Once Upon a Mattress

 Once Upon a Mattress (2005)

Starring Carol Burnett, Tracey Ullman, Denis O'Hare, Zooey Deschanel, Matthew Morrison, Michael Boatman, Edward Hibbert, and Tom Smothers

Directed by Kathleen Marshall

Written by Janet Brownell

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - Trolls

Trolls (2016)

Featuring the vocal talents of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Christine Baranski, Russell Brand, James Corden, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Cleese

Directed by Mike Mitchell

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

In all of my 2016 viewings, animated films have been decidedly lukewarm, failing to truly excite or entertain in any magnificent fashion.  Color me surprised, then, by my reaction to Trolls, a colorful, finely animated, nicely voice-acted, incredibly fun romp.  And the fact that it's brought to us by Dreamworks -- an animation studio that often leaves me disappointed -- is even more flabbergasting to me with Trolls undoubtedly being my favorite animated film the studio has released thus far.

The tiny elf-like creatures known as the Trolls are an incredibly happy group, prone to singing, dancing, and hugging every hour on the hour.  The Bergens, on the other hand, are human-sized goblin-like folks who live in a perpetual state of disappointment, unable to find happiness.  Years ago, however, the Bergens discovered that eating a Troll can provide a feeling of happiness and, because of this, the Bergens rounded up all the Trolls and caged them in a tree in a courtyard in Bergentown.  Every year on Trollstice, the Bergens allow themselves to eat one Troll and be truly happy for a few hours, and this year young Prince Gristle (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is going taste his first Troll, feeling contentment for the first time.  The Trolls, however, have finally had enough and plan an elaborate and successful escape from Bergetown thanks to King Peppy (Jeffrey Tambor) and his daughter Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick).  For years, the Trolls lived a blissful Bergen-free life, but following a raucous singing party, the Trolls are discovered by Chef (Christine Baranski), a Bergen banished from Bergentown following the escape of the Trolls.  Chef catches several of the Trolls and takes them back to the now King Gristle, but Princess Poppy along with the help of the only sad Troll around -- Branch (Justin Timberlake) -- set out to save their friends from digestion.

Sure, all of that sounds ridiculous and as I typed it, I couldn't actually fathom how I could've possibly enjoyed this silliness, but Trolls tells its upbeat story well and embraces the sheer frivolity.  The peppiness of the trolls is surprisingly enhanced by well-known pop songs as well as some pleasantly ear-catching original numbers sung by the likes of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, and Zooey Deschanel all of whom -- as well as the rest of the vocal cast -- create believable voices for their characters.  Animation-wise, I found the computer animation to carry a slight Claymation tone and the environments which the Trolls and Bergens inhabit feel decidedly unique -- bright, cheerful, and arts-and-crafts-like for the Trolls and pointy, dark, and gloomy for the Bergens -- lacking the somewhat generic habitats we sometimes see in the cinematic animation landscape.

Pixar often aims for the heart, but Trolls doesn't even attempt that instead aiming for a visceral euphoria via its music, color, and pleasantly engaging (though simple) story.  While Trolls doesn't attempt to be deep or emotionally-investing in a Pixar-like way, it's fun...and sometimes that's enough.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Our Idiot Brother

Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer, Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones, Kathryn Hahn, and Steve Coogan

Directed by Jesse Peretz

I'm fairly certain that Our Idiot Brother was supposed to be a comedy.  I mean, there were moments where I probably should have laughed at the sweet, yet entirely too innocent and trusting Ned (Paul Rudd) whose hippie vibe was lovable and charming, but the flick simply didn't elicit chuckles (with the exception of one very odd threesome scene and a game of charades that admittedly cracked me up).  Instead, Our Idiot Brother places a huge focus on Ned's three sisters -- workaholic Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), quirky lesbian Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), and stay-at-home mom Liz (Emily Mortimer) -- none of whom are ladies I'd like to spend any bit of time with.  

The whole affair just plays like some sitcom, jumping back and forth amongst Ned and his trio of sisters whose troubles reach soap opera levels of absurdity at times.  Unfortunately, these problems should have made me give a damn about these characters, but instead they just made me upset that these ladies were such idiots -- for, you see, the absurdity of the flick is that the supposedly sane sisters are perhaps the ones who are more foolish than Ned the Kooky Simpleton.

Despite a game Paul Rudd whose kind Jesus-y hipster Ned is amusing (and is the only thing that saves the flick from being a complete and utter failure), Our Idiot Brother just doesn't ever feel rooted in reality at any point.  Characters are too one-dimensional, predicaments are resolved way too quickly and cleanly, and the final scene was nearly disgustingly treacly.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Gigantic (2009)

Starring Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, Ed Asner, and Zach Galifianakis
Written by Matt Aselton and Adam Nagata
Directed by Matt Aselton

I don't know that I've wanted a movie to end this year more than I wanted Gigantic to end. It's not that it was even the worst movie I've seen, but it was full of those "quirky" characters that do wacky things that people would never do in real life simply to try and provide laughs for the movie-going audience.

Paul Dano is Brian Weathersby, a 28-year old mattress salesman who has wanted to adopt a baby from China for his whole life. One day, he meets Happy Lolly (Zooey Deschanel) whose father has just bought a mattress from him. They fall in love. That's pretty much it (except for the weird subplot of a homeless guy played by Zack Galifianakis who is constantly beating up Brian...why? Because it's weird and edgy, that's why). Brian and Happy both have that solemn, emotionless indie characteristic that we see in indie movies where the writers don't know what to write about. The two of them are so blah that I never once felt anything but boredom whenever Dano and Deschanel were onscreen. Dano and Deschanel were playing characters I've seen them play before...they brought nothing new to the table here. Sure, they weren't helped by the awful script, but they certainly were poor on their own merits.

The only thing saving this movie from complete failure are the performances of John Goodman and Ed Asner as Happy and Brian's respective fathers. Goodman's character is a completely unbelievable "quirky" rich guy, but he plays it with gusto and was the only person that breathed life into the movie. Asner was the only "normal" person here and I enjoyed the performance probably for that reason alone.

The RyMickey Rating: D-

Movie Review - (500) Days of Summer

Starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Directed by Marc Webb

In a summer of shitty blockbuster action movies, it's pleasant to get to watch a nice romance about people (close to) my age. Unfortunately, (500) Days of Summer is a movie where some really good parts don't add up to an entirely cohesive whole.

I could tell you a summary of the movie, but it's essentially boy meets girl, boy falls in love, girl crushes his heart (as women always do). There's really not much else to it, but the film is buoyed by two decent performances by its stars. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Angels in the Outfield, man! Remember that movie?) is Tom and he's got the forlorn act down pat. I believed him in this movie...I felt like he was a real guy. I felt like I would be just like him were I in his situation. His role worked for me. The same could be said for Zooey Deschanel's Summer. She felt like just as much of a "real" person to me. In a movie that's essentially an ode to misbegotten love (I'm not ruining anything there...they spill those beans in the first minute), Summer needed to be someone that the audience could pine over and Summer is just that. The relationship between Summer and Tom felt right, felt real, and felt meaningful.

The actors are certainly helped by the direction of Marc Webb who does some very creative things (with the help of the writers, for sure). Split screens and fantasy sequences don't always work out well in movies, but in (500) Days, they didn't seem forced or showy. In fact, there were two scenes in this movie that are favorites of anything I've seen this year. One involves a split screen where the left side reveals what Tom thinks is going to happen when he reunites with Summer, while the right side reveals what actually happens. Call me a sucker, but I thought it was ingenious. And there's a fantasy sequence where, after his first night with Summer, Tom dances through a park to Hall & Oates's "You Make My Dreams Come True" (one of my favorite songs) that is priceless (despite the fact that they spoiled it in the trailer...let's not even get into that though, because the trailer spoiled a lot here in this flick).

Add to that, this movie had a narrator...I'm a sucker for narration...I don't know why, but movies that start and end with narration always win me over a bit (see the recent revisited review of The Hudsucker Proxy).

But the fact that I can pick out scenes I loved without liking the movie as a whole is the inherent problem. And while there weren't any scenes I out-and-out hated, there were some problematic issues for me. For starters, I'm tired of movies where the younger sibling of a main character ends up being the voice of reason for their older sibling. It doesn't happen...or at least it never happened to me (no offense to my brothers). Secondly, Tom's job at the greeting card company rang totally untrue...not untrue that he would've worked there, but everything they talked about there relating to his work felt entirely fake. Every greeting card they showed felt like a joke to me...I kept asking myself how this crappy card company stayed in business. Thirdly, the quirky friend of the main character thing...I mean, it's okay, but it's kind of a tired cliché by now. The friends in this movie were fine but they added nothing to the story whatsoever.

I realize that the three issues above are kind of petty, but they're just three minor reasons why the movie didn't gel together the way it should have. I think that my fellow moviegoer hit the nail on the head when she asked the question, "Am I supposed to feel bad for Tom?" and my other fellow moviegoer said, "No, because Summer told him that she didn't want a relationship to begin with." So, the whole movie is pushing you to feel bad for the guy, but subliminally, you're thinking to yourself, "He set himself up for this failed relationship." Sure, it sucks, but he should've known better.

Give me time to think about it and I might explore my problems with the flick some more (I still need to digest the movie a bit...the pitfalls of trying to post a review immediately after I see the movie, I guess). Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad movie by any means and I'm giving it a rating that falls just below the "recommended" category for me. I really do feel like the relationship between these two characters felt real and I very much liked the way it was shot, but I just feel like it could've been so much better for some reason.

The RyMickey Rating: C