Christians and Muslims live together in a very isolated Lebanese village. The men, none too bright, flare any perceived grievance into testosterone-fueled tribal fury. Knowing that any trivial incident can spark an escalation to sectarian slaughter, the women, aided by the imam and the priest, work tirelessly to extinguish every possible provocation. The women will stop at nothing, including sabotaging the village’s only TV, faking a miracle, medicating the pastries and even hiring a van full of Ukrainian strippers.
This story could have been played broadly like Lysistrata. There are many funny moments, but Where Do We Go Now? is more than farce. To these women, war is not theoretical. We can tell from their language, which references men crouching in the attics and looking under beds, that they have survived past sectarian violence. And we see the village cemetery, filled with the headstones of young men. The women and the clerics have seen war, and they are desperate to avoid it. That desperation adds a sting to the comedy, and makes Where Do We Go Now? a pretty good movie.
Ever seen a movie where the outlaw rides into town and sticks up for the little guys against the local bully of a crime boss? Well, maybe so, but you probably haven’t seen a movie like Let the Bullets Fly (Rang Zidan Fei), which is set in southeastern China in the Chinese warlord period around 1919.
For one thing, it’s an unusually exuberant film that’s extremely funny for an action western.
For another, it’s a deeply cynical assessment of government corruption. It quickly becomes apparent that the professional bandit is more honest and reliable than any of the local institutions. (That subtext is not lost on the Chinese public.)
And the Chinese movie fans have embraced Let the Bullets Fly. It’s the highest-grossing Chinese language movie ever, and is the all-time #2 most popular movie in China (behind Avatar).
Writer-director Wen Jiang plays the stalwart bandit hero who substitutes himself for the newly arriving appointed Governor (played by You Ge as a hilariously unabashed sleazeball). Jiang’s bandit comes up against the local baddie (Chow Yun Fat), who doesn’t want to relinquish any of his power or ill-gotten gains. As the two match wits, a fast, funny and utterly rambunctious ride ensues.
In this case, 1.3 billion Chinese are correct – this is one fun movie.
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.)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has reliably excellent taste in his choice of movie scripts) stars in this cancer comedy. Yes, cancer comedy. Seth Rogen plays his buddy. And it’s funny. Pretty damn funny.
Writer Will Reiser takes the story from his own bout with the Big C. Reiser’s real life friend Seth Rogen helped him through the ordeal.
As usual, Gordon-Levitt is excellent. And, if you’re out chasing skirts while bald and weak from chemotherapy, who could be a better wing man than Seth Rogen?
Anna Kendrick (so good in Up in the Air) plays the cringingly green psychologist assigned to help the patient face his 50/50 chance of survival. Bryce Dallas Howard (excellent as the achingly fragile survivor in Hereafter) plays the girlfriend with the best intentions but neither aptitude for care giving or unlimited loyalty. Angelica Huston plays not just another smothering mom. They’re all very good – good enough to play against Gordon-Levitt and Rogen. So are Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) as fellow cancer patients.
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. Go see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the rest.
InThe Five-Year Engagement, a couple falls crazy in love as their careers are on the verge of taking off – she’s an academic, he’s a chef. She gets the opportunity to do a post-doc at the University of Michigan, so he shelves the opening of a San Francisco restaurant to follow her to Ann Arbor, where she flourishes. However, he sputters and finally spirals into deep unhappiness. Can their love overcome all? [Yes – this is not Romeo and Juliet where everybody dies].
Of course, they have zany best friends and the usual maddening parents. And a move from the Bay Area to Ann Arbor (depicted as perpetually snow-laden, with occasional parades of reveling frat boys) creates plenty of comic opportunities, especially as he shops his skills in cutting edge cuisine among the local eateries.
But the best thing about Five-Year Engagement is the authenticity of the situation. There are no wacky plot devices; this story could all really happen – and is the narrative for some couples today.
Another plus is that Jason Segal and Emily Blunt are very good as the appealing couple. Overall, the cast is excellent, although the Australian actress Jacki Weaver, who carried Animal Kingdom, is wasted in a one-note role as a nagging mother.
In fact, I feel guilty that I didn’t like Five-Year Engagement more than I did, but it did seem to drag in places. Still, it’s a worthwhile romantic comedy.
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.
I’ve always loved the good-hearted and wry Aardman Studio films like Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run. Aardman’s Pirates! Band of Misfits doesn’t quite match up to Aardman’s past work. The claymation is exquisite and the jokes are smart, but the overall effect is merely amusing and guffaw-free. Silly pirate stereotypes should have been much richer fodder for the writers.
I saw this in 3D, but I wouldn’t pay the 3D premium if I were taking a bunch of kids to see it.
Doug Glatt is not very smart and he knows it. He struggles to find the right word in every situation. Because his only talent is the ability to knock others unconscious, he is only in demand as a bar bouncer. But Doug is not a brute – he is goodhearted and loyal, and yearns to be part of something. By chance, Doug gets hired by a minor league hockey team to become its thuggish enforcer – despite his inability to ice skate.
We get lots of funny hockey violence a la the Hanson Brothers in Slap Shot. It’s very funny when Doug mangles his every attempt at cogent conversation. The comedy also comes from Doug’s innocent fish out of water in the cynical, sleazy and cutthroat world of minor league hockey. (He’s even reverential about the team logo on the locker room floor.)
There are lots of nice comic touches. For example, when Doug becomes a sensation, one of his fans in the stands holds up a sign reading “Doug 3:69” (Doug wears jersey number 69); we glimpse the sign for only a second, but I appreciate the filmmakers planting such nuggets in the movie. Doug is also that rarity – a Jewish hockey goon, with parents horrified that he isn’t following his brother to med school.
Although plenty raunchy, Goon is a rung above the normal gross-out guy comedy because Doug is such a fundamentally good and well-meaning person. As Doug, Seann William Scott (Stifler in American Pie) plays a naive simpleton, but one fiercely committed to his core values. It’s got to be hard to play that combination, and Scott’s performance is special.
The cast is excellent. Co-writer Jay Baruchel plays Doug’s sophomoric friend. Alison Pill (Milk, Midnight in Paris) is the troubled smart girl who can’t figure out why she’s attracted to a word-fumbling hockey goon. Liev Schreiber, excellent as always, dons a Fu Manchu and a mullet to play the league’s toughest goon. Kim Coates, who almost stole A Little Help as the personal injury attorney, plays the coach.
What writer-director Whit Stillman does really well is bring us unto the world of old money Eastern preppies with their refined manners and their odd customs like debutante balls. His well-educated characters have earnest late-night existential conversations in complete sentences. Nobody else does this, and Stillman’s dialogue has always kept me wholly absorbed. That’s why I liked his films Metropolitan and Barcelona so much.
What Stillman does not do well is absurdist film, like his current entry, Damsels in Distress, set in a Northeastern liberal arts college that is decidedly non-Ivy. Indie film darling Greta Gerwig plays the seriously off-kilter leader of some coeds who are intent on rescuing fellow students from depression, fashion mistakes and bad hygiene, whether they want it or not.
While his earlier films were earnestly realistic, Damsels is way over the top. The girls’ boyfriends are so stupid that one does not yet know his colors. Gerwig’s character is so obviously disturbed that anyone, even a horny college male, would run the other way.
That means that the patter of Stillman’s dialogue must carry the day, and it fails him. Gerwig’s two friends are one-note jokes – one profoundly stupid, the other profoundly suspicious – that aren’t that funny the first time. There are lame body odor jokes. The fraternity system uses Roman, rather than Greek letters – which is not the sidesplitter that Stillman may imagine.
For sure, there are some funny moments. At the campus Suicide Prevention Center (the word “Prevention” keeps falling off the sign) Gerwig offers a fellow student a doughnut, but then snatches it back after one bite when she discovers that he isn’t the suicidal one. One student has adopted the Cathar religion, which he associates with a certain sexual practice. But, over all, the movie is not funny. Worst of all, it’s not engaging.
Analeigh Tipton, who was very good as the smitten babysitter in Crazy Stupid Love, does especially well again as a transfer student who falls under Gerwig’s wing.
My recommendations: 1) Stillman should leave the absurdism to Bunuel and 2) the rest of us can skip Damsels to watch Metropolitan and Barcelona.
