Drinking Buddies is a drama flecked with humor thanks to its fine cast that's topped by Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson. This relationship film is far from revelatory, but it's always compassionate and observant, focusing on a pair of friends who seem like they'd make the perfect couple -- so why don't they date? My review is up at Paste.
While watching Elysium, I thought, "Haven't I seen this before?" Specifically, I meant the experience of sitting through a dark future that's meant to be a mirror of our own times. Dystopian sci-fi is a genre I really like, but I've been inundated by it lately at the movies. Why is Hollywood so interested in these films lately? And what do we as an audience get out of them? I tried to answer these questions in my latest Playboy column.
One of the things that always amazes me about music is how a particular song can suddenly sneak its way into your DNA years after its release. "Rest My Chemistry" was never a single off of Interpol's 2007 album Our Love to Admire, but in the last year or so I find myself seeking it out on my laptop's iTunes -- or being perfectly pleased when it pops up on shuffle. I was never much of an Interpol fan, and Our Love to Admire is merely OK as a whole. But "Rest My Chemistry" just does it for me. Clearly, I'm not the only one: Enjoy this fan-made video for the track.
To answer your immediate question, no, I don't think Ashton Kutcher is terrible as Steve Jobs in the new biopic of the Apple co-founder. But I think Jobs is riddled with problems anyway. My review is up at Deadspin.
I keep waiting for Keri Russell to have a big-screen career, but it never quite seems to happen. (I realize she's getting good reviews for her new TV drama The Americans.) Her latest feature, the Sundance romantic comedy Austenland, is perfectly fine but also perfectly dull. I've already forgotten everything about it, so it's a good thing I have my Paste review to remind me what I thought of the film.
Warren Beatty has just about vanished from American movies in the last couple decades. And yet, his influence still looms large. My latest installment of "The Greats" for Pastepays homage to the actor/writer/director/producer.
I haven't been able to full connect to Fade, the latest from the wonderful Yo La Tengo. But I love the acoustic, atmospheric number "I'll Be Around" from it -- and I really like this video. It's directed by Phil Morrison, who made the gem Junebug, which incorporated a score from Yo La Tengo. (On a side note, I wonder when I'll get to see his new film, which was called Almost Christmas but is now known as All Is Brightand received pretty lukewarm reviews from the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year.) As for this "I'll Be Around" video, if you've ever wanted to see the band make a meal together, this clip is going to blow your mind.
Lee Daniels' The Butler enters the marketplace clearly hoping to be a sweeping, feel-good Oscar contender. Drawing comparisons to Forrest Gump and The Remains of the Day, this drama is certainly moving, but it also feels too rush to be the exhaustive survey of the black experience in the 20th century that it's aspiring to be. I weigh the films pros and cons in my Screen International review.
As you probably know, Breaking Bad ends its run of episodes starting this Sunday. For my Culture Club column at Playboy, I wanted to write about how the show tackles masculinity. My thesis is that just about every guy on Breaking Bad is caught up in his own obsession about being "a real man" -- and that such a hangup quite often proves fatal. Hope you enjoy.
(Update: Will Leitch and I chatted about Breaking Bad at length for the Sports on Earth podcast. You can hear it here.)
The fine drama Museum Hours is working its way across the U.S. slowly but surely. After making its debut in New York at the end of June, the film (about a museum guard and a woman visiting her cousin in the hospital) will arrive in Los Angeles on August 16, but it'll be opening in several cities this weekend. If it comes to your neck of the woods, do check it out. I explain why in my Paste review.
I've been rooting for Jason Sudeikis's film career for a while, and I'm somewhat cheered by We're the Millers, his latest starring vehicle. But, geez, it sure is a pedestrian comedy, although it can be quite funny in parts. My review is up at Deadspin.
About a month ago, David Ehrlich wrote a terrific piece, "The 50 Best Criterion Collection Releases," which highlighted a bunch of really beautiful DVD and Blu-ray sets from Criterion. (The above image is taken from that article.) I looked at Ehrlich's list, gazed at all those gorgeous covers, and thought.... "Why don't I want to buy any of these?" That inspired my latest Culture Club column for Playboy, in which I analyze my misgivings about owning DVDs. It should go without saying that these misgivings are mine and mine alone: I know plenty of film lovers who have tons of DVDs on their shelves, and obviously I don't have any problem with that. But for me, well, I make my case here.
When Bridesmaids came out a few years ago, it was hailed as a triumph for women comics, the movie's success supposed proof that the female-driven broad comedy was just a viable as the raunchy bromances that had dominated the industry for a while. Since then, I've become less and less enamored by this new strain of comedies where the gals just act like immature guys. This is progress? I lament this new trend over at Playboy.
I was watching a little of Martin Scorsese's Life Lessons the other day, and I was reminded that it made such great use of "A Whiter Shade of Pale." Here's the song's original video -- Wikipedia has plenty of interesting information about it.
The latest installment in my series "The Greats" for Paste is devoted to director Michael Haneke. If he's not the most acclaimed and revered international filmmaker alive today, he's definitely in the conversation. Here's my appreciation.
I was never that much of a fan of director Neill Blomkamp's first film, District 9. It featured an incredibly clever aliens-as-disenfranchised-minorities conceit that quickly devolved into yet another big sci-fi action shoot-'em-up. Blomkamp's new film, Elysium, again marries political commentary and large-scale action. This time around, though, the action is pretty stupendous while the social critique is only so-so. My review is up at Screen International.
The Smurfs 2 is really bad, it's going to make a lot of money anyway, and there's nothing you can do about it. Well, you can read my Paste review -- but that still won't do anything.
2 Guns is the sort of movie they don't make much anymore, which I imagine will get it praised more than it should. A dark, down-and-dirty B-movie thriller, the film stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as tough-talking law enforcement officers -- one DEA, one Naval intelligence -- that have to square off with crooked cops and scary drug lords. Proudly rated R, 2 Guns is as nasty as it wants to be. Is that enough? I reviewed the film for Screen International.
The To Do List has one really good thing going for it, and that's Aubrey Plaza in the lead. As for the movie as a whole? Well, my IFC Fix review gets into that.
Maybe it's just human nature, but one of the stupider things I do sometimes is pick a person to "support" when celebrity couples break up. When Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman split, I was immediately on her side. (Why? I guess because she seemed like the aggrieved party. I had no facts to back that up.) When Paul Thomas Anderson and Fiona Apple called it quits years ago, I confess I was probably pro-Fiona. This was in part because her first album after the split, Extraordinary Machine, was flat-out terrific: I assumed (and I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking this way) that the kiss-off songs were about him.
Since they presumably still run in the same circles, I was curious if they ever bumped into each other and what that was like. Why I spend a single moment thinking about such things is a subject for another day, but I will say that -- again, for stupid reasons -- it pleased me to see her new video, "Hot Knife," which was directed by Anderson. It's absolutely striking -- one of the best distillations of a song's particular greatness in purely visual terms. (It boils down to the slow introduction of the song's spare elements, including those interwoven vocals.) Anderson's fans will be hard-pressed to explain how the video plays into his filmic oeuvre, but you could argue that, like with There Will Be Blood and The Master, it focuses on a dangerously driven main character. But that's a stretch -- although it is less dumb than rooting for one person over another in celebrity breakups.
In his very idiosyncratic rating system, music critic Robert Christgau included a designation for "Neither." This breed of forgettable albums, he explained, "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't." The Wolverine is a "neither" movie: It's perfectly competent, but also incredibly uninteresting. I can't say I hated it, but I also can't say I felt strongly one way or the other about it. My review is up at Deadspin.
"Because I like him so much and want only good things for him, I wish Ryan Reynolds would start choosing better movies to be in -- or at least be a little more selective." Thus began a comment from a friend of mine about R.I.P.D., the action-comedy that tanked over the weekend. I agree 150 percent: He's a funny, likeable guy who can't seem to stumble into a good movie. (It's like Channing Tatum stole the career he should have had.) For IFC Fix, my latest Bomb Squad column tries to get to the bottom of why R.I.P.D. failed so spectacularly at the box office. Here's what I came up with.
Recently, Jay-Z released Magna Carta Holy Grail, which received pretty mediocre reviews. The album has its flaws, but for my Culture Club column at Playboy, I examine how the record is the artist's attempt to grapple with adulthood, a subject that mainstream hip-hop is just now embracing. You can read the piece here.
(Also, yes, I'm refusing to call him Jay Z. I like the damn hyphen.)
Blue Jasmine is Woody Allen's best movie since Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Cate Blanchett is just terrific in it, but so is Andrew Dice Clay, which might surprise you. I reviewed the film for Deadspin.
I'm happy to announce a new column I'll be doing for Paste. It's called "The Greats," and it celebrates film icons -- actors, directors, cinematographers, you name it -- who are 70 or older. The rationale behind the column was simple. Whenever any giant of the movie industry dies, Twitter would immediately be full of folks reminiscing about the deceased's greatness -- and then eventually someone would tweet, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if we appreciated these people while they were still alive?" So that's what I'm doing. I'll write this column every other week, and I hope you enjoy.
First up is the man who I once lobbied to receive our annual Career Achievement award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Sadly, I wasn't persuasive enough, but no matter: He's a legend. Ladies and gentlemen, here's my salute to cinematographer Gordon Willis.
I almost never buy remastered, re-released anniversary editions of classic albums. (My philosophy: I bought the album the first time, and I probably don't need the detritus that comes with the fancy new package.) But I may break with my long-standing policy for the 20th-anniversary edition of In Utero. To this day, the album gets my juices flowing, starting with its opening track, "Serve the Servants." Just love those guitar sounds.
If there had been no Men in Black III last year, I think people would be more interested in R.I.P.D., which is essentially "Men In Black but with dead people." Jeff Bridges' and Ryan Reynolds' fans will recognize glimpses of the charm that each actor naturally exudes, but the movie on the whole is a stinker. It's not terrible or a disaster -- it's just kinda boring. My review is up at Screen International.
(By the way, I realize I didn't even bother discussing in my review one of the film's central jokes: Bridges and Reynolds' characters, who are dead, appear to the living as, respectively, Marisa Miller and James Hong. It's such a dumb bit I totally forgot all about it.)
The Act of Killing has gotten pretty consistently good reviews across the board, but I think I'm the first person to call it a surreal, nightmare version of The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time. (It's nice to be known for something.) My review of this stark, shocking documentary is up at Paste.
Stumbled across this song for the first time in forever recently. Sounded really good on a lazy, warm weekend summer night. Nowadays, Maxwell seems like a sweeter, less complicated version of the Weeknd, which isn't a criticism as much as it is an observation. As far as I'm concerned, it's nice to have both of them around.
So, I go to Sundance this year, see a bunch of movies, and still end up missing the U.S. Dramatic Competition winner. That would be Fruitvale Station, which opens on Friday in select cities. I think it can be a bit wobbly dramatically on occasion, but it's still rather affecting. My review is up at Paste.
For the latest installment of my Culture Club column for Playboy, I stick up for The Newsroom, which may not be great but is certainly better than the vitriolic reviews it received last year. With the new season starting on Sunday, I argue that the show's strengths and weaknesses are all wrapped up together in one undeniable package. (And, I should note, I've seen none of Season Two yet.) Hope you enjoy.
If Adam Sandler felt the burning desire to make a sequel to one of his movies, I guess I'm glad it was Grown Ups. (And, by the way, I'm not counting films like Punch-Drunk Love and Funny People, which aren't part of his Happy Madison stable of starring vehicles.) Grown Ups is pretty sophomoric, but it's got a lot more spirit and sweetness than, say, That's My Boy. With that said, though, Grown Ups 2 may be the worst thing he's ever done. I survey the wreckage over at Paste.
(By the way, look at how sad Nick Swardson looks in this photo. Poor guy.)
Pacific Rim is being advertized as a Transformers-meets-Godzilla behemoth, and that's exactly how it plays. Frankly, I wish it was even more that way: When director Guillermo del Toro lets the carnage fly, the movie can be quite stunning. Unfortunately, other times the movie lets characters talk, and that's really boring. I reviewed Pacific Rim for Screen International.
OK, fine, you're probably sick of mid-year lists by this point. But here are Will's and my Top 6 movies of 2013. We had four movies in common, which probably means something. Here's my writeup -- and if you want a more extensive list of my favorites so far, go here. What movies from the first half do I need to catch up on? Several: The Attack, A Hijacking, Caesar Must Die, In the House, Much Ado About Nothing, Something in the Air, The Unspeakable Act, You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet....
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, a documentary about the Memphis power-pop group, will delight their fans. (And if you see it in a theater, hearing "September Gurls" through high-quality speakers will no doubt be fantastic.) It's a little soft-focus in its approach, but I'm sure the folks who want to see the movie already won't mind one bit. My review is up at Paste.
Film critic Todd McCarthy had a great line about the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, calling the second film, Dead Man's Chest, "a slot machine that gobbles up the public's money while giving little back, and, somehow, people don't mind." I thought of that line constantly while watching The Lone Ranger, which reunites a lot of the Pirates personnel, including star Johnny Depp and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. I think people are going to mind this time, though. This movie is a real stinker, as I explain in my Screen International review.
(Update: If you are in need of more of me spouting off about this film, I talked about its faults with Will Leitch over at Deadspin.)
Alan Myers died this week. A former drummer for Devo, he appeared on the band's bestselling record, Freedom of Choice, which contained the title track and "Whip It." In fact, the "Whip It" video ends on him. He was 58.
I can't quit you, Jason Statham. You're so fun to watch onscreen, but your movies constantly disappoint me. And yet, I keep hoping that you'll justify my faith in you.
Alas, his latest, Redemption, is more of the same, although it's more of a drama than his usual action-thrillers. I reviewed the film for Paste.
If nothing else, White House Down is better than Olympus Has Fallen. But despite a game Channing Tatum, this is a pretty generic blow-stuff-up-good summer blockbuster. I sift through the wreckage over at Deadspin.
A fan of Neil LaBute's since the In the Company of Men days, I've been less enamored with his recent work. Nevertheless, I like his latest. Some Girl(s) started out as a play, and now it's been made into a film written by him but directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer. It stars Adam Brody as a man on the cusp of marriage who decides to visit each of his significant ex-girlfriends in order to apologize for the way he treated them. What kind of guy is he? The only clues we get are what we see in his exchanges with these women. It's an intriguing exercise that works -- except for the ending, which I don't spoil in my Paste review.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Film Festival revealed this year's prize winners, which included audience awards and jury prizes. (You can see all the winners here.)
I was part of the short film jury with Sandi Tan and David Fenster. Before the festival, I had not met either of them, but I couldn't have asked for better folks to spend a few days watching and debating movies with. We had such a fun time.
As for our picks, we were pretty much in complete agreement, and I'm quite pleased with our choices. Below are the descriptions we wrote for our winners....
Best Animated or Experimental Short
Several
of the animated shorts at this year's festival were inventive and
startling, but our winner was a truly exceptional piece of work. This
humorous, moving and ultimately sublime short tells a story of life,
death, and rebirth with wobbly thighs, vomit, breastfeeding, space
travel and bunny rabbits … all against the backdrop of a nudist colony.
The winner of Best Animated or Experimental Short is Oh Willy...
Best Narrative Short
Great
storytelling comes in many different forms, and like an ancient koan,
our winner is deceptively simple and surprisingly playful. It features
the epic odyssey of one man, seemingly poised against the forces of
modernity as he advances--silently, deliberately--from day to night,
from tiny alleys to towering skyscraper avenues, across the frenetic
city of Hong Kong. At journey's end, we, too, are transformed by the
sweet moment when denial morphs into glee: Walker from Tsai
Ming-Liang.
Best Documentary Short
Documentaries
can expose us to the world's harsh realities, but they can also reveal
the beauty and mystery of the everyday. The latter is very true in the
case of our winner for Best Documentary Short, which is only seven
minutes long
but is filled with character detail and suspense. Consisting of only
one shot, this short introduces us to an unnamed street hustler as he
bets onlookers that they can't find the ball hidden underneath one of
three caps, our winner is filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson's Stone.
I've been a fan of Kevin Jerome Everson's for a while now, so I was glad to see him win the documentary prize from my jury. (However, I was sad to miss his The Island of St. Matthewsduring the festival.) Picking such an unconventional (but striking) narrative entry was not something we did to be provocative -- we simply liked Walker that much. And as for Oh Willy..., it was my favorite short of the entire festival. Directors Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels have come up with something rather wondrous. I sincerely hope it's in the running for Best Animated Short at next year's Academy Awards. It's good enough to win, easily. Here's a taste:
Inspirational true stories are catnip for movie producers: When done well, these sorts of movies can be incredibly uplifting, an emotion that audiences can't get enough of. But when done badly.... Sadly, the latter is the case with Life of a King, a well-meaning movie about an ex-con named Eugene Brown (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) who got out of prison and helped at-risk youth by teaching them chess, a sport that helped him while in the slammer. Noble intentions for a movie, to be sure, but the execution isn't so good. My review is up at Screen International.
One of the better horror films in a while, The Conjuring may be familiar in its contours, but its execution really is something else. Endlessly tense and filled with good performances, the movie could be a summer sleeper. I reviewed the film for Screen International.
Modern Vampires of the City has gotten plenty of great reviews, but since it came out around Cannes, I didn't really have much of an opportunity to listen to it. Happily, my daily trips to and from the Los Angeles Film Festival gave me a chance to really absorb the record. I'm perhaps not quite as high on it as its most ardent supporters, but it's darn strong.
The song I keep going back to is "Hannah Hunt," which in the old days would have been the end of side one. It's sorta perfect in that slot: I always think of that spot as where a band puts a song that's maybe not necessarily a grabber but, rather, one that takes a little bit of concentration. (Then, when you flip over to side two, you get nailed with a surefire, instant smash.)
"Hannah Hunt" is more of a short story, one that starts with a weird observation about plants' ability to move and then segues into snapshots of a cross-country road trip between a young couple that seem to be having unexpressed problems. Nothing is quite spelled out, but it's all there. I imagine a lot of 15-year-old aspiring film students are already imagining whole screenplays inspired by this four-minute track.
Plus, I love how the drums kick in near the end. Gets me every time.
After being in a bit of a slump, Pixar rights the ship, somewhat, with Monsters University. (Of course, a "slump" is all relative: Their last two films, Cars 2 and Brave, combined to bring in about $1.1 billion worldwide.) The new film, a prequel to Monsters, Inc., is consistently funny and likeable, which isn't the same as great. My review is up at Deadspin.
In honor of This Is the End, I started thinking about other movies that make light of the end of the world. Stanley Kubrick made one such movie, and Bill Murray has starred in a couple of 'em. You can read my findings at IFC Fix.
When is a horror movie not really a horror movie? When it's Berberian Sound Studio, a psychological drama that's about a sound engineer (Toby Jones) who finds himself working on a low-rent horror movie in Italy in the 1970s. But as we'll soon learn, something seems to be amiss. Or is it all in his head? This is the follow-up film from writer-director Peter Strickland, whose Katalin Varga (I'm proud to say) the Los Angeles Film Critics' Films That Got Away committee programmed a few years ago for the Los Angeles Film Festival. That movie was darn good; Berbrian Sound Studio is even better. My review is up at Paste.
I was quite flattered to be asked by David Ansen to serve on the shorts jury for this month's Los Angeles Film Festival. In the last few years, one of my favorite annual traditions has been writing about the Oscar-nominated shorts, which gave me a fresh appreciation for condensed, innovative storytelling. So to be on this particular jury is a treat.
I'll be joined on the jury by author/filmmaker Sandi Tan and filmmaker David Fenster. (You can read more about Ms. Tan here and Mr. Fenster here.)
It's going to be a fun time, and I'm much looking forward to it. For the full announcement of all the juries, here you go. And if you're in Los Angeles, seriously, attend the festival. You'll be glad you did.
I can't remember the last movie that made me laugh as hard and as often as This Is the End. It's really silly and vulgar and occasionally just nutso. So, yeah, good stuff. My review is up at Deadspin.
If nothing else, Man of Steel is big. It's epic and huge and overpowering, and it just knocks you over with its sheer spectacle. But, in the final analysis, I just don't think it's that great, although it certainly has its moments. My review is up at Screen International.
Earlier this year, the big news in Indie Rock Land was the much-anticipated release from My Bloody Valentine, MBV. Now that the hype has died down, I'm gonna start listening to the album again. It was hard to process the record amidst the breathless online proclamations from music critics, but hopefully now I can hear its merits with the proper perspective. I confess I was a little underwhelmed back during those initial spins, but I always loved "New You."
Later today, I'm going to be seeing Man of Steel, a movie I'm quite excited to see. (Although I've always preferred Batman to Superman, c'mon, he's still Superman.) I got to thinking about Superman Returns, a movie that (to my mind) doesn't deserve the reputation it's received over the years. Maybe it wasn't a big enough hit, and maybe it has its flaws, but I have a fondness for Bryan Singer's reboot attempt. Over at Deadspin, I defend the film to the best of my abilities.
As much as I liked Wedding Crashers, I'm not sure if I was necessarily pining for a follow-up film from its leads, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. Eight years later, they're back together in The Internship. Maybe it would have been better if they'd just done a straight-up Wedding Crashers sequel? I reviewed the film for Deadspin.
Watching The Purge, I was trying to think of another movie that was so crippled by its very premise. I have no problem suspending my disbelief if I think it will lead to a rich experience. (I'm a fan of Compliance, after all.) But this horror-thriller starring Ethan Hawke starts off with a conceit that I simply didn't buy -- and never could buy as the movie rolls along. The Purge imagines an America less than 10 years in the future that allows its citizens to murder each other for exactly one 12-hour period each year. The lack of logic in that dooms the entire film. My review is up at Screen International.
For IFC Fix, I'm starting a column where I do a quick, service-y rundown of each month's film comedies. In June, you've got everything from This Is the End to Much Ado About Nothing to I'm So Excited! I even tell you a little something about a film called Syrup. Here's this month's column.
