Category Archives: Comedy

Deerskin

Deerskin                              4 stars

I heard about Deerskin from a magazine article of some recent good movies that are available online so I picked this one out, a rather dark comedy. To call this movie offbeat and bizarre might be something of an understatement and it probably won’t appeal to a wide audience, but I was very entertained by it. It’s one of those movies that is funny just because it is so absurd, like Damsel which I saw a few weeks ago. It happens in a small French Alpine village where Georges (played by Jean Dujardin of The Artist), a middle aged man arrives. Georges, just divorced, answers an ad for an old deerskin jacket and buys it from an old man. He spends all of his cash for the jacket and receives a video camera as part of the deal. Georges is so impressed by the ‘killer style’ that it gives him he starts to imagine that the jacket is alive and carries on conversations with it. (Does that sound bizarre yet?) Then Georges meets some women in a local bar and makes up a story of how he is a filmmaker and is there for a shoot. (His crew happens to be working in Siberia.) Denise (Adele Haenel of Portrait of a Lady on Fire) falls for this act and agrees to help Georges out including helping him pay for the making of the movie! (Georges’ credit card has been canceled by his ex-wife leaving him with no money.) Thus, the two proceed to put together a movie based on the random scenes that Georges films of various people he runs into on the street. This odd movie succeeds in keeping your attention by making to wonder just where is this all going. I have not even told you the strangest parts of the movie, so you will have to see it to find out. The story and the excellent acting by the two leads make Deerskin something to see for fans of the bizarre. You might even call it murderous madness. This gem is not even 80 minutes long so you can get through it all rather quickly.

The Roses

The Roses                           4 stars

It has been 36 years since we saw Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in that classic comedy The War of the Roses when the married Roses viciously attacked each other with verbal insults and worse as their marriage descended into mayhem. So naturally it was due for an update according to writer Tony McNamara (Poor Things, The Favourite) and director Jay Roach (Bombshell and three rounds of Austin Powers). This time around it is Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman taking on the roles of Theo and Ivy Rose, the married British couple in a decaying marriage that they cannot escape from. Early on we get a taste of what we’re in for when the two of them are in a session with a marriage counselor and the two of them are asked to list ten things they like about each other. Theo says of Ivy, “I’d rather live with her than a wolf.” Ivy’s compliment to Theo is “He has arms.” after she has just seen a documentary about a man living without arms. It gets worse from there with some imaginative use of some swear words. Then we cut to the time they first met at a restaurant where Ivy was working and the two of them end up in a walk-in freezer having sex. From there we flash forward several years and see that they have two children and have moved to northern California where Theo is a successful architect and has designed a new maritime museum. Ivy does dinners for small gatherings, but dreams of opening a restaurant. Big changes come when she succeeds in starting a wildly popular restaurant and becomes famous, while Theo loses his job after he is blamed for the destruction of the museum in a storm. That’s when things start to go badly between them with Theo seemingly resenting Ivy’s success while he has become a stay-at-home Dad. The verbal jabs between them get ever more creative and vicious while their circle of friends become very uncomfortable with the language. The friends include married couple Barry (SNL’s Andy Samberg) and Amy (SNL’s Kate McKinnon) making for a very amusing duo. Also among the cast are Ncuti Gatwa of Doctor Who and Sunita Mani (Death of a Unicorn). Alison Janney completely takes over one scene as Ivy’s attorney when Theo and Ivy take their disagreements to the highest level. The casting of Cumberbatch and Colman was masterful, as they make you believe in their love/hate relationship throughout the movie. Credit must be given to screenwriter Tony McNamara for coming up with so many insults that are almost poetic. The Roses is definitely a dark comedy, though I will leave it up to you to decide if it is as dark as the original The War of the Roses.

Palm Springs

Palm Springs      4 ½ stars

The last time I went to Sundance the Andy Samberg/Crintin Milioti romantic comedy was the hottest ticket going and I was not able to see it then (in spite of getting to over 30 movies). I finally saw it after it was released on Hulu and found it was a real delight. It seems to start out with the old formula of Groundhog Day as Andy Samberg’s Nyles is attending a wedding with his girlfriend Misty and finds that he is in a continuously repeating loop of the same day that always starts over the moment he falls asleep or is killed. He has apparently been at this for hundreds of days when we see him but things change when circumstances bring Cristin Milioti’s Sarah, the older sister of the bride into the same loop to share Nyles’s fate. Nyles plays seemingly amazing tricks on people as he already knows what events are going to happen to the second and tells people details about their lives that he has learned in previous iterations. Things take a darker turn as the two explore imaginative ways of trying to get out of the loop including killing themselves, but then speculate on how meaningless everything is in this strange world they find themselves in. Ultimately, the romance in the romantic comedy shows up as the two find out how much the other means to each. This “formulaic” romantic comedy works well and is definitely worth seeing.

Bad Education

Bad Education                   4 ½ stars

I heard some good things about the HBO TV movie Bad Education so decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed by the Hugh Jackman starring vehicle about a huge school embezzlement case in Long Island, New York based on actual events. The movie follows Frank Tassone (Jackman), superintendent of one of the nation’s wealthiest school systems and Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), his second in command as they raise the Roslyn school system’s profile getting a record number of student acceptances to top colleges and ever increasing local property values. Unfortunately, things start to come apart when one enterprising student on the high school student newspaper starts looking at the spending of the school system at local businesses and non-existent companies at the same time that Gluckin’s idiot son gets caught charging home improvement supplies on a school credit card. What follows are coverups and the shifting of blame until the source of the lavish lifestyles of the two school administrators eventually becomes apparent. (Imagine an administrator with a collection of suits, a BMW who takes first class airline seats on trips to Europe!) The story is told as a comedy/drama with some funny moments that is aided by outstanding performances from Jackman and Janney as well as the young actors portraying the students. This TV movie has received widespread praise and a couple of Emmy nominations that is well deserved. I am glad that I took the time to see it and you should look for it too.

Tell It Like a Woman

Tell It Like a Woman       2 stars

Tell It Like Woman is an anthology series, one of those movies that is a collection of short films that have a common theme or characteristic. In this case, all seven of the films are by different women directors and have women as their primary subject. It is notable for its Academy Award nominated song that plays over the closing credits: Applause by Diane Warren. I do have to say that it is a memorable song. The movie that it’s attached to, not so much. A couple of the stories are interesting like A Week in My Life by Japanese director Mipo O about a single mother who is struggling to go through her daily routine of raising two young children by herself. We see over the course of one week just how challenging this job can be. In Pepcy & Kim directed by Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Hudson plays a drug addicted prisoner who is trying to keep her act together so that she can be released and see her young son again. Hudson also plays the part of the prisoner’s inner voice that tries to steer her in the wrong direction. The other films were less interesting and incomplete. Unless you are really into seeing some of the directors’ work or the actresses, I recommend that you skip it.

Honey Don’t

Honey Don’t                       3 ½ stars

Honey O’Donoghue is a female private detective solving cases in and around Bakersfield California where she mainly sees clients who need to know if their spouse or partner is cheating on them. The movie poster says “She only has two desires and one of them is justice”. It doesn’t take long before you figure out what the other one is. Margaret Qualley is Honey in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s new film Honey Don’t. She is a rock-solid detective almost like that of a Raymond Chandler private eye who talks like one of those B movie film noir detectives out of the forties. Her one weakness is that she can’t turn down flirtatious women and often ends up in the sack with them. As the movie begins O’Donoghue becomes involved in a case of a fatal car accident in the desert where one of her potential clients has been found dead. A local police officer, Marty Metakawitch (Charlie Day) on the scene believes it to be a simple car accident, but O’Donoghue thinks there is more to it. A running gag in the film is Marty asking Honey to join him in a drink, but she says “I Like Girls” to which the clueless Marty says “You always say that.” It doesn’t take long until more murders are discovered, and O’Donoghue finds leads that indicate that a local church called the Four-Way Temple may be somehow involved. The church is led by the Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans) who is a real douchebag who likes to engage his female parishioners in sex and has some side businesses going on too that sometimes require the elimination of certain problems. During her investigations Honey encounters MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), a female police officer who also happens to be gay and Honey does not miss the opportunity. (But don’t worry. The sex scenes are pretty tame.) Honey also has a sister who has a large brood of children which Honey is very protective of. All of the female characters seem to have one thing in common and that is having bad relationships with their fathers, especially true for Honey and her sister. When one of the sister’s girls (who was beaten by her idiot boyfriend) goes missing, O’Donoghue pays the boyfriend a visit in his trailer asking where she is. Not getting a good answer, Honey gives him what he deserves and let’s just say you had better not mess around with Honey. Like other Coen movies there is plenty of ironic violence and moronic villains to go around. The movie falls apart somewhat due to a plot that isn’t quite coherent. I felt there were some things being left out leaving it less than satisfying. But I will say that Margaret Qualley’s performance makes up for the film’s shortcomings. I would love to see her in a sequel. She has been in some great roles including those in Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Poor Things and The Substance. This movie by Coen and Cooke (who is Ethan Coen’s wife) is the second in a planned B-movie trilogy that are centered around lesbian characters. The first was last year’s Drive-Away Dolls that also starred Qualley as a girl on a road trip with her very uptight friend. (Along the way they encounter some very inept crooks and an all-lesbian soccer team.) It is one that I recommend. The third installment is still in the works. I have no idea what Coen and company have in mind yet, but I will certainly watch for it. Also, I am convinced that I have no need to visit Bakersfield, California.

Loaded

Loaded                 1 star

The 1994 British made indie thriller Loaded can be described as an exercise in navel gazing involving a bad LSD trip. The movie has a group of London teenagers traveling to a remote old mansion where they aim to make a bad horror movie. Along the way there is lots of philosophizing about life and what they hope to get out of it. One character, Neil, theorizes that thoughts toward a person can make one responsible for what befalls them and this may be a premonition. Two of the characters have real ambitions of becoming filmmakers with one of them having an obsession with real psychopaths. Eventually, when the group takes LSD the consequences are severe as one of their members ends up dead. Then the group must decide together what actions to take. The movie is only notable for early roles for two of the actors, Catherine McCormack and Thandie Newton. This film is a collection of clichés, self-pity and nineties hair styles. It should be avoided.

Frozen II

Frozen II               4 stars

Six years after we met Elsa and Anna, the sister princesses of Arendelle, comes Frozen II, the sequel that finds the kingdom in danger from some unleashed magical spirits from the enchanted forest (if I understand this correctly). We again see the Disney magic with many colorful scenes and musical numbers that made the first movie such a hit. This time around the characters are dealing with some darker forces that have to do with magical spirits that threaten this land and it all has to do with a conflict in the past between the kingdom and another civilization that is now hidden in the enchanted forest. There is plenty of comedy provided by Olaf, the snowman and the lovable oaf Kristoff who is trying to figure out how to propose to his love, Anna. The story is definitely more complicated than the original Frozen and would be hard for young minds to follow, but that may not be all that important. There is a long hidden secret concerning Elsa and Anna’s dead parents that helps to explain the old conflict and why it is that Elsa has magic powers. It was all a little too confusing for me to follow, even. The outstanding cast of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad and Jonathan Groff is expanded with Sterling K. Brown and Evan Rachel Wood. The movie has a positive message for the kids about sticking together through challenges. Overall, it’s a good Disney movie suitable for young minds despite some of the darker moments.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World      4 ½ stars

Last year brought the third chapter of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy and it is a fitting ending to the story of the young Viking leader, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his close dragon friend, Toothless, who is always by Hiccup’s side. This time the Vikings of Berk are living peacefully with their dragon friends, but things have gotten very overcrowded. You could also call the movie, “How to Train Your Dragon: The Love Chapter”, as there is a new character in Toothless’ life, a female all white Light Fury, who has captured the attention of Toothless. There is a new villain also in the person of Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), a master dragon trapper who together with the Trappers are seeking to put an end to the peaceful cooperation between the Vikings and their dragon friends. As the leader of the Vikings, Hiccup can see they cannot safely remain in their village and leads humans and dragons with the support of his girlfriend, Astrid (America Ferrera), in a search for the mysterious hidden world, the legendary land from which the dragons originated. The movie excels once again with the Disney animation we have seen in the previous chapters, (which go way back to 2010 believe it or not). Besides giving us the thrills of its action sequences, the movie is best when focusing on the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless, which resembles traditional movies dealing with a boy and his dog (or horse). But this time Hiccup faces the new challenge of facing what is best for Toothless and everyone in his world. This third chapter in the How to Train Your Dragon series, I think measures up to the quality of the original, something we rarely see in this age of multiple movie sequels.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm      4 ½ stars

It’s been fourteen years since that odd-looking foreign journalist, Borat Sagdiyev invaded America and made a mockery of American values in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Now he has returned after spending years in a Kazakhstan prison and is sent on a mission to deliver a wise monkey to a prominent American politician in order to restore the glorious image of his native country. He arrives in America, only instead of the monkey his teenage daughter Tutar has stowed away, so the mission is changed to delivering the sexy girl to Vice President Mike Pence! The film by master funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen takes a hard look at America under Trump, Coronavirus and all and finds plenty for us to laugh at. This includes getting a cake decorator to write “Jews will not replace us” on a cake, getting a makeup stylist to recommend a skin shade to suit a racist family and getting a plastic surgeon to describe a Jewish nose, all without hesitation. The comedy is mainly done by filming people in real life situations without the knowledge that it is all part of a satirical comedic movie, just like was done in 2006. The targets of the film are mainly right leaning or hard right people who are the type that support Trump. Since most of the film takes place in Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia it wasn’t hard to find these folks. (Romania was a stand in for Kazakhstan.) In one scene Borat goes to an alt right rally and appears on stage where he sings a song about physically attacking President Obama getting cheering approval from the audience. The crowning achievement of the movie comes near the end when somehow he gets Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney to agree to a fake interview with Tutar (who calls herself Sandra Jessica Parker). The unsuspecting Giuliani ends up in a hotel room with the girl with his pants unbuttoned and his hand reaching in his pants! I believe everyone has heard of the scene by now and something about there being a lawsuit over it. The amazing thing is how Cohen hasn’t been beaten up during the making of the movie. Sasha Baron Cohen is known for his outspoken views against racism, religious bigotry and sexism. He uses this latest film as a biting satirical message against those that hold such beliefs and does it in hilarious fashion. The viewer should be warned that there is abundant use of crude scenes and graphic language throughout the film, so you are warned.