As sports fans, we always consider the degree to which we support or dedicate ourselves to the team. “Big Fan” is a character study of a man who has formed his identity and life around the New York Giants. The film preys on our expectation that every fan has a clear line when it’s time to stop being a fan and start being your own person. That’s not true of Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt).
Lance Clayton’s (Wiiliams) son Kyle (Sabara) is a perverted and disrespectful jackass. He’s obsessed with pornography, despises music and movies entirely, is flunking his classes and most of all, he hates his dad. Lance is a failed writer trying to keep his job as a high school poetry teacher and his co-worker girlfriend. But all that is about to change after a bizarre accident. Read the rest of this entry »
To set the record straight — maybe pun intended — “Humpday” is not a true gay and lesbian film, nor is it a “bromantic comedy” with homophobic slapstick. Lynn Shelton’s film is simple: what if two best heterosexual guy friends somehow got it in their heads that filming themselves having sex with each other would be a good idea? “Humpday” explores the bond between men and the difficulty they have with intimacy, particularly when its sexual in nature. Read the rest of this entry »
Family comedy is a genre that garners a lot of rolling eyes these days. Families have been categorized and stereotyped. The kids are crazy. The parents fight. They make up. Even pregnancy movies are that way. Are they ready to have the baby? Will they keep? Will it keep them together or tear them apart. “Away We Go” avoids all of this. Is it about expecting parents and starting a family? Absolutely, but in a refreshing way. Read the rest of this entry »
“The Brothers Bloom” sounds like a traditional con movie: two talented con men brothers are known for their epic, almost literary cons, when one brother wanting out leads to a concession that the next one, cheating a lonely heiress out of a million or so, will be their last. There’s a bit of the classic con movie “The Sting” as well as “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” mixed in to that. Seems unoriginal, but just you wait.
Rian Johnson has written a non-traditional con flick, one that acts like a quirky modern comedy but is dressed in ’30s period garb and filmed where the world’s architecture and backdrops are most classically stunning: Greece, Prague and Montenegro. It doesn’t make much sense, but it gives “The Brothers Bloom” and its trio of talented actors undeniable class.
Stephen (Ruffalo) is the mastermind who writes his younger brother, Bloom (Brody), into his fantastical stories/cons as the “hero.” Bloom, however, is ready to write his own life — presumably one in which he falls in love for real. Agreeing to one last con, he must fake his feelings for Penelope (Weisz), an epileptic heiress with no social skills. As long as he doesn’t fall in love with her, all should go well. It sounds easy considering Penelope is one strange fish, but it’s not.
There’s nothing too complicated about the plot, which hooks you on trying to discern what’s real vs. what’s part of the con. Johnson keeps it simple so that he can give you what you don’t expect — colorful characters, such as Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi from “Babel”), the brothers’ Japanese assistant with, aptly, an affinity for explosives made of Barbie dolls.
Weisz really gets to have the most fun as a total crackpot. In the period dress along with Weisz’ excellent film resume and our familiarity with the genre, we come to expect her to play some classy woman who won’t be willed easily, but she’s a total nut and Weisz gets to work with this incredible element of surprise.
In a scene in her mansion when she reveals to Bloom she’s basically never left the mansion and is terrible at conversation, she shares that she just checks out books on how to do things, which Johnson follows up with a hysterical montage of Weisz showing off a dozen or so different talents from juggling chainsaws to riding a unicycle — while juggling chainsaws. Another wonderful scene is her first passionate kiss with Bloom — something she’s never experienced before.
Con movies also give you the expectation of a twist, and though Johnson does give us one when it’s all said and done, he also uses that expectation to his advantage, filling the moments that creates with comical flourishes or moments revealing of character.
At the same time, there’s something unsatisfying about the twists of the film. The expectation of being wowed in that regard by con films is something “Bloom” must work against. We want a surprise ending that reveals something about the characters, or at least if the surprise is mild at best, something that is logical and true to the film and its characters. “Bloom” doesn’t fully capture the scope of either. It’s no failure by any means, but it hinges on elements of the story that didn’t seem to be all that important.
If anything, Johnson proves with “Bloom” that he has the chops to deliver something conceptually mainstream (like a con movie) in a unique way. We shall hopefully see much more of him in the future. What we want at the movies is familiarity with a breath of freshness and he gives us just that with his talented cast of characters that defy our expectations in only positive ways.
Comic book writer Harvey Pekar would probably be the first to tell you that he only agreed to a movie about himself for the money. He denounces all things glamorous or idealistic and a moving biopic about his life would contradict him entirely. That’s why Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s choice to do an off-center biopic on Pekar in a quasi-documentary style is such a phenomenal direction for their film.
“American Splendor” features both Pekar himself doing a few on-the-set interviews and voice over narration as well as Paul Giamatti playing out key scenes in his life from befriending fellow artist Robert Crumb to meeting his wife Joyce (Hope Davis) to his odd string of appearances on David Letterman. It’s not totally committed to one style over another which is its greatest strength and a bit of a weakness. Although it’s so interesting to be able to compare the acting to the real people, at times it’s distracting and breaks the illusion. For example, the real Pekar and his semi-autistic pal Toby chat on the movie’s set while both actors playing them (Giamatti and Judah Friedlander) take five in the background.
Rarely — and certainly not this extensively — does a film open itself up to scrutiny like “American Splendor” by allowing the audience to see both reality and its own fiction. Giamatti’s performance becomes critically vulnerable with the real Pekar getting almost as much time on screen as he has, though he does do a good job juggling Pekar’s many quirks from his dying voice to his tendency to add “man” to the end of every statement.
“American Splendor” also offers a few other unique directorial choices and sequences such as comic frames in the beginning to replicate comic books and including animated Harveys and thought bubbles into live action. These are generally effective, but they lack continuity. Each scene where traditional cinema is broken get its own treatment; the shift from biopic to documentary is the only constant.
Consequently, we’ve never gotten acquainted with the focal character of another biographical film like we get to know Harvey Pekar. I think anyone who watches the film and happens to meet Harvey afterward would feel like they’d known him for years. Part of it is his natural, quirky predictability, but the other is Berman and Pulcini’s decision to give us a healthy dose of the man himself.
Much like his American Splendor comics, the story of Harvey Pekar isn’t extraordinary or fascinating but down to earth. Pekar didn’t want to be anything but ordinary and he just happened to really like the underground comic scene. The film honors that wish by being the same way, so taking the title of the comics and using it for the movie is more than fitting. It had to be a challenge to adapt someone’s autobiographical comic and make a biographical documentary about the person who wrote said comic about himself, but Berman and Pulcini make it work and in a highly original and inspiring way.
Based on his Oscar-nominated short film of the same name, Sean Ellis’ “Cashback” is an elegant and funny independent film mixing elements of drama, comedy, romance and fantasy. Musing on the relationship between the speed of life and love, “Cashback” is an artist’s rendition of a familiar romance formula.
“Cashback” begins like every other romantic comedy, with its main character Ben (Sean Biggerstaff, best known as Oliver Wood from the first couple Harry Potter movies) getting dumped by his girlfriend, launching him into insomnia and unrelenting personal reflection in the form of narrative. But Ben is an aspiring portrait artist, so Ellis, like his protagonist, reflects that appreciation for imagery in his direction, giving every scene stylishness and grace.
Ellis moves the camera in fascinating ways that capture our attention, making so many shots and sequences have an epic quality. At the same time, it’s interesting that the film uses so much narrative, making it seem more literary, almost a memoir even, yet Ellis never leans on this writing — so many images stand out memorably.
The fantasy angle of the film comes in when Ben discovers he can slow down and pause time for as long as he likes, a skill he learns at the local Sainsbury’s supermarket where he’s taken up night hours to make use of his lack of sleep. A long-time connoisseur of the female form, Ben freezes time to draw women in the supermarket, often times nude, yet he reserves some modesty when drawing his new crush, Sharon (Emilia Fox), one of the store clerks. Ellis perfectly captures these images of Ben’s affection and the result is that we see the beauty that Ben sees.
“Cashback” is very sexually forward, unafraid but not gratuitous or obnoxious in its use of nudity or sexual reference. Its sense of humor comes mostly in the form simple things like quirky characters and clever one-liners or quick shots. Its humor relies on the viewer finding it endearing and lovable.
The movie is also a meditation on time and love, giving us something to think about more so than letting us draw our own meaning. What usually happens is that just as we have surmised our own understanding, more narration comes in speaking of new ideas and we’re sort of left confused. Other times, the narration adds key thoughts to our heads that add meaning to what comes next.
Boiled down, “Cashback” is a really fresh take on the boy gets broken up with, does something as a result, finds new girl and struggles to make sense of love in the meantime. Adding in the simple fantasy element of time control, it manages to look at what we’ve seen in movies in ways we’ve never really seen them before, which dresses up the romance clichés quite nicely.
But avoid labeling itself all it wants (as its main characters Tom and Summer try and do), “Summer” is a love story. There might be more to it than that, but it’s a story about love and how we romanticize it versus how it really is, regardless of its disclaimer.
It’s a bold script from first-time scribes Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber that pits RomCom convention against the harsh realities of dating. As such, it’s bound to appeal to both the chick flick crowd and indie-lovers — it will get audiences thinking more perceptively about love, while still appealing to the pleasures of escapist movie-theater romance.
Like eight of the last ten indie love stores you’ve seen, “Summer” starts with a break-up, only it backtracks to the beginning of the relationship and tells the story from the beginning (while of course jumping back to the time of the break-up). Confused? Conveniently a counter helps us keep track of time in the film, showing us how many days into the 500 we are at all times.
Anyway, Tom is a hopeless romantic greeting-card writer played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“3rd Rock from the Sun” child star and Heath Ledger look-alike) who meets a girl, Summer (big-blue-eyed rising star Zooey Deschanel). He believes he’s found destiny — she doesn’t want anything serious.
The two hit it off with their playful personalities and while Tom falls hopelessly in love with her, she doesn’t seem to budge. We start to hate on Summer a little bit for not prescribing to this fated romance we’ve built up in our heads because we’re all sucker’s for that kind of a love story, but that’s where “Summer” gets smart on us.
Directed by Marc Webb, who’s done music videos with Green Day, 3 Doors Down and Jesse McCartney, “Summer” does take on this whimsical quality that very much appeals to a younger generation. At the same time, he brings us realism when the movie is supposed to relate to us the most (in the bars, at the office) and that artsy quality when the writing calls for something a bit more non-traditional. He handles the contrast well, as does Gordon- Levitt, who is either playing a depressed pessimist or a head-over-heels optimist. Deschanel is also terrific, looking the part of this elusive girl with classic good looks and emphasizing her quirks as well her brutal honesty. If she can break her indie typecast, Deschanel will become one of the finer actresses of her generation.
As told by the film’s slightly obnoxious and inconsistently used narrator, “this is not a love story” ends up serving to prep us for the film’s divergence from formula. For those that want happily ever after, it tempers this expectation, pleading with us by basically saying “please don’t get get mad if the ending isn’t the magical song and dance number you were hoping for.”
But it ends up being pretty clear what “Summer” is trying to do. It serves as the writers’ own discovery of what exactly love is, how they worked out and reconciled the pain and heartbreak — love’s truths — with this romanticized idealizing of love. Summer becomes not this cold person who is having her way with Tom because he’s the one in love, but someone with simply a different understanding of love, who comes from a different place mentally/emotionally when it comes to relationships.
“Summer” is a great film because it combines all the cheesy energy that we love about romantic comedies with this strong sense of reality. Although the reality too can become a bit much at times, “Summer” is a film that has finally found a way to appease the masses while breaking the formula that has kept the boy meets girl story on a ball and chain for decades. It’s not perfect, but what a feat that is.
