Tag Archives: Drama

“Tangerine” Introduces Viewers to Refreshingly New Screen Characters

imageFamously 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.

“Paper Towns” is a Strong Young Adult Drama Mystery

imageOne 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.

“Magic Mike XXL” Isn’t Any Less Shallow

imageGregory 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.

“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” a Bright Coming of Age Film

me earlPoignant, 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.

“I Am Michael” an Intriguing Drama

Justin Kelly’s I Am Michael (B+) is a gripping true story about a gay magazine editor who has a series of revelations that lead him to attempt to alter his sexual orientation. Fully realized by James Franco, the title character is complex and sympathetic as he wrestles with issues of faith and identity. The quirky actor should be commended for courageousness in a mature and layered performance and in behind the scenes work to get this fascinating story told. The film’s reverse coming out story with a main character who transforms from player to prayer coupled with the filmmakers’ unwillingness to be reductive leads the narrative down unexpected and rewarding paths. As the protagonist’s love interests, Zachary Quinto and Emma Roberts are effective foils for what seems like a folly. It’s all sensitively handled and executed with earnestness. What could have fallen into a Reefer Madness style propaganda film about the ex-gay movement actually lifts up nuance as a core asset and provides fodder for thought.

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David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars” is Alluring

mapstostarsFilms such as Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, Altman’s The Player and Lynch’s Mulholland Drive are some of the most definitive movies in the “gritty inside Hollywood” canon; and really, the always interesting David Cronenberg’s latest work, Maps to the Stars (B-), doesn’t even belong in the same discussion with them. But as a bleak portrait of just how soulless and bizarre Tinseltown can be, it’s really quite a fascinating freakshow recommended only for those perversely fascinated with the underbelly of glamour and glitz. Julianne Moore plays washed-up actress “Havana Segrand,” whose character name alone gives you all the clues you need to know that the film will occasionally be over-the-top ridiculous. Moore plays against type and blurs every line between public life and intimacy as we see her in astonishing rawness playing a callow climber. She’s a touch point between several characters in a dysfunctional family including Mia Wasikowska as a whack-job returning to town after a mysterious absence, her child-actor turned rehab-teen brother played deliciously by Evan Bird and their dad (a miscast) John Cusack who is somewhere between psycho and therapist as a self-help guru. It’s a cautionary tale without answers and a puzzle box of an ensemble drama without an easy resolution. Shades of a less well thought out Magnolia hang over the multi-story proceedings like the story it could have been, with a pinch of Cronenberg’s own 1996 sex-in-car-wrecks drama Crash thrown into the stew, sending anyone without the patience for this type of thing running for the Hollywood hills, the exit door or the eject button. Still, despite its messiness, its baffling final act and its complete lack of mainstream appeal, it was an intriguing pulp curiosity and kept me fascinated throughout. Cronenberg invites his audiences to be the ultimate voyeurs, a notion repeated in his best work (History of Violence, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Eastern Promises, Videodrome – someone please give this guy an award already!) and even in his experiments (oddities such as Naked Lunch and eXistenZ). His Brundlefly mash-up with a Hollywood tell-all lends the film its sly signature. The movie is crude, tonally jumbled and often half-baked in comparison to his modern masterpieces, but it still plumbs magnificent depths. There’s no GPS system that will take you to where you’re gonna go here, but I liked the journey just fine.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” Adapts Popular Novel

imageFor about half of its duration, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Fifty Shades of Grey (C) maintains a fairly respectable sense of intrigue about whether its bookish co-ed (Dakota Johnson) and her unlikely business magnate boyfriend (Jamie Dornan) will indeed be an ideal match, despite his S&M tendencies. Alas the film gets tied up in fifty shades of loose plot-ends and considerably mounting degrees of absurdity. For a while a meet-cute romance and then a bit of an erotic thriller, the film seems to be at a loss for what it all is supposed to add up to by the final reel. It’s fine to tease the notion of “how far would you go for love?” but then you have to actually answer that question. The two leads are game for the pulpy page-turner quality until they are stuck in a puzzle box that neither illuminates their cardboard characters nor elicits any real answers on theme. With all its talk of negotiations and contracts, it practically had the ambition of at least becoming an Indecent Proposal or Disclosure level pop opus, but it fizzles and flails in most regards. Supporting characters are introduced and summarily dismissed, and the sexy sequences total about seven. And they’re not even as deadly sinful as many viewers will be hoping. Let’s just say the film is likely to leave folks wanting, and not in the ways they may wish.

“Still Alice” is Weak But Julianne Moore is Strong

imageIn adapting a popular novel to film, writer/directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland brought one thing and one thing only to the table: Julianne Moore, and her lead performance in Still Alice (C+) is head and shoulders above the material and all other performers. As a 50-year-old linguistics professor diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease, Moore is often downright heartbreaking. Her character first tries to out-game the disease and ultimately succumbs to it and gets monologues and speeches and rants and quiet conversations to work out her bouts with sadness and joy in the rich life she has lived. The directors can’t quite lift the material above a “disease of the week movie” feel, and they get no help from near-blowhard Alec Baldwin, whiny Kristen Stewart, vacant Hunter Parrish and frosty Kate Bosworth as Alice’s “loving family.” The air of melancholy over the proceedings is punctuated by a very limited selection of punchy moments, one of which involves a message from Alice’s past self to her future one. There are some accurate and affecting medical revelations as the film unfolds, except the occasional soft lighting that attempts to explain disorientation but somehow seems more like a character going slightly blind. There are also allusions intended to give literary context to the proceedings, but the metaphors are muddled. What’s left is a triumphant Moore, out-acting everyone else and out-emoting the material. She chews the bland scenery with aplomb. She’s nearly always amazing, and her Oscar will be a lifetime achievement award, and this film may go down as a very sincere but unremarkable public service announcement.

Eastwood-Directed “American Sniper” Hits its Marks

imageNo one showcases moral ambiguity better than Clint Eastwood, so it’s no surprise that his military biopic American Sniper (A-) depicts sharp-shooter Chris Kyle in all his heroic glory punctuated with pangs of crisis of conscience. Told in four Iraq tours of duty with domestic dissonance in between, the film is most effective at spotlighting its protagonist’s laser-focused attention to his craft. Bradley Cooper is superb with a Texas drawl and a single-mindedness of purpose, and Sienna Miller makes the most of the role of his wife. The film hardly traverses much new terrain but does so with style and substance. After some sleepier outings, Eastwood crafts a propulsive, absorbing drama that takes viewers into the heart of military heroism.

“Wild” Charts Surprising Course

imageJean-Marc Vallée’s Wild (B-) plots the course of a lost, grieving young woman along a thousand mile journey on the Pacific Crest Trail as she grapples in both adventures and flashbacks with the demons that haunt her and the passages of inspiration that could set her free. Reese Witherspoon gives an uncommon, relatable and lived-in performance as this drifter with a purpose and she imbues her character with a salty, off-kilter vernacular that’s like Hallmark for Heathens. Despite being a true story, it piles it on a bit thick: Our heroine even struggles with heroin. Few of the film’s episodic segments involving the struggle of the hike or the proto-feminist viewpoints about a “woman on the verge” are as moving or suspenseful or meaningful as seemingly intended, despite a feather-touch observational directorial style filled with montages of Laura Dern as a saintly but underdeveloped mother of the protagonist. Viewers will endure a bit of a slow-burn to the life lessons, yet it’s possible you might enjoy the trip.

“Selma” Tells MLK Story in Stirring Film

imageIt’s been a long journey to the movie screen for the Martin Luther King Jr. story, but writer/director Ava DuVernay’s Selma (B+) is a stunning and sometimes surprising biopic that taps into the zeitgeist of the continuing civil rights struggle. As amazing as he is in reenacting famous oratory, David Oyelowo is even more compelling in the quiet and more contemplative moments as his MLK wrestles with mortality and the consequences of his personal choices on his mass movement. Additionally, Carmen Ejogo gives a sturdy performance in a small role as Coretta, and Tom Wilkinson is effective as a duplicitous LBJ. DuVernay makes some fascinating choices in terms of timeline and sequence, including straightforward typed government descriptors of MLK’s whereabouts and activities from FBI operatives. The film also ends at an expected place. Overall triumph eclipses tragedy in some key moments, which may gloss over the state of the struggle a bit. But the smart dialogue, period detail and forward momentum to the narrative help the film to tell its story of a critical juncture in a specific place and time.

“Foxcatcher” an Absorbing True Crime Drama

imageBennett Miller’s Foxcatcher (B+) is an absorbing true crime drama featuring spot-on performances by Steve Carell as a paranoid multimillionaire obsessed with being an Olympic sports coach and Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo as gold medalist wrestlers grappling with the limits of loyalty to their wealthy patron. A commentary on how power, wealth and influence can be used to advance twisted values, one can’t help but think of Michael Jackson or Joe Paterno scandals as Carell’s John du Pont manipulates the world around him to support his megalomaniacal desires. Miller creates an austere and often bleak portrait with nary a false note and an underlying tone that traps viewers into an off-kilter lust for power without boundaries. Carell creates a fully unsympathetic portrait, and Tatum and Ruffalo physically and emotionally inhabit their roles with deft skill. Bennett builds on the autumnal tragedy he brought to Capote and the slackjawed sensationalism of sports drama Moneyball to create another modern-American stunner.