The Official Review Thread of 2015

anonymous1980
Laureate
Posts: 6377
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
Location: Manila
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by anonymous1980 »

THE WOLFPACK
Cast: The Angulo Family.
Dir: Crystal Moselle

Ever since I heard about this documentary, I've been aching to see it. It documents a group of siblings (mostly boys) who have been kept mostly in their NYC apartment by their over-protective/crazy father. Their one joy and their window to the outside world is the movies, which of course, I could relate. It of course did not disappoint. Frankly, I'm amazed that the siblings turned out....relatively normal considering they've been kept mostly in isolation for most of their lives. The film tracks the beginnings of their assimilation in mainstream society. It doesn't break any new ground but it is a fascinating and oddly relatable look into a rather unconventional family life.

Oscar Prospects: Could get in Documentary Feature.

Grade: A-
Mister Tee
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8637
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by Mister Tee »

Sabin wrote:-- I seem to be the only person who didn't love the dog walker movie.
Not as long as I'm alive.

It played like a sitcom character for whom the writers had failed to come up with a running gag. I kept waiting for it to get somewhere, but it never did.
Sabin
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10747
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:52 am
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by Sabin »

I'm going to go through a few fairly quickly. I'm well aware that I'm becoming a cheap date these days but there's a lot to like in all of these films.


Ant-Man (Peyton Reed)

The best thing I can say about Ant-Man is that creeping in the back of my mind at all times was the notion that this movie is monumentally stupid. All of Scott Lang's "tasks" in befriending ants all but scream for audiences to check out in the face of franchise necessity. But the whole thing is so swiftly cut that I never entirely got a chance to check out. At once it's a film in search of a voice and of many voices. It's Marvel film so it's of the cookie-cutter, the villain is boilerplate, it serves to build up a larger slate, and the plot is more suited for television. On the other hand, the comedy is both Ferrell/McKay conversational but also Wright quick. You can easily pick apart which scenes belong to which auteur. The scenes where Michael Pena relays stories to Paul Rudd involving his voice over other actor's mouths is perfectly executed. While the film never decides if (or really allows) Paul Rudd's Scott Lang to be principled hero or scoundrel (mark my words, future Marvel projects will cast him as the small doses latter), its' still a film of personality and weird touches. His shrink/enlarging powers never once got old for me. There's nothing in Age of Ultron that intrigued me as much as any fight he partook in. The performances are also more in unison than usual which is odd considering how broad the bulk of them are with how straight Michael Douglas plays this. He's terrific and I feel painfully aged to look at the startling "Young Michael Douglas" effect from the beginning and actively remember it from films of my adolescence.


The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt)

I can't fight the notion that David Foster Wallace holds this film back. The End of the Tour begs the audience to project onto the screen the experience of going on this road trip with this special man and so the fact that the window opened into Wallace's life really isn't that illuminating gets a bit of a pass. I wouldn't call the film fawning but I kept wondering if it was. It benefits immeasurably from James Ponsoldt's directing. I now want to go and watch Off the Black and Smashed and perhaps The Spectacular Now again. He hasn't made a close to great film yet but watching his films is very pleasurable. His films are lovely exteriors, usually of interiors. Jason Segal and Jesse Eisenberg are both very good. Like Jason Schwartzman, Jesse Eisenberg is carving out a pretty great career of lending and tweaking his persona to worthy projects. David Lipsky is a glad-hander with a forced nervous giggle and he stands out from Eisenberg's other roles as a spiritual sequel performance to his The Squid and the Whale role. And I have nothing new to add to the praise Jason Segal has received from this performance aside from saying I knew this guy. I have no doubt that he doesn't do perfect justice to Glenn Kenny's memories of Wallace, but Segal gets at something else that reminded me of so many friends come and gone. If the film has a failing it's that it doesn't recognize enough that it doesn't take someone as special as David Lipsky to come along to get Wallace to open up. Segal plays Wallace as the kind of guy who could forge a meaningful communication with anybody but that's the side of himself that he works from as an artist so he doesn't entirely trust it anymore. I've never seen this side of Segal before but he's always come across as someone well-acquainted with disappointment and the film works best as a beautifully shot one man show.


Love and Mercy (Bill Pohland)

This is a gorgeous production that has no chance of getting nearly the awards consideration it deserves. I can't call it a great film because it veers into show-off territory and it's a biopic but what a good-looking, good-sounding film! Pohland has the potential to make a very good film in the future but also (as judging from his trippy Brian Wilson bedside encounter with demons scene) a pretty insufferable one too. As a dual narrative, the film is wise in how it manages to somehow make the most fruitfully creative period of Brian Wilson's career feel equally incident-driven as his 1980s malaise where truthfully Elizabeth Banks is the protagonist. To speak more of the Paul Dano story, the way that it covers Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations, and then begins on Smile essentially turns that narrative into one of pure creativity and struggle which places it in direct opposition to the John Cusack scenes of stagnation. If they just focused on one musical triumph in the past, I think it would have more peaks and valleys and ultimately result in a more lopsided film. Smart writing. The scenes with young Brian Wilson are great in a kind of fool-proof way but Bill Pohland has so much fun with them and Paul Dano is perfect casting. I also loved the member of the Beach Boys who is rapidly losing his patience with Wilson's music, at one point very reasonably saying "Even the happy songs sound sad." The scenes in the 1980s suffer from John Cusack as Brian Wilson. There are myriad reasons why it's just not as compelling and I'm going to chalk some of it up to a lack of confidence that staging Elizabeth Banks as the protagonist would work out so well. She's very strong and the early scenes benefit from a real weirdness as Wilson is just followed by bodyguards without explanation, and yet she conveys interest in an unexpectedly genuine fashion. It also benefits from one of the most enjoyably nasty Paul Giamatti performances since Private Parts, where again finds something at once loathsome and recognizably human and specifically weak. I'm not sure if Love and Mercy could have been a great film and I don't love where it chooses to end (this is not a film about getting back on track on life) but I have a lot of affection for it.


Tangerine (Sean Baker)

It's hard to praise Tangerine without simply describing it. "It's shot on the 5S and it stars two transgender actresses who are amazing and it feels like their lives!" Yeah, but is it good? It starts a bit shaky as one gets the impression that Baker is figuring how just how on Earth to make this film. The "bitch" quotient is unprecedented and he glides the camera like an amateur Michael Bay but after a few minutes it chills out and settles into a groove of its own. The film is very single-minded in its narrative all taking place on Christmas Eve. Sin-Dee is out of prison and finds out her pimp has been cheating on her with a cisgender prostitute and goes on a mission to find her with the well-meaning Alexandra who spilled the beans in fast pursuit. Meanwhile, an Armenian cab driver picks up clients in a seemingly unrelated narrative, but then he is revealed to be particular to trans sex workers and fantastically lonely within his marriage. And yet the film is so smart about when to go for pathos. Most of the time, it's riotous in a way that feels unwritten and off-hand. It's one of the best hang out films I've seen in ages.

Trainwreck (Judd Apatow)

Getting kind of tired, but the good news is this film doesn't need much written about it. The reasons why some are finding Trainwreck to be stock, tropey, and a mess are valid but secondary to my opinion that Amy Schumer isn't just great in this film but the scenes pivot to her timing as well. Take for example the stock scene where Bill Hader (slumming it after Skeleton Twins, but too good an actor not to make this part more engaging than it has any right to be) confesses his love to her and she tells him off for it. They spend the remainder of the scene walking away into the distance and Schumer keeps incorrectly guessing which car is theirs. By the end, the film betrays its great casting by turning into "That Amy!", but I found the journey through at least half the film to pass my "Sorry, I laughed" test.

Quick notes:

-- Favorite scene in the movie is when Bill Hader and Amy Schumer get into the cab, he says "two stops" and she says "one stop" and the camera holds on them. She knows exactly what is going down. He processes it real time. The better movie in this movie lives in this scene.

-- Family dynamics with Brie Larsen and Mike Burbrilia (wtf?) are be indefensibly limp. Although Colin Quinn is weirdly convincing as an old man in a nursing home.

-- Every scene with LeBron James calls out for an entire film. "This is 23".

-- The movie does not know what to do with John Cena's closeted gay boyfriend. She doesn't break up with him for being questionably oriented or seem to care, and that gives the joke a pass for me. I'll also give it a pass because if the content of Cena's improvs can't transcend his role, he's surprisingly funny in this role. I didn't know the guy could act.

-- I seem to be the only person who didn't love the dog walker movie.
"How's the despair?"
anonymous1980
Laureate
Posts: 6377
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
Location: Manila
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by anonymous1980 »

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris, Simon McBurney.
Dir: Christopher McQuarrie.

It is not QUITE as good as Ghost Protocol but it's still pretty damn good action flick and continues the stronger streak of entries in the Mission: Impossible franchise. It is once again filled with exciting (and sometimes increasingly ridiculous but in a positive way) action set pieces that we come to know and love in this franchise while throwing in quite a few surprises in the mix. Thankfully, this entry builds upon the humor introduced in the previous one. That combination makes this a genuinely fun ride. Tom Cruise is still charismatic as a movie star and dedicated to give the pop entertainment for his audience. Gotta admire that.

Oscar Prospects: None of the previous franchises got any Oscar attention. I don't expect this one to do it either but Sound Editing is not out of the question.

Grade: B+
anonymous1980
Laureate
Posts: 6377
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
Location: Manila
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by anonymous1980 »

PAPER TOWNS
Cast: Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Haltson Sage, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith, Jaz Sinclair, Cara Buono.
Dir: Jake Schreier.

This has been called the "John Hughes film of this generation" by someone which, to me, is not a compliment at all. But thankfully, the film is a bit better than that. This film about a high school senior pining for his childhood friend who grew up to be a sort of a version of the Pixie Dream Girl trope character (in a way it's kind of an anti-Pixie Dream Girl) and tries to go and find her when she just drops out before graduation. I liked The Fault in Our Stars just fine and this one is kind of the same just a lot less sad. The performances of the cast are all quite charming. Author John Green and screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber seem to have figured how to make a YA teen genre palatable to adults and appealing to males. It's no masterpiece but you won't be slashing your wrists or rolling your eyes when you're dragged into it by the John Green fan in your life.

Oscar Prospects: Don't know if any of the alt-pop songs in the soundtrack are eligible for Original Song.

Grade: B.
Mister Tee
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8637
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by Mister Tee »

Mr. Holmes is a perfectly pleasant little thing -- something to get PBS watchers out of their homes for an evening.

It's also VERY reminiscent of Gods and Monsters. The presence of Ian McKellen of course underlines that, but when you have a formerly famous personage living his old age in seclusion, memories fading in and out (some involving wartime), a grumpy housekeeper, and a friendship with a younger character, Condon's earlier film is bound to come to mind. (Even Carter Burwell's score, mostly fresh and strong, occasionally strikes a note familiar from the previous effort.) I don't think this film has the texture or depth of Gods, and I'd have preferred the "mysteries" to have a bit more Holmesian complexity. But it is, as I said, pleasant enough -- and McKellen is predictably moving.
anonymous1980
Laureate
Posts: 6377
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
Location: Manila
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by anonymous1980 »

TED 2
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Morgan Freeman, Giovanni Ribisi, Jessica Barth, John Slattery.
Dir: Seth MacFarlane.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Seth MacFarlane is, my personal opinion, strictly a hit-and-miss type of guy. I find him really funny sometimes and sometimes he's totally lame. In the first Ted, he was more hit than miss. It wasn't the most perfect film but the jokes land more than they suck and it had a more cohesive story. This one is a VERY mixed bag. There are quite a number of good things in it: There are three or four genuine good laughs in this one; The opening credit sequence is probably the best credit sequence I've seen this year so far. If only that type of energy and exuberance was kept up all throughout the film. But it wasn't. It mostly just starts and stops in the really bloated almost two-hour running time (way too long for a broad comedy). It tries to be genuine with its characters and even tries to get an important point across about personhood and humanity but falls flat. Seth MacFarlane sadly does NOT have the talent to blend broad, offensive humor with moments of heart and messages (he's no Trey Parker and Matt Stone).

Oscar Prospects: Don't know if that song Amanda Seyfried sung is eligible for Original Song but otherwise, no.

Grade: C.
anonymous1980
Laureate
Posts: 6377
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
Location: Manila
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by anonymous1980 »

MR. HOLMES
Cast: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hattie Morahan, Patrick Kennedy, Roger Allam, Phil Davis, Frances de la Tour.
Dir: Bill Condon.

There have been a lot of on-screen incarnations of Sherlock Holmes recently from the TV series Sherlock and Elementary and the Robert Downey Jr. movies, shoving another one in seems like a bad idea. But it isn't. It's perfectly nice, wonderful little film. This time it's about an older Sherlock Holmes, world-famous detective in the twilight of his years, battling his waning memory and haunted by his last case all the while caring for bees with his housekeeper's son. Ian McKellen is wonderful as an older Sherlock Holmes (as is Laura Linney, as his housekeeper), quite different from previous reincarnations. It is a bit more subtle and grounded than most other adaptations and more emotional as well. There's still a mystery to be solved but that takes a backseat to an arc about human connections and impending mortality.

Oscar Prospects: Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay wouldn't be undeserved but God knows if they will still stand out by the end of the year.

Grade: B+
anonymous1980
Laureate
Posts: 6377
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
Location: Manila
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by anonymous1980 »

MAGIC MIKE XXL
Cast: Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodriguez, Donald Glover, Gabriel Iglesias, Amber Heard, Andie MacDowell, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Strahan. Stephen "iWitch" Boss.
Dir: Gregory Jacobs.

I wasn't at all interested in seeing this. I liked the first one quite a bit but the things that got me interested in the first one are not in this one: director Steven Soderbergh (though he remains an EP and a DP) and Matthew McConaughey (arguably the best part of the original). But enough people whose opinions/tastes I trust gave this a good review (despite the meh Rotten Tomatoes rating) so I checked it out and lo and behold, I really enjoyed it! This sequel is a very different animal from the first one. It's a heckuva lot lighter and has a more loose structure. Basically, it's just a group of male strippers getting together to come up with a routine on their way to a stripper convention (is there such a thing?). Things happen along the way leading up to a big, elaborate strip show. I've read a review that compared it to The Band Wagon and I must say I can definitely see the comparison. It's quite funny and endlessly entertaining. The energy and commitment of the cast is infectious. Even straight men can enjoy this movie, guaranteed.

Oscar Prospects: None. I will say Jada Pinkett is almost deserving of a Supporting Actress nod.

Grade: B+
Mister Tee
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8637
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by Mister Tee »

I first encountered Amy Schumer a little over two years ago, stumbling across her Mostly Sex Stuff stand-up on Comedy Central. I can't say the raunch of many contemporary comics appeals to me that much (which may mean I've become an old fart, or that comedy is more coarse -- possibly both), but I found something about her -- maybe just the fact that she's really funny -- overrode my usual resistance. Since then, she's had a rapid rise to cultural icon -- just check out the big names who turned up on her show this season, and the Emmy listings yesterday. Now, Trainwreck is likely to make her a movie star.

Most of the way, this is a very funny movie. I wouldn't say there are blockbuster laugh-moments, but, maybe better, there's a consistent, even level of strong comedy that weaves its way through a reasonably standard romantic framework. Presumably under Judd Apatow's guidance, Schumer has dialed back her persona just a tad -- there's one small scene in the film lifted almost verbatim from the stand-up show, except Schumer's punch-line is different/less graphic, as if they thought the original line would alienate the audience the film has been wooing. And they're right: while the film presents Schumer as, compared to most women in romcoms, a sexual outlaw, it keeps her a bit more within easy-identification territory than her stand-up or TV persona. I think this will likely make the movie a popular hit.

But if Apatow does her a career favor there, I think his influence also helps make the film's final 15 minutes or so pretty weak (at times bordering on catastrophically off). The secret to Schumer's appeal is that she's blissfully indifferent to many societal taboos, and lovable despite that. Apatow (based on his earlier films) seems to feel such characters need to be domesticated to provide the audience a happy ending. I don't mind that the film takes a tragic turn at one point (it provides Schumer with a scene that proves she's a full actress, not just a comic). But the resolutions on two fronts -- with her sister and with Bill Hader -- violate the Seinfeld "no lessons, no hugs" dictum (and the bit with Hader is so retro and submissive, for a moment there I had the same feeling I did at the infamous final scenes of Woman of the Year). It's probably the sort of compromise required to bring in a big audience (reminding one of how Irving Thalberg got the Marx Brothers their biggest successes by throwing in those love stories that periodically stopped the films cold)...but I'd love to see Schumer go further with her darkest instincts and see where she can end up.

Anyway, back to this film: bottom line, it's very funny. I haven't mentioned the other actors much, but they're all quite good and some (like Tilda Swinton) provide hilarious moments (Brie Larson is good as always, but she's got the thankless straight role). I think Schumer has got a Globe comedy actress nomination in the bag, and I have no doubt she'll be invited to the Oscars as presenter (and maybe as screenwriting nominee -- this is way more worthy than Bridesmaids). With this movie, she's truly arrived.
anonymous1980
Laureate
Posts: 6377
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
Location: Manila
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by anonymous1980 »

ANT-MAN
Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena, Bobby Cannavale, Tip "T.I." Harris, Wood Harris, David Dastmalchian. Anthony Mackie, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Forston, Martin Donovan, John Slattery, Hayley Atwell.
Dir: Peyton Reed.

I was worried about this film ever since I heard news that Edgar Wright, who has an excellent track record in genre, pop entertainment filmmaking thus far, exited the project due to "creative differences". Apart from a few things here and there, I thought the first half was just an okay if a bit generic superhero origin story. But then the second kicks in and the film takes flight, once the origin story, character development and exposition was over and done with. I theorize it's the second half of the film where much of Wright's contributions remain intact. It's got some inventive action scenes and interesting visuals. Paul Rudd is likable in the title role but the person that steals the film is the hilarious Michael Pena who's probably the best superhero sidekick since Rocket Raccoon. He's the highlight of much of the first half.

Oscar Prospects: Visual Effects is a strong possibility.

Grade: B+
Big Magilla
Site Admin
Posts: 19318
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
Location: Jersey Shore

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by Big Magilla »

dws1982 wrote:The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

David Straithairn (prominently billed, but only appearing in about two scenes), towards the end of the movie, refers to his respect for people who "plant trees under whose shade they may never sit", and this movie is basically about those people. To make a movie about that is, as one critic said, quietly heroic.
If only the rest of the movie were as good as Maggie Smith's scenes, including her brief meetings with Strathairn. Otherwise it's just a pale imitation of the original. Judi Dench, who gets top billing, has little to do. Dev Patel, who is fourth billed behind Dench, Smith and Bill Nighy, carries the film, more of which has to do with his impending wedding and his expansion plans than with interfacing with his guests who love him anyway. It looks to me like the producers just threw something together quickly to cash in on the availability of its aging cast while they were still around instead of taking the time to create something that does their characters justice.
anonymous1980
Laureate
Posts: 6377
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
Location: Manila
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by anonymous1980 »

MINIONS
Cast: Pierre Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Allison Janney, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Geoffrey Rush, Jennifer Saunders, Steve Carrell (voices).
Dirs: Pierre Coffin & Kyle Balda.

I always consider the Minions pretty much the best part of the Despicable Me franchise (which, while entertaining isn't exactly something I'm particularly passionate or enthusiastic about). Their character design and concept are such genius, I might say. I was excited to find out they're getting their own movie. And the result? It was alright, I guess. Though it is overall entertaining and there were a few good laughs, the film didn't live up to the potential of a Minions movie. There were lots of ways they could have gone with this and the way they picked was well, just a bit too conventional. Well, people do love the Minions so this is pretty much printing money. Younger kids will find this entertaining and laugh their butts off.

Oscar Prospects: Eh. None. It will have an uphill climb to a Best Animated Feature nomination.

Grade: C+
dws1982
Emeritus
Posts: 3790
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 9:28 pm
Location: AL
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by dws1982 »

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

At the risk of overselling this, or making it out to be more than it is, I'm going to defend this one. Here's what it's not: Anything groundbreaking or revolutionary, at least in form or narrative approach. It doesn't go anywhere unexpected; most of what happens to the characters can be seen coming a ways off, and I guess that's where the reviews dismissing this as "formula" come from. But I don't think you can honestly dismiss a movie as formulaic when it's the only mainstream movie out there that's putting actors in their 60's, 70's, and 80's in (romantic) leading roles, dressing them and photographing them like actual movie stars, and it's willing to use them to honestly look at things like mortality and aging and regret in the context of a light comedy. David Straithairn (prominently billed, but only appearing in about two scenes), towards the end of the movie, refers to his respect for people who "plant trees under whose shade they may never sit", and this movie is basically about those people. To make a movie about that is, as one critic said, quietly heroic.
Last edited by dws1982 on Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sabin
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10747
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:52 am
Contact:

Re: The Official Review Thread of 2015

Post by Sabin »

I saw Dope and The Overnight last weekend.

Rick Famuyiwa's Dope is a somewhat enjoyable con. It's designed to please and so aside from Malcom's retro-nerd obsession with 90s hip hop, at no point did I feel like I was watching something birthed from personal experience. And once I got past that, I didn't mind. I've read comparisons to the plot mechanics of Risky Business. Those are apt, and if it's slightly disingenuous then I also found it fairly endearing. It's a bit hypocritical at the end with Malcom's to-the-camera proclamation about how he straddles the line between stereotypes (esp. because everybody in the film is a stereotype except him) and a frustrating lack of repercussion on Malcolm after he [sblock]pulls a gun on another kid[/sblock], which caused me to call the filmmaker's clarity and intention into doubt. At first, Shameik Moore seemed to lean a little too hard on his socially awkward affectations but he grew into the part quite well. He's very likable. The cast is excellent, but there is a bananas crazy performance by Roger Guenveur Smith in the middle of the film as Malcolm's college liaison which functions as a plot device I'm not going to get into here. If there was a memo that went around the cast of Dope that everyone was going to be playing a slight caricature, Smith didn't read the "slight" part. He plays every moment with the veiled intensity of the legal mastermind protecting a Cuban drug kingpin. Malcolm sits across from him with a puppyish disappointment about the realities of college and Smith is acting like he's giving instructions on how to kill the President. It doesn't work at all in the service of the film, but it's indicative of the film as a whole. It's so busy trying to be like something that nothing ever feels organic.


There's a lot I really enjoyed about Patrick Brice's The Overnight but something that immediately jumps out is I liked that it was eighty minutes. I was able to suspend my disbelief that Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling would stay in this situation for as long as they did during an eighty minute movie. A lot of movies hinge on this suspension of disbelief (Virginia Woolf?) and The Overnight mostly works as well. We've seen this before. The wacky couple and the straight-laced couple, but where The Overnight differs is in how it paints Adam Scott's husband as specifically neurotic. He is insecure about his small penis. One of the things I appreciated about this film is how The Overnight treats it very seriously while remaining hilarious. Adam Scott drunk in a hot tub talking about how he performs "circles" on his wife might be the best acting I've ever seen him do. I don't buy the final scene at all, but everything beforehand works for me because the movie never begs for pathos and yet the comedy is always in service of explaining insecurity. Really good balance of both. It's a minor film but one I have a lot of affection for.
Last edited by Sabin on Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"How's the despair?"
Post Reply

Return to “2015”