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Looking Back at 2010s Films: Les Miserables (2012)

9 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films…let me just state that my only exposure to the musical “Les Miserables” is Susan Boyle’s outstanding version of “I Dreamed a Dream” and the 2012 film. Never read the book it was based on, never saw the stage play, never saw any other film adaptations. So, I’m just going to look at the 2012 cinematic version from the director of “The King’s Speech” and…the upcoming “Cats” movie…….OK.

When I first saw this film, I was blown away…despite some inconsistencies.

And after watching it again recently, I was still blown away…despite those same inconsistencies.

The most glaring one of them all is Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean. He’s great and powerful…and then he’s too showy and trying too hard. It’s kind of weird how he goes back and forth like that. Sometimes, it’s like his most accomplished acting work (and I see why he was nominated for Best Actor this role)…other times, I think he could’ve been more subtle–it’s times like those when I realize the difference between singing in film and singing in theatre.

I admire the grit and weight that’s given to the story, but there are far too many closeups for us to be fully invested in what the characters are going through. I get why a lot of them were used, but a simpler approach could’ve helped other moments.

The poster child (I mean literal “poster child”–her face was on all of the advertisements for this film) for the story is Cosette, whom Jean Valjean, himself on the run as a fugitive, has to rescue from a life of misery after her mother dies. But she doesn’t do anything. She’s a McGuffin–an object that someone is trying to find and protect, standing for what the French rebels are fighting for. I wouldn’t mind so much except that there’s a far more interesting child, one who is active and assisting the rebels and even sacrifices himself for the cause, is Gavroche–why wasn’t HE the symbol for “Les Miserables”?? What did Cosette do aside from…weep?

And then there’s…Russell Crowe. So many people have criticized his singing voice, and I’m not going to act like I don’t see why. He simply can’t carry the tunes he’s been given. He’s better when he’s calm and/or quiet rather than when he’s loud and bombastic. When his Javert is looking over the treachery he found himself a part of, Crowe’s facial expressions say more than his droning singing voice could ever get across.

What do I like about the film? Well, for one, I love the scale of the production. The film feels BIG. It goes beyond what you would’ve seen on stage and maintains the heart and soul that was meant to be felt. The reason I kept watching this 157-minute long musical is simply because it demanded me to.

The costume design is great and the set design is outstanding, recreating 19th Century France really well.

And then there’s Anne Hathaway as Fantine…wow is she spectacular. It’s probably her most accomplished acting of her career, and of course, her singing is better than expected. Her “I Dreamed a Dream” sequence is fantastic–she has the pipes for it, but more importantly, she has the EMOTION for it. And it’s done in just one take in close-up, allowing the intimacy to add to what’s already being felt in this moment. It’s this scene that undoubtedly won Hathaway the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Oh, and there’s also Helena Bonham Carter & Sacha Baron Cohen as the swindling innkeepers, Eddie Redmayne as the rebel who falls for Cosette, Samantha Barks who of course Redmayne sees as a a friend rather than a lover even though she’s more developed and interesting, and a bunch of other characters that we probably don’t need for the film even though they’re from the stage musical. But…eh. They’re fine. I’m not terribly bored by them, so that counts for something.

OK, so there’s a lot of problems with “Les Miserables 2012″…but I can’t help it. I have a soft spot for it. The stuff that’s good in it are REALLY good, and the parts that aren’t so good aren’t terrible…and at least Russell Crowe is a better singer than Gerard Butler.

Looking Back at 2010s Films: Blindspotting (2018)

8 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, there’s a moment in “Blindspotting” when a young black man is walking alone in a risky neighborhood in Oakland, CA.

A cop car seems to be following him. He tenses up. WE tense up because he has a gun. It’s not even his gun–he took it away from his friend before some crazy stuff could go down. But you think once the police find the gun if they stop and question him that he’s going to be able to explain the situation? This man hasn’t done anything wrong, he’s finally off probation, and if he gets caught with this gun, he could end up in jail, or worse. And then…the cop’s light shines on him as he turns around.

It’s a quiet moment but it’s also an extremely terrifying moment because it feels real.

And that’s just one of many memorably chilling moments in “Blindspotting,” one of the underrated films from last year. Like “Do the Right Thing” 30 years ago, “Blindspotting” is a film about race relations that is brutally honest. Intense and sometimes very humorous, but still brutally honest.

The film stars (and was co-written by) Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, longtime friends who came up with the script inspired by their own experiences in the Bay Area. Diggs plays Collin, who is finally done with probation after serving a brief prison sentence after partaking in a fight (how and why the fight came about, I’ll leave for you to discover–it’s hilarious). Casal plays his best friend Miles, a loudmouth who is always looking for trouble–if Collin slips up again, Miles is probably partially responsible. Collin, who’s black, has to reminded time and time again by other people that if the police show up when trouble goes down, they’ll ignore Miles because he’s white but Collin will be the one who’s arrested or shot. He doesn’t want to believe that, nor does he want to believe Miles’ rambling that the neighborhood is being “changed” by “hipsters.” But he’s haunted by his witnessing of an Oakland cop (Ethan Embry) shooting and killing an unarmed black man on the street, which doesn’t raise his confidence either.

Those scenes in which he keeps seeing that cop in his dreams and in his reality let us know how heavy the weight of Collin’s world continues to crush down on him.

But there are other scenes to help lighten the mood, such as when the fight that Collin went to jail for is described in extreme detail by Utkarsh Ambudkar (who I recently saw again in “Brittany Runs a Marathon”)…in what could be described as “Drunk History”-style. (Surprisingly, this was only one of two movies last year that took that comedic storytelling style–the other one was “Ant-Man & The Wasp.”)

‘Blindspotting” is a film with moments of harsh reality and energetic creativity.

I mentioned “Do the Right Thing” before, and it’s hard not to compare these two movies not just in terms of statement but in terms of style. Remember how in “Do the Right Thing,” we had a couple musical moments and a montage of people of different races directing racist insults to the camera? Well, “Blindspotting” has spoken-word raps, sometimes to take place of traditional dialogue. Its payoff is a climactic moment that you’ll have to see to believe–it’ll either work for you or it won’t. It worked for me.

And of course…the Oscars ignored another treasure with this one. Let’s see, did the Indie Spirits look at this one…?

Yep–Daveed Diggs was nominated for Best Male Lead for his brilliant performance.

Check this one out if you haven’t already.

And for the record, I’ve never even bothered to try a bottle of green juice ($10 a bottle?? c’mon), and I don’t plan to either. (Those who’ve already seen the film will get that reference.)

Looking Back at 2010s Films: Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

8 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, I’m starting to realize why I’m talking about all of these movies that probably won’t make my best-of-the-2010s list…because LISTS ARE A JOKE!!! They change after time and it’s like others don’t even matter. Well, they matter to me, dammit!

I mean, obviously I’m still going to do it, but…where was I going with this?

Ah whatever, let me just talk about “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” the Oscar-winning documentary…oh, it wasn’t even nominated because the Oscars are a joke. (God bless the Indie Spirits though! Even they knew the Oscars were a joke.)

Obligatory introduction describing the importance of Fred Rogers and his iconic PBS show here…do I even need to go into that? All I can add is I grew up with it. So let’s move on…

I don’t know how people who aren’t familiar with Mr. Rogers would respond to this documentary, but I hope they got a pretty good idea as to how culturally impactful he was to Gen-Xers and Millennials (among others). But for me and most other people who grew up with the show, it’s an excellent companion piece.

To be completely honest, there were three movie moments from 2018 that made me a little teary-eyed (no joke)–one was in ‘Boy Erased,” in which a gay teen received a verbal thrashing at conversion camp; one was in “Wildlife,” as Joe realized his parents’ relationship was done for good; and the other was near the end of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” as Fred Rogers’ funeral was protested by Westboro Baptist (because what else were those miserable, hate-fueled asses going to fart upon with their spare time?)…and there were children there holding signs as well–one of the interviewees of the documentary took notice that the children didn’t look very happy. That was heartbreaking, especially when you know just how important Fred Rogers was in using television to shape young minds.

“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” is basically a standard, straightforward biographical documentary about Mr. Rogers, and obviously in terms of filmmaking, it can’t compete with “Free Solo” or “Minding the Gap” (two Oscar-nominated docs that you could argue took more chances than this)…but it’s just so freaking GOOD at being standard and straightforward and respectful and all that! (I doubt it’s possible to make a “negative” film about Mr. Rogers anyway…I mean, unless it was made by one of those jerks who thought Mr. Rogers’ message about children being special meant they didn’t have to achieve anything–weren’t those guys even AWARE of Barney the Dinosaur?)

At least the 34th Film Independent Spirit Awards, who awarded “WYBMN?” the documentary award, knew how special this film was–yet another reason for me to gain more interest in the Indie Spirits than the Oscars.

Looking Back at 2010s Films: I, Tonya (2017)

8 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, there’s a moment late in the film that shows why Margot Robbie was cast as Harley Quinn as “Suicide Squad.”

It’s a moment late in “I, Tonya.” Everyone’s harping on her. She’s dealing with a great deal of stress. Very few people are on her side. She has to go out there on the ice again and impress the judges again. Did I mention she’s Tonya Harding?

Yep, it’s the film that makes the harsh statement that we are all in fact terrible people. I mean…we just suck. No question about it.

The film didn’t even need to necessarily take sides in the whole Nancy Kerrigan scandal to make that assessment. That’s because it doesn’t even go on record saying “THIS IS REAL; THIS REALLY HAPPENED.” Instead, it uses the clever technique of crafting the story based on interviews/testimonials not from Nancy Kerrigan or anyone who followed her but from Tonya Harding and everyone who followed HER. There is evidence that implicated Tonya criminally, and other people have criticized her actions. We could’ve gotten a film from Nancy’s perspective. But Nancy’s barely even a character, so what we have with “I, Tonya” is a different perspective that may or may not be true…especially because many characters saw things differently!

It’s like “Rashomon,” with the many different perspectives of an incident contradicting each other, except we never even hear from the supposed victim of said-incident! A strange method, but intriguing nonetheless.

I love biopics that use different techniques to take creative liberties with “true” stories. Some other brave ones that came out in the past few years were “The Big Short” and “Vice.” But my favorite is “I, Tonya”, mostly because…I just think it’s smarter and funnier.

Here’s where the film first grabbed me. We start off with “irony-free” interviews of Tonya (Margot Robbie), her husband (Sebastian Stan), her mother (Allison Janney), her coach (Julianne Nicholson), her husband’s friend/”bodyguard” (Paul Walter Hauser), and…the reporter (Bobby Cannavale). The reporter’s opening line is GREAT: “I was a reporter for ‘Hard Copy,’ a pretty crappy show that legitimate news outlets looked down on…and then became.” Bravo, movie! BRAVO! I was hooked from that moment forward.

And he’s right too. When the Incident happened, everyone was obsessed with it, and so, when tabloids and “crappy” news outlets like “Hard Copy” covered it heavily, everyone was looking to them for “the truth.” That’s when they started to be taken “seriously,” and nowadays, it’s a common popular thing, especially now that the Internet has grown significantly since then.

This film pretty much tells us that truth is in the eye of the beholder and we’re all just going to believe what we want to believe, even if we harp on people to further our own points of view.

How much of “I, Tonya” is accurate?? I don’t know! But it’s interesting to think about, isn’t it?

The writing is brilliant, the directing from Craig Gillespie (who also directed “Lars and the Real Girl” and “Fright Night”) is top-notch, the editing (which was nominated for an Oscar) is very clever as it goes from one point to the next just as we’re wondering what it might be, and of course, the acting is excellent. Margot Robbie is chillingly good as Tonya, and Allison Janney…wow. I mean, Janney is always great in funny, endearing supporting roles, but here, she gave herself the challenge of making this character of Tonya’s coldhearted, foul-mouthed mother as unlikable as possible. And for that, she deserved the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

And I also really liked Paul Walter Hauser as the burly, delusional “bodyguard” who promises to “take [Nancy] out.” Again, who knows how this really went down? But HE claims he masterminded the attack…DID he? It’s so easy to fact-check and debunk his stories.

See? This movie raises questions, provokes thought, gives insights, blah blah blah…and we don’t know how much of it is factual! In the end, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is this most important question…why wasn’t this nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars??

(OK, obviously, there are more important questions to ask about it, but I’m trying to be funny here.)

Looking Back at 2010s Films: The Martian (2015)

8 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” lost some of its appeal after seeing it a few more times.

But only some. And it’s not even that big a deal; it’s just a nitpick I have. Honestly, the movie is still really good, and I like to watch it from time to time…though, I usually fast-forward through its scenes set on Earth.

Except for Donald Glover’s cameo–that’s still gold.

You have an astronaut/botanist who’s left for dead and stranded on Mars, and he has to do whatever he can to survive until help and (hopefully) rescue finally come. That’s the hook.

You have a subplot involving his crew in space, who don’t know their partner is still alive until they’re halfway home. That’s an interesting addition.

…And then, you have the people at NASA (played by great actors like Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, and Mackenzie Davis) reporting his death, finding out later that he’s still alive and on Mars, having to admit that they messed up, worried that they’ll look bad with the truth, yadda yadda yadda–I don’t need that, and I don’t care about that. They do find a way to bring him home (again, thanks to Donald Glover), but you could’ve just had the development come with the other astronauts, and nothing would’ve been missed. Plus, it would’ve decreased the film’s runtime by about 20-25 minutes!

I don’t care if it was in the book this was based on–it’s just not that interesting.

But thankfully, most of the focus is on where it should be, with Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut who was part of a crew whose Mars mission is complicated by a strong dust storm. Thinking Mark died in the storm, the rest of the crew abort the mission and leave without him. But he is still alive; however, he’s unable to communicate with his crew or with Earth, meaning his only rescue option is the next Mars mission, four years later. So, now he has to find ways to survive until he can figure some things out–luckily, he’s a botanist, so he can find ways to grow food…on a planet where nothing grows.

What’s great about this story, aside from the interesting developments that our main character has to go through? (I mean, being trapped on a whole other planet–that’s WAY worse than being trapped on a desert island.) It’s how he responds to it. He, of course, has his initial moment of panic and concern (and this is after he’s had to perform self-surgery to get a piece of debris out of himself!), but then he simply asks, “What should I do now?” And he goes and finds ways to keep on going in what may or may not be a hopeless situation. That’s what I love about this film–Mark’s an optimist. He doesn’t give up easily, even when things go from bad to worse–he’ll just find a way to make it work again because he’s determined not to die on Mars.

Another thing I really like about “The Martian” is its sense of humor. With a sharply written script by Drew Goddard (most famous for “The Cabin in the Woods” and…well, now this), the moments of levity in this survival story are much appreciated. And it also helps that Mark is given some of the funnier lines in the movie.

Here are some of my favorites:
-“Mars will come to fear my botany powers.”
-“I colonized Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong!”
-“I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this.”

Let’s see, was this script nominated for an Oscar? Please let the answer be “yes.” *scrolls through Wikipedia*………Yes!

Blend a comic script with Ridley Scott’s serious direction, and you have something unique. That’s really what it comes down to, more than “The Martian” being humorous–it’s hopeful. When it’s on Mars or on the spacecraft with the rest of the crew (played by Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie), the film really works. On Earth, however, not so much….again, except for the Donald Glover cameo. (I hope I never have to say this about another movie with Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, and Mackenzie Davis!)

Looking Back at 2010s Films: Miss Stevens (2016)

8 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, I love movies that start out well enough on the first viewing and then grow into more appreciation after a few more viewings. (About half of my decade-end top-20 choices are among those movies!) I liked “Miss Stevens” fine when I first saw it, I showed it to my fiancee and enjoyed it a second time, and recently I played it in the background on Netflix and…my attention kept getting drawn towards it.

So much for the film that started out “fine” at first.

“Miss Stevens” is an indie road-movie about a high-school teacher (Rachel Stevens, played by Lily Rabe of “American Horror Story” fame) who chaperones three students to a state drama competition. One is Billy (Timothee Chalamet, who acted in this film just one year before his career breakthrough), who has a behavioral disorder and a crush on the teacher; one is Margot (Lili Reinhart), the organized and somewhat stuck-up one of the trio; and the other is Sam (Anthony Quintal), the sweet, chill one of the bunch. This is one of those weekend-that-changed-everything movies, as the teacher and the students bond over the weekend and learn important lessons and become better people and–you get the idea.

Actually, it is sweet, the way they find ways to relate to one another, even when Billy’s attempts at flirting are borderline creepy (but you have to remember, he’s just a teenager–and Miss Stevens lets him down easy). Billy learns to control his anger and channel it into his acting performance for the competition. Margot learns some rules are OK to break. Sam works up the courage to ask one of the other competitors out on a date. And Miss Stevens, or Rachel, learns to follow her own advice, as she needs someone to help take care of her too.

A lot of the charm in this small but likable film comes from the actors. Lily Rabe won a Special Jury Award for her acting at SXSW, and it’s easy to see why–she’s caring but has her own problems, and she’s able to let us see both sides of the same person. It’s a wonderful balance she pulls off. And Timothee Chalamet is excellent as the most troubled of her students. I’m glad this guy’s career has taken off in a major way, with his accolades for “Call Me By Your Name” and whatnot, and is still giving him much to work with. Here, I genuinely believe him as a kid with so many issues built up inside of him that he’s able to unleash when in character during his competing representation of “Death of a Salesman.” (Eat your heart out, Dave Franco in “The Disaster Artist.”)

The film’s director is Julia Hart. Her next film, “Fast Color,” which was released earlier this year, is a gripping indie look at a superhero origin story. Her upcoming film, “Stargirl” (based on the novel of the same name), is coming to Disney Plus, so I’ll be interested in seeing that too.

“Miss Stevens” is still available on Netflix–check it out and see what you think…and then see it again.

Looking Back at 2010s Films: The End of the Tour (2015)

7 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films………why is “The End of the Tour” not on my top-20-of-the-decade list?

Well, there’s a ridiculous BS reason as to why. Same reason as to why there’s only one MCU movie that’s going to be on my list. The way I made the list was I split the choices into separate categories to make it easier to choose some over others. “The End of the Tour” fit into the Biopic category, and there’s one biopic that I’d feel bad for leaving off the list…this wasn’t it.

But I LOVE this film–believe me, I do! I have a select group of dialogue-heavy films available on streaming services that I just like to listen to on my phone while I’m driving or walking through the mall or the library or whatever. “The End of the Tour,” currently available on Netflix, is one of them.

The dialogue in this film’s screenplay is BRILLIANT. It reminds me a lot of Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, in that it’s mostly centered around two smart people sharing smart ideas and philosophies. And here, we have reporter/novelist David Lipsky and the late enigmatic author David Foster Wallace–two smart guys who bond together by simply discussing their views on life for just a few days.

Played by Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel, I could listen to these two smart guys talk about anything. What does it mean to have something you don’t want? What if you didn’t know you didn’t want it? What if you want it and don’t know how to get it? Who can you truly trust when you have this “celebrity” status? Do you think you’re performing some sort of “social strategy” to alter your persona to less intelligent, average Joes? They even discuss other things like “Die Hard,” Alanis Morrissette, even masturbation.

What makes the conversations especially interesting is that Lipsky convinced his Rolling Stone editor to let him write a piece on Wallace while he’s on the last stages of his book tour promoting his ingenious novel “Infinite Jest.” (At least, I heard “Infinite Jest” was “ingenious.” I never read it…I think I’m scared to.) That’s because he hero-worships Wallace for having the fame that he desires. (As the film opens, Lipsky has just published a novel himself, but chances are it won’t go anywhere.) So, he’s happy to be having these pleasant chats with him, and vice versa (though, Wallace is a bit uncertain as to Lipsky’s “agenda” for the article–he even tells him at one point, “This is nice…this is not real.”). And then, late in the film, Lipsky decides to call Wallace out on what he’s seen so far on the tour, which is that Wallace, who must obviously be “brilliant” to write this long, allegorical novel, is performing some sort of act around him and other people so that they won’t be intimidated. Wallace’s response is amazing. What he’s basically saying is that everybody wants to be perceived in certain ways because we want to please other people. Therefore, we WILL adopt different personas.

I’m guilty of it. And you are, too.

The film was directed by James Ponsoldt, who also directed one of my favorite teen films, “The Spectacular Now.” And it was written by Donald Margulies, the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright famous for “Dinner with Friends.” It was also based on the real Lipsky’s novel “Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself,” which he wrote based on tape recordings he made with the real Wallace–I’d be interested in reading that…I don’t know why I haven’t yet.

I love “The End of the Tour.” I love the dialogue. I love the two lead performances from Segel and Eisenberg. And I love how it makes me feel each time I watch (or listen to) it.

Looking Back at 2010s Films: Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

7 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, why are we always surprised when comedic actors play it straight?

Seriously–are there any comedic actors who CAN’T play it straight? Why are we always surprised when Adam Sandler turns in a solid dramatic performance or Jason Segel or Bill Murray or Chris Tucker or Seth Rogen or Marlon Wayans or Kristen Wiig or Albert Brooks–I could go on and on, but you get my point. They can stay committed to comedic bits; they can stay committed to going outside of that too.

Same goes for Melissa McCarthy–critics were surprised to see a different side to her, given her reputation as a loud, obnoxious, abrasive personality in several mainstream comedies (one of which even gave her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress). She also had a dramatic supporting role in “St. Vincent” in 2014, but hardly anyone saw that. In Marielle Heller’s biopic “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” she takes center-stage as Lee Israel, a failed novelist who made a living by forging celebrities’ memorabilia and selling it. She forges letters “written” by Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward, among others, and sells them to collectors for huge amounts of cash. Her fakes are so believable, and she’s able to keep it going for a while, but of course, she has to get caught. (That’s not a spoiler–this is based on a true story.)

McCarthy is wonderful in this film (and thankfully she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her work). She has to be drinking constantly, she has to be resentful of her falling career, she has to lash out on the wrong people, she does all these illegal activities to earn money–it takes work to make someone like that likable, and McCarthy pulls it off. Actually, she plays it like the exact opposite of the kind of character she’s used to–she’s not the life of the party, but she COULD be if she opened herself up to society.

It’s when we see her with her only friend (outside of her 12-year-old cat), a charming but weathered gay man named Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant, also nominated for his fine work), that we see what it’d be like to be around her when she lowers her defenses, and she can make for good company.

Oh, and best of all–SHE DOESN’T IMPROVISE! That’s one of my pet peeves about her comedic work–sometimes, she doesn’t trust the script enough to be funny, and she’ll try so hard to make people laugh that she’ll ramble after the bit should be over. Here, she trusts the writing of a script (that was also nominated, for Best Adapted Screenplay) and Heller’s direction.

The script, by the way, was written by Jeff Whitty and Nicole Holofcener. Whitty is a playwright best known for the stage musical “Avenue Q,” but Holofcener has become well-known to me after I saw both this film and the Netflix Original film she directed (“The Land of Steady Habits”), which were both released around the same time. Then I would look up what else she wrote and/or directed and check out these other indie treasures, like “Walking and Talking,” “Lovely and Amazing,” “Friends With Money,” “Please Give,” and “Enough Said”…and it turned out I had apparently seen some “Parks and Recreation” episodes she did (and one episode of “Togetherness”). Now that I know who she is, I’m very glad her work for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” has been recognized by so many Screenplay awards.

Marielle Heller previously made the solid indie coming-of-age film “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” which I only learned about from the audio commentary from The Lonely Island film “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,” in which she made a cameo as a documentary filmmaker “best-known for the great indie flick ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl.'” (When I looked up the film was when I found out Heller was Jorma Taccone’s wife.)

Her next film, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” starring Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, comes out this fall, and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Looking Back at 2010s Films: Lean on Pete (2018)

7 Oct

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By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, I missed “Lean on Pete” in theaters–I didn’t even know about it. But when I worked at Vintage Stock and we got a series of trailers for upcoming DVD releases, I noticed one with many festival laurels and critical blurbs praising it–the sound wasn’t on the TV set that displayed the trailer, and it just looked like a typical boy-and-his-horse story. But if film critic Richard Roeper gave it four stars, I knew it would be anything but “typical.”

When it was released on DVD, I rented it, checked it out…and was blown away.

“Lean on Pete” is a film about a 15-year-old boy who gets a job looking after an aging racehorse, named Lean On Pete. He learns the horse is bound for slaughter because he’s slowing up, and when he ends up in a situation where he may go into care, he steals Lean On Pete and sets off on a journey to find his aunt, with whom he hasn’t been in contact for years.

Think “The Grapes of Wrath” meets “The 400 Blows.”

“Lean on Pete” is a beautiful film–not always heartwarming but always compelling. The kid in this movie, Charley (played by Charlie Plummer), is a good kid who endures many hardships (and sometimes has to do the wrong thing to get ahead), and it’s so hard not to root for him to find what he’s looking for. What IS he looking for? He just wants a place to call “home.”

My favorite scene comes late in the film, in which Charley is walking with Lean On Pete through the frontier and he tells him about a time when he was invited to breakfast by one of his friends. This kid’s a football jock, so you would think he’s got other things to talk about. But no–he was just happy to be accepted somewhere with people he liked. That’s all he wants. Like Marge from “Fargo” or Atticus Finch from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Charley from “Lean on Pete” has learned what others need spelled out for them–that the simplest pleasures are the greatest treasures.

I remember seeing this kid Charlie Plummer represent a film he starred in four years ago (called “King Jack”) at the Little Rock Film Festival and thinking he’d have a great career ahead of him. Well now, he’s been in a Ridley Scott film (“All the Money in the World”), he was considered for the MCU’s Spider-Man for a while, he’s appeared in a few more indie flicks (including the thriller “The Clovehitch Killer”)–he’s barely 20 years old; I hope he keeps up the good work!

Charlie Plummer IS this film. If “Lean on Pete” works for you, then it’s because of him. If “Lean on Pete” doesn’t work for you, meaning you don’t tear up or at least feel some kind of sympathy for this kid, then you might be dead. Take that for what it’s worth.

Looking Back at 2010s Films: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

7 Oct
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By Tanner Smith
Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, I move from one Coen Brothers Western to another–one of last year’s most pleasant surprises on Netflix: “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.”

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” is an anthology film of six short stories…even though it’s the first one that features both a ballad and a Buster Scruggs.

And WOW, does this collection start with a bang! It can even be argued that the film peaks too soon with the first segment, which only lasts about 20 minutes (if even that).

What’s the thing you remember the most from the Coens’ 2001 hit “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Aside from Man of Constant Sorrow. Aside from John Goodman. Aside from the cinematography. Aside from the baptism. Aside from–oh hell with it, it’s Tim Blake Nelson! His heavy Southern drawl crossed with his character’s naive innocence (save for that Piggly Wiggly he knocked over in Yazoo) made him easily everyone’s favorite character in that flick. Here, as jolly outlaw Buster Scruggs, he’s far from innocent but his persona is the same. He constantly monologues to the camera about how things work in the West and how most people go against it, causing him to strike back in a major way. He’s extremely crafty, especially when it comes to dealing with idiots who don’t play fair. And even he knows “you can’t be top dog forever.” All with that familiar Texas drawl that only Tim Blake Nelson can use to perfection.

His bit only lasts about 17 minutes–I could easily watch an entire feature-length film about this guy. But alas, after a darkly hilarious musical number, his story is over and we have no choice but to move on to the next chapter.

But even though we’ve had the best with the first of these six chapters, the rest of the chapters are entertaining and/or enthralling in their own ways. The second chapter, called “Near Algodones,” is pretty impressive. James Franco plays a cowboy who robs the wrong bank and thus endures unusual circumstances and consequences–one of which involves a pretty funny visual gag involving Franco being strung up by the neck and a horse that needn’t take many steps forward. And it only gets more unfortunate for Franco from there.

The third chapter, “Meal Ticket,” is where it gets very bleak and cold. Liam Neeson is an impresario who promotes an armless and legless performer who recites literary passages (and more)….I won’t give away how it ends, but let me just say I would skip this one if not for Dudley from the “Harry Potter” movies quoting the Bible and Shakespeare.

The fourth segment, “All Gold Canyon,” is the prettiest to look at, as it’s beautifully photographed. Tom Waits wanders through a canyon prospecting wherever he can for the possibility of gold–what he finds, I’ll leave you to discover.

The fifth chapter, “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” is probably the second best of the six. Zoe Kazan plays a young woman who finds herself in a dangerous situation, and Bill Heck is the heroic type that has to protect her…it doesn’t end well, sadly. (I said it was “second-best”; I didn’t say it was “fun.”)

And finally, “The Mortal Remains”–this one’s about a “Hateful Eight” type of situation with bounty hunters and other interesting folks riding in a stagecoach to a foreboding hotel. Not the strongest segment, but it is…interesting…enough.

Not that the Coens are often known for going on high notes with most of their films, anyway. What they usually care about is whether or not they make an impression. And with the four terrific films they’ve released this decade (including two other films I’ll get to before the decade is over–the underrated “Hail, Caesar!” and the critically beloved “Inside Llewyn Davis”), I’d say they still got what made them infamous to begin with.

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” is available on Netflix.

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