“Booksmart”– Movie Review

This week, I attended a New York Times Screentimes advance screening of the new comedy, “Booksmart”, directed by Olivia Wilde.

Synopsis

When a couple of high school girls try to celebrate the night before graduation, will their friendship survive the experience?

Story

You can’t blame Amy and Molly (Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein) for feeling pretty good about themselves these days.  With their high school career soon behind them, they have already been assured that they will be going to an exceptional college.   For the past four years, they have been diligently studying and making a great many personal sacrifices such as foregoing socializing with their fellow classmates in order to remain focused on their studies.  Instead of dating and doing the many other fun activities teenagers engage in, they have remained dedicated to the task at hand. Understandably, they are rather proud of themselves for seeing their plan come to fruition.  

Not so fast, ladies.  As their school days draw to a close, Amy and Molly are forced to confront an unforeseen reality:  their fellow students who spent the past four years partying also managed to get into good colleges, too.  Neither of these young women can quite grasp this: Did they waste their time keeping their nose in their textbooks while the other teenagers were living their best life and having more fun than they were?  Is it possible they could have partied, socialized (and even lost their virginity) and still have gotten good grades and high SAT scores that would earn them acceptance into a quality university?

Clearly, these two young women need to re-think things because they have obviously made a rather severe miscalculation.  But just when they fear that things may be too late, it suddenly occurs to them: it’s the night before graduation! Many of the students from their school are going to be having massive blow-out parties.  All they have to do is attend one (or several) in order to have one memorable night and prove to everyone that they are not at all the dull, snobby anti-social types many believe them to be. But since they haven’t been officially invited to any of these parties, can they figure out a way to crash the coolest one of all?

Review

“Booksmart” is just the type of raucous, outrageous comedy that is the perfect start to the summer season (no offense to fans of action or super-hero movies).  It is the kind of movie you’ll want to see with as large a group of friends as you can gather together.  There are so many laugh-out-loud moments among the numerous jokes and sight-gags that you’ll feel you got your money’s worth (and then some).  Perhaps the greatest compliment one could give this film is that you’ll likely want to see it twice (at least).  Olivia Wilde’s feature film directorial debut is an unqualified success.

Inevitably, “Booksmart” will likely be favorably compared to films like “Bridesmaids” or a distaff version of “Superbad”.  If you found either (or both) of those movies to be uproariously funny, then you’ll probably enjoy “Booksmart”, too.  Without giving away too much, there is a scene that’s come to be known as “The Barbie Doll Scene” which is worth seeing the film merely for that alone.  It’s clever, original and raunchy – which could also describe the rest of the motion picture as well.  “Booksmrt” is a rollercoaster ride that’s topped-off with a terrifically satisfying resolution. 

Following the screening, there was an interview with the director of “Booksmart”, Olivia Wilde, and its two stars, Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein.  Feldstein said that Wilde required the cast to go off-book during the shoot (i.e., they were not allowed to have their copy of the script on-set).  Wilde stated that this idea was something she borrowed from Martin Scorsese; this way, she made sure that everyone knew their lines.  Requiring them to do extensive preparation gave them the freedom to loosen up and experiment in various scenes.  Wilde observed, “you have to know the rules in order to break them”. 

“Late Night”– Movie Review

This week at Lincoln Center, I attended an advance screening of the new comedy, “Late Night”, starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling (who also wrote the screenplay).

Synopsis

When a young woman gets her big break as a comedy writer for a talk show, will she be able to keep her job once the show is threatened with cancellation?

Story

Katherine Newbury (Thompson) is a television legend.  For over a quarter of a century, she has been the host of a popular American talk show based in New York City.  But over the past few years, that popularity has been on the wane. Her viewership has been in steady decline as she has been booking guests that the majority of the television audience isn’t interested in seeing interviewed.  Perhaps this can be traced back to the medical diagnosis of her husband Walter (John Lithgow), who has been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for the past four years. Katherine’s interest in her television show has taken a distant second place to Walter’s well-being. 

One of the other problems with the show is that it is somewhat stuck in time:  Katherine’s writing staff is all-male (and all-white). Much to her chagrin, Katherine is forced to hire a writer that will add more diversity to her group.  That’s where Molly Patel (Kaling) comes in. A young woman of Indian descent, she applies for the job even though she has no professional experience either writing for television or writing comedy.  Instead, she’s been working as a Quality Control Analyst at a chemical plant. But there’s one thing she’s got going for her: she’s a big fan of Katherine’s work and has been following her for many years.

Desperate, Katherine hires Molly, who immediately encounters a great deal of resistance from the other members of the writing writers.  Over time, she eventually finds her place among them when she starts pitching jokes and ideas that Katherine decides to use on the air.  In fact, not only does she use Molly’s material, but since her jokes and sketches add a new voice, Katherine’s ratings start to take a turn for the better when they all start to go viral.  In spite of the fact that she’s finding a new audience, Katherine learns that a network executive plans on replacing her with a younger comedian. Can Molly somehow manage to help Katherine stay on the air and in doing so keep her job?

Review

Perhaps the nicest thing you could possibly say about “Late Night” is that it is quaint.  Unfortunately, that may also be the worst thing you could say about it, too.  It’s takes a great many swings, but doesn’t land enough punches – or is that punchlines?  While there are times when it connects with certain gags, a number of the scenes where someone is performing a stand-up comedy routine just fall completely flat.  At this particular screening, quite a few of the site gags got a better response than the verbal jokes themselves.  After failing so often, it can be difficult to regain an audience’s trust that subsequent jokes will hit their intended mark.

Mindy Kaling is adorable, as usual, but a good deal of the jokes lack the edginess a comedy like this needs and deserves; it seems her screenplay is more concerned with being nice than being funny.  It’s too bad, because there were many opportunities for her to take advantage of her role and give herself the best lines, but she didn’t want her character to appear mean.  Meanness was instead reserved for Emma Thompson’s character, who again, isn’t as funny as she should be.  Thompson is good at comedy so it’s distressing she was given a role that was a little too dramatic. 

“Late Night” is a movie of unfulfilled promise.  It has the look and feel of a movie that might have been more successful twenty or twenty-five years ago.  For this era, however, it is merely an inconsequentially tedious trifle.  No doubt, this film will find itself an audience – but realistically, it will likely be a significantly older crowd that believes it’s doing something “hip”.  They may not be able to help the producers earn enough to recoup its budget.  A diffuse resolution certainly doesn’t serve the motion picture well either; this occurs when Katherine must seek redemption for a misdeed from her past. At that stage, it feels as though the script was grasping for plot points because its main story was insufficient to carry it through.           

“The Souvenir”– Movie Review

This week at Film At Lincoln Center, I attended a sneak preview of the new drama, “The Souvenir”, starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke and Tilda Swinton. 

Synopsis

When a young film student discovers her boyfriend is a drug addict, how will it impact her career aspirations?

Story

No one ever said that being 24 years of age in England during the 1980’s was going to be easy for anyone – but it was especially difficult for Julie (Swinton Byrne), a young film student anxiously searching for her identity and voice in her artistic endeavors.  As challenging as her classes and projects were, she was also faced with something else that would take up a considerable amount of her time and energy: Anthony (Tom Burke), a stylishly dressed young man of surprising intellect and insight into matters of art and philosophy.  After exchanging many ideas on wide-ranging subject matters, a mutual attraction develops and Anthony winds up moving into Julie’s apartment.

As worldly and sophisticated as Anthony seems to be, it’s a bit unclear how he earns a living.  Julie, for her part, isn’t overly concerned with this because she’s enjoying Anthony’s company so much as they spend a great deal of time together going out to dinner and on exotic European trips But exactly who is paying for all of this?  It appears that this extravagant lifestyle may be, at least in part, subsidized by Julie’s mother Rosalind (Swinton). Regardless, it doesn’t appear to be too much of an issue – at least not yet, anyway. But once Julie learns that Anthony is addicted to heroin, that’s when she starts to take notice of some rather strange behavioral issues that are difficult to overlook. 

Eventually, it all becomes too much and Julie breaks up with him – but even that doesn’t last terribly long.  When they make an attempt to reconcile, things don’t exactly go as well as they both had hoped. By now, Anthony seems even more deeply consumed by his addiction and very possibly beyond help.  One night, when he was expected to show up at Julie’s apartment, he turns out to be a no-show. Has Anthony decided he no longer wishes to be involved with Julie or is there yet another reason for his absence?   

Review

Although “The Souvenir” has an interesting story that’s worth telling, it feels rather disjointed in areas and seems to leave too many loose threads hanging.  According to the filmmaker, this was done intentionally, to leave open areas for the audience to draw their own conclusions. However, it only leads to a confusing experience.  You wind up asking yourself what happened in a particular scene, why it happened or questioning its relevance to the rest of the story. For example, there is a scene where Julie gets sick; much is made of this but then it’s suddenly dropped and never referenced again.

Certainly, there are good performances and “The Souvenir” is lovely to gaze upon – not unlike the 1778 painting from which it takes its title.  But when it becomes something of a challenge to put together the pieces of the puzzle that is this story, it rapidly transmogrifies into a thoroughly exhausting experience.  There is also the matter of why Julie is so strongly drawn to Anthony, especially when he’s dragging her down so much. Aside from sex, they don’t appear to share too much (she doesn’t do drugs); the only conclusion left to be inferred is the fact that he’s terribly supportive of her career goals and she can enjoy deeply intellectual conversations with him. 

Following the screening, there was in interview with the writer/director of “The Souvenir”, Joanna Hogg as well as the film’s star, Honor Swinton Byrne and her co-star (and mother) Tilda Swinton.  As a semi-autobiographical story, Hogg said she started writing notes about it in 1988, approximately three years after the end of the relationship. The story is told in two parts; this evening’s screening was Part 1, which dealt with the relationship itself.  Part 2, for which shooting should begin in about a month, will deal with the aftermath of the relationship. Her style of filmmaking is non-traditional in the sense that Hogg doesn’t actually write a typical screenplay containing dialog; instead, she writes notes about the scenes and describes the scenes to the actors – if she needs a particular word or phrase used, she’ll tell them (otherwise they’re on their own).    

“The Biggest Little Farm” – Movie Review

This weekend at Film at Lincoln Center, I attended an advance screening of the new documentary The Biggest Little Farm. 

Synopsis

When a couple decides to run a farm, can they make it work despite all of the unforeseen obstacles they encounter?

Story

In 2010, John and Molly Chester lived in a small apartment in Santa Monica, California.  She was a chef and he was a videographer who specialized in wildlife documentaries.  One day, he covered a story about a woman who was keeping a ridiculous number of dogs in her house, which the authorities confiscated because they were not being well cared for.  Todd was one of those dogs.  Instead of winding up in a pound, John and Molly adopted him.  But that was only the beginning of their problems.  When they were both out of their apartment, Todd would bark incessantly, causing the neighbors to complain.  Eventually, their landlord threatened them with eviction.  Would they give up their apartment or their dog?

They decided that Todd was more important to them than their apartment.  In fact, they took this as an opportunity to pursue a dream of theirs and run a farm.  The only problem was that they didn’t have the money to purchase one.  Through friends and family, the word got out and when people heard about how the couple wanted to start a farm that would put the ecological system in balance with animals, investors contributed enough seed money for them to purchase land about an hour’s drive north of Los Angeles.  The land was arid and not conducive to supporting plant or animal life, so they had a great deal of construction work ahead of them. 

Fortunately, they had help in this area.  Since neither of them had run a farm before, they hired a world-famous agricultural expert to act as their consultant and advise them about what to do and how it should be done.  Despite facing various challenges like insects, coyotes and weather, they were able to figure out how to deal with each problem successfully.  But when their consultant passed away, they suddenly found themselves on their own.  By this time, however, they had been operating the farm for a few years and felt that they could pretty much manage anything that came their way.  Just when they thought they had a handle on things, they soon found that wildfires were surrounding the area and destroying nearby farms.  Would the couple be able to find a way to save their farm or would it be lost to the fires?

Review

At the risk of sounding dated, “The Biggest Little Farm” is a bit reminiscent of the old television situation comedy, “Green Acres”; for those of you unfamiliar with it, “Green Acres” was a series about a couple from New York City who purchased a run-down farm in the country and tried to operate it, despite the fact that neither one of them knew the first thing about how to do so.  While the two are thematically similar, “The Biggest Little Farm” is by no means a comedy – in fact, at some times, it seems to be bordering on a tragedy.  Either way, it’s a really amazing story. 

“The Biggest Little Farm” is perfect for people who are interested in either the ecology, wildlife or agriculture or some combination of those.  Most of all, it is about human resiliency, determination and dedication.  At its essence, the movie tells a story about how humans are able to stare down any challenge mother nature chooses to throw their way.  These protagonists are admirable because they have the philosophy of “failure is not an option” and because the adversities they face, they face together; instead of tearing them apart, the experiences serve to bond them even closer. 

Criticisms of “The Biggest Little Farm” are minor.  Perhaps the most notable aspect is their occasional dependence on cutesy animation intended to inform and entertain in order to fill in details that could not be put on film.  It was done in such a way that winds up ultimately distracting from the main story; animation could have been implemented in a better way.  The manner in which it was done here makes it feel as though you’re suddenly watching a cartoon and makes you question whether or not the film should be taken seriously.           

“Extremely Wicked…” – Movie Review

As the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival winds down, I attended the New York Premiere of the new Netflix production, “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile”, starring Zac Efron and Lily Collins.

Synopsis

When a young woman realizes that her fiancé is serial killer Ted Bundy, will she wind up as one of his victims?

Story

In 1969, Liz (Collins) was a young single mother who found it difficult to find dates in the Seattle town where she lived.  One night, while hanging out at a bar frequented by college students, she met a handsome and charismatic young law student by the name of Ted Bundy (Efron).  The two were immediately attracted to each other and when he didn’t mind that she had a daughter, that was certainly a plus; once he showed himself to be a good caretaker for her little girl, she immediately deemed him perfect.  Before too long, they became a couple and Ted moved in with her.

As things would turn out, Ted seemed to be a little too perfect.  Despite being attentive to his law studies, he would mysteriously disappear from time to time and had occasional run-ins with the police that seemed to be more than merely a coincidence.  Liz, quite understandably, was starting to become suspicious.  Ted is being picked up by the police in different states like Utah and Colorado and it always seems as though it’s for the same reason:  young women are reported missing, beaten or even dead.  So far, Ted has been able to avoid prison, but it seems his luck is about to run out.

Ted runs off to Florida and before too long, he is arrested as a suspect in the murder of a couple of co-eds.  With Liz having ended their relationship, Ted now finds himself being courted by Carole Ann (Kaya Scodelario), a former co-worker of his who has long had a crush on him.  Carole Ann upends her life to visit Ted in the Florida prison where he’s being held; with the case gaining greater visibility, she acts as his messaging surrogate, giving interviews to the media about Ted’s innocence.  But when it comes time for Ted’s trial, will he finally be found guilty? 

Review

If you are considering watching “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile”, the good news is that you don’t have to worry about the movie showing inordinate amounts of gore and violence.  In fact, there is virtually none of that. There are allusions to such acts in the courtroom case near the end of the film, but that’s about as close as they get. This is a good choice by the filmmakers to avoid sensationalism.  The bad news, however, is that the motion picture is a bit on the dull side; while it sometimes attempts a psychological profile of its subject, it can occasionally be a tad tedious. This is not to say that excessive scenes of gore would have made it less so, just that the picture as it currently stands is arguably less interesting than the killer himself.

The main reason to see “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile” is the performances.  Specifically, Zac Efron is disturbingly convincing as Bundy; between his good looks, swagger and easy manner, it seems less an interpretation than a clone.  As a single mother trying to hold her life together, Lily Collins’ portrayal of Liz unraveling reveals an aspect of the Bundy story mostly unfamiliar to the general public.  Kaya Scodelario, as the nerdy fan-girl Carole Ann, is, in her own way, equally jarring as Bundy himself. All of that said, perhaps the two best performances are cameos: one by Jim Parsons and the other by John Malkovich.  Parsons plays the Florida prosecutor and is comedically uncomfortable with the trial being on television. Malkovich, however, steals every scene he is in as the judge in the Florida trial who gets off some gems (note that the dialog in the courtroom scenes is a transcript from the actual trial rather than the creation of the screenwriter).

Following the screening, there was an interview with director Joe Berlinger and some of the cast members.  Berlinger said that the entire shoot (which took place in Kentucky) took a total of 28 days and no overtime was required.  He added that his intent for making the movie the way he did – telling it through Liz’s perspective – was because he wanted it to be a story about betrayal and deception.  The question he wanted to film to answer was, “What was Bundy like when he was not killing?”. He compared the Bundy case to the scandals involving Catholic priests: they appear normal in most cases, but hide secrets that are extremely dark.