HeSaid SheSaid Movie Reviews

HeSaid SheSaid Movie Review: Ghost Town

HE SAID

When I heard that Greg Kinnear dies in the newly released film Ghost Town, I thought for sure that this would be a must see.  Unfortunately, there was life after death for everyone’s favorite not-so-A-list actor.  I will say that this was not Kinnear’s worst film…but the praise stops there.

Ghost Town is a typical romantic comedy with a twist:  Really annoying dead people.  Let me attempt to summarize the plot of this movie by outlining all of the clichés it contains: 

Bonafide jerk and unfaithful husband, Frank Hirlhey (Kinnear) narrowly avoids a falling air conditioner by jumping into the street, at which time he is promptly smashed by a passing bus.  Meanwhile, grouchy and antisocial dentist, Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) dies briefly during a routine colonoscopy, after which he discovers he can see ghosts.  All of the ghosts on his block, including Frank, try to enlist Bertram to help them resolve issues from their past lives.  Bertram refuses at first because…well, he’s just not a very nice person.  Frank offers to get rid of the ghosts if Bertram will intervene in the marriage plans of Frank’s widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni) and “bad guy” Richard (Billy Campbell).  Bertram reluctantly agrees to meet with Gwen, but then finds himself falling in love with her.  The plot stumbles along as expected, but the main idea is that Bertram learns the importance of being a good person and helping people.  All of the ghosts (including Frank) finally get to go to heaven in a flash of light after their past-life issues are resolved.  The end.   

OK.  Now you don’t have to see this horrible movie, right?  Oh, but you will…I know you will!  For some reason that I will never fathom, the majority of movie goers in America love this kind of film.  As I am writing this review, Rotten Tomatoes shows 86% positive reviews. 

Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details, but here is a run down of the good, bad and ugly about this film:

Good:  Nicely shot. Ghost Town was a “good looking” movie. There were some really funny moments, helped along tremendously by Ricky Gervais spot-on acting and dry British delivery. And, even though I like to joke around, Greg Kinnear was pretty good in this film as well.

Bad:  The rest of the actors’ performances were forgettable at best. Tea Leoni especially gave a (surprisingly) poor performance, with a lot of fake laughs and over-done moments, but maybe that was more the director’s fault than her own. Either way, it seemed her pacing was off throughout the film.  Also, and perhaps even more damaging, was that this film held no surprises. The story-line was very cliché, and there were many moments (like Frank being hit by the bus at the beginning) that I saw coming a mile away.   

Ugly:  Despite all of the above, this will be the #1 movie in America over the weekend. 

He said:  Skip it. You’ve seen this movie many times before, just with a different title. Not unbearable if your date drags you to it, but your $15 is better-off spent elsewhere.

But what do I know?!  Maybe you liked this film…if so, I’d like to hear from you.  Email Shawn and/or The Eskimo at theysaidmoviereviews@gmail.com.

SHE SAID

OK, I'm 0 for 2 in my Night at the Movies selections, so I think I'll just watch DVDs for a while.

One thing I will give Ghost Town - I'll think (and look) twice now if someone sneezes while walking down the street. And it made me immediately want to be back in Central Park. And there were some laugh-out-loud moments in the film (which, honestly, doesn't take much with me). But that's about all nice I have to say about it. (And I don't like the title now that I've seen the movie - and y'all know how I am about titles.)

If you took Chances Are or Ghost and combined it with a little bit of Scrooge and a dab of Sleepless in Seattle, you have Ghost Town. A misanthrope (Rick Gerbais) who needs to be shown the error of his ways through the transforming power of love (via Tea Leoni). Dead spirits with unfinished business that needs to be tidied up before dissolving softly into a white glow.

I never got how Bertram Pincus (or Pink-Ass, as Greg Kinnear's character likes to call him) goes from stealing Gwen's (Tea Leoni's) cabs and closing elevator doors in her face to falling madly in love with her during a pretty awful lecture on mummies. It didn't fit. Nothing happened to change him.

I liken the movie to the Scrooge tale because the ghosts that Frank can see (who have unfinished business of their own) also point out to the living their unfinished business. And that was an interesting concept - but the whole storyline is just built upon so many standard movie cliches that you just want to roll your eyes in parts (which, honestly, doesn't take much with me).

She Said: If you just want an excuse to sit in a dark theatre and hold hands while watching beautiful shots of Central Park and laughing occasionally, this is a great date movie. Otherwise, pick something else.

THEY SAID

After reading each other's reviews, The Eskimo and Shawn always discuss the reviews (and the film, too, of course). Listen to the Ghost Town audio commentary here. (And find out which film The Eskimo picked to review next.)

SHARE THE PODCAST or EMBED IT ON YOUR BLOG OR WEB SITE.

Looking for love

Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com interviews Peter Sollett, the director of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, about his movie, hitting theatres this Friday. The movie is based on the young-adult novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

Listen to the interview here.

These boots are made for movie reviews...

The Eskimo and I laughed when we got ready to head out to see Ghost Town - and discovered that we were both wearing our cowboy boots. The Eskimo ruled that all HeSaid SheSaid Nights at the Movies will now require "the wearing of the boots" from hereafter. So listen for us stomping around in a theatre near you soon!

On the way home, we tried to come up with a word for a movie trailer that actually makes you decide not to see a movie (though you had planned on seeing it before the trailer). The Eskimo suggested distrailer or doublewide. I added untrailer. I asked my Twitter friends for some help - and here's what they came up with...

• Failer, derailer, detrailer, distractor trailer (Mark Mallett)
• Distrailer (ClockworkAnge)
• Failtrailer (Matthew Turland)
• Trailer Fail (Eugene Huo)

Have a suggestion for the word we need to create pronto? Leave it in the comments or email theysaidmoviereviews@gmail.com. (And, hey, if you see a trailer that meets our unnamed definition, let us know about it - and tell us why it changed your mind too!)

Paul Newman: tributes flow in for "one of the great 20th-century lives"

Washington Post/Sept. 2005, Paul Newman and
Robert Redford 

Paul Newman died on Sept. 26 at the age of 83 after a long battle with cancer.

Sam Mendes, who directed Newman in the 2002 film Road to Perdition, remembered it as "the highlight of my professional life".

Mendes said, "It seems to me to be one of the great 20th-century lives: he was famously generous, with his extraordinary and unstinting work for his charities, he was a passionate advocate for the adrenaline and danger of his beloved racing cars, he was a shining example of how to use global fame for the greater good, and most of all he was one of the great movie actors of this or any other age."

Newman was nominated 10 times for an Oscar, winning best actor in 1987 for The Color Of Money. He received an honorary Oscar in 1986 and won a third in 1994, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his charitable work.

His best known roles included playing alongside Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). He starred with his second wife, Joanne Woodward, in several films including Long Hot Summer and Paris Blues. They had been married for 50 years.

In a joint statement, Newman's five daughters from his two marriages said: "Our father was a rare symbol of selfless humility, the last to acknowledge what he was doing was special."

Miracle Movie

The New York Times Web site has a slideshow, produced by Mekado Murphy, where Spike Lee, the director of Miracle at St. Anna, discusses filmmaking and faith.

Justice restored

On Sept. 30, Paramount Home Entertainment is issuing Francis Ford Coppola’s “Godfather” saga. The film was given the attention of digital restoration experts under the supervision of film preservationist Robert A. Harris and will be offered in high-definition Blu-ray and standard DVD editions.

Most of the work went into the first (1972) and second (1974) films in the trilogy, according to Dave Kehr in The New York Times. (Before and after shots are available on Kehr's blog.) The later third installment (1990) did not need as much effort, as it was shot on a newer generation of film stock.

The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration combines pieces of film recovered from several sources, scanned at high resolution and then retouched frame by frame to remove dirt and scratches. The color was brought back to its original values by comparing it with original release prints and by extensive consultation with Gordon Willis, who shot all three films, and Allen Daviau, a cinematographer who is also a historian of photographic technology.

Chuck Palahniuk, Sam Rockwell, and Clark Gregg Discuss Choke

Choke: Exclusive Radar Q&A from RADAR on Vimeo.

Night at the Roundtable

This is a new segment where we just pick a topic and talk. The Eskimo's first roundtable category was comedy. We both picked our top three and dove right in…

If you have suggestions on what you'd like us to talk about in a Night at the Roundtable, email theysaidmoviereviews@gmail.com.  We'll be sure and give you credit for the topic!

HeSaid SheSaid Movie Review: Pi

HE SAID

For this edition of hesaidshesaidmoviereviews.com I picked an independent film (winner of Sundance in 1998) by Darren Aronofsky, titled with the mathematical symbol Pi. 

This movie is about a psychologically disturbed, yet brilliant, mathematician, Max Cohen, who attempts to discover patterns in the stock market. Max believes that everything in nature can be described by mathematics, and that with enough formulation, predictable patterns will emerge. In the course of his studies, Max comes across a mysterious 216-digit number, later referred to as the “God number,” that he believes holds the key to the answers he is searching for. Other interested parties emerge throughout the film, including an aggressive Wall Street firm and a sect of Hasidic Jews. Both parties desire the number for their own purposes. Max becomes increasingly paranoid as the plot unfolds, and by the end of the film, the audience is unsure which scenes are real and which scenes are products of Max’s worsening delusional state. 

I first watched this interesting little psychological thriller not long after it was released on VHS.  At the time, I had not seen many films of its type, and, though I did not remember the plot, I did remember it making a lasting impression on me. I see now why. This film is very dark and surreal. It is artistically framed, and shot with a lot of non-conventional methods, such as a grainy black and white medium, along with odd camera angles. I loved the music and overall pacing of this film. It was easy to watch…there were definitely no boring moments. I was also intrigued by the storyline and the mathematical principles described in the film.  Had Aronofsky simply stuck with the art-house method and compelling subject matter, I think this film would have been much better.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Just about halfway in to the movie, the simple, yet compelling story line devolves into a muddled mess of multiple plot elements. Max is bombarded from all quarters by individuals who desire (or fear) the knowledge contained in his mind. I see where Aronofsky was going with this, but it transforms Pi from what was originally a subtle character exploration into a supernatural thriller. And it was a clumsy transformation at best. Aronofsky attempts to use the camera to convey Max’s ever-decreasing mental state, employing shaking shots and quick cuts, along with disturbing imagery. But it is not that the camera work is badly done.

As I stated before, this film was easy to watch throughout. It’s just that it took away what I most enjoyed about the film, making it more about the “God-number” that Max discovers rather than about Max himself. Also, there are certain bothersome holes in the plot, for instance:  What exactly does Max do for a living?  How could he afford all of that advanced computer equipment in his apartment?  Where and when did the Wall Street firm come to know Max?  And (rhetorical question) isn’t it convenient that Max stumbles across a sect of Hasidic Jews searching for the same “God number” that Max discovers only a day later? There are a lot of plot elements in this movie that Aronofsky purposely leaves to the imagination of the audience. That method works well sometimes, but in many cases it felt untidy to me…like Aronofsky himself didn’t quite know how all of the plot elements tied together.   

All that being said, the story comes together pretty well at the end, but I saw the climax coming a mile away. Some of the imagery was a little over the top, and out of place in this film, but overall Pi is an interesting watch, and one that keeps you captivated throughout.

He Said:  This is a good rainy-day film.  Definitely not a date movie or casual rent.  I would cautiously recommend Pi to those of you who are fans of independent films.  You will want to discuss this movie immediately after watching.

SHE SAID

We adore chaos because we like to restore order.
~ M.C. Escher

I'm reading (and enjoying) Richard Kelly's Ten Bad Dates with DeNiro right now. It's a book of alternative movie lists, and one of the more interesting lists is D.B.C. Pierre's "Ten Films To Avoid On Medication (Or Within Reach Of A Cutlery Drawer)." If I were adding Pi to a movie list, it would be "Ten Films to Avoid While Not On Medication."

It's weird. But it's weird with a purpose, so I can forgive it. It still seems like it would be a movie much easier to "get" while on some form of medication. I'm just saying is all. Luckily, I was very tired, which was close enough.

The film, written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, is shot on high-contrast black and white reversal film and would be beautiful to watch with the sound turned off. (And, in parts, it might cause less confusion that way.)

The movie follows mathematical genius (or madman) Maximillian Cohen (Sean Gullette) as he tries to bring order to chaos - or chaos to order, just depending. The motivation behind all science is to discover if nature obeys rules. Is it in any sense predictable? Is there a pattern or order underneath? And whether you like or hate this movie, you will still have to admit at the end that the question was handled cleverly, even though it was never answered.

Max often consults with his math mentor (and competitor in games of Go), Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis) during his quest to find the answer, which he decides - along with many others from Wall Street brokerage houses to Hasidic rabbis - that the answer lies in a 216-number sequence. But Sol constantly reminds Max that he needs to bring some order to his mind before he attempts to bring order to a chaotic universe. (If you're looking through a chaotic lens, how can you ever "see" order?)

Over games of Go (with the board viewed as a tiny microcosm of the universe), Max and Sol debate whether the world (and the game board) is basically chaotic or basically ordered. This is a repeating theme in religion too, so the religious elements of the film never seem overstretched (though the Wall Street aspect did to me at times). Max falls on the side of order and Sol on chaos, for the most part.

Max has several hallucination sequences brought on by blinding migraines, where the viewer is brought directly into chaos from an ordered world (a linear film). We don't know what's real and what's imagined, what's order and what's chaos. It's all mixed up - but for a purpose.

To me, the backstory of the film is the most interesting part. Aronofsky sold "shares" of the movie to friends and family for $100. (Darren's mom was the caterer on the set.) The movie only cost $60,000 to make. He was able to pay all of his "shareholders" back with $50 profit per share when the film was sold to Artisan Entertainment.

It's a very smart film. Not a particularly great film, but good - and interesting, at least. I feel like I would have to watch it two or three more times to fully understand it - to bring some order to the chaos. 

She Said: Watch it. But you better be in the mood. It's definitely not an easy film. But it will make you think. Whether you want to or not.

THEY SAID

After reading each other's reviews, The Eskimo and Shawn always discuss the reviews (and the film, too, of course). Listen to the Pi audio commentary here. (And find out which film Shawn picked to review next.)

SHARE THE PODCAST or EMBED IT ON YOUR BLOG OR WEB SITE.

BONUS MATERIALS

And here's the clip from Streetcar Named Desire that I reference in the audio commentary for The Eskimo (and anyone else I can convince to explore my comparison of the similar endings of Pi and Streetcar).

HeSaid SheSaid Movie Review: Lars and the Real Girl

HE SAID

I have to confess that when I heard that Lars and the Real Girl was about a man who falls in love with a blow-up sex doll, I prepared myself for a lot of cringe-worthy moments and groans of disgust.  You see, I generally hate movies like this. Or, rather, what I thought this was. 

I had every expectation that this film would tackle the plot in one of two ways:  Either it would be in the vein of movies like Old School or National Lampoon (total slapstick comedy), or, even worse, a bunch of sex-hungry teenage boys making crude jokes and having awkward sexual encounters (à la Weird Science or American Pie).  I mean, how else could you make a movie about a guy who falls in love with a blow-up sex doll?  I couldn’t really like this movie, could I?

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong…so wrong, in fact, that I am almost (not quite, but almost) ashamed at myself for pre-judging this movie.  As a journalist, I broke one of the cardinal rules of my trade.  But my mistake was small compared to the mistake made by Hollywood for failing to give this independent film a full release and the marketing to go with it. The problem, I think, was that on the surface this film seems to be a pretty standard romantic comedy...more of the same, you know?  But it’s not really a comedy at all, at least not in the traditional sense. It’s much more of a love story. And there is nothing typical about this film. In fact, its best quality is its originality.

When Lars, an introverted and emotionally disturbed young man, shows up with his new “girlfriend,” Bianca, you expect his family to waste no time in locking him up in the nut-house. But they don’t. They care about him. They want to help him. So they play along until they can figure things out. When it becomes obvious that Lars will insist on bringing Bianca with him into social situations, like church or parties, at the family’s request the entire town comes together to accept Bianca as part of their community. Some of the best parts of the movie are when we see how over time, as the townspeople “play along” with Lars’ delusions, Bianca truly does find her place. She is dressed up (more conservatively, of course), and given a “job” as window dressing at the local mall. She is brought to the local hospital to do “volunteer work,” visiting children in the cancer ward. But over time the townspeople stop just playing along. They become used to Bianca’s presence, and are even interested and intrigued by her, offering to cut her hair in a different style or talk about how envious they are of her figure. In one scene, a neighbor picks up Bianca for an employee party, leaving Lars at home alone.  He wasn’t invited. Upon Bianca’s return the couple has a heated argument (one sided, of course) behind closed doors about how she is not spending enough time with Lars. These moments are the true comedy in the film. It is subtle and touching and, most importantly, believable.

Of course, you have to suspend reality a bit for this film…that Lars delusion of Bianca as a real woman could play out so long and so perfectly. But it is not too much of a leap, and that is a testament to the superb storytelling. The writers missed a thousand opportunities to insert the low-brow humor the plot suggests, and thank God they did. This movie is sweet, and funny, and touching, and something completely different than what you would expect. Lars and the Real Girl is a great little film, and is, in my opinion, a must see.

He Said:  Guys, I’m talking to you now.  This is a perfect date-night movie.  It is not a “girl” movie in the least (no offense, Shawn), so you’re safe on that front.  Of course, your girl may question a movie about a blow-up sex doll, but rest assured she’ll be pleasantly surprised upon watching it…and so will you.            

SHE SAID: Thinking outside the box

Because here's something else that's true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.
~ David Foster Wallace

I'm big on movie titles - on the words meaning something or adding context to a movie. So I probably spent way too much time reflecting on why the title of this movie is not Lars and the Real Doll or Lars and the Fake Girl rather than Lars and the Real Girl. I never reached a conclusion, really, but I think it remains an important question.

It's actually a clever play on words, because you're not quite sure if the "real" girl is the fake one from www.realdoll.com or Margo (Kelli Garner), Lars's (Ryan Gosling) implied love interest at the end of the film.

Bianca, the plastic object of Lars's affection, is a life-size, 125-pound doll that seems to bring out the best in Lars (a reclusive, socially retarded young man) - and, eventually, the whole Wobegonish town. After repeated questions of girlfriends and sexual orientation from friends and family, Lars just designs his own woman online and has her shipped (who looks suspiciously like his sister-in-law to me). Bianca, half-Brazilian/half-Danish, was raised by nuns and is a missionary. While visiting Lars, she is "on sabbatical to experience the world."

But the charm of the movie is that the world experiences Bianca right back. Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson), the family doctor and a psychologist, suggests to his family and friends that they play along. Let the doll be as real to them as it is to Lars: "Bianca's in town for a reason," she adds.

Lars explains, "That's why God made her...to help people"- and everyone sees a bit of Bianca in themselves. One of my favorite scenes of the movie is when Lars wants to play Scrabble with Bianca one evening but she has charity work on her "calendar." The church lady tells Lars that he is just like her husband and that he can't be expecting Bianca to just sit around the house waiting for him to come home all day. She has needs too!

Bianca's in town for a reason, but she also dies for a reason. Lars begins to have feelings for a real "real girl" - and he can't cheat on Bianca. Just before she "dies," Lars and Bianca share their first and only kiss - adding to the irony of a man who orders a sex doll to dress her up and bring her to church on Sunday.

Whether you love the movie or not, it is full of big ideas that will definitely make you think - inside and outside of the box!

She Said: Watch it! I think it's an especially good date movie because it makes great fodder for conversational questions from "What is delusional?" to "What is love?" (After all, they are often purported to be one and the same.)

THEY SAID

After reading each other's reviews, The Eskimo and Shawn always discuss the reviews (and the film, too, of course). Listen to the Lars and The Real Girl audio commentary here. (And find out which film The Eskimo picked to review next.)

SHARE THE PODCAST or EMBED IT ON YOUR BLOG OR WEB SITE.

BONUS MATERIALS

And here's the Spongebob Squarepants "To Love a Patty" episode for The Eskimo (and anyone else I can convince to explore my comparison of Lars and the Real Girl with me!).