Category Archives: Comedy

Eighth Grade

Leave a reply

Eighth Grade      4 ½ stars

Yet another movie I heard about at Sundance was Eighth Grade, a realistic portrayal of what it is like for teenagers in middle school now.  The movie follows a few days in the life of Kayla, a thirteen year old facing the end of eighth grade, a girl who seemingly has few friends, is awkward, yet has hopes for her future as a high schooler.  The movie is made by the performance of young Elsie Fisher, who plays the role in a honest way.  Other movies have tried to tackle this subject but are typically either comedies or deal wish much more serious subjects like suicide or drug use.  This film seems so real it could almost be a documentary.  The director, Bo Burnham appears to be an unknown up to now.  Josh Hamilton as the father also is notable as he shows that he is truly concerned about his daughter’s well being, but is frustrated by how hard it is to communicate with her.  Like any film today dealing with social habits of teenagers there is a great deal of time devoted to the use of social media, something that is permanently with us I am afraid.  The film is only an hour and a half long. I urge you to see it if you get the chance.

The Boss Baby

Leave a reply

The Boss Baby                   3 ½ stars

While not the best animated film of the year, Dreamworks The Boss Baby has a good helping of originality and funny moments.  It’s based on the idea that there is a giant corporation known as Baby Corp. that actually delivers babies all over the world.  In this story we find 7 year old Tim who suddenly finds out he is getting a new baby brother, only when he arrives, the “Boss Baby” actually wears a suit and speaks with an adult voice (Alec Baldwin).  At first Tim is very troubled by this newcomer who has invaded his space and is taking his parents’ love from him.  Then later a secret plot is uncovered about a rival corporation planning to make a special type of puppy that will consume all of the love in the world for babies.  So Tim and the Boss Baby have to team up to counter this new threat.  If that all sounds ridiculous, don’t worry about it too much and just enjoy the action and comedy.  And naturally there is a family friendly message that is ultimately delivered.  There certainly have been worse animated movies in the theater lately.

Tangles

Leave a reply

Tangles                 4 ½ stars

I continued my viewing of new movies at The Chicago International Film Festival with the animated movie, Tangles, by director Leah Nelson. It is based on an illustrated memoir by Sarah Leavitt in which she tells her personal story of dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. The images are done as hand drawings in black and white that gives the movie a dark tone, but the story does include plenty of humor in dealing with this troubling subject. There have been plenty of dramas about Alzheimer’s showing the challenges that loved ones go through in caring for the stricken family member. Those that come to mind are The Father, Still Alice, The Notebook and Away from Her. Tangles uses a lighter approach than these earlier films but has plenty of serious moments. In the story Sarah (Abbi Jacobson) is in her early twenties and just starting a career as an illustrator for a gay weekly in San Francisco, where her boss (Wanda Sykes of The New Adventures of Old Christine) has noticed her dark, sexual drawings. She has just met Donimo (Samira Wiley of Orange Is the New Black), another lesbian with whom she is starting to form a relationship when she takes a trip back home to visit her family. There she finds that her mom (Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Seinfeld and Veep) is behaving in erratic ways and is unusually irritable. She suspects that something is wrong with her, but her father (Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad) and other family members are not as alarmed by her behavior. Soon Sarah finds herself making more trips back home to care for her mom until the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is made and the family must deal with her condition. All the while Sarah is putting her job and relationship with Donimo on hold. Her frequent visits continue over the years as mom’s condition deteriorates. Through the use of animation Sarah’s feelings of dread and guilt are imaginatively expressed, something not possible in conventional dramas. Scenes connected to the Mexican holiday The Day of the Dead are especially vivid. Other cast members include Seth Rogan, Beanie Feldstein, Sarah Silverman and Bowen Yang. The subject of Alzheimer’s is a tough one to watch in a movie, but I highly recommend Tangles. It would be especially moving for those who have experienced such situations in life. The movie is expected to be in theaters in January.

Head to Head

Leave a reply

Head to Head    4 stars

The first film I saw at The Chicago International Film Festival this week was the Iranian made Head to Head by Iranian filmmaker Ghahsideh Golmakani. In this absurdist comedy Golmakani makes a statement about the severe restrictions placed on women in Iranian culture dictating what is acceptable clothing and behavior in public. In the movie, a woman director, Behar is directing a movie being made without government approval, where the female roles are all played by men. Like the fictional movie in the story, Head to Head was made without the knowledge of the government. (It shares this feature with last year’s It Was Just an Accident.) The male actors must always wear head scarves and are told to behave like women. They must be careful how they sit, walk and must not dance when music is being played. There is a thriving cinema industry in Iran, but it is heavily monitored by the government and must not criticize the government in any way. Behar’s cameraman is not only filming the movie but is also secretly filming the actors behind the scenes. This was Behar can capture the reactions of the men to these strange circumstances, material that she intends to be part of the film. Much of the movie takes place on the road in the desert, after government police arrive unexpectedly and Behar, her cameraman and two actors escape in a van. There, the action continues as they argue over the circumstances and one actor refuses to continue with the project after removing his clothes. We find out that Behar has a history of being in prison over past violations. Behar’s frustration over the restrictions of Iranian culture only grows even when faced with the prospect of being caught by the morality police. Ultimately, we can see that not only women, but men also must pay the price of government control in this oppressive society. Unlike the other films of the festival, the director was not allowed to enter the United States to present her film.

Juliet, Naked

Juliet, Naked                      4 ½ stars

For a pleasant change I took in a romantic comedy, Juliet, Naked which is recently released and stars Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd.  This was not your typical silly derivative romantic comedy, but one that has a more real feel to it, one that has several laughs that can be described as low key, but still very amusing.  O’Dowd is Duncan who lives with his long time girlfriend Annie (Byrne) in a quiet British coastal town and is obsessed with Tucker Crowe, an American rock star who made a splash twenty five years earlier and hasn’t been heard from since.  Duncan even has a website dedicated to his favorite artist and one day receives a recording of an early unfinished version of a Crowe album called Juliet, Naked.  Duncan of course thinks this is a fantastic find, but girlfriend Annie is not so impressed so she writes an anonymous review dismissing the recording as nothing very special, much to the disgust of Duncan.  Well, eventually who should find the review but Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke) himself.  Crowe actually agrees with Annie and the two set out to have a regular ongoing correspondence of everything going on in their lives.  We find out that Crowe has made a mess of his life having several children by different women, all of whom he has declined to take responsibility for.  Of course you can see that these two internet friends will have to get together and explore how they can relate in person.  This is when things really start to happen and life gets much more complicated.  The movie works well with its genuine writing and some outstanding performances by all three main characters.  It is also aided by the contributions of two young actors as two of Crowe’s children.  Juliet, Naked is based on a novel by Nick Hornby and works well as a comedy that deals with some real relationship issues, but also delivers its share of comedic moments.  The movie is made even better when you consider it has original music actually sung by Ethan Hawke!

El Conde

El Conde              4 ½ stars

Just in time for Halloween comes my discovery and viewing of the 2023 vampire movie El Conde, by Chilean director Pablo Larrain who must be my favorite Latin director after Guillermo del Toro. I have seen several of his successful movies including Spencer, Jackie and No. In El Conde Larrain combines two of my favorite genres of comedy horror and political satire creating a real fright fest. Filmed in black and white, the movie takes on fascist figures making them out to be viscous monsters. At the beginning of the movie, we meet a French soldier named Claude Pinoche serving France under Louis XVI and see him witness the beheading of Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. Fearing for his life he runs away, but we learn that Pinoche is a vampire and thus blessed with a long life. For two centuries he travels to Haiti, Russia and Algeria vowing to fight against revolutions as a soldier, while serving under merciless dictators. He finds his way to Chile in 1935 where he rises to the rank of general and eventually overthrows the socialist government of Allende in 1973 and becomes the new dictator of Chile, killing hundreds during his brutal reign. Thus, Pinoche is actually Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell), the fascist ruler of Chile, only he is a vampire. After being driven from power, having lived for 250 years he dies in 2006, except that his death was faked, allowing him to live on his country estate. (There he happens to have a giant guillotine that gets put to use.) He is joined by his corrupt wife, Lucia (Gloria Munchmeyer), his five children and his longtime butler, Fyodor (Alfredo Castro), a Russian Cossack devoted to his master. Pinochet now goes by the title, The Count. (Hence, the name of the movie), but he would like nothing better than to just die. During his reign, besides all the killing, Pinochet has robbed the country of a fortune and hidden it in various countries all over the world. His children would like him dead so that they can inherit the money, but the problem is The Count was bad at accounting and has lost track of it. So, the family hires a forensic accountant in the form of a young catholic nun named Carmen who is to track down the money by scouring through the records and interviewing the family members. She would also like to exorcise the demon out of Pinochet, something The Count isn’t so keen on. The Catholic Church having sent Carmen to do the job, is hoping they can get their hands on the fortune too. Now having a young beautiful nun around has reinvigorated The Count causing him to rethink his desire to die. The end result is him renewing his reign of terror on the country, flying by night to seek fresh blood. (His preferred method of consumption of blood is to place the human heart in a blender and make a blood smoothie. Points for originality on that one!) Larrain has taken on fascist dictators before in his works including The Club and No. In El Conde he really goes after Pinochet, satirizing this ruthless ruler portraying him and his family as greedy monsters. The movie is really a condemnation of fascists everywhere, sending us a warning of what they can do to a country. Pinochet even says that he wants to destroy the International Criminal Court. (I think I have heard that before.) There is one other character that I must mention, that being the narrator who speaks in the voice of an older British woman. She turns out to be Pinochet’s mother and is also a vampire and is someone of great importance in world politics, but you will have to watch the movie to find out her identity.

Victoria & Abdul

Victoria & Abdul                               3 stars

Victoria & Abdul brings actress Judi Dench and director Stephen Frears together again for the telling of the story of Queen Victoria, who in her later years develops an attachment to a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.  Abdul has been summoned from India to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee where he finds the old queen seeks to consult with him on a variety of matters and he becomes a teacher of sorts.  All of this is very troubling to the Queen’s staff and in particular, her son Bertie, the Prince of Wales.  They consider it demeaning that a man from a poor family of color could find his way to a position of honor among the royal family.  We are told that this is all based on a true story, but it is one that has gone largely untold. Presumably the family at the time had tried to keep it hidden.  The film is based on a book that was recently published.  Much of the film is done in a comic fashion as it finds comedy in how differently the cultures involved find one another.  Therefore, I have to wonder just how much of the story is true.  But putting all that aside, the film is still quite enjoyable and gives us two fine performances from Judy Dench and Ali Fazal.  Victoria & Abdul was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Costume Design and Best Make up.  Stephen Frears is a very prolific director in Hollywood having directed such outstanding works as Florence Foster Jenkins, Philomena, The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents and Dirty Pretty Things.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy 2             4 stars

It has been four years since we heard from those heroes from the Marvel universe that includes Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Baby Groot.  Now they are back again in their heroic fashion to once again save the universe from its latest threat.  This time circumstances force them to ally with enemies Yondu and Nebula as they must find out the true nature of Peter’s family.  Now they must deal with Peter’s recently found true father, Ego who turns out to be a millions of years old celestial being who inhabits entire planets and has desires to control the entire galaxy.  The team must battle to put their internal differences aside while they do the usual, engage in a colorful, explosion filled conflict of mega proportions in long action filled sequences.  One of the best performances has to go to Michael Rooker as the enemy turned friend, Yondu, who upon being betrayed by his barbarian like gang, must join with the misfit Guardians.  The second installment of Guardians may have lost a bit of its sparkle, but still has plenty of heart with its soundtrack of seventies and eighties music that seems to inspire their leader, Peter.  I am sure we will soon be hearing about the next sequel, Guardians 3.

A Simple Favor

A Simple Favor                  4 ½ stars

A Simple Favor starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively seems to be a movie that is many things.  It starts as a buddy comedy movie, turns into a mystery suspense and then into a thriller.  All this is done in a good entertaining way that keeps our interest throughout as the plot brings a few unexpected twists our way.  It brings together the two talented actresses Anna Kendrick (without her Pitch Perfect singing) and Blake Lively (my favorite shark fighter girl from The Shallows) as best friends until one of them suddenly disappears without explanation leaving the other to solve the mystery of what happened together with the missing woman’s husband (Henry Golding).  The comedic Kendrick and well-paced plot is further aided by the most interesting choice of French pop music as a background that I have heard in quite a while.  Just be sure you don’t step out and miss any of the surprises along the way.  It can be a challenge to keep up with at times.

Assassination Nation

Assassination Nation      3 ½ stars

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this film, but I did expect a great deal of violence which Assassination Nation did deliver on.  This drama by Sam Levinson follows four high school teenage girls who engage in social media like all other teenagers and do things their parents would not approve of.  Then we find out there is a hacker who is releasing secrets of an assortment of local officials and ruining their careers stirring up anger of the local citizens.  This pattern continues until the town essentially loses its mind resulting in horrendous violence being leveled at our teenage subjects.  This film takes on many current issues like misogyny, hypocrisy and the loss of privacy doing so with a vicious approach.  I think it is showing us what it would be like if we took the anger expressed on social media and applied it to meeting people in person on the streets.  This is not a pleasant prospect.  I typically don’t go for extremely violent movies, but give them a chance if there is more to them than just the violence.  This one has a message that fits well with the anger being expressed in our society today.  It seems to be asking us to have some understanding for one another before we all kill each other.