Movie Review Last Flag Flying

Last Flag Flying (2017) 

Directed by Richard Linklater

Written by Richard Linklater, Danny Ponicsan

Starring Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston

Release Date November 3rd, 2017

Last Flag Flying is a rare movie. It’s a daring depiction of the aftermath of death in a modern war. It’s an exploration of the hearts and minds of the people left behind. It’s also a movie that feels at times as if it isn’t going particularly anywhere and manages past fits and starts to reach a deeply affecting end. It’s the kind of mainstream drama that you expect Richard Linklater’s idiosyncratic style might render inert in the same neutered manner of his mainstream take on The Bad News Bears.

At times early on in Last Flag Flying, I found myself miffed at the trite nature of the characters. The ways in which Steve Carell’s sadsack Doc, Bryan Cranston’s obnoxious Sal, and Laurence Fishburne’s cranky priest Mueller fall so easily into sitcom type characters got on my nerves very early in the film and I prepared myself to write a review of the film that was not going to be fun to write. Then something began to change. Slowly but surely, the film began reeling me in and when it reached the end, I was a little teary-eyed as Bob Dylan’s warm tones flowed over the end credits.

Last Flag Flying tells the story of Doc, who attempts to reunite with his friends, Sal and Mueller. The three fought in Vietnam together and while Sal and Mueller remember taking on the much younger Doc, they also consider it a stretch of the term to call the kid a friend. Something happened near the end of the war that sent Doc to a military prison and prematurely ended their friendship, but Doc never forgot about his buddies. Now that he is facing the biggest crisis of his life with no family at home, his thoughts go back to his only friends.

For his part, Sal has been drinking away the memories of Vietnam for more than 30 years. Doc finds him at a bar in Virginia that he owns and somehow operates through his various stupors. Doc had already found Mueller and collects Sal to take him to see the sight of their formerly hellraising friend, now a Baptist Preacher. Doc soon after explains why he’s tracked down his army pals. His son was killed in action in Iraq, and he wants his only friends on hand to help him lay Larry Jr. to rest.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Battle of the Sexes

Battle of the Sexes (2017) 

Directed by Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton

Written by Simon Beaufoy 

Starring Steve Carell, Emma Stone, Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming

Release Date September 22nd, 2017 

I’ve spent a few days wrestling with why I don’t love the new, true life drama Battle of the Sexes from two of my favorite directors, Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton. The directors of the wonderful Little Miss Sunshine and the sublime Ruby Sparks have delivered a solid effort in Battle of the Sexes, but there is just something lacking. It’s not the performances either, as both Emma Stone and Steve Carell deliver standout takes on real life counterparts Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs. So just what’s wrong with Battle of the Sexes?

Battle of the Sexes tells the story of the 1972 tennis match-up that pitted women’s liberation, in the form of female tennis champion Billy Jean King, versus the self-proclaimed champion of male chauvinism, Bobby Riggs, himself a former tennis champion from some years earlier. King had recently left the American Lawn Tennis Association to help launch the new Women’s Tennis Association after a fallout over equal pay with ALTA’s leadership, headed up by Howard Kramer (Bill Pullman).

It was a huge moment for women’s tennis as King and her manager, Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman) risked everything to take the world’s top female tennis stars out onto their own tour with the goal of proving they could earn just as much money as male tennis champions. It was an even bigger moment for King as the new tour also found her in a new relationship, as she began to find her sexuality for the first time by falling in love with a hairdresser named Marylin Barnett (Andrea Riseborough). All the while she’s married to her devoted husband Larry (Austin Stowall) and could lose everything if people found out about her affair.

Complicating Billy Jean’s life further is Riggs, who challenged King early in 1972, just after the launch of the WTA and after she ignored his pleas, challenged fellow women’s champion Margaret Court just as Court was coming off a recent upset win over Billy Jean. Court would go on to lose to Riggs and force Billy Jean to be the one to challenge Riggs in order to save face for women’s tennis and their potential earning power.

As you can tell from that description, there is a pretty terrific and dramatic story in Battle of the Sexes. So why doesn’t it work? Much of the problem comes from Academy Award-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy’s script, which fails to parse the parody-level male chauvinism with the actual sexism that Billy Jean King was up against. Beaufoy’s script renders Bobby Riggs as a lovable conman who used chauvinism as a way of marketing and not the cruel dismissal of women tennis players it actually was.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Asteroid City

Asteroid City (2023) 

Directed by Wes Anderson 

Written by Wes Anderson 

Starring Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Jeffrey Wright

Release Date June 23rd, 2023 

Published June 23rd, 2023 

I adore the work of writer-director Wes Anderson. As a film critic with more than 20 years of experience writing about movies, Anderson's work has an unusual appeal for me. I see so many movies that look the same, go for the same goals, demonstrate the same filmmaking technique, and though they can be quite good or not good, the sameness of most of what I see becomes monotonous. Then, along comes a Wes Anderson movie like an alien from another planet. Instead of striving to place his characters in a place we can recognize and identify with them in a typical fashion, Anderson's style creates a surreal reality all its own. 

In his first feature film, Bottle Rocket, the characters were colorful and odd amid a realistic landscape. Since then, The Royal Tenenbaums began a turn for Anderson that led to more and more of a surrealist perspective. Anderson is a fan of artifice, and he brings artifice forward in his cinematography and production design. In his newest, remarkably ingenious work, called Asteroid, the surrealist production design is intended to logically marry the stage and film. It's as if Wes Anderson wanted to adapt a play into a movie but wanted to bring both the play and the movie forward at once. It's an exceptionally silly, funny, brilliant move. 

Trying to describe the plot of Asteroid City is rather pointless. Wes Anderson isn't so much interested in his plot. Rather, it's a Wes Anderson style of comedy, a series of odd, awkward, and often various funny scenes that may or may not be moving forward a plot. On the surface, we are following photographer and family man, Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), as he takes his kids across the country and their car breaks down in the oddball small town of Asteroid City. Luckily, they were on their way here anyway as Augie's oldest son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan), is to compete for a science scholarship. 

Asteroid City is the real star of Asteroid City. At the center of the town, which is made up of, perhaps four locations, is a giant crater where an asteroid landed in 3200 B.C. The town grew up around the asteroid as scientists and military men seek to understand the asteroid. Tilda Swinton is the top scientist and Jeffrey Wright is the military man. Things get crazy when an alien comes to Earth and takes the asteroid. The arrival of an alien causes the town, and all of its visitors, including Augie and his four kids, celebrity actress, Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johannson) and her genius daughter, Dina (Grace Edwards). 

Augie begins a tentative flirtation with Midge, their tiny cabins are right next door to each other, and Woodrow starts a budding relationship with Dinah as they work with their fellow genius kids, played by Sophia Lillis and Ethan Josh Lee to study the alien while also making sure the rest of the world knows that the alien exists, much to the chagrin of the military and their parents. The genius kids also work with Tilda Swinton's scientist to try and determine where the alien went and whether or not the alien is dangerous or not. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Despicable Me 3

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

Directed by Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda

Written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio 

Starring Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Miranda Cosgrove, Jenny Slate, Julie Andrews 

Release Date June 30th, 2017 

Despicable Me 3 is so wildly mediocre, so achingly adequate, and so puzzlingly prosaic, I can barely bring myself to write about it. In all honesty, I have spent more research time for this review googling synonyms for mediocre than I have considering anything related to the production of Despicable Me 3. The latest bit of barely above average animation from the company Illumination is so very much just OK that just trying to find the energy to type words about it is taxing.

Despicable Me 3 picks up the story of former super-villain Gru (Steve Carell) as he continues his career as a newly formed hero. Alongside his now wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), Gru is hot on the trail of the newest super-villain, a stuck in the 80’s former child star named Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), who uses gum and rubix cubes as super-weapons. It’s a clever idea for about 5 or 6 minutes and then it becomes tiresome and then forgettable.

Ah but don’t worry, Despicable Me 3 has a second uninspired plot. In this one we find that Gru has a twin brother named Dru. The joke of Dru is that he’s in good shape, has hair, and is bad at crime. That’s it, that’s the joke. On top of that, we’re supposed to find it hilarious when Gru’s mother cruelly hides his brother from him before telling him that he was her second pick. Hilarious familial cruelty you guys! Oh, and Gru’s mom is an old perv with two male swim coaches she leers at creepily, you know, to entertain the kids. (Yes, I remember that joke has been in the other films; it was creepy and unfunny then as well.

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: Bruce Almighty

Bruce Almighty (2003) 

Directed by Tom Shadyac

Written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe, Steve Oedekirk 

Starring Jim Carrey, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Phillip Baker Hall

Release Date May 23rd, 2003 

Published May 22nd, 2003 

The concept must have seemed like a home run even without a script. Jim Carrey as a regular guy who takes on God's powers. Heck do you even need a script for that? Simply turn on the camera, let Carrey contort himself, add a catchphrase, special effects and you’re done. Thankfully the producers of Bruce Almighty decided to put together a script to go with their concept and star. It also helps to have a top notch supporting cast including Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Aniston who make Bruce Almighty rise above your usual Jim Carrey flick.

In Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey is Bruce Nolan, a TV reporter who longs to move up to the news anchor position. His current job as a feature reporter covering stories like a record breaking chocolate chip cookie aren't exactly what Bruce had in mind when he got into journalism. At least things are good at home where Bruce has a great girlfriend, Grace (Aniston), though her sister Debbie (Lisa Ann Walter) hates him. Bruce doesn't realize Grace wants to get married, he's too wrapped up in his problems to notice.

Bad things keep happening to Bruce. Mostly it's little things like his dog not being house broken, or traffic making him late to work. But when Bruce finds out that he has lost the Anchor job to rival co-worker Evan (Steve Corell), Bruce really flips, and worse he does it on live TV while covering a story. His on air outburst gets him fired, which leads to a fight with hoodlums in the station parking lot and a fight with Grace at home.

With all that's happened to him it's easy to understand why Bruce would lash out at the almighty, and God responds. Sending message through Bruce's busted pager, God (Morgan Freeman) summons Bruce to an empty warehouse. After convincing a naturally skeptical Bruce that he is indeed God, he proceeds to give Bruce all of his powers, saying “let's see if you can do any better.”

Bruce's idea of better is a little different than God's. Mostly it's settling scores with his rivals at work, impressing his girlfriend and teaching his dog to use the toilet. Bruce also enjoys a little revenge on the hoods that beat him up. Is there anything funnier than a monkey crawling out of a guys butt? See this film and judge for yourself.

There are also prayers to deal with. Prayers that come to Bruce in the form of millions of voices in his head. His brilliant plan for dealing with the prayers leads to couple of pretty good sight gags and the potential for some real chaos that doesn't quite live up to expectation. You would think a gag where Bruce makes everyone’s prayers come true might do a little more than have everyone win the lottery on the same day.

There is an obvious in-joke in Bruce Almighty, a joke that relates Bruce's problems at work mirror Carrey's real life problems. Like his character’s longing to move from funny features reporter to serious news anchorman is an exact corollary to Carrey's longing to be a serious actor. The joke isn't overplayed and has a nice payoff that gives the audience insight into the actor’s psyche in real life.

Director Tom Shadyac still has some growing up to do, but he is beginning to mature a little as a competent comedy director. He has learned that the setup of a joke is as important as it's punchline. He has learned more about telling a coherent story that unfolds with a logical progression to a believable conclusion.

However, Shadyac still needs to curb his affection for schmaltz. If you saw his attempt at pathos and dramedy in Patch Adams, you know what I'm talking about. There are moments near the end of Bruce Almighty where the film threatens to drown in syrupy sweetness. Thank heaven for Morgan Freeman who keeps the sweetness from becoming cavity inducing with his charm, wit and calming influence. His mere presence relaxes both audience and star and makes Bruce Almighty a much better film for having cast him.

Bruce Almighty marks a return to Jim Carrey's strength, making people laugh. Not that he can't do drama, I am one of a small group who thought he was sensational in Man on the Moon. I believe he has the potential to something truly fantastic as a dramatic leading man, but much like Jerry Lewis and Charlie Chaplin before him Carrey's strength lies in making people smile and in Bruce Almighty he does it just enough to leave you with a smile as you leave the theater. That makes it an easy film to recommend. -

Movie Review: Anchorman The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Anchorman (2004) 

Directed by Adam McKay 

Written by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay 

Starring Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Steve Carell, Fred Willard

Release Date July 9th, 2004 

Published July 8th, 2004 

In the early 1980's, my older sister became a reporter for a local TV news station. At that station were the last bastions of 70's TV anchors, guys who could clearly remember a time when there were no women in the newsroom. One of those guys could be the template for Will Ferrell's ingenious Ron Burgundy character in the new movie Anchorman. This guy smoked during commercials, sipped scotch during sports, and partied like a college kid when the show was over. He was also legitimately clueless without a teleprompter in front of him. He was a character, like him or not, and now that character has a loving tribute in Anchorman. 

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is San Diego's most trusted newsman. His evening news broadcast is the most watched in the city. Ron Burgundy and his news team, sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner), Weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), and roving reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), are the envy of every station in San Diego. They are also quite a hit with the ladies. 

Their idyllic boys club newsroom, presided over by producer Ed Harken (Fred Willard), is thrown into chaos when network execs force them to hire a female reporter. Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) is no mere reporter, she has her eye on the anchor desk and on the man behind it. After attempts by each of the news team to try and bed the new girl, Veronica falls for Ron. However, when she gets her shot at the anchor spot the competition tears them apart. 

Oh and there is also a massive brawl between San Diego's news teams that features so many cameos you will need a scorecard to remember them all. Who knows why there is a brawl, who cares, it's funny. What else stands out are the names of the characters, which have the perfect mixture of realism and pomposity. Brick Tamland! Brian Fantana! Champ Kind! Ron Burgundy! There is also a rival character named Wes Mantooth! Brilliant. 

That is the best plot description I could come up with. In reality there is not much of a plot but rather a series of strung together sketches that would have made a legendary Saturday Night Live character. This makes sense since the film was directed by former SNL writer Adam McKay who also collaborated on the script with Ferrell. When I say that Ron Burgundy is like an SNL character I mean that to be more in the Wayne's World quality of SNL character and not in the It's Pat sense. Anchorman is far better than most of the film trash produced from any SNL characters. 

The gags in Anchorman are a scatological patchwork of 70's newsroom parody and obviously improvised dialogue. It's almost hard to believe there was an actual script considering the number of improvised scenes. This amazingly talented cast can riff with the best of them though the improvising does occasionally take a little while to find a punchline. 

Will Ferrell proves once and for all that he will not be resigned to the Rob Schneider comedy ghetto, Will is a star. It helps that he has found a group of comedy all stars to call on for backup. Listing the number of hysterical cameos would take awhile and ruin the surprise. Needless to say, there are some you expect and one or two that really surprise you. Who is that guy in the ‘fro working for the public television news team? You might take a second to recognize him. 

If you’re looking for a message about gender equality, woman’s lib, or just the minor victory of integrating of the newsroom, you won't find it here and you wouldn't want it here anyway. It would get in the way of the juvenile slapstick humor. The juvenility is intentional, it's a Will Ferrell trademark and it works for him. 

Anchorman is about the same thing that this summer's other big hit comedy Dodgeball is after, and that is off the wall scatology. Whatever the actors, writers and directors think is funny, goes. And if somewhere we stumble upon a plot, so be it. It's not great filmmaking but for the most part it's very funny.

Movie Review: Crazy Stupid Love

Crazy Stupid Love (2011) 

Directed by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa 

Written by Dan Fogelman 

Starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore 

Release Date July 29th, 2011

Published July 28th, 2011 

Will Steve Carell ever grow up? In The 40 Year old Virgin Carell played a man-child who needed the help of friends to get him laid for the first time. Now, some seven years later, Carell is playing a slightly more grown up man-child who still needs help getting laid, this time after his wife of 25 years, Emily (Julianne Moore), has divorced him.

Enter Jacob played by Ryan Gosling. Jacob looks like he walked out of the pages of GQ carrying the swagger of a pro athlete and the ladies man rap of The Game author Neil Strauss. Jacob takes pity on Carell's Cal after repeatedly listening to Cal whine about his wife cheating on him. Naturally, this leads to a montage of Carell trying on clothes while Gosling hits on the various women assisting in their clothing choices. Soon, Cal has a swagger and for the first time in 25 years he's having sex with a woman who is not his wife, in fact, he's having sex with a number of women.

Jacob meanwhile, finds himself in an entirely new place in life. Hannah (Emma Stone) is the rare woman to reject his advances but after she gets a surprise from her would be fiancée she decides she wants the bar-hopping bad boy. Thinking that it would be just a one night stand, Jacob and Hannah have one of those first nights together that you end up telling your kids about.

Crazy, Stupid, Love was written and directed by the team behind the hit 2010 comedy Easy A, Glen Ficarra and John Requa. The duo has a good ear for the way people speak and an excellent feel for the comic rhythm with which people in movies speak. Carell and Gosling have a terrific comic rapport; quite surprising given Gosling's talent for drama and Carell's comic tendencies.

Also excellent is the chemistry between Gosling and Emma Stone. Ficcarro and Requa did great things with Stone in Easy A and the actress continues to show the promise of a budding superstar in Crazy, Stupid, Love. The Jacob-Hannah love montage would be typical, even perfunctory, were it not for the chemistry of these two terrific performers.

Crazy, Stupid, Love is far from perfect; the film goes off the rails a little late in the film after revealing an unnecessary plot twist and a ludicrous plot involving Cal and Emily's babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton.) That said, young actress Analeigh Tipton is a total sweetheart who has a terrific sub-plot with Cal and Emily's son Robbie played by Jonah Bobo.

The good things about Crazy, Stupid, Love greatly outweigh the bad. Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling are terrific together as are Gosling and Emma Stone. Add in small roles for Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei and you have a recipe for a terrific movie that cannot be spoiled by minor imperfections.

Movie Review: Dan in Real Life

Dan in Real Life (2007)

Directed by Peter Hedges

Written by Pierce Gardner, Peter Hedges

Starring Steve Carell, Dane Cook, Juliette Binoche, Dianne Wiest, John Mahoney, Emily Blunt

Release Date October 26, 2007 

Published October 25th, 2007 

Peter Hedges' film  Pieces Of April was a funky little indie feature about family and togetherness, secrets and lies. The visual style was risky in how disjointed and even at times ugly and stylishly amateur it was. Now, Peter Hedges is moving up to big time mainstream filmmaking and it seems that the move to the studio has taken away his flair for the risky and the funky. His latest, Dan In Real Life, could not be less risky or funky. A straight laced genre romance, Dan In Real Life is a warm but extraordinarily dull little mainstream sitcom, something of a disappointment for a rising star director.

Steve Carell stars as Dan Burns, an advice columnist raising three daughters. Dan lost his wife years ago and is convinced that he is done with relationships. That changes on a family trip to Rhode Island where his parents (Diane Wiest and John Mahoney) live in a lovely beach house where the entire extended family gathers for a week every year.

While getting away for a few hours from his daughters, each of whom are upset with dad for different reasons, Dan meets Marie (Juliette Binoche). The two spark a conversation about books that leads to coffee and scones and eventually to Marie giving Dan her phone number, despite the fact that she is town with her boyfriend and is meeting his family. What a shock then, that the boyfriend happens to be Dan's brother Mitch (Dane Cook). Now Dan must decide whether he should risk everything and pursue his brothers girl or deny the first new love he's felt since his wife passed away.

Nearly everything about Peter Hedges' charming directorial debut Pieces of April is missing from the machine like Dan In Real Life. Churning through the required scenes of a romantic comedy, Dan In Real Life feels forced throughout. The fake vibe of the whole enterprise rises to levels of smarm that are nearly stomach turning.

If Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche weren't such terrifically lovable actors Dan In Real Life would be an absolute chore to sit through. As it is, Carell and Binoche have almost zero chemistry together but just enough likability for us not to be entirely bored by them. Without resorting to mugging or cuteness, Steve Carell still manages to squeeze a couple of laughs out of this story but not nearly enough to make Dan in Real Life worth watching.

As for Juliette Binoche the lovely French actress coasts on her talent in a role she could have performed in her sleep. There is nothing really challenging in this script, unless you consider pretending to want Dane Cook, a challenge, and some might. Dan In Real Life throws highly typical romantic comedy roadblocks in front of Binoche and Carell and both actors go through the motions of not being together before the inevitable and obvious conclusion.

Director Peter Hedges is far more talented than this sitcom in movie clothing suggests. I can't help but feel that Dan In Real Life and not Pieces of April is the anomaly of his career. Pieces of April was smart and funny and a little risky in both the storytelling and style. Dan in Real Life is the antithesis of risky. Nothing could be less risky than this puppy dog romantic comedy made from the leftovers of several other dull, forgettable romances.

Movie Review: Date Night

Date Night (2010) 

Directed by Shawn Levy

Written by Josh Klausner 

Starrive Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Ray Liotta, Common, Jimmy Simpson

Release Date April 9th, 2010 

Published April 8th, 2010

A couple of bored New Jersey-ites decide to mix up their routine with a trip to the big city and find themselves mixed up in a murderous plot involving gangsters, crooked cops and dirty politicians in the new comedy Date Night starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell and directed by mainstream machinist Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum 1 & 2).

Shawn Levy has never been what anyone would call an auteur. Levy is, without a doubt, a craftsman but more along the lines of an amateur carpenter than a master builder. Levy's films tend to unfold with a solid plan in mind and end up as rickety, half completed disasters. To be fair, the half completed parts can be quite entertaining and have proven exceptionally popular.

How nice then that Levy's latest rickety contraption, Date Night, actually shows the director becoming a better craftsman. Unlike the Night at the Museum movies, Date Night has a quick pace, oodles of charm, and more than a few really big laughs. It helps to have a pair of very, very funny leads to carry the audience over the trouble spots. As Phil and Claire Foster, Steve Carell and Tina Fey do a remarkable job of portraying a marriage with a little dust on it. The routine of once a week dinners, lame book clubs and time spent with fellow dusty married couples is so well evoked that you can't wait for the expected wackiness to ensue.

The wackiness arrives when Phil and Claire, frightened by the recently announced divorce of a longtime friends, break from their routine for a night in New York City. The couple want to have dinner at a swanky new restaurant in Manhattan but they don't have a reservation. When another couple doesn't show, Phil boldly claims the reservation and the identity of the missing couple.

That couple, unfortunately, happens to be the missing link between a mob boss (Ray Liotta) and some dirty cops (Jimmi Simpson and Common) and a shady politician. When the dirty cops come after the Foster's one wild night ensues as they evade the bad guys with the help of a hunky security expert played by a shirtless Mark Wahlberg.

The plot is creaky and as well aged as Claire and Phil's marriage routine. The key to making it work lies with Carell and Fey's ability to sell the goofball, over the top gags and sell they do, Carell and Fey make a top notch comic duo. Scene after scene, whether Phil and Claire are sharing a quiet meal, poking quiet fun at fellow diners, or running from a hail of bullets or in a wild car chase, Carell and Fey make the most of their terrific comic chemistry to draw big laughs.

If you like the Steve Carell and Tina Fey you know from TV then you will like Phil and Claire. Director Levy cleverly plays the story to the strengths of his stars and they reward him by taking thin characters and a well worn plot and make something surprisingly, hilariously more of it.

With any other cast Date Night would crash and burn. With Steve Carell and Tina Fey Date Night becomes a fast paced, laugh out loud riot; stay for the credits which tack on a few more big laughs in Carell and Fey's blunders and ad libs. Shawn Levy may never be a great director but with the right cast and the right material he is an effective director and that is all that was needed for Date Night.

Movie Review: Dinner for Schmucks

Dinner for Schmucks (2010) 

Directed by Jay Roach 

Written by David Guion 

Starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Bruce Greenwood, Jemaine Clement, Zach Galifianakis

Release Date July 30th, 2010 

Published July 29th, 2010 

Barry (Steve Carell) is a schmuck. He has no couth and is completely unaware of the feelings of others. He is not malicious, merely clueless. Barry's hobby is dressing and posing dead stuffed mice in intricate dioramas and when he meets Tim (Paul Rudd) for the first time it's while retrieving another dead mouse from the middle of a busy street and bouncing off the hood of his car.

That Barry is a schmuck is stipulated by the title Dinner for Schmucks but that Tim too is something of a schmuck is the overarching point of the movie Dinner for Schmucks directed by Jay Roach whose talent lies in crafting intricate dioramas of schmucks being schmucks whether they are played by Paul Rudd or Ben Stiller or Mike Myers.

Tim is a corporate climber looking to make a move to the corner office. When his opportunity arrives it comes with a caveat; Tim must find a loser to bring to a dinner at his boss's (Bruce Greenwood). The loser must be a real loser, one he and his fellow corporate VP's (Daily Show's Larry Wilmore and Office Space's Ron Livingston) can make fun of.

This is an obviously jerky scenario, one that Tim is not comfortable with and when his girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak) tells him not to go through with it that seems to settle things. Then, Tim hits Barry with his car and well, mice dioramas of The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa look like just the thing to win over the boss.

The story is thin but it works as the perfect coat hanger of a plot on which to hang a number of big gags and wacky characters. Among the wackiest is Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement as Kieran a mind blowingly odd artist. Though Schmuckish enough to be the perfect Dinner guest, he's actually an art client of Tim's girlfriend with designs on sleeping with her. Kieran's art involves paintings of himself as various animals, more often than not goats.

Wait till you meet the rest of the dinner guests. But, that's not till the end of Dinner for Schmucks. On the way we get to know Barry as he goes about destroying Tim's relationship, apartment and job. And yet, somehow we don't mind. Steve Carell pulls off quite a trick in Dinner for Schmucks and gets us on Barry's side even as he is a catalyst for destruction.

Steve Carell nails the role of nerdy, off-putting weirdo and yet manages to win us over. Believe it or not, by the end of Dinner for Schmucks you are ready to see this weirdo get a happily ever after, one fitting of his completely bizarre self. As for Mr. Rudd, as he was straight man to Jason Segal's oddball in I Love You Man he is an even better, funnier and more effective straight man to Mr. Carell.

The strength of Dinner for Schmucks lies in big gags and bigger goofballs. Jemaine Clement, The Hangover's Zach Galifianakis, The I.T Crowd's Chris O'Dowd and puppet comic Jeff Dunham are just a sampling of the wackos who bring the laughs in Dinner for Schmucks. Each has maybe a scene or two but it's all they need to deliver their punchline and get out. 

The classic showbiz cliché always leave'em laughing is the heart of Dinner for Schmucks. The characters get in; get the laugh and get out; making way for the next set up and punchline and payoff. It may not pay off with a compelling story but the laughs more than make up for the lack of a hardy narrative.

Movie Review: Dr Seuss' Horton Hears A Who

Horton Hears a Who (2008) 

Directed by Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino 

Written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio 

Starring Carol Burnett, Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett

Release Date March 8th, 2008 

Published March 7th, 2008 

We get a lot of animated movies every years and a number of very good ones. The artists of modern animated features are, more often than not, responsible caring, smart people who have your childrens best interests at heart. That is certainly the case with the team behind the latest Dr. Seuss adaptation Horton Hears A Who.

Jim Carrey gives voice to Horton the elephant, one Theodore "Dr. Seuss" Geisel's most enduring characters. In the land of Nool Horton is popular with the little ones and teaches them about the forest. His non-traditional teaching style is frowned upon by the sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) who fears Horton is causing the children to use their imaginations.

The Kangaroo grows even more sour when Horton takes to talking to a small speck atop a flower. You see, according to Horton, there is a tiny population on that speck called Who's. Horton has made contact with the Who's Mayor (Steve Carell) and has vowed to protect the populace and get the speck to the safety of a mountaintop sunflower.

Horton rescued the speck after it was dislodged from another flower, something that has caused big trouble for the who's from earthquakes to massive shifts in weather patterns. If they don't get to safety soon they will be destroyed. Standing in Horton's way is that dyspeptic Kangaroo and her mean sidekick Vlad (Will Arnett) a vulture who vows to destroy the speck free of charge.

The dramatic stakes are high but Horton never gets to serious about it's situation. This is first class kids entertainment with both big laughs and smart subtext. Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino were the minds behind this adaptation and they have kept much of Dr. Seuss's material intact, not the least is his undying respect and reverence for a child's mind.

The exceptional voice cast also keeps things light and fun. Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Carol Burnett do a tremendous job finding just the right tones for the lead roles. Meanwhile, Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill and Amy Poehler offer terrific support.

Horton Hears A Who is as smart as it is funny. Underlying the story of Horton and the Mayor's heroic journey are ideas about spirituality and environmental concern that maybe Dr. Seuss didn't intend but become prominent in the expansion of Horton from a small book to a feature length film. The movie is about believing in something whether you can see it or not. It celebrates the imagination but also the capacity to believe in something beyond reason. Horton cloaks faith in the veneer of modern animated humor and somehow never comes off preachy.

The animation of Horton could not be a better representation of Dr. Seuss's classic style mixed with modern animated technology. The opening image of a drop of water on a leaf is breathtakingly realistic and there are striking images throughout Horton. Images that catch the eye without overstatement. Impressive and not overwhelming, a delicate balancing act. This is one terrific little movie. If you have kids then you must have Horton Hears A Who, a new animated classic for your collection.

Movie Review: Evan Almighty

Evan Almighty (2007) 

Directed by Tom Shadyac 

Written by Steve Oedekirk 

Starring Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman, Wanda Sykes

Release Date June 22nd, 2007

Published June 21st, 2007 

I found Bruce Almighty a little puzzling. Was Jim Carrey God for the entire world or just for the city of Buffalo where the film is set? Who knows, I guess the real question is why I am dragging such a logical question in to a discussion of a movie where logic is the least important thing imaginable? Bruce Almighty wasn't really a movie, in the sense of a series of scenes that coalesce into a story. Rather, Bruce Almighty was a concept blown up to movie length. Director Tom Shadyac and writer Steve Oedekirk simply thought of a one line pitch, Jim Carrey as God, and worked from there. The same creative bankruptcy plagues the even more logic free pseudo-sequel Evan Almighty. This film emerged from yet another one line pitch, Steve Carell as Noah.

Evan Baxter (Carell) was Buffalo's number 1 newscaster. Now he is Buffalo's representative in Congress having recently won election. Moving with his family, including his wife Joan (Lauren Graham) and their three sons, to Washington D.C; Evan has promised voters that he is going to change the world. God (Morgan Freeman) likes Evan's ambition and decides to offer Evan the opportunity to really change the world.

Dropping wood and tools on Evan's lawn, God tasks the former newsman to build an ark. The flood is coming and Evan will have to have the boat built in time if he is going to change the world and save a few lives. Evan is naturally skeptical but when animals begin following him wherever he goes, and he sprouts facial hair that Charlton Heston in The 10 Commandments would envy, he can no longer fight what God has asked him to do.

Directed by Tom Shadyac, who also directed Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty is a spirited but lunkheaded comedy. Star Steve Carell does everything short of roll over and beg for laughs as he tries to wring some humor out the muck of Evan Almighty. It's a tribute to his talent and that of his picking up a paycheck co-star Morgan Freeman, that Evan Almighty does have a happy vibe throughout.

Unfortunately for both performers, director Tom Shadyac simply cannot get ahold of this material. Every plot strand seems to run off in a different direction and he simply lacks the ability to coax it all back into a cohesive whole. Meanwhile, as the story drifts away, the special effects, from CGI condors, tigers and bears to the abysmal, Ed Wood gone computerized, flood, all are strictly amateur efforts.

There are numerous things wrong with Evan Almighty aside from Tom Shadyac's ability to bring it all together as a cohesive whole. A glaring problem is the films gutlessness. This is a biblical tale, God is one of the stars, and yet real religion is scarce. We never learn what denomination Evan is nor do we see him in church. Piety is not entirely necessary but the film never takes a stance on just how religious Evan is aside from a brief, begrudging prayer.

This is also a film in which politics are involved and yet the filmmakers seem to have no concept of how politics or democracy works. As Evan gets into his ark building, robe wearing, shaggy bearded business he worries that he may be fired from his job. Evan is a Congressman. To fire him, the voters have to vote him out; yet he acts as if John Goodman's evil elder congressman is his boss with the ability to banish him if he feels like it.

(Side note, I am aware that Congress can expel a member of Congress, however, one single Congressman cannot fire another Congressman.) 

Of the glaring political misnomers, where is the President? The alternate universe of Evan Almighty has no President. He's not even referred to. One would think that if a nutty Congressman started dressing like Noah and building a giant ark and bringing animals, two by two, from across the globe, the President of the United States just might notice it and have a comment or two.

And in case you were wondering where Evan stands politically, the film does not assign him a political party. Fearing they might turn off potential moviegoers, Evan's politics are mysterious at best. He drives a Hummer which some would see as being Republican-ish, but that is not a great indicator. This might not matter if Evan were something of a political dupe who got elected by chance thanks to a welcoming smile and positive demeanor but the story establishes quickly that Evan is neither incompetent or incapable.

As with all things in mainstream Hollywood, this is a box office calculation. The movie must appear as all things to all people so as not to offend any potential audience. Hence, no religious affiliation for Evan nor a political party. This, of course, only serves to muddy the waters of the films comic intentions. It can't be a satire of anything because that would require a perspective. There is a muddled pro-environment message. John Goodman's evil congressman is trying to push through an environmentally unsound bill, but the details of this plot are too confused for any useful context.

So why did I walk out of Evan Almighty smiling? I'm not exactly sure. There is a big dance sequence over the credits with a lot of behind the scenes footage that is a whole lot of fun. There is also the quick witted performance of comedian Wanda Sykes who seems to be reprising her role from another awful movie, the Jane Fonda-Jennifer Lopez pseudo-comedy Monster In Law.

As she did in Monster In Law, Sykes performs the service of comic fixer. When scenes lack humor, as so many scenes in Evan Almighty seem to, director Shadyac simply cuts to Sykes for yet another of her quick witted quips and put downs. You can sense even when the quips were scripted and when they weren't, the likely ad-libs of Ms. Sykes are far funnier than the scripted ones.

There is a scene where Evan confronts congress in his full Noah garb and Sykes provides comic commentary from an entirely different location, speaking to no one but us in the audience. Intentional or not, this scene seems cobbled together as if it simply weren't working and the editors cut in clips of Sykes to make the scenes funny.

Steve Carell does what he can with this inelegant script and gamely throws his body into as much slapstick as he can endure. His attempts are kind of funny in that classic three stooges, laugh at someone else's pain sort of way, but when not throwing himself to the ground or hitting himself with a hammer, Carell is left at the mercy of this ludicrous script and left only a little dance to try and bring some life to scenes. The dance gets old quick.

Cowardly, confused and amateurish, Evan Almighty is a terrifically bad movie. And yet, I feel bad trashing it too much. Steve Carell is so talented and likable that I want to cut this film all the slack I can. That isn't much. Wanda Sykes is a real scene stealer but there is no need to waste your time seeking her out in this film when DVD's of her stand up material are readily available and free of the yoke of pulling this movie behind it.

Evan Almighty is the most expensive comedy ever made and one of the biggest wastes of money Hollywood has brought to the screen in a long while.

Movie Review: Foxcatcher

Foxcatcher (2014) 

Directed by Bennett Miller 

Written by E. Max Frye, Mark Futterman 

Starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo

Release Date November 14th, 2014 

Published November 12th, 2014 

Single-minded to the point of obsession and with a documentary dedication to real-life stories and themes about the corrupting influence of money, director Bennett Miller uses his films as a prism to look at the world. From Capote to Moneyball and now in Foxcatcher, Miller's dedication to exposing hypocrisy and greed while reveling in fascinating real life stories has turned out three consecutive masterpieces. 

“Foxcatcher” tells the terrifying true tale of the events that led to the death of American Olympic wrestler David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo). Although Schultz is really only a supporting player as the story plays out, his death and the eerie signals of tragedy float over every aspect of the film. Much of what we see centers on Schultz’s brother, and fellow Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), who fell under the spell of his brother’s murderer John Du Pont (Steve Carell) just as he was training for the Olympic games in 1988. 

The relationship between Du Pont and Mark is not unlike that of Truman Capote and the killer Perry Jones in “Capote.” Capote takes advantage of Perry’s lack of intelligence to get what he wants, but his obsession with what he wants ends up consuming him. The same goes for Du Pont as he sees Mark as a pathway to being considered a great leader of men, the coach of the next great Olympian. Capote, of course, doesn’t become the villain in the way Du Pont eventually does, but their single-mindedness is similar as is their quirkiness and the outsider qualities with which both men wrestled their entire lives. 

Billy Beane, too, had outsider qualities that likely appealed to Miller. Beane was a standout ballplayer in high school who was seen as a “can’t miss” prospect. And then he missed. Beane then found his niche as a talent scout. With a single-minded purpose and the use of Jonah Hill’s Peter Brand, Beane began a quest for greatness with his often tactless reflex of powers. Beane is portrayed in Moneyball as a mercenary negotiator who stayed clear of his players so he could continue to remain a mercenary when deciding their fate. 

All three stories share single-minded determination and purpose that leads to either grand tragedy or grand triumph --- or, in the case of “Capote,” a mixture of both in equal measure. The style of all the stories is reminiscent of a documentary, because the most compelling scenes often depict two people in a room in a sort of talking head conversation that recounts the details of their lives in illuminating fashion. The tactic is most obvious in “Capote,” in which the legendary writer is essentially a documentarian with words instead of a camera. 

Some of the best scenes in “Moneyball” are between Pitt and Hill while reviewing their philosophies, with Pitt’s Billy Beane coaxing Hill’s Brand into revealing the cold-hearted numbers behind his baseball philosophy. Numerous scenes throughout “Moneyball” play out with people in chairs being interviewed about their intentions. Beane talks to the management team of the Cleveland Indians, trying to make a trade and being grilled about his unusual approach to choosing players. In one scene, Beane is interviewed by his team’s owner in a comfortable leather chair. Then Billy interviews Peter Brand about what would come to be called “Moneyball.” This approach continues until the film ends with Beane in an interview for the Boston Red Sox general manager position. 

In “Foxcatcher,” the relationship between Mark Schultz and John Du Pont essentially begins with an interview. Du Pont requests that Mark come to his home in Pennsylvania for a conversation. They end up in Du Pont’s trophy room, where Du Pont asks Mark about his family, his workouts and his goals. It’s a revealing scene for both characters, but we get our best sense of Mark as someone who is easily impressed, a quality that is his eventual undoing as Du Pont proves to be spectacularly unimpressive aside from his incredible wealth. 

The corruption of money plays a key role in a devastating scene in “Capote.” The most compelling scene depicts Clifton Collins Jr. as the infamous killer Perry Smith, who reveals that he and his partner killed the Clutter family because the criminals believed the family home had $10,000 inside their Kansas home. In the end, Smith and his partner walked away with $40. The senselessness of the cold-hearted slaying is heart-wrenching.  

Money is in the very title of “Moneyball,” which includes incisive commentary on how finances have corrupted Major League baseball. For a time it seemed that buying players was enough to purchase glorious championships -- the purity of simply playing the game and winning was being overshadowed by contracts and press releases. “Moneyball” is ironically shown as an impure way of choosing ballplayers, but it actually celebrates playing the game in the most fundamental way. “Moneyball” undermines the big-money teams by simply beating them in an actual game, and not in a boardroom with a contract. 

Finally, in “Foxcatcher,” money is the poison that flows through the life of John Du Pont. Money isolated him from reality. The disconnect between Du Pont's fantasy of himself and his sad reality was directly related to his unending wealth. Money, too, was David Schultz’s downfall. Although Schultz surely was not a greedy man his desire for a comfortable, steady job working for Du Pont caused him to overlook a number of warning signs about the millionaire eccentric. These red flags sent even his less-than-astute brother Mark fleeing the Foxcatcher estate. 

Single-minded purpose has driven greatness and tragedy since the beginning of time. Money came along later to provide further incentive and invite madness. Miller captures this reality in pseudo-documentary form. He shows his viewers that single-mindedness and money can combine for greatness or for tragedy or both. 

Movie Review: Despicable Me

Despicable Me (2010) 

Directed by Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin

Written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio 

Starring Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Jason Segal, 

Release Date July 9th, 2010 

Published July 8th, 2010 

Gru (Steve Carell), the star of “Despicable Me” is a super villain. We know this because he is dressed all in black. He has a bald head, pale skin and a villainous pointy nose. He carries a freeze ray which he uses to get to the head of the line at Starbucks and he's mean to children. If Gru were anymore the bad guy he would be petting a cat a la Blofeld and twisting his mustache.

When the Great Pyramid goes missing Gru's mother (Julie Andrews) calls to congratulate him and he is forced to reveal he wasn't the big bad guy who stole it. Turns out, there is a new Super villain on the scene and he is stealing Gru's headlines. Don't worry though, Gru has a plan to get his place on the front pages back, with the help of his evil assistant Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and his hundreds Banana Slug looking Minions, Gru plans to steal the Moon. All he needs are the funds.

In a scene that earns the biggest laughs in “Despicable Me,” Gru heads for the Bank of Evil to pitch his Moon stealing idea. Keep an eye out for one terrifically fun toss off sight gag at the Bank that is both timely and hilarious. To get his funds the bank needs Gru to first steal a top secret shrink ray that he can use to shrink the moon to carry on size.

Oh, but that new villain in town, he's on the trail of the shrink ray and the moon as well. His name is Vector (Jason Segal), really Victor, but he thinks Vector is much more evil and when he gets the shrink ray, he puts Gru in a desperate situation. Through some strange and evil circumstances, Gru hatches a plan to steal from Vector involving three cute little orphans.

You can guess where this story is going and likely where it will end up. Three cute girls humanize the heartless villain yada, yada, yada, Pixar level storytelling this is not. What “Despicable Me” lacks in intellect it more than makes up for with big laughs. The directorial team Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud do a terrific job playing off of classic movie super villains from James Bond to Superman. 

Parody is “Despicable Me's comfort zone but a healthy amount of cartoon slapstick, often involving the mumbling, bumbling minions, also earns big laughs. The voice cast brings a few of their own laughs as Steve Carell's Eastern European growl, Russell Brand's throaty Brit, and Jason Segal's nerd voice each has a moment to gurgle a good line. 

”Despicable Me” doesn't have the ingenuity of the Pixar cartoons but it accomplishes the simple goal of earning big laughs. The film has heart, great characters and tremendous voice acting. It also has arguably the best soundtrack of 2010. Pharrell Williams of NERD engineers a big beat Greek chorus to Gru and the girls' adventure and it's the perfect score for the big laughs and big fun of “Despicable Me.”

Movie Review: Welcome to Marwen

Welcome to Marwen (2018) 

Directed by Robert Zemeckis 

Written by Robert Zemeckis, Caroline Zemeckis 

Starring Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Merritt Wever, Janelle Monae, Eiza Gonzalez, Gwendoline Christie

Release Date December 21st, 2018 

Published December 20th, 2018

Welcome to Marwen is a cringe-inducing drama about a man who suffered a terrible, tragic beating and reclaims his identity through art. There is a good movie to be made of this concept, but this isn’t it. Perhaps the documentary made about this story, called Marwencol, is that movie. I haven’t seen that doc unfortunately, and so I can only judge this story based on this movie and ugh, it’s not an easy sit. 

Not long prior to when this story is set, Mark Hogancamp (Steve Carell), was brutally attacked outside of a bar in his small New York town. He was left in a coma and the subsequent traumas included losing his memory of anything that happened prior to the attack and losing the ability to draw, a long time passion. As we meet Mark he is indulging in his fantasy world, known as Marwen, wherein he is a heroic World War 2 pilot who is rescued from the Nazis by a group of gun toting women who are mythic representations of the real women in Mark’s life. 

Marwen is Mark’s at home art installation where he uses 12 inch dolls to represent himself and the women in his life. There is Roberta (Merritt Wever), a kindly hobby shop owner who helps Mark obtain his dolls and supplies, Julie (Janelle Monae), Mark’s former physical therapist, Carlalla (Eiza Gonzalez), a co-worker of Mark’s at a local bar, and Anna (Gwendoline Christie), Mark’s visiting nurse. There are also two other fantasy characters in Marwen but we will get to them as they are both troublesome. 

There will soon be a new character in Marwen. Mark has just gotten a new neighbor, Nicol (Leslie Mann), who Mark is immediately smitten with. After seeing her and briefly meeting her and finding her very kind and patient, Mark goes to the hobby shop and buys a doll on which he projects her image. He even names the doll Nicol and begins to position her romantically with his doll avatar Hoagie. Here’s where the cringing begins and does not let up in Welcome to Marwen. 

Welcome to Marwen is quite loosely based on the life story of the real Mark Hogancamp, a life that has already been rendered in a well-reviewed documentary. Much of the other details are inventions of Zemeckis and writer Caroline Thompson who might have been better advised to stick closer to the real story. The invented romantic aspirations of Mark are creepy and cringe-y and render him difficult to take. 

The real Mark Hogancamp never had a Nicol, he named his characters and his town after his ex-wife, who was long out of the picture before he was attacked and a good friend whom he had no romantic designs on. The real Mark Hogancamp, on some level, understands that he’s not in a place where romance is right for him. As portrayed in this movie, Mark is a true weirdo whose fixation on Nicol has the earmarks of creepy stalker behavior, something I am sure was not intended in this supposedly uplifting story. 

I will put it to you dear reader, a strange man you’ve only just met begins to fixate on you, purchases a doll that he makes to look like you, begins to have that doll in a romance with a doll that looks like him, are you cool with that? I haven’t mentioned that he also has a few pairs of Nicol's shoes that he likes to wear and that is arguably the least creepy thing happening here. Again, the movie doesn’t intend any of this to be creepy but the way it is crafted on screen makes it unintentionally, off-puttingly, creepy. 

The movie doesn’t do much of anything to make Mark likable. Other than casting the innately likable Steve Carell, the film portrays Mark as awkward, humorless, childlike, a poor dresser, prone to violent attacks of fantasy, and a hermit. The women in his life indulge all of these qualities and reinforce them to a degree that goes beyond kindness and into the realm of fantasy where most of them only exist. The female characters in Welcome to Marwen are mostly the invention of the filmmakers and are not part of the real story as portrayed in the documentary, or so I have been told. 

Speaking of fantasy characters, there is another controversial inclusion in Welcome to Marwen. Diane Kruger voices a character named Deja who is the one character in the film universe that is not based on any of the other characters in the movie. Mark describes Deja as the Belgian Witch of Marwen, a woman so deeply in love with Hoagie that she makes his other potential love interests vanish. 

Deja is a supremely clumsy metaphor for addiction. She wears a bright blue glove that is the same color as the pain medication that Mark has been abusing. It’s hinted that Mark’s drinking problem, another addiction, was what drove away the wife he can only recall from photographic evidence and the fact that Mark was drunk the night he got beat up is part of his notion that he may have deserved the beating he received. By vanquishing Deja, Mark is symbolically vanquishing his addiction. If only life were so simple as defeating a doll. .

I debated whether to include a discussion of the other character in Marwen but I will mention it. In yet another creepy and tone deaf detail, Zemeckis includes a scene of Mark indulging in his pastime of watching his favorite porno actress, Suzette, who is portrayed by Zemeckis’ wife Leslie (Eww!). Mark likes Suzette so much that he made her a doll character in Marwen and when Nicol asks about her, Mark is not hesitant about explaining her origin in yet another cringe-y bit of tin-eared dialogue. 

It’s a shame all of this goes down this way because some of Welcome to Marwen isn’t completely terrible. The film uses some wonderful technical wizardry to bring Mark’s art to life. Mark doesn’t just play with these dolls, he poses them and takes photos of them that are genuine works of art. The film even builds to Mark’s art exhibit. As we watch Mark work, his art is alive and moving around and having dialogue and it’s all rather inventive looking.

This could be a device that deepens the story and creates an artful insight into Mark’s troubled, damaged, mind but as played by all involved in Welcome to Marwen, the dolls are yet another clumsy metaphorical device. They are there to deliver exposition and give simple metaphoric representations of Mark’s mental state. It doesn’t help that Zemeckis uses the dolls to deliver yet another creepy punchline regarding Mark; he occasionally poses his female dolls topless. Bearing in mind that these are dolls based on people in his life, it plays as another creepy and entirely unnecessary detail that the filmmakers seem to think is charming and funny. 

From what I understand about the documentary, none of what Zemeckis puts into the movie is true of the real Mark Hogancamp. He might be a creepy pervert but from what I have read about the documentary, it appears more interested in him as an oddball character and a talented artist. The romantic plot that Zemeckis forces into the movie is a completely misguided nod to mainstream filmmaking that requires that all quirky male protagonists have a love interest, even if the character has no qualities that would attract said love interest. 

To be fair, the Nicol character, as played by Leslie Mann, never realizes she’s a love interest until a truly hard to watch scene in which she has to let him down easy. It’s a supremely hard to watch and misguided scene that had me squirming in my seat. Mark is a character that is hard enough to take without the movie so forcefully trying to be sympathetic to his misguided ideas of romance. It’s meant to be an insight into his struggle but it all just comes off as forcefully sad. 

Welcome to Marwen is a technical marvel in some ways but mostly, it’s just hard to watch. The characters are all offbeat caricatures, the dialogue is full of the kind of lazy exposition you expect from action movies not from character driven drama and while the technical wizardry is neat, it can’t make up for the many other deficiencies in the story and characters of Welcome to Marwen. 

Movie Review: Vice

Vice (2018) 

Directed by Adam McKay

Written by Adam McKay 

Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adam, Steve Carell, Allison Pill, Jesse Plemons, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry

Release Date December 25th, 2018 

Published December 22nd, 2018 

Vice is an attempt at a satire of the former Vice President Dick Cheney. Unfortunately, though Dick Cheney is a large enough target for satire, Vice doesn’t have the teeth to make the satire work. Limp jabs at his time running the White House and the straightforward presentation of Cheney’s life, from his time as an alcoholic lineman in Wyoming through his time in the White House and his final heart transplant, the satire is so weak that it never lands a single blow on the former VP.

Christian Bale stars in Vice as Dick Cheney and the transformation is remarkable. Bale, one of the more handsome men in Hollywood, turns seamlessly into Dick Cheney. Putting on weight and undergoing four hours a day of makeup, Bale enhances the look with his voice and manner which brings Cheney to life on screen better than you could imagine. In fact, Bale is so good that he’s part of the reason that the satire of Vice doesn’t land.

Vice proceeds to tell the life of Dick Cheney in a manner that mixes up the timeframes of Cheney’s life. We start with Vice President Cheney on September 11th, after he had been rushed to an underground bunker and took over calling the shots on how the United States responded to the terror attack. The scene reflects rumors of how VP Cheney was usurping Presidential powers and the machinations are vaguely treated as menacing but the movie goes on to, unintentionally, sell the idea that Cheney, being more experienced and prepared for this moment than was President Bush, was right to takeover from Bush in this moment.

Then we flash back to how Dick Cheney got his start. In the early 1960’s Dick Cheney appeared headed nowhere. Cheney was working as a lineman in Wyoming. We see Cheney working for unscrupulous phone company engineers who care little for the employees who have little to no training or safety equipment. Cheney worked and then spent hours in bars getting drunk and getting into fights and getting arrested. 

It isn’t until his wife Lynn (Amy Adams) has to bail him out after a DUI that Cheney’s life is finally turned around. Lynn demands that Dick get cleaned up or she will take their daughter and leave and from there, the film cuts to Washington D.C where Dick is now working as a congressional intern. In the time between when Cheney  was a drunken lineman until he began  working in Congress, Cheney graduated from college and discovered an appreciation for politics.

Cheney’s start in Washington D.C came when he fell in with then Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell). Cheney was Rumsfeld’s intern and it is unexpected to see the Cheney we know today as a toady for someone even more unscrupulous and crude than himself but these scenes aren’t humorous, they are just sort of there. These scenes lay in important details about Cheney’s history during Watergate, his fast rise in the ranks of the Ford Administration, and his machinations within the Reagan White House, but they are the least interesting parts of Vice.

Vice doesn’t pick up strong momentum until Cheney becomes George W. Bush’s choice to be Vice President in 1999. Sam Rockwell plays George W. Bush as the flighty fratboy that the left has always believed him to be. It’s not a bad performance but there are more laughs in Rockwell’s manner, his style, the charming way he plays Bush than from anything Bush and Cheney actually do. The scenes between Bale and Rockwell are rarely funny but they aren't dramatic either, they play off of media perceptions of both men without providing much insight. 

That said, it was during the Bush Administration when Cheney, the character we know from many books and profiles, begins to emerge. We see his moves on the Iraq war, the way he used the law manipulate the country into a place where torture was legal and the film does begin to satirize the Cheney of lore as a power hungry, no-nonsense, bully. Is it funny? Kind of, in the absurdly straight-forward way that McKay frames the scenes and uses history to reflect these as poor decisions, but it is in conflict with Bale's performance as Cheney who doesn't appear to be in the fact that he's supposed to be the villain. Playing Cheney as having strong convictions is not exactly the satire we are expecting. 

It is during the time when Cheney is deciding whether to become Vice President that McKay relies on an odd but surprisingly effective device similar to one that he used in his Academy Award nominated The Big Short. McKay uses fantasy sequences as punchlines to punctuate the life of Dick Cheney. The first is a fake out ending that has Cheney retiring quietly after having been George H.W Bush’s Defense Secretary and leaving politics to become the CEO of Halliburton and leaving politics behind forever. 

This scene only evokes a bit of a chuckle and not a big laugh but I did enjoy seeing the credits begin to roll at the start of what was to be the 3rd act of Cheney’s life. This fantasy moment plays like wish fulfillment for those who despised the Bush-Cheney team and the joke is well-timed with the credits rolling far longer than you expect them to before we cut back to Cheney taking a call from George W. Bush and arranging a meeting regarding the Vice Presidency.

McKay goes back to the well of the fantasy sequence once more not long after this. The film employs a mysterious narrator, Jesse Plemons, who makes brief appearances throughout the movie, setting up a surprisingly effective reveal near the end of the movie. The narrator explains that we can’t really know what Lynn and Dick talked about the night that he decided to become the Vice President so the film goes into a remarkable, and quite funny, Shakespearean sequence in which Bale and Adams banter in the words of Shakespearean villains planning to carve up the world in their image.

For a brief moment Vice achieves its satirical potential. Cheney as the over the top Shakespearean Machiavelli figure is the perfect portrayal of the former VP. This moment combines our perception of Cheney with a touch of the reality. It's the Cheney of leftist lore and reality. Cheney is seen in Vice as a nasty politician with the ability to snake his way through the halls of power, taking power where he can and biding his time until he could turn things to his advantage. Shakespeare offers the perfect comic template to combine the aspects of Cheney that have taken hold in the public imagination.

This, however, is only one scene. It’s quite a funny scene and exceptionally well performed but it can’t make up for what is lacking in Vice which is a stronger through line of humor. The film doesn’t push the envelope beyond these fantasy sequences. It’s fine if the filmmakers are intending for us to make up our own mind about Cheney but I was expecting something more forceful, more directly critical. At the very least, I expected the Darth Vader-esque take on Cheney that holds the public imagination but the film, and especially Christian Bale, fails to push hard enough on that villainous side of our perception rendering the intended satire a toothless quality.

Vice is far too dry for my taste. Cheney is a huge satirical target and Vice doesn’t land a glove on him. George W. Bush gets far more of a roasting in Vice than Cheney does. In the bare minimum of scenes Sam Rockwell gives us an SNL worthy roasting of the former President as the slightly dopey daddy’s boy who was President in name only, a persona that many left leaning audiences will enjoy. It’s more savagely critical than anything Bale does with Chaney though both performances are solid. I just don’t know what the filmmakers, specifically director Adam McKay, is attempting to say about Dick Cheney in Vice.

Movie Review The 40 Year Old Virgin

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) 

Directed by Judd Apatow 

Written by Judd Apatow, Steve Carell 

Starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Romany Malco, Catherine Keener 

Release Date August 19th, 2005 

Published August 18th, 2005 

The vanguard of TV writing is now headed for the big screen in big ways. J.J Abrams the creator of "Alias" is directing the next Mission Impossible film. Joss Whedon the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the underground hit, "Firefly", has Serenity in theaters in September and is soon to tackle Wonder Woman. First up, however, is television's most under-appreciated comedy writer, Judd Apatow.

In two network series, "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared", Judd Apatow has had two of the most critically beloved and audience ignored series in history. Two extraordinarily witty and charming shows about growing up and not growing up. Both shows can now be seen as warm ups for Mr. Apatow's switch to big screen comedy in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, another witty and charming story of arrested development.

Steve Carell stars as the title virgin, Andy Stitzer. Andy lives in perpetual teenager-hood. Living amongst his action figures and video games and riding a bike to work, Andy barely even looks his age. At work Andy is the subject of derision and beliefs that he may be a serial killer. When his co-workers, Dave (Paul Rudd), Cal (Seth Rogan) and Jay (Romany Malco) invite Andy to play poker with them, the conversation quickly turns to sex and Andy is outed as a virgin despite his best efforts to the contrary. The trio seem less than sincerely sympathetic to Andy's plight, but eventually they do try and help Andy to relative degrees of success.

Each of Andy's new friends has some very... interesting advice that works in weird ways but almost always to Andy's detriment. While Dave is pining desperately for an ex-girlfriend he thinks Andy can be helped with a big box of porn. Jay thinks the cure is "drunk bitches" and Cal has a surprisingly effective idea: emulate David Caruso in Jade and women won't be able to resist.

Eventually, despite and not because of his friend's advice, Andy meets a lovely woman named Trish (Catherine Keener).  The two spark an immediate connection and thus begins a romantic plot that is smart and adult even as it is conventional romantic comedy. Carell and Keener are very good together and you have to love the way Keener throws herself into this role. She is an outsider amongst the male ensemble, most of whom have worked together before, yet she fits right in.

Judd Apatow directs 40 Year-Old Virgin with a very steady hand. Very well paced and always clever, at times the film is extraordinarily funny and often very crude but in the funniest ways imaginable. The film earns its R-rating with its language and raunchiness but that is perfectly balanced by the wonderfully sweet romance at the center.

The 40 Year-Old Virgin could have gone entirely wrong were it not for the strong lead performance of Steve Carell. The former "Daily Show" correspondent and star of NBC's doomed "The Office" manages to make Andy's virginity more than just a one-note sex joke. The character could have been a caricature akin to Pee Wee Herman or some other outrageous over the top character who you would believe never had sex. Instead Carell paints a very sympathetic portrait of a shy introverted guy who was just unlucky in his youthful exploits with women.  Andy is never a pawn of the plot or of the characters around him. He is fully formed and totally genuine. The film works because we believe in Andy and we align ourselves with Andy.

The supporting cast of The 40 Year Old Virgin is amazing, especially Paul Rudd who gets more and more outrageous and courageous in every role. Here is a comedic actor of real chops and leading man looks who is willing to completely humiliate himself if it means a big laugh, a rare breed. Romany Malco and Seth Rogan round out the top supporting roles and manage to create fully formed characters with depth and humor. The interplay of the four guys is unforced and familiar and almost always hysterically funny. It's no surprise that they have worked together before and the joy they have working together comes off the screen and affects the audience.

The real revelation of 40 Year-Old Virgin however, is director Judd Apatow who takes his place as one of the leading voices in big screen comedy. In a genre that desperately needs a new voice, Apatow is a sight for sore eyes and ears. His talent for character development and ability to sustain big laughs without having to abandon his plot is something a lot of veteran comedy directors could learn from.

Movie Review Get Smart

Get Smart (2008) 

Directed by Peter Segal 

Written by Tom Astle, Matt Ember 

Starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Alan Arkin, James Caan, Terrence Stamp

Release Date June 20th, 2008 

Published June 19th, 2008 

Steve Carell's clueless guy act is beginning to wear thin. But, one last big shot of that persona isn't so bad. The cluelessness of this Carell character happens to be a necessity for the legendary character Carell is playing in Get Smart. In Get Smart, Steve Carell is playing Maxwell Smart the fictional center of the 60's TV show Get Smart whose best known for his bumbling, oblivious, cluelessness. So, one last time Steve Carell, throw on that blank mug, that beatific smile, and that air of unearned confidence and we will laugh along with you.

Maxwell Smart is Control's top analyst. His assessment of terrorist activities is beyond detailed. He knows what major terrorists take in their coffee. He hopes this attention to detail and hard work will earn him a promotion to field agent for Control in their continuing battle with CHAOS, the international terror group bent on global domination. Unfortunately for Max his promotion is denied until a CHAOS attack on Control leaves much of the agent roster dead. Now Max will have to go into the field and with the aid of Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), he will be asked to track down the nuclear weapons obtained by CHAOS head Siegfried (Terrence Stamp), and his number 2 man Shtarker (Ken Davitan).

That Max and Agent 99 develop a flirtation and eventually a little romance is something you may initially reject, Carell and Hathaway don't look like a great match, but by the end of Get Smart I was not only believing in the romance, but actively rooting for it. It's one of a surprising many things that director Peter Segal gets right in Get Smart. Segal, a veteran of Adam Sandler features, has never shown much skill for good storytelling. In Get Smart however, Segal seems more assured, mature, and prepared. It helps to have strong special effects and a great cast that also includesAlan Arkin, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and David Koechner, but Segal really does quite a good job directing this remarkable collection of talent. 

Having only seen a few reruns of Get Smart over the years I cannot claim to know the series in anything but the most vague terms. That said, of what I know of the show the new Get Smart hits a few of the right notes. Carell's Max hits the catchphrases, "Missed It By That Much" and "Sorry Chief", with precision. If Carell's Max is slightly less bumbling than Don Adams' original it's likely a necessity given the complex stunts and effects that far outstrip the far smaller scale TV show

Alright Steve Carell, now it's time for you to show us something. Get Smart was a lot of fun. Now let's find a new comic persona and do something different. It was a good run as the genial doofus, now I want to see something closer to your Little Miss Sunshine character, though less suicidal. It doesn't have to be too radical a departure, just something slightly less doofus. You've done well with the doofus thing, but now you can effectively leave it behind. 

At Least on the big screen, a couple more seasons on The Office is fine with me.

Movie Review: Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy (2018) 

Directed by Felix Van Groeningen

Written by Luke Davies, Felix Van Groeningen 

Starring Steve Carell, Timothee Chalamet, Maura Tierney, Amy Ryan 

Release Date October 12th, 2018 

Published October 9th, 2018 

Beautiful Boy stars Steve Carell as David Sheff, a very successful freelance reporter living in California. When we meet David he appears to be at a desperate moment. He is interviewing a doctor, played by Timothy Hutton, about addiction. The doctor assumes this is for an article but David informs him that this research is personal. David’s son, Nic (Timothee Chalamet), is addicted to Meth and David has turned to the only thing he can imagine to make sense of things, in-depth research of the kind he’s done as a reporter. 

Indeed, research is the one way in which David Sheff is able to deal with the futility of his son’s addiction. We watch as David takes this research to varying extremes from trying to talk with Nic, to interviewing a young addict over lunch, to interviewing the doctor. He even goes as far as trying methamphetamine himself to understand the appeal. He’s lucky that he didn’t begin his own addiction with that move. 

These interactions are all kinds of interesting but as presented in Beautiful Boy the observations of David, the outcome of his research, have an obtuse quality. We get a vague insight into David, he lives for research, and that’s pretty much the one insight about the character that isn’t vague or assumed. He’s sensitive and he’s compassionate toward his son, he’s loving, but these are qualities we assume of a well to do parent and we wait for the story to tell us something different and it never does. 

David is reminiscent of Donald Sutherland’s character from Ordinary People minus the straw man villain provided in that film by Mary Tyler Moore’s harridan mother-figure. Like Sutherland, Carell plays a saintly figure of suffering but without the Moore character to play off of, Carell doesn’t have many notes to play here. Carell is certainly not bad in this role which leaves me to wonder what anyone thought was particularly cinematic about what David goes through. What is David’s arc? Suffering some to not suffering as much? 

Nic’s arc is to go from child to addict to recovery. That’s not a bad arc but it is off-screen a lot in favor of David’s less engaging lack of an arc. What are we to take away from Nic’s journey? What is special about what Nic went through? His family is wealthy, are we supposed to take away that addiction can happen to anyone regardless of privilege? The film doesn’t appear to have any insight or perspective, nothing really drives the narrative other than drugs are bad, don’t do drugs. 

The main takeaway I had from the movie is that Timothee Chalamet is a very charismatic and intriguing actor who is underserved by a role that doesn’t have a strong narrative engine behind it. Everything is surface level in Beautiful Boy, starting with the beautiful sets and cinematography which are at odds with the agony of Nic’s addiction and the toll it is having on his family. I have joked in the past about characters in disease of the week dramas who have what I call ‘Pretty Cancer,’ that strange type of disease that allows you to remain movie star pretty despite being on deaths’ door. 

Nic appears to have a case of ‘Pretty Addiction.’ Despite the years of meth abuse and living on the streets, the story appears to take place over 5 or 6 years or maybe a decade, now that I think about it, the movie is vague on this point. Regardless of however long Nic’s addiction has gone on, he remains a beautiful young man. Drugs don’t appear to take a toll on him aside from making him rather skinny but Chalamet even makes lanky look handsome. 

There doesn’t appear to be a baseline reality to the story of Beautiful Boy despite the fact that it is based, loosely, on a true story. The film shies away from the uglier parts of Nic’s addiction. For instance, in his book, “Tweaked,” Nic is very open about his years of trading sexual favors with men for money to buy drugs. This doesn’t get mentioned once in the movie and Nic rarely looks worse for wear despite the drugs and what we can presume he did to get them. 

Why did Nic get into drugs in the first place? The film has a scene of father and son sharing a joint and Nic opens up a little about how smoking weed makes life easier to deal with. What was wrong with his life? We don’t really know and perhaps we don’t need to. Kids try drugs all the time, some get a quick high and move on and some take on an addiction that can’t be explained. Brain chemistry makes some people more or less susceptible to drug addiction. 

This is a very specific story about a specific kid who got into drugs, got addicted and stayed that way for a while. There is one thing that stands out that appears insightful and instructive. At one point, Nic talks about being ashamed of being on drugs and how drugs were the only way to stave off the shame. That’s a strong notion, a vivid insight into Nic’s mindset. Beautiful Boy could have used more thoughtful asides like that but the film is dramatically inert. 

Beautiful Boy isn’t notably bad. Timothee Chalamet is incredibly talented and that talent shines through the moribund story being told here. Steve Carell, Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan are quite good at earning our sympathy but the story they are in lacks a narrative engine. The story unfolds in fits and starts that cause the film to drag and feel pointless even as it clearly has one point, drugs are bad, don’t use drugs. 

I don’t want to completely warn you away from this movie as it is not terrible. Beautiful Boy just isn’t quite as good as it should be. The scenery is lovely but the story has no movement. Nic is moving toward not being an addict but the rest of the story sputters along hitting the same note, drugs are bad, don’t do drugs. This does not make for much compelling drama or insightful commentary.

See Beautiful Boy for the performance of Timothee Chalamet but keep your expectations for the movie low. This is not the Academy Award contender that some would like you to believe that it is. It’s a big budget Lifetime Movie of the week at best, with an Oscar-caliber performance from Chalamet that is undermined by the rest of the movie’s lack of ambition.