If you saw PARANORMAL ACTIVITY in theaters last year, then you know the drill. It’s like any other run-of-the-mill theater going experience…that is, until we see things from the cameras point of view. Once we see that night-vision, grainy footage fill up the screen and the seconds start ticking by on the bottom right side of the frame, all hell breaks lose. You immediately hear a chorus of yells saying “Oh shit oh shit!”, people sush-ing each other, and of course that one guy in the theater who just has to make wise-cracks. It’s like a collective conscious takes hold of the theater, controlling what we do (theater demon, maybe?). With PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2, it’s the same…except since we all know the way in which the movie is going to operate, the filmmakers take things slowly and decide to screw with us much more. They know exactly how our minds work; The second the camera footage comes on and lingers on a certain shot, you immediately will start frantically scanning the frame for any hint of subtle movement. This is an attempt to catch the scare before it catches you, so to speak. I’ll let you in on a little secret though: you will fail.
In an attempt to give as little away about the story as possible, I’ll just say this: The story deals with a family who, after experiencing what they think is a break-in (even though nothing was stolen), decide to install cameras all over the inside and outside of the house for security measures. But of course, all the cameras will do is show them the stuff we hope is never happening in our residences while we’re asleep. While the first movie had just its two central characters, Paranormal 2 adds some more elements into the mix: we get a husband and wife, a baby (you know that can’t be good if you saw the trailer), a dog, and a teenage daughter from the husbands first marriage. If doors slamming shut by themselves (which we know the naysayer must insist it was the “wind” that did it) isn’t enough, lets add a creepy baby that can sense the demon! The interactions between the family actually took up a good portion of the first half (perhaps even a little too much), and so little actually happened scare-wise, that when the slightest thing happened, everyone jumped. This surprisingly assists the movie overall. Because things are so uneventful in the first half, we expect things to happen very gradually, like in the first one. Wrong! When things got bad, they got catastrophic. It all starts happening so fast that you won’t even know what hit you…you’ll just start cursing yourself for seeing this movie instead of that new happy Disney movie that’s out.
The Paranormal movies fall into that somewhat-new genre that became all the rage when THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT came out; The movie opens with words on the screen saying: “Paramount Pictures would like to thank the families of the deceased and the San Francisco Police Department…”; our cue that this is another “found footage” film. The magic of these movies is that because so little money is put into them, and because it looks like footage that anyone with a cheap video camera could film, it scares us on a much more real, more personal level. The actors talk directly to the camera, make funny faces at it…all the stuff we do when someone is filming us just for fun. Plus there’s no crazy setting. It’s just a regular house. So if the film doesn’t scare you out of your mind while your watching (which believe me, it will), it sure as hell will mess with your mind when you get home, guaranteed. Like it had to to be successful, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 brought on horror to such a degree that I found myself shaking by the end. My friend turned to me and said “You’re sleeping over tonight”. It wasn’t a question, it was a given. And we turned every single light in the house on, including the one in the bedroom, before going to “sleep”.
Rating: A-
Fellow claustrophobes, beware! For I have discovered your second biggest fear (after being buried alive, of course): this movie. If you could apply the word “tense” to just one movie this year, I think you would be hard pressed to find one more tense, or more cringe-worthy, than BURIED. Ryan Reynolds stars as Paul Conroy, an American contractor working in Iraq who after his convoy is attacked, wakes up in a wooden coffin with just a cell phone and a lighter; But surprisingly, these two elements are enough to craft a whole movie around…and a damn good one at that. The film opens with a pitch black screen. For a good 10 seconds you hear no noise at all, and at first I thought there was something wrong with the projector. But then we start to hear breathing, which escalates to a muffled panic combined with thrashing, to straight up screaming. Brilliantly, we are made to feel exactly how Reynolds feels: If he cant see, we cant see. Its not until he finds the lighter (yes, it’s quite convenient that he has that, but do you want to view a black screen for 90 minutes? Thought so) that we are visually brought into his situation. Not only are we visually brought into his situation…10 minutes in and I started to literally feel claustrophobic. I found myself stretching my legs on top the seat in front of me, just as a way of reminding myself that I could. My friend turned over to me and said “I feel like I can’t breathe”. Getting jittery yet?
To answer the question I know everyone’s thinking: Yes, the ENTIRE movie takes place in the coffin. No, there are no flashbacks. No, there are no cutaways. If the filmmakers wanted to, they easily could have incorporated that. They could have done it so that when Paul desperately calls someone on his cell phone, that it cuts to the person speaking to him…whether it be his wife, the FBI, or the terrorists that did this to him. We could have had flashbacks showing us how he ended up in the coffin or why he decided to take the job in Iraq, despite his wife’s protests. But director Rodrigo Cortes and screenwriter Chris Sparling had a film experiment in mind, one that they successfully pull off against all odds. Cortes takes on the ultimate challenge, beating all the other films that decide to confine themselves to one location (such as PHONE BOOTH and OPEN WATER)…while managing to demonstrate amazing camerawork and incredible, heart-pounding intensity at the same time.
I don’t care if this isn’t the type of movie that the Academy recognizes…I want Reynolds to receive a Best Actor nomination this year. He manages to carry the entire movie by himself, while never overacting in a situation where it would have been extremely easy to. This is exactly how I think someone would react if they woke up trapped in a coffin, and I believed every moment of it. Admittedly there were times when the film started to feel repetitive and I got the smallest bit annoyed…but I forgave it this, because, well…who wouldn’t be screaming and banging senselessly against the box if they found themselves buried underground?
Rating: B+
NEVER LET ME GO is not a movie for everyone…perhaps it’s not even a movie for most. It’s the kind of movie that you can tell is already gearing up to launch its “For Your Consideration” Oscar campaign before the movie is even released and, subsequently, the kind of movie the majority of non-avid film watchers have never heard the likes of. It’s slow-paced (by choice), choosing to keep everything at a small sizzle for most of the film until the climax. Already we’ve alienated most moviegoers. But those handfuls of people that do connect with it, will find it to be a unique, upsetting, emotional movie that has the makings of an awards-circuit movie–even if it falls short where it can’t afford to. NEVER LET ME GO is based off Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel of the same name. The movie centers around the friendship of three characters, Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightly), and Tommy (Andrew Garfield), who grow up in an English boarding school together. If it sounds like I’m deliberately being vague about the plot, that’s because I am. Being a huge fan of the novel, I can’t help but compare the book with the film. In the book, that’s pretty much all the information we’re set up with in the beginning…all we know though, is that there is something more sinister brewing beneath this average plot.
From the first page (and likewise, the first scene of the movie), we hear some strange words being tossed around; words we’re not sure we’re supposed to fully understand the context they’re said in: “Carer”. “Donor.” “Complete.” About 20 minutes into the movie however (as opposed to midway through the novel), the meaning of these words is fully explained. Even though the film is quick throw all of its chips down in one go, I wouldn’t feel right spoiling it. But I will say this about the script: it’s both too straightforward and too abstract at the same time. It’s quick to give everything away right off the bat to make sure we fully understand what’s going on, but then in some other aspects it’s almost as if the movie expects us to automatically fill in the blanks with some of the cryptic language the character’s use. Here’s the thing: none of this affected my movie-going experience. I went in knowing all the “secrets” and how the movie would end…but for someone just being introduced to the story for the very first time, you want the story presented in the most effective way possible…which I don’t think it was. The information should have been fed to the viewer slowly, but surely. Instead, it was more like quickly or not at all.
With a film like this, it’s all about the emotional connection. If you’re lucky enough to get to know these characters, they’ll stay with you forever. The characters I got to know and love on paper we’re beautifully brought to life on screen. But once again, for those just getting to know them, there’s simply not enough time to love them to the extent that you should. With a mere hour and 40 minutes running time, there was just not as much time as I would have liked devoted to the relationship between our main characters…especially the romantic one between Kathy and Tommy. Despite all the shortcomings of the script, the spectacular performances from Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield were enough to take the developed (but not developed enough) characters of Kathy and Tommy and make them characters whose pain at the climax on the movie you were literally able to feel radiating throughout your body. Mulligan proved once again why she is such a rising star (and officially my new favorite actress) in Hollywood. She has such a wonderful face…that might sound weird to say, but if you’ve seen her in action, then you know what I mean. She has the ability to communicate sadness with just one small look like I’ve never seen before. And her character absolutely calls for it. There isn’t much happiness present in NEVER LET ME GO. The characters often don’t seem to realize how happy or unhappy they are until they experience the inevitable lack of hope in their situation. Mulligan and Garfield (just fresh off his fantastic performance in THE SOCIAL NETWORK), play their roles so delicately, with such restraint, that some might not realize how wonderful the performances they’re turning out truly are. But such are the characters of Kathy and Tommy…they are withdrawn, compliant, sad, and full of heart. Even if the characters just sit there quietly and accept their fate, you will have a hard time accepting it…and wont be able to stop thinking about the inhumanity of it all for a while after the credits roll.
Rating: B
It’s not often that you get to see someone not only check themselves into a psychiatric ward…but beg to be admitted into one. But then again, I doubt you usually come across such a friendly, sociable group of people in the loony bin either. But so goes the plot of IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY. Keir Gilchrist stars as our main character Craig, a depressed teenage boy on the brink of suicide. He’s like a younger, blander, less attractive version of Justin Long…the Justin Long before he was cool and developed a personality. So it’s hard to really care about him, or his asinine reasons for being so depressed. Once admitted into the facility, he realizes that he probably just needed to get back on his meds and increase his number of therapy sessions. But uh oh, once admitted you have to stay a minimum of 5 days. Now if he were in a real place with the mentally unstable, he would probably be running for his life by the end of day one. But of course, since this is the movies, he finds a mentor in Bobby (Zach Galifianakis) and a love interest in the gorgeous, but equally screwed up, Noelle (Emma Roberts). This is Zach Galifianakis like you’ve never seen him before. Of course he still delivers his funniest lines with that serious, no-emotion-on-his-face way of his that everyone has grown to love, but he also proves that he’s more than just the go-to guy to play the fool (even though he does it so well). He’s the only character that really shows any depth at all. Beneath his confident, funny exterior, there’s a man who’s in pain, and he plays it with conviction.
From the very beginning you can tell that this is an indie movie…and I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against indie movies. But they do tend to carry out a certain cliched trend; you know that thing movies love to do where a character starts narrating in a voice over while shots of what he or she is talking about flashes across the screen in a choppy way? Sometimes it works. Here, it doesn’t. It felt like the film was trying too hard to be stylistic, when in reality all it did was add on extra time to a movie that wasn’t the fastest paced in the first place. That’s the problem dramadies like this often run into. It doesn’t quite know what it’s striving to be. It’s not dramatic enough to have the “zings” it needs to be memorable, yet not funny enough to really make you laugh out loud more than once or twice. There is one scene that had the theater cracking up, involving a random, totally-unrelated-to-anything-going-on-in-the-movie musical number, where we get to see Galifianakis decked out like a rock-star, with glitter covering his signature beard (which I am now convinced is the source of all his comedic powers), but other than that, IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY really was just kind of a good movie.
Rating: C+
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+
