20170216: comedy review--florence foster jenkins

Name: Florence Foster Jeknkins (2016)
IMDb: link to Florence Foster Jenkins page

Genres: Comedy, drama.   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Hugh Grant as St. Martin Bayfield, Simon Helberg as Cosme McMoon.

Directed by: Stephen Frears.  Written by: Nicholas Martin.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
1. It's World War II in NYC, USA.

2. Florence Foster Jenkins is an heiress who thinks she is a fine coloratura singer.  Her second husband, St. Martin Bayfield, does his best to keep her fragile ego from imploding.  He hires Cosme Bayfield to accompany her on piano for singing lessons.  Together they keep up the charade.

Delineation of conflicts:
Jenkins think she can sing quite well.  Cosme knows she cannot.  Bayfield knows this as well.  Cosme thinks the truth should be evident, and the fiction dispelled. Bayfield convinces, at least temporarily, Cosme and others to go along with the outrageous lie, often by bribery and other types of coercion.

Resolution: Bayfield keeps the fiction going far too long, but Jenkins makes a huge and disastrous public appearance.

One line summary: Lying leads to disaster.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 The film is pretty enough.  The shooting was evidently done by professionals.  I am no expert about how World War II upper crust New York City looked, but I did not see too many obvious foul-ups.

Sound: 5/10 Very unfortunately, the recording quality was rather good.  Streep's voice (as Jenkins, not as Streep) is sooooooooo horrible that I wished to be anywhere but watching this damned film.  So, this was a decision from the director (to the actress) to torture the audience.

Acting: 5/10 Hugh Grant was wonderful, but then he's one of my favourites.  I was glad to see Simon Helberg doing well in something other than The Big Bang Theory.   I liked the players in the lesser roles. A good lead actress would have meant a positive reversal of my view of the film.

Screenplay: 4/10 The script was meant to spotlight the Jenkins character, but the casting doomed the film.  The writing for Grant and Helberg was witty enough.

Final rating: 5/10 Film ruined by directorial contempt.

20151010: Comedy Review--Take Care

Name: Take Care (2014)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance  Country of Origin: USA.

Cast: Leslie Bibb as Frannie, Thomas Sadoski as Devon, Elizabeth Rodriguez as Nurse Janet, Nadia Dajani as Fallon, Marin Ireland as Laila, Betty Gilpin as Jodi.

Written and directed by: Liz Tuccillo.

The Three Acts: 

Initial Tableau: Frannie has been in an auto accident.  She broke an arm and a leg. She gets incomplete help from her sister and friends.  After too much of that, she appeals to 'the devil'; that is, her ex, Devon.  Devon contracted cancer some years back, and Frannie had cared for him for two years until he was cured.  So she gives him a sufficient guilt trip...and he acquiesces.  His new girlfriend is not exactly understanding.

Delineation of Conflicts:  Frannie's friends do not trust Devon.  Devon wants to get rid of the guilt debt.  Devon's new girlfriend wants his fairly tenuous relationship with Frannie to end as soon as possible.  Devon's feelings of gratitude are a bit limited, but Frannie's sense of being owed (big time) is even larger than she thought, especially when she expounds on all the things she did for him.  Frannie and Devon get the opportunity to be honest with each other, which was not fun for them, but changes everything.  As time progresses, Devon spends more, rather than less, time with Frannie.  How is his new girlfriend going to take that?

Resolution: Well, watch the film.

One line summary: Frannie guilts her ex into caring for her post auto accident.

Statistics: 

Cinematography: 10/10 Looks professional, which I seldom see.

Sound: 7/10 Not much of an issue.  This is a movie executed through dialog, not mood music.

Acting: 5/10 I could have done without the actors who performed as Frannie's friends and sister. I liked Thomas Sadoski quite a bit.  Leslie Bibb's role was awkward and difficult.  She did the awkward part really well.

Screenplay: 5/10  I usually do not care for studies in awkwardness, and this is no exception.  Still, the film has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  The exposition of motivations was probably its strong point.  At least this one made some sense.

Final Rating: 6/10

20141112: Comedy Review--The Coalition

The Coalition

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013 (video), rated R, 95 minutes, comedy, romance.
2. IMDB: 4.3/10.0 from 384 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 1 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No critic reviews yet...',  53% liked it from 64 audience ratings.
4. I saw this on Showtime.
5. Directed by, Monica Mingo; written by Monica Mingo and Terrell Suggs.
6. Starring: Denyce Lawton as Skylar Hathaway, Eddie Goines as Prime Alexander, Adrienne Bailon as Katilina Santiago, J. R. Ramirez as Lonzo Ramirez, Ingrid Clay as Autumn Singletary, Sant'e Andrews as Dallas, Nadine Ellis as Kennedy Lorenze', Shanti Lowry as Dylan Singletary, Nicole Garza as Carnegie.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Prime is a sports hero who enjoys time with his male posse, Dallas, Kalif, and Lonzo.  The quartet enjoy publicly and privately embarrassing the women that they date.  Some of these women include Autumn, Carnegie, Skylar, and Katalina; these four have their women allies in tow.


2. The four men seem to think that the wronged women will never meet and talk to each other.  Of course, that does happen, and the women eventually find common cause for revenge.  The tipping point came when Autumn took Skylar to a park where Prime was with his wife and kids.


3. Will the ladies break up the pack?  Will the men defend themselves?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Chick flick cliche extravaganza, plus foibles of the idle rich.
2. One star of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 No problems. Looks like very high end video.


2. Sound: 4/10 Unfortunately, I could hear the sound track.  I could hear the dialog, which was a mixed blessing.


3. Acting: 0/10


4. Screenplay: 2/10 It has a plot of sorts, but there is nothing new, nothing interesting, nothing engaging, nothing touching.

20140601: Comedy Review--Best Night Ever

Best Night Ever

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 90 minutes.
2. IMDB: 3.6/10.0 from 812 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 0% on the meter; 32% liked it from 435 audience ratings.
4. Written and directed by: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer.
5. Starring: Desiree Hall as Claire, Eddie Ritchard as Zoe, Samantha Colburn as Leslie, Crista Flanagan as Janet, plus a host of others.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Claire goes to Las Vegas for a bachelorette night before she gets married.   She is accompanied by her sister Leslie and friends Zoe and Janet.  Zoe is Claire's best friend, and does most of the filming using a hand-held camera.  Janet is the rude and barbaric friend.


2. The trip starts out somewhat normally, but the plans crash when Zoe discovers that her credit cards have been stopped, and her reservations have been cancelled.  The evening gets worse after that.  They get robbed at gunpoint by a valet; they lose money, identification, shoes, engagement ring, and so on.


3. After some binge drinking, they steal a car, kidnap the wrong valet to get the engagement ring back, and get screwed over in a drug deal.  They manage to elude the police.  They use drugs and go to a bachelor party after being mistaken for hookers.


4. By some magic, the quartet fails to get arrested or be killed for the multiple felonies they commit.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Zero laughs, zero chuckles, zero smiles; derivative feel-bad comedy.
2. One star of five.  Two black holes for screenplay and acting.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 2/10 Hand-held.


2. Sound: 2/10 Terrible leveling.  During one interval, the editor inserted sub-titles because the words were indecipherable versus the background noise.


3. Acting: 0/10


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Completely derivative.  If you have seen a Hangover film, or Bridesmaids, then you have pretty much seen the content of this one.

20140129: Comedy Review--Drinking Buddies

Drinking Buddies

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 90 minutes, comedy, drama, romance.
2. IMDB: 6.2/10.0 from 22,308 audience ratings.  Aspect, 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 82% on the meter; 51% liked it from 16,818 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 324,035 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Joe Swanberg.
6. Starring: Olivia Wilde as Kate, Jake M. Johnson as Luke, Anna Kendrick as Jill, Ron Livingston as Chris, Ti West as Dave, Jason Sudeikis as Gene Dentler.
7. This film is an example of the indie subgenre mumblecore, which is deadly boring.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Kate does PR and promotional setups for a fairly new small brewery.  Luke works at the same brewery.  Jill is Luke's long time girlfriend.  Chris is Kate's boyfriend.


2. The two couples spend a weekend in the woods at a reasonably appointed cabin in Michigan.  Jill and Chris go on a hike, while Kate and Luke play cards.  Through all sorts of usual out in the woods activities, Luke and Kate seem to gravitate to each other.  They are a better fit than Kate and Chris.  Chris and Jill seem a bit more compatible than with their usual partners.


3. What could possibly go wrong?


4. Kate and Chris break up.  Jill puts the screws on Luke to get married some time or another.  Chris gifts Jill with a book; Luke is not all that happy about it.  When Jill goes away for a week, one wonders what else might break.


5. Kate drops in on Chris, who re-asserts the breakup.  Kate and Luke get drunk at his place.  Soon thereafter, Luke helps Kate move to a smaller place, which was not without its pain for Luke, especially when they finish the job.


6. Jill returns home days early from her trip.  Can they patch things up?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Uninteresting couples shake up their relationships in this feel bad comedy.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 It's a bit soft on focus, plus recurrent camera shake.


2. Sound: 8/10 Dips a bit low in conversation now and then.


3. Acting: 3/10 Uninspiring, uninteresting, slow, uninvolving.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 Slow, but not worth finishing.  "You are not allowed to make me feel bad," says Kate about ten times in one scene.  Tremendously bad scripting; really bad planning overall.

20151019, lundi.
I just watched Olivia Wilde on Off Camera with Sam Jones. A long part of the interview was about the making of Drinking Buddies. The director is more than a bit non-standard, and makes up films on the fly. There's more to it than that, and it does not work with all actors, but that is essentially it. Like the scene of selling a couple a beer was made up after the crew went to a brewery, drank, and watched people. Oi, perhaps that works for some films, but it's my thought that it did not work for this one. Despite this new insight, I still think that this film sucks rocks for the reasons given above.