Review: "The Sweetest Thing" is a Funny Thing (Happy B'day, Christina Applegate)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Sweetest Thing (2002)
Running time:  88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sexual content and language
DIRECTOR:  Roger Kumble
WRITER:  Nancy M. Pimental
PRODUCER:  Cathy Konrad
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Anthony B. Richmond
EDITORS:  Wendy Greene Bricmont and David Rennie
COMPOSER:  Edward Shearmur

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate, Selma Blair, Jason Bateman, Thomas Jane, James Mangold, and Parker Posey

The subject of this movie review is The Sweetest Thing, a 2002 romantic comedy and chick flick.  The film stars Cameron Diaz as a woman forced to pursue Mr. Right, after missing an opportunity the first time she meets him.  I have to say that this is one those movie that I enjoyed watching so much that it made me “feel good,” so it is a true feel good movie.

Some of her critics and embittered fellow professionals have accused Cameron Diaz of getting by on her looks.  She is a very talented actress, but I’d be lying if denied that one of the reasons I like to watch her movies because of her dazzling beauty and super fine ass.

She unleashes her talent and gorgeous body in director Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions) and writer Nancy Pimental’s The Sweetest Thing.  Mistakenly sold has a romantic comedy, it is actually raunchy comedic romp through a fantastic vision of the millennial dating scene.  The Sweetest Thing is more in the vein of There’s Something About Mary than say Autumn in New York, and it’s easily one of the funniest movies I’ve seen since Mary.  Some of the credit has to go to Kumble’s sense of timing, important for someone who directs comedy, especially something as farcical as this, and especially Ms. Pimental, who was a series writer for television’s “South Park,” of which The Sweetest Thing shares a sense of over-the-top, gross out comedy.

Cameron Diaz plays the lead character, Christina Walker, simultaneously with bold confidence and sexual power juxtaposed with a painful lack of confidence and romantic confusion.  By doing this, Ms. Diaz makes Walker human; without that she’d merely be a raunchy boob worthy of a few belly laughs.  She can pull it off because she’s so beautiful and likeable.  The cold truth of the matter is that, while art depicts any number of topics, ideas, and subjects, it often executes that depiction in an idealized form.  Artist paint good looking people; even the ugly subjects are stylized ugly.  Pretty people look good on the big screen, and, frankly, many of us would simply think of Christina Walker as a trailer trash ‘ho if she wasn’t played by someone as attractive as Ms. Diaz.  Her looks make us give a pass to some of the unsavory aspects of Christina’s character.

Sadly, the script doesn’t do justice to Christina’s sidekicks:  divorce lawyer Courtney Rockcliffe (Christina Applegate) and the recently dumped Jane Burns (Selma Blair, Legally Blonde).  Courtney starts off with such promise.  She’s a funny partner in crime, but, by the end of the film, she’s reduced to being in scenes merely to feel sorry for her friend.  The breakup of Jane’s romance is the element that begins the film’s story.  Ms. Pimental ignores Jane’s plight and turns her into pincushion for crude sex scenes – hilarious, but still crude.

Reservations aside, The Sweetest Thing is just too funny not to see.  It would take a lot of laughs to make me ignore the fact that the filmmakers throw the story and characterization out the window in favor of raw humor, and, by Jove, the movie has that many laughs and more.

7 of 10
A-

Updated:  Monday, November 25, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Alice" Wastes Outstanding Supporting Cast (Happy B'day, Joe Mantegna)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 156 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Alice (1990)
Running time:  106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen
PRODUCER:  Robert Greenhut
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Carlo Di Palma, A.I.C.
EDITOR:  Susan E. Morse, A.C.E.
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/FANTASY with elements of drama and romance

Starring:  Mia Farrow, Alec Baldwin, Blythe Danner, Judy Davis, William Hurt, Keye Luke, Joe Mantegna, Bernadette Peters, Cybill Shepherd, Gwen Verdon, Julie Kavner, Bob Balaban, and James McDaniel (cameo)

The subject of this movie review is Alice, a 1990 comedy with fantastic elements from writer-director, Woody Allen.  The film tells the story of a spoiled Manhattan housewife who re-evaluates her life after visiting a healer in Chinatown.

Alice Tate (Mia Farrow) is rich and pampered New York housewife; married 16 years to Doug Tate (William Hurt) and bored, she dreams of having an affair with Joe (Joe Mantegna), a saxophone player she meets at her children’s nursery school and to whom she is surprisingly attracted.  Besides an unhappy marriage, various physical ailments beset Alice, including a bad back.

A friend suggests she visit Chinatown and see Dr. Yang (the late Keye Luke), an acupuncturist well known among her social set.  Dr. Yang quickly realizes that Alice’s back isn’t really bad, but that she’s just unhappy, so he recommends a number of mysterious herbal potions.  The magical concoctions alternately loosen her inhibitions, turn her invisible, and allows her to see and share tender moments with long, lost love ones, including a deceased lover named Ed (Alec Baldwin).  But will all this help Alice turn her superficial life into something more meaningful?

Woody Allen’s 1990 film Alice is a small and charming lost gem.  It was his final film distributed by Orion Pictures, the studio that had released most of his output of the 1980’s.  Orion filed bankruptcy, and another studio ended up releasing the last film he’d actually shot as part of his deal with Orion, Shadows and Fog.  Alice is occasionally a madcap comic fantasy adventure full of fun and mystery, and sometimes it is a whimsical fantasy that walks a thin line between broad comedy and poignant drama.

Although the film has some good performances, in particular the late Keye Luke as the movie’s philosophical center, Dr. Yang, Alice is about… well, Alice.  The narrative meanders when Alice meanders about the state of affairs in her life.  When she is overly emotional, the film becomes shrill.  When she’s happy, the film radiates vibrantly like the lush colors of the autumnal New York City in which she lives.  When Alice is sad, the film is dark and distressing, so the viewer can really share her discomfort.  Ms. Farrow’s gives a good performance, which epitomizes why Mia Farrow worked so well as a female stand in for Woody Allen in his films.

Alice will please fans of Woody Allen’s films, but people not familiar with his style will find their patience short with it.  The simply, beautiful cinematography that turns NYC in the fall season into a series of impressionist paintings.  The gorgeous Manhattan apartments, restaurants, and handsome outdoor locales are glorious eye candy for anyone who loves to look at pretty movies.  Sometimes, Alice drags, but the dialogue is smart and snarky dialogue.  There are sparkling musical numbers (Allen often chooses early to mid-century big band, jazz, and swing as the soundtrack to his movies).  The cast is all too happy to bury themselves into the character rolls for which Allen has chosen them – all the usual Woody fare.  Still, Alice is bit too much about Alice, and except for Keye Luke’s Dr. Yang, the rest of the cast is full of underutilized characters.  That’s a shame, and that leaves Alice short of being on the list Woody’s best work.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1991 Academy Awards:  1 nomination for “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Woody Allen)

1991 Golden Globes:  1 nomination for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical (Mia Farrow)

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Updated:  Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Brother Bear 2" Surpasses Original

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 212 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Brother Bear 2 (2006) – Direct-to-DVD – animation
Running time:  74 minutes (1 hour, 14 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Benjamin Gluck
WRITER:  Rich Burns
PRODUCERS:  Jim Ballantine and Carolyn Bates
EDITORS:  Nick Kenway and Tony Martinous Rocco
COMPOSERS:  Matthew Gerrard, Dave Metzger, and Robbie Nevil

ANIMATION/FANTASY/ROMANCE/COMEDY with elements of adventure

Starring:  (voices) Patrick Dempsey, Mandy Moore, Jeremy Suarez, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Wanda Sykes, Wendie Malick, Kathy Najimy, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jim Cummings, and Jeff Bennett

The subject of this movie review is Brother Bear 2, a 2006 straight-to-video animated feature film produced by DisneyToon Studios.  The film is a direct sequel to the 2003 Walt Disney Pictures animated feature film, Brother Bear.  Singer Melissa Etheridge contributed three songs to this film.  In Brother Bear 2, one brother bear gains a girlfriend, much to the consternation of the younger brother bear.

After waking from a long hibernation, the brother bears, Kenai (Patrick Dempsey) and Koda (Jeremy Suarez), are ready for a trip to Crowberry Ridge, the location of the best spring berries.  However, a former human friend of Kenai’s, Nita (Mandy Moore) interrupts their journey to ask for Kenai’s help.  Kenai was once human, and when he was just a boy, he and Nita made a childish promise of eternal love.

Their tribe’s Great Spirits heard them, and now that the adult Nita plans on marrying her betrothed, Atka (Jeff Bennett), a man from a prominent tribal family, the spirits apparently aren’t willing to let the marriage happen.  The village shaman, Innoko (Wanda Sykes), informs Nita that she must break her pact of devotion to Kenai before she can marry Atka.  That pact is signified by an amulet that Nita wears around her neck.  Nita and Kenai must burn the amulet together to severe the relationship.

Kenai reluctantly agrees to help Nita, and they begin the dangerous journey to Hokani Falls, the place where they made their pact.  However, as they conquer one challenge after another on the journey, the friends find their old relationship rekindled, and the bond they once made only deepens.  Meanwhile, Koda is afraid he’ll loose his brother, although he sees that Kenai deeply loves Nita, but Koda’s decisions to set things right could endanger them all.  The moose brothers, Rutt (Rick Moranis) and Tuke (Dave Thomas), among others, provide comic relief.

Brother Bear 2 (also called "BB2" in this review), the straight-to-video (direct-to-DVD) sequel to Disney’s 2003 Oscar-nominated, animated feature film, Brother Bear, has such high quality animation that BB2 could be mistaken for a traditionally-animated (hand drawn) movie released to theatres.  The story is good, but the script doesn’t sing out that its feature film material.  Still, the screenplay hits the high notes that are necessary for any Disney animal fable to be successful – those messages about family, courage, honor, sacrifice, and loyalty.  Melissa Etheridge also sings three songs, two of which she composed, and they’re in synch with the film’s tone.

Patrick Dempsey (now best known as Dr. Derek Shepherd or “Dr. McDreamy” of the hit ABC TV drama, “Grey’s Anatomy”) replaces Joaquin Phoenix as the voice of Kenai for BB2, and he’s pretty good.  It helps that Jeremy Suarez reprises his voice performance as the wisecracking bear cub, Koda, and he’s great – heads and shoulders above everyone else.  The beautiful animation work done on Koda manages to capture the energy and quality of Suarez’s performance.

Some of Disney’s earlier video sequels to their classic animated features had animation that was, at best, the quality of a good TV cartoon.  While not the work of Walt Disney Feature Animation, Brother Bear 2 is the best work from DisneyToon Studios, the group responsible for prior straight-to-video flicks.  DisneyToon was recently shut down, and this is a shame because the animators and artists there were just hitting their stride.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, October 13, 2006

Updated:  Monday, October 28, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "But I'm a Cheerleader" is Weird and Wonderful (Happy B'day, Clea DuVall)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 70 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)

Running time:  85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong language and sexual content involving teens

DIRECTOR:  Jamie Babbit

WRITERS:  Brian Wayne Peterson; from a story by James Babbit

PRODUCERS:  Leanna Creel and Andrea Sperling

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jules Labarthe (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Cecily Rhett

COMPOSER:  Pat Irwin

COMEDY/ROMANCE/GAY 

Starring:  Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarity, RuPaul, Eddie Cibrian, Melanie Lynskey, Katharine Towne, Dante Basco, Ione Skye, and Katrina Phillips

The subject of this movie review is But I’m a Cheerleader, a satirical film and romantic comedy from director Jamie Babbit.  The film focuses on a naive teenager who ends up in a conversion therapy camp after her straitlaced parents and friends come to suspect her of being a lesbian.

You are who you are.  The only trick is not getting caught, sez Clea DuVall’s character in the uproarious satire about modern America’s desire to “get rid” of homosexuals, But I’m a Cheerleader.

Megan Bloomfield (Natasha Lyonne, American Pie) has a picture of a cheerleader in her locker, a poster of Melissa Etheridge on her bedroom wall, and likes tofu, so her parents (Mink Stole, Bud Cort) are sure she’s a lesbian.  They enroll her in True Directions, a “dehomosexualing” program that purports to make gay kids straight.  Megan, already confused, is then caught between two extremes:  the cruel, hateful, and spiteful headmaster Mary J. Brown (Cathy Moriarity) and an unrepentant rebel lesbian Graham Eaton (Clea DuVall, The Faculty) who is attracted to Megan.

But I’m a Cheerleader is probably the best satire I’ve ever seen on the subject of the American bigoted mindset about homosexuality.  It is a hilarious comedy, and the romance between Megan and Graham is heartfelt and touching in the portrayal of the girls’ awkwardly advancing towards each other.  However, the film’s sharpest barbs are simply aimed at the crass behavior and sheer ignorance of bigotry and hate directed at homosexuals.  It’s one thing to disagree with a “lifestyle;” it’s an entirely different thing to try to destroy that with which you disagree.  I won’t resort to boring speeches and politics, but But I'm a Cheerleader hilariously makes its points.

Director Jamie Babbit and screenwriter Brian Wayne Peterson are sneaky in the way they communicate the messages under cover of outrageous characters and outlandish humor.  I laughed a lot, but I have to admit that you’d have to be really dense not to get the obvious points.  Homophobes that can get the message may hate this film; after all, the creators don’t go out of the way to camouflage their satire.  It’s blunt, but not annoying.  The film is funny, even when it’s being sad.  The film does drag heavily at some moments, and sometimes I was ready for the joke to end; still, the film always picked itself up with something delightful and surprising.

It’s in the power of the film’s sarcasm and irony that we can laugh at human folly, but a part of us sees the folly in ourselves when we watch Cheerleader.  Will we ever live in a free country where people don’t have to be discriminated against because of sexual orientation?  Hell no!  People will discriminate and hate, and then go to church on Sunday and proclaim their love for GOD in vigorous screams, because GOD is all about hating faggots, right?

And that’s fine in way because human folly will keep us knee deep in really good satire like But I’m a Cheerleader for the foreseeable future.  The soundtrack’s cool, too.

7 of 10
A

Updated:  Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Anything Else" is Familiar Woody Allen

TRASH N MY EYE No. 119 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Anything Else (2003)
Running time:  108 minutes 91 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – R for a scene of drug use and some sexual references
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen
PRODUCER:  Letty Aronson
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Darius Khondji
EDITOR:  Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Woody Allen, Jason Biggs, Fisher Stevens, Anthony Arkin, Danny DeVito, Christina Ricci, Kadee Strickland, Jimmy Fallon, Diana Krall, William Hill, Stockard Channing, Maurice Sonnenberg, Kenneth Edelson, David Conrad, and Joseph Lyle Taylor

The subject of this movie review is Anything Else, a 2003 romantic comedy from writer-director Woody Allen.  The film is a contemporary romantic comedy set in New York City and follows an older guy as he guides his younger protégé through a messy and hilarious love story.

Woody Allen’s Anything Else is a movie about two relationships.  First, there is the friendship between an aged, aspiring comedy writer, David Dobel (Woody Allen), and a young, struggling comedy writer, Jerry Falk (Jason Biggs, American Pie).  Dobel is apparently severely paranoid, but he dispenses much wisdom and advice to Falk, who is in the middle of a messy situation.  That situation is the second relationship upon which the film focuses.  Falk is deeply in love with Amanda (Christina Ricci), a young actress who is insecure about her weight, among others things.  Amanda also claims to be uptight and insecure about her relationship with Jerry, but she may only be using that as a cover for having one or several affairs.

Anything Else isn’t among Allen’s best work, but it’s better than his least work – sort of in the middle.  It’s intermittently funny, sometimes outrageous, but too often dull and dry.  Allen’s dialogue, is as usual, crackling, but it takes almost half the film before the witty repartee begins to flow.  When Allen is not the lead in his film or if he’s not in his film, he usually has another character stand in for him.  While Allen is in Anything Else as David Dobel, Jason Biggs’ Jerry Falk is the Woody character or character type we’ve seen in films like Annie Hall or Manhattan.  Biggs does a passable job in this role, but that’s all; thankfully Woody is so good at writing himself, even for other actors to play, that the film doesn’t fall apart.  But nor does it ever really come together as anything more than several scenes that would make good exercises for an acting class.

Christina Ricci steals the show, although her performance takes a bit of time to get going.  Despite its obvious flaws, Anything Else is worth seeing, not only for Allen fans, but also for fans of Ms. Ricci.

6 of 10
B

Updated:  Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Lost in Translation" is Superb (Happy B'day, Bill Murray)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 22 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Lost in Translation (2003)
Running time:  101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for some sexual content
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Sofia Coppola
PRODUCERS:  Sofia Coppola and Ross Katz
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Lance Acord (D.o.P.)
COMPOSER:  Kevin Shields
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/ROMANCE with some elements of comedy

Starring:  Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris, Nancy Steiner (uncredited voice), Fumihiro Hayashi, Hiroko Kawasaki, and Akiko Takeshita

The subject of this movie review is Lost in Translation, a 2003 drama and romantic film from writer-director Sofia Coppola.  Sofia’s legendary filmmaker father, Francis Ford Coppola, is also this film’s executive producer.

In 1990, film critics howled in derision when director Francis Ford Coppola cast his daughter, Sofia, in The Godfather: Part III, when another actress had to drop out early in filming schedule.  Over a decade later, Sofia Coppola has firmly established herself as a directorial talent to watch thanks to her excellent film, Lost In Translation, the story of two displaced Americans in Tokyo who form a unique friendship of platonic love.

Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is a fading TV star who goes to Tokyo after he’s paid $2 million to appear in an ad for Suntory whiskey.  Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is in Tokyo with her husband, John (Giovanni Ribisi), who is photographing a rock band for a major magazine.  Bob and Charlotte spend most of their time stuck in a hotel.  Charlotte is frozen in her life, unsure of where her marriage is going and of what’s she going to do in life.  Bob’s marriage is kind of shaky as he goes through a midlife crisis.

Bob and Charlotte meet in a hotel bar and bond.  It’s that bond that helps them to deal with their feelings of confusion and loneliness, and in that special friendship, they share  the hilarity caused by the cultural and language differences they encounter in Tokyo.  They turn their time in a strange land into a wonderful and special week in Japan.

Lost in Translation was one of 2003’s best films.  It’s smartly written, beautifully photographed, and splendidly directed.  If there’s an adjective that suggests good, it belongs in descriptions of LiT.  There is a patience in the filmmaking that suggests the filmmakers allowed the film to come together in an organic fashion, each adding their talents in the correct measure.

Ms. Coppola is brilliant in the way she lets her stars carry the film.  She does her part to give LiT a unique visual look, something that suggests a documentary and an atmosphere of futurism.  If you’ve heard that Bill Murray is just doing himself in this movie, you’re hearing ignorant people.  Yes, Murray brings a lot of his personality to the role, but Bob Harris is mostly a stranger to us.  Bill builds the character before our eyes, showing us a character new and rich in possibilities, someone with whom we can sympathize.  Bill shows us just enough to know him and keeps enough hidden to make Bob mysterious and intriguing.

Ms. Johansson carries herself like a veteran actress of many films.  She’s beautiful, but she’s puts those good looks to more use than just being eye candy.  She’s subtle and crafty, and a lot of her character is revealed in her eyes, in the careful nuances of facial expressions, and in the understated movements of her slender, sexy frame.  She’s a movie star.

For people who are always looking for something different in film, this is it.  Lost in Translation is like sex, lies, and videotape or Reservoir Dogs, an early film in a director’s career that is more foreign than American, and announces the coming of a director who might just be a visionary.  Plus, it’s a great romantic movie, as good as any classic love story.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Sofia Coppola); 3 nominations “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Bill Murray), “Best Director” (Sofia Coppola), “Best Picture” (Ross Katz and Sofia Coppola)

2004 BAFTA Awards:  3 wins: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Bill Murray), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Scarlett Johansson), and “Best Editing” (Sarah Flack); 5 nominations: “Best Film” (Sofia Coppola and Ross Katz), “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Kevin Shields and Brian Reitzell), “Best Cinematography” (Lance Acord), “Best Screenplay – Original” (Sofia Coppola), “David Lean Award for Direction” (Sofia Coppola)

2004 Golden Globes, USA:  3 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Bill Murray), “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Sofia Coppola); 2 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Sofia Coppola) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Scarlett Johansson)

Updated:  Saturday, September 21, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "50 First Dates" Surprisingly Works (Happy B'day, Adam Sandler)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

50 First Dates (2004)
Running time:  99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for appeal for crude sexual humor and drug references
DIRECTOR:  Peter Segal
WRITER:  George Wing
PRODUCERS:  Jack Giarraputo, Steve Golin, Nancy Juvonen
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jack Green (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Jeff Gourson
COMPOSER:  Teddy Castellucci

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin, Lusia Strus, Dan Aykroyd, Amy Hill, Blake Clark, Nephi Pomaikai Brown, and Allen Covert

The subject of this movie review is 50 First Dates, a 2004 romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.  The film focuses on a man, who is afraid of commitment, and the girl of his dreams, who has short-term memory loss and wakes up every morning not remembering who he is.

The reunion of The Wedding Singer co-stars Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore sounds like a great idea, which it is, but even better than a great idea is when the movie reunion turns out to be such a charming and hilarious romantic comedy.  Although I initially had some misgivings about it, 50 First Dates is not only flat out hilarious, it’s also a very good romantic comedy.  50 First Dates' faults are few or are minor, but it definitely felt too long.

Lothario Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a serial dater, loving and leaving a legion of women and assorted lovers in the wake of whirlwind, weekend romances.  He finally believes he’s find that special lady when he experiences love at first sight.  However, Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), the object of his affection, suffers from short-term memory loss (like the protagonist in Memento) as the result of a car accident a year earlier.  Every day she awakens with no memory of anything she’s learned in the time since her accident.  After gaining the grudging approval of Lucy’s father, Marlin (Blake Clark), and brother, Doug (Sean Astin), Henry concocts a plan to remind Lucy of his love for her as the first thing she discovers when she awakens each morning, but for how long will she go along with the plan?

Director Peter Segal helmed Sandler’s 2003 smash, Anger Management, which is a harder belly laugh film.  Here, Segal smartly focuses on the leads to create and sustain the star-crossed romance, and he makes the best and most appropriate use of the supporting characters.  He lets the comic relief provide silly laughs and the more “mature” characters make just enough intensity to create what little dramatic conflict and tension 50 First Dates needs.  George Wing’s script is an exercise in sustaining laughs long enough to keep the audience chuckling and not looking behind the curtain to see the credibility gaffes until the film is over and they’ve reached the parking.

For all his detractors, Sandler is truly a talented comedian, and he has become a very accomplished comic actor.  His deadpan, sarcastic, neo-slob characters are endearing and charming, and the only viewers who truly dislike simply just want to dislike him.  Drew Barrymore is quite attractive, and, in spite of her beauty, she has an everyman, make that every woman quality, which endears her characters to the audience.  Sandler and Ms. Barrymore make a winning screen pair, and hopefully they won’t wait too long before giving us another fine film.

7 of 10
B+

Updated:  Monday, September 09, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray Still Heat Up "Bus Stop" (Remembering Marilyn Monroe)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bus Stop (1956)
Running time:  96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Joshua Logan
WRITER:  George Axelrod (based on the plays of William Inge)
PRODUCER:  Buddy Adler
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Milton Krasner (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  William Reynolds
COMPOSERS:  Cyril J. Mockridge and Alfred Newman
Academy Award nominee

ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring:  Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray, and Hope Lange

The subject of this movie review is Bus Stop, a 1956 romantic comedy and drama from director Joshua Logan.  Bus Stop is based on two plays, People in the Wind and Bus Stop (1955), by American novelist, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, and Oscar-winning screenwriter, William Inge.  Bus Stop the movie focuses on a naive but stubborn cowboy (he’s a virgin) and a saloon singer whom the cowboy tries to take against her will back to his ranch in Montana.

An innocent (and infantile) rodeo cowboy named Beauregard “Bo” Decker (Don Murray) temporarily leaves his Montana ranch to attend a rodeo in Phoenix, Arizona.  His surrogate father Virgil (Arthur O’Connell), who travels with him, thinks it time for the sexually inexperienced 21-year old to find a wife.  What Virgil didn’t have in mind was for Bo to fall in love with Cherie (Marilyn Monroe), an abused bar singer with a lot of man mileage on her.  Bo, used to having his way and naively regarding women as if they were nothing more than life stock, stalks and kidnaps Cherie in order to bring her back to the ranch.  It’s at the titular bus stop where Bo finally gets him comeuppance, but does love still bloom?

Many people consider Bus Stop, based upon a well-known stage play of the time, to be the film in which Marilyn Monroe showed that she could act and that she wasn’t just a hot, blond tart.  Although her performance is a bit over the top (wildly over the top in some places to the point of giving a performance that verges on hysteria), she seems to really fit this film.  Don Murray, however, steals Bus Stop, in his first movie role after getting recognition for his stage work.  He earned an Oscar® nomination as a supporting actor for Bus Stop, but he is really the lead, as the film and story revolves around Murray’s Bo and Arthur O’Connell’s Virgil.  The thoroughly handsome Murray is a lightning bolt and a ball of boundless energy.  He really does sell the notion that he is a virginal cowboy who knows nothing about women, and he also makes the father-son relationship with O’Connell feel real.

Bus Stop is an odd and quirky film that is equally parts romance and comedy, more of a comic romance than a romance comedy.  Joshua Logan (Picnic, 1955) does a fine job with what could have been a curious film disaster by keeping the pace fast, never letting us focus on the story’s logical missteps.  He makes the audience laugh with the characters, and he turns up the romance just at the proper moments.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1957 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Don Murray)

1957 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Most Promising Newcomer to Film” (Don Murray-USA)

1957 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy” and “Best Motion Picture Actress - Comedy/Musical” (Marilyn Monroe)

Updated:  Monday, August 05, 2013

Review: "Chasing Amy" is Worth Chasing (Happy B'day, Kevin Smith)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 107 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Chasing Amy (1997)
Running time:  113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic sex related dialogue, language, sexuality, and drug content
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Kevin Smith
PRODUCER:  Scott Mosier
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  David Klein (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier
COMPOSER:  David Pirner
Golden Globe nominee

COMEDY/ROMANCE/DRAMA

Starring:  Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, and Jason Mewes

The subject of this movie review is Chasing Amy, a 1997 romantic comedy and drama from writer-director Kevin Smith.  It is the third movie in Smith’s world of films known as the “View Askewniverse.”  The film follows two young men who are comic book artists and a third comic book artist, a young woman, who catches the attention of one of the young men.

Writer/director Kevin Smith wowed audiences with his debut film, Clerks, and promptly stumbled with the problematic follow up, Mallrats.  The promise of the first film was more than met with Smith’s third film, the frankly sexually political Chasing Amy.

Comic book artist Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) has been looking for the perfect woman and falls for Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams, who received a 1998 Golden Globe nomination for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical”), who, much to his disappointment, turns out to be a lesbian.  Still, Holden and Alyssa build a special relationship, but it threatens to come tumbling down when Holden’s long-time friend and comic book collaborator, Banky Edwards (Jason Lee, 1998 Independent Spirit Award “Best Supporting Male”), digs up some awful dirt on Alyssa.

It would be easy to call Chasing Amy (Independent Spirit Award for “Best Feature”) outrageous because of its subject matter, and though some of the humor is outrageously funny, the film takes a painfully intimate and detailed look at sexual politics.  Same sex relationships, sexual experimentation, promiscuity, gender roles, stereotypes, role playing, bigotry, double-standards, and pretty much everything related to the world of intimate relationships Kevin Smith throws on the table in his delightfully written, delectable, engaging, and witty script.  The acting is good, and Smith’s direction is unobtrusive, allowing the cast to gradually warm up to their roles and make the film their own.  The cast is at ease with the material and understands it shocking well; they make this story work on the screen.  However, in the end, the strength is in Smith’s thoughtful script (Independent Spirit Award for “Best Screenplay”), which unashamedly looks at the minefield that is love between a man and a woman in a time when so many go into new relationships with a lot of sexual experience and/or a lot of hang-ups about what is right and true.  This is brilliant work.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1998 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (Joey Lauren Adams)

Thursday, July 7, 2005

Updated:  Friday, August 02, 2013

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Review: "The Lake House" is a Good House (Happy B'day, Sandra Bullock)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 208 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Lake House (2006)
Running time:  98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some language and a disturbing image
DIRECTOR:  Alejandro Agresti
WRITER:  David Auburn (based upon the film Il Mare by Eun-Jeong Kim and Ji-na Yeo and produced by Sidus)
PRODUCERS:  Doug Davidson and Roy Lee
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alar Kivilo, A.S.C. C.S.C.
EDITORS:  Lynzee Klingman, A.C.E. and Alejandro Brodersohn
COMPOSER:  Rachel Portman (with contributions from Paul M. van Brugge)

FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dylan Walsh, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Christopher Plummer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Willeke van Ammelrooy

The subject of this movie review is The Lake House, a 2006 fantasy romance movie starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.  In the film, a lonely doctor, who lives in 2006, begins a time-spanning romance with a frustrated architect, who lives in 2004, by exchanging letters through the mailbox at an unusual lakeside home.

Improbable and peculiar it may be, but The Lake House is the kind of romantic movie that deserves to have the adjective, “magical” describe it.  Having an enchanted mailbox bring the film’s lovers together is strange.  Never mind that the movie’s time travel hook is illogical, and ignore that the two leads communicate in a way that even the film admits is impossible.  This is about love.  Based upon the Korean film, Siworae (Il Mare is its international title.), The Lake House is an old-fashioned tale of star-crossed lovers who, like Romeo and Juliet, romance against all odds – even against the laws of science.

After moving away from her peaceful lakeside home – a glass house built on stilts over a lake north of Chicago, a lonely physician, Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) mails a letter back to the lake house asking whoever will be the next tenant to forward any of her stray mail to her.  It is a winter morning in 2006.  That next tenant seems to be a frustrated architect, Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), who is confused that someone claims to have lived in the lake house before him since he is the first person to ever live in it.  After several more letters back and forth, Kate, on a lark, asks Alex, “What day is it there?”  Alex responds, April 14, 2004.

They discover that they occupy the lake house, but two years apart – Alex in the past and Kate in the present.  The mailbox at the lake house allows them to communicate across two years difference in time.  Now, they must unravel the mysteries of this wrinkle in time that allows their extraordinary romance to live before its too late, but if they meet and try to join their separate worlds, they may lose each other forever.

The acting isn’t great, and sometimes it’s, at best, lamely professional.  Reeves, best known for his stiff speaking style, spends much of the film looking pained, as if constantly on cue from director Alejandro Agresti (an Argentinean known for his film, Valentin).  Bullock’s contribution is to spend the film looking forlorn, lonely, or winsome.  Still, the two are movie stars, and they know how to work the camera, which loves them and makes them look good on the big screen.

Over a decade ago, Reeves and Bullock were a hot screen pair in the hit action film, Speed, an edge-of-your-seat thriller that appealed to the adrenaline junkie in moviegoers.  Back then, many of us ignored any of Speed’s flaws in logic because we had a good time watching it.  This time, with The Lake House, Reeves and Bullock try to get us to ignore logic again.  If the viewer responds favorably to that fundamental romantic impulse – our love affair with the love story, we’ll ignore how things about this film nag us and enjoy the romance.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Updated:  Friday, July 26, 2013

Review: "Before Sunset" is an All-Time Great Romance

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 234 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Before Sunset (2004)
Running time: 80 minutes (1 hour, 20 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and sexual references
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
WRITERS: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, and Richard Linklater; from a story by Kim Krizan and Richard Linklater (based upon characters by Kim Krizan and Richard Linklater)
PRODUCERS: Anne Walker-McBay and Richard Linklater
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lee Daniel
EDITOR: Sandra Adair
Academy Award nominee

ROMANCE/DRAMA

Starring: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

The subject of this movie review is Before Sunset, a 2004 romantic drama from director Richard Linklater. It is the sequel to the 1995 film, Before Sunrise. Set nine years after the first film, Before Sunset follows the young American man and young French woman who first met on a train and spent a night in Vienna as they reunite in Paris.

It’s been nine years since Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) first met in Vienna. Back then they promised to meet again in six months, but it didn’t happen. Now, Jessie is on the European leg of his book tour. He’s in Paris for a book signing session at a small (and intimate) book store when he spies Celine off to the side… and they pick up where they left off nine years ago.

It must seem nearly impossible that Before Sunset, Richard Linklater’s sequel to his romance classic, Before Sunrise, surpasses the original. Just as in the first film, the lead characters talk and talk and talk, but this time there is the baggage of nine years of disappointments between their meetings. Whereas, in Sunrise, the talk was existential and about hope and promise, this time every topic leads back to two questions for the characters: What if we had both kept our promise to meet again in Vienna?” and the unspoken question, “Are we supposed to be together.”

Sometimes, when we meet old and dear friends whom we haven’t seen for a long time, we find that we pick up with the relationship right where we left off. Linklater, Hawke, and Ms. Delpy take that phenomenon and turn it into art, art that lives and breathes. Before Sunset is a great romantic film and a great film period – a love idyll about ideal romance. Would that more films be about love rather than hate and make us invest ourselves in the outcome of romantic love. Plus, look out for that knock out surprise ending.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Richard Linklater-screenplay/story, Julie Delpy-screenplay, Ethan Hawke-screenplay, and Kim Krizan-story)

Review: "Before Sunrise" a True Romance

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 233 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Before Sunrise (1995)
Running time: 105 min (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – R for some strong language
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
WRITERS: Kim Krizan and Richard Linklater
PRODUCER: Anne Walker-McBay
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lee Daniel
EDITORS: Sandra Adair and Sheri Galloway
COMPOSER: Fred Frith

ROMANCE

Starring: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

The subject of this movie review is Before Sunrise, a 1995 romantic drama film from director Richard Linklater. The film follows a young American man and a young French woman who meet on a train and spend one night in the city of Vienna, walking, talking, and getting to know each other.

After he breaks up with his girlfriend in Spain, American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) takes a train tour of Europe. On the Budapest-Vienna train, he meets Celine (Julie Delpy), a French grad student. They strike up a conversation, and Jesse convinces her to skip her stop and get off the train with him in Vienna where he’s scheduled to take a flight back to American the following morning. They walk and talk and fall in love before Jesse leaves at sunrise, but will they ever meet again?

Before Sunrise is a true romantic film. It’s about two people falling in love, but director Richard Linklater’s film is such an unusual romance because he doesn’t sell the romance between Jesse and Celine using swelling orchestral music or beautiful cinematography of lush sunsets and sunrises. Instead, he forces the audience to accept or reject the believability of the couple’s growing friendship, fascination with each other, and eventual falling in love based upon how they talk to each other. And boy, do they talk. They talk about love, life, relationships, gender, men & women, politics, history, and they sometimes even make small talk.

Before Sunrise is an acquired taste, but if you can accept how unnaturally natural Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are in their performances, how they really seem to be getting to know each other (both as actors and characters), for real, then you’ll like this movie. This is one of those times when a film that is literally filled end to end with thick dialogue is actually as riveting as an action thriller. The ending seems a little too stretched out, but Before Sunrise is an exceptional and unique motion picture.

8 of 10
A

Review: "The Philadelphia Story" Remains Great American Cinema (Happy, B'day, Jimmy Stewart)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 104 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Philadelphia Story (1940) – B&W
Running time: 112 minutes (1 hour, 52 minutes)
DIRECTOR: George Cukor
WRITER: Donald Ogden Stewart (based upon the play by Philip Barry)
PRODUCER: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Joseph Ruttenberg (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Frank Sullivan
COMPOSER: Franz Waxman
Academy Award winner

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey, John Howard, Roland Young, John Halliday, Mary Nash, Virginia Weidler, and Henry Daniell

The subject of this movie review is The Philadelphia Story, a 1940 romantic comedy from director George Cukor. The film is an adaptation of the 1939 Broadway comic play, The Philadelphia Story, written by Philip Barry. The film’s screenplay was written by Donald Ogden Stewart and Waldo Salt, although Salt did not receive credit. Starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, the movie focuses on a rich woman whose wedding plans get complicated when her ex-husband and a tabloid reporter show up. Jimmy Stewart won his only Oscar for his performance in this film.

Socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) prepares to marry again, but this time to, George Kittredge (John Howard), a politician who is not in her social class. Her ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), has other ideas and plans on crashing the wedding. He invites himself to the Lord’s family estate in north Philadelphia, bringing along tabloid reporter, Macaulay Connor (James Stewart, who won his first Oscar for this role), and Macaulay’s photographer, Elizabeth “Liz” Imbrie (Ruth Hussey), both of whom are hoping to get the goods on the social event of the year. It is a news story their boss, Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell), plans to call “The Philadelphia Story.” However, Haven’s machinations have some expected and not-at-all expected results.

Many movie fans and film critics consider The Philadelphia Story to be one of the most exhilarating screwball romantic comedies ever. Much credit goes to the incomparable romantic triangle of Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart (although Hepburn had originally hoped to play alongside Clark Gable and Spencer Tracey). Philip Barry, who wrote the play upon which this film is based, also modeled his original Tracy Lord on Hepburn, so everything worked well from the standpoint of Hepburn’s character. Grant and Stewart were also great movie actors who mastered dialogue; fully capable of being witty (especially Grant) and verbose, necessities as the film is dialogue heavy.

The witty dialogue isn’t just for show. It establishes much of the film’s plot, as well as its setting, characters, and its principles and philosophy of relationships – a credit to screenwriter, Donald Ogden Stewart (and Waldo Salt who worked on the script but did not receive a screen credit). The viewer could get a buzz or a high just from listening to all that snappy batter and all those sharp comebacks and clever asides. This is one time “all that talk, talk” is just wonderful to hear, and it’s fun to watch how easily the star trio does it.

However, the trio doesn’t work alone. There are a number of excellent supporting performances. Ruth Hussey earned an Oscar nomination as Macaulay’s droll reporter sidekick, who gives the film’s heady dialogue some even-headedness. Mary Nash and Virginia Weidler provide some straight comic relief as Tracy’s mother Margaret and sister Dinah, respectively. John Halliday as Tracy’s father, Seth Lord, and Roland Young as Uncle Willie are the elder statesmen bringing wisdom to the young lovers and rivals.

Finally, George Cukor, known as Hollywood’s ace director of actresses, and a frequent director of Hepburn films (Little Women, Adam’s Rib), brings it all together so that the dialogue rarely seems forced, the acting phony, or the film too staged (which often happens to films based on plays). His guiding hands make The Philadelphia Story indeed one of the great romantic and screwball comedies in film history.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1941 Academy Awards: 2 wins: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (James Stewart) and “Best Writing, Screenplay” (Donald Ogden Stewart); 4 nominations: “Best Picture” (Joseph L. Mankiewicz; M-G-M), “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Katharine Hepburn), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Ruth Hussey), and “Best Director” (George Cukor)

1995 National Film Preservation Board, USA: National Film Registry

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

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Review: "Silver Linings Playbook" is Golden

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 32 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some sexual content/nudity
DIRECTOR: David O. Russell
WRITERS: David O. Russell (based on the novel The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick)
PRODUCERS: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, and Jonathan Gordon
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Masanobu Takayanagi (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award winner

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher, John Ortiz, Shea Whigham, Julia Stiles, Paul Herman, Dash Mihok, Cheryl Williams, Patrick McDade, and Brea Bee

Silver Linings Playbook is a 2012 romantic comedy-drama from writer-director, David O. Russell. The film is based on The Silver Linings Playbook, the 2008 debut novel of American author Matthew Quick. Silver Linings Playbook the film focuses on a man who returns home from a mental institution, hoping to reconcile with his wife, but befriends a young woman with serious mental issues of her own.

Silver Linings Playbook has two distinctions. It received Oscar nominations in the “Big Five” categories: best picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay (either original or adapted). It also received Oscar nominations in all four acting categories, the first film to do so since 1981. Besides the Oscars, Silver Linings Playbook was critically acclaimed and also won or was nominated by numerous film award organizations. Plus, it was a surprise box office success. I call it one of the very best films of 2012, and I have to admit this. Silver Linings Playbook made me feel as if my heart were soaring into the clouds, and it even made me shed tears. What a damn good movie.

Silver Linings Playbook opens in 2008 at the Karel Psychiatric Facility in Baltimore, Maryland. Former high school teacher, Pat Solitano, Jr. (Bradley Cooper), is about to be released after an eight-month stay. Homeless and jobless, he has to move in with his parents, Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) and Dolores (Jacki Weaver), while he continues his treatment for bipolar disorder. Pat Sr., however, has his own issues, mostly built around his fanatical love for the professional football team, the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL and his insistence that Pat Jr. is some kind of good luck charm for the Eagles.

Pat is determined to reunite and reconcile with his wife, Nikki (Brea Bee), but she has a restraining order against him. Pat does reunite with a few friends, which is how he meets Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence), a young policeman’s widow, who is also on medication for depression. Tiffany aggressively pursues Pat and coerces him in order to get her way, but she might be the woman to change his life – his silver lining.

Silver Linings Playbook is one of the films in which a strong guiding hand is evident, in this case, writer-director David O. Russell. He treads carefully. On one hand, this film is about mental illness; on the other, it is a love story. Russell has to keep this movie from becoming a well-meaning, disease-of-the-week, television movie, bogged down by talk of medicine and symptoms. He also had to avoid the clichés that turn romance movies into cloying, maudlin melodramas, which is often the fate of movies about mismatched or star-crossed lovers.

Russell does this by writing a script in which the characters stay stubbornly true to who they are while building relationships with each other. As a director, Russell painstakingly guides the intricate connections necessary to make this character drama into a film that feels honest and authentic, rather than dishonest and contrived. This movie is not so much about connections as it is about accepting the “crazy” in each other, as the way to strengthen bonds. Russell does an outstanding job in getting the necessary performances from his cast that make Silver Linings Playbook not only succeed, but also it a great movie.

And what fantastic performances they are. Robert De Niro gives his best performance in years, probably the most heartfelt and layered since Awakenings (1990). Jacki Weaver is poignant and funny in a subtle performance full of color and delicate shades. Chris Tucker’s performance as Danny McDaniels (Pat’s friend whom he met while both were institutionalized) is sweet; that is the best way I can think to describe it. Russell makes the best use of Tucker’s innate foolishness in short bursts.

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence give career best performances in Silver Linings Playbook. Lawrence is so talented, and she’s just of burst of freshness and sunshine in the movies in which she appears. In fact, her first appearance in this movie is literally a burst out of nowhere, and instantly, Silver Linings Playbook is the better for it. Lawrence is mesmerizing, and it is easy to see why she captivated enough Oscar voters to win a best actress Academy Award for the role of Tiffany Maxwell.

Bradley Cooper, however, is Silver Linings Playbook’s rock. As Pat Solitano, Jr., Cooper brilliant portrays that at the heart of Solitano’s mania is a closed-up part of him. He takes the audience on a journey in which Pat finally opens up to new possibilities. Cooper is mesmerizing. I couldn’t help but follow the movie because I was enthralled by his performance. Where is Bradley’s Oscar?

Silver Linings Playbook is a special film, full of humor and love. Its foray into our individual mental issues is a journey that our minds and hearts need to experience. It is a great movie, and I want to see it again.

10 of 10

NOTES:
2013 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Jennifer Lawrence); 7 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, and Jonathan Gordon), “Best Achievement in Directing” (David O. Russell), “Best Achievement in Editing” (Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Bradley Cooper), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Robert De Niro), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Jacki Weaver), and “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published” (David O. Russell)

2013 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Adapted Screenplay” (David O. Russell); 2 nominations: “Best Leading Actor” (Bradley Cooper) and “Best Leading Actress” (Jennifer Lawrence)

2013 Golden Globes, USA: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Jennifer Lawrence); 3 nominations: Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Bradley Cooper), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (David O. Russell)

Friday, May 10, 2013

Review: "13 Going on 30" is a Pleasant Star Vehicle (Happy B'day, Jennifer Garner)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 189 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

13 Going on 30 (2004)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some sexual content and brief drug references
DIRECTOR: Gary Winick
WRITERS: Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa
PRODUCERS: Susan Arnold, Gina Matthews, and Donna Arkoff Roth
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Don Burgess (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Susan Littenberg
COMPOSER: Theodore Shapiro

FANTASY/COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, Andy Serkis, Kathy Baker, Phil Reeves, Samuel Ball, Marcia DeBonis, Christa B. Allen, Sean Marquette, Jim Gaffigan, and Swoop Whitebear

The subject of this movie review is 13 Going on 30, a 2004 romantic comedy and fantasy film from director Gary Winick (Letters to Juliet). The film stars Jennifer Garner as a 13-year-old girl who wakes up as a 30-year-old woman.

Thirteen-year old Jenna Rink (Christa B. Allen) hates her life and hates everybody, so on her 13th birthday, she makes a wish that she was grown up. After playing a game in her closet that came to an unhappy conclusion, she falls asleep as magic dust falls on her head, and later awakens to find that she is a 30-year old, hotshot magazine editor. However, there is a lot about her life that the 30-year old Jenna (Jennifer Garner) doesn’t like. She ignores her parents, steals other people’s magazine ideas, and in one tragic instance with a co-worker’s spouse, she is “the other woman.”

Having a hard time, catching onto her adult life, she turns to the one friend she remembers, Matt Flamhaff (Mark Ruffalo), but in the 17 years since her magical 13th birthday party, she’s ignored Matt. Jenna is as cool and as popular as she wanted to be when she was a kid, and she has lots of expensive clothes and a swanky NYC Fifth Avenue apartment. She is, however, forced to realize that she’s been living the high life of which she has no idea and can’t remember, and that her and Matt went their separate ways long ago. Now, she needs him and wants to be the girl she was when 13-year old Matt (Sean Marquette) was her best friend, but can she rebuild that close relationship in the fortnight before Matt’s impending marriage?

I have not been a fan of Jennifer Garner’s work, neither her body of small film roles nor of the popular TV series, “Alias,” in which she has starred since 2001. That was until I saw 13 Going on 30. The film is a puff piece, a re-imagining of the Tom Hanks favorite, Big (1988), in which Hanks plays a boy who gets his wish (sort of) and his body is transformed to adulthood while his personality and mind remain that of a boy. Plot and concept holes fill 13 Going on 30, such as Jenna forgetting the last 17 years of her life, but pretty much remembering how to edit a magazine. Still, it’s Ms. Garner’s charm and her ability to both summon the personality of a child and to expertly portray the child dealing with adult interpersonal relationships: professional, personal, and intimate. 13 Going on 30 may be a flimsy star vehicle (the kind of soft films in which a studio places a rising star in hopes of raising his star power or testing his star potential), but it’s Jennifer Garner who makes this clunky bucket an attractive program model.

7 of 10
B+

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Review: "Bruce Almighty" Not So Mighty

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Bruce Almighty (2003)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for language, sexual content and some crude humor
DIRECTOR: Tom Shadyac
WRITERS: Steve Koren & Mark O’Keefe and Steve Oedekerk; from a story by Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe
PRODUCERS: Michael Bostick, James D. Brubaker, Jim Carrey, Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe, and Tom Shadyac
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Semler (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Scott Hill
COMPOSER: John Debney

COMEDY/FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring: Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall, Catherine Baker, Lisa Ann Walter, Steven Carell, Nora Dunn, Eddie Jemison, Paul Satterfield, Mark Kiely, Sally Kirkland, and Tony Bennett

The subject of this movie review is Bruce Almighty, a 2003 comedy and fantasy film from director Tom Shadyac and starring Jim Carrey. The film was a worldwide box office hit and yielded a spin-off film, Evan Almighty, in 2007.

Bruce Almighty isn’t Jim Carrey’s best film, although it was one of his biggest ever at the box office. I wanted to see it for a long time, but never got around to it, and after having finally seen it, I now realize that it would have been perfectly fine, if in my life as a moviegoer, I had never seen it. It’s not bad; it’s just not good Jim Carrey.

Bruce Almighty focuses on Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) an unhappy television reporter who complains about how unfair God is to him. When he doesn’t get the promotion after which he lusted and gets himself fired as a result, he condemns God as a do-nothing. God (Morgan Freeman) decides to make an appearance and see if Bruce can do better a job ruling existence. He gives Bruce his almighty powers just to teach him how difficult the job of being God can be.

First of all the concept is a piece of shit. Granted that the job of watching the universe is, to say the absolute least, difficult, can’t God do the job? He is, after all, God…

Secondly, the script is very smart, for at least half the film. Bruce acts just as you’d think he would – selfishly and carelessly doing whatever it takes to make things easy for him. It turns out he was always a self-obsessed bastard. Even after he gets his way via his newly gained almighty powers, he doesn’t think to make things better not only for himself, but also for his girlfriend, Grace Connelly (Jennifer Anniston). When Bruce does finally at least pay attention to the (presumed) basic duty of God, answering prayers, he takes the easy route and creates a disaster. All this stuff is smart and probably pretty accurate when it comes to describing how someone would handle the situation.

After that, Bruce Almighty becomes a feel good fest of fixing things and doing the right thing. That makes for a pleasant movie, and the story resolves in the way it probably should: life lessons learned, good will towards men, respecting God (but, according to the film, respecting God in a bland and non-evangelical way). However, that’s the problem. Bruce Almighty plays it too safe; it would have really been a funnier film if it had actually went against the grain – maybe be radical.

And as silly and crazy as Jim Carrey has been, he’s rarely done anything dangerous in his career. As a stage comedian, he was a gagman, the Prince of Ass Jokes, really. He does great impersonations and he’s a human sound effects machine, but we’re not talking Lenny Bruce or even Carrey’s idol, Andy Kaufman. His film career has pretty much been the same act, but he’s been so damn good at it. The Ace Ventura films and Dumb and Dumber are priceless.

Since the mid to late 90’s, Jim has been trying to prove to everyone that he’s not a comedian turned actor or just a comic actor, but an actor – one capable doing serious dramatic roles. I think several years of trying to prove that he’s a great actor has dulled the talent that justifies his popularity and humongous paychecks – his talent as the Prince of Ass Jokes, the Duke of Juvenile Humor, and Lord of Rubbery Faces.

You can see it in Bruce Almighty. His silliness, childishness, and zaniness lack the zip they once had. He’s does some really hilarious clowning around in this film, but a lot of it is soft and too much of it strained.

So see Bruce Almighty, if you like Jim Carrey. Sadly, it’s the closest we’ll get to the early to mid-90’s pet detective.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
2004 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Supporting Actor” (Morgan Freeman)

2004 Image Awards: 1 win: “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Morgan Freeman)

Review: "Celeste and Jesse Forever" for Reals

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux


Celeste & Jesse Forever (2012)
Running time: 92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
MPAA – R for language, sexual content and drug use
DIRECTOR: Lee Toland Krieger
WRITERS: Rashida Jones and Will McCormack
PRODUCERS: Lee Nelson, Jennifer Todd, and Suzanne Todd
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Lanzenberg
EDITOR: Yana Gorskaya
COMPOSERS: Zach Cowie and Sunny Levine (for Biggest Crush)
Black Reel Award nominee

ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Ari Graynor, Eric Christian Olsen, Emma Roberts, Chris Messina, Rich Sommer, Rebecca Dayan, Will McCormack, Rafi Gavron, Chris Pine, and Elijah Wood

Celeste & Jesse Forever is a 2012 comedy-drama and romance film, starring Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg. Jones co-wrote the screenplay with Will McCormack, who also has a small acting role in the film. Jones and Samberg play a divorcing couple trying to maintain friendship while both pursuing relationships with other people.

Celeste Martin (Rashida Jones) and Jesse Abrams (Andy Samberg) were best friends and high school sweethearts. Now, they are a married couple, separated and headed for divorce. They remain best friends, but their new status irritates their friends, especially Tucker (Eric Christian Olsen) and Beth (Ari Graynor), who think that Celeste and Jesse are being weird. When Jesse gets some shocking news from a former acquaintance, Celeste starts having serious doubts about what her relationship with Jesse should be.

Celeste & Jesse Forever is more a romantic drama than it is a romantic comedy. It is also a straight character drama, as introspective as it is surprisingly funny. Celeste & Jesse Forever is one of the best (if not the best) romance films of 2012, and it has a number of high qualities. The performances are good, and the directing is lively and captures the film’s off-beat sensibilities. The cinematography seems vaguely futuristic, and the soundtrack is filled with songs that are either perfect for the moment or are delightful in the way that they are inappropriate for a scene.

The film’s strength is its screenplay. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack earned a 2013 Independent Spirit Award nomination for “Best First Screenplay” and a best screenplay nomination from the 2013 Black Reel Awards. Jones and McCormack tread on familiar ground with this story, but twist and contort it in interesting ways. Every time I thought that this movie was looking too much like a cookie-cutter romance, the story struck an odd note or peculiar pose.

And Rashida Jones flows through this film with her lovely performance. If you write an interesting part for yourself, the smart thing to do is turn in a performance that captures what is different and exciting about your screenplay, and Jones does just that. Andy Samberg is good, but this story does not require him to be adventurous as an actor. There are also a number of good supporting performances. Will McCormack is funny as the odd weed dealer, Skillz, and Emma Roberts is a delightful scene-stealer as pop music princess, Riley Banks.

Celeste & Jesse Forever is always turning on the charm, but this movie works because it manages both to feel real and to be uncommon and distinctive. It’s sweet and melancholy and pungent and joyous.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2013 Black Reel Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Actress” (Rashida Jones) and “Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted” (Rashida Jones and Will McCormack)

Friday, March 08, 2013

Review: "Vertigo" Gets Better With Each Viewing (Happy B'day, Kim Novak)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Vertigo (1958)
Running time: 129 minutes (2 hours, 9 minutes - 1996 restored version); MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
WRITERS: Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor (based upon the novel, …d’Entre les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac)
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Burks
EDITOR: George Tomasini
COMPOSER: Bernard Herrmann
Academy Award nominee

MYSTERY/DRAMA/ROMANCE/THRILLER

Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Raymond Bailey, Ellen Corby, and Konstantin Shayne

The subject of this movie review is Vertigo, a 1958 mystery and psychological thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock (who did not receive a screen credit as producer). The film underwent a major restoration in 1996, which was produced by James C. Katz. The film is based upon the 1954 crime novel …d’Entre les Morts by Boileau-Narcejac, the penname of French crime fiction writers, Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was a box office failure at the time of its initial release, and it even received mixed critical reaction. Today, many consider the film to be Hitchcock’s masterpiece, with some going so far as to call it one of the greatest films of all time. It’s not just that the film is an unusual mixture of mystery, drama, and romance with an occasional light-hearted touch of the comic; it is also that the film is a taut suspense thriller and a doomed romance with a surprising twist.

Police Detective John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) has a crippling fear of heights (acrophobia) and it inadvertently costs a fellow officer his life during a police foot chase across the rooftops of San Francisco. His fear causes Scottie to retire, but an old friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), comes to Scottie with a unique problem that requires his skills. Elster believes that his pretty young wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak), is possessed by the tormented ghost of her grandmother. He convinces Scottie to tail Madeleine and make sure she doesn’t come to harm in her mentally shaky state, but Scottie slowly falls in love with Madeleine while tracking her daily movements. However, a tragic accident draws Scottie into a complex vortex of deceit, murder, and obsession, and Scottie’s mind can’t handle the strain of figuring out what’s really happened.

So much about this film amazes me. Bernard Herrmann’s mesmerizing score is one of the most beautiful examples of film music; it’s so haunting and so easily alters the mood when Hitchcock requires it. The handsome cinematography is almost too lavish for a noir-ish, mystery thriller like Vertigo, but it ably serves the long, lingering shots. Edith Head’s fabulous costumes, in particularly Kim Novak’s gowns, are both stylish and evocative – creating the dreamlike and ethereal qualities that add to Vertigo’s ambiance. The performances are good with James Stewart appearing unusually limp and impotent as a besieged detective/hero. Kim Novak swoons from coquette to working girl/devil girl with chameleonic ease.

As usual, however, the star is Hitchcock the director. Despair has rarely been so beautiful and love so rarely a gorgeously concocted labyrinth of tricks. He lays it all before us, a pulsating rhythm of surreal moments, fever dreams, and brilliant switches. Reality really isn’t what it seems, or maybe it is. Reality is more than just what passes in front of the eye. If you can’t figure that out, your mind will go falling through a vortex. Vertigo is Hitchcock’s supremely clever spin on the mystery film – all the way to the haunting final shot.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1959 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color” (Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead, Sam Comer, and Frank R. McKelvy) and “Best Sound” (George Dutton-Paramount SSD)

1989 National Film Preservation Board: National Film Registry

Friday, January 27, 2006

2003 "Peter Pan" Surprisingly Quite Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 109 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Peter Pan (2003)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: P.J. Hogan
WRITERS: Michael Goldenberg and P.J. Hogan (based upon the play and stories of J.M. Barrie)
PRODUCERS: Lucy Fisher, Patrick McCormick, and Douglas Wick
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Donald m McAlpine (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Garth Craven and Michael Kahn
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard

FANTASY/ADVENTURE/FAMILY/ROMANCE

Starring: Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lynn Redgrave, Richard Briers, Olivia Williams, Harry Newell, Freddie Popplewell, Ludivine Sagnier, Theodore Chester, Rupert Simonian, George MacKay, Harry Eden, Patrick Gooch, Lachlan Gooch, and Carsen Gray

The subject of this movie review is Peter Pan, a 2003 live-action, fantasy drama based on the Peter Pan play and novel written by J. M. Barrie. The film is a multi-national production of three countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Wendy Darling (Rachel Hurd-Wood) loves to tell pirate stories to her brothers, John (Harry Newell) and Michael (Freddie Popplewell), but she doesn’t know that Peter Pan (Jeremy Sumpter), the boy who refuses to grow up, listens at the window every night as Wendy tells her tales. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Darling (Jason Isaacs and Olivia Williams), insist that she grow up and stop telling her tales of pirates and swordfights. Thus, when Peter offers to take her and her brothers away to his home, Neverland, where they can always play and have fun and never grow old, she’s more than happy to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. She gets more than for which she bargained when she and her brothers fall right in the middle of Peter’s ongoing war with the brutal, evil, and vicious pirate, Captain James Hook (Jason Isaacs).

The 2003 film version of Peter Pan is the first English language version in which a male actor played the part of Peter Pan, and that isn’t the only place where the film veers from stage and screens of Pan past. But that doesn’t matter; Peter Pan is a very good fantasy/adventure film. Like the original Pan tales by author J.M. Barrie, this film has a dark undercurrent, though this one is a bit darker in tone, a bit nastier in character conflict, and has a not too slight sexual undertone, as well as being more violent.

From a technical standpoint, the film is gorgeous, from its set decoration and art direction to the costume design and cinematography. I don’t know how well it will appeal to younger viewers, and I don’t think they will understand some of the adult themes, or even be interested, but it’s very good film for the older teen and adult audience that likes fantasy films. What co-writer/director P.J. Hogan (My Best Friend’s Wedding) has managed to do is simultaneously be true (for the most part) to the spirit of the original story and modernize it for a broader audience, both young and old. It’s one glaring weakness is that the script sacrifices the other characters for the sake of a single-minded focus on the triangle of Pan, Hood, and Wendy. Hogan, however, deals with that triangle so well that we can forgive him when his film is such a good time.

7 of 10
A-