comedy

DVD of the Week: Dark Horse

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In this engaging indie dramedy by writer-director Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness), an epic underachiever falls in love with a heavily medicated depressive.

This guy has not moved out from his boyhood room in his parent’s house. He gets a paycheck from his dad’s company although the office assistant does his work while he spends his day bidding for collectible toys on eBay. He drives a bright yellow Hummer that blares the sappiest pop music. Yet he feels completely entitled, is surly to his enabling parents and bellows like a wounded water buffalo when his genius remains unrecognized.

This guy is remarkably unsympathetic. Still, Solondz ‘s clear-eyed and unsparing portrait is not mean-spirited and, eventually, becomes even empathetic. In particular, Solondz makes able use of dream/fantasy segments to explore the yearnings of the characters.

Jordan Gelber is excellent as the hapless blowhard protagonist. The cast (Selma Blair as the girlfriend, Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow as the parents) is quite good, too, especially Donna Murphy as the office assistant and Aasif Mandvi as the girlfriend’s ex.

I saw this at a screening with Todd Solondz, and he said that Dark Horse is a reaction to the Apatowesque man-child movies. In those films, the underachieving slackers are endearing goofs. Here, the underachieving slacker is realistically unattractive, but has a realistic vulnerability and fundamental humanity. Solondz says that the protagonist, at last, finds life in death.

Dark Horse has the trademark Solondz quirkiness, but without the trademark perversion. As with most Solondz films, I’m still thinking about it several days later.

Note: In Dark Horse, Walken and Farrow appear to be watching Seinfeld. Instead of paying the fee to license a snippet of the real Seinfeld, Solondz got Jason Alexander, Estelle Harris and Jerry Stiller to read Solondz-written faux Seinfeld dialogue.

DVD of the Week: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

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As you can see from the trailer, this story of aged Brits seeking a low-budget retirement in India looks like enjoyable fluff with a great cast.  I was expecting a fish-out-of-water comedy, but found much more than that.  Besides dealing with the culture shock issues (which are plenty funny), the characters each forge their own journeys of self-discovery.

Of course, the cast is a superb collection of British acting talent:  Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith,  Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey).  Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire is their genial and scattered host.

Nighy is especially brilliant as a guy trapped too long by his own profound decency.  Dench delivers an equally outstanding performance as a woman determined to make her own way for the first time.  In another acting gem, Tom Wilkinson follows a thread from his secret past and uncovers a moving revelation.

But those are just the highlights.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is justifiably the biggest indie hit of the year.

DVD of the Week: Bernie

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BERNIE

This is one very funny movie. Playing against type, Jack Black is Bernie, an assistant funeral director who is the kindest, most generous guy in a small East Texas town. Bernie becomes entangled with the most malicious town resident, the rich widow played by Shirley MacLaine. We are used to seeing Black playing venal and devious characters, but Bernie is utterly good-hearted. He has built up so much good will in the community that when he snaps and commits one very gravely wrong act, he is still locally beloved. Black also gets to show off his singing voice on some heartfelt gospel hymns.

But the real main character is really the East Texas town of Carthage. Director Richard Linklater has the local residents (some played by actors) tell the story in capsule interviews. Through this chorus, we see how the locals view Bernie and the widow, and we learn a lot about the local values, customs and colorful language. Linklater is from East Texas himself and clearly revels in sharing the culture with us. It’s very, very funny.

The plot takes one improbably funny turn after another – but it’s a true story, which makes it even funnier. You can look it up in the New York Times [major spoilers in the article]. During the end credits, we even see Jack Black conversing with the real Bernie at Bernie’s current residence.

(I’m not embedding the trailer, because it doesn’t make clear that Jack Black’s character is not the winking, edgy guy that he usually plays. Just see the movie.)

Bernie is on my list of Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.

DVD of the Week: The Salt of Life

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The Salt of Life (Gianni e le donne) is a gently funny and insightful comedy about a certain time in a man’s life. In the lives of men who are not rich, famous or powerful, there comes a time when attractive young women no longer see them as potential lovers. This is painful for any guy, and our contemporary Roman hero Gianni, with the help of his portly lawyer/wing man, sets out to deny that he has reached this plateau.

In a standard movie fantasy, some adorable young hottie would come to appreciate Gianni’s true appeal and find him irresistible. But in The Salt of Life, the story is more textured, complex and realistic.

The Salt of Life stars and is written and directed by Gianni Di Gregorio, just like the very fun Mid-August Lunch. It is definitively a movie for guys of a certain age and the women who tolerate them, as well as the younger guys who will become them.

Sorry, no subtitles yet on the trailer embedded here. You can watch the English subtitled trailer on IMDb.

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.

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.

Celeste and Jesse Forever: another actress-written, smart, funny movie

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I really enjoyed Celeste and Jesse Forever, starring Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg as best friends who have been married, are now working on an amiable divorce and are still best friends.  The screenplay is co-written by Rashida Jones (Paul Rudd’s fiance in I Love You, Man) and, once you accept the comic premise that this couple is made for each other but not as a married couple, everyone’s behavior is authentic.  Sure, he wants to get back with her when she isn’t in a place to do that – and, then, vice versa – but the characters resolve the conflict as they would in real life.  Here’s a mini-spoiler – this movie is just too smart to end in rushing to the airport or disrupting the wedding or any of the other typical rom com contrivances.

The supporting characters are funny without being absurdly zany (except for one pot dealer).   Chris Messina pops up in Celeste, as he did in Ruby Sparks, and does a good job here, too.

I’m certainly looking forward to Rashida Jones’ next screenplay.

2 Days in New York: a diversion, sometimes funny

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Writer-director Julie Delpy and Chris Rock play a couple living together in a cramped New York City apartment with their kids from previous relationships when her eccentric French family comes for a visit.  Most French are reserved and impeccably polite; because that’s not funny, Delpy wrote her visitors to be very badly behaved extreme hedonists.  The stress of the first visit by the in-laws, the claustrophobia of packing people into a tiny apartment and language and cultural barriers are all promising comic situations.   A mid-range comedy, 2 Days in New York has its moments.

As a screenwriter, Delpy’s strengths are a keen eye for family dysfunction, brisk pacing and a willingness to get raunchy.  But much of the broadest gags in 2 Days in New York fall flat.  There is a funny bit about Delpy’s emotionally brittle artist literally selling her soul as a piece of performance art.  And it’s funny when Delpy invents a preposterous tragedy to avoid facing a complaint from a neighbor.  But the funniest moments are two Chris Rock monologues when he retreats to his man cave to converse with a large poster of Barack Obama.

I wouldn’t recommend a special trip to the theater to see 2 Days in New York, but it’s a pleasant enough diversion to watch on DVD or stream later this year.