Movie Review - Grandma

Grandma (2015)

Starring Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Judy Greer, Nat Wolff, Laverne Cox, Sam Elliott, and Marcia Gay Harden

Directed by Paul Weitz

I watched Grandma on the first night of the 2016 Republican National Convention.  I say this only to prove that this conservative reviewer can push aside his political leanings when watching a film and judge it based on its cinematic merits and Grandma is a surprisingly funny and touching film about the title character Elle (Lily Tomlin), a bit of a hippie lesbian old lady,  who spends the day traveling around to a variety of friends and enemies attempting to pool up money for her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) to be able to get an abortion.  While I'm sure I'd be shunned for appreciating this film by many members of my political affiliation, its story is well told and comes across surprisingly natural.

Plot-wise, there's not much else to talk about as the short under-eighty minute runtime of Grandma keeps things moving.  On its surface, writer-director Paul Weitz's film is really just a series of vignettes with Elle and Sage meeting a variety of kooky (and not-so-kooky) people.  Digging a little deeper, the film allows the character of the somewhat curmudgeonly Elle to blossom a little with each successive introduction of people in her life.  As her layers are revealed to the audience and to her granddaughter, we get a surprisingly multi-dimensional character for such a lighthearted film.  Kudos to Weitz and Lily Tomlin for creating this depth-filled woman whom I may not necessarily agree with all the time but at least has a purpose for having her story be told.

While the film does suffer from what I like to call Finding Nemo Syndrome in that it always feels like we're just moving from place to place for quick little meet-cutes with a variety of characters, Grandma still proves to be much more successful than I ever could have expected.  While its somewhat nonchalant way of dealing with abortion won't suit everyone's tastes, part of the reason the film works and feels decidedly not preachy (despite one horribly blunt scene outside an abortion clinic that is unnecessarily bashing of pro-life supporters) is that it's not really about abortion.  It's about an older woman coming to grips with things that have haunted her past and because that's the focus, the film comes off well.  Well acted by all members in the cast -- with a particularly moving and somewhat heartbreaking small cameo from Sam Elliott -- Grandma succeeds with me when I didn't even think it had a chance.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Paper Towns

Paper Towns (2015)

Starring Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith, Halston Sage, and Jaz Sinclair

Directed by Jake Schreier

***This film is currently streaming on HBO Now***

I'm unashamed to say that I was a fan of The Fault in Our Stars, with the film garnering a top 15 spot on my list of 2014's best of the year.  When another one of author John Green's novels, Paper Towns, was adapted for the screen last year, my expectations were somewhat high, although its trailer and reviews were significantly weaker-looking.  While Paper Towns doesn't aspire to be the emotional teenage drama that is The Fault in Our Stars, it also doesn't really succeed at being much of anything, crafting a film's plot around a character who is unappealing and egotistically self-centered which makes other characters' fascination with her irritating as opposed to compelling.

As young kids, Quentin and Margo were great friends, with the adventurous Margo drawing out the more timid Quentin to fun times outside the confines of their respective yards.  Now seniors in high school, Quentin and Margo (Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne) have drifted apart socially over the past few years despite still living across the street from one another.  Quentin's a little geeky (not overly so, mind you) whilst Margo hangs with the cool kids, but one evening, Margo knocks on Quentin's bedroom window like old times asking him to cause some crazy havoc on her friends who have betrayed her.  Quentin agrees and they have a great night together putting saran wrap on cars and shaving off eyebrows of Margo's former friends.  The next morning, however, Margo is gone...and it's not the first time the now eighteen year-old has run away from home.  Quentin, still reeling from his reunion with Margo, begins to see clues the clever Margo has left behind in order to reveal her location to anyone who may care enough to investigate and Quentin sets out to find her.

Nat Wolff and the two actors playing his buddies - Austin Abrams and Justice Smith - do a lot to make Paper Towns watchable with their witty repartee, as does Halston Sage as Margo's best friend Lacey who can't understand what she did to make Margo so angry, but Lacey's confusion over Margo's sudden departure is part of the biggest overarching problem with the film.  Why exactly does Margo leave?  Why exactly did she turn on her friends after so long, particularly Lacey?  Why exactly does Quentin feel this need to go and find her?  None of these questions are answered satisfactorily in any way and Margo herself as a person seems like someone who doesn't give a damn about whom she hurts or leaves behind.  Yet, despite spending two-thirds of the movie searching for this gal, Paper Towns fails to make me care about or understand why any of the characters care about finding this girl.  Paper Towns was never meant to have the emotional impact of something like The Fault in Our Stars, but I at least hoped it'd resonate as a nice coming of age teen flick which it unfortunately does not.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Starring Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolff, and Willem Dafoe

Directed by Josh Boone

Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) is a teenager with terminal thyroid cancer.  Although the past few years have been promising for her, she still is faced with the fact that her cancer will be her demise.  In order to try and make her feel better, her mother (Laura Dern) insists that Hazel attend a teen cancer support group where she ends up meeting Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) who lost his leg to bone cancer.  Hazel and Augustus become good friends with Augustus instantly falling for Hazel...and Hazel not quite reciprocating that affection.

One of Hazel's favorite books is by the reclusive author Peter van Houten (Willem Dafoe) who now resides in Amsterdam.  Because he loves her company, Augustus ends up using his "wish" from the Make-a-Wish foundation to visit Amsterdam with Hazel to meet van Houten and, while on the journey, Augustus and Hazel both grow to appreciate one another more than they ever thought possible.

Aww...sweet and saccharine-sounding, right?  Well, sort of.  The Fault in Our Stars succeeds because it delicately balances the standard romantic film tropes with the more sarcastic and biting edge of modern society.  In fact, Hazel begins the film with a voiceover stating that everyone longs for a happy ending -- but that's not in the cards for her life story.  Her cancer forces her to look at life with a different mindset and that mindset creates a film that while certainly a romance also bases itself in a realistic setting.

As a thirty-something male, I can't help but think I shouldn't have been won over by this film, but I was.  With a screenplay that never places "CANCER" front and center, yet also never pushes it aside as an afterthought, The Fault in Our Stars takes what could've easily been a "disease of the week" TV movie and creates characters to whom you can't help but relate.

It certainly helps that both Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are so good in their roles.  Ms. Woodley is proving herself to be quite adept in bringing a nice realism to her teenage characters (what with the fantastic performance in the teenage drama The Spectacular Now last year) and I find her a refreshing change of pace from the cookie cutter types of performances we often see in teen pics.  Elgort is new to the movie scene, but I found him charming and charismatic here.  Some have said his Augustus comes off as too perfect, but considering his character's challenges, the optimism rings true as someone who is trying to make the most out of what life has offered him.

The teen drama has seen a definite uptick in quality over the past few years and The Fault in Our Stars is the latest solid addition to the genre.  I'm utterly surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, but this one isn't just for the teen market and to pigeonhole it as such is an unfair assessment.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Stuck in Love

Stuck in Love (2013)

Starring Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Logan Lerman, Nat Wolff, Liana Liberato, and Kristen Bell

Directed by Josh Boone

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

The Borgens family has some issues when it comes to love.  Dad Bill (Greg Kinnear) and Mom Erica (Jennifer Connelly) have recently divorced, but Dad can't get over Mom.  Daughter Samantha (Lily Collins) has become affected by her parents' separation believing that love isn't possible so she moves from guy to guy for one night stands to fulfill her sexual desires.  Son Rusty (Nat Wolff) takes the opposite approach of his sister and longs to find a true love to last for a lifetime.  Together, this foursome navigates the ups and downs of romance, trying to figure out how this elusive emotion works exactly.

Stuck in Love is more than adequately acted -- all four of the aforementioned actors plus Liana Liberato as Rusty's troubled girlfriend, Logan Lerman as a truly nice guy who tries to change Samantha's brashness, and Kristen Bell as a confidante of Bill make the most of Josh Boone's first script and directorial debut.  However, Boone's screenplay is a tad uneven -- its lighthearted nature works much better than its stabs at trying to be serious.  As a matter of fact, when the tale veers into any bit of a solemn moment, it proves to be too melodramatic as if Boone was searching for a way to make us connect with these characters.

That isn't to say Stuck in Love is a dreary piece of work. In fact, Boone shows potential in this genre and I'd be interested to see what he can bring to the table in the future.  He certainly can direct actors in a way that makes them believable and interesting.  There was potential for more here, but for a first time attempt at directing and writing, Boone's Stuck in Love is solid enough.

The RyMickey Rating: C+ 

Movie Review - Admission

Admission (2013)

Starring Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Gloria Reuben, Wallace Shawn, Nat Wolff,  Travaris Spears, and Lily Tomlin

Directed by Paul Weitz

Admission starts out promisingly enough, but after about forty minutes, I found it nearly inconceivable that there was still over an hour to go.  Tina Fey is charming as Portia Nathan, an admissions officer at Princeton who visits a small private high school run by John Pressman (Paul Rudd) only to discover that John's prize student Jeremiah (Nat Wolff) may be the son she gave up for adoption eighteen years prior.  With Jeremiah, whose transcript contains nothing spectacular, desperate to get into Princeton, Portia finds herself in a conundrum both professionally and personally.

And, unfortunately, the problem with Admission is that this aforementioned story is dished out in its first third and not much else happens for its remainder.  There's scene after scene of attempts at humor, but they fail to present a well-rounded story.  It certainly helps that Tina Fey and Paul Rudd are both pleasant to watch onscreen either together or separately and the rest of the cast is certainly appealing, but they're left floundering throughout the entire second half of the film.  It's a shame, really, because there's an attempt here to create a somewhat "smart" comedy, but the story simply isn't enough to sustain itself over its run time.

The RyMickey Rating:  C