Movie Review: Duane Hopwood

Duane Hopwood (2005) 

Directed by Matt Mulhern

Written by Matt Mulhern 

Starring David Schwimmer, Janeane Garofalo, Judah Friedlander, John Krasinski 

Release Date November 11th, 2005

Published May 22nd, 2006 

My friends know quite well that I don't drink. That in my lifetime I have had exactly one gulp of alcohol and never touched the stuff again. I may not have drinking experience but even I can recognize the problem drinker. The sad, misguided soul whose everyday is a quest to quiet his inner demons with drink. I have seen it in real life, in real time and it's very sad. No film I have ever seen has ever really captured the true drunk experience. Movies like Barfly and Clean and Sober featured powerhouse, emotional performances from Mickey Rourke and Michael Keaton respectively but both were to extreme to be the true drunk experience.

The new to DVD film Duane Hopwood starring David Schwimmer comes closer than ever to capturing the sad, desperate drunk at his lowest point. A point that many may not recognize as low, he has a job, friends, is from time to time still a quite caring father, but a severe low it is.

Written and directed by Matt Mulhern, whose acting history is surprisingly colorful, he was Teddy Beckersted in One Crazy Summer, Duane Hopwood is a glum but desperately affecting drama about alcoholism at it's most mundane and realistic.

David Schwimmer plays Duane a lower middle class schlub who works as a pit boss in an Atlantic City Casino. He is divorced from his wife Linda (Janeane Garofalo) and a DUI arrest threatens to keep him from ever seeing his two daughters again.

The arrest is a first offense and we learn that though Duane clearly has a problem, bad enough that it ended his marriage, this is the first time he has ever been considered dangerous. Duane's life aside from this has gone on sadly but relatively quiet. He makes it to work on time every night, he has loyal friends and neighbors willing to help him and take care of him and even his ex-wife hasn't given up on him as a father though she has moved on with a new boyfriend.

The extraordinary thing about the movie Duane Hopwood is how real it all feels. Unlike other movies about the alcoholic experience there are no grand dramatic revelations, there is little or no catharisis and the ending is even somewhat vague about Duane's possibility for redemption. The film captures the realistic day to day activities of the functioning alcoholic, a person many of us have known and begrudgingly accepted for many years.

Many people watching David Schwimmer will feel they cannot seperate him from Ross on Friends but give Duane Hopwood a few minutes and Ross disappears and this character becomes Schwimmer's new reality. This is some terrific acting from the actor most often underrated amongst the flashy cast of Friends.

Janeane Garofalo too has often been underrated. Her comedy chops have always been respected and her work on television's The West Wing is Emmy worthy. However it's a performance like this that shows truly what Janeane is capable of. Brushing aside her usually brusque sarcastic nature, Garofalo shows a strength and sensitivity that is new to her acting.

And in what is the films most entertaining role comic Judah Friedlander steals scenes as  Anthony a forty year old security guard with dreams of being a stand-up comic and making it out of his mom's basement. He pushes Duane to let him be his roommate and though both seem aware of the sad state of two heterosexual forty year old men living together they form a strong bond that survives even Duane's lowest moments of self destruction. Friedlander is pitch perfect as comic relief from the films admittedly dour main story but he's also part of the films core tenderness that is necessary to making the film watchable. Like Garofalo's Linda, Anthony is not in Duane's life to save him  but just to be his friend and help him out when he can.

The film never made it much past the press rows at Sundance in 2005 but now it's on DVD and waiting to be seen, Duane Hopwood is an exceptional film.

Movie Review It's Complicated

It's Complicated (2009) 

Directed by Nancy Meyers 

Written by Nancy Meyers 

Starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski 

Release Date December 25th, 2009

Published December 25th, 2009

Director Nancy Meyers has cornered the market in romantic comedies exploring the love lives of older women and the flawed men who love them. She created the template with her “Something’s Gotta Give.” Now with “It’s Complicated” starring the radiant Meryl Streep, Meyers has perfected her easy going formula romance.

Streep stars as Jane, a 50-something divorcee preparing for her last child to leave the nest. Meanwhile, she is still dealing with her divorce some ten years later. Her ex-husband Jerry (Alec Baldwin) left her for a much younger woman (Lake Bell in a thankless, under-written villain role) but remains a part of her life.

On a trip to New York for the graduation of her son, Jane finds herself alone in a bar with Jerry when some of the old sparks flare up. The two end up in bed together and at the beginning of, no kidding, an affair. Jane is cheered on in the affair by her circle of girlfriends, including Rita Wilson, Mary Kay Place and Alexandra Wentworth, who love the idea of her getting a little revenge on the younger woman.

As the affair heats up Jane finds another opportunity for romance in Allan (Steve Martin). He is her architect, planning a new kitchen for her already fabulous home. The way he seems to know everything she wants sparks first a friendship and then a romance that is threatened by her dalliance with Jerry and Jerry’s growing new love for his old flame.

The title offers the idea that these two romances will offer something ‘complicated’ but there is nothing much complicated at all in Nancy Meyers’ very simple, straight-forward narrative that sets characters on very particular paths and leads them to easy conclusions and warm, easygoing laughs.

“It’s Complicated” is formula romance in the best possible fashion. It does not reinvent the genre but it does deliver the formula in such a charming fashion that you eagerly forgive the familiarity. The goodwill stems from a cast filled with charmers and led by the legendary Meryl Streep.

It is one of the more remarkable stories of the decade; how Meryl Streep has evolved from respected actress to respected box office superstar. At an age where other actresses are searching for work, Streep has become a bigger star than she was when she was repeatedly being nominated for the industry’s highest awards.

“It’s Complicated” will likely join “Mamma Mia” and “The Devil Wears Prada” as massive hits and it is due to Streep’s wonderfully relaxed star power. Her ease with every role allows audiences to settle in with her, their sympathies won over by Streep’s mere presence. While the appeal is fairly limited to women in her age range, it is quite a thing that she has brought so many of them to the box office.

Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin provide ideal foils for Ms. Streep’s radiance. Baldwin hasn’t been this winning on the big screen since his role as a fallen star in David Mamet’s “State and Main.” As for Martin, he continues to cultivate the sensitive good guy persona he copped in the otherwise execrable “Shopgirl.”

“It’s Complicated” is formula romance done right. Played out with style and professionalism by a terrific set of leads, “It’s Complicated” is the perfect balance of romance and comedy for empty nesters searching for a movie just for them.

Movie Review: A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place (2018) 

Directed by John Krasinski 

Written by John Krasinski, Beck and Woods

Starring Emily Blunt, John Krasinski

Release Date April 6th, 2018

Published April 5th, 2018 

A Quiet Place stars John Krasinski and Emily Blunt as husband and wife and parents of three kids in a post-apocalyptic Midwestern America. We meet the family 89 days into this seeming apocalypse as they are gathering supplies in the dusty remains of a pharmacy. One of the kids is sick but the bigger issue is the youngest son who has set his eyes upon a battery powered toy rocket.

Why is the toy rocket a big deal? In this apocalypse, sound is your greatest enemy. The slightest hint of noise can bring the arrival of nasty, assumedly alien, beasts that strike quickly and kill mercilessly. When the boy flips the switch on his new toy, his parents were unaware he’d taken it, the tension is off the charts and A Quiet Place gets off to a stunning start that becomes a relentless, tension soaked 90 minutes.

John Krasinski directed A Quiet Place from a script initially penned by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck though Krasinski is also credited on the script. The premise is clever and Krasinski as director makes smart choices in how he capitalizes on the premise to create incredible tension. The toy rocket is just the first of several ways the movie capitalizes on the central notion of not making a sound.

The other major set-piece comes with the reveal that Blunt’s character, none of the characters are named until the closing credits, is pregnant. The logistics of attempting to give birth under the circumstances of this plot is clever if a tad unrealistic. We are forced to simply accept that these otherwise careful characters had very quiet sex and took the risk of pregnancy despite previous experience that told them how nearly impossible a silent birth would be.

One of the audience members at my screening of A Quiet Place was rather apoplectic at the notion of silent sex, though I do believe there is an attempt to explain it. That however requires reading far too much into what is an otherwise straight forward character study that also happens to be a horror movie. Let’s just say that a sound proofed room may or may not have been designed and leave it at that.

I have a number of quibbles with A Quiet Place, little loose strings I could tug on for a while but those are very much secondary to the excitement created by Krasinski’s smart direction. I will say that the clichéd exchange when a husband tells his pregnant wife she’s beautiful and she responds that she’s ‘fat’ and he makes a wise-crack about how he didn’t say that, is not refreshed simply by being said in ASL. If we could retire this conversation in movies I would be very happy.

Like I was saying however, my problems with A Quiet Place are relatively minor compared to how smart the movie is elsewhere. The monsters are scary, the action set-pieces are well staged and the tension, especially during the birth scene, is off the charts fantastic. Krasinski’s deft camera choices play up the tension exceptionally well and the sound design smartly underlines the tension, even when it’s just a silly jump scare.

Is A Quiet Place a revolutionary new wave in horror? No, the hype in fact is probably doing a great disservice to the movie. A Quiet Place is very good but considering it as anything more than a terrifically thrilling genre piece is only going to cause future audiences to feel a tad disappointed. A Quiet Place doesn’t rethink the genre, it’s not a landmark event and if you go in expecting something iconic you may come away thinking you missed something.

Movie Review Something Borrowed

Something Borrowed (2011) 

Directed by Luke Greenfield 

Written by Jennie Snyder Urman

Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson, John Krasinski, Colin Egglesfield

Release Date May 6th, 2011 

Published May 6th, 2011

Ginnifer Goodwin stars in the new romantic comedy "Something Borrowed" as Rachel, a mousy gal who has long been bossed around by her best friend from childhood, Darcy (Kate Hudson). Despite being best friends Darcy unknowingly stole the love of Rachel's life Dex (Colin Egglesfield) and is going to marry him soon.

Cheaters

The marriage plans hit a bit of a speed bump when everyone has a little too much to drink and Rachel and Dex end up sleeping together. While they at first agree to keep things quiet, Dex eventually tells Rachel that he's in love with her while Rachel confesses the affair to her other best friend Ethan (John Krasinski.)

Weekends in the Hamptons

As all of this drama is happening oblivious Darcy invites everyone for weekend's in the Hamptons throughout the summer where Rachel is treated to listening to the soon to married couple have sex while she fights off the advances of Dex's skeevy cousin Marcus (Steve Howey). Will Dex tell Darcy he wants to leave her? Will Rachel tell her? Will Ethan tell her? Do you really care?

Secret revealed

By the time the secret was revealed in "Something Borrowed" I certainly didn't care. Director Luke Greenfield and writer Jennie Snyder's ingenious plan for trying to make us not hate Rachel for sleeping with her best friend's fiance is to make D'arcy so unbelievably self centered and obnoxious that we won't mind so much that she gets hurt.

Impossible to endure

The writing and direction however, only serve to make Ms. Hudson's performance almost impossible to endure and relieves the movie of anything emotional at stake. Darcy is so amazingly awful that we really don't mind so much when the two closest people in her life conspire against her. Who thought that was a good premise for a movie?

Prolonged agony

John Krasinski is the only modestly entertaining character in "Something Borrowed;" an island of reason and humor in a movie mostly devoid of both. Unfortunately, Krasinsky gets played off early in the final act and we are left with the three awful characters who prolong our agony for several long and irritating scenes.

"Something Borrowed" is one of the worst movies of 2011.

Movie Review Promised Land

Promised Land (2012) 

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Written by Gus Van Sant 

Starring Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, Rosemarie Dewitt, Hal Holbrook 

Release Date December 28th, 2012 

"Promised Land" has an earnest charm that sadly isn't enough to repair its airless, smug storytelling. Written by stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski, "Promised Land" is an achingly liberal tract about the environmental dangers posed by gas companies and while there is a nobility of ideas, there is a distinct lacking in execution.

Born in a Small Town

Damon stars as Steve Butler, a rising star at a gas company called Global. Steve is from Eldridge, Iowa and was deeply influenced by the loss of a Caterpillar plant in Davenport that, for a time, devastated the local economy of his hometown and surrounding towns. That loss drives Steve today to buy up struggling family farms in hopes of enriching people who remind him of his former neighbors.

That much of what Steve is selling are lies does wear on him but he hopes that the potential for big checks for himself, and the small town folks he's buying up, will make up for his bad karma. Steve's partner Sue (Francis McDormand) is driven more by her paycheck than her backstory.

Together they travel to a small farming community in Pennsylvania where they hope to sell the locals on selling their land to the gas company. Steve and Sue find trouble however, in a local teacher (Hal Holbrook) and an out of town environmentalist (John Krasinski), eager to stir up anti-natural gas sentiment.

Small Town Showdown

That's the set up for a small town showdown but where the film goes from there is far too silly and smug to support the kind of drama that the stars and director Gus Van Sant want to create. We know from the beginning, as Steve is dunking his head in a bathroom sink, that a crisis of conscience is imminent. We also know the crisis of conscience is coming because Damon is a well-known liberal activist playing a character working for an evil gas company.

Whether you're inclined to agree with Damon and Krasinski or not doesn't really matter. You can be a hardcore, left wing, liberal Democrat and still find "Promised Land" mind numbingly predictable; at least in the case of Damon's Steve. If you can predict where Krasinski's character is headed, you're better at this than I am and you will also still be dumbfounded by it.

Charming Stars

All of that said, and putting my issues with the film aside, it's impossible for this group of stars, which also includes Rosemarie Dewitt as Damon's love interest/savior, not to have a little charm. Krasinski pours on the smug as the righteous environmentalist but he does deliver a charmingly bad Bruce Springsteen karaoke performance. Damon is a little more troublesome as he has the burden of predictability around his neck.

Thankfully, Damon is well teamed with Dewitt and their scenes together crackle with the chemistry of a more interesting movie. McDermott is her usual fascinating, funny self as the more pragmatic and resigned character than Damon. And then, of course, there is Holbrook who lends the film his integrity for a couple of pretty good scenes.

Is "Promised Land" a bad movie? No, but it is far from a good movie. The film telegraphs its intentions and never raises enough interest to get around its predictability. There is a good deal of skill and charm in the acting and direction of "Promised Land" but it is in service of a failing, predictable, tract of a story.

Movie Review Big Miracle

Big Miracle (2012) 

Directed by Ken Kwapis 

Written by Jack Amiel, Michael Begler

Starring Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Vinessa Shaw, Ted Danson

Release Date February 3rd, 2012 

Published February 4th, 2012

Movies released in the first two months of any year tend to stink. It's not a rule and this fact is certainly not based on an intention to release bad movies; it's a function of Hollywood studios seeking a time of light movie-going during which to off-load a troubled project that does not hold the potential to battle the box office behemoths of the Spring, Summer and Winter seasons.

This fact makes a movie like "Big Miracle" all the more welcome. This delightful story, based on real life events, is thoughtful, sweet, harrowing and, in the end, uplifting; a very rare combination at this oft-neglected time of the movie-going year.

Based on a true story

Drew Barrymore stars in "Big Miracle" as Rachel Kramer a Greenpeace activist who, when we meet her, is living in Alaska and battling a big oil company, headed by J.W McGraw (Ted Danson), over drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Preserve. When Rachel hears the story of a trio of whales trapped off the coast of an Alaskan whaling village she begins an extraordinary campaign to free the trapped creatures that becomes an international cause.

The reporter who uncovers the whale story happens to be Rachel's ex-boyfriend Adam (John Krasinski). Yes, this fact is a plot convenience but get over it; Barrymore and Krasinski have good banter and romantic chemistry and that brings another layer of joy to "Big Miracle." Also adding to the joy of this terrific, heartfelt little movie is young Ahmaogak Sweeney who plays Nathan, a native of the village; grandson of a local whaling captain, and our narrator.

A colorful and clever supporting cast

There are minor missteps in "Big Miracle" like the casting of Kristen Bell and John Michael Higgins as heartless reporters chasing the whale story for ratings, but for the most part the film is spot on. The majority of the supporting cast is populated by colorful characters like Rob Riggle and James Le Gros as a pair of brothers from Minnesota who's de-icing machine for ice fisherman becomes a key component in keeping the breathing holes open for the whales.

Director Ken Kwapis is a veteran storyteller from TV's "The Office" and the big screen teen adventure "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Kwapis has a real knack for combining heart and humor without seeming cloying or manipulative. In "Big Miracle" he takes a real life story and invests it with relatable warmth and a cast that earns our sympathy from the opening frame.

Smiling, laughing and Cheering

"Big Miracle" may be the big surprise of the early portion of 2012. This sweet family-friendly does have moments that will be hard for young children to watch but by the end the whole family will be smiling, laughing and cheering.

Movie Review Leatherheads

Leatherheads (2008) 

Directed by George Clooney 

Written by Duncan Brantley, Rick Reilly 

Starring George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Jonathan Pryce 

Release Date April 4th, 2008 

Published April 3rd, 2008 

George Clooney is a big fan of old Hollywood. At his best Clooney throws back to the stars of the 40’s 50 and 60’s with flair and relish. Evoking the look of Clark Gable, the charisma of Cary Grant, and the cocktail hour suavity of Frank Sinatra, Clooney is a throwback in modern times. You can see this in his film resume. Movies like Intolerable Cruelty which threw back to the classic 50’s and 60’s style romantic comedy, The Good German, shot in black and white no less evoked Bogart in mystery mode with a dash of Spencer Tracey. And, of course, there are the Ocean’s movies; which modernize the 60’s cool of Sinatra’s rat pack.

No wonder then that Clooney is so at home in his latest role, a period comedy with period clothes and a period romance. Leatherheads stars George Clooney as Dodge Connelly the leader of a ragtag group of pro footballers watching their league slowly collapse around them. Set in the mid 1920’s Clooney could not be more at home with style, grace, and rapid fire banter that filmmakers of the day like Preston Sturges and Howard Hawks made legendary.

In 1925 College Football was America’s game and its stars were the stars of American sports. Pro football on the other hand was played on fields, literally, corn fields, wheat fields, anyplace with a fair patch of grass and enough room for a few rickety bleachers. Better known for its ugly cheating and brawling. Pro football of the time was an outlaw sport and Dodge Connelly and his Duluth Bulldogs were the Oakland Raiders of their day. The Raiders have a reputation for being tough and bending the rules. 

Unfortunately for Dodge, his beloved Bulldogs and their fellow barnstorming pros in Milwaukee, Decatur and even Cleveland are struggling financially and folding up at an alarming rate. Eventually, even Duluth can’t afford to keep playing and the Bulldogs are out of a job, forced to return to the mines and other menial work. The team and their pro league is sunk until Dodge gets a great idea. 

Traveling to Chicago, Dodge meets with the top college football star of the day, a kid nicknamed The Bullet, Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski), Princeton University football captain and a bona fide war hero. If Dodge can convince The Bullet, and his smarmy agent C.C (Jonathan Pryce), to come to Duluth and play for the Bulldogs, Dodge believes that he can save his team and likely the sport of pro football.

Following the story of the football star/war hero is a crafty reporter named Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger). Posing as a sports reporter, Lexie is chasing a scoop about The Bullet’s war hero story being a big fake. Her task is to convince The Bullet to confess but after meeting Dodge, it’s all Lexie can do to avoid a scandal of her own.

Like Clooney, Renee Zellweger is a star out of time. Her work in Chicago and the little seen gem Down With Love showcase a talent that would have been perfectly at home with Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges or opposite Gable, Bogey or Grant. Zellweger banters like Rosalind Russell and paired with Clooney she smolders like Bacall.

The chemistry of Clooney and Zellweger nearly overwhelms the lightweight football comedy and definitely puts co-star John Krasinski at a disadvantage. The breakout star of TV’s The Office is an affable young actor with a bright future but his burgeoning talent is no match for the veteran Clooney and the experienced Zellweger.

Krasinski simply cannot sell the love triangle aspect of Leatherheads and fades through the background when Clooney and Zellweger are on screen. I don’t mean to demean Mr. Krasinski, not many actors could match the kind of fizzy chemistry of Clooney and Zellweger. It’s just a shame that so much of the movie rides on us buying The Bullet as a viable alternative to Clooney’s mantastic Dodge Connelly.

Quick witted if a bit dawdling at times, Leatherheads is a pithy, sweet romantic comedy that happens to feature sports. A throwback to a completely different era of movie history, George Clooney directs Leatherheads with the verve of Howard Hawks if not the complete skill set of that film legend. Charming and funny with a pair of great lead romantic partners, check out Leatherheads for Clooney and Zellweger and wish John Krasinsky well on the future of his career.