The First Wives Club

The First Wives Club (1996)

Starring Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Maggie Smith, Dan Hedaya, Bronson Pinchot, Marcia Gay Harden, Stephen Collins, Elizabeth Berkley, Eileen Heckart, Victor Garber, and Stockard Channing

Directed by Hugh Wilson

Written by Robert Harling

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:

Movie Review - Grandma

Grandma (2015)

Starring Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Judy Greer, Nat Wolff, Laverne Cox, Sam Elliott, and Marcia Gay Harden

Directed by Paul Weitz

I watched Grandma on the first night of the 2016 Republican National Convention.  I say this only to prove that this conservative reviewer can push aside his political leanings when watching a film and judge it based on its cinematic merits and Grandma is a surprisingly funny and touching film about the title character Elle (Lily Tomlin), a bit of a hippie lesbian old lady,  who spends the day traveling around to a variety of friends and enemies attempting to pool up money for her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) to be able to get an abortion.  While I'm sure I'd be shunned for appreciating this film by many members of my political affiliation, its story is well told and comes across surprisingly natural.

Plot-wise, there's not much else to talk about as the short under-eighty minute runtime of Grandma keeps things moving.  On its surface, writer-director Paul Weitz's film is really just a series of vignettes with Elle and Sage meeting a variety of kooky (and not-so-kooky) people.  Digging a little deeper, the film allows the character of the somewhat curmudgeonly Elle to blossom a little with each successive introduction of people in her life.  As her layers are revealed to the audience and to her granddaughter, we get a surprisingly multi-dimensional character for such a lighthearted film.  Kudos to Weitz and Lily Tomlin for creating this depth-filled woman whom I may not necessarily agree with all the time but at least has a purpose for having her story be told.

While the film does suffer from what I like to call Finding Nemo Syndrome in that it always feels like we're just moving from place to place for quick little meet-cutes with a variety of characters, Grandma still proves to be much more successful than I ever could have expected.  While its somewhat nonchalant way of dealing with abortion won't suit everyone's tastes, part of the reason the film works and feels decidedly not preachy (despite one horribly blunt scene outside an abortion clinic that is unnecessarily bashing of pro-life supporters) is that it's not really about abortion.  It's about an older woman coming to grips with things that have haunted her past and because that's the focus, the film comes off well.  Well acted by all members in the cast -- with a particularly moving and somewhat heartbreaking small cameo from Sam Elliott -- Grandma succeeds with me when I didn't even think it had a chance.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

Starring Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Jennifer Ehle, Eloise Mumford, Victor Rasuk, Luke Grimes,  and Marcia Gay Harden

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson

So here's the deal with Fifty Shades of Grey.

Let me just say right off the bat that it unfortunately never hits the level of "so bad, it's good."

It has some of the cheesiest dialog I've heard in a movie in a long time.

It has characters whose arcs I can't feasibly comprehend despite the movie trying to spell it out for me with that aforementioned cheesy dialog, and it has a story that...well, is there a story?

With the exception of one moderately hot scene involving an ice cube, it has some of the unsexiest sex scenes I've seen filmed in a long time including its final S&M-heavy escapade set to Gregorian-like chants.

And yet, somehow, despite this multitude of problems, Fifty Shades of Grey isn't one of the worst movies of 2014.  Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan as, respectively, virginal college student Anastasia and tormented billionaire Christian Grey are surprisingly watchable in the midst of what is quite a bit of dreck.  Their attempts at trying to make a connection with one another despite their seriously underwritten characters is a credit to the fresh-faced actors.

Despite my many qualms, the film looks slick.  Granted, Sam Taylor-Johnson can't make the sex scenes pop (or perhaps my lack of interest in sadomasochism is to blame), but the film looks sharp thanks in part to the rather lovely cinematography of Seamus McGarvey (who has proven his worth before in films like Anna Karenina and Atonement).  Additionally, kudos must be given to the filmmakers for compiling one of the best pop soundtracks for a movie in a long time.  Granted, I may not like some of the singles (that are still getting rampant airplay on the radio months later) outside of the context of the movie, but within the confines of the film, they're perfect matches for the visuals onscreen.  You'd be surprised what a kick-ass soundtrack can do to elevate a film and, quite frankly, I think it helped Fifty Shades of Grey immensely.

Still, please understand that Fifty Shades of Grey isn't good.  To its credit, though, it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Magic in the Moonlight

Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

Starring Eileen Atkins, Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney, Emma Stone, and Jacki Weaver

Directed by Woody Allen

I've come across Woody Allen rather late in my life and I've admittedly still got a lot of catching up to do with his repertoire. While I've kept up to date on his current pieces, his supposedly "good" era of the 1970s and 1980s still is strongly underrepresented in my filmgoing experience.  Nevertheless, Magic in the Moonlight is Allen's latest directorial and penned piece and while it's light and amusing, it's almost too airy for its own good.

Colin Firth is Stanley, an illusionist whose stage act as Chinese magician Wei Ling Soo is renowned across Europe.  Stanley also happens to be well known for debunking soothsayers, fortune tellers, and afterlife believers and he is called upon by his good friend Howard (Simon McBurney) to head to his friend's house in France where a beautiful psychic named Sophie (Emma Stone) is working her charms on Grace and Brice Catledge (Jacki Weaver and Hamish Linklater), a mother and son who find hope in the young woman for different reasons -- one is amazed at Sophie's ability to purportedly contact her dead husband and the other is amazed at Sophie's ability to make him fall in love with her.  Upon Stanley's arrival, he is adamant that he will debunk Sophie's powers, but as he spends time with the psychic, he finds himself being taken in by her charms and begins to think his entire philosophy on life may need to be readjusted.

There's a charm present throughout Magic in the Moonlight and it certainly is thanks in large part to the actors, all of whom exude a 1920s flapper-esque joie de vivre.  Unfortunately, charm doesn't make a movie completely sing and there's not much else the film has going for it.  Allen's film is supposed to be a comedy, but the laughs are few and far between.  Sure, you may smile at Colin Firth and Emma Stone's repartee, but in the end what they're saying is rather inconsequential.  Then again, I always appreciate Woody Allen's use of music in his films and even when his jokes fall flat, his film soundtracks don't.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Parkland

Parkland (2013)

Starring James Badge Dale, Zac Efron, Colin Hanks, David Harbour, Marcia Gay Harden, Ron Livingston, Jeremy Strong, Billy Bob Thornton, Jacki Weaver, and Paul Giamatti

Directed by Peter Landesman

Parkland looks at the immediate aftermath of the John F. Kennedy assassination not through the eyes of the Kennedys or the conspiracy theorists, but through the lens of "normal" folks on the ground in Dallas, Texas, that fateful day in November 1963.  While an interesting concept, the film lacks an emotional undercurrent throughout, forcing the audience to feel distanced from everything despite first-time director-screenwriter Peter Landesman's attempts to pull us in visually with his camerawork.

Landesman's film certainly is a good debut for the director, but considering the heft of the subject matter, the piece lacks that emotional connection you long to feel.  Part of the reasoning behind this is likely due to the fact that Parkland is truly an ensemble piece.  We see the doctors and nurses at the Parkland Hospital (played by Zac Efron, Colin Hanks, and Marcia Gay Harden) trying to save Kennedy at the beginning, but then we're whisked away to meet with Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti) to see how he dealt with doling out his famous film to the media and the government.  We also get glimpses into the world of the various FBI and Secret Service agents (David Harbour, Ron Livingston, and Billy Bob Thornton) and their reactions to that day before we're welcomed into the world of Lee Harvey Oswald's brother Robert (James Badge Dale) and crazed mother (Jacki Weaver) and their varied reactions to the horrific events that his brother/son (Jeremy Strong) caused.

Quite honestly, all of these four story threads are quite intriguing and they're all buoyed by strong performances by the cast.  Unfortunately, with the ensemble nature of the piece, we're never with any one of them for any long period of time.  Just when we're starting to feel compassion for the medical workers and their unenviable task that November day, we shift to another storyline.  While I appreciate the different angles Landesman brings to the table, it does keep the audience at an emotional distance from the goings-on.  Nevertheless, Parkland is an intriguing piece that certainly gives a different perspective of the Kennedy assassination and if you're a history buff it's well worth watching.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Whip It (2009)

Starring Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristin Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Alia Shawkat, Eve, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon, and Daniel Stern
Directed by Drew Barrymore

Sure, roller derby isn't something you see often in film, but that's the only thing that's remotely original in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. We get the same old movie clichés we've seen seemingly hundreds of times before (although this time it's a double whammy because we get sports movie and teenage movie angst clichés...two for one!).

Ellen Page is Bliss, an edgy gal (we know she's edgy because she likes boots and wears cool 80s band t-shirts) whose mom (Marcia Gay Harden) makes her compete in local town beauty pageants. [Side Note: why are southern/midwest towns always depicted as being caught in the past? It always seems like they're stuck in a time warp.] One night, Bliss decides to head to a roller derby and falls in love with the sport. She manages to join one of the roller derby teams and continues to sneak off for the matches. Do you think that there's gonna be some conflict between the roller derby and her home life? Do you think there's gonna be a big "final match?" Do you think everything will be hunky-dory in the end? Have you seen any movie before ever in your life? If the answer to that last question is yes, then you know the answer to the previous three questions.

It's not that the film itself is bad, it's just that there's nothing really new or interesting here. Barrymore proves to be an adequate director and it's an acceptable debut, but she brings nothing new to the table here. The derby scenes were very repetitive and Barrymore, at times, went for some really odd shots (the last shot of the movie is a perfect example of this). The worst thing about Barrymore is that she gave herself a role in the film...she was pretty awful acting-wise here.

Ellen Page is fine...a little too "soft" and "quiet" to ever really be believable as an edgy derby gal. Kristin Wiig should have been given more to do (I'd watch her in anything). The two shining stars were Alia Shawkat (of Arrested Development fame) as Bliss's best friend Pash and Juliette Lewis as Iron Maven, a roller derby competitor. If the movie was about these gals, it would've been infinitely better...they really brought some life to the screen whenever they became the focus.

It's not that Whip It is a bad movie, it's just that it's a movie that has been seen before.

The RyMickey Rating: C