Saturday, January 01, 2011
Haven't we all chased an elusive purple-haired girl?
By Edward Copeland
After an interminable wait in my Netflix queue, finally I've caught up with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Give me well-written young romances with the right dose of cynicism and a healthy injection of ingenuity and I'm a sucker almost every time. Scott Pilgrim, where have you been all my life? Oh yeah, I think you were inside my head (minus the video game element).
It's always exciting when something you had no previous knowledge of or any expectations for turns out to be as much fun as Scott Pilgrim. Granted, I wouldn't have suspected it before its initial theatrical release until I heard the enthusiasm it engendered in some reviewers, so I wasn't going in completely blind when it finally landed in my DVD player. Still, that only raised the expectations pole it had to vault to please picky old me and it clears that bar by a mile.
Films such as this or my favorite 2009 film, (500) Days of Summer, or Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (which also starred Michael Cera) couldn't be more different, yet somehow they land on a similar groove within my brain and tend to enthrall me from beginning to end, even if Scott Pilgrim isn't quite in their league.
Each of these three very dissimilar films have their own strengths and with Scott Pilgrim, it's the film's strong ensemble of actors. It starts at the top with Cera as the title character who remains, since his days on the late, great television comedy Arrested Development, the best young straight man in the business today and includes a plethora of young talent such as Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, the would-be object of his affections; Alison Pill, Mark Webber and Johnny Simmons as the members of Scott's rock band Sex Bob-Omb ("We are here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff"); Anna Kendrick, so good in last year's Up in the Air, as Scott's sister; Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, Scott's 17-year-old sweetheart; and the best of the acting Culkins, Kieran, as Scott's gay roommate Wallace. Those names are just scratching the surface of the acting talent embedded in this film.
Michael Bacall & director Edgar Wright adapted the film from Bryan Lee O'Malley's series of graphics novels, which I've never read. Set in Toronto, the plot in a nutshell concerns Scott, still smarting after being dumped by his ex Natalie (Brie Larson), a successful rock star in her own right who now goes by the name Envy, and hooks up with the cute high schooler Knives, despite their five-year age gap. Then he sees her.
She is Ramona, covered with those purple-dyed locks and disinterested in Scott completely at first. Somehow, his goofy charm along with an Amazon delivery pays off and Ramona actually agrees to date him, even though he hasn't worked up the courage to break up with Knives. Of course, any romance has its complications and in this case, it's that Ramona's most recent ex has formed The League of Evil Exes (seven total) and Scott must face off against them all if he hopes to win his new beloved's heart.
Admittedly, for me at least, some of the video-game inspired fights provide the movie's least interesting parts, but what surrounds them is so fun and inventive, that it hardly matters and many of those are good anyway. I especially like Scott's victory over the ex (Brandon Routh) who gets psychic superpowers from his status as a vegan.
The casting of most of the exes (and some other uncredited cameos) add to the exuberant feeling the film left me with by its finish and, to its credit, its more layered than you'd expect with the characters admitting their own wrongs in order to move on. If I have a big criticism, it's that the film has a lot of tiny information box gags that are very hard to read not only because I saw it on TV but because they appear so fleetingly.
Co-writer/director Wright, who helmed the endlessly watchable comic zombie flick Shaun of the Dead, keeps the movie motoring along, so much so that I was so caught up in it that I was surprised how long it was when it ended. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World might not be high art, but it's pure joy.
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Labels: 10s, Michael Cera, Netflix, Television
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Friday, February 27, 2009
Play it again, Nick and Norah
By Edward Copeland
When talking about the Oscars just ended, a common conversation was the dearth of worthwhile adapted screenplay contenders. Now, I thought Doubt and Frost/Nixon were fine and I realize I was in a minority of fans of Revolutionary Road, which was snubbed. However, the other three nominees: Benjamin Button, The Reader and winner Slumdog Millionaire all had extreme problems in the script department. Now, as I catch up on films I missed, I find there was a superb adapted screenplay that got completely ignored in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.
Lorene Scafaria adapted the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and Peter Sollett directs with a sure hand to create the first film I've seen in ages about teenagers that seems as if it actually knows teens. You smile, you cringe, you remember, you recognize.
Everyone's favorite young straight man Michael Cera stars as Nick and the wonderful Kat Dennings plays Norah. Unlike the more famous cinematic Nick and Nora, there is no murder to be solved, though a body does disappear, though she is alive and hysterically drunk (Ari Graynor).
The plot is simple: Nick is unable to let go after breaking up with his girlfriend, making an endless series of CD song mixes for her which she discards and her schoolmate Norah rescues from trash cans because she loves the tunes. (I'm so old, when we did this, we made our mix tapes on actual cassette tapes.)
Nick, Norah and the ex (Alexis Dziena) are unexpectedly thrown together when they all end up at a gig for Nick's rock band that lacks a drummer and a permanent name. When rumors circulate that a favorite band, Fluffy, is giving a free, secret concert somewhere in New York. As the search goes on for both the wandering drunk girl and the concert, you see the seeds of attraction grow between Nick and Norah.
What's remarkable about the film is that it doesn't hit a false note. The characters all sound and feel palpably real and I can't remember the last time I saw a film about teens that I could say that about.
Even films that were mostly good such as Juno saddled their young characters with dialogue that was too cute by half. Nick and Norah rings true, no matter how long it's been since you've been a teenager yourself.
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Labels: 00s, Michael Cera
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Thursday, December 20, 2007
Turning the Page on lesser films
By Edward Copeland
For the second year in a row, Ellen Page gives a startlingly good performance much better than the film that contains it. Last year, it was Hard Candy. This year, it's Juno, which is by no means as wretched as Hard Candy, but has been flowered with more praise than it deserves.
This isn't to say I disliked Juno, just that much of the time, the dialogue in Diablo Cody's screenplay is a bit too hip, cute and trite for its own good. Luckily, Page delivers a performance so good, that she makes words that would ring false coming from other actors' mouths sound true.
In fact, Page isn't alone in this. The entire cast seems to develop characters richer than they should be, from J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney as Juno's dad and stepmom to Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the potential parents for Juno's unexpected child.
The script itself finally catches up with the performances in its third act, delivering depth and emotion to a film that's dominated by snark up to that point. One other problem with Juno is that it's one of those films where the vast majority of its best moments have been given away in its trailer (including most of Rainn Wilson's cameo as the drug store clerk).
While Juno deserves points for painting a more realistic but still funny look at a situation similar to that in Knocked Up, especially concerning abortion, Juno's quick dismissal of that choice rings hollow. Then again, if either Page's character here or Katherine Heigl's character in Knocked Up had opted for abortions, there wouldn't be a story for either film.
Following his work in the Apatow factory's Superbad, Michael Cera once again makes a good case for staking a claim as the best straight man in comic films today. His look of stricken fear when he learns of Juno's pregnancy is priceless, as are most of his scenes.
Still, as a devoted Arrested Development fan, I do feel cheated that the story doesn't allow for an onscreen reunion of Bateman and Cera. Overall, I did like Juno, especially for Page's singular creation. I just wish the screenplay took a more daring and less wiseass path than it does.
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For the second year in a row, Ellen Page gives a startlingly good performance much better than the film that contains it. Last year, it was Hard Candy. This year, it's Juno, which is by no means as wretched as Hard Candy, but has been flowered with more praise than it deserves.
This isn't to say I disliked Juno, just that much of the time, the dialogue in Diablo Cody's screenplay is a bit too hip, cute and trite for its own good. Luckily, Page delivers a performance so good, that she makes words that would ring false coming from other actors' mouths sound true.
In fact, Page isn't alone in this. The entire cast seems to develop characters richer than they should be, from J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney as Juno's dad and stepmom to Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the potential parents for Juno's unexpected child.
The script itself finally catches up with the performances in its third act, delivering depth and emotion to a film that's dominated by snark up to that point. One other problem with Juno is that it's one of those films where the vast majority of its best moments have been given away in its trailer (including most of Rainn Wilson's cameo as the drug store clerk).
While Juno deserves points for painting a more realistic but still funny look at a situation similar to that in Knocked Up, especially concerning abortion, Juno's quick dismissal of that choice rings hollow. Then again, if either Page's character here or Katherine Heigl's character in Knocked Up had opted for abortions, there wouldn't be a story for either film.
Following his work in the Apatow factory's Superbad, Michael Cera once again makes a good case for staking a claim as the best straight man in comic films today. His look of stricken fear when he learns of Juno's pregnancy is priceless, as are most of his scenes.
Still, as a devoted Arrested Development fan, I do feel cheated that the story doesn't allow for an onscreen reunion of Bateman and Cera. Overall, I did like Juno, especially for Page's singular creation. I just wish the screenplay took a more daring and less wiseass path than it does.
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Labels: 00s, Apatow, Michael Cera
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Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Someone needs a trim
By Edward Copeland
In many ways, some movies need to be rated on separate scales: the number of laughs they produce and as a movie as a whole. Such is the case with Superbad, which like most recent productions coming out of the Judd Apatow comedy factory, contains a lot of big belly laughs. Unfortunately, great gags, even multitudes of them, aren't enough glue to hold together Superbad as a movie.
Apatow continues to build a repertory company of actors he loves to employ again and again from his TV days on Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, always adding a few new names to the troupe even as he hands the directing chores in Superbad over to Greg Mottola (The Daytrippers).
Look closely to see TV regulars or guest stars from the series such as Martin Starr, Carlo Gallo, Kevin Corrigan and David Krumholtz. Steve Bannos, Mr. Kowchevski on Freaks and Geeks, even gets to return to the profession of math teacher and Clement Blake, so memorable as the older party crasher in the "Beers and Weirs" episode of Freaks gets to play a similar role here.
The semiautobiographical screenplay was written by Seth Rogen and his longtime friend Evan Goldberg, so much so that the lead characters played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, even share their first names. In fact, Rogen and Goldberg began writing the script when they were teenagers. I wrote a novel when I was in high school, but it's locked safely in the attic. I'm sure it has some positive attributes, such as Superbad does, but not all things need to see the light of day or the screens of movie theaters.
Superbad follows a similar template to The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up by presenting truly vulgar comedy that almost makes you feel ashamed for laughing so hard at it and mixing it with a healthy dose of sweetness.
It also treads territory similar to films such as American Pie, though with a bit more success. In this case, the story follows a more traditional movie genre: teens trying to get laid. Seth (Hill) and Evan (Cera) are wrapping up their high school days and looking ahead to the separation college will force on them, since Evan has been accepted to Dartmouth and Seth will be stuck going to a state school.
Both are afraid of being separated, but neither is comfortable admitting it so instead they focus on final days of partying and girlchasing. That's basically the loosest of threads Superbad is hung on: A journey to procure liquor and get to a party where the would-be objects of their affections await.
Unfortunately, Superbad suffers from what Knocked Up suffered from and what The 40-Year-Old Virgin amazingly got away with: It's too damn long for this sort of comedy, so it inevitably sags at times. There really needed to be a strong editing hand to tighten the movie so the laughs were plentiful enough to make the whole thing work instead of ending up as a mixed bag.
Still, Superbad has two things that definitely are in its favor: Michael Cera and newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
Cera, so great as George-Michael on the much-missed TV show Arrested Development, proves that his skills as a straight man on that sitcom were no fluke. Cera shows signs of being able to give the best deadpan delivery of his generation (and probably several ahead of him).
Mintz-Plasse is a true find. Some stock characters such as the dumb blonde or the ubergeek have been used so often, it's still surprising when someone can put such fresh spins on the stereotypes to make them seem new again and that certainly is the case with Mintz-Plasse. While most of his scenes end up being with a pair of cops (Rogen, Bill Hader) that seem to belong to another movie, his energetic and delightful performance make it all worthwhile.
It's hard to make a clear call on Superbad: If you go expecting to laugh a lot, odds are you will. If you go hoping for a truly great comedy that also works as a film, you'll probably be disappointed.
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TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
In many ways, some movies need to be rated on separate scales: the number of laughs they produce and as a movie as a whole. Such is the case with Superbad, which like most recent productions coming out of the Judd Apatow comedy factory, contains a lot of big belly laughs. Unfortunately, great gags, even multitudes of them, aren't enough glue to hold together Superbad as a movie.
Apatow continues to build a repertory company of actors he loves to employ again and again from his TV days on Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, always adding a few new names to the troupe even as he hands the directing chores in Superbad over to Greg Mottola (The Daytrippers).
Look closely to see TV regulars or guest stars from the series such as Martin Starr, Carlo Gallo, Kevin Corrigan and David Krumholtz. Steve Bannos, Mr. Kowchevski on Freaks and Geeks, even gets to return to the profession of math teacher and Clement Blake, so memorable as the older party crasher in the "Beers and Weirs" episode of Freaks gets to play a similar role here.
The semiautobiographical screenplay was written by Seth Rogen and his longtime friend Evan Goldberg, so much so that the lead characters played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, even share their first names. In fact, Rogen and Goldberg began writing the script when they were teenagers. I wrote a novel when I was in high school, but it's locked safely in the attic. I'm sure it has some positive attributes, such as Superbad does, but not all things need to see the light of day or the screens of movie theaters.
Superbad follows a similar template to The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up by presenting truly vulgar comedy that almost makes you feel ashamed for laughing so hard at it and mixing it with a healthy dose of sweetness.
It also treads territory similar to films such as American Pie, though with a bit more success. In this case, the story follows a more traditional movie genre: teens trying to get laid. Seth (Hill) and Evan (Cera) are wrapping up their high school days and looking ahead to the separation college will force on them, since Evan has been accepted to Dartmouth and Seth will be stuck going to a state school.
Both are afraid of being separated, but neither is comfortable admitting it so instead they focus on final days of partying and girlchasing. That's basically the loosest of threads Superbad is hung on: A journey to procure liquor and get to a party where the would-be objects of their affections await.
Unfortunately, Superbad suffers from what Knocked Up suffered from and what The 40-Year-Old Virgin amazingly got away with: It's too damn long for this sort of comedy, so it inevitably sags at times. There really needed to be a strong editing hand to tighten the movie so the laughs were plentiful enough to make the whole thing work instead of ending up as a mixed bag.
Still, Superbad has two things that definitely are in its favor: Michael Cera and newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
Cera, so great as George-Michael on the much-missed TV show Arrested Development, proves that his skills as a straight man on that sitcom were no fluke. Cera shows signs of being able to give the best deadpan delivery of his generation (and probably several ahead of him).
Mintz-Plasse is a true find. Some stock characters such as the dumb blonde or the ubergeek have been used so often, it's still surprising when someone can put such fresh spins on the stereotypes to make them seem new again and that certainly is the case with Mintz-Plasse. While most of his scenes end up being with a pair of cops (Rogen, Bill Hader) that seem to belong to another movie, his energetic and delightful performance make it all worthwhile.
It's hard to make a clear call on Superbad: If you go expecting to laugh a lot, odds are you will. If you go hoping for a truly great comedy that also works as a film, you'll probably be disappointed.
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Labels: 00s, Apatow, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
