Surviving Christmas

 Surviving Christmas (2004)

Starring Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, and Catherine O'Hara

Directed by Mike Mitchell

Written by Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan, Jeffrey Ventimilia, and Joshua Sternin

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - The Drop

The Drop (2014)

Starring Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, and Noomi Rapace

Directed by Michaël R. Roskam

When his cousin Marv's (James Gandolfini) bar gets robbed, bartender Bob (Tom Hardy) finds himself thrust into an investigation that makes him question his family, friends, and himself.  If that summary of The Drop sounds generic, that's because The Drop as a film is a bit generic.  That's certainly not to say that Michaël R. Roskam's film is a bust, but nothing new is brought to the table here in this tale of a corrupt New York City family.

However, I don't necessarily want to be a downer when it comes to this flick because it absolutely held my interest.  Helping to elevate things are the solid performances from the three leads with Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, and Noomi Rapace giving their roles a bit more intricate depth than the somewhat basic plot seemingly would allow.  There's an innocence to Hardy's role in particular that is oddly striking and ultimately compelling when stacked up against the hardened Gandolfini and a few other mobster types that make their presence known throughout the flick.  It's a bit refreshing as I'm used to Hardy taking the same tough edge in many of his films, so the almost childlike demeanor he presents here is a fresh twist for the actor.

Still, in the end, The Drop emits this sense of genericness that it never really is able to overcome.  It's a perfectly acceptable crime piece, but it never truly excels at elevating itself to something really captivating.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)

Starring Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini, and Alan Arkin

Directed by Don Scardino

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is one of those comedies with characters who have no basis in reality, are sometimes funny in their idiocy, but then become completely unbelievable when the script attempts to make them "more real" and "give them heart" by the film's end.  When you've created a character who bears no resemblance to an actual human being (as is the case in the title character played by Steve Carell), I have a tough time connecting...which is fine if you're going to make the character dumb and keep them dumb (which is a hard task to accomplish and still make them interesting to watch for two hours).   However, on the flip side, making a character over-the-top, unbelievably stupid, and a callous jerk and then expecting me to believe that they can become an incredibly intelligent and caring individual is a bit of a stretch that hardly ever works...as is evident here.

As a kid, Burt Wonderstone was a bit of a loner, but on one of his birthdays his mother bought him a magic kit and his life forever changed.  Burt partnered with his childhood friend Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) and the duo rose to fame as two of the most famous magicians of all time, earning a coveted headlining spot on the Las Vegas Strip playing to sold out crowds night after night.  The world of illusions is changing, however, and when the David Blaine/Chris Angel-esque Steve Gray (Jim Carrey) pops up on the Strip filming his tv show, the stuck-up Burt and the polite and slightly timid Anton are in for a rude awakening.  As Steve performs crazy acts like cutting open his skin and holding in his urine for a week all in the name of magic, Burt and Anton are pushed to the wayside in favor of this newfound form of illusion.

I laughed a few times during The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and despite my aforementioned qualms about stupid characters, Steve Carell does manage to play them quite well.  It's not his fault that during the film's second half, the screenwriters try to do a 180-degree turn for his character and attempt to make him intelligent and kind overnight.  It just doesn't work and neither does attempting to shoehorn in a romance between Carell and his "beautiful assistant" Jane (played by Olivia Wilde) who despised Burt one day and then loved him the next.

As much as I liked Carell, I disliked Jim Carrey.  While Carell can play someone over-the-top and still make them watchable, Carrey plays over-the-top in such an obnoxious way that it gets old very quickly.  That's been his MO for years, however, so it's not like it's anything new.  Rather surprisingly, with comic "greats" like Carell and Carrey in the mix, the actor who actually comes out on top in terms of comedy is Steve Buscemi.  There's a charm he carries when he's doing comedy that makes him relatable and enjoyable to watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Violet & Daisy

Violet & Daisy (2013)

Staring Saoirse Ronan, Alexis Bledel, James Gandolfini, Danny Trejo, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste

Directed by Geoffrey S. Fletcher

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

I watched Violet & Daisy over a month ago and somehow this review just never happened.  I must say that I didn't dislike this weird little movie, but admittedly there isn't a whole lot to recommend it either.  It's a talky piece which is a little surprising considering its premise -- our title characters (played respectively by Alexis Bledel and Saoirse Ronan) are hired assassins whose heretofore unseen boss sends them on a job to kill Michael (James Gandolfini).  They don't know why they're tasked with the mission, but they don't ask questions.  After they arrive at Michael's empty apartment, they accidentally fall asleep only to wake up with Michael serving them cookies which makes Violet and Daisy begin questioning why this seemingly nice man has a hit out on him.  The film takes place mostly within the confines of Michael's abode with the three central characters simply talking about life.

It's weird...and ultimately not very good, but it's strangely intriguing.  Geoffrey Fletcher previously wrote Precious, winning an Oscar for that film, and Violet & Daisy is a huge departure from that piece with a vibe that feels like the love child of Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson in terms of violence and quirkiness.  Alexis Bledel is actually oddly charming and while Saoirse Ronan and the late James Gandolfini are also good, they seemingly realize that this material is a little bit beneath them.

My rating below is low, however, this one's an interesting disappointment.  I can't say I wasted my time, but I can't exactly say you won't be wasting yours if you give this one a go.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Enough Said

Enough Said (2013)

Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, Tracey Faraway, and Tavi Gevinson

Directed by Nicole Holofcener

Movies like Enough Said don't get made nearly enough nowadays.  I mean, honestly, when's the last time you've seen a romantic comedy focusing on normal folks in their late forties/early fifties falling in love?  It doesn't happen and maybe it should.  Writer-director Nicole Holofcener gives us two characters who are wholly relatable with whom, after a short ninety minutes, we long to spend more time.  What more can you ask for from a movie like this?  The characters make or break a movie like this and in Enough Said I wanted to continue alongside their charming journey to see where it will take them.

Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a masseuse who enjoys her job and loves her teenage daughter Ellen (Tracey Faraway), but finds herself missing that special someone after her divorce a few years prior.  Still, she's come to terms with the fact that love probably isn't in the cards for her.  When she accompanies her good friends (Toni Collette and Ben Falcone) to a party, she meets Albert (James Gandolfini), but doesn't find him attractive in the slightest, even telling him that to his face.  However, she decides to agree to a first date with Albert simply because she hasn't been on a date in quite some time.  While things don't go swimmingly between Albert and Eva, there's something there...that little indescribable spark.  They have much in common and, with both their daughters heading off to college in a few short months, they're in need of some companionship.

One of the biggest reasons Enough Said succeeds is because there's an awkwardness between Eva and Albert that Holofcener isn't afraid to dwell upon.  Things aren't precociously perfect or devastatingly awful between the couple as we often get in movies and choosing the middle ground and not one of the two extremes is a nice change of pace.  Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and the late James Gandolfini are huge keys to the film's success, utterly charming whether they're alone or together onscreen.  Gandolfini is the complete opposite of Tony Soprano here, abandoning any sense of that "tough guy" persona for which he's so well known and fully embodying the softy that is Albert.  Louis-Dreyfruss, heretofore known for her somewhat abrasively comedic roles on tv, takes on her first leading film role and has no problem whatsoever getting the audience to embrace her.  She's not a perfect mom and doesn't claim to be, but that makes her character all the more relatable.  Louis-Dreyfuss carries the movie without a problem and I'd love to see this down-home persona in more movies down the line.

There are moments in Enough Said that feel a little bit sitcommy -- particularly in scenes involving Eva's client Marianne (Catherine Keener) who just so happens to be Albert's ex-wife unbeknown to Eva who constantly has to hear Marianne spout off everything that was wrong with her former spouse -- but they're still funny and work overall in the grand scheme of things.  Kudos to director and writer Nicole Holofcener (who also directed Please Give which I enjoyed a few years ago) who has crafted a movie that both you and your parents and your grandparents can enjoy without being too cutesy for you or too raunchy for your grandma.

Lovely.  Charming.  Go see it.  Enough said.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle, Reda Kateb, Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, and James Gandolfini

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

It is an inevitability that people are going to compare director Kathryn Bigelow's Afghanistan and Pakistan-based Zero Dark Thirty with her fantastic Best Picture-winning Iraq-centric The Hurt Locker.  Whether that is a fair comparison or not, I'm not going to say, but Ms. Bigelow (and her reunited screenwriter Mark Boal) doesn't stretch much from her comfort zone of Middle Eastern-set war movies.  With such a powerful first glance at this landscape a few years ago, hopes were set high for Zero Dark Thirty and unfortunately it's simply not as good as her previous effort.

In my Hurt Locker review, I stated that the film contained "edge-of-your-seat excitement" and I know many would scoff at that remark thinking that the film actually moved at a rather slow pace.  Somehow, though, Bigelow managed to achieve great amounts of tension for me despite deliberately pacing the film.  In Zero Dark Thirty, the pacing is still slowly deliberate, but the tension simply isn't there.  Is it because we already know the result in that Osama bin Laden is killed?  I think that's part of the issue, but not the sole problem.

The film is slowly building for nearly two hours to the invasion of bin Laden's hideaway in Pakistan and while there are moments along the way that create tension, Bigelow isn't able to create a steady escalation which, in retrospect, almost makes the bin Laden raid (which is shown rather interestingly in an almost first person-"you are one of the soldiers" style of filmmaking) a bit of a letdown.  For the entirety of the movie, we watch as CIA agent Maya (Jessica Chastain) fights her superiors on almost every step of the way in the hunt for the terrorist leader.  The movie is much more about the character of Maya and her struggles, and, to be quite honest, I never found myself caring about her.  It doesn't help that the script gives Chastain nothing to work with.  She's told to be averse to torture at first, but then slowly come around to embracing it.  She's told to look steadfast and resolute at all times.  She's told to be strong and not break down.  She's told to never waver in her desire to catch bin Laden and her belief that she is right in terms of his location.  Don't get me wrong -- I'm thrilled that this woman existed in real life (although I've read that "Maya" isn't based on any one specific person, but is an amalgamation of several), but I'm not quite sure this is a character to build a movie around.  The character is such a one-note figure only doing what the film's plot requires of her rather than actually having her own journey and I feel that this is another key reason why the film isn't quite a success.

Zero Dark Thirty isn't a bad film.  The story certainly kept me interested and despite my issues with the film, Bigelow is still a better director than most out there (and Mark Boal's screenplay is still a smart adult drama albeit with some problems).  Perhaps it's unfair to compare a film like this to Bigelow and Boal's earlier work, but as I said above, I think it's inevitable, and Zero Dark Thirty just comes out significantly below their fantastic collaboration in The Hurt Locker.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Not Fade Away

Not Fade Away (2012)

Starring John Magaro, Bella Heathcote, Jack Huston, Will Brill, Dominque McElligott, Molly Price, and James Gandolfini

Directed by David Chase

Not that I watched more than a season-and-a-half of The Sopranos, but David Chase should probably stick to tv rather than venture out into the cinematic landscape if Not Fade Away is any indication of his movie ambitions.  Everything about the film -- with the exception of the fantastic collection of sixties music -- feels utterly generic.  It doesn't help that Chase -- who also wrote the film -- adds in side stories that fail to go anywhere (as if he were setting up scenes for next week's episode or something).  I'm at a loss as to how this film is rated so highly on RottenTomatoes.  I'm apparently definitely going against the grain on this one.

When teenage Douglas (John Magaro) hears The Rolling Stones on the radio, he immediately knows that he wants to be in a band.  With his buddies, he achieves that dream, performing at local parties, but longs for something more.

And that's it.  There's a love interest (Bella Heathcote, a dead ringer for Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas), a father and mother (James Gandolfini and an awful Molly Price) who don't understand his teenage angst, and bandmates who turn on each other in typical and expected fashion.

Nothing you haven't seen before here.  Go ahead and move on...

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Starring Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, and the voices of James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Cooper, Paul Dano, and Forrest Whitaker
Directed by Spike Jonze

I can't even begin to tell you how much I want to like this movie. It has so many positive things going for it...unfortunately, a story is not one of them. And the lack of any type of strong narrative really manages to bring this movie down. I tried my hardest not to be bored, but the screenwriters need to give me a little something to keep me engaged.

Young Max isn't happy. His older sister is abandoning him for friends of a similar age. His mom is either working or spending time dating. One night, he flips out, bites his mother, and then runs away "into his imagination" to a land inhabited by larger than life monsters and animals. Max befriends these monsters, becomes their king, and realizes that their problems are similar to humankind.

I guess the problem with adapting a small children's picture book to the big screen is that you're inevitably going to have to add stuff in order to pad the running time into a feature film. There were little vignettes here and there in the film that worked, but it didn't really feel like a cohesive story.

And it's incredibly unfortunate because everything else on display here is top notch. I was quite impressed with young Max Records as Max. I don't think his role as a rambunctious youth was an easy one to play (mainly because the story doesn't really give him a whole lot of motivation or reasoning behind the things he does), but he's onscreen for nearly every scene and I was quite impressed with his work. Catherine Keener's role as his mom is very minimal, but she surprisingly made an impression on me (in a good way) despite her limited screen time.

Let's discuss the monsters now...there's some great puppetry/costumes going on here. Stunning stuff. Each monster manages to have their own distinct personality thanks to some great voice work and some amazing movements. I can't get over how "real" the facial reactions and arm movements and stances of the puppeteers felt to me...like watching a person onscreen instead of a furry creature. Like I said, the voices matched the monsters perfectly. James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose, and Forrest Whitaker all deserve kudos for creating believable monsters via their voicework.

And despite the fact that his screenplay was weak, as a director, Spike Jonze is something special. The film looked exquisite. Even in the opening scenes at Max's house, I was surprised by how much I liked the visuals. I like that Jonze doesn't rush things and he lets scenes sit there for a while (I know...kind of opposite to the fact that I said the movie was boring, but that's the fault of the script). I can see how some would watch the final scene of this movie - a perfect example of what I mention above -- and go, "What the heck was that?," but I looked at it and was pleased with it.

With so many things to love about this movie (I didn't even mention the odd soundtrack which absolutely added to the film, even if I wasn't head-over-heels in love with it), it pains me to give this the rating I'm going to give it. If only there was something story-wise here, this could've been one of my favorite movies of the year without a doubt.

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - In the Loop (2009)

Starring Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini, Chris Addison, Anna Chlumsky, Mimi Kennedy, and David Rasche
Written by Jesse Armstrong and Simon Blackwell
Directed by Armando Iannucci

I probably laughed as much (if not more) during this movie than in any other movie I've seen this year. It's a little unfortunate that there's not really any story here to back up the humor.

Although not a docu(or mocku)mentary, In the Loop is kind of shot in that style. The camera is always moving and slightly shaky as we follow the lives of both British and American politicians who are debating whether to go to war or not. That's it. That's the whole story. And that's the only thing stopping this flick from being one of my favorite of the year. There just wasn't enough story there, despite the fact that it was incredibly funny.

Acting across-the-board was top-notch. James Gandolfini will be the guy that everyone knows (and he was quite funny), but all the folks (including My Girl's Anna Chlumsky) were really great. In fact, there's not a single actor here to say anything bad about.

So, it's even more unfortunate that there's really no story here (or at least a story that matters in the slightest). When I originally left the movie, I was actually incredibly impressed with how nonpartisan this political flick was, but in retrospect, I almost wish that it had taken sides on war...it might have added some meat to this flick.

Still, this flick is absolutely worth seeking out. I laughed out loud more times than I can count.

The RyMickey Rating: B+