F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton (A-) tells the origin story of rap group N.W.A. with a sense of immediacy that reflects today’s headlines and a genuine gravitas that traces the family tree of the gangsta rap movement with poignancy and panache. Jason Mitchell is the breakout star as charismatic tragic hero Eazy-E, with O’Shea Jackson, Jr. as Ice Cube and Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre also giving outstanding performances as the music group members each put their personal stamp on the sound and the fury of a business born in chaos. Paul Giamatti is also effective as their duplicitous manager. Gray does a strong job coloring in the period details against a backdrop of events such as the L.A. riots and with a singular soundscape that pulses with momentum. He transforms the biopic and its usual tenets into an epic that rings true today with insights about the first amendment, crime and policing in America and finding one’s own voice no matter where you’re from.
Writer/director/actor Joel Edgerton pulls off the surprise of the summer with a psychological suspense film that gets at the heart of relationships, memories and truth. The Gift (B+) centers on a relationship between Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall as a couple relocating to the hills of Los Angeles, hoping to rekindle a spark dimmed by tragedies. Both actors are superb. A reunion with Edgerton’s creepy character propels a series of unexpected events and fuels a taut thriller. The Australian auteur creates sparks with his debut film, which folks should see before spoilers get out.
In a series that hit its peak in the previous installment, Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (B-) is nonetheless a perfectly competent thriller with a durable action star. There’s one really great heist sequence involving having to swim to unlock a computer code, but it’s mainly mission improbable with car chases and thwarted torture and opera assassination attempts. Tom Cruise and ensemble may be able to crack a code but rarely crack a joke in this straightforward and overlong spy thriller.
Jon Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein’s Vacation (C) reboots the classic comedy franchise with an affable Ed Helms as “Rusty Griswold” taking his family on a cross-country car trip to the fictional West Coast Wally World theme park. Amidst the barrage of gross-out humor, there is a legitimate glimpse at a modern American family with genuine marital struggle, raucous sibling rivalry and a road to redemption. Most of the predictable humor springs from unease and awkwardness, and there could have been a whole lot more inspiration in the episodic stops along the way. There were very few surprises but still a good deal of laughs on this holiday road. Let’s hope if this clan does Europe next, it will be less by-the-books.
Famously shot on three iPhone 5s smartphones and the toast of Sundance, Sean Baker’s new indie comedy/drama Tangerine (B) is an exotic fruit indeed. The movie showcases two transgender actresses, Kiki Kitana Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, who magnificently play sassy prostitutes (as one character says “a trainwreck and a hot mess”) involved in antics to exact revenge on the woman who has been sleeping with their pimp while one of our heroines was incarcerated. The film is a bit challenged in tone, varying like a whirling dervish from comic misadventures to more somber moments. The quality of the filming is gorgeous, with a near-Technicolor glow that makes a seedy Los Angeles of doughnut shop and alleyway encounters come to vivid life. Dare I say it all feels a bit like a gender-bending Clerks! One character says, “L.A. is a beautifully wrapped lie,” and by the end, the city itself becomes quite a character.
One of the “perks of being a movie critic” is having a favorite genre, and I’m an absolute sucker for coming-of-age dramas. Jake Schreier’s Paper Towns (B) is a leisurely paced but fairly sensational adaptation of a young adult novel about losing yourself, finding yourself and savoring the moments in between. When a sensitive but by-the-books high school student, charmingly played by Nat Wolff, gives into a night of spontaneous prankster antics with the popular girl next door (an alluring and lived-in performance by Cara Delevingne), the teen discovers a bit of his roguish nature and unlocks the beginnings of a mystery; and the final weeks of high school become a series of unexpected breakthroughs. Romanticized with all applicable teen drama tenets – wise-beyond-her-years muse, prom plot line, road trip, scruffy sidekicks and the like – the film manages to layer in a mystery adventure that speaks to the very nature of love for oneself and others. It’s a tad overstuffed; but despite some over-the-top leaps of faith, the film contains believable characters and a prescient payoff. The selfie generation has another awesome movie about selflessness and a nice piece of summer movie counter-programming.
There’s lots of inspired stuff in a movie about a 1982 time capsule that prompts modern-day extraterrestrials to co-opt nostalgic video game iconography to attack the planet, but director Chris Columbus and an Adam Sandler-led comedic ensemble drain Pixels (D-) of any sense of wit or charm. The filmmakers barely summon hand-eye coordination in mishandling a story about how a rag-tag group of misfits conjure their inner joysticks and roller controllers to topple Galaga, Centipede, Pac-Man and a gaggle of galactic meanies. When a film employs intentionally dated graphics and an absurd premise, it requires credible acting and a logical thematic through-line; that’s why Ghostbusters worked so brilliantly. Alas the game is over long before it starts for Pixels, with everything from Tom Arnold playing the U.S. President as Sandler’s best friend and Michelle Monaghan as Sadler’s love interest being but two of the plot points catalogued in the not-credible category. As Sandler and Josh Gad exert their action antics and moribund comedy to a not-at-all thrilling conclusion, one simply wonders what would have happened had the studio chosen a different adventure with better talent to tell this tale. For a better foray into the 8-bit heyday, I recommend the documentary King of Kong.
Like a pest at a picnic, Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man (C-) is all over the place and quite irritating. Paul Rudd provides his cat burglar turned miniaturized superhero with about as little charisma as possible and certainly none of his trademark comedy. He and love interest Evangeline Lilly, villain Corey Stoll and physicist impresario Michael Douglas could power a Polar Express with their glassy-eyed lack of expression. Only Michael Peña shines in a comic role as a heist henchman with a penchant for telling thrilling backstories. While the special effects are adequate (shrinking hero on a neon disco floor was a nice look), this is definitely storytelling on a small scale with CGI ant armies displaying about as much charm as crowd sequences at a George Lucas pod race. Most elements of the film are simply average. Capable of bringing out the superpower of snooze, this is a lesser entry in the Marvel universe if ever there was one.
Note from our sponsor: I did enjoy the sound quality. Thanks, Dolby! #dolbyatmos
Writer and lead comic actress Amy Schumer couldn’t ask for a better feature film maiden voyage vehicle than Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck (B), a screwball character study shrouded in rom com clothing. Schumer’s central character is a boozy and sexually liberated magazine writer who meets her match in a well-grounded sports physician, warmly and effectively played by Bill Hader. Both Schumer and Hader are unconventional casting choices; and honestly, I wasn’t entirely convinced of their chemistry despite lived-in performances. But the film packs a comic punch with jabs at the mores of modern dating and has moments of poignancy in the heroine’s relationship with her misanthropic papa. There are shades of Pretty Woman and Bridesmaids as the film navigates some typical narrative arcs, and “Apatowesque” will now just be my adjective for overlong comedies. But as a sassy star is born, her film is a filling and funny frolic.
Gregory Jacobs’ Magic Mike XXL (C+) takes a long time to get to the money shot: twenty minutes of wish fulfillment by a sextet of reunited male strippers in the form of some crazy cool choreography. The film mostly meanders through road trip, “let’s put on a show,” and several other genres before it lands on a “let’s just give ’em what they want” finale. Despite the perfunctory nature of most of this episodic trek, it is a mild improvement over its more pedigreed predecessor thanks largely to standout performances by Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello as the one lured back in and the one reinventing himself, respectively. A trio of female performers – Jada Pinkett Smith, Andie MacDowell and Elizabeth Banks – also imbue the festivities with a bit of subtext that makes the activities seem a bit more easy and less sleazy. Although not directed by Steven Soderbergh this time around, that director stays involved under a pseudonym as director of photography. It’s still unclear why he’s involved in this franchise which always seems like a documentary of the same subject with these fun actors would be more entertaining than what ultimately ends up on screen. Some of the activities simply seem directed by the party drug Molly. Still, after not much happens for most of the film’s duration as the gaggle of go-gos travel to Myrtle Beach for a stripper showcase, their final dances have a mild Wizard of Oz quality as they vanquish their vulnerabilities.
Seth MacFarlane’s sophomoric stoner sequel Ted 2 (C) has enough funny parts to warrant a cable TV viewing, but the buddy comedy highjinks don’t match the punch of its predecessor. The first film wisely focused on the central bromance of Mark Wahlberg’s lovable lug and his foul-mouthed living teddy bear, voiced by the writer/director. Here the action shifts to a fable about the plush character’s civil rights, and the uneasy mix of comedy and legal procedural just doesn’t do the humor justice. Some comic bits with football star Tom Brady and at Comic Con are wasted opportunities, and Wahlberg’s relationship with Amanda Seyfried is underdeveloped (and wasn’t the whole first film about scoring Mila Kunis?). Despite the vulgarity, both Ted films have heart, but this one has diminishing returns on plot and laughs. It’s more muddle than cuddle.
Poignant, inventive and altogether different from other summer movie offerings, Alfonzo Gomez-Rejon’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (A-) deserves to be the sleeper hit of the summer. Anchored by Thomas Mann’s impressive acting as an anxiety-struck and self-effacing teen, this coming of age dramedy is laced with clever animations, amusing parodies of foreign films and spry dialogue that takes you into the mind of outsider teens finding connection. Olivia Cooke and Ronald Cyler are enjoyable in their roles inhabiting high school characters that haven’t been rendered this way before. Plot parallels to Fault in Our Stars don’t hinder this story from forging its own path. Nick Offerman and Molly Shannon also shine in small comedic roles. Cinephiles will adore the preciousness of some of the film techniques which recall both Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson because that’s just the way this movie rolls. It’s a delight from start to finish with only one act of narrative trickery threatening to derail the momentum. The movie promises to reward multiple viewings and is likely to achieve a bit of cult status.
F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton (A-) tells the origin story of rap group N.W.A. with a sense of immediacy that reflects today’s headlines and a genuine gravitas that traces the family tree of the gangsta rap movement with poignancy and panache. Jason Mitchell is the breakout star as charismatic tragic hero Eazy-E, with O’Shea Jackson, Jr. as Ice Cube and Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre also giving outstanding performances as the music group members each put their personal stamp on the sound and the fury of a business born in chaos. Paul Giamatti is also effective as their duplicitous manager. Gray does a strong job coloring in the period details against a backdrop of events such as the L.A. riots and with a singular soundscape that pulses with momentum. He transforms the biopic and its usual tenets into an epic that rings true today with insights about the first amendment, crime and policing in America and finding one’s own voice no matter where you’re from.
Writer/director/actor Joel Edgerton pulls off the surprise of the summer with a psychological suspense film that gets at the heart of relationships, memories and truth. The Gift (B+) centers on a relationship between Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall as a couple relocating to the hills of Los Angeles, hoping to rekindle a spark dimmed by tragedies. Both actors are superb. A reunion with Edgerton’s creepy character propels a series of unexpected events and fuels a taut thriller. The Australian auteur creates sparks with his debut film, which folks should see before spoilers get out.
Poignant, inventive and altogether different from other summer movie offerings, Alfonzo Gomez-Rejon’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (A-) deserves to be the sleeper hit of the summer. Anchored by Thomas Mann’s impressive acting as an anxiety-struck and self-effacing teen, this coming of age dramedy is laced with clever animations, amusing parodies of foreign films and spry dialogue that takes you into the mind of outsider teens finding connection. Olivia Cooke and Ronald Cyler are enjoyable in their roles inhabiting high school characters that haven’t been rendered this way before. Plot parallels to Fault in Our Stars don’t hinder this story from forging its own path. Nick Offerman and Molly Shannon also shine in small comedic roles. Cinephiles will adore the preciousness of some of the film techniques which recall both Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson because that’s just the way this movie rolls. It’s a delight from start to finish with only one act of narrative trickery threatening to derail the momentum. The movie promises to reward multiple viewings and is likely to achieve a bit of cult status.