Celeste and Jesse Forever

        ‘Celeste and Jesse Forever’ is a small film that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It deals with modern marriage in probably the most mature way that I have seen in recent memory.  It’s a contradiction as the characters are humorous, yet the film has a bittersweet sadness to it.  Celeste (Rachida Jones [daughter of Quincy Jones, but an up and coming artist in her own right]) and Jesse (an uncharacteristic dramatic role for Andy Samberg) are two high school sweethearts who have known each other their whole lives.  They married young and have grown apart.  Celeste wants a baby and doesn’t think Jesse is grown up enough to be a father. Now at the age of 30 they decide divorce is the best way to go, yet they are determined to keep their friendship.  It’s not as easy as they thought it would be as they are so ingrained in their lifestyle that nothing really changes with their separation.  

Each encourages the other to go out and find someone else, but nothing compares with the fun they have together.  Each is frustrated with the other, but at the same time you can sense their affection.  Celeste is having moderate success in her career, but is frustrated by Jesse’s slacker ways.  She wants someone whom she considers will grow with her.   Jesse doesn’t really want to move on, but knows he isn’t making Celeste happy.  For 6 months, he has been living in the studio garage behind the house and the dynamic with each other never changes.  They give each other a peck every night before they go their separate ways and say ‘I love you’ as if the separation never happened.

Celeste goes out on numerous dates at the encouragement of her gay best friend Scott (a subtle yet hilarious performance by Elijah Wood).  Each date is more disastrous than the last and at the end of each she returns to Jesse for support.  It’s a nice arrangement for Celeste and interesting to see how the man that causes her so much frustration is the man she finds the most comforting.

  Celeste likes this as she feels in control, but Jesse surprises her that he has met someone new.  Celeste has confused feelings as she always thought she would be the one to move on first.  She’s not sure whether it’s her ego, or jealously, or just insecurity about the one constant in her life seeming to slip away.  Jesse is confused as well as he still loves Celeste, but cannot deny his new feelings for a Belgian woman named Shira (interestingly enough Shira Lazar playing herself).  In a typical romantic comedy, Shira would be the villain and all sorts of caddy situations would follow that would reveal how evil Shira would be and the original two love birds would realize they were meant for each other.  Not the case here.  Shira is beautiful, sweet, elegant, and impossible to hate.  

Rashida Jones is known for her comedic acting (The Office, Parks and Recreation), but as she knows she is losing Jesse, the wide array of emotions she is able to portray with just facial expressions is amazing to watch.  She has a talent that I would compare to Steve Carrell where she can portray humor and pain simultaneously with her expressions.  I’m glad to see her making a name for herself on her own merits.  In fact, she co-wrote this film, so she is not just some vacant actor.  She has ability and depth.  I can’t wait to see what else she can do.  Andy Samberg also shows he is more than just a sketch comic on Saturday Night Live.  While I wasn’t as impressed with his performance as I was with Rashida’s, it was definitely respectable and it shows he will have options going forward in his movie career.

I’ve read a lot of reviews that compares this to ‘When Harry Met Sally’ as they both question whether men and woman can truly be friends.  I didn’t find this to be true, as ‘When Harry Met Sally’ struck me as a fairy tale of what women wanted to happen (a friendship turning into a romance).  This film struck me as closer to the reality with no neat and happy bowtie at the end of the story.  It was a mature and interesting examination of the complexities of relationships.  It was a small film, but that made me enjoy it all the more.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3405489433/

I give this film *** 1/2 stars

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 2 reunites Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, and all the aging action stars of bygone decades and provides everything you would expect and less.  It is a generic paint-by-the-number plot, featuring wooden characters taking on a one dimensional bad guy who is attempting commit the standard global crisis crime.  Throw in a generic female eye candy martial artist for no good reason and you have the most typical action movie ever made. The only thing that keeps this film from being completely embarrassing is the fun at seeing all these aged action stars assembled in one place and the heavy doses of self deprecating humor and nods to the audience of their past glories.

        This time around they seem to have gathered more of the relics from the 80's and 90's.  Most notably being Jean Claude Van Damm and Chuck Norris.  In fact, the only one I thought was missing was Steven Segal.  Sylvester Stallone returns as world weary mercenary Barney Ross (did anyone even remember his name from the first movie?).  The mysterious government agent Mr Church (Bruce Willis) calls in a debt and demands that Ross and his team help recover something or other to prevent nuclear annihilation.   For some reason, Church demands that a woman named Maggie (played by an ordinary Nan Yu) accompany them as, apparently, she is the only one who is qualified to break into a safe.  The young blood of the group named Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) meets an untimely death by the hands of the generically villainous Vilain (yes, Jean Claude Van Damm plays a villain named Vilain).  This sets up the film to be, as all great action flick plots are, Personal.

The body counts are massive as the team massacres soldiers with seeming impunity.  None of the good guys ever get a scratch even though countless  minions continuously fire automatic weapons at them.  Stallone and team never seem to miss though. In these types of movies, that’s how you tell who the good guys are:  They never miss where as the bad guys can’t hit the side of a building if they are standing next to it.  Each scene is an excuse for mass carnage that somehow gets them closer to Vilain.  However, their real goal is revenge and saving the world is just a nice addition.

The plot throws in saving some villagers to make it seem more noble, but these guys still kill rather indiscriminately to accomplish their goal.  Chuck Norris makes a glorious entrance where the cheesiness of his entrance makes it all the more glorious.  They make not so subtle references to his Lone Wolf McQuade character (my favorite Chuck Norris movie btw) and Chuck once again proves he can’t act.  It’s hard to believe he’s 71 in real life and still kicking major bad guy butt in film.  His massive (yet groomed) beard hiding the effects of time.  Although all of them are showing their age, I thought Schwarzenegger is looking the worse for wear.  A Governorship and marital scandal can do that to a man.

The film culminates with all of the characters coming together in one big shoot-out (amazing as the whole movie was one big shoot-out).  The one liners and sly quips coming out as rapid as the gun fire.  Of course it all culminates in the Stallone-Van Damm show down.  I’ll let you guess who wins.

This is an awful awful film that was absolutely fun to watch, just by the nature of the concept.  No apologies made and no pretensions that it was anything other than what it was.  A celebration of past glories all assembled together in one place.

I rate this film ** stars (I’m being generous too)

Moonrise Kingdom

       Wes Anderson is one of those directors whom I respect but I can’t say that I love.  He gives us a unique experience and fully utilizes film as an art form as opposed to a vehicle for mass consumption.  ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ is no different.  While I’m not sure if I liked it or not, I do respect it’s uniqueness.  I applaud Wes Anderson to keeping true to a vision that almost assuredly will not achieve large box office success.

‘Moonrise Kingdom’ is almost a children’s film, but not quite. It follows the story of two twelve year olds who fall in love and flee their respective situations to be together.  It is set on an island in New England in the summer of 1965.  Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) flee into the wilderness and the local town authorities mass an effort to go find them.  The supporting cast is an All-star line up with Bruce Willis as Captain Sharp, the island’s constable, Ed Norton as Scout Master Ward, Bill Murray and Francis McDormand as Walt and Laura Bishop Bishop (Suzy’s parents).  Tilda Swinton shows up in a role simply called ‘Social Services’.

Sam and Suzy live in a dream like world of dissatisfaction in their respective existences.  Each a loner in their own ways, but when they meet they recognize a kindred spirit in each other.  Being only children, they cannot just leave, so Sam plots a year long plan to meet up with Suzy when his Boy Scout troop is camping on the island where Suzy’s family lives.  They meet and head off into the wilderness  (I’m not saying it was a well thought out plan).  Sam believes his Boy Scout wilderness skills can allow them to live together.

How the towns people react to the disappearance is almost as entertaining as Sam and Suzy’s journey.  Wes Anderson has a fascination with the 60’s era and small affluent towns in general.  The complex relationships of the towns folk is in stark contrast to the purity of the first love of Sam of Suzy.  It’s easy to look down upon them as puppy love, but their own lives hardly represent the ideal of what love should be. As I stated earlier, there is an abstract etherealism that permeates the film and an uncomfortable intensity to the love between Sam and Suzy that would make it uncomfortable to be seen only as a children’s film.  The situations between the adults are of mature complexity.  Despite all of that, there is a lightness and humor that one would expect to find in a children’s film.

Bruce Willis and Ed Norton are in top form.  Both Captain Sharp and Scout Master Ward are comical, but they are not cartoonish as there is a sadness and isolation they both possess that keeps their characters from being totally buffoonish. Out of all the former Saturday Night Live actors, I feel Bill Murray is the only one who has grown beyond his clown role and has been able to express himself as an artist.  He is a Wes Anderson favorite (Rushmore, The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou).  I wouldn’t say his role is major, but it does provide profound insights into small town dynamics as he struggles with being the cuckolded husband.   Tilda Swinton's role as Social Services has an eerie futuristic Big Brother quality to it.  It is well done.

Again, the film borders on abstraction, but at heart it is a simple tale of first love and of society that is determined to prevent it from happening.  I walked out not sure how I felt about it (like all Wes Anderson films), but I admire the uniqueness of the vision.  I will always salute that.

I give this film *** (not from enjoyment, but from being well crafted)