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AUGUST 6 - AUGUST 12, 2014
by Ken Hanke & Justin Souther
a pretty exhausted premise, a combination that ultimately creates one disappointing, frustrating whole. The film is a biopic of The Godfather of Soul, James Brown (here played by Chadwick Boseman, 42), and suffers from the general condition of simply being a biopic. The story can be too broad at times, and Taylor often loses focus and lets the film meander a bit too much towards the end, leading to an unwieldy 138-minute running time. But there’s a curious byproduct to these inherent failings, in that Taylor seems to be fully aware of the problems of the worn-out nature of the biopic. To combat this, he throws every narrative device he knows against the wall, making for a much stranger, more interesting movie than one might expect from the director of The Help (2011). Get on Up opens in 1988, with a drug-addicted, velour tracksuit-wearing Brown, then quickly hops back to 1968, with Brown nearly dying on his way to a USO show in Vietnam. After this, we jump five years further into the past — but not before a momentary stop to an interview in the ’70s with Brown’s close friend Bobby Byrd (Nelsan Ellis, The Help) — and then all the way back to Brown’s impoverished childhood in 1930s Georgia. It’s an impressive feat of cinematic gymnastics that only picks up from there, since the movie never follows a linear narrative path, but rather an emotional one. It switches between eras (sometimes just for moments), often breaking the fourth wall with eccentric, bizarre yet erudite commentary from Brown, and occasionally falling into surreal fits of fantasy. It’s all an attempt at peeling away the layers of Brown’s personality, a man who was at once a passionate performer and a heartless, driven businessman, constantly at odds with expectations of what he should be and white America’s social values. It’s a complicated look at the man — and one that doesn’t always work. Taylor doesn’t shy away from Brown’s shadier aspects (like domestic abuse), which is admirable as far as honesty goes, but removes much of the sympathy from Boseman’s charismatic portrayal (which is little more than an impersonation, but a damn good impersonation) of the man. That all of Brown’s complexities and foibles are supposed to be boiled down to a rough upbringing and a negligent relationship with his mother (Viola Davis) seems both wholly reason-
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able and unduly simplistic when placed within the framework of the plot. This makes the film’s ideas often feel muddled and unclear. Not helping things is the fact that the story can’t support its length, while Taylor’s bag of tricks is only so deep and can only go so far. Really, there needs to be a Ken Russell level of bombast to make this sort of thing truly transcendent cinematically. While Taylor’s made perhaps the year’s most curious mainstream release, it’s one that never quite pushes its way through to greatness. Rated PG-13 for sexual content, drug use, some strong language and violent situations. Playing at Carolina Cinemas, Co-ed of Brevard, Epic of Hendersonville, Regal Biltmore Grande, United Artists Beaucatcher. reviewed by Justin Souther
Guardians of the Galaxy HHHH DIRECTOR: James Gunn (Super) PLAYERS: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace COMIC BOOK SCI-FI ACTION COMEDY RATED PG-13 THE STORY: A mismatched — and pretty ragged — quartet of unlikely heroes may be the only chance to save the universe. THE LOWDOWN: A thoroughly engaging, funny, exciting, even charming sci-fi actioner with an appealing cast that makes for excellent summer movie fare.
Once you get away from all the tiresome fanboy “greatest movie ever” gush (why do people do this?), it turns out that James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a lot of fun. Sometimes it’s downright delightful. It’s also something pretty rare in that it’s a comic book movie that feels personal and at least provides the illusion of something fresh. That this freshness is mostly the result of reassembling a lot of comfortably well-worn components is not all that important. (After all, that’s pretty much the story of cinema.) But perhaps its
HHHHH = max rating biggest selling point lies in the fact that Guardians of the Galaxy revels in its own pulpy qualities without deluding itself into thinking it’s some kind of Shakespearean drama. Basically, it’s all about Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) — who also calls himself “Star Lord,” though the sobriquet doesn’t seem to catch on with anyone but him — a young man who was kidnapped as a child by space aliens just after the death of his mother. After years of training by his kidnapper/mentor Yondu (Michael Rooker), Peter has become a first-rate, swaggering womanizer and thief (or ravager) — all with the aid of a Walkman and a mixtape his mother made for him. (Mom’s taste in music was pretty thoroughly 1970s top 40 — with the odd inclusion of Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream,” but, hey, it’s always a plus to find a Bowie song that isn’t “Queen Bitch” or “Under Pressure” on a soundtrack.) Yondu has taxed Peter with getting a mysterious orb that it turns out nearly everyone in the universe is after — including the very evil Ronan (an almost unrecognizable Lee Pace). The fact that Peter gets said orb first is, of course, what drives the movie’s story — and what causes Peter to unintentionally team up with greenskinned Gamora (Zoe Saldana), muscle-bound Drax (wrestler Dave Bautista), wisecracking talking raccoon Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and ambulatory, sort-of talking tree Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). This is much more important than the story. The most important aspect of the film lies in the interaction, animosity, and, of course, the grudging bonding of this decidedly mismatched quartet. Oh, sure, it follows a straightforward pattern, but it does so with good humor and seemingly effortless charm that makes it all go down smoothly. It helps that the dialogue is clever and the characters welldeveloped. Pratt makes a likably corrupt hero. Saldana is an appealing female lead. Cooper’s voice work makes a talking raccoon mostly believable, and Diesel manages to make a single phrase almost eloquent. The real surprise is Bautista, whose vocabulary reminds one of boxer-turned-actor Frank Moran, but whose literal-mindedness makes him something else again. But the extra bonus from a general viewership stance is that — the obligatory Stan Lee cameo to one side — Guardians of the Galaxy works nicely as a stand-alone movie