I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.
My column is filled with sex this week.
Three things: One, I saw ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO last week and I saw SEX DRIVE a week and a half ago and I also saw a sexed up Bush a couple of nights ago during my screening for W. I’ve had a lot of randy goodness inside the movie theater as of late.
Since I am embargoed from talking about the film at great length, or any length at all for that matter, I can tell you that the tag line for this week’s column is what I told my marketing rep about what I thought of the film once I left the theater. For all the shots Kevin Smith has to take from those who are contentious in their critique of his films they simply should not have anything to say about the very believable and tender relationship between Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogan. As well, forget about everyone else in this film, Justin Long is a scene stealer. Fucking thief. He’s disarmingly hilarious. I’ll tell more when I can but, for what it’s worth, it’s on my top 10 for the year.
Now, on to SEX DRIVE….
I first talked about Sean Anders in April, 2005.
One of the things that you can take away when watching SEX DRIVE is that this is a film that was written and directed by a guy who, last time we checked in with this artist, made only made one movie to his credit, NEVER BEEN THAWED, and spent $20,000 to create it. Why this is a valid point in critiquing SEX DRIVE is that critics will take something physically tangible like a CD or book and compare its value, and judge it, by what has come before it in order to assess whether the person who created it has evolved as an artist. Sean Anders’ evolution as a director and writer is one where you can talk in superlatives like superbly crafted, hilariously composed and completely likable. The latter point is really the difference between a dumb, vapid, insulting teen film and one that at least will respect you in the morning after it has had its way with you.
Anders starts out by creating a world where you’re introduced to a leper of a teen, one who isn’t necessarily or completely socially retarded but is just awkwardly inept with the ladies, who looks like his world is defined by the opportunities to try and get with members of the opposite sex but can’t close the deal; his opportunity to do so with his Internet girlfriend, one who is under the mistaken assumption that he’s buff (he’s not), he’s smooth (he’s not) and owns a 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge (he’s not allowed near it by his homophobe brother, Rex), sets everything in motion. This is a road movie, something we’ve seen all too many times before, but as the film unfolds you can see where Anders is taking the audience. He uses the path of where movies like this have been before but he shapes a landscape that alters the paradigm a little bit.
We grow to love our nerd in love, Ian, played by the smart and affable Josh Zuckerman, his slicker than silk best friend Lance (Clark Duke) and tag along buddy Felicia (Amanda Crew), who is uncommonly gorgeous and normal in a land littered with actresses that are better used as window dressing than they are actors. These three are the hard center for a film that is surrounded by weirdoes who stand in Ian’s way to getting to his ‘net lover. From the obnoxiously hilarious Beavis and Butt-head incarnates who have no shame or game, Andy and Randy, David Koechner’s turn as a twisted hitchhiker to Seth Green’s sarcastic Amish savior in disguise Ezekiel the movie knows it needs to go from one moment to another quickly but do it in a way that, bottom line, is funny to the rest of us. Anders teeters with going too far with the gross-out funny but, again, all the action on the screen sets itself apart by caring for the three members of the film who we follow through all of this.
SEX DRIVE’s thrust is its dealing with the issues these teenagers have in understanding how each one of them reacts to the giving and taking of love. Lance is every bit of a fantasy for how many dudes wish they could have been at that time in their lives, Felicia wrangles with the common emotion of her cohorts by not knowing who she really wants to love and Ian wrestles with the idea that he thinks he knows who he wants but acts out of blindness when the one he wants doesn’t seem to want him. And Anders, and co-writer John Morris, have done something completely extraordinary and answered the question of how do you make a completely shameless sex comedy but imbue it with a real heart.
The direction and writing meld in ways that the old adage of “at least there are more hits than misses†doesn’t even come close to applying. Anders and Morris get genuine laughs from moments within their scenes by having so many that there are bound to be a few in every one. Only the most cynical among you will be able to sit stone-faced throughout a moment where our buddy Lance hooks up with a gas station attendant in her mobile home and nearly dies because of it, where Ian, dressed as the worlds largest talking donut, has a dong attached to the front of him by some scallywags inside the local mall or the various awkward moments Ian has in the presence of his soon-to-be stepmother.
These characters are of course exaggerated but to take a moment like one where Seth Green subtly plays his character with the kind of quiet sharpness that is usually reserved for shows like Monty Python or a Kids In The Hall sketch is refreshing to have when you know, in anyone else’s hands, things could have been watered down or played for yuk yuks when what we have is good enough.
You can’t really deconstruct a comedy like this too much. One of the issues that you run into when talking about comedy is what can happen when you try and dissect a joke: it doesn’t work. This is one of those films where you can either get the joke that’s being made, and appreciate its uniqueness in a pool of films that can’t come close to what we have here, or you can take umbrage and lacerate the film for being puerile, obnoxious, horrifically scatological and offensive.
I can see both points. I can.
There’s the borderline silly homophobic Rex who seems like someone we’ve seen in many a film before, there’s the eventual ending anyone with half a brain cell ticking away can see coming and some of the jokes, specifically I’m thinking of the nut sack scene which seems to play on its surprise factor and little else, don’t all hit the target but there is something special here. There is genuineness with those we care about, an exaggerated sense of self with those we don’t and it’s completely a world where the horrors of youth are hilariously played out with no sense of decorum.
SEX DRIVE deserves a second, third viewing in a theater where the experience of laughing along with an audience is worth its weight in heavily soaked underwear from a night filled with nocturnal emissions; it’s movies like this that make going to the movies worth it.
George Bush does look like a simian.
There is no doubt about the facts surrounding the Bush administration; there are some indelible moments that can never be adjusted or reinterpreted. The kind of film that Oliver Stone has created feels like one long dramatization of these facts and of some possible conversations that might have taken place.
What’s infinitely more interesting than the facts presented, and elevates this movie beyond your usual Oliver Stone territory when dealing with a subject like this (re: NIXON, JFK), is that somehow, some way, Stone made me care about G.W. Bush. There were moments, like when he first meets Laura for instance, where he’s not a bumbling idiot we’ve placed in office but he comes across as a smitten boy who genuinely has the capacity for love.
Stone creates a powerful portrait of a political artist as a young man, tracking his progress in his various ventures that don’t always work out well. He shows us a George Bush Jr. who is nearly incompetent in every capacity as he seeks the approval and love of his father. The performance that Josh Brolin gives is second only to Heath Ledger’s Joker as he completely sinks himself into not only the mannerisms but of the motivations of this man. Where this movie excels is in this dedication to giving the audience a story of G dub’s life that we’ve never really seen.
Where this movie doesn’t do well, however, is composed of a couple of things. One is in its performance of Condoleezza Rice, namely Thandie Newton, which is wretched. Honestly, it’s one of the worst things ever put on to a screen in years. Two, the pace seemed quite rushed. I know Oliver Stone had to get this movie out at a certain date in order to make sure it was out into the public before the election but it’s a hurried production. The unintended consequence of this, however, is that the movie briskly moves from moment. Don’t like a scene? That’s easy, just wait a few minutes. Thirdly, the film just seems to superficially give us the details of the events as they happened in George Bush’s life. We’re not allowed to linger too long and scenes don’t really develop how they should in order to have an appreciation for what Stone wants to say. If this is the extent of his message, though, I am afraid he’s stopped short of delving into the sick and depraved malfeasance this administration has been allowed to perpetrate on the American public, to hell with the legality of anything these mavericks want to do.
Stone has missed the opportunity to drive a cinematic stake into the heart of this beast.
What saves this film, though, is its nearly flawless cinematography; its attention to every moment and giving it its proper light and weight. It’s nothing short of wonderful to look at. As well, the development of the core characters, namely Laura, George Sr., Karl Rove, keep this film moving from moment to moment as, by the end, you can’t believe that it’s finished just as it was finding its footing.
Charting this man’s life from college to his various odd jobs to his entering the political arena is no doubt difficult to do in such a compressed time space, I know. However, that doesn’t excuse Stone from now taking the time he should have taken in order to make a more effective and powerful political profile. What we do have, though, is a story of a man who never got his just due from daddy, who genuinely believes in his faith, who loves his wife dearly and is a complete fool and idiot.
Director: Christine Jeffs
Cast: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Jason Spevack, Steve Zahn
Release: October 3, 2008
Synopsis: A single mom and her slacker sister find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in the off-beat dramatic comedy Sunshine Cleaning. Directed by Christine Jeffs (Rain, Sylvia), this uplifting film about an average family that finds the path to its dreams in an unlikely setting screened in competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Once the high school cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback, Rose Lorkowski (Academy Award nominee Amy Adams) now finds herself a thirty something single mother working as a maid. Her sister Norah, (Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt), is still living at home with their dad Joe (Academy Award winner Alan Arkin), a salesman with a lifelong history of ill-fated get rich quick schemes. Desperate to get her son into a better school, Rose persuades Norah to go into the crime scene clean-up business with her to make some quick cash. In no time, the girls are up to their elbows in murders, suicides and other…specialized situations. As they climb the ranks in a very dirty job, the sisters find a true respect for one another and the closeness they have always craved finally blossoms. By building their own improbable business, Rose and Norah open the door to the joys and challenges of being there for one another—no matter what—while creating a brighter future for the entire Lorkowski family.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Positive. How can you not like Steve Zahn?
He is the sui generis of his ilk and even though he has been in, let’s be honest, nothing that would be classified in the AFI’s Top 1,000.000 of all time he’s still a hard working actor who knows how to get work. If we’re talking about acting as a job, which is what most every single actor who doesn’t have their name scribbled somewhere on the A list will tell you it is, Steve Zahn is the journeyman of his trade.
As well, this trailer doesn’t so much pop and sizzle as it does impress. The opening sequence doesn’t thrill, either, but that’s not what drew me into this thing. What did grab my eye, however, was its set-up. So many trailers squeeze hefty amounts of information though a tight hole that unless you’re paying attention you would only be able to assimilate its slick visuals if it hopes you to snag your cash.
There’s a certain sweetness to Amy Adams and Emily Blunt taking care of Adams’ on-screen brood but it’s as we infer that she’s a single mom trying to make a living. Beyond that, the awkward exchange with an old high school friend who is quite obviously doing better than she is a bit hackneyed, I know that; the whole “What if the captain of the cheerleading squad ended up doing really shittily in life?†is every downtrodden nerds’ fantasy when they’re getting their neck wrenched by various members of the football team. Again, what separates this story from other trailers out there is that there is a real narrative flow to this.
I understand everything that’s going on, I’m intrigued by the premise and when Zahn comes in and explains a new career opportunity of crime scene cleaner upper I’m even more dragged in to where we’re going. I think one of the major reasons why, you see, I’m still listening to what they have to say is because I don’t know where we’re all going. Zahn is the real wildcard in this situation as I’m not positive if he’s going to be the love interest or if he’s going to be something else entirely; from what I see he could be any number of things. And, who the hell here doesn’t love Alan Arkin? You’ve got a few reasons why you should stay tuned. It’s refreshing in a way, you understand, to not be ½ way in to a trailer and know where everything is going to lead.
Further, I appreciate the dumpiness of their lives. From the trailers they’re having to clean up, to the hoopties that they’re driving to the gumption that both Emily and Amy have on display it’s the sum of many things that make up a film that looks like something easy and breezy.
That’s a little bit debunked when we’re given an extended moment of Adams losing her shit when she protests that she’s the kind of lady who men want to poke like a pin cushion but not the kind of lady that warrants a ring. I’m pretty taken aback by the starkness of the moment and what comes after, a few other moments of emotional release and pain, is wonderfully chosen to give us as a portrait of what this woman is going through.
The cut scenes at the end act like a delicate bookend to a movie that seemed to start out by the numbers but ended up being something worth keeping an eye on as it comes closer to its release.
Comments: None
Leave a Reply |