The Way Way Back is the feel good comedy of the year

Funny, charming and surprisingly poignant

 

Shy 14-year-old Duncan rides in the back of a car with his family on their way to his mother's boyfriend's beach house for the summer. While his mother sleeps in the passenger seat, her boyfriend Trent asks Duncan to rate himself on a scale of 1 to 10. After replying with a 6, Trent insists "I think you’re a 3”. Ironically these cruel words are spoken by Steve Carell. Previously known for playing lovable and funny characters, Carell is neatly cast against type in this zany coming of age tale about a boy who has a rough time fitting in. The introverted Duncan soon finds an unexpected friend in a carefree manager of a waterpark, and slowly opens up and sheds his skin (figuratively of course). As the premise suggests, this story doesn't stray away from the clichés but rather indulges in them. A finely tuned script and an abundance of charm marks the movie the most enjoyable comedy experience of the year.

The Way Way Back is one of those unexpected sleeper hits in the same vein of Little Miss Sunshine that you didn’t know you really wanted to watch. The film’s quirky 80s vibe, impressive cast and zany sense of humour instantaneously grabs you in and doesn’t let go. Director debutants Nat Faxon and Jim Rash - who won an Oscar in 2011 for their adapted screenplay of The Descendants – have assembled a magnetic company of both new and old faces including Toni Collette, Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell and newcomer Liam James just to name a few.

Sam Rockwell is particularly refreshing and genuinely hilarious in the role of Owen who becomes a comical father figure of sorts to Duncan. The setting of the water park is a sanctuary for the pair as an escape from the lousiness of reality. Other big laughs come from Betty, played by the hilarious and ever-dependable Allison Janney, who is the zealous and painfully honest neighbor of Steve Carell's character. She has a socially deprived son with a lazy eye (for which she constantly berates him). She steals every scene she’s in and provides much light comic relief. Additionally, Liam James is thoroughly believable in his first lead film role, displaying real credibility as an excruciatingly shy and often awkward kid.

Undeniably charming and surprisingly poignant, The Way Way Back truly is this year’s Little Miss Sunshine. You can’t help leaving the cinema smiling broadly.

The Bling Ring delves into the fame-obsessed world of teen celebrity wannabes

Sofia Coppola is arguably one of the most interesting filmmakers of this era. Daughter of famous filmmaker Francis Coppola, having grown up amidst one of Hollywood’s most famous dynasties, she has often been drawn to celebrity culture in her movies but never has it been quite this vacuous. The Bling Ring is based on the vanity fair article ‘The Suspects Wore Louboutins’, the true story of a group of young Hollywood-obsessed teens who used the internet to track down celebrities’ whereabouts in order to rob their homes. For the most part of the film we spend our time in the company of slightly disconnected, overprivilidged kids who steal designer clothes, party hard at exclusive nightclubs and every once and a while (when they can find it) snort cocaine and drive recklessly around Mulholland.

The basic premise of the story would seem ludicrous and rudimentary had the events of this story not been absolutely true. Over the course of several months in 2009 the ‘Hollywood Hills Burglar Bunch’ (as they were affectionately referred to by the media) stole over $3 million in clothing and jewelry from the homes of their idols including Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson and others, sometimes even spending stolen money at the same night clubs where their stars visited. They went as far as posting self incriminating pictures of their exploits on Facebook and wearing stolen clothes to court after they were caught. Perhaps most fascinating is the apathetic, guiltless way with which these teens engaged in serial robbery, most of them denying wrongdoing altogether. Over fifty homes were allegedly targeted for potential burglary and tracked via gossip sites and Google street view. Very much of the times, a story like this couldn’t have been possible a decade ago before the rise of social media and online obsessional fandom.

The appeal is largely in the introspective, almost sympathetic way Coppola directs the young people as they travel around LA, hopping from one lavish mansion to another, losing themselves in the strive for a richer lifestyle. The dialogue is justifiably insipid mostly consisting of repetitive exclamations like ‘oh my god’, ‘totally’ and ‘chill’. Although the people onscreen are unquestionably real there remains a voyeuristic quality to Copola’s direction, almost as if there is a veil between them and us; we are one step removed from reality, in a dream state of sorts. That’s not to say the film is without a critical eye, concluding with a silver-tongued bite from Emma Watson’s character in the film’s final moments.

In regards to the performances, there are no weak links. Newcomers Israel Broussard and Katie Chang are especially naturalistic. The thumping soundtrack is an additional pro and makes for impressive atmospheric scenes. Some people will call it pointless and vapid, but isn’t that rather the point. The adventure into Hollywood glamour is especially lightweight but there remains lots to look at and admire, including Emma Watson who packs a punch of black comedy.

For the original Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales click here

The Bling Ring is currently in limited release around Australia.

My Fan Art Poster for Darren Aronofsky's Ballet Horror Black Swan

Fan Art Poster for Darren Aronofsky's Noah Starring Russell Crowe

In anticipation of Darren Aronofsky's upcoming biblical epic Noah I made a mockup fan poster for the film's release.

First trailer for David O'Russell's American Hustle

From the director who brought you The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook comes American Hustle. If the trailer is anything to go by David O. Russell is set to hit a hatrick...

At the Art House: 9 Great Art Films You Must See

Memento

Before Christopher Nolan hit the mainstream and became a household name with the multiplex likes of Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy, he made Memento, a small neo-noir thriller more cryptic than Inception and doubly as thrilling as Batman. Guy Pearce is Leonard Shelby, a man suffering from short-term memory loss who uses notes and tattoos as clues to hunt the man that raped and murdered his wife. The intriguing puzzle is told in two sequences, one a series of scenes in black-and-white that is shown chronologically, and another a series of colour sequences shown in reverse order, both of which are perfectly edited together. Half of the thrills come from trying to solve the crime before Lenny can, and even after the final reveal you’ll want to watch it again just to see if everything adds up.

Mulholland Dr.

If anyone is wondering what an art film may look like, go and watch a David Lynch film. Known for his surrealist films, he uses dreamlike imagery and strange plot elements to construct his own cinematic style that has resulted in the coined term ‘Lynchian’. According to his Wikipedia page his films are so wacky that they ‘have been known to "disturb, offend or mystify" audiences’. So yeah, his films are weird. I have only seen one of his movies, that being Mulholland Drive and it is just as ambiguous and brilliant as one could imagine. In her breakout role Naomi Watts plays a cheerful Hollywood-hopeful who has moved to Los Angeles to chase her dreams in acting. She soon comes across an alluring femme fatale woman played by Laura Harring who has been left amnesic after a car accident on Mulholland drive. Together the pair search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality. The end will leave you wondering what was real and what was fantasy. Perhaps the most unique aspect about the film is the complete rejection of Hollywood narrative order, which is fitting considering the whole piece is a criticism on the allure of Hollywood. The electronic score by Angelo Badalamenti is menacing, and creates an aura that pervades an equally mysterious and romantic vibe. This is cinema at its purest.

The Fountain

Is it pretentious to call The Fountain a profound film? It is uncompromisingly ambitious and epic, spanning across three different timelines over the course of one thousand years, but at it’s simplest the fountain is a touching love story. At first glance it's repertoire of abstract images and slow plot pace may seem indulgent and intimidating, however beneath the layers is a message not hard to comprehend. Darren Aronofsky is an auteur director and every one of his films is a masterpiece but only recently has he garnered mainstream recognition with his intense look into the worlds of wrestling and ballet in The Wrestler and Black Swan respectfully. Hopefully his recent rise to fame will encourage audiences to explore his earlier catalogue.

Drive

For a so-called ‘art film’ Drive is a pretty traditional action flick. The storyline is simple, and all the better for it: a Hollywood stuntman, mechanic and getaway driver lands himself in trouble when he helps out his neighbour and her ex-criminal husband. The film is wonderful in its subtleties; Ryan Gosling perfectly depicts the main character's introverted and withdrawn mental state without coming across as simple. The script itself is short in dialogue leaving the entrancing visuals and graphic imagery to convey ideas and emotions without direct exposition. A brilliant understated piece.

There Will Be Blood

A story of family, religion, hatred and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business, There will be Blood is Macbeth for contemporary audiences. Daniel Plainview played by Daniel Day Lewis is a man consumed by greed in this fictional narrative about the discovery of oil. An Oscar winning performance makes for a dark tale about an obsession for power and recognition.

Requiem For A Dream

Undoubtedly the scariest thing about the events of Requiem For A Dream is the fact that there are no untruths. All the horrifying consequences that result from the characters’ drug addictions are all too real and without embellishment. The most of tragic of which is Ellen Burstyn’s portrayal of an elderly widow’s visceral descent into a drug induced utopia where she regains the youthful appearance of her past and fits into an old red dress, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Requiem for a dream is a masterpiece in hindsight, although while viewing it is disturbing, despairing and gloomy. It will scare you from drugs for the rest of your life. Overall a harrowing, but ultimately rewarding, viewing. (And you thought black swan was a tough watch).

Fight Club

“The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club.”

Technically I am breaking the rules here, not just because I’ve broken the first rule of fight club but because Fight Club isn’t an art film, even if at one point the executives at 20th Century Fox considered to market it as one, but it certainly is a cult film and an arty one at that. Edward Norton, known only as narrator, plays an insomniac office worker suffering from a mid-life crisis who attends a support group for testicular cancer victims and finds an emotional release that soothes his insomnia. In looking for a way to relieve the numbness of existence, his life crosses paths with a devil may care soap maker (Brad Pitt) and together they form an underground fight club. From the outside looking in fight club is a guys movie where men get a kick out of bashing each others faces in and then take their hatred for society to the extreme by destroying material things that the populace find so enticing. Underneath the surface however there is much more to the story. David Fincher once described Norton’s character as an everyman and that his film is a coming of age tale for 30 year olds. What makes Fight Club so appealing is that at one point or another we’ve all considered the prospect of rebelling against a consumerist society even if it’s wrong and detrimental. There is a Tyler Durdin in all of us.

Leon: The Professional

French director Luc Besson’s best art house action movie to date is easily Léon: The Professional, released in 1994 staring Jean Reno and a very young Natalie Portman in her first feature film role. Leon is an introverted hit man who finds himself caring for a young girl after her family is murdered by corrupt criminal cops. She becomes convinced that Leon’s protectiveness is in fact a profession of love, and although their relationship never quite spirals into criminal territory, the film dwells on their unusual dynamic to an emotionally satisfying degree as he trains her to become a young assassin. Reno has never been better, Portman becomes an instant star and Gary Oldman steals every scene he’s in. At its heart, Léon: The Professional is a character study about a simple man who learns to love again.

Moonrise Kingdom

A sweet childhood tale about a pair of young lovers who flee their 1950s New England town causing a local search party to fan out and find them. Directed by Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom is a warm, whimsical and old school kid’s summer comedy. Quirky, comic and visually beautiful.