Don Jon

Posted on September 26, 2013 at 6:00 pm

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt has made a remarkably assured debut as writer/director, putting him in the front ranks of today’s filmmakers. Gordon-Levitt also plays the lead role, Jon, a New Jersey guy with a high and tight haircut and a spare and immaculate apartment decorated in gray and black. He reels off the list of things he cares about: his body (for working out), his car (for driving and looking cool), his boys (friends), his girls (for sex), his church (for confession), his family (for Sunday dinners), and porn (you know what that is for). Those are the parameters of his life, and that seems fine to him because he knows who he is and how things fit together. The title is a reference to the legendary libertine who symbolizes all men who seduce many women without forming any attachments to them.

Jon and his friends like to go to the club and rank the ladies, an endlessly fascinating conversation about various body parts and the optimal shapes and proportions of each. Sex with those ladies is primarily a contest between the men, and Jon is by far the leader. His success with nines and “dimes” (a ten) is about status and competition, and he tells us that he prefers pornography to sex with real girls. One night, Jon sees a solid dime named Barbara (Scarlett Johansson). For the first time, he becomes involved with a woman who is more than a one-night stand and he has to earn her affection. She has her own ideas of what a “dime” equivalent looks like, and he finds himself going to romantic comedy movies and taking a community college class. He even brings her home to meet his family, where she gets a very enthusiastic response from his parents (a wonderful Glenne Headley and Tony Danza).

And then things get more complicated. Gordon-Levitt has crafted a whip-smart, richly cinematic film with some very funny moments and a lot of heart. He makes it clear that Jon is not the only one who is numbing his feelings. His father is more absorbed in watching the football games than in talking to his family and Barbara’s aspirations are almost as based on fantasy as the images Jon connects to online. Watch how the settings help tell the story, and style of the movie changes as Jon goes from the techno-pumping macho world of his friends to the more romantic, orchestral environment of dating. And then it shifts again as other changes happen. Keep an eye on Jon’s sister, played by the superb Brie Larson (“The Spectacular Now,” “Short Term 12”), who appears to be as addicted to her devices as Jon, never saying a word to her family as she stares into her phone, texting back and forth. She will make it clear that she has been more connected to what is going on with the people she loves than anyone else in the film. And Julianne Moore gives an earthy but sensitive performance as a classmate of Jon’s who surprises and disconcerts him with her honesty.

Seeing Jon begin to learn to interact with the world with feelings, not just sensations, is a pleasure. But seeing one of today’s best young actors bloom into one of tomorrow’s best young filmmakers is even greater.

Parents should know that this movie is about a young man who is addicted to pornography. It includes very explicit sexual references and situations, nudity, very strong and crude language, drinking, and drugs.

Family discussion: How did other characters aside from Jon find ways to avoid their feelings? How did Joseph Gordon-Levitt use different film-making styles to show the different moods of his time with his friends, with Barbara, and with Esther?

If you like this, try: “Thanks for Sharing” and some of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s other films like “Brick” and “Mysterious Skin”

Related Tags:

The Family

Posted on September 12, 2013 at 6:00 pm

“Anybody who doesn’t contradict me can expect nothing but good things,” “Fred Blake” (Robert De Niro) explains in item 10 of his David Letterman-style countdown of what he considers his best qualities. Fred is his current nom de witness protection. Formerly, he was Giovanni Manzoni, a made man in the mob, now being hidden in the Normandy region of France with his wife and teenage children under the bleary but watchful eyes of the long-suffering federal marshal, Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones). “Try to fit in,” he tells them. “I’m tired of finding you a new place every 90 days.” But those who do contradict Fred, we are shown, can end up sleeping with the fishes or just being buried in the back yard.

Co-writer/director Luc Besson enjoys genre mash-ups that can be outrageous to the point of being deranged. Sometimes that mixture of mayhem, comedy, and sentiment works better than others. Here, it works pretty well, if the idea of a combination of “The Sopranos” and “The Addams Family” seems appealing.

Fred (as we will call him) and his family are not cruel or insensitive. Fred and “Maggie” (Michelle Pfeiffer) love each other and their children, Belle (“Glee’s” Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D’Leo). You might think of them as your friendly neighborhood sociopaths with impulse control issues. Maggie is a bit of a firebug, but like her husband, she directs her antisocial behavior at those who have violated her moral code in some way, usually by being rude to her. Warren has a remarkably precocious, even preternatural, ability to size up the culture, cliques, and power of the high school in one day and master it the next, with a piece of every action in the school and a hefty squad of enforcers. Belle has her mother’s temper and her father’s wicked way with weapons — also a crush on a student teacher. And of course the guys who once dubbed Fred a made man now want to make him a dead man, with a dirty death, meaning it will be very painful for him and his family.

At the moment, though, what is occupying Fred’s attention is the barbecue the family is planning for the neighbors, the memoir he is banging out on the manual typewriter, and the brown water that comes out of the faucet. Also on his Letterman list is his pride in seeing things through to the finish and his satisfaction in knowing that his sadistic urges are exclusively applied when he causes pain for a good reason. And then, as a representative from America, he is invited to discuss an American film, Frank Sinatra’s “Some Came Running.” But there is a mix-up and the film he ends up responding to is none other than “Goodfellas.” Starring, of course, De Niro.

Yes, the plot is over the top and silly. But it isn’t really about the Blakes or about the mob. It is about the movies, and Luc Besson’s stylish fun in playing with them. What works is the performances by De Niro and Pfeiffer who have showed in “Analyze This” and “Married to the Mob” that they know how to tweak the kind of crime drama portrayals they deliver in “The Godfather, Part II,” “Scarface,” and, well, “Goodfellas” for comic purpose without making them silly or over the top. There is something giddily liberating about watching characters respond to the indignities of everyday life with such extreme measures, and something satisfying about knowing they will be able to respond to the extreme measures that are headed their way.

Parents should know that this film includes extensive and graphic crime-related violence with many shoot-outs and explosions, some chases, dead bodies, bullies, disturbing images, very strong language used by teenagers and adults, drinking, smoking, sexual references and a brief explicit situation. There is an attempted suicide and a threatened rape.

Family discussion: What qualities did Belle and Warren inherit from their parents? Why did Fred want to write his story? How do you see the influence of American films on Luc Besson’s directing style?

If you like this, try: “Analyze This,” “Married to the Mob,” “Goodfellas,” and “Some Came Running”

Related Tags:

Action/Adventure Comedy Crime

The World’s End

Posted on August 25, 2013 at 2:14 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references
Profanity:	Constant very strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	The theme of the film is a pub crawl intended to make the characters very drunk, drinking and drunkenness, drugs, drug dealer
Violence/ Scariness:	Comic peril and violence with some graphic images
Diversity Issues:	Homophobic insult
Date Released to Theaters:	August 23, 2013
Date Released to DVD:	November 18, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00BPEJX12

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and co-writer/director Edgar Wright have re-united for the third in the genre-bending “Cornetto” series, which I refuse to call a “trilogy” because I want them to keep going. In case you’re listening, guys: Please.

“Shaun of the Dead” was a romantic comedy with zombies and strawberry Cornetto ice cream. “Hot Fuzz” was a sort of deranged meta-buddy cop film with blue Cornetto ice cream. And now we have “The World’s End,” a comedy about a group of high school friends who get together to re-create a legendary pub crawl in their suburban home town. Twenty years after their high school graduation, they go back home to have a pint in each of the twelve pubs that constitute the “golden mile,” concluding at one called The World’s End. And yes, that is foreshadowing.

Things go badly. Things are not as they remembered. When the group arrive at the first pub on the list, it is depressingly generic. In the decades since they left, everything has been homogenized into sterile, interchangeably dull corporate decor. The second one is indistinguishable from the first. Gary has always cherished the notion that they were legends in the town. But no one seems to remember them, not even the high school bully.

Then the robot aliens show up and things get worse.

Co-write Pegg plays Gary King, who is now only dimly realizing that the qualities that lead to popularity in high school do not equip one for success thereafter. This is particularly the case when those qualities are essentially limited to creating the kind of experiences that result in watching the sun come up with bloody knuckles, a hangover, and vomit on your shoes. You can still do that after high school, as Gary’s current status as an inpatient in a substance abuse clinic attest. It’s just that it no longer makes him a hero to his friends. Now all respectable men with jobs and, for most of them, families, they have moved on and have no interest in going back.

But Gary, who thinks he lost his way when they failed to make it to all twelve pubs in “the golden mile,” manages to persuade the other four to come with him and try it again. For no other reason except for pity, survivor guilt, and perhaps some wish to revisit a carefree past, they decide to come along. It is possible, though, that they envy Gary’s freedom as they are constantly checking with their watches, their phones, and their wives. There’s car dealer Peter Page (Eddie Marsan — all of the characters have royal court-related names), realtor with a permanently embedded bluetooth earpiece Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman of “The Hobbit”), recently divorced Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), and Gary’s former best friend Andy Knightly (Nick Frost), whose hostility indicates that a revelation about some horrible misdeed lies ahead. Also in town is Sam Chamberlain (Rosamund Pike), Oliver’s sister, who was there for an important part of the legendary pub crawl in 1990.

Gary is darker than the previous roles Pegg wrote for himself, which mostly had him as an amiable, if immature and socially inept doofus (although in “Hot Fuzz” he was a very buff and straight arrow variation). He clearly relishes playing a completely dissolute character who cannot seem to figure out why a system of doing or saying whatever will get him what he wants at that moment without any regard to the consequences for himself or others is not working for him anymore. It is also good to see Frost playing something different as well. His Andy is responsible, dignified, and quietly competent and confident. He also turns out to be very good at fighting the robot aliens.

It’s a delicious mix of understated British humor and over-the-top craziness, with witty lines, some knowing digs at Hollywood, and razor-sharp satire. It also has the only credible explanation for hideous public sculpture I’ve ever seen. I hope they end up with at least as many in the series as there are flavors of Cornetto ice cream treats.

Parents should know that this film has constant bad language, including crude sexual references and a homophobic insult, a lot of drinking and drunkenness, drugs, and mostly comic peril and violence with some disturbing images.

Family discussion: Why did Gary’s friends agree to come back? Why was the pub crawl important to Gary?

If you like this, try: “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz,” “Paul,” and the television series “Spaced”

Austenland

Posted on August 22, 2013 at 6:00 pm

Edward Arlington Robinson wrote a poem about a man named Miniver Cheevy who wished so much that he could have lived in the days of knights and ladies that he refused to participate in the life before him. Author Shannon Hale wrote Austenland about a young woman named Jane who is so in love with the romance and elegance of Jane Austen’s Regency-era romances that no real-life modern relationship can ever measure up. She has a lifesize cardboard photo of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy from “Pride and Prejudice” and her bedroom is like a deranged bed and breakfast version explosion of 19th century fantasy.

So she spends all of her money going to an immersive theme park called Austenland, where fans of Austen’s classic novels like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility and the swooningly romantic movie versions can pretend to thaw the hearts of proud men in wearing breeches who would never think of addressing them by their first name or presuming to try a kiss.

“Napoleon Dynamite” co-author Jerusha Hess wrote and directed the film adaptation, with “Twilight’s” Stephenie Meyer as producer. A radiant Keri Russell (“Waitress”) plays Jane, who is taken aback when she arrives at the 18th Century Italianate mansion (played by the historic Wycombe estate, also seen in “Downton Abbey”). It is presided over by the redoubtable Mrs. Wattlesbrook (Jane Seymour), who crisply informs Jane that as the purchaser of the “Copper Package,” she will be known as the fortuneless “Jane Erstwhile” and live in a small room near the servants’ quarters. (Janeites, think Fanny Price.) Also visiting Austenland are the wealthy “Miss Elizabeth Charming” (Jennifer Coolidge, hilarious as always), who has no idea who Jane Austen is but thinks she will look good in Regency dresses, and Lady Amelia Heartwright (Georgina King) (Janites: think Jane Fairfax with a touch of Crawford). Having paid for the premium package, Charming and Heartwright have luxurious rooms and clothes. And, apparently, first choice of the very handsome men who are there to provide the full Austen experience, or at least the simulation/stimulation thereof.

As a full-on Janeite who has read all of the books several times, I laughed out loud at some of the references and variations on Austen’s themes and at the silliness of the juxtaposition between the 18th century period details and the intrusion of the present day. At one point, Jane is left out in the rain and romantically rescued by the severe Mr. Nobley (J.J. Feild, whose Austen credentials include playing Mr. Tilney in a “Northanger Abbey” television movie). (Janeites, think “Emma.”)

At first, Jane plays along as though she was really in the Regency era. But then, around the time that her soaking wet dress splits up to the hip, she cannot help reacting like the 21st century young woman she is. And how very un-Fanny Price for her to decide that it is time to depart from Mrs. Wattlesbrook’s directions and write her own story, starting with getting rid of the dowdy hairstyle and clothes she has been assigned and moving on to spending quality time with the groundskeeper. This is less Lady Susan than Lady Chatterly.

Like all Austen heroines, Jane has some lessons to learn. And a very happy ending, including a hilarious final credit sequence. Hess manages to both send up and pay tribute to the core conventions of romantic comedy, and for fans of the genre that has been all but absent from theaters in 2013, that is a very happy ending indeed.

Parents should know that this film includes sexual references and situations, some bawdy and crude, some strong language, and drinking.

Family discussion: What was it about Austen’s books that was so important to Jane? If you could visit any fictional place, what would it be?

If you like this, try: Any of the many movie and television versions of Jane Austen’s novels, especially “Sense and Sensibility” with Emma Thompson and “Pride and Prejudice” with Colin Firth

Related Tags:

Based on a book Comedy Romance

In a World….

Posted on August 15, 2013 at 3:19 pm

Writer/director/star Lake Bell has produced a smart, fresh, and funny film that sends up Hollywood, sexism, and the conventions of the romantic comedy and yet somehow has us rooting for the characters to find a happy ending. And she has given juicy roles to a great collection of performers who are too often overlooked — starting with herself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpFNTvA93iY

Bell plays Carol, a voice coach and would-be voiceover announcer, the daughter of Sam (Fred Melamed), a very successful voiceover artist well known for his work narrating movie trailers. The death of Don LaFontaine, the acknowledged leader of this small and very competitive field, has left a perceived opening. According to this film, LaFontaine’s signature opening, “In a world….” is about to be revived for a new “Hunger Games”-like “quadrilogy,” and the job of narrating the trailers is considered the ultimate achievement. Sam has just told Carol she cannot live with him any more because his young girlfriend is moving in. So, Carol has gone to sleep on the couch in the small apartment her sister Dani (Micheala Watkins) shares with her work-at-home husband, Moe (Rob Corddry).

Sam is advising up-and-coming voice artist Gustav (Ken Marino), positioning him to take over the big “In a world…” job. But a temp track recorded by Carol has captured the attention of the studio, and she finds herself in the running for an unprecedented opportunity to be a female voice on a movie trailer. This makes sense as the quadrilogy is about mutant Amazons, but the established tradition is for a deep, rumbling, male “voice of God” narrator.

Bell makes first-timer mistakes in trying to pack too many ideas into the film, but she does a masterful job of keeping it all in balance. She serves the other actors as a director better than she does herself. Carol is sometimes just too much of a clueless, klutz. But when she shows a young professional woman that taking like a teenager with a question inflection at the end of every sentence how important it is to own your voice, it is clear to us that this movie shows how well she owns hers.

Parents should know that this film has very strong language including crude sexual references and some non-explicit sexual situations with some poor choices.

Family discussion: Why don’t trailers use women narrators? What do we learn from Carol’s conversation in the ladies’ room?

If you like this, try: the documentary about voiceover artists, “I Know That Voice”

Related Tags:

Comedy Family Issues