Movie Review - Lights Out

Lights Out (2016)

Staring Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke, and Maria Bello

Directed by David F. Sandberg

While not necessarily the most creative horror film of the last decade, Lights Out takes an intriguing enough premise -- a malicious ghostly entity can only attack when it's completely dark -- and creates a solidly tense film interestingly shot by debut director David F. Sandberg in that the bulk of the scares need to take place in as dark of a setting as possible.

The relatively simple plot involves the young twenty-something Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) who had heretofore been somewhat estranged from her mother (Maria Bello) after a difficult childhood coming back into the life of her elementary school-aged half-brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) after he tells her he's unable to sleep because of some scary paranormal activity occurring in their house.  Remembering similar occurrences in her youth, Rebecca returns home to aid her younger brother and unearths some family secrets that may be behind the supernatural doings.

Nothing about Lights Out is mind-numbingly astounding, but everything is solid across the board.  The acting, direction, and story all work together to create exactly what you want out of a horror film -- to get entertainment out of being a little bit scared.  

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - McFarland, USA

McFarland, USA (2015)

Starring Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Morgan Saylor, Carlos Pratts, Michael Aguero, Rafael Martinez, Ramiro Rodriguez, Hector Duran, Sergio Avelar, and Johnny Ortiz

Directed by Niki Caro

McFarland, USA should have been nothing more than a stereotypical sports movie where a downtrodden coach comes to a down-on-their-luck team and turns things around.  We've seen this story before...many, many times.  Yet, thanks to a heartwarming performance from Kevin Costner, a well cast group of unknown actors as the McFarland High School track team, and a sentimental story that is somehow told without being overly treacly or sugary by director Niki Caro and a trio of screenwriters, McFarland, USA is a sleeper hit that hopefully more people will come to appreciate in years to come.

A true story, McFarland, USA doesn't reinvent any wheel, but what it does well is create an atmosphere of warmth and old-fashioned values that would brighten up even the cruelest of hearts.  Costner is Jim White, a Midwest high school football coach who gets fired after an understandable lapse in judgment causes him to do something he knows he shouldn't have done to one of his players.  Desperate for a job, Jim moves his wife Cheryl (Maria Bello) and his two daughters to McFarland, California, a small town wherein the majority of the population is Latino.  With Jim and his family sticking out like sore thumbs, Jim finds himself not quite fitting in as the assistant football coach either and is soon relegated to teaching a gym class during which he notices that several of the students have an affinity towards running.  This being the 1980s, California high schools were just on the cusp of allowing cross country racing to be an option for their students and Jim convinces the McFarland High administration to give him a chance coaching a team.  Never easy, Jim and his students struggle both on the track and off as they all grow to become better individuals.

I have to think that part of the reason for the success of McFarland, USA for this blogger anyway is due to the fact that I was expecting nothing from the film whatsoever.  Lowered expectations (or, quite frankly, no expectations) certainly aided its upward trajectory for me.  However, the film is also pretty darn good.  Costner is a staple of sports movies, but here he's a considerate coach who genuinely cares about the well-being of his family and his students.  Coping with the notion that he is responsible for moving his family away from a huge Midwestern house in which they'd settled for years, Costner's White is gruff and angry, but there's a heart at his core that gradually reveals itself when he realizes that he's providing an outlet for underprivileged Latino students to find success.  Kudos also must go out to the group of actors playing those students, most of whom are making their theatrical debuts with this film.  Together, they manage to individualize their personalities in ways I wasn't expecting -- which is also a credit to a nice script and a director in Niki Caro who allows a variety of storylines to all get their due without ever making one feel less important than another.

There's a "basicness" to McFarland, USA that some viewers may not be able to take.  To me, though, this simplicity allows for the true story to really shine through, creating a film that emphasizes a culture we don't often see displayed in mainstream films while also making a movie that really appeals to all generations of viewers.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Third Person

Third Person (2014)

Starring Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde, James Franco, Moran Atias, Maria Bello, and Kim Basinger

Directed by Paul Haggis

I've always said I'm a fan of movies that attempt to interweave multiple storylines with an overarching theme.  Third Person is one such film, but it fails so miserably as it attempts to fill its bloated 135-minute runtime with three tales of loss that feel so poorly thematically connected that I couldn't help but wonder why Oscar-winning screenwriter-director Paul Haggis was ever given the green light in the first place.

One piece of the triad deals with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael (Liam Neeson) who has secluded himself in a hotel room to finish penning his next masterpiece.  When his lover Anna (Olivia Wilde) surprises him, we realize that the relationship between these two lost souls is tenuous at best.  Then there's Julia (Mila Kunis), a mom whose son has been taken away from her by her ex-husband Rick (James Franco) after a horrible accident almost left their child for dead...or was not an accident at all?  Finally, Scott (Adrien Brody) is a sneaky businessman who steals upcoming suit designs from ritzy high-fashion designers in order to make cheap knock-offs.  While in a bar in Italy, he meets Monika (Moran Atias) who is struggling to find the money to pay off a gangster who has kidnapped her child...but is this all a con?

None of those stories really sound all that interesting on their own and when put together, they amount to a whole lot of depressing nothingness.   The male actors fare a bit better in the ensemble as most of the females are written so poorly that Kunis, Wilde, and Atias really couldn't do a thing to help forward their characters' plots or dimensionality.  Man or woman, though, I found myself completely removed from the variety of plights on display rather than being pulled in and invested.  Quite frankly, Third Person is a bit of a mess.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Prisoners

Prisoners (2013)

Starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Paul Dano, and Melissa Leo

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

I'm not sure there's something more horrific than being a parent and having something devastating happen to your children.  In Prisoners, when two young girls are kidnapped on Thanksgiving Day from their Pennsylvania neighborhood, I can only imagine the horror going through the heads of parents Keller and Grace Dover (Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello) and Franklin and Nancy Birch (Terrence Howard and Viola Davis).  The pain, anguish, and anger is all on display in Denis Villeneuve's direction of Aaron Guzikowski's script, but the emotional connection with the characters wasn't there for me and it's something that I really long for in a movie like this.

Take my favorite film of last year -- The Impossible -- or one of the best films of the past few years that you've never heard of -- Trust (seriously, check it out) -- and you'll find yourself becoming completely invested in all the characters -- the kids and the adults alike.  In Prisoners, I never felt that emotional tug I desired.  Maybe it's because the two girls go missing so early and we never get an opportunity to really get to know them.  Or maybe it's because Jackman's Keller takes a rather unique approach to enacting revenge on Alex Jones (Paul Dano), the young man initially accused and then cleared of kidnapping the girls, thus maybe subliminally making me not feel so bad for the tortured father.  Regardless, I kept waiting to have some type of guttural response to the story, but that never really happened.

Performances are good, but oftentimes in movies similar to this, they'll be a character(s) that you immediately find yourself connecting with and rallying behind.  Hugh Jackman is certainly supposed to be that guy and I'm sure I was supposed to be affected by Maria Bello's debilitating anguish, but the film never took me there.  Once again, this isn't to say that Jackman and Bello are disappointing.  In fact, this is probably Jackman's best role yet (and I quite liked his role in Les Miserables), taking a very tricky character and making his motivations understandable.

Perhaps it is, in fact, his interactions with Paul Dano that make this movie so difficult to create an emotional resonance for me.  <<MODERATE SPOILERS FOLLOW, ALTHOUGH THE TRAILER ESSENTIALLY REVEALS WHAT I'M ABOUT TO DISCUSS.>>  Dano's Alex Jones is obviously emotionally stunted and psychologically marred.  When Jackman's Keller essentially kidnaps him, we understand Keller's response, but we can't condone it.  And it's maybe this reason why we in the audience can't exactly become as invested in these parents' horror as we'd like.  <<SPOILERS DONE.>>  Dano is creepily fantastic here, though, excelling in a tricky role that somehow manages to walk the line between having the audience both despise and sympathize with him.  Nice turns from Melissa Leo, Viola Davis (who's just great in everything I've seen her in recently) and Jake Gyllenhaal (who, even in this, is a bit overrated in my opinion) round out the cast, but can't fulfill that dramatic oomph I desired.

Listen, it may seem like I'm being overly critical of Prisoners by harping on one particular issue and, quite honestly, I am.  However, Prisoners is good.  It's a smart adult drama with enough twists and turns that make its lengthy running time seem to fly by rather quickly.  Overall, it's the kind of movie that I wish Hollywood created more often.  Admittedly, I think the thing the film prides itself upon -- playing with morality and questioning who's right and who's wrong in certain situations -- hurt its overall resonance with me, yet made it intriguing at the same time.  And, it's for that reason that despite my qualms, it still gets the decidedly good rating I've given it below.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Abduction

Abduction (2011)

Starring Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello, Michael Nyqvist, and Sigourney Weaver

Directed by John Singleton

I should have known that in the first scene when high school senior Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner) and his two buddies get excited about going to the home opener of the Pittsburgh Pirates season that Abduction was going to be lacking in realism.  I mean, it's the Pirates...does anyone get excited about them?  Still, I told myself to suspend disbelief for a few more minutes and give what was one of the worst reviewed movies of 2011 a chance.  In the end, and I've used this criticism before, Abduction is a movie that I can't help but feel I could've written in my childhood "novel" writing days where dialog was cheesy, characters were ill-conceived, and plots were by-the-book.

I'm only familiar with Taylor Lautner from the Twilight films and I always thought that he was the strongest part of that series -- I confess that I was probably quite wrong in that assessment.  Lautner here is simply painful.  Mugging for the camera and overly mannered, he's the opposite of charming and charismatic.  Here, Lautner is Nathan, a typical high school senior.  When working on a research paper with his childhood friend Karen (Lily Collins), he comes across a picture of his four year-old self on an internet site for missing persons.  Just as he confronts his folks (Jason Isaacs and Maria Bello) about his discovery, their house is broken into by some foreign baddies and Nathan and Karen are forced to go on the run.

How a film so obvious and surprise-deficient managed to snag people like Maria Bello, Alfred Molina, and Sigourney Weaver to join the cast is beyond me.  None of those names are given anything to do here and it's completely obvious this was a "paycheck only" movie.  Lily Collins comes off as okay -- I'll reserve judgment on her until I see a bit more.  She's certainly attractive, but she isn't given a whole lot to do here and what she is given is mind-boggingly bland.

But the biggest problems with Abduction are the "star" Lautner whose faults I mentioned above and the director John Singleton who has done such a poor job crafting this movie that I have to think someone off the street could've done better.  Fight scenes are poorly choreographed and edited, transitions are abysmal, and Singleton fails to get a good performance from his lead.  To me, despite the simplicity of the plot, the fault with this movie lies squarely with Singleton who is to unable to bring anything to the table.  Abduction may not be the worst movie of the year as some may have called it, but it's certainly not any good.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy (2011)

Starring Maria Bello, Michael Sheen, Alan Tudyk, Moon Bloodgood, and Kyle Gallner

Directed by Shawn Ku

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

I was speaking just the other day with someone about the dearth of indie movies in 2011 that resonated with me.  There were a few here and there, but my top list of movies features a lot more mainstream wide-release movies than in years past.  Thankfully, Beautiful Boy, a little seen flick from last year, helps pick the slack in that 2011 independent movie market.  With two stunning performances and a story that just emotionally hits you at the core, the debut from director and co-screenwriter Shawn Ku is a welcome surprise.

Maria Bello and Michael Sheen are Kate and Bill, a married couple who are in the process of separating.  Their son, Sammy (Kyle Gallner), is off at his first semester in college, and the empty house is making their relationship even more difficult to bear.  The two could never be prepared for the news they receive early one morning when police officers show up on their doorstep and tell the couple that Sammy went on a shooting spree at his college, killing over fifteen people before turning the gun on himself.  

With this huge news occurring in the film's first ten minutes, the remainder of Beautiful Boy rather effortlessly focuses solely on the emotional impact of this horrific event on the parents of the murderer.  We never leave the side of either Kate or Bill and their grief and sorrow is gut-wrenching.  Their crumbling relationship is pushed to the limits -- for they've gone through something so devastating that few can relate to them -- and the script provides a resolution for the couple that is completely believable and wholly satisfying.

Maria Bello is simply wonderful.  Harboring a tremendous amount of guilt -- Kate was the last one to speak with Sammy the night before he went on his rampage -- Bello allows Kate to run the gamut of emotions from tearful grief to harsh anger, wondering whether she or her husband are also responsible for their son's actions.  Michael Sheen is also riveting, beginning the movie as the calmer of the two, but finally breaking down and unleashing his emotions as the film progresses. 

Together, the two are part of one of the best scenes I've seen in a 2011 film as a rather tender, lovely moment in a hotel room gradually shifts into a raw and hate-filled screaming match showcasing both Bello and Sheen's talent and proving that the film has allowed the audience to become so incredibly invested in these characters and their emotions.  As the scene unfurled, I both didn't want it to end, but couldn't wait for it to be over.  It was so uncomfortable, but so revealing and truth-filled.  The barriers had come down for the coupl (thanks to the introduction of alcohol) and it was positively riveting.

There were a few moments here and there that screamed "low budget indie" in terms of the camera work and editing which admittedly took a little bit away from the overall experience.  And, in the end, you kind of want to know what turned young Sammy down this painful road (although, on the other hand, the ambivalence makes us fully understand the disbelief Kate and Bill are feeling post-shooting spree).  Still, those are minor gripes in a film that moved me quite a bit and featured two fantastic performances.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - The Company Men

The Company Men (2010)

Starring Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello, Craig T. Nelson, Rosemarie Dewitt, and Kevin Costner

Directed by John Wells

The Company Men is certainly a movie "for our times" as it weaves the tale of three corporate employees who lose their jobs due to downsizing.  While the flick may be entirely relevant in this period of high unemployment rates, it's simply not a very good story.  Its three main characters have the exact trajectories one would expect -- I had each of their resolutions pegged right at the get-go -- and writer-director John Wells isn't able to manage to keep things the least bit interesting.

Nursing a Boston accent that (considering his roots) surprisingly wavers, Ben Affleck is Bobby, "the young one" of the bunch who loses his white collar job when his company downsizes.  Finding it difficult to give up all he's had -- the country club membership, the Porsche, the fancy house -- he begins to have trouble supporting his family.  But Bobby isn't the only one who loses his job.  Fifty-something Phil (Chris Cooper) also gets the ax and it's blatantly evident from the very beginning that Phil's a guy that's not gonna handle things like this all that well.  The road he travels down is one that has been travelled by many a movie character and while it's believable, it's too obvious to come as a surprising turn of events.  Finally, Bobby and Phil's boss, Gene (Tommy Lee Jones) gets the boot, but finds that perhaps his firing may have been a blessing in disguise.

The biggest problem with The Company Men is that despite the fact that there could have been something quite substantive based on the subject manner, the film flounders in blandness.  The flick needs more bite and oomph, but instead Bobby, Phil, and Gene feel like simply "stock character types" pulled from some "Screenwriting 101" class.  There's a story to be told in grown men losing their jobs and being forced to reexamine their lives, but it's certainly not a story that's told well here.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Downloading Nancy (2009)

Downloading Nancy
Starring Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewall, and Amy Brenneman
Directed by Johan Renck

Based on an apparently true story, I was actually looking forward to seeing this flick (I'm fairly certain I posted the trailer on the blog a while back). It's not that I even had high expectations, but this movie is just miserable, lacking any real sense of emotion and failing to draw me in to the odd, quirky story.

Nancy (Bello) hates her life. Her obsessive-compulsive husband (Sewell) won't sleep with her so she turned to the internet for sexual gratification...that is when she's not slitting her wrists in an attempt to find love for herself from her self-inflicted pain. When the film opens, Nancy is running away from her husband, fleeing to meet Louis (Patric), her internet lover. As it is soon discovered, Louis isn't only her lover -- he is also going to be her killer. Nancy wants to end her pain and suffering and Louis is going to be the one to do that. However, neither Louis nor Nancy planned on falling in love with one another.

The premise here is interesting, but the execution is awful. In an attempt, I suppose, to look "realistic," everything here appears to be lit in some horrid florescent manner, leading to a washed-out and grainy look that gets tiresome after about ten minutes. Additionally, the director feels that odd cuts and unnecessary quick repetitions are "cool," but really they're just covering up how morbid the story is.

The actors don't really come off as winners here. Rufus Sewell as Nancy's husband is so gratingly boring and one-note that I longed for his scenes to end about twenty seconds into them. Maria Bello and Jason Patric play fine enough off of each other, but their odd sadomasochistic sexual deviancy just comes off as incredibly uncomfortable (and uneasiness is not a reason to inherently dislike a movie -- see Antichrist as an example). It's not Bello and Patric's fault that the script fails them by not giving them any type of emotional connection -- the reason why they fall in love (beyond their mutual sexual quirks) is not explained at all, and, seeing as how this is a huge aspect of the plot, the movie cannot succeed.

The RyMickey Rating: D