A Few Throwaways and I'm Almost Done
Film 329
"The Paperboy"
starring: Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack
written and directed by: Lee Butler
I read this book, written by Pete Dexter, before I saw the movie and I must say, the book was really hard to get into, but when I start something I have to finish it. And then, I knew I wanted to see the movie, because of perhaps one, single controversial scene in which Nicole Kidman's character pees (yup, that's right, pees) on Zac Efron- but in context to the story, it's actually not as bad it sounds. The film got terrible reviews and is seen as very trashy, but maybe it's great trash. You know, the kind of great trash you find in a load of garbage at the dump. "The Paperboy" is a trashy version of film noir and because of that, it fails, because it never fully achieves what it needs to in order to grab the viewer's attention.
"The Paperboy" stars Matthew McConaughey as Ward Jansen, a reporter for the Miami Times, who is visiting his hometown of Lately, Fla., because he believes a man on Death Row has been wrongly convicted for the murder of a sheriff. That man is Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack), a human snake with a vicious streak, who we suspect should be executed on general principle. Ward recruits his kid brother Jack (Zac Efron) as an assistant to himself and his fellow reporter Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo). It's set in 1969 and it's filmed with a grainy camera to give us that backwoods feeling even more. They meet up with Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), a trashy blond who seems to fashion her appearance after close study of the Trashy Lingerie catalog. Now, I've always loved Nicole Kidman, or better said, had a movie-crush on her. And with this role, she sort of brings back a little bit of the personality of a lost soul that she had in "To Die For." Charlotte has never met Hillary Van Wetter, but they've been corresponding and are engaged to be married.
The beginning and much of the middle of the film belongs to Nicole Kidman. In every scene she's in, she owns the screen. But, then she disappears (plot-line) and the real story again takes center-stage, and it's just not a good enough story to carry the film.
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Film 330
"Super"
starring: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Linda Cardellini, Michael Rooker
written and directed by: James Gunn
I came across "Super" thanks to my dude's movie night last month when we watched James Gunn's "Slither." I appreciated his style of filmmaking, and with "Super" he doesn't disappoint, as long as you are a fan of his creative style and the way he makes films as if Troma Films was still a "lucrative" movie business (you know what I'm talking about-- re: The Toxic Avenger). And I mean, go figure, because James Gunn actually got his start in the movie industry working for Troma Films, so it's great to see him bring that style more and more into the mainstream, which makes the style almost mainstream. Gunn's approach is to be very deliberate in his film's uneven tonality. He brings a trace of venerable no-budget brand, as well as a sense of socially engaging satire that is at times so over-the-top ridiculous and violent that it's unbelievable (which could be the point). Fantasy and reality, as the main character becomes his own self-proclaimed and version of a superhero, muddle and blur the lines so that Gunn seems to celebrate violence, but at the same time, he mourns our culture's ability to accept it and the fact that perhaps we are used to it.
The plot of the film is as simple as it gets, since it's just the vehicle for James Gunn to preach his message of violence and satire.
When a local crime boss (Kevin Bacon) lures away his wife (Liv Tyler), lifelong pushover Frank (Rainn Wilson)—under the influence of a bizarre Christian kids’ TV show and a sci-fi-style encounter with something like God—starts to make himself over into a real-life superhero. On discovering that the weird guy who frequents her comic-book store is, in fact, the masked man making his way into the papers as the Crimson Bolt, young nerd Libby (Ellen Page) insinuates herself as his sidekick and would-be girlfriend.
Ellen Page actually steals the show as Libby. She brings her character to life so well that it reminds you of her best performance in "Juno." There isn’t another gorgeous twentysomething actress working today who could more convincingly reveal sexual bravado to be simultaneously silly and creepy. I still don't really understand what she could have possibly found attractive in Rainn Wilson's character. He's an unfit, loser of a man.
I did like the film, but it's definitely not one of my favorites. It's a highly entertaining (if you're into these types of films). It's a good time for an hour and a half. Beware of the violence and awkward sex scene.
.............................................................................
Film 331
"The Girl"
starring: Abbie Cornish, Will Patton, Santiago Hernandez
written and directed by: David Riker
Abbie Cornish looks like a cross between Katherine Heigl and Charlize Theron, for the poor man.
This indie film is a quiet character study of one woman, Ashley (played subtly by a decent actress, Abbie Cornish, whom I've liked in all her movies so far), whose life has seen better days and we find her at a sort of crossroads in her life. Ashley is a young, American girl who lives in Southern Texas (important for the premise of the film's story). Her better days seem behind her, already, and it's pretty telling to the time period of "the now" when Ashley has a conversation with her social worker when she says that there are many people who have found themselves stuck in the same situation as herself.
I really like how the writer/director Riker chose to unravel Ashley's story, in somewhat of a backwards fashion, but not in flashbacks. Instead, he lets Ashley slowly reveal things about herself through her current situation and the interactions she has. The beginning of her story comes in pieces. Her young son is in protective custody, her impulsive attempts to win him back are self-defeating, the home visits from the social worker are a bust, and her own upbringing lacked for steady parental influence. She is poor, and blames all her problems on her poverty and injustices inflicted upon her by others. On a trip to Nuevo Laredo with her father (Patton), a big-rig truck driver, she discovers that he is a coyote and notices how well it pays. So she concocts a plan of her own, to become a coyote and illegal transport Mexicans across the border in her truck as a quick way to make money and solve her financial woes (since the Mexicans are willing to pay $500 per person). This plan, unsurprisingly, goes horribly wrong, but remaining in the back seat of her car is Rosa (Santiago Hernandez), a motherless child who attaches herself to Ashley. Because things don't go as planned and she finds herself trying to find Rosa's mother (who has probably drowned/died), Ashley is forced to stop playing the victim in her life and finally accept responsibility for her own actions, which have found her the proprietor of poor, lost Rosa, whom she grows attached to and can't just give her up to a foster home.
The film was by no means a stellar achievement, but when it was at its most contemplative (and Abbie Cornish has a great face/facial expressions for silent contemplation), the film works well.
"The Paperboy"
starring: Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack
written and directed by: Lee Butler
I read this book, written by Pete Dexter, before I saw the movie and I must say, the book was really hard to get into, but when I start something I have to finish it. And then, I knew I wanted to see the movie, because of perhaps one, single controversial scene in which Nicole Kidman's character pees (yup, that's right, pees) on Zac Efron- but in context to the story, it's actually not as bad it sounds. The film got terrible reviews and is seen as very trashy, but maybe it's great trash. You know, the kind of great trash you find in a load of garbage at the dump. "The Paperboy" is a trashy version of film noir and because of that, it fails, because it never fully achieves what it needs to in order to grab the viewer's attention.
"The Paperboy" stars Matthew McConaughey as Ward Jansen, a reporter for the Miami Times, who is visiting his hometown of Lately, Fla., because he believes a man on Death Row has been wrongly convicted for the murder of a sheriff. That man is Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack), a human snake with a vicious streak, who we suspect should be executed on general principle. Ward recruits his kid brother Jack (Zac Efron) as an assistant to himself and his fellow reporter Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo). It's set in 1969 and it's filmed with a grainy camera to give us that backwoods feeling even more. They meet up with Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), a trashy blond who seems to fashion her appearance after close study of the Trashy Lingerie catalog. Now, I've always loved Nicole Kidman, or better said, had a movie-crush on her. And with this role, she sort of brings back a little bit of the personality of a lost soul that she had in "To Die For." Charlotte has never met Hillary Van Wetter, but they've been corresponding and are engaged to be married.
I know a lot of women fall in love with men on Death Row, but Charlotte is a case study. She's in love with the very hopelessness of her romance, its masochistic idealism. In a scene that could not possibly be given justice in a description here, Ward and Jack take her for her first in-person meeting with Hillary, and so much does their romance reside in their fevered minds that they achieve simultaneous orgasm while 10 feet apart. A scene like that takes courage, especially when your Kidman and you're staring into the eyes of a mess of a man like John Cusack with a terrible hairdo. Charlotte is also a merciless flirt around poor Jack (Efron), a champion swimmer who has been booted out of college and comes home to deliver papers for the local newspaper owned by his father. I say merciless, because I've never seen a better case of "blue balls" as Charlotte gives to Jack- until she finally gives in and has sex with him much later in the film.
The beginning and much of the middle of the film belongs to Nicole Kidman. In every scene she's in, she owns the screen. But, then she disappears (plot-line) and the real story again takes center-stage, and it's just not a good enough story to carry the film.
...................................................................
Film 330
"Super"
starring: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Linda Cardellini, Michael Rooker
written and directed by: James Gunn
I came across "Super" thanks to my dude's movie night last month when we watched James Gunn's "Slither." I appreciated his style of filmmaking, and with "Super" he doesn't disappoint, as long as you are a fan of his creative style and the way he makes films as if Troma Films was still a "lucrative" movie business (you know what I'm talking about-- re: The Toxic Avenger). And I mean, go figure, because James Gunn actually got his start in the movie industry working for Troma Films, so it's great to see him bring that style more and more into the mainstream, which makes the style almost mainstream. Gunn's approach is to be very deliberate in his film's uneven tonality. He brings a trace of venerable no-budget brand, as well as a sense of socially engaging satire that is at times so over-the-top ridiculous and violent that it's unbelievable (which could be the point). Fantasy and reality, as the main character becomes his own self-proclaimed and version of a superhero, muddle and blur the lines so that Gunn seems to celebrate violence, but at the same time, he mourns our culture's ability to accept it and the fact that perhaps we are used to it.
The plot of the film is as simple as it gets, since it's just the vehicle for James Gunn to preach his message of violence and satire.
When a local crime boss (Kevin Bacon) lures away his wife (Liv Tyler), lifelong pushover Frank (Rainn Wilson)—under the influence of a bizarre Christian kids’ TV show and a sci-fi-style encounter with something like God—starts to make himself over into a real-life superhero. On discovering that the weird guy who frequents her comic-book store is, in fact, the masked man making his way into the papers as the Crimson Bolt, young nerd Libby (Ellen Page) insinuates herself as his sidekick and would-be girlfriend.
Ellen Page actually steals the show as Libby. She brings her character to life so well that it reminds you of her best performance in "Juno." There isn’t another gorgeous twentysomething actress working today who could more convincingly reveal sexual bravado to be simultaneously silly and creepy. I still don't really understand what she could have possibly found attractive in Rainn Wilson's character. He's an unfit, loser of a man.
I did like the film, but it's definitely not one of my favorites. It's a highly entertaining (if you're into these types of films). It's a good time for an hour and a half. Beware of the violence and awkward sex scene.
.............................................................................
Film 331
"The Girl"
starring: Abbie Cornish, Will Patton, Santiago Hernandez
written and directed by: David Riker
Abbie Cornish looks like a cross between Katherine Heigl and Charlize Theron, for the poor man.
This indie film is a quiet character study of one woman, Ashley (played subtly by a decent actress, Abbie Cornish, whom I've liked in all her movies so far), whose life has seen better days and we find her at a sort of crossroads in her life. Ashley is a young, American girl who lives in Southern Texas (important for the premise of the film's story). Her better days seem behind her, already, and it's pretty telling to the time period of "the now" when Ashley has a conversation with her social worker when she says that there are many people who have found themselves stuck in the same situation as herself.
I really like how the writer/director Riker chose to unravel Ashley's story, in somewhat of a backwards fashion, but not in flashbacks. Instead, he lets Ashley slowly reveal things about herself through her current situation and the interactions she has. The beginning of her story comes in pieces. Her young son is in protective custody, her impulsive attempts to win him back are self-defeating, the home visits from the social worker are a bust, and her own upbringing lacked for steady parental influence. She is poor, and blames all her problems on her poverty and injustices inflicted upon her by others. On a trip to Nuevo Laredo with her father (Patton), a big-rig truck driver, she discovers that he is a coyote and notices how well it pays. So she concocts a plan of her own, to become a coyote and illegal transport Mexicans across the border in her truck as a quick way to make money and solve her financial woes (since the Mexicans are willing to pay $500 per person). This plan, unsurprisingly, goes horribly wrong, but remaining in the back seat of her car is Rosa (Santiago Hernandez), a motherless child who attaches herself to Ashley. Because things don't go as planned and she finds herself trying to find Rosa's mother (who has probably drowned/died), Ashley is forced to stop playing the victim in her life and finally accept responsibility for her own actions, which have found her the proprietor of poor, lost Rosa, whom she grows attached to and can't just give her up to a foster home.
The film was by no means a stellar achievement, but when it was at its most contemplative (and Abbie Cornish has a great face/facial expressions for silent contemplation), the film works well.
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