Film

Theatrical dysfunction

That Awkward Moment

That Awkward Moment, a new romantic comedy starring Zac Efron, Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan, has a promising start. It actually plays like a cool throwback to the romantic/ sex comedies of the ’80s, until somewhere around the midpoint of the movie. Then it takes a drastic downward turn towards comedic Hades and becomes a total garbage party. This assemblage of decent-to-great actors play Jason, Daniel and Mikey (Efron, Teller and Jordan respectively) as some New York City dwelling 20-somethings dealing with modern day romance in a time of Facebook, texting and infidelity. When Mikey finds out his wife is cheating, and he’s heading for divorce, the other two join him in a pact to avoid relationships and stay single. It’s dating and debauchery for the three, with no commitments allowed. Is there a distinct moment where this film goes tragically bad? I’m not exactly sure, but I’d wager a guess it would be the moment where Efron shows up dressed as “Rock Out with Your Cock Out!” for a cocktail party. This is a moment so jarringly stupid, so unrelentingly inane, that I’m thinking the actors got whiplash from the violent tonal shift. Until this moment, the film actually feels a bit real, and has a certain, promising warmth. The three guys are funny together and convincing as a dude trio, and the main woman (the beguiling Imogen Poots) offers many reasons for Efron’s womanizing Jason to break his pact with the two buddies.

The whole thing plays as if writerdirector Tom Gormican had half a decent script. Maybe Efron, Teller, Jordan and Poots (That actually sounds like a law firm, doesn’t it?) only read half the thing and gave their reps the go for their involvement. Then, perhaps a few weeks later, when their deals were done, they got around to reading by Bob Grimm the crappy second half and proceeded to have a communal vomit session. bgrimm@ I sort of expect Efron to occupy the sort newsreview.com of banal, conventional posturing that occurs in this movie. He has some talent for sure, 1 but his movies often stink to high Heaven. He plays a character in this movie whose behavior is irredeemably moronic. He’s the sort of guy who deserves to wind up sitting on park bench alone for the finale. But, he gets rewarded because he looks like Zac Efron. Teller, terrific in The Spectacular Now, is also no stranger to crap

“What kinda movie have you gotten us into, Zac?”

1

Poor

2

Fair

3

Good

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Very Good 5

(Project X, 21 & Over, Footloose). Still, I was hoping Spectacular signaled an end to him showing up in emptyheaded party movies. Seeing him trying to pee in a toilet while suffering through a Viagra boner is not something I expected from a guy who gave one of 2013’s best performances. Jordan, so good in last year’s Fruitvale Station (for which he absolutely deserved an Oscar nomination but got snubbed) perhaps fares the best out of the bunch. His part of the movie, involving trying to reconcile a troubled marriage, is trite, but doesn’t involve the visual of him trying to pee with a boner. That honor goes to Efron and Teller.

The fatal flaw of this movie is that, rather than sticking to a plan and being a true film about the perils of dating and relationships, it wants to be the new American Pie. Three talented guys riffing on relationships is interesting, and it could’ve stayed interesting without the boner jokes.

Poots brings the film a certain amount of dignity as Ellie. Her work here deserved something better.

So with this, the first month of the movie year closed out. Stuff like That Awkward Moment and I, Frankenstein hitting us in January means it can’t get worse for the other 11 months of the year, right? Oh, please God, tell me I’m right. Ω

4American Hustle David O. Russell continues his impressive directorial roll with this semi-comedic look at the notorious ’70s Abscam scandal. This is basically Russell shooting for Scorsese glory here, and while the style of the movie seems copied at times, there’s no denying the power of the ensemble cast. Bradley Cooper scores laughs as a pathetic FBI agent looking to make a name for himself, and Christian Bale looks great in a comb-over as the conman forced into an alliance with the law. Amy Adams gets one of the strangest roles of the year as a con artist pretending to be British, and she pulls it off quite nicely, while Jennifer Lawrence steals her every scene as a seemingly dim Long Island housewife. You also get stand up comic Louis C.K. as Cooper’s field boss. The film falls a little short of greatness due to its sometimes carbon copy feel, but the cast pulls it out of the fire. It also has the best use of Robert De Niro as a bad guy in many years.

4Big Bad Wolves Quentin Tarantino called Big Bad Wolves the best film of 2013. While I wouldn’t go that far, I will declare it last year’s best horror film, and a tremendous feat in filmmaking from directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado. It’s the sort of twisted, strangely funny and disturbing film I would expect to see atop a Tarantino list. The directors have figured out how to wring laughter out of a movie that features child abductions and murders, extreme torture and police beatings. When a girl goes missing and is eventually murdered, a cop turned vigilante (Lior Ashkenazi) and the girl’s father (Tzahi Grad) wind up taking matters into their own hands with a suspect (Rotem Keinan). The three partake in a grueling session of psychological and physical torture aimed at revealing the murderer of Gidi’s daughter and other children. Dror, Gidi and Micki all make for good, classic suspects in the child murders. Dror, a nebbish type with a young daughter of his own, seems too innocuous to be innocent. Gidi, a former member of the Lebanese army, is a little too sick in his torture methods to be completely exonerated of suspicion. Micki, although relatively good-natured and perhaps moral, has a sadistic side for sure. The whole film wouldn’t work if any of these actors were off by one beat. Keinan is especially good at garnering sympathy while possibly depicting one of the worst kinds of people to ever walk the planet. This is a film where the torturer who has lost his child and the cop trying to bring the murderer to justice are, more or less, the bad guys. (Available for rent on Amazon Instant Video and iTunes during its limited theatrical release).

3Frozen I have to admit I was more into the strange Mickey Mouse short that precedes this musical adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen” than the actual feature. It features retro Mickey busting out of a black and white film and becoming 3-D as he battles a bad guy kidnapping Minnie. It’s worth the price of admission. As for the actual feature movie, Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel have wonderful voices, and the visuals are fun to behold in this middle-of-the-road Disney fare. It has a lot of music—some of it quite good, some of it, well, not—and a beautiful look to it. For recent Disney animation, my vote goes to Tangled for best, but that’s not to say this one is a letdown. It’s OK. Just OK. It’s about on par with Pixar’s latest, Monster’s University. It’s fun to watch, but not altogether memorable.

1I, Frankenstein Aaron Eckhart, in a career move as fatal as the time Halle Berry said, “Sure, I’ll play Catwoman. What’s the worst that could happen?” plays Adam Frankenstein, a.k.a. Frankenstein’s Monster. Adam (I’m going to just call him Adam has led a lonely undead life for the hundreds of years since he was stitched together and brought to life by crazy science involving electric eels. He’s spent those years scowling a lot, and hitting demons with sticks like some sort of super ninja. His look has progressed from gothic longhaired badass to clean cut (but probably stinky) metrosexual, replete with a hoodie/trench coat that is just to die for. Really, Adam’s coat is the best thing about the movie, and I confess to wanting one. The film takes place in modern day England, where some sort of demon prince (Bill Nighy … of course!) is looking to create an army of Frankenstein Monsters so that he may defeat some sort of gargoyle army that equates to the good guys in this movie. I’m not making this up … demons vs. gargoyles aided by a semi-reluctant Adam Frankenstein in a kickass jacket. That’s the plot. Stay away … dear God, at all costs, just stay away.

4Lone Survivor This is an explosive passion project from writer-director Peter Berg that takes an unrelentingly gruesome look at Operation Red Wings, the failed 2005 Afghanistan mission that claimed the lives of 19 American soldiers. Most of the movie centers on the four Navy SEALs dropped into hostile territory, and how an unfortunate civilian encounter and communications problems led to a massive gun battle of insurmountable odds. Mark Wahlberg plays Marcus Luttrell, the Navy SEAL who co-wrote the book this movie is based upon. Luttrell, along with Navy SEALs Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch) and Matt Axelson (Ben Foster), were performing reconnaissance for a mission meant to capture or kill a notorious Taliban leader when a trio of goat herders stumbled upon their camp. The resultant ambush is filmed with many gory details, and will be a hard watch for some. The stuntmen who worked on this movie did an incredible job, and the cast is one of 2013’s strongest ensembles. This is a nice comeback for Berg after Battleship.

3Nebraska I can’t deny the wonderful acting work from the likes of Bruce Dern, Will Forte, Bob Odenkirk and especially June Squibb. They are all wonderful in this movie. What I can bemoan is the stupid, stupid story propelling that acting. Dern plays an old codger who becomes convinced that he’s won a million dollars because of a magazine subscription letter saying he’s a winner. So he starts walking from Montana to Nebraska, and his son (Forte) eventually helps him on his quest with an automobile. It’s a dumb idea to start, and the premise is too improbable for a serious comedy movie. Still, it does lay the groundwork for some decent father-son dynamic between Dern and Forte, and Odenkirk shows up as another son and knocks his part out of the park. Of the six Oscar nominations this film earned, I would call Squibb the most deserving for her work as Dern’s droll wife. The black and white cinematography is also quite nice. As for Best Screenplay, Best Picture and Best Actor, I wouldn’t go there. The movie is good in a peculiar way, but far from great. The premise annoyed me a bit the whole time I watched it.

4Run & Jump Will Forte follows up his strong dramatic turn in Nebraska with an even better performance in what turns out to be a better movie with Run & Jump. Forte plays Ted, an American doctor in Ireland studying Conor (Edward MacLiam) a relatively young stroke patient returning to his family after being in a coma. The stroke has rendered Conor childlike, with most of his motor skills but little memory of the man he was before. Ted lives with him and his family, videotaping Conor in his interactions with his very spirited wife Vanetia, played winningly by Maxine Peaks. Conor’s state has left him relatively useless as a father figure, husband and lover. His two kids are left confused, while Vanetia does her best to remain upbeat and good-natured. Slowly, Ted begins to step in as a friend to Vanetia, and a father figure to the children. Much credit goes to director and co-writer Steph Green for making this tough plot work. Ted remains a highly sympathetic character, rather than some selfish jerk who is moving in on an emotionally incapacitated stroke victim’s wife and family. The movie has touches of wonderful humor and weirdness to go with its justifiable sadness. Peake’s performance is a stunner as she traverses easily from humor to the tragic. She’s done a lot of TV work in her career, and she deserves big movie roles in her future. Forte is an actor who accomplishes much with his expressions. He has nice control over that face of his, and many of his best moments consist of him just standing and staring, with everything being conveyed in the eyes. He’s proving to be one of the more reliable SNL alumni. (Available for rent on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video during its limited theatrical release)