Martin Freeman sports an American accent in this film based on a story from This American Life. Charlie has a rare disorder that causes him to pass out when he experiences strong emotions but especially joy. This makes life and dating especially difficult. With odd coping mechanisms that keep him in a constant state of depression and boredom, he meets Francesca, a woman that challenges his sense of dull stability. When their first date goes awry, Charlie insists on setting her up with his very different younger brother, Cooper. Francesca must overcome her own fears while Charlie comes to grips with his disorder and stop making excuses. How does he really want to live his life?
The entire cast is a delight. Jake Lacy as Cooper is an amazing foil for Freeman. Young and hungry for more than a good time, he’s funny and a very relatable character, for better or for worse. Jane Curtin as Francesca’s ailing Aunt Sylvia is as lovable and sarcastic as Jane Curtin always is. Melissa Rauch as Charlie’s interim love interest is hilarious in her serious love of anything and everything tedious. Morena Baccarin is honest and grounded with an exuberant spirit. My girl-crush since her Firefly days, she’s also clearly a secret Timelord, but let’s not confuse fandoms. Martin Freeman is ridiculously charming. I cannot help but get wrapped up in each role he plays. He’s simply wonderful.
The rom-com is alive and well, people. Ode to Joy is a unique indie that’s sure to be a knockout this summer. It opens in theaters, on digital and On Demand this Friday. Check out the trailer below!TITLE: ODE TO JOY
IN THEATERS: August 9, 2019
ON DIGITAL AND ON DEMAND: August 9, 2019
DIRECTOR: Jason Winer
WRITER: Max Werner
CAST: Martin Freeman, Morena Baccarin, Melissa Rauch, Jake Lacy, Jane Curtin, Shannon Woodward, Adam Shapiro
SYNOPSIS: Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) has fallen in love and can’t get up. A man’s fervent attempts at subverting happiness once it begins to cause him bouts of narcolepsy are put to the ultimate test when he falls in love.
GENRE: Comedy
RUN TIME: 97 Mins
RATING: R
DISTRIBUTOR: IFC Films
New thriller, based on Yiftach R. Atir‘s book, The English Teacher, The Operative shines when Martin Freeman‘s voiceovers guide the narrative along and when we actually see operations play out. You can feel the anxiety of the missions in real-time. Before I knew this was based upon the novel, the film brought a recognizably literary feel to its structure. Though you could easily cut 20 mins from this film’s first half without altering the intent or style. The story truly revolves around the protection of two people. Its emotional complexity is beguiling and that’s what keeps you watching.
Diane Kruger delivers a nuanced performance. The gears are turning in those quiet moments and you know there is much more going on from the very beginning. She is vulnerable and a bit mysterious. Martin Freeman is a star. He absolutely owns this role. A fan since Hitchhiker’s Guide and Sherlock, it’s incredible to see him in more and more lead roles that show is ever-expansive range. Cas Anvar is charming and powerful. He’s a real delight to watch. The Operative has a great overall plot. Intimately shot and superbly acted, it’s a solid spy thriller.
Indoctrinated as a child into a white supremacist enclave, Byron finally realized the fallout of his beliefs. He is ready to start a new, tattoos and all. But past violence and pride attach themselves to his present and his attempt to escape.
The dialogue is unapologetically offensive. The interspersed tattoo removal sessions are some of the most effective scenes in the film with their elegant score and heightened audio. Although the film already feels long one hour in (basically halfway) the story is timely and the performances redemptive and engrossing. SKIN goes behind the scenes of a culture so vile it cannot be tolerated. The fear from the screen is visceral and incredibly effective.
Performances are eerie and amazing. Genre legend and timelord extraordinaire, Barbara Crampton plays a motherly figure looking after Marisol and her newborn baby. She sets the tone for the remainder of the film with her saccharine-sweet smile and creepy overbearing politeness. She is outstanding. Martha Higareda is the real wow factor. You are rooting for her the entire way and hope she gets everything she seeks. Her IDGAF survival attitude is pure magic. The script is edgy and brings a major creep factor that gets under your skin. The enhanced audio editing is a fantastic tool that heightens the inevitably squirming you’ll do while you watch. The story is one that will resonate with so many people living their own version of what is looking more and more like the American nightmare. This is a stunning debut feature for director Gigi Saul Guerrero and I know the industry, as well as Fantasia International Film Festival fans, can be excited for whatever comes next. 
Another North American premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival 2019 is that of Ode To Nothing. The slow burn of creepy factor launches this film into skin-crawling territory. The setting alone is horror movie gold. A family mortuary? Besides My
**Closing Night Film – Sarasota Film Festival 2019**
Happiness is the ever elusive prize in life. Depression is a monster. As one man’s seemingly perfect life comes to an end, another attempts to find out why in question of his own mortality. PHIL is a story of the pursuit of happiness and what that even means.
Greg Kinnear, playing both the film’s director and titular character, is a man on the literal edge. After becoming enamored with the joy of one of his patients, he resorts to following the man until he discovers him hanging in the middle of the forest. Why would someone who has it all end his life? Phil is obsessed with answers. Kinnear, as always, is charming and grounded. There is something in this man’s eyes that makes you want to listen to him, to care for him, to experience what he experiences. Alongside an enormously talented ensemble, including Emily Mortimer, Jay Duplass, Luke Wilson, and more, PHIL explores the things in life that make us connect with one another; Stories, memories, new and old, family and friendship. Learning to not live vicariously through others is a lesson we can all take to heart. PHIL has an unexpected script and it is pure delight. This film is about growth and the exploration of self. It’s a real gem and all involved should be proud to share this story.
To give you an idea of why Fantasia International Film Festival is my favorite redheaded stepchild of a festival, here are a few films from my youth that still haunt/entertain the crap out of me. 1. Poltergeist: the film my father thought a 2-year-old should watch. 2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: because a sci-fi musical with Tim Curry in drag should be shown in every Kindergarten class on the planet I inhabit. 3. Princess Bride: one of the most quotable and inconceivable films, I mean that with the utmost respect and if you say otherwise I will fight you (with a sword). 4. Pulp Fiction: a film whose dialogue is filled with sermon, innumerable expletives, drug overdose, and bloody violence for days was just the beginning of a long career of effed up magic. Love it or hate it, it was original. So, for me, Fantasia encompasses all that is weird, wonderful, wacky, wtf, and any other “w” descriptor I’m missing out on in this precise moment.
Lust, betrayal, vanity, adultery; the reimagining of Hamlet through the eyes of Ophelia is an entirely different story. Based on the novel by Lisa Klein and in the vein of films like Ever After and perhaps even Disney’s live-action Cinderella, our leading lady is no shrinking violet. Daisy Ridley is a far cry from her role in the new Star Wars installments. As the titular character, she is inquisitive, bold, and yet her innocence plunges her headlong into the tragedy that Shakespeare writes for her. With a star-studded cast including Naomi Watts, Clive Owen, and Tom Felton, the story begins with how she became to be part of the court. Along the way, it addresses the fragility of the male egos as well as the female. It is still a story of love and honor but told from a young woman’s perspective and a few other key ladies surrounding her. The entire cast is brilliant. The costumes and sets are gorgeous. The new dialogue is ripe for this era. The added drama and intrigue is downright delicious. You cannot help but be drawn into the secrets. Ophelia’s fate makes more sense with a backstory we can experience in a visceral way. The film has everything a fairytale and period cinema lover needs to immerse themselves. But this film goes above and beyond. This new rendition is completely unexpected. It gives power back to the women in this story making Ophelia more magical than ever before. As someone great once said, “Well behaved women seldom make history.”
One summer I went to 6 weddings. It was equal parts fun, exhausting, and expensive. We learned who had gotten engaged, married, broken up, and gotten divorced since seeing some of the regulars at these blessed events. Some were shocking while frankly others we silently cheered their wreckage within the confines of our clique. Plus One explores these exact evolutions of so many relationships in our late 20s early 30s. Its honest charm and genuinely witty banter are just the tip of the iceberg of this film. The framework of the film is literally dated around each specific wedding weekend our duo attends. Don’t brush this film off as millennial drivel. Who hasn’t been stuck at the singles table or judged the food and speeches at a wedding? Hell, we still do it 8 years after our own wedding. Sorry, everyone. But the truth is funnier than fiction and PLus One nails these cliches on the head without being obnoxious. Jack Quaid is a nice foil for Maya Erskine. She is the best friend we all wish we had. Her natural ability to be funny and raw makes Plus One as wonderful as it is. The soundtrack, both the score by Leo Birenberg and original songs by Real Estate is outstanding. The dialogue has an amazing vulnerability with a side of raunch. The plot is universally relatable. You should save the date for Plus One without hesitation.
Need to get away? Seth Green‘s directorial debut, Changeland, might be just the ticket. The film stars a gaggle of actors that first made a name for themselves in some of my favorite films and television shows; Clueless, Can’t Hardly Wait, Home Alone, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Guys, Macaulay Culkin is in this. And he’s sheer perfection. So let’s break it down. Brandon (Seth Green) hops a flight for a vacation to Thailand, meeting up with a longtime friend, Dan (Breckin Meyer). It was supposed to be a wedding anniversary trip, but that’s not the plan now. Honest confessions, lingering regrets, tested intimacy, and it all feels 100% authentic. It’s that thing that occurs in even the closest of friendships. You get older, life happens. Dynamics, jobs, marital status, all change. But what better place to mend fences and mull over the future than a tropical oasis? These guys grew up together and it shows. The natural pace of dialogue is fantastic. It’s actually easy to forget the iconic roles that I usually associate them with, and I do mean that as a compliment. Oh, and the soundtrack is amazing.
But it’s also an advertisement for Phuket, Thailand. It has gorgeous sweeping shots of mangrove forests, caves, resort restaurants, pristine beaches. It does not suck to look at. Green explores ideas of growth and insight without a hint of pretentiousness. It simply works. The perfect cast meeting an exemplary script. Changeland is not grandiose. It’s fun, charming, honest, and funny in both genuine and weird ways. For those of us who grew up with this cast on their favorite films and television shows of the 90s, this all the more age and stage relateable. Bravo, to Green and the entire cast for a wonderful film.
Directed by:
Brenton Thwaites i
There is a heavily literary feel to the structure, script, and performances. If you consider yourself a reader, these aspects will delight you. This all makes perfect sense since it’s based on Shirley Jackson‘s novel. Taissa Farmiga has given us a gorgeous portrayal of Mary Catherine. The specificity of her facial expressions, her physicality, and her tone is a master class in character acting. Sebastian Stan is entirely unlikable in his charm and clearly underlying intentions. His strong presence will make you squirm just as it does the other Blackwood family members. Alexandra Daddario is as elegant and she is uneasy with her plastered on smile. Obviously hiding true emotion on the outside, it’s the moments when the stare lingers a touch too long in which we are suspicious and fearful of her truth. Crispin Glover, who ages at a snail’s pace, is a complex, almost ancillary uncle character with what seems like bouts of early onset dementia. As the only other survivor of their dark tragedy, his idea of a memoir drives his protection of his nieces and the family legacy. This story is filled to the brim with mystery. There are so many assumptions and unanswered backstory questions, but that didn’t stop me in any way from enjoying the hell out of it. It’s the darkness that keeps your interest. The music, costumes, and sets are delicious. With elements of magic, superstition, and greed, We Have Always Lived In The Castle is stylistically engrossing.
Starring: Troian Bellisario (“Pretty Little Liars”) and Patrick J. Adams (“Suits”)
The intellectual dialogue is so overwhelming intriguing from the very first scene, you cannot help but feel compelled to give your entire attention to Clara‘s unique premise. Can logic and love coexist? This is a film about loneliness and loss but also wonder and imagination, science, and faith. It’s a profound look at the universe as it pertains to intimate relationships. Seemingly an oxymoron, how could the vast beyond of space apply to two people? Clara delves into the idea of letting go to let the universe do its proverbial thing. Real-life husband and wife play astronomer and newly hired assistant attempting to find a new planet with life. Their backstories are incredibly nuanced. Patrick J. Adams is captivating in his sadness and determination. Seeing him outside of Suits in a completely different role further cements his strong presence and pull on-screen. The arch of Issac is something to behold. Troian Bellisario as Clara is simply magic. The full complexity of her character won’t be fully realized until the film’s final scenes. She owns this role.
Playing in this program:
The Midnight section at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival gives us Something Else. A story about Hank, whose longtime girlfriend Abby abruptly leaves him, but with a lot of extra flair in the plot. The editing is spectacular. Crisp still camera images set against a bleakly lit Hank, make for a perfect early jump scare. Then you catch on that’s it’s a repeated theme. Abby equals brightness. No Abby equals darkness… and a monster at the front door. The music has a heavily Gen X quality. The daytime dialogue (once Abby is absent) feels reminiscent of early Kevin Smith, particularly from everyone around Hank. This gives teeth to the naturalistic performances from a small cast. Classic tropes weave into the darker scenes and then the film becomes something altogether different. Something Else is exactly that. It’s like two films in one. It’s a monster movie and a serious relationship drama which incidentally includes a 15-minute single camera take of dialogue. Something Else is aptly named and unexpected on all fronts.
You must be logged in to post a comment.