Saturday Night Movie Recommendations with Abe

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I'm going to be providing a handy guide to a few choice movies currently playing in theatres as well as several films newly released on DVD and Netflix. I invite you to add in your thoughts on any films I haven’t seen in the comments below.

Mistress America (recommended): Lola Kirke and Greta Gerwig are both great in director Noah Baumbach’s latest film, an admittedly exaggerated yet still entertaining look at the excitement of life and New York City through one ingénue’s eyes. Now playing at AMC Empire and Landmark Sunshine. Read my review from last week.

People, Places, Things (highly recommended): Jemaine Clement of “Flight of the Conchords” is a wonderful lead in this terrific comedy featuring a comic book artist father of two trying to get his life on track. The whole cast is great, and this film is a lot of fun. Now playing at IFC Center. Read my review from Sundance.

New to DVD

The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (recommended): This film has a lengthy title and quite the story packed inside of it, an energizing and odd fantastic tale of a long life lived with much excitement and many experiences. Overall, it’s odd, but still worth a watch.

La Sapienza (recommended): I enjoyed this intellectual film about art and those who appreciate it when I saw it at the New York Film Festival last fall. Its use of multiple languages and entertaining characters is enjoyable, and overall it’s a great ride. Also streaming on Netflix.

Now on Netflix Instant Streaming

Human Capital (highly recommended): This enjoyable Italian film, which I saw at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, is a clever combination of a number of chapters tying together the same story of sex, scandal, and murder with terrific performances all around. It’s vividly interesting and engaging, and an underappreciated cinematic experience.

The Hurt Locker (highly recommended): This 2009 Best Picture winner from director Kathryn Bigelow is a strong and stirring modern-day war film that delves deep into the psyche of what it’s like to be at war and the implications of it, with great performances all around with Jeremy Renner in the starring role.

Kill Me Three Times (recommended): Entertainment is paramount in this Australian comedy-thriller with enjoyable performances from Simon Pegg, Teresa Palmer, Alice Braga, Luke Hemsworth, and a handful of others.

The Look of Love (highly recommended): This biopic, one of the best films I saw at Sundance 2013, enjoyed an incredibly brief and unmemorable run at just three U.S. theatres in July 2013, and hopefully more people will watch it now. Steve Coogan is superb as Paul Raymond, the British Hugh Hefner, in this lively and engaging rollercoaster ride.

Next (anti-recommended): I gave this sci-fi thriller an F-, and all memories I have of it are truly terrible. This is an example of why Nicolas Cage’s reputation has gone fully downhill, a film in which he just doesn’t even try, with a plot that should be interesting but gets made to be incredibly dumb and, worse than that, thoroughly unsatisfying.

The Riot Club (recommended): Lone Scherfig, who made “An Education” and “One Day,” has created another eventful British drama filled with comedy and drama, this one an unevenly engaging story of a premiere dining club known for its bad behavior.

Two Days, One Night (recommended): Marion Cotillard earned an unexpected Oscar nomination for her intense performance as a woman fighting to keep her job in this unassuming and realistic film that lets its events speak for themselves rather than overdramatizing them.

The Way (mixed bag): This walking road movie starring Martin Sheen and written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez is decently entertaining but otherwise relatively aimless and in no hurry to get anywhere.

Movie with Abe: Mistress America

Mistress America
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Released August 14, 2015

Director Noah Baumbach and actress Greta Gerwig have collaborated on two films over the past few years, with Baumbach directing, Gerwig starring, and both penning the original screenplay. “Greenberg” starred Ben Stiller and cast Gerwig as his love interest, and then Gerwig took center stage in “Frances Ha” as a free spirit living in New York. Now they’ve found a definitive rhythm, with Gerwig giving herself full reign to dramatically utter her lines as an impossibly deluded budding entrepreneur living in her own world who takes her stepsister-to-be for a wild ride as they begin to develop a relationship.

Lola Kirke, who stars on Netflix’s “Mozart in the Jungle,” is Tracy, the central figure of the “Mistress America” at its start, a friendly college freshman whose initial experience is far from what she dreamed it would be. Frustrated and lonely, she calls Brooke (Gerwig), whose father her mother plans to marry, and gets to experience the crazy life of the fast-talking young woman who seeks to open a restaurant. Brooke is prone to delivering lengthy speeches that indicate how out of touch with reality she is and how little that bothers her or disrupts any of her plans. Tracy uses Brooke as the main character in her submission for her college’s literary magazine, feeding off of her eccentric energy and living vicariously through her.

The dialogue is “Mistress America” is the film’s most prominent asset, an instant confirmation that this is indeed a Baumbach work. His second film, the Oscar-nominated “The Squid and the Whale,” firmly identified the kind of writing that Baumbach does, and with Gerwig, here they craft characters who are always at the ready to expound on a topic that most people know little about and speak with confident authority even if everything they are saying has no bearing or backing to it. Such people don’t likely exist in the real world, but this constructed universe in which everyone is a budding intellectual just waiting to be called on to preach a specific sort of elitism does have its own lukewarm appeal.

There is no doubt that Kirke, who is spunky and likeable but just reserved enough, is the right person to play Tracy, and Gerwig was born to play Brooke, a role she said she didn’t write for herself but ended up being convinced by Baumbach to take. Certain members of the supporting cast, particularly Michael Chernus and Heather Lind as friends from Brooke’s past, are equally adept at delivering the lines written for them and portraying these inflated personalities. As a perfectly literal story, “Mistress America” might have been terrific. As it presents in a less realistic and digestible manner, it is furtively entertaining and engaging but equally frustrating and over-the-top at times.

B

Saturday Night Movie Recommendations with Abe

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I'm going to be providing a handy guide to a few choice movies currently playing in theatres as well as several films newly released on DVD and Netflix. I invite you to add in your thoughts on any films I haven’t seen in the comments below.

Due to a busy summer where TV with Abe has gotten far more of my attention, this week is devoted just to new DVD releases from mid-June to now, of which there are plenty!

New to DVD

Tangerines (must-see): The last of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Film to be released is also one of the best of that slate. Estonia’s first nominated film is a powerful and worthwhile account of a tangerine farmer who saves two men on different sides of a war, with strong performances, an engaging story, and a stirring score.

Wild Tales (must-see): I loved this Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee from Argentina so much when I saw it at Sundance. Its clever format is matched by impossibly entertaining stories that transition effortlessly between drama and comedy. The only true recommendation is to see it with an audience so that you can share in the experience.

Clouds of Sils Maria (highly recommended): Juliette Binoche stars in this complicated, fascinating tale of stardom and an esteemed actress returning to her first project in a markedly different role. Binoche, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Kristen Stewart in particular are terrific as personalities in celebrity culture.

Deli Man (highly recommended): Who wouldn’t salivate at the idea of a documentary about the history of Jewish deli in America? Its primary subject, the owner of a deli in Houston, is extremely entertaining, and the mix of anecdotes, cultural quirks, and celebrity interviews with plenty of food thrown in is a true delight.

Human Capital (highly recommended): This enjoyable Italian film, which I saw at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, is a clever combination of a number of chapters tying together the same story of sex, scandal, and murder with terrific performances all around. It’s vividly interesting and engaging, and an underappreciated cinematic experience.

The Salt of the Earth (highly recommended): This documentary, which was nominated for an Oscar this past year, is easily the best of its category, a captivating account of the life of one photographer and his many long-term projects that chronicle much of the world over the past few decades.

’71 (highly recommended): I can’t remember the time I saw something as intense as my final film screened at Sundance this year, which is a feverish account of one tempestuous, fateful night in Ireland for a British soldier separated from anything familiar or safe. Jack O’Connell, who is a true breakout, delivers yet another strong performance in this nonstop thriller.

Zero Motivation (highly recommended): This Israeli film, which earned a handful of Ophir nominations, is an entertaining and enticing comedy about life in the Israeli army, with a special focus on a woman’s unit. Nelly Tagar and Dana Ivgy are particularly great.

52 Tuesdays (recommended): This Australian indie, which played at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, checks in with a 16-year-old girl and her mother, who is undergoing a sex change, every Tuesday for a year. It’s an energizing and powerful journey anchored by strong performances.

Kill Me Three Times (recommended): Entertainment is paramount in this Australian comedy-thriller with enjoyable performances from Simon Pegg, Teresa Palmer, Alice Braga, Luke Hemsworth, and a handful of others.

Red Knot (recommended): Vincent Kartheiser and Olivia Thirlby star as a married couple drifting apart on a boat to Antarctica, as Kartheiser’s author eats up the opportunity to visit his favorite subject and Thirlby’s wife finds herself considerably neglected. It’s captivating at times and anchored by a terrific Thirlby.

Slow West (recommended): Kodi Smit-McPhee and Michael Fassbender star in this slow-moving but decent Western from the United Kingdom and New Zealand that should please fans of the genre as well as those who like the actors.

Woman in Gold (recommended): This story of a Holocaust survivor who took on the Austrian government to reclaim a family painting illegally taken by the Nazis and then inherited by a national museum is an endearing tale of triumph and perseverance, with Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds at the helm and Tatiana Maslany providing strong support as the younger version of the protagonist.

Maggie (mixed bag): Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a devoted father intent on saving his daughter from certain transformation into a zombie in this independent drama. It’s a decent attempt at trying to turn this subject matter into strong storytelling, but ultimately it doesn’t manage to succeed in that regard.

Timbuktu (mixed bag): Mauritania’s first-ever Oscar submission for Best Foreign Film made the cut and earned itself a nomination, and most have reviewed this film with the utmost fervor and praise. It didn’t wow me, presenting what could have been a few interesting stories in a fashion that didn’t do them justice. It’s a fine start for a film industry but nowhere close to one of the best foreign films of the year.

True Story (mixed bag): James Franco stars as a man on trial for murdering his family and Jonah Hill plays the journalist he wants to tell his story to. It’s a decent premise, based on a true story, but nothing about the film makes it come alive or feel necessary.

The Gunman (anti-recommended): This film may feel a lot like “Taken,” and while the two share a director, this mindless action blockbuster doesn’t have nearly the brains of that already questionable prototype. Sean Penn is at his least enthusiastic in this truly absurd flick.

Movie with Abe: Call Me Lucky

Call Me Lucky
Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
Released August 7, 2015

Comedians make for great film subjects because they inherently have led interesting lives that help make up the meat of their material. It’s not always a joke, of course, particularly when a comedian’s life is cut short by an untimely death or suicide, and though Barry Crimmins is still alive, he definitely has a very serious story that shaped him into the comedian he was back into the 1990s. He still has plenty to offer, and this thorough and analytical documentary is an electrically engaging portrait of his life.

Barry Crimmins is best described as an angry comedian. Fellow stand-up performers describe his acts as often yelling at people because of their views and expressing his frustrations with government, religion, and other institutions through this forum by venting and brutally taking down those with whom he doesn’t agree. Patton Oswalt, Lenny Clarke, and others describe the impact he has had on comedy, and the way in which he has served as a model for them of how to push the limits and shed light on important issues.

Crimmins goes far beyond poking fun at a given subject or joking about the destruction of the Catholic Church as one of his goals. This documentary abruptly shifts about halfway through its runtime as he reveals that he was sexually abused by a babysitter’s friend at a very young age, and from there it takes on an entirely new form. The story of how Crimmins went into AOL chatrooms in the 1990s when the Internet was still new and got users to send him samples of child pornography to trade and sell is inherently fascinating, especially as it catapults Crimmins into a major federal investigation with senators involved and AOL in his crosshairs as a willing provider of child pornography, a sincere step taken by a comedian who clearly isn’t content to leave his jokes as just that.

This film says a lot about how comedy and reality can exist in the same world, and Crimmins is certainly a poignant example of a comedian already on the edge who went all the way to make sure that his voice was heard and that he wasn’t just making people laugh. He is a magnetic central figure and fantastic film subject, and even though he’s not doing much at the moment, it’s clear that he is an extremely notable and memorable personality who, thanks in no small part to this film, will surely not be soon forgotten.

B+

Saturday Night Recommendations with Abe

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I'm going to be providing a handy guide to a few choice movies currently playing in theatres as well as several films newly released on DVD and Netflix. I invite you to add in your thoughts on any films I haven’t seen in the comments below.

Due to a busy summer where TV with Abe has gotten far more of my attention, I’ll be taking the next three weeks to look individually at movies in theatres over the past six weeks, then those on DVD, then those on Netflix, as the best way to catch up and savor summer!

Now Playing in Theatres

Best of Enemies (highly recommended): This extremely engaging documentary chronicles the rivalry between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr., intellectual pundits from complete opposite ends of the spectrum, who, after both have died, have their relationship analyzed for all to see, an effective and informative look at what happened when opposing opinions were presented in the same space rather than on different networks. Now playing at IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza. Read my review from Sundance.

The End of the Tour (recommended): This recreation of the time shared by an eager journalist and one of the most prolific authors in recent history who died far too soon is an interesting and immensely watchable portrait of two people with sharp, memorable dialogue. Jason Segel does a great take on David Foster Wallace in this appealing if unresounding film. Now playing at AMC Lincoln Square and Angelika. Read my review from yesterday.

Infinitely Polar Bear (recommended): I’ve never liked Mark Ruffalo more than in this endearing comedic drama, which I saw at Sundance 2014, of a bipolar father struggling to get a handle on raising his two young daughters alone while his wife attends school in another state. It’s a sweet, likeable story with just enough magic and some great performances. Now playing at Lincoln Plaza and Cinema Village. Read my review from Sundance.

Inside Out (highly recommended): I finally saw this animated comedy and I’m pleased to say that I very much enjoyed it. Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith are just two of the many great voice actors to help animate this lovely story about the emotions at work within the brain of a young girl struggling to adapt to a difficult move. It’s charming and immensely likeable, and gets bonus points for being preceded by a terrific short, “Lava.” Now playing in wide release. My review will be up shortly.

The Overnight (highly recommended): This irreverent comedy was one of the funniest films I saw at Sundance this past year, thanks in large part to superb performances all around from Taylor Schilling, Adam Scott, Jason Schwartzman, and French actress Judith Godrèche as two couples brought together by their young children for an unforgettable wild night. Now playing at Village East Cinema. Read my review from Sundance.

Two Step (anti-recommended): This dark thriller brings together a young man who recently came into a large sum of money and a criminal more than ready to kill to get his hands on it. The premise might be interesting, but the film opts for a grim, unengaging style which might be presented as slow burn suspense but hardly comes off as positive or productive. Now playing at Village East Cinema. Read my review from Thursday.