The Norwegians Got Funny This Year

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KING CURLING

This week’s DVD pick, the dark Norwegian comedy thriller Headhunters, has some big laughs. But it’s just one of some very funny Norwegian comedies this year.  I also liked the teen sex comedy Turn Me On, Dammit!.  Who knew that the Norwegians could be so damn funny?

My favorite comedy this year is King Curling, set in a sport that even the Norwegians find to be odd and boring, is HILARIOUS.  The star of a curling team suffers a psychotic breakdown and, after years of treatment, is released from an asylum heavily medicated.  To win money for a friend’s lifesaving operation, the curling team must win a tournament and the star needs to go off his meds to regain his game skills.

It’s a broad comedy, but the key is that the actors aren’t trying to be funny, a la Will Ferrell.  Instead, they play it absolutely straight, relying on the characters, situations and dialogue to generate the laughs.  And laughs, they are aplenty.

The curling star tries to maintain composure despite his recurring hallucinations of floating pink lint.  One of the Norwegian curlers, a womanizer with unusually low standards,  keeps lapsing into American gangsta street talk.  Another has a long-lost father who turns up as, of course, a Rod Stewart impersonator who doesn’t sound remotely like Rod Stewart.  And then there’s the kissing dog.  It’s a top drawer broad comedy.  Here’s the trailer for King Curling.

 

DVD of the Week: Headhunters

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The smug Norwegian corporate headhunter named Roger Brown (don’t ask) explains his motivation at the very beginning of the movie:  at 5 feet, 6 inches, his insecurity about keeping his six foot blond wife leads him to cut some corners.  As ruthlessly successful as he is in business, he feels the need to also burgle the homes of his clients and steal art treasures.  So the dark comedy thriller Headhunters (Hodejegerne) begins like a heist movie.  But soon Roger becomes targeted by a client with serious commando skills, unlimited high tech gizmos,  and a firm intention to make Roger dead.

Roger Brown is played brilliantly by Aksel Hennie, a huge star in Norway who looks like a cross between Christopher Walken and Peter Lorre. The laughs come from Roger’s comeuppance as he undergoes every conceivable humiliation while trying to survive.  As a smoothly confident scoundrel, Roger is at first not that sympathetic, but Hennie turns him into a panicked and terrified Everyman when he becomes a human pinata.

Headhunters is based on a page-turner by the Scandinavian mystery writer Jo Nesbo.   There are reports that Headhunters will be remade soon by Hollywood.  In the mean time, see Headhunters and have a fun time at the movies.

Sleepwalk With Me: engaging and successful comedy

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As Sleepwalk With Me begins, the filmmaker lets the audience figure out three basic things about the main character.  First, he has the perfect girlfriend and, no matter what happens in his life, he will never do any better.  Second, despite her patience after being together eight years, it’s time for him to marry her or not.  Third, he is absolutely unready to make that commitment.

That filmmaker is co-writer/co-director Mike Birbiglia, a standup comic whose screenplay is based on his autobiographical one man show.  His protagonist’s unpromising career as a comedian is feeding his ambivalence to marry a woman whose career has already stabilized.  As he feels more and more relationship and career pressures, he develops REM Behavior Disorder – a rare and particularly dangerous form of sleepwalking.

The sleepwalking, of course, sets up some funny moments, as do the stumbling start to the standup career, the girlfriend angst and the usual maddening set of parents.  In a comic triumph, Birbiglia gently and intelligently milks the laughs out of each situation while never losing focus on the fundamental truth of each situation.

The girlfriend is beautiful, good-hearted, smart, sexy and full of life.  She is played impeccably by Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under. Starting Out in the Evening).  Veterans James Rebhorn and Carole Kane are excellent as the protagonist’s bickering parents.  Here’s a nice touch:  the pioneer scientist of sleep disorder science himself, Stanford professor Dr. William C. Dement, provides a funny cameo.

Movies To See This Week

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THE INTOUCHABLES

Let’s face it – we’re now in a holding pattern, waiting for the big autumn movie releases. But, if you haven’t seen the four good comedies out now, you still have a chance. The zany French odd couple comedy The Intouchables is a crowd pleaser – and an attendance record breaker in France.  Frank Langella’s performance in Robot and Frank elevates the film from a pretty good comedy to a revealing study of getting older.  Celeste and Jesse Forever is a smart and authentic comedy of best friends too perfect for each other to fall in love at the same time.  Ruby Sparks is a hilariously inventive romance that probes whether realizing a fantasy can bring happiness.

It’s worth seeking out the compelling documentary Searching for Sugar Man, about the hunt to uncover the secret fate of an artist that didn’t know that he was a rock star. The same holds for Bill W., the story of the reluctant leader of a movement, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The brilliantly made Louisiana swamp fable Beasts of the Southern Wild enters the life and imagination of a child and celebrates her indomitability. It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.

Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in New York, which opens this week, is a rollicking light culture clash comedy.  The stylishly violent crime drama Lawless is well-made and well-acted but predictable. The bike messenger thriller Premium Rush is nothing more than a chase scene, but it’s a cool chase. The Dark Night Rises is too corny and too long, but Anne Hathaway sparkles.

I haven’t yet seen the heralded drama The Words, which opens this weekend. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick this week is the heartfelt French Canadian drama Monsieur Lazhar, another of the best films of the year.

Coming up this fall

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I’ve recently updated my Movies I’m Looking Forward To (where you can read descriptions and watch trailers) with some upcoming fall releases like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Seven Psychopaths, The Master, Cloud Atlas, Love and Rust and Bone.

I’ve also added some big films playing at the Toronto International Film Festival that will probably be released in the US this fall:  Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep, Silver Linings Playbook (Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence), the star-studded Jayne Mansfield’s Car, Ramin Bahrani’s At Any Price and Passion, the remake of the French Love Crime with Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace.

Seven Psychopaths releases on October 12.  I know that I’m gonna love this movie because I loved writer-director Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges.  Like In Bruges (and The Guard which McDonagh produced), this is a crime comedy.  It stars Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson, plus Mickey Rourke,Tom Waits and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).  The trailer is freaking hilarious.

DVD of the Week: Monsieur Lazhar

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This week’s pick is on my list of Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.

A fifth grade class in Montreal loses its teacher in just about the worst possible way – she hangs herself in their classroom at recess.  Monsieur Lazhar is about how the kids face this trauma with their replacement teacher, an Algerian immigrant.  The school gets a psychologist to lecture to the kids, but bans them from otherwise mentioning the suicide in class – a rule designed to minimize the discomfort of the administrators and parents.  Meanwhile, the school’s zero tolerance rule against touching children means that the kids can’t get a reassuring hug.

The new teacher, Monsieur Lazhar (well-played by Mohammed Fellag), is a traditionalist who demands respect but with humor and compassion.  He also seems oddly ignorant of modern teaching methods.  Although mild-mannered, he is fiercely devoted to protecting the kids.  That devotion keeps him from sharing his own burden with the children, for we learn that he, too, has reason to grieve.

Monsieur Lazhar was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar and won Canada’s equivalent of the Best Picture Oscar.  The child actors are superb.  It’s an uncommonly sweet and powerful film.

Movies to See Right Now – Labor Day Edition

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ROBOT & FRANK

There are some good movies out this Labor Day, and four of them are comedies.  Frank Langella’s performance in Robot and Frank elevates the film from a pretty good comedy to a revealing study of getting older.  The zany French odd couple comedy The Intouchables is a crowd pleaser – and an attendance record breaker in France.  I am impressed by both Celeste and Jesse Forever and Ruby Sparks – each is written by an actress and each is a good time at the movies.  Celeste and Jesse Forever is a smart and authentic comedy of best friends too perfect for each other to fall in love at the same time.  Ruby Sparks is a hilariously inventive romance that probes whether realizing a fantasy can bring happiness.

It’s worth seeking out the compelling documentary Searching for Sugar Man, about the hunt to uncover the secret fate of an artist that didn’t know that he was a rock star. The same holds for Bill W., the story of the reluctant leader of a movement, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The brilliantly made Louisiana swamp fable Beasts of the Southern Wild enters the life and imagination of a child and celebrates her indomitability. It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.

Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in New York, which opens this week, is a rollicking light culture clash comedy.  I haven’t yet seen the stylishly violent crime drama Lawless is well-made and well-acted but predictable.  The bike messenger thriller Premium Rush is nothing more than a chase scene, but it’s a cool chase.  The Dark Night Rises is too corny and too long, but Anne Hathaway sparkles. Magic Mike has male stripping, but no magic.

I haven’t yet seen the controversial indie drama Compliance or Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer, which open this weekend. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick this week is The Hunger Games, a well-paced, well-acted and intelligent sci-fi adventure fable for tweens – and for the rest of us, too.

The Movie Mitt Romney Doesn’t Want You To See

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Mitt Romney has been formally nominated by this week’s Republican Convention in Tampa.  Imagine if Michael Moore directed a profile of Mitt’s career as co-founder of Bain Capital.  Well, the 28-minute short film When Mitt Romney Comes to Town is an even more devastating critique of Romney than a Moore film would be.

The storyline of When Mitt Romney Comes to Town is essentially 1) you are happily living in Middle America, working in a factory and paying your mortgage and your taxes; 2) Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital buys and then loots your company; 3) you lose your job and then your home; and 4) repeat several times.

Amazingly, the film was directed by Jason Killian Meath, a Republican media consultant and culture warrior. During the GOP primary season, it was shilled by a Newt Gingrich-friendly SuperPAC.

Meath’s film is heavy-handed and manipulative (as a Michael Moore film would be). Meath doesn’t have Moore’s sense of humor, but also doesn’t have Moore’s abrasiveness and self-righteousness, which makes his film smoother, more broadly accessible and ultimately more persuasive. In an appeal to Republican primary voters, Meath uses Reaganesque “Morning in America” music and imagery, and I don’t think that it’s an accident that most of Bain Capital’s victims in the film are White.

The oddest thing about When Mitt Romney Comes to Town is that it is not just an attack on Mitt Romney, but against the type of Vulture Capitalism tolerated or even promoted by all recent Republican Congressional leaders and presidential candidates. This is a major thread of the Obama narrative against Romney.

Here’s the entire 28-minute movie.

Lawless: good looking, well-acted and completely predictable

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Lawless is a good looking, well-acted and completely predictable crime drama among moonshiners in Prohibition Era Appalachia.  The filmmakers were careful to enrich the film with all kind of period detail – not just the cars and the clothes, but down to the advertisements at the gas station and the footwashing and the Sacred Harp singing at the Church of the Brethren. However, we always know that [minor spoilers] the good guys will defeat the villain and Jessica Chastain will fall for Alpha male Tom Hardy.

The story by musician Nick Cave is based on a real family of Virginia bootleggers and, as typical for Cave, is severely violent.  Hardy grunts and snorts, but is convincing as the leader of his brothers, played by Jason Clarke and (why is he a movie star?) Shia LaBeouf.

But the best acting is by the supporting company.  As the villain, Guy Pearce plays a lethal dandy.  Gary Oldman sparkles as a gangster ally. Mia Wasikowska, looking like she stepped out of a Dorothea Lange photo, is perfectly cast as a teen girl with an eye for bad boys.   And every time Jessica Chastain is on camera, she commands the screen and elevates the entire film; her beauty is especially breathtaking in Lawless, particularly when naked.

Robot & Frank: funny and revealing as a man ages

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Frank Langella’s performance in Robot & Frank elevates the film from a pretty good comedy to a revealing study of getting older.  Langella’s character Frank lives an isolated retirement in upstate New York, and he is experiencing some symptoms consistent with the early onset of dementia.  Naturally, his adult kids are worried.  The story takes place in the near future, so his son helpfully provides Frank with robotic personal healthcare assistant.  Frank resists, and this is where, in lesser hands,  Robot & Frank could have become just another comedy about a crusty old curmudgeon.

But the focus of Robot & Frank is deeper than that – it’s about an older person’s strategy to accept, resist, deny or adapt to the various ravages of becoming older.  As the robot institutes a daily routine with improved diet and exercise, Frank becomes less addled.  With his new-found lucidity, he can now try to resist aging by making some new goals.  It turns out that Frank’s career was as a cat burglar  – and he would prefer to be only semi-retired – so….

It’s an enlightening exploration, which becomes more profound when a fact is revealed very late in the film.

The supporting cast, including the always appealing Susan Sarandon, is very good. The sardonically detached Peter Sarsgaard was the perfect choice to voice the robot.  Jeremy Strong is very good as a particularly despicable yuppie.

The trailer makes Robot & Frank appear lighter than it is.  It is a funny movie, but also has some heft.