Bombshell

Bombshell (2019)

Starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Liv Hewsen, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Mark Duplass, Rob Delaney, Stephen Root, and Robin Weigart

Directed by Jay Roach

Written by Charles Randolph

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Tully

Tully (2018)

Starring Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Mark Duplass, and Ron Livingston 

Directed by Jason Reitman

Written by Diablo Cody

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Movie Review - Blue Jay

Blue Jay (2016)

Starring Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson

Directed by Alex Lehmann

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

In Blue Jay, former high school sweethearts Jim and Amanda (Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson) meet for the first time in over a decade in a grocery store when Jim returns home to California to clean out the house of his recently deceased mother.  The two decide to go to a local diner to reminisce where there's an immediate reconnection for Jim despite the fact that Amanda tells him that he's married and now the stepmother to two grown children.  Although initially hesitant, something clicks for Amanda as well and the two return to Jim's mother's home where they reminisce about their high school days, what became of them since they broke up, and what could've been had they remained together.

For the film's first half, the connection between Duplass and Paulson is engaging and palpable and I found myself enjoying this obviously low-budget film.  The black-and-white cinematography makes the viewer focus on the story...which works for the first half.  However, the flick begins to drag and the improvisational dialog aspect of the film begins to rear its ugly head.  The short 80-minute runtime starts to feel much longer than it should.  Fortunately, Paulson and Duplass continue to create a believable relationship and their characters' chemistry carries the film even through its roughest times.  Blue Jay showed much promise at the outset, but in the end, it's a bit too short on plot to really make an impact.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - The Lazarus Effect

The Lazarus Effect (2015)

Starring Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, and Sarah Bolger

Directed by David Gelb

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

If you've seen the Scarlett Johansson flick Lucy, there's certainly no reason to watch The Lazarus Effect which is essentially a horror version of that film.  If you haven't seen Lucy (and really you're missing nothing if you haven't), there's still no reason to watch The Lazarus Effect because besides an ending that perks up the thrill quotient after a decidedly bland and surprisingly boring first hour, the conclusion fails to really make a whole lot of sense and ends things hugely disappointingly.

Here, a group of scientists headed by engaged couple Frank and Zoe (Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde) create a manipulated serum of cells that through injection and electrical stimulation have the effect of being able to bring the dead back to life.  After years of unsuccessful attempts, the team succeeds in bringing back to life a dog, but they discover that the newly resuscitated canine is utilizing huge portions of his brain, making him overly aggressive and violent as he's unable to control his emotions.  Needless to say, following an unfortunate accident, the team doesn't just stop the experiment with the dog and instead find themselves using it for more a more advanced carbon-based life form which may yield some truly frightening results.

The overarching question of this film (and Lucy for that matter) is what happens when humans -- who typically use only 10% of their brain capacity -- are given the opportunity to utilize much more than that.  Whereas Lucy somewhat succeeds in answering this question through the format of an action film, The Lazarus Effect as a horror movie isn't nearly as successful.  The biggest reason for this is that it's utterly boring for the film's first sixty minutes.  Part of the reason I was intrigued with the flick was the cast who I thought may elevate this beyond your typical cliché-ridden genre pic, but the quintet listed up above just sputters out scientific mumbo-jumbo for the film's first twenty minutes and then spends the rest of the first hour debating whether to continue with their now successful experiment.  In a better film, the tension between the scientists may have been intriguing, but here it amounts to nothing but absolute boredom.

Unfortunately, when the film delves into horror during its final twenty minutes (although its eighty minute runtime should seem short, it feels interminable), it's more laughable than anything else and that's never a good thing.  There are no scares whatsoever with the film throwing out one horror cliché after another trying to get something to land successfully.  Nothing does.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - Tammy

Tammy (2014)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Allison Janney, Dan Aykroyd, Mark Duplass, Gary Cole, Nat Faxon, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, and Ben Falcone

Directed by Ben Falcone

What an unfunny mess Tammy is.  Melissa McCarthy stars as the title character, a foul-mouthed, bellowing, and brash woman who comes home after being fired from her job at a fast food joint only to find her husband (Nat Faxon) canoodling with the next door neighbor (Toni Collette).  Obviously upset, Tammy leaves and heads two doors down to her mom's house where she demands to take her mom's car and drive far away.  While her mother (Allison Janney) understands her pain, she dismisses Tammy's dreams of starting anew, but her grandmother Pearl (Susan Sarandon) also wants to get out of Dodge and agrees to let Tammy take her car as long as she can tag along.  Tammy agrees and the two set out on a cross-country journey of discovery.

I think I mention this in every review of her films, but my introduction to Melissa McCarthy occurred when I watched the first few seasons of Gilmore Girls on tv.  I'm rewatching the show via Netflix and it makes me appreciate the sweet and charming persona that McCarthy can inhabit should she so choose.  So why does she choose motion picture vehicles in which she plays completely reprehensible, vile, vulgar, unappealing characters?  If she's trying to recapture the Bridesmaids magic that earned her a deserved Academy Award nomination, she's failing miserably.  There's nothing about the character of Tammy that makes you want to watch her.  She's slovenly sloppy, obnoxiously dimwitted, and ignorant to nearly everyone that crosses her path.  Spending ninety minutes with this woman is eighty-nine minutes too much.

McCarthy needs to seriously take a look at her choices and shake things up a bit.  She attempted that with an admirable turn in 2014's St. Vincent, but Tammy is an utter failure.  Written by McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone, Tammy is one to avoid at all costs.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - The One I Love

The One I Love (2014)

Starring Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, and Ted Danson

Directed by Charlie McDowell

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

The less said about The One I Love, the better in terms of its plot.  Let's just say that married couple Ethan and Sophie (Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss) have hit a rough patch.  Ethan cheated on her and Sophie is having a tough time forgiving so their therapist (Ted Danson) sends them to a secluded house in the lovely California hills for a romantic couples weekend.  There, they find themselves reconnecting, but also are forced to deal with a very unusual situation that could either hinder or help their relationship.

Difficult to discuss without spoiling things, The One I Love is a unique spin on the relationship drama -- I've certainly never seen anything like it before.  About twenty minutes into the film, something weird happens and the flick takes us down a path that hasn't been trodden (to the best of my knowledge).  While I did find myself twiddling my thumbs a bit during the middle act, The One I Love does a really nice job of creating a believable relationship between Ethan and Sophie at all points in the film.  As they fight at the beginning, I believed their contentiousness, but also believed they wanted to work it out.  As they begin to reconcile, I bought into their rediscovered joy.  As weird stuff begins to happen at the retreat, I understood their reactions to it and how it affected their connection with one another.  Kudos to first-time screenwriter Justin Lader for crafting characters that I could buy into and giving them relatable dialog despite the somewhat unrelatable situation going on around them.

The fim is essentially a two character piece and Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss bring Lader's words to life in a way that feels genuine.  I was drawn in right away by Duplass and Moss who have much more to do here than I can actually discuss.  The film gives them an opportunity to push their characters' boundaries a bit and both actors succeed.

Admittedly, there are times one when ponders whether The One I Love may have fared better as a short film.  While that wouldn't have allowed us to see the progression of Ethan and Sophie's relationship, the twisted premise does wear a little thin at moments.  Still, debut director Charlie McDowell does a nice job getting great performances from his (essentially) two member cast in this wholly unique take on a troubled relationship.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Parkland

Parkland (2013)

Starring James Badge Dale, Zac Efron, Colin Hanks, David Harbour, Marcia Gay Harden, Ron Livingston, Jeremy Strong, Billy Bob Thornton, Jacki Weaver, and Paul Giamatti

Directed by Peter Landesman

Parkland looks at the immediate aftermath of the John F. Kennedy assassination not through the eyes of the Kennedys or the conspiracy theorists, but through the lens of "normal" folks on the ground in Dallas, Texas, that fateful day in November 1963.  While an interesting concept, the film lacks an emotional undercurrent throughout, forcing the audience to feel distanced from everything despite first-time director-screenwriter Peter Landesman's attempts to pull us in visually with his camerawork.

Landesman's film certainly is a good debut for the director, but considering the heft of the subject matter, the piece lacks that emotional connection you long to feel.  Part of the reasoning behind this is likely due to the fact that Parkland is truly an ensemble piece.  We see the doctors and nurses at the Parkland Hospital (played by Zac Efron, Colin Hanks, and Marcia Gay Harden) trying to save Kennedy at the beginning, but then we're whisked away to meet with Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti) to see how he dealt with doling out his famous film to the media and the government.  We also get glimpses into the world of the various FBI and Secret Service agents (David Harbour, Ron Livingston, and Billy Bob Thornton) and their reactions to that day before we're welcomed into the world of Lee Harvey Oswald's brother Robert (James Badge Dale) and crazed mother (Jacki Weaver) and their varied reactions to the horrific events that his brother/son (Jeremy Strong) caused.

Quite honestly, all of these four story threads are quite intriguing and they're all buoyed by strong performances by the cast.  Unfortunately, with the ensemble nature of the piece, we're never with any one of them for any long period of time.  Just when we're starting to feel compassion for the medical workers and their unenviable task that November day, we shift to another storyline.  While I appreciate the different angles Landesman brings to the table, it does keep the audience at an emotional distance from the goings-on.  Nevertheless, Parkland is an intriguing piece that certainly gives a different perspective of the Kennedy assassination and if you're a history buff it's well worth watching.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Your Sister's Sister

Your Sister's Sister (2012)

Starring Emily Blunt, Rosemarie Dewitt, and Mark Duplass

Directed by Lynn Shelton

Essentially a three-character comedy -- one that could easily have been a stage play prior to this cinematic incarnation -- Your Sister's Sister tells the tale of Jack (Mark Duplass) whose brother died a year prior.  While Jack tries to make it seem as if he's come to terms with the death, he still finds himself emotionally struggling with the heavy ordeal and after he overreacts at a party commemorating his brother, Jack's best friend and his brother's former girlfriend Iris (Emily Blunt) invites him to stay at her father's isolated cabin in the woods.  Jack agrees to some alone time, but when he arrives at the cabin, Iris's sister Hannah (Rosemarie Dewitt) happens to be there seeking some alone time for herself.  The two chat it up over tequila and, despite Hannah's lesbian tendencies, the two sleep together.  The next morning when Iris surprisingly shows up, Jack and Hannah try and hide their romp in the sack, but the three find themselves piling lie on top of lie.

Buoyed by three nice performances, Your Sister's Sister has a natural rhythm to it that I found very much echoed Humpday, the previous Lynn Shelton directed and written film I've seen.  Emily Blunt, Rosemarie Dewitt, and Mark Duplass seemingly improvise many of their lines and (even if that's not the case) make nearly everything they say believable for their characters who are rather complex despite the film's comedic leanings.  Ultimately, it's the layered characters that make the film successful.

The film takes a twist towards the end that knocks the realism down a few notches and while Blunt, Dewitt, and Duplass do their best to make it not seem far-fetched, they simply can't make the storyline work.  It's a bit unfortunate because prior to the last thirty minutes, I was thoroughly involved in the proceedings.  Don't get me wrong -- the final act doesn't ruin things, but it just turns an otherwise great indie film into a better than average one.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Safety Not Guaranteed

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Starring Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, Mark Duplass, and Karan Soni

Directed by Colin Trevorrow

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

Remove the curse words and the character who's obsessed with hooking up with his high school flame from twenty years ago and Safety Not Guaranteed feels like a movie Jimmy Stewart and Katherine Hepburn could have starred in seventy years ago.  There's an innocence surrounding this film about Kenneth (Mark Duplass), a guy who posts a help wanted ad in a local newspaper where he says he's seeking out people who want to travel back in time with him (their "safety not guaranteed"), and Darius (Aubrey Plaza), the girl who interns at a local magazine that is doing a story about Kenneth who they all deem as cuckoo.  As Kenneth and Darius get to know each other better, it's inevitable that they're going to begin to fall in love for each other despite their best efforts not to wander down that path.

The problem with Safety Not Guaranteed is the same problem that faces many other indie comedies -- a good premise, but not enough plot to sustain itself.  Despite its under ninety-minute run time, there's just not enough here to make a full-fledged movie feel necessary.  The whole thing was quite cute and Aubrey Plaza's dry delivery is a perfect fit for the dialog she's given, but whenever the film left the world of Kenneth and Darius, it falls flat.  There are two subplots involving Darius's co-workers -- one dealing with head writer Jeff (Jake Johnson) and his mission to find his high school sweetheart and sleep with her again (which is the only reason he took on writing this article in the first place) and the other focused on Jeff's desire to get Arnau (Karan Soni), the mild-mannered Indian computer geek intern, laid for the first time -- neither of which add anything to the overarching storyline.  I can't even find an incidental thematic connection between them and the main plot.

Safety Not Guaranteed is fine.  I laughed enough to not make it a complete bust.  But it never quite comes together in a way that would make it something truly recommendable.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Humpday (2009)

Humpday
Starring Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, and Alycia Delmore
Directed by Lynn Shelton

In the words of one of the characters from this witty indie comedy, Humpday is the tale of "two straight dudes bonin'." Okay, it's not about that at all (even though it sort of is), but that line made me laugh. It's obvious that director/writer Lynn Shelton crafted a general outline of a plot and set her three main actors free to create their own lines. There's a sense of genuine spontaneity here that isn't easily captured on film, but there really wasn't a false note of dialog in the flick.

When thirtysomething Andrew (Zack Galifianakis look-alike Joshua Leonard) shows up on his old college buddy Ben's (Duplass) doorstep at 2am one night, the two rekindle their old friendship from years ago. While Andrew still travels around the world with no real job, Ben's life has completely changed -- he's got a "real" job and a lovely wife (Delmore). One night, Andrew invites Ben to meet some "artsy" liberal friends who discuss a Seattle film festival known as Humpfest where amateur filmmakers create porn films that then get destroyed following the fest. In a drunken stupor, Ben proposes that he and Andrew have sex and videotape it for the event. The following day, the two best friends find themselves in a conundrum -- they don't want to back down from this difficult challenge for fear of being labeled as "pussies," but they're not exactly thrilled with the prospect of sleeping with one another.

It may sound risqué, but it's actually incredibly tame, and I strongly suggest that anyone thinking of not seeing this based on an uncomfortable notion they may have toward the premise (I'll admit that's why I didn't go see it at the Ritz this summer) give this clever flick a chance. The final fifteen minutes is really the denouement I was hoping for and it's presented in such a way that felt spot-on, thanks in part to the great work of Duplass and Leonard. Kudos also to Delmore who plays Ben's wife with just the right amount of confusion and love in regards to her husband and his crazy new scheme.

The RyMickey Rating: B+