Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - Dir. Lorene Scafaria (2012)

An apocalyptic love story is unique, but not an entirely new concept. There was 1988's Miracle Mile with Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham searching for one another in a chaotic Los Angeles under the threat of impending nuclear war. You could also count Don McKellar's Last Night, about intersecting lives in Toronto on their very last night on Earth. Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist), Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a bit more bright and hopeful or as bright and hopeful as a movie can be when it's about Armageddon. Let's just say it's on the opposite spectrum of Lars von Trier's Melancholia.

Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck won't be saving anyone. The film opens with the dour announcement that a cataclysmic asteroid is about to collide with Earth and a last-ditch effort by NASA to divert it has failed. Insurance salesman Dodge Petersen (Steve Carell) gets another shock when his wife, Linda (played by Carell's real-life spouse Nancy) suddenly exits the car and runs off into the night without a word. Dodge stumbles into a numb daze while his friends throw wild parties. Eventually, he forms a friendship with Penny (Keira Knightley), the free-spirited girl next door. It turns out that Penny has been holding on to some of Dodge's mail for months, including a letter from an old flame.

As riots break out across the city, Penny agrees to help Dodge find his former high school sweetheart in exchange for getting her to England to be with her family. Accompanied by a scruffy little dog named Sorry, they embark on an epic road trip where they encounter an assortment of eccentric characters such as a trucker (William Peterson) who has decided to die via hired assassin and a military man (Derek Luke) fully stocked and prepared for the apocalypse.

It's a safe bet that no matter what Dodge and Penny will wind up together. The A-story may be a tad predicable, but Carell and Knightley make for a winning couple. They're likeable enough that you root for them on their cross-country adventure. Just as he's done in Little Miss Sunshine and Dan in Real Life, Carell gives an understated performance that mixes pathos with a dry wit. Knightley brings warmth to the role of Penny. Some critics have described her as the dreaded 'manic pixie dream girl,' perhaps because she totes around a collection of vinyl records like a safety blanket. Thankfully, Penny does not display the typical quirks of the archetype though she does resemble a pixie with her short hair and petite frame.

In addition to the leads, Scafaria has assembled a wonderful supporting cast that includes Rob Corddry, Connie Britton, Patton Oswalt, Melanie Lynskey, and Amy Schumer as Dodge's party pals. There's also Adam Brody as Penny's dim-witted musician boyfriend and Martin Sheen in an emotional turn as Dodge's estranged father. Gillian Jacobs and T.J. Miller cameo as the wait staff of a TGIFriday's type establishment that has descended into full-blown hedonism. But, some of the funniest scenes involve Dodge and his maid (Tonita Castro), who seems absolutely oblivious to the fact that all life on Earth is about to be wiped out.

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back, world is destroyed by massive rocks from outer space. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a breezy and bittersweet romantic comedy bolstered by some terrific performances.

Rating: *** (*****)

Win Win

Win Win - Dir. Thomas McCarthy (2011)

Thomas McCarthy doesn't have one of the most recognizable names or faces. As a character actor, he's had supporting roles in films like Meet the Parents and 2012. However, he has won more critical acclaim as the writer/director of The Station Agent and The Visitor. McCarthy has specialized in telling stories about depressed outsiders forming an unconventional surrogate family. For his latest picture, Win Win, McCarthy sticks to his bread and butter, presenting his best movie yet.

Paul Giamatti is perfectly cast as Mike Flaherty, a New Jersey lawyer who practices in the matters of elderly care. He also doubles as the coach of a pathetic high school wrestling team with his partner Stephen (Jeffrey Tambor). Mike isn't pulling in enough money to support his wife, Jackie (Amy Ryan), and their two daughters. He finds what he believes to be an easy source of money in Leo Poplar (Burt Young), who is suffering from the onset of dementia. Unable to contact his family, Mike appoints himself as Leo's guardian in order to collect the $1500 a month from Leo's estate, then checks him into a nursing home so he doesn't actually have to care for Leo.

Mike's scheme seemingly goes off without a hitch until Leo's grandson, Kyle (Alex Shaffer), arrives on Leo's doorstep. Mike and Jackie take the boy in until they can contact Kyle's mother, Cindy (Melanie Lynskey), who is attending rehab and is estranged from her father. When Kyle shows off exceptional wrestling skill, Mike sees it as a karmic reward. He enrolls Kyle at the school for the chance to finally win a championship. Kyle's winning ways manage to inspire the adults around him as well as his lackadaisical teammates. Everything feels like it's coming around for Mike until Cindy shows up looking to collect her son and her father's money.

McCarthy's screenplay has a tendency to veer towards sitcom territory. It's formulaic and the complications are all wrapped up a little too conveniently. Yet, there's such a sweet-natured approach to the material that it's easy to go with the flow. Unlike other indie dramedies which are quirky for quirky's sake, the characters of Win Win feel genuine and likeable. The comedy ranges from over-the-top to low-key and each gag is never forced, coming naturally from the situations everyone finds themselves.

The cast also helps to elevate the film. Giamatti is the master of playing these sad sack roles, able to maintain an air of sympathy despite sometimes acting like a jerk (see American Splendor). Amy Ryan is excellent as the tough Jersey wife while Jeffrey Tambor plays the exact type of role you expect from Jeffrey Tambor. Rocky fans will be ecstatic to see Paulie himself appear in a small, but vital part. The real gem of Win Win is newcomer Alex Shaffer, who really is a champion wrestler in the Garden State. Shaffer manages to make so much more of a role that calls for the typical sullen and taciturn teenager.

McCarthy scores a definitive notch in the win column with Win Win. It's a funny and engaging film that stands as one of the best pictures released during the first half of 2011.

Rating: ***½ (*****)

Leaves of Grass

Leaves of Grass - Dir. Tim Blake Nelson (2010)

An actor playing his own twin is a tricky proposition. Some actors can't pull it off, for example Jean-Claude Van Damme in Double Impact. Some pull it off with flying colors, Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers and Nic Cage in Adaptation come to mind. Edward Norton is more than capable of playing dual roles, even if the film isn't on the level of his talents.

Norton stars as Bill Kincaid, a professor of classical philosophy at Brown. He's a well-respected scholar and has an offer to head up his own department at Harvard. Bill's life takes a severe left turn when he receives word that his twin brother, Brady (also Norton), was murdered. Shot by a crossbow to be exact. Bill is actually from a Podunk town in Oklahoma called Little Dixie. He considers his background and family rather embarrassing.

Arriving home for the first time in years, Bill is shocked to find Brady is still alive, his fake death a ruse to lure him back. He may not act like it, but Brady is just as smart as his more articulate brother. While Bill has devoted his life to academia, Brady has devoted his life to marijuana. He grows copious amounts of pot using a high-tech system of hydroponics he designed himself. He needs Bill to go around town pretending to be him to establish an alibi. Brady is off to Tulsa to meet with a crooked Jewish businessman named Tug Rothbaum (Richard Dreyfuss), who is owed a substantial sum for financing Brady's operation.

Writer/Director Tim Blake Nelson co-stars as Bolger, Brady's right-hand man. The cast also includes: Susan Sarandon as Bill's estranged mother, Melanie Lynskey as Brady's pregnant girlfriend, Modern Family's Ty Burrell as a Harvard administrator, and singer/songwriter Steve Earle as a rival drug dealer.

As the twin leads, Norton is very good. He's more or less himself as the intellectual Bill. As Brady, he's more a caricature than a real character, but no less entertaining. Norton affects a cartoonish southern drawl and a quicker speech tempo to define him.

The film's failings lie not with the actors, but with Nelson's script, which attempts to merge disparate elements into a dysfunctional narrative. Leaves of Grass starts off as something akin to a quirky indie movie crossed with a stoner comedy. The story unfolds in a laidback manner as Bill reconnects with his family and friends. He engages in a sweet romance with the bubbly Keri Russell as a high school teacher who quotes Walt Whitman and wrestles 50lbs. catfish. Their scenes are some of the best in the film. The second half of the picture veers into darker territory with the introduction of death and violence. The dramatic turn doesn't gel with the light-hearted moments that were previously seen.

It seemed as if Tim Blake Nelson (who starred in O Brother, Where Art Thou) was going for a Coen Brothers feel with the black humor and criminal subplots. A dash of Fargo and a sprinkling of Raising Arizona, I suppose. As a fanboy, I thought it was cool that Norton was reunited with two of his Incredible Hulk cast members, but there's not enough to the movie to earn it a recommendation. The drastic tonal shifts make Leaves of Grass an uneven blend without potency.

Rating: * ½

Up in the Air

Up in the Air - Dir. Jason Reitman (2009)


”To know me is to fly with me.”

Up in the Air finds itself soaring onto numerous year-end lists as one of the best films of 2009. Does the film deserve to maintain such high altitude? Will I stop using these lame airline puns? The answer to both is yes.

Based on the best-selling novel by Walter Kim, Jason Reitman and co-writer Sheldon Turner have transformed Kim’s skewed take on the corporate world into a low-key dramedy firmly entrenched in today’s economic climate. George Clooney is Ryan Bingham who fires people for a living. Contracted by a company based in Omaha, Bingham flies around the country firing employees when their boss is too chickenshit to it themselves. He never says the word, “fired,” though. Not even, “released,” “terminated,” or “let go.” He simply tells them their “position is no longer available.” As a part-time motivational speaker, Bingham feels he’s helping these people start a new page in their lives.

As for Bingham’s own life, he has no attachments. He rents a sparse, one bedroom apartment which he almost never occupies. He has two sisters that he hardly ever sees. No, his entire life is lived in VIP airport lounges, business class flights, and hotel suites. While in mid-flight, a stewardess asks him, ”Where do you live?”. Bingham answers simply, ”Here.” His main goal is to become one of only seven human beings on the planet to earn 10 million frequent flyer miles. On his travels, he meets Alex (Vera Farmiga) who shares his affinity for elite status. The pair bond over how sexy they find each others’ membership cards. Neither views their relationship as anything substantial, simply an escape.

Bingham’s blissful status quo is disrupted with the arrival of young upstart Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) who plans on making the impersonal even more impersonal. Natalie intends to implement teleconferencing technology in the termination process. Now, you can hire someone to fire your employees through a TV. Bingham is eventually coerced into taking Natalie on the road with him to see how everything is done. Natalie is given a new perspective once it’s given a human face while flabbergasted at Bingham’s cavalier attitude towards personal relationships.

As a modern day Cary Grant, Clooney excels at playing the charming cad with a gift for gab. That talent is display here in a muted fashion mixed with the same world weariness of Michael Clayton. Clooney’s performance truly draws you into the journey of the character, a journey that doesn’t end as you’d expect. Reitman wisely chooses to avoid the easy way out by avoiding a pat, sentimental ending. Instead, the third act climax takes a decidedly left turn, ending the film in an ambiguous manner reflecting the uncertainty of today. Reitman adds an extra layer of resonance by casting real people who have lost their jobs as Bingham’s victims.

As a filmmaker, Jason Reitman has already won me over with his first two films, Thank You For Smoking and Juno. However, Up in the Air is his finest film yet and firm evidence of an assured writer/director whose talents have fully matured.

Rating: ****

Away We Go

Away We Go - Dir. Sam Mendes (2009)

Sam Mendes made his feature film debut with the Academy Award-winning American Beauty, a film that is practically the dictionary definition of the suburban malaise subgenre. Mendes would return to that subject matter with the relentlessly dour Revolutionary Road. Mendes decided to follow that up with lighter fare while still touching on similar topics with Away We Go. The screenplay was written by the husband-and-wife duo of Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida who likely tapped into their own lives for this dramedy about the anxiety of raising a family.

John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph star as Burt and Verona Farlander (get it?), an insurance salesman and a medical illustrator who await the birth of their first child. The couple is in their mid-30’s and live a low-budget Bohemian lifestyle in their ramshackle home. Verona’s parents passed away while she was in college and is apprehensive about becoming a mother. She worries that they are “fuck-ups” as she stares at a piece of cardboard where a window should be. They look towards Burt’s parents (played by Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara) for help with impending parenthood until Ma and Pa Farlander announce they’re moving to Belgium. With an anchor no longer tying them down, Burt and Verona head off for a road trip to find the perfect place for their unborn child’s upbringing.

Their quest first brings them to Phoenix where they meet Verona’s former boss, the loud and abrasive, Lily (Allison Janney), and her subdued and henpecked husband, Lowell (Jim Gaffigan). Their next stop is Madison, Wisconsin, where they stop by to see Burt’s old college friend, Ellen (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is now an ultra-pretentious, New Age hippie professor known as LN. Along with her pony-tailed husband, LN still breast feeds her children and her whole family sleeps in one, big bed. She believes in having sex in front of them, but not in strollers. ”Why would I want to push my child away?” The trip takes a positive turn when they hit Toronto to visit Tom (Chris Messina) and Munch (Melanie Lynskey) who seem to be the most well-adjusted and content of their friends. They’re happily married and raising a large family of adopted children, but there’s pain hidden beneath their otherwise blissful exteriors.

Away We Go is like the Voltron of bad indie films. It’s as if they took five smaller independent films and combined them into one. Away We Go is full of self-consciously quirky situations set to a soundtrack of college radio folk rock. Almost everyone the Farlanders meet in the first half of the film are caricatures. Burt’s parents are self-absorbed and bourgeois, the others are wacky for wacky’s sake. When LN is introduced, the story veers way off course and into a whole other picture. Her character is so ridiculous it breaks any boundaries of believability. She also throws the film off-balance when the story shifts towards a more grounded and melancholy approach. The acting is strong across the board with Allison Janney being particularly funny as the obliviously obnoxious Lily. Krasinski displays the same goofy charm he does on The Office here and gives some of the film’s best moments during a pair of mock arguments in an attempt to get the fetus’s heart rate up. Maya Rudolph is the revelation of Away We Go. Most people will know Rudolph for her comedic talents on Saturday Night Live. Here, she displays a subdued sense of humor and a knack for the more dramatic scenes. But, the cast just isn’t enough to support the weight of a weak, derivative script that lacks any genuine emotion.

When Mendes departs from the suburbs, he can make some great films (Road to Perdition, Jarhead). He’s currently working on an adaptation of the Preacher comic book series with screenwriter John August. The project has been in development for years and I hope they can pull it off.

Rating: * 1/2