FLIGHT

It's weird and upsetting to know that Flight was directed by Robert Zemeckis. The man made Back to the Future and Castaway, proof positive he can make films with interesting characters, good pacing, and few wasted moments. Neither of those films could be considered the best ever made, but they were certainly made right. Flight? This film is just made wrong. It is proof positive Zemeckis can also make films with predominately uninteresting characters, horrible pacing, and bucket loads of wasted moments.

Denzel Washington plays Whip Whitaker an alcoholic airline pilot who happens to pull off an impressive in-air maneuver/crash landing that makes him a hero. But this isn't really what the film is about; it's about Whip's crash and burn with his addiction to drugs and alcohol. The breakdown of his character is more important than the plot and that's a pity because the plot is intriguing while Whip Whitaker is not. He is an irksome character who comes across as frustratingly boring. When it came to the acting, Washington was convincing as a pilot. But Washington as an addict? Not so much. Yes, he looked drunk and had dark circles under his eyes for much the movie, but I’m pretty sure my 12 year old nephew could have done just as good a job given the chance. I know, my young nephew would have been a strange casting choice but if it had been him playing the part, I probably would have cared a tad bit more about Whip. And I probably wouldn’t have found myself making imaginary casting changes and hoping his story would quite stalling and end already.

(Paramount Pictures)

Writer John Gatins must have realized Whip was too insipid to carry the whole film, so he sprinkled in a variety of characters to add depth and prop Whip’s story up. This doesn't work out too well with his ex-wife and son. And it certainly doesn’t work with the flight attendant he was sleeping with (I think her name is 'naked chick' or something similar to that). Of course, they aren’t as extraneous as the character Nicole, played by Kelly Reilly. Nicole is a recovering heroine addict who, I'm sure, was in the film solely to help develop Washington's character. She has a substantial amount of screen time in the film, most of which feels wasted. The funny thing is Whip meets her at the same time he meets a cancer patient who seems to do more to affect Whip in three minutes than she does in her exorbitant screen time. But for as much as I don't care for her being a part of Whip's story I would rather watch a movie about Nicole, the addict, than Whip Whitaker, the addict.

The characters who actually do add something of interest to the film are played by Don Cheadle, John Goodman, and Brian Geraghty. They have the best bits, but they are few and far between. Their characters are written well and played superbly. None of them are enough to save the film from being the life-sucking machine that it is though. To be honest, the plane inversion and crash scene isn't enough either. And that scene comes so early in this considerably long, drawn-out film, it gives a false sense of awesome. Flight is a flimflam of a film. That is all.

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

Silver Linings Playbook isn't all that special. It is a typical romantic dramedy with some atypical and interesting cinematography. And it is set in a world were people don't seem to understand that sidewalks are for pedestrians and streets are for cars.

The plot of Silver Linings Playbook is corny and extremely formulaic. It falls into the polished turd category of film making. The two main characters are crazy before they fall for each other, then they are crazy for each other. Bradley Cooper plays Pat, a man who moves back in with his parents after an 8 month stint in a mental institution. Jennifer Lawrence plays Tiffany, a woman who has "poor social skills," and a dead husband. Pat is bi-polar and hyper-focused on getting back with his cheating wife who has a restraining order against him. Despite the fact he's obsessed with his wife, there is some sort of master plan to get him together with the lovely and kooky Tiffany. Cooper seemed to be playing a slightly more mentally unbalanced person than he did when he played the fictionalized Anthony Bourdain in the short-lived television series Kitchen Confidential. (If you are a fan of either Buffy and/or Freaks and Geeks, Kitchen Confidential gives you a little slice of Nicholas Brendan, aka Xander, and John Francis Daley, aka Sam Weir, that you can't get anywhere else.) Cooper's role wasn't much to write home about. It didn't blow me away. Lawrence, on the other hand, I gotta say, whether or not Lawrence thinks acting is stupid doesn't change the fact that she's damn good at it. I can't imagine anyone else playing her role. I didn't try that hard to imagine it, but still. She's good. I could go complete cheese-ball here and call her the silver lining of the film, but that would inaccurate.

Of course, I still have cheese-ball tendencies and the film does have a silver lining, two in fact: Chris Tucker and Robert De Niro. Chris Tucker was one of the main reasons the movie kept my interest. His character, Danny, was the perfect complement to Pat. He showed up at the exact times that he was needed. Whenever Pat was hesitant and being a whiny baby about doing anything, Danny would pop up to take Pat's place and/or show him what's what. At first, I was disappointed that Tucker didn't get more screen time, but looking back I think it was just right. The balance his character provided to the film was necessary. Too much of him would have taken away from that.And Robert De Niro, he was impressive. He plays Pat's OCD father so well that I can almost forgive him for Analyze This and Analyze That, Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers, and, of course, Showtime! This film reminded me why I like Robert De Niro.

(The Weinstein Company)

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS

My motivation for seeing Seven Psychopaths was simple: I liked In Bruges so much that I just had to see what Martin McDonagh would come up with next. And what he came up with was a different kind of beast. Different enough for me to try to avoid any direct comparison to In Bruges, except to say that casting Colin Farrell for both films was a wise choice.

The characters worth mentioning in Seven Psychopaths are as follows:
-- Farrell, who plays Marty, is a drunk and struggling Irish writer. Yes, that's correct. Martin McDonagh named the main character in his film Marty. And the title to the screenplay Marty is working on just so happens to be "Seven Psychopaths."
-- Sam Rockwell, who plays Billy Bickle, is Marty's BFF and an actor/dog-napper.
-- Christopher Walken, who plays Hans, is Billy's fellow dog-napper. He is the one who returns the dogs for a finder's fee.
-- Woody Harrelson, who plays Charlie, is a gangster with an unhealthy love/addiction for his adorable little Bonny, the Shih Tzu.
-- Bonny, who plays the Shih Tzu named Bonny, is one of the best parts of the film.
-- And Tom Waits who plays Zachariah, is a bunny-lovin' lunatic and another one of the best parts of the film.

The whole film is convoluted in a good way. There are stories within stories. Flashbacks on top of flashbacks. Intertwining real-life relationships mixed in with brainstormed fictional relationships for Marty's screenplay. So I will only offer up some of the highlights: Marty is having a bit of writer's block and Billy decides to help Marty get over this hump. They are BFF's after all. Billy "convinces" Marty to interview real psychopaths so he can use them in his script. Marty isn't particularly keen on the idea, but Billy gets the ball rolling on this idea before giving Marty the chance to protest. Psychopath Zachariah is the first to tell Billy his story with a bunny in hand. His story puts the whole movie into perspective and Waits cuddling up on some bunnies is definitely a sight to see. Then you have Billy and Hans dog-napping Bonny. Of course, Charlie finds out about Bonny's dog-napping and plans revenge against them at any cost. Things get a little dangerous when it comes to Charlie. Imaginations run wild and a fair amount of shenanigans occur, some of which happen in town and some in the desert. All the while, you see a guy called the Jack of Diamonds going around town killing mob men, Marty and his girlfriend going through a tough time, and Bonny staying cute from the beginning of the film to the end. [SPOILER ALERT] If Bonny had been killed in the film, it would have ruined the film for me. The film did not get ruined.

While I'm throwing spoilers out, here are two more:
1. This movie poster will give you the wrong expectations. There are less than seven psychopaths in the film depending on how you define psychopath.

(CBS Films, Inc)

2. Although there are two women on this poster, you aren't going to see much screen time for Abbie Cornish or Olga Kurlyenko.

In fact, the film makes fun of how females rarely do much more than act like imbeciles and get themselves killed in films like this. And in case you somehow missed that point...Hans tells Marty that he has awful female characters in his script. It's true and fairly depressing. It reinforces stereotypes rather than changes them. In this case, I will forgive Martin Donagh for taking the easy way out, mostly because he managed to inject the right amount of unpredictability, fake blood, and humor in this convoluted crime comedy. Seven Psycopaths is self-aware, has a smart little script, and may cause you to search the internet for adorable pictures of Shih Tzus.

THE MASTER

I wish that people hadn't pumped the idea into my head that The Master was about Scientology. Because, guess what? It wasn’t. Instead, the film delved into the psyche of religious (or cult) leaders and their followers in general. The film played out like it was mirroring the unstable thought patterns of the characters. That may be why it had so many fantastic technical aspects to look at but at the same time lacked the decent storytelling that well-balanced/interesting films should provide. Little was offered within film that made me care about it or its characters, except maybe for the character Freddie Quell’s moonshine making abilities and even that wasn’t terribly engrossing.

Freddie Quell, played by a gaunt and leathery-skinned Joaquin Phoenix, was a demented person who went off to war only to come back even more mentally deranged then he was before. The film saw him try to work through many of his problems. In fact, the sluggish first third of the film just follows him making moonshine, acting a fool, and kinda-sorta dealing with his craziness. He ends up finding The Cause, which provided him with a way to spotlight his daddy issues AND his mommy issues. The Cause was led by Lancaster Dodd (daddy), played by a rotund and soft-looking Philip Seymour Hoffman. The choice to cast Dodd and Quell with these contrasting body types was nice. It gave you a visual difference between the men to focus on so you wouldn't be too bogged down with the fact that mentally they were quite similar. I mean, they were both wackadoos. Dodd was a crazy genius type with a lot of anger. And what struck me the most about him was that he was not near as charismatic as I believe a religious leader should be. Yes, characters in the film seemed to love him but it was unclear as to why. Even his wife Peggy Dodd (mommy), played by a wholesome-looking Amy Adams, seemed to have no good reason to love and devote herself to the man. But then again, she was a difficult character to get a real grasp of since she technically had two roles to play. Publicly she was a doting wife and privately she was an authoritative and strong women...as a matter of fact, one might call her a ‘master.’ Her complexity did catch me by surprise at first but after the film past the two hour mark the surprise had turned into disdain.

(The Weinstein Company)

There may be deeper meanings behind The Master than what I picked up, but I don’t feel the need to subject myself to a second viewing of it to see what I missed. Simply put, if you like for a movie to have a plot and be somewhat entertaining, The Master may not be the movie for you. If you like for a movie to be over two hours long and to be frustratingly tedious, The Master might have been made specifically for you. Although, I have a hunch that the film was made more for Paul Thomas Anderson, himself, than it was for anyone else in the viewing audience.

The Campaign

The Campaign is almost as ridiculous and lowest-common-denominator focused as real life politics. Yes, a satire of America’s democratic process should be filled with brainless gags. But the goal should be for the tomfoolery to be consistently funny as well as over-the-top. The Campaign loses sight of the funny and ends up being staggeringly boring by bombarding you with one stupid gag after another with no break to come up for air. Sure it has the random funny bit to wake a chuckle or an "awww” out of you but with the sheer volume of jokes thrown out in the film there are bound to be a few hits amongst all the misses.

Will Ferrell plays the philandering husband and multi-term North Carolina congressman, Cam Brady. Two deep-pocketed CEOs, the Motch brothers, played by Dan Akroyd and John Lithgow, decide to put up a rival/puppet candidate against Brady in the 2012 election. They chose the lisp-talking mustachioed Marty Huggins, played by Zach Galifianakis. Both candidates are asses who find ways to make bigger asses of themselves and each other than they already are. The thing about Huggins is that he is an ass with a heart of gold and two adorable pugs who steal every scene they are in. So, if I had to vote for the lesser of the two evils then I would vote for him almost solely because of the pugs. Aside from the cute and cuddly pugs, only two other things make this movie somewhat bearable. The first is Dylan McDermott who played the ruthless campaign manager Tim Wattley. He was subtle and he was the most amusing character in the film. The second was seeing Wolf Blitzer and Chris Matthews deliver the news of the candidates high-jinks, from the baby punching and the Uggie punching to the sex tape being used as a campaign commercial. I could go on, but I am already trying to forget the hour and a half of my life that I lost to this film.

Killer Joe

William Friedkin directed the crap out of Killer Joe. It is hard not to appreciate the way he smushed together dynamic humor and appalling images. Killer Joe is laugh-out-loud funny. And not that sort of uncomfortable laughter you might do when you see a stranger (or friend) trip and fall. You know, the laughter that comes when you aren’t sure if the stranger (or friend) is seriously injured or not? It’s not that laughter. It’s the laughter that comes from real comedic timing and delivery on the part of an outstanding ensemble cast.

Emile Hirsch plays Chris a drug dealer from a north Texas town who gets himself into a financial bind when his mom steals his supply. His solution? Hire a contract killer, Joe played by Matthew McConaughey, to kill his mom so he can collect on her life insurance policy. Oh gosh, will this plan go off without a hitch? I’m not sure if I’m giving too much a way, but no. Things will not go off without a hitch. Not even close. The story is ridiculous and highly entertaining. And Hirsch, who I’ve only every referred to before as Speed, was excellent in his role in this silly/violent/silly plotline. And as far as McConaughey is concerned, I’m beginning to think he plays himself in every movie he is in, Killer Joe is no exception. And contrary to how that might initially sound, I actually mean that as a compliment…

The compliments don’t end with the two of them. I have appreciated Thomas Haden Church for a long time now. I am ready for others to love him as much I do. This movie may help with this. He plays Ansel, Chris’ dimwitted father. He is amazing. No one can play dumb like he can. And his splotchy facial hair is so hideous that I can’t help but be proud of his commitment to the role. Ansel is married to his second wife, Sharla played by good ol’ Gina Gershon. That woman knows how to play a tramp. She is a contemptible character in the film. But for as vile as Sharla is, she does not deserve the treatment she receives from Joe in the film. And I have saved the best for last, Dottie. Juno Temple plays her and oh, how she plays her. There is something sad and yet beautiful about her character. She is complex and powerful even though she has the outward appearance of a weak and childish girl. If I didn’t know that she was from England, I would have thought that she was born and bred in Texas. Temple has talent oozing out her pores. And if you have any question about her pores you can see just about all of them in this film. She is not shy about baring it all.

If you are shy about people baring it all then Killer Joe will not be your cup of tea. Also, the film is dark, disturbing, and has the potential to offend great masses of people. Killer Joe is rated NC17. This could be because the rating system is completely inconsistent, unpredictable, and unfair. It could also be because of the pesky graphic violence and nudity. But none of the violence or nudity seemed out of place or excessive. Of course, if you go into this film expecting male frontal nudity and women beating up men, you will be let down. Don’t let that dissuade you from seeing the film though. All of the violence in the film felt incredibly real. It is a fact that it’s just more common in life that we hear about men hitting other men and women and not so much women beating on other women or men. And for some reason people find naked women less offensive than naked men. The film takes advantage of these two facts. Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention the fried chicken in this film. Although I already won’t eat fried chicken, if I did before this film I would think twice about eating it after this film. I will leave it at that.

Safety Not Guaranteed

For a film based on a classified ad that was posted as a joke/filler ad in the 90s, Safety Not Guaranteed was not awful as one might expect. In fact, the story-lines in the film were remarkably earnest and more than sufficiently entertaining.

Kenneth placed a classified ad seeking a companion for a time traveling expedition warning that he had only done it once before and safety was not guaranteed. One magazine employee, Jeff, along with two interns, Arnau & Darius, were assigned to investigate and report on what this Kenneth guy was all about. In the process of learning more about the temporally mysterious Kenneth, they find out about themselves and each other. There was an overwhelming amount of self-discovery in this film which could have gotten old fast. But surprisingly it didn't. At least not for me. And I think that may be because of how the robust and honest stories unfolded, how the weirdness happened, and how the friendships blossomed so convincingly in the film.

(FilmDistrict and Big Beach)

Kenneth, played by Mark Duplass, was a tough nut to crack. He was the sort of guy who does a balancing act on the thin line between endearing and annoying. He acted as though he was stronger and more intelligent than he actually was and he had a mullet. Darius, played by Aubrey Plaza, was the female intern who was able to gain the trust of Kenneth. She was a loner-girl with family issues. She was likable and witty, but she keeps most people at a distance. The chemistry between the two of them was quite distinct. Their story-line seemed to be the main focus of the film but it was obvious early on that their story alone was not enough to support the entire film. Thankfully, you have the ever-so-full-of-himself Jeff, played by Jake M. Johnson, and the not-even-remotely-close-to-full-of-himself Arnau, played by Karan Soni. These two end up spending less time working on the article about the "time-travelling" Kenneth and more time learning how to come out from behind their emotionally protective barriers and behave like normal and functioning humans. Jeff started off as a prick but after spending time with the super shy Arnau he became slightly less prickish, almost respectable. And Arnau’s confidence meter climbed a few noticeable notches throughout the course of the movie. They were characters who were worth the time invested in watching the film.

When you break it down each of the four main characters in the film could be classified as depressed, but depressed in an 'entertaining to watch' kind of way. It was impressive how well the characters came across as real people. I have met Kenneth's and Arnau's before, several, in fact and all in primary school. You can be certain there is a douchey Jeff on almost every street corner. And there are probably loads of Darius’ in the world, although most of them are not as thin and pretty as Plaza. It was nice to watch these true-to-life characters evolve the way they did in the film. It was not nice to see Plaza and Duplass kiss though. As much as they worked well together, the two of them kissing somehow felt wrong. There were little things like that throughout the film. It was full of a number of strange contrasts. But all the complaints I had about film were balanced out by some thing to praise about the film. It was familiar yet unexpected, serious yet silly, and just what I was looking for yet I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for.