IN A WORLD...Where A Woman Makes A Really Likable Directorial Debut...

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IN A WORLD… (Dir. Lake Bell, 2013)

There are quite a few things I really liked about this film, the directorial debut of Lake Bell, who also wrote, produced, and stars.

First off, I liked the premise: Bell is a Los Angeles vocal coach who gets a chance to break into the male dominated profession of doing voice-overs for movie trailers when the powers that be decide to bring back the “In a world…” phrase that used to open seemingly every preview.

Next, I liked the cast that populates the film including Fred Melamed as Bell’s father, a voice-over legend second only to the real-life late Don Lafontaine, comedian Demetri Martin as Bell’s co-worker who has a crush on her, Ken Marino (The State, Party Down) as a slimy voiceover talent who Melamed is grooming to take over his position, Micheala Watkins (SNL) as Bell’s sister who’s married to Rob Corrdry (The Daily Show, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE), and Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation), and comedian Tig Nattaro as cynical sound engineers.

I liked Bell’s screenplay, which is full of good lines, well observed insights into this little explored segment of show business, and relatable characters.

I liked the third act cameos that I won’t spoil, the composition of many shots by cinematographer Tom McArdle, and that it taught me that the Golden Trailer Awards, now entering their 14th year, is a real event.

Yes, Bell’s IN A WORLD is a very likable movie.

Previously, Bell has appeared in such TV series as The Practice, Boston Legal, and Children’s Hospital, or in films like IT’S COMPLICATED, WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, and the recent thriller BLACK ROCK, but she’s never really stood out.

Here Bell really earns the spotlight with her relatable neurotic lead portrayal and by crafting a comedy that’s inventive, unpretentious, and as appealing as she is.

Melamed, who has appeared in 8 Woody Allen films and put in an acclaimed performance in the Coen Brother’s A SERIOUS MAN, makes the most of his juicy role here. With his character’s vanity largely on display (and embodied in his young girlfriend Alexandra Holden), Melamed never fails to amuse whenever he’s on screen. 

When Melamed finds out that his daughter may be up for a major trailer voice-over gig for a HUNGER GAMES-esque quadrilogy, the one that’s going to bring “In a world” back, he calls off his retirement to compete with Bell and Marino for the job. His parental pettiness, especially as he's on the verge of accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Trailer Awards, is hilariously palpable.

Unfortunately, more on the sitcom side is a subplot involving Watkins coming close to cheating on her sandwich obsessed hubby Corrdry, but that bit of comic conflict doesn’t get in the way of the fun here – in fact the way it wraps up features one of the film’s funniest and touching moments.

So again, Bell's film is extremely likable, but more importantly it's a refreshing low key comedy that cares about its characters. In a world (sorry) of excruciating amounts of blockbuster bombast, that's really something to embrace.

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Blu Ray Review: BLACK ROCK

Now out on Blu ray and DVD:

BLACK ROCK 

(Dir. Katie Aselton, 2012)

At the beginning of a thriller, especially one with such an ominous title as BLACK ROCK, when a few friends get together to go camping saying over and over how much fun they are going to have, movie-goers obviously know that their experience is going to be anything but.

We, the audience, are the ones who supposedly are going to be having fun, watching them get into dangerous predicaments, all the while wondering which of them is going to get out of there alive.

But in Katie Aselton’s follow-up to her directorial debut, the anti-rom com THE FREEBIE (2010) what starts off promising due to dialogue scripted by her husband actor/writer/director Mark Duplass (SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, The Mindy Project), who also co-executive produced with his brother/co-collaborator Jay Duplass, becomes a grueling and all too familiar struggle for survival.

Aselton herself stars with Kate Bosworth and Lake Bell as a trio of friends who take a boat out to a small island off the coast of Maine, mainly because Bosworth wants Aselton and Bell to reconnect after years of estrangement. Bell had slept with Aselton’s boyfriend back in the day, and despite agreeing to go along on the camping trip, Aselton is still not over it.

While drinking from a bottle of Jack Daniels, and eating from cans of SpaghettiOs on the beach, the women are startled by three young men (Will Bouvier, Jay Paulson, and Anslem Richardson) carrying rifles, who happen to be hunting on the island.

Bell recognizes Bouvier from their childhood, and before you know it the two groups are partying together around a campfire as night falls. It’s revealed that the three men served together in the military in the Middle East where something f’ed up went down that led to their dishonorable discharge.

A drunk Aselton comes on to Bouvier and lures him into the woods, but it gets out of hand when he violently forces himself on her. Screaming and unable to break free, she bashes Bouvier in the head to death with a rock. Crazed by this, Paulson and Richardson capture the women, with the intent to kill them. The women are able to escape from their angry unhinged tormentors and the hunt is on.

Paulson, who folks may remember as Don Draper’s younger brother on Mad Men, makes a convincingly evil presence that can’t be talked down, but Richardson is so transparently this horror film’s token black character, and we all know what happens to them.

That’s only part of the predictability, as is when Bosworth declares that “it’s time to stop being stalked, and start stalking.” A sequence with the women trying to get to their boat in the dark of night is marred by tons of unnatural lighting - surely the moon and the fellow’s flashlights wouldn’t provide that much lighting in that environment. I know many movies have night scenes that are unrealistically lit, but here it’s really distracting.

Aselton’s direction and acting is assured, but there’s no interesting angle on this material. Its short running time (83 min.) attests to its lack of ideas. It’s dead in the water, when it so could’ve been DELIVERENCE with a difference.

The themes of women finding their strength while bonding are buried under a less than riveting hide and seek scenario, with an ending that doesn’t have the impact it’s desperately trying for.

Aselton and Duplass, who made their acting debuts together in Duplass’s and his brother’s THE PUFFY CHAIR (2005) and appear together on the FX sitcom The League, have talent to burn, but BLACK ROCK is a far from fleshed out thriller that ends up in a routine rut.

* This review originally appeared in the May 16th, 2013 edition of the Raleigh News & Observer.

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