John Leguizamo), but he is starting to crack under the pressure. His boss Riva (Dustin Hoffman) wants him to play it safe, while he wants to throw something wild at make-or-break food critic Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt) when he visits. Ramsey trashes him, taking shots that Casper takes very personally, and he later confronts him at the restaurant in a profanity-fueled tirade that immediately goes viral, making the situation for the old school, tech-fearing Carl much worse. He is let go and spiraling into self-pity, an older, wiser version of his Mike from Swingers. Spunky ex-wife Inez (who else but Sofia Vergara?) suggests that he open a food truck and take son Percy (Emjay Anthony) along for the ride. Together they travel across America, slinging Cuban sandwiches and other wears while Martin (Leguizamo) mans the kitchen and Percy captains the social media helm. The movie is a little bit too long and has a little bit too neat of a conclusion, but Carl discovers that by going back to basics, he regains his passion and reinvents himself along the way. It's a pretty joyous affair. Is this mirroring things for Favreau? Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it kind of felt to me like he was saying "Relax, all right? I've still got it."
More to come!
Isaac Hempstead Wright is the voice of Eggs (named after the box he wears), an orphan who is raised by a number of friendly creatures who have built a home out of discarded junk underground; in one particularly touching sequence, Fish (Dee Bradley Baker) puts him to sleep via a record on an old 45 machine. Eggs and his boxtroll family are targeted by the vile and sinister Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), a large man with greasy hair and several protruding growths. With his team of "Red Hats", comprised of Mr. Gristle (Tracy Morgan), Mr. Trout (Nick Frost) and Mr. Pickles (Richard Ayoade), they swear to town mayor Lord Portley-Rind (Mad Men's Jared Harris) that they will take down the boxtrolls, who are threatening the city's cheese supply and well-being with their nightly escapades. Their extermination plots begin working and they eventually snatch up Fish, leaving Eggs, together with Portley-Rind's small daughter Winnie (Dakota Fanning), "scrambling" (get it?) to save his surrogate dad and his homies. A fun romp, The Boxtrolls is stop-motion animation, and visually it is a triumph, especially the machine used to round up the Box Trolls. The overall tone, though, is dark, surreal and incongruous. It's almost entirely at night and underground, which makes gives it a unique touch but one that I would caution Pixar-heads to look into before watching it with their four year old.
#27c 22 Jumpstreet
Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller along with screenwriter Michael Bacall pose to the viewer a simple question: Can the same jokes work twice? For the most part, the answer is yes. Now that it's taken them two times to graduate high school, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are put back into Jump Street with captain Dickson (Ice Cube), now across the street at 22 after the 21 building has been made unavailable. Their mission? Go back to school (again), this time as college kids, to infiltrate the dealer of a mysterious drug (again) called WHYPHY. Jenko connects immediately with his jock roots, befriending football players named Zook (Wyatt Russell) and Rooster (Jimmy Tatro), who may or may not be leads in their case. Meanwhile, Schmidt finds himself in the artist scene, hooking up with Maya (Amber Stevens) after pretending to be some sort of a white Saul Williams slam-poetry connoisseur. Her roommate Mercedes (Jillian Bell) doesn't approve, but Schmidt notes something fishy about her. The pursuits of Mercedes and Zook eventually lead them to the kingpin, a mysterious figure named Ghost; tracking him takes the duo to a full-fledged college Spring Break, where the ridiculous climax of the film comes to a head. Hill and Tatum earn the A's in comedy that they couldn't quite achieve as fake high school students, and they play the rift growing between them masterfully throughout. Just like last time, the film relies on sight gags, buckets of blue language, a couple unexpected twists and rampant bromance to carry it to the finish line. For most intents and purposes, this is the same movie as the first. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
#26 Chef
If Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler doubled as an analogy for the life and career path of Mickey Rourke, I think that to a much lesser degree, the same could be said about Chef and Jon Favreau. Here you have a promising young New Yorkian who, with the help of buddy Vince Vaughn, takes the indie world by storm with Swingers, subsequently adding "you're so money" and "Vegas, baby, Vegas!" to the lexicon of ubiquitous late '90s quotables for high schoolers and frat boys alike. Next up was Made, less impressive but still in the Swingers ballpark, and a memorable guest appearance as himself on The Sopranos, further establishing his street cred. Since then, he's been decidedly hit-or- miss, scoring big with Elf and Iron Man, making a decent family film with Zathura, and more recently, committing crimes against humanity with Iron Man 2 and Cowboys & Aliens. Unlike Rourke, who disappeared for decades amidst personal and professional failures, Favreau, despite being commercially successful, seemed to be losing sight of who he was and what got him there in the first place.
Enter Chef, Jon Favreau's first time with leading man/director duties in over a decade. He plays Carl Casper, a renowned chef with a team of trash-talking cooks on his squad (Bobby Cananavale and John Leguizamo), but he is starting to crack under the pressure. His boss Riva (Dustin Hoffman) wants him to play it safe, while he wants to throw something wild at make-or-break food critic Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt) when he visits. Ramsey trashes him, taking shots that Casper takes very personally, and he later confronts him at the restaurant in a profanity-fueled tirade that immediately goes viral, making the situation for the old school, tech-fearing Carl much worse. He is let go and spiraling into self-pity, an older, wiser version of his Mike from Swingers. Spunky ex-wife Inez (who else but Sofia Vergara?) suggests that he open a food truck and take son Percy (Emjay Anthony) along for the ride. Together they travel across America, slinging Cuban sandwiches and other wears while Martin (Leguizamo) mans the kitchen and Percy captains the social media helm. The movie is a little bit too long and has a little bit too neat of a conclusion, but Carl discovers that by going back to basics, he regains his passion and reinvents himself along the way. It's a pretty joyous affair. Is this mirroring things for Favreau? Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it kind of felt to me like he was saying "Relax, all right? I've still got it."
More to come!
Thursday, February 12, 2015
2014 Movies: #28
#28 X-Men: Days of Future Past
I read a number of positive reviews over the summer about this one and wasn't able to make it, for whatever reason. That said, I wasn't in a hurry because with the exception of the cuban missile crisis sequence, X-Men: First Class was hot garbage; so too was the embarrassingly bad Wolverine and the totally underwhelming The Last Stand. I never claimed to be a mathematician, but that's eleven years (X-Men 2, in '03) since a decent outing for the beloved comic book squad. And there's one common thread running through the first two and Days of Future Past: Director Bryan Singer. Thank goodness he's back to right the ship.
Charles Xavier's future gifted youngsters find themselves locked in a battle with giant metal Sentinels, much more terrifying than the ones I remember from the comics and the cartoon. Bishop, Colossus (he of the power-sneeze in the video game), Iceman, Blink, Warpath and Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) are doing their best to fend them off, but are getting their asses handed to them. In fact, everyone except the injured Bishop and the cleric Kitty Pryde are actually vanquished. Before the Sentinels can get them, Kitty vanishes them and it is revealed that she has sent Bishop's conscience back in time to warn the others, so in actuality, they have survived the attack because the attack was avoided in the past.
Whaaa?
Future X , Future Magneto, Storm and Wolvie show up and begin to hatch a plan. Wolverine (because of his unique healing abilities) will be sent back to 1973 to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing engineer Bolivar Trask (GoT's Peter Dinklage), who had created the Sentinels. The fact that Trask was assassinated by a mutant means that the government saw the utility in his project, and the sentinels get the funding he was looking for. Wolverine requires the help of young X (James McAvoy) young Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) to take her down. Knowing that she will listen to him, they decide to spring Magneto (Michael Fassbender) from his concrete underground prison at the Pentagon. Why, do you ask is he imprisoned in that fashion? Because he killed JFK by manipulating the direction of the bullet, of course! From there, lots of exciting and visually engaging sequences: Quicksilver slowing down time to stop a room full of government agents; Magneto lifting up an entire sports stadium to hover above Nixon and his goons to show he means business; another holds-no-barred battle with the sentinels of the future. Even though the plot itself is somewhat convoluted, Singer and co. pull it off. Wish I had seen it in theaters. And you can bet Oliver Stone wishes he had thought of the "magneto theory".
I read a number of positive reviews over the summer about this one and wasn't able to make it, for whatever reason. That said, I wasn't in a hurry because with the exception of the cuban missile crisis sequence, X-Men: First Class was hot garbage; so too was the embarrassingly bad Wolverine and the totally underwhelming The Last Stand. I never claimed to be a mathematician, but that's eleven years (X-Men 2, in '03) since a decent outing for the beloved comic book squad. And there's one common thread running through the first two and Days of Future Past: Director Bryan Singer. Thank goodness he's back to right the ship.
Charles Xavier's future gifted youngsters find themselves locked in a battle with giant metal Sentinels, much more terrifying than the ones I remember from the comics and the cartoon. Bishop, Colossus (he of the power-sneeze in the video game), Iceman, Blink, Warpath and Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) are doing their best to fend them off, but are getting their asses handed to them. In fact, everyone except the injured Bishop and the cleric Kitty Pryde are actually vanquished. Before the Sentinels can get them, Kitty vanishes them and it is revealed that she has sent Bishop's conscience back in time to warn the others, so in actuality, they have survived the attack because the attack was avoided in the past.
Whaaa?
Future X , Future Magneto, Storm and Wolvie show up and begin to hatch a plan. Wolverine (because of his unique healing abilities) will be sent back to 1973 to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing engineer Bolivar Trask (GoT's Peter Dinklage), who had created the Sentinels. The fact that Trask was assassinated by a mutant means that the government saw the utility in his project, and the sentinels get the funding he was looking for. Wolverine requires the help of young X (James McAvoy) young Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) to take her down. Knowing that she will listen to him, they decide to spring Magneto (Michael Fassbender) from his concrete underground prison at the Pentagon. Why, do you ask is he imprisoned in that fashion? Because he killed JFK by manipulating the direction of the bullet, of course! From there, lots of exciting and visually engaging sequences: Quicksilver slowing down time to stop a room full of government agents; Magneto lifting up an entire sports stadium to hover above Nixon and his goons to show he means business; another holds-no-barred battle with the sentinels of the future. Even though the plot itself is somewhat convoluted, Singer and co. pull it off. Wish I had seen it in theaters. And you can bet Oliver Stone wishes he had thought of the "magneto theory".
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
#2014: #29
#29 What If
At age 17, Daniel Radcliffe made worldwide news when he starred in the West End revival of Equus, a play about a psychiatrist treating a young man who has a fascination with horses. The controversy surrounding the play had mostly to do with a nude scene performed by Radcliffe and the fact that he was allegedly hung like a...well, you know.
This was during Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix's campaign, and life after Potter's end in 2011 hasn't been nearly as headline-grabbing. He has starred in two horror films--The Woman in Black and Horns, about, I shite you not, a young man waking up after his girlfriend's death to find horns growing from his temples--and as a young Allan Ginsburg in the indie drama Kill Your Darlings. No, he hasn't been taking star turns in Perks of a Wallflower and The Bling Ring or solving gender equality like his co-star Emma Watson. He's been easing into things, which is understandable if you're the most recognizable Brit who doesn't reside in Buckingham. Hey, at least he can do this.
And he's not so bad as a romantic lead, either. He plays Wallace, a young Seattle-ite who has had a fair share of lousy relationship endings. At a party with his buddy Allan (Adam Driver again!), he is moping near the refrigerator magnets and creating existential sentences when up comes Chantry (Ruby Sparks' Zoe Kazan) to do some word whimsy with him. They hit it off, he walks her home, she has a boyfriend (Rafe Spall). She gives him her number anyway, and they begin hanging out as just f-words (The original title of this movie was The F-Word). When the boyfriend moves to Dublin for a job with United Nations and Chantry gets offered a promotion in Taiwan, Wallace scrambles to try and find a way to tell her he likes her more than f-words before it's too late. There is plenty of formula at play, down to the Wedding Singer subplot of the guy turning down sex with the sister. Nonetheless, the leads have good chemistry, the supporting cast is better than passable, and the movie provides an opportunity for Mr. Radcliffe shed the scar with pretty positive, entertaining results.
At age 17, Daniel Radcliffe made worldwide news when he starred in the West End revival of Equus, a play about a psychiatrist treating a young man who has a fascination with horses. The controversy surrounding the play had mostly to do with a nude scene performed by Radcliffe and the fact that he was allegedly hung like a...well, you know.
This was during Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix's campaign, and life after Potter's end in 2011 hasn't been nearly as headline-grabbing. He has starred in two horror films--The Woman in Black and Horns, about, I shite you not, a young man waking up after his girlfriend's death to find horns growing from his temples--and as a young Allan Ginsburg in the indie drama Kill Your Darlings. No, he hasn't been taking star turns in Perks of a Wallflower and The Bling Ring or solving gender equality like his co-star Emma Watson. He's been easing into things, which is understandable if you're the most recognizable Brit who doesn't reside in Buckingham. Hey, at least he can do this.
And he's not so bad as a romantic lead, either. He plays Wallace, a young Seattle-ite who has had a fair share of lousy relationship endings. At a party with his buddy Allan (Adam Driver again!), he is moping near the refrigerator magnets and creating existential sentences when up comes Chantry (Ruby Sparks' Zoe Kazan) to do some word whimsy with him. They hit it off, he walks her home, she has a boyfriend (Rafe Spall). She gives him her number anyway, and they begin hanging out as just f-words (The original title of this movie was The F-Word). When the boyfriend moves to Dublin for a job with United Nations and Chantry gets offered a promotion in Taiwan, Wallace scrambles to try and find a way to tell her he likes her more than f-words before it's too late. There is plenty of formula at play, down to the Wedding Singer subplot of the guy turning down sex with the sister. Nonetheless, the leads have good chemistry, the supporting cast is better than passable, and the movie provides an opportunity for Mr. Radcliffe shed the scar with pretty positive, entertaining results.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
2014 Movies: #30
#30 This is Where I Leave You
I know that I just found myself complaining about Seth Rogen's lack of dimensionality, and the same could certainly be said about Jason Bateman. Since he re-stepped onto the scene as Michael Bluth back in the early aughts, he has made a name for himself as "go-to guy for shat-on family/career guy with acerbic wit and expressionless delivery of dialogue." Much like Rogen, you know what you are going to get out of him, and you know how his dynamic will play out in a group setting. Most of the time, it still works for me.
The patriarch of the Altman family has just died, and the four Altman siblings have to return home to sit shiva at their suburban manse. (For those of you who are not familiar, sitting shiva is the seven-day mourning period in the Jewish faith in which people come to the family's home to pay respects. Shiva is not always an entire week; for example, when my bubby passed a little over a year ago, there was one main gathering at the house following the service that spanned a day or two.) They are: Judd (Bateman), working guy husband who has just walked in on his wife screwing his boss (Dax Shepherd); Wendy (Tina Fey), a recent mom who's ass-hat of a cliche'd husband is always on his blackberry and leaving on business; Paul (House of Cards' Corey Stoll), married to and trying to conceive with Annie (Kathryn Hahn) while living in their hometown and now running his father's sporting goods store; and Phillip (the suddenly ubiquitous Adam Driver), a rebellious free spirit, who swears to everyone that he is finally getting his act together. Meanwhile, mom Altman (Jane Fonda) has recently gotten a boob job to reinvent herself.
Similar to The Judge, the Altman clan is quickly dragged into their past by their return home. Judd bumps into Penny (Rose Byrne), a young woman he used to crush on back in high school and begins a dalliance. Wendy reconnects with Hari (Justified's Timothy Olyphant), her old boyfriend who suffered a serious brain injury in a car accident and still lives across the street from the house and still works at the sporting goods store. Despite bringing home a much older, serious therapist girlfriend (Connie Britton), Phillip ends up tempted by the fruits of another. Finally, there is palpable tension, as there was in the past, between Paul and Judd, exacerbated by the fact that Annie and Judd dated first. Family secrets are let out in intermittent fashions and allegiances are made and broken, made and broken. The actors play drama well but start to devolve into their signature characters--the quips of Michael Bluth, the uncomfortable schtick of Liz Lemon, the offbeat charm of Girl's Adam Sackler. Despite the obvious formulas, the performances lifted it to what I considered to be a pretty enjoyable flick.
I know that I just found myself complaining about Seth Rogen's lack of dimensionality, and the same could certainly be said about Jason Bateman. Since he re-stepped onto the scene as Michael Bluth back in the early aughts, he has made a name for himself as "go-to guy for shat-on family/career guy with acerbic wit and expressionless delivery of dialogue." Much like Rogen, you know what you are going to get out of him, and you know how his dynamic will play out in a group setting. Most of the time, it still works for me.
The patriarch of the Altman family has just died, and the four Altman siblings have to return home to sit shiva at their suburban manse. (For those of you who are not familiar, sitting shiva is the seven-day mourning period in the Jewish faith in which people come to the family's home to pay respects. Shiva is not always an entire week; for example, when my bubby passed a little over a year ago, there was one main gathering at the house following the service that spanned a day or two.) They are: Judd (Bateman), working guy husband who has just walked in on his wife screwing his boss (Dax Shepherd); Wendy (Tina Fey), a recent mom who's ass-hat of a cliche'd husband is always on his blackberry and leaving on business; Paul (House of Cards' Corey Stoll), married to and trying to conceive with Annie (Kathryn Hahn) while living in their hometown and now running his father's sporting goods store; and Phillip (the suddenly ubiquitous Adam Driver), a rebellious free spirit, who swears to everyone that he is finally getting his act together. Meanwhile, mom Altman (Jane Fonda) has recently gotten a boob job to reinvent herself.
Similar to The Judge, the Altman clan is quickly dragged into their past by their return home. Judd bumps into Penny (Rose Byrne), a young woman he used to crush on back in high school and begins a dalliance. Wendy reconnects with Hari (Justified's Timothy Olyphant), her old boyfriend who suffered a serious brain injury in a car accident and still lives across the street from the house and still works at the sporting goods store. Despite bringing home a much older, serious therapist girlfriend (Connie Britton), Phillip ends up tempted by the fruits of another. Finally, there is palpable tension, as there was in the past, between Paul and Judd, exacerbated by the fact that Annie and Judd dated first. Family secrets are let out in intermittent fashions and allegiances are made and broken, made and broken. The actors play drama well but start to devolve into their signature characters--the quips of Michael Bluth, the uncomfortable schtick of Liz Lemon, the offbeat charm of Girl's Adam Sackler. Despite the obvious formulas, the performances lifted it to what I considered to be a pretty enjoyable flick.
Monday, February 9, 2015
2014 Movies: #32 & #31
#32 Veronica Mars
It's easy to see why Jason Segel fell in love with Sarah Marshall a few years back. Kristin Bell--the voice of Gossip Girl, the good sister in the billion-dollar avalanche that was Frozen, the world's most famous lover of sloths--has an attitude and spunk unmatched by any other tiny human, unless that tiny human is Prince.
Bell's breakthrough role was as Veronica Mars, the daughter of a private eye (Enrico Colantoni) who launches her own investigative services after her friend Lilly (played by a young Amanda Seyfried) is murdered. It was such a cult hit that close to 100,000 people raised 5.7 million dollars to nearly triple the 2 million dollar goal of the most successful kickstarter campaign in history. How rad is that?
The story picks up almost 10 years after high school graduation, with Veronica living in New York City, taking interviews and living with her boyfriend "Piz" Piznarski (Chris Lowell), who was holding the boyfriend title at the end of the tv show's run. Out of the blue, she gets a call from Logan Echolls (Jason Dohrian), Lilly's original beau who is now accused of murdering his girlfriend Carrie (Andrea Esrella). He's asking her to help him prove his innocence. She agrees, sending her back to Neptune, California, where it all began. And it just so happens-conveniently-that the investigation is coinciding with her 10-year reunion, so all of the old gang (Francis Capra, Percy Daggs III, Tina Majorino, Krysten Ritter, et. al) is thrown back together. As it would happen, a lot of people at this reunion were around Logan and Carrie during the time of the murder, so the questions start flying. The movie eventually solves the case, but it does so in a roundabout, slow-ish fashion that causes the obsessive V to burn many a bridge along the way, including the one back to New York. It's far from perfect, but it kept me entertained, and the hardcore fans will get an enormous kick out of seeing Bell get up to her old sleuthing tricks and reunite with creator/director Rob Thomas and all of her old homies, who appear a little more aged but, thanks to the magic of Hollywood, haven't lost a step in the wittiness and wisecracks game.
#31 Neighbors
Surprise! Seth Rogen's playing a stoner again! This time, he's and wife Kelly (Rose Byrne) are parents to a newborn; when he's not childrearing, he sneaks off to smoke the ganj with his buddy Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz). Soon it becomes apparent that they have just moved in next door to a fraternity, run by Teddy (Zac Efron) and Pete (Dave Franco), who both vow to be respectful of the neighborhood, despite their penchant for alcohol, destruction and being man-candy. At one point Rogen says of Efron "He looks like something a gay guy designed in a laboratory." After Rogen and Byrne break the trust of Delta Psi (also the name of the fraternity in this book-shameless plug!) by calling the cops, they declare all out war on each other, with hilarious, gross-out results. I'm getting awfully wary of Rogen as the same character movie in and movie out, but it doesn't stop him and the rest of the cast (cameos from Hannibal Burress, Jake Johnson, Andy Samberg and the dudes from Workaholics) from amassing laughs throughout.
Congratulations! We're halfway there. Back tomorrow.
It's easy to see why Jason Segel fell in love with Sarah Marshall a few years back. Kristin Bell--the voice of Gossip Girl, the good sister in the billion-dollar avalanche that was Frozen, the world's most famous lover of sloths--has an attitude and spunk unmatched by any other tiny human, unless that tiny human is Prince.
Bell's breakthrough role was as Veronica Mars, the daughter of a private eye (Enrico Colantoni) who launches her own investigative services after her friend Lilly (played by a young Amanda Seyfried) is murdered. It was such a cult hit that close to 100,000 people raised 5.7 million dollars to nearly triple the 2 million dollar goal of the most successful kickstarter campaign in history. How rad is that?
The story picks up almost 10 years after high school graduation, with Veronica living in New York City, taking interviews and living with her boyfriend "Piz" Piznarski (Chris Lowell), who was holding the boyfriend title at the end of the tv show's run. Out of the blue, she gets a call from Logan Echolls (Jason Dohrian), Lilly's original beau who is now accused of murdering his girlfriend Carrie (Andrea Esrella). He's asking her to help him prove his innocence. She agrees, sending her back to Neptune, California, where it all began. And it just so happens-conveniently-that the investigation is coinciding with her 10-year reunion, so all of the old gang (Francis Capra, Percy Daggs III, Tina Majorino, Krysten Ritter, et. al) is thrown back together. As it would happen, a lot of people at this reunion were around Logan and Carrie during the time of the murder, so the questions start flying. The movie eventually solves the case, but it does so in a roundabout, slow-ish fashion that causes the obsessive V to burn many a bridge along the way, including the one back to New York. It's far from perfect, but it kept me entertained, and the hardcore fans will get an enormous kick out of seeing Bell get up to her old sleuthing tricks and reunite with creator/director Rob Thomas and all of her old homies, who appear a little more aged but, thanks to the magic of Hollywood, haven't lost a step in the wittiness and wisecracks game.
#31 Neighbors
Surprise! Seth Rogen's playing a stoner again! This time, he's and wife Kelly (Rose Byrne) are parents to a newborn; when he's not childrearing, he sneaks off to smoke the ganj with his buddy Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz). Soon it becomes apparent that they have just moved in next door to a fraternity, run by Teddy (Zac Efron) and Pete (Dave Franco), who both vow to be respectful of the neighborhood, despite their penchant for alcohol, destruction and being man-candy. At one point Rogen says of Efron "He looks like something a gay guy designed in a laboratory." After Rogen and Byrne break the trust of Delta Psi (also the name of the fraternity in this book-shameless plug!) by calling the cops, they declare all out war on each other, with hilarious, gross-out results. I'm getting awfully wary of Rogen as the same character movie in and movie out, but it doesn't stop him and the rest of the cast (cameos from Hannibal Burress, Jake Johnson, Andy Samberg and the dudes from Workaholics) from amassing laughs throughout.
Congratulations! We're halfway there. Back tomorrow.
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