Movie Review: Downhill (2020)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash  
Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Will Ferrell, Zach Woods, Zoe Chao  
Running Time: 86 minutes  

Synopsis: Married couple Billie and Pete Stanton (Julia Louise-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell) arrive at an Austrian Alps ski resort for a vacation with their two teen-aged sons. There is tension in the marriage, and Pete is frequently distracted by his phone. An avalanche mishap exposes Pete's poor judgment under pressure, and Billie is further infuriated when he avoids communicating. The arrival of Pete's friend Zach (Zach Woods) and his partner Rosie (Zoe Chao) adds further strain.

What Works Well: This remake of Force Majeure occasionally finds the biting seam between compromise and confrontation. Billie and Pete are largely performing as happily married for the benefit of their children, but she is reaching the end of her patience bandwidth. When he flees the avalanche leaving his family in harm's way, pretense is replaced by barely contained hostility. While their passion suffocates beneath the snow, moments of irreverent humour lighten the mood.

What Does Not Work As Well: Although they try hard, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell are both miscast, their personas less than suitable for the dark hypocrisy, emotional vengeance, and self-delusional defensiveness required by this story. The short running time does not allow a deep dive into churning emotions, and the ending is abrupt and all too pat.

Key Quote:

Billie (referring to the avalanche): It looked like it was gonna kill us...

Pete: For a moment.

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Movie Review: You Hurt My Feelings (2023)

Genre: Comedy Drama  

Director: Nicole Holofcener  

Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Owen Teague  

Running Time: 93 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, Beth and Don (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies) are a long-term happily married middle-class couple. She's a moderately successful writer working on her latest book, and he's a therapist. Their son Eliot (Owen Teague) works at a pot store and is writing a play. Beth is close with her sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins), an interior decorator, and her husband Mark (Arian Moayed), a struggling theatre actor. When Beth inadvertently overhears Don's real opinion about her latest book, she wonders if she can ever trust him again.

What Works Well: This seemingly simple slice-of-life story carries sly sophistication, as writer and director Nicole Holofcener smoothly works her way to exploring the glue that binds relationships. The blurry lines between encouragement, lies, love, expectation, and frustration emerge as omnipresent trip hazards, both within a love-filled marriage and between parents and their offspring. All the main characters carry endearingly realistic warts, and are afforded the depth to engage in adult conversations. In the central role Julia Louis-Dreyfus shines as the quietly insecure writer and mother, trying just a bit too hard on both fronts. 

What Does Not Work As Well: All the consternation is caused by uniformly first world problems.

Conclusion: A clever tracing of the path to heightened self-awareness.



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Movie Review: You People (2023)

Genre: Satirical Romantic Comedy

Director: Kenya Barris

Starring: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Running Time: 118 Minutes

Synopsis: In Los Angeles, 35-year-old Ezra (Jonah Hill) falls in love with Amira (Lauren London). He is white and Jewish, she is black and Muslim. They quickly make plans to get married, but Ezra's mother Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tries too hard to be liberal in front of her future daughter-in-law, and Amira's father Akbar (Eddie Murphy) is determined to persuade Ezra he is unfit to marry into black culture.

What Works Well: The cast is talented and willing, with Eddie Murphy (arrogant passive-aggressiveness) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (socially and culturally hyper-clueless) leaning hard into their roles. A few jokes and humorous moments do land, including the culmination of a dinner-from-hell.

What Does Not Work As Well: Star Jonah Hill and director Kenya Barris co-wrote the script, and they veer too far into a bizarre - and quickly tiresome - world where race and religion are the only topics of often vulgar conversation. Meanwhile, the romantic elements are tepid at best. Plenty of dialogue appears improvised and undisciplined, and needless to say, the final resolution is bland enough to negate everything that preceded it. The content does not come close to justifying 118 minutes of running time.

Conclusion: An attempt to satirize the overheated culture wars predictably flounders.

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Movie Review: Enough Said (2013)

A smart romantic comedy for adults, Enough Said is a prescient journey through the complications of emotional relationships during middle age.

In Los Angeles, Eva (Julia Louis Dreyfus) is a divorced masseuse, close to giving up on finding another fulfilling relationship. Her daughter Ellen (Tracey Fairaway) is about to fly the nest to go to college. Eva accompanies her married friends Sarah and Will (Toni Collette and Ben Falcone) to a party, where she meets poet Marianne (Catherine Keener) and burly television library curator Albert (James Gandolfini). Marianne becomes Eva's new client and then a good friend. Meanwhile Albert and Eva go out on a date and a romance blossoms.

Albert shares custody of his daughter Tess (Eve Hewson), who is also college bound. Albert and Eva share many other scars of middle age, and their relationship becomes serious, while Eva becomes Marianne's confidant. Meanwhile, with Ellen distancing herself from her mother in anticipation of leaving the house, Ellen's friend Chloe (Tavi Gevinson) surprisingly starts to spend more time with Eva. Just when Eva is adjusting to the new dynamics in her life, she is shocked to learn that Albert is Marianne's ex-husband, and Eva can't resist prodding Marianne to talk about all of Albert's faults.

Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said thrives on a sly streak of authenticity. A preponderance of richly drawn characters allows the film to explore multiple perspectives, creating a rich tapestry of connections grounded in reality. The movie features its fair share of coincidences and dramatic foibles to juice the comic moments. But within the context of the romantic comedy genre, Holofcener succeeds in creating a refreshingly original narrative, filled with real people muddling through life while tending to the scars created by past mistakes. The film is always funny, sometimes sorrowful, and consistently emotionally honest.

Themes of lingering pain and resentment, the awkwardness of dealing with ex-partners, and the fear that stalls a second commitment permeate through the story. The three central characters are dealing with the same post-relationship issues, but using different methods. Albert has retreated into an I-am-who-I-am mode unwilling to bend to what a woman may want to imagine him as. The excessively cultivated Marianne is not through sticking and twisting knives into her ex-husband's back, and needs a friend who listens. Eva is generally at the resigned stage, almost over her ex-husband and still willing to give romance a chance, but her emotional quest may be more about filling the void about to be created by her daughter Ellen's departure.

The multitude of characters worth caring about is startling. Holofcener works hard to surround Eva with people who ring true even in small roles. In relatively brief appearances, Eva's daughter's friend Chloe and Albert's daughter Tess emerge as intriguing young adults with enough personality and background to deserve their own films. The tension between Tess and Ellen is also tantalizing, raising questions about the roles of daughters, mothers and friends as children push through boundaries to become young adults. Meanwhile Eva's friends Sarah and Will may be the last married couple in Los Angeles, and the cracks in their union propagate outwards in real time.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus rises above her television quirkiness and succeeds in transforming her slightly- ditzy-but-trying-hard persona to the big screen. In his penultimate screen role before his untimely death, James Gandolfini combines pathos, sensitivity and burly masculine pride to create a most unusual romantic lead.

Prior entanglements can potentially torpedo future happiness opportunities. Enough Said is about the search for a delicate balance where the past is neither ignored nor allowed to dictate.

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