Hearts Beat Loud

 Hearts Beat Loud (2018)

Starring Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Ted Danson, Sasha Lane, Blythe Danner, and Toni Collette

Directed by Brett Haley

Written by Brett Haley and Mark Basch

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

Featuring the vocal talents of Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Maya Rudolph, and Will Ferrell

Directed by Mike Mitchell

Written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - The Founder

The Founder (2016)

Starring Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Linda Cardellini, B.J. Novak, Laura Dern, and Patrick Wilson

Directed by John Lee Hancock

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

I can't tell you the last time I ate a McDonald's.  Still, I understand the restaurant juggernaut's appeal of providing cheap eats even if I was forever scarred from eating a McDonald's burger when as a young kid I attended a birthday party held at the fast food establishment and was given a sandwich with ketchup and pickles on it.  Such grossness was never forgotten.  Why am I divulging info such as this in a movie review?  Because The Founder details the formation of the fast food giant at the hands of Ray Kroc whose tenacious "take no prisoners" approach to business helped him become one of the richest men in America.

Kroc's wealth didn't come easy, however.  After struggling for years as a door-to-door salesman of kitchen goods, Ray Kroc (played by Michael Keaton) discovers the quick food establishment known as McDonald's in San Bernadino, California, after that restaurant's owners -- brothers Mac and Dick McDonald (John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman) -- decide to buy eight milkshake mixers that Kroc is selling.  The McDonald brothers transformed a drive-in into a walk-up fast-service establishment and found great success selling a limited number of items created in an almost mechanical, factory-like manner.  Kroc finds the process ingenious and convinces the reluctant brothers -- who had been burned by franchisees before -- to allow him to create several McDonald's outposts in the Midwest.  A strict contract detailing conformity in both the way the establishments and the food had to look was agreed upon by Kroc, but Kroc soon decides that he knows much more about running a "business" than the McDonald brothers.  At the very least, the ever-persistent Kroc thinks he knows more about how to make money and he does all that he can to try and bring more wealth into his pocket even if it means reneging on certain aspects of his contract wth the McDonald brothers.

Surprisingly engaging, The Founder owes much of its success to the believably slimy portrayal of Ray Kroc by Michael Keaton.  There's no doubt that Kroc carried a business acumen that would be envied by anyone -- and Keaton's Kroc certainly makes us envious of that aspect of his personality -- but he was also unethically egotistical.  Keaton portrays an outward cheeriness coupled with an "aw shucks" Midwest personality that masks an intelligence that undoubtedly allows Kroc to succeed at branding a commercial business where the McDonald brothers failed.  Perhaps the film could've been a touch more biting in its satire, but as it stands now John Lee Hancock's flick is an enjoyable look at an intriguing figure from the American business landscape.  And even though I've been scarred forever by the ketchup and pickle on that McDonald's burger from my youth, Ray Kroc proved to be a rather ingenious guy and The Founder helps to illustrate that.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)

Starring Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman, Katherine Hughes, Jon Bernthal, Molly Shannon, and Connie Britton

Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

There's no hiding the fact that Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a movie about a disease.  In this case, it's cancer and the dying girl in the title is Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a high school senior who is diagnosed with leukemia.  The "Me" in the title is Greg (Thomas Mann), a wry, witty loner of sorts who has managed to make his way through high school by being pleasant enough to every single clique or group, but never really joining any of them.  This casual sense of invisibility has proved to be very successful for Greg, but it's also made him a bit of a loner with the exception of his friend Earl (RJ Cyler) with whom he makes hilariously ridiculous recreations of art house films.  When Greg's mom (Connie Britton) forces her son to visit Rachel after she's been diagnosed (with whom he's said very little to in the entirety of high school), Greg connects with Rachel's wry sense of humor and no-nonsense attitude and the two begin to form a friendship.

As I said, there's no hiding the fact that Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a disease movie.  It places cancer squarely at the forefront.  However, the film doesn't create a two-hour mope-fest.  Instead, screenwriter Jesse Andrews and director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon have created one of the funniest films I've seen this year.  There's a hip, irreverence imbued in both the dialog and the way the film is shot and acted that immediately clicked with me.  I belly-laughed multiple times (mostly at Greg and Earl's homages/recreations of films), yet still think the film does a nice job at balancing the humor with the pathos.

That said, despite great turns from RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke, and Thomas Mann (who is quite captivating and oddly charming as the lead), Me and Earl and the Dying Girl didn't quite click with me emotionally.  Considering the subject matter, I was expecting to be a little more affected.  Granted, this flick doesn't carry the maudlin overtones of something like A Fault in Our Stars (a film which I like quite a bit), but perhaps because of that lack of gravitas, I found myself oddly unmoved as the film reached its conclusion which ultimately felt like a little bit of a letdown.

In only his second film, director Gomez-Rejon shows much promise.  Sure some of the adults (particularly Molly Shannon as Rachel's mother) feel a little too one-note (which is a fault of the script in part) and he doesn't quite hit the bullseye emotionally in the end in the way the way he really needs.  However, there's a freshness to what he's brought to the screen that's refreshing and inviting.  Me and Earl and the Dying Girl doesn't hit quite all the right notes, but it comes darn close.

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie (2014)

Featuring the voice talents of Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

So much hype may have ruined The Lego Movie for me seeing as it was greeted with glowing reviews and much love from the public upon its release in February.  To me, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller -- who brought us the fantastic Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (and the great 21 Jump Street as well) -- are repeating their same old shtick here with less success.  Perhaps their charm has worn thin as I found much of The Lego Movie's jokes to fall flat and the overall plot to be a bit boring and bland.

The Lego Movie follows Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt), a Lego construction worker who does everything by the book -- he follows directions and instructions to a T.  One evening on the construction site after everyone else has gone home, Emmet falls down a hole and finds, unbeknown to him, the much fabled (in the Lego world in which he lives) "Piece of Resistance" and, after touching it and seeing prophetic visions, Emmet is knocked out.  He awakens captured by Lord Business (Will Ferrell) -- the "mayor" of this aspect of the Lego universe who, Emmet discovers, is out to eliminate free-thinking and imagination.  Emmet is rescued from Business's clutches by Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) and taken through a portal to a whole slew of Lego lands in an attempt to hide Emmet and the "Piece of Resistance" from Lord Business.  Emmet discovers on this journey that Lego lore states that whomever uncovers the "Piece of Resistance" is the Master Builder and will bring security to all of the Lego worlds which places unimaginative Emmet in a bit of a pickle since he has never been a free thinker...but now the Lego people must put their trust in him in order to defeat Lord Business.

The Lego Movie works best when the film takes on a variety of pop culture references and brings them to the forefront.  Seeing Lego Batman (voiced brilliantly by Will Arnett) and a variety of other well-known entities interact with Emmet is the most successful aspect of the flick.  Unfortunately, when The Lego Movie focuses on Emmet -- as it does most of the first half of the film -- the jokes don't land with as much resonance and get tired and worn quicker than they should.  Admittedly, my second viewing of director Lord and Miller's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs didn't hold up, so maybe I've tired of their weird humor, but I'd like to think this impressive team has more to offer in the future.  Unfortunately, The Lego Movie bored me and that's sometimes the worst criticism one can offer.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - We're the Millers

We're the Millers (2013)

Starring Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, Will Poulter, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, and Kathryn Hahn 

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

Jennifer.  Aniston.  Striptease.

I could simply leave this review at that, but I guess I'll continue by saying in addition to that sultry dance performed by one of my celebrity crushes, We're the Millers provides enough laughs that even if a nearly naked, seductively gyrating Jennifer Aniston doesn't float your boat, you'll still probably have a good time.  Thanks to a game cast who milk the comedy bits for all they're worth, We're the Millers successfully brings the raunch while also giving us characters and a story that hold our attention.

Jason Sudeikis is David Clark, a pot dealer who ends up losing his stash of weed and a significant amount of dough when an attempt to save a homeless girl being attacked by a bunch of street thugs goes awry.  This doesn't sit well with David's boss (Ed Helms) who forces David to head to Mexico and smuggle into the states a significant amount of marijuana without getting caught at the border.  With seemingly no feasible way to smuggle in the pot on his own, David concocts a plan to rent an RV and make up a fake family, acting as if they're taking a trip to Mexico for recreational purposes hoping that the border agents won't possibly think anything is out of the ordinary when they try and get back into the States.  To achieve this task, he enlists his down-on-her-luck stripper neighbor Rose (Jennifer Aniston) to play his wife, the aforementioned homeless girl Casey (Emma Roberts) to play his daughter, and his virginal downstairs neighbor Kenny (Will Poulter) to be his son.  Along the way, this fake family (known as the Millers) runs into drug kingpins and crazy RV enthusiasts (the latter played by Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn) in their attempt to bring an humongous stash of pot over the US border.

While certainly raunchy, We're the Millers does have a bit of heart although it never goes too far over that sentimental edge which works in its favor.  As mentioned above, the entire cast works quite well together with nary a bad apple in the bunch which was a welcome surprise.  Watching a film like this in the comfort of your own home alone can oftentimes ruin its ability to succeed because you don't have the rapturous laughter of an audience around you, but We're the Millers made me laugh out loud enough to deem it a success.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Kings of Summer

The Kings of Summer (2013)

Starring Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, and Megan Mullally

Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts

I had high hopes for this coming of age story after I'd heard promising things following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last year, but despite the majority of critics' positive comments, this reviewer found The Kings of Summer to be one of the worst movies he saw from 2013.  Something about this film rang very false for me with not a single character, situation, or a majority of the dialogue based in any sort of reality or truth.  There's an irreverence here that I never enjoyed.  Perhaps this is one of those indie comedies that you "have to be in the mood to enjoy" (I've talked about this concept before), but both the screenplay by Chris Galletta and direction by Jordan Vogt-Roberts were too eccentric to ever be anything other than obnoxious.

Similar in plot to Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom -- a director/screenwriter whom first-timers Galletta and Vogt-Roberts cull a great deal from in both story and tone -- The Kings of Summer tells a tale of two best friends who run away from home following the completion of their freshman year of high school.  Joe (Nick Robinson) can't stand his father (Nick Offerman) and his insistence on butting into all aspects of his life.  Patrick (Gabriel Basso) also has some obnoxiously overbearing parents (with the mother played by Megan Mullally) who have him rolling his eyes at every single thing they say to him.  Fed up with their respective folks, Joe and Patrick decide to build a house in the woods where they will live forever, away from the rules of society (and the rules of their parents).  This strive for independence shifts into one of those typical coming-of-age stories where all parties learn something that helps them become better people.

The problem with that notion is that none of the characters in this movie ever seem "real" enough to make the audience feel any sympathy towards them or have any rooting interest in seeing them succeed.  The parents of both teens, as an example, are so utterly unrealistic that I think I was literally gritting my teeth in frustration any time they spoke.  Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson (who play Patrick's parents) are embodying dumb, completely irrational characters, and Offerman's part is so mind-numbingly dull while also managing to be irritatingly sarcastic.  While the younger actors fare better even they can't overcome the overly simplistic trials and tribulations that are thrown their way in order to produce tension.  I won't even begin to discuss the third teenage member of the clan -- Biaggio (played by Moises Arias) -- who serves no real purpose in the film other than to act weird at every possible moment.

Ultimately, the comedy in The Kings of Summer is never derived from any basis in reality (despite the fact that there is supposed to be a basis in reality) and that makes all of the purported humorous situations feel fake.  Both the screenwriter and director didn't craft a film that felt genuine and, considering how miserably they failed here, I certainly will not be looking forward to their next venture.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - In a World...

In a World... (2013)

Starring Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Ken Marino, Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Alexandra Holden, and Nick Offerman

Directed by Lake Bell

Written, directed, and starring Lake Bell, In a World... (which will be ellipsis-free from here on out in this review) is a charming debut for the first-time writer and lenser.  Bell is thirty-one year-old Carol who, at the film's start, is still living with her father trying to make a career out of being a dialect coach for famous actors.  Her father Sam (Fred Melamed) is a famous voice-over artist who is well-known throughout the biz as being the second-most-respected talker behind the world-famous Don LaFontaine (a real-life voiceover artist who died within the past several years).  Sam is a likely successor to LaFontaine's crown, but he recognizes that his time in the business is nearing its end so he's been acting as a mentor to the up-and-coming Gustav (Ken Marino) who is quickly becoming a star in the voice-over world.  What Sam can't seem to fathom is that Carol wants to follow her father's footsteps in a business that doesn't look kindly on females.  When a movie studio decides that it wants to create an epic trailer that harkens back to and honors Mr. LaFontaine who made the words "In a World" so infamous in the realm of movie trailers, Carol, Sam, and Gustav all find themselves duking it out to claim this coveted prize.

While Lake Bell certainly crafted a film about a topic I'm not sure we've ever before seen grace the silver screen, In a World is, admittedly, quite typical in its stories and characters.  While Bell doesn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to a comedy, what she is able to do extremely well is create characters and dialog that seem believable and relatable.  Sometimes these low budget comedies are filled with people who either (a) wouldn't exist in the real world with their weirdly verbose vocabularies, or (b) you find it a chore to hang out with for ninety minutes.  In In a World, all of Bell's characters seem based in reality -- granted, it's a reality we may not be entirely familiar with given that I've never met nor likely will ever meet a voice-over artist, but it's still a world that I could easily find myself easing into.  There's something charming about the notion that these characters seem so down-to-earth.

Certainly, Bell's cast helps aid this easy-going atmosphere that she created for the film.  In addition to the aforementioned Fred Melamed and Ken Marino (who both are quite funny here), there's a nice repartee created by Rob Corddry and Michaela Watkins (the latter of the recently cancelled Trophy Wife which was the most underrated show of the 2013-14 tv seaston) as Carol's brother-in-law and sister.  Their relationship anchors a good portion of the plot which, in retrospect, does take a little too much of the focus off of Carol, but still doesn't prove overly detrimental to the overall tone of the flick.

I know that In a World isn't a perfect film and as I reflect back on it, I realize that its script could've used a little more refining.  However, for a first go at writing a feature-length film, I think Lake Bell shows a huge amount of promise.  Not only does she excel at creating a believable environment in both her writing and her directing, but she's utterly charming to watch onscreen.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Somebody Up There Likes Me

Somebody Up There Likes Me (2013)

Starring Nick Offerman, Keith Poulson, Jess Wexler, Stephanie Hunt, and Megan Mullally 

Directed by Bob Byington

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

Somebody Up There Likes Me is a weird one.  There is an offbeat deadpan aesthetic to this that will either win you over or bore you to pieces from the get go.  I was willing to accept that comedic tone, but the dry humor wore thin about halfway through and it turned into an almost interminable affair.  Still, I found the first 35 minutes of this rather short film quite humorous as we meet Max (Keith Poulson) who, in one of the film's opening scenes, walks in on his estranged wife sleeping with another man.  He confides in his good friend Sal (Nick Offerman) who tells him he's better off without a woman considering the malaise he's felt ever since he got married several years ago.  At this point, the film then begins to time travel into the future in roughly five-year increments, following the lives of Max and Sal and their relationships with women, with each other, and with their business.

Even with the time jumping, the characters never age and this clever and unique method of telling a story is somewhat captivating...at least initially.  However, as time progresses (in both the story and the film itself), the absurd and somewhat surreal style along with its aloof tone wears thin.  I always find myself enjoying Nick Offerman's dry humor and that's certainly the case here.  Keith Poulson is also engaging enough as a lead despite the fact that he's purposefully one-notish, but its his character's inherent nonchalance and the film's same "attitude" that disappoints after time.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-