I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)

Starring Melanie Lynskey, Elijah Wood, Devon Graye, David Yow, Jane Levy, and Gary Anthony Williams

Directed by Macon Blair

Written by Macon Blair

***This film is currently streaming via Netflix***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  When the home of a woman (Melanie Lynsky) is robbed and the police won't investigate what they consider a minor crime, she hunts down the criminals with the help of her neighbor (Elijah Wood).

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Grand Piano

Grand Piano (2014)

Starring Elijah Wood, John Cusack, and Kerry Bishé

Directed by Eugenio Mira

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

I must say that as someone who plays the piano, the concept of Grand Piano is a little bit frightening.  A concert pianist named Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood), who abandoned performing for several years, is making a return to the stage in a tribute concert to his recently deceased mentor.  As he sits down to play the show, he discovers as he turns the pages of his music that someone has left threatening remarks all over his piece.  When the red dot of a sniper's gun then shows up on his hand, panic sets in as Tom plays a cat and mouse game with this crazed classical music fan who says if he plays a wrong note he'll not only kill Tom, but also his wife (Kelly Bishé) in front of a packed house.

Grand Piano is quite the Hitchcockian piece -- a descriptor that I don't like to throw around too much out of reverence for the great director.  With very little blood, gore, or language, director Eugenio Mira and writer Damien Chazelle have created a nifty little thriller that takes place mostly on one set and mostly in real time.  (Speaking of time, after four minutes of opening and twelve (!!) minutes of closing credits, Grand Piano really only runs a brisk 74 minutes long.)  While there are surely moments of overly exaggerated tension (and also some moments of implausibility), I couldn't help but be swept into the menacing tone.  Elijah Wood is quite good as the virtuoso pianist -- although I found myself saying that there was no way someone could talk and play such complicated pieces at the same time.  Still, the director builds enough good will throughout that I pushed that aside quite quickly.

Perhaps I'm giving this one a little bit of leeway since I'm a pianist myself and the nightmarish concept is a bit thrilling because of my connection with the instrument.  However, I don't think that's the case.  I go back to the notion that this is the kind of movie Hitchcock would be making were the director still around today and the fact that it's executed so well is a breath of fresh air.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Maniac

Maniac (2013)

Starring Elijah Wood and Nora Arnezeder

Directed by Franck Khalfoun

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

The "ick factor" runs high through Maniac, a horror flick that tells its whole story through the eyes of its titular killer.  While Elijah Wood is billed as the star and his voice is heard throughout, his time onscreen is minimal seen only reflected in mirrors or windows.  Director Franck Khalfoun creates a voyeuristic approach by filming everything from the point of view of Wood's Frank Zito, a mannequin restorer by day and a cold blooded, psychopathic, and very disturbed serial killer by night.  This directorial and visual technique never allows the viewer a respite from the disturbing images we encounter and I think this how that aforementioned "ick factor" finds itself a bit higher here than in other films of this ilk. 

Ultimately, the film succeeds at what I can only imagine was its desire to place us squarely in the mind of a serial killer.  By making us tangentially "feel" as if we're skinning the head of one of Frank's victims, it provides a unique and uncomfortable twist on the typical horror movie plot.  However, the film doesn't succeed at feeling like anything more than an interesting experiment from a college film class.  The acting on all fronts is lukewarm at best and Wood's voiceovers oftentimes feel out of place and added during post-production (which they probably were, but it makes many scenes seem forced and fake).  Couple that with the fact that Frank's motives behind the killings felt tired and are presented much better in the similarly themed Psycho -- a movie that you may have heard me praise once or twice on this blog -- and the movie ends up falling flat.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Celeste and Jesse Forever

Celeste and Jesse Forever (2013)

Starring Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Eric Christian Olsen, Will McCormack, Rebecca Dayan, Elijah Wood, and Emma Roberts

Directed by Lee Toland Krieger

I don't think Rashida Jones will ever become a leading lady movie star, but I've got to say that she's got a fan in me (and it's time to pick up season two of Parks and Recreation from where I left off a long time ago).  There's an easygoing effervescent charm that exudes from her coupled with a edgy sarcastic sassiness that combines into something I find utterly appealing and her starring role in Celeste and Jesse Forever (which she co-wrote) gives her a chance to shine.

Married couple Celeste (Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) recently separated, but despite this life change, they still remain the best of friends, hanging out with each other whenever they have spare time.  Their friends (Ari Graynor and Eric Christian Olsen) find Celeste and Jesse's situation uncomfortable and odd -- how can they move on with their lives if they never are separate from one another?  To Celeste and Jesse themselves, they're simply the best of friends who have come to realize that they are better friends than lovers, but this revelation doesn't change the fact that they care very much about each other.  When Jesse ends up meeting a former one-night stand (Rebecca Dayan) and re-connecting with her, Celeste is thrown into a tailspin despite the fact that of the duo she was seemingly the one who was more amenable to moving on.

This is Rashida Jones' first crack at screenwriting and she crafts a well-rounded role for herself that fits her like a glove.  Andy Samberg also gives a solid performance that is a bit more subdued than we've come to expect from his Saturday Night Live-Lonely Planet persona and it's pleasant to see this side of him.  Unfortunately, when the film slips away from the titular characters, the script slips a little bit into some tired comedic tropes we've seen before.  We've got the pot smoking best friend (co-writer Will McCormack), the quirky co-worker (Elijah Wood), and even a Lady Gaga-ish pop star (Emma Roberts) -- none of whom add anything to plot and only weigh it down.

But with this debut screenplay giving her a debut starring performance, Rashida Jones is certainly a positive takeaway from this witty film.  Hopefully we'll see more from her in the future.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The War

The War (1994)

Starring Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner, Mare Winningham, and Lexi Randall

Directed by Jon Avnet

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

***Posted as part of the Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival***

The unfortunate thing about this Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival is that the films that made up this five day affair simply weren't all that good and 1994's The War does nothing to change that way of thinking.  However, what these films did prove is that Wood was a darn good child actor and although he sullied himself with the likes of Flipper following his appearance in The War, he has a stretch of movies in his youth for which he can be proud of his acting abilities.

It's 1970 in Mississippi and Stephen Simmons (Kevin Costner) has returned home from the Vietnam War with a Purple Heart and some severe post traumatic stress disorder.  Unable to hold down a job, Stephen is disappointed in his ability to help his family.  Still, Stephen's children Stu (Wood) and Lidia (Lexi Randall) love their dad despite the monetary struggles he's putting their mother (Mare Winningham) through.  Amidst the family toils, Stu and Lidia are finding themselves in their own war taking place in their backyard with the Lipnicki clan, a group of stereotypical redneckers who want nothing less than to ruin Stu and Lidia's summer and their plan to build the ultimate treehouse.  If you were guessing that there'd be some comparisons between the Vietnam War and this war over whether the Lipnickis or Simmonses own the treehouse, you'd be correct.

And that comparison is just one of the reasons the movie doesn't work.  It tries to bring "the war" to the homefront, but it just ends up being rather silly.  And it doesn't help that the Lipnicki kids who make up a huge part of the story are laughable caricatures of uncultured southerners.  Add in an underdeveloped and unnecessary racism subplot and The War is stretched too thin in terms of trying to seem "important."

But Elijah Wood and Kevin Costner help to elevate this to a decent level.  Costner is quite good as a dad under stress.  Had the film been simply about him and his family dealing with the aftereffects of Vietnam, there may have been something really special here.  Wood also provides the film with fine work.  He gets a chance to be silly and serious and was certainly coming into his own.  There's an obvious difference between Radio Flyer and this movie and his growth as an actor over those two years is nice to see.

The War is decently directed and shot and there's a nice musical score from Thomas Newman.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't really work since it tries too hard to be more important than its script allows it to be.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - North

North (1994)

Starring Elijah Wood, Jon Lovitz, Bruce Willis, Matthew McCurly, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, Reba McEntire, Kathy Bates, John Ritter, Faith Ford, and Scarlett Johannson

Directed by Rob Reiner

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

***Posted as part of the Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival***

I remember watching North as a kid and thinking that I really liked it.  I also remember watching a 1994 Year in Review show on Siskel and Ebert and Siskel called this film "deplorable."  I was livid that Siskel hated this.  How dare he!  But, for some reason or another, I never watched this movie again.  Until today, that is, and I can now fully understand why Siskel trashed it.

North (Elijah Wood) is your average run-of-the-mill young kid who does quite well in school, has the starring roles in plays, and is quite adept at hitting a baseball.  The problem is that his parents (Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus) don't pay him any mind, finding themselves too wrapped up in their miserable jobs to notice their son.  Fed up, North decides that he's going to take his parents to court and ask the judge (Alan Arkin) to allow him to find new parents.  The judge agrees and North sets out on his mission that takes him to Texas, Hawaii, Alaska, and New York where he meets both a wide array of kooky and quirky adults vying for him to be their son and a guardian angel of sorts (Bruce Willis) who pops up in every scene to remind North that maybe he really belongs back home with his real folks.

My problem with the film is that it just isn't funny and it is attempting to be.  The jokes are horrendous.  Here's a sample of one:  When North visits Hawaii, he asks why Mr. and Mrs. Ho want him to be their son.  Mr. Ho responds by saying, "Hawaii is a lush and fertile land.  In fact, there's only one barren area on all our islands.  Unfortunately, it's Mrs. Ho."  Yep, that's the kind of humor we're talking about.

Maybe at 14, I thought this was a rather adult kid's movie.  Seeing as how I had two younger brothers, I was still in the phase where I was being taken to see the most "kiddie" of kid movies and with North's bad language and talk about sex, maybe I thought it was a bit edgy.  Nowadays, it just doesn't work.

Still, I must give credit where credit is due.  I actually really liked the subplot about North's best friend Winchell (Matthew McCurly), a school newspaper reporter who starts a Che-like revolution amongst the kids across the country, telling them to stand up to their parents and take control of their lives.  Clever and well acted (even if it is played over-the-top), any scene with McCurly at least brought a bit of a relief from the onslaught of godawful auditioning parents.

In preparation for this review, I found the Siskel and Ebert clip of them reviewing it and Ebert throws out the line "I hated this movie as much as any movie we've ever reviewed in the nineteen years we've been doing this show."  While I wouldn't go that far, North is a movie that simply doesn't work...and it certainly makes me question my cinematic tastes from back in the day.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - The Good Son

The Good Son (1993)
Starring Macauley Culkin, Elijah Wood, Wendy Crewson, Daniel Hugh Kelly, and David Morse
Directed by Joseph Ruben
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

***Posted as part of the Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival***

There is a certain morbid charm in hearing a 12 year-old Macauley Culkin utter the words, "Don't fuck with me."  And it's Culkin's playing against type that makes this movie better than the generic nature of the script should permit it to be.  With a relatively quick running time (just a little over 80 minutes), The Good Son is a perfectly acceptable suspense flick that probably would be right at home as a 90s tv movie were it not for the occasional curse word.  (Yes, I say that as a slight jab, but I also say that with the understanding that the "tv movie" descriptor almost makes it a guilty pleasure to watch.)

Shortly after his mother dies, young Mark Evans (Elijah Wood) goes to live with his Aunt Susan (Wendy Crewson) and Uncle Wallace (Daniel Hugh Kelly) while his father (David Morse) travels to Asia for business.  While there, Mark befriends his cousin Henry (Macauley Culkin), but soon discovers that Henry's behavior leans towards the psychotic.

And it's in that psychotic behavior as portrayed by Macauley "Home Alone" Culkin that makes this film surprisingly watchable.  Culkin is actually really good playing evil and Elijah Wood is just as good playing counter to the devil child.  Yes, the two kids are forced into silly situations and the parents are completely oblivious to the obvious things going on around them, but thanks to Culkin and Wood fully diving into their different characters, The Good Son works.  It's certainly not the best suspense movie you'll see, but it's absolutely better than it has any right to probably be.

In terms of the Elijah Wood mini film festival, this is probably my favorite role of Wood's so far.  As he's aging, you can see a little more depth behind the eyes, and, considering that this role is probably the most simplistic he'd been asked to tackle up until this point, that's an admirable task.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Forever Young

Forever Young (1992)

Starring Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Elijah Wood

Directed by Steve Miner

***This movie is currently streaming on Netflix***

***Posted as part of the Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival***

Schmaltzy and cheesy, Forever Young is a movie that will probably have you rolling your eyes more than once.  But, thanks to decent performances all around, a quick pace, and an overall interesting idea (from a script written by J.J. Abrams, no less), this flick proves to be moderately successful.

The year is 1939 and test pilot Daniel McCormick (Mel Gibson) is about ready to propose to his longtime girlfriend.  Unfortunately, he chickens out and mere seconds after she leaves, she is hit by a car and falls into a coma.  Devastated, Danny turns to his best friend (George Wendt), a scientist for the Army, who has crafted a cryogenic machine that can successfully freeze (and then unfreeze) a person.  Feeling like he has no reason to live, Danny agrees to be a guinea pig for the experiment.  Cut to 1992 and Nat Cooper (Elijah Wood) and his friend uncover the machine and accidentally open it up, allowing Danny to wake up.  Needless to say, things are a bit different in the 90s than they were in the 30s and Danny must both adjust to a new world and attempt to find the reason he's been kept frozen for so long.

Although it's certainly odd, Mel Gibson sells the difficult role.  His wide-eyed childlike innocence when he awakens from his frozen slumber is spot-on at times.  Elijah Wood is also quite good here.  He's allowed to play a normal kid and sometimes that's difficult to do.  There's nothing special for him to do here, but he plays "normal" very well.  Jamie Lee Curtis as Nat's mom is also pleasant to watch.  None of these three actors do anything remotely extraordinary, but they all do fine jobs with what they're given.

Forever Young certainly isn't great, but it moves along surprisingly briskly -- if this film were done nowadays it would've been 130 minutes as opposed to 100.  It's silly and the ending is super sugary sweet, but it's a perfectly acceptable romance with just enough of a different tone to make it watchable.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Radio Flyer

Radio Flyer (1992)

Starring Elijah Wood, Joseph Mazzello, Adam Baldwin, Lorraine Bracco, and Tom Hanks

Directed by Richard Donner (and an uncredited David Evans)

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

***Posted as part of the Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival***

Radio Flyer simply isn't a very good film.  [That will probably be a line you'll see a lot in this Elijah Wood Retrospective.]  However, it's got two of probably the most natural kid performances captured on camera from Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazzello that I can't help but like it more than I should.  Wood (who was probably 10 or 11 at the time of filming) and Mazzello (who was probably 8) are really charming and there's an absolute sense that neither of them are really acting in several scenes -- they're simply being themselves.  That naturalness and ease in front of the cameras is winning, but, in the end, the silliness of the story can't match the acting chops.

Admittedly, I think this was one of the first films that I went to when I was younger and got emotionally invested in.  As a 12 year-old kid who had younger brothers, this thing resonated with me.  The story about an abusive father couldn't have been farther from my real life, but what did connect was this idea of having to be protective of your siblings.  In Radio Flyer, older brother Mike (Wood) tries to do whatever he can to protect his younger brother Bobby (Mazzello) from the near constant beatings of his stepfather, a man seen mostly in shadows and known only as The King (Adam Baldwin).  The two brothers make a promise to one another to not tell their mother (Lorraine Bracco) about the beatings because she seems to be happy for once in her life with The King and she's always led a rather sad existence.  In order to avoid The King, Mike and Bobby spend most of their time exploring the area around their new home during which they hear about the tale of Fisher, a kid who many years ago crafted a flying machine out of his bicycle in an attempt to become airborne.  This gives Bobby an ingenious idea to utilize their Radio Flyer red wagon as a means to fly away from the pain in his life.

Sentimental, mushy, and kind of silly, Radio Flyer simply doesn't succeed in its storytelling.  It apparently was heavily re-written, re-shot, and changed directors' hands...and it shows.  There's not really any cohesion throughout and it takes a long time to figure out where it wants to go...and when it gets there, it still doesn't work.

However, as I said above, there's two pretty great kid performances here and, to a certain extent, that's a reason to watch despite the lower rating I'm going to give this below.  Seeing as how this would've been my first Elijah Wood movie, I can see why I liked him as an actor.  Here is this kid in a movie with Tom Hanks (who has a small cameo as a grown-up Mike).  Even at 12 years old, I knew Hanks was a "movie star" and Wood is holding his own up against this Hollywood bigwig.  Even though I think young Joseph Mazzello actually outshines Wood, it was still very evident that this youth had acting skills.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

The Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival

Back in the 90s, I actually used to go and see films because of actors.  I hadn't gotten to the point in my life where the liberal mindsets of people like Tom Hanks off the screen (as an example) made me and my socially and politically conservative tendencies dislike them on the screen as it sometimes does now.

One of the first actors who I began to follow was Elijah Wood.  Seeing as how (a) he's only a year younger than I, (b) his films had a tendency to be rated PG or PG-13, and (c) his films tended to veer towards the serious side and my cultured cinematic mind was already burgeoning at the age of 12, he was one of the first actors who I guess you could say I followed through film.  In my mind back then, I thought this kid was a good actor.  Roger Ebert apparently agreed with me back then, stating that "Wood has emerged...as the most talented actor in his age group in Hollywood history."  That's a huge statement.  The question now is do any of his early films hold up today?

The Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival will attempt to answer that question and also attempt to make me nostalgic for my youth.  The films selected are from a short span of time -- 1992-1994.  Looking at Wood's imdb filmography, after '94 I apparently didn't care anymore, and Wood swiftly flew off my radar (it's possible that '96's Flipper made me vehemently dislike the young actor for his choice in films).

The following films chosen for the festival are all available on Netflix's streaming service, so feel free to join in the conversation and take in a viewing or two along with me.  (No, unfortunately, 1993's The Adventures of Huck Finn is not streaming or else it would have been included seeing as how it was Wood's single venture into the realm of Disney.)

Monday, April 4:  Radio Flyer (1992) 

co-starring Joseph Mazzello of Jurassic Park fame and an uncredited cameo from Tom Hanks

Tuesday, April 5:  Forever Young (1992)

co-starring Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis

Wednesday, April 6:  The Good Son (1993)

co-starring Macauley Culkin as The Bad Son

Thursday, April 7:  North (1994)

co-starring Jon Lovitz (!) and Bruce Willis

Friday, April 8: The War (1994)

co-starring Kevin Costner

Movie Review - The Oxford Murders

The Oxford Murders (2010)

Starring Elijah Wood and William Hurt

Directed by Álex de la Iglesia

There's a reason this film has been sitting on the shelf for over two years now.  Finally getting a US release in a very few select theaters this upcoming Friday, The Oxford Murders is a ridiculous philosophy lesson wrapped up in a insanely dull murder mystery.

The flick is based off a book by a guy who is both a mathematician and a murder mystery writer and this movie is ridiculously heavy-handed when it comes to mathematical theorems.  Seriously, at least a third of the film is filled with discussions about pi, Fermat's Last Theorem, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and Pythagorus.  In case you were wondering, feeling like you're sitting in a physics class while watching a film isn't a good thing and The Oxford Murders is proof of that.  In its attempt to create a serial killer who leaves clues based on mathematical prinicples, the film just falls completely flat.

I haven't seen Elijah Wood in much of anything lately and maybe it's because the blue in his eyes was freakishly bright.  Honestly, though, it was better to look at the eyes because then I could stop focusing on his incredibly wooden acting.  Granted, he wasn't given much to work with, but he certainly doesn't bring anything to the table.  

Just avoid.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - 9 (2009)

Featuring the voice talent of Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, and John C. Reilly
Directed by Shane Acker

Let me be honest up front here. There were some work issues that occurred during the middle of this that caused my attention to be taken away from the film for a portion of the middle. The thing is, though, this thing never caught my attention from the very beginning, so I don't think it really will end up making a difference in my rating.

It's a post-apocalyptic world, all humans are dead, and the only things surviving on the planet are nine little "sock people" created by some scientist guy prior to his demise. These "sock people" live in fear of some various robot creatures that want to kill them by sucking their "souls" out of their bodes (the scientist placed bits of his soul in each of the sock creatures). That's it.

And I couldn't care less. I felt like I was watching a distant cousin of The Nightmare Before Christmas. There were scenes and characters that felt like they were pulled right out of that film. Sure, it looked a little richer and had better backgrounds (but I'd expect that from a computer-animated flick made two decades after Nightmare), but this really didn't have any emotional oomph to it. I didn't care what happened to any of these "sock puppets." Everything looked the same (and I'm not just talking about the characters). The backgrounds and "set design" were just shades of brown and gray, ultimately very unappealing to the eye even for the short running time of the movie.

Maybe this thing worked as an animated short (which it was prior to the director deciding to flesh it out to a feature), but it didn't work at all in this extended format. And, once again, there's not a single animated film that I'd long to see in the Best Animated Film category this year.

The RyMickey Rating: D+