Hey, everyone. Two quick notes before I move into what is a pretty busy week filled with tasty offerings. First, three of the seven films I review in this week's column deal with unexpected pregnancies in vastly different ways. Weird coincidence, that's the only reason I mention it. Second, I finally did see the Irish musical wonderment known as Once. It's playing at the Landmark Century Center Cinema, and you should go see it immediately. It's one of my favorite films of the year so far. Moving on…
Knocked Up
If you pay attention to movies at all or, in particular, the works of writer-director-producer Judd Apatow, then odds are that you've been reading about Knocked Up for months. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd seen the film already since there were about 20 screenings of it in Chicago alone. Hell, I saw a rough cut of it last December in Austin during Butt-Numb-a-Thon 8 and another one about a month ago, and I loved it more the second time. For those of you claiming that The 40-Year-Old Virgin (made by and starring pretty much everyone in Knocked Up) is one of your favorite movies in years, prepare to see an even longer, even funnier work by the current kings of comedy: Apatow and writer-star Seth Rogen. (And while you're at it, get ready for the August release of Super Bad, co-written and starring Rogen, and produced by Apatow; I'm hearing the film is just as good.) Thematically at least, Knocked Up picks up where Virgin left off. With the earlier work, simply getting into a relationship was the tricky part. Rogen's perpetual slacker Ben Stone doesn't have trouble meeting women necessarily. In fact, he has a pretty great night one night out at a club with his roomies/business partners when he meets Katherine Heigl's Alison, who is out celebrating her recent job promotion at the E! cable channel with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann). She and Ben get very drunk, laugh, dance, and land up back at her place (she lives with Debbie's family, which includes the great actor on the face of the earth Paul Rudd as husband Pete). They have unprotected sex and Alison becomes the film's titular character. Knocked Up never misses an opportunity to make us laugh at some very real situations. In many cases, it puts a much needed fresh spin on some disgustingly dated movie cliches about couples having babies. (Note to all filmmakers: a woman crying out for drugs during a birthing scene stopped being funny 30 years ago, and will probably never be funnier than it is in this film, so don't even shoot that scene any more.) Still, it was the somewhat familiar material that I found the most charming. Ben and Alison shopping for baby clothes and accessories is one of my favorite scenes. And as much as the pure comedic elements score on nearly every level, Knocked Up dares to have a heart as big as the film is long (about 2 hours, 15 minutes by my count). This is not a couple destined to be together. When Ben announces to Alison just before sex "You're prettier than I am," he's not kidding. He's broke as he and his friends attempt to launch a website devoted to cinematic nudity, while she is a highly successful woman who has just made the leap from producer to on-air correspondent for E!, which makes for some great celebrity cameos, by the way. But the very thought of a couple trying to make their tentative bond work is commendable and heart warming. Seth Rogen becomes crush worthy thanks to his performance here. What's almost more extraordinary is the way the relationship between Pete and Debbie is handled. They got married because of their own unexpected pregnancy, and they, at times, seem to despise each other. Usually it's funny; other times, it hurts to watch. Pete and Ben bond, and needless to say, the scenes are priceless. Come on, these are the "You know how I know your gay?" guys; of course, they're going to be funny together. There's a dinner sequence, in which the two couples go out to get to know Ben a little better, and it's golden. Time travel and gay behavior from this point forward will be inseparable in my mind. And the boys' getaway trip to Vegas (mushrooms and Cirque de Soleil; that's all I'm saying) is phenomenal. Still, it's capped with a sequence in which Pete pours his heart out to Ben about not feeling worthy of love. It's a scene only a quality actor could pull off and not have it seem forced and sappy. Knocked Up is peppered with one of the finest supporting casts in any film right now. "Freak and Geeks" fans will recognize a few of Ben's roommates. Virgin scene stealer Jonah Hill (who is the star of Super Bad) just gets better each time I see him on screen. Harold Ramis pops up as Ben's dad to offer up some crappy advice. In a pair of hysterical scenes, Alan Tudyk and "SNL's" Kristen Wiig play E! executives Jack and Jill (no joke), who surprise Alison at every turn. And the fun goes on and on. I don't make declarations like this often, but if you don't have the time of your life watching this movies, there's something horribly wrong with you. Other than Super Bad, I can't even imagine another comedy being a satisfying as Knocked Up. I want this team to make a new movie every month to feed my hunger for this type of material. My love for this film knows no bounds. I implore you to drop what you're doing. Forget all the overly populated, special effect-driven junk out there, and devote your time and money to a movie with a pulse, driven by an unstoppable heart. Knocked Up is one of the best of the summer and the year.
Mr. Brooks
Okay, hang in with me here for just a second. I know a lot of you can probably find multiple reasons (or maybe just one big one) not to go see a movie that stars Kevin Costner as a serial killer and Dane Cook as a guy who blackmail's Costner into letting him tag along for his next kill. Dread does not even begin to describe my gut instinct going into this film. But as long as you go into the film realizing it's a comedy, I think you'll have fun with it. No, I don't mean this is one of the "so-bad-it's-good" pieces of crap. It's actually a well-made work. It also never misses an opportunity to be hilarious while almost never cracking a smile. The saving grace of the film is one Mr. William Hurt, who plays Marshall, a sort of alter ego of Costner's Brooks character. He always hangs back over the shoulder of our anti-hero coaxing him to kill again, and the man is a scream. He taunts and teases Brooks whenever he thinks he's being wimpy or careless with the meticulous planning of his kills. And let me say it again, the guy will have you in stitches, as will the outrageous plot, the obsessional nature of nearly every character, and even the relationship Brooks has with his wife and college-age daughter. Oh, how we laughed. I may sound like I'm making fun of Mr. Brooks, the latest in a while from director, co-screenwriter Bruce A Evans (who directed the forgettable 1992 Christian Slater vehicle Kuffs, and co-wrote/adapted more memorable fare such as Stand By Me, Starman, and Cutthroat Island), but in fact, I actually enjoyed the hell out of this piece. And while Hurt may have been the only one who truly understood just how funny this material was during shooting, that doesn't mean it's not a blast to watch. Costner's Brooks is a successful businessman, with a loving family Marg Helgenberger as his wife and Danielle Panabaker (currently playing James Woods' daughter on "Shark") as daughter Jane. But one night after winning a some sort of self-congratulatory award from the business community, he is visited by Marshall, whom he hasn't been plagued by in about a year, after he swore off a killing spree that was deemed the work of the "Thumbprint Killer" by the police. Brooks specializes in random crimes against people he has no connection with and stalking them for weeks before carrying out the home invasion/murder. On his return engagement, he kills a couple in the throws of a zesty sexual session and who like to leave the blinds open while they're doing it. Brooks notices this too late and quickly shuts them before posing the bodies as he's prone to do. The next day, a man who calls himself Mr. Smith (Cook) presents himself to Brooks in his office as a amateur photographer and full-time peeping Tom who happened to snap a few shot of Brooks closing the blinds. Rather than ask for money, he asks to be taken along for the next kill, perhaps even to carry out the deed himself when the time comes. With the guidance of Marshall, Brooks agrees to the scheme, and the fun begins. Meanwhile, emotionally troubled Police Detective Atwood (Demi Moore) picks up the trail of the Thumbprint Killer, wondering if perhaps the broken blinds are a clue that the killer shut them in a hurry and someone in the apartment building across the street may have spotted him. Atwood is going through a terrible divorce, and her superiors are questioning her commitment to the case at hand. Nearly every character in Mr. Brooks is hiding something about their past or present life. Some of these secrets are predictable, while others are so outrageous as to be--you guessed it--funny as hell. Still, the way Brooks handles the situation with Smith is pretty damn clever as the two drive around town seeking out anonymous victims as Smith grills Brooks about his previous kills to mentally prepare himself for the task at hand. Brooks is also forced to deal with a situation at home involving his daughter, who has dropped out of school because of an unplanned pregnancy. Suddenly the prospect of getting caught and not being around to take care of his daughter and grandchild makes the situation with Smith all the more troubling. The film seems to be on the brink of spinning out of control nearly all the time, but it turns out director Evans is able to control this chaos just enough to let veterans Costner and Hurt do their thing. Does Costner make a credible serial killer? No really, but that's sort of the point. Brooks knows his decidedly average persona almost ensures that he'd never be considered a suspect in any murder. In a movie that seems to thrive on humor, Cook is the least funny one in the room (the same could probably be said for his sold-out concerts too, but that's just my opinion). Smith is a hyper little rodent of a man who doesn't think before he acts and never considers three moves ahead in his game with Brooks. Even going in with the thought that Mr. Brooks is a comedy may not be enough to convince you that the film is worth seeing or that it's any good, and that's fine. This isn't crucial viewing by any stretch. But there's nothing quite like it in theaters now, and I think at worst, you'll see it as an ambitious experiment gone horribly wrong. On the other hand, I thought it was a stoke of unintentional genius. The traditional serial killer movie is dead, I believe, which is why we're getting unconventional takes on the subject like Zodiac and this film. Looking at the topic in new and creative ways might be the only way to keep serial killers alive, and that's a good thing.
Gracie
This is one of those rare movies that actually benefits from being a little uncertain what type of film it is. It's being promoted as a sports drama. A 15-year-old girl (played by the exceptional Carly Schroeder of Mean Creek) wants to honor the memory of her recently dead brother by taking his place on the boys soccer team. This may not seem like a big deal, but Gracie is set in the 1970s, when females in general, and female athletes in particular, were marginalized beyond belief. As an unconventional sports film, Gracie works fine. But where it shines is as a coming-of-age story about a girl who hurts so much from this loss that she rebels against her father (Dermot Mulroney) and gets involved in some pretty reckless behavior that goes way beyond staying out past curfew. What makes Gracie all the more interesting is that many of the events depicted are actually based on real events that happened to the family of actress Elizabeth Shue and her brother Andrew, both of whom appear in the film in smaller parts. The film's director, Davis Guggenheim (who won an Oscar earlier this year for directing An Inconvenient Truth), happens to be married to Elizabeth, so the project is something of a family affair. But it also speaks to the expectations of a generation of young women who were never expected to do anything past high school besides get married and be housewives like their mothers before them. Elizabeth Shue plays the family's subdued matriarch. As depressing as it might sound, Gracie works best when it focus on the insurmountable grief that the family shares and almost never gets through. Young Carly Schroeder buries her pain deep inside, letting it out on occasionally in explosive bursts of anger and troubled behavior. Her performance as Gracie is measured and expertly executed, and I expect to see a lot of great things from her in the future. Mulroney adds his usual dose of earthy charm to the production (in much the same way he does in Georgia Rule) as a father who hasn't got a clue how to raise a daughter (that's his wife's job, right?) or how to function without his sports hero son. The reason you can tell Gracie isn't an average sports film is by the way it handles to story's final game. I won't say how it ends, but it doesn't feel necessary to have the team win or to have Gracie score a winning goal or something obvious like that. This movie plays fair with its audience and doesn't handle its moving story with ham hands and ladles filled with sentimentality. In the end Gracie's mission to play on the team snaps her family out of their emotional coma, but that's not the end of the story. Again, the film doesn't dish out what is expected or anticipating. This is a gentle film about difficult times, featuring one of the finest performances in years by a young actor in a truly challenging role. I liked this one a lot. -Capone capone@aintitcoolmail.com
