Laggies

Laggies - Dir. Lynn Shelton (2014)

As many indie directors do, Lynn Shelton became a recognizable name following the heralded debut at Sundance of her first film Humpday. She avoided the sophomore slump with her next (and best) picture, Your Sister's Sister, though she stumbled with her third feature Touchy Feely, which received a tepid response from critics. Shelton finds her stride once again with Laggies, which is the first film she did not also write. The screenplay is credited to Andrea Seigel, a YA author now trying her hand in the movie business.

Laggies is Shelton's version of the man-child comedy that Judd Apatow and Adam McKay have mastered with a feminist touch. Keira Knightley stars as Megan Burch, a highly educated 28-year old who lacks any ambition. She hasn't changed much since high school. Megan still hangs out with the same circle of friends, dates the same guy, and retains the same puerile sense of humor. She earns a quick buck by occasionally twirling a sign for her dad's accounting firm.

Megan's world is rocked during the wedding of her best friend, Allison (Ellie Kemper). Her nice, but bland, boyfriend Anthony (Mark Webber) proposes to her just before Megan catches her father (Jeff Garlin) receiving a handjob from another woman. Megan feels the scene and winds up at a convenience store where she agrees to purchase alcohol for Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her friends. Next thing you know, Megan decides to lay low at Annika's house after telling everyone she's going away to a career counseling retreat. In an improbable turn of events, Annika's single father, Craig (Sam Rockwell), seems all right with this stranger staying at his home. Romance predictably blossoms between the unlikely housemates.

The central plot of Laggies strains credibility with a premise straight out of a hackneyed sitcom. It's quite the jump in logic for a dad to be so blasé about an adult sleeping in his teenage daughter's bedroom. Everything wraps up in a neat little bow though it takes longer than half an hour and it's left in the air if the protagonist learned any valuable life lessons. Credit goes to Shelton for treating her characters with such a gentle hand that you become invested in their stunted emotional journey.

A winning cast also helps. Keira Knightley's American accent is a bit off-putting and it requires a leap of faith to imagine the British beauty as a slacker on a street corner spinning a sign. Still, she throws herself into the part and it's satisfying to see her in something so light after the heavy duty lifting in A Dangerous Method or the overwhelming schlock of Pirates of the Caribbean. Knightley's casting is doubly ironic since actresses of her age are generally cast in the Chloe Moretz role. Moretz herself is a natural. She and Gretchen Mol, as the mother who abandoned her, share a low-key scene that is simultaneously tender and heartbreaking. It's one of the best moments of Laggies alongside just about anything with Sam Rockwell, who shines as the glib and somewhat awkward father.

Laggies is such a slight film that you are bound to forget it just as soon as the end credits roll. Yet, Shelton gives us enough of a refreshing take on the romantic comedy to consider this worth a rent.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Better Living Through Chemistry

Better Living Through Chemistry - Dirs. David Posamentier & Geoff Moore (2014)

The tried and true film noir formula follows a man seduced by a femme fatale into murdering her significant other, then digging himself into a deeper hole as he tries to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice are two of the best examples. Better Living Through Chemistry takes a comedic approach to the basic noir story.

Doug Varney (Sam Rockwell) is a pharmacist and a family man living in the small, picturesque New England town of Woodbury. Too bad his life isn't as equally picturesque. Doug is married to the emasculating Kara (Michelle Monaghan), who constantly undercuts his abilities as a father and a husband. Their son Ethan (Harrison Holzer) is obviously troubled as he paints his bedroom windows black and smears feces everywhere at school. Kara denies anything is wrong and shows more concern for spin classes and bike marathons. Doug's father-in-law, Walter Bishop (Ken Howard), doesn't have much confidence in him either. Despite selling the town's pharmacy to Doug, he refuses to change the name from Bishop's to Varney's.

It's easy to see why Doug would fall fast for the glamorous Elizabeth (Olivia Wilde), the trophy wife to an absentee husband (Ray Liotta). Elizabeth shares with Doug her passions for sex and popping prescription pills. Their torrid love affair ignites something within Doug as he begins concocting his own medications by mixing everything from Prozac to valium. He even manages to become more assertive and reestablish his relationship with Ethan. However, things start to unravel when Elizabeth suggests they murder her spouse by tampering with his heart pills and using the insurance money to run away together. There's also a DEA agent (Norbert Leo Butz) snooping around the drug store.

In spite of a stellar cast, Better Living was released direct to video with very little fanfare. The humor falls flat on its face due to terrible jokes revolving around STDs and poop. For an inexplicable reason, Jane Fonda provides voiceover narration, the kind that unnecessarily spells out every little detail for you. Fonda later makes a cameo as a customer shopping for douche. How classy.

For what it's worth, Rockwell is one of my favorite actors working right now. He truly excels at playing smarmy and conniving characters as evidenced in Iron Man 2 and Seven Psychopaths. Here, Rockwell gets to go over-the-top as Doug spirals out of control as well as play it understated as the henpecked Doug. He's the movie's saving grace.

Better Living Through Chemistry was written and directed by newcomers David Posamentier and Geoff Moore, who have been tapped to pen Paramount's remake of Explorers. You wish the pair had delved deeper into the premise beyond one-note characters and tired gags. Better Living is full of wasted potential.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths - Dir. Martin McDonagh (2012)

Irish playwright Martin McDonagh garnered critical acclaim for his feature film debut, In Bruges, which was one of my favorite films of 2008. It also marked a career best performance from Colin Farrell. In Bruges was a dark comedy about two hitmen hiding out in Belgium that could best be described as Tarantino crossed with Fellini. McDonagh’s sophomore is more like Tarantino meets Charlie Kaufman, a violent comedy titled Seven Psychopaths.

Farrell plays Marty, a struggling alcoholic screenwriter, as if there is any other kind. He’s working on a screenplay for a movie called Seven Psychopaths. All he has is the title and stories about two psychopaths. One is a Quaker exacting his own unique brand of justice against his daughter’s murderer and one about a former Viet Cong on a mission of revenge for the My Lai Massacre. Marty’s best friend is Billy Bickle (Sam Rockwell), an aspiring actor. When he’s not punching out directors at auditions, Billy runs a dognapping operation with Hans (Christopher Walken), an elderly eccentric, who dutifully visits his wife at the cancer ward.

One day, Billy kidnaps a little Shih Tzu named Bonny, who belongs to a volatile gangster named Charlie Costello. He’ll do everything necessary to get his beloved dog back including shooting Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) in the face.

Seven Psychopaths unfolds through a twisting meta-textual narrative. It’s no coincidence that a movie starring an Irish screenwriter was written and directed by one too. Throughout the film, McDonagh comments on his own work while also lampooning Hollywood conventions. The unsophisticated Billy thinks Marty’s script would be improved by an over-the-top climatic shootout, which leads to a wild fantasy with double fisted gunplay and heads literally exploding upon the impact of a single bullet. But, Marty wants to make something deeper without all the mindless violence. Yet, the movie does end with a final shootout though it doesn’t go as Billy imagined. For the most part, McDonagh successfully has his cake and eats it too though it doesn’t work when it comes to the women in Seven Psychopaths. Hans chastises Marty for his poorly written female characters, a critique levied on McDonagh, one that is certainly valid here.  Though Olga Kurylenko and Abbie Cornish are featured prominently, they get barely a handful of lines. The latter randomly shows up in wet t-shirt. While that scene is meant to represent Billy’s adolescent indulgences, does calling attention to his underrepresentation of women really excuse it? The one actress who does get any sort of meaty role is Linda Bright Clay as Hans’s wife, Myra, though she’s mainly there to be put into peril in order to spur on her husband.

This is clearly a guy’s movie and the men of Seven Psychopaths are wildly entertaining. Farrell mostly plays the straight man to the zany characters around him. Rockwell is hilarious as the off-kilter ringleader while Christopher Walken gets one of his most Christopher Walken-y roles to date. Yes, he’s weird and menacing, but Walken is the heart of the movie with a tenderness that you don’t expect from the King of New York. Woody Harrelson is terrific as the unhinged Charlie Costello, plus he has noted character actors Kevin Corrigan and Zeljko Ivanec as his henchmen.

The real star of Seven Psychopaths is McDonagh’s dialogue that sparkles off the page and energizes the interactions between his characters. McDonagh tackles his words with a stylish flair in the vein of Tarantino and Mamet. The picture sets it all up in the opening sequence with a pair of loquacious hitmen (Michael Pitt and Michael Stuhlbarg) discussing their jobs and John Dillinger before a sudden and deadly exclamation point. The dialogue helps to take your mind off the fact that McDonagh is stuffed his film to the gills with a myriad of sub-plots such as a masked vigilante known as the Jack of Diamonds. One of the most intriguing asides belongs to Tom Waits as a mysterious rabbit owner, who tells Marty his past as a serial killer who targeted other serial killers.

Seven Psychopaths could also be called Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Adaptations. It’s a messy comedy that manages to come together thanks to a talented ensemble and well-written dialogue.

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

The Sitter

The Sitter - Dir. David Gordon Green (2011)

What happened to David Gordon Green? His career as a director got off to a strong start with George Washington and All the Real Girls. He continued his streak of small town dramas with Undertow and Snow Angels, before making a leap into the mainstream with the stoner action-comedy Pineapple Express. Green not only showed talent for riveting indie flicks, but also a flair for zany and raunchy comedy. At least, he did with Pineapple Express. Unfortunately, the well seems to have run dry as evidenced by Green's latest R-rated comedies. Your Highness was a critical and commercial flop that just barely made half of its meager $50 million budget. Green closed the year on another sour note with The Sitter, which will likely only be remembered as the last appearance of the overweight Jonah Hill.

Hill plays Noah Griffin, a college student on suspension. He's content to lay on the couch at his mom's house with no intentions of getting a job or any serious plans for the future. He decides to actually do something nice for his mom (Jessica Hecht) and babysit a trio of kids so she can enjoy a night out. Noah is put in charge of Slater (Max Records), a nervous bundle of neuroses; Blithe (Landry Bender), a wannabe celebutante wearing heavy make-up and a tutu; and their adopted sibling from El Salvador, Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez), who enjoys blowing things up with fireworks.

Noah has a pseudo-girlfriend in Marisa (Ari Graynor), who asks him to bring her some cocaine for a party in exchange for sex. Thinking with his cock, Noah sets out into the seedier boroughs of New York City with the children in tow. Noah buys the coke from Marisa's dealer, Karl (Sam Rockwell), a bipolar eccentric who employs scantily clad bodybuilders in his drug lab. Karl also transports his narcotics inside dinosaur eggs, one of which is stolen by Rodrigo. Trying to get laid is the least of Noah's problems now that he has gangsters out to kill him.

Much like Pineapple Express, The Sitter features a mixture of raunchy, lowbrow humor along with mild action and chase sequences. Gordon doesn't handle the latter well as he fails to imbue these scenes with the same energy he did with Pineapple Express. Not all the blame falls on the director's shoulders. The majority of the film's faults lie with the script by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, who are also penning the upcoming remake of Baywatch, which will surely top year-end worst lists should it ever be released.

Gatewood and Tanaka practically plagiarize a bunch of 80's comedies with the spine of the story lifted from Adventures in Babysitting, plus a dash of Uncle Buck with Hill filling the role of a modern day John Candy. There's even a William Zabka-type in Marisa's ex-boyfriend, a blonde kickboxer with the oh-so-80's name of Ricky Fontaine (Jack Krizmanich). The rest of the movie's humor relies solely on broad stereotypes, like jive talking African-Americans who don't like white people and a flaming gay guy on roller skates.

The Sitter is a poorly conceived pastiche of derivative ideas and unfunny gags. Hill is called upon to simply reprise his Superbad persona and after his understated performance in Moneyball, it's disappointing.

Rating: * (*****)

Cowboys & Aliens

Cowboys & Aliens - Dir. Jon Favreau (2011)

Cowboys & Aliens has one of those high-concept titles that tells you exactly what you're going to get. Just like Snakes on a Plane had snakes on a plane, Cowboys & Aliens has cowboys and aliens. It should have been a cool mish-mash of Western and sci-fi genres, but, again, like Snakes on a Plane worked better as a joke on paper. Based loosely on a graphic novel published by Platinum Studios, Cowboys & Aliens had all the makings of a successful summer blockbuster. It had two renowned leading men together for the first time in Daniel Craig and Harrison (James Bond and Indiana Jones!). It had a talented director with a proven track record in Jon Favreau (Iron Man). Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer were among the producers. Credited screenwriters included Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (Transformers), Damon Lindelof (Lost), Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby (also of Iron Man), and Steve Oedekerk (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist), who was attached to write and direct way back in 1997. Hmm…okay that last one was odd, but you can hardly hang the film's failures on a singular man.

Cowboys & Aliens opens with an unidentified man (Craig) awakening in the desert with no memory of who he is or where he came from. There's also a bizarre bracelet attached to his wrist. After killing a trio of assailants, he makes his way to the small town of Absolution where we learn he is a wanted outlaw named Jake Lonergan. The whole town lives in fear of local cattle baron, Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde (Ford), whose sniveling son, Percy (Paul Dano), has also arrived to drunkenly shoot up the place and bully the barkeep Doc (Sam Rockwell). When the Colonel learns Percy and Lonergan have been arrested, he rides into Absolution with the intent of taking them both. Just as the six-shooters are about to be drawn, mysterious lights flash in the sky. The aliens have arrived on crab-like vessels destroying everything below and snatching up innocent people left and right. Among those taken are Percy, Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine), and Doc's wife Maria (Ana de la Reguera). Lonergan discovers his bracelet is actually an advanced weapon capable of detecting the aliens and destroying their ships.

Lonergan and Dolarhyde reluctantly form a posse to rescue their people and stave off the alien invasion. Among their group include Doc, Dolarhyde's Native American servant Nat Colorado (Adam Beach, the Sheriff's grandson Emmett (Noah Ringer), the gruff reverend Meacham (Clancy Brown), and a mysterious woman named Ella (Olivia Wilde). Eventually they are all forced to team up with a tribe of Apaches and a band of ruthless outlaws in a final showdown with the extraterrestrials.

The film starts with a strong first act mimicking all the standard tropes of the Western with the taciturn hero and Mexican standoffs. Favreau does his best to ground the story in some semblance of reality even after the outlandish introduction of space invaders. Then, things start going off the rails. The momentum built up at the beginning drops into a second act lull as the plot takes its time to develop its thinly drawn characters. The narrative is clumsily dotted with flashback sequences of Lonergan's fuzzy past. Ford is initially cast against type as a gruff and slightly racist antagonist, but he's Harrison Ford and can't stay that way the whole movie. He's significantly softened with two cheesy subplots of Dolarhyde acting as a surrogate father to Nat and Emmett. The movie also gets taken down a notch with the early loss of Paul Dano, who served as an excellent whipping boy to Craig's Lonergan. Despite her insane gorgeousness, Olivia Wilde appears only as a functionary character to deliver helpful exposition and act as a deus ex machine to defeat the aliens. Also wasted are great character actors like Keith Carradine, Walt Goggins, and Clancy Brown.

Favreau is a solid director with a knack for handling large ensembles, but he's not the flashiest when it comes to action. His finales (both Iron Man movies, for example) tend to build up strong and then fizzle out towards the end. Cowboys & Aliens suffers from an anti-climatic finish as the final battle between the humans and aliens becomes monotonous and easily forgettable.

While classic Westerns like The Searchers served as inspiration, Cowboys & Aliens (with its wooden dialogue and silly plot contrivances) recalls the B-movie productions of Roger Corman. There is an underlying irony beneath the pedestrian narrative about our nation's history of genocide and Manifest Destiny, but don't think for an instance this movie is an allegory for American imperialism. Cowboys & Aliens isn't a game changing genre bender. It is summer entertainment. Mindless escapism in its purest form.

Rating: ** (*****)

Conviction

Conviction - Dir. Tony Goldwyn (2010)

Literary adaptations and true-life stories are par for the course come awards season. Conviction falls into the latter category.

Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell star as siblings, Betty Anne and Kenny Waters, who live in Ayers, Massachusetts. As kids they grew up with a neglectful mother, spent much of their childhood stealing candy from the grocery store and breaking into people's houses. They were eventually split apart and put into foster care, but remained devoted to each other. Even when Kenny becomes a husband and father, he doesn't straighten up. While partying with his family, Kenny picks a fight with a guy, to everyone's consternation, and then puts them back at ease with an impromptu strip show.

The story really begins in 1981 when a neighbor woman is brutally murdered. As the local troublemaker, Kenny is picked up by the cops, questioned, and released. Two years later, he is arrested for the killing. Kenny maintains his innocence. It seems his only crime was being a smartass to the police and, in particular, the investigating officer, Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo). Kenny's wife (Clea DuVall) and ex-girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) give damning testimony and he is sentenced to life in prison.

Betty Anne spends the next decade earning a GED, Bachelor's, and a degree in law in order to defend her brother. Throughout that time, she attempts to maintain a delicate balance being a mother, wife, student, and crusader while working as a bartender at night. Her unwavering determination costs her a marriage as well as custody of her sons. However, Betty Anne's hard work pays off due to advances in DNA evidence during the early-90's. She also receives help along the way from Minnie Driver as a law school friend and Peter Gallagher as a high-powered New York attorney.

Hilary Swank really excels at portraying these types of blue-collar characters having already won two Oscars for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby. It's not the most memorable performance of the year, but it's the exact type of inspirational role that the Academy loves. Sam Rockwell is probably my favorite actor working today and he is great in Conviction. Rockwell arms Kenny Waters with a disarming charm that makes you overlook his shortcomings. But, that inner spirit is withered away from years of false imprisonment. Melissa Leo is solid as the cop who railroads Kenny while Juliette Lewis tends to overact as a walking white trash nightmare. The acting is what really lifts the film above the trappings of a made-for-TV movie of the week.

Director Tony Goldwin and screenwriter Pamela Gray (who previously worked together on the romantic drama A Walk on the Moon) take an incredible real life story and tell it in a conventional manner. The plot sticks to a basic screenwriting formula with setbacks that seem to come at predetermined intervals. For most moviegoers, this will be a negligible critique.

Conviction ends with a final denouement that gives us an update of what happened to the main characters. The real Betty Anne Waters continues to work with the Innocence Project to clear the wrongly convicted. Not mentioned is the tragic fate of Kenny Waters who died from an accidental fall only six months after being released from prison.

Rating: **

Gentlemen Broncos

Gentlemen Broncos - Dir. Jared Hess (2009)


The husband and wife team of Jared and Jerusha Hess made their feature film debut with Napoleon Dynamite. The low budget comedy became a quotable classic amongst indie hipsters and raked in over $46 million in worldwide grosses. Not bad for a movie that only cost $400,000. As with most young filmmakers, the Hesses were given access to a bigger budget and a bigger star with the underrated Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black as a priest/Mexican wrestler. Now, the Hesses solidify their status as poor man versions of Wes Anderson with another tale of small town weirdoes in Gentlemen Broncos.

Much like Napoleon Dynamite, Gentlemen Broncos opens with a unique title sequence utilizing mock-ups of vintage sci-fi novels. That’s about as clever as this movie is going to get.

Michael Angarano is Benjamin, a home-schooled geek with a passion for science fiction. He’s written his magnum opus in Yeast Lords which he enters into a contest judged by his hero, acclaimed author Dr. Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement). Chevalier has hit a slump and, desperate for another hit, steals Benjamin’s manuscript. Benjamin’s story is brought to life in a series of inexplicable intervals that would make Roger Corman proud. Shot as pure schlock, the Yeast Lords sequences feature Sam Rockwell as the macho Bronco who rides through the desert on a reindeer strapped with rocket launchers. That’s Benjamin’s version. In Chevalier’s plagiarized vision, he is re-imagined as the bleached blonde and effeminate Brutus. Benjamin has also sold his story to a wannabe director named Lonnie (Hector Jimenez) who shoots yet another version of Ben’s story as a glorified, no-budget home movie.

Gentlemen Broncos is a total misfire on every level with the film’s one-dimensional characters the most problematic. The Hesses fill Broncos with a cast of one-dimensional caricatures who are simply quirky for quirky’s sake. Worse yet, they are all positively insufferable. Benjamin and Chevalier are terrible writers. Lonnie is a horrible filmmaker. Benjamin’s mother (Jennifer Coolidge) designs hideous dresses and no one seems to have a clue. The Hesses fail to let us in on the joke. Are we supposed to laugh at them for being such losers? Or are we supposed to root for the losers to finally succeed? The latter is a difficult task considering the characters aren’t particularly sympathetic. Benjamin is about the most normal person in the film, but he’s such a naïve pushover that it’s hard to invest anything in his arc.

About the only redeeming quality to be found in Gentlemen Broncos is Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame. Clement manages to rise above the slight material with his arrogant demeanor and a velvety Tim Curry-esque voice.

Rating: *

Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 - Dir. Jon Favreau (2010)


”If you make God bleed, people will cease to believe in him. There will be blood in the water and the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit here and watch as the world consumes you.”

Iron Man was never Marvel’s premiere superhero on the comic book page, but on the big screen he’s their centerpiece. 2008’s Iron Man was a rousing success and set the foundation for creating a singular cinematic universe where Marvel’s heroes exist side-by-side. As with the majority of sequels, Iron Man 2 ups the ante with more action, more FX, and more characters as Marvel Studios marches ever closer to the magnum opus of The Avengers.

Set a mere six months after the original film, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is riding high on a wave of newfound fame as Iron Man. He’s more than eager to feed our ultra-modern society’s hunger for celebrity. He stages the Stark Expo, an elaborate science fair, appearing in front of thousands of adoring fans and backed up by a bevy of gorgeous Ironette dancers. But, underneath that flippant, care-free demeanor, all is not well in the House of Stark.

The power core within Tony Stark’s chest is keeping his heart pumping, but is also poisoning his blood, the toxicity levels increasing with each usage of the Iron Man armor. A government subcommittee headed up by the officious Sen. Stern (Garry Shandling) demand that Stark turn over the Iron Man technology to them. Meanwhile, in Russia, a downtrodden physicist named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) builds his own miniaturized reactor feeding energy into a pair of tendrils. Turns out, Vanko’s father Anton helped Tony’s father, Howard (John Slattery), build the original Arc reactor before being deported back to Russia to live and die in abject poverty.

Vanko fails to kill Stark on a Monaco racetrack, but manages to attract the attention of rival industrialist Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell). Hammer desperately wants to be Tony Stark, except he lacks the smarts. So he hires Vanko to build him an army of armored warriors and make Iron Man “look like an antique.” Taking hits on all sides, Tony shirks responsibility, handing the company over to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and finding solace at the bottom of a bottle. After Tony shows up drunk in full armor at his birthday party, his best friend Rhodey (Don Cheadle) steals the Mark II suit and turns it over to the military. Fanboys will giggle with glee as it’s pimped out with an arsenal of weapons into War Machine.

Bolstering this cavalcade of characters is Scarlett Johansson as Tony’s new personal assistant who is actually an undercover SHIELD agent. Fans will know her as the Black Widow. Scarlett busts out an array of MMA and Lucha Libre maneuvers while almost busting out of her skin-tight leather leotards. Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury (who first appeared in a post-credits scene in the preceding film) gets a meatier role as does director Jon Favreau as Tony’s driver/bodyguard Happy Hogan.

Clark Gregg returns as SHIELD Agent Coulson as do Leslie Bibb as reporter Christine Everhart and Paul Bettany as the voice of Tony’s artificial intelligence, JARVIS. Kate Mara makes a one scene appearance as a federal marshal and not as Bethany Cabe as previously rumored. Plus, there’s the obligatory cameo by Stan Lee (one of the best yet).

An ensemble of A-list actors were gathered together for the Iron Man and Iron Man 2 is no different. Mickey Rourke already looks like a comic book character so casting him as Ivan Vanko (a combination of supervillains Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo) was a no-brainer. A tried and true method actor, Rourke researched his role by visiting a Russian gulag and speaking with gangsters and criminals. As Vanko, he’s covered in tattoos and sports a shit-eating grin full of gold teeth. He just may be the most bad-ass physicist to walk the planet. Yes, even more than Stephen Hawking.

Sam Rockwell, who was once in the running to play Tony Stark, is another welcome addition. A master of the art of the smarmy, Rockwell absolutely excels as the underhanded Hammer. He’s one of the few actors who can go tit-for-tat with both Downey and Rourke. Also thrown into the mix is Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard amidst rumors of dissention on the set and an escalating salary. Cheadle fits seamlessly into the cast, confronting Tony at the senate hearing with the meta-textual line, ”I’m here now. Deal with it and move on.”

The excellent performances are not just due to a talented cast, but also to a talented director. As a writer/director/actor, Favreau cut his teeth on the independent film Swingers, which he starred in and wrote. Owning to those indie roots, he knows the importance of story and characters above all else. Favreau has also cited Robert Altman as an influence for giving his actors free reign to improvise during filming. The improvisation is never more evident than in the Howard Hawksian interplay between Tony and Pepper. That freedom has allowed Robert Downey Jr. to bring Tony Stark to life as a deep and fully realized character. He’s also kept Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux on their toes with both men having to rewrite the script on the fly throughout production. Theroux is also an actor turned writer. He made a memorable appearance playing a filmmaker in David Lynch’s mindbender Mulholland Drive. He also co-wrote Tropic Thunder which impressed Downey enough to bring him on to the sequel.

The use of such a multitude of actors and characters may be a little worrisome. The downfall of many superhero sequels (Spider-Man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand) is throwing in too many characters and too many plotlines. Thankfully, Iron Man 2 isn’t muddied up by an unwieldy amount of personalities. Each character and subplot is melded into the central narrative and converges towards the climax and resolution. They do not all get the appropriate screen time they deserve, but it works. Well, for the most part…

If Iron Man 2 has any faults, they lie in the saggy middle section. After a rousing racetrack battle between Iron Man and Vanko, the film pumps on the brakes for the second act. Tony alienates those around him while dealing with his illness and issues with his later father who appears in vintage film reels like a hybrid of Howard Hughes and Walt Disney. Whenever superhero sequels come along, those involve always mention how the second movie will be even better because they’ve gotten the origin story “out of the way.” However, Iron Man deftly weaved the origin story into the picture thus making the hero’s journey of Tony Stark making it every bit as important as the action scenes. With the origin out of the way, it seems the filmmakers were unclear as to where to go with Tony Stark. The second act of the sequel treads familiar territory as Tony works in his lab while his enemies scheme behind his back. It unfolds a little too much like the original film.

Favreau may not have the greatest command over action, but what he does here gets the job done. For a big-budget spectacle, Iron Man 2 is surprisingly light on action with only three major set pieces in the film. The opening fight on the racetrack is pulled off well and the final showdown is a wondrous multi-tiered battle with a picture perfect melding of practical and CG effects. The only drawbacks with each sequence are the anti-climactic endings. They build and build then fizzle out at the finish. Iron Man has yet to face a foe that is on equal footing. I suppose we have to wait for inevitable debut of arch-nemesis, the Mandarin, in Iron Man 3 to finally find someone who can really menace our hero.

Iron Man is the crown jewel of the Marvel movie oeuvre. Along with The Dark Knight, it made 2008 the pinnacle year for the comic book movie. If it is all downhill from there, Iron Man 2 makes sure it isn’t a steep drop, but a slight stumble. By the lofty standards of the original film, the sequel doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor. Iron Man 2 feels more like a stepping stone to further the Marvel’s movie universe (which I’ll spoil below) rather than a film to stand on its own. However, it’s still damned good entertainment. Damn, damn good entertainment.

Rating; *** ½

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Want to find out what all that talk about New Mexico meant? Stick around until after the credits for a glimpse of Mjolnir, the mighty hammer of Thor.

There are more Easter Eggs to be found in Iron Man 2. The most obvious is the appearance of an incomplete version of Captain America’s shield which could be glimpsed very briefly in the first film.

Look closely at the news report Tony Stark is watching in the SHIELD briefing room. It’s the same report from The Incredible Hulk following his clash with the army on the college campus. Even better, re-watch Hulk and you’ll notice the reporter mentions something about thunderstorms. Hmm…

Everybody's Fine

Everybody's Fine - Dir. Kirk Jones (2009)


Daniel Day-Lewis took on the Marcello Mastroianni role in Nine, a musical based on Fellini’s 8 ½, which I recently reviewed. Here, it is Robert DeNiro’s turn to take on Mastroianni’s part in Everybody’s Fine, a remake of a 1990 Italian film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso). DeNiro plays Frank Goode, a retired laborer, who manufactured the coating that wrapped around the telephone wires strung across the state of New York. Goode suffers from health problems due to exposure to the toxic ingredients, but he has no regrets. He did it all to provide his children with the best life possible. Frank, a widower, eagerly anticipates the arrival of his kids, who he hasn’t seen since the funeral, for Thanksgiving dinner. However, the children cancel at the last minute.

Frank figures if they won’t come to him, he’ll come to them. Against his doctor’s advice, Frank travels by train and bus to visit his offspring spread across the country. His first stop is to New York City where his son David, an artist, isn’t at home in his apartment close to an art gallery where his work is displayed. Frank heads to Chicago to see his eldest daughter Amy (Kate Beckinsale), an ad executive living in a modern home with her husband and son. In Denver, Frank visits Robert (Sam Rockwell), a supposed symphony conductor who turns out to only be a percussionist. In Las Vegas, Frank sees Rosie (Drew Barrymore), a dancer living in an affluent apartment looking over the strip.

With each subsequent visit, Frank senses that the Goode clan is keeping secrets from him, especially about David’s whereabouts. Mom was the one they could open up to while dad was always the stern taskmaster. Even into adulthood, they are still the little kids afraid of disappointing their father.

It’s refreshing to see DeNiro in a role where he’s not an intense mobster or a hard-nosed cop. DeNiro is allowed to simply be DeNiro here. The same goes for Drew Barrymore who is her usual bright, perky self. Sam Rockwell provides one of the film’s best performances and Kate Beckinsale does just fine. However, I never once bought them as a family because they didn’t look like they were related one bit. They looked like a bunch of movie stars we’re supposed to believe are related. This isn’t the only inauthentic element of Everybody’s Fine. I don’t mean the badly Photoshopped poster. The story is just so trite and schmaltzy while Kirk Jones directs it like a Lifetime movie of the week. The worst offense comes in the climax when Frank (after suffering a heart attack) has a dream where he has a backyard BBQ with David, Robert, Amy, and Rosie as kids. All his revealed then the clouds turn gray and rain pours down in melodramatic fashion.

Everybody’s Fine is a shallow film masquerading as one with deeper meaning.

Rating: **

Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon - Dir. Ron Howard (2008)


”I’m saying that if the President does it that means it’s not illegal.”

Just like Doubt, Frost/Nixon is an adaptation of a well-received stage play and much like W., the film takes a controversial president and breaks him down into a sympathetic figure overwhelmed by the power he fought so hard to gain. Writer Peter Morgan adapted his play for the big screen himself. Frost/Nixon focuses on the behind-the-scenes happenings that went on during the nearly 30 hour filming of an interview between Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) and television personality, David Frost (Michael Sheen).

What transpires is an intellectual battle for supremacy. Once a serious journalist, Frost is now relegated to doing little-seen, fluff pieces. Nixon, still shattered by the Watergate scandal, is looking for a way back into the political circles he had been ostracized from. Two men seeking a career resurrection that only one can achieve. Nixon and his camp see Frost as a pushover and agree to the interviews to the cool sum of $600,000 plus 10% of the profits. Meanwhile, Frost assembles his own team of researchers in order to ask the former president the hard questions. However, when the two finally sit down, Nixon runs circles around the interviewer. Frost has been spread thin by financial issues and the constant rejection by network execs and advertisers. Anytime the man tries to drop a bombshell (the Watergate tapes, Cambodia) on President Nixon, he evades the questions with long-winded, rambling stories that eat up huge chunks of time. It is only during the final interview session (after being drunk dialed by Nixon) that Frost hunkers down in an effort to finally nail Tricky Dick on Watergate and the subsequent cover-up.

Unlike Doubt, Ron Howard manages to expand on the source material into a fully realized cinematic experience and not just a talking heads picture. Howard, not exactly known as a visually stimulating director, faithfully recreates the look and color palette of the 70’s. He fills the frame with Nixon’s hulking, hunched-over body playing into his larger-than-life personality. At the same time, he’s pressed against the edges, uncomfortable in his own skin.

Langella is certainly getting the lion’s share of credit for his portrayal of our 37th president. His performance avoids the pratfalls of mere SNL impersonation. Langella conveys Nixon from raw rage to bittersweet confession (”"You have no idea how fortunate that makes you: liking people and being liked.”) while giving us a glimpse of a sly wit Nixon wasn’t readily known for. Both Langella and co-star Michael Sheen reprised their stage role. Sheen brings the same smug, self-assuredness that he did as Tony Blair in The Deal and The Queen, also written by Morgan. The supporting cast each get their own chance to shine for the brief moments they are on-screen. Of particular note are the always-entertaining Sam Rockwell as James Reston Jr., Frost’s lead researcher (and biggest anti-Nixon proponent); the beautiful Rebecca Hall as Frost’s glamorous girlfriend, Caroline Cushing; and Kevin Bacon as the straight-laced ex-Marine who acts as Nixon’s right-hand man and confidant. Not faring so well is Toby Jones, a fine actor who can’t seem to hit the right notes in recent bio-pics. He made a great Truman Capote in Infamous, but his Karl Rove in W. was lacking and his Swifty Lazar (the high-powered talent agent) here is hampered by an unconvincing accent.

Rating: *** 1/2

Choke

Choke - Dir. Clark Gregg (2008)

I’m not a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan. I’ve only ever read Fight Club though some of his other novels are on my to-read list. After viewing the film adaptation of Choke, I can safely guess that the age-old adage, ‘the book was better’ still holds true. Actor/Writer/Director Clark Gregg (who appeared as SHIELD Agent Coulson in Iron Man) spent years developing the script and streamlined the novel into a less than 90 minute runtime. Something was certainly lost in translation.

Choke feels like five different films semi-coherently edited into one movie. Sam Rockwell plays a sex addict who works as a colonial re-enactor, is best friends with a chronic masturbator dating a stripper, visits his sick mother in a mental hospital (where old ladies believe he’s the messiah) while falling for her doctor. He also chokes in restaurants on purpose to scam money from his rescuers. Someone should have told Gregg he needed more than 89 minutes. Flashbacks involving the protagonist’s childhood are awkwardly shoehorned in.

Rockwell has perfected these kinds of sleazy, damaged roles, but he’ll be remembered this year for his performance in Snow Angels rather than this forgettable stab at dark comedy. The always adorable Kelly McDonald brings a small ray of sunshine to an otherwise flat and dreary production.

Rating: **