Tag Archives: bridesmaids

Kids behaving badly: Bad Words

29 March 2014

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Description: Film poster; Source: Wikipedia [linked]; Portion used: Film poster only; Low resolution? Sufficient resolution for illustration, but considerably lower resolution than original. Other information: Intellectual property by film studio. Non-free media use rationales: Non-free media use rationale - Article/review; Purpose of use: Used for purposes of critical commentary and illustration in an educational article about the film. The poster is used as the primary means of visual identification of this article topic. Replaceable? Protected by copyright, therefore a free use alternative won't exist.

[Image Source: Wikipedia]

I have soft spot in my soul for the naughty movie with a heart of gold.

The Holy Grails of such films for me are Bad Santa and Bridesmaids. And if I were plotting a trilogy, Jason Bateman’s first directorial effort Bad Words would be right there alongside them.

I freaking loved this movie.

Let me add that I am not a Jason Bateman fan. He reminds me of boys that weren’t very nice to me in junior high – all preppy swagger and snark. However, this film has made me turn 180 degrees on that assessment. He’s plenty snide in this flick, but I’m guessing that he too was one of the picked on, given the surety and sensitivity and sharpness with which he approaches this material.

The concept (one that can only make sense in the logic bubble that is Hollywood film-making) is that a 40-year-old proofreader (Bateman again) can enter the “Golden Quill” spelling bee competition via one loophole: anyone who has not completed school past the 8th grade is eligible. (It’s never explained how Bateman has a seemingly successful career yet never passed beyond middle school, but whatever.)

Bateman’s character Guy Trilby has some hidden agenda for why he is so hellbent to not only enter the bee at local and regional levels but to win at the national level. We learn bits and pieces through the course of the film as Trilby is trailed by a web journalist (and sometime paramour) – played brilliantly by nebbishy Kathryn Hahn (a near doppelganger for Saturday Night Live alum Ana Gasteyer) – who unearths aspects of his past as the film proceeds.

Bateman has cast his film to perfection, including the always wonderful Allison Janney as the spelling bee’s anal-retentive national director, Rachael Harris as a belligerent bee-parent, and Philip Baker Hall as a the Golden Quill’s paterfamilias.

The heart and soul of the film, though, comes in the form of newcomer Rohan Chand as Trilby’s 10-year-old sidekick/rival. Yes, the scenes of the 40-year-old and 10-year-old painting the town red are comically shocking but also wildly endearing. Say what you will about Bateman, but he telegraphs arrested development beautifully (no pun intended given that he starred on a TV show with the same name), with his boyish charm, elfin features, and boys-will-be-boys attitude. As a result, the friendship that blossoms between these two puckish naturals is a whimsical delight (rivaling what Billy Bob Thornton accomplished in the aforementioned Bad Santa).

I suppose, given the fact that I subjected myself to foolish pageantry like spelling bees and speech tournaments in my youth, I had a predilection to identify more with this film. But Batemen nailed the hothouse insanity of pitting 10-year-olds against 10-year-olds over something as innocuous as spelling words. Indeed, Bateman’s Trilby is cutthroat in his desire to take down any kid in his path (there were a few gags that made me squirm unnecessarily). However, trust me, kids do that to kids … what makes it ironic (and d*mn funny) is that we are now seeing a 40-year-old man engage in such juvenile shenanigans.

With this film, Bateman announces himself as a directorial presence. He displays a nuance that many directors never achieve – he walks a fine line between smart-aleck and empathy. And the results are utterly charming and blisteringly caustic. I will be first in the queue for his next effort.

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Reel Roy Reviews is now a book! Please check out this coverage from BroadwayWorld of upcoming book launch events. In addition to online ordering at Amazon or from the publisher Open Books, the book currently is being carried by Bookbound, Common Language Bookstore, and Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room in Ann Arbor, Michigan; by Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, Michigan; and by Memory Lane Gift Shop in Columbia City, Indiana. Bookbound and Memory Lane both also have copies of Susie Duncan Sexton’s Secrets of an Old Typewriter series.

 

Countdown: The Heat

15 February 2014

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From my wonderful publisher Open Books…

13 days left until the official launch of ReelRoyReviews, a book of film, music, and theatre reviews, by Roy Sexton!

“McCarthy seems to be the comedic love-child of Kathy Bates and Jackie Gleason, marrying Bates’ soulful empathy with Gleason’s caged intensity, in a feisty package whose doleful eyes speak volumes, even in the most farcically broad circumstances.”

Learn more about REEL ROY REVIEWS, VOL 1: KEEPIN’ IT REAL by Roy Sexton at http://www.open-bks.com/library/moderns/reel-roy-reviews/about-book.html. Book can also be ordered at Amazon here.

The comedy of worry: The Heat

14 July 2013

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Description: Film poster; Source: Wikipedia [linked]; Portion used: Film poster only; Low resolution? Sufficient resolution for illustration, but considerably lower resolution than original. Other information: Intellectual property by film studio. Non-free media use rationales: Non-free media use rationale - Article/review; Purpose of use: Used for purposes of critical commentary and illustration in an educational article about the film. The poster is used as the primary means of visual identification of this article topic. Replaceable? Protected by copyright, therefore a free use alternative won't exist.

[Image Source: Wikipedia]

Nobody makes comedy gold from exasperated worry like Melissa McCarthy – the kind of frustration and anxiety about a world spinning out of control that leads one to bold, aggressive, head-busting tough love. She did this to great effect in her breakthrough Oscar-nominated performance in Bridesmaids and does so again in Paul Feig’s follow-up to that film, The Heat, alongside co-star Sandra Bullock.

McCarthy seems to be the comedic love-child of Kathy Bates and Jackie Gleason, marrying Bates’ soulful empathy with Gleason’s caged intensity, in a feisty package whose doleful eyes speak volumes, even in the most farcically broad circumstances.

Unfortunately the script for The Heat includes one or two too many of those big, dumb farcical moments, trying even McCarthy’s (and Bullock’s for that matter) unique ability to weave a higher order of comic social commentary and righteous rage over the indignities embedded in these misogynistic United States of America. (Yes, we even have to suffer through that 80s film throwback: the female-buddy-drown-our-sorrows-in-cheap-beer-at-a-dive-bar musical montage, this time set to Deee-Lite’s admittedly infectious “Groove is in the Heart.”)

Regardless, The Heat is a fun film because the two leads rise above the rather junky, contrived, and, yes, stale premise of a rigid FBI agent (Bullock) thrown into partnership over turf issues with a scruffy police detective (McCarthy) in pursuit of a big bad drug cartel. I feel like we’ve seen this movie a million times, but in the capable hands of Bullock and McCarthy this high concept claptrap has some decent nuance and is pretty d*mn funny. (I suspect the best dialogue did not come from the rather pedestrian script but from some free-wheeling improv between the two leads.)

I don’t always love Bullock. She can come off rather stiff and clunky with an overeager desire to show her aren’t-I-a-zany-dame? schtick. However, partnered with McCarthy who exudes edgy warmth in spades, Bullock becomes a crackerjack, shining a simultaneously acerbic and poignant spotlight on a patriarchal power structure that resents her intelligence and blocks her progress at every turn.

As noted, the script stumbles with some dumb b-movie cliches and gets pretty muddled about two-thirds of the way with some gross-out gags that undermine the overall momentum and message. However, sweet character moments toward the conclusion pull the film back on track.

The Heat is worth seeing, albeit with lowered overall expectations, for the nifty high-wire act that McCarthy and Bullock are pulling off. They deserve a better film…which, in and of itself, may be the most compelling proof point/indictment of the kind of institutionalized sexism the film attempts to critique.

Self-serious harmonizing…mildly irritating and always amusing: Pitch Perfect

28 September 2012

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Description: Film poster; Source: Wikipedia [linked]; Portion used: Film poster only; Low resolution? Sufficient resolution for illustration, but considerably lower resolution than original. Other information: Intellectual property by film studio. Non-free media use rationales: Non-free media use rationale - Article/review; Purpose of use: Used for purposes of critical commentary and illustration in an educational article about the film. The poster is used as the primary means of visual identification of this article topic. Replaceable? Protected by copyright, therefore a free use alternative won't exist.

[Image source: Wikipedia]

I have always found the self-serious harmonizing of college glee clubs mildly irritating and always amusing – I mean any genre that yields a group called “The Whiffenpoofs”…seriously? Come on!

So I was thrilled that new collegiate comedy/musical Pitch Perfect approaches its a cappella subject matter with a healthy dose of irreverence. (My favorite episodes of Glee use, as a skewed lens through which to view our zany/imbalanced/unhinged society, the inherent absurdity of a vocal group treating, say, Britney Spears as if she were Gilbert and Sullivan.)

Yes, the film has Glee‘s pop satiric edge in its DNA. It nicely marries that concept to a sort of junior, higher ed version of Bridesmaids, with a grounded, just left-of-center enough approach to its central female characters. To their credit, the filmmakers even include Kristin Wiig’s Bridesmaids‘ roommate Rebel Wilson in a very funny supporting role…and to their discredit, they have shamelessly stolen the conceit of once-fresh Bridesmaids‘ poster art (see above).

Carrying the film, beyond the fun and funny (though not groundbreaking) musical mash-ups, are leads Anna Kendrick and Skylar Astin. Like baby-faced versions of Tina Fey and a less obnoxious Dane Cook, Kendrick and Astin, who got their starts in Broadway musicals High Society and Spring Awakening respectively, are winning and believable as sweet, slightly dorky college kids who just really dig music. Kendrick, probably best known as George Clooney’s wide-eyed, wise-ass sidekick in Up in the Air, brings authentic wit and warmth to an at times riotously funny but also wildly uneven script. You can tell she is one of those luminous and generous actors whose mere presence has the gift of improving the ensemble around her.

NOTE: One of my personal faves, Elizabeth Banks serves double duty (off screen) as the film’s producer and (onscreen) as a sardonic fembot a cappella contest commentator who makes Entertainment Tonight‘s Mary Hart look like Mother Teresa. She is a delight!

The film does not ever stray from it hackneyed underdog structure (one of the characters even invokes Rocky at one point), but the sass and smarts of the leads and supporting players offer the enterprise a joyous uplift.