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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 August 2015

We live in a world that is full of contradictions.  People are happy to illegally download movies off the internet but they would not steal a DVD of the same movie from an electronics store.  A drug dealer can be sentenced to death in one country while being given a slap on the wrist in another country.  A farmer who creates food can be paid next-to-nothing while a person who kicks around a football can be a multi-millionaire.

Woody Allen is a filmmaker who appreciates that life isn’t always fair and reasonable.  In his brilliant 2005 thriller Match Point, he followed a former tennis professional who murdered his mistress so as to protect his relationship with his wealthy fiancé.  The cops were closing in and were about to press charges until a stroke of good fortune saw him get away scot-free.  It highlighted the fact that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Allen taps into similar themes with his latest effort, Irrational Man.  When we first meet Abe Lucas, he’s a depressed philosopher who admits that he’s “hit rock bottom”.  He lives alone, he drinks too much and he now has a very bleak view of the world.  Abe has accepted a plum role at a prestigious college and from his first day, staff and students are gossiping about his troubled past.  It’s as if he’s taken the job solely to pay the bills rather than to reinvigorate what was once a successful career.

While at a diner with Jill (Stone), one of his brightest students, he overhears a conversation in the adjoining booth.  A woman is in tears while talking about her fight to get custody of her children.  She believes the corrupt judge is going to rule in favour of the father because they are old friends.  While he has no knowledge of these people and this case, the story enrages Abe.  He hates the fact that he lives in a world where a judge could so easily abuse his power and get away with it.

What happens next may surprise you.  Abe decides to kill the judge.  If carefully planned, he believes he can get away with it because he has no obvious motive.  It could be a perfect murder.  As horrible as it sounds, Abe suddenly finds himself coming “alive” again.  He’s happy and he’s writing some of his best ever work.  His life suddenly has meaning.  Things get even more bizarre when Jill starts to fall in love with Abe.  He tries to resist so as to protect the teacher-student relationship but she has developed an unstoppable attraction to a man she finds fascinating.

You’ll have to see the film to find out where it goes next.  It’s not Woody’s best work but it’s still a delightful black comedy with a few observations to make about fate and justice.  Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone make a great pair with Parker Posey doing her best with a scene-stealing performance as a lonely academic competing for Abe’s affections.  It comes with Allen’s traditional fingerprints – great casting, great dialogue and a great punchline.

A few moments feel out of place (such as a bizarre game of Russian Roulette) but most of the scenes stick and add up to something that is wickedly funny.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 10 August 2015

Over the past year, fashion documentaries have been finding an audience in Australian cinemas.  Advanced Style followed a group of elderly women in New York trying to leave their mark on the fashion world.  Dior & I took us inside the House of Christian Dior as newly appointed designer Raf Simons pulled together his first collection.  Women He’s Undressed chronicled the life of Australian costume designer Orry-Kelly who made it big in Hollywood in the 1930s.

The latest addition to that group is Iris – a short, simple documentary that tells the story of 93-year-old fashion icon Iris Apfel.  She grew up with her parents during the Great Depression, she ran an interior design company that helped renovate the White House, and she’s had her favourite outfits exhibited at renowned museums across the United States.  Oh, and she’s been happily married for more than 65 years.  Not a bad life if you ask me!

Iris’s personality is as bold as her attire.  Full of memorable quotes, she opens the film by expressing her dislike for today’s homogenised fashion.  Everyone is walking around wearing the same stuff.  It leads into another insightful moment where she says that it’s often more fun getting ready for the party than actually going to the party itself.

It’s hard to describe Iris Apfel’s sense of style in words.  You’re best to Google her name and flip through the many images available.  She doesn’t design the clothes herself.  Rather, she scours the streets of New York City to find an assortment of affordable outfits that she can pull together into something magical.  She’s big on colour.  She’s big on accessories.  Iris’s collection is so large that it’s spread across multiple closets… in multiple rooms… in multiple apartments!

There’s a tinge of sadness that encompasses the film as it marks one of the last features of director Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens) who passed away in March this year at the age of 88.  His career spanned 60 years and included an Academy Award nomination in 1974 for his short subject documentary, Christo’s Valley Curtain.  We get a glimpse of Maysles in the later stages and you can see the enjoyment he drew from the project.  It’s hard not to smile while listening to Iris and watching her sift through racks in obscure clothes stores in search of a bargain.

Clocking in at just 80 minutes, Iris drums home its agreeable themes – never be afraid to express yourself and never stop having fun.  It’s nice to be reminded of this by someone with 93 years of experience.  The film could also be described as a love story as we get a glimpse of the beautiful relationship that Iris and her husband (Carl) have shared for so long.  They’re both got great memories given their age.

Iris’s misadventures get a little repetitive in the later stages but this is still a sweet, feel-good documentary about an opinionated individual.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 19 August 2015

One of my earliest movie memories is of my father bringing home National Lampoon’s Vacation from the video store on a fresh VHS cassette.  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve now seen the film.  It’s a crude yet hilarious journey about a family travelling across the country to visiting a fictional theme park (Walley World) in California.  Three sequels followed.

The thought of a reboot didn’t fill me with excitement.  You don’t mess with the classics.  The writing team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein (both responsible for the likable Horrible Bosses) have created a film that is very aware of its predecessor.  For example, it opens with the same “Holiday Road” song made famous back in 1983.

The story is kind of the same and kind of different.  Rusty Griswold (Helms), the son in the earlier movies, is now grown up and married with two kids of his own.  He is based in Chicago and works for the low budget airline known as Econo-Air.  When welcoming his passengers over the public-address system, he thanks them for their support and then adds “we’re working hard to win back your trust.”  He’d rather be working for a better airline with better pay.

Life at home isn’t ideal either.  His wife, Debbie (Applegate), is starting to show signs of disinterest.  Their sex life is on the wane and the struggle to find the time to do stuff together as a couple.  The eldest son, James (Gisondo), says a lot of weird things and carries around a “dream diary” and a “wish journal”.  He’s also being bullied by the foul-mouthed youngest son, Kevin (Stebbins), who is in need to both direction and discipline.

Rusty’s solution is to ditch their normal summer vacation and do something different.  Borrowing his father’s idea, he wants to get a new car and go on a 4,000 km road trip to Los Angeles.  It’ll give the chance for them to bond as a family, visit a few relatives, see some famous landmarks, and finish in Los Angeles where they can ride the keynote rollercoaster at Walley World.

There’s nothing ground-breaking here in terms of comedy but there’s a nerdish quality to the family that makes them likeable.  They’re goofy and awkward but you know their heart is in the right place (well, perhaps except for the youngest son).  The best scenes involve them conversing/bickering in the car.  It’s when they feel most real.  The worst scenes involve the odd assortment of characters the family meet along the way (such as a suicidal kayaker and a mysterious truck driver).  These moments feel too forced and manufactured.

There’s room at the end for a cameo appearance from Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo who reprise their roles from the 1983 original.  It’s nice to see them on screen again and they get a few easy laughs.  If anything though, this reboot makes we want to watch the earlier Vacation films again.  Those I could watch multiple times.  This one, I’m happy to have seen just the once.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 03 August 2015

Trainwreck opens with a middle-aged father, Gordon (Quinn), having a heart-to-heart with his two young daughters.  In trying to explain why he’s leaving their mother for another woman, Gordon cunningly uses the analogy of a toy doll – “would you like to play with one doll for the rest of your life?”  The girls naturally say no.  He’s made monogamy sound like a foolish concept.

Skipping twenty-odd years into the future, we find those same girls have grown up with two very different views when it comes to relationships.  Kim (Larson) is happily married with one child and another on the way.  Amy (Schumer) loathes the idea of commitment and sleeps with a different guy every night.  It’s as if she’s heeded her father’s advice.  She drinks beer, she smokes weed and she describes herself as “just a sexual girl.” 

He has a bunch of producing and screenwriting credits but up until now, Judd Apatow has only directed 4 feature films – The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Funny People and This Is 40.  Trainwreck can now be added to that list but in a curious departure, it is not based on his own screenplay.  That honour belongs to the film’s star, Amy Schumer.  Apatow and Schumer first met in 2011 and after tossing around a few ideas, they settled on this idea of an unorthodox romantic comedy.

Put simply – this is the Amy Schumer show.  She takes on the bulk of the jokes and has created an unsteady character with a forever changing personality.  There are times when she is funny, loveable and engaging.  There are times when she is cruel, selfish and insecure.  If you’re struggling to work out what she wants out of life… well, that’s because she doesn’t know either.

Throughout its first half, the film’s tone is largely comedic.  Amy works as a writer for a men’s magazine in New York City.  Their demanding boss (an almost unrecognisable Tilda Swinton) asks them to write moronic, low-brow stories such as an exclusive about whether garlic changes the taste of semen.

To help secure a promotion to executive editor, Amy has been tasked with writing a feature article on Aaron Conners (Hader), a renowned sports physician.  The problem is that she knows nothing about sports.  She lists the Long Island Mediums and the Orlando Blooms when quizzed about her favourite teams.

Amy’s life outside of work is equally problematic.  Her father isn’t happy about being placed in an assisted living facility.  Her sister isn’t happy with her continual drinking and “loose” lifestyle.  Her quasi-boyfriend (Cena) isn’t happy when he learns she’s been sleeping with other guys.  Amy takes it all in her stride and laughs off any criticism.

There are only two ways you can take a narrative like this.  Amy could have continued with her alienating ways during the film’s second hour but instead, she picks the expected option and goes through an audience-friendly reformation.  She develops a close connection with Aaron (who hasn’t been in a relationship for 6 years) and finally starts to open up about her anxieties.

Not everything in Trainwreck works.  Its message gets a little jumbled in the later stages and there are some puzzling scenes (such as one involving celebrity cameos) that distract rather than entertain.  For the most part though, it’s a fun, crude comedy with an outrageous central character and plenty of great one-liners. 

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 11 August 2015

How hard is it to create an imaginative villain?  I’ve sounded like a broken record throughout this season of Hollywood blockbusters but I feel it’s a question that remains unanswered.  The Man From U.N.C.L.E. falls back on the stuff we’ve seen before.  It’s set in 1963 where an undercover criminal organisation with links to the Nazis is looking to build a nuclear device.  They lack the expertise and so they’ve kidnapped a German scientist to help get the job done.

Perhaps the reason we fall back on such stereotypical villains is because they are unrealistic and non-threatening.  How would the audience react if the bad guy was a child abuser, a people smuggler, a drunk driver, or a wife beater?  What if it was a “troubled individual” who walked into a cinema and starting shooting up the place?  The reality is that people go to the cinema to be entertained (apparently).  They don’t want the depressing horrors of what they see on televisions each night.

Based on the popular 1960s television, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. has been reinvigorated for the big screen by British director Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels).  The two guys trying to stop the atom bomb from falling into bad hands come from very different backgrounds.  Napoleon Solo (Cavill) is an American CIA agent who oozes charm and sophistication.  Illya Kuryakin (Harmer) is a Russian KGB agent who loves to use his fists at any opportunity.

These two don’t want to be working together… but there isn’t really a choice.  They must team up and use their respective skills – lock picking, safe cracking, and villain shooting – to locate Victoria Vinciguerra (Debicki), the well-dressed head of the criminal organisation.  Also along for the ride is Gaby Teller (Vikander), the daughter of the kidnapped scientist who will help point them in the right direction.

If you’re old enough, think back to some the great action heroes of the 1980s – Bruce Willis in Die Hard, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator, and Sylvester Stallone in Rambo.  Got that thought in your head?  Good.  Now think of the exact opposite.  That’s the best way of describing the two leading characters here.

Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer barely work up a sweat.  They strut around in their fine clothes, they speak like suave businessmen, and they look all too relaxed as they extricate themselves from perilous situations (a brief scene involving an electric chair the only exception).  The novelty is amusing in the early stages but there aren’t enough laughs to make these guys interesting enough for a two-hour feature.  They can’t match the chemistry shared by Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Ritchie’s last action franchise, Sherlock Holmes.

Stylishly shot but light in terms of story, the film’s true purpose is revealed as the credits start to roll.  As we saw with last week’s Fantastic Four, this is an origin story which leaves the door wide open for possible sequels.  Whether they get the green light will depend on whether The Man From U.N.C.L.E. can recoup its $75 million budget.