Movie Review: Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad *** / *****

Directed by: Brian Taylor.

Written by: Brian Taylor.

Starring: Nicolas Cage (Brent Ryan), Selma Blair (Kendall Ryan), Anne Winters (Carly Ryan), Zackary Arthur (Josh Ryan), Robert T. Cunningham (Damon Hall), Olivia Crocicchia (Riley), Lance Henriksen (Mel Ryan), Marilyn Dodds Frank (Barbara Ryan), Samantha Lemole (Jenna). 

 

There is a scene in Mom and Dad in which Nicolas Cage sings the Hokey Pokey, while destroying a pool table with a sledge hammer – and in the timeline of the movie, this is BEFORE he is infected with a strange virus that makes him – and every other parent – want to murder their children – preferably in some brutal and bloody fashion. Mom and Dad is some sort of strange mixture of satire, comedy and horror – and it the movie begins by being way over the top, and then just tries to top itself again and again and again. In Cage, the film found the only actor who could really pull this off. What’s odd about the film – what I think ultimately makes it work – is that every so often the movie does slow down, to show you another side of Cage’s Brent, and his wife Kendall (Selma Blair) – instead of being just a completely over-the-top bloodbath.

 

The film takes a little bit of time setting things up. Brent and Kendall are suburban parents to teenager Carly (Anne Winters) and 10 year old Josh (Zackary Arthur). Like all suburban parents in the movies, they aren’t really that happy – he trudges off to work at a job he doesn’t really like, she is dealing with the fact that her kids don’t need her as much anymore – and her daughter openly insults her. The movie doesn’t waste too much time before some sort of strange outbreak happens – which gives parents the uncontrollable urge to murder their children. Most of the movie happens at the family house – with the kids locked in the basement, and the parents trying inventive ways to get them – and a boyfriend of Carly who gets knocked out repeatedly, but regains consciousness at just the right moments.

 

The film takes more than a few missteps along the way – the biggest may well be in the character of the family maid – an Asian American woman, who is little more than a stereotype, used to add in a little more bloodshed. The film also seems to be hinting at bigger ideas at times, and then backs off to back to the looniness. It mainly works, but there are hints at a better movie than Mom and Dad ultimately ends up being.

 

The film was written and directed by Brian Taylor – one half of the Nelvedine and Taylor duo, whose films include the god-awful Crank films, offensive and violent films in which Jason Statham has to keep his heart rate up or else he’ll die. I hated the Crank films for their nihilism and misogyny – but you do have to admit that the films had energy. He brings that energy to parts of Mom and Dad as well – particularly in the back half of the film, as things spin wildly out of control, and they get some unexpected visitors that bring things up a notch.

 

The reason to see the film is mainly Cage and Blair. Cage can, and will, go wildly over-the-top at all times, and he does so here. But unlike many of his recent films, it works here – there is a reason for it, and the movie requires him to do so. Oddly though, it’s Blair who is more the center of the movie – she’s the one who keeps things grounded. Cage and Blair have a nice chemistry together – particularly in the more serious scenes – like right after Cage destroys that pool table, where the pair of them wonder what exactly happened to their life.

 

Mom and Dad is a demented satire – another look at suburban life, and home empty it can be. It doesn’t really add anything that Hitchcock, Lynch of Solondz hasn’t done – but it’s done it all in such a demented and over-the-top entertaining way that it should become a cult hit – particularly among parents with a black comedic streak. We may not actually want to kill our children, but we all relate to Cage’s final moment here.

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Movie Review: Game Night

Game Night **** / *****

Directed by: John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.

Written by: Mark Perez.

Starring: Jason Bateman (Max), Rachel McAdams (Annie), Kyle Chandler (Brooks), Sharon Horgan (Sarah), Billy Magnussen (Ryan), Lamorne Morris (Kevin), Kylie Bunbury (Michelle), Jesse Plemons (Gary), Michael C. Hall (The Bulgarian), Danny Huston (Donald Anderton), Chelsea Peretti (Glenda), Camille Chen (Dr. Chin).

 

I’m not quite sure when major studios forgot how to make great, smart, mainstream comedies aimed at adults but they basically have. Most mainstream comedies have a few laughs, but not much else, as they rely on big personalities and juvenile jokes about bodily fluids and sex to be funny, and they hardly ever are. I assumed from the previews that Game Night would be another of those movies – another film like Fist Fight or Central Intelligence or any number of other comedies that had enough jokes to fill a trailer, but not enough to sustain a movie. Boy, was I wrong. This is the best mainstream, goofy studio comedy I have seen in a long, long time.

 

The basic premise is simple – ultra-competitive married couple Max and Annie (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams) host a weekly game night for their friends – married couple Kevin and Michelle (Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury) and charming womanizer Ryan (Billy Magnussen), who brings whatever clerk from La Senza or Forever 21 he’s currently dating. They used to invite the couple next door, but they got divorced, and the woman moved out – leaving just her creepy cop husband Gary (Jesse Plemons) behind – who longs to be re-invited back, but isn’t. Things get stranger with the return of Max’s brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) – who is more successful in almost every way than Max, the golden child, who says they should have game night at the mansion he’s renting. This will not be a regular game night though – he’s kicked it up a notch, by staging a would be kidnapping game – where he will get kidnapped, and the others have to find him. So when armed men break in, and kidnap him, the rest of them are not fazed – although, of course, it turns out to be a real kidnaping, and the three couples (this time Ryan with Sharon Horgan’s Sarah – much smarter than most of the girls he has dated) head out to try and find him, only gradually realizing what is really happening.

 

I will fully admit that the setup sounds like it would make for a silly, not all that good comedy – but the film is all about the execution here. For one thing, the film is perfectly cast – particularly Bateman and McAdams who have real chemistry together, and make an unexpectedly great comic team. For another, the screenplay by Mark Perez is actually quite smart, in pushing things past the point of ridiculousness, but still maintaining some semblance of a real world. Oddly, the film takes as its inspiration David Fincher’s underseen, under rated 1997 film The Game, including the sibling rivalry aspect between Michael Douglas and Sean Penn, and takes that aspect seriously enough that you feel it, but not so seriously that it derails the film. Credit also has to be given to director John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who do a lot more than most comedy directors – who seem happy enough to point their cameras at moving stars being goofy and leave it at that. There is a dynamic sequence as a house party that crosses Fight Club with Eyes Wide Shut, and an egg being thrown around that is hilarious, and shot in a way to give it maximum energy.

 

The film never really steps wrong – every time you think it’s going to, it comes up with a new strange way to go, a new twist that sends it off in another direction, while never losing comic momentum. The whole cast is great – each of the couples have their own comic energy that works. Special mention should be given to Rachel McAdams though, who shows once again that in another time and place (say, the 1990s) she would have become the biggest female star in the world, with her excellent comic timing and delivery, she is just endlessly great here and Jesse Plemons, who continues to be one of my favorite character actors working, and here steals the movie with his every line delivery (my favorite? “How would that be profitable for Frito Lay?”).

 

We need comedies like Game Night – as ultimately silly and inconsequential as the film is. The film is pure fun from beginning to end – and isn’t the type of comedy that makes you feel silly or stupid about for laughing afterwards. This is great studio comedy – something I thought no longer existed.

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Movie Review: Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Will Gluck.

Written by: Will Gluck & Rob Lieber based on the book by Beatrix Potter.

Starring: James Corden (Peter Rabbit), Domhnall Gleeson (Mr. McGregor), Rose Byrne (Bea), Margot Robbie (Flopsy), Daisy Ridley (Cotton-tail), Elizabeth Debicki (Mopsy), Sam Neill (Older Mr. McGregor), Sia (Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle), Colin Moody (Benji), Vauxhall Jermaine (Jackson), Terenia Edwards (Siobhan).

 

It’s very easy to be cynical about children’s entertainment – and Hollywood normally gives you no reason not to be. They are basically stuck in a cycle now of taking a property that people will recognize the name of, and then making the same kind of crass, crude entertainment they always do, just with a few recognizable names. Once in a while, you get something as magical as Paddington (or it’s even better sequel – and why haven’t you people made that wonderful film the biggest hit of 2018 so far), but more often than not, you get something like Peter Rabbit. It isn’t a horrible movie by any means – and in general, my kids and the other kids in the audience, seemed to enjoy it. But it’s busy and loud, and have far too many jokes that will be dated by the time the film comes out on home video. There is a reason why Beatrix Potter’s books are still being read more than 100 years later – and a reason why this film is likely to be forgotten very soon.

 

To be fair to the film, I don’t think it’s as bad as the initial previews led many to believe. Yes, there is some hip hop birds and singing, but the film has at least some respect for Potter’s original story in its opening sequence, when Peter (voiced by James Corden), his triplet sisters (Margot Robbie, Daisy Ridley, Elizabeth Debicki – three very talented actresses who I cannot tell apart in this film) and their cousin Benji (Colin Moody) as they raid Old McGregor’s (Sam Neil) farm. From there, of course, the film has to spin out a larger tale to fill the time, so they end up bringing in a younger Mr. McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) – who wants to sell the place, and needs to fix it up first, even as he falls for the neighbor, Bea (Rose Bryne) – who loves the rabbits that he despises.

 

If there is a reason to see Peter Rabbit, it is Gleeson, who throws himself into the role with a lot more glee and commitment than most actors do in this sort of film. He is doing expert level physical comedy – pratfalls and mugging to the camera, and makes you believe he would have been an excellent comedian in the silent era. Bryne is sweet as Bea, but I wish they gave her something – anything – else to play other than sweet.

 

Corden, I think, is the wrong choice for Peter Rabbit. He comes across as too brash, too obnoxious, too modern. He takes over in a weird way, and isn’t very likable. I know this is part of the point – strangely, I think the film takes Wes Anderson’s Rushmore as an example, of two males warring over a woman – one who can never get her, and one who is lying to her – but that also ends up going against Bea’s initial point about the rabbits – which is that they are animals, just their following animal instincts. Strangely, this is the second children’s film of 2018 – after Paddington 2 – that made me think of both Wes Anderson, and silent comedians. Paddington 2 did so in a much, much better way (seriously, why didn’t more of you go see Paddington 2).

 

Overall, Peter Rabbit isn’t a painful experience. It’s kind of fun at times, and Gleeson and Neil seem to be having a blast, which helps a great deal. Is it cynical, disposable entertainment? Yes. But not everything can be Paddington.

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Movie Review: A Futile and Stupid Gesture

A Futile and Stupid Gesture ** ½ / *****

Directed by: David Wain.

Written by: Michael Colton & John Aboud based on the book by Josh Karp.

Starring: Will Forte (Doug Kenney), Martin Mull (Modern Doug, the Narrator), Domhnall Gleeson (Henry Beard), Thomas Lennon (Michael O'Donoghue), Joel McHale (Chevy Chase), John Gemberling (John Belushi), Matt Walsh (Matty Simmons), Rick Glassman (Harold Ramis), Jon Daly (Bill Murray), Seth Green (Christopher Guest), Matt Lucas (Tony Hendra), Paul Scheer (Paul Shaffer), Lonny Ross (Ivan Reitman), Neil Casey (Brian McConnachie), Armen Weitzman (Lorne Michaels), Jackie Tohn (Gilda Radner), Natasha Lyonne (Anne Beatts), Emmy Rossum (Kathryn Walker), Camille Guaty (Alex Garcia-Mata), Joe Lo Truglio (Brad), Erv Dahl (Rodney Dangerfield), Annette O'Toole (Doug’s mother), Elvy Yost (Mary Marshmallow).

 

If you’re going to make a film about National Lampoon in general, and one its founders Doug Kenney specifically, than director David Wain would seem like a good choice. While I’m not as big of a Wain film as many (sorry, I though Wet Hot American Summer was pretty bad, and other than Role Models, I haven’t much liked his other movies either) – but his films have the irreverent spirit that I think you may well need to make film about this group of people work. Yet, it ends up not working at all – because the screenplay takes such a conventional approach to Kenney’s life, rushing through his time in college right up until his death in his mid-30s – in about 100 minutes, essentially doing what all, conventional, boring biopics do and play like an assembly of greatest hits. Worse, the film takes some dark twists and turns, and Wain seems incapable of going there – the tone remains light and superficial throughout, even during bouts of depression, drug use and (maybe) a suicide. For a subject that is clearly a passion for all involved, you would think they would treat unconventional subjects in an unconventional way – not here.

 

The film follows Doug (Will Forte) from his time at Harvard, where he and best friend Henry Beard (Domhnall Gleason) do the Harvard Lampoon, and take to great heights, to the pair of them founding the National Lampoon magazine in the early 1970s, through its various incarnations and journeys, through Animal House and Caddyshack, drug abuse, marriages and friendships collapsing, etc. It’s less than a 20 year stretch, but it moves so quickly that we never get much of a handle on anything. In a weird, narrative device, the film casts Martin Mull as an older version of Doug Kenney to narrate the film, and comment on the action (it’s even stranger if you don’t know Kenney’s fate before watching the movie, as it comes out nowhere).

 

To be fair, I don’t think the movie is ever boring. Forte is good as Kenney, and Gleeson is even better as Beard – he has a dry wit about him that works here. The film casts a lot of well-known stars of today as well-known comedy stars involved in National Lampoon – and while none of them really look like the people they’re playing (with the exception of Lonny Ross as Ivan Reitman) or even sound much like them, the movie makes an amusing joke about this and moves on. The best of these performances is probably Joel McHale playing his Community co-star Chevy Chase. They didn’t much like each other on that TV show apparently, but McHale isn’t doing a hit job here (the film, I don’t think, is particularly nice to Chase either). No, he doesn’t try to look or sound like Chase, but he nails his physical movements in an amusing way.

 

What the movie really lacks is focus. The film introduces us to multiple characters, and then basically drops them without allowing them to do anything. We meet Kenney’s first wife – who is introduced as if she’s going to be his great love, and a major part of the story, and then she’s basically just gone. A second woman, who enters his life later (Emmy Rossum) isn’t given much to do either. Wain is never able to figure out how the handle the darker turns in the movie either. While there has always been a debate about whether Kenney’s death was an accident or a suicide, I think the movie makes its opinion clear it was a suicide – and yet, it pretty much comes out nowhere.

 

In short, I think there is enough about A Futile and Stupid Gesture that I liked that I wish it was better at just about everything it does. A film like this should work a lot better than it does – instead, this film is amusing in fits and starts, but doesn’t really go anywhere.

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Movie Review: Paddington 2

Paddington 2 **** 1/2 / *****

Directed by: Paul King.

Written by: Paul King and Simon Farnaby based on Paddington Bear created by Michael Bond.

Starring: Ben Whishaw (Paddington), Sally Hawkins (Mary Brown), Hugh Bonneville (Henry Brown), Julie Walters (Mrs. Bird), Hugh Grant (Phoenix Buchanan), Brendan Gleeson (Knuckles McGinty), Michael Gambon (Uncle Pastuzo), Imelda Staunton (Aunt Lucy), Madeleine Harris (Judy Brown), Samuel Joslin (Jonathan Brown), Jim Broadbent (Mr. Gruber), Tom Conti (Judge Gerald Biggleswade), Peter Capaldi (Mr. Curry), Richard Ayoade (Forensic Investigator), Noah Taylor (Phibs), Dame Eileen Atkins (Madame Kozlova).

 

In terms of family movies, nothing in recent years came as much as a pleasant surprise as 2014’s Paddington – an endlessly sweet, charming and funny film about the famous bear, from darkest Peru, who comes to London and finds a family and happiness. That film remains one of the best of its kind in recent years – and its sequel, Paddington 2, beats it in every conceivable way. Paddington 2 may just be the film we need right now – with its endless optimism, and the title character mantra “If you’re kind and polite, the world will be alright”. The film itself isn’t overtly political, and yet it becomes impossible to watch it, and not see it as a rejection of Brexit and Donald Trump. The film is a reminder that not everything in this world is dark and horrible – as much as it sometimes seems like it is.

 

In the film, Paddington is determined to get the perfect birthday present for his Aunt Lucy – because it’s not every day a bear turns 100 after all – and when he sees a one of a kind pop-up book in an antique store, he knows he has found the perfect gift. It costs a lot of money though – so Paddington sets about trying to make it. His plan is foiled though because he tells Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), a once famous actor, about the book – and he wants it for himself, for nefarious purposes. Through a series of events too complicated to mention, Paddington ends up arrested, and thrown into prison for stealing the book – but Paddington being Paddington, he quickly makes friends with all the inmates, as the Brown family sets about trying to prove his innocence.

 

There are few films I have ever seen that are as sweet as Paddington 2. The film is pure goofy fun pretty much from beginning to end. Director Paul King really outdoes his work from the previous film here. Much of the film’s visual look feels like a nod to Wes Anderson – the love of miniatures and pop-up books, the design of the prison (and the prison uniforms) – but there’s lot of other influences filtered in here as well – from Chaplin’s Modern Times to Keaton’s The General, and a whole lot else. Hugh Grant gives perhaps the best performance of his career as Phoenix – he’s in full Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets mode here, and he is an utter delight from beginning to end. Ben Whishaw, who often plays creepy characters, turned out to be the most utterly perfect choice to play Paddington imaginable.

 

The film is, simply put, a joy to behold from beginning to end. It’s not often I rave this much about a movie about a talking bear, and still think I’ve undersold it – but that very well may be the case here. The first highlight of the 2018 movie year is clearly this film, which I loved unashamedly.

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Movie Review: A Polka King

The Polka King *** / *****

Directed by: Maya Forbes.

Written by: Maya Forbes & Wallace Wolodarsky.

Starring: Jack Black (Jan Lewan), Jenny Slate (Marla Lewan), Jason Schwartzman (Mickey Pizzazz), Jacki Weaver (Barb), Vanessa Bayer (Binki Bear), J. B. Smoove (Ron Edwards), Robert Capron (David Lewan).

 

The story The Polka King tells won’t be surprising to anyone who has seen as many episodes of American Greed as I have (whether they did one on this story or not, I don’t know – but its right up their ally). A seemingly nice guy starts taking donations from elderly people he knows, promising high interest returns on their money. Then, of course, he has to start taking in more and more money from more and more investors in order to keep the scheme going. It’s a classic Ponzi scheme, and those all come crashing down eventually, because they must. A few things make the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Jan Lewan different – first, he was a Polish immigrant, second he seems like a legitimately nice guy, third he didn’t spend money on a lavish lifestyle for himself, and fourth, he was a well-known figure in Pennsylvania because of his Polka music. He really wanted the American dream – he just couldn’t get it the legal way.

 

The movie detailing his story is more than a little bit of a tonal free-for-all, and seems to be lacking in some very basic details about what Lewan did, and how (the biggest may well how he really did get his tour group to meet the Pope). It is buoyed by a number of energetic performances however, that keep the film from ever getting boring. Front and center is Jack Black as Jan Lewan himself – a big goofy smile plastered on his face, as he fronts his Polka band, and basically while he does everything else in his life. He is a devoted husband to Marla (Jenny Slate), who loves him, and has delusions of grandeur to match him, and father to their son David. Everyone it seems like Jan, except his mother-in-law Barb (Jacki Weaver) – going even more over-the-top than anyone else in the film (which is saying something) – who doesn’t trust him for a minute. Even the government agent who shuts down Lewan’s initial scheme (JB Smoove), likes the guy – and basically forgets about for years, after Jan convinces him he shut down his illegal investing business. Jan has that effect on people – you really be a criminal.

 

The film is directed by Maya Forbes, who struggles a little bit with the tone of the film, which is more often than not as big and broad as Black’s Jan Lewan himself. Mostly, that works, but the film takes some darker twists as it moves along – as it must – and Forbes struggles to find the right notes there. The last act of the movie is a mess in many ways – not least because it doesn’t feel like anyone is all that concerned with the details of what Lewan did.

 

Still, the film is mostly an interesting watch for the performances alone. Black is capable of doing this type of character in his sleep – Lewan fits in nicely alongside a performance like the one he gave in Richard Linklater’s Bernie (his career best work) – but he goes all in, as does Slate, especially as she tries to become a beauty queen, and Weaver. Jason Schwartzman is a nice counterbalancing performance – everyone else goes big, so he goes small – even as he explains how he wants to change his name to Mickey Pizzazz.

 

The Polka King does succeed in telling an odd story that you probably wouldn’t believe if someone made it up. It’s weird and strange, and while I don’t think it’s altogether successful, it’s an entertaining attempt at making a Polka version of The Wolf of Wall Street – and you probably aren’t getting that anywhere else.

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Movie Review: Downsizing

Downsizing *** / *****

Directed by: Alexander Payne.

Written by: Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor. 

Starring: Matt Damon (Paul Safranek), Christoph Waltz (Dusan Mirkovic), Hong Chau (Ngoc Lan Tran), Kristen Wiig (Audrey Safranek), Rolf Lassgård (Dr. Jorgen Asbjørnsen), Ingjerd Egeberg (Anne-Helene Asbjørnsen), Udo Kier (Konrad), Søren Pilmark (Dr. Andreas Jacobsen), Jason Sudeikis (Dave Johnson), Maribeth Monroe (Carol Johnson), Neil Patrick Harris (Jeff Lonowski), Laura Dern (Laura Lonowski), Niecy Nash (Leisureland Salesperson), Margo Martindale (Woman on Shuttle), Kerri Kenney (Single Mom Kristen). 

 

Up until Downsizing, director Alexander Payne has mainly specialized in small, intimate comedies – often about lonely people on the sidelines, just trying to get in. Films like Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants and Nebraska. With Downsizing, Payne tries to expand that formula – make it bigger, and more all-encompassing than ever before. This is a film so full of ideas that you have to admire it for its sheer ambition. And yet, a lot of this doesn’t work. There are too many ideas floating around in the film, and none of them are really explored in any detail. The film also takes some weird turns as it moves along, and gets more confused as it does so.

 

The basic premise of the film is that in the near future, scientists will discover a way to shrink people down, to about the size of mice. Those who choose to shrink are doing a favor to the environment – they produce far less waste – and get to live like kings, since their money goes a lot farther. Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), lives and works in Omaha, Nebraska (of course), as an occupational therapist, and is married to Audrey (Kristen Wiig). They decide to downsize – but after Paul get the (irreversible) process done, he finds out Audrey backed out at the last minute. He was miserable in his old life, and now even more so in this one. Eventually he will meet two people that make him see things differently – his upstairs neighbor, Dusan (Christoph Waltz), and a cleaning lady, Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), who was a Vietnamese dissident, who underwent the downsizing procedure as punishment for her political actions.

 

In many ways, Paul is a classic Alexander Payne character. He’s a white, middle aged guy from Nebraska, who feels stuck and unhappy in his life. That could describe Matthew Broderick in Election or Will Forte in Nebraska, and hey if you ignore either the location or age Paul Giamatti in Sideways or George Clooney in The Descendants or Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt. Yes, Alexander Payne loves his sad sack white guys. Damon is more than capable to play one of these characters – part of Damon’s appeal is his blandness and normalcy. Yet, here, unfortunately Payne gives him both too much and too little to do. Damon has to drift from one scene to the next, and oftentimes, it feels like he’s in a different movie in each of those scenes. Yet, his character remains stubbornly bland. This may well work if those around him were more colorful, but other than Waltz, Chau and (briefly) Udo Kier, no one really makes an impression. Waltz and Kier are great fun as wealthy, Eurotrash (although in the third act when they all of a sudden have a conscience, I was confused) – but there’s not much else to them other than that.

 

Then there is Hong Chau as Ngoc Lan Tran. On one level, hers is the best performance in the film and the most interesting character. On the other, she is basically there to help the white guy along his path to self-realization, and speaks with a pretty offensive accent the whole way through. Enough shines through so that you can see just how talented Hong Chau is – and she really makes the character work a lot better than it has any right to – but it still remains rather offensive at times.

 

Through the course of Downsizing, Alexander Payne and company essentially throw everything at the wall, and see what will stick. To their credit, the film runs well over two hours, and I was never once bored by it. It has so many ideas, how could you be? And Payne, who is often criticized for not being the most visually inventive of directors, really does do some great things here. And yet, the film never really comes together, never coheres into anything. It’s a weird mishmash of everything that never quite works, even if you admire the effort.

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Movie Review: The Disaster Artist

The Disaster Artist **** / *****

Directed by: James Franco.

Written by: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber based on the book by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell.

Starring: James Franco (Tommy Wiseau), Dave Franco (Greg Sestero), Seth Rogen (Sandy Schklair), Alison Brie (Amber), Ari Graynor (Juliette Danielle), Josh Hutcherson (Philip Haldiman), Jacki Weaver (Carolyn Minnott), Zac Efron (Dan Janjigian), Hannibal Buress (Bill Meurer), Nathan Fielder (Kyle Vogt), Sharon Stone (Iris Burton), Melanie Griffith (Jean Shelton), Paul Scheer (Raphael Smadja), Jason Mantzoukas (Peter Anway), Megan Mullally (Mrs. Sestero), Casey Wilson (Casting Director), Randall Park (Male Actor), Jerrod Carmichael (Actor Friend), Bob Odenkirk (Stanislavsky Teacher), Charlyne Yi (Safoya), Bryan Cranston (Bryan Cranston), Judd Apatow (Judd Apatow).

 

It is entirely possible that had The Disaster Artist never been made that I would have spent my life never have seen Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. I, of course, long ago heard about Wiseau’s 2003 film – now legendary as the worst film ever made, a cult hit at midnight screenings, etc. – but I have never been one of those people who watch movies that “so bad, they’re good”. For the most part, I just think those movies are bad – and I don’t much enjoy watching them, nor do I particularly like watching something while holding myself deliberately above it – as if I am better than the film being watched. Yes, it could also be because I don’t much like midnight screenings in general and my days of getting drunk and watching movies with friends to laugh at them are long behind me. But because of The Disaster Artist – which got great reviews out of TIFF – a couple of months ago, I did sit down to watch The Room one night. Yes, it was past midnight, but I was alone in my basement, and stone cold sober. It really was horrible, and I really didn’t have any fun watching it. It was painful – as I knew it would be. Still, now having seen – and thoroughly enjoyed The Disaster Artist – I can safely say that I am glad I saw The Room – and also safely say I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again. The Disaster Artist though – I may well watch that again.

 

The film, directed by and starring James Franco as Wiseau, is similar to another film about the supposed worst film ever made – Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994) – which mainly centered on the title character as he made Plan 9 From Outer Space. Both films certainly have a fair amount of fun at their protagonist’s expense – yet the reason why both films works is that mainly the films have a genuine affection for them as well. The films they made were horrible – but dammit all, these guys went for it, and delivered, well, something anyway.

 

As Wiseau, Franco gives his best performance since Spring Breakers. It doesn’t matter that he’s too young to play Wiseau (or maybe, he isn’t, since Wiseau never does say how old he is) he completely nails the strange, Eastern European accent Wiseau claims is from New Orleans, the weird mannerisms and body language, etc. He also gets into Wiseau’s head, and is brilliant at portraying a man with complete and utter lack of self-awareness. How utterly out of it do you have to be to make a film like The Room – and do it completely straight, as if you really are making a dramatic masterpiece to rival Tennessee Williams?

 

Franco casts his brother Dave as Greg Sestero – the other lead in The Room, and Wiseau’s friend. This makes it a little weird, since there is barely subdued homoerotic subtext between Wiseau and Sestero (all one way), but Dave Franco excels at playing this bland, handsome everyman – who goes along for the ride, even if he kind of knows it’s leading nowhere. The supporting cast is filled with famous faces perhaps too filled, although I don’t know who I’d cut. The movie charts the making of The Room – a disaster in itself, and is out and out hilarious for the most part. The movie really only gets dark in one scene – a sex scene, where director/actor Wiseau goes too far.

 

The film really is a delicate balancing act. Go too far, and the film may just come across as a bunch of famous people mocking the guy who made this legendary disaster. Go too soft, and it feels like you’re pulling your punches. I haven’t like Franco the director before – but I think he, his cast and the excellent script walk that fine line just about perfectly. This film in the end will do nothing except bolster the reputation of Wiseau, and The Room – which is really all he ever wanted.

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Movie Review: I, Tonya

I, Tonya **** / *****

Directed by: Craig Gillespie.

Written by: Steven Rogers.

Starring: Margot Robbie (Tonya Harding), Sebastian Stan (Jeff Gillooly), Allison Janney (LaVona Golden), Julianne Nicholson (Diane Rawlinson), Paul Walter Hauser (Shawn Eckhardt), Mckenna Grace (Young Tonya Harding), Bobby Cannavale (Hard Copy Reporter), Bojana Novakovic (Dody Teachman), Caitlin Carver (Nancy Kerrigan), Jason Davis (Al Harding), Anthony Reynolds (Derrick Smith), Ricky Russert (Shane Stant).

 

You can say a lot of things about Tonya Harding – most of them, not flattering – but you have to admit that she really was close to having one of the greatest underdog sports stories ever. She grew up poor, with abusive or absent parents, got married very young – to a man who may well have abused her as well, and was still, at one point, one of the very best figure skaters in the world. While her competitors got to focus on nothing other than skating, she had to work, and deal with an insane family. None of this excuses what happened – but it certainly makes her interesting. She really is the reason why “the incident” became such a massive media event – and she’s the reason why it’s remembered. Nancy Kerrigan is better remembered for that incident than anything else – which is completely unfair to her, but also true. She’s boring – Harding most definitely is not.

 

I, Tonya is probably the best feature film version of this story that you could ask for – and it’s done in the perfect style for it. The vast majority of the action takes place in the early to mid-1990s, so director Craig Gillespie basically decides to make a film directly from that era. You can see a lot of GoodFellas-era Scorsese influence, a little Coen brother mixture of mockery and humanity, and a lot of Gus Van Sant’s To Die For in the film as well. What happens in the film is so insane you would never in a million years believe it, if it was not true. But – of course – it is.

 

Margot Robbie plays Harding, and it’s a performance that once and for all should prove to everyone just how good she is (I was convinced after The Wolf of Wall Street – and in general, I don’t think she’s been bad in anything, even if the movie sucked). Yes, she’s too old to play Harding starting at 15, but you get over that pretty quick. This is a brash performance – mixing humor with humanity, and more than a healthy dose of self-delusion (Harding never thought she was responsible for anything, ever). The film requires a lot of Robbie – and she carries it well. As her infamous husband/manager Jeff Gilloly, Sebastian Stan is quite good as well – looking awful with a horrible mustache, the film has him flash between sweetly dim, and violent and abusive (the film is structured like a documentary, with various people telling their stories, and then we see those scenes, so you get different version of the people). The best performance in the movie belongs to Allison Janney as Harding’s mother LaVona – you wouldn’t say that she humanizes her – LaVona is clearly a monster, abusive, belittling and controlling, but you get to see what makes her tick. The various guys involving in the actual crime are all convincingly played as a gaggle of idiots – none more so than Paul Walter Hauser as Gilloly’s best friend Shawn – the “body guard and international terrorism expert”. He is hilarious in every scene he’s in.

 

I, Tonya does a great job at walking that fine line between mockery and simply portraying its characters. It would be easy to mock many of them – they are not smart, they are delusional, and from 25 years in the future, the dress and style themselves horribly. The film is certainly funny – it has to be given everything that happens – but it also positions itself well in terms of explaining why this story caught the way it did back then – and what that may mean about us today. The film never gets overt about it – but we see what the story that knocked Harding out of the headlines was, and we know what that means – and we see what she did in later years. She was a reality TV star before reality TV.

 

The film is also, it must be said, just extremely entertaining – an absolute blast from beginning to end. If you’re going to make a film about this subject, you have to fully embrace its inherent sleaziness – and this film does just that. It’s a film that keeps you laughing while watching it – and only really sinks in later.

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Classic Movie Review: Winter Kills (1979)

Winter Kills (1979)

Directed by: William Richert.   

Written by: William Richert based on the novel by Richard Condon.

Starring: Jeff Bridges (Nick Kegan), John Huston (Pa Kegan), Anthony Perkins (John Cerruti), Eli Wallach (Joe Diamond), Sterling Hayden (Z.K. Dawson), Dorothy Malone (Emma Kegan), Tomas Milian (Frank Mayo), Belinda Bauer (Yvette Malone), Ralph Meeker (Gameboy Baker), Toshirô Mifune (Keith), Richard Boone (Keifitz), David Spielberg (Miles Garner), Brad Dexter (Captain Heller One), Michael Thoma (Ray Doty), Ed Madsen (Captain Heller Two), Irving Selbst (Irving Mentor), Chris Soldo (Jeffreys), Byron Morrow (Secretary of State), Elizabeth Taylor (Lola Comante), John Warner (President Tim Kegan).

 

Winter Kills is a strange movie that was made at just the right moment for it, and yet for some reason, didn’t connect. The film is ostensibly a paranoid thriller, made at the end of the decade in which paranoid thrillers were at their peak, and yet is really a straight faced comedy – it’s thriller elements so silly that they cannot be believed, although no one in the movie lets in that they’re in on the joke. The film should have been perfect for 1979 audiences, and yet the film was a commercial failure at the time. It’s gained a cult following since, yet watching the film, I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching a relic of a previous era, who time had come and gone. I hate using the term dated to describe old movies – yet it’s undeniable that some movies are made for their time, and don’t work outside of it. Winter Kills is that type of movie.

 

The film stars Jeff Bridges as Nick Kegan, the beach bum half-brother of the former American President, killed by an apparent lone gunman nearly 20 years ago. An ex-con confesses to Nick, while on his deathbed, that he was he second gunman that day – and he was hired by an organization he did not know. Nick goes to his powerful father, (John Huston) with the information, who doesn’t want to hear it – but Nick will not give up. He starts a country spanning investigation, meeting people in all walks of life related to his brother, and a possible conspiracy – but as he unravels the plot, the people he meets with keep getting murdered by unknown killers.

 

You could hardly ask for a better cast for a film – Bridges, Huston, Anthony Perkins as an all-powerful Wizard of Oz type character, Eli Wallach as a gangster, Sterling Hayden as a powerful businessman, only seen riding around in a tank, Dorothy Malone as Bridges semi-out there mother, and Elizabeth Taylor, who never speaks, but wanders around looking Elizabeth Taylor. That doesn’t even mention small roles by Ralph Meekler, Toshiro Mifune and Tomas Milian – the film becomes a spot the star cameo game throughout, as these stars come out, have a scene or two, and then disappear. They keep the film watchable, and somewhat enjoyable.

 

But the film never quite finds the right tone – this film was required to walk the razor edge between plausible thriller and satiric comedy, and doesn’t really commit to either. It’s at its best in the most absurd scenes – like Huston’s introduction, accompanied by a large of rich men, who come riding in on golf carts, as if they are an invading army. The film also work in the background more than the foreground – like the presence of a ping pong table at the last place you would expect to see one, which undercuts the seriousness of the scene it’s in.

 

The ultimate problem with Winter Kills is that it doesn’t work as a comedy, a satire of a thriller. It wants to be a paranoid thriller – it is from the author of one of the best ever made, The Manchurian Candidate, but it doesn’t take its premise seriously (if you think about it, The Manchurian Candidate itself is a silly premise – they just sell the hell out of it). But it never quite nails the more satiric or comedic side ether. I could see the film working better in 1979 – having sat through a bunch of these types of films the preceding decade or so, perhaps it better hit those comedic targets. Watching it now through, it doesn’t really work. There’s a lot of talent involved in Winter Kills, and it is a very strange film – it just doesn’t add up to that much.

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Movie Review: Brigsby Bear

Brigsby Bear *** / *****

Directed by:Dave McCary.

Written by:Kevin Costello & Kyle Mooney.

Starring: Kyle Mooney (James Pope), Mark Hamill (Ted Mitchum), Jane Adams (April Mitchum), Greg Kinnear (Detective Vogel), Matt Walsh (Greg Pope), Michaela Watkins (Louise Pope), Ryan Simpkins (Aubrey Pope), Alexa Demie (Meredith), Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Spencer), Claire Danes (Emily), Chance Crimin (Logan), Beck Bennett (Detective Bander), Andy Samberg (Eric), Kate Lyn Sheil (Arielle Smiles).

 

The premise of Brigsby Bear is so odd and original, that it’s more than a little disappointing when the film doesn’t quite willing or able to completely follow through on it. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot to admire about Brigsby Bear – which is one of the stranger films you will see this year, and yet, there is an ever darker, stranger – and better – film lurking somewhere in this material, than the makers don’t seem willing to fully embrace. What they have is weird and different – what they could have had could have been amazing.

 

The film stars Kyle Mooney – of Saturday Night Live fame – who also co-wrote the screenplay. He plays James, a kid somewhere in his mid-to-late 20s, and when we first meet him, we know immediately he is odd, but not why. He is obsessed with a TV show called Brigsby Bear – which he watches on seemingly old VHS tapes, in his windowless room. The show looks like something you would have seen on TV in the 1970s or 1980s – people is oversized costumes, low production values, a lot of moral lessons spoken to the camera, etc. James is way too old to be obsessed with this show – but he is anyway. Soon, we will learned why when police invade his home. His parents (Mark Hamil and Janes Adams) are arrested – and James is told he was kidnapped as an infant, and brought up in isolation by these two criminals. Brigsby Bear was the only show he ever had access to – and even stranger, it was never a real TV show at all. It was something that his father made in an old warehouse himself, and delivered weekly.

 

What follows from there is a weird, mixed bag of a film. James is returned to his real family (mother and father Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins, 19 year old sister Aubrey (Ryan Simpkins). His obsession with Brigsby Bear continues – he even shares some of the tapes with Aubrey’s friends – who become his new friends as well – and eventually, they all get the idea that what they need to do is “finish” the show – give it the wrap up it deserves.

 

There is an odder, darker film in this material somewhere – but for the most part Mooney, co-writer Kevin Costello and director Dave McCary abandon it to tell a story about the power of creativity. Perhaps James will eventually grow up – and leave Brigsby Bear behind – but until he finishes it, he can never do that. The movie then isn’t about leaving obsession behind – but fully embracing it. Down that path is another, darker message that the film doesn’t explore either. The film builds to a heartwarming climax – but I’m not sure it works, and I really what to know what is next. Can James ever move forward, and become a fully functional person, or will he always been this way. The movie doesn’t have an answer – and I don’t think it even asks the question.

 

All of this probably makes it sound like I didn’t like Brigsby Bear. That isn’t true. This is an odd film to be sure, but it is one that is loaded with laughs – some from the Brigsby Bear show, and making of the finale, some from James just not knowing much about the world. Mooney, who is one of the oddest comedians that SNL has ever hired, has a sweetness to him that works here. I do think he could have handled the darkness as well, had they decided to go there – but they don’t.

 

The result then is an odd movie, that doesn’t quite work, but is very original and weird. It reminded me of the work of Michel Gondry – which is often this way as well, except when he has worked with Charlie Kaufman, who brings in a deeper, darker, more complex element. Brigsby Bear is Gondry without Kaufman, which is okay – but nothing compared to when the two team up. I want to see the next film from this team – but I do hope the fully embrace the weirdness and darkness, implied here, when they make it.

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Classic Movie Review: Starting Over (1979)

Starting Over (1979)

Directed by: Alan J. Pakula.   

Written by: James L. Brooks based on the novel by Dan Wakefield.

Starring: Burt Reynolds (Phil Potter), Jill Clayburgh (Marilyn Holmberg), Candice Bergen (Jessica Potter), Charles Durning (Mickey Potter), Frances Sternhagen (Marva Potter), Austin Pendleton (Paul), Mary Kay Place (Marie), MacIntyre Dixon (Dan Ryan).

 

Divorce wasn’t something new in 1979 – but Hollywood dealing with it in any sort of serious way, was at least somewhat new at the time. Paul Mazursky’s wonderful An Unmarried Woman had come out the previous year – and was a hit, and an Oscar favorite, and Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer ended up being the biggest box office and awards hit of 1979. Those two films are, for various reasons, still remembered today – but Alan J. Pakula’s Starting Over has pretty much been forgotten. It’s easy to see why – it’s not a great film and Pakula is one of those great journeymen directors – who did everything from Klute to The Parallax View to All the President’s Men to Sophie’s Choice – who is more craftsmen that auteur, and those guys tend to get overlooked. It is the first screenplay by James L. Brooks – in between his sitcom career and the Oscar winning Terms of Endearment (1983) – but those looking for Brooks’ best work, will find it elsewhere. The film is uneven – Roger Ebert called it a sitcom version of An Unmarried Woman – and he wasn’t exactly wrong. Yet, it does have three good performances at its core, and it is trying for something interesting. I don’t think it quite gets there – Brooks it seems didn’t have the guts to go where he would in Broadcast News, and instead the film insists on a happy end that doesn’t make much sense – but this little curiosity of a film is worth seeing.

 

The film opens with Paul (Burt Reynolds) and his wife Jessica (Candice Bergen) breaking up – she wants him to leave, he doesn’t want to, but does anyway – something made easier by the discovery that she has been unfaithful to him. As he leaves, the audience is treated to, for the first time, a hilariously bad song by Jessica, sung wonderfully awfully by Bergen – who is convinced she’s going to have a hit on her hands (and, of course, she’s right). Paul ends up moving to Boston to be near his brother (Charles Durning), and try and peace his life back together. It is his brother’s wife who introduces him to Marilyn (Jill Clayburgh) – a nursey school teacher, who at first doesn’t want to date Paul – she has had it with divorced guys –but eventually she relents. They seem perfect for each other – he even says as much to his “divorced men’s support group” – but is he really over Jessica? When she shows up in Boston one day, wanting him back, what will he do?

 

Reynolds is, I think, an underrated actor. Sure, he has done more bad movies than good (and some are downright horrible), but he was one of the biggest male movie stars of the 1970s for a reason. He has an effortless charm about him here – making the fact that women are drawn to him understandable. Bur Reynolds also does a fine job showing us Paul’s insecurity – his hesitation in jumping into bed with Marilyn, the way he loves her, but is still drawn to Jessica. Of the three leads, it is Reynolds who has the most screen time, and delivers the most subtle performance. His two female co-stars both got Oscar nominations – and they are both wonderful, but their roles give them more showoff moments. Bergen steals every scene she is in here – she is downright hilarious when she sings, and she is the right mixture of infuriating, alluring and annoying to make at least some of what Paul does plausible. Clayburgh is wonderful as Marilyn as well – a somewhat kooky woman, who is happy in her life alone without Paul before he arrives, but willingly lets her guard down – even if she fears being destroyed. Both women are able to convey at least some complexity underneath all the humor in the movie – and judging on the basis of this movie, it’s a shame neither was given a great role in a Woody Allen movie at some point. They would have nailed them.

 

The problem with the movie is mainly in Brooks’ screenplay. While his ear for dialogue was already well-tuned – there is never a doubt about who wrote the thing – the plot mechanics creak under the weight of all the clichés, and as the film progresses, the characters make decisions that just don’t make any sense – right up to the happy ending. I know that Brooks is dealing with romantic comedy standards here – but it makes for an uneasy mixture with the divorce drama he’s also writing. By the time he made Terms of Endearment, he had mastered this tricky comedy/drama tone he does so well (he perfected it in Broadcast News) – but here, whether it’s Pakula’s direction (he was a journeyman – but many a thriller journeyman) or more likely Brooks’ screenplay, the mix is off.

 

Starting Over is an interesting film – it’s interesting to watch Brooks before he perfected his style, it’s interesting to see Pakula try his hand at comedy, and it has three performances that help paper over the films rough patches – mostly (as great as Clayburgh is, I have a tough time with that last scene in the movie). It’s mainly been forgotten – and there’s a reason for that. But it was also an Oscar nominated hit in 1979 – and there was a reason for that as well.

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Movie Review: Lady Bird

Lady Bird **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Greta Gerwig.

Written by: Greta Gerwig.

Starring: Saoirse Ronan (Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson), Laurie Metcalf (Marion McPherson), Tracy Letts (Larry McPherson), Lucas Hedges (Danny O'Neill), Timothée Chalamet (Kyle Scheible), Beanie Feldstein (Julie Steffans), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Father Leviatch), Lois Smith (Sister Sarah Joan), Laura Marano (Diana Greenway), Jordan Rodrigues (Miguel McPherson), John Karna (Greg Anrue), Odeya Rush (Jenna Walton), Marielle Scott (Shelly Yuhan).

 

There is an art to making the kind of coming-of-age teen comedy that Greta Gerwig gets exactly right in her directorial debut – Lady Bird. In theory, Lady Bird could just another “Sundance” like movie – we see seemingly a dozen like it a year – about seemingly messed up, yet ultimately rather conventional suburban families, and the frustrating push-and-pull people parents and their children as well as high school crushes, losing your virginity, and wanting nothing more than to get out of your home – and home town – and then immediately missing them when you do. Lady Bird should be another of those movies (not unlike say Patti Cake$ - which I caught up this weekend as well) – that I either mildly enjoy as they cycle through the clichés, or else just absolutely drive me nuts. Those have become as formulaic as the Hollywood movies they are supposed to act as counter programming to. But Gerwig has always had a talent of taking something that would normally make me role my eyes, and instead making something honest and genuine out of it. The first film she co-wrote – and starred in – was Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha – which I almost dreaded seeing because I thought it was going to be more twee, millennial naval gazing – and yet that film moved me, made me laugh, and had genuine insight. Lady Bird is much the same way – you’ve seen this movie before, sure, but never quite like this – it is grounded in the real and the specific in a way that makes it feel new and different.

 

Part of that is because of the lead performance by the great Saoirse Ronan – who is only 23, and already has two Oscar nomination (she should have won for Brooklyn) – and should get a third here. This performance is nothing like her work in breakout Atonement, which itself was nothing like her work in Brooklyn – and her impressive resume already shows amazing range. Here, she’s playing Christine – a high school senior who has decided she wants everyone to call her Lady Bird, and wants nothing else but to get out of Sacramento (the “Midwest of California” as she calls it) – and head to the East Coast “where culture is”. Lady Bird is smart – but not necessarily in the way that shows up in grades, and everyone wants her to be more “realistic” about her college aspirations. Her mother, Marion (Laurie Metclaf – finally getting a movie role that lets her show what many of us have known for years – that she is a terrific actress) is hard on Lady Bird – in part because they are too similar, both too hard headed to be willing to admit when the other may be right. The two are at each other’s throats a lot – which means easy going dad Larry (Tracy Letts – continuing to show he’s one of the best character actors around in addition to be one of the best playwrights) to play peacemaker – although he has his own issues as well.

 

Throughout her senior year, Lady Bird will do what a lot of teenagers do – she’ll fall in “love” with two boys at her Catholic school – the first is Danny (Lucas Hedges) – from one of those good Irish Catholic families with a lot of kids, but he’s hiding a secret, and the second is Kyle (Timothée Chalamet), the kind of pretentious ass, who smokes cigarettes, read books, and says things like “I’m trying to avoid being a part of the economy” – that teenagers can think sound deep. Her best friend is Julie (Beanie Feldstein), and the two of them share a bond that only teenage girls do.

 

Lady Bird is perhaps a tad too episodic – there isn’t much a plot here, other than Lady Bird finds her way through senior year. Not every episode works – but most of them do, and in total, they add up to something quietly moving. Gerwig, as a screenwriter, knows when to give you that big emotional moment, and when to pull back. It’s also well-directed throughout – unshowy, but finding the right moments. Gerwig had already shown immense talent as an actress – and her two screenplay with Baumbach (Frances Ha and Mistress America) – was a nice blending of their styles. Here though, she finds her voice solo – and it’s remarkable to see. This is one of the year’s most endearing, funny and entertaining films – and in a year this dark, that makes it vital and necessary as well.

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Movie Review: The Square

The Square **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Ruben Östlund.

Written by: Ruben Östlund.

Starring: Claes Bang (Christian), Elisabeth Moss (Anne), Dominic West (Julian), Terry Notary (Oleg), Christopher Læssø (Michael).

 

If Jordan Peele’s Get Out had not have come out this year, than Ruben Östlund’s The Square would be the year’s most “uncomfortable” film to sit through – and I mean that in a good way. Östlund’s point is to make us uncomfortable, to have us question our own ethics and morals throughout the film, while at the same time, providing a ruthless – and funny – satire of the contemporary art world. Östlund knows, of course, that The Square is itself an “art film”, so he’s poking fun at himself – and everyone in the audience watching as well. I’m not sure he has any real answers to the questions he asks – nor does he want to – he just wants to prod you into thinking about them. You likely already know if this film sounds like it would appealing to you – and you’re almost definitely right about that. If you don’t want that sort of experience, The Square would be excruciating to sit through – especially since it rambles around for nearly two and half hours.

 

The film stars Claes Bang as Christian – the head curator at a Stockholm museum of Modern Art – the type of place where they have an exhibit that consists of piles of gravel on the floor and a neon sign proclaiming “You Have Nothing” – but helpful guards who will tell you you’re not allowed to take photos of it. The film opens with a scene in which a reporter – Anne (Elisabeth Moss) interviews Christian about the museum and its philosophy – particularly about a night in which they hosted a talked about the difference between Exhibit and Non-Exhibit – and what art “is”. Christian unhelpfully babbles on and on, without really saying anything in a way that many do when talking about Modern Art – after all, you don’t want to appear to be “pretentious” is discussing these lofty ideals, but you also don’t want appear to be stupid and “not get it” either. This sets up the Christian we will see for the rest of the movie – who time after time has reality interfere with his lofty ideals, as he gets himself into more and more trouble.

 

It all starts on the streets when he hears a woman calling out for help – but who he ignores, until he is pretty much forced to react, because he’s physically pulled into the conflict by another man, shielding the woman, from what we assume is an angry boyfriend. After it’s all over, the two men congratulate themselves on a job well done – neither one of them realizing the woman is gone, and Christian only realizing later that his wallet, cellphone and cufflinks have been stolen. Instead of just letting it go, Christian will end up tracking his phone to a large apartment building – and it’s there where he really makes a mistake, that will end up haunting him the rest of the movie, and getting him in deeper and deeper trouble.

 

The film is largely episodic, which each episode operating both as its own sort of moral quandary, comedic set piece, and interestingly, a part of the larger overall picture. There are things that are never explained – like Anne’s pet chimpanzee for instance, who Christian sees one night when he’s over there, and we feel like he’s about to ask Anne why she has a pet chimp – but then again, she’s clearly ready to have sex, and he’s not going to stop that (the sex scene itself is funny, awkward, unerotic, and completely honest – and is followed by an absurdly long conversation about the condom that was used).

 

Basically the movie is about a man who has lived his life largely compartmentalized – he places the different aspects in his life in different boxes you could say – and throughout the course of the film, those boxes start to be mixed together, and he cannot function. The title of the movie comes from an upcoming exhibit at the museum, which is a literal square where inside “We all share the same rights and obligations” – a utopian idea that we all know what work in practice. There is a brilliant sequence late in the film at the museum during a black tie dinner, where Oleg (Terry Notary) a performance artist comes in and blurs the line between man and animal – at first in amusing ways, and then gradually in ways that start to annoy, and perhaps even endanger people. The sequence is perhaps a microcosm of the whole movie – the social contract works because we all agree to it – but it can be violated so easily, and then what are you supposed to do (and if you don’t know, do you do anything).

 

All of this probably sounds like it’s more a thought experiment than a movie – and there is certainly a danger that could happen here. But it’s grounded by Bang’s remarkable performance as Christian – who somehow keeps his character relatable – even charming – throughout, even as he does worse and worse things (Moss has the key supporting role – and she helps as well). The movie is also just outright funny. The film won the Palme D’or at Cannes this year – an irony not lost on anyone, as this film that wants to puncture the airless art world wins the biggest prize at the most arty film festival there is. That only makes things more interesting – and perhaps, proves its point.

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