You Don't Know Jake

Movies: Nightcrawler

I have been in love with Jake Gyllenhaal as an actor and as a stone cold fox since I saw Donnie Darko in the early 2000's. At the time, Gyllenhaal often played the weird boy next door (and occasionally, the weird boy next door in a bubble). Over a decade later, Gyllenhaal has proven more than capable to branching out into a wide variety of roles, many of which have been increasingly gritty. What I love about Gyllenhaal is that he can play his masculinity softly or he can play it hard. He's equally believable as gentle cowboy Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain or keyed up marine Anthony Swofford with an itchy trigger-finger in Jarhead. Whether he's going the buzz-cut macho route, or the shaggy-haired nerd route, Gyllenhaal has played a lot of good guys.

But now, in Dan Gilroy's shocking, sickening, and exciting Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal plays something entirely different. He plays a character who is more of a shark or a vulture than a human. He plays a sociopath with no social skills, a predator without the sexy camouflage to hide his true intentions. His character, Louis Bloom, is many things--but he most certainly isn't a good guy.

Nightcrawler opens with Louis beating up a security guard and taking his watch after he gets caught trying to cut through a wire fence. The film offers no explanation as to where Louis came from and if he has a family or friends. The director alienates the audience from Louis from the word "go". Gyllenhaal's appearance further alienates us: the actor lost about 20 pounds for this role, and boy, does extreme thinness not suit him. His normally soulful eyes bug out crazily and his face is all  painful, sharp angles. His clothes don't fit, his hair is greasy. Boy is a hot mess is what I'm saying, but it works well for the character--a man who stays up all night, driven by his obsession with finding gory video footage of car accidents and crimes to sell to a low-rated news station.

Louis is trying to break into the seedy world of freelance crime journalism. He buys a police scanner and a camcorder and uses sheer audacity to get in real close to victims of auto accidents, muggings, and shoot-outs. Louis' complete lack of empathy and boundaries allow him get great shots of people dying, covered in blood. Where would Lou be able to sell such shocking footage? To a snuff video website? Nope. He sells his graphic videos to a news station that runs the stories on the morning news. As a fellow crime journalist (played by Bill Paxton in a fun little role) puts it, "if it bleeds, it leads".

After making a few hundred bucks, Lou is inspired to take it up a notch, which includes sexually blackmailing Nina (Rene Russo), a local TV news veteran who heads up the graveyard shift at a low-rated station. After propositioning Nina, he points out that while she can walk away, so can he, leaving her station gasping like a fish for the audience ratings his bloody videos once provided. Dude knows how to woo a lady. Lou also hires a naive assistant (Riz Ahmed) who is too green to understand the lengths Lou is willing to go to get great footage. For example, beating the ambulance to the scene of a car accident and moving an injured person around to get a better shot.

Part of the fun of Nightcrawler is seeing how far Louis will go to manipulate circumstances to serve his ambitions, and the climax of the film is extremely intense. My jaw was definitely hanging open. Nightcrawler has been compared to the films of David Cronenberg, and I was reminded of his film Crash (no, not the movie about how everyone is racist, the one about people with car crash fetishes) during a car chase scene that was almost sexual in its adrenaline-pumping intensity. While I've seen far more psychologically disturbing films than Nightcrawler, this movie was a lot more physically affecting (heart pounding, hands gripping the armrests) than any movie I've seen in a long time.

Nightcrawler isn't perfect. It would have been nice if the film stood on its own merits as a thriller, but director Gilroy insists on rubbing our noses in the message (news stations manipulate viewers with messages of racism and fear!). The film feels derivative at times--almost cliche. I've read reviews that compare Gyllenhaal's performance to Robert De Niro's in Taxi Driver (quite the compliment to Gyllenhaal!) and Rene Russo's performance to Faye Dunaway in Network. While the film is most definitely good, it's not really fresh or unique.

In spite of the quibbles I have about Nightcrawler, the sheer force of Gyllenhaal's un-glamourous, wacko performance really carries the movie. The actor strips away his beauty and his leading-man machismo to reveal a feral animal underneath. The excitement of watching an already talented actor uncover new depths is as much of a thrill as any grisly video footage Louis Bloom could find on the mean streets of L.A.

4 out of 5 stars

For Better or For Much, Much Worse

Movies: Gone Girl

"I'm the cunt you married. The only time you liked yourself was when you were trying to be someone this cunt might like. I'm not a quitter... I'm that cunt."


 Spoilers in this review

If you like your movies mean and raw, you'll feel as though you've hit the jackpot with David Fincher's latest cinematic masterpiece. Based on Gillian Flynn's best-selling, genre-defying novel, Gone Girl is half whodunit procedural and half cynical portrait of a marriage gone terribly wrong.

Gone Girl is expertly cast. Ben Affleck was born to play Nick Dunne--an attractive charmer who is also a douchey cheat of a husband. Rosamund Pike is a cipher as Amy Dunne, Nick's wife. There are different interpretations of Amy, but I considered her to be a sociopath, plain and simple. The inability to empathize and the drive to use other people for whatever her needs are at the moment.

The secondary characters are very strong. Kim Dickens has a plum role as Det. Rhonda Boney, a cop who is on Nick's side at first, but slowly loses faith in him as more "evidence" that he killed his wife mounts up. Tyler Perry works his slick charm as lawyer Tanner Bolt, notorious for defending "wife killers". Neil Patrick Harris plays Desi Collings, Amy's obsessive ex from high school--a spoiled rich boy who "rescues" Amy in her moment of need, only to trap her in a gilded cage of a luxury lakehouse. Things do not end well for Desi, as Amy is not the kind of girl you lock up.

                                                       Image courtesy of variety.com

 Like so many other films by Fincher, Gone Girl is beautifully shot in cool tones (with the occasional blast of dark red blood) and tightly paced. Fincher isn't afraid to let his movies run long: Gone Girl clocks in at 149 minutes, which is modest compared to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's 158 minutes and Zodiac's 157 minutes. Yet you never feel that his films drag. He doesn't waste precious minutes, using quick cuts and fades to jump back and forth in time. We see flashbacks of Amy and Nick's sex-fueled and seemingly happy courtship alongside Nick's descent into guilty husband hell as the court of public opinion turns on him. We see Nick coming to horrific realizations as he solves his wife's 5-year anniversary treasure hunt while, not too far away, Det. Boney and Det. Gilpin (Patrick Fugit from Almost Famous, all grown up!) discover the final piece of evidence that damns Nick as the killer. The film moves quickly, but is not convoluted (or maybe that's because I read the book and knew every twist that was coming).

But enough about the technical aspects of the film. Let's address the burning questions about Gone Girl:

Is the movie (and the book) misogynistic?

Well, that all depends on your perspective. On the one hand, Gone Girl plays out like the wet dream of a Men's Rights Activist: it involves a bitchy, controlling woman who lies about rape and abuse in order to control and nearly destroy her husband. Ben Affleck utters a line near the beginning: "I'm so sick of being picked on by women." At the moment he says it, it comes off as the pathetic cry of a white, attractive man who didn't get *everything* he wanted. But as it becomes clearer what kind of woman he's married to, well, you actually start to feel bad for the guy. I mean, he's a run of the mill cheating husband and jerk, but he's married to a highly intelligent nutcase who uses her brains and body for evil. And that trope of the femme fatale is both sexist and (yawn) played out.

And yet...

There's something about this story (it's more blatant in the book, but you hear it loud and clear in Amy's monologue about "the Cool Girl") that gets to the heart of a real problem women face--the pressure to identify themselves in relation to men. Amy Elliott Dunne may be a sociopath, but she most certainly does not let men define her. Or does she? Has she been the "Cool Girl" all along, only to throw off those shackles in the most dramatic and vengeful way possible? Is Gone Girl a warning to a male-dominated society that you can push a woman only so far before she pushes back?

Gone Girl is not a "feminist" film--unless your idea of feminism is a woman cutting a man's throat while he's in the throes of orgasm (which I'm sure is some people's idea of feminism!). But it can only be considered "misogynistic" when compared to the lack of more traditionally heroic roles for women in Hollywood cinema. If we had a much greater diversity of complex, interesting roles for women, Gone Girl's Amy Dunne would just be one of many options for how a female character can be. Also, isn't it kinda nice having a really nasty female anti-hero? We have so many Walter Whites and Don Drapers and Tony Sopranos. Why not have a female character who fuck and kill with the best of the boys?

Is the movie (and book) anti-marriage?

No. It's anti-marriage to psychopaths. While the movie is extremely cynical in regards to Amy and Nick's marriage, anyone who has an iota of respect and love for their partner will not be threatened by this film. More likely, they'll be relieved.


What else is this movie about?

Gone Girl less about women, men, and marriage and more about how the 24 hour news cycle manipulates people's emotions when it comes to current events. It's a film about how readily and easily people buy into stereotypes: the cheating louche of a husband, the pregnant, scared wife...and perhaps most damning of all: the idea that a white, beautiful woman going missing is more important than, say, ebola killing thousands of Africans or a tsunami leveling a city whose name we can't pronounce. Maybe Gillian Flynn is not only a mastermind at creating a tight, tense thriller...but at redirecting our attention to a fictional monster while subtly pointing out that we are the real monsters. Or did I just blow your mind??


Should I see this movie?

Yes. As long as you are ok with hearing a guy call his wife a cunt and seeing that wife murder a man (in the throes of orgasm!). I would not recommend this film for the squeamish, for people who hate women (if you hate women, I recommend these movies instead), or for any romantic couples on the cusp of a breakup. Otherwise, you're in for a nasty, acidic little treat that you'll be thinking about days later.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Entertainment Dump

Here is the Reader's Digest Condensed version of a bunch of movies, shows, and books that I've been meaning to review.


The Hudsucker Proxy

One of Joel and Ethan Coen's lesser known films, The Hudsucker Proxy is in a similar vein as O Brother, Where Art Thou? with its peculiar brand of absurd humor and magical realism. Tim Robbins, rocking a modest pompadour, plays a rube named Norville Barnes who gets hired to be the president of Hudsucker Industries after the owner of the company commits suicide. The scheme is to get investors to lose faith in the company so that the board of directors can buy up stocks for pennies on the dollar. But when Norville invents an "extruded plastic dingus"--you know, for kids--an item that becomes a wildly popular bestseller, the board of directors realize that their scheme might not pay off.


Co-starring Paul Newman as the oily Sidney Mussberger and Jennifer Jason Leigh as a fast-talking journalist, The Hudsucker Proxy is not the among the best of the Coen bros. films, but it's a solid little gem.

3.75 out of 5 stars

***

Jug Face

A strange indie horror film, Jug Face is about a group of families living out in the sticks who follow a cultish religion where they regularly sacrifice members of their group to a creature that lives in a pit. Young Ada finds out that she is the next sacrifice chosen for the pit and refuses to accept her destiny, causing havoc to those around her. There's also incest. Yay.

Jug Face is entertaining, but ultimately not very good or very scary (the special effects that reveal the thing in the pit are amateurish). The movie is more concerned with making fun of weird, provincial hillbillies than with building a creative and tense storyline.

3 out of 5 stars

***

Devil's Pass

Another indie horror movie with iffy special effects, Devil's Pass has the advantage of actually being scary. Filmed in "Blair Witch" style, with handheld cameras, the film follows a group of college students setting out to make a documentary about the events of the Dyatlov Pass Incident--a real-life mystery where a group of hikers all died under mysterious conditions in the Ural Mountains in 1959.

 Devil's Pass uses the facts of the actual incident to build tension that leads to an over-the-top climax involving a government cover up. The climax itself isn't as scary as the events leading up to it, in which the college students find themselves in increasingly dire straits as they retrace the steps of the Dyatlov hiking group. A worthwhile Netflix streaming watch.

3.5 out of 5 stars

***

True Detective

I had a couple beefs with this admittedly addictive HBO series, the main one being that women are treated like sub-human annoyances and sex dolls throughout all 8 episodes. Granted, the show looks down on the sexist and hypocritical way Det. Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) treats his wife, daughter, and mistresses, but it also doesn't really put its money where its mouth is by giving us a few strong, complex female characters. We get Hart's long-suffering wife, Maggie (Michelle Monaghan), and that's basically it. The way the show is written is misogynistic at worst and just plain male-centered at best.

HOWEVER. Stupid sexist bullshit aside, True Detective is, in fact, a well-written, extremely well-acted (especially Matthew McConaughey's portrayal of nihilistic weirdo Det. Rust Cohle), tightly-paced, creepy, addictive series. I can't deny that it's good watchin'. If you don't know the plot, I'll give it to you in one sentence: Cohle and Hart work together (despite massive personality differences) to solve the murder of a young woman whose death may have been part of a satanic ritual. Intrigued yet? Although I felt that there were certain threads to the mystery that were never fully addressed, the overarching themes of redemption, faith, and friendship give this series some meat. Let's hope women play a more central role next season.

4.5 out of 5 stars

***

The Disaster Artist

Those who know me know I'm a big fan of The Room--a laughably awful movie written, directed, produced, and starring professional weirdo Tommy Wiseau. The Room, unlike many other films that are simply bad, has a certain je ne sais quoi which elevates it to an almost artistic level of wrongness. The mystery of Wiseau--where he came from, what his motivations are--adds an additional element of strangeness to an already bizarre movie. So when The Disaster Artist, a memoir/tell-all by Greg "Sestosterone" Sestero (co-written by Tom Bissell), came out, I knew I had to snatch it up. And snatch I did.

Sestero interweaves his experience working on The Room (he served as line producer and also played Mark, the plum role of Johnny's (Wiseau) "best friend" who betrays Johnny by sleeping with his fiance) with the story of his own struggle to make it as an actor and how he met and befriended Wiseau. Sestero reveals tantalizing details from the set of The Room (the scene where Johnny exclaims "I deed naht heet her. Ees bullsheet. I deed NAHT. Oh, hai Mark" took about 4 hours to film) and even more tantalizing details about what might possibly be Wiseau's backstory. The book ends at The Room's premiere, which is a bit of shame since I would have liked to learn more about how The Room went from a shitty movie to a cult phenomenon. Sestero tries pretty hard to be even-handed in his description of Wiseau, but one wonders why he--and anyone else--put up with a man who has all the qualities of a delusional megalomaniac. Maybe because Wiseau had an inexplicably gigantic bank account? Probably.

The Disaster Artist isn't so much a tell-all as a tell-most. And Sestero's constant teetering between attempting to paint Wiseau as a latter-day Ed Wood and outright making fun of him comes off as disingenuous and condescending. However, the book is such great fun, with laugh-out-loud moments, that it's well worth reading for fans of The Room.

4 out of 5 stars

***

Bittersweet

I had heard a lot about Miranda Beverly-Whittemore's novel Bittersweet before I swiped it for $2 on Amazon. The story is about an average girl, Mabel, who gets sucked into the world of her very, very wealthy college roommate, Ev Winslow. After Mabel comforts icy Ev when her cousin commits suicide, Ev invites Mabel to spend the summer with her extended family at their estate in Vermont. "Bittersweet" refers to the name of the cottage Ev's parents give her when she turns 18. The Winslow estate is a chunk of land where each family member has their own cottage. Every summer, the entire damn place is overrun by privileged WASPs with mounds of juicy secrets. Sounds like a great read, huh? In truth, Bittersweet is good, but it just doesn't pay off. Mabel is encouraged by one of the older Winslows to go through family documents to find a mysterious manilla envelope proving ownership of a certain Van Gogh painting hanging in the dining hall. But that's just a red herring for the *real* Winslow scandals, which are much darker and much more overwrought. Think to yourself--what would be the most scandalous family secret for a gaggle of wealthy, upper-crust yankees? Whatever your answer is, it's probably one of the myriad family secrets that plague the Winslows in Bittersweet. The 400-page novel slowly, teasingly builds up to an overstuffed climax in which Beverly-Whittemore attempts to reveal all the Winslow secrets and tie up loose ends in about 20 pages. It's a shame since the novel is otherwise well written and decently paced. It's as if the author couldn't commit to one mystery or family secret and decided to just throw everything into a pot.

3 out of 5 stars

Movies in Which People Look and Act Like People

Movies: In a World, Enough Said


When seeing a movie, some people prefer that transparent glass wall Hollywood puts over so many films. They like their stars preternaturally beautiful, with impeccable wardrobes. They like slick action scenes and softly-lit love scenes. They like when the bad guys and the good guys are easy to tell apart. I'm not judging here, since I consume a certain amount of "basic" entertainment as well--I've been known to enjoy a certain multiple-camera sitcom that centers around a group of "nerdy" males in California and certain genres of literature that are, shall we say, formulaic?

However, when it comes to movies, I prefer my viewing choices to be realistic. I like movies where the bad guy gets away in the end. Or better yet, when there are no bad guys--just flawed humans. I like love stories with sad or ambiguous endings. The ending of Sideways, where Paul Giamatti knocks on Virginia Madsen's door...and we never find out if she opens it, or even lives there anymore? Perfect ending. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the most romantic movies to me because it's about accepting love KNOWING it probably will go sour in the end.

I like movies that reflect reality because it makes me feel understood. And it makes me less afraid of the ambiguity we so often encounter in our lives.

Two wonderful movies I saw recently capture reality in a way that is positive, life-affirming, and just fucking flat-out delightful. In a World... takes place inside the world of professional voice-overs. You know that booming male voice that narrates movie trailers? Someone gets paid big money to do that. And they're usually men.

Lake Bell (who also wrote and directed) stars as Carol, a freelance voice coach and daughter of Sam Soto--a well-respected professional voice-over person who is at the pinnacle of his career...and is pretty much a total misogynist. Carol dreams of becoming the voice of movie trailers, but her dad constantly belittles her dream and tells her that people just don't want to hear a female voice narrate movie previews. However, when Carol gets a shot at narrating the preview for a much hyped "quadrilogy" that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, entitled "The Amazon Games" (har har), she has the chance of proving her father and the whole voice-over industry wrong.

One thing that struck me about In a World... is how *real* the actors look. With strong features, a wardrobe that looks thrifted (and not in a cute way), and messy, unevenly dyed hair, Bell does not look like a typical leading lady. She looks like your best friend. Likewise, her sister (Michaela Watkins), brother-in-law (Rob Corddry), potential boyfriend (Demetri Martin), and professional rival (Ken Marino) are all recognizable actors who also happen to look like real human beings. It makes the movie so much more fun because you feel like you could actually hang out with the characters at a party and not feel completely alienated by them.

Also, the movie is just...different. And unique. It's blatantly feminist, with a woman trying to break into a male-dominated profession, but unlike so many similar-ish rom-coms (i.e. The Proposal) that attempt to be pseudo-feminist, Carol's love interest, Louis, has her back the entire time. Louis likes Carol and is nice to her and supports her professionally. He isn't her rival-turned-boyfriend. Isn't that fucking mind-blowing? Well, it is to me.

In a World... is just a delightful little film. It's funny, it's quirky (but not in an annoying Zach Braff type way), and it's very female-friendly. I recommend it to humans of all genders.

The other movie I saw was Enough Said, which is so bittersweet given that it was one of James Gandolfini's last movie roles before his untimely death. He's also absolutely adorable in it. Enough Said centers on Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, not surprisingly awesome and hilarious here, as she is in everything), a middle-aged, divorced massage therapist with a daughter about to go away to college. She meets Albert (Gandolfini) at a party and the two bond because he's also divorced with a daughter about to go to college. Even though she's not initially attracted to him, Eva goes out with Albert and they have a great time. They eventually get much closer and see the possibility of a full-blown romance.

But. One of Eva's new clients is the beautiful Marianne (Catherine Keener), who constantly bitches about her ex-husband to Eva during her massages. This ex was immature, overweight, clumsy in bed, etc. One guess who the ex turns out to be.

But even once Eva figures it out, she keeps Marianne as a client and purposefully milks information about Albert from her. Pretty soon, she begins to see Albert through Marianne's judgmental eyes.

Once again, we have a film where people look and act like people. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is, of course, very beautiful, but she plays a middle-aged mom realistically. She's into sex, but not a Cougar-ish sexpot. Gandolfini is not a typical leading man, looks-wise. He's heavy and balding. But damn, Galdolfini is hot in this movie. Why? Because he's funny, charming, confident, and real. Not slick. Beyond their looks, the characters also act like real people. Director Nicole Holofcener is pretty well known for her movies that appear plucked from real life. The script is funny, but not overly clever the way some Hollywood comedies can be. The characters' behavior is flawed--Albert really is a slob, and Eva behaves disingenuously after figuring out that Albert is Marianne's ex--just like real, imperfect people.

Enough Said can be a little stressful since you, the viewer, become invested in Albert and Eva's romance and don't want them to screw it up. But the film has a comfortable, lived-in feel to it, which is very nice. And its portrayal of romance is so anti-Hollywood. There are no pop-songs or montages to explain to the audience how they should feel. There's just a lot of talking and discussion among the two lovers, their friends, and their families.

If you're the type who prefers the glamorous sheen of big-budget mainstream movies, more power to you. Movie-going should be fun! But I highly recommend giving indie movies and slightly less glamorous movies a chance. You might be surprised. Enough Said and In a World... are two excellent films to start with--they're real, but they're not gritty or unpleasant. Give 'em a shot!

In a World... : 4 out of 5 stars

Enough Said : 4.5 out of 5 stars

I Am the Walrus

Movies: Tusk

Some movies you go into knowing exactly what you're going to get. Snakes on a Plane, for example. There is no one who went to that movie not understanding that they would be getting approximately 90 minutes of snakes causing havoc on a plane. Hot Tub Time Machine also lets it all hang out right there in the title. While Tusk doesn't give anything away by its title alone, read any basic two-line description of the film and you'll know exactly what you're in for: a man will be kidnapped and surgically turned into a walrus.

I heard about this movie for the first time on Wednesday and, as luck would have it, saw that the film was opening in my hometown this very weekend. I semi-dragged a semi-willing friend to see it and I can't say I was disappointed. At one point the villain asks the rhetorical question: "Is man really at heart a walrus?"

You might ask why I would want to see this movie. I ask: why wouldn't I? It stars hipster dreamboat Justin Long as the victim doomed to a life of blubber, Haley Joel Osment (aka the kid from The Sixth Sense, looking like an older, chubbier version of the kid from The Sixth Sense here), and a surprise cameo (although he's in a solid third of the movie, so it's more of a supporting role than a cameo) from a huge movie star as a private detective with a pretty offensive stereotypical French accent. It's also directed by Kevin Smith, who can be a surprising director (see my review of Red State). And did I mention that a dude gets surgically altered into a fucking walrus? It's like The Human Centipede but funnier and with less poop.

                   Poor Wallace. That hipster mustache will come in handy as whiskers soon. Image courtesy of indiewire.com


The first half of the film is actually pretty good by most standards. Justin Long plays Wallace Bryton, a guy who makes a living podcasting with his best friend Teddy (Osment). Their podcast is called "The Not-See Party" because it mostly involves Wallace showing weird/funny online videos to Teddy, who has not seen them yet. Wallace also travels around to interview the "stars" of these videos. He makes a trek to Canada to interview a kid who sliced his own leg off with a samurai sword, only to find that the young man has committed suicide with the very same sword. Wallace happens to find a handwritten note in a bar bathroom that evening from a man named Howard Howe promising wonderful stories from the his long life. Talented actor Michael Parks plays this old coot in such a way that elevates the character beyond what could have been a pretty weak "crazy old nut" role. But rest assured, the guy is insane. He woos Wallace with stories of meeting Hemingway during World War II before drugging the young man's drink and beginning the process of merging man...and mammal. Dun dun DUN!

Surprisingly, there's not a ton of gore in this film, and the gore you do see is so ridiculous that, frankly, I didn't find the film all that disturbing. Once you actually get to see Long all suited up in his walrus get-up, it's obviously meant to be hilarious. The big reveal was met with hysterical laughter in the theatre I was in. I mentioned The Human Centipede above, which I still have not seen. I was disturbed by hearing a friend simply describe the plot of Human Centipede, whereas I chortled my way through Tusk's supremely silly take on the "body horror" genre of film. Of course, standard caveats apply, your mileage may vary, you might find Tusk the freakiest movie this side of David Cronenberg, yada yada. But I saw this film as 40% horror and 60% comedy.

Once Michael Parks has fully transformed Wallace into "Mr. Tusk", the movie devolves very quickly into cringeworthy horror-parody. The second half of the film is significantly worse than the first half, although I did like the scenes with Teddy, Ally (Wallace's girlfriend), and Guy Lapointe, the beret-wearing, slider-devouring French detective. I can understand why others might not be as amused by Lapointe, but I thought he was funny.

Overall, Tusk is not a great--or even good--film. But I found it to be an entertaining curiosity of a movie. I'm going to give it a decent rating because it got some genuine laughs from me and didn't put on airs of being anything more than a movie about a dude who is forcibly turned into a walrus.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Bizarre Love

Movies: The One I Love


In this post, I will offer a spoiler-free review of the film The One I Love as well as a much longer review complete with spoilers. Just as with The Cabin in the Woods, which I reviewed back in April of 2012, The One I Love has multiple levels of spoilers, making for one crazy, trippy movie that's also really difficult to talk about. If you haven't seen The One I Love and would like a wholly innocent, pure experience, just don't read any of this and go see the movie. Come back and read my review when you've finished...


Well, okay, if you want to know a *little* about the movie...

The One I Love (spoiler-free!)

The One I Love is the first full-length film by Charlie McDowell. It stars Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss and mumblecore veteran Mark Duplass. Moss and Duplass play Sophie and Ethan, a married couple who are trying to work through infidelity (Ethan cheated on Sophie). They see a therapist (Ted Danson), who recommends they squirrel away at a retreat to reconnect with one another. The retreat is pretty nice--basically, a big house, a pool, and guest house, complete with a photo-book of other happy couples who have emerged from the retreat more deeply in love than ever.

But then some weird shit goes down.

That's literally all I can say, or I'd give too much away. You want more info? See the movie or read the rest of my review.

I can safely say that I really, really enjoyed The One I Love. Duplass and Moss are great--they really nail the comfort and tension of two people who have been together for years and are going through a hard time, yet trying to forgive one another. They both juggle changing emotions--from annoyance to anger to lust to affection--with great skill. The One I Love has received mixed reviews from film critics, but I for one thought it was unique and really interesting. Go see it!

4.5 out of 5 stars

                                                                                   Photo courtesy of thedissolve.com


***

The One I Love (with spoilers!)

Alright, so here's the deal. The whole fucking plot of this movie IS the spoiler. About 15-20 minutes into the film, the two lovebirds check out the guest house at their little retreat, have some dinner and wine, and end up screwing on the couch. Sophie says she wants to sleep in the guest house, but she wants to get some clothes from the main house first, so she heads over...only to find Ethan sleeping on the couch of the main house. Understandably confused, she asks how he made it there before she did. He says he doesn't know what she's talking about and they have a fight. Later, Ethan walks over to the guest house to find empty wine bottles, a joint still smoking in an ash tray, etc. Sophie comes in, says "I'm sorry", and the two snuggle to sleep. Next morning, Ethan heads back to the main house and finds Sophie, who was cooking him breakfast in a cute nightie in the guest house not two minutes before, emerge in an oversize sweatshirt from the main house's bathroom.


Sophie and Ethan take turns checking out the guest house--alone--only to find a more idealized version of each other waiting for them there. Rather than freaking the fuck out and getting the hell out of dodge, Sophie convinces Ethan to stick around and explore what's going on in more depth. They make a few rules--they can't have sex with the doppelgangers in the guest house, they can't spy on each other when one is in the guest house, and they get 15 minutes at a time in the guest house. Well, Sophie immediately breaks that last rule, causing Ethan to break the 2nd rule by peeking in on her while she gets an awesome shoulder massage from Ethan 2.0 in the guest house. Some kinky shit, man.

You might think that this is as weird as the movie gets...but you'd be wrong! After a few nights of exploring the guest house (well, Sophie definitely does a lot of "exploring" with Ethan 2.0, whereas real Ethan barely wants to be around Sophie 2.0 because he's creeped out by her), the doppelgangers show up in the main house! Scary! The scenes where the doppelgangers confront the originals is pretty fun since it gives Mark Duplass a chance to play the more alpha male Ethan 2.0 alongside his suspicious beta male real Ethan character, and for Elisabeth Moss to have real Sophie compliment Sophie 2.0 and then have Sophie 2.0 act all bitchy to real Sophie when no one is looking. Seriously, this movie is a trip.

There are more secrets to be explored in the guest house, which Ethan does while the doppelgangers are occupied in the other house. He finds some shit that is way spookier than anticipated. The doppelgangers are not innocent creatures who just want to help Sophie and Ethan through their marital troubles, but usurpers who actually want to take their place out in the real world and trap Ethan and Sophie at the guest house retreat...unless they assume the identities of the next troubled couple to show up. Can real Ethan convince real Sophie to escape before it's too late? Or is real Sophie falling in love with Ethan 2.0?

What I like about this movie is that there's no in-depth explanation about how all of this is possible. There's no secret lab where we see a mad scientist creating the doppelgangers. You find out what's going on in stages throughout the movie, but there are some things the film just leaves as a mystery--like how a couple gets "trapped" in the guest house and then manages to actually take the form of the next couple. And really, that's a good thing because the whole film is pretty obviously an elaborate and layered metaphor for identity and relationships. I'd need to see the film again to come up with a more coherent explanation, but I liked the one provided by Moze Halperin on Flavorwire. Halperin argues that the film is a metaphor for modern day serial monogamy--how we are constantly looking for, getting into, and getting out of romantic and sexual relationships, and in doing so, reinventing our identities again and again. Sometimes in small, innocuous ways ("You love Vietnamese food? Oh my God, so do I!") and sometimes in more drastic, harmful ways ("She hurt my feelings, but I'll keep it inside since I don't want to lose her").

A simpler explanation is that The One I Love is a metaphor for how we idealize, well, the ones we love. How the gloss of a new relationship can slowly erode until we see imperfections that we somehow missed (but were always there) in the honeymoon stages--and how we sometimes try to force our loved ones to conform to this vision we have of them, and not let them be the imperfect vessels they actually are. The film asks the question, "if you could have a perfect version of your partner, would you want it?" Sophie responds with a resounding "Yes!" by getting turned on by Ethan 2.0, who stops wearing his glasses, does sit-ups, and massages Sophie's shoulders. Ethan responds with a heartfelt "Fuck, no!" by being thoroughly creeped out by Sophie 2.0 who is sweeter and cooks him bacon.

However you want to read The One I Love, I found the movie to be a surprisingly light-hearted take on the difficult topic of marital strife and imperfections in relationships (or, flat-out betrayal, as Ethan's cheating on Sophie is replicated by Sophie falling for Ethan 2.0). The film could have been melodramatic, but even during the creepy parts it managed to stay bubbly (at least for me). Think "The Twilight Zone" with a less heavy-handed message. The One I Love is a smart, fun, intriguing film.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Laughing in the Bedroom

Movies: They Came Together

In They Came Together, Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd take the lead as Molly and Joel, a couple who meet-cute while attending a Halloween party thrown by mutual friends. They're both dressed up as Ben Franklin, bald cap and all, but they're too busy being annoyed by one another to see that they are clearly "meant to be". When Molly, who owns a small, independent candy store, finds out that Joel works for Candy Systems & Research (basically, "Big Candy"), her hatred for him grows stronger. Can these two crazy kids see past their differences to make a love connection?

If the premise of this movie sounds like a stupid romantic comedy, that's because They Came Together is a parody of a stupid romantic comedy in the vein of Airplane and Austin Powers (only not as clever). They Came Together is moderately funny, but rather unfocused. There were some truly laugh-out-loud moments (especially in the rare scenes where the film veered toward offensiveness or absurdity, more on that later) scattered among a mostly chuckle-inducing sweet film.

The film's strength lies in its cast. Rudd and Poehler are reliably funny as the leads, but the secondary characters--particularly Christopher Meloni as Joel's boss at Candy Systems and Melanie Lynskey and Teyonah Parris as Molly's gal pals--really round out the movie and its myriad of rom-com tropes.

About those tropes: most of the jokes were a bit one-the-nose in their attempts to satirize romantic comedies. Poehler's character, for example, is a huge klutz who's always falling down, and Joel starts the film in a relationship with a woman who is beautiful "but a little cold" (played gamely by Cobie Smulders) and obviously not right for him.

However, director David Wain managed to surprise me a couple times by throwing in a bizarrely sexual or scatological joke when you would least expect it. A gag that involves a character stuck in a tight superhero costume at a Halloween party was completely out of place, but also one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

The thing that is a bit disappointing is that I know David Wain is capable of better comedy. A veteran of the sketch comedy troupe The State, Wain directed Wet Hot American Summer (also a parody, this time of summer camp movies) which is leaps and bounds more clever than They Came Together. One of his more recent films, Wanderlust (which also stars Rudd), is funnier as well. So even though They Came Together isn't *bad*, I just know it could have been better.

Given the awesome cast, They Came Together is worth renting on a rainy day. And obviously, since humor is highly subjective, you might find the movie much funnier than I did. But if subversion is what you're after, you won't find (much) of it in this film.

3.5 out of 5 stars