comedy

IRRATIONAL MAN: not bad, but empty

by
IRRATIONAL MAN
Joaquin Phoenix and Parker Posey in IRRATIONAL MAN

Woody Allen’s latest, Irrational Man, is about a burn-out who revives his joie de vivre by committing a very grave crime, in the process self-administering a shot of metaphorical adrenaline.  That’s all there is in Irrational Man, an entirely plot-driven movie.  Skip it.

To be sure, as one would expect with a Woody Allen movie, it is well-acted.  Joaquin Phoenix plays the kind of iconoclastic academic whose womanizing and drinking was part of his dashing charm until he sagged into middle age.  The ever-lively Parker Posey is a faculty member who is bored with her life and her marriage.  Emma Stone plays the precocious but impressionable coed.  Besides the cast, the best thing about Irrational Man is the music, especially a wonderfully raucous version of The In Crowd by the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

Here’s my discussion on Woody Allen and his filmmaking career.  Despite Irrational Man, I’m a fan.

[SPOILER ALERT:  I don’t understand how it’s possible to make a non-exciting movie scene centered around Russian Roulette, but we don’t even momentarily cringe at this one.  Maybe it’s the combination of having to explain what Russian Roulette IS (to a character who had somehow made it to college without hearing of Russian Roulette), and then having the ONE CHARACTER who we all know is going to make it to the climax of the movie pull the trigger at the mid-point.  Yawn.]

TRAINWRECK: some raunchy laughs and a surprisingly good LeBron James

by
Amy Schumer and LeBron James in TRAINWRECK
Amy Schumer and LeBron James in TRAINWRECK

The comedienne (do we still use that word?) Amy Schumer stars in the bawdy comedy Trainwreck as a gal whose childhood trust and intimacy issues have resulted in a chaotic adult life of wall-banging and random guy-banging.  She gives promiscuity a bad name.  When she finally happens on the perfect guy (Bill Hader), will she sabotage this opportunity?  Schumer herself wrote Trainwreck, which was directed by the current king of lowbrow comedy Judd Apatow.

Trainwreck has plenty of LOL moments, and even some shoulder-quaking laughs.  But it’s two hours long, and that’s too long to sustain the basic jokes here.  Trainwreck has jumped the shark before we get to an improbable celebrity intervention and the Madison Square Garden grand finale.

There are some glimpses of comedic genius here and there, including a brilliant take on the all-night male-female argument – the kind where the woman is amped up in a full-throttle rage and the man keeps fighting to stay awake.  Both men and women in the audience were laughing knowingly.

Trainwreck does benefit from a superb cast.  I always love to see Hader and Brie Larson (good but wasted here).  Tilda Swinton bops in for a turn as a supremely confident and self-absorbed boss.  Pro wrestler John Cena is very good as the first boyfriend, a bodybuilder with some denial issues of his own.  And Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei are very funny in a profoundly bad movie-within-the-movie.

But the real revelation here is LeBron James,who is playing himself as best friend of Hader’s character, an orthopedic surgeon.  LeBron is very, very good – just as good as the real actors.  He has an excellent sense of timing and a lot of natural appeal.  There aren’t that many movie roles for 6-foot 8-inch black men, but LeBron can definitely act.  He’s consistently a joy to watch in Trainwreck.

Amy Schumer delivers a lot of raunchy laughs in Trainwreck, just not two hours worth.  It’s definitely not a really good movie, but it will offer an evening of light laughs on home video.

GEMMA BOVERY: jumping into the plot of a novel

by
Fabrice Luchini and Gemma Arterton in GEMMA BOVERY
Fabrice Luchini and Gemma Arterton in GEMMA BOVERY

In the delightful dark comedy Gemma Bovery, Fabrice Luchini plays a guy who has left his Type A job in Paris to take over his father’s bakery in a sleepy village in Normandy. He gets new neighbors when a young British couple named Bovery moves in. The young British woman (played by the delectable Gemma Arterton) is named Gemma Bovery, and only the baker notices the similarity to Emma Bovary. But, like the protagonist of Madame Bovary, the young British woman is also married to a Charles, becomes bored and restless and develops a wandering eye. The baker rapidly becomes obsessed with the Flaubert novel being re-enacted before his eyes and soon jumps into the plot himself. Gemma Bovery, which I saw at Cinequest 2015, is a French movie that is mostly in English.

Fabrice Luchini is a treasure of world cinema. No screen actor can deliver a funnier reaction than Luchini, and he’s the master of squeezing laughs out of an awkward moment. For me, his signature role is in the 2004 French Intimate Strangers, in which he plays a tax lawyer with a practice in a Parisian professional office building. A beautiful woman (Sandrine Bonnaire), mistakes Luchini’s office for that of her new shrink, plops herself down and, before he can interrupt, starts unloading her sexual issues. It quickly becomes awkward for him to tell her of the error, and he’s completely entranced with her revelations, so he keeps impersonating her shrink. As they move from appointment to appointment, their relationship takes some unusual twists. It’s a very funny movie, and a great performance.

Gemma Bovery is directed and co-written by Anne Fontaine (The Girl from Monaco, Coco Before Chanel). Fontaine has a taste for offbeat takes on female sexuality, which she aired in the very trashy Adore (Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as Australian cougars who take on each other’s sons as lovers) and the much better Nathalie (wife pays prostitute to seduce her cheating hubby and report back on the details).

Gemma Bovery isn’t as Out There as Nathalie, but it’s just as good. The absurdity of the coincidences in Gemma Bovery makes for a funny situation, which Luchini elevates into a very funny movie.

DVD/Stream of the Week: WILD TALES

by
WILD TALES
WILD TALES

Okay, here’s the first Must See of 2015 – the hilariously dark Argentine comedy Wild Tales. Writer-director Damián Szifron presents a series of individual stories about revenge. It’s now topping my list of Best Movies of 2015 – So Far.

We all feel aggrieved, and Wild Tales explores what happens when rage overcomes the restraints of social order. Think about how instantly angry you can become when some driver cuts you off on the highway – and then how you might fantasize avenging the slight. Indeed, there is story that has the most severe case road rage since Spielberg’s Duel in 1971. Now Wild Tales is dark, and you gotta go with it. The humor comes from the EXTREMES that someone’s resentment can lead to.

One key to the success of Wild Tales is that it is an anthology. In a very wise move, Szifron resisted any impulse to stretch one of the stories into a feature-length movie. Each of the stories is just the right length to extract every laugh and pack a punch. The funniest stories are the opening one set on an airplane and the final one about a wedding.

The acting is uniformly superb. In one story, Oscar Martínez plays a wealthy man in a desperate jam, who buys the help of his shady lawyer fixer (Osmar Núñez) and his longtime household retainer (Germán de Silva) – until their prices get just a little too high. The three actors take what looks like it’s going to a thriller and morph into a (very funny) psychological comedy with a very cynical view of human nature.

One of the middle episodes stars one of my favorite film actors, Ricardo Darín, who I see as the Argentine Joe Mantegna. I suggest that you watch Darín in the brilliant police procedural The Secrets in Their Eyes (on my top ten for 2010), the steamy and seamy Carancho and the wonderful con artist movie Nine Queens.

Wild Tales has been a festival hit (Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and Sundance) around the world and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar. I saw Wild Tales at Cinequest 2015. It’s now available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu and Xbox Video.

THE 100-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED: two Swedish comedies in one

by

100 year old
The Swedish comedy The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is a rich mixture of absurdity and broad physical humor.  As a geezer escapes from his nursing home and (slowly) embarks on an adventure, he see flashbacks to his earlier Zelig-like life.  As the local police launch a half-hearted (or quarter-hearted)  search for him,  he happens into a criminal gang’s suitcase of cash and picks up a motley crew of confederates.  There are two comedies here – the series of absurd coincidences that put him in the most salient moments of 20th Century history AND the guffaw-inducing chase story.   Both comedic threads are satisfying and very funny.

Robert Gustafsson is effective playing the protagonist Allan from ages 18 through 100.  I loved Iwar Wiklander as Allan’s partner-in-adventure Julius.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has also edged its way into a four-way tie for 12th place on my list of Longest Movie Titles.  It’s a hoot.

SPY: Melissa McCarthy spoofs Bond

by
Melissa McCarthy and John Cusack in SPY
Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law in SPY

Melissa McCarthy spoofs James Bond-type spy movies in the winning comedy Spy. She plays a put-upon back-of-the-house CIA operative who supports a glamorous super spy (Jude Law). She is extremely skilled, but he gets all the credit for their successes. She is so low self-esteemed that even SHE doesn’t recognize her own competence and achievements. Then circumstances pull her out of the basement at Langley and into the field for an operation – and the joke is on everyone else.

McCarthy carries Spy with her gifts for both verbal and physical comedy. She is so damned appealing, and she represents every one of us who has felt underestimated. And NOBODY delivers a filthy insult with more comic effect.

Law is as suave as he can be. Jason Statham sends up his own scowling action hero roles by playing an agent swaggering with macho braggadocio but who really a buffoon. The villainess is played by Rose Byrne, who broke out as a first-rate movie comedienne in last year’s Neighbors; she’s at least as good in Spy. New York City-born swimsuit model Nargis Fakhri has starred in a few Bollywood movies, and she has a rockin’ action sequence here that indicates that she has a future in mainstream American films.

Spy was written and directed by Paul Feig, the creator of Freaks and Geeks who directed the hit picture that McCarthy stole, Bridesmaids , and the hilarious McCarthy vehicle The Heat. In Spy, he starts us off with a Shirley Bassyesque title song, and then parodies all the conventions of the super spy movie genre, one by one.

Spy sustains its laughs throughout. It’s maybe not quite as funny as The Heat, but it’s a an entertaining diversion, and a great chance to enjoy the unique talent of Melissa McCarthy.

THE FILM CRITIC: when a cynic’s life becomes corny

by
Rafael Spregelburd (center, with glasses) in THE FILM CRITIC
Rafael Spregelburd (center, with glasses) in THE FILM CRITIC

In the enjoyable Argentine comedy The Film Critic (El Critico), we meet a glum and judgmental movie critic (Rafael Spregelburd).  He’s proud of having not written a rave review in the past two decades and he’s so pretentious that he thinks is French (very nice touch).  He lives to pile snark on romantic comedies, a genre that he despises.  His editor says, “You are a terrorist of taste!”.  He is so negative through-and-through, that he is a pretty miserable person to be around.

Then, he meets (cute) a vital and captivating woman (Dolores Fonzi).  To his discomfort, he is pulled into every cliché of a movie romantic comedy (when they kiss for the first time, fireworks even go off in the sky above), and he starts becoming uncharacteristically happy, even giddy.

Writer-director Hernán Gerschuny has created a winning, character-driven comedy.  His protagonist’s entire identity is to be unsatisfied by anything and everything.  Yet it turns out that he can be hooked by the same joys that he thinks he is above.

The Film Critic is full of references that will delight movie fans – and especially cinephiles,  movie critics and movie bloggers!  The critic holds forth with a hilarious recounting of rom com conventions (“why are they always running?”).  And, of course, the woman that HE meets looks uber cute in a beret, and he races to the airport at the end.

Gerschuny delivers great comic timing.  One of the protagonist’s colleagues watches an “experimental short film” (ba dum) “by a Taiwanese director” (ba dum) and then NAMES the director.  And THEN he says, “I think he’s got something to say” as it becomes apparent that the “short” is a security video.

All in all, The Film Critic is a satisfying hoot, now available for streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS: gentle, thoughtful and altogether fresh

by
Sam Elliott and Blythe Danner in I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
Sam Elliiott and Blythe Danner in I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS

The gentle, thoughtful and altogether fresh dramedy I’ll See You in My Dreams is centered on 72-year-old Carol (Blythe Danner), a widow of 21 years living a life of benign routine. Every day, she rises at 6 AM in her modest but nicely appointed LA house, reads by the pool, hosts her gal pals from the nearby retirement community for cards and is in bed by 11 PM to watch TV with her elderly canine companion. It’s not a bad life, but it’s an unadventuresome one.

Then some things happen that give her an opportunity to choose to take some chances. In short order, she has to put down her dog and deal with an unwelcome rodent. Her friends (Rhea Perlman, June Squibb and Mary Kay Place) suggest that she try speed dating. She opens her social life, developing a friendship with a much younger man (Martin Starr – Gilfoyle in Silicon Valley) and being courted by a dashing man of her own age (Sam Elliott).

What happens is sometimes funny, sometimes sad and always authentic. This is NOT a formulaic geezer comedy, but a story about venturing outside one’s comfort zone – with all the attendant vulnerability – to seek some life rewards.  Carol may be 72, but she is still at a place in her life where she can grow and be challenged.  I’ll See You in My Dreams proves that coming of age films are not just for the young.

I saw I’ll See You in My Dreams at the Camera Cinema Club, at which director, editor and co-writer Brett Haley was interviewed. Haley said that he and co-writer Marc Basch wanted to “avoid the obvious joke of older people doing what younger people do”. Instead, they intended to make a movie “about love, loss and that you can’t get through life unscathed – and that’s okay”. Haley and Basch certainly succeeded in creating a film about “living life without the fear of loss”.

Danner sparkles in the role (and gets to nail a karaoke rendition of Cry Me a River). Always special when playing solid-valued but rascally guys, Elliott still retains his magnetism.

We don’t often get to see realistic movies about people in their early 70s, but I’ll See You in My Dreams respects its protagonist Carol by putting her in plausible situations.  Neither farcical nor mawkish, I’ll See You in My Dreams is a surefire audience pleaser.   Now playing in New York and Los Angeles, I’ll See You in My Dreams opens this coming weekend in San Francisco and May 29 in San Jose.

Official Trailer – I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS from Bleecker Street on Vimeo.

DVD/Stream of the Week: LIVING IN OBLIVION

by
Peter Dinklage and Steve Buscemi in LIVING IN OBLIVION
Peter Dinklage and Steve Buscemi in LIVING IN OBLIVION

The hilarious 1995 comedy Living in Oblivion follows a grossly under-resourced indie movie director (Steve Buscemi), who must  somehow finish his low-budge/no-budget art film despite being surrounded by zanies.  He’s got a neurotic female lead (Catherine Keener), a preening and slumming A-list star named Chad Palomino (James Le Gros) and an elderly actress who can’t remember her lines (Rica Martens).  His stubborn and sullen cinematographer (Dermot Mulroney) is bedding the First Assistant Director (Danielle von Zerneck), who has an agenda of her own.  With this outfit, everything that CAN go wrong…

Living in Oblivion is filled with lines like “I can’t act. I can just do shower scenes in Richard Gere movies for the rest of my life!” and “Hey! That’s my eye patch and I don’t want anyone else wearing it. It’s insanitary.”

But the pièce de résistance is the feature debut of Peter Dinklage, 8 years before his breakout role in The Station Agent and 16 years before becoming a star in Game of Thrones.   He plays an tiny actor with a gargantuan chip on his shoulder:   “Why does my character have to be a dwarf?” and “I don’t even have dreams with dwarves in them. The only place I’ve seen dwarves in dreams is in stupid movies like this!”.

Director Tom Dicillo, having been Jim Jarmusch’s cinematographer, was no stranger to indie filmmaking.  After Living in Oblivion, Danielle von Zerneck moved on to a producing career.

Living in Oblivion is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Xbox Video.

Cinequest: GEMMA BOVERY

by
Fabrice Luchini and Gemma Arterton in GEMMA BOVERY
Fabrice Luchini and Gemma Arterton in GEMMA BOVERY

In the delightful dark comedy Gemma Bovery, Fabrice Luchini plays a guy who has left his Type A job in Paris to take over his father’s bakery in a sleepy village in Normandy. He gets new neighbors when a young British couple named Bovery moves in. The young British woman (played by the delectable Gemma Arterton) is named Gemma Bovery, and only the baker notices the similarity to Emma Bovary. But, like the protagonist of Madame Bovary, the young British woman is also married to a Charles, becomes bored and restless and develops a wandering eye. The baker rapidly becomes obsessed with the Flaubert novel being re-enacted before his eyes and soon jumps into the plot himself. Gemma Bovery, which I saw at Cinequest 2015, is a French movie that is mostly in English.

Fabrice Luchini is a treasure of world cinema. No screen actor can deliver a funnier reaction than Luchini, and he’s the master of squeezing laughs out of an awkward moment. For me, his signature role is in the 2004 French Intimate Strangers, in which he plays a tax lawyer with a practice in a Parisian professional office building. A beautiful woman (Sandrine Bonnaire), mistakes Luchini’s office for that of her new shrink, plops herself down and, before he can interrupt, starts unloading her sexual issues. It quickly becomes awkward for him to tell her of the error, and he’s completely entranced with her revelations, so he keeps impersonating her shrink. As they move from appointment to appointment, their relationship takes some unusual twists. It’s a very funny movie, and a great performance.

Gemma Bovery is directed and co-written by Anne Fontaine (The Girl from Monaco, Coco Before Chanel). Fontaine has a taste for offbeat takes on female sexuality, which she aired in the very trashy Adore (Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as Australian cougars who take on each other’s sons as lovers) and the much better Nathalie (wife pays prostitute to seduce her cheating hubby and report back on the details).

Gemma Bovery isn’t as Out There as Nathalie, but it’s just as good. The absurdity of the coincidences in Gemma Bovery makes for a funny situation, which Luchini elevates into a very funny movie.