Thursday, August 10, 2017

The Little Hours (2017)

We laughed long and hard at this bawdy, sacrilegious send-up of bad nuns and others in the 14th century, based on stories from Boccaccio's Decameron. Aubrey Plaza, Kate Micucci, and Alison Brie are hilarious as the nuns (last blogged for Safety Not GuaranteedDon't Think Twice, and Sleeping with Other People, respectively). Dave Franco (most recently in Now You See Me 2 and Brie's real-life husband) does a stalwart job as straight man, playing a servant to Nick Offerman (last in The Hero) and Lauren Weedman (new to me, she is someone to watch, based on her imdb profile).

We also have John C. Reilly (most recently in The Lobster), Molly Shannon (Other People), Fred Armisen (227 episodes of Saturday Night Live, 69 of Portlandia, and four of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, to name a few, and a cameo in The Dictator), Paul Reiser (played it straight in Whiplash), and Jemima Kirke (before she was in 53 episodes of Girls she was in Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham's debut movie). I must also mention the sweet gray-furred donkey in the opening sequence. Watch as it enjoys getting groomed by Plaza in a later scene.

Director/writer Jeff Baena (wrote I Heart Huckabees (2004), directed and wrote two others I didn't see) is the life partner of Plaza and is another one to watch.

I so wish I could stream the score, but can't find it online. It included madrigal-style singing, including one song written by medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen, whose work has been performed by my chorus. I did find the soundcloud page of Dan Romer's (scored Beasts of the Southern Wild) other scores and am listening to it now, interrupted by the same commercial repeatedly.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are too lukewarm, averaging 76 and 69%. People like Jack and me will love it. It played briefly in these parts by will be available for digital download and DVD release on September 22, 2017. Check it out then.

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