Jack and I really wanted to love this story of a slacker trying to get her life together but, alas, found it wildly uneven. With a female director/writer, great cast, and fantastic artsy location shots in Austin TX, its mood swings from funny and dirty to pathos are nonetheless hard to take.
Noël Wells (she played Aziz Ansari's love interest in the first season of Master of None, among other credits) does good work as the heroine Zoe, as does Josh Radnor (last blogged for Liberal Arts, in which his character also hooks up with a younger woman) as Paul. The scenes with Zoe and her best friend Claire, played by Carly Chaikin (I saw her in a few episodes of Suburgatory and laugh when I think about her character name, Excruciating, in the hilarious In a World...) are also very good.
Here's my analysis of what went wrong. The fact that Zoe's love interest Paul is married is supposed to be funny. But his wife is absolutely miserable. We were not amused. Aya Cash, who plays Paul's wife Jane, stars in the FX series You're the Worst (49 episodes there plus small parts in some other things we've seen) and Jack and I are big fans. In You're the Worst, Cash's character is bipolar, and when she gets depressed, the scripts move gracefully back into comedy. In this script, Jane is completely devoid of humor, and it's miserable to watch her.
This is Theresa Bennett's directorial and solo screenwriting debut after co-writing two other features. The movie looks terrific and has many good moments but I'm convinced she needs seasoning. Oh, now I'm reading that the crew was primarily women, which makes me feel even worse that I didn't love it. Does that make me sexist? Probably.
Comedian Fortune Feimster (six episodes of Life in Pieces and much more) apparently does a fair amount of improvising, including laughing a lot at her own jokes (she's in the bonus after the credits). Imdb has inexplicably given Samira Wiley (51 episodes of Orange Is the New Black, Cash's character's psychiatrist in five of You're the Worst, and the past and upcoming season of The Handmaid's Tale) top billing despite only a few scenes, I've submitted a correction, trying to get Wells, Radnor, and Cash to the top and Wiley moved down.
I can't find any music from the soundtrack online, but composer Greg Bernall (his feature debut) does have a website with some tunes. If you look for this movie online, be sure you don't pick the documentary or the band of the same name.
Rotten Tomatoes' audiences, averaging 86%, are a lot more enthusiastic than its critics at 43. This is available now for rent or sale (hmm) on iTunes and Amazon, though we saw it in a theatre. I'd like to hear from others who see it so we can discuss. Just please don't post any spoilers on this page. Instead, write me at babetteflix at gmail.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017)
We kind of liked this crazy sci-fi romantic comedy about a 1977 London high schooler obsessed with punk music who falls in love with an alien. Alex Sharp (Tony award winner for originating The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) plays the boy, named Enn (short for Henry), as smart and shy. He and two friends crash a party teeming with performance artists, worth the price of admission alone. Elle Fanning is well cast as the wide-eyed innocent alien called Zan, and Nicole Kidman is fun as punk performer Queen Boadiciea (Bo-da-CEE-a) (both women were last blogged for The Beguiled).
Director/co-writer John Cameron Mitchell (most recently helmed Rabbit Hole and wrote Shortbus (2006) after Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)) and co-writer Philippa Goslett (two other co-writing gigs) didn't so much adapt the 2007 award-winning short story by Neil Gaiman as jump off from it. You can read the whole story here.
The youtube playlist has sixteen songs, the spotify album has nineteen, and the imdb soundtrack list has 30, only a few of which are by the credited composers Nico Muhly (last scored Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Jamie Stewart, whose band Xiu Xiu is credited. The sound of this movie is full of fury and it's well done, as is the look.
However, Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average of 47% is only slightly better than its audiences at 44. As of today you can rent or buy it on iTunes and Amazon. I recommend waiting for free streaming on netflix or whatever, just in case. And, right on the screen at the end, you can read the promise: No aliens were harmed in the making of this film.
Those suffering from MPMS, or Motion-Picture-Motion-Sickness, should take precautions, due to crazy camera moves. See the complete list here.
Director/co-writer John Cameron Mitchell (most recently helmed Rabbit Hole and wrote Shortbus (2006) after Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)) and co-writer Philippa Goslett (two other co-writing gigs) didn't so much adapt the 2007 award-winning short story by Neil Gaiman as jump off from it. You can read the whole story here.
The youtube playlist has sixteen songs, the spotify album has nineteen, and the imdb soundtrack list has 30, only a few of which are by the credited composers Nico Muhly (last scored Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Jamie Stewart, whose band Xiu Xiu is credited. The sound of this movie is full of fury and it's well done, as is the look.
However, Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average of 47% is only slightly better than its audiences at 44. As of today you can rent or buy it on iTunes and Amazon. I recommend waiting for free streaming on netflix or whatever, just in case. And, right on the screen at the end, you can read the promise: No aliens were harmed in the making of this film.
Those suffering from MPMS, or Motion-Picture-Motion-Sickness, should take precautions, due to crazy camera moves. See the complete list here.
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Jack and I, with no objection to slapstick plus gore, enjoyed this bloody, profane, hilarious sequel in which our anti-hero turns out to be not as bad a guy as he thinks, all the while breaking the fourth wall and playing sappy songs.
All returning from the original (and last blogged for) Deadpool are Ryan Reynolds as the title character, Morena Baccarin as wife Vanessa, T.J. Miller as Weasel the bartender, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, and more. New this time are Zazie Beetz (ten episodes of Atlanta as the baby mama Van) as Domino, Josh Brolin (most recently as villain Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War) as villain Cable, teenaged Julian Dennison (new to me) as Firefist, and Rob Delaney (I have seen all three seasons of the comedy Catastrophe, in which he stars as well as writes, and am thrilled it's been renewed on Amazon) in a small funny part as Peter, among others. Apparently Reynolds picked Delaney after watching Catastrophe.
The first Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick worked on the script with Reynolds but, although this sequel was announced three days before the release of the first one in 2016, that director was eventually replaced by stuntman David Leitch, who has co-directed one feature and directed one more before this.
There are lots of songs (listed here), many sappy, to supplement the score by Tyler Bates (last composed for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) and you can stream a half hour of the soundtrack from this link.
With a Rotten Tomatoes critics' average of 83%'s and audiences at 86% (likely self-selected, i.e. apt to like it if they picked it), we urge you to self-select as well. Gauge your tolerance for murderous mayhem and go if you don't mind it.
PS (added July 7): The bad news: the Stan Lee cameo in this movie is but a painted wall. The good: a month later, he can be seen and heard about 3/4 of the way through Ant-Man and the Wasp.
All returning from the original (and last blogged for) Deadpool are Ryan Reynolds as the title character, Morena Baccarin as wife Vanessa, T.J. Miller as Weasel the bartender, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, and more. New this time are Zazie Beetz (ten episodes of Atlanta as the baby mama Van) as Domino, Josh Brolin (most recently as villain Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War) as villain Cable, teenaged Julian Dennison (new to me) as Firefist, and Rob Delaney (I have seen all three seasons of the comedy Catastrophe, in which he stars as well as writes, and am thrilled it's been renewed on Amazon) in a small funny part as Peter, among others. Apparently Reynolds picked Delaney after watching Catastrophe.
The first Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick worked on the script with Reynolds but, although this sequel was announced three days before the release of the first one in 2016, that director was eventually replaced by stuntman David Leitch, who has co-directed one feature and directed one more before this.
There are lots of songs (listed here), many sappy, to supplement the score by Tyler Bates (last composed for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) and you can stream a half hour of the soundtrack from this link.
With a Rotten Tomatoes critics' average of 83%'s and audiences at 86% (likely self-selected, i.e. apt to like it if they picked it), we urge you to self-select as well. Gauge your tolerance for murderous mayhem and go if you don't mind it.
PS (added July 7): The bad news: the Stan Lee cameo in this movie is but a painted wall. The good: a month later, he can be seen and heard about 3/4 of the way through Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)