Lately, it seems that one can’t even utter past the “vam” in “vampires” before people start to roll their eyes at them. If you’re one of those people, don’t let the vampire craze sway your judgement when it comes to LET ME IN. In this remake of the 2008 cult Swedish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, vampires do not sparkle, they are not heartthrobs, and they sure as hell aren’t “vegetarians”. So any preconceived notions you have, leave them at the door. This movie makes its own rules.
Before I get the swarms of fans of the original attacking me for bestowing praise on the remake (if I see “protest this movie” on one more IMDb thread, I might lose it) I am familiar with the original. I’m not going to lie, I did my homework the night before…that homework being that I watched the original on Netflix so I could make an accurate comparison. And I promise you that the remake did it justice. The two are actually crazy similar, and much of the dialogue is pulled straight from the original, word-for-word. That’s not to say that the remake didn’t make its changes, it did. There’s more violence and like most remakes, the filmmakers took some liberties. But this isn’t about the original, this is about LET ME IN. And as a remake and as a stand-alone film, LET ME IN succeeds admirably.
While watching this movie, there was one thought I couldn’t get out of my head: hasn’t it always been some sort of unspoken rule that you don’t fuck with kids in the movies? You know, no murdering or hurting little kids…if something bad is about to happen to them, some heroic force of nature must always swoop in at the last minute and save the precious little ones? Yeah…this movie clearly didn’t get the memo. LET ME IN is about a Owen (Kodi Smith-McPhee), a young outcast who is tormented by bullies at school. When a mysterious girl named Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) moves into his building with her guardian, they start to form an unlikely friendship. It’s no secret to us that this little girl who’s “more or less” 12 years old is a vampire. And a brutal, violent one at that. There’s a good amount of intense, bloody violence that can quality this film to be labeled under the “horror” genre…not to mention a handful of straight-up terrifying scenes. But its about more than just that. For a movie with as much gore and violence as this one, it’s usually out of character to have such a sweet, innocent love story simultaneously at the forefront, but LET ME IN balances the two seamlessly. Kodi Smith-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz (who you’ll recognize as “Hit Girl” from Kick-Ass) take on their roles with the strength of old pros. Any adult character in this film, with the exception of Richard Jenkins as Abby’s guardian, is a vastly secondary character. This is the kids’ film through and through.
Admittedly, this kind of movie usually isn’t my cup of tea. I usually find that people who are die hard fans of movies like LET THE RIGHT ONE IN are those same kinds of people who find softly lit shots of a person lying in the snow covered in blood “beautiful”. I am not one of those people. But with a movie as well-made as this one, that doesn’t really matter. The love story sucked me in, the scary scenes had me watching the film through my fingers, and the acting was a testament to how good kid actors can truly be. If you’re bordering the fence on whether or not to give LET ME IN a shot, just get yourself inside the theater, and let the movie do the rest.
Rating: A-
CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD
I went into YOU AGAIN knowing that it could swing one of two ways: It could either be a funny, light movie…or it could be just mind-numbingly stupid. I was, despite my better judgement, banking on the first one. I think it was the girl in me who craved some “no thinking required” fun chick flick that had any hope at all, but after the first 20 minutes, that girl, that part of me that was hoping for a cute movie along the lines of NEVER BEEN KISSED…she realized what a gullible dumb-ass she truly is. It’s not just that YOU AGAIN isn’t funny (though it had its moments)…it’s whole message totally didn’t get across to me, as I suspect it wouldn’t to any other person who is capable of thinking for themselves instead of just buying everything the movie is trying to sell them.
When Marni (Kristen Bell) realizes that her brother is about to marry Joanna (Odette Yustman), the girl who bullied her all throughout high school, her life is turned upside down…as is her mother’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) when she realizes that Joanna’s Aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver) is the same girl that she had problems with in high school way back when. The premise was enough to create a funny movie…I get the idea that even after growing out of whatever awkward phase you experienced in high school and even after becoming a successful adult, that old grudges die hard. The problem is that instead of actually incorporating jokes that are related to the premise, the movie decided to just run wild with the whole “everything’s going downhill” thing. Kristen Bell falls into an ant pile so now it looks like she has acne again. Ha ha. Kristen Bell accidentally hurts a cute guy…ha ha ha…you get my drift. But I could have even lived with that, if it were not for the end result. What I had the hardest time wrapping my head around was the theme of forgiveness. Yes, I understand that it’s a PG Disney movie and that it needs to end on a positive, heartwarming note. But here’s reality: No one would forgive a girl who not only made her life hell in high school, but who made her life hell AND THEN pretended not to remember any of it as she pushed her way into her family while continuing on with her bitchy tendencies upon their reunion. No, not okay. I repeat, NOT OKAY. Forgiveness is only worthy of people who actually deserve it. You may argue that in the end, Joanna showed that she was truly sorry for the way she behaved. But in actuality, the only time she showed any remorse was when she was faced with the possibility of not getting what she wanted, which was to marry Marni’s brother. Throughout the film they make a couple of references to the fact that Joanna’s parents died after high school in order to garner sympathy for her character. I’m sorry, but the writers needed to do a helluva lot better than that. As insensitive as it may sound, plenty of people have experienced the same tragedy and are not the spawn of Satan. It also didn’t help that Odette Yustman played the character of Joanna with such an overdone flare that after a while I started to get seriously annoyed with that squinty-eyed “I’m superior” look she had plastered on her face 90% of the movie.
With the exception of some clever lines and funny scenes (most notably one involving Marni’s father who blindfolds himself before every meal as a dieting technique), wonderful performances from Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver, and some of what the movie had to say about the importance of self-confidence, YOU AGAIN is a kid’s movie through and through. I’ve never used that phrase in a derogatory manner before (and why would I? I love kid’s movies), but this movie calls for it. Kids can often find a new favorite movie and gut-splitting laughs in watching people fall over and get kicked in the face constantly…and that’s totally fine. But I’ve gotten to that age where I need just the smallest amount of substance to go with my “watching people get hurt” slapstick. And as much as YOU AGAIN tried to create the illusion that that substance was there, in truth, all there was was a contrived ending that felt both insincere and unsatisfying.
Rating: C-
While watching EASY A, I wanted to be Olive’s (Emma Stone) best friend. I’ll be honest, if you were to tell me that there was a girl at school who’s pretending to screw the entire male student body, I’d probably seriously dislike her. But Stone is the picture of charisma, her quick quips as vivacious and fiery as that signature red hair of hers, making it impossible not to love her. I went into EASY A expecting the next MEAN GIRLS; we have a unique script that appears to have some insight on the inner-workings of high school, the witty protagonist, and (if the trailer was any indication) a bunch of lines we’ll be quoting for a good while. Unfortunately, EASY A doesn’t reach the caliber of MEAN GIRLS (what I consider to be the perfect teen comedy), but its fresh enough to stand out amongst most teen movies which, as much as I love them, generally rehash the same storyline and ingredients time and time again. That’s not the say that EASY A doesn’t fall victim to the use of cliches. Olive's biggest enemies at school, the stereotyped Christian fanatics, comes off as sort of a cop-out, and part of me was disappointed that they decided to go the whole “bible huggers” route, instead of trying to maybe look a little deeper into how “easy” girls are viewed and treated in high school by your everyday student…not specifically those wearing a purity ring.
The whole thing starts out with a little lie Olive tells her best friend about how she lost her virginity to a college guy. When Jesus freak Marianne (Amanda Bynes, back from her very short retirement from acting) overhears this in the bathroom, the rumor spreads like wildfire, quickly deeming Olive the school tramp. She decides to embrace the new image, and after doing a gay friend of hers a favor by pretending to have sex with him at a party with everyone outside listening, a string of guys follow suit, paying Olive in cash or gift certificates to do the same for them. I love the idea, don’t get me wrong…but after a while, it started to seem like if that many guys know that the whole thing’s a scam, then how is this helping their reputation? This nitpick aside, the movie packed a lot of great laughs into its short hour and a half time span. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson stole every scene they were in as Olive’s quirky, hysterical parents, playing off of each other to perfection. Other than them though, most of the wonderful supporting cast was underused, especially Thomas Hayden Church as Olive’s English teacher, and Lisa Kudrow as her guidance counselor. When it comes down to it though, you’ll probably know if this movie is for you or not. It stays pretty true to the tone of its trailer, and while it might not have been as laugh-out-loud funny as I expected it to be, EASY A has an overall cleverness about it that even if I wasn’t actually laughing, I couldn’t help but smile and acknowledge its endless sass and personality.
Rating: B+
Lately, not much has pissed me off more than hearing people rag on Ben Affleck. For some reason, he seems like the guy in Hollywood to make fun of. I guess being the star of GIGLI gives people verbal abuse rights for the rest of eternity, but if Affleck’s second directorial effort isn’t enough to stop the haters, then I don’t know what is. It has been my experience that people usually have to prove themselves in threes. So here it is: he co-wrote and starred in GOOD WILL HUNTING, directed the critically acclaimed GONE BABY GONE, and now directed THE TOWN, which I can safely say is one of the best movies of the year so far.
In THE TOWN, Affleck plays the lead role of Doug. In the first scene of the film, Doug and his crew of bank robbers (including Jeremy Renner playing his violent best friend Jem) hold up a bank, take the bank manger Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage, and leave her blindfolded on the beach, unharmed. Scared that she might be able to identify them, Affleck volunteers to take care of the situation, pretending to casually meet her by chance to ensure that she really didn’t see anything. They start going on a few dates, and lo and behold, Doug finds himself falling for her.
So much of my interest during the film was driven by needing to see how each situation would play out: how/when will Claire find out? How will she react? Are they all going to get caught? Will Jem try and take the situation into his own hands? Jeremy Renner played the character of Jem with such a quiet danger, that anytime he was on screen, even when doing the most nonthreatening of things, I couldn’t help but notice that he was the exact kind of guy that were I walking alone and saw him, I would pretend to talk on my cell phone to ensure that we had no reason to come into contact. He keeps you on your toes the whole time, not letting you take any peaceful moment of the movie for granted. Likewise, Affleck (as a director) knew exactly how to mess with your emotions and keep you on the edge. Most notable, to me, is the opening bank robbery scene. Going from the point of view of watching the heist play out on the security camera in absolute silence, to BAM, bringing us right back into the action with crippling loud noise and intensity, once the scene was over and I saw the title slowly fade onto the screen I realized that I had been holding my breath. Then I just thought to myself: That was only the first five minutes. Here we go!
Rating: A