Tag: comedy

Review: The Hustle

To hustle someone usually involves pretending to be something or someone that you are not in order to gain advantage. THE HUSTLE has set itself up as a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), itself a reworking of the 1964 film Bedtime Story. Yet some old tricks get tired in the retelling, and like the best cons, a hustle is only as strong as its weakest player.

Con artist Josephine Chesterfield (Anne Hathaway) has been living a life of luxury in Beaumont-sur-Mer on the proceeds of her ill-gotten gains. When wannabe hustler Penny Rust (Rebel Wilson) comes stumbling into her town, Josephine sees an opportunity to coach a protégé. However, they soon become bitter rivals, challenging each other to take down a mark in order to win territorial rights.

A straight update of Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, and Dale Launer’s 1988 script, Jac Schaeffer (Captain Marvel) never strays too far from the source material. Indeed, there’s several moments where the dialogue is virtually verbatim. Director Chris Addison, best known for the sophisticated comedy of The Thick of It and Veep, relies instead on the two lead personalities.

This also means that Wilson’s broad comedic stylings dominate much of film. As the embodiment of an obnoxious Australian tourist, she totally nails the role. The rest of the time is spend playing up her physicality as a comic, literally barrelling through scenery in the absence of witty dialogue. In one chaotically bad sequence, Wilson fakes being blind for what feels like the entire second act. That said, if you do like her particular brand of comedy, and there’s definitely a solid fanbase out there, you’ll probably love THE HUSTLE.

Hathaway, now adept at playing high class thieves, manages to rise above the meet food the script feeds her. The rest of the supporting cast – who include Doctor Who‘s Ingrid Oliver and relative newcomer Alex Sharp – is uninspiring, disappearing into the background behind montages of physical awkwardness.

People familiar with any of the previous versions of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, or even the stage musical of the same name, will find few surprises in THE HUSTLE‘s final act. Director Addison’s sharp comedy resume evaporates in a pratfall, as any emotion the script find is immediately undercut by slapstick. Which is why it is difficult to be too hard on the film: it’s a less accomplished copy, but if you enjoyed the original then this is much of the same.

2019 | US | DIRECTOR: Chris Addison | WRITERS: Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, Dale Launer, Jac Schaeffer | CAST: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp, Dean Norris | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 94 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 9 May 2018 (AUS)

May 9, 2019
Review: Wild Nights with Emily

The premise of WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY reads a bit like an SNL skit. A comedic romp about America’s favourite recluse, spinster poet Emily Dickinson. Add in the fact that it stars Molly Shannon and the comparison becomes even more appropriate. Yet there’s something more to this film. It doesn’t feel like a one joke sketch stretched far too thin over its runtime. It’s entertaining, engaging, and even moving for the entire duration.

Perhaps that’s because this isn’t a parody. No one here is making fun of Emily Dickinson. She’s not the joke, although she can certainly deliver a good one, and often does here. She and her work are treated with a surprising degree of respect in this film, as is her relationship with Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson (Susan Ziegler), Emily’s lifelong friend (and, the film suggests, lover) who later become her sister-in-law. Even more so than her writing, this is the focus of the film.

The movie traces the decades-long romantic relationship between Emily and Sarah, beginning in their youth (where they’re played with charm by counterparts Dana Melanie and Sasha Frolova). Although their romance is certainly filled with moments occasionally played for laughs, it’s very well developed and genuinely sweet. The script takes great care to show the attraction and love they shared, whether in their first kiss as girls or as years later they lay in bed talking together like an old married couple, venting their frustrations to one another. Susan’s influence on Emily’s work as both a muse and reader is clear.

The chemistry between Shannon and Ziegler is terrific. They bounce perfectly off one another, and make these characters distinctly their own. In fact, the entire cast and script brilliantly and hilariously meld the period era setting with modern humor and sensibilities. Comparisons to last year’s A Quiet Passion are bound to be made. Yet ths is a different, more modern and lighter interpretation of the poet’s life. Shannon isn’t afraid to go deep: the sequences when she performs her poetry directly to the camera are deeply emotional and compelling.

The film reveals that Emily Dickinson finally had her work published after her death and at last became a respected part of the literary canon. Through the efforts of her sister Lavina (Jackie Monahan) and Mabel Loomis Todd, her brother’s mistress (scene stealer Amy Seimetz), her posthumous recognition came at a cost. Her identity and relationships were, as the film shows in a brilliant and emotional ending, quite literally erased.

Emily Dickinson was cast in the public’s imagination as an antisocial, reclusive figure who never left her bedroom and didn’t show her work to anyone, a myth that persists to this day. While she never married and did largely remain at home, she also had a lot of love in her life. It came from siblings, her nieces and nephews, gardening, and her work, from which she didn’t hide away. She attempted to have her work published many times, only for it to be ignored. She was constantly sharing it with Susan, eager for feedback and reassurance.

Even though it comes in the form of a comedy, writer-director Madeleine Olnek does something quite important with this work: she reclaims Emily’s identity, and very smartly, frequently using Dickinson’s own words from both poems and letters to do so. Viewers will come away entertained and amused, but also with a deeper, more empathetic understanding of Emily.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIRECTOR: Madeleine Olnek | WRITERS: Madeleine Olnek | CAST: Molly Shannon, Amy Seimetz, Susan Ziegler, Brett Gelman | DISTRIBUTOR: Salem Street Entertainment, Outfest Los Angeles | RUNNING TIME: 84 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 21 July 2018 (Outfest LA)[/stextbox]

July 28, 2018
Review: Born Bone Born

Death and funerary rites have always been such a large part of Japanese cinema. Despite the very particular local aspects of some of the traditions, films like Departures (2008) and Blank 13 (2018) have shared them with the world. BORN BONE BORN (洗骨) may involve a very unique process, but it always does it with grace and good humour.

Based director Toshiyuki Teruya’s (aka comedian Gori) own short film, it follows a family on the remote island of Aguni, not too far from Okinawa. Four years after the death of her mother Emiko, a heavily pregnant Yuko (Ayame Misaki) returns home. Her father (Eiji Okuda) has become withdrawn, and her brother Tsuyoshi (Michitaka Tsutsui) argues at everything.

Like Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Still Walking (2008), Teruya’s film follows a family brought together in memory of grief. However, unlike Kore-eda’s characters, the people in this family only want to talk about the Yuko and the memory of their late matriarch. Teruya, who is one half of the comedy duo Garage Sale, employs a mixture of absurdist beats and tradition to tell his tale. We’re introduced to the family during a serene moment at the funeral, with the late Emiko’s serene face filling the frame in the opening shot. This reverie is immediately punctured by a well-wisher who keeps coming back and asking to take home some food from the service.

As the film’s Japanese title comes from the rite of senkotsu, the washing of bones before placing them in a bone storage urn, the grief and anxiety of the family coming together soon gives way to the ceremony of the process. Teruya is careful to treat this aspect with a degree of respect, highlighting both the trauma and pragmatism of a ritual that would otherwise be bizarre to outsiders. Even so, he doesn’t miss an opportunity for dramatic comedy when the inevitability of Yuko’s labour commences.

Structured around Ayame Misaki, who impressed in last year’s Radiance, she very much sets the tone in her introduction. A rubber-faced series of moments on the ferry over to her island home keep us expecting the unexpected from the get-go, making the string of kooks she calls ‘family’ all the more endearing. The award-winning Eiji Okuda is wonderful as her father, going through his own depression and grief while attempting to support his daughter.

BORN BONE BORN is as much about the irregular beat of Okinawan island life as it is about the senkotsu ritual, and the gentle and uncomplicated way of telling this story says volumes about the people it highlights. Remaining delightfully weird (or weirdly delightful) right up until the last moments, it’s hard to walk away from this film without feeling a little warmer. Of course, that might just be the nice Okinawan climate though.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Toshiyuki Teruya | WRITERS: Toshiyuki Teruya | CAST: Ayame Misaki, Eiji Okuda, Michitaka Tsutsui, Yoko Oshima | DISTRIBUTOR: Japan Cuts (US) | RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 21 July 2018 (Japan Cuts) [/stextbox]

July 24, 2018
Review: House of the Rising Sons

The Wynners may not be a household name outside of their native Hong Kong, but they were a pretty big deal in the 1970s. The quirkily named HOUSE OF THE RISING SONS (兄弟班), which makes its world premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival, is a brief dramatised summary of the rise of the band and the wider mark they had on the HK entertainment industry.

Case in point, it’s the band’s drummer Anthony Chan who directs his own biopic, returning to the director’s chair for the first time since 1992’s My Americanized Wife. Starting out with the Loosers struggling as a ‘garage band’ in the back of a shop owned by the lead guitarist’s father, their fortunes rise with a name-change and the addition of lead vocalist Alan Tam and vocalist-rhythm guitarist Kenny Bee.

It rises so fast, in fact, that we see the band transition from grungy cover band to Cantopop pioneers without so much as a time-skip montage. Sitting somewhere between Jersey Boys and That Thing You Do, with a sprinkling of Backbeat thrown in for good measure, it becomes rapidly obvious that this is more about greatest hits than deep cuts. Chan knows that the meat of the story is in the conflicts that arise from Alan Tam and Kenny Bee’s solo careers, although this transition is also treated in a linear and perfunctory fashion.

The closest we get to some of the angst behind the music is unsurprisingly through director Chan’s own on-screen avatar. Coming into conflict with his father over his choice of profession, there’s a highly stylised and angry drum solo (the best kind of drum solo, really) that’s filled with flashbacks. Similarly, guitarist Ah Kin’s cheerleading father (played by the ubiquitous Simon Yam, a veteran of over 200 productions) serves as the mouthpiece for his son being sidelined in the band. Indeed, it’s fair to say that his protestations are the proxies for the band’s internal monologues. Both of these threads add a personal touch to the overview, and a familiar subtext about father-son relationships.

Where Chan’s film soars is in the production design, a wonderfully retro explosion of 1960s/1970s aesthetics. Skies are vividly realised backdrops of red and blue. The colour saturation on every article of clothing or slickly quaffed hairstyle is turned up to 11. At times the band is silhouetted against the neon signs of period Hong Kong as they croon into the night. At others, there’s a series of frenetic cuts as the boys do “Flight of the Bumblebee” a cappella while they boss battle a guitar hero. These nutty non sequiturs are completely silly, but also expertly executed and endearing.

The one constant thread throughout the film is a geeky fan that we see in the first audiences right through to the more recent reunions. Chan has made this film for the fanbase that she represents, even if newer initiates don’t learn much more than “they were a band.” Yet as Chan peppers his coda with actual footage from the Wynners’ entire career, along with the acting roles of Alan Tam and Kenny Bee, he makes a pretty good case for their importance as one of Hong Kong’s cultural institutions.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | Hong Kong | DIRECTOR: Antony Chan | WRITER: Antony Chan | CAST: Carlos Chan, Jonathan Wong, Tan, Eugene Tang, Lam Yiu-sing, Him Ng, Simon Yam, Kara Wai | DISTRIBUTOR: Sil-Metropole Organisation Limited, New York Asian Film Festival (US) | RUNNING TIME: 99 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 2 July 2018 (NYAFF)[/stextbox]

July 2, 2018
Review: The Breaker Upperers

New Zealand comedy has broken out onto the world stage in strange and magical ways over the years. Flight of the Conchords gave us a taste of its unique beats, while Thor: Ragnarok proved it was possible to caress the Antipodean humour into a blockbuster. THE BREAKER UPPERERS is a fiercely proud Kiwi comedy, and unquestionably one of the funniest films of the year so far.

Jen (Jackie van Beek) and Mel (Madeleine Sami) have been friends for 15 years, ever since they discovered that they were being two-timed by the same man. Now they run a business where they break up relationships for cash. Sometimes it’s elaborate plots involving faked deaths and pregnancies, at other times it’s a phone call. However, after victim Anna (Celia Pacquola) reminds Mel of her conscience, the unstoppable friendship begins to crumble.

Comedy is pretty subjective, but co-stars/writers/directors Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami manage to find the right balance of pathos and side-splitters. Pacquola’s performance, in her debut feature, is the embodiment of this approach. Introduced with a comically awkward extended bout of sobbing, her increasing bout of bad luck pushes through the tragic and comes out the other side as hilarious. (“I used to have a cat. But it died. I think.”)

Yet as a platonic rom-com, it’s the interplay between van Beek and Sami that hits us in the feels and funnybones. There’s verbal sparring filled with razor sharp dialogue. Then it’s the height of glorious silliness as the duo recreate a karaoke video for Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” If the film meanders, it’s when the pair aren’t on speaking terms, but that really only reinforces how strong this team is.

The rest of the film is filled with a who’s who of Kiwi comedy. There’s the obligatory appearance of Jermaine Clement as a random Tinder date. If James Rolleston, as a client/would-be love interest for Mel, it’s because he’s the slightly grown up star of Taika Waititi’s Boy (2010). Newcomer Ana Scotney creates a street-wise character as iconic as any of New Zealand’s countless cinematic eccentrics.

Ending with a dance sequence set to K-Ci & JoJo’s “All My Life” is about as perfect a way to wrap up a comedy as any, leaving the audience with a joyous celebration of the assembled talents on screen. Here’s looking forward to more from this team. See it as soon as possible so you can have bragging rights when they get their eventual Hollywood franchise.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | New Zealand | DIR:Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami | WRITER:Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami, James Rolleston | CAST: Jackie van Beek, Madeleine Sami, Celia Pacquola, Ana Scotney | DISTRIBUTOR: Madman Entertainment | RUNNING TIME: 82 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 6 June 2018 (SFF), 26 July 2018 (AUS) [/stextbox]

June 8, 2018
Review: Ocean’s 8

Cinematic franchises are a slick heist pulled on cinema audiences around the world. We’ll buy into any form of remake or sequel if it promises a hint of a wider universe. OCEAN’S 8 does a fair bit of teasing, but like the best con jobs, the illusion of originality is all smoke and mirrors. It still doesn’t stop it from being a bit of fun.

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) is released from prison after a 5 year stretch for a job she was also conned into. For her entire incarceration, she has been plotting to swindle the Met Gala in a scheme that would make her late brother Danny proud. All she needs is a gang, which she finds in the form of Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, and Helena Bonham Carter.

Formulas work. For that reason, it’s prudent not to shake them up too much. A change of cast and locale aside, the film wastes no time in getting the various players down to work. As with pretty much any heist film in history, 80% of director Gary Ross and co-writer Olivia Milch’s script is spent in exposition and cool planning montages. When something goes spectacularly right, we are simply told that it is the result of Ocean’s impeccable planning. When something goes wrong, well…nothing actually goes wrong. Ever. It’s a series of things happening that’s light on connective tissue.

This is probably because the Ocean’s films have never been about the heists so much as the interactions between an eclectic group of amazing actors and personalities. Bullock’s natural lead works opposite Blanchett because the latter – all motorcycle jackets and bootleg booze – is playing against type (if Blanchett can be said to have a ‘type’). Similarly, it’s terrific to see Paulson in such a key fence role. Kaling is completely in tune with her own public persona and channels it seamlessly into a jewelry maker, and Carter just does her weird thing she does so well. Anne Hathaway is clearly having a ball as a vain starlet, even if the appearance of Anna Wintour was a missed opportunity for a Devil Wears Prada reference.

Rihanna doesn’t have to do much beyond type furiously and throw shade, but at least her Twitter followers will be right at home. Awkwafina is the real gem of the casting here, her slacker skater vibe stealing scenes and making us look forward to Crazy Rich Asians later this year. As Bullock’s Ocean notes, “A him gets noticed. A her gets ignored. For once we want to be ignored.” Which is the casting philosophy as well. For once, it’s the men who are given perfunctory backseat status. Even so, the baffling late addition of James Corden fails to land any impact beyond the credits.

There’s a ton of cameos, both from the previous films and from the New York fashion industry. Zac Posen, Katie Holmes, and Heidi Klum in quick succession almost make this feel like a Project Runway crossover. So while it’s a film that’s almost complete free of drama or conflict, save for a brief subplot involving Richard Armitage as Ocean’s ex, it’s one that has a blast while never straying too far from its roots. As Ocean says in the final moments, raising a martini glass to her absent brother, “You would have loved it.”

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | US | DIR: Gary Ross | WRITERS: Gary Ross, Olivia Milch | CAST: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway | DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 7 June 2018 (AUS)[/stextbox]

June 6, 2018
Review: Hamon: Yakuza Boogie

The yakuza genre is always prime for a good ribbing, especially given that storytellers tend to invest the tales with a kind of operatic seriousness. Hiroyuki Kurokawa’s series of bestselling books have done just that, and the adaptation of the fifth book in the series brings audiences something that is both anarchic and downbeat.

Borderline broke and struggling to make the rent, slacker Keisuke Ninomiya (Yu Yokoyama) is a construction consultant to the yakuza, calling in the latter to ‘settle’ disputes. Through this work, he liaises with gangster Yasuhiko Kuwahara (Kuranosuke Sasaki). When Kei is called up by film producer Koshimizu (Isao Hashizume), he convinces yakuza leader Shimada (Jun Kunimura) to invest money in the production. However, Koshimizu absconds, setting in motion a multi-gangster pursuit of the rogue.

It’s hard to tell what genre director Shotaro Kobayashi wants to slot it into at first, with a Lynchian pre-credits sequence of Kei floating (or falling) through space followed by a heavy rock title sequence. Perhaps the closest we get to a description of the tone comes from Koshimizu’s talking up of the novel (“Frozen Moon”) he is allegedly adapting: “It’s hard-boiled but not manga-esque.”

At it’s heart, HAMON: YAKUZA BOOGIE (破門ふたりのヤクビョーガミ) is a buddy-comedy. As a road movie there’s an episodic nature to the events as well, taking us from the streets of Osaka to the hotel casinos of Macao. Yet the firmly grounded nature of the script means that it is given to it’s own measured pace, surprisingly downbeat at times with random acts of violence. Even this is played for laughs, albeit a bit of a dark chuckle.

None of which would work without the understated talents of the lead. Yokoyama slides effortlessly into the put-upon Kei, consistently underestimated by seasoned gangster Kuwahara. Yet it’s Sasaki (Flower and Sword, A Beautiful Star) who shines in every moment on screen, whether it’s the casual contempt on his face, the disarming athleticism, or singing The Manhattan’s “There’s No House Without a Home” on karaoke. In fact, the latter might be one of the most outstanding scenes in the entire film.

The back half of the film certainly sits in a cycle of episodic scenes as the various people looking for Koshimizu converge into a singular story thread. Nevertheless, hopefully this will lead into more adventures of this unlikely duo, with plenty more of Kurokawa’s works left to adapt. HAMON: YAKUZA BOOGIE puts down a fun foundation for what could be a series we’d happily return to annually.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | Japan | DIR: Shotaro Kobayashi | WRITERS: Katsuhiko Manabe, Shotaro Kobayashi, Kensaku Kojima | CAST: Yu Yokoyama, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Isao Hashizume, Jun Kunimura, Keiko Kitagawa | DISTRIBUTOR: Japanese Film Festival (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 120 minutes | RELEASE DATE: October – December 2017 (JFF) [/stextbox]

October 17, 2017
Review: Tragedy Girls

Tyler MacIntyre’s TRAGEDY GIRLS might begin with a scene that could be in any horror film, with lovers in a car interrupted by a bloody murder. Yet this film is anything but typical, joyously rampaging its way through the tropes of the genre and leaving them bloody in its wake.

Death-obsessed teenagers and BFFs Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand) and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) run a social media channel that they will do anything to promote. That includes kidnapping a local serial killer (Kevin Durand) and making him be a mentor, and starting a killing spree of their own. In between cheerleading practice, of course.

It’s easy to make comparisons to Scream with TRAGEDY GIRLS, and it certainly shares a thread of self-aware ribbing of the genre. Apart from updating the references to the social media generation, it distinguishes itself by making the audience complicit in the acts as we actively cheer on the success of these fledgling psychopaths. As the adults around them refuse to take the cue and see a pattern of mayhem, there’s a sense of wanting to see them caught as well, so everyone can bask in the cleverness of it all.

Much of this is thanks to the central performances of Hildebrand (Deadpool) and Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse), who sit in the nexus of being alternative outcasts and Heathers. Their deadpan delivery of fairly maniacal plotting is so matter of fact, we have no choice but to happily go along with it.

Their escalating slayings are a combination of convenience and attempts to boost ‘likes’ on their social channels. Make no mistake: even though this is sharp satire, the blades and other killing implements are just as sharp, with the blood running freely in a variety of creative outlets. The desire to see more over-the-top killings puts us right where MacIntyre wants us, buying into the exhibitionism of a generation raised to be their own paparazzi.

Yet what’s ultimately remarkable about TRAGEDY GIRLS is that it works both as a horror film and a clever dissection of them. It’s clear from this, and MacIntyre’s previous throwback film Patchwork, that he has a distinct love of the genre. As a result it never feels like it is mocking or belittling the patterns, but celebrating and exaggerating theme. Fun and frenetic, it’s the bloodiest feel-good film about friendship of the year.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIR: Tyler MacIntyre | WRITERS: Chris Lee, Hill Tyler MacIntyre | CAST: Alexandra Shipp, Brianna Hildebrand, Josh Hutcherson, Craig Robinson, Kevin Durand, Jack Quaid | RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes | DISTRIBUTOR: SUFF (AUS) | RELEASE DATE: 15 September 2017 (SUFF)[/stextbox]

September 16, 2017
Review: The Big Sick

Everyone has dating nightmare stories, but Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon’s might just trump them all. ‘Girlfriend in a coma’ might sound like the start of a song by The Smiths, but it is the autobiographical basis for the clever rom-com, THE BIG SICK.

Kumail, playing a version of himself, is a Chicago stand-up comedian trying to break through into the big time. After meeting Emily (Zoe Kazan) at a gig, the pair begin to date. However, Kumail’s traditional Pakistani Muslim family continues to arrange marriage dates for him, something he is unable to tell Emily about. Just as his warring worlds come to a head, Emily falls into a coma. So begins an awkward relationship between Kumail and Emily’s parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano).

Apart from the strange-but-true premise, what immediately separates THE BIG SICK from the romantic comedy pack is its authenticity. From the opening moments of the film, during Nanjiani’s stand-up routine about Pakistan, everything has a ring of truth about it. Surrounding himself with actual comedians, including Aidy Bryant and Bo Burnham, the conversations between him and Kazan in the club are reportedly verbatim for Nanjiani’s first words with Gordon. Likewise, their biggest fight of the film is a gut-punch because of its realness.

As the film makes a tonal shift following Emily’s illness, the comedy comes from unexpected but equally genuine sources. Hunter and Romano are adept at awkwardly letting their emotions out at inappropriate times, from frat boy fights in comedy clubs to disarmingly hilarious riffs on 9/11. Likewise, Kumail’s fictional parents – including Anupam Kher in his 500th screen role – never fall into caricature, and have their own devastating monologues before the film is done. As for Nanjiani and Kazan, the only thing that stops them from being the screen’s most adorable couple is that they have the real-life Nanjiani and Gordon to measure up to.

If you have gone through a process of long-term illness or grief, you’ll know that the process is neither linear or completely serious all of the time. THE BIG SICK finds the balance between reality and fiction, playing up scenarios where appropriate and subverting genre tropes in others. Given the subject matter, we sincerely hope there isn’t a sequel for these characters, but they are nevertheless folks would enjoy spending a little more time with.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIR: Michael Showalter | WRITERS: Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon | CAST: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar, Anupam Kher | DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 124 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 3 August 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]

August 3, 2017
Review: Paris Can Wait

The Coppola clan is one of the few dynasties left in Hollywood, with every generation directly involved in the filmmaking business. With PARIS CAN WAIT, the 80-year-old Eleanor Coppola makes her narrative drama debut, following a career of acclaimed documentaries such as Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.

The plot is simplicity itself, with Anne (Diane Lane) visiting Cannes with her movie producer husband Michael (Alec Baldwin). His work keeps him at arm’s length, especially when he has to suddenly go to Budapest for work. Unable to follow due to an ear infection, Anne agrees to let business associate Jacques (Arnaud Viard) drive her to Paris. Yet what should be a 7 hour trip becomes a leisurely and frustrating foodie’s journey across country.

PARIS CAN WAIT mirrors the thematic core (and a number of the story details) of daughter Sofia’s Lost in Translation, yet is completely devoid of that film’s nuance or personality. In fact, it’s also a bit like Michael Winterbottom directing A Trip to Paris, but instead of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon doing Michael Caine impersonations, we have Lane and Viard approximating humans.

Writer/director Coppola assumes that audiences will want Anne and Jacques to get together, but neither of them is especially easy to like. Lane’s tin-eared performance happy snaps her way through a stranger in a strange land narrative, while Viard does few favours for the reputation of cliché of the freewheeling and smug French. Indeed, the handful of honest emotional moments they share take a literal turn off the beaten path, cramming in past secrets as if they were yet another meal.

It is only Michael’s absence that makes the possibility of this affair tangible. Despite what the publicity might indicate, Alec Baldwin quite literally phones in most of his performance from off-camera. This long-distance relationship is the permission the audience is given for cheering on the idea of an affair. The rest of the film seems to be saying, ‘Hey, it’s okay: this is France. It’s what we do.’

Given the high calibre of the star talent, and the international standing of the director, PARIS CAN WAIT is one big missed opportunity. A heavy use of convention aims to make this a crowd-pleaser, but it is also determined to rob itself of any personality along the way. If you love watching people eat cheese in pretty places, this might be the film for you. Everybody else can (and should) wait.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIR: Eleanor Coppola | WRITERS: Eleanor Coppola | CAST: Diane Lane, Alec Baldwin, Arnaud Viard | DISTRIBUTOR: Transmission Films| RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 20 July 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]

July 16, 2017