Extra Entertainment

Movies, TV Shows: Slow West, Pitch Perfect 2, Would You Rather, Winnebago Man, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

I've been on a reviewing bonanza lately, but I still have a few miscellaneous films (and a TV series thrown in for variety!) to briefly review. Please enjoy!

Slow West

It's been two months since I saw Slow West at the Nashville Film Festival, so it's not exactly fresh in my mind. However, I do remember liking how director John Maclean combined traditional elements of western films with dreamlike scenes and settings, as well as wry humor in the film's dark moments (I have to reveal just one: when a literal jar of salt accidentally spills into one character's fresh bullet wound--couldn't help but chuckle at that). Consider it a Clint Eastwood film by way of Wes Anderson.

The plot is simple enough: 16 year old Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travels from Scotland to the American frontier in search of his love, Rose (Caren Pistorius). Jay isn't remotely cut out for the violent world of the West and comes across taciturn outlaw Silas (Michael Fassbender). He pays Silas for protecting him on his journey. Unbeknownst to Jay (but beknowst to Silas), Rose and her father have bounties on their heads...and Jay is leading the amoral Silas right to them.

Its mordant sense of humor and interesting camera work sets Slow West apart from more traditional westerns, and its climatic final scene is worth the price of rental alone. Slow West is a good film to check out even if you don't really care for westerns.

Grade: B

***

Pitch Perfect 2

Like most sequels, Pitch Perfect 2 is basically the same as Pitch Perfect 1 only...less than. The sequel finds a cappella superstars the Barden Bellas in the middle of a humiliating scandal (you've all seen the preview: Fat Amy's leotard rips, revealing her aca-muff during a show attended by President Obama) that gets them kicked off the America aca-circuit. However, they discover a loophole that allows them to participate in an international competition. Beca (Anna Kendrick), Chloe (Brittany Snow), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), and the others have to overcome their differences as well as their busy schedules (Beca is interning at a record production company; Fat Amy is busy hooking up with Bumper [played by the divine Adam Devine]) to beat the competition.

Pitch Perfect 2 has its moments. The best scene, for my money, is when the Bellas and a bunch of other groups participate in an aca-off at a party hosted by an eccentric millionaire, gloriously played by David Cross. We saw basically the same scene in the first Pitch Perfect, but it's what the audience wants, dammit! And I respect long-time actor, first-time director Elizabeth Banks for giving us what we want.

However, Pitch Perfect 2 does not have the emotional resonance of the first film and generally feels like diminishing returns. It's good fun for fans of the first Pitch Perfect, but will only be modestly amusing for others.

Grade: C+

***

Would You Rather

Would You Rather, a horror film I inexplicably chose to watch on Netflix right before bed the other night, is essentially the same movie as Cheap Thrills, which I reviewed a couple months ago. However, where Cheap Thrills had a sick sense of humor, Would You Rather has no sense of humor, making it a sadistic drag rather than a guilty pleasure.

Protagonist Iris (Brittany Snow) is in major debt taking care of her ailing younger brother. Strange millionaire Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs, absolutely chewing the scenery) invites her, along with a bunch of other people who need money for various reasons, to his mansion with the lure of potentially gifting them money if they win a game. Apparently none of these people have ever seen a horror film because then they would know that if a millionaire lures you to his house with the promise of money, you'll probably end up dead or maimed.

The group, including characters played by veteran actress June Squibb and adult film star Sasha Grey, is forcibly subjected to a deadly game of "would you rather", which starts with contestants choosing to administer a painful electric shock to themselves or to their neighbor and gets way, way worse from there. The central question of the movie is "how far would you go to get the money you need/help your loved ones?" which was also the central question of Cheap Thrills. The only difference is that in Would You Rather the characters are held captive at gunpoint and forced to "play" the "game". So the "plot" is basically a vehicle to show people stabbing little old ladies with ice picks and being drowned in barrels of water.

A nasty little piece of work, Would You Rather is a psychological horror film with no horror, no payoff, and no point.

Grade: D

***

Winnebago Man

I didn't really know what to make of Winnebago Man, a documentary about Jack Rebney, the reluctant "star" of some outtakes from a Winnebago sales video that went viral (first on the underground "found footage" circuit and later on YouTube) because of Rebney's f-word-laden outbursts. Director Ben Steinbauer discovered the clips and became obsessed with finding the man behind them. When he finally does contact Rebney, who has essentially become a recluse living in the mountains in northern California, he is disappointed to find that Rebney barely seems to remember the Winnebago video and couldn't care less that he is an Internet superstar.

...but then Rebney calls Steinbaur a week later wanting not only to change his image as "the angriest man in the world" but to get his (admittedly, curmudgeonly) opinions about how the world is going to hell out to an audience. What follows is a strange dance between Steinbauer and Rebney. It's very difficult at times to tell if Steinbauer is taking advantage of Rebney, who, though extremely intelligent and verbose, is not exactly in touch with the modern world and social media. It's also difficult to tell what, exactly, Rebney wants. He claims he doesn't care what people think about him, yet he clearly enjoys spouting his opinions (they aren't even that heinous--for example, he hates Dick Cheney) to anyone who will listen.

At times during Winnebago Man I felt icky because it seems that we are meant to laugh *at* Jack Rebney, not with him. However, the final act of the documentary, in which Rebney attends a screening of the clips and is met with praise and applause by his fans, tugs hard at the heart strings. Rebney appears almost shell-shocked by the audience response to his clips: laughter, applause, praise, and thanks. Fans tell him that whenever they have a bad day, they watch his profanity bombs and feel a little better. It's clear they are laughing at life's absurdities and trials *with* him. The ending of the film saves it from being boring and cringe-y. It gives the film heart.

Grade: B-

***

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Set in 1920's Melbourne, Australia, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is a delightful series you can watch on Netflix. The titular Miss Phryne Fisher (played by the wonderful Essie Davis) is a lady detective with a knack for finding both clues and, occasionally, lovers, at the scene of the crime. A thoroughly "new" woman, Miss Fisher carries a pearl-handled pistol, has a steamy love life, can hold her liquor, drives a car, and is as sharp as a tack. In every episode she matches wits with Detective Inspector Jack Robinson who, in early episodes, is annoyed at what he perceives as meddling and intrusion into *his* crime scenes, but eventually realizes that Miss Fisher is an excellent detective and tries to work with her rather than against her. Of course, the two have the hots for each other--but they never act on it, allowing for a slow burn that is both delightful and frustrating.

Most episodes of Miss Fisher use cultural touchstones of the 1920's as settings or plot points--for example, a murder occurs on the set of a silent film. In another case, Miss Fisher investigates the death of a lady race car driver and must contend misogyny toward female drivers. The show is filled with feminism and has great female characters. Whether you love the 20's, enjoy "cozy" mysteries, or dig strong female protagonists, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries has something for everyone.

Grade: A

Hang On to Your Ego

Movies: Love & Mercy

When I was two years old, my parents would put Beach Boys albums on the turntable that sat in the living room of our house in small town Ohio and I would dance. I'm told my favorite BB song to dance to was "Help Me Rhonda" (and why wouldn't it be? That's, like, their best song). There's something about the Beach Boys that sticks, and I knew it even then.

Love & Mercy (directed by Bill Pohlad, who until now has spent his career as a producer) is the story of Brian Wilson, arguably the most influential of the Beach Boys who pushed the group beyond their surf n' girls comfort zone and into the psychedelia of the late 60's with "Pet Sounds", one of the BB's most critically acclaimed albums. Like most musical geniuses, Wilson suffered greatly--he struggled with psychosis and hearing voices for many years and took to heavy drug and alcohol use to cope, missing out of the formative years of his children. Wilson eventually became the long-term victim of Eugene Landy (played, not super convincingly, by Paul Giamatti--more on that below), an abusive psychologist who became Wilson's legal guardian and systematically stripped away his personhood through overmedication and manipulation.

Love & Mercy jumps back and forth in time. Paul Dano (amazing as always) plays the younger Wilson who clashes with his bandmates--particularly Mike Love--over the production of "Pet Sounds", which was a huge break from the Beach Boys' earlier sound. John Cusack (an interesting casting choice) plays Wilson in the late 80's while he is fully in the grip of Landy and is so overmedicated and cowed by Landy's personality and control that he appears childlike and completely unable to stand up for himself. Salvation comes in the form of a woman. Melinda Ledbetter (played by Elizabeth Banks with quiet strength), the woman who went on to become Wilson's second wife, meets Wilson when he shows up at the Cadillac dealership where she works to buy a car. Despite the fact that Wilson acts like a total weirdo, the two begin a tentative courtship and it's not long before Ledbetter clashes with Landy in the battle for Wilson's freedom.

As someone who is fascinated by gender and power dynamics, I found Love & Mercy to be very unique in its portrayal of Wilson as a man. Both Dano and Cusack bring a soft, gentle, and --not sure if this is the right term--feminine energy to Wilson. It's clear that Wilson spent his life being bossed, manipulated, and physically abused by men: his ruthless, horrible father who beat him; his bandmate Mike Love who argued with him every step of the way through the creation of "Pet Sounds"; and of course Landy, who would scream at Wilson for eating too much and made him change his will to leave money to Landy. During both the 60's and the 80's, women come to Wilson's rescue. Of his first wife, Marilyn, Wilson says "She saved my life" but doesn't elaborate. We can only assume that Marilyn provided emotional shelter from Wilson's asshole of a father. And the film shows how Ledbetter never gave up on Wilson, even as he told her there was "no way out" from under the thumb of Landy. I was really emotionally moved by Ledbetter's unwillingness to let Wilson, for all intents and purposes, die under the watch of Landy.

The film isn't perfect. I mentioned above that I didn't warm up to Giamatti as Landy. As much as I love Paul Giamatti--he is an amazing actor--he didn't disappear into the role. His very fake wig didn't help either. I could not get away from seeing Giamatti, not Landy, and I wish the director had cast someone less well known for the role. Cusack was an unusual casting choice as well, and the way he plays Wilson reminded me a little of Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump: a simple, childlike man. Perhaps Wilson truly was like that during those awful years.

Dano, however, is wonderful as the young Wilson. And the scenes set in the 60's are superior to the scenes set in the 80's, although both eras are essential to telling this story. The film takes modest artistic liberties, such as when young Wilson does LSD for the first time and lies in a field with flowers blooming all around him. But at the very end there are some choices the director made that I didn't care for, such as young Wilson standing over the bed of older Wilson and smiling down on him. It was a little too precious for me.

Overall, Love & Mercy will punch you in the heart. The story of Brian Wilson, a gentle, fragile genius, is one that deserves to be told and will surprise and fascinate lovers of the Beach Boys and even those who know very little about the Beach Boys and their place in musical history.

Grade: B+

Fangs for the Memories

Movies: What We Do in the Shadows

Are you sick of books, movies, and TV shows about vampires? Of course you are! The vampire fad died a slow, agonizing death with each passing season of the once pleasurable and eventually awful True Blood. But before you throw the hat in completely, let me recommend one more bloodsucking film for the road: What We Do in the Shadows.

This film, directed by Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement (two of the creators of Flight of the Conchords), is a work of comedic genius. Filmed in documentary style, it follows the daily events of four vampires who live as flatmates in modern New Zealand. There's Viago (played by Waititi), a chipper 300-something year old vamp who serves as the "cruise director" of the documentary, showing the filmmakers around the flat. There's Deacon (Jonny Brugh), who is the youngest of the group at age 180 and is very into flamboyant club wear and sex. Vladislav (Clement) is a bit more mature at 560-ish, but also tends towards fits of depression that lead him to capture people and torture them. In his human life he was known as "Vladislav the Poker" for his love of poking people with hot irons and the like. When he is introduced to Facebook and someone tells him he can "poke" a friend, his look into the camera is priceless.

Finally, there's Petyr (Ben Fransham), who is 4,000 years old and looks like this:

Needless to say, Petyr doesn't get out as much as the others.

WWDitS shows Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav going about their daily lives: they have a chore wheel to make sure everyone cleans up after themselves; Viago talks about his techniques in wooing a lady before killing her and drinking her blood; and the guys get into a few scuffles with a local gang of werewolves (pack leader Anton is played by Rhys Darby, better known as Murray from Flight of the Conchords). When the guys accidentally turn intended victim Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) into a vampire life gets more complicated as they now have to look after a baby vamp (although the upside is they get to hang out with Nick's friend Stu, who they all like more than Nick)

It's no surprise that WWDitS shares a similar sense of humor with Flight of the Conchords. The humor is deadpan and absurd, exposing the inherent silliness of vampire tropes, such as avoiding the sun's deadly rays and being able to fly. I don't want to say too much about the movie or give away any of the best jokes. So I'll leave you with this: if you hate the vampire trend in pop culture, you will love What We Do in the Shadows...and if you *love* the vampire trend in pop culture, you will also love What We Do in the Shadows. Basically, it's a win-win.

Grade: A 

Fears for Ears

Movies: Berberian Sound Studio

Peter Strickland is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. I reviewed his luscious 2014 film The Duke of Burgundy not too long ago and when I saw that his 2009 film, Berberian Sound Studio, was on Netflix...well, I had to watch it immediately.

I was not disappointed. Berberian Sound Studio is a creepy little movie starring Toby Jones as Gilderoy, a nebbishy British sound engineer who is hired to oversee the sound production on an Italian horror film titled "Equestrian Vortex". We do not see any of this movie-within-a-movie, but we hear it described. "Equestrian Vortex" is a giallo film--a genre of Italian mystery-horror that reached its peak in the 1970's (the time period in which Berberian Sound Studio takes place). Giallo films are known for their lurid, violent imagery and plot lines. "Giallo" itself means yellow--a reference to cheap paperbacks with yellow covers that were popular in post-WWII Italy.

So "Equestrian Vortex", the film we don't see but do hear in Berberian Sound Studio, is about two girls at a horse-riding academy who accidentally resurrect some dead witches. The witches are still pretty pissed about being tortured to death during the Inquisition, so they proceed to take revenge upon the ladies of the equestrian academy. The plot is filled with rotting corpses, agonizing torture, and "dangerously aroused" goblins stalking the nubile girls. In other words, extremely violent and sleazy. Gilderoy, a mild-mannered confirmed bachelor, is not used to working on such violent films and becomes increasingly upset. It doesn't help that the producer of the film, Francesco (Cosimo Fusco), and the other crew members are rude to him and dismissive of his considerable gifts as a sound engineer. Meanwhile, the director, Giancarlo Santini (Antonio Mancino), is too busy molesting the actresses to take much notice of Gilderoy.

Gilderoy begins to crack up. He is required to do foley work that involves ripping out the stalks of radishes to create the noise of a priest ripping out a witch's hair during an interrogation and drizzling water into a hot pan to mimic the sound a red hot poker going into a place a red hot poker should really, really not go. Toby Jones, such a wonderful actor, sells Gilderoy's break with reality so well. At first, he to stand up for himself. When that fails, he withdraws into himself, barely paying attention to his work. Finally, when an actress comes in to read for the part of one of the equestrian girls and fails to scream "realistically" enough, Gilderoy reacts with sadism, forcing her to listen to screeching sounds through her headphones until she quits.

Like Duke of Burgundy, Berberian Sound Studio is different and strange. It doesn't have much of a plot, but it is a feast for the senses--in this case, mostly the ears. Like Duke of Burgundy, it feels somewhat removed from reality, as if it inhabits a world similar to ours but with different rules and expectations. I found it intriguing and disorienting. I do wish it had a stronger storyline and resolution. Ultimately, I was left a little bit hungry--wanting more out of the film.

Even with its shortcomings, Berberian Sound Studio is really solid, really interesting work. Like Duke of Burgundy, the experience of watching it is closer to visiting an art museum (or, in this case, a soundstage) than seeing a movie. I'm very excited to see what tricks Peter Strickland will pull out of his hat in his next film.

Grade: B+