comedy

The Salt of Life: men will be boys

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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.

 

DVD of the Week: Young Adult

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With Young Adult, screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) and director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air) are challenging the current mode of comedy itself.  They turn many comic conventions on their heads in this nastily dark comedy, and Young Adult is on my list of Best Movies of 2011.

Played by Charlize Theron, the main character is stunningly non-empathetic,  utterly self-absorbed and thoroughly unpleasant.  She was the prom goddess in her small town high school, and has moved to the city for a job with a hint of prestige.  With a failed marriage, a looming career crisis and no friends, she’s drinking too much and is in a bad place.  So she decides to return to her hometown and get her old boyfriend (Patrick Wilson) back – despite the fact that he’s gloriously contented with his wife and newborn infant.

Naturally, social disasters ensue.  Along the way, the story probes the issues of happiness and self-appraisal.

Patton Oswalt is wonderful as someone the protagonist regarded as a lower form of life in high school, but who becomes her only companion and truth teller.

Young Adult is inventive and very funny.  Its cynicism reminds me of a Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder screenplay (high praise).  Note:  This is NOT a film for someone expecting a light comedy.

DVD of the Week: Waking Ned Devine

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David Kelly's unforgettable naked motor scooter ride in WAKING NED DEVINE

For St. Patrick’s week, I recommend the 1998 comedy Waking Ned Devine in memory of one of it stars, David Kelly, who died last month.  Kelly and the late Ian Bannen play two mischievous geezers who learn that someone in their tiny Irish village has won the national lottery, and they connive to share the wealth.  It’s very Irish and very funny.

Cinequest – Let the Bullets Fly: can 1.3 billion Chinese be wrong?

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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.

Cinequest – Percival’s Big Night: screwball comedy for hipsters

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Imagine if Howard Hawks were making a screwball comedy today –  a guy and a girl spar with snappy patter, survive the crazed antics of their goofy friends and fall in love.   If he set the movie in the shambles of a hipster pot dealer’s NYC apartment, you’d have Percival’s Big Night, one of the gems of Cinequest 22.

You’ll recognize the set-up:  Two 24-year-old underachievers have so far made the least of their BFAs.  Percy is infatuated with Chloe, and needs his roommate Sal to introduce her to him.  Chloe arrives with her friend Riku, who is appropriately crazy enough to match up with Sal.   The guys and girls bicker and banter, eavesdrop on each other and pair into couples.

What’s so refreshingly welcome about Percival’s Big Night is how well all of this is executed, due to the frantically paced dialogue from writer-director Jarret Kerr, who also stars as Sal.  It’s briskly paced by director Will Sullivan and very, very funny.

The cast has performed Percival’s Big Night as an off-Broadway play.  They were able to shoot the movie in six 15-minute captures that are blended together to look like one shot.  Because of the madcap pace, the audience isn’t distracted by the single shot; instead, the technique intensifies the story compressed into the small apartment.

Percival’s Big Night is enough of crowd-pleaser to deserve theatrical release; in any case, hopefully, it will be available soon on cable TV, DVD, streaming or some other outlet.

Cinequest – Dorfman: nothing to see here, move along

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Dorfman is a well-intentioned indie about a woman who has been sacrificing her own life to support the self-absorbed men in her life.  Moving from the San Fernando Valley to the newly vibrant downtown LA (colorful and trendy, yet edgy) helps bring her a renaissance of spirit.

Unfortunately,the promising premise is betrayed by a cliche ridden screenplay, and poor direction and editing.  The star, Sara Rue, doesn’t bring much to the party, either.  The film only works as a travelogue for downtown LA.

The wily veteran Elliott Gould and Haaz Sleiman (The Visitor, Nurse Jackie) are both good, but they’ll both see much better material than this.

Cinequest – Come As You Are: two wheelchairs, a white cane and some condoms

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The road trip comedy Come As You Are is about three disabled young Belgian men who yearn to discard their virginity.  Two are in wheelchairs and one is blind.  After hearing about a brothel that caters to guys with special needs, they plot a road trip to Spain’s Costa del Sol.  They need their parents to send them with a male nurse, but not to come along or know the true destination.  All goes well, until the parents withdraw their permission and our heroes sneak off under the care of a necessary evil, a no-nonsense female nurse.  Their getaway is expedited by a very funny 11 year-old kid sister.

Along the way, their individual personalities are exposed (for better and for worse) and they experience real unsheltered freedom for the first time (with its pluses and minuses).  It’s a little movie with some poignant moments among the laughs.

The film, titled Hasta La Vista in Europe, is mostly in Flemish, with some French and English.

Young Adult: a game changer of a comedy

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With Young Adult, screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) and director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air) are challenging the current mode of comedy itself.  They turn many comic conventions on their heads in this nastily dark comedy.

Played by Charlize Theron, the main character is stunningly non-empathetic,  utterly self-absorbed and thoroughly unpleasant.  She was the prom goddess in her small town high school, and has moved to the city for a job with a hint of prestige.  With a failed marriage, a looming career crisis and no friends, she’s drinking too much and is in a bad place.  So she decides to return to her hometown and get her old boyfriend (Patrick Wilson) back – despite the fact that he’s gloriously contented with his wife and newborn infant.

Naturally, social disasters ensue.  Along the way, the story probes the issues of happiness and self-appraisal.

Patton Oswalt is wonderful as someone the protagonist regarded as a lower form of life in high school, but who becomes her only companion and truth teller.

Young Adult is inventive and very funny.  Its cynicism reminds me of a Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder screenplay (high praise).  Note:  This is NOT a film for someone expecting a light comedy.

DVD of the Week: Midnight in Paris

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With Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen has made his best movie since 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters. It’s a funny and wistful exploration of the nostalgia for living in another time and place – all set in the most sumptuously photographed contemporary Paris.

Successful but disenchanted screenwriter and would be novelist Owen Wilson accompanies his mismatched fiancée Rachel McAdams to Paris, where he fantasizes about living in the artistically fertile Paris of the 1920s. Indeed, at midnight, he happens upon a portal to that era, and finds himself hanging out with the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Stein. He meets Marion Cotillard, a 1920s gal who is herself nostalgic for the 1890s.

Midnight in Paris shines because of the perfectly crafted dialogue. McAdams’ every instinct is cringingly wrong for Wilson. She is enraptured by the pretentious blowhard Michael Sheen, who couldn’t be more insufferable.

As usual, Allen has attracted an excellent cast. Owen Wilson rises to the material and gives one of his best performances. Corey Stoll is hilarious as Hemingway and Adrien Brody even funnier as Salvador Dali. Cotillard is luminous.

It makes my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas: light up and lighten up for the Holidays

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Come on, you’re yearning to see our irresistible stoners in a Christmas movie.  There’s not much of a story here – just the two appealing characters and lots and lots of jokes.  The light hearted but very raunchy humor targets recreational drugs, racial stereotypes, the 3D movie fad, and lots more.

Neil Patrick Harris returns in another hilarious cameo.  And the reliably frightening Danny Trejo shows up as Harold’s menacing new father-in-law.  See my Danny Trejo and his scary friends.

You don’t need to see this movie in 3D.  I saw it in 2D and enjoyed the 3D jokes, which are apparent in 2D.