Snatched

Snatched (2017)

Starring Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Joan Cusack, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, and Christopher Meloni

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Written by Katie Dippold

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

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Fired by her job and dumped by her boyfriend, Emily (Amy Schumer) is desperate to have fun on her pre-planned trip to Ecuador.  With no one to go with her, Emily reluctantly agrees to have her mother Linda (Goldie Hawn) tag along.  While out exploring the island, Emily and Linda are kidnapped by masked men and they must do all they can to return to safety.

• Snatched is a 2017 equivalent of Romancing the Stone -- an "adventure comedy" minus the romance -- but it's not as good as that fun 1980s flick.
• My first experience with Amy Schumer was with the very good Trainwreck, but this film squanders her comedic chops with a plot that can't really sustain itself even over the short runtime.
• That said, because of both Schumer and Goldie Hawn, Snatched is much more watchable than it deserves to be.  Yes, subplots with some ridiculous characters played by Ike Barinholtz, Joan Cusack, Wanda Sykes, and Christopher Meloni are too silly to merit screentime, but at its heart the mother/daughter dynamic between Schumer and Hawn is believable and undeniably enjoyable.  It makes me long for Hawn to take part in a better film instead of having this be her first screen venture in 15 years.  Here's hoping she doesn't wait another decade-and-a-half before she takes another role.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - The Diary of a Teenage Girl

The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)

Starring Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgård, Kristen Wiig, Madeleine Waters, and Christopher Meloni

Directed by Marielle Heller

San Francisco.  1976.  Fifteen year-old Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley) has just lost her virginity, finding herself newly sexually awakened, but still unsure of her beauty and worth in the world. Complicating things ever so slightly is the fact that Minnie was deflowered by her mother's boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård) which, despite the obvious "ick" factor, leads to complications keeping this from Minnie's bohemian and laid-back mom/Monroe's girlfriend Charlotte (Kristen Wiig).  Minnie soon finds herself exploring not only her sexuality, but also the drug-fueled landscape of the 1970s which makes the young teenager even more of an emotional mess.

A dramedy of sorts, The Diary of a Teenage Girl - the debut of writer-director Marielle Heller - is a strangely uncomfortable watch...but I guess that's partly the point.  As Minnie explores her teenage years, the audience feels her confusion right alongside her.  Twenty-four year-old Bel Powley does a great job of showing the conflicted, carefree, and emotionally befuddled mind of a teenage girl who sees no great problem in falling for a man two decades her senior.  Monroe is never made out to be a sleazy guy by either Heller or Alexander Skarsgård and your mileage may vary as to whether you agree with that interpretation or not.  For all intents and purposes, he's a pedophile, but this film never makes that law-breaking its driving force -- or any force, for that matter.  While certainly treated with the emotional baggage that such an odd relationship would carry, you do find yourselves sometimes questioning the way the connection between Minnie and Monroe is portrayed.

Ultimately, The Diary of a Teenage Girl never quite clicked with me.  While Powley is captivating and capable of carrying the hefty film on her shoulders, I was never drawn in to her character's plight.  I think part of the reasoning for this is that her initial exploration into her sexuality was treated with humor and lightness.  When the film switches to a more serious tone -- the time when I really thought I should be "feeling" for Minnie -- I never connected on an emotional level with the characters.  Perhaps it was the tonal switch or perhaps it was just some unconscious voice in my mind saying that "she got what was coming to her," but despite wanting to become invested in Minnie, I never got there.  That said, the film shows promise for writer-director Heller and places young Bel Powley on the map of up-and-coming actresses.  Here's hoping for a bit more solid cinematic contributions in their future.

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Movie Review - They Came Together

They Came Together (2014)

Starring Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, Bill Hader, Ellie Kemper, Jason Mantzoukas, Max Greenfield, Cobie Smulders, Melanie Lynskey, and Ed Helms

Directed by David Wain
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Movie spoofs are always a tricky business proposition with more failures than successes it seems.  The most famous as of late has been the Scary Movie franchise which took on the slapsticky Airplane approach and subsequently withered and died from the get-go for me.  In its skewering of the romantic comedy, They Came Together eschews some of the more blatant physical humor (although it does still successfully go there at times), aiming moreso for verbal barbs (just look at that suggestive title) and observational humor.

Molly (Amy Poehler), owner of a small candy shop, finds her business threatened when the big Corporate Candy Company decides to open up a shop right across the street from her.  When she meets Joel (Paul Rudd), an executive at CCC, Molly can't help but despise him, but as their paths intertwine, love begins to blossom beneath the hatred.  Simplicity abounds in this summary, but the obvious regurgitating of You've Got Mail's story proves to be more humorous than I could've expected.

Poehler and Rudd are always charmingly funny and their performances in They Came Together are no exception.  They have to walk a tricky road in that they're playing overblown caricatures of romantic comedy stereotypes, yet they have to still carry this film as relatable people in order for us in the audience to latch onto the tale successfully.  Director and co-screenwriter David Wain manages to make Molly and Joel well-rounded enough even with their parody-laden characteristics.  Wain throws a lot at the wall and while not all the jokes land, enough of them do making the laughs come quickly enough to warrant a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - White Bird in a Blizzard

White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)

Starring Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Gabourey Sidibe, Thomas Jane, and Angela Bassett 

Directed by Gregg Araki

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

I don't quite know if White Bird in a Blizzard was attempting to be an awful film on purpose, but director Gregg Araki certainly has crafted a film in which every character inhabiting it feels as if they are fake.  Actors are seemingly instructed to play their roles in an oddly one-note fashion, almost as if we're watching some crappy high school play unfold before our very eyes.  If you're angry, be really angry.  If you're sad, be really sad.  If you're sexually aroused, be really turned on.  By playing every emotion to the nth degree, no emotion rings true and White Bird in a Blizzard falls apart nearly from its first moments.

When Kat Conners (Shailene Woodley) is in her final year of high school, her mother Eve (Eva Green) goes missing.  Her father Brock (Christopher Meloni) is devastated, but Kat feels oddly unemotional about the whole disappearance.  Instead, she finds herself becoming more sexually awakened in the absence of her overbearing mother.  Jump to the spring of her first year in college and Kat returns home on spring break and she uncovers a few secrets regarding her family that maybe should never have been uncovered.

I've read two novels by Laura Kasischke whose book this film is based upon and I find her works oddly pulpy and somewhat silly in their mysteries.  White Bird in a Blizzard follows this same line and although she didn't write the screenplay, her tone runs throughout.  However, Mr. Araki who directed and also wrote the screenplay decides to embrace the pulp, but unlike film noirs in the past where the pulpy, seedy nature of their stories elevated the actors, Araki doesn't find that success here.

Shailene Woodley perhaps comes off best as her character is at least given a scale of emotions to play off of, but even she is playing things to extremes.  Worst by far is Eva Green.  Quite frankly, I'm not quite sure who to blame here.  Ms. Green has never been someone who I've looked at as a talented actress, but she's just laughably bad here.  That said, Araki writes her mother character as so oddly un-human with nary a recognizable characteristic that I wonder if Araki is truly the one at fault here.  Either way, this central character whom the whole story revolves around is an unmitigated disaster and sinks the movie.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-