Monthly Archives: July 2012

Albert Nobbs (2011)

Written by Glenn Close, John Banville and Gabriella Prekop
Directed by Rodrigo Garcia

Good Lawd Almighty, Patty Hewes is a cross-dresser?! That’s a twist I certainly didn’t see coming!

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

All joking aside, Glenn Close disappears rather beautifully as a woman who assumes the role of a loyal male butler named Albert. It’s a very layered, affecting performance. Nobbs is a consummate professional. She’s good at what she does. She’s respected by her peers. And she’s just a few months shy of living her dream of owning a cigar shop.

It’s a shame that the film is a bit of a mess. While I believe that Mia Wasikowska is a fine young actress, she essentially drags the film down as a weak, deceptive, confused waif who toys with Nobbs’s feelings. I despised her character (along with her no-good bum of a boyfriend, overplayed by Aaron Johnson), and wished this whole arc (which takes up a bulk of the film’s midsection) didn’t exist.

On the plus side, Brendan Gleeson is quietly compelling in a bit part as one of Nobbs’s only friends, and Janet McTeer is stunning as someone who becomes a bit of a role model for our hero.

But really, it is Close’s show all the way. The film is worth a look for her alone, but don’t expect to enjoy much else.

C+

21 Jump Street (2012)

Written by Michael Bacall with a story credit by Bacall and Jonah Hill
Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller

I was a regular viewer of the popular, kitschy Stephen J. Cannell series back in the late 80′s. It wasn’t among my favorite shows, but I totally dug the concept of young-looking cops who pass for high schoolers and attempt to subvert crime out of the schools. And that kid, Johnny Depp, had talent!

When I heard Jonah Hill was keen on repurposing it as a buddy/cop comedy, I rolled my eyes. I mean, really? Is anything sacred? Then when it finally came out, I read the reviews, heard the buzz, and felt the deafening roar of Hollywood as Channing Tatum’s star catapulted over the Santa Monica mountains. I knew I had to see for myself.

I felt a little bit of the curse of “high expectations” but nonetheless, 21 Jump Street was pretty damn funny. Of course, not everything worked, but not for lack of trying. The directors, the writers, the cast are all skilled comedians. The cameos were inspired, the stale genre got a fresh new spin, and the chemistry between the two leads were genuine. Especially charming was Tatum, who couldn’t be having a better year. Good for him.

B-

Fright Night (2011)

Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by Craig Gillespie

Mind if I start out with a pun here? Ok, here goes.

This Fright Night remake is toothless.

I was only a young lad when I saw the original 1985 Fright Night, and it haunted me for most of my childhood. It wasn’t necessarily a scary film, but one that I always believed could happen in real life. What if my neighbor was a vampire and no one believed me?

This tepid outing offered nothing new to the story. As game as they may be, Colin Farrell is no Chris Sarandon and David Tennant is no Roddy McDowall. Neither performance did anything for me. Tennant, especially, played Peter Vincent as if he were channeling Russell Brand. Very uninspired.

Only Anton Yelchin, that charming young actor from Star Trek and Hearts in Atlantis, walks away unscathed. He plays Charley Brewster with a nervousness about him that’s affecting and honest. I really liked the interplay between Charley and his mother (the always delightful, though underused, Toni Collette) and his girlfriend (the awesomely named Imogen Poots).

Marti Noxon, a Buffy alum, has a witty way with words. But her script lacked charm and any sense of purpose.

C-

Prometheus (2012)

Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof
Directed by Ridley Scott

There is so much discussion about Prometheus in the blogosphere. It’s one of the most polarizing and over-analyzed films of the year so far. I don’t get the hype. I don’t get the love. And I don’t get the hate.

So that leaves me kind of in the middle. It should be noted that watching Prometheus felt nothing like watching an Alien film. In my eyes, it’s not part of the franchise and doesn’t deserve the time or energy analyzing it as such. You won’t see me ranking this alongside any of the other Alien films.

However, I have to give Ridley Scott and his creative team some credit. Prometheus wanted to be about something. It brought up so many questions about evolution, mankind and the philosophy of life, which is pretty heady stuff for a movie that is also about a group of rag-tag scientists and explorers who embark on a doomed expedition. Despite its ambition to be more than just a generic monster movie (which it really is), it was like mixing oil and water; the two elements just didn’t gel for me.

It is possible for a film like this to work, but this one failed largely for me because the characters were undercooked. Every character did some rather dumb things; they weren’t the brightest folks on that ship, you know. Idris Elba and Charlize Theron, phenomenal performers, were so underutilized. Their intentions were quite unclear. I can only imagine how many hours of their footage were left on the cutting room floor.

But Noomi Rapace was pretty damn awesome, and her character was the most fleshed out of them all. Her wide-eyed fierceness was palpable and generously displayed. The C-section scene was the film’s major highlight. And Michael Fassbender delivered a great performance as well. He was so hypnotic, in fact, that I had nagging feeling that I’d rather be watching him in a spinoff than in Prometheus. That can’t be good, right?

So, thumbs up? Thumbs down? Hmm, let’s settle for sideways.

C+

The Skin I Live In (2011)

Written by Pedro Almodovar and Agustin Almodovar
Directed by Pedro Almodovar

Oh, Pedro. I don’t know you very well, but I like your style!

The Skin I Live In is only my second Almodovar experience (after All About My Mother several years ago) and I have to admire the panache on this guy. Nothing about these two films, especially The Skin I Live In, is conventional. Almodovar is a very colorful, very sexual being, and I love that about him. His latest work is an outrageously bizarre soap opera about a plastic surgeon who uses his skills to exact revenge on a man who … well, why spoil it?

I admit, I didn’t see where this film was headed. It took some very dark and twisted turns that seems to be fitting for an Almodovar film. I didn’t quite love it — the first half was too ambiguous to really sink my teeth into — but there were two things I really loved about this film. First, it features the best performance I have ever seen from Antonio Banderas. He was cool, collected, and a little bit crazy-eyed. And damn, he looks as good and sexy as he ever did.

The second thing I loved about The Skin I Live In is the final scene, which I won’t give away. But the way Almodovar frames it is incredibly heartbreaking. It had a surprising depth I was not expecting at all. When a man asks for acceptance of who he has become, it’s impossible not to feel tremendous compassion for him.

B

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Written by Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear
Directed by Lynne Ramsay

“There is no point. That’s the point.”

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a harrowing reminder that there are some people in this world we will never truly understand. Eva always suspected that her son Kevin had something dark inside of him, but did she think he was capable of unspeakable horror? It probably crossed her mind, but like any protective mother, she denied her suspicions.

Who is to blame for Kevin’s actions? Not only does Kevin engage in an act of terrorism, but he spent his whole life resenting his mother, spewing hatred towards her any chance he can get. This causes a rift between Eva and her husband (John C. Reilly, nicely underplaying it here) and inevitably putting their daughter in harm’s way.

This film shook me to my core. After reading some negative reviews, it seemed that a lot of people had trouble believing that her husband was too aloof. That the hostility Eva received from her coworkers and townsfolk were too exaggerated. That Kevin was portrayed like the title character in The Bad Seed. All true. But what those naysayers don’t realize is that We Need to Talk About Kevin is told purely from Eva’s point of view. Kevin performs a monstrous, heinous stunt in the opening of the film (off-screen, thankfully), and Eva (and we) attempt to piece together why Kevin did what he did. We watch these flashbacks through the eyes of an emotionally ravaged woman, a mother whose life mission to raise her child right has failed miserably. Of course her husband didn’t see everything. Of course the entire world is out to blame *her* for everything *he* did. Of course Kevin is not a normal child.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is framed like your typical horror film but it’s told from the perspective of an unstable mother, a woman who lives with the guilt of having a son she clearly never wanted in the first place.

No one ever talked about Kevin in this film. Because it was all about Eva.

Tilda Swinton gave the best performance I have seen by an actor in all of 2011. It was a raw showcase of guilt, fear, hatred and maternal love. Utterly astonishing.

My pick for the best film of the year.

A+

The Myth of the American Sleepover (2011)

Written and Directed by David Robert Mitchell

It’s amazing how much your opinion of a film can change as you are watching it. I really was not enjoying this tiny indie when it started. It felt so amateurish. It relied on clichés. Its motives and sense of time and place were unclear.

But then I gave The Myth of the American Sleepover a chance and it started to feel, well, magical. None of my opinions changed, but those aspects worked for the film as opposed to against it. The non-actors and newcomer director had a natural approach that felt more resonant as we delved into the dramas of these kids. We all understand what it feels like to fall in love for the first time, and for these kids nothing else matters in the world.

It bugged me at first that we couldn’t tell when this film took place but I warmed to the idea. Mitchell intentionally threw us off so we could make our own assumptions. It’s not about an era or a time in history. It’s about us, and when we were young. For me, it was the early 90′s. For you, it was another time. But for all of us, it’s the same. The Myth of the American Sleepover is about what we all felt when we came of age and what we did about those feelings.

B+

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Written by Phil Johnston
Directed by Miguel Arteta

The reliable Arteta, who also directed Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl and scores of solid episodes of great TV shows, brings us his sweetest film to date. I had low expectations for Cedar Rapids because I was expecting a raunchy, mean-spirited comedy about a wild weekend at an insurance convention. Well, I got the last part right. The rest of the film was gentle, perceptive and not to mention howlingly funny. Judging a movie by its premise failed me once again.

Arteta is a “character director,” who functions much like a character actor. His films are not plot driven, but actually fueled by people who are wandering through life hoping to do the right thing by others. Like the work of his like-minded colleague, Rodrigo Garcia, there is an indie sensibility and an abundance of depth and feeling in these frames.

Ed Helms is terrific, the best thing he’s ever done. John C. Reilly continues to impress me when I least expect it. I’m not always pleased with his choices or his brand of humor, but when he clicks, he really knocks it out of the park. He’s quite fantastic here, balancing childish shtick with the ruthless intensity of a competitor. Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr, and Sigourney Weaver (who is everywhere these days) all have great moments and turn in finely tuned performances.

I was quietly impressed with Cedar Rapids.

B+