Incredibles 2

Incredibles 2 (2018)

Starring Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Samuel L. Jackson, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, and Brad Bird

Directed by Brad Bird

Written by Brad Bird

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Picking up immediately after the initial film ends, we find the Parr family still trying to find a way to bring superheroes respect.  With the help of a fan (Bob Odenkirk) who runs a telecommunication firm, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) goes on a media push in order to help give superheroes a better image and it seems to be working.  However, Elastigirl's increasing popularity comes with the sacrifice of having to leave her husband (Craig T. Nelson), daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell), son Dash (Huck Milner), and baby Jack-Jack at home.  When Elastigirl gets caught up in some trouble with the villain Screenslaver, her family must come to the rescue.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Get Out

Get Out (2017)

Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, Lakeith Stanfield, and Catherine Keener

Directed by Jordan Peele

Written by Jordan Peele

***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less): Visiting the family of his white girlfriend (Allison Williams) for a weekend at their home, a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) soon realizes that something ominous is afoot and that his life may be at risk.

• Almost like a modern-day retelling of The Stepford Wives
• A solid thriller with a nice performance by Daniel Kaluuya
• The debut direction of Jordan Peele shows promise, but I think it lacked a bit of finesse when it came to elevating the thrills, however Peele deserves credit for keeping his film moving
• The film's comedic moments -- Peele is best known for his comedy -- unfortunately fall a bit flat and feel generic as opposed to the rest of the film which feels a bit fresher
• I don't quite get the all out love for this film and should it win Best Picture at the Oscars, I'll really have lost faith in the Academy.  It's not that Get Out is bad in any way, but it doesn't have anything particularly special going for it except for its racial politics.  Once again, Get Out is decent...but it's not mind-blowing in any form.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Begin Again

Begin Again (2014)

Starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine, James Corden, Cee-Lo Green, Mos Def, and Catherine Keener

Directed by John Carney

The shadow of John Carney's fantastic film Once hangs above his latest flick Begin Again and unfortunately, the comparisons don't work in this 2014's film's favor.  Everything from the story to the music to the emotional heart lack when Begin Again is stacked up next to Once.  There's no resonating feeling upon the conclusion of this Keira Knightley-Mark Ruffalo starrer, instead emanating a feeling of light fluff that we've seen before numerous times.

Knightley is Gretta, a songwriter, who moves to New York with her singer boyfriend Dave (Maroon 5's Adam Levine) after one of his tunes hits the charts in a big way after being featured on a movie soundtrack.  Unfortunately, as is seemingly de rigueur for that profession, Dave cheats on Gretta while on a promotional tour and Gretta walks out on him.  Saddened, she finds herself in a bar in which her friend Steve (James Corden) convinces her to sing one of her tunes to the public.

While her song doesn't go over too well, it's a hit with Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a just fired long-time music executive who was drowning his sorrows in liquor.  However, upon hearing Gretta's tune, he finds himself reinvigorated to join the workforce again.

Obviously, Gretta's and Dan's stories merge, but there ultimately isn't that much payoff.  The film goes pretty much exactly where we expect it go.  (Some who've watched the film may argue with that assessment, but I thought it was the only logical way it could go for these characters.)  Unfortunately, neither Gretta nor Dan is all that interesting and while I appreciated their desire to create music for the masses eschewing the corporate bigwigs, their tale just felt empty.

Although the cast is good -- Ruffalo and Knightley are charming and Knightley in particular is really coming into her own as of late in the acting department -- they can't liven up the story enough.  The music, although perfectly acceptable, isn't all that fantastic either.  For a movie ensconced in the music industry, I feel like I should want to download a song or two at the film's conclusion and that didn't happen -- although, admittedly, I did add one song to my iTunes wish list so it may happen eventually.

Perhaps it's unfair to compare this film to Once.  Even if it is, Begin Again is nothing better than average.  Pleasant, but trite.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Croods

The Croods (2013)

Featuring the vocal talents of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, and Clark Duke

Directed by Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

When a movie like The Croods gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature instead of a movie like Monsters University, I can't help but shake my head.  One-note in its story about a father who "can't let go" of his growing daughter, any attempt for heart and emotion here is thwarted by the fact that the writers (who are also the directors) hit us over the head so many times with this notion.  Having heard the Nicolas Cage-voiced Grug tell his daughter Eep (voiced by Emma Stone) to "be afraid of what's out there beyond our cave" for seemingly five times during the film's first act, I checked out right away.

Animation-wise, The Croods is solid in terms of its main character design (although the humans are slightly blocky in nature and aren't anything overly special) and the voice acting is all fine considering the fact that the script is so lukewarm, but the story just falls flat.  After an earthquake boots them out of their safe cave home, the Crood family -- headed by patriarch Grug, his wife Ugga (Catherine Keener), their eldest daughter Eep, son Thunk (Clark Duke), toddler Sandy (who rabidly attacks everything like a dog), and mother-in-law Gran (Cloris Leachman) -- are forced to explore the rest of the Earth.  Their travels eventually lead them to meet a young man named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who convinces most of the Crood family -- excepting Grug --  to follow him into this new fascinating world outside of their cave.  With Guy and Grug at odds with one another, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Grug's rough exterior and his inability to allow his family to take risks will eventually be softened.  It's this constant bickering between Guy and Grug that gets to near-monotonous levels and fails to allow the story to grow beyond its basic premise.

I won't even explore the fact that this film takes place during prehistoric times -- an era that featured a multitude of fascinating creatures -- yet contains a vast array of Dr. Seuss-ian landscapes filled with animals that would be right at home in his books.  Why create fake animals?  Just another one of the story flaws that is a bit mind-boggling to me in its stupidity.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips (2013)

Starring Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, and Catherine Keener

Directed by Paul Greengrass

The true-life plot of Captain Phillips is incredibly simple.  Our title character -- Richard Phillips -- is captain of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship traveling along the east coast of Africa past the country of Somalia to the west.  Notorious for being an area heavily frequented by pirates, Phillips (played by Tom Hanks) and his crew cautiously make their way past Somali waters, only to find themselves being attacked by a small pirate boat with a crew of four headed by a young Somali man named Muse (Barkhad Abdi).  The setting eventually changes to a much smaller lifeboat, but, ultimately, the same overall perspective doesn't really change as we're still dealing with the concept of an innocent man fighting for his survival.

Somehow, though, despite the lack of a truly complicated story, Captain Phillips overstays its welcome by quite a bit.  I realize we're dealing with a true story here, but director Paul Greengrass doesn't quite succeed at keeping the tension ratcheted up at all times.  When we're dealing with the more massive scope of the bigger cargo ship, the ever-moving camera of Greengrass fits quite nicely adding to the constant tension felt by Phillips and his crew.  However, about halfway through when the scene shifts to the smaller lifeboat inhabited by Phillips and his four captors, I couldn't help but think Greengrass wasn't able to adapt and this portion of the film fell rather flat for me, seemingly dragging for much longer than he intended.  I find this rather odd as Greengrass has proven he can work under more constrained conditions as his United 93 takes place inside the cramped confines of an airplane and holds a place in my Personal Canon.  Something didn't click here, though.

What Greengrass does successfully accomplish is to pull a very nice performance out of Tom Hanks.  When the film begins, Phillips is just a normal guy talking with his wife (Catherine Keener in what essentially amounts to a cameo appearance) about their kids as he drives to the airport.  When he arrives on the Maersk Alabama, his only perspective is moving the cargo from Point A to Point B.  However, as soon as the threat of pirates becomes imminent, we see Hanks' Phillips flick a switch and become a quiet hero -- someone who puts himself in the line of fire before his men, doing whatever he can to keep his people safe, while, at the same time, creatively "scheming" to make sure he's always one step ahead of his captors.  We can sometimes see Phillips' inner mind working, planning out his strategy, and I found it interesting to watch.  By the film's end, Phillips has a moment for his bottled up emotions to come steaming out and the scene solidifies the performance as being one of Hanks' best of the past decade.

In the end, however, Captain Phillips is a film that should've been tense and riveting throughout, but it really isn't all that successful in achieving that goal in its second half.  The flick works for the first hour -- the scene of the pirates invading the cargo ship is stellar -- and its final scene is riveting, but overall, this one proved to be a disappointment for me.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Enough Said

Enough Said (2013)

Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, Tracey Faraway, and Tavi Gevinson

Directed by Nicole Holofcener

Movies like Enough Said don't get made nearly enough nowadays.  I mean, honestly, when's the last time you've seen a romantic comedy focusing on normal folks in their late forties/early fifties falling in love?  It doesn't happen and maybe it should.  Writer-director Nicole Holofcener gives us two characters who are wholly relatable with whom, after a short ninety minutes, we long to spend more time.  What more can you ask for from a movie like this?  The characters make or break a movie like this and in Enough Said I wanted to continue alongside their charming journey to see where it will take them.

Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a masseuse who enjoys her job and loves her teenage daughter Ellen (Tracey Faraway), but finds herself missing that special someone after her divorce a few years prior.  Still, she's come to terms with the fact that love probably isn't in the cards for her.  When she accompanies her good friends (Toni Collette and Ben Falcone) to a party, she meets Albert (James Gandolfini), but doesn't find him attractive in the slightest, even telling him that to his face.  However, she decides to agree to a first date with Albert simply because she hasn't been on a date in quite some time.  While things don't go swimmingly between Albert and Eva, there's something there...that little indescribable spark.  They have much in common and, with both their daughters heading off to college in a few short months, they're in need of some companionship.

One of the biggest reasons Enough Said succeeds is because there's an awkwardness between Eva and Albert that Holofcener isn't afraid to dwell upon.  Things aren't precociously perfect or devastatingly awful between the couple as we often get in movies and choosing the middle ground and not one of the two extremes is a nice change of pace.  Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and the late James Gandolfini are huge keys to the film's success, utterly charming whether they're alone or together onscreen.  Gandolfini is the complete opposite of Tony Soprano here, abandoning any sense of that "tough guy" persona for which he's so well known and fully embodying the softy that is Albert.  Louis-Dreyfruss, heretofore known for her somewhat abrasively comedic roles on tv, takes on her first leading film role and has no problem whatsoever getting the audience to embrace her.  She's not a perfect mom and doesn't claim to be, but that makes her character all the more relatable.  Louis-Dreyfuss carries the movie without a problem and I'd love to see this down-home persona in more movies down the line.

There are moments in Enough Said that feel a little bit sitcommy -- particularly in scenes involving Eva's client Marianne (Catherine Keener) who just so happens to be Albert's ex-wife unbeknown to Eva who constantly has to hear Marianne spout off everything that was wrong with her former spouse -- but they're still funny and work overall in the grand scheme of things.  Kudos to director and writer Nicole Holofcener (who also directed Please Give which I enjoyed a few years ago) who has crafted a movie that both you and your parents and your grandparents can enjoy without being too cutesy for you or too raunchy for your grandma.

Lovely.  Charming.  Go see it.  Enough said.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - A Late Quartet

A Late Quartet (2012)

Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, Mark Ivanir, and Imogen Poots

Directed by Yaron Zilberman

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

An adult melodrama, A Late Quartet is full of so many soap operatic clichés that it gets a bit tiresome at times, but despite my best efforts to roll my eyes at certain moments, something about director and co-screenwriter Yaron Zilberman's first feature film clicks.  The film focuses on a famous string quartet called The Fugue who have been together for over two decades.  When their cellist Peter (Christopher Walken) receives a diagnosis that he's entering the early stages of Parkinson's, the news affects each of his fellow quartet members in different ways sending them all on emotional journeys that they likely weren't expecting.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener play husband and wife Robert and Juliette.  Together since the start of the trio, they have a college age daughter Alexandra (Imogen Poots) who is also striving to become an expert string musician.  The fourth member of the quartet is Daniel (Mark Ivanir), the founder of the group, first chair violinist (a position that sets up some tension as the film progresses), and über-serious Russian immigrant.  Peter was a mentor to Robert, Juliette, and Daniel and the news of his debilitating disease affects them not only professionally, but also personally, sending them all on an emotional roller coaster.

Despite the silliness of some of the plot points, A Late Quartet exudes a intelligence that one doesn't often find in films.  Maybe it's simply because of the focus on classical music, but something here felt refreshingly adult in the dialog, even if the actions of some of these characters bordered on teenage idiocy.  The intellectual aire is due in part to the screenwriter, but it helps that the actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mark Ivanir were entirely believable in their roles as classical musicians.  I've known a few classically trained musicians and they composed themselves just like them.  Catherine Keener is also fine, but she's saddled with one of the worst scenes in the movie involving her character and her daughter that even she couldn't really act her way out of the absurdity.  Christopher Walken is...well, Christopher Walken.  While he's not quite playing a caricature of himself as I feel he's done in recent years, I never quite manage to see Walken as anyone other than himself.  That being said, when the film begins one assumes that the movie is going to be all about his character Peter, but after the opening act, the focus shifts greatly to the other members of the quartet probably to the film's benefit.

I realize I've done a little bit of trashing of A Late Quartet in the above review and I completely recognize that at times it plays like a really mature Lifetime movie.  Still, despite the lowbrow nature of certain aspects of the flick, the intelligence outshines the melodramatic theatrics and makes this definitely worth a stream on Netflix.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Trust

Trust (2011)

Starring Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, Chris Henry Coffey, Viola Davis, and Liana Liberato

Directed by David Schwimmer

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

There is no denying that David Schwimmer's (yes, the same Schwimmer of Friends fame) 2nd directorial effort, Trust, is a difficult film to sit through.  But this intense look at the aftereffects of a fourteen year-old girl's rape by a pedophile she meets in a chat room is simply riveting in that Schwimmer (and the screenwriters) focus not on the heinous crime itself (although that is uncomfortably witnessed in part as well) but on the repercussions the event causes both the victim and her family.  Certainly aiding in this portrayal is a riveting performance from newcomer Liana Liberato in her first feature film who, as the young victim Annie, manages to create an amazingly complex character whose emotions and actions never seem forced or faked.

There's a naive innocence (or perhaps, looking at it from another angle, an advanced maturity) to Annie when we first see her in the film.  She's well aware of other girls her age sleeping around (or at least saying that they do), but when confronted with situations that make her uncomfortable, she has the smarts to get out of them.  For that very reason, it hurts us to see her begin to walk down the path she does with her online buddy Charlie.  When she first begins chatting with the guy in a volleyball chatroom, Charlie tells her that he's fifteen, but then soon reveals he's a sophomore in college which then becomes a first year grad student.  Annie's angry that she's being lied to, but she appreciates the attention Charlie is giving her seeing as how her parents (Clive Owen and Catherine Keener) are somewhat preoccupied with getting her brother prepared for his first semester of college.  Eventually, Annie agrees to meet Charlie (at a mall - a conspicuous location which further shows Annie's got a decent head on her shoulders) which is when she discovers that Charlie (Chris Henry Coffey) is probably veering closer to thirty-five than twenty-five.  Uncomfortable with the situation, but somewhat charmed by his smooth talking and feeling that she can trust him, Annie heads with Charlie to a local hotel and the unthinkable happens.

But that's just the first act.  What follows is a complex look at a girl who feels as if she's been betrayed by everyone around her.  Not only do Annie's parents and friends begin acting differently around her after the crime is discovered, but the man who said he loved her refuses to return her texts and calls.  Seemingly alone in the world, young Liana Liberato gives a rather brilliant performance as Annie and that alone is worth the price of admission here.  Liberato is intelligent, sympathetic, tough, sarcastic, humorous, heartbroken, and a bunch of other adjectives, but she takes this kitchen sink of emotions thrown at her and excels at every single moment shifting through them with ease.  My heart broke for this character multiple times and ultimately that connection is what you hope for in a movie.  [There's one scene in particular towards the film's conclusion in which Annie realizes that she's fooled herself into thinking this was "love" rather than "rape" that is just gutwrenching and Liberato is simply remarkable in it.]

One can't help but feel for the parents in situations like this as well and Clive Owen and Catherine Keener give some of the best performances I've ever seen from them.  Keener's Lynn is devastated by the news, but is also angry that her husband Will seems hellbent on finding the rapist and punishing him himself.  Despite his best efforts at leaving the crime-solving to the FBI, Clive Owen's Will is just as tortured as his daughter in a certain respect.  This notion that he let down his family and failed to be the protector devastates him and proves to be harrowingly emotional in the film's final moments.  But, if the film falters a bit, it is in the character of Will whose vengeful father sometimes seems to take things a step too far.  Adding to this is the fact that Will is an advertising exec whose firm is finalizing a deal with a clothing company that sexualizes its young models and it feels like sometimes the character (via the screenwriters) is hitting us over the head with preachiness.  Still, to me, these issues prove to be moderately minor qualms in the midst of the other overwhelmingly positive aspects.

With additional help from screenwriters Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger and some nice supporting performances including one from the calming and understanding Viola Davis as a psychiatrist helping Annie, Trust never stoops to exploiting the crime itself but instead explores its aftermath and the incredibly complicated plethora of feelings that a young victim such as Annie goes through.  Congrats to director David Schwimmer.  One can only hope that people will discover this film as time goes on.  Not that the subject matter would have led to boffo box office, I can't help but think that it's a shame this one fell by the wayside completely as it would have been wonderful to have young Liana Liberato's name being mentioned as awards season rolled around in the upcoming months.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - Please Give

Please Give (2010)

Starring Catherine Keener, Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt, Anne Guilbert, Sarah Steele, and Amanda Peet

Directed by Nicole Holofcener
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Honestly, I'm not quite sure of the point that writer-director Nicole Holofcener was trying to impart on the audience in her feature Please Give.  I think that she was trying to say something about either personal connections or feeling guilty about things as we age (very Oprah-esque), but the film never quite got there (or, if it did, I didn't really care).  Shockingly, however, despite the lack of an apparent purpose, Please Give was quite an enjoyable ninety minutes.  Mixed in with both the laugh-out-loud and touching moments that are sprinkled throughout, there are actually some realistic characters onscreen, none of whom I found to be the least bit fake...a rarity in film and what makes this flick rise above what I perceive to be a slight lack of focus.

The film focuses on two families.  Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are a married couple with a teenage daughter (Sarah Steele).  They own an antique furniture store and are financially stable.  Emotionally stable?  Not so much...while they're both happy, it's obvious that they're in a rut.  Living right next door to Kate and Alex is Andra (Anne Guilbert), a crotchety ninety-plus year-old lady who is taken care of by her granddaughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) with a little bit of assistance from Mary (Amanda Peet), her other granddaughter who's incredibly abrasive and isn't afraid to admit that she's looking forward to her grandmother's death so she can stop wasting time caring for her.  The two families meet up to celebrate Andra's birthday and things begin to unravel a bit.  The nice thing about the unravelling is that Ms. Holofcener never takes things to a point of unbelievability.  The outcomes for each of the six characters above all seem logical.

All of the actors are quite good here and it was lovely to see all six of them really come together and play off of one another at the aforementioned birthday party.  Each character has a unique voice and there's not a bad apple in the bunch.  It's also nice to be able to say that Please Give is truly an ensemble piece with no one stealing anyone else's thunder in scenes.  So, instead of pointing out any particular actors here, I'll simply say that the group as a whole is worth your Netflix streaming time.

Yes, in the end, I think that the writer didn't quite succeed in getting across her thoughts on guilt and love, but Ms. Holofcener almost makes it there and her acting sextet more than makes up for those flaws.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Cyrus

Cyrus (2010)

Starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener, and Jonah Hill

Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass

mumblecore (n.) - an American independent film movement characterized by their low budgets and their focus on personal relationships amongst twentysomethings utilizing improvised dialog with mostly non-professional actors

Apparently, Cyrus is considered a pic from the mumblecore movement despite the fact that it doesn't fit about half of the criteria listed above.  You hear that word, though -- mumblecore -- and it just kind of conjures up this feeling of boredom which, considering how I feel about a lot of indie, low budget comedies, is probably apropos.  Surprisingly, however, Cyrus proved to be somewhat enjoyable (even despite the presence of Jonah Hill).

Part of the reason for Cyrus's moderate success is that it doesn't overstay its welcome.  Clocking in at under ninety minutes, directors Jay and Mark Duplass keep things moving along at a brisk pace...which is nice considering that there isn't much story here.  John (John C. Reilly) is a divorced middle-aged guy stuck in a rut, thinking that he'll never find someone with whom to share his life.  At a party thrown by his ex-wife (Catherine Keener), John meets Molly (Marisa Tomei), a sexy younger woman who shows an interest in him.  Things become serious rather quickly and John soon discovers that Molly has a grown 22-year old son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill).  Still living at home, Cyrus and Molly have an odd co-dependent relationship that John soon discovers will cause a serious hindrance to his fun times with Molly.

Ultimately, the problem with the film is with the title character and his relationships with others.  There was not a single instance in the film when I believed that Cyrus could actually exist.  Seeing as how this is a film that bases itself in reality, it is of fundamental importance that I be able to believe what I'm actually watching.  Unfortunately, I never believed in Cyrus as a character.  Part of that blame falls on Jonah Hill who always seemed to be hiding a smirk on his face (which may have been his way of playing the devious character...if it was, it was a tactic that didn't work).  But I think the bigger blame belongs to the screenwriters/directors Jay and Mark Duplass who never shaped Cyrus into anything other than a broad caricature.

Still, against the odds, I found myself liking a decent amount of the movie.  John C. Reilly, who typically doesn't get the chance to shine in lead roles unless they are of a broad comedic type (a la Step Brothers or Walk Hard), is actually quite charming here.  He's understated and completely believable as the depressed then reinvigorated John.  Marisa Tomei is also good as well, although she is burdened with the ludicrous parent-child relationship the script forces her to have with her son.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

Starring Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Uma Thurman, and Catherine Keener

Directed by Chris Columbus

Low-rent Harry Potter is what this one is.  Director Chris Columbus (who also directed the first two Potter pics) manages to actually craft a decent looking film filled with moderately nifty special effects sequences, but the story itself here is pretty dismal.

High schooler Percy Jackson (a one-note Logan Lerman) discovers on a school field trip one day that he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon.  It turns out that Zeus believes that Percy (for some ridiculous reason or another) stole his lightning bolt and unless he returns it in two weeks, humans will have hell to pay.  Why?  I don't know.  Maybe because Percy's a half human-half god or maybe because Zeus is just one angry dude with a superiority complex.  It doesn't really matter because the story itself is ridiculous and it makes this film fail miserably.

The books that this flick is based on are apparently quite popular, but the fantasy realm presented here can't compare to the whimsy of Hogwarts, for example (and I'm not even a huge fan of the Potter films).  Like I said, Columbus actually does a fairly admirable job in the direction, but this was painful to sit through.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Starring Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, and the voices of James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Cooper, Paul Dano, and Forrest Whitaker
Directed by Spike Jonze

I can't even begin to tell you how much I want to like this movie. It has so many positive things going for it...unfortunately, a story is not one of them. And the lack of any type of strong narrative really manages to bring this movie down. I tried my hardest not to be bored, but the screenwriters need to give me a little something to keep me engaged.

Young Max isn't happy. His older sister is abandoning him for friends of a similar age. His mom is either working or spending time dating. One night, he flips out, bites his mother, and then runs away "into his imagination" to a land inhabited by larger than life monsters and animals. Max befriends these monsters, becomes their king, and realizes that their problems are similar to humankind.

I guess the problem with adapting a small children's picture book to the big screen is that you're inevitably going to have to add stuff in order to pad the running time into a feature film. There were little vignettes here and there in the film that worked, but it didn't really feel like a cohesive story.

And it's incredibly unfortunate because everything else on display here is top notch. I was quite impressed with young Max Records as Max. I don't think his role as a rambunctious youth was an easy one to play (mainly because the story doesn't really give him a whole lot of motivation or reasoning behind the things he does), but he's onscreen for nearly every scene and I was quite impressed with his work. Catherine Keener's role as his mom is very minimal, but she surprisingly made an impression on me (in a good way) despite her limited screen time.

Let's discuss the monsters now...there's some great puppetry/costumes going on here. Stunning stuff. Each monster manages to have their own distinct personality thanks to some great voice work and some amazing movements. I can't get over how "real" the facial reactions and arm movements and stances of the puppeteers felt to me...like watching a person onscreen instead of a furry creature. Like I said, the voices matched the monsters perfectly. James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose, and Forrest Whitaker all deserve kudos for creating believable monsters via their voicework.

And despite the fact that his screenplay was weak, as a director, Spike Jonze is something special. The film looked exquisite. Even in the opening scenes at Max's house, I was surprised by how much I liked the visuals. I like that Jonze doesn't rush things and he lets scenes sit there for a while (I know...kind of opposite to the fact that I said the movie was boring, but that's the fault of the script). I can see how some would watch the final scene of this movie - a perfect example of what I mention above -- and go, "What the heck was that?," but I looked at it and was pleased with it.

With so many things to love about this movie (I didn't even mention the odd soundtrack which absolutely added to the film, even if I wasn't head-over-heels in love with it), it pains me to give this the rating I'm going to give it. If only there was something story-wise here, this could've been one of my favorite movies of the year without a doubt.

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - The Soloist (2009)

Starring Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey, Jr., and Catherine Keener

Written by Susannah Grant

Directed by Joe Wright

This flick was supposed to come out last year and delays in the film industry typically signal an inferior product. Unforunately, that rule reigns true in the case of The Soloist.

The plot's simple. Reporter Steve Lopez stumbles across homeless guy Nathaniel Ayers playing a violin. Friendship blossoms.

And that is all.

The problem with this film didn't necessarily come from the actors, although I never once got a sense that Downey, Jr., was playing anyone other than himself (Foxx, on the other hand, gives a surpringly strong turn as the schizophrenic musical "genius").

Half of the problem comes from the script (nothing really happens in the film when you look back on it). There was humor and pathos in the main storyline, but when some of the subplots take the front seat -- the L.A. Times newspaper in economic trouble, the difficultly in providing care to L.A.'s homeless population -- the movie just falters.

The other major issue with the film is Joe Wright's shoddy direction. There were shots that had me flabbergasted as to why they were in the film at all -- a scene where we follow birds as they fly over L.A. while classical music plays; a Fantasia-esque light show to "symbolize" (I guess) what Nathaniel "feels" when he's listening to an orchestra. These shots in particular were there simply to "show off," and the rest of the film, if anything, is rather stodgy in how it's presented (the complete opposite of "show-off," to me). The film jumps back and forth from feeling like a PBS Masterpiece Theater piece to an ABC afterschool special from the 90s. Granted, that's just as much the screenwriter's fault as it is the director's, but the film was just too flat and "blah" too much of the time for me to recommend it.

The RyMickey Rating: C-