There’s one great line in Jason Moore’s Amy Poehler-Tina Fey comedy Sisters (C) when a character remarks that she could use a little less Forever 21 and a bit more Suddenly 42. There’s likely a film buried deep within this one that addresses the angst of aging when you really don’t want to grow up, but Moore’s movie rarely scratches the surface below the bawdy laughs. Party girl Fey and straight-laced Poehler switch roles as they throw a party in their about-to-be-sold childhood home; and through the highjinks of the bash as Fey is designated “party mom” and Poehler gets to let her freak flag fly, they learn more about each other. The funny ladies have winning chemistry and lots of sassy lines especially at the expense of frenemy Maya Rudolph; but the film’s signature party is a rather one-note and overlong cavalcade, and it’s just not consistently funny enough to cover any new ground. Still, these snappy siblings have their moments.
Tag Archives: Comedy
“Big Short” Deliciously Skewers Wall Street Culture
Best known for directing Will Ferrell larks, director Adam McKay sets his eyes on a work of gravitas by tackling the American housing market collapse through the eyes of a few investing misfits who saw it all coming in the wry dramedy The Big Short (B). Treading familiar territory of big data chic honed to more entertaining effect by the same author’s Moneyball, this film suffers from a paucity of likable protagonists. That’s likely intentional but unfortunately undercuts the film’s sharpness. Steve Carell, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling are standouts as guys who hope to strike it rich by betting against America and its institutions. The ultimate story is an important one to tell, and McKay sprinkles in some meta flourishes to ensure viewers can keep up. A civics lesson wrapped in the arch of a paranoid thriller, it’s close encounters of the earned kind. It’s a lot of exposition for the plaintive payoff.
“Goosebumps” a CGI-Laden Mess
Rob Letterman’s Goosebumps (D) joins this summer’s Pixels in a series of kids’ films that value effects over imagination. Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, reclusive author of the titular young adult book series. With a vaguely academic accent and face frozen on “concerned,” Black provides a performance only slightly more irritating than Slappy the vaudeville dummy, the worst doll antagonist since the last installment of Child’s Play. Teen actor Dylan Minnette is slightly more expressive and makes the film’s first thirty minutes a bit charming before he accidentally unleashes a potpourri of blandly designed CGI monsters trapped in books. The filmmakers cynically leverage a popular kid lit franchise to lure a big crowd to the box office, but it’s all an auto pilot triumph over creative inspiration.
“The Intern” an Enjoyable Comedy
Calling a movie a treasure trove for HR professionals looking for great examples of key learnings in the intergenerational workplace isn’t damning it with faint praise. In fact, Nancy Meyers’ The Intern (B), in which Robert De Niro is a widower who lands a “senior citizen internship” for an e-commerce impresario played by Anne Hathaway, transcends built-in sentiment and stereotypes to be largely effective. Is it a reverse Annie or The Devil Wears Prada? A little of both. Do De Niro and Hathaway harness everything in their thespian powers to build characters within the contours and confines of Meyers’ broad-stroke screenwriting? For the most part. There are missed opportunities galore as a white-washed cast and some very unrealistic pivot points provide a slick veneer to the proceedings. But a fun premise, good acting, bright chemistry and interesting juxtapositions yield an entertaining film. Call De Niro the work/life balance genie, reminding workers everywhere that some old-fashioned values may just provide wish fulfillment for the modern office.
Related workplace story: Learn how I secured my third job at an interactive company using a 90-Day plan in this USA Today article.
“Grandma” (2015) a Lovely Character Study
Despite his involvement in films ranging from American Pie to About a Boy, very little could prepare viewers for the glorious relationship dramedy that writer/director Paul Weitz has delivered with Grandma (A-), which frankly feels like an indie from a first-time visionary. Lily Tomlin gives a career-best performance as Elle, a free-spirited misanthrope and widow of a female partner, recruited by her granddaughter Sage (an affecting Julia Garner) to help raise money to end an unwanted pregnancy. The subject is treated sensitively, and the resulting road trip brings a village of perspectives ranging from a man from Elle’s past (a delightful Sam Elliott) to her high-strung estranged daughter (the always pitch-perfect Marcia Gay Harden). Despite the heaviness of the central conflict, it’s Tomlin’s lived-in performance filled with pluck and hard-knocks wisdom that helps the film soar. She also gets the best anger sequence in an eating establishment since Five Easy Pieces. Ultimately a very feminist film from a male director, it’s a fine showcase of outstanding multi-generational actresses and a sentimental and sweet story of unexpected family dynamics.
New “Vacation” (2015) Can’t Replicate the Classic
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.
“Tangerine” Introduces Viewers to Refreshingly New Screen Characters
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.
Game Over for “Pixels”
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.
“Trainwreck” a Funny Showcase for Schumer
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.
“Magic Mike XXL” Isn’t Any Less Shallow
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.
“Ted 2” is Teddy Fair
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.
“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” a Bright Coming of Age Film
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.