A&E 2
2C | LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD | SUNDAY, JULY 13, 2014
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Jon Ralston, features editor, 832-7189, @jonralston, jralston@ljworld.com
Great ‘Apes,’ and still waiting for Guffman
W
hen a new technological breakthrough happens in the realm of motion-picture visual effects, it’s often the best thing about the movie. Sometimes it’s the only thing worth remembering. How many times have you walked away from a mediocre film and said, “Well, the special effects were good�? So it is with much admiration that I can say that Matt Reeves’ “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes� makes a huge technological leap, and it’s all in service of the story. Three years ago, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes� rebooted the late ’60s/early ’70s B-movie franchise with a combination of motion-capture technology and actor performance that created completely CGI apes with facial expressions that read like human beings. But human beings still anchored most of the story. “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes� one-ups the need for believable CGI apes because most of its 130-minute running time is spent with apes, and they are the far more interesting characters. Andy Serkis and a skilled team of motioncapture artists give life to Caesar, the hyper-intelligent ape that was dosed with an experimental drug and raised by biotech scientist Will Rodman (James Franco). Ten years after leading an ape revolution in San Francisco, the “simian flu� has taken over the globe, and only small populations of human survivors
SCENE STEALERS
ERIC MELIN
eric@scene-stealers.com that are immune to the virus remain. When a group of humans (led by Jason Clarke as Malcolm) stumble upon Caesar and his clan in the woods, the idea of a peaceful coexistence seems like a possibility — at least for some. News flash for newcomers to the series: the “Planet of the Apes� movies are not about apes fighting humans. They’re about humans fighting humans. The enduring appeal of these movies (excluding Tim Burton’s atrocious 2001 remake) is that they can be metaphors for any simmering powder-keg conflict across the history of the world. In 1968, for example, the original “Planet of the Apes� tackled issues of racism (which one powerful scene in “Dawn� makes unflinching reference to.) If anything, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes� is a sly comment on gun control, because one gun in the hands of an idiot — be it human or ape — is the source of all misun-
Andy Serkis as Caesar in a scene from “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.� derstandings between the races in this movie. The screenplay (from Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver) has a traditional western setup, featuring two diametrically opposed leaders on each side: one who favors peace and another who favors war. One weakness of the film is that there isn’t a lot of color outside of this simple characterization. None of the human characters are drawn in three dimensions, not even Gary Oldman as the trigger-happy leader of the human survivors. Great pains, however, have been taken to draw parallels between Caesar and Malcolm, two fathers who just want a brighter future for their kids. Beyond the amazing CGI rendering and depth of human-like emotion in the Caesar character, Reeves (“Let Me In,� “Cloverfield�) himself isn’t much of a visual stylist. He’s a meat-andpotatoes story-oriented kind of director, which
is why “Dawn� works so well. The action scenes are serviceable, and after a while, you don’t notice the special effects because they have become the reality of the movie — and isn’t that the greatest compliment of all? Speaking of three dimensions, the 3-D version of “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes� is utterly useless and does nothing to bring depth — visually or thematically — to the film.
Waiting for the Guestploitation finale Christopher Guest has always been at the forefront of improvisational comedy, and as co-writer
AP Photo/Twentieth Century Fox
and star of Rob Reiner’s “This is Spinal Tap,� he helped define an entire genre of mockumentarystyle comedy. In 1997, he branched out on his own in this genre with “Waiting for Guffman,� another film that combines hilarious song parodies and utilizes his talented group of improv geniuses to great effect. On Thursday, Liberty Hall closes out its three-film Guestploitation series with a showing of “Guffman,� the most riotous of the bunch. What all of Guest’s films have in common is that they focus on a hyper-niche group of people who consider
their one true passion to be the most important thing in the world. In “A Mighty Wind,� it’s folk music. In “Best in Show� it’s the dog-show circuit. In “Waiting for Guffman,� it’s theater. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of theater people will find hundreds of inside jokes and references in the movie, which hilariously skewers the big-time attitude and aspirations of wannabe director Corky St. Clair (Guest) as he puts on an anniversary pageant in small-town Missouri, but acts like he’s on Broadway. “Guffman� is one of those films that can only be enhanced by seeing it with a big crowd of likeminded people laughing their collective butts off, so if you missed “A Mighty Wind� and “Best in Show� this month, you won’t want to miss this one! — Eric Melin is the editorin-chief of Scene-Stealers and on-air film critic for KCTV5. He’s a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, vice president of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, and drummer for The Dead Girls and Ultimate Fakebook. On the air-guitar circuit, he goes by the name Mean Melin and is the world champion of air guitar.
MOVIE REVIEW
She said WHAT? ‘Obvious Child’ has no boundaries and is better for it
By Roger Moore MCT
By day, Donna Stern works in Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books sin Brooklyn. By night, the cute 28 year-old has a few drinks — and a few more — and gets up on stage at her favorite dive and does stand-up. It’s not the observational, “Didya ever notice� comedy of the Seinfeld generation, but the over-sharing personal narrative of the narcissistic, lay-it-all-out-there and hope some of it is funny of the no-privacy era. She talks about her sex life, her sex parts, her boyfriend — the works. Think Sarah Silverman, and just as Jewish. It’s no great shock when the boyfriend ditches her. Donna is plainly not an adult. She’s a Paul Simon song we hear later in her story — an “Obvious Child.� But the beau has been cheating — with a friend of hers. He dumps her in the club’s unisex bathroom. And like a lot of people his age, he’s an addict. “Looking at your PHONE while you’re dumping me?� “Obvious Child,� now playing at Liberty Hall, is a quirky, funny and quite gutsy comedy that “goes there� — in the vernacular of five minutes ago. It’s the funniest unplanned pregnancy romantic comedy since “Knocked Up,� and FAR more daring. Jenny Slate is Donna, and she plays a couple of drunk scenes for the ages in the early scenes
Jenny Slate in “Obvious Child� of this indie-budgeted romp. Watch her plead, tease, insult and bingeshare as she drunk-dials the guy who left her. Sympathize as she crawls into a box as she packs up inventory, because the book store is closing and she’s losing her job, too. See her drown her sorrows and turn decidedly unfunny on stage as she talks about how crushing this was to her, how betrayed this boyfriend and her friend who cheated with him made her feel. “I would love to just murder/suicide them,� she jokes. We hope. “Murder-sui them.� Pause. “A lot of people say I look like Anne Frank.� And see her be charmed by the preppy computer game interface designer, Max (Jake Lacy), an uber-Gentile who looks like James Marsden and sounds just like Ben Affleck. She mocks his Docksiders. Their boozy one-night stand produces a pregnancy, one Donna is in no place to handle. “I would like an abortion, please. Sorry, that sounded like I was order-
Chris Teague/Sundance Institute Photo
ing in a drive-through!� Abortion has been so cast out of the entertainment sphere that it is a jolt to hear it joked about or even discussed frankly in a movie. But when Donna’s mom let’s slip the funniest Alzheimer’s zinger ever, you know nothing is off limits and whatever else this obvious child with the potential child is going to do, it will be her first adult decision — maybe ever. That makes this Gillian Robespierre film and its bright new star a comic slap in the face — a turnoff for some, but a refreshing new point of view and new way of looking at that point of view, something only the rarest comedies ever pull off.
LIBERTY HALL CINEMA
FOR SHOW TIMES AND MORE INFO PLEASE VISIT
WWW.LIBERTYHALL.NET
Obvious Child
(R) 84 min
FRI (MT) 1:40 9:40 / (LT) 4:30 SAT (LT) 1:00 5:30 SUN (MT) 1:40 9:35 / (LT) 4:30 MON - TUE (MT) 1:40 9:40 / (LT) 4:30 WED (MT) 1:40 7:00 / (LT) 4:30 THU (MT) 1:40 / (LT) 4:30 7:15 see website for showtimes
min Snowpiercer (R) 126Chef (R) 115 min www.libertyhall.net
WAITING FOR GUFFMAN - THU 7/17 - 7:00
WILLY WONKA - SUN 7/27 - 7:00
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LT = Little Theater / MT = Main Theater
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LAWRENCE, KS 66044
MOVIE LINE - 749.1912
For accesibility info call 785.749.1972
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