The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2009) - C+
Mystified by the contempt for this perfectly watchable adaptation. Familiar story -- a kid breaks free from his tyrannical gangster father during the Summer That Changed Everything -- is told with feeling; the key is that Art not only asserts his independence but sheds his paralyzing indifference (the first dinner conversation with dad and the subsequent encounter with Momo are key), which is a more engaging and less clichéd journey. I don't think the love triangle has the depth that Thurber would like (all the talk about "saving" Cleveland is idle, really, except in the immediate sense of saving him from thugs), and the action climax is stupid, but the movie is likably earnest and admirable in its refusal to blow things out of proportion (I'm not sure I've ever seen a mainstream film treat an ostensibly straight character's bisexual experimentation so matter-of-factly). And Peter Sarsgaard is typically awesome. Crumbles in the last 15 minutes, which are a tone-deaf trainwreck, but the whole is far better than the weirdly dire reviews suggest.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Edge of Love
The Edge of Love (John Maybury, 2009) C-
Um. I'm not even sure what the thesis is here, if any, other than that Dylan Thomas was an insufferable lout. Certainly it doesn't work as a character piece, consisting as it does of unpleasant people doing boring things; the basic set-up is a pouty romantic and a needy pragmatist squabbling half-heartedly over a self-centered void, which sure isn't my idea of a good time. Cillian Murphy drops in occasionally and livens things up just by virtue of being an interesting actor, unlike the other three, but this is just brain-stabbingly dour stuff -- who could possibly have been passionate about this portrait of a pretentious starving artist and his two miserable groupies? There's one interesting moment early, when a tender love scene starts to literally fragment to foreshadow the rest of the plot, while Angelo Badalamenti's typically gorgeous score tenderly caresses us, but other than that, yeesh.
Um. I'm not even sure what the thesis is here, if any, other than that Dylan Thomas was an insufferable lout. Certainly it doesn't work as a character piece, consisting as it does of unpleasant people doing boring things; the basic set-up is a pouty romantic and a needy pragmatist squabbling half-heartedly over a self-centered void, which sure isn't my idea of a good time. Cillian Murphy drops in occasionally and livens things up just by virtue of being an interesting actor, unlike the other three, but this is just brain-stabbingly dour stuff -- who could possibly have been passionate about this portrait of a pretentious starving artist and his two miserable groupies? There's one interesting moment early, when a tender love scene starts to literally fragment to foreshadow the rest of the plot, while Angelo Badalamenti's typically gorgeous score tenderly caresses us, but other than that, yeesh.
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Great Buck Howard
The Great Buck Howard (Sean McGinly, 2009) - C+
Tepid showbiz comedy, ambling along predictably without any edge, suspense, momentum, or big laughs. It's leavened quite a bit by John Malkovich's totally singular weirdness (his Shatner-esque rendition of "What the World Needs Now" is pretty priceless) and a few other truly bizarre moments (e.g. George Takei's Regis and Kelly appearance), but mostly it just feels familiar, with a trite follow-your-dreams message that doesn't belong anywhere near a creation as perverse as Buck Howard himself. I have to say though that Tom Hanks' hopeful career brainstorming for his wayward son sounded eerily familiar to me personally. "Wait, get this: entertainment law!"
Tepid showbiz comedy, ambling along predictably without any edge, suspense, momentum, or big laughs. It's leavened quite a bit by John Malkovich's totally singular weirdness (his Shatner-esque rendition of "What the World Needs Now" is pretty priceless) and a few other truly bizarre moments (e.g. George Takei's Regis and Kelly appearance), but mostly it just feels familiar, with a trite follow-your-dreams message that doesn't belong anywhere near a creation as perverse as Buck Howard himself. I have to say though that Tom Hanks' hopeful career brainstorming for his wayward son sounded eerily familiar to me personally. "Wait, get this: entertainment law!"
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Adventureland
Adventureland (Greg Mottola, 2009) - B
Kristen Stewart's a revelation here, inhabiting a moody, genuinely troubled, perhaps depressed character in the middle of a goofy coming-of-ager, and doing it with confidence and poise instead of hysterics. Pairing her with Jesse Eisenberg in starring roles is a bold choice that pays off in spades: the script mostly just calls for a nerdy-virgin-romances-experienced-girl cliche, but Stewart's mesmerizing anger and vulnerability and Eisenberg's obvious intelligence elevate it. Movie's sincere, sweet, and often genuinely funny, though it's better in its looser, free-form moments than when the plot takes over (the whole "Lisa P" bit could probably have been tossed). Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig seem out of place, and the ending's a bit misjudged (the credits should have rolled 5 minutes earlier), but these are quibbles; the movie's smart and interesting basically the whole way through. It seems to have collapsed at the box-office, which is a shame and kind of inexplicable. It's worth your money.
Kristen Stewart's a revelation here, inhabiting a moody, genuinely troubled, perhaps depressed character in the middle of a goofy coming-of-ager, and doing it with confidence and poise instead of hysterics. Pairing her with Jesse Eisenberg in starring roles is a bold choice that pays off in spades: the script mostly just calls for a nerdy-virgin-romances-experienced-girl cliche, but Stewart's mesmerizing anger and vulnerability and Eisenberg's obvious intelligence elevate it. Movie's sincere, sweet, and often genuinely funny, though it's better in its looser, free-form moments than when the plot takes over (the whole "Lisa P" bit could probably have been tossed). Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig seem out of place, and the ending's a bit misjudged (the credits should have rolled 5 minutes earlier), but these are quibbles; the movie's smart and interesting basically the whole way through. It seems to have collapsed at the box-office, which is a shame and kind of inexplicable. It's worth your money.
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