BOMBSHELL Review

They may as well have called this Half Baked 2, but not because the idea to make a movie about a group of women who decide to take on Fox News head Roger Ailes (portrayed here by John Lithgow) is a foolish move to make, but more because it's evident a half hour in that the choices here weren't really thought through and not near enough time has passed since these events occurred to accurately depict what might be the interesting ramifications from the fallout of men such as Ailes losing their power; we need to know what a non-toxic atmosphere looks and feels like before acting like we can really assess how bad these toxic ones truly are. Still, this movie exists and it's trying its damnedest to be a political satire via Adam McKay. Given there was much to look forward to about the project outside of simply telling a relevant and intriguing story there was hope that director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents, Trumbo) and screenwriter Charles Randolph (The Big Short, Love & Other Drugs) might find a unique angle on how to infiltrate the chaotic world behind the 24-hour news cycle that would feel fresh if not exactly revelatory. While Bombshell hits the ground running and is happy to welcome the audience into this world before beginning to intricately weave these three individual character plights together it, despite always feeling enticing and always feeling as if it's getting ready to really dig into the meat of what it's here to say, ultimately never comes to dig further beneath the surface delivering a cliff notes-like version of a story the average consumer was likely already aware of. Bombshell is a movie with a great beginning and idea for what it wants/needs to be by the end, but it just hadn't yet developed a sound basis for which these ideas could solidly stand on.

TULLY Review

There is a point in the first ten to fifteen minutes of Jason Reitman’s Tully where it’s fair to think this is going to be “one of those movies”. One of those movies that chronicles the small, but sometimes enormously stressful lives of middle-class suburbanites that have become increasingly difficult to feel sorry for in the climate of a world gone off the rails. Everyone has their issues, their problems, their struggles, and they come to be dealt with just as uniquely or just as commonly as the problems themselves might be, but there is no point in asking an audience, who is paying hard-earned money to be entertained, to feel sorry for someone who is going through some of the same experiences they've likely had. This is the key, the turning point really, for Tully in that the movie never asks the viewer to feel sorry for its protagonist and it never asks for forgiveness for her actions either. In fact, the titular character that comes to be embodied by Mackenzie Davis and who is described as a "night nanny", never passes a single judgement on Charlize Theron's Marlo thus encouraging the viewers to do the same; or to at least hold that judgement until we are delivered the entirety of the picture. And so, in many ways Tully simply asks the viewer to either sympathize or empathize with its characters plight, knowing that said viewers might be able to relate, rather than necessarily making a stand about opening up a hidden world beyond the greeting card society we all like to pretend we exist within. The film, written by Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult), is best when it gets specific and Cody is known for excelling at this. There are multiple moments of unfiltered truth that capture the essence of what it feels like to be a parent to a newborn that, given how tired and how on auto-pilot new parents are, it’s a mystery how Cody had the forethought to write examples of as much down or even find the humor in certain situations, but she does and it is in these small truths, these everyday instances and challenges where the movie consistently keeps it real and yet moves on as we all have to do that the viewer is able to appreciate what Tully is doing, what it is saying, and what it becomes rather than dismissing it as another in a line of narratives that purport to pull back the curtain on the middle.             

THE LAZARUS EFFECT Review

The Lazarus Effect feels like it should be a cheap horror film. It is the end of February, there hasn't been much of a marketing scheme and it tops out at a brisk hour and twenty-three minutes. With those factors taken into consideration I wondered what might have drawn the likes of talent such as Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass to the project not to mention a supporting cast that includes Evan Peters and Donald Glover. There had to be a little something more to this if not for names of this stature to get involved, but for the fact these names usually represent some kind of interesting tendencies. Duplass especially as not only does the guy star in an outright hilarious sitcom, but has written, directed and starred in more than a handful of very indie-feeling films that generally receive good reviews. So, what was it about this very obvious-looking genre film that made it acceptable for each of these actors to dip out of their known niche and into something that might otherwise come off a little second-rate? Well, for starters there is the fact it comes to us courtesy of director David Gelb who made Jiro Dreams of Sushi which was a rather acclaimed documentary four years ago and was co-penned by Jeremy Slater who was picked up to write the Fantastic Four re-boot for Josh Trank. Coming at the film from this more optimistic perspective one can see early on what the attraction might have been for the actors. Most who come to the art form of acting likely have more consistent existential crises than the majority of us and The Lazarus Effect gets the point across fairly quickly that it wants to mess around with some big questions whether it is ready for the big answers or not. There is discussion about the after-life, metaphoric implications of what exists after we die might mean as represented by the lives we lead as well as good ol' talk about the precautions of playing God in a laboratory. The good is there is plenty of interesting topics to latch onto here, the bad is that the film doesn't give itself room to breathe and really explore any of its topics much less focus on a main thought.

THE ONE I LOVE Review

In his feature directorial debut Charlie McDowell has taken a very intelligent, very inventive script from Justin Lader (who also makes his feature screenwriting debut here) and makes the final product all the more engaging with his talented cast and visual trickery. It's not that this isn't anything we haven't seen before, we understand how certain elements of the story are achieved visually, but that the film makes the impact of what we see more important by what it implies rather than the fact it is simply "neat" is refreshing. Much of The One I Love is about implications though and in being structured around such things one may think it will leave you with a yearning for more concrete conclusions, but in all likelihood you'll be satisfied by the exploration taking place. The exploration is that of the most universal emotion in our world-love. At this point, between the music we hear, the movies we watch, the books we read and not to mention the surplus of information we now receive about the lives of those around us thanks to social media one would think we'd be tired of talking about and dealing with the downsides of love, but somehow McDowell and Lader have managed to bring an interesting, insightful look at the word, the emotion and what it means when it's put into action. They take the idea of the thought of love and all its flourishes as so much more attractive than the reality of being someones companion that they make it unattractive in the sense that maybe it isn't for all of us. Why has the human race become so enamored with the thought of legal companionship, of narrowing it all down to being with one other person and allowing that to sum up our time spent here on earth? It seems an unnecessary question given the constructs of our society, but really, why? Reproduction maybe? So many people have kids out of wedlock these days it almost isn't a justifiable reason and yet love is still the one thing everyone chases after in hopes that it will one day bring about the peace and happiness we are all instilled to believe we are destined for as children. I don't know that we should all denounce the quest for love, it seems to have worked well for myself and many of those around me, but that The One I Love hooked me into thinking about the pros and cons of a single emotion and all it triggers is a sign of genuine intrigue.

TAMMY Review

There was and seemingly remains something off about Tammy. Not just in the case of the titular character that Melissa McCarthy portrays, but in the nature of the film itself. After following up her breakout in Bridesmaids with successful runs in Identity Thief and The Heat along with a slew of smaller, supporting roles in major comedies and two stints on Saturday Night Live it became clear McCarthy was the real deal. Still, the idea she next chose to venture out on a low-budget road trip comedy directed by her husband Ben Falcone and was a project they wrote with one another seemed completely understandable. There was an intimacy to it that no doubt was unheard of in the mainstream crowd-pleasers she was taking part in before. McCarthy had earned her name above the title and so she was going to use that power to make something closer to her heart. This could only signal that the comedy and the execution of the story would be something that was cultivated by the husband/wife team and would certainly come across with more of an edge and better developed characters than most comedies these days, right? One would think so, but for all this pent-up optimism I held for Tammy she let me down in the toughest of ways in that not only did she not make me laugh or love her, but that there is essentially no reason for this movie to exist. That probably sounds a little more harsh than it should because it isn't the characters or even the situations that don't come up with anything it's just that they don't come up with anything new. I didn't really know what to expect from the film upon walking into the theater, but when it instantly became clear that this would be a film of self-discovery and redemption for a life without risk and full of regret through the format of a road trip comedy I was done. We've literally seen McCarthy go through this same evolution in the same way in the aforementioned Identity Thief so what was it that drove her and Falcone to make this movie over anything else? Likely a question we'll never get a satisfactory answer to, but nonetheless the point of Tammy was to capitalize on McCarthy's brand of humor and persona and while she is all over the place here she does no favors for herself or anyone around her as any laughs that came from the audience were more out of sympathy than anything else.

Teaser Trailer for TAMMY

I saw the teaser trailer for Melissa McCarthy's latest comedy before my screening of About Last Night a few days ago and had no previous knowledge of its production or what the story was about. The good news is that this teaser doesn't give much education on what that story is, but it lets us know the tone of the film and that it is going to let McCarthy do the type of comedy she does best and in what might be the most freeing form yet as far as features go. I say that due to the fact that McCarthy's own husband, Ben Falcone, is making his directorial debut with this feature. The story is said to revolve around a road trip taken between Tammy (McCarthy) and her foul-mouthed, alcoholic grandmother as played by Susan Sarandon after Tammy is fired from her job at a fast food restaurant (giving new light to what is screened in the teaser) and learning that her husband has been having an affair. Judging by the reaction of the audience in the theater people will be more than willing to throw down they're money to see McCarthy play out her physical comedy schtick in a prime summer slot that seems poised to do nothing more than further solidify her status as a comedic force. I have to wonder when audiences will get tired of McCarthy essentially playing the same character over and over as it seems Tammy could have been taken from any one of the characters the actress pulled out for her recent hosting duties on Saturday Night Live, but at the same time I can't help but laugh at her and as long as this is closer to The Heat than Identity Thief I think I'll be more than willing to take it in and accept it for what it's meant to be. Tammy also stars Allison Janney, Gary Cole, Mark Duplass, Toni Collette, Nat Faxon, Dan Aykroyd, Kathy Bates and opens July 2nd.

PARKLAND Home Video Review

There has always been an intense amount of interest around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and with good reason. It was a horrific event in which the President was murdered in front of countless people with any number of possible suspects, there was a race to get Kennedy to the hospital, the immediate man hunt for the suspected shooter and countless other avenues were followed that fateful November day. What writer and director Peter Landesman has attempted to do, in his directorial debut no less, is condense these events into a feature that runs a mere hour and a half long (including notes at the end and the credit sequence). There is not nearly enough time here to develop the several intriguing stories the film documents, much less get to know the the actual emotions felt by the people placed under these extraordinary situations. Parkland would be a film that justifies a run time of at least three hours, but it seems Landesman is keen on hitting the high points of these events and highlighting little more than small moments of that day in brief, almost news clip-like segments that intertwine to piece together November 22, 1963 and the subsequent days following as both the President and his suspected killer were laid to rest. I am a sucker for historically-based films and have read plenty on the JFK assassination, the investigations around this event and the countless conspiracy theories that continue to plague it nearly fifty years after it occurred. I also know better than to get my history lessons from the movies and so I approached this film with a sense of both optimism and caution as it seemed both ambitious while at the same time a balancing act of moments pulled straight out of the history books with little more intention that bringing to life how this death affected unsuspecting, regular citizens while adding nothing more to the story and having no particular point of view it was going to approach the subject matter with. Unfortunately, while the actual events of that day remain engaging as ever Parkland is only able to take us so far because it only gives its content so much attention before moving on and taking the audience, no matter if we have lingering questions or deeper interests, with it. I can admire the film for what it is trying to do and the dots its trying to connect, but ultimately this is more a failed experiment than anything else with an execution that doesn't come close to what it promised.

ZERO DARK THIRTY Review

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. So goes the saying and so says Kathryn Bigelow's follow-up to her Oscar winning feature The Hurt Locker. You've no doubt heard of Zero Dark Thirty if not for anything else other than it is the Osama bin Laden movie. The film is so much more than this though, you won't see an actor foolishly playing bin Laden or even hear his name muttered all too often. What Zero Dark Thirty truly is is a procedural drama about the ins and outs of what it takes to track down the most elusive man on the planet. Oddly enough, much of this process isn't exactly what you might expect but is instead gathering small strands of information, holding onto what one interrogation or torture session provided and hoping it proves correct against the other interrogation and torture sessions being conducted. It is a sprawling epic that takes over ten years and condenses them down into just under three hours to provide a concise and basic account of what happened, what took place in May 2011 and how much work and how many lives went into making that night a possibility. There is the controversy over the torture scenes depicted early in the film and there are questions of if those actions led to actual intelligence that helped find bin Laden, but I wasn't thinking of that as I watched the film. It didn't take me out of the experience of the movie. Whether torture works for the purposes we need or not is another discussion entirely but what this film does, nearly flawlessly, is put us at the center of the research and inside the "they" that make things such as the death of bin Laden a reality. It is like a two hour ticking time bomb that then explodes into a truly intense final hour. The film isn't the grand masterpiece I expected it to be after hearing all of the hype and I have a few issues with it storytelling, but there is no denying it is one hell of a movie and an experience.

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED Review

It took several episodes of Parks and Rec for me to really take notice of Aubrey Plaza. Even as a passing fan of the show, I would usually check in before or after The Office to see what antics Aziz was up to or just to get a good quote from Ron Swanson to put on my facebook page. Still, the odd couple of Andy and April were hard to ignore even if I did get the ultra quirky Plaza confused with Rashida Jones from time to time. This is all to say that Plaza has earned her stripes, she has done the gutter work and has come out prepared for what seems like a nice little niche she will carve for herself in the Hollywood landscape. Where Zooey Deschanel is the ultra-happy quirk Plaza lays on the sarcastic hipster vibe over her brooding quirkiness (does that even make sense?) and allows the sarcasm to fly with a delightfully dull delivery. Plaza really won me over with her honest and very funny performance in the 2009 Judd Apatow dramedy Funny People. I enjoyed her self degredation and simple outlook, it made her more appealing than a pretty face who was trying too hard, but more importantly it made her stand out. As she makes her leap to leading lady she has chosen wisely not to get stuck playing the gothic looking best friend to the heroine in humorless romantic comedies, but instead takes the opportunity to demonstrate a love story that is likely closer to home even if it does fit the tool of time traveling into its tale. With Safety Not Guaranteed we have what is on the surface a lovely little indie film with an engaging premise and energetic performances. While this is all fine and good I can't say I wasn't a little bit disappointed that the final product didn't prove to be more than that.

Darius (Aubrey Plaza) finds herself in an odd situation
when she decides to investigate a self proclaimed
time-traveler.

Funny enough it was not the presence of Plaza that drew me into this film, though her performance is certainly what will stick with you afterwards, but instead it was the odd premise mixed with the earnest approach that was appealing. With a story that has to deal with the investigation of an idealistic grocery store worker who claims to have the knowledge to travel through time you have to at least step back with intrigue and wonder what they're going to do to pull this off, what direction they are going to take it in. While the story turns out to be one of those cases where the promise, the initial idea was just too good to ever qualify for a satisfactory ending this minor let down is made up by the stellar comedic cast that conveys this limited but ambitious story. We are introduced to Darius (Plaza) in the first moments of the film as she seemingly explains to us her life story and her now casual state of constant pessimism. The movies first laugh comes from the fact she is over-explaining this life story to a manager of a restaurant that is looking to hire someone. The moment, though small, is effective in that it tells us everything we need to know about Darius. Not just in the words she spouts but in her demeanor and the fact she would even be inclined to spill as much as she does. As an intern at a local magazine in Seattle she has come to feel sorry for herself more than she might have in the past. No matter if this is for good reason it is important at first that we engage with this character while still doubting her to come successfully to terms with what we know she will be encountering. When Jeff, a senior writer at the magazine played with smarmy charisma by Jake M. Johnson (New Girl) proposes a story from an ad placed in the paper about a man needing a partner to travel back in time Darius volunteers to tag along.

Darius, Arnau (Karan Soni) and Jeff (Jake M. Johnson)
spy on the subject of their story.

Turns out once Darius, Jeff, and another intern Arnau (Karan Soni) get to the small, ocean town where the mystery time traveler resides that Jeff is only interested in hooking up with an old flame. This leaves Darius to investigate the man who placed the ad. In finally coming into contact with what would no doubt be the most interesting character actor Mark Duplass infuses Kenneth, an odd man who does truly seem to believe he can go back in time, with a real honesty. It would have been easy, too easy in fact, to make Kenneth more of a caricature from some long forgotten, bad sci-fi flick, but instead Duplass gives an earnest showing as a guy who in one sense wants to think he has everything under control but is equally lost. Now, we can guess where this is all likely heading in that the most important part of all this is not the fact of if Kenneth can actually time travel or not, but instead what matters will be the reasons one would want to time travel. It is easy to assume this will serve as a metaphor to the life we all lead and how each of our encounters in life should be taken to maybe mean something more. This is perfectly fine, it touches many emotions and some of the dialogue is so pinpoint on its ability to relate to everyone while feeling extremely personal . The film, in all its craftiness re enforces these points of lost time and the meaningless extras of life through that subplot of Jeff and his long lost hook up buddy. These themes of hope and longing are all explored with equal vigor as we watch what is missing in Kenneth's life be fulfilled through what Darius has brought into it and vice versa. This is where the magic of Plaza comes into play. Through her performance we are able to understand that Kenneth is not just weird or off-kilter but a real human being who despite the issues he may be dealing with, understands how others see him and can see through those who are not as genuine as he.

Darius and Kenneth (Mark Duplass) meet to discuss their
training in preparation for going back in time.

By the end of the film you likely won't care if Kenneth can actually time travel or not, but the way the script levels its absurdity, its whimsical flights with that of the evaluation of the human condition is what will win you over. It doesn't hurt that the film does indeed come to a great emotional payoff at the end, but more than that it is really kind of inspiring. How I felt throughout the viewing though was a hope that the film would continue to exceed where I expected it to go. In this regard I was slightly let down because no matter how genuine the characters come off we can see where their journey will likely take them. I wanted the journey of the story to be as unpredictable and real as the characters I felt like I was watching. While there are plenty of scenes that address the mystery surrounding Kenneth's motives and the confusion over whether this guy is for real or if he is just a loon, we don't care because we come to engage him as a person, what is left to care about is the side of him that we come to hope doesn't actually exist. We grow so close to Kenneth as Darius does and we almost forget his agenda. This left me with feelings of wanting to know more of his backstory, what truly led to this point in his life and why, really why he needs to do what he is doing. As great a final scene as this film has I wanted more from it. It wasn't the best movie I've seen this year and I prefer the other indie time traveler Sound of My Voice over this one, but as a contradicting, comedic piece of work to this succeeds in too many ways to point out the bad things. Safety Not Guaranteed is all about connection and in its most basic storytelling elements it connected with me. I guess that really is all that matters.  

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED Review

It took several episodes of Parks and Rec for me to really take notice of Aubrey Plaza. Even as a passing fan of the show, I would usually check in before or after The Office to see what antics Aziz was up to or just to get a good quote from Ron Swanson to put on my facebook page. Still, the odd couple of Andy and April were hard to ignore even if I did get the ultra quirky Plaza confused with Rashida Jones from time to time. This is all to say that Plaza has earned her stripes, she has done the gutter work and has come out prepared for what seems like a nice little niche she will carve for herself in the Hollywood landscape. Where Zooey Deschanel is the ultra-happy quirk Plaza lays on the sarcastic hipster vibe over her brooding quirkiness (does that even make sense?) and allows the sarcasm to fly with a delightfully dull delivery. Plaza really won me over with her honest and very funny performance in the 2009 Judd Apatow dramedy Funny People. I enjoyed her self degredation and simple outlook, it made her more appealing than a pretty face who was trying too hard, but more importantly it made her stand out. As she makes her leap to leading lady she has chosen wisely not to get stuck playing the gothic looking best friend to the heroine in humorless romantic comedies, but instead takes the opportunity to demonstrate a love story that is likely closer to home even if it does fit the tool of time traveling into its tale. With Safety Not Guaranteed we have what is on the surface a lovely little indie film with an engaging premise and energetic performances. While this is all fine and good I can't say I wasn't a little bit disappointed that the final product didn't prove to be more than that.