Bachelorette

Likely the meanest, most caustic motion picture of the year, Bachelorette, unlike last years Bridesmaids is in the truest sense of the female version of The Hangover.  A racy, raucous comedy of manners where nearly all behavior is nasty and full of contempt.  Written and directed by Leslye Headland, based on her own play, the film follows three high school mean girls as they come together for the wedding of one of their own.  Coming along for the ride is their past and current resentments culminating in a series of girls behaving badly comic-tragic displays that, while thoroughly and exactingly performed leave an often bitter taste.  The film almost feels like a collection of vignettes that would give the Romney team extra ammunition for current political policies, if not for the spirited, nearly Olympian gamesmanship of the actressses that take part, finding funny and spiteful charisma in ugly behavior and personal destructiveness.

The action begins as Becky (Rebel Wilson), announces her impending engagement.  This causes craziness from her three high school mates, Regan (Kirsten Dunst), Katie (Isla Fisher) and Gena (Lizzy Caplan.)  Not just coupled with the anxiety of a friend beating them to the altar, but the added meanness that the slightly overweight girl, dubbed as "Pigface" in high school is set to marry an altogether attractive and decent guy, all three girls seemingly go into a tailspin in altogether different ways, whilst channeling past problems.  The biggest problem of Bachelorette from the outset is that it's hard to believe that anyone of these gals were friends to begin with-- they're mean girls from different settings.

Regan is a controlling, type-A control freak, a woman with an Ivy League education and glare that could chill a ghost.  She's cleverly nicknamed Hannibal by a male suitor who wants her, and her resolve makes her a perfect maid of honor, if intolerable in reality.  Katie is a party girl who never quite grew up, still impressed with the one-ups-man-ship of out-drinking and out-drugging the lot.  While Gena is the caustic depressant with the most clever one-liners (only matched by the amount of cocaine she can store) and severest of social norms-- this is tested by the presence of her old high school boyfriend Clyde (Adam Scott.)  That these three girls and Becky were friends in high school seems tonally impossible, yet the film coasts on the performances of the leading ladies who dispel bad behavior and naughtiness with absolute commitment and ugly charm, along with a clear headed inventiveness in staging by Headland, who keeps things quick and sprite.  Instead of dwelling from ugly moo point, she just jets to the next one.  Most of the plot settles on an ill-fated bachelorette party that results in an a sobbing bride and a coke-filled incident that mars her wedding dress.  The distressed and highly intoxicated girls work around the clock the fix it in an effort to not let their crazy ruin the festivities.

Throughout the brightest performer of the bunch is Dunst, who plays her high-wire act with a nervy, bitchy tension that is intoxicating in its control.  Especially in a nicely and tightly put together third act sequence that's essentially a classic French slamming doors farce take off, Dunst owns the film with a spicy power.  Caplan delivers her nasty lines with vigor, while Fisher plays destructive lush gamely, but there's an underlying tinge of nastiness that overpowers Bachelorette as a female-centered film that seemingly hates women.  Is it okay that this film was made by a woman, does that make the misogyny more acceptable, or does it raise a bigger issue.  I enjoyed the film and laughed several times, but the aftertaste is slightly bitter.  B-

Venice Film Festival

The awards seasons has officially begun with the Venice International Film Festival unveiling the winners, as the Telluride Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival continue to unleash and distinguish the haves vs. the havenots.  Paul Thomas Anderson's greatly anticipated Scientology-soaked feature The Master makes huge strides toward eventual Oscar-dom, winning two prizes at Venice, while failing to take the top award.  Michael Mann headed the jury.  the winners:

Golden Lion: Pieta, directed by Kim Ki-duk

Silver Lion (Best Director): Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Special Jury Prize: Paradise: Faith, directed by Ulrich Seidl

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Wonder what the Academy will do with the possibility of both being considering leading actor-- usually one gets downsized to supporting, however the monumental-ness of the performances\performers seems a crime to do so in this case.

Best Actress: Hadas Yaron, Fill the Void

Best Screenplay: Something in the Air- Olivier Assayas

Technical Achievement Award: It Was the Son- Daniele Cipri

Best Young Actor: Fabrizio Falco, It Was the Son and Dormant Beauty

The other main attraction out of Venice was the latest by Terrence Malick, To the Wonder, starring Javier Bardem, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko, a mere fourteen months after The Tree of Life opened in theaters.  The reviews were mixed as many argued that the film was even less accessible and free of dialogue than the former.  The film is still awaiting a distributor, however one can at the very least except that the religiously-scoped love story is scrumptiously filmed...cinematographer\poet Emmanuel Lubezki filmed this one as well.   

Robot & Frank

Frank (Frank Langella) is a quiet senior man, a former cat burglar, whose sometimes forgetful memory nevertheless doesn't prevents him from his daily routines.  A walk into town, to the library for a book he's read several times before and platonic flirting with a friendly librarian, played by Susan Sarandon, followed by casual shoplifting at a local beauty store where his favorite restaurant resided many moons ago.  Living in partial squalor in a big house in a time set in the near future, Frank's son, Hunter (James Marsden) is worried, yet also uninterested in the treking several hours to watch the old man, who still believes him to be in college.  His solution-- a helper robot to look after his old man, specifically programmed to ensure that Frank stays healthy and in control of his senior moments.  Seen as a humorously benign new-age Hal from 2001, Frank's robot, voiced dryly by Peter Sarsgaard with a winking human undertone, a friendship between man and machine starts to develop, as the robot (never given a proper name) re-triggers an old-time sense of fun and danger for the ex-con man.  Essentially, Robot & Frank is the ultimate new age indie comedy centering around one final job.

The best parts of Robot & Frank are Langella as grand curmudgeon; a hilarious reaction shot, followed by a profanity-infused line reading are genius when the robot suggests that Frank take up gardening.  And the film, directed by Jake Schreier and written by Christopher D. Ford, is sharpest and at it's most clever in the rapport between Frank and the robot; the con jobs are besides the point, leaving little in the way of mystery and suspense, while his human compatriots are relationships better served for movies of the week.  The film premiered at this years Sundance Film Festival, and earned many plaudits mainly because Langella is too strong and sturdy an actor to undercut a scene or throw away a flimsy piece of writing or narrative indiscretion, and while his performance works both as comedic and poignant, there's a strange topsy-turvy, seemingly lack of narrative structure to the film.  Farcical one moment, serious the next, with a strange save the books sermon thrown in for some reason.  The problem with this silly movie is that it takes itself way too seriously to be seen as novelty indie fun, or a nifty high concept conceit.  C+

On the Road teaser

On the Road, the once-thought unfilmable defining Jack Kerouac novel, has a teaser trailer.  The film, directed by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries, Central Station) comes courtesy of IFC Films off a moderately successful run in competition at this years Cannes Film Festival.  Starring Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams, Elizabeth Moss and Viggo Mortenssen. 

For a Good Time, Call...

The best reason to check out For a Good Time, Call..., the latest in the girls behaving badly movement bolstered by Bridesmaids' high grosses, is for Ari Graynor's lead performance.  She plays Katie, a bawdy, smut-mouthed sassy blonde.  In a snap she recalls the flightiness of Goldie Hawn in her prime tinged with an unexpected natural grace that recalls a mixture of Sissy Spacek's innocence with Debra Winger's earthiness.  And while the film is a trashy, but gentle spirited portrait of female bonding, it's Graynor's game and spitfire comic timing that keeps things interesting-- she's seemingly transcending the dumb blonde archetype with every playfully naughty gesture and pose.  For those smitten with her scene-stealing gross-out in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008) and watched her talents go under-utilized in this summers Celeste & Jesse Forever, she pounces feverishly and delivers most of the good time on display here.  I have a feeling Woody Allen could write a marvelous part for her.

The film about two young women-- Graynor's Katie and Lauren (played by the films co-writer and Ms. Seth Rogan, Lauren Miller), both of whom have a long-standing loathe of one another since college, are due to improbable circumstances stuck as roommates in a beautiful (and unreal) Manhattan apartment.  The set-up is sitcom-kitsch, as Lauren is the uptick, stick up her butt do-gooder type and Katie is the free-spirited pixie.  When Lauren learns of Katie's secret trade-- she's a phone sex operator-- she's instantly judgement, but also a bit turned on.  Further circumstances lead the two going into business with one another; Lauren is a no-fun Type-A control freak, but even Katie admires her business plan.  What slowly starts to develop is a friendship that's rooted as a meet-cute boys-meets-girl romantic comedy, and there's a nice underlined sweetness to the girls courtship as besties.  And while the revelations that come are far from fresh-- for instance Katie is not quite as loose as her dirty talk lets on, and Lauren is not nearly as much as a bore once her freak flag starts to rear in-- the performers keep it from seeming stale.

For a Good Time, Call... was directed by Jamie Travis, and written by Miller and Katie Anne Naylon instills a candy-colored backdrop, instilling a nice, never stern or scary eavesdrop into sex-trade workers-- even the girls' clients are never seen as sleazy, creepy individuals, just randy men (Seth Rogan makes a cameo as a horny pilot), while the fake orgasms and sex toys never over-populate the sweet friendship at the film center.  The film deserves at least half the success of The Hangover, with a premise just as likely, but instilled with far more humanity, and two very funny ladies.  B