#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.
title
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
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.
2014: #33
#33 The Drop
When all is said and done, James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano may go down as my favorite television performance of all time. I've said it before and I'll say it again: There is no Walter White without Tony Soprano before him. There is no Francis "Frank" Underwood. There is no Vic Mackey. There is no flawed antihero to root for, challenging nearly every ounce of your moral compass.
Reportedly, portraying the kingpin of New Jersey for almost a decade took a lot out of him, both physically and emotionally. He was constantly asked to go to the darkest nadirs of the soul in one scene and follow it with stand-up comedy the next. As a result, he fought to avoid taking the easy roles that would pigeonhole him as a one-trick gangster. There was the pained monster of Where the Wild Things Are, the conflicted businessman in Welcome to the Rileys, military figureheads both funny (In the Loop) and serious (Zero Dark Thirty), and the quiet, sensitive love interest in Enough Said, perhaps the best of the lot performance-wise. For his last onscreen role, he was asked to take a step back into the role of a boss, and for whatever reason, it didn't feel quite right.
Tom Hardy plays Bob Saginowski, a bartender at Cousin Marv's (Gandolfini), which is what's known as a "drop bar", a central holding bank for mob activity that always rotates. One night on the walk home, he finds an injured pit bull in the trash can outside of a house. Out comes Nadia (Noomi Rapace) to investigate what's happening in her garbage. They fix up the dog and she holds onto it; he'll come back and take care of it in a few days if no one claims it. No one does, and he keeps him and names him Rocco. Later at the bar, two men come in and rob the place. As he's handing over the cash, Bob notices that the one of the guys has a broken watch and tells the cops. This leads to whole bunch of Chechen mobsters threatening the bar for possibly selling them out, and a psychopath named Eric Deeds (Matthias Schoenarts) coming around to run tabs on Bob and Nadia. The plot thereafter and sheer amount of double-crosses made my head spin all the way up to the somewhat cool, mostly confusing, kind of disappointing resolution. Gandolfini was good, not great, as Cousin Marv, an irritable thug with much less charisma and gravitas than we're used to from him. Hardy, though, spoke and acted Brooklyn so well that I forgot I was actually watching a veteran of the West End.
When all is said and done, James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano may go down as my favorite television performance of all time. I've said it before and I'll say it again: There is no Walter White without Tony Soprano before him. There is no Francis "Frank" Underwood. There is no Vic Mackey. There is no flawed antihero to root for, challenging nearly every ounce of your moral compass.
Reportedly, portraying the kingpin of New Jersey for almost a decade took a lot out of him, both physically and emotionally. He was constantly asked to go to the darkest nadirs of the soul in one scene and follow it with stand-up comedy the next. As a result, he fought to avoid taking the easy roles that would pigeonhole him as a one-trick gangster. There was the pained monster of Where the Wild Things Are, the conflicted businessman in Welcome to the Rileys, military figureheads both funny (In the Loop) and serious (Zero Dark Thirty), and the quiet, sensitive love interest in Enough Said, perhaps the best of the lot performance-wise. For his last onscreen role, he was asked to take a step back into the role of a boss, and for whatever reason, it didn't feel quite right.
Tom Hardy plays Bob Saginowski, a bartender at Cousin Marv's (Gandolfini), which is what's known as a "drop bar", a central holding bank for mob activity that always rotates. One night on the walk home, he finds an injured pit bull in the trash can outside of a house. Out comes Nadia (Noomi Rapace) to investigate what's happening in her garbage. They fix up the dog and she holds onto it; he'll come back and take care of it in a few days if no one claims it. No one does, and he keeps him and names him Rocco. Later at the bar, two men come in and rob the place. As he's handing over the cash, Bob notices that the one of the guys has a broken watch and tells the cops. This leads to whole bunch of Chechen mobsters threatening the bar for possibly selling them out, and a psychopath named Eric Deeds (Matthias Schoenarts) coming around to run tabs on Bob and Nadia. The plot thereafter and sheer amount of double-crosses made my head spin all the way up to the somewhat cool, mostly confusing, kind of disappointing resolution. Gandolfini was good, not great, as Cousin Marv, an irritable thug with much less charisma and gravitas than we're used to from him. Hardy, though, spoke and acted Brooklyn so well that I forgot I was actually watching a veteran of the West End.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
2014 Movies: #"36" through #34
Hello, dear readers. Yes, my weekend was great-thanks for asking!
We're two weeks away from Oscar Sunday. Time is of the essence. Let's move.
I start by recognizing something that often happens when I do this countdown: No matter how hard I try to write down and keep track of every movie I see over the year, I inevitably forget a couple. That happened with the next movie I am going to review, a buddy rom-com called That Awkward Moment. Since this movie-despite all of its talent and attempted charm-actually ranks below ones I have already reviewed, I will review it at its deserved number and then list the new rankings for what I have done already. It's complicated, but I promise we'll get through it together.
The new #46 That Awkward Moment
When Mikey's (Fruitvale Station's Michael B. Jordan) wife requests a divorce, Jason (Zac Efron) and Daniel (Miles Teller) rush to his side to comfort him, bro-style. They make a pact to go woman-free for a while, but soon discover that women are harder to remove from their diet than gluten. Jason meets Ellie (Imogen "yes, this is my real name" Poots) at a bar, while Mikey kicks it to an attractive lady and gets her number (naming her "glasses" in his phone, ugh) and Daniel hangs out with his "wing woman" Chelsea (Mackenzie Davis). Jason wakes up in Ellie's bed, fully convinced she is a prostitute until he and Daniel are at work pitching their book cover idea to a new author (guess who?) Within no time, all three dudes are back in relationships and trying to hide their transgressions from one another. The strength and seriousness of the relationships vary (including Mikey's attempt to get back together with his wife) but all seem to fall victim to mediocre situational writing. The jokes rarely land, but the trio are all reliable as usual, and the romantic plot lines are nice enough. These three actors are too talented to be spending this much time in Schmaltzville, USA.
So with this new ranking having been decreed, it now looks like:
#45 The Animal Project
#44 Under the Skin
#43 We Don't Wanna Make You Dance
#42 Mr. Peabody & Sherman
#41 Happy Christmas
#40 Love is Strange
#39 Into the Woods
#38 The Hundred-Foot Journey
#37 Non-Stop
#36 The Judge
Everyone good with that?
#35 Men, Women & Children
Before Jason Reitman decided to take a critical nose-dive with Labor Day, which I never actually got around to seeing, the four films to his name were Thank You For Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air and Young Adult. Hell of a track record to have. If Labor Day took him down a peg, then Men, Women & Children took him down an entire rung in the eyes of his peers and the moviegoing community; it was in theaters for less than 4 weeks and took in just under $500,000, thanks in large part to a collection of harsh reviews. I personally liked it more than I expected. Sure, to a degree it was a hot mess, and those who called Reitman's latest "preachy" and "pretentious" weren't necessarily wrong--just wasn't nearly as lousy as people made it out to be. The movie follows five teenagers (the only one I recognized being Ansel Elgort, from The Fault in Our Stars) and their parents (Adam Sandler & Rosemary DeWitt, Jennifer Garner & Jason Douglas, JK Simmons & Tina Parker, and single parents Judy Greer and Dean Norris) as they navigate the brave new world of technology. Plot points include: Judy Greer's character taking scandalous pictures of her daughter(Olivia Crocicchia) and posting them on the internet to get a following; Tim (Elgort) quitting the football team to focus on his computer RPG and corresponding avatar and his dad (Norris) trying desperately to figure out why; Don and Helen Truby (Sandler & DeWitt) brushing off the boredom of their shaky marriage and simultaneously using internet dating services to hook up with escorts; and Brandy's (Kaitlyn Dever) mother Patricia (Garner) working to control every aspect of her daughter's life through wanton technology paranoia. The kids, of course, are texting and Facebook messaging and tweeting and sexting until there is no discernible human communication. Maybe, amidst all of this voyeurism, self-indulgence and narcissism, two people can find a way to forge a connection. Just maybe.
#34 Obvious Child
Perhaps Jenny Slate's best work up to this point was as an animated talking seashell named Marcel with Shoes On who posed and answered such delightful questions as "Do you want to know what I use for skis?...Fingernails from a man." Here, Slate steps out on her own, as comedian Donna Stern, a foulmouthed truth-teller with a penchant for uncomfortable feminism. She wakes up not long after a one-night stand to find that she is pregnant. Her decision to have an abortion becomes the focal point for the rest of the running time, as she struggles with it, uses stand-up to deal with it, comes to accept it and grow from it. Her jokes are only funny some of the time, but her performance was real, and ultimately the story was satisfying.
Friday, February 6, 2015
2014 Movies: #39-37
The thirties: Who needs 'em?
Truth be told, this is the time in the countdown where I always get behind, so I go somewhat into panic mode and write some shorter reviews to make up ground.
Also, I'm going out of town this weekend.
#39 The Hundred Foot Journey
An Indian family moves to France to start a restaurant after theirs burns down during a revolution. The only vacancy in the town happens to be a building across from the Michelin-rated restaurant captained by the cutthroat Madam Mallory (Helen Mirren). The protagonist, the family's wunderkind son Hassan (Manish Dayal), is turning into a master chef in his own right, and Mallory, who has sparked somewhat of a war against the family, might make a play to steal him outright, thus taking a hundred-foot journey across the street. All in all, it was a fun story with a nice cast anchored by the Dame--the film equivalent of a fluffy pastry, maybe.
#38 Non-Stop
If the Super Bowl taught us anything, it's that Liam Neeson's badassery knows no bounds, taking home the best commercial award as only he knows how, using his "unique skill set" to intimidate a barista in a Clash of Clans ad. Forget Puxatawny Phil; these days it's Liam Neeson who tells us that Spring is around the corner as he has starred in yet another January action movie. And yes, the usual Liam Neeson rules apply. Broken man? Check. Haunted past? Oh, you bet. Here, he is a drunk US Air Marshal who starts receiving text messages that passengers are going to begin dying on the airplane he is riding on. When they actually do, he springs into action to find the perpetrator with the help of the passenger next to him (Julianne Moore) and the game stewardesses (Lupita N'yongo and Downton's Michelle Dockery). It's a fun one, as long as your not expecting Ayn Rand. Just enjoy the flight and you'll be fine.
#37 The Judge
Robert Downey Jr. is Hank Palmer, a shark-toothed attorney living in Chicago. All is copacetic (well, besides his impending divorce) until his brother Glen (Vincent D'Onfrio) calls to say their mother has died. Cue "thinking while looking out airplane window" sequence, and "I can't believe how small my Indiana hometown is, showcased by all the locals and main street aesthetic" montage. After the funeral, he ends up bumping into his ex Samantha (Vera Farmiga) and seeing the sparks start to sputter again. Later that night, his respected big-time judge father (Robert Duvall) is taken in for questioning on a hit and run. Because of their tattered past, the judge refuses to hire him on as his defense attorney, opting for the inexperienced Dax Shepherd (that would be a great band name, yeah?) who proceeds to get annihilated in the hearing by sly prosecutor Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton). Will the Judge forgive his son and accept him? Liked the performances a lot, but I don't have to explain to you how this one will play out.
Truth be told, this is the time in the countdown where I always get behind, so I go somewhat into panic mode and write some shorter reviews to make up ground.
Also, I'm going out of town this weekend.
#39 The Hundred Foot Journey
An Indian family moves to France to start a restaurant after theirs burns down during a revolution. The only vacancy in the town happens to be a building across from the Michelin-rated restaurant captained by the cutthroat Madam Mallory (Helen Mirren). The protagonist, the family's wunderkind son Hassan (Manish Dayal), is turning into a master chef in his own right, and Mallory, who has sparked somewhat of a war against the family, might make a play to steal him outright, thus taking a hundred-foot journey across the street. All in all, it was a fun story with a nice cast anchored by the Dame--the film equivalent of a fluffy pastry, maybe.
#38 Non-Stop
If the Super Bowl taught us anything, it's that Liam Neeson's badassery knows no bounds, taking home the best commercial award as only he knows how, using his "unique skill set" to intimidate a barista in a Clash of Clans ad. Forget Puxatawny Phil; these days it's Liam Neeson who tells us that Spring is around the corner as he has starred in yet another January action movie. And yes, the usual Liam Neeson rules apply. Broken man? Check. Haunted past? Oh, you bet. Here, he is a drunk US Air Marshal who starts receiving text messages that passengers are going to begin dying on the airplane he is riding on. When they actually do, he springs into action to find the perpetrator with the help of the passenger next to him (Julianne Moore) and the game stewardesses (Lupita N'yongo and Downton's Michelle Dockery). It's a fun one, as long as your not expecting Ayn Rand. Just enjoy the flight and you'll be fine.
#37 The Judge
Robert Downey Jr. is Hank Palmer, a shark-toothed attorney living in Chicago. All is copacetic (well, besides his impending divorce) until his brother Glen (Vincent D'Onfrio) calls to say their mother has died. Cue "thinking while looking out airplane window" sequence, and "I can't believe how small my Indiana hometown is, showcased by all the locals and main street aesthetic" montage. After the funeral, he ends up bumping into his ex Samantha (Vera Farmiga) and seeing the sparks start to sputter again. Later that night, his respected big-time judge father (Robert Duvall) is taken in for questioning on a hit and run. Because of their tattered past, the judge refuses to hire him on as his defense attorney, opting for the inexperienced Dax Shepherd (that would be a great band name, yeah?) who proceeds to get annihilated in the hearing by sly prosecutor Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton). Will the Judge forgive his son and accept him? Liked the performances a lot, but I don't have to explain to you how this one will play out.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
2014 Movies: #42-40
Sorry for the hiatus, y'all.
#42 Happy Christmas
Anna Kendrick can do a lot of things. She can sing, she can display white-hot social media wit, she can play a set of cups. One thing she can't do, though, is play a convincing screw-up. Much of the success of Happy Christmas relies heavily on the audience being able to believe that she could convey this character, and she doesn't quite stick the landing. This is Joe "Prince of Mumblecore" Swanberg's second movie in as many years that featured Anna Kendrick (last year's Drinking Buddies), and even though she was, to a degree, screwed up in that one as well, she wasn't expected to carry the movie.
I always like and don't love Swanberg's stuff. The thesis statement of the mumblecore movement is realistic and, well, mumbled dialogue, and he never fails to deliver situations and scripts that feel true-to-life. In Happy Christmas, Jenny (Kendrick) returns to Chicago for Christmas after a rough break-up to stay with her brother Jeff (Swanberg) and his wife Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) for a while. She comes home and falls back into her old self-destructive patterns, going hard at a party and making out with randoms until she passes out in the host's bed, pissing off her pal who brought her there (Lena Dunham) in the process. She starts hooking up with fellow teetotaler Kevin (Mark Webber) and the self-shame spiral begins, hitting it's apex when she comes home hammered, puts a pizza in the oven and passes out, infuriating new parent Jeff. From that point, the movie focuses on Jenny's relationship with Kelly, whose zero-effs-given attitude begins to rub off on her and cause her to rethink her career and direction. With the situations that Swanberg poses, his Happy Christmas script has an opportunity to hit some home runs in the humor department, but mostly it just takes walks and occasionally strokes a single to short left. Lena Dunham probably could have worked a little better in Jenny's role. It's refreshing to see Kendrick at least try to be a degenerate-I guess I'm just not buying it.
#41 Love is Strange
If another film critic or human tries to tell me that this movie is "simply about a marriage" and "has nothing to do with the fact that the two leads are men", I'm going to lose it. I am ALL FOR gay marriage. Look at where I grew up if you have any doubts where I stand on that. What I'm not about is people trying to say "oh, well that has nothing to do with it's success on the independent circuit." Really? Would anyone have given a shit about this movie if the old couple going through a rough patch were say, John Lithgow and Diane Keaton? Please.
There are exactly two good things about Love is Strange, and their names are John Lithgow and Alfred Molina. Everything that has been said about their performances is true, and their years of talent and experience show up to play as Ben (Lithgow) and George (Molina), a couple who finally get to watch their wedding bells legally ring right before George loses his job as a music teacher at a conservative school as a result of their nuptials. As a one-income family, they're forced to vacate their Manhattan apartment and live separate for a bit. George moves in downstairs in the same building with cops (Cheyenne Jackson and Manny Perez) and Ben with his nephew, niece-in-law and their son (Darren Burrows/Marisa Tomei/Charlie Tahan), the latter of whom he has to share a bunk bed with. They struggle with their surroundings--Ben with the generational gaps and George with the late night cop parties spilling over onto his couch--while trying to stay connected. The scenes between the two of them are very well done. Unfortunately there are far too few of them, and the movie gets bogged down in its self-importance and orchestra music and lousy supporting performances in the process. The talent is not wasted by any means, but it's definitely, like the couple themselves, obstructed from fully forming. Didn't Pete Caroll just get done teaching us to always run Marshawn Lynch from the 1-yard line?
#40 Into the Woods
In my formative years, my mom and I would take car trips from Madison to Chicago at least 4 or 5 times a year to visit family and friends. There were many cassette tapes that became staples of our bimonthly travels: XTC's "Oranges and Lemons", They Might Be Giants "Apollo 18", PM Dawn's "Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross", Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam", and, obviously, the original broadway recording of "Into the Woods". By the time we got around to seeing the traveling company at Madison's Civic Center, I could have been the sign language interpreter near the front of the orchestra pit, I knew the damn thing so well.
I was initially kind of excited when it was announced that there would be a theatrical version of the Sondheim classic, and I figured I would need to wait until I went home for the holidays to see it so that I could see it with my mom and belt the tunes along as if it were 1991 and we were side by side in our red Chevy Nova. As it turned out, we both saw it independent of one another, and we both said "...meh."
The chosen cast, headed by the always excellent Meryl Streep as the witch, felt like the right one: Anna Kendrick glides along as Cinderella, much more so in her element here than on Mumblecore Island; James Corden and Emily Blunt brought humanity to the baker and baker's wife; Jack of Beanstalk fame and Little Red Riding Hood are anchored by good performances by Daniel Huttlestone and Lilla Crawford, respectively; Chris Pine and Billy Magnusson charm the hell out of some potential princesses. That's about as far as the quality of Into the Woods goes--the musical performances are in the hands of professionals. As for the movie itself? The first half cruises through the classic numbers with ease. Then it's almost like a switch is flipped and it becomes a different film altogether, one that's long, sluggish, dark and at times disjointed. Scenes that would work well on stage felt forced and out of place on the big screen. Some musicals translate seamlessly to the screen. Not this time, Mr. Sondheim.
#42 Happy Christmas
Anna Kendrick can do a lot of things. She can sing, she can display white-hot social media wit, she can play a set of cups. One thing she can't do, though, is play a convincing screw-up. Much of the success of Happy Christmas relies heavily on the audience being able to believe that she could convey this character, and she doesn't quite stick the landing. This is Joe "Prince of Mumblecore" Swanberg's second movie in as many years that featured Anna Kendrick (last year's Drinking Buddies), and even though she was, to a degree, screwed up in that one as well, she wasn't expected to carry the movie.
I always like and don't love Swanberg's stuff. The thesis statement of the mumblecore movement is realistic and, well, mumbled dialogue, and he never fails to deliver situations and scripts that feel true-to-life. In Happy Christmas, Jenny (Kendrick) returns to Chicago for Christmas after a rough break-up to stay with her brother Jeff (Swanberg) and his wife Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) for a while. She comes home and falls back into her old self-destructive patterns, going hard at a party and making out with randoms until she passes out in the host's bed, pissing off her pal who brought her there (Lena Dunham) in the process. She starts hooking up with fellow teetotaler Kevin (Mark Webber) and the self-shame spiral begins, hitting it's apex when she comes home hammered, puts a pizza in the oven and passes out, infuriating new parent Jeff. From that point, the movie focuses on Jenny's relationship with Kelly, whose zero-effs-given attitude begins to rub off on her and cause her to rethink her career and direction. With the situations that Swanberg poses, his Happy Christmas script has an opportunity to hit some home runs in the humor department, but mostly it just takes walks and occasionally strokes a single to short left. Lena Dunham probably could have worked a little better in Jenny's role. It's refreshing to see Kendrick at least try to be a degenerate-I guess I'm just not buying it.
#41 Love is Strange
If another film critic or human tries to tell me that this movie is "simply about a marriage" and "has nothing to do with the fact that the two leads are men", I'm going to lose it. I am ALL FOR gay marriage. Look at where I grew up if you have any doubts where I stand on that. What I'm not about is people trying to say "oh, well that has nothing to do with it's success on the independent circuit." Really? Would anyone have given a shit about this movie if the old couple going through a rough patch were say, John Lithgow and Diane Keaton? Please.
There are exactly two good things about Love is Strange, and their names are John Lithgow and Alfred Molina. Everything that has been said about their performances is true, and their years of talent and experience show up to play as Ben (Lithgow) and George (Molina), a couple who finally get to watch their wedding bells legally ring right before George loses his job as a music teacher at a conservative school as a result of their nuptials. As a one-income family, they're forced to vacate their Manhattan apartment and live separate for a bit. George moves in downstairs in the same building with cops (Cheyenne Jackson and Manny Perez) and Ben with his nephew, niece-in-law and their son (Darren Burrows/Marisa Tomei/Charlie Tahan), the latter of whom he has to share a bunk bed with. They struggle with their surroundings--Ben with the generational gaps and George with the late night cop parties spilling over onto his couch--while trying to stay connected. The scenes between the two of them are very well done. Unfortunately there are far too few of them, and the movie gets bogged down in its self-importance and orchestra music and lousy supporting performances in the process. The talent is not wasted by any means, but it's definitely, like the couple themselves, obstructed from fully forming. Didn't Pete Caroll just get done teaching us to always run Marshawn Lynch from the 1-yard line?
#40 Into the Woods
In my formative years, my mom and I would take car trips from Madison to Chicago at least 4 or 5 times a year to visit family and friends. There were many cassette tapes that became staples of our bimonthly travels: XTC's "Oranges and Lemons", They Might Be Giants "Apollo 18", PM Dawn's "Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross", Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam", and, obviously, the original broadway recording of "Into the Woods". By the time we got around to seeing the traveling company at Madison's Civic Center, I could have been the sign language interpreter near the front of the orchestra pit, I knew the damn thing so well.
I was initially kind of excited when it was announced that there would be a theatrical version of the Sondheim classic, and I figured I would need to wait until I went home for the holidays to see it so that I could see it with my mom and belt the tunes along as if it were 1991 and we were side by side in our red Chevy Nova. As it turned out, we both saw it independent of one another, and we both said "...meh."
The chosen cast, headed by the always excellent Meryl Streep as the witch, felt like the right one: Anna Kendrick glides along as Cinderella, much more so in her element here than on Mumblecore Island; James Corden and Emily Blunt brought humanity to the baker and baker's wife; Jack of Beanstalk fame and Little Red Riding Hood are anchored by good performances by Daniel Huttlestone and Lilla Crawford, respectively; Chris Pine and Billy Magnusson charm the hell out of some potential princesses. That's about as far as the quality of Into the Woods goes--the musical performances are in the hands of professionals. As for the movie itself? The first half cruises through the classic numbers with ease. Then it's almost like a switch is flipped and it becomes a different film altogether, one that's long, sluggish, dark and at times disjointed. Scenes that would work well on stage felt forced and out of place on the big screen. Some musicals translate seamlessly to the screen. Not this time, Mr. Sondheim.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)