Crazy, Stupid, Love. – All things in the title appear in this film

Crazy, Stupid Love is a comedic study of love in all forms. The insanity, the ups and downs, and highs and lows.

The film begins with Emily (Julianne Moore) telling Cal (Steve Carell) that she wants a divorce over dessert at a restaurant. She informs him that she cheated on him on the car ride home which sends him jumping out of the moving car in a simultaneously hilarious and heart breaking scene. The sad-sack Cal moves out and spends his time at a lounge bar talking to himself.

Cal is then noticed by the smooth ladies man Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who picks up a lady of his choice every night at this bar. He takes Cal on as a student and teaches him to pick up women. Cal slowly and humorously realizes he has these skills and becomes very good at it.

As Cal goes on to be a pick-up artist, Jacob ends up meeting a girl he truly loves and leaves his old life behind.

Carell is extremely likeable and sympathetic as Cal. Jacob is an awful but likeable teacher and we begin to understand why he is the way he is when he meets Hanna (Emma Stone).

The story is full of parallel ideas of love between two people who can’t be together and fighting for your one true love. The stories of Jacob and Cal come crashing together in a hilarious, if at times unbelievable meeting. Despite the unbelievability this is an excellent and well made movie with nice characters who ended up in ridiculous circumstances. Love is confounding and the ideas of wanting what we cannot have, destroying a good thing that we have and finding what we truly want are all presented here.

I really enjoyed the acting and thought all the characters were excellent.

***1/2 3 and half stars

Trailer

Directors – Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

All Good Things – Another movie based on a true story.

All Good Things is based on a true story. The tale unfolds in 2 parts.

David Marks (Ryan Gosling) is the son of Sanford Marks (Frank Langella), a wealthy and shady man who owns land on 42nd street in New York. He owns land that has apartment buildings and strip clubs and his job is to collect rent from the people who use his land.

In the first part David is younger and is a gentle young man who doesn’t seem to want to join the family business. David meets Katie (Kirsten Dunst) and falls in love with her. They move away and start a health food store in Vermont and live a seemingly happy life. David’s father however persuades him to move back and join the family business. During this we start to see that something might be wrong with David. He demonstrates that he does not want children and seems disturbed. We see him being treated by an unorthodox doctor. When Katie informs him that they are having a baby he forces her to get an abortion. This sets off a series of feuds which end up with Katie leaving the house and she disappears.

In the second half of the film, Katie has been missing for years and David is living in an apartment building in a strange disguise. We are led to believe that he possibly killed or is involved in the death of Katie and that she is not missing. We are not given any sort of final solution other than David’s possible madness as to what happened. There are simply scenes that imply.

The acting however is excellent. Frank Langella as always is fantastically scary, Ryan Gosling plays possibly disturbed and conflicted perfectly and Kirsten Dunst shows her dramatic chops. If only the screenplay were as tight as the acting.

** Two Stars

Trailer

Director – Andrew Jarecki

Doubt – Oh what an appropriate title.

Doubt is a film that explores the concept of doubt and its effects. It begins in a Catholic school church with Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) giving a sermon on doubt and it’s interplay with faith. We also meet Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) who is the tough principal of the school.

Sister James (Amy Adams) is a fairly new nun and teacher at the school. She is fearful of Sister Aloysius and not necessarily in agreement with how she runs the school.

There is a difference in how the nuns who are presided over by Aloysius and the priests who are headed by Father Flynn live. Two dinner scenes demonstrate this.

The nuns’ dinner is a somber affair with little conversation and a sparse meal. In a scene Sister James spits out a piece of food that clearly does not taste good and immediately picks it up and eats it after a look from Sister Aloysius. Aloysius has great power.

The priests’ dinner on the other hand is a hearty feast with bawdy conversation and plenty of smoking.

This is all set up to examine the idea of doubt. Donald Miller (Joseph Foster) is the only black student at the school. Father Flynn starts to show an interest in the boy. This seems to set off sister Aloysius especially when a seemingly odd event is noticed by Sister James. After being sent to see Flynn, Donald returns to class with alcohol on his breath.

Sister Aloysius begins an investigation and battles with Father Flynn. Aloysius even speaks to the boy’s mother (Viola Davis) in an attempt to help the boy or to possibly attempt to get rid of Father Flynn.

There are really no answers in the film. It is a film about doubt and that is what it leaves you with. The acting by all involved is superb and the story is excellent.

**** Four Stars

Trailer

Director – John Patrick Shanley

Coming up!

Hopefully by tonight I’ll have at least one new review up. I’m thinking it will be for Crazy, Stupid, Love. If I’m feeling a little more active all you non-existent readers may get another review.

Horrible Bosses – This is what happens when you work for an insane person.

Horrible Bosses is a hilarious, ridiculous and vulgar comedy. The premise is simple. Good friends and average guys Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) have awful bosses.

Our heroes go out for a drink and jokingly hatch a plan to kill their hated bosses. They then go home and try to shake off their hangovers and prepare for another day at the office.

During their day we see their bosses in action. Kevin Spacey is deliciously evil and reminiscent of his role in Swimming With Sharks. Colin Farrell plays the an insane drug addicted boss who is using his company as an ATM and running it into the ground. Jennifer Aniston in a very out of character role plays Dale’s sexy boss who sexually harasses him.

After some bouts of abuse from their collective bosses the guys get together and decide they’re really going to do it. The story is like a snowball hurtling off a mountain of ridiculousness. As the trio try to work out how to kill their bosses they get in one predicament after another. The story is very well executed and the laughs are constant. There are of course the general mishaps, misunderstandings prevalent in a comedy of this sort, but here they are well done and refreshingly new in comparison with other tripe such as The Hangover.

The acting and comedic timing by the three main characters is excellent. Charlie Day’s career as a comedic film actor will definitely grow if he continues to get these types of roles. Jennifer Aniston who I generally do not like in films has amazing comedic timing and is a pleasant surprise. She cut her teeth in the comedy Friends and this shows that she has a lot more laughs to deliver. I enjoyed this movie immensely and will no doubt buy it for my collection.

**** Four Stars

Trailer

Director – Seth Gordon