The Ace Black Movie Blog

Showing posts with label Lake Bell. Show all posts

Tuesday, 23 February 2021

Movie Review: In A World...(2013)

A canny comedy, In A World... finds sharp laughs in an irreverent story tucked into a quirky corner of the movie industry.

In Los Angeles, Carol (Lake Bell) is a vocal coach struggling to break into the male-dominated movie trailer voice-over business. Her father Sam (Fred Melamed), a leading voice-over talent, is looking to pass the torch to the younger Gustav Warner (Ken Marino). Recently deceased Don LaFontaine had popularized the iconic "In a world..." trailer introduction, and the industry is now eagerly anticipating the selection of his heir for the upcoming Amazon Games movie quadrology.

Sam's younger girlfriend Jamie (Alexandra Holden) moves in with him, displacing Carol to the apartment of her sister Dani (Michaela Watkins) and her husband Moe (Rob Corddry), who have a wobbly marriage. Carol gets some career breaks and is suddenly in the running for the coveted Amazon Games assignment. She also gets sexually entangled with Gustav, while hesitant studio technician Louis (Demetri Martin) tries to attract her attention.

Written, directed and co-produced by Bell, In A World... is an independent production with a breezy, free-wheeling structure. The laughs are derived from characters and situations, Bell demonstrating an ear for the messiness of real conversations and acknowledged individual imperfections. Occupying the uncelebrated, arcane and tiny profession of trailer voice-overs, all her characters are hustling for something better, trampling over each other into an often hilarious jumble.

With gentle pokes at a variety of topics, the film is about nothing and everything, most reminiscent of an extended Seinfeld episode. Bell highlights women's under-representation in a male dominated profession, while acknowledging up front that a grand total of five people make money in the trailer voice-over business. The problems in the union between Dani and Moe have little to do with the central plot, and yet Carol uses her accent sleuthing skills and ever-present small tape recorder to help.

Carol's love-and-sex adventures add a funky layer of complications, including a wild encounter with Gustav triggering internecine back-stabbing plots, followed by awkward wooing from Louis.

It's not all supposed to hang together but In A World... simply clicks, Bell smoothing the disparate chapters of Carol's life into a cohesive whole and finding humour in the absurdities of brave career and romance misadventures. Even the dangers of tokenism in the battle for gender rights receive a firm jab in the ribs.

In a world where astute comedies are hard to find, In A World... is the must-see event of the season.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Sunday, 1 March 2020

Movie Review: No Escape (2015)

A straightforward thriller, No Escape is a harrowing tale of a family caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and forced to flee tumultuous events in a foreign land.

After the failure of his private venture, Texan Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) relocates his wife Annie (Lake Bell) and two young daughters to an unnamed country (suspiciously similar to Thailand) in South East Asia. He is starting a new job with the American company Cardiff, which has been commissioned to improve the national water system. On the flight Jack meets the mysterious Hammond (Pierce Brosnan), who seems to know the country well.

Soon after the Dwyers arrive, a violent coup d'etat overthrows the government. The Prime Minister is killed, and rampaging mobs take to the streets, hunting down and killing foreigners. Jack, Annie and the two girls barely escape to the roof of their hotel, but the murderous thugs are close behind, and the family's horrific ordeal of survival is just beginning.

No Escape suffers from a few unfortunate weaknesses. Similar to The Impossible, here again tragedy sweeps through a South East Asian country, but the focus is singularly on a white family. The locals are reduced to murderous goons or deep background extras, and they all exist free of any context.

And once the Dwyers are forced to run, the film defaults to an almost uninterrupted fight or flee construct, one narrow escape following another with barely a pause.

But at least No Escape commits to what it wants to do and does it well. Director John Erick Dowdle co-wrote the script with his brother Drew, and creates an undeniably exciting thriller. The Dwyers are allowed the required trace of unusual heroism, but otherwise remain a normal panicked family lugging around two young daughters to try and evade an unfolding hell.

Beyond the predictable family-is-all theme, Dwyer accentuates the do something survival ethos. Repeatedly Jack stays alive by finding the courage to act rather than just hide, a terrifying rooftop escape just one example of how the risk and reward calculus changes in the face of imminent slaughter.

On one rare occasion when the film catches its breath, Pierce Brosnan's Hammond character provides an abbreviated version of dark governmental geopolitical games perpetuating the coup. It's the slightest of nods towards a backstory, rudely interrupting No Escape as it races to the next cliffhanger moment, and the next one after that.