The Boss

Posted on April 7, 2016 at 5:30 pm

Here is what Judd Apatow and Paul Feig know that Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone do not: a character can be hilariously obnoxious or endearing but not both, even when played by the irresistible McCarthy. Apatow and Feig have made the best use of Melissa McCarthy’s endless comedic talents, and it is instructive to see how they did it. In “Bridesmaids” (produced by Apatow, directed by Paul Feig), McCarthy played a strange woman with some social deficits but capable (she was right about the air marshall, played by Falcone, who is her husband and co-screenwriter and director of “The Boss”), loyal and self-aware. In “Spy,” written and directed by Feig, McCarthy is awkward and deferential, but she is capable and brave, and she knows it. In “This is 40,” McCarthy has a small role as an angry mother complaining about the main characters’ child. Her fearlessness and improvisational skills, highlighted in a post-credit sequence, were a highlight of the film.

She gave a thoughtful performance in a dramatic role as a single mother in “St. Vincent,” and she was wonderful as a cheerful chef in “Gilmore Girls.” But in other films, including “Identity Thief,” “Tammy,” and now “The Boss,” McCarthy makes the fundamental mistake of committing to an obnoxious character given to outrageous and inappropriate behavior and then insisting that by the end of the movie the other characters and we in the audience have to love her. If she wants to play characters like that, the narrative of the movie has to be about thwarting or triumphing over her in some way. But she can’t insult and cheat everyone for ninety percent of the movie and then expect us to hope for her to have a happy ending.

In “The Boss,” McCarthy plays Michelle, the 47th-richest woman in America and the CEO of three companies, at least one of which seems to be either a shady multi-level marketing scheme or some sort of “let me show you how to be rich scam.” She comes out to screaming applause from a huge crowd to brag about her wealth. Nice touch: some of the audience wearing Michelle-style red pixie-cut wigs. Less nice touch: she raps along with T-Pain. Michelle is rude to everyone and ruthless in business to a ridiculously counterproductive degree. For example, she brags to her rival (and ex-boyfriend) that she is making a fortune based on some insider information, which he then reports to the SEC, and which then gets her thrown in jail, Martha Stewart-style.

Five months of a country-club prison equipped with tennis courts (and, apparently, a manicurist because she has professionally done French tips), Michelle discovers she has lost her jobs and all her money. She drags her Vuitton luggage over to the apartment of her level-headed former assistant, Claire (a game Kristen Bell), a single mom with a daughter named Rachel (Ella Anderson). When Michelle tastes Claire’s delectable brownies and sees Rachel’s Dandelions troop (think Girl Scouts or, more accurately, think Troop Beverly Hills), she sees her path to a return to moguldom.

McCarthy, swathed to the chin in turtlenecks that make her look like she is recovering from whiplash, gives herself a one-note role. She is mean, she cheats, she says wildly inappropriate things to children, and she is selfish to a sociopathic degree. Michelle the character and McCarthy the co-scriptwriter give those around her very little to do, criminally under-using Bell, Kathy Bates, Margo Martindale, and Kristen Schaal. Peter Dinklage, as Michelle’s former colleague and boyfriend-turned rival is a bright spot, having a lot of fun going way over the top with pretentiousness, competitive fury, and lust. There’s an “Anchorman”-style rumble between the raspberry beret-topped brownie girls and their cookie-selling former troop. There’s a clever joke about finding just the right place to sell the brownies and there are a couple of very funny lines. But Michelle wears out her welcome very quickly and the resolution is unearned and cloying.

NOTE: There is an “unrated” DVD release. It is hard to imagine how much more offensive it could possibly get.

Parents should know that this film includes extensive strong and crude language, often directed at children, very crude sexual references, drinking, drugs, and comic peril and violence.

Family discussion: How did Michelle’s childhood experiences affect her relationships and priorities? What were the qualities that made her successful in business?

If you like this, try: “Spy” and “Bridesmaids”

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Comedy Scene After the Credits

Trailer: Rogue One, the new Star Wars Chapter, with Felicity Jones

Posted on April 7, 2016 at 8:14 am

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, and Forest Whitaker. It’s clear from the storm troopers and the musical theme that we’re in the “Star Wars” universe, but these are new characters and a new look inside the rebel forces. It opens in December, and I’m already counting the days.

Interview: Marc Abraham, Director of “I Saw the Light”

Posted on April 6, 2016 at 3:30 pm

Marc Abraham wrote and directed “I Saw the Light,” the Hank Williams story starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olson. Williams died at age 29 after years of poor health and substance abuse. In an interview, Abraham talked about the moments that meant the most to Williams and what he liked best about working with Hiddleston.

What were Hank Williams’ happiest moments?

Well it’s hard to know about people. It’s impossible to imagine that he wasn’t happy some of the time. He had the birth of a son, he loved his kid, he really loved Bocephus. He used to talk about him on the radio, used to take him inappropriately huge teddy bears from very, very early age. I think he suffered from feeling bad that his father had not around, who wouldn’t. I think he took it but probably he missed out having a dad who wasn’t present and he was determined to make sure that he was present and of course that the irony, the irony of his life, the irony of the title, the irony of the film is that, as hard as he tried he wasn’t there and he died when his son was just three years old.

I think he loved his mother but also as he got older there was a sense of rebellion against his mom. There is no question that he and Audrey had a real passion for each other and passion often has happiness involved in it but it also has some pain. He was completely besotted by Billie Jean — he married a 19-year-old woman two months before he died. I think he was happy when he got on the Opry, I think when he saw what was asked of them once he’s was on the Opry and how much work was involved on a continuing basis and he was very much a guy who didn’t like authority, didn’t like being pushed around. So I think once he started thinking he was asked to be an organ-grinder’s monkey a little bit his instincts were like, ‘I’d rather just do it my way.’ He was one of those guys. When you’ve grown up without a father and been playing and performing since he was 13 years old and you know that you’ve got something to say, you can get pretty edgy.

On the EKG graph of his life, not his actual physical EKG, it was was peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys. He was a guy didn’t take much to get drunk and then couldn’t stop. He allowed himself to be treated by a doctor who had a degree from a gas station and gave him chloral hydrate. I think that he had real moments of high and he had real moments of low and those ups and downs took their toll on him physically and emotionally and on those around him. Ultimately he caved in, it all caved in on him.

What kind of research did you do on Hank? Who did you talk to?

The thing is, if you’re doing something about a real person and you’re talking to the people in their lives it can be an impediment as much as it can be an asset.
They all kind of have an agenda and also are protective and also everybody has a different viewpoint because if you’re standing on the side of the room somebody looks this way, they are standing on that side of the room they look a different way, every room has different camera angles. What was lovely was that Hank’s daughter who was born four days after he passed away, Jet Williams talked to us. She didn’t even know for 20 or so years of her life. She was passed around from family to family from foster home to foster home. So you can imagine when she finds out she’s Hanks Williams’ daughter, once she did she was passionate about understanding her father as one certainly would be and she has devoted a lot of time to learning about him. She’s a performer in her own right and she had a lot of material. She has one of my favorite photographs of Hank which is something we tried to show in the movie. When he’s on stage we showed him in all the garb that we are used to seeing him in, the suits, the beautiful hats but when Hank wasn’t doing that he could look like a hipster from right out of Brooklyn today, wearing a fedora. And when he walked right out of the door he was really cool. She had a great picture of him at the Alamo with these really great sunglasses on and he literally looked like somebody from right now and that was something we really pushed against. We didn’t really want people to think these are people off of “Hee-Haw.” Holly showed us a sort of soulfulness and told us about some of the relationships, being Junior’s daughter and a really fine musician in her own right. but in the end even though there is very little footage of Hank, there is a lot written about Hank.

Chet Flippo, wrote a really interesting fun book but it was a lot about things that there would be no way to be able to verify. Collin Escott’s book was a very heavily researched piece of material and because he wrote the book first in 1992, a lot of guys who knew Hank were still alive. So he had a lot of interviews with people that I wasn’t even able to reach, very thoroughly documented. And so there’s a lot of interviews and there’s the documentary that Morgan Neville did. And those interviews with musicians. I was able to put together a picture of the man. And people are always protecting someone that has had a great influence on their lives, very protective but they were also willing to say Hank could be a son of a bitch, Hank was a tough guy, Hank was a guy that really wanted to get it right, he wanted to do it his way and if you don’t want to do it his way well you know what, he is going to find somebody who did want to do it his way.

And it’s like one of my favorite quotes of Raymond Chandler: “If you don’t leave, I’ll get somebody who will.” So we put that together and then you bring someone else into the process like Tom, who has his own level of curiosity, his own intellectual curiosity and he takes those things very seriously. You’ve been digging in the same sandbox but then also he goes, ‘Did you notice this rock?’ and I go “Oh man, I didn’t know that rock” And that’s what the real beauty of collaboration is because then we’re talking about things and I kind of read that whole thing but what he took out of it is different because what he was looking for is something I didn’t even think about like “Oh dude that’s a good idea”, yes and that’s what film is a different medium in terms of the creative expression. We do a take and he says, ‘No, no, I can do it better.’ And we do another one and it is better, and then he goes ‘No, no, I can do it better than that.’ He is as committed a performer as Hank Williams.”

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Behind the Scenes

Exclusive Clip: The Masked Saint

Posted on April 5, 2016 at 1:13 pm

The faith-based action drama “The Masked Saint” is now available on VOD. The film won the award for Best Picture at the International Christian Film Festival in 2015.

Inspired by true events in the life of former wrestler and pastor Chris Whaley, and based on his bestselling book, “The Masked Saint” follows the life journey of Chris Samuels (Cliff Granstaff) and his wife (Lara Jean Chorostecki). After retiring from the professional wrestling ring and settling down as a small town pastor, Samuels witnesses rampant crime and serious problems in the community. Tapping into his past, the pastor decides to moonlight as a masked vigilante fighting injustice. When crises hit at home and the church, the do-gooder must evade the police and somehow reconcile his secret, violent identity with his calling as a preacher.

We are pleased to present an exclusive clip, as Chris makes his first sermon in his new church.

Interview: Catherine Urbanek of “Courting Des Moines”

Posted on April 5, 2016 at 8:00 am

Catherine Urbanek stars in “Courting Des Moines,” a political romantic comedy with a series of cameos from real-life 2016 Presidential candidates and other real-life figures in Iowa for the caucuses that are the official start to the quadrennial race for the White House. In an interview, she talked about what she learned from playing a campaign manager and about her popular comedy web series about terrible first dates.

What was it like to shoot the film in Iowa as the real political campaigns were going on all around you?

I think what was surprising was how politically engaged Iowans are. It was really refreshing to go to Iowa and to see how politically aware everyone there is. It was just kind of different because in Los Angeles, for example, everyone is very focused on the entertainment world, the entertainment industry. But going to Des Moines, people’s focus was on something completely different — it was on politics. There is an expression that they have in Des Moines: “Everything local is politics and all politics are local.” So everyone is hyper aware of what’s going on in the nation. Kind of like how in LA everyone knows who Chris Hemsworth but in Iowa everyone knows who Bernie Sanders is so it’s really interesting.

In the movie your character runs the campaign for a candidate who is a real long shot but what is happening now seems even harder to believe.

Some of the stuff in the movie honestly felt like it could totally be happening in real life but yes, this election in particular is really kind of a bit like a circus.

Your character meets up with an ex and they are interested in getting back together until they begin to work for rival candidates. In real life you knew your co-star before this film, right?

Yes, Brandon Jones plays Damian. I wrote a short film that Brandon ended up getting cast in. It was a Web video that I wrote called “Too Much Clay Matthews,” about a Packers fan and a Bears fan on a date. Brandon read the script and he really liked it and wanted to do the project so we shot it. And then when we were making “Courting Des Moines,” Brent Roske was looking for Damian and I asked if he thought about Brandon Jones. So I’ve known Brandon before and I had worked with him before and honestly too in terms of preparing for a love interest roles it’s just acting. Brandon is very easy to act like you are attracted to him, it’s very easy to be attracted to Brandon Jones so that was no problem.

You’ve been interested in acting all your life. Tell me a little bit about how it all began and what was your first professional role?

I actually was extremely introverted when I was little. We did a play in kindergarten and when I got to be on stage it was like I was somebody, I was playing something else and it felt incredibly comfortable. And I found that I was more comfortable on stage almost than I was offstage in my real life. Then I become a total goofball and not introverted anymore but I always felt so comfortable on stage. And I also really love to make people laugh, I really enjoy that so I tend to prefer comedy over drama.

Did you see any of the real-life candidates when you were filming?

I didn’t meet any of them while we were shooting but I did go back to Iowa when we did a screening Iowa of the film right on the eve of the Iowa Caucus. And I was with the director for a little while, I kind of hung around with him in Des Moines and we went to the Republican presidential debate and so I was there for that and I remember seeing Rick Santorum and I think we saw John Kasich and Carly Fiorina. It was so interesting because it felt like being at the Oscars in a way. And then at the screening for the film I got to sit with Senator Tom Harkin, who has an appearance in the film sowe had a little scene together.

Tell me about your web series.

It’s actually a dating trilogy that I wrote about the girl that goes on dates where each date starts out really well, they have a common interest but then there is a discrepancy about that common interest and then the date ends horribly. The common thread of the dating trilogy was that the people are equally passionate about things — Elton John, Matt Damon, or football. So when they disagree what starts as something they have in common turns out to drive them apart. One was picked up by Funny or Die, but they cut it so I prefer the version on YouTube. I really kind of want to do one know called something like Too Much Trump about a girl and a guy on a date who are both really passionate about politics where one is for Hillary and other is for Trump and the date ends terribly!

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Actors Interview