Movie Review - Frank

Frank (2014)

Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Scoot McNairy

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson

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

There was something so promising about the quirky (yet not too quirky) and whimsical opening thirty minutes of Frank that I was hoping the inner smiling that was going on in me would continue as I watched director Lenny Abrahamson's film unfold.  That was not to be, however, as the second thirty minutes of Frank felt simply like a rehash of the first thirty minutes (with no real significant changes) thereby causing me to check out of the film as a whole just as it decided to get serious during its final thirty minutes.  Unfortunately, Frank only works a third of the time -- and that just doesn't cut it.

Domhnall Gleeson is Jon, a struggling young artist who wants nothing more than to have a successful career in music.  While walking along the British shores one afternoon, he sees a man attempting to drown himself in the ocean.  The saved man happens to be a keyboard player for the weird alternative band The Soronprfbs and Jon is invited on a whim to join them for the evening and replace the suicidal pianist.  When Jon arrives at the gig, he discovers that the lead singer is a guy named Frank (Michael Fassbender) who wears a large papier-mâché head which he never removes.  While certainly odd, Jon joins the band as they embark on an odyssey of creating their next album.

Gleeson is one of the decade's most promising rising stars for me and he doesn't disappoint here either.  From the very beginning of the film, he exudes a natural charm that makes it impossible not to root for his character.  Taking a more comedic turn than we're used to seeing from him, Michael Fassbender also proves to be compelling as the title character, bringing a surprising amount of heart, humor, and expression to a role that hardly ever allows us to see his facial expressions at all.

Unfortunately, despite these two rather good performances, Frank flounders as it progresses which is a shame because it starts so very promisingly.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - White House Down

White House Down (2013)

Starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Joey King, Richard Jenkins, and James Woods

Directed by Roland Emmerich

I keep trying to tell myself that I shouldn't like Channing Tatum.  I keep telling myself that I should laugh off all of his movies.  I keep saying that since the ladies love him I should automatically carry some disdain towards him.  Because of this, it was easy to avoid Tatum's summer action picture White House Down.  Of course, that wasn't the only reason to scoff at this film.  I could certainly do without Jamie Foxx's irksome overacting and this was the second movie to come out within five months detailing a terroristic takeover of the White House following Olympus Has Fallen.  Plus, the trailer for Olympus seemed much better than this Roland Emmerich-directed "blockbuster."  Having watched Olympus Has Fallen a few months ago and finding it disappointing, when White House Down arrived in my mailbox last week, I was actually irritated that I hadn't reordered my Netflix queue.  Needless to say, White House Down proved to be surprisingly enjoyable -- a film that doesn't necessarily do a single thing we haven't seen before, but somehow manages to revel in its ridiculousness and keep things rocking and rolling for over two hours.

Like I said, White House Down doesn't reinvent the wheel.  Channing Tatum is Cale, a security officer for the Speaker of the House (Richard Jenkins).  Hoping for something more, he heads to the White House for an interview, bringing with him his precocious eleven year-old daughter (Joey King).  After being interviewed by Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), one of the President's high-ranking Secret Service officers and (of course) a former fling of Cale's, Cale and his daughter bogart their way into a White House tour.  While on the tour, the White House finds itself under attack, taken over by a crew of men headed by the leading Secret Service agent Walker (James Woods), a man upset by the President's foreign relations policies that caused Walker's military son to be killed in combat.  Naturally, Cale springs into action, doing what he can to protect the well-liked President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) along with his daughter.

Honestly, I could've written the basic story behind White House Down, but I must give credit to director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter James Vanderbilt who keep the flick moving along at a steady pace punctuating some of the most ridiculously over-the-top action sequences with humorous quips wherein the characters themselves admit the ridiculousness of said action sequences.  Tatum is certainly game for both the action scenes and he's already proven himself a charmingly sly comedian.  Jamie Foxx is shockingly understated -- I was pleasantly surprised by the way he allowed his presidential character to play second fiddle to Tatum.  The supporting cast from Woods to Jenkins to Gyllenhaal all give better performances than is to be expected in a movie like this.

So, I must say that no one is more shocked than me to say that White House Down is worth your time and better than it really should be.  I think I need to admit that Channing Tatum isn't nearly as bad as I want him to be.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Hysteria

Hysteria (2012)

Starring Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rupert Everett, Jonathan Pryce, and Felicity Jones

Directed by Tanya Wexler

British women in the late 19th century were irritable creatures.  Garnering very little respect from their husbands, they found themselves heading to their doctors where they were diagnosed with "hysteria."  The cure, employed by docs like Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), was to massage the genital area (in a purely decent manner underneath a velvet curtain) to induce a "paroxysmal convulsion" unaware that this was actually an orgasm.  Dr. Dalrymple finds his practice overwhelmed with hysterical women so he hires young physician Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) who happens to have a knack for curing the disease.  More and more women flock to him to be relieved of their sickness which unfortunately causes his hand to cramp up substantially and he is fired by Dalrymple for not being able to perform his duties.  This dismissal happens to be quite fortuitous as Mortimer discovers that his friend Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett) has developed an electric feather duster which Mortimer believes could be the answer to his injured hand and the ladies' hysteria problems.  And, henceforth, the vibrator forever became a tool for women across the world.

Hysteria tells the story of the invention of the vibrator...and if that were the only story it told, it would've been a success.  Instead, the trio of screenwriters add in a love triangle involving Mortimer and Dr. Dalrymple's two daughters -- the younger, more reverent Emily (Felicity Jones) and the older, new-age feminist Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal) -- which takes over the film's second half and causes it to fall flat on its face.  The obvious nature of the resolution of the love triangle from the film's outset created nary a modicum of tension and failed to resonate in the slightest despite the valiant efforts of Hugh Dancy who tries his hardest to be charming and carry the film on his shoulders.

I wanted to like this movie and for the first 45 minutes or so, I found Hysteria humorous enough to warrant its existence.  However, as the film progresses, it abandons its subject matter which makes it unique and turns into something we've seen over and over again in movies better than this.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight (2008)

Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Eric Roberts, and Nestor Carbonell

Directed by Christopher Nolan

The two things I vividly remember about watching The Dark Knight in theaters four years ago was that the show I was seeing had a projector issue causing a "brain wrap" (in projectionist terms) which made the film stop (forcing me to head to another auditorium to watch the end) and that I thought Heath Ledger was perhaps a bit overrated in his role as The Joker.  At that point in time, I thought that Aaron Eckhart was the one who should be getting more praise for his take on Harvey Dent/Two Face and that Ledger's death was giving him some (slightly undeserved) great posthumous reviews.

Years later, I realize that perhaps I was a bit too harsh on Ledger.  Not that I ever thought his performance was bad, but I always felt that because of his death, he was being praised more highly than he would have had he been living.  While that may very well still be a true statement, the fact is that he did a heckuva job with The Joker.  Freakishly malevolent, there's an eerie psychotic presence whenever The Joker is onscreen.  

It's because of both The Joker's maniacal evilness and the stalwart Harvey Dent's shift into the flawed Two Face that make The Dark Knight an infinitely better movie than Batman Begins.  These two figures bring much more to the table in terms of conflict than anyone did in Christopher Nolan's first Batman film, but it's not just the "villains" that are wreaking havoc on Gotham City.  Batman himself is finding himself loved and hated by the city and Bruce Wayne is forced to come to terms with whether he is helpful or harmful to his fellow citizens.  Now that the origin tale has been told in the first film, Christopher Nolan is able to delve a bit more into the psyche of Bruce/Batman and it's a welcome addition.

Once again, supporting turns are all top notch.  Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman all add an aire of professionalism to the film which often isn't felt in comic book adaptations.  Maggie Gyllenhaal takes on the role originated by Katie Holmes and fares a bit better.  Holmes was never bad (I feel like I'm one of the few people who actually liked her in Batman Begins), but Gyllenhaal felt a little less morose than the somber Holmes, although it's entirely possible that the role was just given a bit more life beyond "love interest" than in the first film.  Also, I find it invigorating that Nolan isn't afraid to create characters that are capable of dying.  Gotham City isn't a pristine town by any means and by having deaths occur to characters we come to know, Nolan creates a sense of urgency and fear that we don't normally feel in comic book adaptations which always seem to feature immortal characters.

The Dark Knight isn't perfect -- once again, Nolan drags the climax out for much too long -- but it's darn close to the best -- if not the best -- comic book flick I've ever seen.  Here's hoping The Dark Knight Rises finishes off the trilogy on a positive note.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - Crazy Heart (2009)

Crazy Heart
Starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, and Robert Duvall
Directed by Scott Cooper

We've seen this story before. The plot summary is as simple as this: A washed-up singer has turned to booze, but happens to meet a new lady and tries to clean up his act to be with her. Crazy Heart is not above that cliché. In fact, there's not a single thing in this movie that feels the least bit "new" or "fresh."

Fortunately, Jeff Bridges' turn as the alcoholic has-been Bad Blake more than makes up for the paint-by-numbers storyline. Honestly, in the film's first few minutes, I was rolling my eyes. Bad (as he likes to be called) was simply like any other movie singer I'd seen portrayed -- he drinks, he smokes pot, he spouts profanities, he sleeps with his groupies. Somewhere around the twenty minute mark, love interest Maggie Gyllenhaal is introduced and while her news reporter character, Jean, is nothing we haven't seen before, Bad's reaction to her is what tips the scale in this film's favor. We've seen Bad with other women at this point, but Jean is something special, bringing out tenderness in him that adds that extra layer I was looking for in him. Bridges exudes kindness and warmth that was, admittedly, unexpected.

Bridges is onscreen in every scene and he ultimately won me over after a shaky start. He completely embodies Bad Blake and, while Bad's a walking stereotype, Bridges puts his whole heart into the role and none of it seems the least bit fake or forced. And his singing ain't too shabby either. [Now's a good a place as any to mention that the songs, while sounding slightly repetitive, were a perfect fit.]

This is a showcase for Bridges and that's it. The story isn't there. The direction is simple. Everybody else (from Gyllenhaal to Colin Farrell's younger aspiring country star to Duvall's guardian-angel-esque role) is simply on the sidelines watching Bridges do the heavy lifting. That's not to say that these side characters are lackluster -- in fact, it's the opposite. They certainly add to Bad's story. But in the end, this is about one guy, and while I wish there was a little more to the film, Bridges elevates it to a higher level.

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - Away We Go (2009)

Starring John Krasinksi, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida
Directed by Sam Mendes

I've said before that I admit that indie films have to work harder for me to like them for the simple reason that I don't like films that shout "I'm hip and edgy" which many low budget flicks scream to me. Your film can be "hip" or "edgy," but not obnoxiously so.

The weird thing about Away We Go is that despite that folk-pop soundtrack, and that thrift store-style "hip" costuming, and certain requisite indie camera shots (like following a couple down a moving airport sidewalk...saw that in Garden State and several movies after that, Mr. Mendes), the film is anything but edgy. It's not filled with Juno-esque dialogue (thank God), but it is filled with quirky characters who make the film completely lose any "realness," and who, in turn, make the film fall from good to below average.

Burt and Verona (Krasinski and Rudolph) are a loving couple, making a living (barely), who are expecting a baby in three months. Once they are given the news that Burt's parents (O'Hara and Daniels) are leaving the country, the couple decides to visit friends and relatives to try and find a place to settle down so that their newborn baby will be around a loving familial community. Through the episodic pacing of the film, we travel to Arizona and meet Verona's zany friend Lily (Janney) and her downtrodden hubby, Lowell (Gaffigan). Soon, we travel to the midwest and meet Burt's friend, LN (Gyllenhaal), a weirdo liberal professor. These three characters Burt and Verona meet up with, in particular, were the sole reasons the film fell apart. Yes, they provided laughter, but they were awful caricatures of stereotypical people. Gyllenhaal's LN, in particular, was horrendously bad. Her flowing arm movements and her flowing clothing and the flowing random verbiage ("Peace! Love! Have sex in front of your kids...It's natural!") that spewed from her mouth were all ridiculous. Yes, she was funny (as was Janney and Daniels and O'Hara), but she was completley a "character" and not a "real person." (Oddly enough, I felt that in screenwriter Dave Eggers' book -- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- that the problem was in his inability to get me to care for the side peripheral characters...similar problem here.)

The supporting cast issue is unfortunate because Krasinski and Rudolph both are as real as it gets. Both of these actors, neither of which are "stars" by any means, really had me glued to the screen. There wasn't a doubt in my mind when I was watching this flick that these two characters really loved each other. One scene that I loved was when Burt and Verona visited their friends, Tom and Munch (Chris Messina and Melanie Lynsky), in Montreal. Tom and Munch are the proud parents of a brood of adopted kids, but one evening, Tom emotionally reveals to Burt that Munch has had five miscarriages and doesn't understand why such a loving mother would be unable to have kids of her own. The look on Burt's face after hearing the story really got to me -- and showed me what a good actor Krasinski can be. Similarly, Rudolph (who was definitely a favorite of mine on Saturday Night Live) has a scene in bed with Krasinski where Burt tells Verona that he loves her and she starts to cry. It felt so right on and real. There were many more scenes like these that worked wonderfully.

I loved nearly every scene with Burt and Verona, so it was such a shame that nearly every side character (with the exception of the absolutely touching and beautifully portrayed aforementioned Montreal couple) seemed so fake. Overall, Sam Mendes' new effort couldn't match up to his modern-day masterpiece, Revolutionary Road, despite the fact that the two leads were great.

The RyMickey Rating: C