WILD Review

The thought of Reese Witherspoon, the sweet and petite blonde from New Orleans made famous by broad comedies like Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama, playing a down on her luck hitchhiker dealing with a past that includes drug problems and excessive fornication with the dealers of those drugs isn't one that immediately meshes well. Despite "Academy Award Winner" being inscribed above her name every time she takes on an Oscar-bait role such as this there still seems a very confined set of types we expect the actress to play. For some reason, I don't expect Witherspoon to be a very versatile performer and though her actual person is no doubt much more interesting due, if not for nothing else, to everything she's accomplished there is still such such a specific on-screen persona I expect from her. As many actors before her looking to fulfill something more in their careers by challenging themselves or just to simply add depth to their filmogrpahy, Witherspoon breaks away from what is expected of her and completely embraces this necessary journey her character goes on, warts and all. In many ways it is refreshing. Witherspoon has been stuck trying to figure out where to go with her career after winning her Oscar for Walk the Line, semi-afraid of doing romantic comedies again, but finding comfort in them while love stories never stray far from her grasp. Frozen and Maleficent have both been huge hits for Disney, but more importantly they have raised the idea over the past year that not all love stories have to be about the romantic relationship, but more the love of what else enriches our lives. While Wild is nothing like either of those films, it keeps this kind of love story in mind and is executed in such a way that we come to appreciate the journey of the character realizing this factoid. Wild is a character study, but it is not a film that rests solely on the performance of its lead. Witherspoon is more than capable and fully immerses herself in the ever changing state of mind Strayed must have experienced as we go on this journey with her, but more than that director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) has crafted a fully realized film around her.

HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 Review

What do you get when you take an outlandish premise that every middle class American can relate to, mix it with a cast chock full of more diverse talent than any other comedy in recent memory and let them both free to wander where the wind takes them? That would be the original Horrible Bosses which, back in 2011, stuck out to me as one of my favorite comedies so far that year. It was just effortless. And that is saying a lot in a summer that also counted Bridesmaids among its hits. The film was immediately funny and fast paced with a cleverly written script that gave the summer season a feeling the raunchy R-rated comedy was here to stay. Naturally, after this type of high came the downslide with the less broad, but not as bad as everyone says Bad Teacher and the truly terrible Change-Up in which Jason Bateman also starred. Every year we get this slew of raunchy summer comedies intended for the masses that studios have thought we craved since Wedding Crashers truly revitalized their appeal, but only a couple, if any, ever break out to become genuinely funny over time or command real staying power. I liked Horrible Bosses the first time I saw it and probably watched it two or three more times once I bought it on blu-ray, but did it have the staying power of such recent classics that have also commanded sequels such as 21 Jump Street or Ted? Maybe not, but much like with the fellas from the Hangover series I simply like having the opportunity to hang out with these characters so a sequel seeing Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), Nick (Bateman) and Dale (Charlie Day) get into more mischief was completely acceptable and more than justified if not really necessary. At all.

First Trailer for TERMINATOR: GENYSIS

I remember sitting in my first non-IMAX show of The Dark Knight in 2008 and seeing the trailer for Terminator: Salvation for the first time. There was a clear excitement in the air for it and not only because Christian Bale had a role, but because it had been a solid six years since the T-800 had hit the screen. Even better, director McG seemed genuinely invested in the story and continuing the saga of John Connor rather than simply capitalizing on the success of the earlier films. Well, believe it or not, but the same amount of time between Rise of the Machines and Salvation has again passed and next summer we will receive the fifth feature length film in the James Cameron spawned series. Unlike Salvation though, Terminator Genesys seems to exist solely to make Arnold Schwarzenegger a box office star again. The first trailer that dropped today gives us a look at the other side of the coin from the original 1984 film as we see the deliberations that went into future John Connor sending his fellow soldier, Kyle Reese, back in time to save his mother, Sarah. This time though screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier have essentially scrapped the events of the original film in order to incorporate Schwarzenegger's character back into this world. Who knows, this could turn out to be better than this first look gives it credit for, but even the extravagant effects feel hollow. Directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) Terminator Genesys has a lot to prove on its opening day as I was excited for Salvation and it proved little more than a distraction. If this is indeed as bad as it looks it may in fact be time for the Governor to call it quits. The film also stars Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke, Matt Smith, Byung-hun Lee, Dayo Okeniyi, Courtney B. Vance, J.K. Simmons and opens on July 1, 2015.

On DVD & Blu-Ray: December 2, 2014

THE BABADOOK Review

The Babadook begins with a a woman falling through what feels like endless black space until she hits her bed to realize it was all a dream. As it turns out though, these moments of seeming fear may be the most peaceful moments of Amelia's (Essie Davis) day. She wakes to a barren house, haunted by the past and frozen in time by the future that never came. She has a five year-old son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), who is nothing short of a terror that drains her of her energy and will to live on what feels like a daily basis. In fact, Samuel is made so grating and infuriating that we understand the extreme lengths the film pushes Amelia to. It is clear in this simple set-up of a relationship and the disdain surrounding Samuel from the only family we're privy to seeing that this is intended to be subtle horror. That there is more to the story than the intent to elicit jump scares, but rather to elicit full on emotional exhaustion by the time things come to a head. These qualities allow The Babadook to stand apart from the handful of other small, independent horror releases. Granted, I haven't made it around to watching such films as The Sacrament or As Above, So Below, but this seems to be on another level completely, engrossing the audience as much through its filmmaking techniques as its story. Writer and director Jennifer Kent combines the two to create a truly effective film, or at least half a film, before it spins out of what feels like even her control in the last half hour. That said, the elements that make up the building tension of the first hour are so expertly crafted and handled in such a refreshing manner that we can't help but give into the thought that it's the heightened expectations set after our experience with the film so far that allow the conclusion to not live up to them. This is mainly true because we care more about the two central characters than the titular villain of the piece and the third act relies too heavily on the actions of this mysterious creature.