The Mystery in the Woods

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March (2011) with Philip Seymour Hoffman
2. Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mission: Impossible III (2006) with Simon Pegg
3. Simon Pegg in Stark Trek (2009) with Chris Hemsworth
4. Chris Hemsworth in The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

What we’ve got here is a surprising and hilarious horror movie. But it’s likely to be misunderstood by a lot of people, judging from its Cinemascore grade last weekend (‘C’ from all audiences and ‘D+’ from females).

I could discuss any of the main five stereotypical characters in this movie that are played with here. There’s the Jock (Chris Hemsworth), the Bookworm (Jesse Williams), the Blonde (Anna Hutchison), the Stoner (Fran Kranz) and the Virgin (Kristen Connolly), but I’d like to highlight the characters played by Bradley Whitford and the wonderful (and Academy Award nominee!) Richard Jenkins. The pair play two mysterious men in a laboratory who seem to be controlling all the scares (I’m not spoiling anything, as this was foolishly spoiled in the trailers). The movie comes from the minds of Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Drew Goddard (of Lost fame). Are Whedon and Goddard inserting themselves into this movie with the characters of Whitford and Jenkins? Some would like to think so, and I think the masterminds themselves would like to think so as well. After all, Whedon and Goddard ultimately decide the fates of characters onscreen.

It’s also really fun to see Whedon playing with the idea of the Blonde, particularly since he’s known for creating strong roles for young women. But Whedon plays with the idea of the Blonde here in a different way than before. In fact, many of the stereotypical characters are on display in Cabin, but the way they interact and face fate may surprise you.

The surprises are enough to sustain for a while, but in the end, Cabin waters down its subversion by giving us almost too much information about the mystery of the Cabin. I just wish Whedon and Goddard would’ve let us use our imaginations a bit more.

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I Am Number 21

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in The Notebook (2004) with Rachel McAdams
2. Rachel McAdams in The Vow (2012) with Channing Tatum
3. Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street (2012)

That was too easy. But I’m too lazy to make this really challenging right now.

The best way I have found to describe 21 Jump Street to my friends is “frentic.” Which is fitting because this reboot of sorts comes from screenwriter Michael Bacall, who has also written Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Project X. I can’t speak for the latter because I haven’t seen it yet, but the strength of 21 Jump Street and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is that there is a lot going on onscreen, but the action is always easy to follow. And both movies are gloriously self-aware.

I mean self-aware in the fact that directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller know exactly what they’re doing with this movie. This is a familiar property, but the filmmakers refuse to let this movie drift into tepid adaptation territory. And it never ignores an opportunity to make fun of itself.

The movie also succeeds because of its cast. Jonah Hill is fine here, but the real standout is Channing Tatum, whose comedic timing has obviously been underutilized for his entire movie career. Note to Tatum: please do more comedies like this.

Dave Franco, as a hip, drug-dealing high schooler, also impresses. I don’t think he has the acting range of his older brother, but I have high hopes for this Franco. Maybe someone should cast him in a romantic comedy soon? I think he could charm his way into that.

The bottom line is that 21 Jump Street is a self-aware, raunchy comedy that is a lot better than it should have been. Gather up a group of friends and check it out.

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The Big Game

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in Fracture (2007) with Anthony Hopkins
2. Anthony Hopkins in Hearts in Atlantis (2001) with Anton Yelchin
3. Anton Yelchin in The Beaver (2011) with Jennifer Lawrence
4. Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games (2012)

Young adult book-to-movie adaptations can be some of the riskiest gambles for Hollywood movie studios. Eragon, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Cirque de Freak (also starring Josh Hutcherson) are just a few examples of gambles that didn’t exactly pay off for their respective studios. But every now and then a phenomenon like The Hunger Games comes along.

The Hunger Games is a big movie with a large scope and an even larger premise. Twenty four teens fighting for their lives in a high-tech area created by an evil government! This thing was hard to pull off, but writers Gary Ross (who also serves as director), Billy Ray and Suzanne Collins (who is making millions from writing The Hunger Games books right now) somehow make the entire movie feel small and self-contained. Which is a good thing.

It’s the scenes between two characters, not the action scenes, that audiences will walk away remembering here. Destined-to-be-superstars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth (whose role will be larger in the upcoming sequels) inhabit their roles with extreme ease. And the scenes between Lawrence and Hutcherson are truly great.

The games people are playing in this movie are life or death, but it’s the interactions between the characters leading up to the games and during the games itself that create the most drama. Ross and co. have clearly realized that with this movie, creating a small-scale drama disguised as a action-packed studio pic. And best of all, the movie works on its own. So stop comparing it to the book.

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Jeff in the Pick of Destiny

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March (2011) with George Clooney
2. George Clooney in The Descendants (2011) with Judy Greer
3. Judy Greer in Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2012)

(Judy Greer is amazing in The Descendants, just so you know.)

The best kinds of movies are those concerned with destiny and the human condition, but the most interesting ones do it in a messy way. When the Duplass Brothers’ latest effort, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, opened with Jeff (played by Jason Segel) talking about the role of destiny in a scene from M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs (which is, admittedly, one of my favorite movies), I knew I would be in for an interesting ride. Both movies are about finding destiny in a messy way, and I’m okay with that.

There’s not much plot to the Duplass’ movie. Jeff lives at home (like the title!) with his mother, Sharon (Susan Sarandon). Sharon is frustrated at work, but her life becomes more exciting when she receives messages from a secret admirer. Pat (Ed Helms) is Jeff’s brother, who suspects that his wife (Judy Greer) may be cheating on him. But the real star of the movie is a stranger named Kevin and the way he affects all of the characters’ destinies.

Everyone in the movie is changed by Jeff’s optimistic outlook on life during the course of one day. Stylistically, the movie doesn’t attempt to do a whole lot, and it doesn’t really need to. The quartet of actors carries the movie, and that’s what the core of the movie is about. The story moves along a brisk pace, mostly thanks to quick edits, and clocks in at a short 82 minutes.

The movie doesn’t use a lot of tropes present in previous Duplass Bros mumblecore entries, but the dialogue does seem very natural. Mumblecore-style jerky camera movements and zooms dominate the beginning of the movie and get extremely distracting, but as the movie progresses it seems more natural. I’m not actually sure why I keep using the term “mumblecore” here because this movie (and last year’s Cyrus) have mainstreamed the mumblecore movement.

Production value in the movie seems kind of lacking, but I think it matches the thematic themes. The sets are ordinary, but honestly it would be distracting if the sets were lavish. The sets are simple because these characters are living simple, boring lives until this strange day. The lighting here is plain as well, and it almost has a harsh quality that gives the characters more realism.

I can see how the ending of the movie could be divisive for some and tonally off, but if you believe in the characters like I did, it totally works. It’s all about Jeff’s (messy) destiny, just like it was your destiny to read this review.

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Chandor’s Call

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in The United States of Leland (2003) with Kevin Spacey
2. Kevin Spacey in Margin Call (2011)

That was too easy.

In lieu of a typical review, I thought I would just jot down a few quick notes on what I thought was a solid movie that a lot of people overlooked from last year: Margin Call.

Written and directed by newbie J.C. Chandor, the movie covers a 24-hour period during the first stages of a financial crisis at an investment company (wow I sound just like IMDb). The movie garnered more attention than it probably would have (no offense, J.C.) when that whole #Occupy movement happened last year around the time of the film’s release.

I could give a big plot summary here, but I don’t feel like that’s really necessary. Two things really stood out to me in the film: the dichotomy between the old/new guard of actors present here and the script. THE SCRIPT.

It’s really interesting to see actors like Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons sharing the screen with younger actors like Zachary Quinto and Penn Badgley. It’s fascinating from a Hollywood standpoint and also a cultural standpoint. To see how these two groups of people react to the crisis (I’m actually still not sure what the crisis is) really tells you a lot about the generational divide. And it also makes this film more relevant than a lot of Best Picture nominees from this year’s Oscars.

But the real star of the film is Chandor’s script, which was nominated for Best Original Screenplay this year and lost out to Woody Allen‘s Midnight in Paris. The film is kind of mediocre in general, but it is really elevated by the work Chandor put into the script. The words are so palpable, it’s almost as if they are coming off the screen. I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if acting coaches started taking pages of this script to study in classes.

So yeah, if you enjoy dichotomies (hooray for dictionary.com) and interesting screenplays, check out Chandor’s directorial debut. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

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The Moopets

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in The Mickey Mouse Club (1993-1995) with Britney Spears
2. Britney Spears in How I Met Your Mother (2008) with Jason Segel
3. Jason Segel in The Muppets (2011)

I’m not a true Muppet fan. In fact, I think I’ve only seen two Muppet movies total. But the beautiful thing about The Muppets is that it reflects on the long legacy of the puppets while at the same time acquainting new audiences with these characters.

From the first scene to the final musical number, The Muppets is pure movie entertainment. The jokes are old school and could have easily fallen very flat, but writers Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller (who worked together on the hilarious Forgetting Sarah Marshall) manage to add clever winks to the audience in every punchline.

And the musical numbers. Some of the songs, like Amy Adams‘ showcase “Party of One,” really detract from the story and add nothing to the movie at all (even though it’s a perfectly okay song). But when songwriter Bret McKenzie (TV’s Flight of the Conchords) gets it right, he gets it really right. “Life’s a Happy Song” (Spotify link) may be one of my favorite movie moments from this year.

Segel and co. are clearly having the time of their lives paying tribute to these classic Jim Henson characters. The Muppets is essentially a 100-minute tribute to The Muppets, and that’s perfectly fine. Add this to the fact that there’s a tribute band called The Moopets present in this movie and you have a mindbender along the lines of Inception.

See The Muppets. Have some fun.

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Chronicle(d)

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in The United States of Leland (2003) with Don Cheadle
2. Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2 (2010) with Clark Gregg
3. Clark Gregg in (500) Days of Summer (2009) with Minka Kelly
4. Minka Kelly in Friday Night Lights (2006-2011) with Michael B. Jordan
5. Michael B. Jordan in Chronicle (2012)

Chronicle is different than other found footage movies (The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity), but it is also very similar. It separates itself from its predecessors within the first minute. High school student Andrew Detmer (relative newcomer Dane DeHaan) is hiding from his abusive father in his room, and Andrew screams something to the effect of “I’m recording everything from now on.” With previous found footage entries, mostly horror movies, the audience is subjected to multiple lines of dialogue where the characters (or actors?) continually ask themselves why a camera is present. Chronicle owes its structure to the success of these other stories because audiences are so used to this type of film by now that a throw-away line like this at the beginning of Chronicle is sufficient enough to justify the rest of the movie.

Like I said, previous found footage movies have typically consisted of the horror variety, but Chroncile was just as suspenseful. It’s clear from the promos that young Andrew is headed toward the path of villainy, so I don’t feel like I’m spoiling anything with this. I jumped out of my seat multiple times because I was scared at what Andrew was going to do next. Chronicle isn’t constructed as a horror movie, but I think the genre of found footage movies lends itself to a sense of dread that is present throughout the entirety of the movie.

Can we talk about the flying scenes in this movie? Maybe its because I haven’t seen anything like this shot (or digitally created) before, but they are literally jaw-dropping and left me wondering how the hell the filmmakers pulled it off. Especially for its $12 million budget (source).

At the end of the movie, I was completely creeped out, but I walked out thinking that this feeling was a good thing. It could be because, at the end of the movie, characters are addressing Andrew directly to the camera (hey, hey, that’s MY name). And I couldn’t handle that. But director Josh Trank and the rest of the crew have created a truly affecting and unique movie that deserves all the success and acclaim it is receiving.

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Pecs

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in Stay (2005) with Naomi Watts
2. Naomi Watts in King Kong (2005) with Kyle Chandler
3. Kyle Chandler in Super 8 (2011) with Bruce Greenwood
4. Bruce Greenwood in Firehouse Dog (2007) with Josh Hutcherson
5. Josh Hutcherson in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)

There’s a moment in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island when The Rock is attempting to show Josh Hutcherson (Peeta in the upcoming adaptation of The Hunger Games) how to “woo” a Vanessa Hudgens-type (played by Vanessa Hudgens). Hutcherson throws a berry at The Rock’s pecs, and the berry flies out into the audience. Is the movie self-aware? Is that what this scene is about? Or was this The Rock being “wacky” and improvising? That’s a question I asked myself during the whole movie. The movie doesn’t know if it wants to let loose and be self-aware, or if it just wants to keep trying really, really hard to thrill its audience.

I enjoyed the hell out of the first entry in this updated Jules Verne series when it arrived in 2008 (Journey to the Center of the Earth), but what I appreciated the most about it was its carefully-constructed action sequences. One in particular that I remember finds the movie’s characters dangling off of levitating rocks, which looked spectacular in 3D. The movie wasn’t smart in the least, but at least it knew what it was, and it was good at it.

From its strange and very eclectic cast (two up-and-coming teen stars, a pro wrestler and Michael Caine) to its bland action sequences, the problem with Journey 2 is that it needs to decide what it wants to be. There may have been a few fleeting moments when I was actually swept up in some of the creature feature 3D, but the movie is forgettable as a whole.

When The Rock shows Hutcherson the “pec pop of love,” Hutcherson’s immediate reaction is “What is that?!?” Indeed. What is this movie.

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The Artist’s Appeal

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Andrew Fillmore

1. Ryan Gosling in The Notebook (2004) with Rachel McAdams
2. Rachel McAdams in The Vow (2012) with Channing Tatum
3. Channing Tatum in Haywire (2012) with Ewan McGregor
4. Ewan McGregor in Big Fish (2003) with Missi Pyle
5. Missi Pyle in The Artist (2011)

I was hesitant to finally see The Artist for many reasons. My biggest obstacle to seeing it so far had been 1) the immense hype surrounding it and 2) the fact that it wasn’t playing in town yet. Ever since the film premiered at Cannes in May, it has been talked about as one of the frontrunners for Best Picture this year. Was I even going to like it? No movie could meet the expectations that were being set for me. In fact, I was convinced that it was going to be gimmicky, and that’s it.

My biggest problem with the movie was that I liked it, but didn’t love it. There’s a lot to like in this 100-minute ode to silent films. Jean Dujardin is charming as hell as the eponymous silent movie star/artist, and I hope his new sex comedy Les Infedeles (trailer NSFW) comes to the states because I would be there.

The performances are all-around great, but that was something that I was  expecting. What I wasn’t expecting was the dark tone of the movie. I was anticipating a feel-good silent movie featuring a lot of jokes involving that dog (and my wishes came true).  Some of the darker moments were almost too grim for me and seemed a little abrupt in comparison to scenes where, for instance, a character is (adorably) hugging herself with her admirer’s suit jacket. You’ll understand when you see it.

Is The Artist the movie of the year? I don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to hate on it. And the last scene alone is worth the price of a ticket (okay, maybe like 3/4 of a ticket).

The movie successfully avoids being gimmicky while at the same time taking full advantage of its gimmick. The Artist appeals to all audiences (literally, I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t like this movie), so in movie-reviewing terms, this gets a “SEE IT” from me.

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