The Ace Black Movie Blog

Showing posts with label Margo Martindale. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 August 2023

Movie Review: Cocaine Bear (2023)

Genre: Monster Horror Comedy

Director: Elizabeth Banks

Starring: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Margo Martindale

Running Time: 95 minutes

Synopsis: In 1985, a drug runner working for gangster Syd (Ray Liotta) drops cocaine-filled bags from a small plane over Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest. A bear consumes the cocaine and becomes crazed, attacking two hikers. Syd sends his son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and fixer Daveed (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) to retrieve the drugs, and they are pursued by detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.). Also in the park are kids Dee Dee and Henry, while Dee Dee's worried mom Sari (Keri Russell) searches for them. Park ranger Liz (Margo Martindale), an environmental officer, and a bunch of thugs are the bear's other potential victims.

What Works Well: Based on an actual incident in which a bear died after consuming cocaine dumped from a smuggler's plane, this is a silly, fun, gory, and often hilarious comedy. Highlights include a wild ambulance ride, the bear passing out in a most inconsiderate position, and wayward pistol shooting by the hapless park ranger. The special effects are generally passable, and the music score adds peppy energy with several mid-80's era songs.

What Does Not Work As Well: The cast is cluttered with a few too many bad guys, worse guys, and idiots, and although the insistence on using backstories to round most of the characters is appreciated, the intervals between bear attacks drift sideways into the forest of indifference. The combination of big gore and big laughs is sometimes jarring.

Conclusion: Unsurprisingly, "Don't Do Drugs" also applies to bears.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Saturday, 4 September 2021

Movie Review: The Hollars (2016)

A comedy-drama about a family brought together by a serious illness, The Hollars offers an agreeable mix of laughs and tears.

New York-based graphic novelist John Hollar (John Krasinski) is suffering from writer's block, and his moodiness is straining his relationship with pregnant girlfriend Rebecca (Anna Kendrick). Upon learning his mother Sally (Margo Martindale) has a brain tumour and needs surgery, John travels to his home town to support his father Don (Richard Jenkins) and brother Ron (Sharlto Copley).

Sally's illness has turned Don into an emotional wreck, while his plumbing business is near bankruptcy. Ron is jobless and stalking his ex-wife Stacey (Ashley Dyke). Sally's flippant nurse Jason (Charlie Day) is married to John's high school sweetheart Gwen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Despite being in bed at the hospital, Sally is doing her best to hold the family together. As the surgery date approaches, John is drawn back into his family's affairs, and Rebecca shows up to provide support.

An amiable romp through typical family dysfunctions, The Hollars benefits from a mean streak of humour, colourful characters, and a willing cast. While originality and sterling moments may be in short supply, Krasinksi directs Jim Strouse's script with an eye to small-town charm and cinematic efficiency, packaging up the film in 89 minutes.

Many laughs come from Ron's jumbled life, now reduced to living in his parents' basement after suffering the ignominy of being fired by his dad. Ron is also nowhere near over the break-up of his marriage and is desperate - too desperate - to participate in the lives of his young daughters. Comedy nuggets are found within Ron's tangles with his ex-wife's new boyfriend Reverend Dan (Josh Groban).

Meanwhile, at the hospital nurse Jason is on a singular mission to redefine health care standards with his own brand of judgemental cynicism. His insecurities are also justifiably close to the surface but he anyway invites John to dinner and a reunion with Gwen. Strouse and Krasinksi display a deft touch by unleashing an undercurrent of lust and animal attraction, then cleverly redirecting it.

As for the tears, Sally's tumour and Don's emotional brittleness provide opportunities for sombre moments and reflections about loss, hardship and kindness. John adds his insecurities to the mix, working through the highs and lows while learning plenty about Rebecca's mettle. In this comfortingly familiar family, everything is far from perfect, and that's just fine.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Thursday, 2 May 2019

Movie Review: Sophie And The Rising Sun (2016)

A slow burning drama and romance, Sophie And The Rising Sun is a well-intentioned but languid story.

It's 1941 in rural South Carolina. A dazed and wounded Asian man arrives on a long distance bus in the tiny fishing community of Salty Creek. Mrs. Anne Morrison (Margo Martindale), a kindly widow, takes him in and nurses him back to health. Once he recovers, Ohta (Takashi Yamaguchi) reveals himself an expert gardener and helps Anne care for her yard.

He also demonstrates an eye for painting, a passion shared by Sophie Willis (Julianne Nicholson), a free-spirited single woman and crab catcher. Slowly a passion emerges between Ohta and Sophie, much to the disapproval of the local society ladies, especially the prudish Ruth Jeffers (Diane Ladd). Then the Japanese attack Pearl Harbour, and an asian man in a small community is deemed a most unwelcome presence.

Breathing deeply from a sense of a small and isolated place grappling with the sudden intrusion of the outside world, Sophie And The Rising Sun never rises much above its modest scale. Writer and director Maggie Greenwald adapts the 2001 Augusta Trobaugh novel with studious respect, and the metaphor for World War Two shaking a clueless nation out of its isolated slumber plays out along elementary lines.

The film unnecessarily extends to close to two hours, and the rudimentary plot simply cannot sustain the length. The pace is distressingly slow, long pauses, aching glances and repetitive scenes transforming the film into a proper test of endurance. The romance between Sophie and Ohta takes a long time to emerge, and once it does the bigoted disapproval of the local prudes commands more screen prominence than the lovers' passion.

And after the Pearl Harbor attack, the film further retreats into a basic hide and seek structure, the community split into enlightened progressives attempting to survive the torches-and-pitchforks brigade.

The absence of star power helps to maintain the largely featureless backwater ambiance, but also hinders the film's appeal. Julianne Nicholson does her best, but she joins Margo Martindale (brusque), Diane Ladd (stereotypically insufferable) and Takashi Yamaguchi (predictably stoic) as a secondary character in her own romance. Lorraine Toussaint as Mrs. Morrison's housekeeper Salome brings some quiet dignity to the cast in an underwritten role.

Sophie And The Rising Sun is pretty to look at, but nevertheless all too dreary.