Tag: Andy Samberg

Review: Brigbsy Bear

Some people merely appear to be stuck in the 1980s, and its seemingly endless supply of pop cultural and fashion that is equal parts mockable and awesome. BRIGSBY BEAR, the debut feature from Saturday Night Live director Dave McCary, structures its narrative around a person who never left it. The result is one of the most charming and heartfelt films of the year.

James (SNL‘s Kyle Mooney) has been living in a bunker with his parents (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams) for 25 years of his life. His only other company are the endless tapes of Brigsby Bear, a children’s TV show with a morality tale in each episode. When he is suddenly forced out of the bunker, he is unable to watch his beloved show anymore. In this confusing time, James must turn back to Brigsby for guidance, even if he has to finish the stories himself.

The presence of SNL alumni, coupled with production credits from The Lonely Island, might imply some kind of cynicism or malice. BRIGSBY BEAR is the antithesis of that, building much of its goodwill on the earnest performance of Mooney. His fish-out-of-water outlook (or bear-out-of-bunker, if you will) may sharply recall Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or Blast from the Past. Yet the distinction here is that James doesn’t have to try and catch up with the world, and instead everyone else has to slowly join him in his enthusiasm.

Supporting Mooney is an amazing collection of actors adept at treading that thin line between comedy and drama. Greg Kinnear plays a kind of father figure to James, but shines comedically when his character unleashes an acting talent that longs for the camera. Hamill’s role is tailor-made for the multi-faceted actor, allowing him to show off those voice acting skills that have endeared him with fans over the years. There’s also a fun cameo from Lonely Island’s Andy Sanberg.

Like the fictional TV show within the film, BRIGSBY BEAR will bring people together for a collective feeling that’s just magical. Filled with references and allusions to countless films, along with a pitch-perfect recreation of 1980s television, it’s the kind of film that will leave you with a big sloppy grin on your face, and an overwhelming urge to do something positive.

BRIGSBY BEAR screened at the Sydney Film Festival 2017.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIR: Dave McCary | WRITERS: Kevin Costello, Kyle Mooney | CAST: Kyle Mooney, Claire Danes, Mark Hamill | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony (US), Sydney Film Festival (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 10 June 2017 (SFF), 28 July 2017 (US) [/stextbox]

June 14, 2017
Review: Take the 10

“Have you ever seen Brown Bunny?” As writer/director Chester Tam’s debut TAKE THE 10 opens with an extended blowjob conversation, you might think you’ve got this film pegged. Yet as a gunshot breaks the humour of the opening scene, we learn to expect a few surprises in this leisurely paced caper comedy.

The non-linear setup sees friends and grocery clerks Chester (Tony Revolori) and Chris (Josh Peck) each trying to get somewhere fast. While Chester’s dream of going to Brazil is kiboshed by his shifty boss Danny (Kevin Corrigan) demanding money, Chris gets wrapped up in spot of trouble with gangster Jay (played by Tam) and his beautiful girlfriend Sahara (Cleopatra Coleman) while trying to secure tickets to a hip hop festival.

With its keen sense of pop culture structured under chapter headings, the ‘answers first, questions later’ approach is reminiscent of a more lightweight version of Doug Liman’s Go (or Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction) by way of Clerks. Yet a direct comparison would do the endearing TAKE THE 10 a disservice, as its narrative series of random hurdles spirals Chester and Chris’ lives out of control in a script that’s free of any agenda. It takes the conventions of those early films but removes the frenetic intensity, a combination that adds a layer of charm.

Filled with a cast of recognisable comedians and character actors, Tam is mostly interested in the moment-to-moment madness he can inflict on his creations. A heavily accented Carlos Alazraqui kicks off a drive-by shooting subplot that leads to a confrontation with the always funny Fred Armisen, here possibly playing himself as an angry driver. Andy Samberg turns up as Chris’ brother, a layabout who lives with his parents because he’s “diabetic.” Tam, who you may have seen in numerous television roles, saves the best role for himself as the sexually conflicted gangster, complete with body tattoos and a custom grill.

Immersed in an energetic hip-hop soundtrack, from the likes of Jazz Cartier and Action Bronson, TAKE THE 10 defies the tropes of the form by steering away from the stoner clerk comedy model. Peppered with surprisingly (albeit random) emotional moments, Tam’s first feature promises much with this comedy of errors. Here’s hoping we’ll hear more of his voice in the future.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIR: Chester Tam | WRITER: Chester Tam | CAST: Josh Peck, Tony Revolori, Kevin Corrigan, Chester Tam, Cleopatra Coleman, Stella Maeve, Andy Samberg | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix | RUNNING TIME: 80 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 20 January 2017[/stextbox]

January 20, 2017
Review: Storks

Parents are going to have some pretty serious explaining to do after this animated outing. In fact, we have a few questions of our own. Co-directors Nicholas Stoller (Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising) and Doug Sweetland (Pixar’s Presto) approach the ancient mythological association between storks and baby delivery systems, one popularised by the likes of Hans Christian Andersen and the 1946 Looney Tunes cartoon Baby Bottleneck. The union of the directors styles in STORKS is often amusing, but it doesn’t make it any less weird.

Storks have long since given up on delivering babies, and instead have shifted their operations to making parcel deliveries for online super-chain Cornerstore. Junior (voiced by Andy Samberg), the company’s top delivery stork, is on the verge of a promotion by CEO Hunter (Kelsey Grammer), but in order to get the gig he has to fire the orphan Tulip (Katie Crown), the only human working at the company. Plans go awry when neglected child Nate (Anton Starkman) orders up a baby brother, and Tulip mistakenly creates a child in the Baby Making Machine that they now have to deliver.

Co-director Sweetland won an Annie Award for his animation work on 2001’s Monsters, Inc., and the experience apparently stuck. STORKS borrows much of the same loose structure of the Disney·Pixar film, but lacks its sense of direction. Stoller’s script is more of a series of unambitious gags that play on the universal love of babies, occasionally bordering on the offensive as Tulip abandons all reason in a montage of instinctive protective motherhood. It relies on this somewhat satirical assumption too much, missing the actual adorableness that Pixar’s “Boo” and “Kitty” dynamic gave to that film.

Yet there’s a subplot about a broken human family that plays more to the heart of the film, even if it mostly feels like an entirely separate short film-within-a-film about learning to be a parent. Other elements are just odd, especially the ‘brah’-spouting Pigeon Toady (Stephen Kramer Glickman), whose assistance to the CEO largely consists of non sequiturs, incongruous musical sequences (including one set to The Heavy’s “How You Like Me Now”) and humour that doesn’t fit kids or adults. Here Stoller tries for something similar to his take on The Muppets, but misses the mark by a few inches with inconsistent tones.

It’s still gorgeously animated, conceived under the Warner Animation Group that gave us The LEGO Movie, but with the bulk of the animation service provided by Sony Pictures Imageworks. It’s a little disconcerting seeing birds with teeth, but there’s some wonderfully visually inventive moments throughout the film. The Wolf Pack, led by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as Alpha and Beta (and in the local edition, comedian Peter Hellier as the rest of the wolves), form giant shapes of minivans and boats to chase their targets. Later, a group of babysitting penguins are being cautious to not wake the baby, and a hilarious silent action scene makes it difficult to stifle laughter.

STORKS might struggle with it own internal logic, but it’s essentially a good-natured romp that reworks a familiar idea. Glossing over the troubling implications of the stork/human relationships, or that the film continues the heteronormative trend of suggesting that children “complete” families, there’s a well-intentioned film here, even if its exact audience might be unidentifiable. Yet if the film has taught us anything, everything has its place in the world. Even so, parents: good luck with having “the talk” as the credits roll.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2016 | US | DIR: Nicholas Stoller, Doug Sweetland | WRITERS: Nicholas Stoller | CAST: Andy Samberg, Katie Crown, Kelsey Grammer, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell, Danny Trejo, Stephen Kramer Glickman | DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow Films (AUS), Warner Bros. Pictures (US) | RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 22 September 2016 (AUS), 23 September 2016 (US) [/stextbox]

September 21, 2016
Australian Trailer for Celeste and Jesse Forever

Walt Disney Studios Australia has released a trailer for the indiefied romantic dramedy Celeste and Jesse Forever, directed by Lee Toland Krieger and starring Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Will McCormack, Emma Roberts, and Elijah Wood. This looks like it will be a right gem of a film, and we’re already anticipating tissue boxes will be needed.

Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) met in high school, married young and are growing apart. Now thirty, Celeste is the driven owner of her own media consulting firm, Jesse is once again unemployed and in no particular rush to do anything with his life. Celeste is convinced that divorcing Jesse is the right thing to do – she is on her way up, he is on his way nowhere, and if they do it now instead of later, they can remain supportive friends. Jesse passively accepts this transition into friendship, even though he is still in love with her. As the reality of their separation sets in, Celeste slowly and painfully realizes she has been cavalier about their relationship, and her decision, which once seemed mature and progressive, now seems impulsive and selfish. But her timing with Jesse is less than fortuitous. While navigating the turbulent changes in their lives and in their hearts, these two learn that in order to truly love someone, you may have to let them go.

Celeste and Jesse Forever is released in Australia from Disney on 29 November 2012.

October 2, 2012
Review: Hotel Transylvania

Hotel Transylvania invites you to check it, if only it can work out exactly who you are.

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Director: Genndy Tartakovsky

Writer: Peter Baynham, Robert Smigel

Runtime: 91 minutes

Starring: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Jon Lovitz, Cee Lo Green, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade

Distributor: Sony

Country: US

Rating (?): Wait for DVD/Blu-ray (★★½)

More info

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In just a few short years, Sony Pictures Animation has gone a long way towards being a legitimate competitor for DreamWorks and Disney/Pixar. While the fun but uninspiring Open Season (2006) put them on the map, it was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) that made them a real success story. With Hotel Transylvania, Sony scores another coup by acquiring the talents of Russian-American animator Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of such Cartoon Network hits as Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and the original Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. While this feature debut contains the madcap energy of his previous outings, it also lacks the cohesiveness required for a full-length film.

Haunted by his past encounters with humans, Count Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) has built a resort for monsters who want to relax without any worry of human persecution. Fuelling the fire of their fear, Dracula keeps his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) as a virtual shut-in, despite promises of liberation on her 118th birthday, spooking her further with false depictions of the outside world. However, things change radically when clueless human backpacker Jonathan (Andy Samberg) stumbles into the hotel, threatening to undo Dracula’s carefully constructed reality. Breathing new life into Drac’s drab decor, can he hold up a mirror to someone who doesn’t cast a reflection?

Much of the creative team behind Hotel Transylvania, from co-writer Robert Smigel to a number of the cast, are current or former Saturday Night Live alumni. Like the last few decades of SNL, large parts of the film are simply a sketch that doesn’t know where to stop, with a healthy chunk of the middle section dedicated to mostly running around, hiding and musical sequences. The confusion extends to the intended audience as well. It was Walt Disney who once said “You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway”. Yet Tartakovsky’s film makes the almost fatal flaw of trying to be all things to all people, and lands in the awkward middle.

Often too silly for children, and definitely too frightening for the younger children, Hotel Transylvania is like many Sandler films: an extended version of an inside joke. Yet there is also much to like about the movie, particularly the character designs and voices. The downtrodden wolfman Wayne (Steve Buscemi) and his wife Wanda (Molly Shannon) are sufficiently exasperated with their countless children, providing a number of visual and audio gags throughout the film. Likewise, Kevin James nails Frankenstein as a not-too-bright guy who is still afraid of flames (“Fire bad!”). Gomez is suitably earnest as Mavis, only a few shades away from her Wizards of Waverly Place persona, but at least provides a recognisable voice for a key demographic.

Some beautiful animation can be found in the macabre mixture of gelatinous goop, monolithic monsters and dripping fangs, and there is little doubt that the technical craft behind Hotel Transylvania is at the top of its game. However, propping up a potentially intriguing story is a textbook example of stunt casting, designed to throw as many names on a marquee as possible (even Cee Lo Green!), rather than simply getting the story right. It’s not that the film isn’t frequently fun, it’s just that it isn’t fun consistently. By the time the end musical number rolls around, it’s clear that the film tried to be all things to everybody, but mastered none.

Hotel Transylvania was released in Australia on 20 September 2012 from Sony.

September 23, 2012
Trailer and Poster for Celeste and Jesse Forever

Sony Pictures Classics (via iTunes Trailers) has released a trailer for the indiefied romantic dramedy Celeste and Jesse Forever, directed by Lee Toland Krieger and starring Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Will McCormack, Emma Roberts, and Elijah Wood. This looks like it will be a right gem of a film, and we’re already anticipating tissue boxes will be needed.

Synopsis: Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) met in high school, married young and are growing apart. Now thirty, Celeste is the driven owner of her own media consulting firm, Jesse is once again unemployed and in no particular rush to do anything with his life. Celeste is convinced that divorcing Jesse is the right thing to do – she is on her way up, he is on his way nowhere, and if they do it now instead of later, they can remain supportive friends. Jesse passively accepts this transition into friendship, even though he is still in love with her. As the reality of their separation sets in, Celeste slowly and painfully realizes she has been cavalier about their relationship, and her decision, which once seemed mature and progressive, now seems impulsive and selfish. But her timing with Jesse is less than fortuitous. While navigating the turbulent changes in their lives and in their hearts, these two learn that in order to truly love someone, you may have to let them go.

Celeste and Jesse Forever is released in the US on 3 August 2012.

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June 22, 2012
Review: What’s Your Number?

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”What’s Your Number? (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Mark Mylod

Runtime: 120 minutes

Starring: Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Zachary Quinto, Andy Samberg, Ari Graynor, Martin Freeman

Distributor: Fox

Country: US

Rating: It’s Your Money (?)

More info[/stextbox]

‘Romantic comedy’ has become a bit of a misleading label of late, with the romance being synonymous with foreplay as the focal point of the story. Gone are the days in which a romantic encounter atop the Empire State Building would suffice, or a cross-country trip between two mismatched soul-mates would result in true love, with everything from No Strings Attached to the identical Friends With Benefits attempting to stick a square peg into the mainstream’s all-too-willing hole. Not for nothing either: the success of risqué comedies Knocked Up and Bridesmaids have established the public’s craving for something they can enjoy with their best mates and their favourite squeeze equally.

In What’s Your Number?, based on Karyn Bosnak’s novel 20 Times a Lady, Ally Darling (Anna Faris, Yogi Bear) breaks with the latest in a long line of bad relationships and discovers, in the pages of a women’s glossy magazine, that she has slept with more men than double the national average. Concerned she will exceed twenty lovers without ever finding “the one”, she enlists the help of the promiscuous Colin (Chris Evans, Captain America: The First Avenger), who lives in the apartment across the hall. In exchange for using her apartment to hide out from his endless string of morning after girls, he aids her in tracking down past lovers in the hope that one of them will be what she has been looking for.

Every romantic comedy has a conceit that needs to be overcome. Without these arbitrary rules, there would be no conflict and the two people on the poster would probably get together in the first reel. What’s Your Number? has the particularly obnoxious setup of using the number of sexual partners a woman is “supposed” to have before finding the true man. The aim appears to be to present Ally Darling as a modern woman, fully in control of her destiny, but just blind to the fact that she has always been best when beating her own drum. That’s not the euphemism you think it is. Instead, before Ally comes to her final and inevitable realisation, it is almost as though the film is punishing its lead for having a less than “virtuous” history. Is that really the message behind this film? Too much sex might stop you from bagging a man? Indeed, several gags about worn-out vaginas seem to subtly suggest so.

Anna Faris continues her trend of spotty film role selections, despite the fact that we know she is capable of so much more from Brokeback Mountain, Lost in Translation and her appearances on TV’s Entourage. Here she does nothing to redeem the endless parade of Scary Movie films or rom-coms that someone in her talent agency needs to be shot out of a canon for. Meanwhile, genuine megastar Chris Evans, fresh from Captain America and soon to return to the role in The Avengers, is too good for this slender material. Is he still paying penance to Fox for the Fantastic Four films? That said, his previous experience doesn’t go entirely to waste. Shots in which he wears little more than a hand-towel are sure to please all the right demographics.

It’s not a complete disaster, with a handful of genuinely funny lines throughout. One of the best Twitter jokes to grace the screen comes in Ally’s enquiry to Colin as to the location of her coffee pot. “I broke it. If you were on Twitter you would know that already,” comes the knowing reply. Of course, this is all ruined by Ed Begley Jr’s role as a Twitter obsessed father, who perpetuates the bad rep that Tweeters get. It’s the dick jokes that are the real zingers, including a bit from Anthony Mackie as a closeted ex with political aspirations, but as with many recent rom-coms, it falls short of genuine edge with its reliance on coy winks over outrageous zingers.

[stextbox id=”custom”]What’s Your Number? is a question that should be answered in single digits, although if nudge-nudge-wink-wink references and naked Avengers are a thing, this is your movie.[/stextbox]

October 13, 2011