Movie Review: Friends With Kids (2011)

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Director: Jennifer Westfeldt

Starring: Jennifer Westfeldt, Adam Scott, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Chris O'Dowd, Maya Rudolph, Megan Fox, and Edward Burns

Running Time: 100 minutes

Synopsis: Best friends Julie and Jason (Jennifer Westfeldt and Adam Scott) are both single and in their thirties. After witnessing passion seeping out of the marriages of friends who have kids, Julie and Jason decide to have a baby together but with no romantic commitments between them. All goes well until jealousies flare up when Jason hooks up with dancer Mary Jane (Megan Fox) and Julie attracts the attention of ideal husband material Kurt (Edward Burns).

What Works Well: Writer, director, and star Jennifer Westfeldt has some sharp observations about kids disrupting the harmony of couples, and finds a few funny moments as Julie and Jason transition from observers of parenthood to creators of a brave new model. The supporting cast (Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig are one couple, Chris O'Dowd and Maya Rudolph another) is strong and adds a diversity of outcomes. The running time is crisp enough, while the Manhattan and Brooklyn locations add appeal.

What Does Not Work As Well: All the adults are in their thirties, and yet communicate with the obsessed vulgarity of young teenagers discovering the hilarity of sex and body parts. Westfeldt loses courage in the third act, defaulting to the most trite genre conventions, and the final scene is a poorly written embarrassment, betraying creative bankruptcy.

Conclusion: A romantic comedy with an initial burst of bold ideas succumbs to conformity. 



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Movie Review: Idiocracy (2006)

A science fiction comedy, Idiocracy offers a few chuckles but is defeated by a flimsy one-note premise.

In 2005, the US Army selects average soldier Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) for a one-year suspended animation experimental project. The other subject is prostitute Rita (Maya Rudolph). Something goes wrong, with Joe and Rita waking up 500 years later in 2505.

They find a world disintegrating under the weight of sheer dumbness, with humans having suffered continuous erosion of IQ over the centuries. In this derelict future Joe and Rita seek the help of lawyer Frito (Dax Shepard) to search for a time travel machine, but Joe is first thrown in prison then recognized as the smartest living human and summoned by President Camacho (Terry Crews) to solve all the world's problems.

Seeking laughs from stupidity is humour's lowest common denominator, and all of Idiocracy is constructed on the idea of humanity heading towards a phenomenally stupid future. Director and co-writer Mike Judge extrapolates evidence of declining IQ levels towards an end game where everyone is a moron, and a barely-functioning society is dominated by corporations equally governed by dumb people.

And so the streets are over-run by garbage, buildings are barely upright, reading and writing are lost arts, money and/or sex are predominant obsessions, vulgarity is widespread, every inch of space and every spoken sentence is used for advertising, and multi-syllable words are a stretch for most citizens. Joe as the most average guy in 2005 is now by far the brightest spark, and once his intelligence is recognized, he is tasked with sorting out the mess.

Idiocracy offers funky visuals and some laughs at the sheer imbecility on display, but otherwise expires well before the scant 84 minutes run out. And if Judge did err in his basic hypothesis, it was only because he was tragically generous in his timeline.



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Movie Review: The Way Way Back (2013)

A coming of age dramedy, The Way Way Back dives into the pool of introverted teenaged gawkiness to discover the birth pangs of emerging maturity.

Duncan (Liam James) is a quiet 14 year old, suffering through the getting-to-know-you phase with Trent (Steve Carell), the oily new boyfriend of his mother Pam (Toni Colette). Trent's older teenaged daughter Steph (Zoe Levin) is happy to ignore Duncan. The quartet head to Trent's summer vacation home near Cape Cod, where they meet vivacious neighbour Betty (Allison Janney) and her teenaged daughter Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb). 

Trent and Pam start spending long hours with Trent's friends Kip and Joan (Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet), who own a pleasure boat. Left on his own and feeling like a complete misfit, Duncan wanders towards the cheesy Water Wizz water park where he meets carefree manager Owen (Sam Rockwell) and his co-worker/maybe girlfriend Caitlin (Maya Rudolph). Duncan's summer adventures start to improve when Owen takes him under his wing and Susanna attempts a friendship, but Trent's nauseating smarminess is never far away. 

Co-written and co-directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash in their debut, The Way Way Back is a tender poke at that one memorable growing-up summer when misery, company and emotional growth collide. While the themes, incidents and overall mood of awkward bemusement bordering on despair are not necessarily new, Faxon and Rash mush enough cringey and hopeful moments together to build well-rounded characters.

Duncan is a mostly silent adolescent caught in the treacherously funny terrain between kid and adult, with that inherent perceptive child's ability to see right through Trent's facade and into his rotten core. That mom Pam is not ready to acknowledge her new boyfriend is a scumbag only makes Duncan more miserable, along with the indignity of being the only person having to wear a flotation device on the boat.

But a summer of long days also offers unexpected opportunities for positive encounters. Owen is a man jealously safeguarding his inner teenager's attitude towards life, and recognizes that Duncan just needs a nudge of belief and surrogate fatherhood to break out of his shell. Meanwhile Susanna is attempting to avoid getting blown away by the hurricane generated by her mom Betty, and sees Duncan as a calm harbour worth exploring.

Faxon and Rash create a modest middle class beachside community teetering between fading small town charm and suburban dullness, a place where every family is broken, breaking, or patched-up, and the dilapidating water park still attracts a crowd although the beach is minutes away. In this milieu Sam Rockwell is the standout performer, having a blast as a caring man perfecting the couldn't-care-less schtick. Liam James speaks volumes with pained expressions of emotional torture and few words. Steve Carell oozes barely disguised toxins, while Allison Janney allows easily excitable neighbour Betty to take flight.

The Way Way Back zooms through the twists and turns of water park tubes, dark places to navigate on the way to a bright new splash.



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Movie Review: Sisters (2015)

A raunchy comedy, Sisters benefits from sharp timing and chemistry of the two leads, but is otherwise one long endless scene of adults behaving badly.

Maura and Kate Ellis (Amy Poehler and Tina Fey) are sisters still trying to sort out their lives. Maura is divorced and has always placed everybody else's happiness ahead of hers. Kate is irresponsible, cannot hold a job and is a single mom to teenager Haley (Madison Davenport). They are both shocked and disappointed when their parents (James Brolin and Dianne Wiest) announce plans to sell the family home in Orlando.

While cleaning out their childhood rooms Maura and Kate decide to have one final bash in the big house and invite all their friends, but pointedly exclude Brinda (Maya Rudolph), Kate's frenemy since high school. The party is well attended but muted, until the alcohol and drugs start flowing and it turns into a raucous event. Kate is desperate to hook up with hunky handyman James (Ike Barinholtz), but the night will only get wilder and there are many scores to settle.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are a funny and fearless couple, share undeniable rapport and are unafraid to let loose and laugh at themselves. However, Sisters is unfortunately beneath them. The Paula Pell script works its way in fits and starts to the big party scene, and that is where it stays. There is some fun to be had with adults partying as if they were 20 years younger, but once the rowdy and juvenile antics take over the film quickly runs out of steam.

The funnier moments are the side quests burrowing deep into irreverence, such as Maura and Korean aesthetician Hae Won (Greta Lee) descending into an ill considered but hilarious pronunciation duel, or bad girl Kate drooling over tree trunk armed drug dealer Pazuzu (John Cena).

Every 15 minutes or so director Jason Moore briefly pauses the raunchiness for a brief interlude featuring more tender interaction, either between the sisters or exploring the dysfunctionality dominating the mother-daughter bond between Haley and Kate. The attempts to tackle themes of growing up and settling down appear slapped together and never convince, with James Brolin and Dianne Wiest reduced to caricatures in the parent roles.

The Sisters are ready and willing to deliver laughs, but need a more ambitious venue than one long night of irresponsibility.

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The Movies Of Maya Rudolph

All movies starring Maya Rudolph and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

As Good As It Gets (1997)

50 First Dates (2004)

Idiocracy (2006)

Away We Go (2009)

Grown Ups (2010)

Bridesmaids (2011)

Friends With Kids (2011)

The Way Way Back (2013)

Inherent Vice (2014)

Maggie's Plan (2015)

Sisters (2015)

Booksmart (2019, voice only)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Bridesmaids (2011)

A clever chick flick that borrows heavily from raunchy bromedies then dramatically outdoes them, Bridesmaids is a most enjoyable comedy, unique for investing in character development without losing comic momentum. Kristen Wiig of Saturday Night Live co-wrote and stars, and in the process establishes herself as a potential superstar movie comedienne.

Thirty-something Annie (Wiig) lives in Milwaukee, and is finding out what life at rock bottom looks like. Her small bakery business went bankrupt; she is stuck in a dead-end sales job; her room-mates are insufferable; her car is falling apart; and the one man who pays any attention to her uses her purely for sex. Lilian (Maya Rudolph), Annie's best friend since childhood and now working in Chicago, announces that she is getting married, and of course wants Annie to be the Maid of Honour.

Annie gets to know the other bridesmaids, and quickly finds out that Chicago socialite and control-freak Helen (Rose Byrne) also considers herself Lilian's best friend. Helen's life is as perfect as Annie's is shambolic, and the two are immediate frenemies.

Also among the bridesmaids are the stocky and aggressive Megan (Melissa McCarthy), who will become Lilian's sister-in-law; the blonde Rita (Wendy McLendon-Covey), who is stuck in an unhappy marriage, and the naive Becca (Ellie Kemper).

In preparing for the wedding Annie tries to be a good Maid of Honour, but everything she touches turns into an unmitigated disaster, from gown fittings (diarrhea) to the bachelorette trip to Vegas (kicked off the plane), to the shower (destroyed). Annie also manages to sabotage a frail relationship that was developing with police officer Nathan (Chris O'Dowd), who genuinely cares about her.

With the catastrophes mounting and the wedding looming, the friendship between Lilian and Annie is ruptured, and Helen is installed as the new Maid of Honour. Annie needs to find the incentive to pick up the pieces and reassemble her life.

At just over two hours, Bridesmaids is long for a comedy, but director Paul Feig (a veteran of TV sitcoms) uses the time wisely to nourish the characters and the narrative, and the film takes advantage of the available elbow room to work on a variety of levels. Most importantly, it is extremely funny, with some laughs, such as the sequence in the bridal shop, of the side-splitting, rib-cracking variety. Yes the humour is sometimes (or almost always) vulgar and related to body parts and fluids, and the vulgarity works brilliantly.

But the film is successful because it ventures beyond the laughs to create a triangle of stressed friendship between Annie, Lilian and Helen, and the script by Wiig and Annie Mumolo takes the time to probe how people, and therefore what they value in a friend, change over time. And finally Bridesmaids finds a heart by colouring in a lot of distress in the life of Annie, and becoming a rare example of a comedy that provides eloquent context for hilariously anguished behaviour.

A thoughtfully unapologetic romp, Bridesmaids leaves a trail of delectable destruction in its wake.

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Movie Review: Away We Go (2009)

A movie with its heart in the right place, Away We Go is operating with material so thin it ultimately floats away in the sweet breeze, barely noticeable among all the other happy bugs and crisp leaves.

Verona (Maya Rudolph) and Burt (John Krasinski) are a couple in their early thirties, still relatively unsettled and not established in any city or clear careers. They discover that Maya is pregnant, and six months into the pregnancy, Burt's quirky parents, the only family nearby, announce that they are leaving town to resettle in Belgium. With nothing tying Verona and Burt down, they decide to visit various friends and family members across the US, in the hope of finding a place to call home.

They visit Verona's flaky old boss (Allison Janney) in Phoenix; Verona's unmarried sister (Carmen Ejogo) in Tucson; Burt's highly irritating college friend (Maggie Gyllenhaal), now a married and condescendingly perfect mother, in Madison; other college friends (Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey) with many adopted kids in Montreal; and Burt's married but just-dumped brother (Paul Schneider) in Miami. None of these locales or people resonate with Verona and Burt, but the visits bring them closer to each other and eventually Verona reveals a sad piece of family history, through which they discover where they belong.

A road trip movie with not much of a road and an undefined destination, the only thing Away We Go has going for it is a relatively convincing strong central relationship between Burt and a very pregnant Verona, with Maya Randolph and John Krasinski appearing pleasingly effortless in portraying a deep and sturdy love.

Otherwise, the script by David Eggers and Vandela Vida provides little for director Sam Mendes to work with. The humour is either fake or forced, the secondary characters are conventional visitors from other movies, and the attempts at pathos with the whole seemingly hastily appended story of Verona's parents smacks of desperation.

Away We Go departs quickly, its light weight leaving barely any impression.

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