Being Flynn (2012)

Jack and I liked this story of 30 year old Nick Flynn (Paul Dano) searching for meaning in his life and finds it when his estranged father Jonathan (Robert De Niro) shows up to stay at the homeless shelter where Nick works. Quite a departure from the paycheck collaboration between De Niro (last mentioned in these pages in Limitless) and director Paul Wietz in Little Fockers (Weitz is profiled in the latter post), this allows De Niro and Dano (the latter most recently in Cowboys & Aliens) to stretch dramatically, as they are both wont to do. 

Adapted by Weitz from the memoir written by the real-life Nick Flynn, Another Bulls**t Night in Suck City, you'll feel the pain, the cold, and the hurt of son, father, and mother (Julianne Moore (Crazy, Stupid, Love. last year) in flashbacks). Then we have the dependable talents of Olivia Thirlby (No Strings Attached) and Lili Taylor (my favorites: part of the ensembles in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994) and 25 episodes of Six Feet Under (2002-05), Mystic Pizza (1988), Say Anything... (1989), Household Saints (1993) which won her an Independent Spirit Award, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), High Fidelity (2000), Casa de los Babys (2003), The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), and Starting Out in the Evening (2007)). Thirlby's Denise has my favorite line, "It's hard to stay changed." (This spoiler-laden review--read after you've seen the movie--says she didn't say it, but I maintain she did.) For fans of Showtime's Homeland, Chris Chalk (played Tom Walker on that show) is one of Nick's roommates. Dale Dickey (won an Independent Spirit Award for Winter's Bone) makes an appearance early on and I predicted correctly her character would return since she's a little bit of a big deal.

Damon Gough, using the stage name of Badly Drawn Boy, provides the soundtrack, as he did for the Weitz Brothers' About a Boy (2002). You can listen to clips here. I made a note on my phone that I counted 13 songs in the credits, but since there are 15 listed above, it's probably my mistake.

Critics haven't been kind to this one: 54% on rottentomatoes with audiences weighing in at 64, but Jack and I think it's better than that, somewhere in the 80s. You can read a lot about it on the movie's official website, but probably better to wait on that, too, if you dislike spoilers as much as I. Just don't let the critics spoil your enjoyment of this drama, as there's a lot to like.

Haywire (2011)

We saw this two weeks ago at a second run theatre, thinking we shouldn't miss something directed by Steven Soderbergh (profiled in The Informant!, then made Contagion). This story of a female ex-marine fighting for her life against double-crossers is pretty good, but not great like his other work. Mixed martial arts star Gina Carano stars as Mallory (her second feature) and apparently she did lots of her own stunts. She's fine at acting sexy, angry, and/or tricky. Supporting work is provided by (in credits order) Michael Angarano (last in these pages in The Art of Getting By), Channing Tatum (I didn't mention him in my posts on Battle in Seattle, Public Enemies, or The Dilemma, and avoided his more syrupy or juvenile fare--he does seem to have the ability to do good work), Michael Douglas (more on him in A Solitary Man and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), Antonio Banderas (favorites listed in The Skin I Live In), Ewan McGregor (most recently in Beginners), Michael Fassbender (profiled in Shame), Bill Paxton (before he played Bill Henrickson in all 53 episodes of Big Love I liked him a lot in True Lies (1994) as The Other Man, astronaut Fred Haise in Apollo 13 (1995), the first dinner guest in The Last Supper (1995)--you must see this sick and twisted dramedy, the tornado chaser in Twister (1996), the submarine captain in Titanic (1997), and Billy Bob Thornton's smarter brother in A Simple Plan (1998)), and more.

The screenplay is by Lem Dobbs, who did the honors for Soderbergh on The Limey (1999), for Frank Oz on The Score (2001), and a few others. There's a lot of property damage, dead bodies, and Carano is fun to watch running (she takes off her high heels in one sequence). Also, there are plenty of gorgeous location shots in Ireland, New Mexico, rural New York state, and other places meant to be Barcelona (I've been to Las Ramblas, and it looked real), Mexico, and Mallorca. As usual, Soderbergh was behind the camera as cinematographer, under the pseudonym Peter Andrews, and the editing bank, under the pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard. Lovers of action movies should get this on netflix or cable after it's released May 1. Critics on rottentomatoes gave it 80%, but audiences only 42. Jack and I are somewhere in the middle.

Wanderlust (2012)

We enjoyed this lightweight, entertaining, bit of fluff, with the dependable Paul Rudd (as George) and lots of sight gags, about a down-on-their-luck New York couple who move to an old fashioned hippie commune. Jennifer Aniston also does a good job as Rudd's character's wife Linda, as does her real-life boyfriend Justin Theroux as the commune leader Seth. After I profiled Rudd in Dinner for Schmucks he was in How Do You Know and Our Idiot Brother, and here he gets to stretch a bit towards a leading man, though his usual nerd comes out in two hilarious scenes with some foul language; Aniston is detailed in The Switch, after which she was in Horrible Bosses, and her Linda is her usual lovable ditz on which she made her reputation so long ago. Aniston and Theroux (his only recognition is a nomination for being part of the outstanding cast in one season of HBO's Six Feet Under, which I loved; he's been in a bunch of other things, including The Baxter (2005), a good indie comedy) met during this movie, and his Seth is a hoot, so stuck in the 80s that he thinks a Walkman is new technology. The commune, called Elysium, includes Alan Alda (profiled in Tower Heist), Malin Akerman (Happythankyoumoreplease), Kathryn Hahn (covered in Our Idiot Brother, then co-starred in a short-lived series Free Agents), Joe Lo Truglio (supporting roles in Free Agents, another short-lived series Sons of Tucson, The Baxter, and tons of little parts in various similar projects--more on that in a moment) as the nudist (apparently he wore a prosthetic penis in his scenes), and Lauren Ambrose (before every episode of Six Feet Under, I liked her in a lovely little indie, Swimming (2000), and afterwards as the sultry student in Starting Out in the Evening (2007)) as a glowing young pregnant woman named Almond. Jack identified Linda Lavin (star of the series Alice (1976-85) as soon as she appeared in a cameo.

Director/co-writer David Wain, who has a cameo as himself, wrote, directed, and acted in Role Models, The Ten (2007), and a series called The State, plus a small part in The Baxter. I didn't see the latter two, but much of the cast here was in both of them. Co-writer Ken Marino (all four preceding credits) is funny as the obnoxious brother Rick, and he and Wain did a good job with the script, although it seems that there's a lot of good ad-libbing. I must also mention Michaela Watkins (you would know her face from dozens of bit parts, including as Matthew's crazy girlfriend on The New Adventures of Old Christine on CBS and one of the bitchy co-workers on Enlightened on HBO) as Rick's beleaguered wife Marissa.

Craig Wedren, part of a band called Shudder to Think, wrote the music, is on screen as a band member in this and I Love You, Man (which also starred Rudd), composed for the four titles in the last paragraph, as well as some other movies that are so packed with songs that no one will remember the scores, e.g. Velvet Goldmine (1998) and The School of Rock (2004), and some memorable scores to memorable projects: High Art (1998), Laurel Canyon (2002) (I loved both of those), and the sadly now-cancelled serieses United States of Tara from Showtime and Hung from HBO. You can read the list of songs and link to clips from this page, and learn more about Wedren from his own website.

Jack and I saw this in early March and it's the first movie I've written about that was released this year--one of the disadvantages of living in a fly-over state. Don't be like other people in the fly-over states and leave before  the end, because there's a bonus!

Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)

Jack, Marcia, Hugh, and I loved this little independent movie about a slacker, his brother, and their mother searching for meaning in their lives. Though our local paper saw fit to publish a bad review from wire services and wrote a new, mean-spirited headline, plenty of our fellow audience members laughed and cried, and rottentomatoes gives it 73% critics/71% viewers.

As Jeff, Jason Segal (detailed in The Muppets) gives us the perfect blend of hopeless and hopeful as he puts down the bong and ventures forth from his mother's basement. In fact, hopeless plus hopeful also describes the characters of his brother Pat, played with energy by Ed Helms (after I wrote about him in The Hangover he was in Cedar Rapids and The Hangover Part II), and their mother Sharon, an actual grown-up portrayed by Susan Sarandon (detailed in The Lovely Bones, then was in A Solitary Man and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps). I wrote about the directing/writing team of brothers Jay and Mark Duplass in Cyrus, and they clearly have the brother dynamic down pat, so to speak. Also featured are Judy Greer (the Other Man's wife in The Descendants) and Rae Dawn Chong (the daughter of Tommy Chong of Cheech & Chong fame, she has been working fairly steadily since her more memorable roles in the 1980s, but I didn't recognize her, even in Cyrus).

The lovely music, by Michael Andrews, is, like his Cyrus soundtrack, not available online. You can hear a loop of some of the themes on the movie's official website. If you have a myspace account (I got one when Amy was in middle school), you can listen to some nice songs of his on his myspace page. And here's a list of the five other songs listed in the credits.

My post on Cyrus reminds me that the Duplass brothers' first feature The Puffy Chair (also about brothers) had a lot of handheld camera work like this one does. So my advice to those prone to motion picture motion sickness: sit near the back of the room. I couldn't, and had to cast my eyes down from time to time to keep from getting nauseous. That being said, you should definitely leave home to see this one.

Friends with Kids (2011)

Jack and I both liked this rom-com about straight best friends, female and male, who, after they see their friends' marriages suffer from having children, decide to have a baby together and continue dating other people (Jack didn't respond in the negative when I asked if it's a chick flick). The directing debut of Jennifer Westfeldt (who stars and wrote the script, as well as having co-written and starred in Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) and wrote alone and starred in Ira & Abby (2006)--I didn't see the latter, but it's noteworthy that her character is in the title of each), it's good fun. Her character resembles Jessica Stein in that she is confident in her intelligence, single and unhappy about it, and willing to go to unusual lengths to pursue her dream, in this case, having a baby with her friend rather than holding out for Mr. Right. Mr. Right Now is played by Adam Scott (I wrote about him in The Vicious Kind, but since then he's best known to most as Ben, Leslie's boyfriend, in 40 episodes of Parks and Recreation) and Westfeldt and he have great chemistry together as Julie and Jason. Their hapless married friends, all of whom were in and written about in Bridesmaids, are well-played by Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd (whose Irish accent is gone here) as Leslie and Alex and Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm (who has been Westfeldt's real-life romantic partner since 1998) as Missy and Ben. Pin-up girl/actress Megan Fox (I didn't mention her when I wrote about How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, but she was definitely in it--here's a sexy photo; I haven't seen any of her other movies or TV shows) plays a woman Jason dates--Ben calls her a funny name in the ski lodge scene--and she's good as the beautiful, bitchy narcissist. Julie also gets to date someone gorgeous: Edward Burns (I loved The Brothers McMullen (1995), which he directed, wrote, and starred, and it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance; he's done the same with 9 other features, including She's The One (1996) and Sidewalks of New York (2001); and he's done quite a bit of acting in other projects, including Saving Private Ryan (1998) and a series arc as himself on Entourage).

Twelve producers are listed, not many for this day and age, but I mention it because they include Westfeldt and Hamm (in a new production company together), Jake Kasdan (last in these pages for directing Bad Teacher), and Mike Nichols (whom I heard on NPR the other day--can you believe he's 80 years old? Here's a link to read about him and you can also play the podcast;  I loved most of the movies Nichols directed: The Graduate (1967), Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Silkwood (1983), Heartburn (1986), Working Girl (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Regarding Henry (1991), The Birdcage (1996), Primary Colors (1998), and Closer (2004) which I mentioned in my post on The Vicious Kind).

On imdb the composer is listed as Marcelo Zarvos (scored both of Westfeldt's previous movies plus a long list that includes The Door in the Floor (2004), Hollywoodland (2006), The Good Shepherd (2006), What Just Happened, Sin Nombre, Please Give, and The Beaver) but on the screen we also saw the group The 88 credited as composers and this list includes five of their songs. No soundtrack appears to be for sale, but I counted 24 songs in the credits (not including Mildred and Patty Hill's Happy Birthday), although this list has only 11, with an overlap of two from the above, including It's a Lot.

Entertainment, not entirely fluff, for a girls' night or a date, this is something you will probably enjoy. It's playing right down the street.

Oscar-nominated Shorts (2011)

We saw the animated and live action ones a week or so before the Oscar telecast. Here's a link to the whole series. All five of the live action ones are great, and no surprise that 30 minute long The Shore (Northern Ireland) was the winner, as it has Irish movie star Ciarán Hinds (last mentioned here in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) in it. From Republic of Ireland there is Pentecost, a funny 11 minutes about a rebellious altar boy. Raju, from Germany and India, is 24 minutes, about a German couple adopting an Indian boy--no laughs, but good. Tuba Atlantic (Norway) is a wonderful black comedy, 25 minutes, about an old man at death's door and his big, giant tuba. Tied for our favorite with Tuba Atlantic is Time Freak (USA), another black comedy, featuring a frizzy-haired guy I've seen on many commercials as the neurotic inventor of a time machine.

For the animation, no surprise that The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (USA) won, as it is fanciful and creative (the whole 17 minutes is available for now on youtube). We liked best, however, A Morning Stroll (United Kingdom), which is a little bit sick and twisted. It packs a lot into its 4 minutes. All that's online is a 39 second trailer, although the music is for sale on iTunes. In fact all the trailers are on the first link in this paragraph.

You can still catch these shows (note, there are two summarized here, plus a third with the nominated documentary shorts is available), with extras, at movie theatres listed on this page.

A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin - 2011)

Jack and I liked this melodrama, the first Iranian picture to win an Oscar (Best Foreign Film), about a couple separating and life throwing a lot of curveballs at them. The situations could easily be here--other than the mom wanting to live in another, unidentified, country to give their daughter a better life (and some of my friends have said that if the election in November goes the wrong way, they'll be feeling that way right here, too). Shot in bustling Tehran, and very talky, considering the subtitles, it is easy to follow though packed with plot. There's really only one laugh in it, but it's not remotely a comedy. I did wonder, what with the beauties playing the mother Simin (Leila Hatami) and the housekeeper Razieh (Sareh Bayat), why the girl cast as the daughter Termeh isn't as gorgeous, and the reason is this: she (Sarina Farhadi) is the daughter of the director/writer Asghar Farhadi (his screenplay was Oscar-nominated, and the movie also won Best Foreign Film at the Critics Choice, Golden Globes, Independent Spirit Awards, Cannes, and more). And, for all we know, she may grow up to be lovely as the others, but in the movie she is an awkward adolescent. It took me most of the movie to figure out who the adorable little girl, Kimia Hosseini, playing Razieh's daughter Somayeh reminded me of, but I finally got it: Madeline Martin from Californication (here is Martin on the left), and on this link, Kimia is in the 15th photo and Sarina the 11th. Note that the names of the husband and wife, Nader and Simin, are in the literal Iranian title, but I don't know what the rest of it means. I haven't seen anything by the players in the movie, so my usual parenthetical histories are missing, but all of the acting is good, including the men: Peyman Moadit as Nader, Shahab Hosseini (no relation to Kimia) as Razieh's husband Hodjat, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi as Nader's father with Alzheimer's, and Babak Karimi (apparently better known as a film editor) playing the magistrate/judge/interrogator.

Although most of it was shot with a handheld camera, it didn't make me sick, and I'm quite sensitive to that technique, so no worries for those similarly afflicted. Do make a point of seeing this at your local theatre before it's gone.