ChickFlix

What Maisie Knew

Jill Boniske — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:12:19 +0000

What Maisie Knew is a pretty faithful modern adaptation of a Henry James novel written in 1897, that just goes to show that there have always been people who shouldn’t be allowed to have children. The Maisie of the title is a 6-year-old New Yorker, through whose eyes the story is told and who you really want to kidnap to save her from her horrible, selfish parents. This is one of those films that makes you really uncomfortable from the first frame until the end, but is peopled with great actors and characters so you can’t dismiss it.

From the beginning, the background noise of Maisie’s young life is her parents (Julianna Moore and Steve Coogan) incessantly screaming at one another oblivious to its effect on her. And soon they are divorced and switch to using her as a pawn in their on-going battles. Mom is a rock diva, and Dad is some sort of businessman who cannot seem to be away from his cell for an instant. Once split-custody begins Maisie discovers her sweet nanny Margo (Joanna Vanderham) is living at Dad’s, and soon they’re married. So Mom marries herself a young bartender named Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard), and as it turns out, Lincoln actually looks out for Maisie (as does Margo) and treats her the way a parent should. And his relationship with her lifts the whole movie in the way she responds to finally being taken care of by a loving adult.

The intelligent screenplay doesn’t hold back, and Julianna Moore and Steve Coogan are amazing as a couple of narcissists who each have moments that acknowledge an acceptance of their limited abilities to love their child the way she deserves. And the actress who plays Maisie (Onata Aprile) is another of the little girls I hope to watch as she matures. Her performance is so innocent and subtly aware at once, it is simply heartbreaking at times. What Maisie Knew is not easy to watch without wanting to scream (or call Child Services), and that is no doubt the reaction it is going for. I’d say go see it, but be prepared to be disturbed.

Man of Steel

Hannah Buchdahl — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 22:36:46 +0000

The new “Superman” movie is getting some mixed reviews, but here’s the real deal on the Man of Steel: It’s definitely worth seeing – just keep your expectations in check and don’t over-think it. It’s not a perfect movie. It’s probably not the best action-hero movie you’ll see this year. But it is an interesting and entertaining re-imagining of the Superman mythology. He’s still the guy who can leap tall buildings in a single bound (once he realizes he can fly) and fight the good fight for truth, justice and the American/Earthly way. He just goes at it from a slightly different angle.

I’m a pretty big fan of all the guys who’ve braved the tights– from George Reeves to Christopher Reeve to Dean Cain to Brandon Routh. But this new Man of Steel (Henry Cavill) is not only hot in his more subdued-hued outfit, he’s also accessible in a way that his predecessors were not. This is a Superman for our times, a man destined to embody the best of two worlds – his native Krypton, and Earth by way of Kansas. He’s a charming, attractive and lonely guy, blessed and burdened with the potential to save humankind. And as you’ve probably seen from the trailers by now, that ‘S’ isn’t a letter – it’s a Kryptonian symbol that stands for ‘hope’. Cue the collective ‘awwwwwww’.

Man of Steel has a lot to juggle as a reboot, so a few balls do drop in the process. The geography is a bit hard to follow as Clark/Kal-El/Superman bounces around from Alaska to Metropolis to Smallville to Space to who-knows-where. Time bounces around a bit too – shifting from Krypton in its final hours to present-day Earth, with flashbacks of a young and conflicted Clark Kent, forced to hide his special abilities in front of all but his loving and protective adopted parents Martha and Jonathan (Diane Lane and Kevin Costner). And, a note of caution to the faint of heart: the scope of destruction is a bit extreme. But thankfully the battles, while intense and overly-long, are virtually bloodless (PG-13).

On the plus side, the movie is very well cast. Russell Crowe (who looked and sounded so uncomfortable in Les Miz) is back in his comfort zone as Kal-El’s father, Jor-El. Amy Adams, who sometimes annoys me, actually makes a fine Lois Lane. And Michael Shannon is sufficiently menacing as the Kryptonian villain, General Zod.

The best way to enjoy Man of Steel is to clear your mind of previous incarnations of the Superman characters and embrace a version that feels more like Dark Knight meets Star Trek. It does feature the occasional nod to familiar aspects of the iconic backstory. But make no mistake – this is not your father’s Superman.

Bottom line: A solid cast, powerful score, and decent-enough story make one thing virtually certain: we haven’t seen the last of Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel. And that’s okay by me.

This Is The End

Hannah Buchdahl — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:40:03 +0000

This Is The End isn’t for everybody – by a long shot. But for those who enjoy the likes of Pineapple Express, Harold & Kumar, and The Hangover… and maybe a zombie movie or two… then This Is The End is most definitely for you. It’s disturbingly comical. Absurdly funny. Satirically sickening. In other words, it’s quite good, especially for a comedy about the apocalypse. The movie stars a bunch of movie stars playing fictional versions of themselves – or at least, I hope they are fictional versions (yeah, I’m talking to you Michael Cera!). Here’s the gist:

A series of catastrophic events strike Los Angeles, disrupting a blow-out party at James Franco’s house. Franco, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson find themselves virtually trapped inside the house as the world around them falls apart. Their fight for survival amidst the chaos is ultimately a story of friendship, fate, and redemption. And maybe a little damnation too.

This Is the End is loaded with quirky cameos – some more disgusting than others. It all works, in part, because the actors are not above, or below, taking potshots at their most memorable and not-so-memorable roles. If you’re totally unfamiliar with the main cast (Franco, Rogen, Hill, Baruchel, McBride, Robinson), then This Is The End could be painful to watch. But if you’ve got at least some sense of their personas on-screen and off, then prepare to be entertained. And grossed-out.

This Is The End is rated R for crude and sexual content throughout, brief graphic nudity, pervasive language and some drug use. Yeah, it’s got all that. But it’s pretty darn funny too.

The Kings of Summer

Hannah Buchdahl — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:14:07 +0000

The Kings of Summer is no Stand By Me. But it does try to be. So two points for effort! The Kings of Summer is a pleasant little coming-of-age dramedy about three friends who spend the summer building a house in the woods and ‘living off the land’. The ramshackle house is their escape from the typical perils of teendom: parents who don’t understand, bullies at school, girl troubles.

The Moonrise Kingdom-esque indie features a talented cast including: Nick Robinson as Joe, the mastermind of the group; Gabriel Basso as Patrick, the best friend who keeps getting roped into Joe’s little schemes; and Moises Arias as Biaggio, an eccentric and unpredictable kid who tags along, uninvited but gradually embraced. (Note: Arias is probably best known and recognized by Disney Channel grads. He played Rico on Hannah Montana.) Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) also shines as Joe’s widower Dad, Frank.

The Kings of Summer is sweet and quirky and occasionally funny. But it never quite captured my full attention or sympathy and it didn’t break any new ground in the genre. It’s fine if you’re looking for a harmless (very soft ‘R’-rated) indie about friendship and family. But you may want to wait for The Way, Way Back, opening July 5. I liked that coming-of-age dramedy way, way more.

The Internship

Hannah Buchdahl — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 02:27:35 +0000

The Internship isn’t bad – or good. It’s just weak. Fans of the Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson classic The Wedding Crashers will recognize the characters and the shtick. So change the title to The Internship Crashers and you’ll surely get the drift. Vaughn and Wilson play Billy and Nick, a couple of luxury-watch salesmen who lose their jobs when the company they work for goes belly-up. After all, who needs a watch when you’ve got a smart phone? For reasons that my cynical job-hunting self had trouble swallowing, the two land a pair of coveted internships at Google, touted as the best place to work in America (Free food! Volleyball! Napping pods!).

Billy, Nick, and a swarm of other interns are divided up into teams, sandlot style, to compete in a series of challenges. The winning team is guaranteed a full-time job at Google. Let the games begin! May the odds be ever in your favor! Oh wait, wrong movie…

Anyway, the rest of the movie plays out like an episode of Community meets The Breakfast Club. Billy and Nick and their team of misfits must learn to trust one another and work together to beat the more popular and pompous kids on campus.

There is a certain relevance and relatability to Billy and Nick, 40-somethings whose careers are suddenly deemed obsolete. There’s a lesson in there somewhere about having the willingness and ability to learn new skills later in life, and having the opportunity to apply more traditional skills to the digital world.

The Internship is far less raunchy – and has more heart – than you might expect. But it’s also quite formulaic and predictable. The kids learn from the grown-ups. The grown-ups learn from the kids. Nick romances an over-achieving manager played by Rose Byrne, determined to show her that there’s life outside the Google compound. “Googliness” is routinely used as an adjective.

Vaughn and Wilson have an easy compatibility on-screen as two best buds just trying to make their way in the world. And they’re generally cute to watch. But I gotta say – Wilson’s nose was even more distracting than usual. It didn’t just look crooked – it looked bruised. What up with that?

Bottom line: The Internship is the type of movie that will help pass the time on a future cross-country flight while you’re noshing away on a tiny bag of peanuts or surfing the internet for jobs and internships. We should all be so lucky as to land a gig at Google!

Before Midnight

Hannah Buchdahl — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 18:55:00 +0000

Step one: If you haven’t already, go rent/watch Before Sunrise (1995)

Step two: If you haven’t already, go rent/watch Before Sunset (2004)

Step three: If you haven’t already, go see Before Midnight (2013)

If you follow the steps outlined above, you will be rewarded with some top-notch acting and storytelling. Skip a step, and you could miss the point.

All three movies star Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as potential soulmates Jesse and Celine. In Before Sunrise, the American and Parisian meet on a train and spend one romantic evening together in Vienna, mostly talking. And talking. And talking some more.

Nine years later, they meet again, in Before Sunset. Jesse is in Paris for a day to promote a best-selling book inspired by his brief encounter with Celine. The two spend the afternoon together in the City of Lights, doing a lot of talking and catching up. He’s married with a son. She’s got a boyfriend. But neither is all that satisfied with life. And the connection between them is strong as ever. They talk some more. He’s got a plane to catch. Or not.

That brings us to the latest sequel, Before Midnight. Jesse and Celine are living in Europe. They have twin girls. They still share a knack for conversation, but something is amiss. They spend a day in Greece, talking things out and watching the beautiful sunset, which may or may not be a metaphor for their relationship.

The trilogy (as it stands thus far) is an adult romantic drama that plays out more like a play than a movie. If you don’t like movies with a lot of dialogue then Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight may not be for you. That said, the dialogue is sharp, engaging, relatable and well-acted (and improvised) enough to convert some folks (like me) who might otherwise shun such a wordy undertaking. Watching – and listening to – Jesse and Celine is like being a fly on the wall in real time. We see them as hopeful 20-somethings with their whole lives ahead of them… as 30-somethings re-evaluating their choices and their goals… and as 40-somethings, older and wiser, but still searching and yearning for more out of life. To be continued?

Bonus: Check out Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in this very important PSA for movie-goers everywhere!

Frances Ha

Jill Boniske — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 21:02:27 +0000

Poor Frances. At the ripe old age of 27, nothing in her life is going right. Her boyfriend wants her to move in, but she can’t run out on her roommate, so they split. Then her absolute favorite person in the world, her roomie Sophie, moves out on her despite their promise to stick together until the lease is up. Plus she is still apprenticing in a dance troupe and her future there is in doubt. And she’s not getting any younger, as she is constantly reminded. But she’s no late-20s slacker either. She just can’t seem to get things to work the way she knows they are supposed to. In this indie comedy from director Noah Baumbach (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Margot at the Wedding), Greta Gerwig animates the hapless but lovable Frances and takes you along on her journey as she figures it all out in her own goofy fashion.

With Sophie’s leaving and their subsequent falling out, Frances becomes unmoored and semi-homeless and moves around from apartment to apartment, person to person, trying to find her place in a world of New York hipsters and young professionals. She is clinging to the thought that she will be a great dancer, despite her obvious failure to make it in the profession. But what makes the film work is her hopeless optimism. Her character’s truest self comes through in a scene where she dances with wild abandon down the New York streets to David Bowie’s “Modern Love.” She lives without limits, but slowly awakens to the reality that the world is limited, and she has to find a way to make it work for her. She has to grow up, damn it!

Frances Ha belongs to Greta Gerwig. She co-wrote it and is in every scene of this beautifully shot black and white film. Her Frances is funny and has a physicality that is both klutzy and endearing. In the hands of another actress the character could easily have been very annoying, but Gerwig give her a depth and, despite the veneer of cluelessness, a fragility that causes you to root for her. I was a bit afraid that the whole 20-somethingness of it might be off-putting to me as my 20s in New York were decades ago, but it didn’t have that “you are an outsider looking into a strange culture” feeling at all. It is about a pretty universal struggle to find your place in the world, and I relate. I’d recommend this to young and old, men and women. It would be a good date flick. And it really does make me miss New York.

Now You See Me

Hannah Buchdahl — Fri, 31 May 2013 04:00:44 +0000

So I had a choice of overlapping screenings: After Earth (a sci-fi adventure with the father-son team of Will and Jaden Smith) or Now You See Me, a heist movie involving a quartet of illusionists. I chose the latter. That was probably a wise choice given the less than stellar buzz I’m hearing about Earth. But Now You See Me isn’t all that great either, despite having a few good tricks up its sleeve. Overall, it’s a decent movie for anyone in the mood for a moderately entertaining mind-bender with a solid cast. Or, if you’re a fan of magic and illusion and need to get The Incredible Burt Wonderstone out of your head. If Wonderstone had gone down a somewhat dark and twisty path, this is where it might have led.

Here’s the gist: four street-smart illusionists are brought together to form a magic act called “The Four Horsemen.” In the midst of their performances, they pull off a series of daring heists against corrupt businesses and share the ill-gotten gains with the audience. However well intentioned, their antics don’t sit well with the law. A cat and mouse game ensues – with the FBI and Interpol always seemingly one step behind the savvy tricksters.

“The Four Horsemen” are played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco (who looks so much like his brother James that it’s almost a distraction). Mark Ruffalo (one of my favorite scruffy ‘every man’ actors) plays the FBI agent on their tail, and he’s accompanied by a desk-jockey from Interpol (played by Mélanie Laurent).
Veteran actors Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine also put in appearances, but their characters aren’t all that well developed. Sadly, I’ve grown a bit weary of Freeman in recent months (Oblivion, Olympus Has Fallen). His roles are starting to feel the same – even when they shouldn’t.

Now You See Me doesn’t rise to the level of an Oceans as a heist movie or The Prestige for illusionist flare, but it does manage to hold a few secrets close to the vest and take a few unpredictable turns. It’s just missing that key ingredient that makes a movie stick with you after you leave the theater… that intangible thing known as true movie magic.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Hannah Buchdahl — Sat, 25 May 2013 22:32:30 +0000

I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness, but I wouldn’t call it a “must-see” unless you’re a true Trekkie – or, at the very least, a casual fan of the TV and/or movie franchise. The more you know of the characters and the mythology going in, the more you’re likely to appreciate the latest round of challenges facing the familial crew of the Starship Enterprise. Most of the diehard fans have already seen the movie or read the spoilers relating to the villain. But I’m going to play it safe and keep it simple. Basically, the plot involves the Starfleet facing a major threat from within. Ultimately, Captain Kirk and his crew take it upon themselves to venture into some dark territory to capture the one-man wrecking crew responsible for a whole lot of death and destruction. The bad guy is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, who I’d never heard of, but certainly has a name (and face) to remember!

The characters and the casting are generally spot-on, with most of the major players returning from the 2009 Star Trek reboot. There’s Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Karl Urban as Bones, Simon Pegg as Scotty, John Cho as Sulu, and Anton Yelchin as Chekov. And once again, J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, Super 8) directs.

The heart of the movie is the bromance between Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Their relationship is – well – it’s complicated. But in the end, they’ve got each other’s backs. It’s quite sweet, really.

Star Trek Into Darkness is part action-adventure sci-fi drama, and part comedy, in a Galaxy Quest sort of way. Purists may not appreciate the dichotomy, but I think the campiness helps broaden the film’s appeal. Bottom line: Star Trek Into Darkness is a decent ride that boldly goes where no one has gone before – unless you’re a Klingon or something.

Note: If you like Chris Pine, but don’t exactly like sci-fi, then check out People Like Us. It’s one of those good movies that seemed to fall through the cracks last year, and it shows that the guy really does have range beyond the Captain’s chair.

No

Jill Boniske — Sat, 18 May 2013 18:54:13 +0000

Academy Award nominee No is another film based on a true story, but what makes it remarkable is that this story changed history. It takes place in Chile in 1988, when the brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet bowed to increasing international pressure and allowed the people to vote YES or NO to keep him in power. He assumed that it would be an easy win, what with his goon squad intimidating the country. But what he did not count on was the ad campaign that the NO side was able to muster. Think Don Draper takes on Hitler.

Gael Garcia Bernal stars as René Saavedra, a successful advertising executive at one of Chile’s top agencies. He’s approached by a friend from the NO campaign, and he is at first leery of getting involved. And besides, the NO side is made up of a lot of different parties with no particular defining ideology except they are against Pinochet. Nevertheless, he goes to see what they have in mind. The way the referendum works is that each side gets 15 minutes each night on the state run television to air whatever they want. The NO campaign’s first pass leaves Saavedra cold. He thinks it needs to be more positive and creative. He encounters resistance from the older politicos who think the people need to see images of all the horrors that Pinochet has perpetrated on his people, but once Saavedra is on board, he uses his significant advertising skills and his large roster of creative contacts to wage a fabulously empowering and hopeful campaign. (There is a great moment where the Pinochet people can’t find any good actors and dancers, because they are all working with the NO side.)

The YES side had assumed they did not really have to do anything to win, but once the NO ads get on television, they realize they have a problem. They try every kind of dirty trick including some serious intimidation of Saavedra and his son, as well as the others involved in the NO campaign. But in the end, the NO side wins, and one of the great things about the film is that even though you know the outcome, there is a great deal of suspense right up until they call it. No is based on a play, and Saavedra is an invention, but as true stories go, the idea that you can overthrow a dictator with a great ad campaign is heartening. And it definitely has some telling parallels with our current political landscape. The differences in the campaigns were that one was selling fear and promises of wealth, while the other was pushing the idea that happiness is possible. Happiness won!

Even though the film is covering a pretty heavy subject, it has some wonderfully comic moments, including several of the ads that the NO campaign airs, and it is for the most part upbeat. The only downside (for some) might be the look of the film. The director chose to shoot the whole thing on the video that was used in the 80s, which makes splicing the old ads and historical footage in seamless, but could displease people accustomed to a high-def world. I got used to it pretty quickly. I really enjoyed No and even if you are not a history lover, the story of a despot taken down by a rainbow logo and a catchy jingle has got to be a draw.