Movie Review: Driven (2018)

A bedazzling character-driven drama about friendship and the pursuit of grand dreams, Driven is glossy, humorous and captivating.

Jim Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis) takes to the witness stand to be grilled in a high-profile court case, and his startling testimony is revealed in flashbacks. 

In the 1970s, Jim is a scrappy small-plane pilot married to Ellen (Judy Greer). He is busted by FBI agent Benedict Tisa (Corey Stoll) after drugs are found stashed in his plane. In return for staying out of prison Jim becomes an FBI informant based in a swish San Diego neighbourhood, attempting to get wiretap evidence against drug importer Morgan Hetrick (Michael Cudlitz).

Jim is astonished to learn his neighbours are celebrity car designer John DeLorean (Lee Pace) and his glamorous wife Cristina (Isabel Arraiza). Having left General Motors, the charismatic DeLorean is wooing investors to fund the manufacturing of his ground-breaking new car design. Jim and John become unlikely friends and the Hoffmans are sucked into an orbit of wealth and celebrity parties. But with agent Benedict demanding dirt on Morgan and DeLorean running into financial difficulties, Jim's life is about to get very complicated.

Directed with panache by Nick Hamm and inspired by actual events, Driven adopts a warped, almost goofy perspective on a facts-are-stranger-than-fiction story, in the wacky mold of American Hustle. Colin Bateman's script wisely steps outside DeLorean's dream-big kaleidoscope and uses Jim Hoffman as an entryway into two insane worlds. Morgan Hetrick imports cocaine at an industrial scale, John DeLorean wants to build a car company from scratch, and Hoffman stands at the intersection of the bright and dark sides of the American Dream.

The flashback structure is well-worked, with Bateman keeping a few tricks up his sleeve until well into the testimony. In the meantime, the shady but ever-smiling Hoffman is the perfect storyteller, an expert at goading his inquisitors into blind corners, honest enough to be unreliably reliable, and smart enough to get himself and his family in - and only maybe out - of all sorts of trouble.

The counterpoint is John DeLorean, here portrayed as a hypnotically galvanizing man, living his own legend as the youngest executive in the history of General Motors. He now pursues the audacious dream of building a better car company, in many ways a spiritual successor to Tucker. Jason Sudeikis and Lee Pace bring the two men to life with intensely colourful performances, articulating the rational bond between friends possessing vastly different skill sets.

The costumes, cars and set-designs recreate the hilariously gaudy razzmatazz of the late 1970s, as Driven powers its way to a suitably manic yet evocative conclusion. Drugs, cars, and money provide the flash, but high-pressure tests of an unlikely friendship form the throbbing heart of this bombastic adventure.



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Movie Review: We're The Millers (2013)

A raunchy comedy, We're The Millers finds good laughs in a story of strangers coming together as a family for all the wrong reasons.

In Denver, Dave Clark (Jason Sudeikis) is the friendly neighbourhood marijuana dealer. After tangling with local thugs, his cache of weed and money is stolen leaving him in debt to snarky supplier Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms). As payback, Brad pressures Dave into accepting a drug smuggling assignment to transport marijuana from Mexico into the United States.

To deflect suspicions Dave fabricates a family and recruits stripper Rose (Jennifer Aniston), awkward neighbour Kenny (Will Poulter), and street kid Casey (Emma Roberts) as his wife, son and daughter respectively. They head to Mexico in an RV and en route meet RV vacationers Don and Edie Fitzgerald (Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn) and their daughter Melissa (Molly Quinn). Not unexpectedly, Dave does not have much of a plan, and nothing on the trip will go according to any plan.

Adopting a freewheeling style with plenty of improvisation, We're The Millers hits the mark at least as often as it misses. In many ways a foul-mouthed and twisted companion piece to Robin Williams' RV (2006), here director Rawson Marshall Thurber uses the drug smuggling plot as a jumping off point to shove a group of lonely and caustic people into a confined space and then hurl them into a wild adventure.

Dave, Rose, Kenny and Casey are used to being alone, and pretending to be a family is an immediate uphill battle. Having to do so while fooling drug barons in Mexico and suspicious guards at the border only adds to the fun. Of course they will eventually grow as people and come together as a family, but not before some quite hilarious moments, most designed to blow past any limits of decency.

The gangly Kenny is often in the middle of the best moments, proving himself an unlikely rapper before receiving potentially scandalous kissing lessons. The interactions with the Fitzgerald family just get better and weirder, with Dave and Rose stumbling into much more than they bargained during an in-the-tent highlight. And Jennifer Aniston lets loose and has fun with a stripping routine to distract a couple of real and ruthless drug smugglers doggedly pursuing Dave's unexpectedly large haul.

As can be expected some sequences fall flat, and the late introduction of amusement park ride attendant Scottie P adds an unnecessary new character and prolongs the length to a generous 110 minutes. Despite the mishaps, We're The Millers does not pretend to be anything other than what it is, a romp across the border looking for as much ear-poking trouble as possible.



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Movie Review: Kodachrome (2017)

A father-son road trip, Kodachrome is confined to expected frames but benefits from a grizzled Ed Harris performance.

Record label talent agent Matt Ryder (Jason Sudeikis) is barely hanging on to his job when he learns his estranged father, celebrated photographer Ben Ryder (Harris), has three months to live. Matt has not seen his dad for 10 years, and is resentful Ben abandoned the family when Matt was a child. Ben's nurse Zooey (Elizabeth Olsen) and business manager Larry (Dennis Haysbert) nevertheless convince Matt to accompany Ben on a road trip to Parsons, Kansas, where the last store processing Kodachrome film is about to close. Ben wants to process four old but recently found rolls of film before dying.

Ben's caustic personality makes for a fraught trip, with Zooey trying to create a truce between father and son. They take a side trip to Cleveland to visit Ben's brother Dean (Bruce Greenwood) and his wife Sarah (Wendy Crewson), who helped raise Matt. At another stop in Chicago Matt attempts to save his career by poaching an up-and-coming band from a rival label. A romance develops between Matt and Zooey, but achieving a thaw between Matt and his increasingly frail dad will be difficult.

Inspired by an A.G. Sulzberger magazine article about the end of the photo development era, Kodachrome defaults to a routine journey of re-acquaintance between a father and son. Barely able to sustain a civil conversation, the two men spar for long periods, Matt's lingering threads of discontent and sense of abandonment obscuring any pathway towards rapprochement.

The script by Jonathan Tropper rarely offers any fresh perspectives on the well-worn themes of broken communication channels across generations and perceptions of failed fatherhood. But director Mark Raso has an ace up his sleeve in the form of Ed Harris enjoying himself as the abrasive dying man who never cared for others to begin with, and now cares even less. Channeling the fatalism of great artists, Ben Ryder classifies himself as a chronicler of human history, and Harris relishes the character's freedom to push all available rankle buttons, secure in his own legacy.

The rest of the plot is familiar in the extreme. The stuttering romance between Matt and Zooey is feeble, and the four film rolls are an obvious and painfully predictable MacGuffin. The patched-on music industry subtext provides the opportunity for some moany soundtrack songs and generic rock band conversations before turning scratchy.

Some sharp dialogue and moments of soft humour do enliven Kodachrome, but this road trip is only saved by one veteran photographer seeking a final exposure.



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Movie Review: Permission (2017)

A romantic drama, Permission attempts an edgy take on couplehood challenges but gets caught between truncated courage and familiar convention.

In New York City, music student Anna (Rebecca Hall) and wood craftsman Will (Dan Stevens) are lifelong sweethearts approaching their thirties. He is building a house and planning to propose, but over dinner, a half-drunken Reece (Morgan Spector), Will's business partner and the boyfriend of Anna's bother Hale (David Joseph Craig), challenges the couple to consider experimenting with other sexual partners before they get hitched. 

The idea carries appeal and they give each other permission to sleep with others. Anna hooks up with musician Dane (François Arnaud), while Will sleeps with cougar client Lydia (Gina Gershon). The affairs complicate their relationship, but they push ahead with other physical liaisons. Meanwhile Hale's desire to adopt a child is not shared by Reece, leading to conflict in that relationship.

An independent production willing to venture into more original terrain, Permission proposes a curious enough premise with a long-established couple agreeing to experiment with sexual affairs. As relationship tests go, sleeping around with strangers for the sole purpose of avoiding lifelong monogamy is extreme sport.

But writer and director Brian Crano shortchanges the narrative opportunities, reducing the experiment consequences to petty arguments about sexual performance and appendage size. Will and Anna avoid probing revelations, side-stepping meaningful discussions about what the liaisons are exposing in terms of individual emotions and relationship weaknesses. Instead Will's resentment emerges in questions about the quality of the sex sessions between Anna and Dane, vanilla jealousy a disappointingly trite trajectory for the movie to pursue. 

Also absent is the foundational basis for the love between the couple. Anna and Will are presented as lovers from a young age and always intended for each other, but their bond is not demonstrated in any essential way, while their mechanical sex hints at an already stale relationship. When adversity strikes, they have little to lean back on.

For a relatively short 96 minute movie, Permission both leaves too much unsaid and spreads itself too thin. The child adoption drama between Reece and Hale is a tired tension source and mainly serves to get in the way, a gay couple grappling with financial stress and diverging family ambitions questionably presented as a novelty. A subplot at the park playground where Hale befriends an exhausted new father (Jason Sudeikis) is lost in the shuffle.

Permission looks gorgeous, Crano bathing the movie in cool purple neons and crisp darkness. But the gleaming packaging cannot hide a core more squishy than brave.

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Movie Review: Race (2016)

A biography of sprinter Jesse Owens, Race recreates events before and during the 1936 Olympics as one remarkable man stares down hatred and enters the athletic history books.

It's 1935, and promising black sprinter Jesse Owens (Stephan James) is the first member of his Cleveland-based family to head to college. He leaves girlfriend Ruth (Shanice Banton) and a young daughter behind and heads to Ohio State University in Columbus, where track and field coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis) immediately spots his potential. Snyder fine-tunes Owens' technique, and despite rampant verbal racial abuse Jesse is soon winning track meets across the country and setting new records.

The 1936 Olympics in Berlin beckon, but Germany is in the grip of Nazi rule and propaganda Minister Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat) with help from filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten) wants to use the games to showcase the party's anti-Semitic and racist ideology. Members of the American Olympic committee, including Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) and Jeremiah Mahoney (William Hurt), debate a boycott. And as the most famous black athlete in the country, Owens comes under specific pressure to withdraw as a political statement.

A mixture of biography and social history, Race is competent on both fronts. Jesse Owens' record-breaking achievements on the track at the Berlin Olympics are legendary, and so carry little dramatic tension. Director Stephen Hopkins and writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse therefore wisely expand the film's scope to capture the broader context of the Nazis setting the stage for the games as a demonstration of white supremacy, highlighting Owens' achievements in both winning on the track and delivering a powerful anti-prejudicial message.

The dilemma confronted by American Olympic officials, torn between punishing their athletes or taking a principled stand against twisted institutionalized hatred, becomes an intriguing subplot. The debate on whether to exert influence through engagement or isolation resonates across generations, and here includes Nazi tactics of minimal appeasement combined with business enticement also serving a useful entrapment purpose.

As for Owens' personal story, Race is a straightforward biography. Jesse's inspirational love for Ruth, reconfirmed after an ill-considered liaison, and the strong bond he forges with coach Snyder are the two pillars of his success. The racist taunts he endures at the University and at every track across the United States serve as a reminder of progress required at home not precluding the imperative to stand up to tyranny abroad.

Stephan James brings Owens to life with determined dignity, and Jason Sudeikis delivers a vivacious performance as Snyder, the coach finally finding a way to experience the glory he missed in his days as an athlete.

Hopkins finds a late moment of poignancy with German athlete Carl Long conjuring an unlikely bond with Owens when it matters most, a reminder of the difference between the German people and their rulers. But overall Race runs the distance with proficiency rather than excellence, the cinematic interpretation of an intrinsically inspiring story more middle of the pack than frontrunner.

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Movie Review: Sleeping With Other People (2015)

A romantic comedy with a semi-serious focus on sex addiction, Sleeping With Other People is sharp enough to maintain interest, but sacrifices depth for raunchiness.

In a one-off encounter, college students Jake (Jason Sudeikis) and Lainey (Alison Brie) lose their virginity to each other. Twelve years later in New York City, they bump into each other again at a sex addicts meeting. Lainey is cheating on her boyfriend by repeatedly having sex with her lifelong crush Dr. Matthew Sobvechik (Adam Scott), who is engaged to be married to Emma (Katherine Waterston). Jake is afraid of commitment and ends every relationship by cheating on his girlfriends, preferably with their sisters.

Jake and Lainey recognize that they both use sex to destroy relationships, and decide to become friends and not sleep together. They develop a strong bond, confiding in each other, hanging out and often being mistaken for a couple. Lainey remains preoccupied by Matthew, but also starts a relationship with single dad Chris Smith (Marc Blucas), while Jake sets his eyes set on his boss Paula (Amanda Peet). But they both find it increasingly more difficult to deny their feelings for each other, and the relationship is complicated when Lainey considers relocating to Michigan.

Mixing traditional romantic comedy components with an honest discussion around sex addiction and an inability to commit, Sleeping With Other People matches two damaged people suffering through the same affliction. Director and writer Lesley Headland creates an equal playing field, allowing both Jake and Lainey the freedom to sleep with other people. And the safe no-sex zone they create between them, complete with "mousetrap" as a safe word to signal unwanted arousal, is an intriguing twist for the often tired genre. And Headland pushes some boundaries in the topics of conversation between the two friends, including an audacious masturbation lesson.

However, the film does suffer from a single-minded lack of texture. Headland is unable to round out her characters or the world they live in, and almost every scene and conversation revolves around the same topic of sex and its impact on relationships. The unconvincing career scenes are perfunctory, while the secondary characters, including Dr. Sobvechik and Paula, are barely defined and exist solely as devices to measure Lainey and Jake's emotional progress.

Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie are serviceable without leaving much of an impact. Sudeikis brings an aloof smugness to the role that unfortunately serves as a barrier between actor and role. Brie is better, without quite getting the balance right between Lainey craving sex and longing for unattainable love.

Sleeping With Other People is willing to engage in adult conversations and does seek sensitive resolutions, but doesn't get out of bed often enough.

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Movie Review: Tumbledown (2015)

A romantic drama with a sprinkling of humour, Tumbledown carries plenty of charm as it works its way through the late stages of personal grief.

In a small town in Maine, Hannah Miles (Rebecca Hall) is a young widow still grieving the death two years prior of her husband Hunter. He was an up-and-coming folk singer who released just one album prior to his mysterious death. Protective of Hunter's legacy, Hannah fends off persistent approaches from New York-based professor Andrew McCabe (Jason Sudeikis) to interview her for a book about talented musicians who died early.

Hannah takes a crack at writing Hunter's biography, but her friend and local bookstore owner Upton (Griffin Dunne) convinces her that she needs writing help. She swallows her pride and hires Andrew as her co-author. He moves into her cabin and as he starts to uncover details about Hunter's life and death, an undeniable attraction develops between the widow and the academic.

Directed by Sean Mewshaw and written by Desiree Van Til, Tumbledown is an appealing journey along the seam between mourning and living. The film blends lightweight drama and wry humour in balanced doses and benefits from a rustic rural setting. Mewshaw maintains a light mood and brisk pacing as the story explores weighty themes, while the folk music soundtrack adds a melancholy tone.

The road to recovery from the untimely death of a loved one is an arduous process, and Tumbledown captures Hannah at the place where she can have fun, laugh and fight for what she believes in, but where she also remains beholden to the memory of a happier time and a partner who grows more ideal by his absence. Andrew is further along in his trip away from a similar trauma but is caught looking for obvious answers in a complex reality.

The film does not escape the linearity of romantic movies that start with two attractive people clashing furiously, and some plot developments such as Andrew moving into Hannah's cabin happen with illogical speed. But one of Tumbledown's graceful achievements is in avoiding some of the more obvious genre traps. Hannah will of course chart a course towards loving again, but not before she exposes Andrew to some unexpected lessons about the magic that develops in perfect unions, relationship nuggets unleashed by welcoming Andrew into Hunter's sanctuary.

Rebecca Hall infuses Tumbledown with most of its appeal. She sometimes slips briefly into overacting, but mostly straddles a fine line between Hannah's wicked independent streak and her still-tender emotional scars. Jason Sudeikis is more monotonal and less convincing as a romantic lead.

The rest of the cast features a quirky mix, and includes Blythe Danner and Richard Masur as Hannah's parents, Dianna Agron as Andrew's girlfriend Finley, and Joe Manganiello as Hannah's hunter-gatherer casual sex buddy.

Despite some predictable constraints that come with the territory of romantic movies, Tumbledown is a relatively elegant and thoughtful search for love on the far side of emotional damage.

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