Tag: jenna fischer

Win Passes To The St. Louis Advance Screening Of MEAN GIRLS

From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, MEAN GIRLS. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called “The Plastics,” ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.    

Directed by Samantha Jayne + Arturo Perez Jr., MEAN GIRLS opens in theaters on January 12.

https://www.meangirls.com/

The St. Louis advance screening is 7PM on Tues, Jan 9th at AMC Esquire 7 (6PM Arrival Suggested)

Please arrive early as seating is not guaranteed.

Enter at the link: http://gofobo.com/eDzgZ40317

RATED PG-13

Avantika plays Karen Shetty, Angourie Rice plays Cady Heron, Renee Rapp plays Regina George and Bebe Wood plays Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Executive Producers Jeff Richmond, Nell Benjamin, Eric Gurian, Erin David, Pamela Thur

Produced by Lorne Michaels, Tina Fey

Book by Tina Fey, Music by Jeff Richmond, Lyrics by Nell Benjamin, Based on the Stage Musical “Mean Girls”  

Screenplay by Tina Fey 

©2023 Paramount Pictures. All Right Reserved.

Watch The Hilarious New MEAN GIRLS Trailer Starring Jenna Fischer, Jon Hamm and Tina Fey

Check out the new trailer for MEAN GIRLS.

From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, MEAN GIRLS. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called “The Plastics,” ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.

Based on the stage musical “Mean Girls,” with music by Jeff Richmond, lyrics by Nell Benjamin, the screenplay is from Tina Fey and directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr.

MEAN GIRLS opens in theaters on January 12, 2024.

Tina Fey plays Ms. Norbury in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Ashley Park plays Madame Park in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Jenna Fischer plays Ms. Heron in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Tim Meadows plays Mr. Duvall in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.
Jon Hamm plays Coach Carr in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Busy Philipps plays Mrs. George in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Bebe Wood plays Gretchen, Renee Rapp plays Regina and Avantika plays Karen in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Christopher Briney plays Aaron in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Jaquel Spivey plays Damian, Angourie Rice plays Cady and Auli’i Cravalho plays Janis in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.

Ben Stiller Stars In BRAD’S STATUS – Check out The Delightful Trailer

Are you powerful, wealthy, retired or BRAD?

Find out in the brand new trailer for BRAD’ STATUS.

When Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller) accompanies his college bound son to the East Coast, the visit triggers a crisis of confidence in BRAD’S STATUS, writer and director Mike White’s bittersweet comedy.

Brad has a satisfying career and a comfortable life in suburban Sacramento where he lives with his sweet-natured wife, Melanie (Jenna Fischer), and their musical prodigy son, Troy (Austin Abrams), but it’s not quite what he imagined during his college glory days.

Showing Troy around Boston, where Brad went to university, he can’t help comparing his life with those of his four best college friends: a Hollywood bigshot (White), a hedge fund founder (Luke Wilson), a tech entrepreneur (Jemaine Clement), and a political pundit and bestselling author (Michael Sheen).

As he imagines their wealthy, glamorous lives, he wonders if this is all he will ever amount to. But when circumstances force him to reconnect with his former friends, Brad begins to question whether he has really failed or is, in some ways at least, the most successful of them all.

Amazon Studios will release BRAD’S STATUS in theaters September 15th, 2017

bradsstatus.movie

ARE YOU HERE – The Review

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Confession time. I really wanted to love this movie. I mean, I really, really, really did. Sadly, not everything we want in life comes true. On the other hand, I’m an optimist and try to remain open to compromise. So, while I did not hate the film by any means, I came away only kind of liking ARE YOU HERE.

Matthew Weiner makes his feature film debut as a writer and director with ARE YOU HERE. For those of you in the know, that alone is quite an exciting idea. For those of you who watch too much reality TV and not enough of the good stuff, Matthew Weiner is known for writing substantially on the AMC series Mad Men and the HBO series The Sopranos. Now that I have your attention, I’m afraid things about about to get real, as in real disappointing.

ARE YOU HERE had a lot of promise. The story itself, understandably so from such a renowned storyteller, actually had potential. Strip away the flaws and its a wonderfully touching, poignant and down-to-earth story. A tad preachy, but not in an overbearing, pretentious way. Owen Wilson plays Steve Dallas, a mediocre local weatherman basing his career on his good looks, limited only “by that nose.” Dallas high high hopes and ambition, actively pursuing his dream of becoming a big shot celebrity newsman on a major network. The problem is, he gets bogged down with the personal and family crises of Ben Baker, his long-time best friend, played by Zach Galifiankis.

Ben is a complicated man, with the imagination of a child and the maturity of a teenager. Ben clearly struggles with a mental disability left to speculation until later in the film. This is exasperated when he learns his modestly wealthy father has passed away and the remaining family convenes for the reading his his father’s will. Ben’s uptight, straight-laced sister Terri, played by Amy Poehler of TV’s Parks and Recreation,assumes she and her husband are in line to inherit her father’s farmhouse, land and country store, but when things don’t go her way, she is determines to do whatever she must to right these wrongs.

ARE YOU HERE is an intimately personal family dramedy, and that comes through in the writing. Where it loses some of its luster is with the cast. Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis are, for the most part, one trick ponies. As funny as they both can be, they rely almost entirely on their own individual schtick in this film, as they have done with some many films. I feel Galifianakis does make an attempt — albeit small and ineffective — to expand his range a bit, but their performances ultimately hold back the underlying potential of Weiner’s script. As I watched the film, I couldn’t help but consider Wilson’s and Galifiankis’ roles being played instead by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in their younger years.

The upside of the cast is two-fold. I found Amy Poehler’s performance to be well-played, and while still carrying a touch of her trademark wit, relatively outside of her normal wheelhouse, showing an increase in range for the comedienne known primarily for television work. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Laura Ramsey as the recently deceased patriarch’s much younger, very attractive and mysteriously insightful widow. Terri, of course, despises her, Ben finds a renewed closeness to her as his stepmother and Dallas, naturally, finds himself drawn to filling the void left by Ben’s dead father.

Tension ensues. Family drama takes over. All the normal expectations are fulfilled in a film of this genre, but nothing clicks on the level I had hoped. Part of me wanted for Wilson and Galifianakis to exhibit some cosmically-aligned reincarnation of Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis, but it never really fully took shape. There was a glimmer, but it quickly faded. Wilson and Poehler did show some chemistry in their disgust for each other, but it plays as a side note to the central story which is Ben’s struggle and ultimately his epiphany to take control of his own life and make compromises for the benefit of his friends and family and not just himself. With a different cast, and a more thoughtful approach to this central story. ARE YOU HERE could have been a significantly more appealing and powerful film, but instead we are left with what feels more like another factory-made dramedy more interested in marquis celebrity draw than compelling storytelling.

As a footnote, which is about the equivalent of screen time she gets, Jenna Fischer is gravely underused and rarely seen in this film’s supporting cast.

ARE YOU HERE opens in theaters on Friday, August 22, 2014.

Overall: 2.5 out of 5 stars

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THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN – SLIFF Review

I have a lot of respect for street performers. From music to magic and everything in between, street performer add a level of artistic vibrancy to areas otherwise typically bogged down in the dry, monotone corporate atmosphere. Have you ever been having a bad day, been walking along sulking in your grumpiness, then come upon a street performer who actually made you smile, even for a moment? If not, I hope you do, because it works… and, this is where THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN succeeds.

For a feature film debut, writer and director Lee Kirk does play it safe on some level. THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN certainly follows a fairly standard format of the romantic comedy genre. The humor is offbeat, quirky but never heavy-handed. The film may be playing itself safe structurally, but the content is what makes the film enjoyable. How many romantic comedies have we seen that are absurdly unrealistic or saturated in sappiness? It’s refreshing to see one like this come along that tosses those conventions to the wayside.

THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN stars hometown girl Jenna Fischer as Janice and Chris Messina as Tim. This is, of course, a story about boy meets girl, but there’s an underlying vein of existentialism that inks this map to our characters’ story ending “happily ever after.” Tim is an artist, at least he believes he is and can be, refusing to give up and supplements his journey as a street performer. Tim paints his face silver, hops onto stilts and throws on his silver suit and bowler hat, transforming into the giant mechanical man passersby see on the streets. Toss some change in his briefcase, and he does a little show mimicking a mechanical robot toy. Chris Messina sells these performances well.

Janice is a kindred spirit. With no true direction in her life, she works for a temp agency to make ends meet. Janice struggles with how everyone around her appears to happy, seems to have it all figured out while she really has no clue what she wants from life. However, its the constant pressure she gets from the world around her that makes her unhappy, not her lack of direction. Her younger sister Jill (Malin Akerman) and her husband are constantly on her case, pressuring her to figure things out, but all Janice really wants is to enjoy her life and find her own way.

THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN starts off at a relatively slow pace, but is hoisted up by the blunt, quirky humor that resides just below the threshold we’ve come to find familiar in TV shows like THE OFFICE, from which Fischer cut her chops. Not until Janice loses her temp job and begins looking for new work do things begin to fall into place. Meanwhile, Tim finds himself cut loose by his pretentiously hip girlfriend who deals a devastating blow to his ego, leading him also to find new work to make ends meet. Both parties find work at the zoo.

One thing leads to another, Janice and Tim meet, they fall in love, stuff happens… sadness… and so on. As I mentioned before, THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN follows a pretty standard romantic comedy formula. The difference is in how Lee Kirk fills in the blanks. There is a subtle sweetness to the film, just enough to pep you up rather than loading you so full that you slip into a diabetic coma. After all, isn’t that how life really is… filled with little moments of just the right amount of sweetness to make you remember everything will be alright?

Tim has an outsider-looking-in view of the world. He’s not depressed, nor is he a pessimist; he’s just a guy who sees others for who they really are and refuses to be someone other than exactly who he is, unlike so many he sees around him, always pretending to be whomever others will accept. Chris Messina puts a lot of stock in his eyes, giving his character a depth necessary to sell the performance. Jenna Fischer takes a few steps deeper into the emotional end of the pool and pulls it off swimmingly. Together, Messina and Fischer maintain on on screen chemistry that is honest and entertaining. For lack of better words, the two of them together are truly cute.

THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN is not real life, but it takes romance and the struggles inherent into territory not common to the genre. Tim and Janice are surrounded by self-absorbed, often nasty human beings, making them seem like the normal ones struggling to stay afloat in a world bent on keeping them under. Janice’s sister Jill spends most of the film trying way too hard to hook her up with a self-absorbed, nauseatingly fake and annoying self-help author named Doug (Topher Grace). He is primarily here for comic relief, and while Topher Grace succeeds at making us truly hate his character, it often becomes unbearable to watch.

Lee Kirk has crafted a commendable addition to the romantic comedy genre. THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN is a film I would happily watch again, especially since there’s a level of intelligence to the story and what the director appears to be saying about how meeting people and developing relationships in life is often a struggle for the more sensitive, outsider types that don’t fit into a common mold. THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN was shot in Detroit, played at the Tribeca Film Festival (also, being distributed by Tribeca Films) and is accompanied by an appealing soft indie rock soundtrack I look forward to hopefully being able to purchase someday down the road.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN screens during the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival on Monday, November 12th, 7:15pm at the Tivoli Theatre.

“Like” THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN on Facebook.

Tribeca 2012 Review: THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN

THE GIANT MECHNICAL MAN was a bit of a letdown for me. While enjoyable as is, the film never lives up to its full comedic potential, which is a real shame considering the talent involved. In a role written to play to her strengths, Jenna Fischer is the confused, mild-mannered Janice who finds a job selling grape drinks at the zoo. Apparently the zoo is a beacon of hope for the unemployed because this occurs the day after Tim (Chris Messina) walks in and instantly gets a job there after his girlfriend dumps him. (Seriously, is it really that easy to get a job at a zoo?) Tim also has an interesting hobby / side job of painting himself silver, wearing stilts and walking around as the titular Giant Mechanical Man. A friendship forms between the two just as Janice’s overbearing sister (Malin Ackerman) tries to set her up with a motivational speaker / author played eerily well by Topher Grace.

TGMM is a romantic-comedy that tries to be a lot deeper than it really is and that is where it falters. It works best when dealing with the rom-com aspects of the story but gets weighed down by mostly unnecessary dramatic beats that feel too repetitive. I can’t help but feel like this film would have been far more entertaining if all the main characters were not so damn depressed most of the time. I also found myself wondering why Tim didn’t just tell Janice that he was the mechanical man after she not only mentions her respect for him but also visits him while he’s in character. It seems they were saving the revelation for a fairly anti-climatic finale although it probably would have been far more entertaining watching Janice cover up and ultimately explain (especially to her sister) that she’s dating the often-ridiculed street performer.

I guess the fact that I am still wondering what could have been means there was enough substance actually in the film to hold my interest more than a week after watching it. With that in mind, I’ll recommend giving TGMM a chance. It is worth watching at least once anyway if only for Topher Grace’s crazy good take on a motivational speaker or Rich Sommer as his biggest fan.


Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – JerryCavallaro.com

Tribeca 2012 Daily Recap: April 25th

It is close to 2 am and I need to be out of my house before 8 to make my first screening tomorrow so I will try to make this quick. Rather than kick things off with a trip to the press lounge this morning, I went straight to the AMC Village 7 Theater for the first time this year.

Partially inspired by my Tribeca experience, I made a comment on Twitter the other night that the only comedies festivals seem to program are “authentic” dramedies about “real-world relationships” that tend to go nowhere. That is a fairly accurate description of YOUR SISTER’S SISTER except for one major exception; the film actually takes you on a bit of an emotional journey and it is quite a fun trip. I was surprised by how much I loved the film. This was a public screening and easily the most packed I had seen any theater at the festival thus far. I had not even planned to see this film but heard such good things from other press that I added it to my list. I’m so glad I did. This smart, funny and expertly crafted flick is easily one of the best films at Tribeca.

Following the screening, I checked into the film via GetGlue just like I’m programmed to do after constantly watching the ads telling us to share our Tribeca experience via the wonders of social media. I received a response on Twitter from @ConradHotels asking about my #TFF screening schedule. After a few tweets, they told me they’d have a surprise for me after my last screening of the day. Intrigued, I began my hike to the Clearview Cinemas Chelsea. Of course there were a few stops along the way: Best Buy for Blu-Rays I don’t really need, Press lounge for water & ice cream and a lunch break at 2 Bros. for $1 pizza slices! Tired, full and a little curious, I made it with plenty of time to spare to my second (and final) screening of the day.

THE GIANT MECHNICAL MAN was a bit of a letdown for me. While enjoyable as is, the film never lives up to its full comedic potential. It works best when dealing with the rom-com aspects of the story but falters a little with mostly unnecessary dramatic beats that feel too repetitive. I can’t help but feel like this film would have been far more entertaining if all the main characters were not so damn depressed. At least Topher Grace was spot on as a cocky motivational speaker.

The post-screening Q & A was equally disappointing. Not because Jenna Fischer wasn’t there (although that did suck) but because only a handful of fairly boring questions were thrown at writer/director Lee Kirk who seemed to have a lot more to say. On my way out, I received yet another tweet from @ConradHotels alerting me they’d be at the theater in less than 20 minutes. I waited outside for just a few before being met by the 2 lovely ladies I had apparently been tweeting with. And they came bearing gifts!

Courtesy of Conrad Hotels & the Pop-Up Conrad Concierge, I received a $100 gift card and a Mophie Juice Pack Plus iphone case. This was truly awesome and incredibly useful for many reasons. Whether you are at the festival or not, I suggest you follow @ConradHotels since they seem to be giving away a lot of cool stuff. (Please note: This is NOT an official endorsement on behalf of WAMG) They took a video of the entire thing which I will link to in a future update if they post it.

With my backpack a little fuller, I decided to stop by the filmmaker lounge for an Industry Cocktail party prior to hopping the bus home. Just like last  time, a few minutes turned into 3 hours chatting with people like Alan LaFave (Festival Director of Hell’s Half Mile Film + Music Festival), Aaron Moorhead (co-director of RESOLUTION), and Matt Watkajtys & Jeff Hodges of Izkara distribution. Filling my backpack just a little bit more with free Smart water, I finally made my way home. And now I will finally get to bed!

Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – JerryCavallaro.com

HALL PASS – The Review

All right, let’s take a trip to cinema suburbia. A place full of immaculate lawns, beautifully furnished homes, and comfortable, complacent couples. After several years of marriage, the  husbands are getting that itch. Everywhere they look these guys face temptation. The wives are slightly annoyed and a bit amused. But what happens when the king brothers of wild, raunchy movie comedies, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, take aim at this familiar film setting. You get HALL PASS based on the screenplay they co-wrote with Pete Jones and Kevin Barnett. Along with the carpools and play dates expect lots of confusion,slapstick, and humiliation.

The film focuses on two couples. We first meet Rick ( Owen Wilson ) and Maggie ( Jenna Fisher ) as they are preparing to leave there three kids with the sitter and attend a dinner honoring her friend, media psychologist Dr. Lucy ( Joy Behar ). There they meet up with their friends Fred ( Jason Sudeikis ) and Grace ( Christina Applegate ). Later that evening Rick drives their sitter back to her college dorm where she asks him to buy her some beer since she is a few weeks shy of her twenty first birthday. Rick is tempted, but declines. The next day the men meet at a coffee shop where Fred introduces Rick to his object of lust, the pretty Australian barista Leigh ( Nicky Whelan ) as her co-worker Brent ( Derek Waters ) glares at them. That night as Rick and his poker pals talk of their out-of-marriage sex fantasies, Maggie accidentally overhears them upstairs on the baby monitor and is concerned. Later that night Fred is caught by the neighborhood police patrol as he ” takes care of himself ” in the minivan parked in front of his home. The officers return him to a mortified Grace. The next day the ladies vent their frustrations during a walk with their friend, Dr. Lucy who tells them of the “hall pass’ concept. Leave town and give the men a week off from marriage. After this week, the ladies return, and the events of the week are never discussed. The wives are intrigued when Lucy remarks about her success with her own hubby. They ladies file it away in their minds until the next day. The couples join some other friends at the newly remodeled home of a pretensious  rich couple  for a tour and party. Rick and Fred are separated from their wives and the rest of the group when they enter the panic room. Inside the women are humiliated as they listen to Rick and Fred compare bedroom notes while checking out the house’s security monitors. The couples return home in stony silence. This is the last straw. Maggie gives Rick a hall pass. She’ll take the kids for a week and stay with her folks at their beach cottage many miles away. Rick is stunned, but soon agrees. Shortly Grace decides to do the same and joins Maggie. The guys check into a local motel for their seven days of bachelorhood. When they dive into the singles scene will they swim or sink to the bottom? Will Rick hook up with the lovely Leigh? And what will happen to Maggie and Grace when they meet up with a college baseball team during their sabbatical? Will they take advantage of the hall pass?

The Farrelly brothers have had a tough time in the last few years connecting with audiences after their late 90’s trifecta of DUMB AND DUMBER, ( the underrated ) KINGPIN, and THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. We’ve seen directors like Todd Phillips ( THE HANGOVER ), Adam McKay ( THE OTHER GUYS ), and Judd Apatow ( KNOCKED UP ) vie to take over the title of raunchy comedy king. With this film the brothers are squarely back in the race. There’s some superb gross out gags here along with the kind of heart seen in Apatow’s films. It’s a strong script that only lags about in the middle as the girls catch the attention of the team ( the young star player has eyes for Grace while the silver fox coach works his charms on Maggie ). The boys have a great cast  to work with this time out. Owen Wilson was the best part of two of 2010’s worst comedies ( LITTLE FOCKERS and HOW DO YOU KNOW ) and as the family man Rick stays away from his usual laid-back doofus. With his surfer shag cropped to a short straight style, he’s believable as guy starring down 40 and wondering…what if? Relative screen newcomer  SNL’s Sudeikis makes Fred a goofy, likable, always frisky puppy. The guys have a great team of comic actors ( co-creator of TV’s The Office Stephen Merchant, Larry Joe Campbell of TV’s According to Jim, and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s J. B. Smoove ) playing their poker buddies wanting to observe them on the prowl. As for the ladies Fisher ( BLADES OF GLORY ) is a sweet, strong, sexy mom in the Laura Petrie mold. Applegate ( THE ROCKER ) displays her deft comic timing as she tries to make Fred behave and later learns a few surprises about men. Look for a great cameo in the last third of the film by Richard Jenkins as the guys’ hero, an over-the hill lothario named Coakley. You  Farrelly newbies should be warned that the language is very salty and male and female nudity is on display. If you can handle some of the tasteless, but very funny, gags you’ll find a heartfelt tribute to marriages that can withstand the toughest test.  The lesson is if you can make it through a hall pass your union can make the long haul.

Overall Rating : Four out of Five Stars

Win Passes to See HALL PASS

What would you do if you got a HALL PASS for one week? Well, we can’t give you that… but we can give to tickets to an advanced screening of the new movie HALL PASS.

The screening for HALL PASS will be Thursday, February 22nd in SOUTH COUNTY at 7pm.

OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. FILL OUT YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.
3. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION – WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU HAD A HALL PASS FOR ONE WEEK?
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PASSES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
ANYONE CAUGHT REPRINTING TICKETS FOR DISTRIBUTION WILL BE BANNED FROM OUR CONTESTS! DUPLICATE TICKETS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED!

SYNOPSIS: Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are best friends who have a lot in common, including the fact that they have each been married for many years. But when the two men begin to show signs of restlessness at home, their wives (Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate) take a bold approach to revitalizing their individual marriages: granting them a “hall pass,” one week of freedom to do whatever they want…no questions asked. At first, it sounds like a dream come true for Rick and Fred. But it isn’t long before they discover that their expectations of the single life—and themselves—are completely, and hilariously, out of sync with reality.

SLIFF 2010 Review: A LITTLE HELP

Review by Stephen Jones

The main failing of A LITTLE HELP is, in some part, Jenna Fischer herself. Or, rather, it’s the role she is given. She plays the part well enough, but the character is written in such an inconsistent manner that there are times when she, through no fault of her own, seems to be playing it in a far too likeable manner. The opening shot is from the point of view of one of her patients as a dental hygienist. She’s pleasant and cheerful; when she starts to cry at the end, you feel for her. But after she leaves the job, argues with her kid, et cetera, she starts to be one drinking problem short of a pathetic character. Then when she gets home she starts drinking.

It’s a problem throughout the film, and it strikes me as odd considering none of the other characters have the same problem. Granted, it’s because most of them are fairly shallow to begin with, but her brother-in-law Paul (Rob Benedict of the show “Threshold”) has a decent amount of depth and consistency to him. Fischer’s character, Laura, is the only one with this problem. Once the film gets going it wouldn’t be as noticeable except for one of the story arcs involving her son. She allows, and even helps perpetuate, a lie he tells at school. In the context of when the movie was made it isn’t AS bad, but in the context of when it takes place it’s appalling, and kept me from really sympathizing with her for much of the film.

The scenes between Laura and Paul are the film’s highlights. They have really good chemistry together, and the way their story played out resonated a great deal with me. If the film were built around their relationship rather than Laura’s life as a whole, I think the film would have been much better. As it stands, it is still well made, and well acted, but with a central character that is too inconsistent to get behind.

A LITTLE HELP will play during the 19th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival on Sunday, November 21st at 4:00 pm  at the Hi-Pointe with actress Jenna Fischer in attendance. Ms Fischer will receive SLIFF’s Cinema St. Louis Award.