American Ultra (2015)
American Ultra (2015)
Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman. Directed by Nima Nourizadeh.
Mike is a stoner convenience store clerk in a small Virginia town, where he lives with his girlfriend Phoebe. When he’s not stoned, he’s kind of a mess, ridden with anxiety and subject to panic attacks. One very late night, he catches two guys messing with his car, and when he confronts them, they move to attack him. Mike uses a spoon he’s carrying and a cup of instant ramen, combined with reflexes he doesn’t know he has, to kill both attackers in horribly violent ways. Soon, he is the target of a series of psycho killers and doesn’t know why, but he seems to be their equal in assassination skills, much to his own surprise.
Jesse Eisenberg is always an interesting actor, and pairing him as Mike with Kristen Stewart as Phoebe might not seem like natural casting choice (although they starred together in Adventureland, a film I liked very much), but it works pretty well, and Stewart is probably the best I’ve seen her. Topher Grace and Connie Britton play characters whose roles I won’t give away, but they’ve got something to do with the situation Mike and Phoebe find themselves in, and they’re kind of a comically serious couple of rivals. American Ultra works if you sit back and let it have its way with you, not overthinking the plot or the jokes. If you appreciate the creative stunts of a good Jackie Chan film, you might find a lot to like in the action sequences here, ‘though their very violent nature and execution cause them to lack the charm and acrobatic silliness of Chan’s best work.
64/100 (Criticker rating)
6/10 (IMDb rating)
American Ultra (2015)
Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman. Directed by Nima Nourizadeh.
Mike is a stoner convenience store clerk in a small Virginia town, where he lives with his girlfriend Phoebe. When he’s not stoned, he’s kind of a mess, ridden with anxiety and subject to panic attacks. One very late night, he catches two guys messing with his car, and when he confronts them, they move to attack him. Mike uses a spoon he’s carrying and a cup of instant ramen, combined with reflexes he doesn’t know he has, to kill both attackers in horribly violent ways. Soon, he is the target of a series of psycho killers and doesn’t know why, but he seems to be their equal in assassination skills, much to his own surprise.
Jesse Eisenberg is always an interesting actor, and pairing him as Mike with Kristen Stewart as Phoebe might not seem like natural casting choice (although they starred together in Adventureland, a film I liked very much), but it works pretty well, and Stewart is probably the best I’ve seen her. Topher Grace and Connie Britton play characters whose roles I won’t give away, but they’ve got something to do with the situation Mike and Phoebe find themselves in, and they’re kind of a comically serious couple of rivals. American Ultra works if you sit back and let it have its way with you, not overthinking the plot or the jokes. If you appreciate the creative stunts of a good Jackie Chan film, you might find a lot to like in the action sequences here, ‘though their very violent nature and execution cause them to lack the charm and acrobatic silliness of Chan’s best work.
64/100 (Criticker rating)
6/10 (IMDb rating)
The People I've Slept With (2009)
The People I’ve Slept With (2009)
Karin Anna Cheung, Wilson Cruz, Archie Kao, Lynn Chen, James Shigeta, Randall Park. Directed by Quentin Lee.
Angela (Karin Anna Cheung) is a single woman in her late twenties, an unapologetic lover of sex who says, “a slut is just a woman with a man’s morals.” She rejects the traditional get-married-have-kids-be-successful model of happiness her older sister Juliet (Lynn Chen) has embraced, happy with her retail job in the daytime and casual hookups at night.
When she discovers she’s pregnant, she’s confronted with a few situations in need of being worked out, not the least of which is figuring out who the father is. With the encouragement and assistance of her best friend Gabriel (Wilson Cruz), Angela works through her issues, aided also by the collection of photos she’s amassed of all her romantic partners (cutely labeled with nicknames, measurements of length and girth, and occupations).
Cheung, in case you’ve forgotten, was the female lead in Better Luck Tomorrow, a mile-marker of sorts in Asian American film. She was outstanding in that film, and is quite good in this one, especially in scenes where she delivers lines by herself. There are a few scenes that feel under-rehearsed, as if the actors are still getting to know each other and their characters’ relationships. The timing feels off in these few scenes, and the actors’ deliveries present as if they’re waiting for their turns, rather than listening to what’s being said to them before they speak. They give the film a kind of rushed feeling, despite otherwise strong performances all around.
It’s a fun movie with well-conceived characters, touching on several issues young adults of any American ethnicity confront in some way, with a few plot situations you’ve probably never seen.
77/100 (Criticker rating)
7/10 (IMDb rating)
The People I've Slept With (2009)
Karin Anna Cheung, Wilson Cruz, Archie Kao, Lynn Chen, James Shigeta, Randall Park. Directed by Quentin Lee.
Angela (Karin Anna Cheung) is a single woman in her late twenties, an unapologetic lover of sex who says, “a slut is just a woman with a man’s morals.” She rejects the traditional get-married-have-kids-be-successful model of happiness her older sister Juliet (Lynn Chen) has embraced, happy with her retail job in the daytime and casual hookups at night.
When she discovers she’s pregnant, she’s confronted with a few situations in need of being worked out, not the least of which is figuring out who the father is. With the encouragement and assistance of her best friend Gabriel (Wilson Cruz), Angela works through her issues, aided also by the collection of photos she’s amassed of all her romantic partners (cutely labeled with nicknames, measurements of length and girth, and occupations).
Cheung, in case you’ve forgotten, was the female lead in Better Luck Tomorrow, a mile-marker of sorts in Asian American film. She was outstanding in that film, and is quite good in this one, especially in scenes where she delivers lines by herself. There are a few scenes that feel under-rehearsed, as if the actors are still getting to know each other and their characters’ relationships. The timing feels off in these few scenes, and the actors’ deliveries present as if they’re waiting for their turns, rather than listening to what’s being said to them before they speak. They give the film a kind of rushed feeling, despite otherwise strong performances all around.
It’s a fun movie with well-conceived characters, touching on several issues young adults of any American ethnicity confront in some way, with a few plot situations you’ve probably never seen.
77/100 (Criticker rating)
7/10 (IMDb rating)
When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep (2012)
mardi 29 septembre 2015
When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep (2012)
Chen-tung Ko, Man-shu Chien, Shu-yao Kuo. Directed by Chi-jan Hou. Mandarin with English subtitles.
A young man looking in the mirror one morning sees that a sticky note has been attached to his forehead. The message, written by his girlfriend, says “I’m off to the cram school.” His first response is to do nothing, for days on end, his apartment falling more and more into slovenliness, but when he finds himself with nowhere to live, he sets out for the area of Taiwan where the cram schools are, hoping to find his misplaced love. Instead, he meets the proprietor of a copy shop, whose clients include the cram school he believes his girlfriend is attending. The shop owner offers him a job and a place to live; the job offers multiple opportunities to visit the school and interact with its students, examination proctors, and instructors.
The copy boy befriends some interesting people, including a recovering alcoholic Christian minister whose hobby is selling noodles from a booth late at night, a cute young woman driven only by her love of money, and a proctor who likes to draw sheep in the margins of the tests he photocopies for her. She, too, is recovering from a lost love, counting the days to the deadline she’s set herself for getting over his absence, but she’s not the only one. It seems everyone in this film, perhaps everyone in the city or even everyone in the world, is dealing in some way with some kind of separation, some actively seeking resolution, some passively waiting for conclusions they can only imagine. The noodle-seller, the money-hungry girl, the garlic rice vendor, even the people who’ve left their belongings in the rental lockers that are soon to be torn down: each has a story, and if there are happy endings around here, they’ve yet to be realized.
When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep is mostly lighthearted fare, a romantic comedy with deeply bittersweet undercurrents. It tells its story simply, with very creative visuals including stop-motion photography to quickly show the passage of days and crudely animated sequences to illustrate some of the narrative. I laughed aloud a few times at clever editing and surprising details, and although the film’s conclusion doesn’t quite pass the would-this-happen-in-real-life test, the visuals it produces are worth the small dent in believability.
Is there such a thing as “forever and ever,” and should we be concerned about that if we cannot be sure of its existence? Or should we accept what we’re given today, when the only things we can be sure of are within sight of this moment? Here’s a film that, while not delving too deeply into the philosophy, delivers its take through the eyes and hearts of one small group of young people. It’s a fun exploration with a visually pretty climactic moment.
80/100 (Criticker rating)
8/10 (IMDb rating)
When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep (2012)
Chen-tung Ko, Man-shu Chien, Shu-yao Kuo. Directed by Chi-jan Hou. Mandarin with English subtitles.
A young man looking in the mirror one morning sees that a sticky note has been attached to his forehead. The message, written by his girlfriend, says “I’m off to the cram school.” His first response is to do nothing, for days on end, his apartment falling more and more into slovenliness, but when he finds himself with nowhere to live, he sets out for the area of Taiwan where the cram schools are, hoping to find his misplaced love. Instead, he meets the proprietor of a copy shop, whose clients include the cram school he believes his girlfriend is attending. The shop owner offers him a job and a place to live; the job offers multiple opportunities to visit the school and interact with its students, examination proctors, and instructors.
The copy boy befriends some interesting people, including a recovering alcoholic Christian minister whose hobby is selling noodles from a booth late at night, a cute young woman driven only by her love of money, and a proctor who likes to draw sheep in the margins of the tests he photocopies for her. She, too, is recovering from a lost love, counting the days to the deadline she’s set herself for getting over his absence, but she’s not the only one. It seems everyone in this film, perhaps everyone in the city or even everyone in the world, is dealing in some way with some kind of separation, some actively seeking resolution, some passively waiting for conclusions they can only imagine. The noodle-seller, the money-hungry girl, the garlic rice vendor, even the people who’ve left their belongings in the rental lockers that are soon to be torn down: each has a story, and if there are happy endings around here, they’ve yet to be realized.
When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep is mostly lighthearted fare, a romantic comedy with deeply bittersweet undercurrents. It tells its story simply, with very creative visuals including stop-motion photography to quickly show the passage of days and crudely animated sequences to illustrate some of the narrative. I laughed aloud a few times at clever editing and surprising details, and although the film’s conclusion doesn’t quite pass the would-this-happen-in-real-life test, the visuals it produces are worth the small dent in believability.
Is there such a thing as “forever and ever,” and should we be concerned about that if we cannot be sure of its existence? Or should we accept what we’re given today, when the only things we can be sure of are within sight of this moment? Here’s a film that, while not delving too deeply into the philosophy, delivers its take through the eyes and hearts of one small group of young people. It’s a fun exploration with a visually pretty climactic moment.
80/100 (Criticker rating)
8/10 (IMDb rating)
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
lundi 28 septembre 2015
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and Paul Giamatti.
Directed by F. Gary Gray.
With a running time of two hours and twenty-four minutes, Straight Outta Compton still feels a little short, although I’m imagining that only long-time fans of N.W.A. will think so. Younger fans who aren’t as familiar with the story of the gangsta rappers will probably think it’s just about the right length, if not slightly too long in the attention it gives the post-N.W.A. life of founding member Eazy-E (whose widow is one of the film’s producers). The film covers a lot of ground, from the days leading up to the group’s formation through its early success, its arrest in Detroit for performing “F*** tha Police,” its untimely breakup, and the later successes of Ice Cube as a solo artist and Dr. Dre as a groundbreaking producer.
Yet many of the stories dramatized here are already well known. What’s missing is some resonant presentation of these guys as friends. What were the relationships really like, and who were these guys as people? When Eazy meets Ice Cube in a nightclub, the moment is at first tense, but as the artists give each other enormous hugs, there’s a relief in both their eyes, a kind of righting of wrongs that rings true even though there’s not enough in the film for that to be the payoff. Eazy suggests that the guys get back together, and Cube says, “If Dre wit’ it, then I’m wit’ it,” and you realize that you understand the sentiment, but you’re only really accepting it on faith or based on some other knowledge you came to the theater already possessing, not because of anything the film has already shown you. This is the film’s greatest omission, the relationships away from the group, although if you’re a fan, you’ll also be taken aback by how little a role in this story is played by M.C. Ren, thought by many to be the best rapper in the group. If you didn’t know anything about Ren going into the film, you still didn’t know anything when you left the theater.
I’ll tell you what, though: the stories this film does tell are terrific, and the performances are strong. O’Shea Jackson Jr. is more than passable portraying his real-life father Ice Cube, and if there’s a character the script does try to delve into, it’s Dr. Dre, played by Corey Hawkins. Here are five young men making an effort to create something, motivated partly by wanting to get out of the cycle of violence they see around them every day, and partly by the need to express the rage that’s inspired by that violence. When these young men are warned against performing that song by the Detroit police, there’s never a second’s doubt that they’ve only got one option, and as the tension builds, leading up to that moment, you can’t help taking their side, even if you remember having mixed feelings about it when you first read about that story in your college newspaper. It’s the film’s best scene.
Okay, I have one other, much smaller criticism of the way this film is put together, and it’s the conspicuous absence of a full-length performance of the song whose title gives this movie its name. We see and hear snippets of it, mostly Eazy-E’s part, but come on. Viewers who are seeing some of this stuff for the first time should be shown what the big deal is with this song, and those of us who already know it should have the opportunity to relive it in some semblance of context. Leaving out this obvious detail is a huge disservice to the effectiveness of this film.
I don’t have teenagers of my own, but if I did, I would make them watch Straight Outta Compton.
83/100 (Criticker rating)
8/10 (IMDb rating)
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and Paul Giamatti.
Directed by F. Gary Gray.
With a running time of two hours and twenty-four minutes, Straight Outta Compton still feels a little short, although I’m imagining that only long-time fans of N.W.A. will think so. Younger fans who aren’t as familiar with the story of the gangsta rappers will probably think it’s just about the right length, if not slightly too long in the attention it gives the post-N.W.A. life of founding member Eazy-E (whose widow is one of the film’s producers). The film covers a lot of ground, from the days leading up to the group’s formation through its early success, its arrest in Detroit for performing “F*** tha Police,” its untimely breakup, and the later successes of Ice Cube as a solo artist and Dr. Dre as a groundbreaking producer.
Yet many of the stories dramatized here are already well known. What’s missing is some resonant presentation of these guys as friends. What were the relationships really like, and who were these guys as people? When Eazy meets Ice Cube in a nightclub, the moment is at first tense, but as the artists give each other enormous hugs, there’s a relief in both their eyes, a kind of righting of wrongs that rings true even though there’s not enough in the film for that to be the payoff. Eazy suggests that the guys get back together, and Cube says, “If Dre wit’ it, then I’m wit’ it,” and you realize that you understand the sentiment, but you’re only really accepting it on faith or based on some other knowledge you came to the theater already possessing, not because of anything the film has already shown you. This is the film’s greatest omission, the relationships away from the group, although if you’re a fan, you’ll also be taken aback by how little a role in this story is played by M.C. Ren, thought by many to be the best rapper in the group. If you didn’t know anything about Ren going into the film, you still didn’t know anything when you left the theater.
I’ll tell you what, though: the stories this film does tell are terrific, and the performances are strong. O’Shea Jackson Jr. is more than passable portraying his real-life father Ice Cube, and if there’s a character the script does try to delve into, it’s Dr. Dre, played by Corey Hawkins. Here are five young men making an effort to create something, motivated partly by wanting to get out of the cycle of violence they see around them every day, and partly by the need to express the rage that’s inspired by that violence. When these young men are warned against performing that song by the Detroit police, there’s never a second’s doubt that they’ve only got one option, and as the tension builds, leading up to that moment, you can’t help taking their side, even if you remember having mixed feelings about it when you first read about that story in your college newspaper. It’s the film’s best scene.
Okay, I have one other, much smaller criticism of the way this film is put together, and it’s the conspicuous absence of a full-length performance of the song whose title gives this movie its name. We see and hear snippets of it, mostly Eazy-E’s part, but come on. Viewers who are seeing some of this stuff for the first time should be shown what the big deal is with this song, and those of us who already know it should have the opportunity to relive it in some semblance of context. Leaving out this obvious detail is a huge disservice to the effectiveness of this film.
I don’t have teenagers of my own, but if I did, I would make them watch Straight Outta Compton.
83/100 (Criticker rating)
8/10 (IMDb rating)
Bloom County 2015
dimanche 27 septembre 2015
Since the mid summer of 2015 Berkeley Breathed has been generating a new comic strip series called Bloom County 2015. It is not available via traditional comic strip pages in newspapers but rather on via Facebook or via Go Comics.
The premise of the series from the first strip is that Opus wakes up after sleeping 25 years in the meadow. Thing is while Opus is behind the times (he thinks Twitter is a chat for birds), everyone else in the strip hasn't aged and for the most part the characters are the same in the original Bloom County strip. So far the only change is to Cutter John, in terms of which war he was a veteran of (not Vietnam) and his wheel chair is Star Wars theme instead of Star Trek themed.
Current storyline is now the Meadow Party having Opus running for President of the United States with Bill the Cat as the Vice President.
Facebook URL - http://ift.tt/1SiqcOM
Go Comics URL - http://ift.tt/1KIYExn
Bloom County 2015
The premise of the series from the first strip is that Opus wakes up after sleeping 25 years in the meadow. Thing is while Opus is behind the times (he thinks Twitter is a chat for birds), everyone else in the strip hasn't aged and for the most part the characters are the same in the original Bloom County strip. So far the only change is to Cutter John, in terms of which war he was a veteran of (not Vietnam) and his wheel chair is Star Wars theme instead of Star Trek themed.
Current storyline is now the Meadow Party having Opus running for President of the United States with Bill the Cat as the Vice President.
Facebook URL - http://ift.tt/1SiqcOM
Go Comics URL - http://ift.tt/1KIYExn
Ex Machina (2015)
Ex Machina (2015)
Alicia Vikander, Domnhall Gleason, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno. Written and directed by Alex Garland.
Caleb is a programmer working for the most-used search engine in the world. He wins a contest whose prize is a week spent with the company’s founder at his private mansion, a compound so top-secret that the helicopter flying him there must land in a field from which the house cannot even be seen. “This is the closest I’m allowed to get,” says the pilot. “Just follow the river until you see it.”
On his arrival, Caleb is informed that he’s there to participate in a test of the company’s latest artificial intelligence. As the human component in the tests, his goal is to determine whether the human-shaped container for the AI, whose name is Ava, can interact with a conscious being in such a way that the human cannot tell he is conversing with a computer. But Caleb voices one of the problems with this kind of testing: a chess computer might be able to beat any opponent, apparently thinking better than a human, but does a chess computer know that it’s playing a game? Does it even know what chess is? How do you interrogate a computer so that you can be convinced the computer knows what it is? And once a computer is intelligent and self-aware enough to pass that test, how do you know you can trust any of its responses? And once it starts to ask you questions, how do you know you’re not the one being tested?
As science fiction, Ex Machina is interesting and thought-provoking, if not quite as provocative as better films in the genre. As thriller, it’s a lot more successful. Not as good a science fiction as Oblivion, for example, but as good a thriller as In Time. Oscar Isaac as the billionaire founder and Domnhall Gleason as Caleb are an excellent combination, and the set design is wonderfully cold and glassy. Everyone’s talking about Alicia Vikander nowadays, and now I can see why. She’s sort of the Mara Rooney of 2015.
A better film than its advertising hinted at, and a nice surprise worthy of its critical response.
78/100 (Criticker rating)
7/10 (IMDb rating)
Ex Machina (2015)
Alicia Vikander, Domnhall Gleason, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno. Written and directed by Alex Garland.
Caleb is a programmer working for the most-used search engine in the world. He wins a contest whose prize is a week spent with the company’s founder at his private mansion, a compound so top-secret that the helicopter flying him there must land in a field from which the house cannot even be seen. “This is the closest I’m allowed to get,” says the pilot. “Just follow the river until you see it.”
On his arrival, Caleb is informed that he’s there to participate in a test of the company’s latest artificial intelligence. As the human component in the tests, his goal is to determine whether the human-shaped container for the AI, whose name is Ava, can interact with a conscious being in such a way that the human cannot tell he is conversing with a computer. But Caleb voices one of the problems with this kind of testing: a chess computer might be able to beat any opponent, apparently thinking better than a human, but does a chess computer know that it’s playing a game? Does it even know what chess is? How do you interrogate a computer so that you can be convinced the computer knows what it is? And once a computer is intelligent and self-aware enough to pass that test, how do you know you can trust any of its responses? And once it starts to ask you questions, how do you know you’re not the one being tested?
As science fiction, Ex Machina is interesting and thought-provoking, if not quite as provocative as better films in the genre. As thriller, it’s a lot more successful. Not as good a science fiction as Oblivion, for example, but as good a thriller as In Time. Oscar Isaac as the billionaire founder and Domnhall Gleason as Caleb are an excellent combination, and the set design is wonderfully cold and glassy. Everyone’s talking about Alicia Vikander nowadays, and now I can see why. She’s sort of the Mara Rooney of 2015.
A better film than its advertising hinted at, and a nice surprise worthy of its critical response.
78/100 (Criticker rating)
7/10 (IMDb rating)
UH @ Wisconsin '15
samedi 26 septembre 2015
It's kickoff time!
Wis has huge O & D lines and a massive tight end to contend with, plus a team that does not beat it'self which HI loves to do. HI will receive the kickoff...
UH @ Wisconsin '15
Wis has huge O & D lines and a massive tight end to contend with, plus a team that does not beat it'self which HI loves to do. HI will receive the kickoff...
Mistress America (2015)
Mistress America (2015)
Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke, Heather Lind, Cindy Cheung. Directed by Noah Baumbach.
Tracy has just begun her frosh year at Barnard, and college isn’t turning out quite the way it was promised. She’s rejected by the literary society, her roommate is unfriendly, her professors aren’t happy with her contributions in class, and if the fun campus life that was illustrated in the viewbook still exists, she can’t seem to find it. But her mother is about to remarry, and her future step-sister, the thirty-something Brooke, has an apartment, a life, and several jobs in New York City, so Tracy gives her a call one evening after finishing dinner by herself. So needy is she for caring companionship that when Brooke asks if she’s eaten yet, Tracy says she hasn’t, and meets Brooke for dinner and drinks.
Brooke is free-spirited and adventurous: she jumps on stage and sings with the band in one of the bars she visits with Tracy; she lives in a huge apartment that’s zoned for commercial use; she has a boyfriend who’s helping her open her own restaurant. Tracy sees in Brooke a life lived outside the lines, someone who inspires her to stretch herself as a person and as a writer.
When things go a little crazy, Tracy comes along for the ride, bringing a frosh Columbia student and his girlfriend along, too. The foursome meets an ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend at the mansion they share.
Greta Gerwig as Brooke is flighty and charismatic, but it’s difficult to tell if she’s smart or just really good at acting smart, and Tracy as her wide-eyed future stepsister is involved but not really involved, a kind of Nick Carraway to Brooke’s Jay Gatsby. It’s an interesting relationship, and the characters' conversations are fascinating, but not for how well they connect Brooke with Tracy. Instead, each character’s lines seem to be inspired by the other’s, without actually being responses, as if each is only vaguely aware that there is a topic of conversation, not really listening to the other except for jumping-in points where they can share their next thoughts.
Add a few more characters to the dynamic, and you have a truly bizarre situation with non-sequiturs galore. Conversations sound like two or three different plays are being performed at the same time in the same space, and at times the blocking and set resemble those belonging to a stage play, each actor playing to an imaginary audience. I was reminded of several of David Mamet’s films, all adaptations of his plays, and wondered if the script wasn’t first conceived of as a play.
It’s more strange than funny, but it’s funny enough to keep one engaged.
71/100 (Criticker rating)
7/10 (IMDb rating)
Mistress America (2015)
Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke, Heather Lind, Cindy Cheung. Directed by Noah Baumbach.
Tracy has just begun her frosh year at Barnard, and college isn’t turning out quite the way it was promised. She’s rejected by the literary society, her roommate is unfriendly, her professors aren’t happy with her contributions in class, and if the fun campus life that was illustrated in the viewbook still exists, she can’t seem to find it. But her mother is about to remarry, and her future step-sister, the thirty-something Brooke, has an apartment, a life, and several jobs in New York City, so Tracy gives her a call one evening after finishing dinner by herself. So needy is she for caring companionship that when Brooke asks if she’s eaten yet, Tracy says she hasn’t, and meets Brooke for dinner and drinks.
Brooke is free-spirited and adventurous: she jumps on stage and sings with the band in one of the bars she visits with Tracy; she lives in a huge apartment that’s zoned for commercial use; she has a boyfriend who’s helping her open her own restaurant. Tracy sees in Brooke a life lived outside the lines, someone who inspires her to stretch herself as a person and as a writer.
When things go a little crazy, Tracy comes along for the ride, bringing a frosh Columbia student and his girlfriend along, too. The foursome meets an ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend at the mansion they share.
Greta Gerwig as Brooke is flighty and charismatic, but it’s difficult to tell if she’s smart or just really good at acting smart, and Tracy as her wide-eyed future stepsister is involved but not really involved, a kind of Nick Carraway to Brooke’s Jay Gatsby. It’s an interesting relationship, and the characters' conversations are fascinating, but not for how well they connect Brooke with Tracy. Instead, each character’s lines seem to be inspired by the other’s, without actually being responses, as if each is only vaguely aware that there is a topic of conversation, not really listening to the other except for jumping-in points where they can share their next thoughts.
Add a few more characters to the dynamic, and you have a truly bizarre situation with non-sequiturs galore. Conversations sound like two or three different plays are being performed at the same time in the same space, and at times the blocking and set resemble those belonging to a stage play, each actor playing to an imaginary audience. I was reminded of several of David Mamet’s films, all adaptations of his plays, and wondered if the script wasn’t first conceived of as a play.
It’s more strange than funny, but it’s funny enough to keep one engaged.
71/100 (Criticker rating)
7/10 (IMDb rating)
Trainwreck (2015)
vendredi 25 septembre 2015
Trainwreck (2015)
Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, LeBron James, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, Vanessa Bayer, Tilda Swinton, Randall Park. Written by Amy Schumer; directed by Judd Apatow.
Amy is a writer for a Maxim-like magazine, and because she hates sports, her editor assigns her to a story about a very successful surgeon who specializes in sports-related leg injuries. The surgeon’s name is Aaron, and he’s so good at what he does that his patients, including LeBron James, become his friends, and he is greeted at Knicks games by all the players. He’s clearly a really nice guy, but he doesn’t seem to have much time or energy for dating. Amy has her own issues: at a very young age, her parents divorced, her father explaining to Amy and her sister Kim that the reason for the divorce is that monogamy doesn’t work. Amy takes it to heart, and although as a grown-up she has a steady boyfriend (a cartoonishly hilarious John Cena as a musclebound meathead), the relationship is open, and Amy has an active and varied sex life.
Amy gets to know Aaron while interviewing him for the article, and while Aaron seems to see in her the woman he’s always wanted, Amy seems to view him as a sex partner she also likes hanging out with. The self-destructive lifestyle she’s curated for herself makes it impossible for her to accept a truly loving relationship, but she can’t help the growing feelings she has.
Amy Schumer (the actor, not the character) is one of the most important voices in comedy these past few years, a feminist voice that plays by her own rules while working within a male-dominated profession. I say this with no irony or hyperbole: Amy Schumer is the emerging Taylor Swift of comedy. She challenges expectations, calls out hypocrisy, and repeatedly zigs when even her closest observers think she’s going to zag. It says something that this is the first film directed by Judd Apatow that he did not at least co-write. Today’s leading director of comic film broke character in deciding to work with her.
Yet Schumer and Apatow seem to favor the same aesthetic: each of them is clever and crass in a way that has you looking over your shoulder to see if your parents or kids are within earshot because what you just heard was filthy, but the creative raunchiness is really just a different palate of colors for a story that pretty much stays in the lines. Sometimes it works really, really well, as with The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, but usually, as with This is 40 and, alas, Trainwreck, it feels a little empty and unsatisfying. Despite some really excellent pieces and some creative moments, Trainwreck doesn’t earn its emotional payoff honestly. Scenes with Amy’s father (Colin Quinn) and sister (Brie Larson) are well done and quite moving, but the film expects that to carry over to the romantic storyline, and it simply doesn’t.
We want Amy and Aaron to connect in a meaningful, lasting way, but how and why they do is never satisfactorily established, and that can mean everything in a romantic comedy. It’s a genre that is largely connect-the-dots, but if that last dot isn’t earned, it doesn’t matter that the final picture is a duck: it’s a dishonest duck, a duck that’s never earned.
Apatow has a habit of working with combinations of the same people from movie to movie, which bodes well for future projects. Another shot with the same cast and writer could be brilliant, even groundbreaking, and Schumer is a perfect candidate to make that happen. I want to see more of the thinking that birthed an intervention involving Chris Evert, Matthew Broderick, LeBron James, and Marv Albert, because that’s a hilarious concept. But man, it takes a lot to pull that off and tell a good story, and Trainwreck, while interesting and entertaining, doesn’t quite do that.
65/100 (Criticker rating)
6/10 (IMDb rating)
Trainwreck (2015)
Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, LeBron James, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, Vanessa Bayer, Tilda Swinton, Randall Park. Written by Amy Schumer; directed by Judd Apatow.
Amy is a writer for a Maxim-like magazine, and because she hates sports, her editor assigns her to a story about a very successful surgeon who specializes in sports-related leg injuries. The surgeon’s name is Aaron, and he’s so good at what he does that his patients, including LeBron James, become his friends, and he is greeted at Knicks games by all the players. He’s clearly a really nice guy, but he doesn’t seem to have much time or energy for dating. Amy has her own issues: at a very young age, her parents divorced, her father explaining to Amy and her sister Kim that the reason for the divorce is that monogamy doesn’t work. Amy takes it to heart, and although as a grown-up she has a steady boyfriend (a cartoonishly hilarious John Cena as a musclebound meathead), the relationship is open, and Amy has an active and varied sex life.
Amy gets to know Aaron while interviewing him for the article, and while Aaron seems to see in her the woman he’s always wanted, Amy seems to view him as a sex partner she also likes hanging out with. The self-destructive lifestyle she’s curated for herself makes it impossible for her to accept a truly loving relationship, but she can’t help the growing feelings she has.
Amy Schumer (the actor, not the character) is one of the most important voices in comedy these past few years, a feminist voice that plays by her own rules while working within a male-dominated profession. I say this with no irony or hyperbole: Amy Schumer is the emerging Taylor Swift of comedy. She challenges expectations, calls out hypocrisy, and repeatedly zigs when even her closest observers think she’s going to zag. It says something that this is the first film directed by Judd Apatow that he did not at least co-write. Today’s leading director of comic film broke character in deciding to work with her.
Yet Schumer and Apatow seem to favor the same aesthetic: each of them is clever and crass in a way that has you looking over your shoulder to see if your parents or kids are within earshot because what you just heard was filthy, but the creative raunchiness is really just a different palate of colors for a story that pretty much stays in the lines. Sometimes it works really, really well, as with The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, but usually, as with This is 40 and, alas, Trainwreck, it feels a little empty and unsatisfying. Despite some really excellent pieces and some creative moments, Trainwreck doesn’t earn its emotional payoff honestly. Scenes with Amy’s father (Colin Quinn) and sister (Brie Larson) are well done and quite moving, but the film expects that to carry over to the romantic storyline, and it simply doesn’t.
We want Amy and Aaron to connect in a meaningful, lasting way, but how and why they do is never satisfactorily established, and that can mean everything in a romantic comedy. It’s a genre that is largely connect-the-dots, but if that last dot isn’t earned, it doesn’t matter that the final picture is a duck: it’s a dishonest duck, a duck that’s never earned.
Apatow has a habit of working with combinations of the same people from movie to movie, which bodes well for future projects. Another shot with the same cast and writer could be brilliant, even groundbreaking, and Schumer is a perfect candidate to make that happen. I want to see more of the thinking that birthed an intervention involving Chris Evert, Matthew Broderick, LeBron James, and Marv Albert, because that’s a hilarious concept. But man, it takes a lot to pull that off and tell a good story, and Trainwreck, while interesting and entertaining, doesn’t quite do that.
65/100 (Criticker rating)
6/10 (IMDb rating)
Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)
mercredi 23 septembre 2015
Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)
There are two things to know about Shaun the Sheep Movie: It’s from Aardman Animation, the studio responsible for the Wallace and Gromit films, and it has no dialogue. These two items are enough to tell you whether you want to see it or not, really. I wanted to see it. Although Aardman’s output isn’t reliable (I didn’t think much of Chicken Run), its writing is usually clever enough to take a chance on. I wondered if it would still deliver the wit in the absence of any dialogue.
It’s not as clever as its Wallace and Gromit brethren, not even judging strictly by visuals, but it’s cute enough, and the pacing, which can be everything in a movie with no narration or dialogue, is pleasant. The film is delivered mostly from Shaun’s point of view, making it a real challenge to feel anything for any of the characters, and this is its greatest shortcoming. I was amused and entertained, but I didn’t feel invested in the outcome.
You could do a lot worse, but my guess is that whatever your options on any given day, you could also do a lot better.
6/10 (IMDb rating)
62/100 (Criticker rating)
Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)
There are two things to know about Shaun the Sheep Movie: It’s from Aardman Animation, the studio responsible for the Wallace and Gromit films, and it has no dialogue. These two items are enough to tell you whether you want to see it or not, really. I wanted to see it. Although Aardman’s output isn’t reliable (I didn’t think much of Chicken Run), its writing is usually clever enough to take a chance on. I wondered if it would still deliver the wit in the absence of any dialogue.
It’s not as clever as its Wallace and Gromit brethren, not even judging strictly by visuals, but it’s cute enough, and the pacing, which can be everything in a movie with no narration or dialogue, is pleasant. The film is delivered mostly from Shaun’s point of view, making it a real challenge to feel anything for any of the characters, and this is its greatest shortcoming. I was amused and entertained, but I didn’t feel invested in the outcome.
You could do a lot worse, but my guess is that whatever your options on any given day, you could also do a lot better.
6/10 (IMDb rating)
62/100 (Criticker rating)
Where are these naners sold?
lundi 21 septembre 2015
Chinatown was the last place I saw http://ift.tt/1OqA6Aj
Where are these naners sold?
anti Planned Parenthood
The war on women, science, healthcare, and humane compassion goes into high gear http://ift.tt/1QUhh6Q
Dem's push back http://ift.tt/1KHAVC8
anti Planned Parenthood
Dem's push back http://ift.tt/1KHAVC8
Moringa: new wonder plant
The tree grows super fast, leaves are healthy, wood burns well, tastes...? http://ift.tt/1LrUi2Y
Moringa: new wonder plant
Ant-Man
dimanche 20 septembre 2015
Saw the movie Ant-Man at the Ward Theater on Saturday night (9/19/15).
Movie has a mix of superheros, action, scifi, and some humor to it.
There is a misunderstood fight scene with one of the Avengers in the middle of the movie that sort of nods to a typical comic book plot where one good guy battles another good guy.
Ant-Man
Movie has a mix of superheros, action, scifi, and some humor to it.
There is a misunderstood fight scene with one of the Avengers in the middle of the movie that sort of nods to a typical comic book plot where one good guy battles another good guy.
'16 Presidential election
The biggest enemy of the GOP in 2016 besides Trump is the electoral college map.
Even if you give the GOP candidate EVERY SINGLE CONCEIVABLE SWING STATE (Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, West Virginia, Missouri), he STILL doesn't have 270 electoral votes.
For the GOP to win the Presidency, they have to win all of those PLUS either Virginia or Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, the Democrat candidate needs to win at most just two of those states.
Throw in other factors (demographic trends, a radical base forcing GOP candidates to take nationally unpopular positions, alienating everybody they can, ignoring Sen. Graham as the only viable nominee), and it just gets harder and harder for GOP presidential candidates to win with each passing election.
It's all over for good old burnt toast America but at least we can go down laffing at such losers.
We got a whole year to go til the election, and on the left we have a solid field of... questionable candidates with the designed to be hounded Hillary, the Scandinavian style Socialist Sanders, and stealth candidate Sen. Jim Webb. All of whom are able to beat anyone from conworld in a popular vote.
'16 Presidential election
Even if you give the GOP candidate EVERY SINGLE CONCEIVABLE SWING STATE (Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, West Virginia, Missouri), he STILL doesn't have 270 electoral votes.
For the GOP to win the Presidency, they have to win all of those PLUS either Virginia or Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, the Democrat candidate needs to win at most just two of those states.
Throw in other factors (demographic trends, a radical base forcing GOP candidates to take nationally unpopular positions, alienating everybody they can, ignoring Sen. Graham as the only viable nominee), and it just gets harder and harder for GOP presidential candidates to win with each passing election.
It's all over for good old burnt toast America but at least we can go down laffing at such losers.
We got a whole year to go til the election, and on the left we have a solid field of... questionable candidates with the designed to be hounded Hillary, the Scandinavian style Socialist Sanders, and stealth candidate Sen. Jim Webb. All of whom are able to beat anyone from conworld in a popular vote.
UH beats UC Davis 47-24
The UH offense came alive against a decent team tonite and the D hung in there to go 2-1 after 3 games as we head to Wisconsin for another big name game.
RB Paul Harris made UH history with a 95 yard score.
http://ift.tt/1iGDqum
UH beats UC Davis 47-24
RB Paul Harris made UH history with a 95 yard score.
http://ift.tt/1iGDqum
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
samedi 19 septembre 2015
Saw the movie The Man from U.N.C.L.E. at the Ward Theater on Thursday night (9/17/15).
The movie takes place in the early 1960's and it sort of tells how American Napoleon Solo and Soviet Illya Kuryakin initially meet. Working along side Gaby Teller (I don't think she was in the 1960's TV series) and Mr. Waverly (played by Hugh Grant) they try to stop someone, rather than some government from making better nuclear bombs.
The movie has its share of action, spy thriller and a side of humor thrown in to the mix.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The movie takes place in the early 1960's and it sort of tells how American Napoleon Solo and Soviet Illya Kuryakin initially meet. Working along side Gaby Teller (I don't think she was in the 1960's TV series) and Mr. Waverly (played by Hugh Grant) they try to stop someone, rather than some government from making better nuclear bombs.
The movie has its share of action, spy thriller and a side of humor thrown in to the mix.
''My brother kept us safe''
The incessant conjob lying, denial, and deceit are in full Bush mode as seen in Friday's 2nd GOP debate. And you can bet half this stupid country are cheering the massive BS on big time. They don't care, and attempting to rewrite history is a main objective of this bunch. http://ift.tt/1KnUvC8
''Here is a news flash for Jeb: George W. Bush did not begin his term on September 12, 2001.
The worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor occurred on his watch. And it occurred after he had systematically ignored intelligence warnings - before 9/11 - that Osama Bin Laden "was determined to strike the U.S." and that his terrorist network might try to hijack planes to do it.
In fact terrorism was a low priority for the Bush Administration before 9/11. And just six months after 9/11, when asked about apprehending the mastermind of those attack, Bush said, "I truly am not that concerned about him."
Instead his administration was busy cherry picking intelligence to justify an attack on Iraq that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.
The Iraq War did anything but "keep us safe." It was based on false "intelligence" that Saddam Hussein had non-existent weapons of mass destruction. It cost over 4,000 American lives and maimed or injured tens of thousands more. It cost America trillions of dollars. Worst of all, rather than "keep us safe," a 2006 intelligence report concluded that the War in Iraq "made the overall terrorism problem worse". It also kicked over the sectarian hornet's nest in the Middle East and created the conditions that spawned Al Qaida in Iraq that ultimately turned into ISIL (there was no Al Qaida in Iraq before the invasion).
Of course you can understand why Jeb Bush insists that his brother "kept us safe". He has surrounded himself with many of the very same foreign policy advisors that presided over the worst foreign policy record in half a century. They are the same crowd that most recently tried and failed to sink the six-nation agreement to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon without a war.
After a while it gets sickening to listen to their attempts to rewrite history and posture as tough foreign policy geniuses when in fact they conducted a foreign policy that put America and our interests at more risk and sent thousands of young men and women to their deaths in an unnecessary elective war. But the thing that is most galling is their refusal to take any responsibility for allowing the nation to be subjected to the worst attack on the homeland in 70 years. It is simply outrageous that the Bush crowd would have the audacity to say they "kept us safe" after presiding over the 9/11 debacle - and the inept, ineffective, ideologically driven response that followed.''
''My brother kept us safe''
''Here is a news flash for Jeb: George W. Bush did not begin his term on September 12, 2001.
The worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor occurred on his watch. And it occurred after he had systematically ignored intelligence warnings - before 9/11 - that Osama Bin Laden "was determined to strike the U.S." and that his terrorist network might try to hijack planes to do it.
In fact terrorism was a low priority for the Bush Administration before 9/11. And just six months after 9/11, when asked about apprehending the mastermind of those attack, Bush said, "I truly am not that concerned about him."
Instead his administration was busy cherry picking intelligence to justify an attack on Iraq that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.
The Iraq War did anything but "keep us safe." It was based on false "intelligence" that Saddam Hussein had non-existent weapons of mass destruction. It cost over 4,000 American lives and maimed or injured tens of thousands more. It cost America trillions of dollars. Worst of all, rather than "keep us safe," a 2006 intelligence report concluded that the War in Iraq "made the overall terrorism problem worse". It also kicked over the sectarian hornet's nest in the Middle East and created the conditions that spawned Al Qaida in Iraq that ultimately turned into ISIL (there was no Al Qaida in Iraq before the invasion).
Of course you can understand why Jeb Bush insists that his brother "kept us safe". He has surrounded himself with many of the very same foreign policy advisors that presided over the worst foreign policy record in half a century. They are the same crowd that most recently tried and failed to sink the six-nation agreement to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon without a war.
After a while it gets sickening to listen to their attempts to rewrite history and posture as tough foreign policy geniuses when in fact they conducted a foreign policy that put America and our interests at more risk and sent thousands of young men and women to their deaths in an unnecessary elective war. But the thing that is most galling is their refusal to take any responsibility for allowing the nation to be subjected to the worst attack on the homeland in 70 years. It is simply outrageous that the Bush crowd would have the audacity to say they "kept us safe" after presiding over the 9/11 debacle - and the inept, ineffective, ideologically driven response that followed.''
GOP debates '15
jeudi 17 septembre 2015
Jeb Bush came into the race as the odds on fave and so far has been handed $100 mil by his scummy pacmen since he's known as 'the smart one' in Bushtown yet he can't pull himself together at all with Trump whipping these GOP elephants all around by their tails (thanx Dick Adair!), and tonite (debate #2) he buried himself further with being wimpy and again claiming he knows one thing ''my brother kept us safe!''. Yeah, except for allowing 9-11, kicking the mid-East hornets nest, sending half a mil troops off to die for nothing, and leave us in a poisonous quagmire we'll never escape, plus giving us the Islamic State insanity, to name just a few highlites.
Trump stayed on top, while everybody else battled it out for a very distant 2nd. Carson didn't hurt himself terribly but he's going nowhere, just like the lower level best of the rest whom are fighting for the VP hopeful slot while the others are dead meat.
Of those that got more face time than others Rubio did well enuf and may gain traction as the rest fall out.
Fiorina will have a tuff time especially if she gains and then gets more scrutiny
Walker tried his new tact of being forceful and landed on his nasty face again, then pretty much shut up.
Christi got frisky but he's got tons of baggage to shed somehow and telling pot smokers he'll put them in jail ain't it. Toast.
The rest should be kept off the next debate main stage and sent to the shallow end of the pool with the other kids.
Funny how Lindsay Graham is the best of the bunch and yet can't even get his head up out of the shallow hole.
Gotta love Trump, he's hanging in there and messing with the GOP's head big time, especially with Trump accepting Reince Priebus' pledge that they will not run as an indie and will support the nominee, which means if Trump stays in and forces the nomination of himself then they're stuck to him. Hilarious, this is the best election season yet and it's going to get better for everybody but these conjobs.
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders keeps gaining momentum despite Biden's goofing around, while Clinton skates along as cons keep scratching like hell to nail her on something or ANYTHING.
In recent Presidential elections it was the con's to lose and they've done gloriously, now the scale has tipped to favor Dems outright and cons are disappearing. What a shame... :D
GOP debates '15
Trump stayed on top, while everybody else battled it out for a very distant 2nd. Carson didn't hurt himself terribly but he's going nowhere, just like the lower level best of the rest whom are fighting for the VP hopeful slot while the others are dead meat.
Of those that got more face time than others Rubio did well enuf and may gain traction as the rest fall out.
Fiorina will have a tuff time especially if she gains and then gets more scrutiny
Walker tried his new tact of being forceful and landed on his nasty face again, then pretty much shut up.
Christi got frisky but he's got tons of baggage to shed somehow and telling pot smokers he'll put them in jail ain't it. Toast.
The rest should be kept off the next debate main stage and sent to the shallow end of the pool with the other kids.
Funny how Lindsay Graham is the best of the bunch and yet can't even get his head up out of the shallow hole.
Gotta love Trump, he's hanging in there and messing with the GOP's head big time, especially with Trump accepting Reince Priebus' pledge that they will not run as an indie and will support the nominee, which means if Trump stays in and forces the nomination of himself then they're stuck to him. Hilarious, this is the best election season yet and it's going to get better for everybody but these conjobs.
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders keeps gaining momentum despite Biden's goofing around, while Clinton skates along as cons keep scratching like hell to nail her on something or ANYTHING.
In recent Presidential elections it was the con's to lose and they've done gloriously, now the scale has tipped to favor Dems outright and cons are disappearing. What a shame... :D
Tsunami watch for 9/16/15
mercredi 16 septembre 2015
I know CNN and HawaiiNewsNow have posted articles that an earthquake has struck Chile today (9/16/15).
There is a Tsunami watch in effect for the State of Hawaii with an estimated arrival of 3:06 am HST on Thursday September 17, 2015.
The link below is to NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center:
http://ift.tt/HtUWta
I suspect more details would be announced around this evening newscast.
Tsunami watch for 9/16/15
There is a Tsunami watch in effect for the State of Hawaii with an estimated arrival of 3:06 am HST on Thursday September 17, 2015.
The link below is to NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center:
http://ift.tt/HtUWta
I suspect more details would be announced around this evening newscast.
Hot/Humid Weather
vendredi 11 septembre 2015
I know there is no sense in complaining about the weather. but still,
Hot humid weather to continue through winter. This is NOT good.
http://bit.ly/1KclHAH
Bring on the tradewinds!
Hot/Humid Weather
Hot humid weather to continue through winter. This is NOT good.
http://bit.ly/1KclHAH
Bring on the tradewinds!
UH'W beats UC, Ohio St. next
vendredi 4 septembre 2015
5am EST ...oops, we won, defending National champs coming up.
http://ift.tt/1QeoePQ
UH'W beats UC, Ohio St. next
http://ift.tt/1QeoePQ
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