Movie Review: Folk Hero & Funny Guy (2016)

The film version of a singer covering an old favorite on open mic night, writer/director Jeff Grace's brand new indie Folk Hero & Funny Guy feels like a modern rendition of a 1970s bromantic dramedy (with a little bit of Once and Sideways thrown in for good measure).

Playing lifelong friends who impulsively set off on tour together after famous singer Jason invites down-on-his-luck aspiring comic Paul to open for him, Cold in July’s Wyatt Russell and Girls star Alex Karpovsky turn in terrific performances as the film's titular folk hero and funny guy.

Relying upon the familiar refrain of youthful banter and raucous laughter to distract from present-day differences in personality, status, artistic fulfillment (as well as how much they fear they might have drifted apart), Jason leads Paul on one aimless adventure in one small town bar after another.

Quickly driven to distraction on their first night away from home by Bryn – a talented up-and-coming singer/songwriter who crosses paths with Jason and Paul after signing up for the same open mic night the guys are talked into doing – Jason surprises Paul by inviting her along on tour as a second opening act.

And with Bryn portrayed by one of my current favorite small screen scene-stealers in the form of actress Meredith Hagner (whose energetic charm has consistently elevated her work in everything from holiday cable movies to sitcoms), the character is just what the film needs to balance things out while helping to infuse it with humor and heart.

Originally funded on Kickstarter and now available on demand, this impressively made effort is enhanced by inventive edits and scenic "wish you were here" cinematography.

Centered on artists hoping to get themselves and one other out of their rut and onto the right path, comic turned filmmaker Jeff Grace's feature manages to do the same. Steadying itself after a slightly rocky start, Folk Hero evolves into a melodious character driven charmer with which you'll want to sing along.

Though ideally suited to music minded viewers who flocked not only to Once but also to Almost Famous (starring Wyatt Russell's half-sister Kate Hudson), Folk Hero & Funny Guy has what it takes to be a word-of-mouth arthouse hit.

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DVD Review: Kung Fu Panda & Secrets of the Furious Five-- Pandamonium Double Pack

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In honor of today's DVD & Blu-ray release of the incredible animated film, Kung Fu Panda along with its straight-to-DVD companion Secrets of the Furious Five, I'm offering you an insider's view of the DVD that DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment were kind enough to send my way. However, before I go into the DVD features and review Panda's Furious Five sequel, first I'll serve up an excerpt of my original theatrical review of Panda, originally published on June 16.

Kung Fu Panda

Directors:
Mark Osborne & John Stevenson

"...We begin with Po the overweight panda-- a typical underdog, kung fu worshipping or Daniel Laruso like Karate Kid (voiced by Jack Black), who, although tirelessly devoted to his hardworking father who runs a family noodle shop, dreams of someday joining the famous “Furious Five” warriors he fantasizes about in his room, which are comprised of Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Knocked Up’s Seth Rogen), Viper (Kill Bill’s Lucy Liu), and Crane (Arrested Development’s David Cross). As Po sees it in his mind, he’s the missing Bruce Lee like link to rounding out the six with witty lines he creates such as dreaming he's telling those he’s saved that “There is no charge for awesomeness or attractiveness.” While his dad relates to having a goal, having aspired to run away from his responsibilities for the dangerous lure of making tofu, he tells his son Po the adage he’s resigned himself to which is that they’re noodle folk with broth running through their veins...

..."With a brisk running time of roughly ninety minutes, admirably not overstaying its welcome in a way that has become Pixar’s Achilles Heel in their last few offerings including the dully paced Cars, Panda offers a terrific action story in the mold of some of our best loved kung fu classics complete with several obstacles, a training montage, and seeking wisdom from eccentric elders, and seems to be the perfect introduction to children for the genre and one that, not only am I considerably glad one of my best friends told me to see but also one that I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase for my nearly five year old Star Wars obsessed nephew as soon as it’s released..."

Click Here to Read the Complete Review of Kung Fu Panda


Panda the DVD's Bonus Features

As witnessed with their recent release of Shrek the Halls, one of the things that DreamWorks excels at is filling their child-friendly DVDs with enough video game styled activities and easy to use special features and menus to make their DVDs tremendously appealing. While Shrek the Halls and Panda's counterpart, Furious Five are mostly tailored directly for youngsters, the crystal clear transfer of Kung Fu Panda from theatre to DVD is augmented by extras for all ages.

Providing a feature-length running commentary by the film's two directors as well as some excellent behind-the-scenes making-of-featurettes that will delight film lovers as we realize we can't even begin to fathom how much work it was to creat a humorous animated hybrid of a kung fu comedy to appeal to children and adults, we're given the DVD equivalent of a DreamWorks Animation Studio pass.

Meeting the chief technology officer who picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the directors to make Panda a no-holds-barred, exciting action movie to appeal to kung fu fans, we also encounter other members of the large creative teams from the effects and rigging areas, computer graphics specialists, a kung fu choreographer who works alongside other supervising animators to those whose role it was to focus purely on the character surfacing and effects to figure out just how to make an animated character jump twenty feet in the air and do a roundhouse kick.

Ultimately approaching the animation style of the characters themselves as though they were plush toys or as one team member jokes teddy bears who get into fights, there's also an amazing feature on the film's sound design headed up by an industry veteran who collaborated on King Kong, Transformers and Lord of the Rings. Watching the team try everything in an attempt to think outside the box from using a plunger on one man's forehead to mimic a possible sound that Po the Panda would make when he sloshes around, it's especially cool when the effects and behind-the-scenes work are shown side by side with the finished product as the group uses real world objects "to create a sonic tapestry."

And of course, since it is animation where every sound must be created, there's also a great featurette which gives us access to some footage of the cast recording sessions as the all-star talent discusses the challenges and joys of playing their characters from Jolie's desire that she was dying to be the tiger and feared Chan would get that part to some genuinely hysterical off-the-cuff remarks from Seth Rogen who Jack Black reveals was the ultimate improvisational artist of the group. And whether it's Dustin Hoffman joking that he refuses to be in a movie unless he gets to play a character who's endangered as he remarks he gets the "shifu kicked out of" him to David Cross admitting he would hang out with his alter-ego Crane in real life, it's especially revealing when Lucy Liu shares that the actions, movements, and facial expressions of each actors' performance in the studio were ultimately used in shaping each individual character onscreen.

Also featuring some great high-brow extra features wherein TV's Iron Chef host Alton Brown visits Mr. Chow's restaurant to discuss noodle making, along with Conservation International's call to Help Save Wild Pandas, or a tutorial on How to Use Chopsticks, there's added fun for kids involving DVD-Rom features, printables and web-links, trailers, the DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox I described in my Shrek the Halls review, plus a fun Cee-Lo "Kung Fu Fighting" music video, and an interactive feature to learn some basic kung fu in Master Shifu's Dragon Warrior Training Academy.

Secrets of the Furious Five DVD

Director:
Raman Hui

While it's easy to be skeptical when a twenty-four minute short film hits DVD as a tie-in to a blockbuster hit, especially when one realizes that we have a different director and few of the original voice actors involved, after only a few minutes of Furious Five, it's easy to cast those fears aside. High-quality and fun, Secrets of the Furious Five is structurally shaped like an excuse at a positive after-school special as Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) surprises Po (Jack Black) with the prospect of teaching an introduction to kung fu class filled with boisterous adorable bunnies. However, it becomes quickly engrossing as Po must reign in the eager youngsters by telling them that kung fu is not all about fighting.

By sharing the stories of his former idols and now allies, the legendary furious five from the main film, Po happily imparts lessons of patience, courage, confidence, discipline, and compassion with each flashback-driven, action-packed tale. Yet, still maintaining the fast pace and engrossing storytelling set forth with stunning animation, it provides a nice companion piece to the film as we realize that, as much as Po was an outsider when he was chosen to join Shifu, the furious five were also equally out of their depth as well.

While the DVD for the feature film is more focused on the technical aspects of the cinematic process, Furious Five is completely dedicated to entertaining its youngest fans. With some great interactive features including a Pandamonium Activity Kit (to coincide with the 2-DVD Package Set) that works in your DVD-Rom to games and a great artistic lesson that teaches kids to draw their favorite characters from the film, it's also filled with extra educational opportunities as you move into the "Land of the Panda" menu to discover more about the Chinese Zodiac, the animals from the film, and another kung fu lesson that parents will certainly want to supervise.

Also released in widescreen, along with the feature film to capture the theatrical aspect ratio, it's a great bonus for children and worth the investment for those of you interested enough in buying the original film to just bring home the two-pack to avoid an extra cost or second purchase down the road and by focusing on the positive, intellectual aspects of self-discipline and wisdom that coincide with kung fu, it makes a worthwhile double feature for children who may feel-- much like Po's unruly bunnies-- overly anxious to start trying to kick everything in sight.

The Grand

Director:
Zak Penn

In The Grand, Woody Harrelson’s character Jack Faro is proof that for addicts, sometimes admitting you have a problem is not the first step. In fact, in his case, it seems to have been the gateway that perhaps just having only one, two, or eight addictions weren’t enough as—cheaper by the dozen—it’s Jack’s policy to “bring ‘em on” becoming addicted to every possible drug known to man. And while we’re at it, he threw marriage into the mix, making Elizabeth Taylor look like a blushing amateur, having walked down the aisle exactly 74 times and although he tells the camera in Zak Penn’s hilarious Christopher Guest-like mockumentary that he loved each and every one of his wives, within minutes we realize that he can’t exactly place them all.

Soon, true to form, Jack completely forgets the fact that he’d once wed the lovely, Shannon Elizabeth who works as an employee of the casino he’d inherited from his grandfather. Incidentally, it's the same place he’s darn near run into the ground with disastrous theme choices for its reconstruction including renovating the classic old school Rabbit’s Foot Casino so that it resembles a nuclear reactor or pays homage to the great Chicago Fire. Obviously, the drugs have affected his mental state and rock bottom for Jack came when he was kicked out of his own casino and-- although he can’t honestly remember-- he believes he’d given the order himself.

Needless to say he’s got a lot of work to do and fittingly we first encounter Jack where he’s resided for two years at rehab where he’s up to his Casanova like old ways, wooing his doctor with a song about the twelve steps, although he’s only on the first one. Promising his lovesick doctor that he’ll write, he’s convinced to leave rehab to try and save his family’s Rabbit’s Foot Casino by playing for a place in the final round of the six person North American Indoor Poker League winner take all tournament, complete with a ten million dollar prize.

Harrelson’s hilarious performance serves as the film’s anchor and coming off the heels of his impressive work in the somber No Country for Old Men and The Walker, it's a nice stepping stone to an even funnier ensemble piece than his work alongside Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro. In order to give Harrelson more to work with, Zak Penn invites numerous veteran comedians to the cinematic party as well. Although IMDb reports the script was a mere twenty-nine pages, in the hands of improvisational pros and versatile entertainers like Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Ray Romano, Jason Alexander, Richard Kind, Judy Greer, and countless others, they elevate what should have been a lackluster forgettable rental into one of the most surprisingly entertaining DVD sleepers of 2008.

One of the first and incidentally least likable competitors we meet is Chris Parnell’s angry, anal-retentive, mathematically obsessed Harold who not only lives with his mother but makes her life a living hell ensuring she’s always preparing his nutritious brain food, complete with supplements. Moving the action to Massapequa, we meet one of the competition’s likeliest frontrunners, Lainie (Cheryl Hines), who given the rarity of her gender in the finals is merely dubbed “The Woman” instead of being served up one of the memorable, alternately cheesy, and hip nicknames. Having been raised by a hyper masculine, challenge hungry, dysfunctional father (Gabe Kaplan) alongside her fellow aggressive and obnoxious player and brother Larry (David Cross), Lainie is used to dealing with difficult men. However, her main preoccupation away from cards seems to be tirelessly supporting her husband Ray Romano who hasn’t been the same since he survived a lightning strike. Now filling his time by inventing new ideas such as “the round beach towel,” nonsensical sayings, and odd handshakes, Romano’s biggest concern seems to be in negotiating with his wife over who has to look after their children if her shot at the championship conflicts with his Yahoo Fantasy Football draft time slot.

Of course, Vegas isn’t Vegas without veteran old-timers and they arrive in the form of an odd turn from legendary director Werner Herzog as a surprisingly hilarious and frightening man simply dubbed “The German” who shares that he feels most alive and ensures maximum human energy by killing an animal everyday. We also meet Dennis Farina’s cowboy-hat-and-boot-wearing Deuce Fairbanks who, when he isn’t threatening to whack those who annoy him, bemoans the downfall of Sin City when they began letting people wearing culottes into the casinos.

Ordinarily with that many players, one would think they’d have their work cut out for them already, but the biggest question mark arrives later on. The players don't know exactly what to think when the laughably amateurish and earnestly friendly, successful online party poker winner Andy Andrews (Richard Kind) abandons the icy temperatures of Wisconsin, complete with his supportive wife (Judy Greer) in tow, hoping they’ll be the ones to capture the ten million dollar booty in order to flee the cold weather and Greer’s self-owned Ribbon Store to move somewhere warm.

One of the perils of releasing a mockumentary after Spinal Tap performer turned director Christopher Guest has basically perfected the art and turned it into a science with his brilliant classics Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, is that one will never be able to reach the astronomically high bar set by those films. However, as mock-docs go, I’ve seen far worse, and I was quite surprised by the freewheeling, rapid-fire humor of The Grand which seemed to belong to the vintage Woody Allen and Steve Martin school of a gag-a-minute approach (with only half being successful). I’d even go as far as to say I’d watch this one again in a heartbeat before I popped Guest’s sharp but largely melancholy A Mighty Wind back into my disc player.

Predictably most critics employed a “party” analogy to utilize in their critiques in describing The Grand’s overwhelmingly large cast that’s nearly bursting at the seams, thus pointing out that with that many “attendees” it’s hard for viewers to become attentive hosts, giving each an adequate amount of attention. This being said, Penn knows which individuals are worth spending more time with and which cameos are best left trimmed for by the editors (for example: only a few moments of Brett Ratner and much more Jason Alexander). And with the one exception of wanting to see more of the scene stealing Herzog as we’ve never seen him before—amazed that this tyrannical, mad Dr. Strangelove like character is embodied by the same person who brought us the masterful Rescue Dawn-- when our attention is largely directed at veteran performers like Harrelson and Hines, we know we’re in good hands.

So when Incredible Hulk writer Zak Penn is the one holding The Grand’s deck of cards, the audience can lean back and say, as Shirley MacLaine famously quipped at the end of The Apartment, “shut up and deal.”

Kung Fu Panda

Read the DVD Review

Directors:
Mark Osborne
&
John Stevenson

Over the past few months and only slightly less annoying than “movie tunes” or the loud, obnoxious commercials audiences are bombarded with at a typical multiplex, we’ve been inundated by animated public service announcements (thankfully prompting many to switch off their irritating cell phones) with Jack Black’s Kung Fu Panda starring as the most frequent celebrity spokesperson. Typically, I’m resistant to major studios with limitless bags of gold purchasing air time and sponsorship of any and every available commodity (a major reason I grew to loathe the incessant Bee Movie months before it even opened) and although Panda wasn’t shoved down out throats the same way that Dreamworks’ Bee Movie had been, needless to say I was far more excited to scour the art-houses looking for underappreciated fare before venturing towards the latest orgy of box office greed opening in wide release. Less a snobbish protest than a genuine concern that our children’s taste is being purchased rather than earned, I knew I’d see it eventually but that’s when the e-mails began rolling in as it opened and critics I admired began not only recommending Panda but raving about it. Still apprehensive that perhaps like The Incredibles which I not only disliked but wherein I felt that watching paint dry may have been much more engrossing, I held off until Paul, one of my oldest friends who’s known me for sixteen years and hopefully by now would be able to gauge my taste sent me an e-mail telling me that I simply must go. So I went and after only a few minutes, realized in the same way that I fell instantly for Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who and Surf’s Up that there’s still amazing hope for children’s entertainment, even when it’s not released from those wizards at Pixar.

Having attended a highly ethnically diverse and largely Asian high school, I found myself fascinated by kung fu and Hong Kong action films at a young age, cherishing Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat similar to the way that some girls my age mooned over Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. If I didn’t have a date on Valentine’s Day—and frankly as a woman, it was never my favorite day to go out since nobody acted like themselves—I stayed in and watched a Hong Kong double feature, thinking that there was nothing more romantic than Fat making amends for blinding the beautiful woman who charmingly shared my name in The Killer or watching Zhang Ziyi take on everyone while sharing my name in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As a lover of great action movies that I feel are as vital as excellent choreography in musicals or as Chan has said, a blend between silent comedy stars like Keaton and Chaplin with the precision of a Kelly or Astaire, I was worried about a children’s kung fu picture but when the credits began to roll after Kung Fu Panda, my first thought which I eagerly shared to my movie buddy was that the film kept the spirit, the hero’s journey paradigm and heart of a true martial arts adventure but just sweetened it up with humor.

We begin with Po the overweight panda-- a typical underdog, kung fu worshipping or Daniel Laruso like Karate Kid (voiced by Jack Black), who, although tirelessly devoted to his hardworking father who runs a family noodle shop, dreams of someday joining the famous “Furious Five” warriors he fantasizes about in his room, which are comprised of Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Knocked Up’s Seth Rogen), Viper (Kill Bill’s Lucy Liu), and Crane (Arrested Development’s David Cross). As Po sees it in his mind, he’s the missing Bruce Lee like link to rounding out the six with witty lines he creates such as dreaming he's telling those he’s saved that “There is no charge for awesomeness or attractiveness.” While his dad relates to having a goal, having aspired to run away from his responsibilities for the dangerous lure of making tofu, he tells his son Po the adage he’s resigned himself to which is that they’re noodle folk with broth running through their veins.

After Po grudgingly wheels the noodle cart to the Chinese Jade Palace to try and catch a glimpse of which member of the five will be dubbed the Dragon Warrior and thus the one who will bring peace to the land, Po’s attempts to get inside backfire and he’s flung via firework right into the ceremony itself, shockingly being given the coveted honor himself. With a dubious Master Shifu (an adorably drawn and earnestly voiced Dustin Hoffman) following orders from his own higher up turtle Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), Po must contend with the new challenges of trying to master the highest level of kung fu while in the presence of his five far worthier heroes as well as an extremely dissatisfied Shifu. Prone to nervous eating and pratfalls, Po the panda’s journey grows far deadlier when the feared master enemy, the snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane) escapes his maximum security prison and returns to the village, obsessed with getting revenge against his former associates at the Jade Palace.

With a brisk running time of roughly ninety minutes, admirably not overstaying its welcome in a way that has become Pixar’s Achilles Heel in their last few offerings including the dully paced Cars, Panda offers a terrific action story in the mold of some of our best loved kung fu classics complete with several obstacles, a training montage, and seeking wisdom from eccentric elders, and seems to be the perfect introduction to children for the genre and one that, not only am I considerably glad one of my best friends told me to see but also one that I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase for my nearly five year old Star Wars obsessed nephew as soon as it’s released. And of course, the added bonus to that is thanks to the Panda’s promo public service ads, he’ll learn that valuable lesson early that there’s nothing more inconsiderate than people using their cell phones at the theatre.