The Witches of Eastwick

 The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Veronica Cartwright, and Richard Jenkins

Directed by George Miller

Written by Michael Cristofer

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - The Meddler

The Meddler (2016)

Starring Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne, JK Simmons, Jerrod Carmichael, and Cecily Strong

Directed by Lorene Scafaria

Following her husband's death, widower Marnie (Susan Sarandon) moves from New York to Los Angeles to be closer to her adult daughter Lori (Rose Byrne), a screenwriter coping with a breakup with a longterm boyfriend.  Although she has good intentions, Marnie meddles in every aspect of Lori's life and The Meddler takes this simplistic story and stretches it out over 100 minutes.

While there may seem to be some moderate disappointing shade thrown by this reviewer in that last sentence, The Meddler is a perfectly acceptable comedy with some nice performances.  It's totally watchable and does the job it sets out to do in creating a difficult family dynamic between Marnie and Lori.  Ultimately, there's not quite enough story to prevent the viewer from getting a tad bored in the film's middle acts and what story there is proves to be fairly generic.  However, thanks to Susan Sarandon who really excels here at capturing the overprotective, busybody, stereotypical Italian widower, The Meddler fares better than it maybe even deserves.  I laughed a few times and was engaged in the Marnie character even when her actions were a bit too eccentric to be believed.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The Last of Robin Hood

The Last of Robin Hood (2014)

Starring Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon, and Dakota Fanning

Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland

Produced by Lifetime Films, an unsurprising aire of cheapness hovers over everything in The Last of Robin Hood from the soft lighting to the corny, repetitive score.  Considering that co-directors/screenwriters Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland also brought Still Alice to the cinematic landscape in 2014, I am admittedly surprised that both films share the same helmers because they frankly couldn't be more different in terms of every aspect of cinematic quality.

Telling the true story of actor Errol Flynn's last years, The Last of Robin Hood brings us in to Flynn's romantic relationship with fifteen year-old Beverley Aadland (Dakota Fanning) whom he fell head over heels for in his final days.  Once Flynn (Kevin Kline) discovers his paramour's true age, he recognizes the need to sweet-talk Beverley's mother Florence (Susan Sarandon) who has been pushing her daughter's Hollywood dreams for more than a decade even going so far as to falsify her birth certificates.  This triangular relationship travels a rocky road with tensions always rumbling right below the surface.

With a solid cast of two Oscar winners and one well-respected young actress, I had hoped that the acting may shine, but that did not come to fruition.  Instead, Kline feels as if he's hamming it up for the camera, playing a caricaturish performance of an aging Hollywood lothario.  Not only does Sarandon give quite possibly the worst voiceover work I've ever heard as her character tells her tale to an Errol Flynn biographer, but she also brings absolutely no emotion to her scenes as the "stage mom" and her Florence feels incredibly flat and bland (a fault of the script, for sure).  Fanning fares best, but that's mainly because her character is at least the most nuanced.  That said, Fanning doesn't play anything subtle here which is incredibly unfortunate as there are times where her reactions or emotions often come off as laughable.

Frankly, I'm flabbergasted that this film was ever released in theaters.  As soon as it started, I could sense the "movie of the week" tone permeating through the cheapness of all aspects of the production and looked up online as to whether its "R-rating" was given only for its dvd release.  However, it does appear to have been a theatrical release which truly is dumbfounding.  Yes, it contains a trio of stars, but the directors and screenwriters have crafted a film that lacks any emotional connection with its characters and leaves its cast floundering in unbelievable dialog and settings (which is all the more horrible seeing as how this is based on a true story).

The RyMickey Rating:  F

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 Company You Keep

The Company You Keep (2013)

Starring Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brendan Gleeson, Brit Marling, Sam Elliott, Stephen Root, and Jackie Evancho 

Directed by Robert Redford

Just take a look at that talent listed above -- that's a helluva lot of names, most of whom are known for giving good performances.  Robert Redford's film The Company You Keep (culled from a script by Lem Dobbs) plays like a novel, introducing each of these actors for a chapter and then having them disappear.  This episodic nature proves very tedious about halfway through once we realize what's going on.  It fails to allow us to connect to anyone...then again, I'm not sure we really want to connect with any of these people.

The film opens with a brief flashback in newsreel/news footage form about a series of protests in the 1960/70s by a homegrown American "terrorist" group known as the Weather Underground -- a real-life "activist" group that bombed government buildings and banks as public demonstrations to gain notoriety in an attempt to overthrow the US government for what they perceived as wrongdoings during the Vietnam era.  The last blip of the flashback tells us about a 1980 bank robbery in which a civilian was killed and how the three people responsible are still at large.

Cut to present time and Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) is arrested when buying gas at a convenience store in New York.  Solarz was one a Weather Underground member and one of the three people responsible for that ill-fated bank robbery that resulted in a death.  She had lived her life -- got married, had kids -- but the guilt of that day always stayed with her and Solarz, a Vermont resident, specifically crossed the New York state border to buy gas in order to get arrested and turn herself in.  This sets the FBI on a hunt for Solarz's colleagues in the crime, while also piquing the interest of Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), a young reporter at the local Albany newspaper.  Shepard ends up discovering more than the FBI (which doesn't sit too well with the FBI chief played by Terrence Howard) when he uncovers the fact that a local lawyer named Jim Grant (Robert Redford) is actually Nick Sloan, a presumed dead Weather Underground member suspected of taking part in the murder at the bank in 1980.  When Shepard confronts Grant about this, Grant immediately grows suspicious that the FBI will soon be on his tail and he sets off across the country trying to evade the FBI, while also trying to clear his name.

While the premise above is actually interesting that all takes place in the film's opening thirty minutes after which things quickly fall apart, digressing into scenes in which Redford's character meets up an old, hardened former Weather Underground member who then gets tracked down by the FBI just as Grant manages to make an escape.  This seriously happens four or five times and maybe it could've worked if any of these scenes ended up being anything other than two old people reminiscing about how shitty the government's treatment of the less fortunate is.  (Of course, the majority of these old fogies are now living in expensive houses, sailing yachts, or working at prestigious universities...so their sympathetic allegiance with the poor feels disingenuous...then again, that's the good old liberal mindset, ain't it?)

There are a couple of decent performances here -- LaBeouf is strong as the go-getting reporter, Sarandon makes the most of her small role with a particularly good scene in which she explains her actions -- but the typically strong cast isn't given much to work with and Redford doesn't really pull great performances from their small parts.  For someone who was a supposed sex symbol and movie star back in the day, Redford himself is uncharismatic and particularly bland here which is a disappointment considering he and LaBeouf are the only two actors who we see throughout the entire film.  The Company You Keep may very well have the most prestigious cast assembled for a 2013 film, but despite the high quality of actors, Robert Redford's film just meanders along for two hours failing to be anything more exciting than a game of "Which Celebrity Will Appear Next?"

The RyMickey Rating:  C- 

Movie Review - Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas (2012)

Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Doona Bae, and Keith David

Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski

"Our lives are not our own.  From womb to tomb we are bound to others past and present.  And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future."

The epic, nearly three hour Cloud Atlas can be summed up in the quote above that comes at the film's end.  As actress Doona Bae said the words, it was immediately obvious that she was spouting the film's thesis as set forth by its trio of writer-directors Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski.  And after that line is said, I found myself asking this question: Is it possible to really like a movie even if you feel like its deep underlying meaning isn't fully realized despite the fact that its screenplay tries to hammer it home over and over again?  The answer I've realized is yes because Cloud Atlas is a film that may not be perfect, but is wholly original, visually appealing, and surprisingly compelling throughout its lengthy run time.

Essentially six separate stories, the overarching point of Cloud Atlas is to tell us that all of our current actions affect those that come after us which is why the stories here -- spanning the centuries from 1849 to 2321 -- are somewhat connected to one another, some by tenuous strands and some by significant plot points.  With each story undertaking a different genre -- there's comedy, suspense, romance, sci fi, historical drama -- it's as if we're watching a bunch of separate movies that are held together by both the film's theme and the interesting, entirely successful gimmick of having the members of the cast play different roles in all of the storylines.  So, as an example, while Halle Berry is the lead in the suspense segment, her role as a different character in the romance tale is a minimal one.  The same goes for Tom Hanks, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant, all of whom make up a very nice ensemble and get the chance to play a variety of roles.

The film looks expensive and for a movie spanning so many genres and centuries, it's good that things don't look as if they were done on the cheap.  From the special effects to the scenic design to the nice score, all of the technical aspects of Cloud Atlas deserve praise.  Directors Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski siblings have really crafted something that I found rather intriguing on the visual side of things.

Overall, what prevents the film from thoroughly reaching its ambitious intentions is the fact that some of the stories just don't carry the gravitas of, as one character put it, showing "the consequences of one's life rippling through eternity."  As an example, I loved the comedy segment of the film featuring Jim Broadbent as a book editor who, after running afoul with one of his clients, is forced to go on the run and finds himself locked up in an old person's home.  I thought the story was well thought out, humorous, and completely entertaining.  However, I don't quite understand how it fit in with the six other stories.  Yes, there is a brief mention of Broadbent's character in the sci fi segment, but for the heftiness of the overarching theme, it doesn't quite work.  Granted, I understand that many people on this planet will only affect others in small ways, but I'm not quite sure for the scope and grandeur of Cloud Atlas that we should've been focusing on these people in this movie.

Still, while that may seem like a somewhat large "problem," it really isn't.  While it knocks the film down from a perfect level, Cloud Atlas is still a fascinating film that I'm still thinking about days after watching it.  Moreso than many of 2012's films, this is one that I look forward to watching again a few years in the future.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Robot & Frank

Robot & Frank (2012)

Starring Frank Langella, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Susan Sarandon, and Peter Sarsgaard

Directed by Jake Shreier

In the near future, aging Frank (Frank Langella) is finding himself entering the beginning stages of dementia or Alzheimer's Disease (the specifics are never really discussed in the film).  His son Hunter (James Marsden) lives about six hours away from his father, but still visits him on a regular basis on the weekends leaving his own children behind to care for his ailing dad.  In order to alleviate some of this constant traveling in his life, Hunter decides to buy a robot caretaker (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) who will clean, cook, and keep an eye on Frank's health, reporting back to Hunter when necessary.  Frank is adamantly against this as is his daughter Madison (Liv Tyler) who is working in Turkmenistan and can't really prevent her brother from bringing this newfangled technology into her father's home.

Eventually, Frank realizes that he's stuck with the robot so he might as well try and get to understand the technology...and this is where Robot & Frank starts to slowly go downhill.  The film's opening act (as detailed in the first paragraph) is amusing, but as the flick progresses, we discover that a long time ago Frank was a rather brilliant small-time thief who happened to get caught and spend some time in prison.  When Frank discovers that his robot companion has been programmed to do what Frank tells him to do, Frank decides to teach the robot the tricks of the trade when it comes to robbing people and this duo sets out to do some damage in their small town.

Ultimately, though, it isn't the story that takes Robot & Frank down a notch.  It's the fact that I failed to find myself connected to Frank in the way that I think was necessary in order for the movie to succeed on all levels.  Frank Langella certainly does a good job here...he's better than the part he's given, in fact.  Unfortunately, considering his condition of a slowly deteriorating memory, I never found myself invested in his plight.  When Frank says to his daughter who desperately wants to take the robot away after several weeks together, "But he's my only friend," I can't help but think that was supposed to hit me in the gut.  It didn't in any way, however, and the fault has to either lie in the direction of first time auteur Jake Shreier and/or the script from first time screenwriter Christopher D. Ford.  Somehow the screenplay and the direction never quite made the emotional connection with me in the way that the film desperately desires and needs in order to fully succeed.  Here's this old guy whose health is fading and he's being reinvigorated by a friendship with someone (or something, to be more accurate) he thought he was going to hate.  There's depth there worth exploring and while I think the film tries, it didn't click for me in the way it should have.

While it may seem like I'm critiquing Robot & Frank in a manner that would deem it not worth watching, it's actually a somewhat solid film with some nice performances from the whole cast.  The problem is that the potential for something greater is always present, but the film is never quite able to grasp it.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Arbitrage

Arbitrage (2012)

Starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Costa, and Nate Parker 

Directed by Nicholas Jarecki

Arbitrage is a taut, smart character study about how a single poor decision can balloon into something that can potentially ruin a man, his family, and his business.  Richard Gere is Robert Miller, a New York businessman who manages a seemingly successful hedge fund.  At age sixty, he's looking to step away from the daily rigors of the job and has found a wealthy man willing to buy his business.  However, despite outwardly appearing to be a great business and family man, Robert has secrets in both facets of his life that may very well lead to his downfall.

Rather than go into greater detail with the story, I'd much rather you experience Arbitrage without much knowledge about its plot.  I knew very little about the film except that Richard Gere played a businessman in trouble and I think that my naivete enhanced the viewing experience.  Nicholas Jarecki who both helmed and wrote the film does a really nice job in crafting a well-balanced story and a rich-looking film.  Considering that Jarecki's only other feature film credit was the heinously awful The Informers, I'm shocked that this tale came from his pen as it's a near 180-degree turnaround in terms of quality and overall story.

Jarecki manages to get a fantastic performance out of Richard Gere who was probably within shooting distance of snagging an Oscar nomination this year if his Golden Globe nomination for this film was any indication.  He's really very good here as a flawed guy who's made many bad decisions -- both personal and business-oriented -- and who thought he'd never have to deal with the consequences of his actions.  When he's forced to face his fraudulent actions in all aspects of his life, this man who's had everything handed to him for years finds himself in a downward spiral.

Gere is matched by some very nice turns from Susan Sarandon (who's been slumming it lately I feel in a Liam Neeson "I'll take any role" kind of way) as Robert's wife and Nate Parker as the son of one of Robert's former business partners who helps him when things begin to get rough.  The best supporting turn in the film comes from Brit Marling as Robert's daughter Brooke who is the Chief Financial Officer of her father's business.  When Brooke discovers her father's disappointing actions, she's forced to decide whether blood is thick enough to forgive, and it sets up a very interesting, conflicting, and surprisingly complex decision for a supporting character.

Arbitrage is the kind of movie Alfred Hitchcock would be making were he still around today.  Granted, Hitch liked to craft movies around innocent guys framed for horrible actions a lot of the time and Robert Miller here is fully aware of his poor actions.  However, this is a film that exudes that Hitchcock level of intelligence and character development and it's an underseen flick that I highly recommend.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

Starring Paul Terry, Joanna Lumley, Miriam Margoyles, and Pete Postlethwaite

Featuring the voices of Richard Dreyfuss, Jane Leeves, and Susan Sarandon

Directed by Henry Selick

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

Although I've always been a fan of Roald Dahl, I wasn't a fan of this film version of his book James and Giant Peach when it was released fifteen years ago.  Still, I figured that it may be worth a revisit to see if I was just a sixteen year-old curmudgeon when it came out.  Well, I'm either still that same curmudgeon today or the film just doesn't work.

Coming on the heels of his critically-acclaimed The Nightmare Before Christmas, director Henry Selick returns to the world of stop-motion animation, but mixes in some live-action bookends featuring young actor Paul Terry as the title character (that would be James...not the Giant Peach).  Living in England with his horrific aunts (Miriam Margoyles and Joanna Lumley) after the death of his parents, James longs to escape his sullen life and visit New York City.  One evening, he meets a mystical traveling guy (Pete Postlewaite) who gives James some magical "seeds" which grow a giant peach larger than most houses.  In order to hide from his nagging aunts, James climbs into the peach, turns into a Claymation creation, and meets a motley crew of insects who call the peach their home.

Surprisingly, it's the live action segments of the film that work best.  There's an absurdist, over-the-top quality to them that feel as if they were pulled right from the pages of Dahl's books.  However, the stop-motion animation portion of the tale fails miserably.  There's never any zip or excitement and the insect gang isn't the least bit engaging.  Of course, they're forced to sing the least interesting songs possible (crafted by the overrated Randy Newman), but that's only a part of the problem.  The biggest issue is that the story just flounders around once James is in the peach (which could be attributable to the original source novel...I never read this book, however).

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - The Greatest

The Greatest (2010)

Starring Carey Mulligan, Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Johnny Simmons, Zoë Kravitz, Aaron Johnson, and Michael Shannon

Directed by Shana Feste

Calling your movie The Greatest is really just asking for trouble.  The reviewers could just pounce all over your flick and trash it.  Fortunately, first-time writer-director Shana Feste has crafted a rather beautiful film here that, while it has its minor faults, is full of some great performances including another star-making turn from Carey Mulligan.

The Greatest begins with young high school couple Rose (Mulligan) and Bennett (Kick-Ass's Aaron Johnson) in a state of undress.  They'd only been dating each other for mere weeks, but they'd been pining after each other secretly for four years of high school.  After they sleep with each other for the first time consummating that unrequited love, Bennett drives Rose home and just as he begins to tell her he loves her, their car is involved in a horrific collision.  Bennett dies at the scene.

Some time passes and Rose shows up on the doorstep of Bennett's parents, Allen (Brosnan) and Grace Brewster (Sarandon).  She reveals that she is pregnant with Bennett's child and needs assistance with her pregnancy.  The Brewster household, however, has not quite come to terms with Bennett's death with each family member, including the Brewsters' other son, Ryan (Johnny Simmons), dealing with the tragedy in various ways.  The introduction of Rose into the Brewsters' lives causes each of them to examine their own grief in ways that couldn't possibly imagine.

Sounds like fun, right?  It's not a bed of roses and, at times, the script just seems too convenient.  Everything comes together much too cleanly and quickly in the end.  There's a character that befriends the Brewsters' son Ryan whose storyline comes to an awkward conclusion.  Michael Shannon's role as the driver who hits Bennett's car is quite awkward.

All these faults, however, are overshadowed by some amazing performances that elevate this film to a level infinitely better than it deserves to be.  First and foremost, Carey Mulligan is a star.  She just shines onscreen.  There's not a false note in her performance and I think her role here is better than her Oscar-nominated turn in An Education.

Susan Sarandon is also quite good here.  As a mother who simply longs to have her baby back, she resents Rose for entering their lives.  She wants no pity from the outside world, but, at the same time, she cannot let go of her dead son in the slightest. 

Pierce Brosnan's Allen, on the other hand, refuses to talk about his son.  Brosnan really surprised me here.  He creates a rigid, emotionless persona in Allen, but this only causes the inevitable break-down to be that much more effective.  Similarly, young Johnny Simmons was gripping as the son who masks his pain in drugs.  There's something about men crying onscreen that can ring incredibly false, but both of these actors (one who's been around quite a while and one who is just starting out) really raise the bar.   

I recognize that this film isn't perfect.  It's perhaps a tad too trite and absolutely comes together much too cleanly in the end, but this tale of grief, pain, and, ultimately, forgiveness and love is something I highly recommend.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - The Lovely Bones (2009)

The Lovely Bones
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, and Saoirse Ronan
Directed by Peter Jackson

What Dreams May Come, Part II. In that movie, Robin Williams gets stuck in a purgatory-esque land between heaven and earth, and The Lovely Bones contains the same premise, more or less.

Right from the beginning we learn that young 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Ronan) has been murdered and that one of her neighbors (Tucci) is her killer. The rest of the movie swaps back and forth between Susie's dream-like visions of "the in-between" and her father's (Wahlberg) search for his daughter's killer.

Unfortunately, this movie just plain doesn't work. Granted, I've only seen the first Lord of the Rings movie, but I couldn't help but wonder why the heck this guy was so acclaimed. This movie was full of odd cuts and edits, a mishmash of nonsensical heavenly visions, and some of the oddest score and background music I've heard in a 2009 movie (I realize most don't even "hear" that, but the score is an important part to my movie-going experience).

Jackson (who also co-wrote the script) poorly directs his actors and doesn't really allow us to connect with Susie's family at all. The relationship between Susie's mother (Weisz) and father is nonexistent. Sorry, Peter, but showing them making love at the beginning isn't enough to make me believe they're actually in love...I never once felt any type of connection between Weisz and Wahlberg and their feelings for each other play a fairly important role in the film. It doesn't help that Walhberg's mopey "blahness" is utterly boring to view.

Saoirse Ronan's Susie is just too darn bright, wide-eyed, and cheery for a girl who has just been murdered. I found the character and her overbearing voiceover to simply be annoying. And speaking of annoying, the stock comedic character of Susie's grandmother (played over-the-top by Susan Sarandon) was horrendous. While she brought some much needed entertainment to this overly heavy production, she seemed like she belonged in a sitcom. For this, I don't blame Sarandon, but instead fault Mr. Jackson.

Stanley Tucci's murderous George Harvey is fine, as is Rose McIver as Susie's younger sister, Lindsey, but they're not enough to tip the scales to the positive in the acting department.

Admittedly, there are moments in this film that work. The scenes of Susie's murder and Lindsey's discovery of some pivotal evidence are racked with tension. And it was moments like those that make it a shame that Jackson and his co-writers bogged this thing down with ridiculous meta-physical mumbo jumbo.

The RyMickey Rating: D+