Movie Review: Long Shot

Long Shot *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Jonathan Levine.

Written by: Liz Hannah and Dan Sterling.

Starring: Charlize Theron (Charlotte Field), Seth Rogen (Fred Flarsky), June Diane Raphael (Maggie Millikin), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Lance), Ravi Patel (Tom), Bob Odenkirk (President Chambers), Andy Serkis (Parker Wembley), Randall Park (Boss), Tristan D. Lalla (Agent M), Alexander Skarsgård (Prime Minister James Steward), Aladeen Tawfeek (Bharath), Aviva Mongillo (Young Charlotte), Braxton Herda (Young Fred), Lisa Kudrow (Katherine), Kurt Braunohler (Wembley News Anchor #1), Paul Scheer (Wembley News Anchor #2), Claudia O'Doherty (Wembley News Anchor #3). 

 

Other than playing a convincing Fast & Furious villain, I’m starting to think there is nothing that Charlize Theron cannot do. When you look at her best performances – her Oscar winning turn as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, as the cynical, bitter YA author in Young Adult, as the driven Furious in Mad Max: Fury Road among them – they are all great performances, and all very different from each other. Her work in Long Shot doesn’t quite rank among those performances – but it’s the type of charming, movie star performance that is a lot harder than it looks – and she makes it appear effortless. She pretty much carries the movie on her back, selling us on the fact that she is the most powerful woman in the world – deserves to be that, because she’s so smart and driven, and yet she would still fall for Seth Rogen, who is essentially playing the same character he always does. She makes it look like the easiest thing in the world – and it clearly wasn’t.

 

You can easily complain about Long Shot being another film that sells the audience on the idea that smart, attractive, driven, accomplished women should all fall for easy going schlubs like Rogen. It’s become an unwelcome trope, and usually one that isn’t done with any sort of real thought behind it. But Long Shot – from a screenplay by Liz Hannah and Dan Sterling – does a really good job of differentiating this from other movies of its ilk. Overall, I don’t think the movie is as strong as Knocked Up was – but this movie does what that movie could not do, and make the female lead as interesting (in fact, far more interesting) and well-rounded as the male lead. Knocked Up was all about Rogen’s journey – and Heigl was just kind of there. In this one, the leads go through that journey together.

 

In the film, Theron plays the Secretary of State Charlotte Field under President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk) – an actor who played the President on TV, and then was elected to the office for real. He’s an idiot – but she is not. When he announces to her that he isn’t going to seek a second term – he wants to try and make the jump to movies – she positions herself as his successor. She just wants to get a climate change pact passed – and have the rest of the countries sign on – and then resign and launch her Presidential campaign. Her aids – including the absolutely delightful June Diane Raphael as Maggie – think she’s a slam dunk. But she needs a speech writer to punch up her speeches a bit. That’s where Fred Flarsky (Rogen) comes in. He’s an old childhood friend, who has lost touch with her – and he’s just lost his job at a Brooklyn based paper that was acquired by a Rupert Murdoch like media mogul (played by Andy Serkis under a ton of makeup) – so soon Fred is hired to punch up her speeches. And as happens in all of these movies, the more laid back dude teaches the uptight woman to relax and have fun a little bit – and they start to fall for each other.

 

Except, it’s more complicated than that. Rogen is not an idiot slacker here – yes, he looks like one, but he’s actually smart and driven in his own ways. He has principles, and stands by them. He reminds Charlotte of her own principles, which have been worn down by years playing the political game. So while, yes, there are scenes where the two of them get stoned (another trope that should probably die – even if Theron kills it in those scenes) – but you actually do believe the intellectual connection between the two of them, even if the physical one remains, well, a long shot.

 

I don’t want to oversell the movie. In many ways, it is precisely the film you think it will be – elevated more than a little by Rogen and especially Theron. There are still more than few clichés, and a few wrong notes hit throughout – including Serkis, who is a distraction, and a scene late that basically argues that we should all just get along, which seems out of place. The obvious comparison to this film is Rob Reiner/Aaron Sorkin’s The American President – but that film had enough guts to be political, even if it offends some in the audience. Sure, climate change deniers may get made at this film, but they’re idiots. But it’s really hard to get much politics from the film. Still, it’s a charming movie – a fun movie, and proof that Charlize Theron can do just about anything.

Movie Review: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Directed by:  Jonathan Levine.
Written by: Jacob Forman.
Starring: Amber Heard (Mandy Lane), Anson Mount (Garth), Whitney Able (Chloe), Michael Welch (Emmet), Edwin Hodge (Bird), Aaron Himelstein (Red), Luke Grimes (Jake), Melissa Price (Marlin), Adam Powell (Dylan).

The story goes that Harvey Weinstein bought All the Boys Love Mandy Lane when it became a buzzy Midnight Madness selection at TIFF all the back in 2006. He thought that his brother Bob could release the film through their genre division – Dimension. The only problem is that Bob didn’t really like the movie – it got moved around the schedule multiple times – came out pretty much everywhere else in the world (including DVD releases) except for North America. Why it’s getting released now, I have no idea – except, I guess it makes sense to, finally, try and make some of the money back on their investment. I remember hearing about the film at TIFF all the way in 2006 – and thinking it sounded interesting – so I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is not the horror equivalent of Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret – a long delayed masterwork by a studio who didn’t know what they had. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane left me wanting a lot more.

All the boys in her high school do in fact love Mandy Lane (Amber Heard) – and on a purely physical level, it’s easy to see why. She’s gorgeous, and the fact that she’s an “infamous virgin” only makes her more sought after. Apparently, Mandy was pretty much a wallflower until junior year, when she showed up looking smoking hot – I don’t really buy that she got that much hotter over the course of a summer, but whatever. Soon, she has pretty much dropped her loser friend Emmet (Michael Welch) – to hang out with the cool kids. All the boys want to be the one who deflowers her – one idiot even kills himself at a house party trying to impress her.

Most of the action of the movie takes place at the ranch of one of the cool kids who invites Mandy, alongside some other kids up for the weekend. Everyone is looking forward to a weekend of debauchery – drinking, drugs and sex – and that is pretty much what they get. Until, of course, the kids start being killed in gruesome ways by someone in a hoodie. Could it be Garth (Anson Mount) – the handsome ranch hand – or is it an outsider, or more chillingly, one of the kids themselves. The movie takes a painfully long time to reveal its secrets – and even features a “shocking twist ending” which if you’re like me, you’ll probably see coming from the outset.

Spoiler Warning: I’ll try not to spoil the movie below, but unfortunately, I pretty much have to at least hint what the movie has in store. You’ve been warned.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is half of a good idea, that the screenplay by Jacob Forman doesn’t quite follow through on. One of the clichés of the horror genre has always been the “virgin girl”, who survives until the end, and is the one who confronts the killer – and ends up walking away safely - while all of her slutty, alcoholic drugged out pay the price for their transgressions. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane decides to take that cliché, and twist it in the hopes of coming up with something new. It’s a good idea, but in this movie it doesn’t quite work. Like Joe Swanberg’s recent Drinking Buddies, which upended one cliché of the romantic comedy genre, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane doesn’t really have anything new to add to the genre except flipping the one cliché around. So like Drinking Buddies, it’s refreshing to see a movie that tries something different – but disappointing that the filmmakers didn’t come up with something more to do in place of the cliché they are upending. So both movies kind of go sideways instead leading somewhere satisfying. It’s an even bigger problem for All the Boys Love Mandy Lane than it was for Drinking Buddies, because by the time they get around to upending the cliché, the movie is just about over – and we are left with too many nagging, unanswered questions – and not the kind of ambiguous ones that can be intriguing, but instead the kind that feel like no one involved in making the movie really though through.

The movie itself isn’t horrible – it’s well made by director Jonathan Levine (it’s easy to see why he’s made three better films – The Wackness, 50/50 and Warm Bodies – since) and Heard is effective for most of her scenes – until the screenplay lets her down at the end. And yes, there’s a lot of blood for horror fans out there.

Still, it remains a fairly big disappointment for me, because there is so much promise in the premise – in the ideas it raises, that the movie never really follows through on. The film reminded me of Kate Asleton’s Black Rock from earlier this year – another film that tried to confront the misogyny implicit in so many horror films that ended up not quite being able to deliver on its promise.

Movie Review: Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies
Directed by: Jonathan Levine.
Written by: Jonathan Levine based on the novel by Isaac Marion.
Starring: Nicholas Hoult (R), Teresa Palmer (Julie), Analeigh Tipton (Nora), Rob Corddry (M), Dave Franco (Perry), John Malkovich (Grigio), Cory Hardrict (Kevin).

The biggest problem I always had with the Twilight books and movies is that I always thought it was silly for a vampire and a human to fall in love. After all, vampires are predators, and human are their prey, so it’s kind of like a lion falling in love with an antelope. And vampires, of course, are not alive, but “undead” – so they are essentially walking, talking, killing corpses. How could someone fall in love with a corpse? And why is it that people fall in love with vampires so easy, but never fall in love with a zombie?

As if in answer to my query comes Warm Bodies – a funny teen romance where a zombie and a human really do fall in love. Yes, the premise is as ridiculous as Twilight, but one of the many charms of Warm Bodies is that it knows full well that the premise is ridiculous – and has some fun with it. The movie plays with the conventions not only of the zombie genre, but also romantic comedies. It isn’t trying to be a “generation defining love story” as some have ridiculously claimed Twilight is – but rather just a fun zombie comedy. And while it is no Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, I had a hell of a lot of fun watching it.

The movie stars Nicholas Hoult as R, who also narrates his adventure. He doesn’t remember his real name – but thinks it started with a R – and doesn’t remember what he did for a living (although, as he states, judging on his hoodie, he was unemployed). He doesn’t even remember how he became a zombie, just that he is, and although he feels guilty about eating people, he does so anyway. The “new hunger” is too strong for him to ignore. Like many other zombies, he lives at an airport. He has made his home in an old passenger plane that he has filled with whatever he comes across and likes. He loves vinyl records for example, but has a lot of other stuff. One day he and a group of zombies come across a group of survivors, and one thing leads to another, and R is soon eating someone’s brains. This is when we learn that when a zombie eats the brain of somehow, he gets to see their memories. I’m sure some purists of the genre will argue this goes against well-established genre rules, but considering I haven’t really seen another movie from the point of view of a zombie, I cannot say it really does. Anyway, what he learns is that the guy whose brain he is eating is in love with Julie (Teresa Palmer), also at that raid. When R sees her, he is instantly flooded with love – and rather than eat her, he saves her life and brings her back to his plane. Obviously, this is not the way to start a healthy relationship, but R doesn’t really have another option. And once Julie realizes that R means her no harm, she starts to relax around him, and open up. And gradually, R starts becoming more and more human.

Warm Bodies owes much of its charm to its two stars. Hoult, who first came to audience’s attention 10 years ago in About a Boy, has grown up a lot, and turned into quite a good actor. The role requires him to be funny under a lot of zombie makeup for much of its running time, and for the most part, he succeeds wonderfully. Perhaps even better is Teresa Palmer who really did remind me of a sunnier, less mopey, Kristen Stewart, and who is quite charming. They get good support for Annaleigh Tipton as Julie’s best friend (who picks a perfect song for a makeover montage), John Malkovich, who is clearly doing this for a paycheck, but it is still fine, and especially Rob Corddry, who steals his scenes as R’s best friend M.

The film was written and directed by Jonathan Levine, and even though it is quite different from his last film – the cancer dramedy 50/50 – he shows once again a gift for comic timing behind the camera. Warm Bodies may not be a great movie, but it is great fun to watch.

Movie Review: 50/50

50/50 *** ½   

Directed by: Jonathan Levine.

Written by: Will Reiser.

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Adam), Seth Rogen (Kyle), Anna Kendrick (Katherine), Bryce Dallas Howard (Rachael), Anjelica Huston (Diane), Serge Houde (Richard), Andrew Airlie (Dr. Ross), Matt Frewer (Mitch), Philip Baker Hall (Alan).

When you’re 27 years old, cancer is the last thing on your mind. But for Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) that nagging pain in his side turns out to be a rare kind of spinal cancer, and it sends his whole word into a loop. He was a young guy, working a cool job alongside his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) and has a pretty girlfriend, Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) and everything seems fine. The biggest problem he has is that his mother, Diane (Anjelica Huston) worries too much, and his father has alzheimers. But when you get cancer, no matter how old you are, everything changes.

What I admired most about 50/50 is that it is not another dire movie about cancer. It’s also not an inspirational movie, where we are moved by the cancer patient’s brave struggle against the illness. Instead, it is a movie full of life and humor. Yes, there is a dark undercurrent behind the movie, but this is not a typical cancer movie, which is exactly why it works so well.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has emerged in the past few years as one of the best actors of his generation, and he pretty much carries 50/50 on his shoulders. He nails the comedy and the drama in the movie, and makes Adam into a real living human being – not just the “guy with cancer”. It seems like he struggles more with meeting everyone’s expectations of him, rather than with the illness itself. He goes off to his chemo treatments, still hangs out with his best friend, and when his girlfriend cheats on him, he reacts the same way any guy would. She has excuses of course, but he doesn’t much care. He knew that the cancer would be hard on both of them and their relationship – he even gave her out when he first found out about it – but she goes ahead and cheats anyway. It is an accomplishment of the movie – and the wonderful Bryce Dallas Howard – that you understand, if not forgive, her actions.

The only time that Adam truly gets to be himself – to truly confront his illness head on – is in his therapy sessions with the young woman working on her doctorate – Katherine (Anna Kendrick). He was expecting someone older – but then again, so was she. Kendrick, who like Gordon-Levitt, has emerged as an actor who I cannot help buy love every time I see her, hits the right notes in her role as well. She doesn’t really know what she’s doing, but she tries really hard – and it helps that Adam seems to have a sense of humor about the whole thing – and calls her on it when she gets to “therapist” with him. He wants no bullshit.

The movie has a nice, relaxed feel to it – and the interactions between pretty much all the characters feels genuine – even Seth Rogen, who we at first think is just being his same old shallow self, but the performance really has much more going on in it. The film was written by Rogen’s friend Will Reiser, who survived his own battle with cancer, and decided he wanted to write a movie about what he went through. Perhaps most cancer patients don’t go through everything like Adam does, but the journey still feels real.

The movie moves along fairly effortlessly for its first two acts – mixing comedy and drama with ease and letting us get to know its characters. The third act, which is when the real heavy lifting comes in, is surprisingly moving. The movie suckers you into thinking that you’re watching a comedy, that just happens to be about a guy with cancer, and then hits you hard in the final reel. You may be surprised just how moved you are by the movie – I certainly way. But that’s what happens when you get a writer who has lived through something like this, coupled with an actor of Gordon-Levitt’s ability, who wins you over without you even realizing it. Director Jonathan Levine does a wonderful job here as well. I don’t think 50/50 is quite a great movie – and it may well be not all that true to life – but it works surprisingly well for what it is.