Carnage (2011)

Initially initially intrigued by the preview for Carnage, I didn’t bother getting my hands on the DVD. Can’t pinpoint why but it looked too smug, despite the quartet of heavy-hitters.

One recent day when I had a visitor, I gave her the choice of movies on hand (thanks Seattle Public Library): The Hedgehog, The Pillow Book and Carnage. After some debate (and a failed effort at watching Pillow Book), we rolled with Carnage.

The movie itself is much like a debate we can break down like this:

On one side of the room, Team A: Penelope (Jodie Foster), point guard and coach of the Longstreet family, married to Michael (John C. Reilly), power forward who (usually) takes direction well. Penelope’s a creative academic; he's a pragmatic, an everyday guy with an edge for scotch and humor. (The Foster-Reilly combo would never have occurred to me but they possessed a chemistry that grew on me.)

Enter Team B: Power-couple Nancy (Kate Winslet) and Alan (Christoph Waltz) Cowan. Even less of an imaginable pairing, but again, it worked. Alan’s cell phone rings incessantly and he always answers. Nancy is increasingly vexed by Alan’s ability to check out.

Their meet-and-greet is precipitated by a violent fight between their sons, the details of which hold the common thread—what happened, how bad was it and what are they going to do about it.

The discussion starts calmly in the Longstreet living room. We can resolve this reasonably, they tell themselves. As the afternoon progresses, we are spectators to an incredible doubles match. They couples quarrel, blame, switch sides, recriminate. There is drinking, crying, vomiting. Followed by more drinking and accusations.

Based on a French play God of Carnage (Le Dieu du carnage) by Yasmina Reza, the entire movie takes place in the Longstreet’s home. The dialogue is rich and keeps you at attention and disbelief as the escalations lead to fiasco. As alliances change, we ride the growing wave of suspense. Each character has his/her strengths to drive the eruptions and wit to the finale.

I loved it. The best part is that each time you think the Cowans are leaving, they don’t.

Director: Roman Polanski

Country: US

Genre: Comedy

Run time: 80 minutes

Scale: 4

Savages (2012)

It’s Oliver Stone. The setting: Laguna Beach, California. The colors are saturated. I can feel the splash of the water and the hot sand. There’s O (Blake Lively) and her boyfriends Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson) in a functional love triangle—the men are like brothers and she is lover to both.

Ben and Chon cultivate and sell one of the strongest pot strains in the world at 33 percent THC. This puts them in the crosshairs of the Tijuana cartel, who offer/compel the two an 80-20 deal (in favor of the dudes) to go into business. Ben and Chon are happy making their lesser millions and refuse the deal. The cartel is relentless. Ben, the philanthropic one, suggests they give up the business. Afghanistan war vet Chon won’t agree, on principal alone. Cartel queen Elena (Salma Hayek) demands the guys be her worker bees.

The trio plan to scamper across the world and live quietly, leaving no breadcrumbs. Before they take action, the cartel with the help of a double-crossing DEA agent Dennis (John Travolta) kidnap O. Savages is the story of getting O back.

Sounds good? There are several problems. The story isn’t original. It goes on a convoluted path that takes eons to conclude. The ending isn’t bad but by that time, I was super annoyed with the whole lot. And, they are an impressive bunch: Benecio Del Toro as Lado, Hayak and Esteban Reyes (oh wait, that’s Demián Bichir from Weeds playing the same character). I liked Hayak as the female helming the cartel. Savages heads in possibly redeeming directions a few times but they are red herrings, never going deep with any of the characters. You get fed what you should think of all of them and they end up puddle-deep and flawed in uninteresting ways. The story could have done better with O and Elena. It was ripe for transference and countertransference what with an ignored daughter and an ignored mother, respectively. Savages lacks tension. Considering the double crossing and guns, it makes little impact on the nerves. You know from the beginning that the trio will never betray one another. Albeit a unique and strong detail, it makes for lousy suspense.There’s narration by O’s character through the movie that didn’t work.

I didn’t hate it but I can’t say I liked it without stating the caveats. In the end, it got an extreme eye roll.

Director: Oliver Stone

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 130 minutes

Scale: 2.5

Friends with Kids (2011)

The Proposal opened my horizons to romantic comedies. The character introductions and situations lead the way. The conflict erupts. An untenable situation that stands to divide the two characters that I am rooting for suddenly arises. After some time, the blocking issue is resolved for a predictable happy ending. It’s an oft-tried, oft-failed formula that, when done well, is a blissful ride.

The first scene of Friends with Kids introduces us to six longtime friends—two couples and two best friends (four of them Bridesmaids alums). They are energetic 30-somethings on the cusp of child bearing and rearing. As children arrive, the tension between the couples and friends is tested. It gives voice to the effects of kids on relationships: some will struggle and make it, others won’t.

In the opening scene, Leslie (Maya Rudolph) and Alex (Chris O’Dowd) announce their pregnancy. We see the changes, the struggles and what follows. Missy (Kristen Wiig) and Ben (Jon Hamm) follow suit with different results. Jason (Adam Scott) and Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) are best friends who, early on, declared their mutual non-attraction to one another but hatch the perfect plan—conceive and raise a child. The plan works until they start navigating dating and co-parenting.

I had a hard time believing Julie and Jason would end up together if he so adamantly didn’t feel attracted to her. He tries to justify it but it doesn’t seem plausible. Remember the scene in When Harry Met Sally when Harry realizes he wants to be with Sally? There, you believe it. Here, I didn’t believe he would come around.

A few beefs: Hamm needs to stop playing Don Draper. Wiig’s character is criminally underused and undeveloped—1-D all the way. Ed Burns has a bit role in which he is lame and boring. Megan Fox has her usual hot girl role.

I recommend this one with a caveat. The Proposal is a very different movie but after recommending, I learned that some loved it, several hated it and there were eye rolls. Both are worth a roll of the dice.

Writer/Director: Jennifer Westfeldt

Country: US

Genre: Comedy

Run time: 107 minutes

Scale: 3.5

Pariah (2011)

Pariah is a young adult coming-out tale. The moving story is told with documentary-like realism. It takes an unflinching look at the difficulties faced by teenagers coming out as gay to reluctant-to-accept parents.

Alike (Adepero Oduye) isn't confused about her sexuality. However, she has been dressing in pink and semi-fluffy to appease her church-going mother Audrey (Kim Wayans). She leaves the house with a hidden change of oversized clothes, her doo-rag and baseball cap with which she becomes her true self she can be once away from home. Audrey wages her low-simmer battle to keep Alike girlie and away from bad influences, like her best friend, Laura (Pernell Walker), a lesbian and Alike’s main support. Audrey doesn’t accept the unspoken truth about Alike. As she puts it, “God doesn’t make mistakes.”

Wayans is terrific as the overbearing, pushy mother. There were moments when I expected her to launch into the comedic Wayans territory. She’d make a certain face and, I’d waited for her trademark berserk expression.

Meanwhile, Audrey and Alike’s father, Arthur (Charles Parnell) are in marital discord, which makes Audrey focus on Alike to avoid the bigger issue she’s dodging. Alike's close relationship with her father saves her from complete parental alienation; that is, until she tries to come out to him.

Writer/director Dee Rees creates a confident teen character in Alike, who tries to be true to herself and keep her parents. Her solid network of lesbian pals and an influential teacher keep her moving forward. It’s heartbreaking to see her parents deny her in her efforts to be honest. Pariah depicts the harsh realities that occur after some teens come out to their families. I’ve read about teens being kicked out of the house and shunned after coming out.

In Pariah, Alike's biggest ally is herself. With her excellent grades and good friends, she creates options for herself. Sadly, life doesn’t always present bankable options like those that open up to Alike.

Great indie film. Check it.

Writer/Director: Dee Rees

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 86 minutes

Scale: 4

A Dangerous Method (2011)

A Dangerous Method analyses the friendship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), the start of psychoanalysis and the disagreement that ended their friendship.

I didn’t like it. I nearly didn’t make it past the first scene. Jung is conducting his initial intake with extremely agitated Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley). She’s emotionally unstable but Knightley’s extreme facial contortions and sputtering are distracting and exaggerated. Her accent goes from Eastern European to American to Latina at random. Her cray cray is ferocious but not believable.

How would they introduce the “talking cure?” How did these two men engage upon their first meeting? How would they detail their collaboration? What caused their schism? I was excited to see it all.

Initially, we are teased into believing that there exists an intellectual connection binding Jung and his wife, Emma (Sarah Gadon). He’s not passionate about becoming a father. Soon, with Sabina’s help, he’s performing psychological tests on Emma that reveal she is ambivalent about their relationship and having a child. After that, she is just his child bearer, obsessed with giving him a son.

Jung starts connecting with the psychologically improving Sabina, who reveals she wants to be a doctor. We learn that as a result of the violence inflicted upon her by her father, she is a masochist.

There’s a lot very wrong here. The acting is lacking. The characters are unlikeable. The relationship between Freud and Jung is tepid. The usually fiery Mortensen is half a step above catatonic. His accent is English and not Austrian. We get few insights into Freud. His scenes with Fassbender aren’t dynamic. Fassbender turns around the best acting but still cannot help this movie. The writing is terrible. Take for instance, this whopper delivered by Sabina:

“I felt it against my back. Something…slimy like a, like a…like some kind of a mollusk moving against my back.”

There’s too much going on here. Jung’s attraction to Sabina, Sabina’s attraction to him, Jung trying to keep their affair from Freud and Emma, Freud interpreting dreams, Jung’s wife trying to keep him, yet the missing link is audience interest.

Director: David Cronenberg

Country: UK

Genre: Drama

Run time: 99 very long minutes

Scale: 2

The Help (2011)

The Help introduces us to three spritely ladies in 1960s civil-rights-era Mississippi: recent college graduate and wanna-be writer Skeeter (Emma Stone), Aibileen (Viola Davis), an African-American maid who’s been documenting her life since the death of her son and Abilene’s best friend, Minny (Octavia Spencer), a feisty maid who pushes the segregation boundaries. The rumblings of change are about to disrupt all three of their lives.

Skeeter lands a job as a household tips columnist but is thirsting to write something meaningful. Maintaining her friendship with her best friend, Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), is becoming more challenging, as Hilly is increasingly cruel and pushy. Charlotte (Allison Janney), Skeeter’s mother, is worried about Skeeter’s single status. Skeeter quietly begins a writing project from the perspective of “the help.” Her clandestine meetings with Aibileen yield disturbing tales about what really happens in Elizabeth Leefolt’s (Ahna O'Reilly) house while Aibileen is raising Elizabeth’s girl, Mae Mobley.

Skeeter’s writing yields interest from a New York editor but she’s pushing Skeeter for content sooner than she can get the help (besides Aibileen) to open up. They’re reluctant for fear of retribution and losing their jobs. Can Skeeter get the information needed to bring to light the ugly tales of segregation?

Minny is fired after using the “whites-only” toilet at Hilly’s house. She goes to work for the black sheep of the community, Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), who has been trying to break into the Southern belle bridge clique after getting knocked up by and marrying Johnny (Mike Vogel), Hilly’s ex-boyfriend. Minny gets her revenge on Hilly for firing her. It will have you rethinking pie. Minny and Celia make a funny duo. They do a lot of cooking and talking. As an aside, corn pone is mentioned a lot. I had never heard of it and had to look it up (it’s an eggless cornbread typically fried).

The Help is enjoyable. Stone, Davis and Spencer are standouts. The rest of the actors are excellent. If you like it, you might consider reading “The Help,” the 2009 novel the movie is based upon by Kathryn Stockett.

Screenplay writer/Director: Tate Taylor

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 145 minutes

Scale: 4

The Sessions (2012)

Don’t read this review. Look up movie times for The Sessions and go. As you watch the screen (popcorn in one hand, soda in the other, empty wallet on your person), you lose yourself in the room with the naked Helen Hunt and John Hawkes.

Based on the true story of Mark O’ Brien (Hawkes) who after recovering from polio as a boy is confined to an iron lung. He could leave the metal box for only three hours at a time. He’s a poet and journalist. In his late 30s, he’s approached to write a piece on the disabled and sex surrogates. Around the same time, he decides he’s done being a virgin. He meets with a sex surrogate, Cheryl (Hunt). His “research” yields an essay called "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate".

An iron lung (above) is no laughing matter, yet my companion and I, and especially a guy behind us in the small theater laughed a lot.

Strong plot. Great acting. The secondary characters deserve their own movies. Mark’s first caregiver Amanda (Annika Marks) is an emotional seesaw. Rod (W. Earl Brown) is the tough caregiver who pushes Mark. Vera (Moon Bloodgood) is calm and supportive. William H. Macy’s Father Brendan backs Mark’s goal once, he gets past the sex-before-marriage part. Carmen (Jennifer Kumiyama) is the sexually empowered gal in a wheelchair who tells Mark what she likes in bed. Even Rhea Perlman has a bit part. But, it’s the hotel clerk (Ming Lo) who won me over. Even the ‘80s are accurately portrayed with shoulder pads, paisley shirts, clunky boots, cargo pants.

The Sessions spotlights sex surrogacy and gives a peek into the job and its difficulties. Hawkes and Hunt are spectacular. Hunt’s body is amazing (she’s 49) but nonetheless, she’s brave because most of her scenes require full frontal nudity. Both leads deserve acting awards. Hawkes is filmed horizontally for most of the film. It’s distracting but the cinematic discomfort provides the angle with which the world saw him and how it may have been hard to connect.

I teared up. I laughed. I loved it. For a serious topic, this one is hilarious and lighthearted, not the standard for one about disability. Don’t miss it.

Screenplay writer/Director: Ben Lewin

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 95 minutes

Scale: 5