BRAD'S STATUS Review

Writer/director Mike White (Chuck & Buck, School of Rock) has made a movie meant for the purposes of entertaining about a man who seethes with jealousy from the first frame and who reminds us and, more specifically, men of a certain age that time has or is running out. This isn't exactly the best way to get an audience who likely paid to see your movie on your side, but with the endearing presence of Ben Stiller serving as the conduit for White's exploration of middle age the well-regarded writer, who is only directing his second feature film with Brad's Status, is able to perform such explorations with such balance and well-defined introspection that the film mostly transcends its rather grim implications and is able to become one easily appreciated for its reassurance. Leave it to White, who has always excelled at crafting these kinds of human, but uncomfortably so, stories to make this reassurance not in the form of our titular protagonist finding and/or achieving what he so greatly craves for the majority of the runtime, but for discovering and realizing things he may not have considered prior. It's all about perspective and White chronicles these ideas and themes through Stiller's main character by giving him an abundance of internal monologue, but does it more convincingly by having Brad take part in actions that provoke the progression of these thoughts. Never does Stiller's Brad feel like little more than a man complaining for the sake of complaining, but rather Brad is a guy who is having a real crisis of identity. It would be easy to dismiss Brad's Status as another of those middle-aged white guys having an existential crisis movies and that's because it is, but there is something to Brad's Status that helps it rise above those kinds of dismissive criticisms by being the movie that acknowledges it's about white people problems and owns up to it. Everyone has problems, some obviously vary in degree of severity and repercussion size, but everyone has problems and issues they have to deal with and to each and every person each of their individual problems are as real as anything else. Brad takes real issue with the fact he feels he's cut himself short in this single shot at life he's been given and while White is keen to writhe just about every perspective out of this base of an idea he can what Brad's Status ultimately does is provide a way to navigate feelings of inadequacy and jealousy while coming to the realization that because everyone has their own problems that those who make Brad feel inadequate or jealous likely aren't aware of as much because they have their own things they're dealing with that their social media doesn't show.    

PASSENGERS Review

Passengers is a movie of ideas that doesn't necessarily know how to expand on those ideas and so it ends up devolving into and relying on conventional blockbuster factors. Passengers is a movie where the third act requires some amount of action and thus the reason for the inciting incident gets a pass while the personal turmoil this movie could have zeroed in on gets passed over. As viewers conditioned to the standard three act structures of most modern screenplays it is easy to see where things are headed for Passengers as soon as the  McGuffin at the beginning of the film becomes the central focus rather than the conflict between what are essentially our only two characters in the film. The movie, and the script, try to justify this decision by having the resolution of that McGuffin allow a certain character to come around to what had previously caused them great strain and shock. In essence, Passengers takes the easy way out and we all know taking the easy way out more times than not is also the least rewarding route. By choosing to travel the path of least resistance screenwriter John Spaihts (Prometheus, Doctor Strange) sentences the second half of his film to that of just another in a long line of big budget Hollywood blockbusters that favors spectacle over substance. I realize that such a complaint might sound as rote as I'm describing the last act of this movie to be, but when the main idea of your film turns out to be little more than, "Don't get hung up on where you'd rather be, but make the most of where you are," and that idea is ultimately conveyed as cheesily as it sounds there's a serious issue with Hollywood's aversion to risk. One can feel the board room manipulating what might have been a more interesting or at least more complex character piece dealing in intense moral conflict being turned into an action set piece that is never really clear on the mechanics of what all it is trying to accomplish as far as making sense to the audience, but at the very least communicating that our main protagonist wasn't totally wrong in doing what he did and therefore giving him no reason to feel as bad or as conflicted as he might have would the film have not given him the best possible outcome considering the scenario. Passengers had potential, it surely did, and there is still much to admire here, but when Hollywood takes the safer route over the more challenging one it gives audiences no option but to be lazy and not the least bit surprised.

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS Review

Editing. Editing is key in director Tom Ford's follow-up to his 2009 debut A Single Man titled Nocturnal Animals as the narrative begins by introducing Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) as a woman who seemingly has it all together, but whose world it tears to shreds in less than two hours. It accomplishes such a visceral effect on the viewer due largely to the skill in which it is cut. To unravel the neatly wrapped facade of Morrow's life is to cut back and forth between her present timeline, her past detailing how she reunited and fell in love with first husband, Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal), as well as the story in which she is reading. The key factor being the story that she is reading comes to her from Sheffield as a novel he wrote that will soon be published, but as it was inspired by Morrow he thought she deserved to read it first. The book, also titled "Nocturnal Animals", is the story of a family on a road trip whose car is hijacked by a band of troublemakers that includes a nearly unrecognizable Aaron Taylor-Johnson where terrible things happen. The representation of this novel as put to screen is what will come to garner the most attention from the viewer as it is high-tension drama filled with moving and effective plot points as well as performances. What makes Nocturnal Animals, the film, more than just a stirring adaptation of the work within the work though, is the foresight it utilizes in the outside stories and how they will influence our reactions to the actions taking place within that most engaging storyline. How is this accomplished though? How are these two outlying narratives so effective in both supporting and drawing from the narrative that undoubtedly holds the weight of the film on its shoulders? Through the editing. The film is cut in such an extraordinarily unpredictable fashion that, as an audience member, when it cuts we are never allowed to know what it might be cutting to. There are even long pauses that fill the screen with darkness designed to make the audience think a certain segment is over only to drop us back into the same story moments later. This unpredictability not only ups the tension in terms of seeing where certain plot strands might go, but in ultimately structuring the story in such a way that when the payoff for everything each of the three individual storylines has been building to finally arrives it hits you. And I mean really hits you. Nocturnal Animals is an exercise in sheer audacity and nearly every one of its risks pays off.

First Trailer for PASSENGERS Starring Jennifer Lawrence & Chris Pratt

With The Magnificent Seven arriving in theaters this weekend and given that film also stars Chris Pratt and is also financed and distributed by Sony/Columbia Pictures it is no surprise we are finally getting our first look at Passengers today. As the film with the best chance for an out and out original property to break out this year the Pratt/Jennifer Lawrence vehicle has become something of a poster child for whether or not the original property still has any weight attached to it when the closest thing to what are current "name on the poster" movie stars are starring in it. Lawrence is indisputably the biggest star on the planet and Pratt is on a roll with his back to back to back successes of The LEGO Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Jurassic World. If Magnificent Seven ends up doing well in terms of box office (as it seems to be getting favorable if not unremarkable reviews from critics) this will only point to more promise on the potential returns for Passengers. Coming from an original screenplay by Jon Spaihts (who famously wrote the first draft of Prometheus) and telling the story of a spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet that is transporting thousands of people and has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers leaving a single passenger awake for the ninety year journey things are immediately engaging. As this unlucky passenger, Jim Preston (Pratt), contemplates the idea of growing old and dying alone he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger named Aurora (Lawrence). It's funny Lawrence's character shares her name with Sleeping Beauty given the circumstances of the situation and would seem to hint not so subtly at where the film will eventually end, but that is also the beautiful thing about such a story: outside of the obvious there are so many places such a premise could take us. Directed by Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) this first look trailer allows the film to at least seem as if it will make good on the promise of attempting to explore more ideological headspaces than those of standard adventure/sci-fi conventions. I was a fan of Tyldum's Oscar contender a few years back and still need to get around to his highly praised 2011 film Headhunters, but all in all I'm pumped for even the idea of a big-budget original sci-fi flick. Passengers also stars Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Jamie Soricelli, Aurora Perrineau, Kristin Brock, and opens on December 21st, 2016.

First Trailer for NOCTURNAL ANIMALS Starring Jake Gyllenhaal

The second directorial effort from fashion designer Tom Ford (A Single Man) was undoubtedly one of my most anticipated of the year and after the largely glowing reviews it received out of both the Venice and Toronto film festivals I am only all the more excited to finally see the follow-up to Ford's striking 2009 debut. With the likes of such top tier talent as Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams in your film it is hard to imagine how one could go completely the wrong way, but given the short teaser for today's full trailer that I saw yesterday and the fact it immediately called to mind Ridley Scott's curiously questionable The Counselor (which had a beyond amazing line-up of stars) I can only be reassured by the positive reviews in that Nocturnal Animals will not share the same fate as that 2013 misfire. With this film, Ford has adapted the Austin Wright novel Tony and Susan with the film actually taking its name from a story within that story. In the film, Adams plays Los Angeles-based art dealer, Susan Morrow, who receives a novel called "Nocturnal Animals" that was written by her ex (Gyllenhaal) after her husband (Armie Hammer) leaves on a business trip. From here, the narrative is described as, "weaving in and out of this book that can be interpreted as a veiled threat." The idea of seeking revenge or vindication from an ex-lover is nothing new, but doing it through such symbolic ways as mailing her a copy of your book that intentionally elicits many an interpretations is certainly an intriguing way to go about framing such a tale. The full trailer certainly makes such intrigue all the more inviting as its clear Ford has again brought his impeccable sense of style to the medium of film and each of the high profile performers seem to be giving invested performances. Here's to hoping the positive reviews can be trusted on this one. Nocturnal Animals also stars Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Laura Linney, Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber, Karl Glusman, Andrew Riseborough, Michael Sheen, Imogen Waterhouse, and opens on December 9th, 2016.

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS Review

For a movie wholly concentrated on time, time travel, and the essence of time it sure feels like this sequel to the 2010 Alice in Wonderland is a huge waste of it. Time that is. Of course, given that 2010 Tim Burton film made north of a billion dollars at the box office it was an inevitability that we'd be getting a sequel sooner or later, but it's still somewhat surprising it has come this late. Six years have passed, a handful of other live action adaptations of classic Disney animated films have been made and yet here we are, back in Wonderland. Having not read the Lewis Carroll stories on which these adventures of Alice have been based one has to imagine that to have made as big a cultural impact as they have they were more inventive and innovative than the film adaptations we're now receiving. To say that is to say that Alice Through the Looking Glass is no more interesting or compelling than its predecessor. It wasn't without hope that this viewer walked into this six year later sequel with optimism that new director James Bobin (The Muppets) might bring something fresh and exciting to what otherwise felt like the jaded side of Tim Burton that was incarnated in his predecessor. Transforming the widely known Wonderland as perceived by the naiveté of a child Alice, Burton turned the fantasy world into Underland and gave us a darker film than expected. That was all well and good until the movie didn't really work, but Bobin has now come along to bring to life a brighter, more enticing time in the realm of Wonderland as our heroine must travel through space and time to try and save the dying of depression Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp). This brings to mind the biggest undoing of Through the Looking Glass in that its narrative drive simply isn't compelling enough to sustain its nearly two hour runtime. It becomes repetitive and as if it is searching for disparate plot strands to try and pull together a complete story. Linda Woolverton, who has made a career out of writing Disney films (including The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast), adapted Carroll's story here and while there are certainly moments of inspired humor, a few nice character moments, and grand majestic visuals by way of Bobin and the special effects team, there is no substance to the product as a whole. It is a wonder how forgettable the film turns out to be.

New Trailer for FINDING DORY

As the summer movie season draws closer Disney and Pixar have decided to share a little more of their follow-up to the massively successful Finding Nemo. Nemo was Pixar at the height of its critical and commercial power and so it is no surprise that as the companies have become more comfortable with the idea of sequels that twelve years down the road we have a sequel to one of their biggest hits. While the teaser we received back in November was exactly that what we have now is a full fledged look into what the story of the film might be as well as being introduced to a few new characters. Pictured above are two of those new characters with Kaitlin Olsen's Destiny (the shark) being highlighted as a childhood friend of Dory's in the trailer. Catch the name? Hint hint. It has admittedly been a while since I've seen the original film and will definitely have to be re-visiting it before seeing this Dory-centric sequel, but this trailer certainly gives off the general vibe I remember from the original with Albert Brooks returning as Marlin and Hayden Rolence taking over as Nemo. We'll be getting Toy Story 4 soon, a sequel to The Incredibles (finally!) and another Cars film (why? WHY?!?!) as well as some original films that hopefully continue to ride the wave of creativity Inside Out created last summer over the next few years, but this summer is all about Finding Dory and, if nothing else, the trailer plays off the indisputable charms of the titular blue tang fish. Ellen DeGeneres returns as the voice of Dory with Michael Sheen, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Ed O’Neill, Idris Elba, Dominic West, Willem Dafoe, and Ty Burrell also starring. Finding Dory opens on June 17, 2016.

First Trailer for ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Disney has been releasing short clips of Alice Through the Looking Glass footage all week via their Twitter account, but today we get the first full trailer for the sequel to Tim Burton's 2010 billion dollar earner. While Burton did not return to direct the sequel, his replacement is the only thing giving me hope this new film might even be the slightest bit better than the previous Alice film. Everything was in place for Burton's interpretation of the Lewis Carroll classic to be a rewarding experience at the movies, if not mainly for the involvement of Burton alone, given the director's visual style lined up well with what most imagine Wonderland might look like were it actually brought to life. Instead, that film turned out to be a mess of CGI and convoluted storytelling that to this day I'm still not sure makes complete sense. And yet, the film earned more than a billion dollars worldwide so here we are. With director James Bobin (The Muppets) taking over we find Mia Wasikowska's Alice being recruited back to Wonderland after Johnny Depp's The Mad Hatter mysteriously goes bad. In order to figure out what happened to him, Alice must step back in time through a literal clock. That said, the imagery of this first look is quite striking and there at least seems to be some driving force to the narrative which is more than I can say for it's predecessor. Alice Through the Looking Glass opens on May 27, 2016 and also stars Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter reprising their roles from Alice in Wonderland.

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD Review

There were a lot of questions surrounding director Thomas Vinterberg's interpretation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd from me personally. Having never touched the source material I didn't have a clue what surface the story skimmed and given this was clearly a period piece intended for a specific audience with a specific purpose I wondered why it might be making its debut so early in the year. Would Fox Searchlight not even care to grab a costume design nomination or did they know this would likely get lost in the shuffle of awards season? In all respects, the right choices seem to have been made as questions of quality and profundity surround every turn in the film. Clearly, this is melodrama, but is it simply melodrama with pedigree because of its Victorian era-setting? It is easy to defend these older works, these definitive works as they made way for the conventions we see run rampart today, but the key for modern film adaptations, and maybe this is unfair, is that they find something new and fresh to bring to the table, a reason to tell this story again. Of course, many will testify that simply keeping these stories alive is reason enough to tell them again and while I'm almost positive Vinterberg and screenwriter David Nicholls have streamlined much of Hardy's novel in order to make it a two-hour love story modern audiences may understand without the hindrance of cultural differences it still feels very unmoving despite largely dealing with life-changing events that are clearly meant to appeal to our emotions. There are the usual good things to be said about the cast, Craig Armstrong's beautiful score and the gorgeous, natural cinematography of Charlotte Bruus Christensen, but when your last film was The Hunt, a movie that elicited a more visceral reaction than any other in recent memory, one would think your follow-up might evoke more than just a groan of complacency despite touching on some always relevant and interesting themes.

KILL THE MESSENGER Review

Kill the Messenger is a true tragedy. A discussion, a meditation on the human life and the countless directions it could go according to the mind that is guiding it. It is a story that takes on the model of what its main character goes through reinforcing the difficulty with which he experiences in trying to follow the guiding light he caught a glimpse of as a child. Despite what else might go on in his life Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) is an idealistic journalist who believes in the power of his profession. He is a man held to the virtues of his responsibilities to the American public and, as he should, takes that responsibility seriously. He is as ambitious as he needs to be in wanting to crack the one big story that might break his career wide open and send him from the bowels of the San Jose Mercury News to the big leagues of the The Los Angeles Times or Washington Post though these ambitions never feel as important as his need to produce quality. What the film tells of more than it does necessarily follow the plot of the story Webb is investigating is the role of man in our society when he plays with the powers that be. What is wrong with our government if we are not allowed to question them without repercussion? In this case the repercussion is that of Webb becoming the story, his credibility called into question, rather than what he'd actually investigated and reported on being the story or point of focus. It is as much a commentary on the integrity of investigative journalism and how it has devolved into what we have today (the 24-hour news cycle on roids) as it is an interesting take on the state of our country which promises and promotes freedom, but will devour you if you take those liberties to a certain extent. Kill the Messenger is an engaging film, one reminiscent of those 1970's Robert Redford films (namely All the President's Men) taking the paranoid political thriller and transcending even that genre classification because of the real life weight the story holds. It is a film that I was thoroughly engrossed in from the way in which it developed Renner's character, giving us more of who this man was than simply a hungry reporter, without allowing the film to become bogged down in details. It is as thoroughly engrossing as it is heartbreaking and as it comes to its conclusion it reveals itself to be truly that.

First Trailer for KILL THE MESSENGER

I don't mind seeing Jeremy Renner take on the blockbuster and franchise roles that he's kept busy with since breaking out six years ago, but after his underwhelming showing in last years much-hyped American Hustle it is good to see the actor getting back to basics and playing someone like Gary Webb in a tough, gritty procedural like Kill the Messenger. The film is based on the true story of Webb, a journalist who stumbles on leads that take him to the beginning of the crack epidemic in America and the theories of conspiracy that go along with it. The trailer plays to the beats of films we've seen before about noble acts, where the main character sacrifices what is important to him for the greater importance of those he can inform but it looks to be executed with keen precision and high-caliber acting here. Adapted from Webb's book by Peter Landesman (Parkland) and directed by Michael Cuesta (Six Feet Under, Dexter, Homeland) this serves the kind of unnerving performance Renner can deliver a la The Hurt Locker and The Town. There is much to like on display here, but more than anything I'm looking forward to how Cuesta captures the specific tone of this genre and if the globe-trotting investigation aspects feel like something fresh. I'm intrigued if not by the inherently engaging story and truths it uncovered, but for the caliber of the cast they have recruited here to support Renner in what he no doubt hopes to be a definitive role that cements his leading man status. Kill the Messenger also stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Ray Liotta, Barry Pepper, Michael Sheen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Platt, Andy Garcia, Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Patrick, Michael Kenneth Williams, Paz Vega and opens October 10th.

ADMISSION Review

Admission is something of a lazy movie. There is no energy about it, no zeal that ever gets you too excited about watching it, but worst of all is the fact that these boring attributes make us not care for the characters in the story. If I'm telling the truth I kind of had that feeling about the film from the beginning. It felt slightly rushed, a small almost indie film that just had too big of movie stars in it to escape the glow of mainstream marketing. Thus is born the only solid reason I can find in getting behind this film: those movie stars. When you have someone as charismatic as Paul Rudd and as appealing as Tina Fey in a movie together, and for the first time no less, it is easy to get excited. They are both actors with great comedic personas and are figures many feel relatively easy to relate to. That small percentage that seem to "get it" and have a quirly way of perfectly putting into words why they are smarter than everyone else while the outside world continues to fall apart despite their observations that seem obvious and are always funny. They are almost elitists without coming off as assholes who think they're better than everyone else. Those personas usually suit them well and have made them the bankable names they are today, but all of that charm and wit is nearly absent from this flick as only the rare smile finds its way onto your face when that true comic ability shines through the stilted characters these guys have been burdened with playing. That may all sound a little harsh and as if I'm harping on the actors, but they are the only reason to really see the film unless you are just super interested in the college admissions process. Other than that the script features mommy issues and a forced romantic angle that the movie would have become better without. I liked the film well enough because I like the people involved, but I don't care to ever see it again as doing that would be more effort than it feels they put into making this film.