weekend

weekend

 Multi-hyphenate Andrew Haigh's Weekend focuses squarely on that titular time period shared between Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glen (Chris New), two young men still navigating what their sexual orientation means in the context of sparking intimate relationships. Though the film benefits from an easy chemistry between the leads, it never hits any of the highs hinted at early on, leaving audiences unfulfilled by the possibility of what might have been. The sexual honesty of the film, however, should garner some affection from Generation X and Y audiences looking for a more realistic and gritty take on modern romance. It will likely draw a small group, but positive buzz from festivals aren't likely to catapult it to the top of the limited release heap.
The film opens with Russell readying himself for a night with friends, but his insistence on getting high alone before hitting the house party and his subsequent tardiness show how little he truly cares about fitting in with his usual crowd. Haigh doesn't let that hint at Russell's character dangle though, using the first moments of the film to train the camera squarely on him, pulling him into focus while everyone else simply fades out. After muddling through the party, barely cracking a smile, Russell slinks out and finds himself alone at a gay bar. The film pushes Russell as "different" but Weekend is open to more than the predictable possibilities—and Russell is too, waking up the next morning to find the brash and funny Glen in his bed.
The two open their Saturday morning with an easy chemistry that glosses over the inherent awkwardness of waking up next to someone who is, despite whatever physical acts you may have committed with them, basically a stranger. As the skittish Russell settles back into bed Glen whips out a tape recorder and tells Russell of an "art project" he's attempting, one that involves Glen's conquests to tell the tape recorder the tale of what has recently transpired between the men. It is, unfortunately, only the first of many cheap conceits that Weekend breaks out in an attempt to gussy up the film's storytelling momentum.
The film does attempt to illuminate the struggles of both men (and, on a wider and more shallow scale, those of homosexuals everywhere) in coming to grips with how their sexuality defines them. While Glen appears to be comfortable with himself and his sexuality, he gradually reveals to Russell that may not be entirely true. Russell's struggles appear and remain internal; unlike Glen, he's never had parents to come out to, and his best friend Jamie proves his understanding and support to almost outrageous levels. Russell confesses to being uncomfortable the moment he comes in to contact with other people, which makes it bizarre when he confesses to his own art project of sorts, one that reveals that Glen's initial thoughts on Russell's experience level are wildly off-base.
Russell and Glen spend a fitful weekend together, with both revealing personal details over time, ostensibly crafting a tenuous intimacy, but one that never sees expansion beyond their first morning. Whereas Russell and Glen's first daylight moments together feel genuine and unique, that intimacy and chemistry simply never deepens, even while all the onscreen clues attempt such. Russell and Glen share stories and drinks and kisses and line after line of needless cocaine, but the film's aim—to show how one weekend together can change the two men forever—doesn't hold. No one walks away from Weekend feeling any different, neither the audience nor the leads.
The film was made on a shoestring budget over a period of just 16 days and with a tiny crew of 15 people. Haigh chose to shoot the film in story order, which only makes the lack of progression and growth that much more disappointing. While Cullen and New are able to hold attention, particularly when the two men move into more bold sexual interactions in between their stabs at anecdotal and conversational intimacy, Weekend as a whole still feels monotonous and unsatisfying. While there should be consequences and weight to Russell and Glen's story, Weekend is as fleeting and important as an ill-advised one night stand.

Distributor: IFC/Sundance Selects
Cast: Tom Cullen, Chris New
Director/Screenwriter: Andrew Haigh
Producers: Tristan Goligher
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 96 min.
Release date: September 23 NY, September 30 Ltd Exp.

Greenberg

Greenberg

With his morose, hangdog demeanor, Ben Stiller seems perfectly cast as an angry 40 year old with a severe dose of incipient middle-aged depression. Bolstered by the likes of Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Jason Leigh, director/writer Noah Baumbach moves the whole shebang along at a brisk pace. Although Ben Stiller’s brand of nervy comic ticks can prove irritating on occasions, here he is kept in check so that the humor and the pathos shine through.

Stiller plays Roger, an unemployed 40 year old with mental health problems who, after being released from treatment in New York, finds himself house-sitting for his brother (Chris Messina). Florence (Greta Gerwig) is an aspiring singer and also the Greenberg family’s general factotum who keeps an eye on the house in the Hollywood Hills and also on the house-sitter who has to cope with, among other contingencies, a sick dog.

The two lost souls strike up an unlikely relationship, although Roger has been trying to rekindle a friendship with Rhys Ifans’ character (many of the characters are nameless), with whom he used to play in a band. Greenberg’s also tries to reconnect with an old flame, Jennifer Jason Leigh, who also helped to devise the story with husband Baumbach.

Unable to drive, he is dependent on the redoubtable Florence to chauffeur him around. His vulnerability proves to be one of his main attractions to Florence and they hit it off in a way neither of them could have predicted. Thanks to her, Roger can suddenly see that there may well be a way out of his midlife crisis.

As you might expect from the Academy Award-nominated writer and director of The Squid and the Whale, the story packs enough wittiness, punch and pathos to sustain itself. Baumbach also uses his Los Angeles locations to authentic effect, giving the city almost as much prominence as the characters.

It could have been hopelessly overindulgent, a fear shared in advance by colleagues at the recent Berlin Film Festival where it was premiered, but by the end of it all you do care about these characters and their foibles.

Distributor: Focus Features

Cast: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Jason Leigh

Director/Screenwriter: Noah Baumbach

Producers: Scott Rudin and Jennifer Jason Leigh

Genre: Comedy drama

Rating: R for some strong sexuality, drug use and language

Running time: 107 min.

Release date: March 19 NY/LA, March 26 ltd.

The Crazies

The Crazies

A reimagining of George Romero’s 1973 horror flick, The Crazies brings in contemporary themes of paranoia and bio-terror and updates them for a new generation to whom this sort of far-fetched premise holds some fear-based truth. A strange, unidentifiable toxin in a small Iowa town’s water supply quickly turns friends and neighbors into the equivalent of murderous zombies as the town’s residents become infected and go beserk. An entertaining fright movie that’s crazy fun and full of genuine scares, this shocker will have horror fans jumping out of their seats and lining up for a quick theatrical playoff followed by bountiful DVD returns and an afterlife as a possible cult favorite at midnight shows.

When a small town’s water supply is contaminated by a substance that turns its easy-going, uber-friendly residents into cold-blooded zombie-like killers, Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) and his pregnant wife, Judy (Rahda Mitchell), have to fight the battle of their lives as everyone around them succumbs to a toxic fate. Joined by his trigger-happy deputy, Russell (British actor Joe Anderson), and Becca (Danielle Panabaker), a medical center colleague of Judy’s, the group face long odds getting out alive. They suffer close calls from the likes of a pitchfork wielding madman, runaway buzzsaws, mild mannered folk who turn into gun toting, knife-throwing terrorists and what quickly becomes a town without pity. When the military invades, things get really hairy as the true facts of the town’s demise come to light and government involvement is suspected.

Director Brett Eisner and writers Scott Kosar and Ray Wright take Romero’s basic premise but give it a face-lift, turning it into a parable for our times. It’s still as silly as it was in 1973, but post 9/11 the whole thing seems a little more credible which helps makes this earnest remake entirely watchable. Dead-pan comic lines delivered by the straight-faced cast help, along with superior special effects and lots of explosions. Lots. A scene set in the medical center where one of the crazies holds the female staff hostage before picking them off one by one with a pitchfork is truly terrifying and so are other set pieces, including a nifty fight in a bedroom where Judy is tied up (that happens to her a lot in this picture).

The cast won’t be winning any Oscars for this but they nicely adapt to the mostly stereotypical roles you find in this sort of film. Olyphant is a dead-ringer for Josh Duhmel, in his straight-laced sheriff role. Mitchell is deliciously feisty as his wife, but stealing every scene he’s in is Anderson, a riot as the shoot-first-ask-questions-later deputy who more often than not enjoys taking matters into his own hands.

Obviously shot on a low budget, producers, which surprisingly include the message-heavy Participant Productions (An Inconvenient Truth), make the most with top-notch visual effects, great stunt work and ideas to chew on. Romero should be proud. The Crazies are new all over again.

Distributor: Overture Films

Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker, Joe Anderson, Preston Bailey, Brett Rickaby and Joe Reegan.

Director: Brett Eisner

Screenwriters: Scott Kosar and Ray Wright

Producers: Dean Georgaris and Michael Aguilar

Genre: Horror

Rating: R, for bloody violence and language.

Running time: 101 min.

Release date: February 26, 2010

2009 Oscar Nominated Shorts

2009 Oscar Nominated Shorts

A staple of Oscar season for the past five years, Shorts International and Magnolia bring back the Oscar nominated animated and live action contenders in a program that clearly proves the most inventive work in the short form. It’s worth noting that basically the only work it showcases here is from foreign climes. The dark, often depressing tone of many of these shorts, however, may make this a longer sit than usual for audiences expecting sunnier things from smaller packages. Opening February 19 in select markets and expanding over the next month to 100 cities in the US, UK, Canada and Mexico, business should be fairly brisk despite the fact that the same films will also be available on iTunes beginning March 2nd.

Other than Fabrice O. Joubert’s thoroughly delightful French Roast, an 8 minute ‘toon about a businessman who loses his wallet and tries to stall before paying his bill at a very tony Parisian cafe, the rest of the animated contenders are somewhat dark and edgy—in addition to being quite funny. Most brazen of all of them is another French produced short directed by H5, the 16 minute Logorama, an L.A. hostage story set against the garish landscape of endless billboards, from McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken to Planters Peanuts and The Walt Disney Company. Truly spectacular, it pits two Michelin Men cops against a raging, Oozi-equipped Ronald McDonald on a rampage against society. Profane dialogue and lots of violence aside, the remarkable thing here is how these filmmakers ever got permission from these button-down corporations to use their logos in the first place. It’s in English with French subtitles.

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty is a cute, but forgettable Irish short from director Nicky Phelan revolving around some questionable re-invention of a classic fairy tale. Here, a nice old lady turns into a terrifying bedtime nightmare as she reads to her mortified granddaughter. Perhaps the best-known brand of the bunch is the UK’s Aardman Animation’s latest edition of the adventures of Wallace & Gromit, now caught up in a noirish story and murder mystery in which Gromit turns sleuth in order to save his boss and solve A Matter Of Loaf And Death. Frantic, fun and sometimes confusing, Wallace & Gromit fans won’t be disappointed in this half-hour ‘toon—though the four time Oscar winning director Nick Park has done better.

The last of the animated entries may be the best: Spain’s 8 minute The Lady And The Reaper deals with issues of death, mortality and assisted suicide but still keeps it fun and visually dazzling in this story of an old woman willing to die but rudely interrupted in the process. Actor Antonio Banderas is one of the producers of this inventive work from newcomer Javier Recio Gracia.

On the live action side there’s more death, destruction, murder, slavery and cataclysmic events as well for those who didn’t get enough from the animated contenders.

India’s Kavi, already a student Academy Award winner in 2009 from writer/director Gregg Helvey, is about a boy who longs for a normal life but is forced against his will to work in a brick kiln as a modern-day slave. Australia’s 17 minute Miracle Fish is a meandering study of 8 year old Joe who finds himself transported to another kind of world after being bullied on the school playground. Writer/Director Luke Doolan’s ambitious story has its moments and a startling ending but doesn’t quite come together.

Ireland’s 17 minute dirge, The Door, from director/writer Juanita Wilson, is based on a true story and is a Russian-set tragedy about the aftermath of the devastating 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Its focus on the effects on one family is moving and well-acted but the subject matter probably would benefit from a longer running time in order to be truly affecting.

The Denmark/USA co-production, The New Tenants has a Coen Brothers feel to it in a story written by longtime Susanne Bier collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen, with an English adaptation by David Rakoff who also co-stars. Danish director Joachim Back puts the Coen quirkiness and dark humor into a nightmarish scenario about a couple of men moving into a new building with rather startling results and an particularly un-neighborly welcome. Kevin Corrigan and Vincent D’Onofrio turn up as the only real name players in any of the 10 films in this program.

Finally, an amusing and enjoyable entry from Sweden, Writer/Director Patrik Eklund’s Instead Of Abracadabra about a down-on-his-luck, would-be magician who puts on one hell of a show for his father’s 60th birthday party. It’s the most entertaining of the bunch and a nice, if slight, character study.

Distributor: Shorts International

Directors: Fabrice O. Joubert, Nick Park, Patrik Eklund, H5, Javier Recio Gracia, Nicky Pehlan, Juanita Wilson and Luke Doolan

Genre: Short films

Rating: Unrated

Running time: 163 min. Animation: 68 min. Live Action: 95 min.

Release date: February 19, 2010

She's Out of My League

She's Out of My League

If the Farrelly Brothers and Judd Apatow somehow mated, the result of their union might be She's Out of My League. The latest rom-com to pair a goofy guy with a hot chick is sometimes hilarious, occasionally outrageous and terribly uneven. A winning turn by Tropic Thunder's Jay Baruchel goes a long way toward equalizing the movie's deficiencies, and that might be enough to lure forgiving comedy fans, particularly with so little to laugh at currently in theaters. Ticket sales may not reach blockbuster proportions, but should be robust.

Kirk Kettner (Baruchel) is a classic underachiever. He wants to be a pilot, but the closest he's come to achieving his dream is screening passengers as a TSA agent at Pittsburgh International Airport. That is where he meets Molly (Alice Eve), making a favorable impression on the gorgeous blonde events planner when he is the only agent who doesn't turn into a lecherous idiot in her presence. When she leaves her phone at security and he retrieves it, they have the opportunity to meet again. One thing leads to another and soon they’re dating, to the shock of their friends. Kirk's best pal Stainer (T.J. Miller) frankly dismisses his buddy's chances for love, saying that since Kirk is at best a five, while Molly is a "hard ten," the relationship math just does not add up.

She's Out of My League is on its surest footing in the romance department. Baruchel's looks may be unconventional but he is hardly the beast to Eve's beauty, and the actors share an easy chemistry together. The comedy is wobblier, partially because—from the mismatched couple to the barely socialized group of friends to the ghastly exes to the monstrous families—there is nothing new here. That is not necessarily a bad thing, except that screenwriters Sean Anders and John Morris throw seemingly every bit they came up with at the screen, regardless of whether or not it works. There are some inspired moments, such as an outlandish and lavishly crude scene in which Kirk ill-advisedly follows his womanizing friend’s advice to primp for Molly. But having Kirk's brother, Dylan (Kyle Bornheimer), ask Molly when they are introduced, "Are you a prostitute?" is certainly ridiculous, but it is not funny. And any film attempting an ejaculation joke has to live up to that gold standard There's Something About Mary—She's Out of My League has one and it doesn't, although Baruchel is game enough that he almost makes it work.

With only so-so writing, She's Out of My League is not as funny as it could be, but there are enough laughs to keep it entertaining. Baruchel and Eve are terrific and they receive excellent support from Miller, Mike Vogel, Nate Torrence and Krysten Ritter as their friends. If nothing else, the film is a fabulous advertisement for Pittsburgh with scenes shot at the Warhol Museum, the Mellon Arena and PNC Park, among other places. It may not score that highly as a comedy, but as a tourist brochure it is first rate.

Distributor: Paramount

Cast: Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, Mike Vogel, Nate Torrence, T.J. Miller, Krysten Ritter, Lindsay Sloane and Kyle Bornheimer

Director: Jim Field Smith

Screenwriters: Sean Anders and John Morris

Producers: Eric Gold, David B. Householter and Jimmy Miller

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Rating: R for language and sexual content.

Running time: 104 min.

Release date: March 12, 2010