Film Review: Spring (2014)

Copyright: XYZ Films

Spring movie will not work as a horror film, it dawned on me almost from the first moment the main character Evan enters a conversation with his friends in a bar and right after his mother dies.

Immediately, in a very self-aware and awkward way, the script is trying to convey the idea that it is very much in control of its inherent horror tropes and ideas. It will not cater to our expectation as a horror-loving audience, it body proclaims through witty dialogues and by sending its main character to a part exile, part road trip to Italy.

There, Evan meets a mysterious, but beautiful girl with whom he shares a love of being a smart-ass. But, in the distance of their growing relationship, something is amiss and it involves monsters, but also hurt puppy feelings. Here, the focus of the film is much more honest and relevant. As Even tries to get laid, but then not much later, tries to hold onto the woman of his life, the narrative structure of the film is solid.

But then, the whole supernatural-bodily terror vibe of the Spring movie as a horror has to be shown and like parents returning home too soon to find their child making out with the babysitter, it kills the mood. Here, the film feels forced and robbed of all spontaneity which it otherwise wears with pride when it comes to, for example, acting.

I’m almost under the impression that Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who directed the film, got stuck with the horror genre through some production deal with the devil and had to make it work. The same can be seen in many aerial shots made by a helicopter drone which would be better suited for a medium-budget tourist commercial of the same area.

In the Spring movie, the beautiful shots of the Italian coast just look like they were shot because the directors had to take that damn drone, so they crammed its footage into the film no matter how needed (or completely unneeded) it actually was.

But still, there is a spark of really potent energy in this film. I was most impressed by its quirky and unexpected humor, but also by the general vibe of other films that feature an American lost on the old Continent. Unfortunately, these bright spots were drowned by the unnecessary long ending sequence and the horror angle that just was not there. While films like Housebound and Suburban Gothic use elements of humor and characters that don’t fit into their new surroundings and make them work with the horror and the tension, this one mishandled it all the way through.

Crowdfunding push: The Fastest, Most Romantic Love Yet

With the title like The Fastest, Most Romantic Love Yet there should be little doubt that this Kickstarter campaign is aiming high when it comes to the plot of the film it was designed to support. Regarding its core narrative, its official page explains the plot like this:

Phoebe has a Tinder date in an hour and a half. Keith has a Tinder date in an hour and a half. Can you guess where we're going with this one? In a cafe, bubbly Ashlee explains to the shy MIT grad student Phoebe the Text Delay Theory and past relationships. At a bar, apparent writer Clay and frat bro Keith discuss the discovery of America and its relation to dating; their favorite porn genres; and the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

Along the way, others drop in on them: a surly bartender, a rational Neo-Nazi, a couple excited of Beats from out on the road, a hypocritical preacher, an intellectual feminist, a scientifically-illiterate MIT humanities professor, and a barfly philosopher.

Interspersed are interviews with couples who met through the decades of the twentieth century, from exchanging letters during the Korean War to meeting online. All leading up to the Tinder date. This is: "The fastest, most romantic love yet."

The film was imagined by Shane Butler, a young filmmaker who recently made an interesting indie feature-length comedy called Down the Cape. Now, he desires to make something through the influences of people like Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Linklater, while placing the plot (I’m guessing this) in a Seinfeld-like environment. Currently, the film’s crowdfunding campaign passed the 10% mark, and the initial goal is focused on getting the right sound recordist, which is a very smart move by Butler (and a necessity for a film like this to work).

If The Fastest, Most Romantic Love Yet seems interesting to you, check out their official page on Kickstarter and see who you can help it out.

If you're looking for exposure for your film-related project, contact me right here.

Film Review: Life after Beth

Copyright: A24

There is an emerging trend that offers a new incarnation of the horror comedy genre. Unlike its last versions from the late 80’s, where much focus was placed on slapstick and gore, the new films present a weird social enclosure in which the focus of the characters remains almost untouched by the events of the film, no matter how bloody or strange they become. These films present their own version of the reality where things like complex explanations of trivial occurrences or personal awkwardness remain relevant for the characters even while a horde of zombies bang on their door.

Summer of Blood is a perfect recent example of this notion, while some of it can be seen in films like This is the End and John Dies at the End. But Life after Beth is simply soaking in it, and thanks to it, the film provides a hilarious experience which only intensifies as the plot progresses.

In the film, a young man named Zach is devastated by the accidental death of his beloved girlfriend Beth. He tries to find some consolation with her laid back parents, until he notices that Beth is back at their home. He confronts all three; while Beth seems unaware of her resurrection; both her mother and father are bent on keeping this appearance of their daughter hidden, and demand that Zach plays along. He accepts, realizing that something much bigger and stranger is happening around them. Still, he remains oriented towards his relationship with the decomposing Beth.

There are so many fantastic comedic moments in this film that it is impossible to mention them all. The humor in Life after Beth includes situations of pointless and extremely unpleasant social interaction that look like they came straight from an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (along with the actress Cheryl Hines who also plays in the film). In other times, the film’s director Jeff Baena just stacks up characters and elements to a scene until it’s so preposterous that you can’t do anything but laugh.

His cast was chosen wisely, which means that everyone was up to the task when it comes to comedy. John C. Reilly is expectedly awesome as Beth’s dad who struggles to maintain some control, but the cast member who completely stole the show was Aubrey Plaza as the main corpse in the film. In the movie, Plaza alternates through many emotional states, often random, but was also ready to mix it up with some screaming and other equally visceral elements.

For a debut, Baena made a great film that really boldly stands on its own. Wisely, he steered clear of zombi apocalypse/romance reimagining plots like one in the film Warm Bodies. To watch Life after Beth is like queuing in line and listening to an older couple arguing in detail about their sex life and hearing how it includes a young Mexican wrestler, some fishing rods and a World of Warcraft gaming session. It might not come close to reality, but it is definitely an immensely fun experience.

Film Review: Don Jon

Copyright: Relativity Media

If you look at the façade of this movie, you might decide it’s about porn. Its main character is a New Jersey resident and a single bartender named Jon who loves only a few things in life: his friends, his car, his apartment, his muscles, his church, his one night stands with very attractive women he doesn’t know and his porn. He often has sex after he picks up girls in nightclubs, but admits to himself that only porn and masturbation in front of his laptop gives him the opportunity to lose himself.

The plot is simple as it sounds. Jon, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is satisfied with his life, but at the same time, perplexed why real sex with beautiful women (every one of them gets at least an eight on his ten-point-scale) doesn’t give him the same kick as porn does. Soon, he meets Barbara (played by Scarlett Johansson), a clear ten on his scale, who isn’t willing to become just another stranger Don welcomes to his apartment. Instead, she forces him to revise his way of life, and Don accepts. Yet still, porn prevails.

First of all Scarlett Johansson should be congratulated for one of her best roles in recent years. She is stunningly beautiful and aware of her sexual allure, while at the same time she constantly presents an almost stereotypical “Jersey girl” who is always chewing gum and does many things straight from a calmer episode of the Jersey Shore. Her character is seemingly simple, but gets more layers as Don tries to find a soul mate (and sex mate) in her. Johansson upheld Barbara in every step, and I hope she gets some big award nominations for her role. Julianne Moore, who plays the other important woman in Jon’s life, gives a solid effort, but pales in comparison.

The movie isn’t about addiction, or the horrors of jerking off to a porn website. It examines how the modern era, where children (both sexes) grew up with a specific world view, shaped their expectation on everything, including sex. The pornographic industry isn’t a scapegoat in this film; it’s just something that is around. Instead, the film focuses on the attitude of Jon, and it presents him as a regular person who somehow got alienated from the natural way of making love. The story actually chronicles the development of his new grounded sexuality, through pleasant and unpleasant experiences.

I was amazed how accurately Don Jon captured the current phenomenon of porn, without making it a subculture thing or generalizing in any way. It’s a stark contrast to films that try to make their whole plot about modern technology and the way it shapes our lives, like the movie The SocialNetwork, and for me, fail completely. I believe it’s because Gordon-Levitt, who also wrote the movie and directed it, really can connect to the occurrences of people enjoying porn more than real sex. He saw his generation migrate during childhood from Playboy magazines to VHS tapes and then to the glorious internet access, where porn became infinite. In The Social Network, David Fincher (who’s also a terrific director) was already in his forties when Facebook had been launched. It was clear to see that he simply didn’t have a way to relate to his topic, while Gordon-Levitt does that with ease.

The only visible downside in the directorial approach is the repetitive sequences – Don goes to the gym where he prays for repentance of his sins which involve sexual intercourse out-of-wedlock, masturbation and pornography watching, then he goes back home and cleans his apartment, and then he drives to church, and so on. I get that the idea was to show his life, but Gordon-Levitt pushed it too far and gained nothing by it. I don’t believe that the concept was flawed; just that he overdid it (going for, let’s say, four or five repetitive cycles, and showing one too many). This seems to me as a rookie mistake, maybe because the editing crew subconsciously wanted to extend the run time of the film (the ending credits start to roll after 84 minutes). But for a first time director, in spite of this, Don Jon is most definitely golden.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt created a light-hearted movie about the evolution of sexuality through the perspective of a man who doesn’t inspire to achieve greatness in any way. Instead, he just wants to find love that doesn’t include a computer monitor. It drives the audience by laughs, but is actually a serious drama about finding oneself in sex, even when sex is plentiful. 

Film Review: Drinking Buddies

Copyright: Magnolia Pictures

To me it seems odd to call this film a comedy. Although it does contain many awkward social and romantic moments that are so intense that they are unpleasant to watch, I didn’t experience it as a work of art that tries to entertain in any humorous way. For me, Drinking Buddies is a drama about finding a way of living after the fun of the first third of life has ended. While the party mentality still lingers on, in the background obligations, responsibilities and other changes menacingly start to appear on the horizon.

A bunch of enthusiastic, relatively young people work in a microbrewery. One of them is Kate, who is an organizer, and the other is her best friend Luke, who works a blue collared job.  Both are in stable relationships, but both live a really easy-going lifestyle that includes almost constant beer drinking. They hang out during and after work, and seem like an unusual pairing for friends. After they meet each others better halves, the four of them decide to take a weekend trip to a beach house. The trip changes everything between them. 

Drinking Buddies is superbly written. Joe Swanberg, who also directed it, did an amazing job, mostly with the dialogue and the way all the characters have a more or less closed personality. Also, they are constantly resisting change in one way or the other. A lot of situations in the film are really mundane and ordinary, but Swanberg transforms them in intense anticipation, as if at any moment something catastrophic will occur. His decision to make a film more like a snapshot of several interlocking lives than a fully formed story with a clear beginning, middle and an end will undoubtedly leave some viewers disappointed, but I enjoyed the ever-present ambiguity. I found the unclear atmosphere that lingers between everybody in the film as something that frighteningly resembles reality. 

This doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t communicate any broader message. The idea of drinking beer and having liquor shots in every situation and on every occasion ring really true. In today’s society it’s almost forgettable that alcoholism doesn’t always include that stereotypical image of a hobo with a brown paper bag. Instead, it is something that almost invisibly became a regular way of living, and Drinking Buddies didn’t turn a blind eye to it.

Olivia Wilde excels in the role of Kate. She is gorgeous, and her body looks amazing, yet she manages to present her character as a regular girl. She appears as if she isn’t aware of her good looks and acts as one of the guys. She is vulnerable, full of pride and totally in the dark about her own needs and wants. 

A generation is successfully presented in this film, and it’s not a generation that has a big war, big crisis or anything big. Their feelings are their biggest obstacle and, at the same time, their biggest driving force. Swanberg brilliantly depicted the way they try to fight for themselves, and avoided showing how they win or lose.