It Better Be SPECTACULAR Right NOW!

THE SPECTACULAR NOW

(Dir. James Ponsoldt, 2013)

Perhaps this post’s heading is a bit extreme, but since I missed the press screening for this film when I went on vacation in July, I kept hearing about film critic types in these here internets going absolutely gaga for it. So sure, my expectations may have been too high, but despite thinking that it was a well made melodrama with some fine acting, THE SPECTACULAR NOW felt like a big screen Afterschool Special to me.

However, I will say upfront that Miles Teller, as the slick talking protagonist Sutter Keely, redeems himself for being the obnoxious center of attention in the awful teensploitation flick 21 AND OVER earlier this year. Teller deftly portrays a hard drinking (he seems to always have a flask in hand) high school senior that has no plans for the future, because he lives in the “now.”

After being dumped by his girlfriend (Brie Larson), Teller gets wasted one wild night and on the way home passes out in the lawn of the nice girl from school that he never noticed before, played by Shailene Woodley, best known for playing George Clooney’s precocious daughter in the DESCENDANTS.

The two fall in love but face a rocky road together as she has dreams of leaving their sleepy small town life (the film was mostly shot in Athens, Georgia) and going to college in Philadelphia, but Teller just wants to stay put and keep partying.

Our boozy boy Teller, who works at a men’s clothing store under boss Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show, Breaking Bad), got his philosophy of life from his deadbeat dad of a father (seen here portrayed by a great sweaty Kyle Chandler). Jennifer Jason Leigh, sadly in too small a part, as Teller’s mother, had the right idea in trying to shield her son from his extremely unfit father. This is something Teller learns, along with Woodley, when they take an ill fated road trip to meet up with Chandler.

An obvious staple of teen romance films is a prom scene, and to the credit of Pondsoldt and writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who based the screenplay on the 2008 young adult novel by Tim Tharp, it’s a nicely understated scene. A glowing, and of course lit, Teller looks around at his schoolmates and says: “This is the youngest we're ever going to be.” We’ve all known somebody who prides themselves on always being the life of the party, and in that moment Teller nails being able to say something as stupid as that and making it almost seem profound.

With the naturistic rhythms of their acting nicely complimenting each other, Teller and Woodley are a very believable couple. The film framing them stays too much on the surface of all the events it depicts though.

I liked but didn't love Poldsoldt’s previous film, SMASHED (2012), his second as director, which was also concerned with the effect of alcoholism on a relationship. I haven't seen his first film, 2006's OFF THE BLACK, but the IMDb description says it has Nick Nolte as “an aging, disillusioned alcoholic” so it would be understatement to say I'm sensing a theme here.

THE SPECTACULAR NOW has a fair share of truthful heartfelt moments, but it's not hard enough on its lead character. It seems to just want us to shake our head disapprovingly at him, but know he'll ultimately shape up and fly right.

But then, so many movies don't have this kind of unpretentious thoughtful tone, and don't even try for the realism that's certainly on display here, so maybe I'm being too hard on it. I mean, come to think of it, there were some excellent Afterschool Specials.

More later...

New Releases On Blu Ray & DVD: 6/18/13

JACK THE GIANT SLAYER was a giant flop for Warner Brothers back in March, but what’s a studio to do but pretend it wasn’t when it hits the home video market? That’s definitely what they’re doing today with the release of the movie in a shiny new Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy Combo Pack (it’s also available on a single disc DVD). Like just about everybody else, I didn’t see it on the big screen, but for those who are interested, I’ll report that the bonus material includes deleted scenes, a gag reel and an interactive feature called “Become a Giant Slayer,” which contains a bunch of featurettes with titles like “Suiting Up” and “The Magic of a Beanstalk.”

A film I did see in its theatrical release, Dustin Hoffman’s likably fluffy directorial debut QUARTET, starring Academy Award winner Maggie Smith, Golden Globe winner Tom Courtenay, Academy Award nominee Pauline Collins, Golden Globe nominee Michael Gambon and BAFTA Film Award nominee Billy Connolly, is also out today on Blu ray and DVD, albeit in much more modest single disc Blu ray and DVD editions. Special features include a commentary with Hoffman, and a few Behind-The-Scenes featurettes.

Another film releasing today on home video that I quite enjoyed, is Chan-wook Park’s psychological thriller STOKER, starring Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Good, and Nicole Kidman. Alongside Digital and UltraViolet versions, the fine film is packaged with a bevy of Special Features: the mini-doc “An Exclusive Look: A Filmmaker's Journey,” deleted scenes, a few Behind the Scenes featurettes, Red Carpet Premiere: Emily Wells’ performance of “Becomes the Color,” image galleries, and a free song download.

I proudly didn’t see MOVIE 43, the comedy anthology fiasco directed by a gang of directors headed by Peter Farrelly, when it was released in January, but now that it’s out in what’s called an “Outrageous Edition” on Blu ray and DVD…well, I probably still won’t watch it. But with its all star cast including Chloë Grace Moretz, Emma Stone, Gerard Butler, Stephen Merchant, Richard Gere, and Elizabeth Banks (who also directed a segment), and Richard Roeper calling it “the CITIZEN KANE of awful,” I can’t deny being a little curious about it. Not sure why it calls itself the “Outrageous Edition” when it only has a couple of meager Special Features: a trailer and a featurette titled “Find Our Daughter.”

A movie I wish I’d skipped, the directorial debut of THE HANGOVER scribes Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, 21 & OVER, drops today in a 2-disc Blu ray package (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack), and on a single disc DVD. The extremely crappy college party comedy concerning the unfunny misadventures of a trio of douches (Justin Chon, Skylar Astin, and Miles Teller) is now joined by Special Features that don’t sound so special - a few featurettes and a gag reel. Bet those are as inessential as the film itself. Read my review of the film from the day it originally opened here.

TV show season sets releasing today: Call the Midwife: Season Two, Body of Proof: The Complete Third Season, Workaholics: Season Three, and Wilfred: Season Two.

On the older films new to Blu ray front there’s Criterion Collection editions of Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor’s 1923 Harold Lloyd classic SAFETY LAST! (one of the Special Features is  the 1992 American Masters biodoc of Lloyd, THE THIRD GENIUS), William Cameron Menzies’ THINGS TO COME (1936), and Frantisek Vlacil’s MARKETA LAZAROVA (1967). 

On the non-Criterion older films front, the Kino Classics Remastered Edition of OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934), starring Bette Davis and Leslie Howard, makes its debut on Blu ray. Besides trailers of other classics, the release’s sole Special Feature is pretty special: a feature length biodoc of Somerset Maugham, the British writer who wrote the 1915 novel the film is based on.

More later...

Warning: The Sordidly Unfunny 21 AND OVER Opens Today

Opening today at nearly every multiplex in the Triangle area: 

21 AND OVER 
(Dirs. Jon Lucas & Scott Moore, 2013)

After writing a string of crappy commercial comedies, including FOUR CHRISTMASES, GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIEND’S PAST , THE CHANGE-UP, and THE HANGOVER movies, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore present their directorial debut, 21 AND OVER, an extremely crappy college party comedy. 

It’s a movie that could be considered “teensploitation,” that is, a film directed at teens by way of ingredients such as sex, alcohol, drugs, and violence. In the course of one crude crazy night, protagonists Miles Teller and Skylar Astin encounter all of these as they try to get their wasted friend (Justin Chon) back home in time for a medical school interview early in the morning.

That’s all the plot there is here. There’s no twist or satiric take on this well worn material, there’s no likability factor present with any of the characters, and worst of all there are no laughs. Not one.

It comes off like a bunch of outtakes from THE HANGOVER movies, but with no star power (there’s not one recognizable name in the cast). It’s like Lucas and Scott decided to make a movie out of the end credits photo collage of wild hard-drinking partying that both HANGOVER movies end with, so we get more than one amped up montage of beer guzzling, shot taking, and drug-taking action.

The first time directors also thought a scene featuring slow motion projectile vomit, spewed by Chon from the top of a mechanical bull, would equal big laughs, but I have a feeling they equate disgusted groans with laughs.

All of this sordid unfunny stuff is made worse by the lack of charisma in the two leads, Teller and Astin.

As the two tired as Hell archetypes, Teller is the snarky obnoxious pushy one who won’t take “no” to partying as an answer, and Astin is the more sensible sensitive one who spends the movie pining for a coed (Sarah Wright). Wright, of course, has a bullyish brute for a boyfriend (Jonathan Keltz) that Astin and Teller tangle with throughout the movie.

Although they drink heavily, Teller and Astin never act drunk. They always seem to have enough of a head on their shoulders to weather what comes at them. Even very late in the movie, when they get captured by angry girls from a Hispanic sorority (who aim to punish them for a crime that I’d rather not go into) and get forced into a gay panic scenario, they seem completely sober. I wish I wasn’t when watching this.

Seth MacFarlane got a lot of flack earlier this week for how racist, sexist, and homophobic his jokes as Oscar host were, but the real problem to me wasn’t his subject matter, it was that none of it was funny. I believe that in terms of comedy, nothing is sacred - no topic should be too taboo - but there has to be some element of relatable humor involved.

In the case of 21 AND OVER there is not one trace of amusement. It’s a base exercise that makes the HAROLD & KUMAR movies look like high comic art. Here’s hoping its target audience will skip it. This is one time that a real night of drinking and debauchery would sure do them a lot more good than seeing this pile of pure puke.

More later...