Movie Review Isn't it Romantic

Isn't it Romantic (2019) 

Directed by Todd Strauss Schulson 

Written by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, Katie Silberman

Starring Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemworth, Adam Devine, Priyanka Chopra 

Release Date February 13th, 2019 

Published February 14th, 2019

Isn’t it Romantic is a complete delight. This gimmicky, in a good way, romantic comedy stars Rebel Wilson who demonstrates the kind of star power and charisma we’d been expecting of Wilson after her numerous, scene stealing supporting turns in the Pitch Perfect movies and in trifles such as How to Be Single or her breakout cameo in Bridesmaids. Rebel Wilson has been expected to be a thing for some time now and now appears to be that time. 

Isn’t it Romantic stars Rebel Wilson as Natalie, a New York architect with strong self esteem issues. As a child, Natalie loved the bubbly romantic comedy of Julia Roberts but as an adult, in the real world, she has soured on the saccharine, synthetic cliches of the genre, many of which she rants about in a lengthy but funny gag that deconstructs nearly every trope in the genre. This is one of many inspired and hilarious gags in Isn’t it Romantic. 

The plot kicks in when Natalie is mugged in the subway and suffers a head injury. When she wakes up, suddenly, everything is perfect. Her doctor is a hunky, Gray’s Anatomy type who immediately flirts with her. The streets outside the hospital are lined with flowers and friendly, helpful and welcoming faces. And, notably, New York City doesn’t smell like an open sewer where people urinate in the streets. 

Then Natalie, quite literally, is run into by Blake, the handsome and jerky client at her architecture firm. When they first met, he insulted her and made her get his coffee. Now, out of the blue, he has a sexy Australian accent and appears to be completely enamored of Natalie. He gives her a ride home in his limo but because this is a romantic comedy universe, the 30 minute takes mere seconds. 

From here, Isn’t it Romantic sets in motion a plot with a ton of very obvious jokes about the tropes of romantic comedy. These are tropes that we, in the audience, have been poking fun at for years and you wouldn’t be wrong if you mocked the obviousness of these jokes. And yet, thanks to some crisp editing and direction, and especially Rebel Wilson’s exceptional timing and charisma, these jokes land, each with a big laugh. 

Rebel Wilson was made to play the role as the one sane, angry, snarky, voice of reason in this outer romantic comedy universe. Sure, she is poking some familiar, well worn, holes in the romantic comedy plot, but she does so with gusto and timing. Wilson is a movie star with the kind of genuine likability and relatability that you really cannot teach to actors. Wilson has a natural and genuine sense of humor that speaks to the audience and doesn’t stand above them. 

Wilson is not afraid to be the subject of the joke but she’s also not here to be humiliated and laughed at either. One of the criticisms leveled at Wilson has been that she uses weight as a punchline so often that it becomes her own kind of cliche. I’ve never felt that way about Wilson myself. I felt that her performance as Fat Amy had an empowering quality, stealing back the notion that she is to be ridiculed for her weight, not merely by making fun of herself but aggressively, confrontationally, putting your bias against her awkwardly to the fore. 

Her aggressiveness is part of her charm in  the Pitch Perfect movies and I really enjoyed how that energy is used here. Natalie is initially mousy and shy and then, in the romantic comedy universe she comes into her own out of frustration more than anything. She sees the falsehoods all around her and like being trapped in The Matrix, her mind rebels against all of the fatuousness and untruth. Almost by accident this experiment works on her and she begins a great arc about being more confident and assertive. 

On top of Rebel Wilson’s outstanding performance, we get stellar work from her supporting cast. Adam Devine plays Natalie’s best friend Josh who is part Ducky from Pretty in Pink and part nerdy, male best friend in every romantic comedy ever. Devine brings a great deal of charm to this character and his chemistry with Rebel Wilson is top notch, as it was when they co-starred in the Pitch Perfect movies. 

Brandon Scott Jones is a veteran of the improv comedy scene and he brings some of that anarchic, improv energy to his character in Isn’t it Romantic. Jones plays Donny, Natalie’s stock, gay best friend who appears to only live to give her advice and support. Jones throws himself into this broad caricature with comic verve and never fails to get a big laugh. He doesn’t steal scenes per se, but he’s the perfect addition to the scenes he’s in. 

Betty Gilpin and Priyanka Chopra round out this superior supporting cast as Natalie’s assistant turned romantic comedy rival, Whitney and Josh’s romantic comedy universe, perfect, supermodel girlfriend, Isabella. I will leave you to discover the fun of these characters when you see Isn’t it Romantic. Chopra has the bigger, broader laughs but keep an eye on Betty Gilpin, she provides just the right foil for Rebel Wilson as both friend and foe. 

I haven’t even mentioned director Todd Strauss-Schulson and his exceptional work yet. Strauss-Schulson was the acclaimed director of the indie darling, The Final Girl, a film that toyed with the tropes of horror movies. Here he takes a similarly satiric aim at the romantic comedy genre and once again nails it. Isn’t it Romantic has a great pace, strong visual style delineating between the real world and the romantic comedy world, and the movie has barely an ounce of any scene it doesn’t need or lingers on for too long. 

It’s not a flawless piece of direction, it relies incredibly heavily on the appearance, chops and charm of Rebel Wilson, but Strauss-Schulson makes smart choices. He, along with screenwriters Erin Cardillo and Dana Fox, keep the movie clipping along, getting big laughs and moving on. There is barely an ounce of fat on this screenplay, scenes begin, get to the big laugh and get out and on to the next joke. It’s efficient and funny which goes a long way toward overcoming the obviousness of many of these jokes. 

In case it isn’t clear, I completely adore Isn’t it Romantic. I am a major Rebel Wilson fan after this movie and I can’t wait to see this one again. It’s not the greatest comedy of all time, I feel like I might be overhyping it just a tad, but the film is outstanding in and of itself. The execution of this gimmicky premise is damn near flawless and in the hands of star Rebel Wilson, even the most obvious jokes still get a big laugh. 

Movie Review Knowing

Knowing (2009)

Directed by Alex Proyas 

Written by Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, Stiles White 

Starring Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Liam Hemsworth, Ben Mendelsohn

Release Date March 20th, 2009

Published March 20th, 2009 

I feel I may owe Nicholas Cage a modest apology. In rereading a few past reviews of his films I find that I have spent an inordinate amount of time commenting on his hair. In my defense, Cage's hair has seemed like a separate entity all its own in many of Cage's films. That receding, patchy fro from in Adaptation, the wild out of control hairline from Bangkok Dangerous, and the utterly criminal use of extensions and plugs in various Cage efforts. The man's hair is often as memorable as the movie he's in.

That said, Cage's personal appearance is a matter for his stylist not a review of the quality of the film he is in. Of course, makeup and hair are departments on a film set. Awards are given for great designs in both fields. When you think about it; actresses are constantly judged by their looks in movies whether consciously or otherwise.

Why should Nic Cage be excused? Why should he have a separate standard? Just because he has chosen to look so utterly bizarre on screen I as a critic of film am supposed to pretend I don't notice? How is that at all fair? You know what? Modest apology rescinded. In Knowing, Nicholas Cage's unyieldingly bizarre hairline comes second to the bizarre plotting of director Alex Proyas in a biblio-scientific melodrama about the end of existence.

Knowing stars Nicholas Cage as an MIT professor whose son brings home a piece of paper that had been buried underground for 50 years. The long ago students at his son's primary school buried the time capsules filled with their visions of the future some 50 years ago. When it was opened and his son was given a particular drawing from the capsule, all it had on it was a series of numbers.

Bored and slightly drunk, Cage begins examining the numbers and thinks he sees a pattern. The number 091101 2388 happens to correspond to the date of the World Trade Center attack and the number of people who died that day. Further investigation finds that most of the numbers are also dated and the number dead in every tragedy for the past 50 years.

Worse yet are numbers that correspond to future dates including several in the near future. The idea of determinism vs randomness has been the professor's field for a very long time and his conflict is well founded until he begins trying to alter the future and finds nothing but futility. Rose Byrne plays the daughter of the woman who wrote the numbers 50 years earlier. She now has a daughter who, like her grandmother, is hearing strange voices and numbered warnings. Strangely, Cage's son is also hearing these warnings and eventually unconsciously scribbling numbered warnings.

Director Alex Proyas is a master of this kind of supernatural oddity. His Dark City and The Crow are underrated epics of the macabre and dangerous. Head trips into the souls of people whose souls are questionable at best. Unfortunately, with Knowing he has found his M. Night Shyamalan-The Happening moment.

Ok, Knowing isn't nearly the abomination that The Happening was, but in the context of the two filmmakers, the parallel of the visionary artist finding his absolute nadir, the comparison is apt. Proyas's commitment to the absolute oddity of tone and utter lack of interest in crafting a competent narrative perfectly mirrors Shyamalan's unbelievable commitment to his bizarre meta-environmental parable.

Knowing's milieu is the kind of end of the world prophecy that the religious right oriented Left Behind movies have cultivated for years. Except, replace god with aliens. Yes, ET is somehow woven into this plot along with theology, numerology, Cosmology and even cosmetology as once again Cage's follicles cry out for attention as they hold on for dear life at that place he wishes were his real hairline.

As goofball plots go, Knowing is a doozy of goofball elements from aliens to car chases to the end of the world to moments of family reunion hokum. Director Proyas throws a whole hell of a lot of stuff at the screen. Not much sticks. There is an almost joy in the film's heedlessness of convention and willingness to be so earnestly cheeseball. The appreciation fades however in the final hockey moments.

Knowing is a disaster for director Proyas and yet another bizarre signpost in the career of Nicholas Cage. Add Knowing to Bangkok Dangerous to Next to The Wicker Man and you actually begin to see a pattern of complete disregard for convention that makes Knowing seem perfectly logical for Cage, even as it is a disaster for director, co-stars, producers and subsequent audience.

Movie Review The Last Song

The Last Song (2010) 

Directed by Julie Ann Robinson 

Written by Nicholas Sparks 

Starring Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, Kelly Preston, Greg Kinnear 

Release Date March 31st, 2010 

Published March 30th, 2010 

Miley 'Hannah Montana' Cyrus, Nicholas 'schmaltz-merchant' sparks and the family friendly folks at Disney are a combination that invites snark, that malicious form of discontent expressed in sometimes angry, often biting sarcasm. Each of these three properties has earned their fair share of derision with weak in the knees pandering to the most simplistic of audience expectations.

That said, I will attempt to fight back the snarky beast waiting to strike the new Miley, Sparks, Disney movie The Last Song which, under the direction of newcomer Julie Ann Robinson, is not really deserving of the cannon fodder snark aimed in its direction. Ronnie Miller (Miley) is a recent High School grad forced to leave New York behind for her Dad Steve's (Greg Kinnear) beach house in Georgia for the summer before she goes off to, well, at the moment, nowhere.

Though Ronnie has been accepted to Julliard she has no plans of going, she gave up music several years ago when her parents split. Ronnie's main goal will be to do her time at dads and get back to her friends and her mild rebellion in New York. Along for the ride is Ronnie's little brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) who, lucky for dad, is much more enthusiastic about the summer sojourn.

While avoiding her dad Ronnie encounters Will (Liam Hemsworth) and after some required tension the two begin a romance that begins to lead everyone to a better place. That is of course until the typical elements of a Nicholas Sparks melodrama emerge to submerge the story in hokum, predictability and a tragic passing. It wouldn't be Nicholas Sparks film if none of the principles weren't on the verge of croaksville. (Damn you snarkmonster!)

Sparks's script, commissioned by Disney specifically as a vehicle for Ms. Cyrus, is the weakest element of what is otherwise a rather charming little melodrama. Sparks cannot resist applying his trite formula of teen angst, overblown dramatics and cancer to the story and that leaves director Julie Ann Robinson room only to navigate around the many potholes created by Sparks and co-screenwriter Jeff Van Wie. In a rather remarkable turn of events, for the first 2 acts of The Last Song Ms. Robinson actually pulls it off.

The Last Song begins with a little mystery involving Dad's background, moves stiffly but effectively to Ronnie's unhappiness with the situation to her opening up to the surroundings, in the form of saving sea turtle eggs on the beach from predators and into her charming and effective romance with the too handsome Will. Through it all Ms. Cyrus pitches her performance at just the right level of teenage rebellion and little girl petulance.

The final act sadly coheres to the typicality’s of the Nicholas Sparks brand of forced drama and earns the first of more than a few groans. I should point out that on my patented Nicholas Sparks groan-meter The Last Song was a mere 6 groaner where his last effort, Dear John, was somewhere in the 30 to 35 range. So, that's quite an improvement really. (Snark!)

Even with the dithering final act, The Last Song remains a charming little teenage romance that demonstrates that when under the guiding hand of a director who cares Miley Cyrus has the talent to deliver something more than her pop star persona. The performance here is genuine and enjoyable and where I was once skeptical and dubious of Miley's acting aspirations I now must admit she may just have a future in film yet.

Movie Review The Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt 1

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt 1 (2014)

Directed by Francis Lawrence 

Written by Danny Strong and Peter Craig 

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks 

Release Date November 21st, 2014 

Published November 20th, 2014 

"The Hunger Games" could have been a revolutionary box office bonanza with a brain. Sadly, thanks to the greed of Lionsgate Pictures, it's become an ironic symbol of the greed that the film is meant to satirize. I’ve been told not to hold against "Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" how it came to be a “part 1.” But I must. Because what could have been a deeply impactful 2 1/2- hour epic finale has been beefed up into a bloated, four-hour-plus time waster that won't play out in full for another year. There was the potential for greatness in the "Hunger Games" series. 

"The Hunger Games" arrived on the big screen at nearly the same moment as the Occupy Wall Street protests dominated the headlines. It wasn't by design, but it happened that the plot about the desperate poor spoiling for war with the ruling elite coincided with an all-too-brief cultural moment. Of course, Occupy Wall Street had neither the marketing muscle nor physical will of the "Hunger Games" hype -- I'm speaking more of a fashionable attitude for revolution rather than an actual revolution. 

"The Hunger Games" was never meant to galvanize a movement. Still,  Gary Ross's original had an unmistakable edge with its themes centered on the “haves” and “have nots.” The denizens of the Capitol, first glimpsed in "The Hunger Games," are the picture of grotesqueness: Loud, proud fools adorned in their riches, flaunting everything in front of those who arrive with nothing. Those who arrive with nothing include our heroes, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). 

Sport fighting the poor for the amusement of the rich has a historic flavor to it – think “Christians and the lions.” While our modern society hasn't devolved to that point, who hasn't heard someone compare America to ancient Rome? The rich under-girding of the first "Hunger Games" is the potential for class warfare and why such warfare is justified. The second film, "Catching Fire," doesn't carry the metaphor as strongly. While Katniss is used as agitprop for the Capitol, we're left with a story about the games and not the people in them. Simply getting Katniss and Peeta to the arena seems to be that film’s goal, and the journey is a bit of a drudge. 

"Mockingjay - Part 1," on the other hand, goes too far back the other way. Katniss, now the agitprop of the revolution, spends the film mourning the poor and the dead in the class warfare that she inspired. The film fails to take flight as an adventure movie without the propulsive effect of the games. This isn’t because director Francis Lawrence is incapable, but because he's been handcuffed to two movies instead of a single film. 

"Mockingjay" should have been written as a thrill-ride epic, a finale that combined tears and compassion with the kind of rollicking rebellion the series should have built toward. 

What should be a whipsaw ride of emotion, excitement and catharsis is instead an exhausting, 2-year trudge to an overstuffed conclusion. What a shame. Commerce has defeated art in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1." While Katniss weeps for the districts, I weep for wasted opportunity for greatness.