Movie Review Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics (2007) 

Directed by Marc Lawrence 

Written by Marc Lawrence 

Starring Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, Brad Garrett, Campbell Scott, Haley Bennett, Matthew Morrison

Release Date February 14th, 2007 

Published February 14th, 2007 

The biggest stars of the romantic comedy genre at this moment are Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Grant has starred in some of the highest grossing romantic comedies of all time and some of the most critically acclaimed including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones' Diary. Drew Barrymore is a master of crowd pleasing romance from films like The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates and Fever Pitch.

Bringing them together in Music and Lyrics, director Marc Lawrence never had a moment's worry about chemistry or comedy. His true achievement was not simply falling back on his lovable stars, putting them together in a smart, funny send up of the music industry and pop culture.

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) has been. With his band 'POP' he became a huge star in the 1980's. However, when his co-lead singer left and became a huge solo star, Alex was left to live off his past glory. Now making a living off state fair tours, high school reunions and a standing gig at Knott's Berry Farm, Alex gets one last chance at the big time.

A pop star named Cora Corman (Haley Bennett), bigger than Britney and Christina combined, according to Alex's manager Chris (Brad Garrett), was a huge fan of Alex's band and wanted him to write a duet for them to sing together. Unfortunately, Alex hasn't written a song since his disastrous solo record years earlier. Lucky for him, his plant girl Sophie (Drew Barrymore) just happens to be pretty good with words.

Overhearing Alex working on the song, Sophie begins to offer a few words and after some prodding from Alex she becomes his lyricist. Together they write the song but when the pop star offers her thoughts will Alex compromise their hard work for the sake of his fame?

Director Marc Lawrence, the creator of TV's Family Ties, brings a solid professionalism to the crafting of Music and Lyrics. The story unfolds with little fat on the edges and a clear eyed purpose in the storytelling. Of course, Lawrence's most important contribution is helping to cast Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, a can't miss romantic comedy duo.

The film is very smart about music and the industry of cool surrounding it. Young Haley Bennett skirts the edge of parody with her Cora Corman character. The character could easily tip over the edge into caricature, but Bennett gives the character a little more heart than what is on the page. Great laughs are mined from the Cora character without turning into a mean spirited attack on the Britney's and Christina's of the pop world.

Music and Lyrics are too sweet and light-hearted for that kind of hard satire. The light jabs at Cora and the excesses of pop stardom are pitched to the films overall genial nature.

With his can't miss charm and deprecating wit, Hugh Grant shows once again why he is the pre-eminent male star in this genre. As Alex Fletcher Grant delivers the film's biggest laughs; zinging one liners that provide comment on the scene in front of him and biting self analysis of his highly aware character. The real surprise in Grant's performance is that he is a more than credible pop singer. Yes, Grant did all of his own singing and hip gyrating dancing in the picture and he is quite impressive.

Drew Barrymore is her usual impishly cute self. Her lovability factor continues to be off the chart. Sophie is a scattered, slightly ditzy girl with a heart of gold. As written the shy, sweet character is likable but in the person of Ms. Barrymore the lovability is through the roof. Barrymore however, does not merely trade on her cuteness, she is a terrific comedian and the perfect off kilter foil for Grant.

The music of Music and Lyrics really sell the story. Director Marc Lawrence is careful to make sure the music is authentic to the time period and the film opens with a spot on spoof of classic 80's music. The video for "Pop Goes My Heart" captures perfectly the goofiness of videos of the time from bands like Soft Cell, Flock Of Seagulls and A-Ha. In fact "Pop Goes My Heart" is really as catchy and spirited as anything those real 80's bands ever made.

Not quite as strong but equally authentic is the song that Grant and Barrymore's character's craft for the pop star. The song called "Way Back Into Love" is not a great song but it is the kind of song that might click well with a pop audience. It's easygoing and unexceptional and entirely disposable, which is basically all modern pop music has become.

That the song means something to Grant and Barrymore's characters but isn't very good, doesn't necessarily hurt the characters, it just means their musical radar is a little different than mine.

Big laughs and big love, Music and Lyrics takes great advantage of the comic and romantic talents of its two wonderful stars to craft the rare romantic comedy that delivers on the promise of a good trailer. Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant are truly the stars of this genre. She with her unending cuteness and comic timing and he with his deprecating wit and charm are a can't miss duo.

Movie Review Ratatouille

Ratatouille (2007) 

Directed by Brad Bird 

Written by Brad Bird

Starring Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Brad Garrett, Peter O'Toole, Will Arnett 

Release Date June 29th, 2007

Published June 28th, 2007

Brad Bird began his career as an animator on some lesser Disney efforts in the early 80's. He then moved briefly to the art department for The Simpsons and has since taken what he's learned in both of those unique arenas to feature films. His Iron Giant was a wondrous combination of classical animation and lovely storytelling. Sadly that film was never appreciated upon its release and only now seems to be gaining the classic status it so richly deserves.

His follow up, 2004's The Incredibles, thrust him to the forefront of modern animated artistry. His take on the all too real lives of superheroes was humorous, heartwarming and action packed and combined Bird's talent for beautiful animation with deeply human animated characters in extraordinary situations.

That film was, of course, a Pixar animation effort. The company that leads the way in computer animated artistry has once again teamed with Brad Bird for another exceptional film. Ratatouille, the story of a French food loving rat, is a loving tribute to food lovers everywhere and a supremely entertaining movie for anyone who enjoys movies. Not just animated movies or kids movies, Ratatouille is entertainment for everyone.

Remy (Patton Oswalt) is a rat in species only. In his heart Remy is a foodie, a lover of the greatest culinary delights. When he finds that he is living in the sewers beneath Paris, Remy see's a whole new world of foodie delights. Accidentally separated from his family, Remy seeks a new home and finds one in the kitchen of the late world famous Gusteau (Brad Garrett).

Gusteau is world famous for his cookbook ``Anyone Can Cook", a book that Remy has read cover to cover and taken to heart. Separated from his family, Remy develops an imaginary friendship with Gusteau who leads him to his restaurant now run by the miserly tyrant Skinner, Gusteau's ex-second in command. Skinner has turned Gusteau's into a money machine, marketing microwave food under Gusteau's world famous name.

Remy arrives at Gusteau's at the same time as a timid young man named Linguini who has his own connection to Gusteau. Linguini has been fired from numerous jobs and see's Gusteau's as his last chance to find something he can make a living at. A letter from Linguini's mother convinces him to hire Linguini as a garbage boy. However, when Linguini decides to help out with the soup, Remy has to step in and help him out.

When the soup is a hit, Linguini is put in charge of the soup and the two form a partnership and a friendship that could return Gusteau's restaurant to its former glory.

The key to Ratatouille is establishing its heart. We are talking about a movie whose star is one of the most reviled characters in the animal world. When you add the fact that our lead rat character is going to be involved with food and you have an awkward mix. However, the power of animation can tend to soften our feelings toward any species, but the real reason we come to love Remy is the terrific voicework of comedian Patton Oswalt.

The caustic comic surprisingly finds the perfect mix of winning humor, and passion that makes Remy a lively lovable character. Listening to Oswalt as Remy talking about food; you hear excitement and the purest of all joy. Remy has a desire not just to taste great food but to create and share great food with anyone and everyone and you hear that zeal in the voice of Patton Oswalt.

Credit director Brad bird for recognizing that passion and genuine enthusiasm in Oswalt's voice when he happened to hear Oswalt giving an interview on the radio. Oswalt was doing a bit from his act about the Black Angus Steakhouse chain and Bird decided then and there he wanted this guy's eager, earnest, enthusiasm for Remy.

The rest of the voice cast is equally well placed with the legendary Sir Peter O'Toole oozing worldly expertise as the tough as nails French food critic Anton Ego. It is O'Toole as Ego who is at the climax of the movie, its most important character and he delivers the climax in a wonderfully unexpected way.

As with all Pixar creations, the animation of Ratatouille is first rate. I mention Pixar because their stamp of quality brings an extra bit of credibility to Ratatouille. But, even working for Pixar, director Brad Bird has put his own stamp on the film. As he did with his previous Pixar produced work, The Incredibles, Bird brings his talent for traditional hand drawn animation to the world of computers and creates his own unique palette.

The look and feel of Ratatouille and its animated Paris milieu is warm and inviting with just a hint of the traditional Paris attitude. The look is timeless, not unlike the real city of lights, thus why you can't really get a sense of the time of Ratatouille. It has both modern and classic touches to the storytelling and the animated locations. It's in no way alien, just unique, its own sort of universe.

So many wonderful things stand out about Ratatouille and one of the most pleasurable is the genuine love of food. The film is a carnival of carnivorous delights making it the perfect movie to see right before going out to a nice dinner. If this movie doesn't stoke your appetite, you simply don't know how to enjoy good food.

Ratatouille is yet another triumph for Brad Bird and the team at Pixar. A joyous celebration of characters, story and animation. What a delight it is to see a movie that delivers in nearly every way imaginable from direction, to storytelling to casting. Nothing is left to chance and we in the audience are the ones who reap the rewards.

Not just a movie for the kids, but by no means over their little heads, Ratatouille is a complete movie. The rare treat of a movie that all audiences can enjoy.

Movie Review: Christopher Robin

Christopher Robin (2018)

Directed by Marc Forster

Written by Alex Ross Perry, Tom McCarthy, Allison Schroeder

Starring Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Jim Cummings, Brad Garrett 

Release Date August 3rd, 2018 

Published August 2nd, 2018

Disney has had remarkable success taking their animated properties and repurposing them for live action films. And somehow, they’ve done this with no one accusing them of recycling or calling out the nakedly calculated marketing strategy that was the inception for each of these movies from Cinderella to Jungle Book to Beauty and the Beast and now to Christopher Robin, the live action take on Winnie the Pooh.

Much of the reason that we’ve given Disney a pass on such criticism is because the quality of this strip mining of our nostalgic memories of childhood have been so very good. Exceptional filmmakers such as Kenneth Branagh and Jon Favreau and now Marc Forster have turned this cynical nostalgic cash grab into something genuinely, lovingly artful. Marc Forster has even made, arguably, the most loving and artful of all of these cynical cash grabs.

Christopher Robin is the story of the young boy who found a door in a tree and bravely crossed it’s threshold into a world of wonder in the 100 Acre Woods. There he found magical creatures including a new best friend, Winnie the Pooh along with his pals, Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore. Kanga and her son Roo, and the wonderful, bouncy backsided Tigger. Together they played and dreamed and had great adventures.

Years passed however and time came when Christopher Robin was forced to leave behind the 100 Acre Woods in favor of soggy old London and life in a boarding school. From there, Christopher would begin to forget his fuzzy former friends and start a real life. Grown up, and played by Ewan McGregor, Christopher met and fell in love with Evelyn (Hayley Atwell), they had a baby named Madeline (Bronte Carmichael) and he went to war.

Now home with his family, Christopher has begun to forget not just about the 100 Acre Woods but about fun in general. Christopher’s job at a luggage company consumes all his time and thoughts and even when he plans to spend a weekend away with his family, at his parents’ former cottage, he can’t get away from his work and the strain on his marriage is evident if only to us and to Evelyn.

Here’s where things take a turn. The scene shifts to Pooh Bear’s cottage. He’s just awoken and found that he has no hunny. He goes out seeking help from his friends and cannot find them. He finds the door in the tree where Christopher Robin always came from and decides to go through it into Christopher’s world. On the other side, Pooh emerges in London and finds Christopher anxiously hiding from a neighbor he doesn’t want to talk to.

Marc Forster is a filmmaker who knows a little something about gentle and pleasant kids stories. Forster’s Finding Neverland was an Academy Award nominee telling the story of J.M Barrie’s creation of Peter Pan. Christopher Robin feels a lot like that film with a similar whimsical, magical essence. Both Christopher Robin and Finding Neverland have an elegiac and plaintive pacing, an air of sadness slowly giving way to the joy of letting go. Forster worked with his Finding Neverland editor Matt Chesse on Christopher Robin and that may have contributed to the similarity in tone and pace.

What sets Christopher Robin apart is the screenplay which features work from three smoking hot properties. Indie darling Alex Ross Perry of Listen Up Phillip and Queen of Earth fame has a credit alongside Hidden Figures writer Allison Schroeder and Academy Award-winning Spotlight writer-director Tom McCarthy. Each contributes to the unique style of Christopher Robin’s story and the wonderful, whimsical way the characters interact.

Don’t misunderstand, these are still fully A.A Milne, by way of Disney, characters. Pooh still feels like Pooh, thanks to the legendary voice work of Jim Cummings and we still get to hear Tigger sing the Tigger song. But, the interaction between Christopher Robin and the rest of the world has a wit and liveliness to it that doesn’t distract from the classic source material. You can sense the respect that this creative team has for the source material, there is a loving care to the way Pooh and friends are presented, never with anything less than dignity; it's fun with a British sort of propriety.

Ewan McGregor is a wonderful Christopher Robin. I adored his stiffness early in the movie and the way his shoulders slowly go from up around his ears to fully at ease. He’s a man under desperate stress to do the right thing and he continually does the wrong thing until Pooh comes along and puts him straight. There is a lovely similarity to the recent Where the Wild Things Are when Christopher is in the 100 Acre Woods as an adult and realizes that he may, in fact, be the problem with his life and not everyone else.

McGregor is well matched with Hayley Atwell whose sympathetic care for her husband is only matched by her witty, self-protective, innate feminism. This is not a woman who will put up for very long with a man who doesn’t properly appreciate her, and especially her daughter, and you get that sense solely from Atwell’s manner and grace. She has a steely quality that easily gives way to softness and concern in the way only a great actress can show.

I have not even begun to praise the true star of the show, Winnie the Pooh. Earlier this year people were tripping over themselves to praise the over-hyped Paddington with his childish pratfalling and simplistic story. For me, Winnie the Pooh in Christopher Robin is my thesis statement on why Paddington doesn’t work. Pooh is charming in ways Paddington only hints at. He’s lovable in the ways that Paddington pretends towards. Most importantly, Pooh’s pratfalling antics and general mayhem are more well-explained and lovable than the destruction that Paddington wreaks upon his friends and family.

Christopher Robin is a lovely film, a gentle yet funny, sweet and harmless trifle that will make all audiences smile. Marc Forster is a director of immense talent and he brings that to bear in Christopher Robin with the lightest and most deft touch. The film is artful in how it is never flashy, you don’t feel as if you see Forster directing. The touch is light but effective, you sense how beautiful and well told the story is but it doesn’t feel as if you’re being steered and you sort of melt into the beauty and warmth of this story.

I feel as if, on a moral level, I should be upset about Disney strip mining my childhood for a quick buck. I feel like I should be annoyed that they aren’t developing original material and are instead basking in the dollars that existing products in shiny new packages can bring in. In the back of my mind, in fact, I am rebelling against these Disney products and their weaponized nostalgia. That said, up front and personal, Christopher Robin made my heart happy. The movie is completely adorable and a wonderful film for the whole family, proof that commerce and art can work together to create something beautiful.