Laggies

Posted on October 30, 2014 at 5:58 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language, some sexual material and teen partying
Profanity:	Strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Adult and teen drinking and drunkenness, drunk driving
Violence/ Scariness:	Car crash, tense emotional confrontations
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	October 31, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00OUNNWPS

Lynn Shelton is known for writing and directing small, intimate, independent films with a lot of improvised dialogue (“Humpday,””My Sister’s Sister,” “Touchy Feely”), often using the same small group of actors. With “Laggies,” she moves seamlessly to working with a more conventional screenplay, written by someone else (novelist Andrea Seigel), and with a higher-profile Hollywood cast, but the film maintains a nice indie sensibility that lets the characters speak for themselves. For example, the only time the word “laggie” is used, it is not directed at any of the main characters and it is never explained, but we get the point. The laggie is Megan (Keira Knightley), who has lagged behind her close-knit group of friends from high school. Ten years later, all of them are established in careers and relationships. You can tell they all have mortgages and 401(k)s. But Megan, who has an MA in counseling, is currently working as a “sign girl” for her accountant father (Jeff Garlin), standing on the sidewalk twirling an arrow sign advertising his firm. She is living with Anthony (Mark Webber), the boyfriend she has been with since sophomore year of high school.

At a bridal shower for her friend Allison (Ellie Kemper), her friends find her joking immature and she finds them stuffy. And at Allison’s wedding (with a hilariously pretentious First Dance), two developments shake Megan badly. Anthony proposes. And Megan sees her father kissing (and more) Allison’s mother. Megan leaves the wedding and meets four teenagers hanging out in front of a convenience store. They ask her to buy some booze for them and she reasons that since someone did it for her, she should do it for them. “It’s a rite of passage,” she reassures herself.

With no interest in returning to her messy life, she spends some time with the kids. They think she is cool, and she likes being thought of that way. Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) gives her a phone and asks her to stay in touch. When Megan gets back to her apartment, she accepts Anthony’s proposal and agrees to elope with him in a week. Before they go, she tells him, she wants to attend the week-long personal development seminar that made such a difference to him (he learned that his spirit animal was a shark and that made him realize he had to start making decisions in his life because if a shark doesn’t move, it dies).

She has no intention of attending the seminar. She just needs time to think. And then Annika calls and asks her to pretend to be her mother for a parent conference at school. Megan puts up her hair and fakes her way through. And then she asks Annika if she can stay at her house for a week without her father finding out. One of the many nice touches in this movie is that of course he finds out immediately. This is not a sitcom. The set-up may be artificial, but the characters have real-life reactions.

Annika’s father is Craig (Sam Rockwell), a divorce lawyer and single dad. Annika’s mother left them years ago and he spends his days working with unhappy, angry couples. Annika thought she could hide Megan because Sam was supposed to be at a mixer, but he comes home early. I loved the detail that his name tag was on his arm and his conversation with Megan about how women at mixers like that tap him on the arm to show that they are listening. There are lies, and excruciating confessions, and lessons learned, but the progress is organic as everyone from the school counselor who thinks Megan is Annika’s mother to the real mother (the always-excellent Gretchen Moll) to Megan’s old friends from high school and even Craig seem to be carrying a message about growing up even though you don’t have it all figured out. Shelton has enough confidence in the story, the characters, and her outstanding performers to avoid the easy exaggerations of the genre and show us real people who are essentially decent struggling to find the courage to move forward, even when they don’t know where that will take them.

Parents should know that this film includes strong language, drinking by adults and teenagers, drunk driving, car crash, sexual references, some crude, and non-explicit situations, and infidelity.

Family discussion: What animal would you pick to represent your spirit? How can you tell when you’ve outgrown your friends?

If you like this, try: “Girl Most Likely” and Sam Rockwell films like “Galaxy Quest” and “The Way Way Back”

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23 Blast

Posted on October 23, 2014 at 3:57 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for some teen drinking
Profanity:	Mild schoolyard language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Teen drinking, drinking game
Violence/ Scariness:	Character becomes blind, scenes in hospital, sad offscreen death
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	October 24, 2014

23 Blast is the name of a football play, and “23 Blast” is based on the real story of Travis Freeman, a high school football star who lost his sight, but, with the help of a courageous coach and committed teammates, was able to keep playing.

The real hero of the movie is the coach, played by “Avatar” villain Stephen Lang, with a touch of dry with along with his determination and sense of honor. The film’s very first scene, with the coach working with a group of young boys as he learns he will be getting a job with the high school team, introduces us to him as a man of character who understands that the win that counts is the integrity and teamwork he instills in his players. And it introduces us to the tone of the film, honest, unvarnished, and real. You may think you know where a fact-based story about a blind player on a high school football team is going, but this film will surprise you.

That first scene also introduces us to the boys who will become the stars of the team, Travis (a very likeable Mark Hapka) and Jerry (Bram Hoover, as the bad boy with a good heart but a weak will). They are very different people. Travis plays by the rules. He is respectful, reliable, and grounded in his faith. Bram cannot resist a party, and as for rules, they are for ignoring or for breaking. But on the football field, they have a bond. Their passion for football, and their deep understanding of its options, demands, and strategies connects them. Travis is devoted to football because it is his nature to give himself fully to whatever he takes on. Bram is devoted to football because it is the only place where he feels at home.*

One night following a game, Travis becomes ill at a party. The next day he wakes up with severe swelling on his face. His parents take him to the hospital and the doctor tells them he needs immediate surgery. “You’re going to have to take the cross off,” the nurse says as he is wheeled into the operating room. He survives the surgery, but he is blind.

At first, Travis is devastated. He will not leave his room. He refuses to cooperate with the occupational therapist (a warm and spirited Becky Ann Baker). But a dream of a sermon seemingly directed to him and a visit from the coach opens up possibilities he thought were foreclosed. “I’m going to need you to step up,” the coach tells him. “The team needs a leader. Are you that guy?”

It seems impossible. How will he run, tackle, catch? The coach makes him the center and he has to learn a whole new set of skills. But learning that he can learn is revelatory. Some of his teammates are not on board. His ties with Jerry are tested by Jerry’s irresponsible and self-destructive behavior. But the coach understands that the most important thing he can teach these players is not the techniques or strategy but the meaning of being a part of something bigger than each of them.

This is quiet, even modest storytelling, with a surprising final punch, an inspirational tale that never becomes sugary or preachy.

Parents should know that this film includes teen drinking and a drinking game. A character becomes blind and there is a sad offscreen death.

Family discussion: What do we learn from Travis’ dream about the sermon directed at him? Why was Patty able to help him? Would you be willing to have a disabled player on your team?

If you like this, try: “Brian’s Song” and “Remember the Titans”

St. Vincent

Posted on October 16, 2014 at 5:29 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 For mature thematic material including sexual content, alcohol and tobacco use, and for language
Profanity:	Very strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking, alcohol abuse
Violence/ Scariness:	Car accident, stroke, sad death, bullies, fighting
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	October 17, 2014

A crude, inconsiderate, bitter slacker — Bill Murray could play that in his sleep. And it would be pretty good. But he doesn’t. Bill Murray gives a beautiful, wise, complex performance as Vincent, an angry old man who drinks too much, smokes too much, gambles too much, pays a pregnant stripper for sex, and seems to get his only enjoyment from trying to make the rest of the world as miserable as he is.

Just as Vincent runs out of money, new neighbors move in next door. It is Maggie (Melissa McCarthy), a single mom, and her son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher). Maggie, who just left her husband and is working double shifts to pay for Oliver’s private school, is so desperate she is willing to pay Vincent to be Oliver’s babysitter. He is completely inappropriate in every way, taking Oliver to the racetrack and a bar and introducing him to a “lady of the night,” pregnant Russian stripper (Naomi Watts as Daka). And yet, he is able to provide Oliver with support he does not get anywhere else, especially when it comes to dealing with the school bully (Dario Barosso). Vincent’s acerbic take on the world is a bracing change of pace from the chaos and sadness in Oliver’s family and the feeling of being an outsider he gets from being a Jew in a Catholic school, even one with a sympathetic priest for a teacher (Chris O’Dowd) and classmates that include a Buddhist and an atheist. Oliver is in many ways the only real adult in the story, wise and unflappable as the grown-ups around him fail him and each other.

Writer-director Ted Melfi spend the first half of the movie showing us the pressure Vincent is under and his inability to deal with it. He is overdrawn at the bank and he owes money to a bookie (Terrence Howard). His house and car are falling apart and he is, too. He is callous, selfish, and rude. But then we begin to learn that he is capable of great kindness and devotion. He makes regular visits to Sandy (an exquisite performance by Donna Mitchell). She is a beautiful woman with loss of memory who lives in an assisted living facility. He does her laundry and dons a white jacket and stethoscope because she is comfortable thinking he is a doctor. Clearly, he is much more to her, but she does not remember and he does not want to rattle her. He also has a large white cat and seems to be very fond of it.

Meanwhile, Maggie is under a lot of pressure, too. When she gets called into the school after Oliver uses his new lessons from Vincent to hit the bully in the nose, she dissolves into tears. And Oliver’s father is suing her for custody, made much more difficult when he gives the court evidence of Vincent’s poor judgment as a babysitter.

It all comes together a little too sweetly. Even the bully and the grouchy stripper get happy endings. Oliver, while beautifully played by Lieberher, is too good to be true. But Murray’s performance, especially as Vincent recovers from an illness, is never anything less than real, brave, and beautifully observed, and McCarthy, in a largely dramatic role, is outstanding as well. This is a promising debut from Melfi and a quiet little gem.

Parents should know that this film is the story of a man who subjects a child to inappropriate behavior and experiences. It includes very strong and crude language for a PG-13, a stripper and prostitute, an explicit sexual situation, a child exposed to drinking, gambling, and sex work, and a custody battle with references to infidelity.

Family discussion: Who would you pick as your “saint?” Why was Vincent so nice to Sandy and so mean to everyone else?

If you like this, try: “Little Miss Sunshine”

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Kill the Messenger

Posted on October 9, 2014 at 5:59 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language and drug content
Profanity:	Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, including teen drinking, drug dealing
Violence/ Scariness:	Gangster-style violence, sad death, suicide
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	October 10, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00KSPL01K

Sometimes an honest, crusading, investigative reporter uncovers corruption and deceit and the result is triumph, a Pulitzer Prize, humiliating resignations and criminal convictions of the guilty and an Oscar-winning movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. And sometimes, instead, the result is killing the messenger. Gary Webb was a passionate, dedicated journalist at the San Jose Mercury News who managed to infuriate not only the CIA but his far bigger journalistic rivals. He uncovered a story no one much wanted told and no one much wanted to hear. Jeremy Renner plays Webb in this effort to give him his due.

Although it is set in the mid-90’s, director Michael Cuesta gives the film a 70’s paranoia, one man against The Man vibe that harks back to “The Parallax View,” “All the President’s Men,” “Z,” and “Serpico.” Renner, who also co-produced, brings his coiled energy and electric physicality to Webb, making journalism seem like a full-contact sport. His Webb is a guy who runs up the courthouse steps like Rocky. We see him early on, walking to his desk in the paper’s outpost near the state capital, going past the grand, imposing signs marking the areas occupied by the big national daily papers to his modest little corner. He’s a small fish in a very big ocean. But he has enormous determination, integrity, a sense of something to prove, and a healthy ego.

And then he gets the lead of a lifetime. A beautiful woman (Paz Vega), the girlfriend of a drug dealer, has some information for him that sounds preposterous. She says he “sold drugs for the government.” Seven tons worth. And it leads to the discovery that the government, specifically the CIA, is funneling money to the Contras in Nicaragua by underwriting the drug trade that is pouring crack into the poorest areas in the inner cities. “National security and crack cocaine in the same sentence — does that not sound strange to you?” And there’s a warning. “My friend, some stories are just too true to tell.”

The problem with writing about bad things done by powerful people is that they will use their power to attack whoever is trying to expose them. “Good investigative reporting ruffles feathers.” Sometimes the creature sporting those feathers will use its claws. To use a neologism from the movie, they will “controversialize” whoever is putting their reputations at risk. Webb was not perfect. He had enemies. At first, his newspaper celebrates his journalistic coup. But when his bosses are put under pressure, they buckle. Soon the once-superstar reporter is exiled to Cupertino. Without the support of his family and the chance to do the work that defines him, he has nothing to hold onto.

The story is still a murky and complicated one, despite post-credit updates on revelations confirming Webb’s reporting. Renner is a magnetic presence and he makes Webb’s passion for telling the story honestly and exposing the dishonesty of others almost palpable. Webb’s scenes with his children are especially touching, though it is too bad to see the talented Rosemary DeWitt relegated to a dull “don’t work so hard, don’t take risks” role. A scene near the end at an awards dinner has an emotional punch. Renner’s performance has enormous integrity, illuminating the murky compromises and betrayals he exposes and the ones that get the better of him as well.

Parents should know that this film has very strong language, drugs, drug dealing, and gangster violence, as well as tense family confrontations.

Family discussion: Who is doing the work that Gary Webb did today? Has the CIA become more accountable as a result of his work? Do we still kill the messenger?

If you like this, try: “Serpico” and Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion and more of the work of real-life reporter Gary Webb

The Good Lie

Posted on October 2, 2014 at 5:55 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some violence, brief strong language and drug use
Profanity:	Brief strong language and some mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, drug use
Violence/ Scariness:	Very disturbing violence including mass killings, guns, machetes, many characters injured and killed, some graphic images
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie

“The Good Lie” wisely casts Reese Witherspoon and Corey Stoll, who are outstanding as always, as sympathetic employment agency representatives helping refugees from Sudan find work in Kansas. And then it even more wisely keeps those characters in the background to allow the heroes of the story to be the refugees themselves and the real-life survivors of genocide in Africa who play the roles. Thankfully, this is one movie that is not about white people being spiritually enriched by saving people of color. And it is not about white people being spiritually enriched by learning important lessons from people of color. It is about people who have survived unimaginable loss who find a way to live with honor, strong connections, and resilience. Reese Witherspoon may be in it to reassure us that it is not a spinach movie, but even without her undeniably appealing role, the film would succeed because it is true-hearted, warm, wise, inspiring, and funny.

When their village is wiped out by genocidal marauders in the Sudanese Civil War of 1983-2005. More than two million were slaughtered and more than 20,000 surviving children, mostly boys, walked for hundreds of miles, many more dying along the way. Those who lived made it to refugee camps that were barely able to take care of them, and where they stayed for a decade or more. A small percentage immigrated to the United States. This story focuses on four survivors, the gentle Manerre (Arnold Oceng), the faithful Jeremiah (Ger Duany), and the angry Paul (Emmanuel Jal), who were sent to Kansas, and their efforts to be reunited with Manerre’s sister Abital (Kuoth Wiel), who was separated from the only family she had ever known because no home in Kansas would take her in.

Witherspoon plays the harried employment agency aide assigned to help them find jobs and has no interest in any further involvement with their lives. Cory Stoll plays her boss, who lives on a small farm, with cattle who give the Africans their first familiar sight since arriving in the United States.

Screenwriter Margaret Nagle and director Philippe Falardeau (who showed great sensitivity to cross-cultural issues faced by immigrants in “Monsieur Lazhar”) deftly avoid the too-easy feel-good conventions like romantic happy endings and the too-easy laughs of cultural differences. When a well-meaning but not very well-informed greeter welcomes them with a lime green jello mold, the refugees’ bewilderment is a reflection on America’s warmhearted intentions but cultural myopia. The same with Witherspoon’s character — her failure to learn the most fundamental basics about the skills and knowledge of the people she is trying to place is based on ignorance and lack of empathy in part, but also in a kind of imperishable optimism about the ability of all people to adapt. There is never a suggestion of making fun of the Africans for being provincial, even when one of them asks tentatively if he needs to be looking out for lions. They are never reduced to being cute or cuddly. And while they have strong cultural and familial ties, each is given the respect and dignity of his own temperament and priorities.

In the refugee camp, one of the men wears a donated “Just do it” t-shirt. When he finds out he is going to America, he says, “We can finally find out what this means.” It is always going to be fun to see outsiders respond to elements of American life we take for granted, from escalators to airplane food, from shelves with twelve kinds of Cheerios to dumpsters full of edible goods. The Africans give us a fresh look at our own lives, but what matters here is the way they hold onto what is most precious to them, their heritage, each other, while pursuing the opportunities this great, if imperfect country offers them so imperfectly.

Parents should know that this film includes genocidal violence with guns and knives, entire villages wiped out, many characters killed including parents, some disturbing images, some strong language, drinking, drug use, sexual references and a non-explicit situation.

Family discussion: How did the responses of each of the refugees to living in the US differ and why? What could the Americans have done to be more helpful and understanding? Why was it important for them to name their grandfathers? Why was courtesy so important?

If you like this, try: the documentaries “The Devil Came on Horseback” and “God Grew Tired of Us” and read more about the Lost Boys both in Africa and in the United States.