Tag: Steve Carell

Café Society

Cafe_SocietyPosterKristen Stewart is only 26, but she feels as though she could’ve been in Woody Allen’s movies since the ‘70s. The camera loves her face, her hair, and the way she dresses. Stewart was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet following “Twilight,” and in “Café Society,” a movie that’s all about how culture and class changes and effects people, Allen sees her as authentic.

Stewart plays Vonnie (short for Veronica), the center of a love triangle between her fun and care free boyfriend Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) and her wealthy and married lover Phil (Steve Carell) nearly twice her age. Set in the 1940s in the heyday of Old Hollywood, Bobby has just moved to Los Angeles to get away from New York and try and make it by doing work at his uncle Phil’s agency. Of course, this is a Woody Allen movie, and Bobby can’t resist saying how much different and better New York is than LA at every turn. In fact Allen probably couldn’t have tolerated LA in any other period than the ‘40s, using it as an excuse to talk about jazz, so here we are. Continue reading “Café Society”

Foxcatcher

Steve Carell’s chilling performance as John Du Pont anchor the great work of Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo.

The characters of “Foxcatcher” act as a somewhat grotesque portrait of America. Channing Tatum plays a hulking, brutish mass who is really just a lost puppy looking to please. Mark Ruffalo plays a compassionate, tender and measured leader for which things don’t go as planned. And Steve Carell, in a villainous, sinister turn, is transformed into a wealthy, privileged and cold man of delusion.

That director Bennett Miller (“Capote”, “Moneyball”) has packaged them all into a tense, skin crawling thriller and sports movie says something about how rooted American culture is in these institutions. Continue reading “Foxcatcher”

The Way, Way Back

“The Way, Way Back” will work for many as an indie, coming-of-age crowd pleaser, but through its characters and its story, it struggles to find a voice.

There’s a scene in “The Way, Way Back” where Duncan’s mom Pam explains how she was won over by her new boyfriend Trent. “We’re all in this together,” he told her. That’s sweet, but what’s “this” and why exactly are they “in this” at all?

“The Way, Way Back” will work for many as an indie, coming-of-age crowd pleaser, but through its characters and its story, it struggles to find a voice and a purpose to build a film with real heart and depth.

Just why is Duncan (Liam James), the film’s 14-year-old protagonist, an especially mopey teenager? Hunched shoulders and head down at all times, he can barely string a few words together, let alone tell us why he’s so depressed or what he’s like. His interests seem to include REO Speedwagon and playing with sand, but that’s not much to go on.

His real bitterness stems from a dislike of his mom’s (Toni Collette) new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell). Trent has taken them both on a vacation to some undisclosed quaint beach town for apparently the whole summer, and although he’s trying to make this a family, the two don’t seem to get along.

Duncan is however drawn to the lazy, oafish, playboy owner of a waterpark named Owen (Sam Rockwell). Owen offers him a job and takes him under his wing, teaching him Midwestern urban legends and how to not-so-discreetly stare at girls in bikinis. He even gives him helpful prodding to join in a dance battle. Continue reading “The Way, Way Back”

Hope Springs

I confess that there are problems married couples encounter in their sex lives that I am not yet equipped to understand. Even after decades together, two people can reach a point where they cannot create intimacy, romance or spontaneity. They are stuck; too afraid to make sparks.

It’s one reason “Hope Springs” will resonate more with elderly audiences than it did with me. The rift between Kay and Arnold may be all too familiar to some. In that way, David Frankel has organized his film and his characters in such a way that anyone could project their own problems onto the scenario. Continue reading “Hope Springs”

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

There’s something a little silly about the fact that as all hell is breaking loose just outside your window during the apocalypse, the best thing you can think to do is whisper sweet nothings into the ear of the girl you just met.

This is both the strength and the crutch of “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” essentially just a romantic comedy but with the fortune and misfortune of being set at the end of days.

An asteroid is destined to hit the Earth within weeks, and Dodge’s (Steve Carell) wife literally runs off as soon as the news breaks. He’s left depressed and aimless until he meets Penny (Keira Knightley). The two escape their home during a riot and agree to help each other get to Penny’s family in England and Dodge’s high school sweetheart. Continue reading “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”

Crazy, Stupid, Love

“Crazy, Stupid Love” is a rom-com salvaged by its cast but done in by a strange side plot.

Steve Carell is hoping to be a movie star after “The Office.” Ryan Gosling is trying to prove he can do more than simply dramatic method acting. Emma Stone wants to be seen as more than a kid. “Crazy, Stupid, Love” tries so hard to be generic and boilerplate, and there’s a sense the cast would simply not allow it. Continue reading “Crazy, Stupid, Love”