Quick Picks - Sept 4, 2011 Edition

Peep World [2010]

A bunch of adult kids have taken divergent – yet miserable - paths in life after they left the nest – and it’s all their asshole daddy’s fault.

I didn’t like this movie. All the characters were fairly weak caricatures and that made them boring. One son is aloof (Rainn Wilson) – the other is struggling architect (Michael C. Hall) – the daughter is a bitch (Sarah Silverman) – and the youngest son is profiting off their misery in his thinly veiled novel about the family (Ben Schwartz) – and they all hate their father with good reason. I felt the writer of this movie has some daddy issues – and made a movie – not that there’s not potential in it but you got to do better than this. I wanted to shake each and every one of them and tell them to grow up and make your own decisions – live your own life – grow up!

I hated the penis joke – so fucking dumb – I almost turned off the movie at that point – make a dark comedy and have fun – but a penis joke? Why not make some poop and fart jokes? I didn’t hate the movie – I really hated parts of it – I kind of liked other parts – but it’s not funny in a way that I would recommend.

Rango [2011]

A pet lizard finds himself lost in the desert and wanders into a town of desert creatures – where he saves the day and takes over as the town sheriff.

I really enjoyed this fun little spaghetti western homage. I loved the two “cameos” in both a nod to Depp and a nod to the genre – and because I was pleasantly surprised the cameos will go nameless in my blurb. The animation was beautifully done – though it’s animated it’s not a film made for kids – kid friendly most certainly – but too much over the head dialogue. I liked how the town animals were modeled after Leone’s town folk characters – even the snake was a nice nod to Lee Van Cleef. Overall, there’s not much to say – it appealed to some of my likes – but it was a good enough movie – never really grabbing me and pulling me in – but also not disappointing me.

The Lookout [2007]

Richard Roeper on the DVD cover art proclaims The Lookout is “A Masterpiece!” – which is interesting all in itself – but does it hold up to such lofty proclamations?

Chris Pratt was a young man who had his whole life laid out in front of him – until a tragic accident left him mentally incapable of succeeding in even the most basic of everyday tasks. He now works as a night janitor at a small farm town bank – and though he aspires to have a normal life his limitations prevent him from doing the things he wants to do. One day he’s approached by a man who has a plan to rob his bank – and uses Chris’s own aspirations and insecurities to gain his help in doing so.

The film is very very good – maybe not worthy of “masterpiece” talk – certainly a well told story with adept direction and talented actors. It’s one of those films that could easily be told while being hit over the head with a clown hammer. This film could easily be done while screaming at the viewer; “The boy is handicapped!! The boy is handicapped!! The boy is handicapped!!” – and the fact that they didn’t use the clown hammer is what makes the film very very good. These points are exactly subtle though – but they are handled with a mature hand.

Chris comes from an over-privileged family – and after the accident they ostracized him. This plot point is pointed out over dinner – and a conversation – and then manipulated by the antagonist - but it’s not brought up constantly to help justify Chris’s actions. There are other points along these lines – brought up by the filmmakers – that are brought to light – and then allowed to fall back down into the minutia of the story. These plot points – as they are heavy in nature – could be done with such little tact – that when handled correctly – with as many as there are in this particular film – it shows an “masterful” use of the filmmaking process.

I also thought the acting was great by all the cast members. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is growing into a fine actor that will have a long career of praise (as long as he can avoid doing any more GI Joe films). Jeff Daniels is very interesting and often amusing at Chris’s blind roommate. Matthew Goode was a smooth antagonist – who didn’t come on overly forceful – but had enough slime to him to make you suspicious of everything he’s up to. The adorable Isla Fisher was equally interesting as Luvlee Lemons – the former stripper turned government aide – she was equally sympathetic and upsetting as Chris’s love interest.

My only problem with this film – is that it’s done too well – it doesn’t take any real risks. I guess if that’s your only real complaint about a film – it can’t be all that bad – and it’s quite good. It’s equally broad enough that it won’t frustrate your casual movie-goer – but equally deep enough to satisfy your film nut who may just want to watch a heist film that doesn’t leave them feeling a bit dumber for it.

I’m not going to call it a masterpiece – but I will give it very high marks a high 4 which as you know I round up so – 5 out of 5 – as I described above there’s not much to dislike about the film – but possibly nothing for you to “love” about the film – yet it works so well as a whole – that it deserves a nod.

[directed by Scott Frank]