The Film Junkie

It is a rare thing in our modern age to leave a movie with genuine joy in your heart.  Movies these days are often throught-provoking, but at times they work to frighten or demean us rather than uplift.  ‘Hairspray’ is something completely different.

It is the story of Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), a plus-size teen with a penchant for dancing and the dream of becoming a star on the local teen dance program.  Along the way to realizing her dream she encounters the injustices of her world and becomes inspired to change things.

Blonsky is one hell of a find, she was discovered in an open casting call, as she steals the movie from all the stars around her.  She is instantly watchable and relatable and thus she carries us through the film with her cheerful demeanour and intelligence.  

The rest of the cast consists of Michelle Pfeiffer who relishes playing the bitch; Brittany Snow as her devilish daughter; teen dream Zac Efron as teen dream Link; James Marsden as the adorable dance show host; Amanda Bynes as Tracy’s best friend Penny who is also going through a life-changing experience; Allison Janny as Penny’s uber-Christian mama; Queen Latifah as the host of ‘Negro Day’ on the dance show; and John Travolta and Christopher Walken as Tracy’s mom and dad, respectively.

I was at times distracted by Travolta in drag, but the oddest thing about his performance was the choice of accent.  He chose a sort of Southern drawl, or Boston (hard to tell) accent that doesn’t really work.  However I liked him in drag overall.  Walken is clearly loving being able to return to his song and dance roots.  

The cast is very strong, they work the songs and dance routines with complete gusto.  The film is high energy, high impact and highly entertaining.  You will leave with a smile on your face.

Grade: A 

This is the story of Millie (Julie Andrews) who comes to New York to be a modern woman and encounters the very unmodern Miss Dorothy (Mary Tyler Moore) who intends to be an actress.  The two women grow close in their all-girls boarding house while a white slavery ring is being run behind their backs.  The ladies meet two very different men and must test the mettle of their intentions against their circumstances.

Andrews was at her peak around this time and her work here is gold.  She is smart and driven while also being dim-wittedly innocent.  Millie is the typical woman of the 1920’s who was glad to have it all, but is easily seduced by comfort.  Moore is annoying as Dorothy but that is what the character calls for, it is great to see her dance.  Carol Channing also shows up as Muzzy, the kind of woman Millie wishes she could be.  Channing is ridiculously over the top and I have no idea why she was nominated for an Oscar for this tremendously aggravating performance.

It is humourous to see the first wave feminism of the 1920’s depicted under the glare of the uber-sexist 1960’s.  The 60’s produced some of the most sexist films ever because it was just before the breaking point of second wave feminism in the 70’s.  Here we are supposed to see it as quaint that Millie wants to be an equal to her husband and we are also supposedly to be relieved when she finally decides to be ‘a woman’ upon getting engaged.  It is horrendously offensive to the character and the audience to turn her around like this, but again it is typical of the era.

The movie is far too long (if Channing was cut out it would be shorter and more enjoyable), but I love all the nods to the 20’s films like the ‘Safety Last!’ building climbing scene and the fact that Millie’s thoughts are shown in title cards.  Thus it is a muddled musical with some good musical numbers which might have been better if they were all performed by Andrews.

Grade: B-

I am still unsure about Shia LaBeouf.  He speaks like a man twice his age and acts with the confidence of an Oscar winner, however it all comes off a bit pompous for my taste.  He needs to act a bit more like the insecure teens he is portraying because if he keeps acting the role of the over-confident jerk he is going to lose his appeal, and fast.

This modern teen adaptation of Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ follows LaBeouf’s Kale, a young man under house arrest for punching his teacher.  He begins to notice oddities around the neightbourhood and becomes convinced that his next-door neighbour is a serial killer.  Is it his paranoia or is it real?  Do we care?  Not really.

The movie tries to make us care about Kale and his desire for Ashley (Sarah Roemer), the girl next door, yet her performance is so bland and unlikable we simply don’t.  We try to care about the possibility of a murderer, but are constantly distracted by LaBeouf’s aggravating selfishness.  We try to care about his mother (Carrie-Anne Moss), but her scenes are so limited we never really get to know her.

What we are left with is a cool idea executed rather lamely.  Perhaps if LaBeouf could tone down the arrogance, Roemer could act and Moss could be given a chance to shine this would be a good film.

Grade: B-

In recent years Hugh Grant has taken to playing the cad in most of his films.  In the 90’s he was the stuttering charmer, but in the 21st century he has become the arsehole.  However here he breaks from that type to play a has-been 80’s pop star trying to rekindle his career.

It might seen a prime opportunity to play a jerk, however Grant plays the role as a man who is happy to have what he does have rather than being bitter about what he doesn’t have.  It is an unexpected choice, but one that works.  Especially since Grant is paired with the ever-cheerful Drew Barrymore.

I didn’t expect to like this pairing.  I love both of them separately and in other pairings, but I never thought that the sardonic Grant would work with the peppy Barrymore, however they surprised me.  The chemistry between them is clear from the get-go. 

The film is basically the story of the two of them attempting to write a pop song for a ridiculous pop star and in that area it lacks.  The pop star, Cora (Hayley Bennett), is completely unbelievable.  Where Grant’s 80’s band, Pop, is a comedic but also quite realistic depiction of that era’s music scene, Cora is instead trying to mock too many stars and thus it loses the effect.  She is at once the religious inclinations of Madonna, the ignorance of Britney, a weak impression of Shakira’s dancing, with the costumes of Christina.  And yet with all these influences, the actress herself has none of the charisma of any of these.  Barrymore and Grant outshine her at every turn, and thus we can never really buy that she is the biggest star on earth.

Ultimately, I was entertained by this rom-com.  I like Grant and Barrymore together.  It is a much sweeter movie than I expected and that was a nice surprise.  Plus, the Pop music video is one of the funniest things I have ever seen Hugh Grant do.

Grade: B

Sandra Bullock is one of my favorite big Hollywood actresses because I feel like she is trying to bring roles for women, especially more mature women, into the forefront with her celebrity.  I also feel like she just gets better and better with age and is still going to surprise us.  With all that said, this movie was not all I hoped it would be.

She stars as a woman who is living the week of her husband’s death out of sequence.  She must figure out why and what is happening to her while also taking care of her marriage, her children and herself.  The film lags in the beginning, but finds its path as soon as she begins to take control of what is happening to her.  However the strong Christian undertones drag the message of the film down and the ending is unfulfilling.

I love Bullock in this role, she is lovely and complex while not wearing her emotions on her sleeve like many actresses think they have to (ahem, Julia Roberts), Bullock lets it live just under the surface.  She has been better in many films, but never has a movie rested so much on her shoulders alone.  What she has proven here is that she is now as watchable as Tom Hanks, perhaps she is the female version.  She is the everywoman.

Not a great film, but it is entertaining and Bullock is a gem.

Grade: B-

Sometimes chick flicks can warm your heart and give you a nice lift for the day, other times it kind of feels like the studios have used a calculator to try and squeeze as much money from you as possible. 

Here they take the idea that Diane Keaton has scored big with ‘The Family Stone’ (2005) and ‘Somethings Gotta Give’ (2003), so they combine her characters from those two films to make Daphne.    They also surmise that teens adore Mandy Moore from her music career as well as her charming roles in ‘A Walk To Remember’ (2002) and ‘Chasing Liberty’ (2004) and thus will see her in this.  They cast Lauren Graham to tap into the ‘Gilmore Girls’ crowd and Stephen Collins for the ‘Seventh Heaven’ fans.  They calculate that by their math this movie should draw a big crowd…however there’s something they forgot: a story.

Instead we are given a lame plot wherein Keaton is a mother too involved in her daughter’s lives, in fact so much so that none of them are able to make a single decision without one another.  This was done far more believably in ‘The Upside of Anger’ (2005) with Joan Allen and her trio of daughters.  Here it grates on the nerves.

The love story is horrendously predictable (would anyone stay with Tom Everett Scott’s schmuck character past the uber-controlling first date??).  This film is simply offensive to women in that it thinks that we need little more than likable cast members and a cute boy to get us through.  Women need story, passion and suprises because, surprisingly, we are people too.

Do your own math.

Grade: C-

Where the novel was a brilliant look at the vanity of culture, this film adaptation is the story of the brilliance of self-important art, which is fitting since it is little more than that itself.

This is the kind of film that is so obsessed with how brilliant it thinks it is that they forgot to put any effort into making it good.  It is the epitome of style over substance.  The acting is horrible, the directing is self-indulgent, and the writing (with the exception of the brilliant original Oscar Wilde tidbits) is ridiculous.

David Gallagher plays the title role like a model attempting to act for the first time.  He is certainly pleasing to look at but he holds none of the charisma Dorian should have.  Christian Camargo fits the Wilde style as Henry, Dorian’s guide in life, however he is at a distance from the style of the film.  His performance may come off as grating to some, however I see him as paying homage to Wilde and therefore it is the best performance of the film.

I suppose I am so upset by this film because I loved the book for all its snobbishness and homoerotic undertones.  It is a classic of the era and I couldn’t be more disappointed with this horrible adaption.

Grade: C-

At first I didn’t know what to think about this film.  It seems to want to be a romantic comedy, but then has strong dramatic implications and deeply flawed characters who never really redeem themselves.  What I know for certain is that this film was an unexpected treat that kept me interested right until the end.

Ingrid Bergman plays Paula, a 40 year old woman who is in a relationship of convienience with Roger (Yves Montand) wherein she does not take advantage of the freedom she is supposedly allowed.  Roger, on the other hand, has his cake and eats it too and prefers to lie to Paula to keep the charade alive.

Soon enough Paula meets Philip (dashing young Anthony Perkins), the 25 year old son of one of her clients.  Philip falls hard for Paula and tempts her away from the disappointments of her life with Roger.

The bond between Bergman and Montand is clear and the chemistry resonantes through the film.  Bergman was always a master of letting her eyes do the talking, and we can see her heart break as she realizes she cannot continue to be anything less than everything to Roger.

What really impressed me in this film is the work by Perkins.  In ‘Psycho’ he proved he is a formidable actor, however here he is simply adorable.  We fall more and more in love with him as he sacrifices everything for the very confused Paula.  Perkins is full of energy and his performance keeps the film from becoming a melodrama.

This film is a delicious treat as it romanticizes the middle aged woman unlike most films of the era.  It is feminist in the portrayal of Paula as well as the fraility of the men in her life.  This is truly a film about equality and the sacrifices our society demands of us.

Grade: A- 

This is the story of sweet child ballerina (Margaret O’Brien) who hero worships the prima ballerina (Cyd Charisse) until another more famous prima comes along (Karin Booth) and takes the lead role.  The child then sabotages the prima so that her hero will become a star.  The child then has to deal with the consequences of that action and her emotions.

O’Brien is a skilled child actor, however her role here seems like little more than a watered down version of her work in ‘Meet Me In St. Louis’.  She schemes and weeps and cries just as she did in that far superior film.

Charisse is a lovely dancer and thankfully the film doesn’t ask her to act all that much.  Karin Booth is beautiful as well as a lovely dancer and her performance is the constant that gets us through the film alongside Danny Thomas as the child’s volunteer guardian.  

While most of the film falls flat, the dance scenes are solid as is the work by Thomas and Booth.

Grade: C 

Finally we have come upon the age of Apatow.  Following the genius of ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ and the even better ‘Knocked Up’, Apatow and company give us ‘Superbad’, the story of two horny teenaged boys who need to buy booze.

Yeah, it sounds like an old premise, been done before a million times and then some, but then you see it.  Seth Rogan wrote this film with his best friend Evan Goldberg when they were teenagers because in all the teen films they had seen, none represented the actual teen experience. 

Here we have Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), two best friends on the verge of separating due to their admission to two different colleges.  Thus they must make one last ditch effort to impress some ladies so they will not arrive at college as virgins.  But this is no ‘American Pie’.  These dudes actually look like teens, as do their lady friends.  They act and swear like teens, they fuck up like teens, they redeem themselves like teens.

That is not to say the film doesn’t border on the ridiculous.  The two cops (Seth Rogan and Bill Hader) who take the geeky Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) under their wing act as we only dream cops would act. They find their way out of dead end situations with incredible luck.  And the girls they hope to catch are incredibly beautiful.  However for all these unrealistic elements, the film never loses its sense of being refreshingly real.

This movie is hilarious from start to finish.  It pays homage to the style of the 1970’s with its music and costuming, while staying firmly rooted in 2007.  It makes a joke out of at least a few things no other film has dared try.  It is actually shocking in parts.  It is an uncomfortable humour like that of the other Apatow comedies, or NBC’s ‘The Office’.

So welcome to a new age of comedy, where people who look and act like you and I can finally be the heroes.

Grade: A