Thursday, August 30, 2007

Superbad

***
by Scott Cupper
8/30/07

Seth…………………Jonah Hill
Evan…………………Michael Cera
Fogell………………Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Officer Slater………Bill Hader
Officer Michaels…...Seth Rogen
Becca……………….Martha MacIsaac
Jules………………..Emma Stone

Directed by Greg Mottola
Written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg

Rated R
Runtime: 1 hr 54 min.


This is perhaps my easiest review to write. Let me ask you this: Do you want to know the mind of a high school boy? If you’ve answered no, then don’t see Superbad.

For those who are sticking around, let me give you some other reasons to see Superbad.

It’s not the premise. It’s pretty simple. Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are two high schoolers who have thus far failed at women. Evan with Becca (Martha MacIsaac), the girl of his dreams, and Seth with every attractive girl, the only kind he’s interested in. This being their senior year, time is quickly running out, so they make it their quest to succeed. Or more accurately, Seth makes it their quest.

Fate shows it their friend when Seth gets invited to a party that night by Jules (Emma Stone) who is friendly. And attractive. This provides Evan the opportunity to invite Becca to the party. How can this fail? Then Jules drops the bomb: And, oh, can you bring the liquor?

Luckily, Seth and Evan’s faithful sidekick of a friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is getting a fake I.D. that very afternoon. Fogell’s that friend that you wish you hadn’t had, but when you had so few friends to begin with, can you really turn one down? Particularly one who is providing you the key to your dreams? Until Fogell proudly hands over his fake I.D. with his chosen alias: McLovin’. Just McLovin’. Oh what are these boys to do?

A lot actually including getting punched, shooting guns, getting run over, stopping crime, cops, singing, running all in the quest for procuring alcohol. Basically, general craziness prevails for this section of the movie. I got the impression that when Seth Rogen (who co-wrote and plays a cop) and Evan Goldberg (just a writer, thank you) wrote this when they were 13, they realized they were going to have a 45-minute movie if they kept it up at this rate. So they put in a whole bunch of obstacles. A few are genuinely funny, some are amusing, and the rest are simply plot.

The biggest problem with this stretch is that Seth and Evan are separated at times. I don’t want to take anything from Christopher’s performance as Fogell. He has a unique energy that is a wonder in its own way. It’s just that Michael Cera and Jonah Hill are so, well, funny together that it’s lunacy that the movie keeps them apart at all. I’m trying to find words to describe how it is that they work so well together and I’m having a difficult time. Yes, Cera’s “Aw shucks” perverseness and Hill’s desperation complement one another well. But what it boils down to is that you believe their friendship. The conversation flows so naturally between them that you feel like a voyeur.

When’s he going to mention how raunchy it is? Well, yes it is, but that’s dismissive. The first 20 minutes is long, extended scenes that rely solely on dialogue. We follow Seth and Evan as they begin their day and all they do is talk. Sure, the movie is not above using a curse word so much that that’s the joke, but it’s also interested in how these words are used. If you’ve seen a Tarantino movie, he does the same thing. And the jokes are not all simple either. When Seth makes an analogy comparing his sex life and Orson Welles’s career, that’s a joke that takes some smarts to make the some smarts to get.

I said that Superbad gets a lot right about high school boys. For me, the biggest things that are how much they think about sex (constantly) and how much sex they actually have. I’ll leave that for you to discover.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Storms

If you're not in the midwest, you've probably read about our string of severe storms. If you're in the midwest, you've undoubtedly experienced them. And string is right. We've got an assembly line stretching from Michigan to Northwest Texas. Apparently we're right on the edge of a bubble of hot air. And neither is moving.

It's been crazy. Severe thunderstorms every day. And night. Yesterday was the worst. Tornado warnings for all of Chicago. 310,000 people without power. My workplace lost power so we went home early. 2,400 trees damaged in some way and not a small number down. Traffic lights down. Over 2 inches of water in an hour. Viaducts flooded. The Edens (essentially I-94 after it diverges from I-90 north of the city) was closed because it was flooded. Yes, flooded. Lake Shore Drive was gathering water.

But it was the wind that was the most amazing. Gusts of 74 m.p.h. That's the windspeed at which a Tropical Storm is upgraded to a Hurricane. I've been up most nights at some point because I have two huge trees at either of my bedroom windows and I have never seen trees blowing so hard. So I get up and move to my living room in case one of those trees should decide it's tired and needs to rest in my bed. Watched an episode of the The West Wing last night. President Bartlet had to make a tough decision about the Defense Minister (I think) of Qumar. Riveting stuff at 1 a.m.

One more day. Oh yes, that's right. We could get another severe storm today. But the weekend promises nice weather.

Friday, August 10, 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum

***

August 10, 2007
By Scott Cupper

Jason Bourne…………….Matt Damon
Pam Landy………………Joan Allen
Noah Vosen……………...David Strathairn
Simon Ross………………Paddy Considine
Nicky Parsons……………Julia Stiles
Ezra Kramer……………...Scott Glenn
Desh……………………...Joey Ansah
Dr. Albert Hirsch…………Albert Finney

Directed by Paul Greengrass
Written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, and George Nolfi
Based on the novel by Robert Ludlum


Jason Bourne is awesome. Faster than a computer. More powerful than crashing cars. Able to size up any situation in a single glance. It’s Jason Bourne!

Therein lies the problem of The Bourne Ultimatum. Now don’t get me wrong. I love to watch Jason Bourne being awesome. And Matt Damon is awesome at making Bourne…awesome. But by simply being awesome, the series has lost something along the way. In the first Bourne outing, The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne was bewildered by what he could do and we were in awe. We were discovering together. Lately, though, he’s all about revenge.

It’s a natural progression, I understand this. At the end of Identity, he was content with what he knew about himself and was trying to live happily ever after on a secluded island with his girlfriend. But the CIA wasn’t happy, so they killed his girlfriend. Now, that would mess me up somethin’ awful. The funny thing, though, is that we no longer really care about his plight. We’re more interested in fights and big things go boom.

Jason Bourne has become more machine than man, going about his business as if he was programmed to do so. And forget about anything else. Sex seems to be a thing of the past. The movie wants us to believe that he loved his girlfriend, but when Bourne learns that he was in at least one other relationship, he reacts as if he’s been told he once owned a vacuum cleaner.

Ultimatum understands that this has happened, so it gives us something else to care about while Bourne is traveling from clue to clue. Joan Allen returns as Pam Landy, but she is no longer heading up the Bourne case. That job has gone to Noah Vosen (David Strathairn). And like any superiors must, they butt heads. Pam is trying to understand Bourne. Noah is trying to eliminate him. These are two fine actors and their interplay is a highlight of the movie. If Jason Bourne’s pursuit wasn’t so loud, this would feel like the main plot of the movie.

Ultimatum gets the ball rolling with a newspaper article that’s coming out. Reporter Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) is about to break the story on Treadstone and Blackbriar. I was a little hazy on this, but I think Treadstone became Blackbriar. Our hero was the first of the new program. That Jason Bourne, he’s such a good sport. So, anyway, Jason gets wind of this article and meets with the reporter.

The meeting was one of the movie’s best action sequences. Bourne, being the cunning fox he is, knows that this reporter is most likely being followed. So he slips him a cell phone and tells the reporter how to avoid all the security. It a skillfully crafted sequence that plays the right notes of Bourne’s knowledge verses the reporter’s fear.

I’m not in love with Paul Greengrass’s direction like everyone else is. Yes, his handheld style is kinetic, but it sacrifices a lot. It was very effective in Bloody Sunday. Here, however, the action scenes are a great deal more confusing than they need to be and at some point it’s even hard to tell exactly what’s going on. There’s no need for it. The pleasure of seeing this kind of movie is what the actors are doing. We want to see cool fights.

It probably sounds like I didn’t enjoy the movie. I did. It’s fine. It’s effective. It’s a good time. If you liked The Bourne Supremacy, you’ll like this one. It’s just when something starts with such promise, it’s hard to see it settle for the common denominator. At least it goes for the jugular.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Ratatouille

****

Remy…….…………….Patton Oswalt
Linguini……………….Lou Romano
Chef Skinner…………..Ian Holm
Colette…………………Jeneane Garofalo
Django…………………Brian Dennehy
Gusteau………………..Brad Garrett
Anton Ego……………..Peter O’Toole

Directed by Brad Bird
Screenplay by Brad Bird
Story by Brad Bird, Jim Capobianco, and Jan Pinkava with additional material by Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg


Ratatouille is one of the most effortless movies I have seen. It goes about its business likes it has no desire to aspire to anything other than entertaining you. It’s only afterward that you realize how much the movie was saying, which makes its ease all the more remarkable.

It begins as the story of Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat who has an exceptional sense of smell and takes great delight in food. This passion gets him in trouble with the humans where the pack is living and they have to leave.

Remy ends up in Paris. The people there share his passion for food, but feel generally the same about rats. He can’t help himself, however, and ends up in a restaurant where he saves a hapless garbage boy named Linguini from ruining the soup.

And from there, the movie just goes, introducing one wonderful character after another: the head chef Skinner (Ian Holm), the female chef Colette (Jeneane Garofalo), the critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole), and many more, all of whom have their moments whether they be singular or shared with many. The plot is a delight as it twists and turns and wends its way always landing where it should but never overstaying its welcome.

You can’t talk about a Pixar film without talking about the animation. There are many action set pieces in the movie. One of my favorites is after Linguini decides that Remy is going to help him cook. Neither knows how this is going to work and their first attempt is hilarious. In the end, there may be a few too many set pieces and they may go on too long, but each one is so ingenious that I can’t fault the movie for it.

Linguini (Lou Romano) may be my favorite creation by Pixar yet. He is a perfect blend of animation and voicework. He’s still not sure how to use his legs and arms and Lou Romano makes him talk as if he’s never said the right thing in his life. I’ve met people who would talk and move like this if they were animated.

The movie gets it right in even the smaller moments. When Remy talks about food, the visuals and sound design they use creates one of the best representations I’ve seen on film of how an artist views the world.

And I’m not a traveler, but Pixar movies are the ones that make me want to go places. Finding Nemo made me want to visit Sydney, Australia and now I want to go to Paris.

I’ve become a big fan of director Brad Bird (The Iron Giant and The Incredibles). He has his own stories that he tells in his way, eschewing standard formulas. In any other Pixar movie, the reuniting of characters who have been separated is usually the point. Mr. Bird separates and reunites two characters but he’s interested in something else: What if the issues they had before haven’t gone away? It’s one of the many ways that this movie has more on its mind.

Much has been made about America’s view of animation as child’s fare. The issue is larger than whether we can accept animation for adults. That too is limiting. Animators don’t have to worry about the real world. They have more tools at their disposal than any live action director does and Brad Bird is utilizing all of them. Ratatouille evokes smell and taste better than any live action movie I’ve seen. It is what animation is capable of.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Rescue Dawn

****

Dieter Dengler……………………….Christian Bale
Steve Zahn………………..………….Duane
Jeremy Davies………………………..Gene
Toby Huss…………………………....Spook
Teerawat ‘Ka Ge’ Mulvilai ………….Little Hitler

Written and Directed by Werner Herzog

Rated PG-13
Runtime: 2 hrs. 6 min.


Few of us know what true survival is. We talk about surviving different tribulations in our lives, but it’s hyperbole. Our life may have changed drastically, but we were never in any danger of losing our lives. I had this thought when I was watching Rescue Dawn. It is about men who know nothing but survival.

The movie is based on the true story of Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale). For reasons better left to Christian Bale’s monologue to detail, Dieter came to the United States from Germany to fly. We first meet him in the bowels of an aircraft carrier being briefed on a top secret mission to bomb targets in Laos before the Vietnam War has begun.

I want to take a moment to talk about Christian Bale’s performance. In many movies, we learn who a character is throughout the movie. Not so here. In these opening scenes, Bale makes Dieter charming, cocky, and forthright in a way so as to be slightly awkward. These are traits that are consistent throughout the movie. We therefore know him immediately and so we join him on this journey. It is Bale’s best performance that I have seen.

Dieter is shot down during the mission and gets captured by the Viet Cong and eventually arrives at a camp where he joins 5 men who have already been imprisoned for two years. Immediately, his only thought is escape, and his enthusiasm eventually inspires the other men to try.

The relationships that these men develop in the camp are the heart of the movie. They become a surrogate family: they bicker, they support each other, they laugh. It was the laughter that amazed me. Not that it happened. I believe you would have to laugh. It was that the movie was able to make the laughter so genuine. Usually, the audience laughs at characters onscreen. Here, it is the characters who laugh and we are allowed to laugh with them.

I’ve already mentioned Christian Bale, but Steve Zahn also gives a memorable performance as another fighter pilot, Duane. What I remember are Steve Zahn’s eyes. Duane’s desire to be as strong as Dieter is all right there as is the toll the camp has taken on him. It is an incredibly vulnerable performance.

It is after the escape that the jungle itself becomes a character in the movie. I had heard a lot about the men fighting their way through the underbrush, but I wondered how bad it could be. It is one of the most memorable images of the movie. It is a testament not only to Herzog’s devotion to filming on location, but also to the devotion of the actors.

In another director’s hands, this could have been an oppressive movie with graphic torture scenes and amped up music and the prisoners screaming at each other. But it is not. It is gentle, even subdued. Shocking things happen, but they are not emphasized. Herzog trusts this story and his actors, and in the end, us.