Movie Review Stronger

Stronger (2017) 

Directed by David Gordon Green 

Written by John Pollono 

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany, Miranda Richardson, Clancy Brown

Release Date September 22nd, 2017 

Published September 24th, 2017 

Stronger stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Jeff Bauman, a man who lost his legs to the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon. Before the marathon, Jeff was just an anonymous Costco employee who loved the Red Sox and wanted to reconcile with his girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany) who dumped him because he rarely showed up when he was supposed to. On April 15, 2013, Jeff finally showed up at the Boston Marathon in the hope that his homemade sign cheering Erin on to the finish line might win her back.

Stronger was directed by David Gordon Green who directs the film with an aim for authenticity. The raw style of the early portion of Stronger is as powerful as the story itself as the look of the film captures a feeling of real life. Once the bombs go off and we know that Jeff has been badly injured the story turns to Erin who wasn’t sure that Jeff had come that day as he’d so often failed to show up. Her search to find out if he’d actually been there that day is incredibly affecting especially as she finds herself overrun by his brutish Boston family and friends who aren’t so kind to the girl who dumped their boy.

Maslany is a wonderful actress whose face communicates nearly as much as her words. She’s wearily beautiful, sad but strong. She feels guilt for having been the reason that Jeff was there that day but there is a limit to how bad she’s willing to feel about it. It’s a powerhouse performance and one that I hope will remain in people’s minds through the awards season. Maslany’s best scene is yet another break up between her and Jeff where she refuses to be his emotional punching bag and puts aside her pity for his loss in order to protect herself from his emotional abuse. The scene is raw and emotional and weighty, and Maslany is brilliant.

Naturally, however, Stronger lives and dies on the performance of Jake Gyllenhaal and it is yet another powerful and effective performance. Gyllenhaal crafts a wart and all performance as Jeff Bauman and the film is smart to embrace all sides of this complex man who refused to see himself as a hero who survived a terrorist attack but rather as just a victim. In his mind, all he did was get blown up, he doesn’t see that surviving was heroic in its own way and living beyond the loss and pain was inspiring.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review The Exorcist Believer

The Exorcist Believer (2023)

Directed by David Gordon Green 

Written by David Gordon Green, Peter Sattier

Starring Leslie Odom Jr, Ann Dowd, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Nettles

Release Date Friday, October 6th 

Published October 9th, 2023 

The Exorcist Believer stars Leslie Odom Jr. as Victor Fielding, a single father and photographer. Victor's wife died in child birth while the couple were traveling in Haiti some 13 years ago. Angela (Lidya Jewett) appears to be a relatively good student, follows the rules, rarely finds trouble. Then, one day after school, Angela doesn't come home. What we know, that Victor doesn't know, is that Angela and her best friend, Katherine (Olivia Marcum) have decided to go into the woods to see if they can contact Angela's late mother. Then, the girls vanished. 

After three agonizing days for Victor and for Katherine's parents, Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Nortbert Leo Butz), the girls are found hiding in a farmhouse not far from their school. The girls believe that they have only been gone for a few hours and they cannot account for three days. Nothing appears to be physically out of sorts with the girls but they are slowly descending into madness. Angela starts convulsing and cursing at her father and Katherine soon after follows suit. 

Both girls soon end up back in the hospital where they had been treated and released in the immediate aftermath of their disappearance. This time however, no one knows what could be wrong with either girl. They have the same symptoms and they present the exact way. Both girls appear to be possessed by demons and Victor, not being religious, has no idea what to do. Luckily, Victor's neighbor is a nurse, and when she sees the state of Angela going to the hospital, she leaps into action. 

Through Ann, we are reintroduced to Kris O'Neil (Ellen Burstyn). Luckily for Victor, she lives in driving distance of his home. In the years since she witnessed the aftermath of her daughter's exorcism, Kris O'Neill dedicated her life to hiding her child from the world. This works for a little while, but when she joins this story, Kris and her daughter haven't spoken in several years. Kris has written more than one book about her daughter's possession. She has unique insight into the rituals and she may be the person who knows how to rescue the children. 

And then, she gets stabbed in both eyes and is out of the movie. Honestly, it's as if Ellen Burstyn were simply padding her retirement years with the biggest paycheck she can get her hands on. A woman of her age and dignity should not have to waste her time playing a character who exists solely for name value and nebulous familiar references to things from previous versions of The Exorcist franchise. It would be pathetic if it were not for how dignified Burstyn is, even as she's rushing out of the door of the movie as soon as she can. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media

Movie Review: Your Highness

Your Highness (2011) 

Directed by David Gordon Green 

Written by Danny McBride, Ben Best 

Starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux, Damian Lewis

Release Date April 8th, 2011

Published April 8th, 2011

In "Your Highness" Danny McBride stars as Thaddeus, the loathsome younger brother of Fabious (James Franco), a heroic Knight and heir to the throne of Mourn. Thaddeus spends his days getting high and bedding chambermaids and is content to continue this lifestyle until Fabious returns from his latest quest with a new bride to be, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel).

Dragons, Knights and Minotaur's oh my

Thaddeus is supposed to be his brother's best man at the wedding but he fails to show up, choosing to get high instead. While Thaddeus is M.I.A the wedding is attacked by the evil sorcerer Leezar (Justin Theroux) who takes Belladonna hostage with the intent of impregnating her as part an ancient ritual.

Now, Thaddeus will be forced by his father the King (Charles Dance) to join Fabious and his Knights on a quest to retrieve Belladonna or lose his part of the family fortune. Along the way there will be betrayals and dangerous detours into unfriendly kingdoms and a maiden, Isabel (Natalie Portman) who will join the quest and prove herself more than equal to Fabious and his Knights and of course very superior to Thaddeus.

Satire Fail

The plot of "Your Highness" is a derivative satire cum appreciation of cheesy period action movies like "Dragonslayer" and "Krull." "Your Highness" is pitched to a level of poking fun at these movies but in reality, "Your Highness" plays far less sarcastically than was, I believe, the original intent. It's not that "Your Highness" ever takes its adventure plot seriously but rather that the satire is less pointed than it should be.

That could also be a function of the complete lack of invention in all of the humor of "Your Highness." Random four letter words, penis jokes, bare breasts and marijuana are all alluded to and shown in "Your Highness" and yet none of it earned a laugh. Star Danny McBride, who also co-wrote the script for "Your Highness" with Ben Best, falls for the classic trap of thinking the mere presentation of the outrageous is funny.

Franco and Portman

James Franco is engagingly game as the heroic Fabious. The "127 Hours" Academy Award nominee is at times the only actor in "Your Highness" who understands the high satiric tone the film should be striving for; hitting his hero lines with the perfect mix of self awareness and pomposity. Unfortunately, the friendly chemistry Franco and McBride demonstrated in "Pineapple Express" is greatly lacking in "Your Highness."

Natalie Portman is the greatest victim of "Your Highness." Portman's Isabel fails as satire of comic book warrior chicks or as a send up of any recognizable movie character. Her comic delivery is stiff and her action heroine moments are so competent and believable that it fails as a satire of anything other than an idiot's notion of what women can or cannot do.

In the post-Ripley/Sarah Connor world it's simply not surprising or funny to see a woman kick ass and in the wake of overkill like "Sucker Punch" it's barely even titillating. So, one is left to wonder what function does Portman's character serve? If you have a good idea, I wouldn't mind hearing it.

Danny McBride has shown that he can be very funny in supporting roles in movies like "Pineapple Express" and "Tropic Thunder," among other films. Unfortunately, called upon to be a leading man he falls desperately flat. Worse yet, the satire of medieval adventure movies are just as flat and unfunny as McBride's lead performance.

"Your Highness" simply fails in every fashion.

Movie Review Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express (2008) 

Directed by David Gordon Green 

Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg 

Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Bill Hader

Release Date August 6th, 2008 

Published August 5th, 2008

Pineapple Express is arguably the Citizen Kane of stoner movies. In this tiny comedic sub-genre there is little competition to overcome, nevertheless this witty, oddly violent pot comedy squeezes more laughs out of its stoner heroes than 2 Harold and Kumar movies combined. That is likely because of the behind the scenes all star team involved.

The guys behind Superbad and Knocked Up, writer, actor Seth Rogen, his writing partner Evan Goldberg and producer Judd Apatow combine their talent for stoners with a heart of gold with the tremendous directorial skill of indie veteran David Gordon Green to create a stoner comedy that, at the very least, is better than any of the stoner comedies to come before it.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a pot smoking, talk radio loving, process server who spends his time in costume delivering subpoenas for a living while really living for his next hit. Dale's dealer is Saul (James Franco) a sweet, good natured drug dealer who thinks Dale is his friend when in reality, they wouldn't know each other if Saul didn't sell pot.

Saul has just come into possession of some new weed called Pineapple Express. It is supposed to be grown in such a unique way that it actually gets you higher than any other pot in existence. Saul sells some to Dale who is unfortunately smoking it in front of the home of another drug dealer, Ted Jones (Gary Cole), when he witnesses the dealer kill a man.

Leaving behind his rare weed, Dale is convinced that the joint can be used to find Saul and if they find Saul, that would lead to finding him. And he's right. Ted and a corrupt police officer, played by Rosie Perez, identify the weed and go after Saul who goes on the run with Dale and well, a whole lot of stuff happens and a whole lot of stuff gets smoked.

Pineapple Express is the rare comedy that zigs when you think it will zag. Unpredictability is the film's hallmark as instead of just bumbling through a series of gags, director David Gordon Green goes for edgy comedic violence and often leaves your jaw dropped with it. Some of the violence is painfully funny, some of it is shocking but all of it serves the purposes of the plot that propels from one entertaining scene to the next.

Seth Rogen and James Franco make for a terrific comic team. Exhibiting the kind of male bonded performance that is now the hallmark of the Apatow brand of comedy, Pineapple Express has given rise to the term Bromance to describe the extraordinarily close yet platonic bond between two male best friends. Rogen and Franco do everything short of make out to demonstrate how much they care about each other and the more they push the line, the funnier it gets.

Pineapple Express doesn't reach the comedic highs of Superbad or Knocked Up but as stoner comedies go, it doesn't get much better than this. Terrifically funny, surprising and shockingly violent, Pineapple Express never goes where you expect it to. Rogen, Apatow and now David Gordon Green are at the forefront of modern comedy and now with Pineapple Express they can continue to write their own ticket in Hollywood.

Write it, roll it up and smoke it, if they want to.

Movie Review: The Sitter

The Sitter (2011) 

Directed by David Gordon Green 

Written by Brian Gatewood, Alessandro Tanaka 

Starring Jonah Hill, Sam Rockwell, Max Records, A.J Graynor, J.B Smoove 

Release Date December 9th, 2011 

Published December 10th, 2011 

Jonah Hill's comic appeal isn't much different from that of Will Ferrell; both are an acquired taste. Just as not everyone enjoys Ferrell's outlandish schtick not everyone enjoys Jonah Hill's foul-mouthed, raging-Id routine. For those who do enjoy them however, their films are a treat. Count me in as a fan of Jonah Hill and thusly someone who really loved "The Sitter."

Meet the Sitter

Noah (Hill) is a shiftless layabout with both daddy and mommy issues. That said he's not an altogether bad guy. When his put upon, far too indulgent mother (Julie Hecht) is about to lose out on chance at a night on the town Noah begrudgingly agrees to babysit for the family friends who are setting his mom up on a date.

Meet the Kids

This is, of course, a fateful choice; Noah is in for the night of all nights. First, we meet the kids. The oldest is Slater (Max Records) who's obsessed with his anxiety medication. Slater's little sister Blithe (Landry Bender) is quite a handful; she wants to be a celebrity and acts as if she may be a lost Kardashian child. And then there is Slater and Blithe's adopted brother Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez) who's talent for destruction is a catalyst for much unexpected action in "The Sitter."

But first, it's Noah who gets the ball of bad choices rolling. Noah has been spending time with Marisa (Ari Graynor) a horrible girl who uses Noah for, shall we say, sexual favors. And tends not to return the love. When she calls Noah and promises sex in exchange for cocaine, Noah's libido overrides his good judgment and the story of "The Sitter" kicks in.

'Adventures in Babysitting'

There are a number of parallels between "The Sitter" and the 80's teen classic "Adventures in Babysitting" including a lost and damaged minivan and an escape from a black nightclub that culminates with our hero winning respect and a helpful group of new friends.

The similarities end there however as "The Sitter," directed by "Pineapple Express" auteur David Gordon Green, is a gloriously filthy movie that well earns its R-Rating. The opening moments of "The Sitter" feature oral sex and things only get better from there in terms of the exceptional lowbrow humor that is Jonah Hill's forte from "Superbad" to "Knocked Up" through "Funny People" and elsewhere.

For Fans Only

You have to be a big fan of Jonah Hill to get past the many plot contrivances and conveniences but if are a fan, there is a lot to enjoy here. Hill is a funny, sympathetic and charismatic comic whose comic sensibilities really connect with those of us who enjoy him. For those that don't enjoy Jonah Hill; there is any number of other movies out there for you; "The Sitter" is for fans only.