a&e | FILM REVIEWS
Road Movie Locke. Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, and Ruth Wilson star in a film written and directed by Steven Knight. Reviewed by D.J. Palladino
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teven Knight’s one-character film sounds like a gimmick, but for those who enjoy offbeat movie experiences, who can watch a cinematic car ride and not automatically expect a chase scene, this is a brainier kind of road trip — a night road leading into human truths. The idea is simple: A man named Locke gets into his car somewhere about 90 minutes outside London, starts his motor, turns on his Bluetooth, and has a series of life-changing phone conversations in the time it takes him to reach the hospital where a child he has fathered is due to be born. TOUR DE FORCE: Locke follows the title character (Tom Locke is played by Tom Hardy, a great Hardy) on one fateful drive. actor who seems to be waiting forever to become a star. Though he’s brilliant in this film, playing a solid man whose seams are privately unravEvery part of the car is used, and the cinematography is eling, this isn’t likely the vehicle (sorry: couldn’t resist) the subtly gorgeous, even considering the limitations. Hardy kids will flock to see. It’s a tough sell when the best part of sits inside the car for 85 minutes, but the camera frequently a performance is in the actor’s eyes, which is pretty much cuts around him to all the nightscape’s desolate glories; the only body part he gets to use. But the sudden changes glass reflections, double exposures, and fuzzy art shots in his posture are brilliant, too. He’s steadily brash on the not only break up tedium but also lend nervous energy phone; as Locke, he believes no matter how bad things are to the fateful ride. We’re along for Locke’s scary building — and he visits the very worst — anything can be fixed by a life situations, but by the time the films winds toward its true heart and steady will. In the meantime, alone, he plays terminus, we become aware that the movie is about that out his own anxieties against an almost palpable memory, dark machinery surrounding everybody. ■ a ghost in the rearview mirror.
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Udderly Ridiculous Neighbors. Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, and Rose Byrne star in a film written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien and directed by Nicholas Stoller. Reviewed by D.J. Palladino
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n the promo posters, it’s all about Zac versus Seth, or as one critic put it, Efron’s penis versus Rogen’s hairy back. But the best part of Neighbors’ sloppy but entertaining comedy is Rose Byrne, who plays a young mother with the mouth of a drunken sailor. It’s a small blow for the promotion of gender equality, but Byrne seems much more than just one of the boys here; she seems to relish participatBROS ’N THE BURB: Seth Rogen stars as the father of a ing in the crass and taboo-tramping jokes newborn who finds himself forced to live next door to a that define the film’s appeal. The worst of it frat house in Neighbors. comes in an awkwardly executed gag about her breasts (she’s nursing but, after drinking, doesn’t dare to feed the baby). It’s a joke that seems to sinister than the Belushi flick, even with the addition of head in a shocking direction but ultimately chickens out. dildo jokes and magic mushrooms. Instead of examining We feel uncomfortable, but cheated, although the animal the social contract, it explores the nature of practical jokes. On the downside, Neighbors takes too long to get funny, husbandry puns that follow are funny. Later, Byrne shines diabolically during a seduction she instigates at a frat and the story seems to jump around; characters with no house rager. It’s definitely hoes over bros here. backstory suddenly become central, suggesting a chunk of For the film historians among you, this is not a remake stuff was left on the cutting-room floor. But the slapstick of John Belushi’s final film of the same title, which was a moments, including the vaunted airbag gag, work just fine. mediocre version of a fine Thomas Berger novel. In that The story is ultimately kind to frat boys, callous toward the picture, Belushi played a bourgeois suburbanite victimized sacrosanct responsibilities of child rearing, and has a tough by swinging predatory neighbors. This Neighbors pits a enough woman with an encyclopedic potty mouth. Maybe married couple still haunted by their hipster past against it isn’t liberation, but it’s refreshing to see her milking a ■ an entire fraternity that moves in next door. This is far less glorious sophomoric tradition.
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