A good ensemble cast highlights this story of the Boston Globe's efforts to expose the Catholic Church child molestation scandal in 2003. Spotlight has just been slated for an out of competition screening at the Venice Film Festival in early September. The director Thomas McCarthy also wrote and directed The Station Agent and The Visitor, and this one looks pretty solid too. It's opening on November 6th in limited release.
REVIEW: "Trainwreck" (2015) Amy Schumer, Bill Hader. Dir. Judd Apatow
The romantic comedy is something of an endangered species these days. It's hard to find good examples of it after say, the early 2000's when Bridget Jones's Diary and Love Actually came out, and then Kate Hudson and Katherine Heigl seemed to take it upon themselves to murder the genre singlehandedly. Okay, so maybe that's unfair to those actresses, seeing as they didn't write the dreadful movies they starred in, but the actors themselves often become the face of this genre. People like Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts starred in some of the best remembered rom-coms of the 90's which came to symbolize that era, while the former two, unfortunately made many that were considered the reason it died (anyone remember Fool's Gold? No? Me neither).
A better example of a successful one from the mid-00's was Judd Apatow's Knocked Up (even if was a movie, much like all of his films, that more successfully showcased male bonding in the form of the bromance between Seth Rogen and his buddies) and the director is back to helm this new crack at it, which takes the screenplay of one Amy Schumer and stars the comedian turned actress herself as the heroine of what turns out to be an appealing, honest, heartfelt stab at personal confession and vulnerability that manages to tie itself up in the traditional romantic comedy bow with a happy, sweet ending. It may boast many of the conventions of the formula in a tried and true fashion (the better to introduce Schumer to the mainstream, which her niche sketch show on Comedy Central has never really been part of), but there's enough of an original character here that makes us feel and sympathize with Amy in a manner more befitting of female scripted comedies like Bridesmaids than the very guy centric movies Apatow has directed in the past.
Schumer gives us Amy, named after herself, as a thirtysomething woman who sleeps around, drinks a lot, and absolutely refuses to give anything like monogamy a chance, preferring to get it over and done with, hopping from bed to bed and out the door the second it's over, much like the old-fashioned stereotype of the "commitment-phobic guy" comedies like this are used to selling. The portrayal of Amy's open and casual attitude towards sex is refreshing, as it's from a woman's point of view in an extremely candid manner not often shown in mainstream movies, especially as it's deemed simply her everyday attitude and not demonized for being frisky. But the movie's a little more honest and probing under the surface, and even though Amy is seen as something of a functioning alcoholic who maintains a great job as a writer for a popular magazine, we eventually find out that both her drinking and her fear of long term relationships stem from lasting wounds imprinted on her psyche by her boozing and womanizing father (an aged up Colin Quinn), now in an assisted living facility and still taking his toll on his daughter's emotional maturity.
Amy eventually meets Aaron, the doctor for the New York Knicks whom she's assigned to write an article on, and sparks fly between them as they start dating and Amy learns how to slowly confront her fears of intimacy and of becoming her father. Aaron's played by Bill Hader in nice, understated, Jack Lemmon-everyguy kind of way, and the chemistry between the two is believable, as poor Aaron is far more reserved and conservative than Amy, but nonetheless really likes her and is willing to take on her issues as their relationship evolves. If I'm making this movie sound like a serious character study of a woman's psychology rather than the romantic comedy I described at first, have no fear- this film is peppered with jokes and comic relief supporting characters, as everyone from LeBron James, Ezra Miller, Tilda Swinton and Vanessa Bayer (MVP of the supporting cast) make appearances, but I'll be honest, I felt the authenticity of Amy laying her soul bare was what connected the most onscreen, and for me much of the humor fell flat (an intervention of Aaron with celebrity sports figures in the last third seems like a rejected SNL skit that jars with the movie's tone, while Swinton and James's characters simply weren't as funny as I think they were meant to be).
But humor is always subjective, and if I connected more with Amy's honesty it's because to me it was refreshing to see that kind of exploration of a person's stunted emotional growth, and Amy's relationships with her father, her married sister (Brie Larsen) and their effects on her state of mind regarding her romance with Aaron made sense and explained, rather than judged, the kind of person that she had turned out to be. The movie ends with one of those spectacular romantic gestures that so many romantic comedies love to embrace (on par with the applause in a public place, last minute greeting at the airport, etc.) and the sweetness of Aaron and Amy's try at happiness was so heartfelt and earned that I felt genuinely moved, in spite of not having actually laughed at that many of the jokes in the film (even John Cena's brief role as Amy's sometime boyfriend in the beginning seemed to have more impact as yet another symptom of the heartbreak in Amy's life instead of the laughs a WWE wrestler's cameo is supposed to bring- although he does get a couple of chuckles out of one of the many stark sex scenes).
* * *
Tom Cruise Versus Jimmy Fallon on 'Tonight Show' Lip Synch Battle
I normally don't post Tonight Show clips on principle, since I can't stand Jimmy Fallon and all, but I heard this lip sync battle last night was pretty epic. On a side note, Mission: Impossible 5 is getting some outstanding reviews so far, with many critics saying it's the best action movie of the summer (next to critics' darling Mad Max of course).
Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt in New Trailer for 'Sicario'
Denis Villenueve's drug war thriller Sicario was just announced as an entry in this year's Toronto Film Festival, and it's coming out September 25th. Reaction was mixed-positive at Cannes, so we'll see how this one does here- I'm not convinced it'll play, but once again, I pretty much hated Prisoners, the director's last film, so I'm a little biased.
Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt Have a Wild Christmas Eve in 'The Night Before'
Another year, another raunchy Seth Rogen comedy, although at least this one has a different cast than his usual Apatow co-horts. This time Anthony Mackie and Joseph Gordon-Levitt join him on a crazy Christmas Eve party tradition, but it doesn't quite looks as funny as This is the End (still the high water mark, at least for me). You can never really tell from a trailer though- I guess we'll see about this one in November.
Empire Mag's New 'Batman v Superman' Cover
Is it just me or does Batman look a little, well...fat on this cover? Seriously, that is one heavyset dude in the rubber/tights. I guess the idea is that if Batman looks physically bigger than Superman, maybe it wouldn't be such an absolutely ridiculous notion that he could actually take him in a fight. But you know what, it still is, because Superman is a man of STEEL, as we know, and Batman is a guy with gadgets and a cowl. The whole premise falls flat on its face at conception.
New Poster for Spielberg/Hanks Thriller 'Bridge of Spies'
The two trailers released for this film don't make it look all that thrilling (especially for a so-called thriller), but this poster is kinda cool, in a retro way. I guess retro would be the right word to describe everything about this movie so far, which looks extremely old-fashioned.
BOX OFFICE 7/24-7/26: 'Ant-Man' Tops Again as 'Pixels' Disappoints
Ant-Man had one more weekend at number one as the latest Adam Sandler movie to flop was Pixels, the dreadfully reviewed, nostalgia bait for Gen X-er's that apparently did not catch on (I guess Generation X isn't as prone to that craze as are millennials at the moment). It came in with $24 million, well under expectations of at least $60, and the weekend in general was kind of blah, as several new releases didn't make a whole lot of noise this week either. Everyone's talking again about the state of Adam Sandler's floundering career but whatever keeps him off movie screens and relegated to Netflix is good news for America if you ask me. The other bomb this week was Paper Towns, which was expected to hit $20 million but came in with $12, not even cracking the top five, which was surprising after last year's hit The Fault in Our Stars debuted with $48 million. I guess John Green isn't the new Nicholas Sparks after all.
Another debut, Southpaw with Jake Gyllenhaal, did open better than expected, coming with $16 million and enough to make the top five, attracting an adult audience crowd that's been starved for entertainment this summer and not going to many of the indie dramas that can sometimes draw their attention. Trainwreck saw a small drop of 43% this week, bringing its total over $60 million and looking like it will probably make over $100 million, which is a great success for Amy Schumer, and Minions came in third for a new total of $222 million.
Top 5:
- Ant-Man- $24.8 million
- Pixels- $24 million
- Minions- $22 million
- Trainwreck- 17.3 million
- Southpaw- $16.5 million
As I've been saying all summer, there's not much going on limited release this year, but Amy is now the highest grossing documentary of 2015, with over $5 million in the bank, while Mr. Holmes still looks strong, making it into the top ten again and passing $6 million, so maybe if that continues it will be the independent success story of the year before Oscar season starts. Next week it's Mission: Impossible time, as the fifth installment in the franchise is getting great reviews (96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes so far) and could maybe break out for its star Tom Cruise the way Ghost Protocol did four years ago. See you then!
Movie of the Day: "The Seven Year Itch" (1955)
Marilyn Monroe was already an icon at the time this movie was released, but the way she was portrayed in the film quickly turned her into something closer to the mythic sex goddess figure she would always be from then on, and the role itself couldn't help but seem made for her image. Tom Ewell is the dopey middle-aged man whose wife takes their kid out of the city for the summer, leaving him alone to fantasize over Marilyn, the bombshell who lives in the apartment above him. Marilyn herself is hardly a character here, more the embodiment of a living sex fantasy- the ditzy, sexy, childlike blonde that every man wants for himself. It's how she would always be seen in the eyes of men particularly, and the movie's worth seeing just for that, as a lot of it's very dated with the humor of the era. It's the last movie of our summer series this week, so have fun with it and happy movie watching!
Original 1955 Trailer:
'Game of Thrones' Faces Feature in New Trailer for 'Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials'
I honestly didn't realize the first Maze Runner movie was a big enough hit to warrant a sequel, but since it's coming out just a year after the original, I guess it was already in production. Looks very Hunger Games lite, of course, and hey, is that Lili Taylor? Where's she been hanging out lately? The Scorch Trials comes out September 18th.
Movie of the Day: "American Pie 2" (2001)
Okay, so about the American Pie movies- and if all you've ever heard about them was that they were guy movies filled with raunchy sex jokes, the truth is the series always had a core of sweetness to it (and I'm not kidding, as anyone who remembers seeing them will tell you- Porkys it was not). This is the summer entry, when Jim and his pals finished off their first year of college and spent their summer vacation at the lake, with parties and wacky sex shenanigans galore, but among all of that was the sweet budding romance between Jason Biggs' Jim and Alyson Hannigan's flute playing Michelle, and the rock solid Eugene Levy (in his second appearance in our series this week) as Jim's eternally understanding and oversharing dad. I have a soft spot for the first couple films in this series, as most of the characters and relationships in them were genuinely affectionate in the end, and this one was always my favorite of the bunch.
Original Trailer:
Julianne Moore and Ellen Page Fight For Their Rights in 'Freeheld'
Potential Oscar alert here, at least for the acting. The movie checks off the appropriate awards boxes, like tragedy, timely subject matter, etc. Plus Julianne Moore's coming off an Oscar win herself, so she may be nodded again for this one. Moore and Page play a couple who fight for the right to have Moore's property transferred to her partner in the event of her coming death- this was based on a true story from ten years ago, although the age difference between them is striking, at least to me. I don't just object to older men with young girls, anyone nearly thirty years older than the other person makes me raise an eyebrow (it may be unfair, but I can't help it).
