Some Weird Indie Films

"Girl Most Likely"
starring: Kristen Wiig, Annette Benning, Matt Dillon, Darren Criss, Christopher Fitzgerald, June Diane Raphael, Natasha Lyonne, Bob Balaban
directed by: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
written by: Michelle Morgan

I give Kristen Wiig create for sort of steering clear of just becoming another one of those typecast, funny girls who steps out from the stage of "Saturday Night Live" into so many typical comedic performances, only to disappear rather quietly later on. Sure Wiig started her career in the comedic sit with roles in films like:

Knocked Up
Walk Hard
Semi-Pro
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Adventureland
Whip It
MacGruber (major fail)
Date Night
Paul

To now, over the past few years, she's made more serious film roles her thing:

All Good Things
Bridesmaids (even though this is very funny, she is kind of a depressing character sketch)
Friends with Kids
Hateship Loveship
Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Her
The Skeleton Twins
and this film.... Girl Most Likely

One would expect a film with this title to be focused on the superlatives of high school, or at least start off with a prologue where we find the characters in high school as a set up for what we are about to see play out. We should hear and/or see accomplishments and aspirations of said character as she heads into adulthood, in order to explain who she has become, as she lives out a disappointing, wreck of an adult life.

Instead, the filmmakers go back to earlier in her childhood. Imogen (Wiig) is an actress in a performance of "The Wizard of Oz" as Dorothy. She takes issue with the end of play, when Dorothy goes back home. Why? Why would she?

And now, Imogen finds herself back home, in Ocean City, New Jersey. She's an unsuccessful playwright. She has spent some time in New York City, but for inexplicable reasons, Imogene finds herself dumped by her boyfriend and fired from her job writing little blurbs about plays she goes to see. This is her life now, after winning a playwriting grant and being named a playwright to watch. She is a bit disgruntled, but not enough. She seems more reserved to the fact that this is her life now and she might as well settle in.

The major failure of this film is that it's supposed to be about Imogene, like a character study, and it just falls flat on its face, because nothing about Imogene is ever really clear to us, as the viewer. We know that she has hopes and dreams, but they never become clear to us. We do not really understand why she acts and talks and feels the way she does.

Imogene heads back to her childhood home, released from the hospital, after a lame suicide attempt, into the care of her eccentric mother, Zelda (played by Annette Benning, in a way too watered down role). During her time at home, she reconnects with her equally depressed and eccentric bother (who has spent months building an exoskeleton); she also learns that her father is not dead, like she had been told by her mother years ago.

"Girl Most Likely" never has potential to blossom into anything remotely redeeming, as a film or for its character, Imogene. It's benignly amusing, at best. Given the Wiig is such a decent actress, you have high expectations, but only leave disappointed.  

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"Robot and Frank"
starring: Frank Langella, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Peter Sarsgaard (robot), Susan Sarandon, Jeremy Sisto, Jeremy strong, Rachel Ma (robot)
directed by: Jake Schreier
written by: Christopher D. Ford

I know of one other robot-related futuristic film that worked really well and that was Pixar's "Wall-E." There are so many ways that a film about an old man and a robot could have gone wrong, add to that, the fact that the old man is losing his mind/memory, and it could be a recipe for disaster. This film though, avoids all cuteness and cliches, and comes off as smart, funny, and endearing, as well as realistic. The world that encompasses Frank and his robot (voices by Peter Sarsgaard) could be 20 years from now, or even 10 years in the future, given the way changes and updates in technology keep happening.

Frank (Langella) is a man in his 70s who is suffering from two major ailments, and it's difficult to say which is the bigger one: He is in the early stages of dementia, and he is bored stiff - and for sure being bored stiff is not helping the dementia. About the only excitement he has is stealing soap from the local beauty shop. If at first these petty thefts seem like a sure sign that Frank is cracking up, later you realize that no, this is Frank being Frank. This is who he is.

The robot enters the picture when Frank's son (James Marsden) brings it along as a kind of health aid for Dad. The robot cooks, cleans and even gives enemas on request, and anyone who likes Siri on the iPhone would just love one of these. In terms of technological dependence, we are just far enough along as a culture to understand completely and in a personal way just what that kind of human-machine interaction would be like.

The film should turn sentimental as the story of an old man, his robot, and the kind of love that Frank is capable of, given his state of affairs (and how he has treated his kids). The fact that Frank was a clever petty thief in his heyday creates the imaginative plot, because the robot becomes his partner in crime, his confidant, instead of simply the machine that is supposed to just help him with banal everyday tasks. There are interesting turns and moments of suspense throughout the story, one involving a particularly still stunning Jennifer (Sarandon, who is 65+ years old now) as the librarian Frank is friendly with throughout the film. There's a nice twist in the friendship, as well. It's not sappy enough to make you cry, though, because screenwriter Christopher Ford doesn't want to cheapen the film.
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"Having You"
starring: Anna Friel, Romola Garai, Andrew Buchan, Philip Davis, Isaac Andrews, Hattie Morahan
written and directed by: Sam Hoare

Well, this was a bit depressing. Although, the set up is a bit contrived, it still manages to come off very sensitive, thanks to a decent script and committed actors.

Jack (Andrew Buchan) is a recovering alcoholic who has been very noncommittal to his girlfriend of almost 9 years, when he finally decides to propose to her at a restaurant. Camilla (Romola Garai, who happened to also be the writer/director's real life partner) truly loves Jack and takes him for all his flaws. And together they face the hardship of Camilla being somewhat infertile, but desperately wants to have a child. She is a what could be considered a middle-class doctor at one of the only hospitals in town. Jack restores old machines for a living, you know, like the ones you find in offices that dispense food, and he really does not think himself worthy of Camilla, and that's why he has been noncommittal. Kind of a cliche, but it works, because writer/director Hoare, throws a wrench into the "happy" couple's plans (after the proposal). Anna Friel plays the woman Jack had a one-night stand with nearly 8 years ago, when he was a budding musician. The wrench being, she's a single mom to a 7 seven-year old boy, who happens to be the product of their boozy one-night stand years ago. She wants her son to know her father, but she also has a bit of a motive, which isn't revealed until towards the end of the film- and I wouldn't think to reveal it here, because the film is good enough to grab your attention all the way through.

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"Liars All"
starring: Sara Paxton, Matt Lanter, Torrance Coombs, Alice Evans, Darin Brooks, Gillian Zinser, Randy Wayne, Tim Phillips, Stephanie McIntosh, Tiffany Mulheron, Stephanie Simbari
written and directed by: Brian Brightly

This film has too much of everything and is quite ambitious for a first feature film from Brian Brightly. It plays out like a twentysomething soap opera that one could watch on the CW. It's filled with too many "beautiful people," all with seemingly perfect lives, but yet so bored that they have to play a bit of a truth or dare game on New Year's Eve. There's really no realistic motive given to any of these characters.

Brian Brightly is also a bit too clever for his own good and his own story/script, which bogs the film down, especially with twist after twist until the big reveal at the end. It's also a bit too much to get several of the characters to tell their side of the story, in the police station to a female detective, who happens to also be pregnant.

The story is set in London, about a well known soccer player (Torrance Coombs, The Tudors) Dennis, who leaves his American girlfriend (Gillian Zinser, 90210), and gets engaged to Casey (Stephanie McIntosh). Missy (Zinser) is understandably angry, and you know what they say about women scorned. She decides to host a new years eve party, inviting a few friends, but also Dennis.

One of her closest friends is Mike, but he is infatuated with her, and also has the annoying habit of filming everything at her request. During the party, a game of truth or dare is suggested, so out come the cards and they begin to play. A direct result of one of the dares leaves Missy dead, and no real clue as to what actually happened. Next thing we know, we're in a police station, and a detective (Alice Evans, The Vampire Diaries) is questioning them one by one, getting slightly different versions of events. Who is telling the truth, if anyone?

A bit too much for me to really care. 

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"Haunter"
starring: Abigail Breslin, Peter Outerbridge, Michelle Nolden, Stephen McHattie, Samantha Weinstein, Eleanor Zichy

"Haunter" is a bit of a risky piece for the horror genre. It concerns an American girl on the verge of her sweet sixteen birthday, the wrench in her plan being that she is living the day before this big stepping stone over and over, like a horror genre "Groundhog's Day." Every day is the same, starting with her morning routine, complete with pancakes, her mother pleading with her to do the laundry and then complaining about missing clothes, and the pummeling and noisy clank-clank of her father working in the garage. When the film starts, Lisa (Breslin) has been living this day over and over again for awhile, but now she has reached her breaking point and needs to figure a way out of this disaster, perhaps so she can finally turn 16, but more importantly, she wants to find the reason why she is trapped. Every day is the same for Lisa, except for a few minor different details and for Lisa pushing herself out of the norm to figure out pieces to the puzzle. What she discovers is that there's a ghost in the house, trapping Lisa in this loop.

Perhaps the director is eluding to the often-used lament of the bored suburban teenage girl who believes her life couldn't get any worse. A teenager's mind is so focused on themselves, and believe that nothing ever happens in their life. That could be explored, but it's not. There's no real sense of emotional or symbolic progression.

Abigail Breslin is kind of at a crossroads in her life and career, because she has been transitioning from the adorable child actress from films like "Raising Helen" and "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Signs" to more adult-like films in the vein of "Zombieland" and The Call" and "August: Osage County" (where she got to work and learn from some of the best like Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep), as well as "Perfect Sisters" and this one.

This film isn't much of a scare, but it showcases that Abigail Breslin has potential to grow up into a decent adult, female lead role.