Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Perhaps the funniest thing about Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping, the mockumentary film staring Andy Samburg and his The Lonely Island bandmates Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone as former members of a boy band called The Style Boys, is the movies long form name. That is not to say that the film doesn't have its funny moments, it does, but they are unevenly spread over a film that feels like a SNL sketch played out too long. The movie is overloaded with celebrity cameos from the music field, and the new The Lonely Islands songs, of which there are a goodly amount, just aren't as funny and memorable as their better SNL digital short work. Too crude for my taste with a surprising amount of F-bombs, Pop Star would probably be a good example of why I don't go to see many contemporary comedies in the theater, if it weren't for my strong suspicion that most contemporary comedies are considerably worse. The movie made me want to re-watch the also crude, but superior mock music bio Walk Hard, which like this movie was also produced by Judd Apatow and featured Tim Meadows in a supporting role. **1/2
Pixels (2015)
I went into this film with very low expectations, I am generally not an Adam Sandler fan, and I had heard some very bad reviews for this thing, yet I was really surprised how much I liked it. I mostly watched it in the first place because there was a time when I would have absolutely loved its premise, aliens attacking the Earth with recreations of 1980's video games such as Pac-Man and appropriately Space Invaders, which they had encountered and misinterpreted from a digital time capsule of sorts lunched into space. The conceit is ridicules, yet charming in a retro way for this child of the 80's. In fact besides the obvious 80's references which abound in the film, including the aliens communicating with the Earth through altering the dialogue of period pop culture video such as Fantasy Island, Max Headroom and the immortal Hall and Oats, this movie felt like an 80's movie, taking on the form of the period genera most dear to my heart, the family adventure comedy. Even what crudity there is in the movie is very toned down from what I associate with Adam Sandler and is more implied then overt, on a similar level to the original Ghostbusters whose cruder elements didn't even register when I first watch it as a little kid. I wouldn't have a problem showing this to my seven year old nephew, in fact I kind of want to. This movie is inherently ridiculous, full of plot holes and logical leaps (Kevin James as the President), stupid really, but I must admit I quite enjoyed it in a guilty pleasure sort of way. Michelle Monaghan looks particularly gorgeous in this and there is something oddly charming about how annoying Josh Gad can be. Wow I disagree with 83% of Rotten Tomatos reviewers on this. Again guilty pleasure for a nostalgia nerd. **1/2
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
If you had asked me to sum up my feelings about Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen brothers film about a week in the life of a struggling Greenwich Village folk singer in the year 1961, I probably would have responded with something like "Huh". I quite Frankly did not know what to make of this movie, I think I probably liked it but I'm not sure that I could tell you why. (Though the film is memorable for among other things a fine early lead performance for Oscar Isaac and another quirky supporting part for John Goodman.) A friend of mine subsequently told me that he had the same reaction upon first seeing the film but now considers Inside Llewyn Davis to be his favorite Coen brothers movie. I can see a potential to love this film inside of myself, but right now its so hard for me to categorize what this movie is that it will take some time to sort through it. I plan on giving it a second watch after I've had some time to absorb the thing, but for now I'm giving Inside Llewyn Davis ***. I did also quite like the music.
Weiner (2016)
When Anthony Weiner, the former New York congressman who had left office in disgrace following a now infamous sexting scandal, invited film makers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg to follow him around in his 2013 bid for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City, he no doubt hoped that they would catch on film his political rebirth. What they ended up getting on film is both more complicated and more interesting then the redemption tale Mr. Weiner likely anticipated. Early in the film things are going well for Weiner, he is leading in the polls and his marriage to Hillary Clinton confidant Huma Abedin seems to be healing nicely, in fact in the personal interplay captured on film they are kind of cute together. However these good times end when the media discover that that the extent of Weiner's sexting scandal was much broader then he had previously let on, and that he continued in these ill reputable ways for some time after he had publicly said and/or implied that he had stopped.
The remainder of the film is the slow implosion of his campaign, Weiner ended up with only about 6% of the Democratic primary vote, as well as his relationship with his wife becoming quite frosty in a veritable ice storm of cold shoulders. I expected to hate Weiner by the end of this film but I didn't, in fact in a strange way I kind of respected him. Anthony Weiner is a very flawed, very human person, a narcissist and a grand stander, a self righteous prick, but he is also a man who is very talented, smart, passionate about his political beliefs, more then capable of critical self examination and introspection, and who in his very worst, most embarrassing, scandalous act, at least never physically had sex with a woman other then his wife, never even actually met his 'partners', didn't misappropriating funds, didn't sell out to corporate interests, betray his stated political beliefs or break any laws. Again in a strange way that's kind of impressive, as is the fact that Weiner kept letting the cameras role, presumably he could have stopped them at any time. This film is a fascinating and perhaps unique political document and one of the best films so far this year. ****
Keanu (2016)
Key and Peele comedy about two cousins who attempt to retrieve a cute kitten caught in the middle of a drug war between rival gangs. This has got to be one of the most ridicules concepts for a movie I have ever encountered, buts its really funny and shockingly well structured. It does earn its R rating however. ***
Spy (2015)
Fish out of water spy comedy is nothing we haven't seen many times before, except maybe that Melissa McCarthy's character is presented as being competent from the very beginning, though of course kind of awkward. Film is very well structured though seldom that funny, with many of the best scenes in the film being those between McCarthy and Rose Byrne's characters, those two should make another movie together. Jude Law and Jason Statham play self satirized versions of their typical screen personas, Miranda Hart a kind of less funny female John Oliver. Ivy Levan's theme song for the film "Who Can You Trust" sounds like it could be a legitimate James Bond theme song. **1/2
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