Stan & Ollie

         Laurel and Hardy was one of the original world famous comedy teams that arose to global prominence through the advent of the fledgling motion picture industry of the time.  At their peak (circa 1939), they were the preeminent comedy duo in the world.  I remember as a child, pre-Netflix, pre-DVD, heck, pre-VHS and cable, we would check out 35mm films from the library and watch Laurel and Hardy movies on neighborhood movie night.  They were my first introduction to comedy.  In danger of becoming forgotten through the passage of time, ‘Stan & Ollie’ tells the story of the final comedy tour of the duo in the twilight of their careers.  Steve Coogin and John C Reilly give Oscar worthy performances (even though they weren’t nominated) channeling Stan and Ollie right down to the minutest mannerisms.  Unfortunately, Director Jon Baird fails to deliver an engaging biopic that should celebrate this legendary team, rather he dwells upon the sadness of their fading celebrity.

For anyone familiar with Laurel and Hardy films, the opening sequence is a pleasant voyage of nostalgia, but after 5 minutes (and with no explanation) we are transported 16 years into their future as they embark on a British theatre tour in preparation for a movie that they are staking on reviving their careers.  I can’t emphasize enough the total suspension of disbelief as I actually believed the two actors were Laurel and Hardy.  Many times, especially when famous people play historical roles, we are always aware it is an actor playing a role. Coogin and Riley have the mannerisms and even look down so exactly that I would be hard pressed to tell the difference. I  couldn’t even tell that Riley was in a fat suit with prosthetics.  There should have been an Oscar nomination for at least make-up and special effects if nothing else.

As the tour commences, we realize that something has happened that has strained their friendship and they try to put the past behind them in order to restart their career.  It was interesting to see them interact having never seen them outside their vaudevillian interplay on screen.  On screen, Ollie usually plays the brains opposite Stanley’s almost simpleton persona.  In reality, Stan was the more business savvy of the two where Ollie was the reckless bon vivant.   A life of excess had caught up to Ollie and he struggled with a variety of health ailments that put his ability to do the tour in jeopardy. We feel Stanley’s desperation to make the tour work despite sub-par venues, shady promoters, and an increasingly fading outlook of the film project he was counting on. 

Everywhere they go, there is great love and affection for the two, but it is past glory.  It is not strong enough to fill theaters of even low level auditoriums.  They were expecting first class accommodations, but the reality of the fading stardom quickly sets in as they see the quality of their accommodations and even the inability to meet with producers.  Young up and comers like Abbot and Costello have taken their limelight.  As the pressure of looming failure emerges, so do their buried resentments.  Each had gone on with their lives after their split years prior, but they had never truly come to grips with the hurt both felt.  They tried to convince themselves they were merely studio actors paired together for films, but the reality is that they felt brotherhood for each other and the split was real and emotional.  The arrival of their devoted wives who were equally divided only exacerbates the situation.

The final confrontation between the two is heartfelt and dramatic and a highlight of the film.  It is both emotionally rending and cathartic.  Ultimately, the one scene is not enough to save the otherwise dour film.  So much more could have been explored and revealed about Laurel and Hardy.  To just dwell on the end without any context robs the uninitiated viewer of what they truly were.  They were pioneers at the dawn of global celebrity.  While we look back and wonder what the big deal was, for the time it was something the world hadn’t seen on a wide level.  They were the foundation for almost all comedy that followed.  The inspiration for countless aspiring performers.  That is what the film should have been about.  It should have been a celebration and not a tragedy.  I so wanted to love this film, but at least I loved the performances.  The fact that Coogin and Reilly weren’t even nominated for Oscars for these performances shows the state of the present day Academy.  If you have any nostalgia for these two, then I recommend seeing this film for a trip down memory lane. If you don’t have that, or don’t really know anything about Laurel and Hardy, then I’m not sure this is the best introduction to them.

I give this film ** stars out of 5.

Stan & Ollie trailer

Glass

              M Knight Shyamalan is a director for whom I have an unjustifiable adoration.  He has not had any significant commercial or critical successes since ‘The Sixth Sense’ and his career has almost been ended by a series of mainstream debacles where he even caused a Will Smith action film to fail.  All that being said, there are few Directors I have more respect for their artistic vision and ability. Few that I admire their skill to use the medium of film to express their art.  Shyamalan is an unparalleled storyteller and is capable of capturing nuance and substance, no matter what the box office craves.  His films do follow a formula:  the slow burn of exploring characters and rolling out a story, excruciatingly slow at times, culminating in a big surprise payoff.  He’s at his best when he uses his story telling prowess to de-construct the art of the story.  As a fellow comic nerd, his exploration of the comic art form in ‘Unbreakable’ connected with me.  He used this story 20 years ago to deconstruct comic book films before comic book films were even a thing.  Way ahead of his time.

Last year’s ‘Split’ was widely acknowledged as his return to form.  The surprise mid-credit reveal, that the main character was linked to the ‘Unbreakable’ universe caused fans to rejoice and eagerly anticipate the meeting of the characters of Mr Glass, David Dunn, and The Horde.  I think what confounded the casual movie goer about these films is that they expected a ‘super-hero’ movie when that’s not what these are at all.  If you go to ‘Glass’ expecting a major super-hero blockbuster, you will be disappointed. It is a character study and examination of what goes into making a super-hero mythology. In ‘Unbreakable’, Mr Glass (a brilliant comic art collector with extraordinarily brittle bones) is determined to find a reason for his pained existence. He is convinced that comics were based on exaggerated reality. He reasoned that if someone like him existed, then there must be others.  He fashioned himself a super-villain and his mass homicidal tendencies landed him in a psychiatric prison. 

The film opens 20 years after 'Unbreakable' with David Dunn (Bruce Willis) now patrolling the streets using his power of intuition to capture bad guys. This power leads him to the multi-personaged Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), who had kidnapped a group of girls to feed his “Beast”.  Their confrontation lands both David and Wendell in the same psychiatric hospital as Mr Glass (Samuel L Jackson) and in the care of Dr Staple (Sarah Paulson), a clinical psychologist who specializes in patients who believe they have extraordinary abilities.  Dr Staple’s sole goal is to understand why these three think they have super powers and hope to cure them of their delusion.  

I will repeat from my review of ‘Split’ that James McAvoy deserves an Oscar for his portrayal of Wendell Crumb. McAvoy flows seamlessly in and out of characters, each with a distinct identity (and sometimes with different languages).  He reveals himself for the true actor he is.  However, the star of every super-hero film (even this one) is the villain.  Jackson’s damaged Mr Glass is a true mastermind and he sees the arrival of Dunn and Crumb as part of a larger story unfolding.  Demented or not, Glass is an inspired genius whose sole goal is to see the culmination of the story with a climatic battle between Dunn and Crumb (or as he prefers, The Overseer and The Horde).  The fact that life is rolling out like a comic book story gives him his raison d’être. If what he believes is true then he understands that his existence was not a mistake.

I won’t go into anymore of the storyline as anyone who knows anything about Shyamalan films, its all about the subtle twists and turns.  It’s about the surprise of reality not being what we expected or thought.  For a comic nerd such as myself it was a delight to see Mr Glass's reality through his prism of comic book expression.  He planned and understood events through how the stories he loved so much played out.  The characters are without a doubt extraordinary, but are they super-hero level.  Dr Staple examines this and causes the characters, and the audience, to doubt if this is indeed the case.  I say characters, but Mr Glass is the only one with the intellectual fortitude to believe he is exactly who he believes himself to be.

Again, don’t go to this expecting a fast paced, big budgeted super-hero film.  Shyamalan is a Director from a bygone age when Directors expressed their artistic vision and storytelling as opposed to churning out big studio inspired formula films. I’m not sure why the critics haven’t been kind to this film as I had nothing but respect and admiration.  I don’t think this film is for everyone, but if you like M Knight Shyamalan you won’t be disappointed

I give this film *** 1/2 stars out of 5

Glass trailer