This Is the End: grossing out The Rapture

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THIS IS THE END

As gross-out comedies go, This Is the End is adequately entertaining. Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco and other movie comedy stars play themselves – all partying at Franco’s over-the-top Hollywood mansion when the Apocalypse and The Rapture intrude.

The cast does a good job with the very broad material.  Franco, Hill, Harry Potter’s Emma Watson and especially Michael Cera all poke fun at their own images.  And, just when you think you’re watching a low brow comedy, Danny McBride arrives and takes that brow even further into the gutter.

It’s co-written and co-directed by best friends Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote Superbad as teenagers.  Jay Baruchel plays a character based on Goldberg, down from Canada to visit his boyhood chum and distrusting Rogen’s Hollywood posse.  It’s a solid send-up of the apocalyptic movie genre, with a nice little homage to The Exorcist.  The guys will enjoy This Is the End more than will the gals.

20 Feet from Stardom: essential for music fans

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Lisa Fisher in 20 FEET FROM STARDOM

The documentary 20 Feet from Stardom delves into the careers of rock music’s backup singers – so close to the celebrity spotlight, yet so obscure and under appreciated.  Some prefer the background (the Walkers and the electrifyingly talented Lisa Fischer), and some aspire to major solo careers (Judith Hill).  Others have been disappointed in the quest for stardom (Merry Clayton and Claudia Linnear) – or stardom has been delayed (Darlene Love).  We meet all of these very talented and appealing women, and hear from Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and Sting.

The best parts are hearing Darlene Love’s story (which adds to the body of evidence that Phil Spector is a terrible human being), the inside glimpse into Merry Clayton’s iconic solo in the Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter and experiencing the magical voice of Lisa Fischer.  It’s a little slow in places, but 20 Feet from Stardom is a pretty good choice for any viewer and essential for music fans.

Here’s a description from the director.

 

 

 

Augustine: obsession, passion and the birth of a science

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AUGUSTINE

The absorbing French drama Augustine is based on the real work of 19th century medical research pioneer Jean-Martin Charcot, known as the father of neurology.  A young kitchen maid begins suffering wild seizures and is brought to Charcot’s research hospital.  He ascertains the triggers for the seizures, and begins to close in on cure.  Needing funding for his research, he triggers her seizures before groups of his peers; he is showing off his research, but it’s clear that his affluent male audience is titillated by the comely girl’s orgasmic thrashes.

She is drawn to this man whose kindness to her belies their class difference and whose brilliance is the key to her recovery.  The good doctor intends to cure her – but not until she has performed for his potential funders.  She is unexpectedly cured just before Charcot’s most important demonstration, and she gets to decide whether to continue her exploitation.  In the stunning conclusion, she gets the upper hand and her simmering feelings erupt.

The fine French actor Vincent Lindon (Mademoiselle Chambon) excels at playing very contained and reserved characters, and here he nails Charcot’s clash of decency and professional ambition. The French pop singer Soko is captivating as his patient.

It’s an auspicious first feature film for writer-director Alice Winocour.  She has constructed a story that about two sympathetic characters whose interests converge, then diverge and then…

DVD/Stream of the Week: The Imposter

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The Imposter

Life is at times stranger than fiction, and The Imposter is one of the most jaw-dropping documentaries I have seen.  Nicholas Barclay, a 13-year-old Texas boy, vanished in 1994.  Three years later, a young man surfaced in Spain, claiming to be an American boy kidnapped for sexual exploitation; he was identified by Spanish police as Nicholas Barclay.  In fact, he was a serial impersonator named Frédéric Bourdin who had contrived the ruse to escape getting busted for his own petty misdeeds. 

That’s not a spoiler, because The Imposter’s audience learns this framework right away.  Here’s the first real shocker: the imposter is accepted by Nicholas’ family.  This is more amazing because Frédéric is seven years older than Nicholas, is not a native English speaker and looks nothing like him.  Of course, Frédéric is surprised that the family is embracing him as Nicholas – and then he begins to suspect why…

Filmmaker Bart Layton expertly spins the story, We meet the actual Frédéric Bourdin, members of the Barclay family, and the detectives who broke the case. 

The Imposter is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and many other VOD providers.

The Out List: as clear as clear can be

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Neil Patrick Harris in THE OUT LIST

Another in HBO’s excellent summer documentary series, The Out List is a talking head documentary about the value of being out – both personally valuable and to the community.   There are the celebrity performers that you would expect: Neil Patrick Harris, Cynthia Nixon, Wanda Sykes and Ellen DeGeneres.  But it’s amazing to hear from Lupe Valdez, a lesbian Latina Democrat elected by the fine people of Dallas County, Texas to be their Sheriff.  (There’s also the current favorite in the race for Mayor of New York City Mayor, Christine C. Quinn.)   The most compelling stories come from drag queen promoter Lady Bunny, personal finance guru Suze Orman and transgender writer Janet Mock.

Their stories represent the range of all human stories – some funny, some touching and some both at the same time.  Like in every group of humanity, there is some edginess and not everybody is trying to be appealing.  But I would doubt that anyone could watch The Out List and still feel justified to be a hater.  The Out List is not just for those interested in LGBT issues, but for everyone with an interest in people, society and the human experience.

Monsters University: plenty fun, with an even better short

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Pixar’s
MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

Pixar movies feature both excellent animation and outstanding storytelling., and such is the case with Monsters University, the welcome prequel to Monsters, Inc.  This is the story of how Monsters Inc.’s Mike and Sully met at college, with Billy Crystal and John Goodman returning to voice the roles.   When I saw Monsters University, the kids in the audience laughed plenty, but the adults were picking up on most of the college jokes; for example, Mike and Sully are relegated to the loser fraternity – so nerdy that the guys are living with one frat brother’s mom (a very funny Julia Sweeney).

Monsters University is preceded by an even better movie, the imaginative Pixar short The Blue Umbrella.  The Blue Umbrella is a simple and sentimental story set at foot level, amid manhole covers, storm drains and the feet of city-dwellers – and there’s no dialogue.  The animation is remarkable; in fact, I had to keep telling myself that it was animated, although it helped when the mailbox and the rain spout moved expressively.  I’m sure that The Blue Umbrella will be nominated for the Best Animated Short Oscar.

Movies to See Right Now

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DEAD MAN'S BURDEN on VOD

We’re in June, which means an emphasis on “tent pole” movies – the big blockbusters aimed at attracting mobs of kids and teens.  The bottom line: there are just a few intelligent movies for adults in theaters now, but more available on Video On Demand and on broadcast TV. Here are my recommendations for this week:

  • Shadow Dancer, about a young single mom in the IRA, is showing in some theaters now, but can be hard to find. It is also available streaming from Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.
  • Much Ado About Nothing takes the homework out of Shakespeare and puts the screwball comedy back in.
  • The East is an absorbing and thought-provoking eco-terrorism thriller.
  • Before Midnight, the year’s best romance, continuing the story of Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
  • The documentary We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is Alex Gibney’s inside look at an improbable scandal. It’s also available streaming from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and other VOD outlets.
  • I like the unsentimental Western Dead Man’s Burden, available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, Vudu and other VOD outlets.
  • The insightful HBO documentary Love, Marilyn uses Marilyn Monroe’s recently discovered letters and journals to give us a candid yet sympathetic inside look at Marilyn.
  • Hey Bartender, the entertaining documentary about the trend toward Craft Bartending, is hard to find in theaters, but easy to find on VOD (Amazon, Vudu, iTunes).

Also out right now:

  • Fast & Furious 6 has exciting chases, a silly story, a smoldering Michelle Rodriguez and a hard ass Gina Carano.
  • There’s cleverness in the psychological thriller Berberian Sound Studio, but just not enough thrills for a thriller.
  • Also out on VOD, Nancy, Please is a dark comedy about neurotic obsession among the over-educated.  Not that funny.

You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the Oscar-nominated Chilean historical drama No, with Gael Garcia Bernal.  No is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Vudu.

Turner Classic Movies wraps up its June film noir festival tonight with Czar of Noir Eddie Muller presenting films from the novels of Cornell Woolrich (The Leopard Man, Deadline at Dawn) and Raymond Chandler (Murder My Sweet, The Big Sleep, Lady in the Lake, Strangers on a Train).

 

Nancy, Please: an unhealthy (and unfunny) obsession

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NANCY, PLEASE

In the dark comedy Nancy, Please, a neurotic and feckless Yale grad student has just moved in with his new girlfriend and realizes that he has left his copy of Little Dorrit at his old digs. His former female roommate is both hostile and passive aggressive, and she won’t return it.  It’s a big deal, because he is up against a thesis deadline and his notes are annotated in the book.

But the central joke in the movie is that losing the book shouldn’t be THAT big a deal.  Sure, she’s being a jerk, but it’s pretty hard to imagine that he can’t reconstruct his notes, as he is advised by everyone else in his life except one friend who has the excuse of being drunk.  The grad student can’t let it go, making this molehill into a mountain that obstructs his progress on any and all fronts.  As he becomes more and more emotionally paralyzed, his academic career, his new relationship and even the walls of his new apartment disintegrate.  And a dose of maturity would solve the whole thing. 

I did chuckle when his girlfriend, alarmed by his escalating obsession, announces “I can’t support this any more.  I withdraw my support.”  Still, we’re talking about a $3.99 rental and 84 minutes of your life, and Nancy, Please just is not THAT funny.  Nancy, Please is available on VOD from Amazon, Vudu and Google Play. 

DVD/Stream of the Week: No

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In No, Gael Garcia Bernal stars as an ad man brainstorming the guerrilla advertising campaign that dethroned Chilean dictator Pinochet in a 1988 plebiscite.  It turns out that the key was not to rehash the atrocities of the repressive Pinochet dictatorship, but to get his audience to picture the alternative democratic future.  The ad man’s biggest challenge is to pitch his soft sell campaign to Pinochet’s ideologically driven opponents.

No has a grainy look and was shot in the same aspect as is television (i.e., not widescreen).  This allows the transition between the filmed scenes and the inserted historical footage (including the original Yes and No campaign commercials) to be seamless.

I visited Chile in the last days of the Pinochet dictatorship, after the October 1988 plebiscite but before the new democratic government took office fifteen months later.  No ably captures both the scariness of the authoritarian regime and the culture of the period.  As always, Garcia Bernal is excellent.  No was nominated for the 2013 Foreign Language Oscar. No is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Vudu.

Movies to See Right Now

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SHADOW DANCER

This week’s best choices:

  • The riveting thriller Shadow Dancer, about a young single mom in the IRA, is showing in some theaters now, but can be hard to find.  It is also available streaming from Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.
  • Much Ado About Nothing takes the homework out of Shakespeare and puts the screwball comedy back in.
  • The East is an absorbing and thought-provoking eco-terrorism thriller.
  • Before Midnight, the year’s best romance, continuing the story of Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
  •  The documentary We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is Alex Gibney’s inside look at an improbable scandal. It’s also available streaming from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and other VOD outlets.
  • I like the unsentimental Western Dead Man’s Burden, available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, Vudu and other VOD outlets.
  • The insightful HBO documentary Love, Marilyn uses Marilyn Monroe’s recently discovered letters and journals to give us a candid yet sympathetic inside look at Marilyn.
  • Hey Bartender, the entertaining documentary about the trend to Craft Bartending, is having a very limited theatrical run (a single showing this week in one local theater) and is available streaming from Amazon, Vudu, iTunes and other VOD outlets.

Also out right now:

  • Fast & Furious 6 has exciting chases, a silly story, a smoldering Michelle Rodriguez and a hard ass Gina Carano.
  • There’s cleverness in the psychological thriller Berberian Sound Studio, but just not enough thrills for a thriller.

You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the geezer romp Quartet.  Quartet is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Vudu, YouTube and other VOD outlets.

Turner Classic Movies continues its June film noir festival tonight with Czar of Noir Eddie Muller presenting films from the novels of Jonathan Latimer (Nocturne, They Won’t Believe Me) and James M. Cain (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice).