Tag: New York state

THE GOOD MOTHER (2023) – Review

Well, here’s a more somber crime thriller to quiet things down in the multiplexes as the Summer movie season of noisy blockbusters wraps up with the Labor Day weekend. Its setting is only a few years back, but most of its themes are fairly timeless as we bear witness to another young person (actually several) from the mean streets of the East Coast who is swallowed up by the drug trade. Oh, but there’s one sole (really aided by a couple more) who won’t allow him to be another statistic, another outline on the filthy sidewalk. Now she’s not your typical crusading heroine, as she’s dealing with her own flaws and weaknesses. Still, this struggling newspaper reporter earns the right to be called THE GOOD MOTHER.


It opens on the dark early morning streets of Albany, NY in 2016 as a man in his twenties dashes from corner to corner, Soon we realize that he’s not an enthusiastic jogger, rather he’s running for his life just as headlights engulf him. Cut to the dingy bedroom of the home of his mother (hence the title) Marissa (Hilary Swank) as she pushes away several empty bottles (fallen soldiers) to stop her cell phone alarm. A quick cuppa’ Joe and she’s on her way to the newspaper office. She barely makes the staff meeting where her worried editor keeps droning on about making the paper’s website go “viral”. Marissa is bolted awake when her police officer son Toby (Jack Reynor) knocks on the conference room door to pull her out for some bad, bad news. Flash forward to the gravesite of her other son Michael. As Marrisa leaves, she spots a very pregnant young woman hovering over the plot. She’s Paige (Olivia Cooke), Michael’s girlfriend. Marissa greets her with a slap, accusing her of forcing her son back into drug running (his stealing to support his habit strained the mother-son relationship). Toby has a few leads, including the now missing childhood pal of Michael’s, ‘Ducky’. Later that night Paige is awakened by home invaders. She hides Michael’s old suitcase (with some of his “product”) and seeks shelter from …Marissa. Despite the ugly scene at the cemetery, the duo decide to join forces and find out who killed Michael and why. The answers could be much more than either anticipated.

Aside from the main plot of the film, another real mystery (and a bit of a tragedy) is the lack of meaty big-screen roles for one of the most honored actresses in cinema (two Oscars). Luckily episodic TV has stepped up (though it’s a broadcast network series) until the complex, troubled Marissa is given vibrant life by Ms. Swank. Yes, she’s similar to the hard-drinkin’ and livin’ newshounds of noir flicks, but we see that it has taken a toll on her relationships and splintered her family. Swank has the dazed, burned-out body language down, then shows us how this new mission actually invigorates her, giving her a purpose. That’s best shown in her scenes with the talented Cooke as the scared but dogged Paige, who won’t be brushed aside as the “knocked-up” junkie’s squeeze. At times, she supplies the passion for truth when Marissa begins to despair. Reynor, as Toby, brings real depth to the “good son” role as we see him begin to fear for his mom’s deep dive into the dangerous part of the battered city. Though he’s always supplying intel, Reynor shows us a beat cop torn by duty and family. Also of note are Dilone as Toby’s steadfast supportive spouse Gina and Hopper Penn as the haunted, trapped Ducky.

Director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte keeps the plot moving at a steady pace while giving the setting a look of muddy remorse gleaned from the screenplay he co-wrote from Madison Harrison. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer much of anything new covering ground recently tread by premium cable miniseries like the “Mare of Easttown” or “American Rust”. Nods to the opioid crisis and references to the dying newspaper industry feel like tacked-on bits of business to give it a “current event” feel. The main glitch may be in the last act in which big reveals are telegraphed and the final denouncement is muddled. leaving us to wonder just how Marissa may act and what the consequences will be. Luckily, Swank is compelling as the scribe, and Cooke makes for a spirited scene partner for her. It’s great to see Swank at the top of her acting game, but she can’t quite overcome the cliched feel of the script at the heart of THE GOOD MOTHER.

2 out of 4

THE GOOD MOTHER opens in select theatres on Friday, September 1, 2023

NO HARD FEELINGS (2023) – Review

Cinema roll-call! Alright, it’s the Summer movie season, and what stalwarts have already taken over the multiplex? Big superhero epic? Check and double-check! Action blockbuster franchises? Check? Family-friendly animated features? Check! Raunchy slapstick comedy? Hello…Anyone there? Oh yes, finally it’s here just as Summer officially begins. And this is indeed rated “R” as in raunchy, ribald, and risque. much in the same vein as THE HANGOVER trilogy and the AMERICAN PIE dynasty of flicks (theatres and straight-to-video). Oh, for those of you that think these flicks are too “low brow” and “classless”, well the “above the title” star is an Oscar winner, so there! And if you think such a genre is “beneath her”, I’m sure she hopes you’ll laugh and that there will be NO HARD FEELINGS.


The star in question is Jennifer Lawrence, who plays the “barely making ends meet” Maddie Barker. She’s in the “gig economy” as an Uber driver and a bartender in order to hang on to her family home in the now pricey burg of Montauk in Long Island, NY. It seems that the houses there are desired by Big Apple dwellers wanting a getaway residence making the property taxes skyrocket. This story begins on an early morning when Maddie’s fiscal luck runs out and the “repo-man” (an ex-beau, naturally) hauls away her vehicle (thus ending her Uber “side hustle”). She’s gonna’ lose her place! What to do? Then, like an answer to her prayers, she spots an ad on “that online job mart”. A pair of those rich NYC parents are looking for a young woman to “date” their shy, introverted nineteen-year-old-son before he heads to Princeton in the Fall. And they’re offering the title to a nearly brand-new Buick-Regal! Maddie meets with the “helicopter parents” (Laura Benaanti and Matthew Broderick), who clumsily define the “date” agreement and set down some guidelines along with a way for her to “run into” him at the local animal shelter where he volunteers. Donning her tightest lil’ red dress Maddie approaches nervous, nerdy Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). Her botched seduction tactics somehow lead to a date, revealing that Percy is a lovely soul. Can Maddie go through with the “deal”? What if she begins to like him? And what if he somehow falls for her?

After several years of very amusing talk show interviews, the talented Ms. Lawrence finally gets the opportunity to flex those impressive ‘comedy chops”. Sure, she’s had funny moments in films like AMERICAN HUSTLE and DON’T LOOK UP, but she’s never been given a role that’s the comedy “full monty”. Lawrence gives us a terrific comic heroine in Maddie, a woman that’s often a bit dim-witted, yet is a plucky survivor of life, plunging ahead even if she ends up face down in the muck and mire (yes, she’s a slapstick athlete). Yet somehow she retains that star glamour and charisma making us root for Maddie even at her most devious. Plus Lawrence is a generous “team player’ giving ample support to relative screen newcomer Feldman, who makes Percy more than the typical virginal dweeb of some many movie sex farces. He’s too smart to be wowed by Maddie’s over-the-top vamping, yet he wants to make a personal connection with this “free spirit”. And he’s also a gifted comic (I’m still chuckling over his panic at the sound from a pool table). The story gets a great lift from two very different duos. Broadway royalty Benanti and Broderick are nearly pitch-perfect as the overbearing parents of Percy, who aren’t quite “in sync” with the scheme (she’s a tad mortified by his delight over their boy getting some “experience”). The other married couple is best buddies with Maddie cheering her on while still being stunned by the whole “deal”. Natalie Morales is the very pregnant Sara who shares Maddie’s ire at the rich “invaders’ while trying to keep her often clueless hubby, Jim (Scott MacArthur) focused . It’s a playful teasing rather than nasty bickering, as they’re “in it for the long haul”.Oh, and Ebon Moss-Bachras scores several laughs as the indecisive repo guy still pining for Maddie.

Right from the opening titles the movie has a “go for broke” comic mania, thanks to director Gene Stupnitsky, a TV vet who’s following up his modest coming-of-age comedy of 2019, GOOD BOYS. Maddie’s desperation coupled with the quiet awkward behavior of Percy makes for some amusing set pieces (ditto for the “interview” with the parents). Lawrence as Maddie is a great satiric riff on the sultry “maneaters” of late-night cable TV (y’know, “Skin-a-max”), while Feldman holds the screen with her. Unfortunately, this film succumbs to the dreaded midpoint “lull” in which the laughs are sparse and the pace begins to drag. Sadly it never really recovers despite a couple of ill-conceived roles for a vet of SNL and a Daily Show alum. Then the main characters behave in ways that don’t really make sense and the filmmakers begin to morph the racy giggle-fest into a more mature afterschool special in which everybody “learns something” and “grows emotionally” by escaping past traumas. Yeesh, that’s a big detour from the notion of Lawrence doing a female spin on the familiar “man-child” vehicles in the “wheelhouse” of Sandler and Ferrell. It all builds to a “feel good” upbeat finale that seems too convoluted and more than a touch “pat”. Putting the talented Ms. Lawrence in a zany comedy was an inspired idea, but this script needed at least a couple more “passes”. Hey, at least all the gags aren’t in the trailers, so …um… NO HARD FEELINGS, right?

2 Out of 4

NO HARD FEELINGS is now playing in theaters everywhere.

TO DUST- Review

While many “feel good” movies are exhaulted with ad lines exclaiming “a celebration of life”, this new “dramedy” might best be tagged as, well, not a celebration, but rather “an exploration of life…and death”. Yes, the “D-word” figures most prominently in this piece, but from a most unexpected angle. It concerns a man from a strict religious order, a Hasidic man, who finds no real comfort from his faith after death takes his beloved, and so he turns, not to drugs or booze, but to science. He cannot put his life back into order until he knows the length of time for flesh to turn TO DUST.

We meet the focus of the story, a cantor in Upstate New York named Shumel (Geza Rohrig) on probably the worst day of his life as his wife succumbs to cancer. As her body is quickly washed and prepared for near immediate burial, he’s so distraught that he cannot find the strength to “rend” his garments, even after his mother Faigy (Janet Sarno) provides him with scissors. Luckily she helps out at home, cooking and cleaning for her son and her two teenage grandsons, Naftali (Sammy Voit) and Noam (Leo Heller) as Shumel fails to get his “bearings”. Finally, he talks to his rabbi about the thoughts that haunt him. Is his wife’s soul trapped in her body until it erodes and returns to the Earth? And how long will that take? The rabbi’s reply offers him no peace. The days turn to weeks, as the church elders plead for his return. At school, other students taunt the boys about their sullen pappa, saying that he has “eaten ” a “dybbuk” (a restless malicious spirit). This prompts the lads to begin their own research (frowned upon) into this paranormal possessor. As a last resort, Shumel turns to science, via the local community college. There he visits burned-out, frazzled biology/chemistry teacher Albert (Matthew Broderick), who tries to send him on his way. Ah, but the cantor is persistent and returns to the classroom. Albert then shows him a book offering a photographic study of a deceased piglet as it degrades and rots. Ah, but a piglet’s not the size of a person. This leads to the purchase of a full-sized adult porker, and its clandestine burial deep in the woods. When this “experiment” provides few answers, Albert learns of a “body farm” in the Midwest where corpses are left outside to aid in forensic study. Thus begins a strange “road trip” for this truly “odd couple”.

 

This unique, sometimes whimsical tale is solidly anchored by the steady, solemn performance of Rohrig (last seen in the Oscar-winning SON OF SAUL). His haunted melancholy cantor could almost be considered part of the “walking dead”, for he’s decidedly the “walking wounded”. Shumel is certainly a man with a “bee in his bonnet”, who can’t seem to connect with life as he worries about his love’s afterlife. His quiet confusion is a great counter-balance to the frequently bombastic work of Broderick, whose Albert is a single (probably divorced at least once) bitter, frustrated and aggravated riff on his character from the iconic ELECTION (guessing his Tracy Flick has her eyes on the Oval Office). Albert seems to consider Shmuel as another in a long line of annoying irritants, but slowly his empathy is finally re-ignited, and he learns to care again. More importantly, we see that Albert’s curiosity has returned after a very lengthy sabbatical. Broderick shows us the clock is turned back, a death has invigorated his inner Ferris B. Also big kudos to Voit and Heller who bring a sense of urgency and affection to their roles as Shmuel’s confused, but supportive sons.

Director Shawn Snyder lets the story unfold at a natural, leisurely pace, allowing us to feel the hesitance of the characters and the awkward “vibe” of the uncomfortable situations and conversations. The film’s problems stem from the script (which he co-wrote with Jason Begue) which has Shmuel engaging in actions that are in direct opposition to his faith’s teachings (the many interactions with swine are the least of the offenses). Especially in the last scene which seems lifted from too many late, late show “grade Z” chillers. Thankfully a few reoccurring gags connect (Albert calls Shmuel rabbi, to which he repeatedly responds, almost in a whisper, “I am not rabbi”) and the Hassidic community is given some wry human foibles (the church elders really want Shmuel back as the cantor because his replacement has a grating voice). There’s a good use of archival footage of the piglet’s decay and clips of a 30’s Polish dybbuk film, but stop-motion animation of a swollen purple bursting to reveal a blooming flower is overused and feels pretentious. There’s a couple of interesting performance at the heart of this film, and it raises some engaging thoughts on life’s end, but in the last act TO DUST quickly crumbles and leaves our movie memories as if swept away by a very slight breeze.

2.5 Out of 5

TO DUST opens everywhere and screens in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas.