Dark Waters

Dark Waters (2019)

Starring Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, Louisa Krause, and Bill Pullman

Directed by Todd Haynes

Written by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

While You Were Sleeping

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Starring Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, Micole Mercurio, and Glynis Johns

Directed by Jon Turteltaub

Written by Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric Lebow

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Battle of the Sexes

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

Starring Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Elisabeth Shue, and Jessica McNamee

Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Written by Simon Beaufoy

Summary (in 500 words or less):  In 1973, former professional tennis player Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) challenged the popular Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) to a tennis match.  This battle of the sexes received much media coverage with the outspoken and braggadocios Riggs certain he'd prove victorious against the quiet, resolute King who was battling her own demons at the same time as she contemplated her sexuality when she begins to fall for a hairdresser (Andrea Riseborough) traveling with the ladies' pro tennis tour.

• Great performances from both Emma Stone and Steve Carell are the highlights of Battle of the Sexes.  Together, they lift this otherwise generic biopic to a greater level.
• The flick works very well during its first half as we get to learn about the private lives of Bobby and Billie Jean, but the actual Battle of the Sexes tennis match which makes up a large chunk of the final third feels a bit anticlimactic as most in the audience will already know the ending.  Tension never really mounts and the film unfortunately suffers because of the (admittedly necessary) emphasis on the titular match.
• Nice production design definitely creates a 70s aesthetic that proves quite charming

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - American Ultra

American Ultra (2015)

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Tony Hale, and Bill Pullman

Directed by Nima Nourizadeh

I recorded American Ultra on the DVR during a free preview weekend of some pay cable network and before watching it, I deleted it.  Did I really wanna watch a movie whose main character is a stoner pot smoker?  In the opening minutes, Jesse Eisenberg's Mike Howell and Kristen Stewart's Phoebe Larson must've lit up at least five times.  Longtime blog readers know that I'm not a huge fan of drugs mixing with comedy -- I just feel it's an easy, cheap way to elicit laughs -- so I actually deleted the film.  For some reason, though, I decided to restore it to my DVR and give it a go -- and I'm glad I did.  American Ultra isn't going to set the world on fire, but its ultra-violent premise yielded enough laughs (in a non-drug-centric manner) and a clever, well-acted story that I found myself pleasantly surprised.

Mike is a convenience store clerk who, when not smoking pot, spends his free time hanging out with his girlfriend Phoebe and writing a comic book about a heroic ape.  One evening, Mike is approached at the store by a strange although very put-together and sophisticated woman (Connie Britton) who begins babbling some nonsensical words to him.  Mike shrugs off the exchange, but minutes later when he's jumped by two guys, Mike goes into violent beast mode, attacking and killing the duo with ease.  Mike slowly begins to realize that he may have been programmed by the government to commit such crimes and now that he's been "activated," some government officials may want him dead.

Moving along at a rather rapid clip, American Ultra smartly doesn't overstay its welcome because its entire story is essentially summed up in that aforementioned paragraph.  Without a huge amount of plot, we're instead treated to incredibly violent set pieces that are played for laughs -- a tricky balance to achieve, but executed successfully for the most part by relative newcomer director Nima Nourizadeh.  Tarantino-level in their graphicness, the violence is undoubtedly over-the-top and at times unbelievable, but the film is able to cleverly get the audience to embrace the insanity because the flick's main character can't believe what he's seeing either.  Stoner Mike's expert combat techniques are just as incomprehensible to him as they are to us in the audience so that surprisingly immediately connects us to the character and allows us to "accept" the elevated violence because we're on the same page as Mike.

Eisenberg and Stewart are a nice match for one another, although neither lights the world on fire here.  They're both a bit too monotone throughout for my liking, but that's really their acting style most of the time, I've always felt.  The supporting cast of Connie Britton and Topher Grace as CIA agents respectively for and against Mike are enjoyable, bringing some additional laughs to the flick.  My review may be slightly overpraising American Ultra which is by no means exceptional, but it was a bit of a surprise for me.  Certainly not for everyone, the flick is much better than I ever expected.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Lola Versus

Lola Versus (2012)

Starring Greta Gerwig, Joel Kinnaman, Zoe Lister-Jones, Hamish Linklater, Bill Pullman, and Debra Winger

Directed by Daryl Wein

Greta Gerwig is a fairly new face on the movie scene, but there's been a big push lately to have her be labeled the "Indie Girl of the Moment."  Although I haven't seen that many of her films, I do think there's an ease and naturalness to her and she excels at the self-doubting, insecure "brand" of comedy that she's tackled thus far.  She's certainly the best part of Lola Versus which seems like a film tailor-made for her (and maybe it was crafted with her mind), but the movie itself feels a bit stale.

Gerwig is Lola, a 29 year-old doctoral student working on her dissertation in literature while living in New York City with her long-time boyfriend Henry (Hamish Linklater).  When Henry proposes, Lola happily accepts and begins to plan out the wedding.  However, by the time the opening credits roll around, Henry is having cold feet and leaves Lola behind.  Devastated, Lola consoles herself by binge eating rice cakes, moping around her tiny apartment, and hanging out with her best friends Luke and Alice (Joel Kinneman and Zoe Lister-Jones).  Desiring some form of male connection, Lola begins to find herself becoming involved with best bud Luke, but when Henry realizes the error of his ways and tries to woo his ex-fianceé back, Lola finds herself in quite the predicament.

If that whole summary doesn't sound too thrilling, you'd be correct in making that assumption.  Here's this seemingly smart girl who feels that she "needs a man" in order to feel empowered.  Thirty minutes in, you just want the film to fast forward to the inevitable ending where, fueled by this newfound sense of "Girl Power," Lola realizes she doesn't need a man to have a fulfilling life.  Perhaps that last line should have come with some sort of "Spoiler Alert" warning, but the fact of the matter is that this film telegraphs its ending from its very opening moments.

Greta Gerwig certainly tries to bring some life to her character and she truly is the reason the film doesn't feel like a chore to sit through.  Nothing about the way she plays Lola feels "put on" or "fake" -- there's a genuineness that's charming.  But try as she might, Lola is a character we've seen before in many different incarnations.  The same can be said for the best friends played by Joel Kinneman and Zoe Lister-Jones.  Lister-Jones in particular is the stereotypical "sassy girlfriend" and while she's given a much more brash and sarcastic attitude, it just feels like an echo of any number of films that came before it.  And that's unfortunately the way the whole film plays out as its lack of originality proves to be its downfall.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

The Personal Canon - Sleepless in Seattle

The Personal Canon is a recurring column highlighting my favorite films of all time.  While they may not necessarily be "A" rated, they are the movies that, for some reason or another, hold a special place in my filmgoing experience.

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ross Malinger, Bill Pullman, Rosie O'Donnell, Victor Garber, Rita Wilson, David Hyde Pierce, and Rob Reiner

Directed by Nora Ephron

Call me a wuss all you want, but I'm secure enough in my manhood to say that I love Sleepless in Seattle.  It's one of those movies that I will keep on every single time I come across it on TBS or TNT despite the fact that I own it.  It's a movie that I love enough that I wrote a paper on it in a college film class (that earned me a near perfect A-).  It's one of those movies that makes me feel good...and goshdarnit there's nothing wrong with that.  Sure, it may not be "epic" or ingeniously directed, but it holds a place in my Personal Canon and ranks quite high up there on my list of All-Time Favorite Movies (which, I guess is kind of redundant since the Personal Canon will really only contain my "All-Time Favorite Movies").

Based a bit upon the classic film An Affair to Remember (which I watched as part of a double feature following Sleepless one year and found it treacly and cloying), director and co-screenwriter Nora Ephron's flick keeps our two leading actors -- Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in perhaps my favorite roles of each of theirs -- apart for nearly the entire movie.  We know that fate will bring Hanks's widowed father-of-one Sam Baldwin and Ryan's recently-engaged-although-probably-just-settling-in-love Annie Reed together, but the process of getting the two to meet is what makes this movie work.

And a huge part of that successful process of uniting the two adults is child actor Ross Malinger as Sam's son Jonah.  This is a character that could've easily been one of those "too smart for his own good" types, but is probably the best part of the movie.  The father-son bond created by Hanks and Malinger is what sells me on this film.  The relationship moves seamlessly from the gut-wrenching moments of sadness following the death of Sam's wife to the rather humorous scenes several months later depicting Jonah's dislike of Sam's new girlfriend.  Despite the wide-range of emotions, there's never a false moment between these two and that's just as much of a credit to little Ross Malinger as it is Oscar-winning Tom Hanks.  [Of note: Malinger is the voice of T.J. on the animated show Recess...I knew I liked that show for a reason.]

As good as Hanks and Malinger are, Meg Ryan shines as well even if her role is a little less developed than her male counterparts.  This is film that made her America's Sweetheart in the early 90s and her Annie is just about as cute as could be.  She exudes charm, wit, and kindness -- three characteristics that will get a lady far in my book.  She may not be the sexiest woman on the block, but she's the one that would catch my eye nonetheless.  (Of course, nowadays, Ms. Ryan's plasticky face would make me run the other way).

Sleepless in Seattle actually falls a little more on the romance side of the "romantic comedy" descriptor, but the humor is provided by the supporting characters, none of whom overstay their welcome.  Whether it be Rob Reiner as Sam's buddy or Rosie O'Donnell as Annie's boss, they give the gentle funny nudging that the two leads need in order to get to that inevitable climactic meeting.  Add Rita Wilson, Victor Garber, and Bill Pullman to the mix and there's not a bad actor onscreen.  Honestly, there's not a funny moment that falls flat.  Every joke hits the mark.

All this being said, one of my favorite aspects of Sleepless in Seattle (and what I wrote that aforementioned paper on) is the film's spot-on use of music.  Using original recordings of classic songs like Nat King Cole's "Stardust," Gene Autry's "Back in the Saddle Again" and covers of standards like "Makin' Whoopee" and "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," music supervisor Marc Shaiman worked rather ingeniously with Nora Ephron to utilize music to both provide humor and further the plot by cluing us in to the characters' inner thoughts.  I'm not sure I've ever heard music so expertly placed in a film as in this flick and it's honestly one of the biggest reasons why I love this film.

Say what you will, but Sleepless in Seattle is one of the absolute best romantic comedies of my generation.  It never finds itself needing to be lewd or crude, but instead is sweet without ever being too sugary.  It's a movie that you can watch with your twelve year-old nephew or your ninety year-old grandmom and both will enjoy it.  It's simple, but lovely, full of terrific little moments that just make you go "awww" -- one concerning the peeling of an apple gets me every single time.  If you've never seen it, leave your cynicism at the door and check it out.  And Happy Valentine's Day to all...

The RyMickey Rating:  A

Theatre Review - Oleanna

Oleanna
written by David Mamet
directed by Doug Hughes
When: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Where: John Golden Theatre (New York City)
What: Play, Drama, Two-Man Show, Professional Theater, Broadway

Spoilers abound ahead...

Going into David Mamet's Oleanna, I knew that it had something to do with sexual harassment and that it "gets people talking," supposedly leaving you questioning which character is "right" in the end. Unfortunately, to me, there's no question to me who was correct, and a huge reason for this certainty is that the female character here is tremendously flawed and absolutely unbelievable.

The play has no intermission, but is told in three acts. In Act One, we meet John, a college professor who is up for tenure. John, played by Bill Pullman, is nebbish and timid, while at the same time, when discussing his philosophies on higher education, incredibly smart, yet overly loquacious. We also meet Julia Stiles' Carol, one of his students who has come to John's office to refute her grade on a paper. She feels unintelligent and foolish, and is unfortunately burdened with some poor lines. This first act feels drawn out and I kept waiting for it to get to the point. When it ended, I really was left flat and wondering whether Stiles was to blame for awful line readings or whether she wasn't given good lines to begin with (I'm going with the latter).

Act Two is a few months later and we discover that Carol has lodged a complaint against John with the Tenure Committee at the university. She accuses him of sexual harassment, for at the end of act one, as Carol cries from frustration, John puts his hands on her shoulders. John tries to get Carol to explain her issues with him, but she keeps referring him to the report, mentioning a "group" she's joined, but not really telling him her own thoughts. There is a hugely drastic change between the Carol of Act One and the Carol of Act Two, and it didn't sit well with me at all.

In Act Three, the Tenure Committee has ruled in Carol's favor and John's tenure has been denied. It is incredibly obvious in this act that the roles have been reversed. From stage direction with Carol standing behind the professor's desk to dialog as Carol is constantly interrupting John (as opposed to the opposite in Act One), it's apparent that Carol is now in charge. The problem is that I couldn't believe that Carol became this completely different person. Yes, she's simply spouting her "group's" thoughts (it's obvious that she seems to be pressured into this by others), but I still could not fathom that this was the same person from Act One.

It's the character of Carol that ruins this play. I found a quote online that says Carol is Mamet's "most fully realized female character." Really? Really? If "fully realized" means the ability to change your personality without any rationale, then sure. Carol just feels flawed to me as a character and, since this is only a two-character play and the twists of the plot rely heavily on Carol, the play just doesn't work for me.

It's not the fault of Pullman, that's for sure. I wasn't sure what I thought of him in Act One, but as the play progressed, I grew to appreciate his portrayal of the character. That being said, if the play is supposed to be ambiguous at the end as far as who was right and who was wrong, Pullman makes me feel for him entirely. This guy didn't do a thing wrong, but in this age of political correctness, every little thing can be interpreted as fault.

As far as Stiles goes, I do think she's a talented actress. I truly enjoyed watching her strength onstage. I totally found myself looking at her even when Pullman was talking because I was enthralled with her facial reactions and physical movements. Still, I've explained my problems with the character and since Stiles couldn't rewrite the play, I'm gonna go with this being playwright Mamet's fault rather than Stiles'. That being said, was Stiles too strong of an actress to play the meek Carol of Act One? Maybe.

The play's name is taken from the folk song "Oleanna" which refers to a perfect American society. I'm sure that means something deep, but I'm just too tired to figure out what it means.

Movie Review - Surveillance (2009)

Starring Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond, Pell James, French Stewart, Cheri Oteri, and Kent Harper
Directed by Jennifer Lynch

Two people have been urging me to see this movie since they both saw it at the Philly Film Festival last April. My comment on another blog said something along the lines of "I'm not a David Lynch fan, and if his daughter's just as weird, I'm not sure about this one." Well, I was right that flick was a tad weird, but I really, really loved this movie.

For the most part, it's a straightforward flick with two FBI agents (Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond) investigating a series of murders in some small town out in Middle America. As they interrogate three witnesses, the crime unfolds in a series of flashbacks.

**A spoiler in the broadest sense of the term follows. Still, I'd skip the next paragraph if you're interested in seeing this film at all.**

I must admit that I didn't see the ending coming at all. Thinking back on it, I'm kicking myself for not seeing it, but when the big revelation of the flick occurs, I let out an audible gasp, followed by the words "Holy Fuck." Pardon my French (and I'm not talking about French Stewart of 3rd Rock from the Sun fame even though he was pretty awesome in this as a twisted cop), but it was a guttural reaction. I was floored. Like I said, it's not as if it should have been completely surprising, but it really surprised the hell out of me.

**END OF SPOILERS**

Yes, it's certainly true that the acting was kind of silly and forced by a lot of folks here, but it didn't really bother me in the slightest. Jennifer Lynch and her co-writer Kent Harper (who also plays a crooked cop) had me hooked from the very beginning. From the opening credit sequence which is interspersed with a murder to the interrogation scenes to the flashbacks, there wasn't a minute that I was bored during this movie. So, despite some less than stellar acting, the story here won me over and completely helped to overshadow some minor problems. Yes, it certainly turns twisted and Lynchian (there's a scene towards the end that was extremely disturbing to me which I'll spoil in the comments), but I really enjoyed the heck out of this movie. At this point, without a doubt, one of my favorites of the year. If this is what the film festival has in store for me next year, I'm gonna love it.

The RyMickey Rating: A-

Comments closed due to massive amounts of spamming.

Movie Review - Phoebe in Wonderland (2009)

Starring Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, and Bill Pullman
Written and Directed by Daniel Barnz

This is another one of those indie movies with characters that are too smart for their own good. However, what saves this movie from the downfall of recent flicks I've watched like Gigantic and Sherman's Way is that the story is interesting and nearly every actor is strong, particularly a winning performance by Elle Fanning.

Phoebe (Elle Fanning) is a nine year-old girl who lands the lead role in the school play Alice in Wonderland. Phoebe has some psychological issues, the biggest being obsessive-compulsive disorder (and a moderate case of Touette's, too). Phoebe loves the play and excels at it, but her imagination oftentimes gets the better of her and she envisions the play literally coming alive all around her which oftentimes causes problems with her fellow classmates. Her parents (Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman) seem to be in denial about their daughter's issues and it certainly seems to be putting a strain on their marriage.

The film belongs to the young Elle Fanning and there is something so beautiful and simplistic about how she plays the difficult role of Phoebe. The role could easily have veered towards over-the-top and showy, but Fanning is something special. From the opening scenes, she conveys so much with a simple raise of a lip or eyebrow. There must have been something in the water that those Fanning girls drank as babies (Dakota is her sister), because they both have amazing talent. There's one scene, in particular, where Phoebe breaks down completely in her mother's arms that was amazingly powerful. Speaking of Phoebe's mother, Felicity Huffman is touching and I was quite surprised by how well-written and thought-out her role was (kudos to the screenwriter).

In addition to Fanning and Huffman, Patricia Clarkson takes the clichéd role of the over-the-top drama teacher and makes it her own. Although her role wasn't without its faults (she falls into that "too quirky" indie character category and is forced to play that inspirational teacher role), Clarkson brings something special to the table. One of the most powerful scenes in the movie belongs to Clarkson -- when the word "fagot" [spelling is correct] is found written on a young male member of the play's costume, her anger is real and visceral. After criticizing the culprit for not spelling the word correctly, she makes them read the definition of the word -- "a bundle of sticks" -- and then says one of the best lines I've heard this year -- "Does anyone want to own up to idiocy as well as cruelty?" Although I had slight problems with her eccentric character, Clarkson can deliver a well-written line with gusto and meaning.

In addition to my slight problem with Clarkson's character, the school's principal (played by Campbell Scott) was a guy that was so inadequately able to run a school that the character took me out of any type of reality that the film was trying to create. The same could also be said for Phoebe's wiser-beyond-her-years sister. Once again, it's that pet peeve of kids being too smart for their own good...why not just make the kid normal? It's disappointing that the screenwriter who created two stellar characters in Phoebe and her mother wasn't able to continue the quality with the other folks in the movie.

Despite its faults, Phoebe in Wonderland is a perfectly "nice" movie filled with some winning performances. Fanning, Huffman, and Clarkson alone are worth the price of the rental (or the current streaming via Netflix). Sure, it's warm, sentimental, and a bit treacly, but sometimes, you're in the mood for that sort of thing and this movie's good at it.

The RyMickey Rating: B