Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009)

I love John Krasinski as much as the next person (birthday buddies! high five!) so I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, but no.  I could see this maybe as a stage show, or yes as a book (which it was originally), but as a movie it fails.

First and foremost the screenplay is terrible.  You can tell it’s based on a book, it’s practically divided neatly into chapters for you, and nearly all the speaking is done in monologue.  They’re stellar monologues as far as they go, but five to ten minutes of a single person talking while nothing else happens is not something I generally want to see in a movie.  The only saving grace would’ve been a captivating, engaging, emotional delivery, but unfortunately Krasinski’s monologue only emphasized how much he cannot carry a serious role.  In his ending tirade you can tell that he’s just reciting something he’s read and memorized, the emotion seriously lacking.  Perhaps was was an acting choice, but a poor one; I felt in that moment like I was listening to an audio book.  On the other end of the spectrum is a monologue that appears a bit after halfway through, by one of the interviewed subjects, about his father who worked as a bathroom attendant.  This was handled beautifully and, for me, was the highlight of the entire film.

Most of the main characters were just tragically flat.  Daniel (Dominic Cooper) and minor characters Kevin (Max Minghella) and Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) completely stole the show for me.

The way Brief Interviews was assembled is rather strange.  The timeline was jumbled and hard to follow for what should have been a linear story, and while repeated takes felt charming in Conversations with Other Women, here they felt only like lazy editing.  About a third of the way into the movie we’re also shown, rather randomly and abruptly, a sort of fantasy element where our conversationalists are in the situations they’re talking about.  It could have been a genuinely clever bit of filmmaking had it only not been so strangely introduced to the audience.  Once we are aware of it though, it works, and also lends itself to that same powerful scene of the man talking about his father.

I think, overall, this film was trying to be Kinsey, trying to be revolutionary and personal and deep, but it fell far short of its mark.  I imagine (and hope) the book was better.  This was overcomplicated and under-adapted.

4/10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

I was fortunate enough to attend a writers’ screening of Scott Pilgrim so the obligation is there to review it – but man, this movie!  I’d write about it anyway.  It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the books, though I’m sure if you have you’ll understand or appreciate the film on some deeper level, but as it stands on its own this is something unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  The most spectacular video game movie ever made isn’t even based on a video game.  Go figure.

First a warning: If you’re prone to seizures, view with caution.  The opening credits alone gave me a bit of a headache, but don’t worry, it’s not all flashy for flashy’s sake.  The visuals are unreal, the editing is seamless, the effects create a world that is somewhere between reality and electronic simulation without straying into terrible-CG-land.  The stylistic choices of on-screen labels, visual sound effects and other elements drawing back to its comic book roots are hardly distracting, and more often than not got a good laugh from the audience.

Oddly enough I can’t help drawing parallels between this game/comic movie and the musicals genre.  To paraphrase Edgar Wright, in musicals people break into song.  In Scott Pilgrim, characters break into fight.  The supporting characters seem to be distracted but not perturbed by the situation, nobody questions when a character dissolves into coins or a pair of DJs summon dragons with the power of amps.  This is clearly a world apart from our own, but constructed so believably that it’s hard to escape from.

On the subject of music, I can’t speak highly enough of Scott Pilgrim‘s soundtrack.  Given that our hero is in a band we’d expect some original songs for the film, but man!  Each composition, be it background music, a Sex Bob-Omb original or something else entirely, was so well produced, so catchy, so dang good that I don’t care if these bands are fake.  I’d go to their concerts any day of the week.

The acting is superb.  I had an aversion to the idea of Michael Cera playing Scott at first.  Always typecast, with his stature and voice and meek presence, but he pulled it off with surprising energy and spunk.  Anna Kendrick once again completely transforms her personality for her role, from Twilight to Up in the Air to now this.  Also a brilliant job of casting because when you see her onscreen with Michael they clearly look like siblings.  Kieren Culkin, whom I now have a crush on, had just the right little smugness for his role and Alison Pill played deadpan Kim with a level of flatness that I would’ve thought would be boring, but instead was hilarious.  I could go on but I won’t waste your time.  The entire cast was perfect.

Strangely the only thing I haven’t touched upon is the story, which is something I usually try to pick apart.  But the fact is with Scott Pilgrim you just kind of have to dive in and accept the story, with all its weirdness.  There are some very minor things I wish they had addressed more strongly in the last act but overall the pacing – which for the most part is at breakneck speed – keeps you too engaged to care.

I have no place within the review to fit this, but I need to say that Knives Chau, whose character seemed completely hopeless throughout the film, redeemed herself with a single line at the end that made her stronger than any fight scene could have.  Perfect writing.

See Scott Pilgrim.  It’s too outrageous to miss.

Thanks to the fuzzy headache I was left with, I’m going to give this

8.5/10

edited to add: it’s better the second time. wow.