Category Archives: Comedy

Trolls Band Together

Trolls Band Together                      3 ½ stars

Just out in theaters is DreamWorks’s third installment of the colorful candy-tone animated Trolls series based on the popular children’s toy of the sixties. This time it is Trolls Band Together with gray-toned Branch (the legendary Justin Timberlake) and pink Poppy (Anna Kendrick of the Pitch Perfect movies) returning for another popular tune filled adventure that will appeal to the kids and to adults alike. As the film opens we get Branch’s origin story finding out that he has four brothers that were part of a popular boy band called BroZone years before. (The opening performance contains obvious references to NSYNC and other boy bands of the early 2,000’s era. At one point one of the brothers says “We’ve gone from boys to men, and now there’s only one direction for us to go: the backstreets.”) Branch was in diapers at that time and was referred to as Baby B. Older brothers Floyd (Troye Sivan), John Dory (Eris André), Spruce (Daveed Diggs) and Clay (Kid Cudi) have all gone their separate ways, but John Dory has returned to seek Branch’s help on a desperate mission. It seems that the pop-star duo, Velvet and Veneer, (Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells) have been holding brother Floyd prisoner. These two stringy characters have no musical talent of their own, but they have engineered a way to extract the musical gift from the troll and use it themselves, enabling their star status at Mount Rageous. But if the trolls can “band together”, and create “perfect family harmony”, they will be able to free poor Floyd from imminent doom! Poppy insists that Branch must get the family together to rescue his brother. So much for the setup. Beyond that, there are harmonious tunes galore as we take a ride through various boy band songs and medleys of music from the seventies and eighties. It’s all done on the background of some very crafty and colorful animation with the smooth textures and troll hair we have seen in the earlier Trolls movies. And of course, there is the eternal message of togetherness and how brothers will always have one another’s backs. This may not be the best of the Trolls movies but for pure animated fluff, it may be worth an hour and a half of your time.

Joy Ride

Joy Ride                4 stars

Here’s an idea I haven’t seen before in a movie. A sex comedy road trip starring primarily young Asian women. (The sex comedy movie genre is now referred to as raunch-com in the industry.) In Joy Ride, written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao and directed by Adele Lim (writer for Crazy Rich Asians), we first meet best friends Audrey (Ashley Park making a transition from a successful career on Broadway and starring in TV’s Emily in Paris) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) as 5-year-olds on a playground when Lolo punches out a bully who calls the Asian girls an ethnic slur. Audrey was adopted from China by white parents while Lolo is a recent Chinese immigrant with her parents. As adults, Audrey is a lawyer in a law firm and has the opportunity to go to China to land a big client. Lolo is successful as an artist making sexually graphic art pieces. Lolo volunteers to travel with Audrey as a translator as Audrey is not fluent in Chinese, but she is bringing her odd cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) with them. Deadeye has a very odd personality and is nonbinary and is an obsessed K-Pop fan. Once in China the trio meet up with Kat (Stephanie Hsu, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in last year’s sensation Everything, Everywhere, All at Once), Audrey’s college friend who now stars in a popular Chinese soap opera along with her fiancé (who is unaware of Kat’s long sexual history). Once together in China, Lolo convinces Audrey through some trickery that they should track down Audrey’s birth mother in China, who gave her up for adoption when she was a teenager. Having established the premise, the joy ride begins as this quartet of twenty something’s journey through Beijing and rural China, encountering a drug dealer, a professional basketball team and Lolo’s extended family. The trip, of course, includes plenty of references to various sex acts and anatomy, both female and male, as well as some on screen action requiring gymnastic talent, like The Devil’s Triangle (Don’t ask). They even try to impersonate a popular K-Pop group to gain certain favors from the authorities. (How could that go wrong?) (And there is a performance of Cardi B’s WAP that will get your attention.) Naturally, the movie goes for extreme gross-out scenes to get “I can’t believe they did that” reactions from the audience. But it all serves to show how close friends will always come back to support each other even though they have differences that sometimes drive them apart. Fans of the raunch-com movies should all enjoy the movie. I missed it in theaters and finally found it online. Some viewers will recognize Meredith Hagner as a female drug dealer. (Hagner was a regular on the comedy Search Party and is married to Wyatt Russell, son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell!)

Dream Scenario

Dream Scenario                 4 stars

One of the most prolific actors today is Nicolas Cage having appeared in some one hundred movies. He has also portrayed some of the oddest characters we’ve seen. Remember Adaptation and The Weather Man and of course Ghost Rider? He stars in Dream Scenario (directed by Kristoffer Borgli), a sort of fantasy horror about the price of fame in today’s society. Cage is Paul Matthews, a meek college professor of natural science who is bald, has a beard and wears glasses. There is really nothing special about him. He is whiney and still dreams of writing a book based on his graduate work from many years ago but has never done anything about it. One day strangers start to recognize him and then many of his students tell him that they remember seeing him in their dreams. They tell him that they see themselves in strange situations such as floating in the air or they see alligators crawling toward them, but Paul is there not doing anything, just walking by. Soon word spreads as hundreds of people report seeing him. Paul finds he has become famous, though his wife, Janet (Julianne Nicholson) does not experience the dreams and she feels left out. Paul hopes that the newly found fame will allow him to find a publisher for his book. But Paul finds the dark side of fame when a strange man invades their house and threatens the family. Things take an even worse turn for poor Paul as the dreams with him grow more violent and threatening to the point that people start to shun him, and his classes must be cancelled. When he is invited to a dinner party all of the other guests cancel because of him. He goes from being sought after for product advertising to possible appearances on Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson. The movie sort of feels like a darker The Truman Show where fame is visited on those who did nothing to deserve it. The fact that it is Nicolas Cage in the role only makes it more memorable. Cage’s movies are especially notable for having scenes where his anger is unleashed. (There was even a montage video that was made to show this.) Of course, the movie blesses us with a couple of Cageworthy scenes where he verbally attacks those who insult him. The film is put together well as the tone of the movie gradually shifts from light comedy to something approaching horror, (though nobody ever gets killed). It’s fascinating to see how a life can be forever changed with a little fame. Some have said the movie is an indictment of this society’s cancel culture. Borgli, as someone relatively new to directing, gives us a keeper in Dream Scenario. Also making appearances in the cast are Tim Meadows and Dylan Baker, both as friends to Paul and a bearded Michael Cera as the man trying to promote Paul as a celebrity. Anyone who likes quirky dark comedies should check out Dream Scenario. I wanted to see it the moment I saw the trailer!

The Holdovers

The Holdovers                   5 stars

Based on a list of several comedies I’ve seen over the years that includes Nebraska, The Descendants, Sideways, About Schmidt and Election, Alexander Payne must be one of my favorite directors. Now with The Holdovers, he has outdone himself. Payne is reunited with Paul Giamatti from Sideways to create a story about three lost souls that are forced to spend their Christmas break together at a New England boarding school for privileged young men in 1970. Giamatti is Paul Hunham, a professor of ancient civilizations who loves his profession, but despises the boys who have little appreciation for the insights Paul has to offer. Paul has been teaching at Barton Academy his whole adult life, but the staff and students all hate him. Since Paul previously found it necessary to fail one very politically connected student, the headmaster decided to punish him by selecting him to be the one to stay over Christmas break to supervise the holdovers, or those unfortunate students who have no place to go. Angus Tully (newcomer Dominic Sessa) is among the smartest yet most troubled of the students at Barton. He has been kicked out of three schools already and will have to go to military academy if it happens again. At the last moment he finds that he must be part of this small group instead of going to St. Kitts for break. Rounding out this trio is Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the African American head cook whose son graduated from the school, but then went on to serve in Vietnam and was killed earlier this year. She hasn’t gotten over the loss and you can just see the pain she experiences. The three combine to give us many humorous scenes, but also have a lot to share with each other about life and the struggles they are going through. Paul and Angus are both compelled to share critical moments from their past that shaped their lives. Oscar nominee Giamatti really gives a first-rate performance of the sad sack that is Paul who has an alcohol problem but keeps a positive outlook that hides the pain in his life. This may be Giamatti’s best performance to date or at least since Sideways. Sessa makes Angus a combative, smart aleck character who can also come to the defense of the unfortunate. I look forward to seeing more of him. (Also, fans of the series The Good Wife will recognize Carrie Preston in a small but important role.) The Holdovers will undoubtedly get several Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Everyone should see this one.

The Fall Guy

The Fall Guy       4 stars

The summer blockbuster season may have started a bit early with the release of The Fall Guy, directed by David Leitch (Bullet Train, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw). The action comedy starring Ryan Gosling as stuntman Colt Seavers and Emily Blunt as movie director Jody is designed as a tribute to the stuntmen who make action movies fun to watch. Part of the fun is watching Colt prepare for each shot and endure one take after another of getting blown up and burned. In addition, Gosling shows that he is made to be a comedic leading man whether he is crying to a Taylor Swift song or giving one liners while taking punishment from the bad guys (of which there are plenty). The pair of Gosling and Blunt work comedy gold in their scenes together with dueling dialogue especially in an early scene when Jody questions Colt about his character’s motivation in front of the entire production crew. Remember that last summer Gosling was discovering his manliness as Ken in Barbie and Blunt was enduring marriage to Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer. (It is clear that Gosling has not lost his physique since Barbie.) The premise is that Colt, the main stuntman for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), returns from an injury to work on a movie in Australia being directed by his crush, Jody in her first directing opportunity. Her big budget movie is a sort of Mad Max action film with some fearsome looking space aliens and big explosions. During production, the movie producer (Hannah Waddingham) approaches Colt, telling him that the star, Ryder has gone missing, and Colt must track him down. And with what is an obvious MacGuffin, he must not tell Jody about the missing star. (A MacGuffin is a device that keeps the plot moving but may not make any sense.) When Colt discovers a dead body, he soon realizes that he is in over his head and he must face off against multiple villains in car chases and fight scenes, something he is surprisingly good at. After that the plot loses all credibility and little about the story makes any sense. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying it. I finally gave up on trying to make sense of it. But I did enjoy the fight scenes that included Stephanie Hsu (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once) as an assistant fighting a villain at the wheel of a large truck a la Indiana Jones. (And then there is the dog that helps Colt in fights, while only responding to commands in French.) The level of action is high like Leitch’s earlier movie, Bullet Train. It slows down a bit when Blunt shares the screen, with her contributing to the comedic nature of the movie. The score is very upbeat including a few renditions of I Was Made for Loving You Baby performed by both Yungblud and Kiss. So, turn off your brain for two hours and enjoy some real mind-blowing action.

Poor Things

Poor Things        5 stars

What if you took Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein about a mad scientist reanimating a human of stitched together body parts in the 19th century, but substituted a woman for the monster, made it a comedy and oh, added a lot of sex? You would have Poor Things, the new movie by director Yorgos Lanthimos (known for his previous outings Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Favourite). The Greek director has created a sort of alternate world set in Victorian London, but with a mixture of odd architecture and transportation and clothing styles that shouldn’t exist. Behind the dark comedy and the science fiction aspects is a story of discovery of the depravity of the modern world and female empowerment. Early in the film in London we meet Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), our mad scientist who has a very disfigured face, along with a young woman named Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), who is his “experiment”. In his household are a few of his earlier experiments on live animals such as a dog with a goose head and a chicken with a pig’s head. Bella killed herself before Godwin (or “God” as she calls him) retrieved her body and then brought her back to life but with a few changes. Her mind is wiped clean, and she is being retrained in how to live. She can barely talk and struggles to walk and eat normally. Behaving like a toddler without inhibitions, Stone pulls off the act with comic effect. With the aid of a medical student as God’s assistant, Max (Ramy Youssef) Bella gradually learns to behave more normally and is taught about the outside world, but also discovers free will and masturbation. She is confined to the house, but when a self-centered lawyer (Mark Ruffalo) finds her and is stricken with her he convinces her to join him in travels across Europe. Leaving Dr. Baxter, Bella sees the world and is enlightened about many things like dancing and fashion and how others perceive her. She also learns about pain and suffering in the world and has empathy toward the unfortunate. But there is also the sex that she finds so enjoyable or as she calls it, “the furious jumping”. She even finds out that women can make money by having sex with men and becomes very accomplished at it in a Paris brothel! Lanthimos uses some innovative techniques like filming the first part of the movie in black and white to make it look older and using wide lens shots at low angles. The music is unquestionably strange throughout. The selection of placing the movie during Victorian times when women were especially subservient to men makes Bella’s transformation into an independent, confident woman who won’t be owned by a man all the more stark. There are several characters that can be regarded as cads, but strangely, Dr. Baxter isn’t one of them. He could be described as being paternal toward Bella, wanting to protect her from the evils of the world. The movie held my interest throughout and had many fun moments of satirical comedy, and did I mention there is lots of sex?

Mean Girls

Mean Girls          3 stars

Twenty years after watching high school girls battle for dominance in their pack in Mean Girls, the movie is remade in musical form with the same title, but this time it is updated for Gen Z to include the new weapon of social media and cell phones used in the art of put downs. Mean Girls is a movie based on a Broadway musical based on a movie based on a book. The same comedy genius, Tina Fey is again behind the writing for the film, but while funny, the magic of the original movie starring Lindsay Logan as Cady Heron, the homeschooled girl raised in Africa and transplanted to North Shore High School doesn’t quite carry through. We get almost exactly the same story with a group of high school mean girls called the Plastics who are determined to be feared by most while maintaining their exclusive club, only with the musical numbers from the stage production transferred to the big screen. There are some very well performed numbers like the emotional “What’s Wrong with Me” and an elaborately choreographed number involving what seems like hundreds of students in the school hallways. There are also times when the songs make too much use of the students’ cell phones, so you end up with a montage of TikTok like videos. Tina Fey and Tim Meadows do a good job reprising their roles from the first film as Ms. Norbury and Mr. Duvall. (I really enjoy seeing Tina Fey as a Calculus teacher.) The cameo roles of Jenna Fischer, Busy Phillips and Jon Hamm were barely noticeable. But be sure to watch closely and you will see Lindsay Lohan as the Mathletes moderator. Angourie Rice does an admirable job in the Lindsay Lohan role of Cady, the girl who forgets who her friends are when doing the full mean girl act. The best performance of the film must go to Renée Rapp as Regina George. She really makes mean look good as she instills fear with a stare throughout the school as she walks through the hallways. She can certainly sing, never missing a note. Rapp is continuing the role from the Broadway production, and we can see why. She is perfect in the role first performed by Rachel McAdams. (She has been making the TV talk show circuit for the past year or so and recently even made an appearance on Saturday Night Live.) If you really like musicals, you should see Mean Girls. Otherwise, I recommend going back and watching the original starring Lindsay Lohan with its message of staying true to your friends.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio                   5 stars

Pinocchio by Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro is not your Disney’s Pinocchio. It is not at all like the underwhelming live action Disney version that came out the same year (starring Tom Hanks). Del Toro’s movie is done with creative stop motion animation using physical carved figures and has a very dark aspect to it. There are the same basic elements from the original 1883 story by Carlo Collodi. It opens with Geppetto (David Bradley), the carpenter losing the son he loves, only here it is due to a stray bomb dropped from a war plane during World War II. It is set during the reign of Benito Mussolini, who we actually get to meet at one point. Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) was carved by Geppetto out of grief and was brought to life by some magic spirits. He has some very bad habits, always getting into trouble breaking things and skipping school like someone with ADHD. Like the original story his adventures include joining the circus and encountering a giant fish at sea and having a tiny cricket friend (Ewan McGregor) who looks out for him. In this version Pinocchio is crudely carved and is very puppet-like, with a large head and narrow limbs so that it is obvious he is made of wood. He would not be described as cute. And since he is very gullible it is easy for a carnival master (Christoph Waltz) to persuade him to join the circus. When it is learned that Pinocchio can be brought back to life after being killed, the local Podestà (Ron Perlman) sees that he will make the perfect soldier for the Fascist cause and forces him to join the army. He goes on to meet Il Duce who is not amused by Pinocchio’s antics so promptly shoots him! Each time he “dies” he is instructed by the Blue Fairy (Tilda Swinton) about his fate and the choices he is faced with. The movie has more violence than the Disney versions but even so is still suitable for children. It still has the same positive messages of the importance of love and family like the other versions. It is a natural story for del Toro to tackle adding it to his previous dark fantasy movies like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. It is very deserving of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature it received.

Sasquatch Sunset

Sasquatch Sunset             3 stars

I first heard about Sasquatch Sunset at Sundance where it premiered earlier this year. There was a lot of talk about this movie which follows a family of Sasquatches in the North American wilderness, so I naturally had to see it when it was released in theaters. I know that I previously said The Beast was the most unusual movie of the year so far, but I now must award that title to Sasquatch Sunset. This movie by the Zellner brothers (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter and Damsel) imagines what it would be like to observe a quartet of these mysterious creatures in their natural habitat, following them for a full year. The movie is imaginative and frequently comical but is a little short on plot. But you must be warned that many filmgoers reportedly walked out early in the film. The actors are covered head to massive toe in hairy costumes that are certainly convincing, communicating through grunts and waling. The movie has the distinction of having a complete absence of dialogue in any language. Without getting too graphic, imagine going to the zoo and observing monkey behavior for a whole day and you might begin to understand what you will be in for. At some point the creatures engage in just about every bodily function you can imagine including sasquatch sex and childbirth. (There is even the rebuff of sexual advances.) As in their previous films, the Zellner’s provide plenty of comedic moments as well such as an encounter with a turtle and the consequences of consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms. This odd family consists of a papa sasquatch (Nathan Zellner), a mama (Riley Keough), and two juveniles (Jesse Eisenberg and Christophe Zajac-Denek) who spend their days munching on leaves and berries and encountering various wildlife in their lush green environment. There are times when you feel they are marveling at the natural world around them by their staring and the expression on their faces. (One of them struggles with the concept of counting when he looks at the stars or a handful of berries but finds he can’t express the idea of numbers.) We also sense that they were once part of a larger community when they try to signal others by pounding on trees with sticks and then listen for a response that will never come. Combine this with their reaction when encountering evidence of humans and you get a feeling of doom for this hairy bunch. Sasquatch Sunset is certainly not for everyone but can be a fun way to spend an hour and a half.

Barbie

Barbie                   4 ½ stars

By now everyone who wanted to see the movie of the summer, Greta Gerwig’s megahit Barbie has seen it. I know I was late in getting to this party but still thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure, it is a blatant marketing ploy by Mattel to capitalize on their iconic adult doll, Barbie, that appeared in the sixties and has been a mainstay of popular culture ever since. But the director of Lady Bird and Little Women, Gerwig has also made it into something of a subversive movie with its commentary on “the patriarchy” and Barbie’s realization of female empowerment. Barbie (the perfect for the role Margot Robbie (I, Tonya and The Suicide Squad)) and Ken (a blond Ryan Gosling (La La Land and The Nice Guys)) are always in a state of partying in their houses at Barbieland or at “Beach” until Barbie has her existential crisis experiencing cellulite and flat feet! On the advice of Weird Barbie (the wacked out but wise Kate McKinnon), Barbie goes to visit the real world. She succeeds in finding her adult owner, Gloria (America Ferrera) who is having her own problems with her tween daughter, but Ken who has tagged along discovers horses! and the patriarchy which he fully embraces and brings news of it back to Barbieland creating the crisis that the Barbies must deal with. Barbie and the audience learn the lesson of critical thinking and what women can accomplish in this world with the help of Barbie creator Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman), Weird Barbie and a dramatic speech from Gloria. I enjoyed the roles of all the actors with the possible exception of Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel. Gerwig and her co-writer Noah Baumbach have created a fun movie with a message that is sure to be enjoyed for years to come. The movie also proves you can never have too much pink.