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Off to Visit Grandma

16 Oct

File this one under “I saw it so you don’t have to” — not that you really had any intention of seeing Sex Drive anyway, did you? (I didn’t think so.) This story of a shy 18-year-old virgin on a road trip to meet the hottie he’s met on the Internets and, hopefully, to have sex for the first time, is not an outrageous, obnoxious comedy like its name would imply. In fact, while there are some scenes that clearly are R-rated (one in a trailer and another in a rest room, for example), Sex Drive is actually a rather tame and sweet movie where said virgin realizes he’s actually in love with his female best friend before he can do the deed with the hottie (oops! Did I just ruin it for you?), that includes a handful of pleasant chuckles (mostly ones involving Seth Green’s Amish character). Nothing hysterical here, but nothing groan-worthy either. It’s like if American Pie and Superbad had a kid but the kid actually had a conscience. So I’m giving Sex Drive a not-awful B–.

W. Is O.K.

15 Oct

You may have noticed that I’m a Democrat. Despite that, I went to see W. with eager anticipation. This film, a look at the life and times of George “Dubya” Bush from his days at Yale through 2004, was an ambitious undertaking and came together rather quickly earlier this year. So kudos definitely go to director Oliver Stone, because the finished product is an impressive film. Led by a charismatic, excellent performance by Josh Brolin, W. portrays our current president as a guy who likes a good time, is easily bored, but loves a challenge. And no challenge is greater for the film’s W. than stepping out of his father’s shadow. Whether it’s pledging a fraternity, running for public office, or starting a war in Iraq, most everything W. does is motivated by his “Poppy.”

Stone and writer Stanley Weiser (who also wrote Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story) resist the temptation to paint W. as an incompetent fool and make the film a political attack. Not that this is an entirely sympathetic portrait either — far from it. Instead, Bush is shown as a guy who got in over his head and who’s surrounded himself with stronger and more threatening personalities (Thandie Newton’s Condoleezza Rice will scare you with just a look). Richard Dreyfuss’ Dick Cheney is appropriately menacing, and Jeffrey Wright’s Colin Powell does his best to stay noble and above the fray. But it’s Bush with the weakness and compulsion to win who is willingly coached by Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and his Cabinet and goes along with their plans.

Since I’m not totally up on my political knowledge, I can’t say whether the film is fair or accurate, but I can tell you it certainly feels authentic. That’s partly due to the acting, which is great across the board. It’s worth noting how huge and notable the cast is — in addition to those already mentioned, it includes everyone from Noah Wyle and Stacy Keach to Rob Cordrry and Ioan Gruffudd. You may giggle at first when you recognize certain cast members, but all settle into their roles nicely. I didn’t exactly love this movie — after all, it’s not like I was rooting for W. to succeed. Plus, we all know how things turn out for our supposed hero. But as a fictionalized document of current events, W. is engaging and interesting. Even though I don’t support this president, I can still support the movie. So I’m giving W. a B+.

Twisted Sister

13 Oct

Do not be fooled by the trailer for Rachel Getting Married: It may look like a remake of Margot at the Wedding — last year’s very good movie about a bitter, unkind sister coming home for her sister’s wedding and wreaking havoc — but it’s not. Sure, the two movies have that basic plot in common, but Rachel cuts a lot deeper, with much sharper knives, and it’s much more painful to watch at times.

As directed by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs), the action in Rachel unfolds naturally, and it’s captured in a hand-held vérité style that makes you feel like you are there. Kym (the excellent Anne Hathaway) has gotten out of rehab to attend her sister Rachel’s wedding. Kym is still dealing with a lot of unresolved internal pain and over the course of the weekend, she takes it out on nearly every member of her family. Rachel explores these familial issues, and the camerawork is effective in heightening the immediacy and pain of the situation, but the film never really resolves anything. So what we’re left with — other than some very good performances — is basically a home movie of a very awkward wedding weekend. And as such, there are some scenes, like the rehearsal dinner one, that just go on waaaaay too long. I hate going to a wedding where I don’t know anyone, and at times, that’s what I felt like I had done. I just wanted to slip out and leave. Rachel tops out at just under two hours and it should have been about 20 minutes shorter.

It’s impressive how the central couple’s mixed race is treated as a non-issue (it’s not ever referred to), and it probably should be repeated that Anne Hathaway is very good here, as is Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays Rachel. Alas, those scenes where they can really act come too infrequently in the movie and I found myself on an uncomfortable roller-coaster ride of emotion. So I’m going to keep my review to a B.

Out of Tune

5 Oct

Welcome to New York.

It’s a place that’s practically empty on a Friday night, where there’s always a parking space right in front of clubs, and where high school kids can not only get into bars easily, but they can bypass the lines with ease and can be served alcohol — enough to get totally drunk.

This is the New York of Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist, where everything is seemingly just right so as to engineer the kind of “crazy” night that may lead to an unlikely and rather forced love connection between our leads Nick (Michael Cera) and Nora (Kat Dennings).

Infinite Playlist is that kind of movie, complete with a hip soundtrack, and made for a particular target audience that doesn’t really include me. Continue reading →

The Gospel of I Don’t Know

4 Oct

God, Bill Maher, and the director of Borat walk into a church … No, that’s not the setup for a joke, it’s the basic premise of Religulous, a documentary in which Maher goes in search of answers to the question of Is religion good or bad for society? He travels to Israel, to a truckstop church in North Carolina, to Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City, Amsterdam, and other places, and talks to members of most of the world’s more popular organized religions. Suffice it to say, everyone gets skewered. Maher pokes all the expected holes in the idea of faith, in the double-standard that says God loves but he hates gay people, in the sexism that is so common, in the obsessiveness of some people, and then some. Much of the movie is quite funny — dare I say it’s funny as hell? — and director Larry Charles makes great use of archival and related film clips to enhance the humor. Ultimately, though, Religulous is tainted by Maher’s negative attitude. Healthy skepticism is good, and some aspects of religion are certainly ripe for questioning. But Maher doesn’t really seem to have a point here, other than saying religion is bad, and the film’s last five minutes leave the viewer with such a bad taste that it corrupts the humor that previously was so engaging. I was tempted to give Religulous a higher grade, but ultimately I’m going to stick with a B. If you’re looking for a warmer look at religion’s place in modern society, may I highly recommend A.J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically.

A League of Morons

15 Sep

Oh well. The Coen brothers’ latest, Burn After Reading, is a bit of a disappointment. Their last film, the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, was a brilliant but awfully serious affair, so I don’t blame them for wanting to tackle a trifle like this one. I just wish it had the laughs and charm that a similarly light comedy like, say, the totally underrated Intolerable Cruelty did.

At least those two films have one good thing in common: George Clooney, who here stars as Harry, a womanizing charmer, who gets involved with Linda (Frances McDormand), a woman seeking money for four body-enhancing surgeries, who works at a gym with Chad (Brad Pitt), a dim-witted trainer who happens upon a CD filled with the security secrets of Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), a former CIA analyst who is writing a memoir about his life in the agency, and whose wife (Tilda Swinton) is also involved with Harry. Got all that? It’s a twisty plot that meanders and doesn’t really ever go anywhere (intentionally), mostly because the characters are all basically morons.

There are some good reaction shots, and McDormand and Pitt seem to be having the most fun, but for my money, the best part of the entire movie is the last five minutes, when J. K. Simmons and David Rasche‘s characters try to make sense of it all. I think the Coens needed to put their characters in the film earlier and more often because their deadpan confusion is hysterical and the only thing in the film that really works. Burn wants to be zany, wacky fun, but it’s only mildly amusing. I’ll take Clooney’s Everett McGill or Miles Massey over Harry any day. So rank this one with the Coens’ The Ladykillers remake as a subpar Coen brothers movie. As I said: Oh well. They can’t all be Fargo or O Brother, Where Art Thou? I’m giving Burn a C+.

Three’s a Crowd

25 Aug

You can say this (among other things) about Woody Allen as a filmmaker: He sure does know how to give his movies a sense of place.

His latest, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, unfolds in Spain (largely in, yes, Barcelona) and man if it isn’t just the greatest commercial for that city.

A (mostly unnecessary) narrator gives us the film’s basic premise: two best friends, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), are spending the summer abroad.

Both have different views about life and love: Vicky is more uptight and methodical (not to mention engaged), and Cristina is more carefree and spontaneous.

Both of their lives are changed when they meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a painter just out of a troubled marriage (to María Elena, played by Penélope Cruz). Continue reading →

Method to Their Madness

16 Aug

From its inspired, brilliant first 10 minutes, right on up to the closing credits, you’ll be on the floor laughing yourself silly over Tropic Thunder. This satire of Hollywood pretension, action films, Vietnam War films, method acting, tyrannical studio heads, overzealous agents, Oscar bait, and basically anything related to the art of moviemaking, is just fall-down flat-out funny. No, those trailers at the start of the film — before the credits — aren’t for real movies, but they’re totally dead-on. All the acting — by Ben Stiller (who also cowrote and directed), Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, and especially Robert Downey Jr. — is hysterical. The screenplay is filthy and at times offensive, but always meant in good fun. To ruin any of this movie’s pleasures would be wrong, so I’ll just tell you it’s the funniest movie of the summer and give it an A–. The film’s tagline is Get Some. I agree.

High Wire

10 Aug

On the morning of August 7, 1974, while many New Yorkers were hurrying to work, a lithe Frenchman named Philippe Petit was more than 100 stories above them, walking from the top of one of the Twin Towers to the other and back again.

The story of this amazing and unlikely feat is told in the fantastic new documentary Man on Wire.

Why did Petit do it?

Well, it’s almost the same answer as the one given by George Leigh Mallory when he was asked why he was attempting to climb Mount Everest: “Because it’s there.”

Petit, too, is driven by simple motivation. He’s a performer, and he thinks that to walk on a tightrope between the buildings would be an act of incredible beauty. Continue reading →

The Monkey’s Out of the Bottle

1 Aug

Like any good buzz, Pineapple Express takes a little while to sink in and take effect.

And once you get past the first, oh, 10-15 minutes, you’re in for a good time.

Not coincidentally, the uptick in the film’s quality comes at just about exactly the same time that James Franco comes on the screen, playing Seth Rogen’s drug dealer. Franco’s Saul sells Rogen’s Dale a rare and exclusive brand of pot called Pineapple Express, and after witnessing a murder (don’t ask), Dale leaves his roach behind. Thus, the bad guys know exactly who to look for, sending Dale and Saul on the run.

Comedy ensues. Continue reading →

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