Trainwreck

"I had like two drinks... Three max... Four, now that I'm tallying."

While the gross-out sex comedy is hardly a fresh genre, the "woman's" gross-out sex comedy is still finding new ground to break all the time.  On TV, Amy Shumer's sketch comedy series (as well as her stand-up routine) has proved to be bold, crude, and even thought-provoking.  Shumer really knows how to infuse her sloppy, slutty, drunk persona with depth and hilarious charm (something other female comedians like Chelsea Handler with similar schticks can't seem to get a grasp on).  I wasn't sure how Shumer's style would translate successfully to the feature length rom-com world, but I never doubted for a second that it would, especially with Judd Apatow in the director's chair.  And, low and behold, Trainwreck is a pretty great movie, filled with huge laughs fueled by raunchy humor, a deliberate mix-up of gender norms, and even though the plot may be predictable at times, there's enough heart to make it all work.

"You're prettyish, but you're not too gorgeous.  You're approachable."

Ever since Amy (Amy Shumer) was a little girl, her father (Colin Quinn) instilled a philosophy on her and her sister Kim (Brie Larson): monogamy isn't realistic.  Years later, Amy lives in New York, constantly sleeping around, getting drunk, high, and (most importantly) never spends the night with any guy or calls them the next day.  She also works for a magazine called S'nuff, writing tacky articles about celebrities and sex.  She reluctantly accepts an assignment to do a story on a sports doctor named Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), in spite of her hatred of all things sporty.  Against her own rules, she spends the night with him and even begins falling in love with him.   Having never been in a relationship, she feels uncomfortable with sincerity and commitment, afraid she'll end up just like her father.  Meanwhile, said father's heath is declining at a nursing home that she and her sister can barely afford.

"We watching Downton Abey later?"

The cast, led stunningly by Shumer, is clearly having a lot of fun and improvising like the pros they are.   Comedic timing is key to making the material work, and there more than a handful of scenes that rely solely on the ability of the cast to deliver the laughs.  There are even scenes where comedy and drama are mixed, an Apatow staple that never fails to hit the mark. Hader and Shumer have some chemistry, but it's not exactly the Fourth of July when they're together.  The supporting characters add a lot of charisma to the plot, with LeBron James playing himself in a surprisingly sensitive and frugal way that leads to some of the movie's funniest scenes. Tilda Swinton is effectively icey-hearted as Amy's boss Diana, and there are a slew of celebrity cameos in the form of SNL alums and sports stars, adding in tons of unexpected fun.

"Before you judge, you should know, I'm doing fine."

Trainwreck may not be reinventing traditional rom-com tropes, but it does knowingly take those tropes and invert the genders of the characters normally associated with them.  Who's the one always afraid of commitment in a romance?  Who always has their head in the gutter, constantly thinking about sex?  Who has to win back the other lover in the end because of a stupid mistake they made? The man, of course.   However, just like in her TV series, Shumer takes the typical media's depiction of men and women and exposes them for their inaccuracies (a sketch about Disney princesses exemplifies that idea perfectly).  In Trainwreck, the men talk about love, connections, relationships, and trust.  The women talk about their careers and getting laid, objectifying men almost entirely.  This is all done very tongue-in-cheeck so that the characters are kept likable and there's no serious reverse misogyny; I see it as more of a commentary on the ways that most men and women are portrayed in the media. Seeing these cliches displayed with a gender swap exposes the contrivance of it all.  It also shows how much gender roles have already changed in the 21st century, with the script obviously exaggerating them.

"Why would he call? You guys just had sex."

Like most Apatow movies, there are a few scenes that play out a bit too long or that take a joke and run too far with it. While John Cena is pretty good as Amy's sort-of boyfriend in the first act, his "joke" is muddled.  The idea is that he's this big, hulking dude who has a sensitive soul, doesn't like to talk dirty during sex, and is far too clingy (in keeping with the film's gender swapping themes), and that's good enough.  But (and I speculate that this is the result of improvising) his character is built also built on another joke, that he might be secretly gay.  These two things contradict each other, making him stick out badly in a sea of really well-developed characters.  And considering how inconsequential he is to the story, why did he need to be in the film so much at all?  Another character that falls a bit flat is Amy's adopted nephew Allister, who might have been conceived as a mockery of Gary Stu-style child characters, but his scenes are tainted with some juvenile mean-spiritedness.  While that's certainly not the only time the film is juvenile (or mean spirited for that matter), it was the only time it didn't come across as funny.

"Don't hurt him."

What you find funny is, or course, subjective.  However, it's hard to resist that charm and humor of Trainwreck, with its smart script, excellent cast, and its use of sexual humor to actively mock rom-com media while still producing a story with plenty of heart.  Amy Shumer and Judd Apatow seem to be made for each other, with their individual styles perfectly complimenting the other.  My cheeks were killing me from laughing by the end of it all, and I felt like I'd been though something with the characters.  Incorporating her life-inspired stand-up material was a smart but risky move by Shumer, one that could have resulted in a clunky narrative or, at worst, cheaply recycled material.  But the sincerity on display guides the movie along effortlessly, getting me excited to see whatever Shumer endeavors to do next.

8/10

Inside Out

 "Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life's problems."

Pixar's history as an animation studio is really remarkable.  After its partnership with Disney, it produced the very first fully computer animated movie in history: Toy Story.  It changed the industry forever; non-musical narratives, 3D characters and environments, and contemporary humor and dialogue became the standard for American animated movies by the time Toy Story celebrated it's 10th birthday.  Now here we are, celebrating its 20th birthday, and how much does Inside Out owe to what's come before it?  Well, everything and nothing.  It's no secret that the past four years have seen Pixar at its lowest point, with sequels and prequels no one asked for and a fantasy that should have been epic but came up short. Hell, last year there was no Pixar movie, and did people riot in the streets?  No. It appeared as though Pixar had just lost its edge.

However, the studio that changed everything came roaring back with a vengeance this summer with a film helmed by Pete Doctor (director of Up and Monsters, Inc.).  You want memorable characters?  Creativity?  Impeccable animation and voice acting?  Do you want your children to cry like you cried when Mufasa died?  Then buddy, why haven't you seen Inside Out yet?  The world that Doctor and the rest of the creative team have created is beyond anything I was expecting from a movie featuring characters manifested as color-coded emotions.  The themes and message of the movie work in conjunction with the story and characters in ways that make it all look so easy, though I would bet a million bucks that it wasn't.  Like Up, there is so much emotion running through the veins of the movie that it takes on a life all its own, and can easily stand among Pixar's best.

Riley is a girl from Minnesota who lives with her two loving parents.  She loves playing hockey and spending time with her family and friends, all the while five little entities in her mind demonstrate what she's going through on a totally different level.  These emotions manifest themselves in Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling).  These emotions all work in conjunction to keep Riley safe, happy, and healthy (at least in the psychological sense).  They all influence Riley (though rarely ever directly affect her actions) through a control console that they all share, with Joy more or less hogging the panel to keep Riley happy while ignoring Sadness entirely.  When Riley's family moves to San Francisco, one bad thing happens after the next happens to them.  She misses her old life and the way things used to be, and while her emotions scramble to figure out how best to keep her happy, Sadness keeps interfering with Riley's old core memories (manifested as crystal ball-like orbs), which leads the other emotions to wonder why she's even there.

It might appear from that summary of the film's first act that Sadness is the film's main antagonist, but that's the beauty of Inside Out.  It defies expectations, constantly leading the audience down a path that should be riddled with cliches but instead decides to linger on its ideas and develop its themes until we're left with something much deeper than we were expecting.  That's not to say that the story is complicated; it's actually simple and straightforward.  There are no underwhelming subplots to muddle the main parallel stories - the one dealing with Riley in the real world and the adventures the emotions are having - which are both tightly written and executed.  While the concept of emotions having emotions isn't exactly new (even Osmosis Jones toyed with this concept), it's never been so well-realized.

The casting is incredibly on point; more specifically, Poehler, Black, and Smith were born to play these roles.  Even though celebrity casting in animation can be distracting, the actors disappear into their roles thanks to the engaging story and incredible animation.  Each of the emotion characters are designed with an aura about them that demonstrates exactly what they are; tangible realizations of intangible ideas.  Essentially, they seem to be made from tiny, fuzzy particles that glow.  The environments in both the real world and the world of Riley's subconscious are brought to life in the typical Pixar fashion as well, which is to say that they are expansive, incredibly detailed, and filled with eye-meltingly gorgeous colors.

It's best to end here before I give something away, but all you need to know is that there was hardly a dry eye in my crowded theater by the end.  Children were escorted out, parents were reaching for more tissues... it was beautiful.  Inside Out is one of the best animated movies in recent years, and got my confidence up for more Pixar masterpieces to follow.  I guess Pixar's return to form will really be tested with The Good Dinosaur, premiering later this year (which, if it's anywhere near as good, will be the first time that two Pixar movies will be competing for best animated feature at the Oscars... OH THE DRAMA).  What a relief to have you back, Pixar!

10/10

ParaNorman (2012)

Originally posted on October 19th, 2013

ParaNorman falls comfortably into a category of movie I like to call the creepy stop-motion kid's movie.  From an outside perspective, it seems like these movies are all trying to be the next Nightmare Before Christmas, Laika studios seems to have a different agenda: tell funny, original stories edgier and deeper than most American animated movies.  Oh, and use the most gorgeous, cutting-edge stop-motion animation out there.  While the story of a kid who learns to "be himself" through some kind of magical adventure has been absolutely done to death, I can safely say that ParaNorman is not your average family film by a wide margin.

The story follows 11-year-old Norman Babcock, a ghost-whisperer outcast at his school situated in a very Salem-esque town that sells itself as a witchy tourist attraction.  About 300 years ago, a witch was hanged for her heathen ways and cursed the townspeople who sentenced her. The story has become nothing more than an excuse for the town to sell cheap knickknacks and dress everyday stores in tacky witch decorations.  As the town prepares to celebrate the anniversary of the hanging, Norman starts getting strange visions doom, and the threat of the dead zombies rising from the grave to terrorize the town grows ever near.  Norman, with his gift to speak with the dead, is the only hope the town has to survive. Or at least, that's what the story appears to be at first.

It turns out to be much deeper and complex than a typical "be yourself" story.  The theme of "revenge on your bullies" is a challenging and well-developed idea that actually applies to the witch character more than it does to Norman.  He becomes more confident in his abilities and his relationships with the other characters develops in both predictable and not so predictable ways. The supporting characters are drop-dead hilarious most of the time, but they also grow past their stock cliches to become well-developed in their own right (more so than say, the supporting kid characters in How to Train Your Dragon).

Norman's sister Courtney, his friend Neil, Neil's brother Mitch, and a bully named Alvin all get tangled up in Norman's quest, and they all provide really great comic relief.  I love it when a movie can enjoyed by a kid, but an adult can enjoy it for totally different reasons.  It's great to see some humor that isn't necessarily politically correct, or what soccer moms deem as "appropriate." Correct me if I'm wrong, but this might be the first animated family movie EVER to have an openly homosexual character in it as well, and that's definitely something noteworthy (even if the reference is more of a punchline than any kind of social statement).  There's chemistry between the way the story works, the characters interact, and the humor flows.  Not to mention the gags with the crazy townspeople are comedy gold. Dialogue is well-written and the voice acting feels nice and natural, which is greatly appreciated in any animated film.

And now for the really good stuff.  ParaNorman looks fantastic; one of the best stop-motion films I've ever witnessed in terms of look alone.  Designed by a newbie straight out of art school, the film has a lopsided look that pervades every set, character, and prop on screen.  Dr. Seuss would be proud; I don't think there's a single straight line in the entire film.  My words here don't do it justice. You need to see the film to really appreciate the extreme exaggerations in the character designs or the gorgeous fluidity of the animation. I understand that some of the elements were accomplished with CGI, but you still get that great feeling of watching real objects moving in the real world in a totally unreal way.  It's a charm that is entirely unique to stop-motion animation, and with the way Laika pushes the boundaries of the medium (they produced Coraline as well, if you couldn't tell from every single ad). In theaters, I didn't see the 3D version, and I'm fine with that.  I can make out the hand-crafted artistry a lot easier in nice, bright 2D anyway.

My big nitpick with the film is a story element. There's no explanation as to why there are dozens of ghosts all over the town in the beginning scene and in the rest of the film they are completely absent. This was cleared up in a deleted scene where Norman's grandmother says that they all fled when the witch's curse was unleashed, and that is a perfect explanation. However, it is missing from the finished film, which makes that aspect a glaring plot hole.  Norman doesn't even attempt to seek help from the ghosts around him, which just doesn't make any sense.

ParaNorman's unremarkable box office numbers left me a little concerned. While I'm sure that stop-motion films are far from dead, we all know that studios, above all, want to make money. Unfortunately, the year 2012 had three major stop-motion films that all underperformed, especially poor Frankenweenie.  It's clear that the American public just isn't that excited whenever a new stop-motion film comes out, and that's a damn shame. I'm also continuously perplexed as to how Brave won the Oscar for Best Animated Film that year.  I'll get into my personal thoughts on that movie another time, but let me make it clear that it was no "best of anything" picture that year.  Oscar politics aside, this is a film that has officially made it into my cycle of yearly Halloween films, not only due to its substance and humor, but for its horror aspects as well.  While it does have some fun parodying horror films, it has plenty of creepy imagery all its own. Paranorman is a near-perfect combination of elements that I love. 

9/10

Spy

Let me get this out of the way real fast: Spy is such a lame title.  That's one of the most uncreative titles I've ever seen and was part of the reason I didn't want to see this movie at first.  It looked like yet another unwanted spy genre spoof that would exploit Melissa McCarthy for being overweight.  We also can't forget that  while she's a very charming actress, McCarthy hasn't starred in a good movie since Bridesmaids back in 2011.  I'm pleased to report that this is, in fact, her best film since Bridesmaids, which is fitting since the two films share the same director, Paul Feig (who writes this time  as well).  McCarthy carries the movie with ease as she endures only some fat-shaming humor while injecting tons of heart into her character.  It's also just a hell of a lot of fun.

Susan Cooper (McCarthy) is a mild-mannered CIA analyst feeling a bit down on herself.  Her partner, a super slick spy named Agent Fine (Jude Law), whose life she saves multiple times a day, doesn't seem to notice that she has feelings for him.  During one of Fine's missions to stop a Bulgarian scientist with a nuclear bomb, things go sour.  The CIA is put in an impossible situation due to a leakage of all their current agents' identities, meaning no one can be safely put out into the field to track down the location of the bomb (and no, they don't have a face/off machine).  Susan, who tested to be a field agent years ago and did amazingly well, volunteers to go undercover and track down the daughter of the man who invented the bomb, Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), as she may be the only one who knows its location.  Susan, who is constantly forced to don hilariously unflattering fake identities, goes beyond her simple protocol of tracking from afar and after a few wacky (and violent) situations, she gains the trust of Rayna and evolves into a better spy than the ridiculously experienced Rick Ford (Jason Statham), much to his dismay.

This is exactly the kind of spy comedy I like: a strong story, endearing characters, spy-movie tropes hilariously turned on their heads, and great action.  If Archer were ever turned into a live action movie, it might resemble something like this.  McCarthy is a sweet character when she's playing the timid Susan, but she really gets to show off some acting muscle when she has to convince Rayna that she's a tough-as-nails body guard in the second act.  The R-rating is mostly earned through the movie's excessive f-bombs, but that's perfectly fine with me.  Every terrible thing Susan has to say to keep up her spy character is clearly making her uncomfortable, but she pushes hard enough to make it all seem convincing.  That's the character getting uncomfortable, which is an acting challenge that McCarthy meets with stunning results.

She's not the only great thing about Spy though.  Statham and Byrne are relentlessly hilarious with their deadpan delivery of some pretty ridiculous lines, often hitting just the right note between taking the material seriously and (with Statham in particular) practically playing parodies of themselves. The characters are also more developed than you might expect, particularly Susan and Rayna, whose friendship develops further the more despicable they are to each other.  Like this year's Kingsmen: The Secret Service, the action is more violent than usual for a comedy and often beautifully choreographed and shot.  No cheap shaky-cam gimmicks and no crazy quick-cutting; this action hits you in the gut like it's supposed to. 

The story does tend to get a little muddled in its betrayals and unnecessary double agent characters, and Jude Law does a less than successful American accent when it actually would have suited his character just fine to be British.  I mean, James Bond is British, isn't he?  There are a few jokes that run on too long, which is understandable when you consider most of the jokes probably involved heavy improvising, but there comes a point when a joke makes its point and you have to move on (especially fat jokes at the expense of the film's star).  Feig had this problem in Bridesmaids and its present and accounted for here in just enough scenes to make it annoying.  There's also a sex-crazed character played by Peter Serafinowicz who's one joke gets stretched far beyond what would have been acceptable.

It can't be said that this is quite as great as Bridesmaids, but it's definitely made with the same spirit.  Spy works as a wacky comedy and as a thriller without getting the two tones jumbled, and that's quite an impressive feat.  While the plot gets a little busy toward the end and not every joke or character knocks it out the park, it's still a fantastically funny ride.  If McCarthy's great performance weren't enough, it's got enough solid action to entertain junkies and enough themes about self-acceptance to give it some substance.  It would be nice to see a sequel does something new with these characters, but in all honesty this is more than enough for me.

8/10