DON’T THINK TWICE, dir. Mike Birbiglia.
It took three days, but I finally saw a film that made me feel stupid for standing in line to wait and see it.
That’s not to say this movie was awful, only that it wasn’t for me. Birbiglia’s love letter to improv comics wears its heart on its sleeve, boasts a strong, capable ensemble, and occasionally gets some brutal honesty about performing, the realities of showbiz, and aging in there. But the whole thing was far too gooey, huggy, and open-faced for my tastes, the characterizations are a bit too thin, and, probably worst of all, I never for a second bought that any of these people were actually funny in any way, shape, or form.
The film’s about an improv troupe in NYC called “The Commune,” which has members, played by Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Chris Gethard, Kate Micucci, Tami Sagher, and Birbiglia himself. We meet them in their element, their weekly performance where they bring the house down with their off-the-cuff antics, before digging into the tedium of their lives. They’re all doing day jobs to pay the bills, but dedicate themselves to their craft for the sheer fun of it and, privately, in an attempt to get an audition for a very obvious take on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE called “Weekend Live.” One night, Key and Jacobs’ characters, (also lovers) impress a producer for the show enough to try out for a slot, but Jacobs’ character chickens out before she shows up while Key, confident and theatrical, books the gig. Even before the practicality of his continuing participation comes into question, it’s obvious by the jealous reactions of his fellow commune members that something’s been severed due to their boiling, barely concealable envy. Meanwhile, the venue they perform at is in the process of closing down, and these 30-ish performers are forced to take stock and figure out whether they can keep devoting their life to performing with little material reward.
From the first moment we meet them, these guys are presented as so perfect, and talented, and in love with each other that you kind of can’t wait for them to fall apart, particularly because the scenes of them performing together just aren’t that funny. Birbiglia is clearly attempting to convey the spontaneous, fleeting joy of watching real improv comedy, but in a clearly scripted setting that needs to function within the constraints of the plot/characterizations, the bits never stand a chance of popping. It makes sense that Key’s character is the one that makes it, because if you’ve ever seen Key’s work on MadTV and in movies beneath his talent, you know that he is able to spin laughs out of nothing like he’s fucking rumpelstiltskin. But as a whole, I very rarely found The Commune funny, on stage and off, which kept me from caring at all about whether they continued to drudge on doing their schtick for young Manhattan crowds (who are mostly portrayed here as starfuckers and morons). After seeing the real deal in documentary format in THANK YOU DEL: THE STORY OF THE DEL CLOSE MARATHON yesterday, these phoneys don't cut the mustard, making all the live-comedy sections of the film (including the awful SNL recreations) a slog to sit through.
Even if they're not really funny, I do kinda like the group…well, mostly. I was super turned-off by Birbiglia’s decision to cast himself as a late-30s improv svengali who goes to bed with three good-looking women (two of them in their early 20s) by the end of the film, despite his doughy frame and decrepit lifestyle. He even gives himself a romantic subplot that adds nothing to the proceedings except a reason to feature a beautiful baby in the final reel. He has no meaningful relationships with any of the guys, or any significant arc, and I believe he could've been written out of the movie entirely if the actor/director was willing to stay behind the camera on this one. But Jacobs, Micucci, Sagher, Key, and Gethard are all likable, if left a little adrift by the script. I never believed any of them were actually talented or even resilient enough to make it in the biz, but I did believe they were friends, which is something. There are little weird improv games they do that require the actors to look silly and be in sync, and that bond between performers that’s so crucial to this movie actually does come off.
But there’s a turn when you realize that these characters are all trying to get on the cheesy SNL ripoff they so frequently claim to despise, and that this is essentially another story about how comedians secretly despise and envy one another for their success, there’s no real juice left in the tank. You can see where every subplot is going a third of the way in, and there isn’t one earned emotional payoff. It’s just a bunch of 30-ish angsty artists being 30-ish angsty artists for an hour and a half, with little reason to care about any of their fates beyond the likability of the performers. There’s an attempt at a touching grand gesture at the end, and a turgid “Eight Months Later” epilogue that just pours powdered sugar on the whole thing to send you off smiling, but none of it did anything for me. And the less said about the extensive, embarrassing depiction of an SNL-type show, the better (though one movie reference to the work of one of its “hosts” made me laugh harder than anything in the picture).
I will admit that the theater seemed to enjoy the film far more than I did. They laughed at a lot of the internal bickering and performing that I found ingratiating and annoying, and seemed to be invested in the big emotional beats throughout. But, to put it crudely, this kinda shit is just too fucking soft for me. I need some tension in my films, some drama, some ugliness, some toughness, not just a bunch of sappy, cheerful people being sappy, cheerful people together. I’ve never seen Birbiglia’s work before, just because something always kept me from sitting down and watching it. Now I know why, and to stay away from here on out.
HARDCORE HENRY, dir. Ilya Naishuller.
The closest spiritual successor to CRANK since, well, CRANK 2: HIGH VOLTAGE.
If you thought CRANK and THE RAID: REDEMPTION resembled a video game, oh boy, you gotta check this shit out. This is literally 95 minutes of a first-person shooter experience, where you’re basically sitting back and watching someone have the most incredible run at an FPS that you’ve ever seen. There’s double-fisted shootouts, sniping, hand-to-hand combat, knifeplay, stealth, car chases, skydiving, and even some sex, all depicted through the eyes of the title character. It seems like such a natural, obvious gimmick for a film, but Naishuller knows exactly how to pace his action, and, most crucially, how to sustain his threadbare plot for the length of the feature.
We start, like so many FPSes, by waking up in a chamber within a strange environment. A scientist (Haley Bennett) attaches a biomechanical arm and leg to our avatar, named Henry, before explaining to him that his memories are heavily faded and that she’s actually his wife. Before she and her fellow scientists are able to give Henry a voice, a vicious, telekenetic baddie named Akan, with white hair and a silly theatricality right out of a Konami PS2 game, bursts in and starts offing everyone in sight. Henry and the young lady manage to escape, and evade Akan’s mercenaries on foot before getting separated. Soon, Henry bumps into a helpful associate named Jimmy who tells him that his biomechanical heart needs to be regularly charged with a specific type of battery to survive. So with the knowledge of what he has to do and how he has to do it, Henry starts whupping ass, stabbing, shooting, dismembering, and brutally mauling his way straight to Akan and his wife.
It broke my heart to see some people brushing this off as a “gimmick film,” but I can’t say I don’t understand why one would feel that way. Like those two films I mentioned earlier, this is more of an experience than an actual movie, and if you aren’t on board with the ride, then I’m sure it wears out its welcome long before the climax. But I'm aware enough of my tastes to comfortably admit that this movie was absolutely my cup of tea. The action is shockingly well-executed and paced, and keeps you on edge for the entire hour-and-a-half with its increasingly breathtaking and giggle-inducing carnage. Anything can happen at any moment in this world, and that provides a lot of the comic and kinetic energy that zooms through this film like 1000 volts. Naishuller sustains a perfect balance satisfying the audience with these ridiculous, absurdly gory kill sprees and making sure the challenges that keep Henry from saving his wife don’t feel too contrived or irritating. It goes from moment-to-moment, scene-to-scene in video game logic, rather than cinematic logic, making it feel more like a game than any movie I’ve ever seen, down to Akon’s campy getup and dialogue to the big, gamechanging twist.
Ever since I saw the “Bad Motherfucker” music video Naishuller did for Biting Elbows, I’ve been wondering how one would sustain that kind of energy for the runtime of a feature, seeing as the main character would be pretty much offscreen for the entire duration, which keeps you from getting too emotionally connected to the action. The director’s solution is simple, and brilliant: the comic, endlessly entertaining depiction of its sidekick/mentor character, akin to Cortana in HALO or GLaDOS in PORTAL, played by Sharlto Copley. Copley, who is starting to remind me of Guy Pearce in how impressive and varied his role choices are, provides the human center of the film as Jimmy, the dude who always seems to pop up in the right place at the right time with the right piece of advice. There’s a lot of physical work involved in the role, including the most unlikely musical number since EX MACHINA, and Copley has the time of his life going through a range of accents and costumes as the angel on Henry’s shoulder. He never feels like a video game character, and if there is an emotional center in this thing, he’s it. Added bonus, he’s damn, damn funny.
So much of the film is action and payoffs that I can’t really describe it too closely without giving stuff away. The tone sustains itself better than in stuff like SHOOT ‘EM UP, GAMER, or DOOM, all of which feature similarities to this film. It deserves to be seen with an audience, where the howls and groans and, “Oh fuck!”s can be heard in all their glory. I couldn’t help but cheer and laugh though the whole thing, and it kills me that not everyone out there was as bowled over as I was because I couldn’t have hoped for a better time at the movies tonight. I know this probably isn’t for everyone, but if that BMF video or the trailer make you think this might be up your alley, then get your ass to the theater as soon as you can and let this joyous, gleefully murderous gift of a movie pound it into chewing gum.
UNDER THE SHADOW, dir. Babak Anvari.
Iranian and Farsi-language cinema has come a significant way in the past half-decade or so. Asghar Farhadi’s A SEPARATION won the first Oscar ever for an Iranian film, films like THE STONING OF SORAYA M. and TAXI have gotten major festival and awards attention, and, most relevantly, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT showed the potential of genre trappings through the prism of Iranian culture. This film is in a similar vein, only more of a traditional horror film that uses life in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war as a haunting, powerful backdrop to some supernatural goings on.
I haven’t seen THE BABADOOK, so I can’t speak to whether the frequent comparisons between this film and that are apt, but this one’s about the mother of a young girl in 1988 Tehran. As Iraqi missile attacks occur daily throughout the city, Shideh is kicked out of medical school for her rebellion during the 1979 revolution (she isn’t deeply religious and regularly works out to Jane Fonda videos). Her husband is drafted away, which appears to be a yearly occurrence, leaving Shideh in their apartment with their young Dorsa. Soon after, the top floor of their apartment building has a missile crash through the roof, but thankfully, it’s a dud. As the denizens of the building make their way out of the city, one by one, Dorsa starts behaving oddly, growing feverish and speaking of a woman who only comes around when Shideh is gone. Things of her’s start missing, and the neighbors warn her of the presence of a Djinn, but she is steadfast in her belief that the weird occurrences are due to Dorsa’s fever. Though Shideh’s husband implores them to leave town, she refuses to leave her home out of pride, plus the fact that Dorsa is missing her beloved doll, Kimia, and won’t go anywhere without her. As she starts stripping down the apartment looking for the doll, things start to add up that start to make Dorsa’s claims sound increasingly believable and scary.
You’ve seen this movie before. Mom and Dad have daughter in depressing environment. Dad gets called away for some reason. Kid acts weird, has an imaginary friend/doll/both. Mom doesn’t believe kid’s superstitious claims. Mom blames kid for stuff some otherworldly figure is clearly doing. Third party adult lays out source of threat with some mystical tale, with Mom dismissing it as hokum. Mom starts actually seeing stuff, doesn’t believe her eyes. Mom finally believes in supernatural phenomena, others think she's crazy. Finally, Mom has to buck up and protect kid, and prove that she is worthy of being the child’s mother.
Now, you and I have both seen this formula a bunch of times. What distinguishes this film from the countless others like it is the backdrop of Iran, not a decade past its Cultural Revolution and deep in the throes of what is described as the longest sustained major conflict of the 20th century. Scarier than any of the Djinn stuff is an early scene where Shideh talks to her med school advisor as a missile quietly drops from the sky and detonates in the distance. This is is an environment where civilians are being killed left and right, and where running downstairs and hunkering down in the bomb shelter is a daily occurrence. It’s common for characters in a horror film to be isolated, and the evacuation of Tehran is a fairly perfect, powerful device for that. There’s a great beat where Shideh and Dorsa run out of the apartment, only for Shideh to be jailed for going outside without her hair covered; you didn’t see that happening when Sarah Michelle Gellar or Jennifer Love Hewitt ran away from killers with their cleavage bouncing everywhere, did ya?
Though I was initially excited as the prospect of a tense scarer set amidst this foreign, unimaginably brutal environment, the film started to lose me once it shifted gears into straight horror. There’s not a lot between Dorsa and Shideh that we haven’t seen before, and aside from a couple of solid jump scares, there’s nothing too frightening about the Djinn (or whatever it is) itself, though it has an interesting, if unintimidating look. Despite the silliness of the supernatural threat, Narges Rashidi does a great job as Shideh slowly starts believing that there’s something otherworldly going on, and the desperation she feels in protecting her home and proving her strength as a mother is never in question. Her relationships with both her husband and Dorsa are pretty believable, as is her mix of liberal ideals and Iranian traditionalism, to the point that it’s kind of a bummer it all boils down to her deciding to be a stay-at-home mom for her kid.
Maybe it was because it was a midnight movie, or maybe it was because my expectations were too high after the completely non-horror-feeling first act, but I found myself kind of bored for the latter half of this thing. I hate when I dig the world of a horror film and not the actual horror stuff itself, because that’s the harder thing to pull off; the original angle of this film is a hell of a take on the formula, and makes the film feel relevant and even somewhat subversive (showing how similar this family is to their western counterpart has got to subconsciously alleviate some of the crazier notions about Iranian citizens). But I wasn’t into it, I didn’t really care all that much if Shideh and Dorsa found her doll, and I secretly hoped that Shideh would still want to be a doctor at the end instead of deciding to devote all her time to raising her little girl.
But complaints aside, I’m digging this wide range of Iranian/Farsi films coming out. Hope it’s not over yet.
