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He’s Got a Friend

26 Apr

“I’ve had a few setbacks,” says Nathaniel Ayers by way of explaining why he, a talented musician, is living on the street. The same could be said about Jamie Foxx, who, after starring in Ray and winning an Oscar, went a long time before he found a role as good. With The Soloist, Foxx finally has a chance to show filmgoers how good an actor he can be. As Ayers, a schizophrenic, Julliard-trained homeless man, Foxx gives a moving performance. He never once resorts to caricature, and he makes you wish he took on such serious roles more often.

The Soloist is not a one-man movie, of course. Robert Downey Jr. plays Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles Times columnist who meets Ayers one day by chance and becomes his friend. He, too, gives an impressive performance. In a refreshing change from most movies of this type, Lopez is no perfect white knight. He’s wary of getting too involved with Ayers, and he loses his patience at times. Screenwriter Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) and director Joe Wright (Atonement) don’t give Lopez some cheesy realization scene either when he realizes the impact he’s had on Ayers’ life, nor do they create a lame montage of reader reactions. Both are much appreciated. (By the way, this film is based on a true story, and on Lopez’s book of the same name. )

Like State of Play, The Soloist seeks to canonize newspapers and newspaper reporters, showing the lengths they will go for a story and the ways their work can be effective. There’s a welcome believability to it here that doesn’t feel forced or heavy-handed. Further authenticity comes from the fact that Wright uses actual homeless people as extras and in small supporting roles, not actors. And I suppose it should also be noted that the music is quite nice, even if it is mostly string instruments (and you know how I feel about those).

The Soloist was originally supposed to be released last fall, in the heart of Oscar season, but it was delayed. Usually that’s a bad sign, but not here. That said, the film’s good, but I don’t think it would have been a strong awards contender. Releasing it now allows The Soloist to get a little more attention, something it deserves. I’m giving it a strong B.

Like, OMG! It’s That Zac Efron Movie!

19 Apr

17 Again is one of those easygoing, contrived, suspension-of-disbelief, body-switching movies that asks so little of its audience — just that it believe most every plot point and most every character development are totally plausible. Easy, right? So in that spirit, I thought I would review this movie as if I was one of the 14-year-old girls who were in the theater with me. Here goes …

OMG, Zac Efron is, like, totally hot!! When 17 Begins, he is playing basketball with his shirt off and he’s, like, all sweaty. But Zac’s not just hot, he’s also, like, totally a nice guy. And we know that because his best friend is, like, the biggest loser in the school. But that’s okay, because Zac is the captain of the basketball team — OMG, just like in the High School Musical movies! — so no one says anything bad. Okay, but things go wrong because Zac gets his girlfriend pregnant and then he doesn’t go to college, and when he grows up, he’s, like, a total loser who isn’t good to his wife or his two kids. Oh, and he’s played by that guy Chandler, from Friends. So because it’s much cooler to be Zac Efron, he asks to go back to when he was 17. And then he tries to make up with his wife and kids, only they don’t know that this totally hot, cool guy is really their husband/father! And no one really cares that he looks EXACTLY like he did when he was 17 — not even his wife, who was his high school sweetheart! Can you believe it?! I know! They’re all, like, “OMG! We get to hang out with Zac Efron!” And Zac is so dreamy, with his bangs and all, and he gets to wear cool clothes and play basketball again. And of course, he gets his wife to totally forgive him for everything because, well, Zac is so sweet. So yeah, this movie is, like, so good …

Yeah, I’m not really a 14-year-old girl. (Really.) So suffice it to say, 17 Again wasn’t Best Picture material for me. I only went to see it because somebody has to support Matthew Perry’s career. But thankfully, the movie is tolerable if you know what you’re going to get. Oddly, it does get really geeky at times — I think all the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings references are going to be lost on all the tween girls in the audience — but then Zac reappears and his amiable, easy charm distracts effectively enough. Hot or not, the kid can carry a movie effortlessly. There’s also a decent soundtrack, which includes the Kooks’ “Naive,” so that makes it enjoyable too. Have I written more than enough about this movie by now? Yeah. So I’ll just give it my grade (C+), move on, and ask that we not speak of this review ever again. Thanks.

Solid State

15 Apr

In the new film State of Play, Russell Crowe plays Cal McCaffrey, a hard-working beat reporter for the fictional Washington Globe, who is trying to solve a murder case. Then his old college roommate, Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), gets thrown into the mix when his research assistant, who he was having an affair with, turns up dead. Is there a connection between the two cases? McCaffrey will find out — if his conflicting loyalties don’t trip him up in the process.

As if ripped from today’s headlines, SoP feels current — and it may make Boston audiences chuckle a little too much. That’s because McCaffrey’s paper, the Globe, is also in financial straits with a parent company breathing down the editor’s neck to print more sell-able stories. In fact, McCaffrey’s biggest competition for his story is not another paper but an in-house blogger who is able to write and publish much quicker than he can. In other news, Collins is on a subcommittee that’s going after a Halliburton-like military contractor. Oh yeah, and Harry Lennix, who plays a cop, bears an almost too-striking resemblance to Barack Obama.

Those distractions aside, SoP works as a political thriller. There are twists and turns, and the person (or people) responsible for the murders turns out to be not who you’d instantly suspect. (That said, people around me seemed to figure it out — or at least they said they did as they were walking out.) The top-notch cast — which also includes Jeff Daniels, Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, and my old high school chum David Harbour — elevates the material, making what could have been a more conventional film that much more entertaining. Is SoP going to be remembered at year’s end as one of the best films? No. But it’s a solidly entertaining two hours that’s worth seeing. I’m giving it a strong B.

He’s Baaaaaack

2 Apr

If you enjoyed Borat, then by all means watch the trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film, Bruno. Just be careful: This is NSFW.
http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/9995

Same Cast, Shorter Title

1 Apr

There were three movies in the The Fast and the Furious series, but to really amp up the testosterone — not to mention the fast-ness and furiosity — something just had to change.

So, the series got a reboot and now we have Fast & Furious, a car culture film starring the same cast as the first film, but without all those pesky The’s in the title. (The ‘and’ also became an ampersand.)

What’s the new movie about? Well, plot, schmot. There’s drugs, money, revenge, and, um, fast cars. Do you really need to know more? Continue reading →

I Was There for Her

31 Mar

Most people who know me know just how much I love the TV show Friends. I know, I know. Who doesn’t love Friends? So don’t worry, I won’t use this space to try and prove why I’m a bigger fan than you are. I’ll just remind you that the Boston Globe selected me as one of the four biggest fans in Boston during the show’s final season, and featured me four times in the paper that year (including this time and this time).

Why do I bring this up now? It’s to help explain why I went back to Brandeis Monday night to see a movie called Blessed Is the Match. The film is a documentary about Hannah Senesh, a 22-year-old woman who was captured by the Nazis while attempting to rescue Jewish people behind enemy lines in her native country of Hungary. But it’s not the subject that appealed to me, it was the film’s executive producer — Marta Kauffman, one of the three creators of Friends and a Brandeis alumnus (class of 1978). I’m happy to report that the film’s good and all, but to be honest, I was there to get some dirt on the show.

You’ll be relieved to know that when L.A. Times blogger Scott Feinberg finished his Q&A and turned the questioning over to the audience, I didn’t stand right up and blurt out, “So when’s the Friends reunion going to happen?” In fact, because most of the inquiries were serious and had to do with the film itself, I resisted the urge to ask any questions. Instead, I let one of the students in the crowd ask the only Friends-related question, and it was one of the more cliched ones: Is it true that Central Perk was inspired by the on-campus cafe Cholmondeleys? This has been an on-campus legend for years and a staple of admissions tours. Heck, it’s even perpetuated by Wikipedia. Well, Kauffman put the legend to rest once and for all: No, it’s not true. Chum’s was quite different back in her day, and the inspiration for Central Perk actually came from L.A.’s Insomnia Cafe. So there you have it.

But Marta wasn’t going to get out of the room without me speaking with her, so when the program ended, I joined the hordes of students who had brought DVD sets and cameras and I waited my turn. While waiting, I learned that Marta’s all-time favorite line from the show was “It’s a moo point.” Then, as she started to make her way out the door, I finally got my chance to remind Marta that I had interviewed her for the Justice back in the fall of 1994, shortly after Friends debuted (true story). And instead of asking her that cheesy question I was thinking of, I just said to her, simply, “Thanks. Thanks for ‘Pivot!,’ for trapping Chandler in the vestibule with Jill Goodacre, for the episode “The One Where Mr. Heckles Dies,’ and just for creating such a great show that I still love.” She’s obviously heard it many times before, and she was in a rush to get out of there after listening to similar commentary from all the other fans in the crowd. But I said what I wanted to, and I was happy.

So, a pretty cool night for me.

Sweet, Sweet Hanging

23 Mar

In I Love You, Man, Paul Rudd plays Peter, that probably all-too-common guy who is so whipped that all his friends are his girlfriend’s girl friends and he has no guy friends to call his own. So when he proposes and needs to fill out his wedding party, Peter is at a loss. His family tries to set him up on “man dates,” but those all go predictably awry. Then one day, Peter meets Sydney (Jason Segel), and his life becomes more complete. These two hit it off instantly, and proceed to bond over fish tacos and a love for the band Rush.

Led by the thoroughly likable performances of Rudd and Segel — who are joined by a supporting cast that includes Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, Jon Favreau, some of the Best Week Ever players, and the Hulk himself, Lou Ferrigno — I Love You, Man is, to borrow Sydney’s term, delightful. Though heightened for comic effect, Peter’s predicament rings true, and the two guys’ chemistry just feels very real. To put it most simply, I Love You, Man is totally sweet, easy, fun, winning, and it just works. This is a movie that will charm audiences for a long time. I’m giving I Love You, Man a B+.

Who’s Gaming Who?

22 Mar

All is not what it seems in Duplicity, writer/director Tony Gilroy’s followup to the Oscar-nominated Michael Clayton.

Set in the world of corporate espionage, Duplicity follows Ray and Claire (Clive Owen and Julia Roberts), former MI-6 and CIA agents who team up to pull off a scam involving two competing drug companies.

But who can be trusted when there’s so much at stake?

Are Ray and Claire really on the same page or are they looking out for themselves, and will the plan really come together without anyone finding out? Continue reading →

There’s More to This Story

20 Mar

So that explains it. A year ago, I noticed some strange graffiti on a wall near the Star Market in Allston. My post was picked up on Universalhub.com and Boston.com, and all kinds of people came to this site to see what all the fuss was about. Well, 12 months later, I’ve found out in the Improper Bostonian of all places that the supposed film criticism was not that at all, but a reference to a Demetri Martin joke. Well, I guess that explains it. And don’t I feel silly now.

A Bit of a Mess

20 Mar

Sometimes a movie is pleasant and all, but it just feels pointless. So it is with Sunshine Cleaning. The story of Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams), a young woman who starts her own crime-scene cleanup business with the help of her slacker sister, Norah (Emily Blunt), Cleaning was one of the finds at the Sundance Film Festival more than a year ago. The film was produced by the same folks who produced Little Miss Sunshine, and like that film, Cleaning also stars Alan Arkin as a cantankerous old man who has a good relationship with his grandchild. But a similar name and costar are really all these two movies have in common, and that’s probably why it took so long for the film to actually hit theaters. Cleaning has very little of the charm and emotion that Little Miss had, despite having Amy Adams in the lead. There’s a pretty creepy subplot involving Norah and the daughter of a deceased woman, and Rose just, well, I never really felt like I wanted to root for her. The movie’s not a total mess or anything, but it’s definitely not as quirky as it thinks it is. I expect the fate of Sunshine Cleaning will be much like the scenes Rose and Norah clean up, with nary a trace of it left in just a couple hours. I’m giving the movie a C+.

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