"Monkey Business" - Film Review

Monkey Business is a delightfully screwy comedy. A boring, absent minded scientist (Carey Grant) is working on a formula for a youth serum and testing it on monkeys. When one of the monkeys solves the formula before the scientist, he slips the mixture into the water cooler and soon has the scientist convinced he's figured out the answer to the fountain of youth. This in turns leads to lots and lots of shenanigans.

This is unquestionably a silly film but so much of it is pitch-perfectly zany that it doesn't matter how much of a stretch so much of it is or how ridiculous so many of the plot turns are. Grant and Ginger Rogers, as his wife, commit to the transformations caused by the serum and it leads to some predictable but hilarious scenes where they act first like they're in their twenties and then as if they're in pre-school. Grant gets a new hair cut, a new suit and a new car; crashes the car, and takes Marylin Monroe, the secretary of his boss - really just Monroe playing Monroe as she did in so many films and always pleasingly so - out on the town. Rogers pulls pranks on Grant's boss, before attempting to recreate their honeymoon night, which, of course, ends up disastrously. A fight gets out of hand, Rogers kicks out Grant, and calls up her lawyer to work on the divorce papers.

In the vein of screwball comedies (including director Howard Hawks' great Bringing Up Baby), this is a woozy escalation of events. The earlier comedy sequences seem quaint when compared to the ones towards the end (which really are testing credulity). Grant paints his face as an Indian and with the help of some neighborhood kids scalps the lawyer. Meanwhile, Rogers mistakes a baby for Grant, assuming the formula has gone terribly wrong and de-aged him too far.

There's no questioning this is a little dumb and a little goofy, but Hawks keeps the film humming along. The film never really takes a breather, continually pushing forward with one joke after another. And it's all so charming and funny that it doesn't matter that this is a little absurd. The film's enjoyment comes through its embracement of its absurdity.

The star power and the direction here turn what could very easily have been something bad into something with impeccable comedic timing. 

Grade: A-

"Bad Taste" - Film Review

Bad Taste is straight up with its aims; it's right there in the title. It's a trashy, schlocky film that revels in "bad tastiness".

The film is perhaps best known as the debut effort of director Peter Jackson. In the film we can see a lot of what would make up his later films, particularly those of his splatter film period. Though the story is dearly in need of more substance, the craft here is great. The special effects are inspired, and gloriously, often hilariously, over-the-top. Jackson is clearly working with a limited budget (he plays two different parts, along with writing, producing, making effects, doing make up, and directing the film) and out of that he comes up with some inventive ways for action, tension and humor (at some points disgustingly so).

Jackson keeps the story simple. A secret, small government agency is assigned to contain an extraterrestrial attack upon a small, isolated New Zealand town. The aliens have possessed the bodies of some of their victims and seek to eat any human that comes in their way. The aliens are harvesting human bodies to be used as part of a fast food franchise.

Jackson slowly builds up the story, starting out with smaller horror and action setpieces before building to a series of slightly indulgent, awesome and a bit tacky fight scenes where guns go a blazing.

Underlying all of this is a dry humor. There are a number of throwaway lines that are wonderfully biting and satirical without drawing attention to themselves. The film's humor is what drives it. The storytelling is constantly aware that this is a little trashy and has fun with its crazy, silly premise. 

Through the film such a high level of affection comes across that even at its low points, it's a little giddy. 

The storytelling is lacking a little too much, especially early on. But there's some good splatter effects and it's interesting to see where Jackson got his start.

Grade: B-

"The Queen of Versailles" - Film Review

Lauren Greenfield's Queen of Versailles finds a unique lens for exploring issues surrounding the economic state of the United States. The film tells the story of one of the nation's wealthiest families, the Siegels, pre and post 2008 economic collapse. And in the lavishness of their lifestyle and in the conflict it comes into when confronted with economic problems, the film finds a sad, darkly funny tale of excessive consumption and materialism with much greater implications for the larger U.S.

David Siegel made his fortune by founding the world's largest time share company, Westgate Resorts. So assured of his success and a workaholic, he put all his time and energy into the company. Nearly all of his family's money is tied up in the company. His wife Jackie dropped out from an engineering job at IBM to pursue a career as a model, which she was successful at for some time before marrying David. Now she lives out her days in their massive home with dozens of dogs and her seven kids. But this is not enough; she convinced her husband to build a full scale replica of France's Versailles Palace (the largest single family home in the U.S.), a house that remains incomplete.

In the miniature Versailles, Greenfield finds a near perfect unintentional symbol for her subject matter. The Versailles on the outside is near complete; it's luxurious, extravagant, and, to the right eye, gorgeous. But the inside is unfinished with scaffolding still in place. Greenfield started out the film before the 2008 and continues the story with a new direction in the face of the Siegel's new found struggles. The Siegels seem baffled in the face of their new economic challenges; they don't even speak the language of this downgraded lifestyle. The Siegels have to make sacrifices (sacrifices that Jackie never really takes to heart). Versailles has to go on the market (but who the hell is going to buy it?).

Greenfield is cynical about her subject matter. There are times where she's clearly taken aback by how ungrateful and ignorant the family so constantly is, particularly Jackie, a former Miss America contestant whose slowly becoming a plastically calcified version of her former self. Greenfield has an eye for images that consummately encapsulate everything that's happening and that she wants to get across. For example, at one point, there's a wonderful, hilarious shot of a stretch limo going through a McDonald's drive thru.

It would be all to easy to villainize the Siegels (and Greenfield's opinion seems to sit with more bemused discontent). But the film does a really great job of showing the fullness of the world its exploring by branching out to do interviews with the children and employees of the Siegels. In the employees, the film nicely demonstrates the extreme contrast between the Siegel's life and those living more typical and difficult American lives. The Siegels aren't completely terrible people; they're just people who've known too little of any other life for far too long. Both David and Jackie grew up in low income families, but though they mention this, it's hard to imagine it.

It's a surprisingly sympathetic portrait but it's also one that doesn't hold back its punches, allowing us to take a strange pleasure in the near demise of this frustrating and selfish family.  

Grade: A

"The Expendables" - Film Review

The Expendables is a film all about massive wish-fulfillment. It seeks to answer what diehard action fans have surely pondered to themselves for ages: what would happen if you took the biggest action stars and put them all into one film?  You'd apparently get The Expendables which features a cast that includes Sylvester Stallone (who also directed), Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Randy Couture, and Dolph Lundgren teaming up to do badass action-y things.

We get the loosest of plots about an extra-paramilitary force (called The Expendables) that runs covert missions for private gain. There's a mission about taking down a South American dictator and the American business man he's gotten into bed with, but it really doesn't matter. This is a film that isn't concerned all that much with a plot and is more concerned with hyper-masculine, over-the-top action. And in that regard it's rather successful.

The film's most obvious shortcoming is failing to take advantage of its cast. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis make cameos but it feels like a throwaway. Besides Stallone, Statham and Li, most of the other actors are sidelined.

Going into a film like this, you're aware you're not getting a film with a spectacular story or depth, but that's okay if you're interested in some well-choreographed, explosive fight scenes. The action is at times so excessive that it's hard not to laugh in the face of its extreme self-indulgence.   

This is a dumb film but it's never one that pretends to be smart. If you're willing to overlook some glaring storytelling problems, there's some high-octane entertainment to be found in The Expendables.

Grade: C

"Spring Breakers" - Film Review

Harmony Korine is a provocateur. He's a writer and director known for his films that try to shock us.

His first attempt to provoke us in Spring Breakers is in the casting. There's definitely an element of stunt-casting to having Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens appear in Spring Breakers. The film is playing against their perceived family friendly, Disney personas. Of course these are personas that have been built up over many years, and the film is concerned with appearances, particularly manufactured ones. 

The story of Spring Breakers is a simple one. Four nubile college females (Gomez, Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine) are obsessed with going to Florida for spring break but don't have to money to do so. So three of them decide to rob a chicken joint to gain them the necessary funds to stay down in the Sunshine State. They seem almost unconcerned by the violence they've used to acquire the money; in fact, they almost revel in the rush of the experience. But this fits in with what much of the film argues. The film makes the case about the emptiness and vapidness that underlies so much of this partying-obsessed lifestyle.

The film's lighting is bright and its editing style is frequently filled with quick cuts. It's like the film is on ADHD. The vibe the film gave off to me was like a dance club, but it's more like coming down from a high and realizing the club is little seedier than you first realized. The color scheme for the film is a bright and super saturated; everything pops but it's lots of neon colors which almost becomes hard to visually take. The music choices similarly blare out; it's lots of techno, house and dance music.

The film is often one that's more concerned with its ideas than its story. The film ends abruptly and little actually happens in the course of getting there. We see the girls do lots of bad things, and be blind and ignorant to the damage their causing. This is at times property damage or physical harm, but there's also lots of psychological harm being wrought throughout.   

There's not much distinction between the four girls, but perhaps that's the point. They're stand-ins for all the people like this. Gomez plays the ostensibly "good girl" whose religious, and at one point super ironically comments on the spiritual awakening the trip has lent her. But besides that there's little done to give us a sense of what has led these people to this point in their life.

James Franco arguably gives the most memorable performance in the film. He plays a criminal who bails out the girls after they end up in jail midway through the film. The performance is ridiculously, almost unbelievably, hammy.

The film gets it message across at its best when its showing subtler contradictions. There are moments in the film that in the hands of another director would be erotic or sexy or tantalizing, but here are sad, pathetic, and even disgusting. There's plenty of nudity throughout and Korine lingers on the images of naked bodies. The objectification is magnified times ten to the point where it's not sexy or interesting, but just a matter of fact. What initially might have seemed like an exploitative film is much more contemplative and venemously indicative.

Grade: B+ 

Bidding Farewell to "Happy Endings"

Not too long ago it was announced that Happy Endings was canceled. I only just recently finished up the last three episodes that had piled up in my queue (not that my watching in real time would have saved the series with the abysmal ratings it had), and so I now feel the need to share some thoughts on the series.

Initially Happy Endings held little promise in its midseason run first season, which felt too familiar and too uninspired to amount to much. But in time the show grew into something much better and much funnier. The show grew into a hyper-aware sitcom, skewering the very conventions it was playing around with. Happy Endings was a flopsweat of countless jokes, scripts brimmed with joke upon joke.

Happy Endings was a show that was hyper-literate and versed in pop culture. At nearly every turn it would throw in a spoof, homage, or just a sly joke puncturing genres. The characters on the show seemed to know, on some level, that they were sitcom characters, and the show played around with this to some fun results. This was a great cast filled with delightful performances. If nothing else, the show made us take notice of Adam Pally who I would say was the series' highlight if it weren't for the miraculous utilization of Elisha Cuthbert as Alex. 

Above all else the series was hilarious. If one joke didn't land, there would be a dozen immediately following it that would be sure to get you. The speed of delivery and the types of jokes Happy Endings was telling set it apart from so many shows, but it also made it a perpetually low-rated series. When ABC pulled it before clunking it down on the death-knell of Friday nights, burning off episodes two at a times, well, the end was spelled out.

The cancellation is a shame. Happy Ending was a messy show but often an ingenious one. It was a show best simply enjoyed for its wacky, glorious antics. And now we shall get no more of them. 

"Les Enfants Terribles" - Film Review

Les Enfants Terribles is about a sickly codependent brother-sister relationship. At first, it seems like any ordinary sibling contentious affection and rivalry, but it soon reveals itself to be something much more complicated (potentially incestuous).

Elisabeth takes care of her brother Paul after he becomes injured in a snowball fight. They soon become inseparable, spending all their time together. But the relationship becomes strained as both branch out.  

The film starts out as something more naturalistic and grows into something more theatrical and philosophical. The early naturalism is continually undercut by the voice over from an omniscient narrator who provides the events with a darkly whimsical and metaphysical quality (The narration is a bit excessive and gets into flights of fancy). The film is even playful in the early going, showing a loving but slightly self-destructive relationship between Elisabeth (Nicole Stephane) and Paul (Edouard Dermit). Stephane gives a fantastic performance, especially towards the film's end.

The film is a bit jumbled, filled more with vignettes than a complete throughline of a narrative. But the sibling relationship remains throughout and is fascinating. So much of the film contains such a sense of atmosphere that even minor scenes are interesting, and then this cinematography becomes ever more heightened in the film's third act. It becomes gloomy, dream-like, foreboding.

Not all of this works. Certain turns in the plot and character motivations/actions come out of nowhere. But the film at its best is wonderfully dreamy.        

Grade: B