TOP FIVE: The Film Babble Blog Review

Opening today at a multiplex near you:

TOP FIVE (Dir. Chris Rock, 2014)

Finally, a good Chris Rock movie!

Yes, the third time is definitely the charm in the actor/comedian�s latest directorial effort after the critical and commercial flops that were HEAD OF STATE (2003) and I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE (2007).

In the semi-autobiographical TOP FIVE, Rock portrays movie star funnyman Andre Allen, who just like Rock�s idol Woody Allen in STARDUST MEMORIES, repeatedly says �I don�t want to make funny movies anymore.�

Rock�s Allen wants to hang up the bear costume he wore in the �Hammy the Bear� comedy buddy-cop franchise and be taken seriously in a historical drama about Haitian revolutionary Dutty Boukman called �Uprize,� which looks like a boring piece of Oscar bait.



Shades of TROPIC THUNDER, shades of Entourage, shades of every movie satirizing celebrity, but that�s so not a bad thing in these capable hands.

The film centers around Rock doing publicity for �Uprize� on its opening day, which is on the eve of his much hyped wedding to Gabrielle Union as socialite/reality TV star Erica Long.

In one of her most appealing performances, Rosario Dawson plays a New York Times reporter doing a profile on Rock, which he has mixed feelings about because the Times film critic, the fictitious James Nielson, has panned all his previous output.

With Rock and Dawson tooling around New York conversing about everything from PLANET OF THE APES to appraising favorite comic icons (Rock calls Charlie Chaplin �the KRS-One of comedy�), TOP FIVE can been seen as a �hangout movie.� Especially in a scene in which they visit Rock�s childhood home and chill with his family and childhood friends, mostly made up of SNL alumni including Jay Pharoah, Leslie Jones, and most hilariously, yet also sadly, a pre-accident Tracy Morgan, in which they discuss their individual top five rappers of all-time.

The laughs are consistent throughout, though some of the less successful bits concern relationship stuff. When Dawson catches her boyfriend cheating with another man and recounts via flashbacks how she should�ve known he was gay because of his anal fixation, it comes across like a throwaway joke sequence on the sitcom The Mindy Project, and not just because Dawson�s boyfriend is played by Anders Holm, who had an arc as one of Mindy Kaling�s suitors.

Otherwise, Rock, who unlike on his other films as director wrote this without a co-writer, has constructed a solid, thoughtful comedy that gives a bunch of his talented friends a chance to shine. 

An extended strip club scene, another of the many points in which the movie earns its hard R-rating, has funny turns by Jerry Seinfeld (you haven�t lived until you�ve seen Seinfeld make it rain at a strip club), Whoopi Goldberg, and Adam Sandler (funnier than he's been in a while on the big screen) playing themselves, and in another laugh out loud bit set in a jail cellblock, DMX sings and somehow nails Chaplin�s �Smile� in an unironic manner. J.B. Smoove and Cedric the Entertainer also amuse in their sideline roles. If you're a comedy fan at all, you won't want to miss this movie.

Resembling a hip (or hip hop) take on prime period Woody Allen, TOP FIVE is a bit uneven, and it won�t make my actual top 5 (or top 10) of movies of the year, but it�s an immensely enjoyable and heartfelt project that�s a big leap forward for Rock. Here�s hoping he builds on it � i.e. makes more ambitious and worthwhile work � instead of going back to the same ole crap.



In other words, I hope he makes like his character turning down another Hammy movie, and doesn�t take the call asking him to appear in GROWN UPS 3.

While movies like GROWN UPS and the assorted rom coms and animated films that have dominated his career of late have made me forget how crucial Rock can be, TOP FIVE really reminded me big time.

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Blu Ray/DVD Review: Michael Fassbender Under The Mask As FRANK

Out today on Blu ray and DVD:

FRANK

(Dir. Lenny Abrahamson, 2014)

For a movie about a front man for an underground indie rock band who wears a large papier-m�ch� head at all times, Lenny Abrahamson�s fourth feature FRANK is actually pretty grounded.

Michael Fassbender plays the title role loosely based on British singer/comedian Chris Sievey, who wore a similar fake head for his stage character, Frank Sidebottom.

Now, I won�t say whether or not the film�s Frank ever takes off the head, but I will venture that this wouldn�t be Mindy Kaling�s favorite Fassbender movie.

The real protagonist of the piece is Domhnall Gleeson as a somewhat awkward aspiring songwriter/keyboardist who joins �the Soronprfbs,� the unpronounceable name of Frank�s avant garde band project. Gleeson was recruited by the band�s manager (Scoot McNairy) after the previous keyboard player attempted suicide by drowning, so he may have bitten off more than he can chew.

Especially when Gleeson finds himself travelling with the band, that includes a deliciously surly Maggie Gyllenhaal on theremin, to a cabin out in the Irish countryside to record a album � a process that may take years. When Gleeson asks about the head, McNairy tells him that he�s �just gonna have to go with this.�

The experimental quintet, which also consists of Autolux/Jack White drummer Carla Azar, and French actor Fran�ois Civil, spends their days finding inspiration in odd ways, designing new instruments out of household items, and adhering to a �strict regime of physical exercise� while Gleeson documents their activity via Twitter and YouTube videos.

This, of course, like in so many films from THE ROCKER to CHEF, leads to the band becoming an internet sensation and garnering an invite to play South By Southwest. Sure, the social media marketing angle may be in danger of becoming a clich�, but it still works well enough here.

Unfortunately it loses some of its steam in the aftermath of their disastrous appearance at the popular music festival in Austin, Texas, in which Fassbender�s Frank goes missing, but the film�s thematic arc about whether mental illness can equate creative genius brings itself back home satisfyingly.

It�s weird to say that this may be the Fassbender role that appeals to me the most, you know, because he�s wearing that weird big head with the creepy painted-on fake face. Yet when he, speaking in a sharp American accent, states his facial expressions (�flattered grin, followed by a bashful half smile�), and performs his music, which sounds like a mixture of Daniel Johnston and Magnetic Fields, with a bit of the Flaming Lips thrown in, his surprisingly punchy presence is something I can relate to more than, well, SHAME for one. 

Gleeson, best known for playing Bill Weasley in the last couple of Harry Potter movies, isn�t as strong as Fassbender or Gyllenhaal, but is a likable enough bloke who does a decent job carrying us through the thread of the film. McNairy also puts in good work, but, you know, when Frank's around, everybody else just fade into the background.

FRANK was written by Peter Straughan and Jon Ronson, who had played keyboards with the film�s main inspiration (the aforementioned Chris Sievey, who you can see in this 1985 clip doing his thing), and it�s a much stronger collaboration than their previous work, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS.

I was surprised by several things about FRANK. Surprised by Fassbender�s performance, surprised by how thoughtful and thought-out its screenplay is, surprised by its likably catchy soundtrack, and, most of all, surprised that it�s become one of my favorite films of 2014.

Special Features: Feature commentary with Lenny Abrahamson, Domhnall Gleeson and composer Stephen Rennicks (composer), Feature commentary with writers Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan, Behind the Scenes featurette, Sound promo. Deleted scenes, and theatrical trailer.

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DVD Review: T.S. Slaughter's THE GAYS

THE GAYS (Dir.T.S. Slaughter, 2014)

�You�re going to grow up to be a strong...smart...slutty little faggot, oh yes, oh yes you are�� This is how a baby is welcomed to the world by his transsexual mother at the beginning of T.S. Slaughter�s second feature THE GAYS, out now on DVD.



But the baby wasn�t adopted, no, the comic conceit here is that a gay couple with the last name of Gay actually gave ass-birth (that�s right) to two boys. The film is about how they were raised � �The family that gays together stays together� is the movie�s tagline � as told by Mike Russnak as oldest son Alex to a guy he just met in at a gay bar (Nicholas Wilder).



This provides a clothes-line to hang a series of raunchy skits about lessons learned living in the Gay household. A bespectacled always newspaper-reading Frank Holiday and Chris Tanner decked out in vintage drag, play the parents, who have tons of advice to dole out all dealing with the literal ins and outs of gay sex.



Scores of gags about sex toys of every kind imaginable, bathhouse and public restroom hook-ups, gay ageism (gay-geism?), date rape, and even suicide litter the screen, all delivered with the same smarmy �nothing is taboo� mindset. And I�ve never seen this much phallic imagery, in the form of everything from plastic penis pacifiers to Christmas cookies adorned with dicks, well, ever.



I have to say at this point that I am so not in the target audience for this movie. I don�t believe it�s because I�m homophobic as a film full of crude jokes about heterosexual fetishes wouldn�t be my cup of tea either. A lot of the humor just didn't appeal to me especially in an extended Christmas scene full of �pornaments� and gay-themed gifts such as a �G.I. Joe with Rim-Job Butt� that made me cringe so hard that I couldn�t cringe again for days.



I also could�ve done without the disgusting flashback birthing scene that boiled down to yet another done-to-death EXORCIST spoof.



Yet, I still appreciate what T.S. Slaughter was going for in his follow-up to his 2007 debut SKULL & BONES. Often recalling the cheap, sleazy charm of John Waters� early work, THE GAYS is a dirty joke-book of a movie in which the characters are delivery devices for as many gross-out punch-lines that one could fit into a 68-minute feature. With its catchy theme song and house in suburbia setting, it could very well be a prototype for a gay Married With Children-type series, one that parodies gay panic by pushing the envelope as far as it can go.



The acting is no great shakes, but as the mother, Tanner stands out in a way that recalls Nathan Lane�s turn in THE BIRDCAGE. As the lead/narrator, Russnak could use a bit of training as he has a tendency to laugh in an obnoxious way at his own lines, and Wilder as the only character that resembles an actual human being is a good audience surrogate. His reactions at Russnak�s stories about his flaming family often mirrored mine.



It would be futile to say that THE GAYS is a tasteless trashy exercise because it has no goal of being tasteful or classy at all. It just wants to have fun with its over-the-top stereotypes, by putting them in pornographic scenarios (there�s lots of full frontal male nudity) and riffing on it in the guise of a helpful guide. As I said, it so wasn�t my thing, but folks who dig endlessly rude, crude, and extremely inappropriate scatological comedy may get a rise out of it.



Maybe you can deduce if THE GAYS is your thing by checking out theseYouTube clips of T.S.�s first �3 Gays� of the �12 Gays of Xmas�: Gay 1, Gay 2, & Gay 3.



If that gets you going, then you can order your own copy of THE GAYS at the film's official website. 



After that, you�re on your own.



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HORRIBLE BOSSES 2: A Tediously Tiresome Thanksgiving Turkey

HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 

(Dir. Sean Anders, 2014)

Okay, so yeah, the first film was a fluke � a one-off throwaway that was just funny enough to recommend. But the sequel, opening everywhere today, is a tiresome rehash that wears out its welcome before it even hits the 10 minute mark.

However, up to that point, with its inspired use of the Clash�s cover of Eddy Grant�s �Police on My Back� to take us into a crudely amusing opening scene featuring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudekis promoting their new invention, a bathroom accessory named �The Shower Buddy,� on a morning TV talk show, the movie seems like it could possibly match the original.

But this misguided mash-up of 9 TO 5, which they reference several times so it�s okay to steal from I guess, and BACHELOR PARTY goes downhill fast from there once its incredibly uninvolving and annoyingly familiar plot kicks in.

This time, our returning comedy trio trying to strike out as their own bosses gets screwed over by Christoph Waltz (seemingly loving slumming it here) and Chris Pine (Captain Kirk from the J.J. Abrams� STAR TREK re-imaginings) as a father-son pair of wealthy, conniving corporate investors who steal the product and re-name it �The Shower Pal� (�That�s a better name, too,� says Sudekis).

So Bateman, Day, and Sudekis plan to kidnap Pine and collect ransom from Waltz, but guess what? Things don�t go down as smoothly as they hope.

In lame attempts to rekindle the comically criminal shenanigans of the first time around, the bickering buffoons visit Kevin Spacey, reprising his role as one of the horrible bosses, in jail for advice; Jamie Foxx, reprising his role as �Motherfucker Jones� in the same seedy bar for more contrived consultation; and Jennifer Aniston, reprising her role as a sex-addicted dentist, who has the most regrettably creepy lines to spout throughout this mess.

The so self consciously twisted scenarios the fellows get tied up in, via the screenplay co-written by director Anders and creative partner John Morris (who also both co-wrote the currently playing DUMB AND DUMBER TO), just go in circles with a clear lack of momentum.

These guys can be very funny - the stressed out Day and the all too smug Sudekis play off each other effortlessly while Bateman deadpans some choice one-liners - and amid their wacky scrapes I chuckled maybe a dozen times, but there was nothing resembling a big genuine laugh to be found.

If you stitched together these guys� individual appearances on late night TV talk shows into a feature length 90 minutes or so it would be much funnier than this. Especially as it wouldn�t have the tired as hell kidnapping tropes (code name gags �n all) that all fall horribly flat here.

And there�s also the unfortunate and badly timed (because of the Cosby controversy) rape jokes that Aniston�s character, puts forth that left a disgusting taste in my mouth. As well, it�s weird that Pine puts forth some dramatic acting about dealing with his dad Waltz not loving him � in what movie does he think he�s in?

It would be a critical clich� to say that HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 is a cinematic turkey delivered just in time for Thanksgiving, but if they�re going to so blatantly trot out such a lame retread, then so am I.

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WHIPLASH: The Film Babble Blog Review

Opening today at an indie art house near you:


WHIPLASH (Dir. Damien Chazelle, 2014)

Miles Teller, who I initially disliked as a douche in the asinine 21 & OVER but thought he redeemed himself as a drunk in THE SPECTACULAR NOW, puts in a sharply superb performance as a determined student drummer squaring off against his hard-ass teacher/conductor played by J.K. Simmons, also in one of his finest performances.

Taking place mostly in a dark rehearsal room at the fictional Schaffer Conservatory of Music in Manhattan, the film follows Teller�s Andrew Neyman as he wins a spot in the prestigious school�s band, and undergoes tons of verbal, and some physical, abuse by Simmons� cruel conductor character Terrence Fletcher.

Simmons� Fletcher is a brutal bully who believes in pushing his students beyond their limits to achieve greatness. �There are no two words in the English language more harmful than �good job,� he tells Teller.

Teller�s Andrew, who worships at the altar of drumming legend Buddy Rich as we can see from the books, CDs, and posters on his walls, is so driven to be one of the greats that he takes Simmons� trash talk, but he is quickly approaching his breaking point.

On the side, Teller dates Melissa Benoist, who he had a genuine meet cute with at a movie theater he and his father (a nicely understated Paul Reiser) frequent, but their courtship doesn�t last long as he feels he needs to completely focus on his craft.

In the film�s most compelling sequence, Teller struggles to get to a concert on time after his bus breaks down, he leaves his drum sticks at a car rental agency, and he gets into a major automobile accident on the way back from retrieving them. He makes it there, albeit covered in blood with a broken hand, but blows it by dropping one of his sticks. It�s a grippingly stressful and electrifyingly edited third act starter that sets us up perfectly for the film�s musical showdown climax.

The movie is impressive on all fronts. Both Teller, who it should be noted does all his own drumming, and Simmons deserve awards season action � but in my book (or on my blog) it�s Simmons, who�s a better villain here than the over-the-top ones in most Marvel movies, that should get at least an Oscar nomination for his stunning work here.

The film itself, the feature length debut of writer/director Damien Chazelle, is impressive for its tight narrative construction, especially as it was shot in 19 days on the low budget of $3 million.

Sure to make my top 10 movies of 2014, the beautifully abrasive WHIPLASH takes its name from jazz composer Hank Levy's 1972 standard that Teller nails in his audition, and it features a bunch of blustery big band compositions that keeps the film bumping from beat to beat. It never rushes or drags, to use the parlance of Simmons (�Were you rushing or were you dragging?�), and there�s not one wasted moment that I can recall.

WHIPLASH may leave you feeling as bruised, and bloody as Teller, but you won�t feel beat down by it. It�s ultimately an inspirational tale that if you haven�t had to overcome the tyranny of a control freak asshole you can still relate to, but if you have, man, it will hit you hard.

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Keira Knightley Floats Through The Lackluster LAGGIES

Now playing at an indie art house near me:

LAGGIES (Dir. Lynn Shelton, 2014)

Maybe 2014 is the year of the bad title (see: EDGE OF TOMORROW). Titled SAY WHEN (which isn�t much better) in the UK, Lynn Shelton�s sixth film concerns Keira Knightley as a woman in her late �20s lagging behind in her life with little direction or motivation. 

Although she has an advanced degree in counseling, Knightley spends her days in a slacker job as one of those street corner sign spinners - a gig her insurance salesman father (Jeff Garlin) gave her � and her nights with her doting long-term boyfriend (Marc Webber).

When Webber starts to propose at the wedding reception of one of their friends (Ellie Kemper) Knightley freaks out and flees the party, and on the way out she catches her dad cheating on her mother.

Shortly afterward she stops at a grocery store and a group of teenagers headed by Chlo� Grace Moretz ask her to buy them beer. Considering it a rite of passage, Knightley obliges then finds herself hanging out with the kids in a park until late that night.

Deciding that she needs a break from things in order to get her shit together, Knightley asks if she can stay at Moretz�s for a week while she tells Webber, her friends and family that she�s going to a week-long career seminar.

Knightley is found out almost immediately - before she even spends one night hiding in her new teenage friend�s bedroom - by Moretz�s divorce lawyer father played by a jaded Sam Rockwell who jokes: �Hey, did you hear the one about the grown woman who started hanging out with pubescent kids?�

LAGGIES isn�t bad, it�s just blah. It has cute moments, and some well observed humor but there�s not much to it. Knightley does a good job, especially with her convincing American accent, as do Moretz and Rockwell but this material � written by first-time screenwriter Andrea Siegel just goes through the predictable motions.

There have been so many movies, especially in the world of independent film, about young people having trouble transitioning into adulthood � Jason Reitman�s YOUNG ADULT comes to mind � so the beats are all too familiar. Anyone watching this film will know that Knightley is going to break up with her boyfriend back home and end up with Rockwell, and the realizations that our protagonist has that get her to that point are so obvious and spelled out.

Like Moretz�s subplot about whether or not she should tell a boy she likes him at the prom, there�s nothing really interesting going on here. There�s very little conflict, and it�s light on moments of insight or drama (though Kemper puts in some of her best acting in a coffee shop confrontation scene with Knightley), as Siegel�s script just skirts the surface of these situations set mostly in Seattle suburbs. It simply doesn�t breathe any new life into the �wake up and take control of your life� trope.

LAGGIES, which I would've called FLOATING because it's something Knightley's character says about herself more than once the movie, joins the sad club of lackluster indies that have quickly come and gone this year including the abysmal MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN, the depressing LISTEN UP PHILIP, and the fake film noir of THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY. Just like those forgettable films, LAGGIES doesn�t just fail to connect with audiences, it fails to connect period.

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INTERSTELLAR: The Film Babble Blog Review

Opening Friday, November 7th, at multiplexes from here to beyond the stars...

INTERSTELLAR (Dir. Christopher Nolan, 2014)

Despite some spectacular set-pieces, Christopher Nolan�s highly anticipated outer space epic INTERSTELLAR is a massive misfire. 

It so wants to be for our times the profound experience that 2001: A SPACE ODDYSEY was to the late �60s, but with its problematic plotting, pretentious dialogue, and cringe-worthy convolutions of the cosmic variety, it�s more M. Night Shyamalan than Stanley Kubrick.

Set in the near future on a dying, dust stormed-out Earth, an intense Matthew McConaughey, acting like he rehearsed his lofty line readings while being filmed driving his Lincoln to the set every day, stars as a former NASA test pilot, a widowed farmer raising two kids (Mackenzie Foy and Timoth�e Chalamet).

With some cajoling by a ghost who apparently lives in the bookcase in Foy�s bedroom, McConaughey leaves his kids behind to travel on a spacecraft with a small crew (including a short-haired Anne Hathaway as a head strong scientist) to another galaxy to find a new habitable planet for the human race.

Michael Caine, who must really get along with the filmmaker as it�s his sixth role in a Nolan film, again brings his fading yet still stirring gravitas to his part as Professor Brand, the physicist who�s in charge of the secret mission, and is also Hathaway�s father.

By way of a wormhole near Saturn, which is pretty cool if you can rid your mind of the extremely similar scene in STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, McConaughey, Hathaway, and fellow explorers David Gyasi and Wes Bentley (and a robot named TARS voiced by Bill Irwin) find a possible candidate planet but there�s a mighty catch in order to check it out. You see, because of it�s a proximity to a black hole, every hour on the planet�s surface will equate to seven years back on Earth.

So while McConaughey and crew battle the ginormous tidal waves of that inhospitable world, his daughter and grow up to be Jessica Chastain and Casey Affleck, both bitter at their departed dad in different albeit not very impactful ways.

To go any farther plot-wise would be Spoiler City, and the exposition-filled (and fueled) turns of Nolan�s screenplay (co-written with brother, Jonathan, a frequent collaborator) are too messy and strained to describe. This is especially true pertaining to what I guess is a surprise cameo that McConaughey and Hathaway encounter on a bleak, ice planet in the film�s second half (Nolan really must liked shooting in the snow, see INCEPTION).

Dutch-Swedish cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema captures Nolan�s imagery sweepingly - a large portion of the film was shot with IMAX cameras - and there are moments in which the movie�s ambitious vision comes close to exhilaration, but what should�ve been a spiritual successor to CONTACT unfortunately brings to mind the title of another McConaughey movie: FAILURE TO LAUNCH.

Movie fans can expect to be reminded of many, many other movies while watching INTERSTELLAR, from the aforementioned 2001 to Phillip Kaufman�s THE RIGHT STUFF (a 1983 historical drama about pioneering astronauts, for you young folks) to such sci-fi staples as ALIEN, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, FORBIDDEN PLANET, and everything that�s ever had the word �Star� in its name. However, Nolan�s overwrought opus amore often recalls scores of sci-fi failures such as THE BLACK HOLE, MISSION TO MARS, SIGNS, and, uh, lots of movies that have had �Star� in their titles.

Also, GRAVITY did the �let�s see A-list actors struggling for survival in outer space� scenario way better. On top of that, its colossal lack of emotional pull really hinders its climax which never comes close to making anything near satisfying sense.

I take no pleasure in saying that while INTERSTELLAR is Nolan�s most audacious and certainly his most personal film, it�s easily his worst work, and the biggest cinematic letdown of 2014. Because it�s not without visual power, and some invested acting, many critics will praise it, and it will definitely get some award season action, but me, I�ll be over there, on the side, standing behind BIRDMAN.

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