A Few Quick Ones, Some Good, Some Failures
"Identity"
starring: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Ray Liotta, John Hawkes, Alfred Molina, Clea DuVall, John C. McGinley, William Lee Scott, Jake Busey, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Rebecca De Mornay
directed by: James Mangold
"Identity" came out over a decade ago, and I cannot believe or understand how I missed it the first time around, but I finally came around to seeing it, now that it's on Netflix. This is a great, nifty little suspense-thriller film that starts off telling one story, but then shifts gears completely, without feeling like a middle finger to the viewer. Instead, it comes at you in a Hitchcockian way, since he was clearly the master of those suspense thrillers with the twist at the end.
The film begins with a psychiatrist (Molina) speaking to a convict, yet we don't seen this interaction. We know something is going on, that it could be happening in a prison or a psych ward, either way, clearly someone has done something terrible and we can only hope to find out who was involved and what they did. But then, the next scene takes place clearly somewhere entirely different, with different people, and is seemingly, totally unrelated. The back country road and motel nearby becomes the location where the action will take place. We are introduced to 10 different people, unrelated, yet somehow connected as each individual seeks shelter from the driving rainstorm that inhabits their world. They all seem stuck. The roads are washed out. The phonelines are down/dead (clearly a time before cellphones). The outside world is way beyond their reach.
The characters include: an ex-cop-turned-limo-driver (Cusack), a disgruntled, aging movie star (De Mornay), a cop (Liotta), a criminal/convicted killer (Busey) who is the wrench, or red herring in the film, motel manager, sketchy character (Hawkes), a family of three including a wife who was hit by Cusack's limo (McGinley is the husband), a prostitute (Peet, underused), and a pair of young, bickering lovebirds (DuVall). Unbeknownst to all of them, there is a killer among them, offing people one by one, leaving no clues, but clearly on a path to eliminate them all. Where M. Night Shyamalan fails in many of his films (most relatable to the plot here, I would say is his film "Devil"), James Mangold gets everything right, by really sticking with the location and characters in this film. You get invested in their lives as they are stuck in this limbo.
The story is just off-balance enough to keep you intrigued, guessing, and not bitter to the result. It's a triumph of a film that unfortunately probably hasn't been seen by the masses. Definitely check it out.
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"Hollidaysburg"
starring: Rachel Keller, Tobin Mitnick, Claire Chapelli, Tristan Erwin, Kate Boyer, Philip Quinaz, Daina Griffith, Anna Martemucci
directed by: Anna Martemucci
written by: Dan Schoffer
The interesting backstory to this indie film is that it was part of a Starz reality show where filmmakers competed to get their small projects greenlit and made. It was an experiment/documentary that pit two directors against each other as they filmed their respective movies. Having not seen the other film, I would have to say I enjoyed this one for exactly what it is. "Hollidaysburg" takes place mostly in the close-ups of its characters and how they interact and react to each other. That is the focus of director Anna Martemucci, and it works. The world here includes several, connected young adults as they meet again during Thanksgiving break from the Freshmen year of college and how much different their lives are than expected. It's about what it means to come back home to the place you thought wouldn't ever change, but clearly has- or is it you and the people who moved on and the people who stayed that have changed? It's a coming-of-age story.
A coming-of-age comedy that compresses the whole transition from adolescence to adulthood into one Thanksgiving weekend, the film concerns a group of high-school friends returning home from college a scant three months after prolonged, emotional goodbyes at the end of the summer. Scott (Tobin Mitnick) and Heather (Claire Chapelli), former sweethearts who have matriculated on separate coasts, spend the weekend mostly avoiding each other. Heather is depressed and already considering dropping out, spending the holiday getting stoned, arguing with her father, and trying on fast-food jobs for size. Scott cute-meets Tori (Rachel Keller) when she hits him with her van.
Everything about these characters, their lives, and their interactions seems to come naturally, although it is clearly scripted. There are several characters, but Martemucci chooses to stay with Scott and Heather and their blooming love story, sort of. The characters and their individual stories intertwine gracefully and seamlessly, thanks in large part to the charm and charisma of the young actors. There's enough clever banter that allows for the dialogue to appear natural. This is a decent film with loads of potential within it. I'd like to see more of what Anna Martemucci has to offer.
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"Veronika Decides to Die"
starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jonathan Tucker, Erika Christensen, Florencia Lozano, Rena Owen, Erica Gimpel, Victor Slezak
directed by: Emily Young
written by: Paulo Coelho (novel) Larry Gross
This was a film that came out original in 2009 but was buried deep on the shelf as it seemed to have no commercial appeal. Sarah Michelle Gellar's star rose high and quickly with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for which she is and will ultimately be remembered for, and then she kind of disappeared from the spotlight, self-imposed hiatus, in order to be a wife and eventually a mom and only chose indie films really that somehow appealed to her, and kept her acting bug alive and well. She's a decent actress, one of my favorites in fact, because of "Buffy" and she was my first celebrity crush for sure, so I may be a little bias, but I can totally see when films fail her. This is such a film.
The story is supposed to include breakthroughs and self-discovery through Dr. Blake's interesting choice of questionable practices and treatments that are supposed to mean something, but really fail. When the otherwise mute Edward, another patient whom Veronika bonds with, eventually speaks it should be a revelation and it should be the strong message that she needs in order to see the light, but it's not a strong enough speech to really make the audience think, wow! The film is rather filled with cliches.
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"Life Partners"
starring: Gillian Jacobs, Leighton Meester, Adam Brody, Gabourey Sidibe, Beth Dover, Abby Elliott, Kate McKinnon, Mark Feuerstein, Elizabeth Ho, Greer Grammer,
written and directed by: Susanna Fogel
This is a little bit like the stellar film "Frances Ha" which was one of my favorite films a couple years back. Both films explore the concept of co-dependency between two female characters. With this film, though, one of them is a lesbian (Meester) and the other one finds a guy and begins a relationship with him that distances her from her friend. This girl is played by Gillian Jacobs, known for her role on "Community." Adam Brody ("The O.C.") is her boyfriend and interestingly enough he is married to Leighton Meester (who plays the lesbian) and part of me believes they made this film just to be able to work together- and it's magic.
It's a romantic comedy, but the romance and relationship is a secondary part to the film. Instead, the story plays up the astute and cleverly written dissection of a co-dependent friendship that begins to slowly erode given time, age, rivalry, and personal arcs. This is a great film that showcases a strong female friendship without reducing it to ultimately become what other films have shown us: that women are their own biggest rivals and enemies to each other and they fight over men.
Jacobs and Meester play platonic life partners Paige and Sasha, joined at the hip for years and privy to each other's existential peaks and troughs. Well-adjusted adults, however, tend to grow out of co-dependent friendships, and Life Partners is about that transitory moment when the dynamic shifts and one person is left behind. The adult in this instance is Paige, a successful environmental lawyer whose professional and personal prospects are expanding as quickly as musician turned secretary Sasha's are diminishing. The turning point arrives when Paige falls for dorky dermatologist Tim (Adam Brody) after an amusing anti-meet-cute of a first date in which he's appalled by her inability to catch quotes from The Big Lebowski while she balks at his defiantly norm-core wardrobe. But as they learn to look past each other's sartorial and cinematic choices and settle into a permanent relationship, Sasha is forced to relinquish her central place in Paige's life to Tim, even as she flounders in the throes of a quarter-life crisis.
These characters, all of whom feel fleshed out and thoroughly lived-in, constitute the foundation of a story that unfolds organically, blessedly free of the twee self-regard common to films about millennials in flux. Which isn't to say that the characters themselves aren't occasionally narcissistic, as both Paige and Sasha can be selfish and inconsiderate in their own ways. The film's frankness about the things friends sometimes do to one another (or fail to do for one another), and its steadfast stance on where the line should be drawn in terms of self-sacrifice within a friendship, set it apart from similarly themed contemporaries. Fogel doesn't allow Paige or Sasha any easy reconciliations; every eventual step forward is underscored by the vaguely discomfiting realization that the boundaries have been and, in fact, should be permanently redrawn.
The film never seems to be preachy, or issue-driven (given the climate and culture today surrounding things like gay marriage). It's also not too self-conscious. It has fun with itself, by way of witty dialogue and likable characters.
This is a great indie, romantic comedy with a stellar cast of well-known young actors and actresses that really shine here.
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"Ask Me Anything"
starring: Britt Robertson, Molly Hagan, Andy Buckley, Robert Patrick, Christian Slater, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Max Carver, Justin Long, Martin Sheen, Sharon Omi, Gia Mantegna, Max Hoffman, Beatrice Rosen
written and directed by: Allison Burnett
Okay, full disclosure- the ending of this film utterly baffled me and almost made me feel like the last 90 minutes or so were a waste of time because it makes it confusing. Perhaps the film ultimately fails because the author of the novel ends up writing the script and then directing the film. Clearly, Burnett is good with words. He has the ability to connect the reader with the characters, on pages, but when it comes to transferring this connection to viewers and characters, it fails. Britt Robertson plays Katie Kampenfelt, a recent high school graduate with no clear, set path to the future so she defers for a year and at the suggestion of her guidance counselor, she begins a blog. She writes about her bad decisions when it comes to relationships and in the age of blogging and social media really taking over young people's lives, as a way of being close, yet safely distant from the people writing the blogs. It's a look into people's lives without really experiencing their lives, and I mean, as a fellow blogger, I understand the dichotomy at play, with my own blog. I can see Britt Robertson has potential, if given the right material, but unfortunately this film fails her.
Katie starts her anonymous blog explicitly detailing in as nonchalant a way as possible her thoughts on life as they pertain to her. Immediately we discover she has a boyfriend, Rory (Max Carver), but is more concerned with her ongoing tryst with a community college film professor, Dan (Justin Long), who is about 15 years older than her. Her mother (Molly Hagan) has a moustached boyfriend (Andy Buckley), and demonstrates a lack of interest or insight in her daughter’s life. Her father (Robert Patrick) is a sofa-bound alcoholic, whose death she seems always to be preparing for. She gets a great job at a bookstore with a wise boss to guide her (Martin Sheen) and then has to drop the job almost immediately when mom’s cop boyfriend discovers her boss has a sexual assault history. A new job drops into her lap in the form of Paul Spooner (Christian Slater), who needs a nanny to aid his wife (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) with their newborn. When Dan moves and shrugs off Katie for his age-appropriate girlfriend, she spirals out of control, breaking up with and then dangling her boyfriend for attention. More predictably, she promptly allows a flirtation and then affair to happen between her and Paul. It’s one bad decision after the next and we might be able to feel some iota of sympathy for Katie if her issues weren’t just so obvious and remorseless.
There is clearly a sense of fantasy in this young girl, Katie's life. And I understand what Burnett is trying to say with this story, but given the ending you feel lied to and taken advantage of. Everything that builds through the first 80 minutes of so, is taken away in just the last 10 minutes of the film with the reveal. It's too bad because it could have been an interesting exposure into the life of a young person as it made a point about perspective, voyeurism, and the digital age, where anyone can truly "ask me anything." I think I'd rather read the actual novel, because it apparently feels like a blog whereas this film doesn't, instead it is more of a look into someone's life as they seem determined to continually make the wrong decisions with no desire to hear the truth of anyone in her circle, and their are plenty of opportunities for the adults in her life to tell her so, but they don't. Instead, they sit or stand idly by and watch her make her own mistakes.
starring: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Ray Liotta, John Hawkes, Alfred Molina, Clea DuVall, John C. McGinley, William Lee Scott, Jake Busey, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Rebecca De Mornay
directed by: James Mangold
"Identity" came out over a decade ago, and I cannot believe or understand how I missed it the first time around, but I finally came around to seeing it, now that it's on Netflix. This is a great, nifty little suspense-thriller film that starts off telling one story, but then shifts gears completely, without feeling like a middle finger to the viewer. Instead, it comes at you in a Hitchcockian way, since he was clearly the master of those suspense thrillers with the twist at the end.
The film begins with a psychiatrist (Molina) speaking to a convict, yet we don't seen this interaction. We know something is going on, that it could be happening in a prison or a psych ward, either way, clearly someone has done something terrible and we can only hope to find out who was involved and what they did. But then, the next scene takes place clearly somewhere entirely different, with different people, and is seemingly, totally unrelated. The back country road and motel nearby becomes the location where the action will take place. We are introduced to 10 different people, unrelated, yet somehow connected as each individual seeks shelter from the driving rainstorm that inhabits their world. They all seem stuck. The roads are washed out. The phonelines are down/dead (clearly a time before cellphones). The outside world is way beyond their reach.
The characters include: an ex-cop-turned-limo-driver (Cusack), a disgruntled, aging movie star (De Mornay), a cop (Liotta), a criminal/convicted killer (Busey) who is the wrench, or red herring in the film, motel manager, sketchy character (Hawkes), a family of three including a wife who was hit by Cusack's limo (McGinley is the husband), a prostitute (Peet, underused), and a pair of young, bickering lovebirds (DuVall). Unbeknownst to all of them, there is a killer among them, offing people one by one, leaving no clues, but clearly on a path to eliminate them all. Where M. Night Shyamalan fails in many of his films (most relatable to the plot here, I would say is his film "Devil"), James Mangold gets everything right, by really sticking with the location and characters in this film. You get invested in their lives as they are stuck in this limbo.
The story is just off-balance enough to keep you intrigued, guessing, and not bitter to the result. It's a triumph of a film that unfortunately probably hasn't been seen by the masses. Definitely check it out.
..................................................................................................
"Hollidaysburg"
starring: Rachel Keller, Tobin Mitnick, Claire Chapelli, Tristan Erwin, Kate Boyer, Philip Quinaz, Daina Griffith, Anna Martemucci
directed by: Anna Martemucci
written by: Dan Schoffer
The interesting backstory to this indie film is that it was part of a Starz reality show where filmmakers competed to get their small projects greenlit and made. It was an experiment/documentary that pit two directors against each other as they filmed their respective movies. Having not seen the other film, I would have to say I enjoyed this one for exactly what it is. "Hollidaysburg" takes place mostly in the close-ups of its characters and how they interact and react to each other. That is the focus of director Anna Martemucci, and it works. The world here includes several, connected young adults as they meet again during Thanksgiving break from the Freshmen year of college and how much different their lives are than expected. It's about what it means to come back home to the place you thought wouldn't ever change, but clearly has- or is it you and the people who moved on and the people who stayed that have changed? It's a coming-of-age story.
A coming-of-age comedy that compresses the whole transition from adolescence to adulthood into one Thanksgiving weekend, the film concerns a group of high-school friends returning home from college a scant three months after prolonged, emotional goodbyes at the end of the summer. Scott (Tobin Mitnick) and Heather (Claire Chapelli), former sweethearts who have matriculated on separate coasts, spend the weekend mostly avoiding each other. Heather is depressed and already considering dropping out, spending the holiday getting stoned, arguing with her father, and trying on fast-food jobs for size. Scott cute-meets Tori (Rachel Keller) when she hits him with her van.
Everything about these characters, their lives, and their interactions seems to come naturally, although it is clearly scripted. There are several characters, but Martemucci chooses to stay with Scott and Heather and their blooming love story, sort of. The characters and their individual stories intertwine gracefully and seamlessly, thanks in large part to the charm and charisma of the young actors. There's enough clever banter that allows for the dialogue to appear natural. This is a decent film with loads of potential within it. I'd like to see more of what Anna Martemucci has to offer.
....................................................................................................
"Veronika Decides to Die"
starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jonathan Tucker, Erika Christensen, Florencia Lozano, Rena Owen, Erica Gimpel, Victor Slezak
directed by: Emily Young
written by: Paulo Coelho (novel) Larry Gross
This was a film that came out original in 2009 but was buried deep on the shelf as it seemed to have no commercial appeal. Sarah Michelle Gellar's star rose high and quickly with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for which she is and will ultimately be remembered for, and then she kind of disappeared from the spotlight, self-imposed hiatus, in order to be a wife and eventually a mom and only chose indie films really that somehow appealed to her, and kept her acting bug alive and well. She's a decent actress, one of my favorites in fact, because of "Buffy" and she was my first celebrity crush for sure, so I may be a little bias, but I can totally see when films fail her. This is such a film.
The movie opens with a voiceover from Veronika (Sarah Michelle Gellar) that’s relatable, and actually quite well-written. The 20-something corporate drone wistfully laments the boredom and joylessness of a mapped-out life, from a well-paying though soul-crushing office job to unhappy marriage and a hazy existence full or regrets. It’s all downhill from there.
Veronika has the soul-crushing job, and decides she wants out of life’s prison before the marriage, et all. After downing copious amounts of booze and pills as Radiohead (what else?) blares in the background, she wakes up in a mental institution headed by perpetually straight-faced Dr. Alex Blake (David Thewlis). Immediately after she comes to, Veronika is told that her suicide attempt caused damage to her heart and she only has weeks (at best) to live. Instead of asking to live out her precious few remaining days on her terms, Veronika submits to psychiatric treatment – which, of course, is pretty pointless in her dire case. Also, she gets to hang with wacky roommate Claire (Erika Christensen), observe longtime patient Mari (Melissa Leo), and share stares with handsome mute guy Edward (Jonathan Tucker). What better way to go into that good night?
The story is supposed to include breakthroughs and self-discovery through Dr. Blake's interesting choice of questionable practices and treatments that are supposed to mean something, but really fail. When the otherwise mute Edward, another patient whom Veronika bonds with, eventually speaks it should be a revelation and it should be the strong message that she needs in order to see the light, but it's not a strong enough speech to really make the audience think, wow! The film is rather filled with cliches.
...........................................................................................
"Life Partners"
starring: Gillian Jacobs, Leighton Meester, Adam Brody, Gabourey Sidibe, Beth Dover, Abby Elliott, Kate McKinnon, Mark Feuerstein, Elizabeth Ho, Greer Grammer,
written and directed by: Susanna Fogel
This is a little bit like the stellar film "Frances Ha" which was one of my favorite films a couple years back. Both films explore the concept of co-dependency between two female characters. With this film, though, one of them is a lesbian (Meester) and the other one finds a guy and begins a relationship with him that distances her from her friend. This girl is played by Gillian Jacobs, known for her role on "Community." Adam Brody ("The O.C.") is her boyfriend and interestingly enough he is married to Leighton Meester (who plays the lesbian) and part of me believes they made this film just to be able to work together- and it's magic.
It's a romantic comedy, but the romance and relationship is a secondary part to the film. Instead, the story plays up the astute and cleverly written dissection of a co-dependent friendship that begins to slowly erode given time, age, rivalry, and personal arcs. This is a great film that showcases a strong female friendship without reducing it to ultimately become what other films have shown us: that women are their own biggest rivals and enemies to each other and they fight over men.
Jacobs and Meester play platonic life partners Paige and Sasha, joined at the hip for years and privy to each other's existential peaks and troughs. Well-adjusted adults, however, tend to grow out of co-dependent friendships, and Life Partners is about that transitory moment when the dynamic shifts and one person is left behind. The adult in this instance is Paige, a successful environmental lawyer whose professional and personal prospects are expanding as quickly as musician turned secretary Sasha's are diminishing. The turning point arrives when Paige falls for dorky dermatologist Tim (Adam Brody) after an amusing anti-meet-cute of a first date in which he's appalled by her inability to catch quotes from The Big Lebowski while she balks at his defiantly norm-core wardrobe. But as they learn to look past each other's sartorial and cinematic choices and settle into a permanent relationship, Sasha is forced to relinquish her central place in Paige's life to Tim, even as she flounders in the throes of a quarter-life crisis.
These characters, all of whom feel fleshed out and thoroughly lived-in, constitute the foundation of a story that unfolds organically, blessedly free of the twee self-regard common to films about millennials in flux. Which isn't to say that the characters themselves aren't occasionally narcissistic, as both Paige and Sasha can be selfish and inconsiderate in their own ways. The film's frankness about the things friends sometimes do to one another (or fail to do for one another), and its steadfast stance on where the line should be drawn in terms of self-sacrifice within a friendship, set it apart from similarly themed contemporaries. Fogel doesn't allow Paige or Sasha any easy reconciliations; every eventual step forward is underscored by the vaguely discomfiting realization that the boundaries have been and, in fact, should be permanently redrawn.
The film never seems to be preachy, or issue-driven (given the climate and culture today surrounding things like gay marriage). It's also not too self-conscious. It has fun with itself, by way of witty dialogue and likable characters.
This is a great indie, romantic comedy with a stellar cast of well-known young actors and actresses that really shine here.
.......................................................................................
"Ask Me Anything"
starring: Britt Robertson, Molly Hagan, Andy Buckley, Robert Patrick, Christian Slater, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Max Carver, Justin Long, Martin Sheen, Sharon Omi, Gia Mantegna, Max Hoffman, Beatrice Rosen
written and directed by: Allison Burnett
Okay, full disclosure- the ending of this film utterly baffled me and almost made me feel like the last 90 minutes or so were a waste of time because it makes it confusing. Perhaps the film ultimately fails because the author of the novel ends up writing the script and then directing the film. Clearly, Burnett is good with words. He has the ability to connect the reader with the characters, on pages, but when it comes to transferring this connection to viewers and characters, it fails. Britt Robertson plays Katie Kampenfelt, a recent high school graduate with no clear, set path to the future so she defers for a year and at the suggestion of her guidance counselor, she begins a blog. She writes about her bad decisions when it comes to relationships and in the age of blogging and social media really taking over young people's lives, as a way of being close, yet safely distant from the people writing the blogs. It's a look into people's lives without really experiencing their lives, and I mean, as a fellow blogger, I understand the dichotomy at play, with my own blog. I can see Britt Robertson has potential, if given the right material, but unfortunately this film fails her.
Katie starts her anonymous blog explicitly detailing in as nonchalant a way as possible her thoughts on life as they pertain to her. Immediately we discover she has a boyfriend, Rory (Max Carver), but is more concerned with her ongoing tryst with a community college film professor, Dan (Justin Long), who is about 15 years older than her. Her mother (Molly Hagan) has a moustached boyfriend (Andy Buckley), and demonstrates a lack of interest or insight in her daughter’s life. Her father (Robert Patrick) is a sofa-bound alcoholic, whose death she seems always to be preparing for. She gets a great job at a bookstore with a wise boss to guide her (Martin Sheen) and then has to drop the job almost immediately when mom’s cop boyfriend discovers her boss has a sexual assault history. A new job drops into her lap in the form of Paul Spooner (Christian Slater), who needs a nanny to aid his wife (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) with their newborn. When Dan moves and shrugs off Katie for his age-appropriate girlfriend, she spirals out of control, breaking up with and then dangling her boyfriend for attention. More predictably, she promptly allows a flirtation and then affair to happen between her and Paul. It’s one bad decision after the next and we might be able to feel some iota of sympathy for Katie if her issues weren’t just so obvious and remorseless.
There is clearly a sense of fantasy in this young girl, Katie's life. And I understand what Burnett is trying to say with this story, but given the ending you feel lied to and taken advantage of. Everything that builds through the first 80 minutes of so, is taken away in just the last 10 minutes of the film with the reveal. It's too bad because it could have been an interesting exposure into the life of a young person as it made a point about perspective, voyeurism, and the digital age, where anyone can truly "ask me anything." I think I'd rather read the actual novel, because it apparently feels like a blog whereas this film doesn't, instead it is more of a look into someone's life as they seem determined to continually make the wrong decisions with no desire to hear the truth of anyone in her circle, and their are plenty of opportunities for the adults in her life to tell her so, but they don't. Instead, they sit or stand idly by and watch her make her own mistakes.
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