Review – Page 187 – We Are Movie Geeks

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP – Review

Film comedies packed witty, biting humor and whip-smart dialog are pretty rare these days. So LOVE & FRIENDSHIP, director Whit Stillman’s screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s lesser-known early short novel “Lady Susan,” is particularly welcome. With Kate Beckinsale shinning in the lead role as clever, ruthless Lady Susan, the witty comedy is even more delicious.

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP is pure fun, a brilliant comedy filled with laugh-out-loud moments and terrific ensemble performances by a largely British cast, making it entertaining even for those who are not big fans of Jane Austen or costume films.

Unlike other more familiar Austen works, LOVE & FRIENDSHIP is more comedy than romance, although there is some of that too. The story might be described as a comedy of manners but that label makes this very funny film sound more tame than it really is. The story is set in the 1790s, a little earlier than most Austen stories, and focuses on the mother more than the daughter, as Austen usually does.

Writer/director Whit Stillman (“The Last Days of Disco”) crafts Austen’s work into a sharp, zinger-filled, twisty romp, a far funnier, smarter comedy and a refreshing change from the typical comedies in theaters now.

Kate Beckinsale turns in one of her sharpest, funniest performances as Lady Susan. Since her husband’s death left her with a daughter and a noble title but insufficient funds, she has stayed with a string of better-off relatives. Sharp-witted Susan has a well-deserved reputation as an accomplished flirt and a woman who can wrap a man around her finger. Now that her daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark) has reached a marriageable age, Lady Susan is determined to find her a rich husband, and one for herself as well.

That is the plan when a touch of scandal, involving Susan’s married lover, the handsome Lord Manwaring (Lochlann O’Mearain), brings her to the quiet country estate, Churchill, of her late husband’s brother., where she hopes to hide out while gossip dies down. Charles Vernon (Justin Edwards) welcomes his sister-in-law but his wife Catherine DeCourcy Vernon (Emma Greenwell), who has never met her before, is more leery, as Lady Susan’s fearsome reputation for twisting circumstances to her advantage, particularly with men, precedes her.

Susan has her eye on Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel), the handsome bachelor brother of her hostess. Catherine regards that possibility with suspicion and alarm, as do her parents, Lady DeCourcy (Jemma Redgrave) and Sir Reginald DeCourcy (James Fleet). Her husband Charles has a more kindly view of his brother’s widow.

Susan arrives at the estate with a friend, Mrs. Cross (Kelley Campbell), who assists her like a combination companion, lady’s maid and seamstress, although as she tells her hostess, it would be “offensive to us both” if she paid her. However, Susan’s romantic plans are complicated when her daughter Frederica also arrives, tearfully fleeing the attentions of Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett), the always-sunny but dull-witted wealthy aristocrat that her mother had selected as a suitable husband for her daughter. The very silly Sir James soon arrives as well, uninvited, and becomes another house guest.

Susan confides her frustration and plots to her close friend Alicia Johnson (Chloe Sevigny), an American married to an English aristocrat, the “very respectable” Mr. Johnson (Stephen Fry). Their conversations allows us to see inside Susan’s Machiavellian plans. To make things a big more complicated, Mr. Johnson’s former ward is Lady Lucy Manwaring (Jenn Murray), the jealous, hysterical rich wife of Susan’s lover.

It may seem like a lot of characters to keep track of but Stillman’s well-crafted script and firm directorial hand keeping things running smoothly and makes keeping everyone straight easy. Of course, no one does this kind of story as well as Austen.

Unsurprisingly, the period costumes are gorgeous and perfect, and sets and locations are lush and lovely, as is the polished photography. The gracious beauty of the clothes and locations deliciously contrasts with the ruthless social maneuvering taking place, part of the humor.

Few complications are beyond Susan’s powers to turn to her advantage, although plots may not turn out exactly as planned. Beckinsale’s fast-talking Susan is a force of nature, who both lights up and transforms every room she enters, but really the whole cast is a dream, nailing each character perfectly so that the whole plot unfolds in hilarious precision. Sevigny is particularly good as Susan’s confident, whose husband is alarmed by her wife’s friendship and threatens the unthinkable – leaving London for the wilds of Connecticut. Greenwell is very good as Catherine, appalled and intimidated by the relentless Susan. Samuel is also excellent as Reginald, who falls under Susan’s charms, and expresses the best shock at Sir James’ jaw-dropping witlessness. Bennett is wonderfully funny as the always happy, clueless Sir James. The ensemble cast works great as a clockwork whole.

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP is just great fun, a fast-paced and brilliant gem that is sure to enchant Austen fans and non-fans alike.

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP opens in St. Louis on May 27th, 2016

OVERALL RATING: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS

X- MEN: APOCALYPSE – Review

The Uncanny X-Men – as they were once and sometimes called – have returned to show off their special abilities, remind us that being different is a gift not a curse, and of course, to save the world. However, the newest entry avoids the uncanny description even more by delivering a story that feels too normal or comfortable. Even for X-fans, this is a tedious page turner that’s rarely intriguing enough to make you want to see what happens in the next panel.

This time around the threat is one that feels all too familiar. In the opening prologue, a ritual in an Egyptian temple is performed to transform fresh-faced Oscar Isaac into the big blue baddie that the film is named after. But the transferring of powers or souls (or what have you) doesn’t go according to plan, burying the all-powerful mutant deep within the crumbling tomb and placing him in a coma-like state. In comes Moira (Rose Byre) from the previous installment X-MEN: FIRST CLASS to stumble upon the tomb centuries later in 1983. She witnesses his resurrection which in turns awakens something in our wheelchair bound professor (James McAvoy) to seek out the CIA agent to find out what she witnessed and knows. In the meantime, Xavier’s school begins to fill up with the classic characters like Cyclops (the emotionless and stilted Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner faring slightly better), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee trying his best to not look like he’s about to cry at any moment). As school gets back into session, Apocalypse goes on a quest to pick out his own army consisting of Storm (Alexandra Shipp – the only newcomer of the bunch that makes an impact), Psyclocke (Olivia Munn), Angel (Ben Hardy), and the real hero and heart of this trilogy of films, Magneto (Michael Fassbender). And guess what? He and his army want to destroy the world.

The script gets heavily bogged down by introducing so many of these new characters, and then is made worse by a by-the-book villain motivation that fuels the plot. More so than Simon Kinberg’s previous script for X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, the dialogue feels rote with the same comic book clichés we’ve heard in so many films before; rants about great power and warnings of letting go of anger. It would sound even more pedestrian if it wasn’t for the talented cast that sells it.

Fassbender and McAvoy have proven they can handle the great powers and great responsibility – Jennifer Lawrence, however, still seems like her energy and interest in the franchise changes scene to scene. Fassbender, in particular, makes his scenes in the first half of the film somewhat memorable through a side-story involving a wife and child. As is the case with the tortured character, things never end up well for Maggy and his anger is pushed to new limits, which leads him down a sullen and (dare I say) somewhat emotional path to Apocalypse. However, I guess director Bryan Singer felt the need for both him personally and the character to have a self-healing therapy session, as the destruction of a tragically historical location is completely destroyed in one of the most weirdly uncomfortable moments I’ve felt in a theater in a long, long while.

Who is new this time around and is given the most weight to bear is Oscar Isaac as the title villain. Given all the controversy over his look, voice, and size, I half-expected Singer to end up hiding him for most of the film to appease the fanboys ready with their torches and pitchforks. Nevertheless, Apocalypse is in the film quite a bit and never really shuts up. It’s the same sort of stuff we’ve heard from villains before about tearing down the old world to rebuild a new one, but Oscar Isaac at least doesn’t look or come across as silly like many have come to expect.

The main thing that holds back the film is the lack of intrigue. With X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, we were introduced to essentially new characters since they were younger versions of what we’ve seen before. And the cool swinging 60s vibe combined with the Cold War timeline added a nice dash of reality into the fantasy. With DAYS OF FUTURE PAST there is a sense of urgency with the film as it bounces back and forth between the future and the 70s. It also kept up on our toes as we watched Wolverine having to work with Magneto and others, not knowing if he can trust his accomplices. APOCALYPSE is missing a hook. Gone is the sense of intrigue. Aside from the new characters that you don’t really care as much about as the main ones, the only thing that we’re left to hang onto is the 80s setting and a villain who’s motivations we’ve seen before. Sure, hearing Eurhythmics is fun and cute, but the real life ideas and paranoia of the time are simply a quick mention on television as the story has to rush to introduce another character. “Here’s Psylocke! A character that looks really cool and speaks a total of five sentences!”

Subtlety and nuance are out the window in favor of broad strokes, all leading to a battle of the minds between the superheroes. With all the brainy talk about erasing the past for a brighter future, it feels almost ironic that so many fans (myself included) will be looking at the past films for relief as opposed to looking ahead at what the next films could offer. The new characters and costumes in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE may look as if they jumped right out of the comic panel, but new ideas are lost somewhere else in time.

OVERALL RATING: 2.5 out of 5

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE is now playing in theaters everywhere

WEINER – Review

It’s no surprise WEINER is such an entertaining documentary. How could an account of sleazy ex-congressman Anthony Weiner’s failed NYC Mayoral 2013 bid be anything but awesome? Weiner was a colorful pol even before his unfortunate “habit” of texting photos of his genitals to college-age girls was exposed. Put a creep like that on camera 24/7 amidst an against-the-odds shot at returning to political fame, toss in a new sexting scandal, and you’re destined for one of the most gripping political freak-show chronicles ever, which is exactly what first time documentarians Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg have delivered.

Brooklyn native Anthony Weiner, an effective spokesman for liberal positions, served 12 years in Congress, and was once taken seriously as a candidate for higher office. Weiner is married to key Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and was a popular guest on cable news. WEINER opens with footage of Weiner’s loud, firebrand debating style pre-scandal. In May of 2011 it’s discovered he was sexting pics of his junk to young girls he’d never met (while his wife was pregnant no less). He lied at first, claiming someone must have hacked into his twitter account, but he ultimately fessed up and in June of 2011, resigned his seat in disgrace. WEINER picks up two years later when he’s decided to throw his hat in the ring for the Democrat New York Mayoral primary. This is when filmmakers Kriegman and Steinberg (who once worked for Weiner) are approached to follow the candidate around, resulting in this film. The pair were given extraordinary access to Weiner, who saw himself as the ‘Comeback Kid’ and wanted a record of his rebound to power. Things starts off well for the Weiner campaign. He finds plenty of enthusiastic young supporters to work as volunteers and soon the polling is going his way. But chaos reigns when another sex scandal emerges. Under the name ‘Carlos Danger’, Weiner had found a new cybersex-paramour in the form of Sydney Leathers (her real name!). He again tried to spin his latest transgression, but it soon becomes clear to everyone, except for perhaps Weiner himself, that he is well and truly finished in public life. Wife Huma is increasingly grim and withdrawn as she too watches her dreams go up in smoke. His election night party is a bleak affair (Weiner received less than 5% of the vote). Not only did Huma not bother showing up, the buxom and slightly bucktoothed Sydney Leathers (at the behest of Howard Stern) did. Weiner’s’ handlers do all they can to avoid a confrontation with Miss Leathers and her tight dress, even dragging the candidate through the back of a McDonalds to dodge her. It’s a surreal moment, and I’m sure a far cry from the triumphant reception that Weiner must have had in mind just weeks earlier.

Kriegman and Steinberg’s seemingly limitless access to Weiner makes WEINER one of the best political documentaries I’ve seen. Though Weiner comes off looking terrible, the film is not a hit piece in that I’m sure the filmmakers were on Team Weiner when the project started, and even they seem shocked at these humiliating moments that they have chronicled. Weiner seems to think he’ll survive this sex scandal like his wife’s boss’s husband did, but while Bill Clinton had charm and charisma, Weiner comes off as abrasive, deluded, and thin-skinned. When Weiner is asked on Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC show “What is wrong with you?”, he smirks and laughs like he has the upper hand. The filmmakers weave in just the right amount of tabloid headlines and archival TV footage with John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brian, etc. cracking the expected penis jokes and punny euphemisms. Funniest is Jane Lynch and Bill Maher breathy recitation of ‘Carlos Danger’ and Miss Leather’s sexts on a late-night show. The most jaw-dropping scene is when we see Weiner rehearsing how “profoundly sorry” he is, testing a series of ‘serious’ voices. It’s a nauseating look at just how inauthentic his remorse actually is and a great example of why so many Americans hate politicians.. That he let them film that shows an astonishing lack of self-awareness. You wonder why Weiner doesn’t shut the filming down or at least ask the filmmakers to turn the cameras off during scenes like this. Perhaps his hubris extended even to the idea of this documentary. Hey, why not let the audience watch while he tries to find just the right tone for an apology? Weiner’s got nothing to hide anymore. Escaping this tawdry episode with dignity intact is Sydney Leathers. She has since parlayed her 15 minutes of fame into a lucrative career in hardcore pornography that includes a XXX video titled ‘Weiner and Me’. I’m sure her parents are proud.

5 of 5 Stars

WEINER opens in St. Louis May 27th exclusively at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater

NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING – Review

College comedies are back in session this spring. Richard Linklater previously gave us baseball buds just hanging out with EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!, and now Nicholas Stoller and Seth Rogen return with their take on avoiding higher education in lieu of high times with NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING.

Comedy sequels aren’t known for subverting stereotypes. Most are content with delivering 90 minutes of cheap laughs that play off the same theme as its precursor. And so it’s admirable that Stoller has made a progressive sequel that tackles gender issues and shines a light on a double standard in the Greek system: a sorority is not allowed to throw parties inside their house. Fraternities can but sororities can’t. Crazy, right? It almost seems unheard of that this would exist in the year 2016, but it’s true – look it up. And so, this causes three freshmen girls who become aware of the cold hard truth to start their own. Sure, you could always attend parties at fraternity houses, but as the film illustrates and is bluntly described by one of the girls, those parties tend to be “rapey.”

As you can expect, this time around Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) go to war with the new sorority next door, led by Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz), Beth (Kiersey Clemons), and Nora (Beanie Feldstein). Initially, to get Kappa Nu off the ground, they employ the help of Teddy (Zac Efron), but when the tables are turned on him, Teddy joins sides with Mac and Kelly to bring the girls down.

It’s weird to think that a film titled NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING is a feminist movie… but, it kind of is. So much, in fact, that it sort of gets lost in the idea at times. It happily shows these women be strong and funny and stand up for what they believe in, but then falls back on female stereotypes also at times. So it wants to have its cake and eat it too, as is the case in the tailgate turned heist scene (snappily edited to make even Michael Mann smile). One minute the girls are shown as smart entrepreneurs selling “pot-pies,” but then the next minute they are easily distracted by Efron performing a MAGIC MIKE-inspired dance number. Showing the women suddenly dropping their responsibilities to slobber over the sight goes a little against the film’s message, but I also don’t blame the film for reaching for a cheap laugh after all the good it’s mainly doing.

Zac Efron has the ability to make an obnoxious character in theory, come across more as a lovable loser. Sure, his abs redefine the idea of a six-pack, but it’s Efron’s natural charm that shines more. He instills enough heart in the character of Teddy to make him more than just a dimwitted bro.

What’s interesting about the three freshman girls that lead this revolution for the woman’s right to party is that they aren’t necessarily caricatures. Most films would be quick to label these girls. This is the smart one; this is the funny one; this is the party girl. NEIGHBORS 2 avoids this by just showing three normal college girls. Moretz, Clemons, and Feldstein may not have defining characters, but as a result, they feel more natural than the stereotypes that made up the fraternity in the first film.

NEIGHBORS 2 may not be as laugh out loud funny as the last one, but Stoller and his team of five writers – yes five people had a hand in this – trade in dick jokes for a message. Although the first film may have gleefully worn its “bro-ness” like a badge of honor, the sequel mercilessly pokes large holes in the world of bro culture so that the women who are usually relegated to set decoration in this world can have their fair share of the spotlight.

OVERALL RATING: 3.5 out of 5

NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING is now playing in theaters everywhere

A BIGGER SPLASH – Review

A sunny Italian island, rockstar privilege and a long-standing personal animosity come together in A BIGGER SPLASH.

Tilda Swinton stars a rock-and-roll legend named Marianne, who hiding out on the Italian island of Pantelleria with her younger photographer husband Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) while her voice heals from recent surgery. The couple’s quiet idyll is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Harry (Ralph Fiennes), Marianne’s former long-time producer and ex-lover, and his newly-discovered daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson). Harry is a non-stop talker and life of the party, determined to bring back the good old rock-n-roll party days and a tsunami of nostalgia.

Ralph Fiennes is the lightning rod at the center of this taut, sexy psychological thriller. The film is directed by Luca Guadagnino, the Italian director best known for I AM LOVE, the visually lush art-house hit that explored love in the world of the very rich. The mostly-English language A BIGGER SPLASH has some nice photography but not the same intense visual beauty.

The story takes place on Pantelleria, a real-world favorite of celebrities such as Madonna as a hide-out. The island is famous for its rocky, sunny landscape, quaint little villages, pervasive snakes, and as a way station for illegal immigrants from Africa arriving by boat – all of which appear in this film. The film is a loose remake of a 1969 Italian-French thriller named “The Swimming Pool.”

Much of the story does take place around the couple’s pool, and water figures heavily in the story. Due to her surgery, Swinton’s character bares speaks but her presence is strong nonetheless and her character is the center of what unfolds. It is immediately clear the three have a long history together, and in fact, Harry had introduced his friend Paul to Marianne. A certain tension, from long history and how lives diverge over time, fills the air from the start.

Fiennes is electric as Harry, the character who fires up the film. Harry is a lot of fun but he is also exhausting and self-centered. While Marianne and Paul decide that the presence of the young Penelope means no more skinny-dipping in the pool, Harry boldly strips down and dives in bare. A high-energy character never stops talking, a man who is not only the life of the party but determined that everyone must join the party too – whether they want to our not. Fiennes embraces this role with relish, dancing with goofy abandon to old Rolling Stones tunes, strutting about in the nude and exhibiting a child-like enthusiasm as he indulges his nostalgic impulses.

Harry’s energy is entertaining but he is also exhausting and unable to dial it back, and Fiennes captures that sense brilliantly as well. In an early scenes, Harry drags his reluctant hosts, who have been keeping a low profile, to a restaurant, and then name-dropping Marianne’s name to get them a table, much to the irritation of Paul. The scene illustrates much about Harry’s essential character, and how his strong-willed presence disrupts the couple’s quiet, restful break.

Director Guadagnino does a masterful job of creating a dynamic sense of people who have known each other well for years – and have lingering issues between them. Fiennes, Swinton and Schoenaerts are all excellent, and Johnson also does well in the smaller role of the daughter, mostly an observer in the growing tensions. Although the film is primarily in English, the sensibility is entirely European, with tensions slowly building to an explosion at the end. The drama also offers a telling commentary on the privileges of fame.

While not the visual treat of I AM LOVE, this re-pair of star Tilda Swinton and director Luca Guadagnino delivers a taut commentary on relationships and the power of fame, and one striking performance from Ralph Fiennes.

A BIGGER SPLASH opens on May 20th, 2016

OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5

THE NICE GUYS – Review

Los Angeles is maybe known world-wide as an entertainment mecca, ground zero for all things that glitter, but it’s also the locale for thrillers and the “hard-boiled” mystery. Everybody from Bogie to Bob Mitchum threw on a trench coat, adjusted their fedoras, and strolled down those dark streets and alleys, looking for danger (and dangerous dames). This week’s new flick somewhat echoes those noir “programmers”. Being a big Summer release, we’ve got two “gumshoes” dodging bullets. And it’s not post WWII California, but rather post Vietnam War “la la land” circa 1977 (near Christmas-time). Now, with two bickering private eyes, you might consider this a variation of the standard “cop buddy” actioner. That’s appropriate since this movie is directed by the screenwriter who set the template for police team-up flicks back in 1987 with LETHAL WEAPON, Shane Black. It turns out that this movie’s heroes are just as lethal as Riggs and Murtaugh, although they refer to themselves as THE NICE GUYS.
The film’s story does commence in that year of the first STAR WARS adventure, as we witness the spectacular demise of porn actress Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio). But is she really gone? A wealthy relative, Mrs. Glenn (Lois Smith) swears she has seen her, and hires the somewhat disreputable but fully licensed PI Holland March (Ryan Gosling) to find her. During his work, Holland tries to locate another aspiring actress Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley). But Ms. K has hired her own PI (sans said license), self-defense guru Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), to find out why some guys (plural) are asking her friends about her. Healy catches up to March, strongly advising him to back off during a beat down witnessed by March’s precocious 13 year-old daughter, (Mom’s out of the picture) Holly (Angourie Rice). Case closed, so thinks Healy until two very tough goons bust up his place demanding Amelia’s location. These brutal pros convince Healy that some very powerful folks must be interested in the lady. Reluctantly he teams with March to find her before they do. This pairing sends the miss-matched duo into the seedy world of adult films, ecology protesters, the US auto industry, and the department of justice as the evade a most deadly hit man named, of all things, John Boy (Matt Bomer).

The story’s main draw are indeed, the two “nice” guys at its center. The pleasant surprise may be Crowe, who seems more energetic and engaged than in many of his recent films (his Noah seemed just seemed to lumber and mope about his ship). His expanded physique (Healy is on the wagon, so he appears to be hitting the sweets, with a fondness for the chocolate soda elixer Yoo-Hoo), makes him a most dangerous bear (the grey goatee adds to it), who is surprisingly capable of swift, brutal force. But there’s also a sad, haunted quality to him as though the world has done much more damage to him than any hulking thug. Gosling’s March has a different kind of energy and attitude. He’s a deadly dimwit, always armed but completely clueless. The often somber, serious actor displays a knack for physical comedy, particularly when a bit of action goes awry (“Man, that’s a lotta’ blood!”). March is stubborn and surly, but he can also be a needy puppy, eager for respect from Healy. Rice is quite good as his daughter, often the “straight man” to Gosling. At times she even acts as the responsible parent in the family dynamic. Bomer tosses off his MAGIC MAN “eye candy” roles and makes an often frightening, high-caliber “boogey-man” (there’s a great glint in his eyes as he smiles before another bit of mayhem). Speaking of the bad guys, screen vet Keith David still packs a wallop as the less manic enforcer who tries to keep his younger cohort Beau Knapp in line, as a noir staple, the sniggering unhinged sadist. Plus Crowe’s Oscar-winning co-star from LA CONFIDENTIAL Kim Basinger pops up as a “John (…er Jane) Law” official who may or may not be helping the fellas’ (can it really be two decades since that classic?).
Director (and co-screenwriter) Black makes certain that the film is drenched in 1970’s kitsch (gas lines, record albums, fashions, cars, even an appearance from an iconic disco band), which is amusing, but often seems a distraction from the way too convoluted plot. With the hindsight of history, the big scheme elicits a laugh or two, similar to, but nowhere near as clever as, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (who owed a great deal to CHINATOWN). Plus the comedy bits take away much of the danger and urgency of the story, with the film hitting a pacing wall at the one hour mark (like many comedies). After his tenth foul-up, March’s antics truly try our patience with his Closeau-like bumbles and stumbles (he even mimics Lou Costello’s raspy-voiced panic bit). After his daughter is exposed to so much (violence and a porno party), we’re rooting for the authorities to step in (although she is generally more mature than her Pop). The flick truly earns its “R” with lots of random nudity (the beginning bit with Misty is pretty creepy) and plenty of gory gunplay (Black likes to show countless random bystanders going down during the many shoot-outs). Maybe this is to convey a wild “un-PC” vibe, but comes off as mean-spirited. The big auto show finale’ just drags on and on with a ludicrously limp payoff. The two main stars of THE NICE GUYS are indeed nicely paired, but it’s a shame their seventies shenanigans aren’t more interesting and entertaining. Nice try.
3 Out of 5

ANGRY BIRDS – Review

Review by Dane Marti

ANGRY BIRDS is a film experience of monumental proportions—if gauged by the excited kids in the theater. Basically, the story centers around an angry red bird living amidst a colorful array of other flightless birds on a small island somewhere in the world. The birds are all colorfully plumed and seem to be awfully well adjusted. Some might say, too well adjusted for their own good. I’m not exactly sure why the birds are unable to fly, but that must have been a major element of the original game that this film grew from.

Red bird is ANGRY. He’s hot under the feathers! Like many of us non-cartoon humans—at least I like to think I’m not a cartoon! –Red bird has seriously intense anger issues, and near the start of his amusing film, he finds himself in a class with other malcontents. It’s one of the funniest scenes in the film. These issues set him apart from the politically correct, self-obsessed and painfully unaware birds on the island. Of course, all the birds worship a legendary, mythic bald eagle.

The Angry Bird is definitely an outcast—at least until a bizarre ship full of gelatinous, surreal, neon-green pigs shows up on the island with supposedly benign intentions. No…they wouldn’t possibly want to steal bird eggs to take home for a massive omelet fest of monumental proportions!

Now, although the C.G. animated flick is a satire, I kept expecting the film to have a sweet, left-leaning message about being friends and brothers with all people, regardless of gender, species or color affiliation. That would have been just fine, albeit a bit predictable. Strangely, this doesn’t occur: and our bird (birds?) on the island must fight and defend their lives against the intentions of those evil, diabolical green pigs!

ANGRY BIRDS started as a video game franchise by a Finnish company, directed with flare by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, written by Jon Vitti and featuring, among many excellent voices, by actors such as Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Maya Rudolf, Peter Dinklage and the legendary Sean Penn.

ANGRY BIRDS made me laugh out loud throughout its relatively short running time. In fact, I wasn’t the only kid laughing! As usual, there were many witty, clever adult jokes thrown in for the adults—including a rather amusing Shining scene reference. As someone who has a degree in digital animation, the design and movement of the Angry Birds universe is stellar – nicely created without going over the top—creating a nice balance of cartoon (especially old Warner Bros. Cartoons!), with more modern computer-generated imagery. While not a classic in its field, and definitely not on a par with THE JUNGLE BOOK, which came close to being perfect in my book, ANGRY BIRDS is a solid, zany, fun film for children and adults alike. See this film or get anger issues!

4 of 5 Stars

THE MEDDLER – Review

THE MEDDLER is writer/director Lorene Scafaria semi-biographical movie about her widowed mother, who moved across the country to build a new life around her grown daughter. The mother, played marvelously by Susan Sarandon, is indeed a meddler but despite the comic title, THE MEDDLER is more than a simple comedy about a meddlesome mother but a warm dramedy that explores a mother-daughter relationship as the mother copes with her new life as a widow.

Left financially secure after the death of her beloved husband, Marnie Minervini (Sarandon) decides it is time for a change in her life. The change she picks is to be closer to her daughter – literally. Marnie moves from her longtime home in New Jersey to Los Angeles, where her unmarried daughter Lori (Rose Byrne) is a successful television producer. With a new iPhone, a condo in the Grove neighborhood and plenty of free time and money, bubbly mom Marnie devotes herself to her daughter – calling or texting her daughter several times a day, letting herself in to her house unannounced, befriending her friends, involving herself in her daughter’s love life and even offering to advise her daughter’s psychotherapist. Meanwhile, daughter Lori, nursing a broken heart after breaking up with her boyfriend, an actor named Jason (Jason Ritter), is quickly overwhelmed by her mother’s loving but too-constant presence.

Lori sees a chance to escape her mother’s smothering attention when work takes her to New York. She tells her mom she needs for her to stay behind to take care of her dogs. Actually, Marnie is not eager to go back East, where her in-laws, a loving but overwhelming Italian family, and some unresolved issues from her husband’s death await. Instead, Marnie fills her time with new meddling projects – offering to provide a regular ride for a clerk she met at the Apple store so he can go back to college, offering to pay for a wedding for one of Lori’s friends (although she cannot seem to quite remember the friend’s name), volunteering at a hospital and playing a movie extra after stumbling into a shoot accidentally. Her meddling wins her friends but Marnie is still not ready to just start a completely new life. When a couple of very different men (Michael McKean and J.K. Simmons) are attracted to her, she cannot get away fast enough.

Sarandon is completely wonderful in this role, a real showcase for her considerable skill. Like last year’s “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” it is a rare meaty role for an older actress in a film with a bittersweet story that addresses some real issues of aging. Bryne is terrific as well, walking the thin line between something verging on callousness towards her mother’s buried pain (and guilt over that), and an impulse to self-preservation from a smothering by well-meaning mother love. And still keeping both the comedy and truth in that.

With a deft touch, Scafaria mixes comedy and truth, in a film that is both apology to her mother and warm, affectionate portrait of an unsinkable optimist, in an honest if comic exploration of the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship. While the film is mostly funny, it has a serious side. Despite Marnie’s bubbly personality, she is coping with grief in her own way, which means immersing herself in other people’s lives to avoid issues in her own.

While Marnie cheerfully interjects herself into her daughter’s life, suggesting ways she could patch things up with her ex-boyfriend, she is less eager to embrace her own life. The reason under all the meddling that gives the film its sad undercurrent: the mother working through her grief after the death of her beloved husband, and the hole his loss has left in her life. The film is more about different styles of working through grief. A visit to her in-laws, a loud, affectionate Italian family, reveals that Marnie was also running away when she moved from New Jersey, avoiding subjects she does not want to deal with, even two years after her husband’s death. Likewise, Marnie recoils and retreats when faced with the possibility of new romance, still not ready to let go of her grieving and take a step towards new love. Meanwhile, J.K. Simmons is funny and warm as one of those potential love interests, a quirky retired cop with a chicken coop in his backyard.

Hilarious as well as heart-tugging, Scafaria wisely passes on making THE MEDDLER a straight-forward comedy and opts for a more difficult task – making a film that honestly confronts the pain and love in a mother-daughter relationship, one that tackles all the messiness of real feelings in a warm film that avoids false sentimentality. It is also one funny yet touching expression of love from a daughter to her mom.

THE MEDDLER opens on May 13th, 2016

OVERALL RATING: 4 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY – Review

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY is a handsome, well-acted historical drama based on the unexpected true story of an India-born, self-taught mathematical genius. In 1913, the young genius was brought to England, by a mathematics professor at Trinity College in Cambridge, who recognized the young man’s gift despite the prejudices of the time.

Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”) plays Srinavasa Ramanujan, a poor and poorly-educated Hindu man who is obsessed with mathematics, working out ground-breaking original theorems in the dust of his local temple floor. Jeremy Irons plays mathematics professor G.H. Hardy, a flinty fellow who counts among his friends and colleagues Bertrand Russell (Jeremy Northam). The story is set against the historical backdrop of World War I, and the colonialism and cultural prejudices of the era.

Even before traveling half way around the world to the foreign culture of Great Britain, Ramanujan was already a fish-out-of-water even in his home city of Madras, a young man who cares more about numbers than people. One of the few people he connects with is his beloved new wife Janaki (Devika Bhise), who is living with his mother while her husband looks for work. Despite his lack of a degree, Ramanujan secures a job as accounting clerk in a British colonial office, after a man in the office reads Ramanujan’s notebooks and recognizes the young man’s brilliance. The job allows Ramanujan to move his new wife and widowed mother into a home with him. Meanwhile, his supervisor encourages the young clerk to write a mathematics professor in England for help to get his work published, and his British employer picks Hardy as the academic to target. It turns out to be serendipity. Hardy responds and invites him to England but leaving India means Ramanujan must defy his mother, who fears he will not return, as well as leaving his beloved wife behind.

A low-level government clerk producing brilliant mathematical/scientific discoveries sounds like another early 20th genius – the young Albert Eisenstein. Ramanujan is not a famous name but as this intriguing film suggests, except for the intervention of chance, he might have been as well known as Eisenstein or even Newton. The interaction of genius and chance are running themes in this excellent film.

Making an involving drama about mathematics is no small feat, yet THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY succeeds brilliantly, thanks to fine acting by Patel and Irons, and a strong supporting cast that includes Toby Jones and Stephen Fry, and skillful direction by Mathew Brown. The director wisely focuses on the human story, particularly the relationship between Ramanujan and Hardy, instead of burying the audience in mathematical detail. Brown crafts a tale of hard-work, genius, and cross-cultural friendship that spotlights an important but little known gifted man who overcame remarkable odds to make a contribution upon which science and technology are still drawing even today.

The film features splendid photography and gets all the period details right, but the ideas it raises is what makes it so intriguing. THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY explores, deftly, how prejudices and assumptions can cloud our ability to see brilliance in unexpected places and people, and reminds us that genius can pop up anywhere. Not surprisingly, prejudice is a topic that crops up in this early-twentieth century story but it is not the whole story. Ramanujan is not only from a colonial country but he is an Asperger’s-like character whose social difficulties make it difficult for him to explain his intuitive insights and ground-breaking ideas. He resists doing the proofs needed for publication, with a mix of self-confident arrogance and basic cluelessness about why they are needed for the ideas to be accepted. The drama is as much about the central character’s difficult personality as the cultural differences between him and his mentor Hardy, or the knee-jerk prejudice against an Indian man who lacks formal education that they both encounter. As Patel plays him, there is a mix of sweetness and otherworldliness in this young genius.

Chance is a theme that runs through THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY. But this excellent historical drama also obliquely touches on other roles for chance in the recognition of genius. The story prompts one to wonder how often a Beethoven, a Van Gogh or an Einstein was simply born in the wrong time and place, or how often such a genius died before the gift could fully expressed. Once in a while, history uncovers such unrecognized or forgotten geniuses but how many more of them leave no trace to uncover?

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY is a surprisingly engrossing film about an unknown figure that offers great acting, an intriguing true story, a thought-provoking meditation on genius and an inspiring tale of courage and friendship.

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY opens on May 13th, 2016

OVERALL RATING: 4 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

MONEY MONSTER – Review

MONEY MONSTER has all the ingredients of a timely thriller: an explosive hostage situation, a critique of our current economic system, and major movie stars in the form of George Clooney and Julia Roberts. However, what unfolds onscreen is a simplistic and obvious expose about the manipulative power of both Wall Street and the media that by now is so familiar that its cynical perspective is unlikely to upset or provoke anyone. Perhaps a decade or two ago MONEY MONSTER would have been a compelling film experience but in this day and age it’s just picking obvious targets.

MONEY MONSTER stars Julia Roberts as Patty Fenn, a TV producer who spends the entire film in a control room full of consoles, monitors and engineers. Down on the studio floor Clooney plays Lee Gates, the hyperactive host of a show called Money Monster (based not-so-loosely on Jim Cramer’s CNN Mad Money show). Lee offers financial guidance and stock recommendations while behaving like a madman, hip-hopping with dancing girls and illustrating the treacherous labyrinth of Wall Street trading by running clips of Joan Crawford in STRAIGHT-JACKET. During a live broadcast Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), a disgruntled working-class type, sneaks into the studio. He’s armed with a pistol, an explosives-packed vest he straps to Lee, and a list of demands. Kyle’s upset that he took advice from this TV host and lost his life savings. It’s a siege on live TV, and Patty, who can speak to Lee through a tiny earpiece that Kyle is unaware of, takes control. She not only continues to direct the situation, she fingers Walt Camby (Dominic West), a corrupt CEO, as the one who manipulated the financial crisis that screwed Kyle.

Directed by Jodie Foster, MONEY MONSTER is told in real time, which help its 95 minutes zip by but the film, obviously striving for a DOG DAY AFTERNOON-style atmosphere of anarchy and pandemonium, fails as both black comedy and drama. Foster’s attempt at a potent finale is embarrassingly heavy-handed as Kyle and Lee (still wearing his bomb vest) march down a busy Manhattan street while the crowds line up on the sidewalk to cheer them on. We’re supposed to believe the cops are going to let this armed and unhinged man have a sit down to confront evil Walt Camby a few blocks away from the TV station. MONEY MONSTER has nothing new to add to the many hostage films that Hollywood has given us over the years. The problem is that it’s revelations are never quite as shocking as the self-important screenplay, one that favors message over plausibility, holds them out to be. The assertion that the little guy can get bamboozled and that television panders to sensationalism is obvious to anyone who has merely glanced at cable news or their bank statement in the last eight years. I guess the audience is expected to sympathize with Kyle’s dilemma and his anger; you’d be hard put to find anyone who wouldn’t. But this man, who in a better movie might be drawn as a decent but deeply flawed and disturbed person, is shoved down our throats as a hero. MONEY MONSTER comes awfully close to saying that the answer to a personal grievance is, well, terrorism, when you get right down to it. My empathy for someone who loses the farm based on what some clown on cable TV says is limited. The acting by the stars is no more than adequate. Clooney acquits himself honorably in a part that’s not particularly challenging. It’s an indication of the script’s limitations that even a resourceful actor like Clooney has a hard time nailing down a character unlike one he’s played so many times before. Julia Roberts does little but furrow her brow and bark orders. Apparently she was never actually with Clooney on the set (except for an early scene and one at the end), and it shows as she never really seems to be in the same location as the action. British actor Jack O’Connell is intense enough, but his working class Noo Yauk accent, while consistent, is unconvincing. There is one great scene and performance in MONEY MONSTER and it doesn’t involve any of these three stars. Emily Meade shows up halfway through as Molly, Kyle’s pregnant girlfriend who is dragged into the studio supposedly to negotiate with her husband on behalf of the police, but instead of teary pleading, she goes off on him, cussing and screaming about what a loser he is before her mic is quickly yanked. It’s an uproarious moment, the only time the film goes in an unexpected direction and with this one sequence Ms Meade manages to steal the film from its cast of megastars. MONEY MONSTER is a wanna-be movie event that simply reinvents the wheel.

2 of 5 Stars

OVERALL RATING: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS

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OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5

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OVERALL RATING: 4 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

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OVERALL RATING: 4 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

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