Blu-ray Review: A Case of You (2013)

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Like CliffsNotes for People, Facebook profiles provide us with a succinct getting to know you guide to any individual, where a person’s likes, snapshots and status updates have become the cyber version of a first date. Namely, we find out things we used to learn by having a good old-fashioned conversation with a friend request and a click of the mouse.

Using this idea as a jumping off point to explore what would happen if a shy guy took the Facebook profile of the object of his crush-worthy affection far too literally to become what he believes is her ideal mate, affable actor Justin Long makes his screenwriting debut, starring in the work he penned alongside his brother Christian and co-star Keir O’Donnell.

A frothy, sweet romantic dramedy confection with a dry sense of humor that translates a bit awkwardly onscreen, Long’s Case is as in need of mischievous laugh-out-loud fun as it is a stronger sense of just who our lead character actually is before he undertakes his romantic quest to become the real-life version of the blonde, bubbly barista Birdie’s online dreams.

Directed by actress turned Life Happens helmer Kat Coiro, A Case of You’s weaknesses are easily overshadowed by the appealing star-studded supporting cast’s obvious commitment to and infectious energy for the scene-stealing characters they play from Vince Vaughn’s macho publisher and stoned out Spin Doctor guitar instructor Sam Rockwell to Wood’s oddball coworker Peter Dinklage and outgoing ex Brendan Fraser.

The film centers on Long’s insecure writer Sam, whose carting around massive invisible baggage thanks to the trust and commitment issues that stem from his heartbreaking estranged relationship with the mother who’d walked away from him along with his bookish father in favor of an exciting new man.

Deciding he isn’t ready to put himself out there without at least some kind of established (albeit manufactured) connection, Sam uses Birdie’s profile to become someone completely different from himself to attract the effervescent beauty (played by Evan Rachel Wood).

From taking dance, cooking and guitar lessons to purchasing her favorite books and music (including, I presume the Joni Mitchell titular song that is never played or mentioned in the film), Sam fails to realize what the audience, his friends and Birdie already understands, which is that the most interesting person he can possibly be is himself. Likewise, anytime he reveals anything genuine about himself in the film, he’s easily one hundred times more fascinating than the polished, rehearsed guy he’s trying to be.

Finding himself as attracted to Birdie as he is inspired by the caricature artist who seems to be a (thankfully) more relatable version of the stereotypical rom-com free-spirited hippie waif of the over-exaggerated love child of Goldie Hawn meets Drew Barrymore variety, Sam’s love life soon also serves as fodder for his new manuscript.

Branching away from the horrific teen vampire movie novelizations he’d written in the past to create something far more authentic, he chronicles his relationship with Birdie including all of the hopes, fears, secrets and lies he’s too afraid to reveal anywhere but in print.

Although Long’s muse-like plotline sets Case up for a formulaic finish, one of the film’s most admirable qualities is in the way it deviates from traditional romantic trappings.

Intelligently written and respectful of the audience's intellect – instead of just plugging the characters and subplots into the same A+B=C genre paradigms we’ve seen again and again, A Case of You lets its hero’s motivation be its guide, telling a tale of people versus a formulaic plot.

Although we’re enchanted by Wood from her earliest scenes, by not offering enough information about Sam before he begins his plan of romantic action, the film makes it that much harder to root for him or understand his sudden drastic change in attitude when he first picks a fight with Birdie without any real prompting and then inevitably, later sees the error of his ways.

A simple fix might have been swapping out the scene order to move an opening sequence that finds him crossing paths with an ex to later on in the film (ideally before the fight) in order to maximize the emotional impact of it so that we fully grasp his level of insecurity. Unfortunately the way it all plays out onscreen keeps us at an arm’s length from Sam from start to finish.

Thankfully, Long is so charming that he helps break down some of Sam's and by extension the film's walls. Case finds him playing slightly against type so that he delves much deeper to embody a far more internalized version of the same "nerdy" persona that first introduced him to American television viewers (including yours truly) via NBC's Ed over a decade ago.

While his charisma and the palpable chemistry between the two leads helps us get over our some of our hurdles with the main character, the ingenious way that Case introduces and then abandons rom-com red herrings from a likable ex-boyfriend and his tell-all manuscript to Sam’s juvenile conceit that he’s figured out some new dating angle is very impressive for a first time screenplay.

While the humor is too understated to set the film apart from superior rom-coms, making Coiro’s work ultimately as forgettable as its title that sadly never pays off on the promise or allusion to Joni Mitchell, A Case of You is still a warmhearted effort that’s sure to inspire discussion about the ups and downs of love in the time of Facebook.

As succinct as a Facebook profile (by clocking in at a mere 91 minutes), this IFC Films release hits shelves just in time for Valentine’s Day. And even though it’s light on special features, by managing to work in an opportunity for Across the Universe star Evan Rachel Wood to delight viewers with a song, this enjoyable film gives us the greatest bonus in the feature film itself by bringing us both music to our ears and a potential status update to “like” on our Facebook page.

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DVD Review: Galaxy Quest -- Deluxe Edition (1999)

This Hilarious Cult-Favorite

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I'm not sure if I was in another galaxy during the winter of '99 but when I received information about the tenth anniversary deluxe edition release of director Dean Parisot's Galaxy Quest, I was sold within an instant upon seeing the names Alan Rickman and Sam Rockwell. Likewise, I was completely stunned that I'd never caught it before.



Yet, just as I was about to say that I'd love to review it-- my eyes moved lower on the screen wherein the clincher to the entire press release arrived with three little words proudly promising, "Sigourney Weaver Raps." Yes, it may be in an extra and not actually the film but the idea of the classy, tall, elegant and accomplished three-time Oscar nominee pulling a Dr. Dre seemed far too irresistible to pass up.



While of course, admittedly I knew that it would help if the movie was good but when-- day in and day out-- you read an overflowing inbox filled with various press releases and news articles (with way too many awesome offerings and precious little time to take in as much as I'd like to discover), I'm always on the lookout for that something extra to grab my attention and share with Film Intuition.



And obviously, in that respect, I'm not alone as the geniuses at Paramount knew that Weaver rapping would make the title stand out even more than in its beautifully (and rather expensive looking) futuristic packaging as they made the wise decision to slap those same three words in yellow font on a sticker that adorns the beautiful, 3D hologram style box for the Deluxe Edition's debut on shelves May 12th.



Marketing wise, the release of Galaxy Quest (which technically wouldn't celebrate its tenth anniversary until December) received an early and logical push now to help thematically tie in with both Paramount's big screen, fun summer blockbuster Star Trek from helmer J.J. Abrams along with the killer new Blu-ray releases of the classic films and series that also boldly offered fans the chance where Kirk had never gone before.

And for those who were unfamiliar with the material, such as yours truly, this premature bow as a collectible DVD was more than justified with this surprisingly heartwarming yet hilarious good-natured spoof of the Star Trek franchise (both on-screen and off in the lives of the actors and their undyingly devoted fans) with the thinly disguised fictitious version of the series, appropriately sharing the title Galaxy Quest.

Once an admittedly cheesy yet wildly entertaining television series-- the movie opens with a look at a clip of the Star Trek like vintage clip and then catches us up with the show's cast twenty years following the now cult hit's cancellation as the actors grudgingly eek out an undignified living cutting the ribbons at new shopping centers, signing autographs at science fiction conventions while posing for photos and answering trivia that fans obsess over when questioning the logic of the "mythology" and rules perpetuated throughout the series.



When the film itself begins, the frequently late, hung-over and always sneaking off for extra solo gigs-- Tim Allen's hilariously egocentric actor Jason Nesmith-- who's the crowd favorite for his William Shatner modeled role as Galaxy Quest's Commander Peter Quincy Taggart seems to fare better than his colleagues.



While the show's one-time bit player Guy Fleegman (a terrific Sam Rockwell) serves as the emcee and scheduler for the crew-- having been so insignificant to the series that his nameless character died in episode 81-- essentially he serves as the bridge between the fans and the actors as he's stuck in the middle himself, never fully accepted on either side. Of course, we're not sure which one is less co-dependent or extreme as the fans dress up like their favorite characters and line up in droves to cheer and celebrate whereas the cast struggles to put on their game faces, wondering what happened to their careers.



Rounding out the rest of the main "cast" of both the film and the fictitious show, we have: Allen's jealous sidekick in the form of the resentful and frustrated formerly Shakespearean thespian Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman in a role that channels Nemoy's Spock) who has said his famous one-liner so many times he's ready to snap; Weaver's beautiful blonde Gwen DeMarco, whose only role aboard Quest as Lieutenant Tawny Madison was to show as much cleavage as possible while simply serving as the translator to repeat whatever it is the computer has just said; Daryl Mitchell's former child actor Tommy Webber who played the youngest integral member of the crew; and Tony Shalhoub's illogically named Fred Kwan who played the "Asian" Tech. Sergeant Chen despite the fact that... well he's as white as his USA Network character Adrian Monk.

When Jason is persuaded to appear in what he assumes is merely a paid side appearance by a group of strange yet aggressively friendly "fans," the movie ventures away from what we assumed was its satirical premise about has-beens struggling with their former glory and lives stuck on nostalgic repeat with as Shalhoub described a beautiful misdirection as Jason finds himself face-to-face with real aliens who-- after having mistaken old reruns of Galaxy Quest for factual "historical documents" completely rebuilt the ship to its exact parameters (useless, cheesy set-pieces and all) to recruit him to help fight an evil intergalactic villain set on destroying their race.



After Jason returns to Earth, his cast-mates assume he was simply trying to steal another gig out from under them and come along, only to find themselves all in an outer space reality version of Galaxy Quest minus the rubber bullets. Highly creative and incredibly amusing both in the screenplay form from writers David Howard (who sold the spec script from the midwest and amazingly found his work realized) and screenwriter Robert Gordon as well as the talented ensemble cast.



Following as Allen explains the director's advice to ignore the "jokes" and tendency to go for broad humor by playing everything seriously, the movie works so incredibly well for that reason as it's a film lampooning a franchise while also respecting it in a way that makes Galaxy Quest a movie that's still hard to pinpoint. As Weaver notes-- first acknowledging that it's probably the film she's been in that people have loved the most-- viewers didn't know what to make of it and ten years later they still don't as Allen simply confesses that "every part of [the film]... is great."



Filling the work with the same kind of absurd logic that is apparent in series like Star Trek with a hallway that's filled with an intense gauntlet of medieval like blades and traps that can slice and dice stars serving no purpose other than to entertain (as Weaver's character complains throughout that they're stuck re-living the same badly written episode this time for real), it's even more amusing as it requires the assistance of the Galaxy Quest version of a Trekkie as Jason has to contact Ed star and "Hi, I'm a Mac" actor Justin Long as an obsessive, nerdy teenager who helps return the crew to safety along with his dedicated friends.

Yet, somehow managing to wrap the actors all up in the arc as well as Rockwell's unappreciated bit player worries that he has to die in this version of Galaxy Quest since that's what he did in the show and Rickman realizes just how important it is to say those same old lines once more with feeling-- it's an unexpectedly lovable romp that's guaranteed to entertain.



Augmented with fond featurettes that roll out new interviews (as opposed to the same old material usually found in re-releases) and of course the extra where Weaver-- inspired by Daryl Chill Mitchell-- composes a rap for her agent's birthday in a video filmed by Parisot and co-starring some of the Quest crew, the film's a blast and one that I wholeheartedly wish I would've seen back in its initial release, although perhaps it may have fared better as a summer blockbuster a la the work its gently toying with in the form of Star Trek.

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Snow Angels

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful," but my dear,
this movie is anything but delightful.

Usually in film, if you see a gun in the first act, you know it will go off in the third. In Snow Angels, after a deceptively innocent and yet subtly tense beginning as the faculty leader of a high school marching band tries to engage his group by asking them if they have a sledgehammer in their heart to use while playing “Sledgehammer,” two gunshots ring out in the distance and stop everyone cold. Since young teenage Arthur (Forbidden Kingdom’s Michael Angarano) and his adorable photography student girlfriend Lila (Juno’s Olivia Thirlby) are present and accounted for from the start, we know they’re safe. But the question then becomes who and what has occurred in their seemingly normal, small community.

Helping to establish the film’s ominous tone aside from the sound of the shots themselves, All the Real Girls director David Gordon Green and his incredibly talented collaborative cinematographer Tim Orr (Choke) present the film’s title amidst a black background. Then, working its way into the tale as a nearly cinematic equivalent of a chamber piece of music, they introduce us to the setting with a series of innocuous imagery depicting the town as though it could be anywhere in these United States as residents go about their daily lives and we meet its incredibly small cast of characters.

In doing so, we’re driven into the past as Snow Angels’ narrative moves several weeks earlier. Yet a morbid shadow of doom lurks over the setting’s inhabitants first with Arthur’s unhappily married parents (Jeanette Arnette and Griffin Dunne) until the film fixates on the characters we instinctively know will be present in the deadly conclusion. Unfortunately, the film avoids the classical rules of Shakespeare in foreshadowing the tragedy by naming the character(s) who will perish in the Bard’s plays by listing them in the title but from the moment we first glimpse Kate Beckinsale’s struggling blue collar mom, Annie, and her estranged, off-balance husband, Glenn (Sam Rockwell), we get the sense that they will be the ones marching towards an inevitable death. And if it’s not their own, we realize it will be someone nearest to them. While the film’s trailer leads us in one direction, our director (who adapted the screenplay from Stewart O’Nan’s novel for three years for another filmmaker before he ultimately helmed the project himself), takes us in quite another.

Another independent filmmaking exercise in gloomy dysfunction, the actors are all top-notch and it’s their individual work that keeps us watching, even though we’re never entirely convinced any of the lead characters are worth caring about which—while it normally wouldn’t be a problem as cinema always offers its fair share of flawed heroes and surprisingly humane villains—in this film, it makes the final impact seem less provocative than the director had hoped.

As the primary caregiver to her toddler daughter, Beckinsale’s Annie works as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant opposite Arthur, whom she used to babysit when he was younger (which leads to some odd, flirtatious conversations as we realize the extent of Arthur’s previous crush on his old babysitter). However, while Arthur soon begins to fall for the geeky yet earnest new girl in school, Lila, Annie’s romantic life is far more unconventional as we discover her meeting the husband of her best friend and coworker Barb (Amy Sedaris) in a sleazy motel for frequent illicit trysts as one of the many items on her to-do list alongside shopping for her elderly mother.

While extramarital affairs always seem to end badly, Annie’s seems destined to explode by way of the match in Snow Angels, who is introduced fairly early on when we become acquainted with Rockwell’s Glenn. A recovering alcoholic turned ultra-devout born-again Christian, the mentally unstable Glenn who is temporarily residing with his parents, repeatedly tries to get back together with his ex, from taking his daughter for the day to arriving at Annie’s unexpectedly. When he grows increasingly obsessive and also learns of her affair, we sense that it’s only a matter of time before all of their lives intersect in a devastating showdown yet I wasn’t expecting the utter level of hellishly disturbing depression the film had in store for the audience as it kicks us hard roughly one hour in before careening towards its inevitable yet nonetheless, overwhelmingly bleak ending that puts us down for the count.

Recently released on a DVD formatted so that viewers can choose to watch it in either its original theatrical widescreen version or the television-formatted fullscreen along with various language options, it's the type of film that should come complete with a pre-approved prescription for the strongest anti-depressant on the market since essentially it is Sophie’s Choice meets In the Bedroom. Breathtakingly photographed by Tim Orr, most notably in a final scene involving the marching band as snow begins to fall, the film is saved by its actors. This is especially due to the fearless nature of Sam Rockwell who is no stranger to taking on the most awful roles imaginable and offering a surprising level of humanity to each. Yet in the end-- other than mere pity for what had happened-- I couldn’t bring myself to become that emotionally involved with such a self-involved female protagonist as the one penned for the otherwise talented Beckinsale.

And ultimately, I thought that, like Margot at the Wedding and The Savages, it was yet another indulgent indie about characters with whom we not only do not want to spend any time with in reality, but are even less interested in seeing on film. Although it’s infinitely better than the misanthropic and overwhelmingly dejecting Blindness, watching both of these films in the same week, let alone the same month, damn near turned this reviewer off film… at least for a day or so.

Who’s ready for a comedy? Obviously director David Gordon Green and Tim Orr were as well-- which may explain their choice to follow up Snow Angels with Seth Rogen and James Franco’s stoner comedy, Pineapple Express. For, when it comes to dealing with Snow, to quote Bob Dylan, "everybody must get stoned," yet I think this one will send most reaching for Prozac.

Choke (2008)

Director: Clark Gregg

Obviously, even without reading Choke, having seen and appreciated David Fincher’s cinematic adaptation of Fight Club, I was familiar with the twisted mind of Generation X’s own version of the Burroughs and Ginsberg era beat generation led by author Chuck Palahniuk (and “co-chaired” by authors like Bret Easton Ellis). Yet, within the first five minutes of the feature filmmaking debut of actor turned writer/director Clark Gregg (The New Adventures of Old Christine), I felt my eyes wandering over towards the exit sign. Still, I wasn’t sure why this was the case but the fact that the screening was held at ten in the morning may have had something to do with it as—when one is barely functional and suddenly confronted with the exploits of a sex addict-- it comes as rather a rude awakening so early in the morning.

And soon, I recalled the tagline of this year’s exploitative shocker Funny Games which promised, “You Must Admit, You Brought This On Yourself.” So, having never wanted to be known as a quitter I stayed put, halfway out of morbid curiosity and halfway out of loyalty to my gender as the only female critic in the theatre, and I’ll be damned if after the initial shock wore off, I was surprised to discover that Gregg’s film is much, much better than the tawdry Red Band trailers would have you believe.

Additionally it’s augmented by David Gordon Green’s longtime cinematographer Tim Orr’s inventive photography and a wonderful impressionistic soundtrack of indie, alternative and offbeat rock tracks that get us further inside of Palahniuk’s universe in a digital only soundtrack release scheduled by ATO Records.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize for its remarkable ensemble cast and nominated for Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize for Gregg, Choke chronicles Sam Rockwell’s Victor Mancini, a sex addicted con artist who by day works as a historical re-enactor at a tourist trap as “the backbone of Colonial America,” along with his best friend and fellow addict Denny (Brad William Henke) and their far-too-serious boss, played amusingly by Gregg himself. Describing his profession as something like being marooned on Gilligan’s Island meets Groundhog Day in hell, Gregg manages to insert some much needed humor and creativity into what otherwise could have been a far too excruciatingly uncomfortable film.

“Thy Purse Shall Suffer.”

When Mancini isn’t satisfying his depraved lascivious urges with whatever willing participant he can find along “the circuit,” total strangers or the fellow addict in Sexaholics Anonymous whom he’s sponsoring, he spends his evenings looking for love and a way to pay the bills by deliberately choking on entrees to be saved by wealthy strangers who lavish checks on him, high on their newfound heroism.

“You Can’t Fool People Into Loving You.”

Although admittedly he’s a rather loathsome main character with whom anyone would want to follow for the length of even Gregg’s brief, fast-paced film, Rockwell adds surprising depth and empathy to his characterization and reminds us yet again why he’s one of the most criminally underrated actors of his generation in a performance that would be Oscar worthy if it wasn’t so taboo. Yet, Victor’s goal for monetary compensation isn’t solely for his own gain but rather selfless as he struggles to pay the lofty bills for his dementia ridden, elderly mother, Ida (Anjelica Huston), who often mistakes him for her lawyer Fred in his routine visits to her private care facility.

“Fred.”

And when one night, his mother mumbles something about the true identity of Victor’s unknown father, Victor becomes dead-set on discovering the long lost secret, while trying to restore his mother back to health along with her beautiful, unorthodox, new physician, Dr. Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald). However, when his feelings for Paige grow from simple initial lust to something deeper, Victor realizes that his previous outlet of finding fleeting satisfaction with random citizens is jeopardized. Additionally, he begins to recall the origins of both his addiction and first attempt to “choke” his way out of a bad situation as the film makes great use of humanistic flashbacks to illustrate Victor’s troubled and tragic childhood with the mentally unstable Ida.

And indeed, once you get past the overwhelming shock of the film’s opening which finds us introduced to Victor’s group, seemingly led by Joel Grey as our main character explains that these people are “the reason emergency rooms have special tools,” we realize that instead of something merely titillating or celebratory as some of the ads seemed to indicate (view the Green Band trailer), Choke illustrates the truly depressing, socially unappealing, depraved, and tragic nature of the affliction.

Incidentally, I think the tone and completed product will be quite a surprise to those just strolling in—whether like me with great caution or like some of my male colleagues who seemed eager to see something sexually stimulating. I was especially awestruck by a prominent critic (who shall remain nameless) who chose thematically obvious surface comparisons to sex-obsessed Woody Allen and juvenile humor of Judd Apatow for his summation of why he disliked Choke. For the record, there was nothing remotely Allen or Apatow-like about it and I doubt those two filmmakers even entered Gregg’s mind during the entire filmmaking process since the entirety of the film seems wholly fitting to the same nihilistic, chaotic, questioning world Fincher acquainted us with in his take on Palahniuk’s Fight Club. And while we do indeed see everything (so much that after awhile, we’re numb to the bizarre acts being performed), it’s all handled in an unapologetic, graphic way devoid of any real human connection to illustrate just how unappealing it would be to have such an addiction in the fist place which is precisely the right approach.

It takes a true natural talent like Gregg’s and especially Rockwell’s to make us care about characters and situations that would normally make us run in real life and it shows the level of trust the rest of the cast (including Macdonald and Huston) must have had in newcomer Gregg in the first place. And although it’s a tad pretentious, a bit too over-the-top in the last act, and I’m entirely sure I buy the slightly protracted and convenient conclusion wholeheartedly, I must admit to being utterly surprised by how much there was to admire about Choke, even though at first I must confess, I feared that the film was going to make me—instead of Victor—choke in disgust.

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