Netflix Movie Review: Tall Girl (2019)

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Whether it's the way you laugh too loud when you're nervous, stammer when you're shy, or seem to forget everything you've ever studied when you're handed a test, everyone has at least one thing that they wish they could change about themselves. And while most of us have figured out how to cope with or adapt to this perceived flaw as adults, there's nothing like high school to magnify these insecurities even more and doubly so when the thing we wish we could change about ourselves is something physical.

In nearly six foot two inch sixteen-year-old Jodi's case, although a simple search on the internet reveals that there is such a thing as height reduction surgery, the excruciatingly painful procedure isn't exactly a practical solution for the New Orleans high school junior played by Ava Michelle. Hoping for the same effect, she tries slouching her way into invisibility to avoid all of the snickers, stares, and inane comments by classmates who ask her how the weather is up there, even though that line is older than the Civil War battles she reads about in her American history textbook.

Establishing the theme, first as she describes the alienation experienced by the main character in A Confederacy of Dunces to a classmate and then in her voice-over narration, Jodi serves as an pleasant, immediately relatable stand-in for any hangup the viewer might have about themselves. However, as well drawn as the three-dimensional Jodi is, the rest of the film's characters are thinly sketched caricatures of retro teen movie archetypes by comparison.

And this is evident right from the start as we meet her fiercest supporters including the fashionably hip Fareeda (Anjelika Washington) who puts bullies in their place with one well spun line and the Duckie inspired Jack Dunkleman (played by scene stealer Griffin Gluck) who's had a crush on Jodi for as long as Kimmy (Clara Wilsey) has tormented her since they were children. Suffice it to say that, despite the affability of the actors bringing them to life, everyone in Tall Girl's orbit seems like they've wandered over from film sets of decades gone by, which basically makes them the "how's the weather up there?" of teen movie characters.

Although screenwriter Sam Wolfson tries to update the proceedings with escape rooms and gluten free bakeries, it feels mostly stale. Inconsistent in its characterization as it undercuts Jodi's mom (Angela Kinsey) as a passive aggressive prom queen and makes her dad (Steve Zahn) a hyper focused alarmist waiting for his tall daughter's health to fail in their earliest scenes before they mellow into almost entirely different people later on, it's to Kinsey and Zahn's credit that we remain interested in their roles.

While it's refreshing to make Jodi's beautiful pageant perfect older sister Harper (Sabrina Carpenter) so supportive of her "big little sister" instead of making her another object of misery in Jodi's life, with Harper's laughable grasp of history and pleas that Jodi should slap her if she eats carbs, she quickly turns into yet another stereotype.

Hopeful when Stig (Luke Eisner), a dreamy Swedish exchange student arrives who's even taller than she is, Jodi experiences her first serious crush and turns to Harper for help attracting the boy who's staying with Dunkleman. Pursuing Jodi in very different ways to differing degrees of success, Eisner and Gluck play off each other very well and share some unexpectedly funny, awkward scenes in the process. Things get even more complicated when her nemesis Kimmy sets her sights on and lands the handsome Swede, but when the two find they have a musical connection, the first of several love triangles develops.

Unwisely relegating Jodi's best friend Fareeda to extra status as the film goes on when some of the makeover scenes with Carpenter and Kinsey might've benefited from a young comedic buffer as opposed to the requisite mini dressing room montage and a lame in-film ad for Mac Cosmetics, it's clear that the film just doesn't know how to make adequate use of its lively ensemble. Not the only gimmicky scene, Tall Girl features a cringe-worthy moment where Jodi's parents host a Tip Toppers tall person's club party that goes nowhere. Likewise, infusing the film with a questionable message where each time Jodi starts to have confidence, it's inspired by a guy either finding her attractive or doing something selfless for her, by the time we reach the obligatory Mean Girls reminiscent big moment at the dance where our heroine literally tells us what she's learned, it doesn't seem remotely genuine or earned.

Still entertaining enough to watch in bed on a sick day or up late at a sleepover, despite Tall Girl's wholly original main character with whom many viewers will easily identify thanks to their own hangups, it's one of Netflix's weakest original YA romcoms. Taking a backseat to the streaming giant favorite To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Tall Girl also pales in comparison to the similarly themed, infinitely better structured (and likewise '80s inspired) Sierra Burgess is a Loser.

Yet with the color blocked background on display in Tall Girl's opening frames as Jodi discusses Dunces, the keen visual eye of first time feature filmmaker Nzingha Stewart makes for some truly memorable scenes that keep our interest even when the film itself starts to meander.

A romcom loving tall girl myself (and one who — just shy of six feet — was actually taller than her male first grade teacher when she was in the first grade), needless to say, I was easily the ideal audience for the film. Unfortunately, no matter how much I wished otherwise, in the end the Netflix movie plays like a version of teen movie Cliffs Notes where everything stays on the surface and, save for one moving scene with Steve Zahn, never gets too deep.

Though Tall Girl comes up short — to use a criticism that's sure to be the critic's version of "how's the weather up there," — it's still an admirable attempt to walk a mile in a sixteen-year-old girl's size thirteen men's shoes. Bolstered by a charming cast, while it's obvious that the film's heart is in the right place, unfortunately, Girl needs more authenticity and less artifice to make it count.

Text ©2019, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. https://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy or screener link of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique. Cookies Notice: This site incorporates tools (including advertiser partners and widgets) that use cookies and may collect some personal information in order to display ads tailored to you etc. Please be advised that neither Film Intuition nor its site owner has any access to this data beyond general site statistics (geographical region etc.) as your privacy is our main concern.

Blu-ray Review: Lean on Pete (2017)

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No matter how many adults tell him that "it's going to be okay," by age fifteen, Charley (played by Charlie Plummer) has been through enough to know that words alone can't make it so.

Having found himself lost in the cracks of the American dream, over the course of a life-changing summer, Charley ventures out on his own. Trusting his own shoe leather as well as the friends he meets along the way (at least for a little while), Charley finds a surprising kindred spirit in Pete.

While on the surface the only thing the two seem to have in common is that they love to run, after the old racing quarter horse disappoints his owner Del (Steve Buscemi) one too many times and Charley is asked to load Pete up for sale, he knows that nothing about this is going to be okay.

Searching for someone to call family more than just a place to call home, Charley finds that and more in Pete as they hightail it across the Pacific northwest in writer/director Andrew Haigh's soulful adaptation of Willy Vlautin's eponymous young adult novel.

As gritty and heart-wrenching and as it is moving and beautiful (particularly in the lush magic hour and twilight cinematography by A Hijacking DP Magnus Nordenhof Jønck), in the span of its two hour running time, Lean on Pete sneaks up on viewers to become one of the most powerful films of 2018.

An R-rated coming-of-age saga woven into the narrative of an American road movie, Lean on Pete blends the influences of its author and filmmaker together just as seamlessly, paying tribute to everything from Steinbeck's Travels With Charley In Search of America to Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas.

Featuring fine supporting work by Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny, and Travis Fimmel among others (including Steve Zahn in a startlingly against type role), overall it's Charlie Plummer's film from start to finish and his masterful performance gives Pete the wings needed to make Haigh's poetic road movie soar.

Bound to make viewers want to reach into the screen to help our polite, determined, and increasingly (heart-breakingly) street smart lead get where he's going safely, although we know he'd never believe us, we wish there was some way we could not only tell but ensure that everything in his life – and the lives of those just like him – will be okay.

Moving slowly to avoid taking any shortcuts, despite its YA premise, Lean on Pete is a far cry from most coming-of-age films where down-on-their-luck teens befriend a horse over the course of an unforgettable summer. Going out of its way to avoid mainstream friendly characters to instead focus on outsiders, with Charley and Pete as our guides, we cross paths with everyone from Mexican immigrants to soldiers recently returned from war.

A humanistic endeavor that touches but doesn't dwell too long on issues ranging from homelessness to addiction, even when things are the opposite of okay, through something as simple as a shared conversation or meal, Haigh reminds us via Charley and Pete that when we look out for one another, there's always room for hope.

Text ©2018, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy or screener link of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique. Cookies Notice: This site incorporates tools (including advertiser partners and widgets) that use cookies and may collect some personal information in order to display ads tailored to you etc. Please be advised that neither Film Intuition nor its site owner has any access to this data beyond general site statistics (geographical region etc.) as your privacy is our main concern.

Blu-ray Review: Knights of Badassdom (2013)

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In this Big Bang Theory era of blockbuster Marvel movies, comic book petitions and Cosplay, the A.V. Club nerds from high school who rolled Dungeons and Dragons dice in the library while the popular kids went to pep rallies are having the last laugh since there’s never been a greater time in pop culture history to be an avowed geek.

And Wrong Turn 2 director Joe Lynch’s Knights of Badassdom was made precisely with the built in Comic-Con ready fanbase in mind in this in-joke, stunt-casting filled salute to the world of LARP, which stands for Live Action Role Play.

Badassdom is bursting at the seams with an amazing cast of genre favorites led by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage and True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten. Also featuring former-Firefly/current Arrow actress Summer Glau as well as Community’s Danny Purdi, Revenge’s Margarita Levieva, Gen X fave Steve Zahn and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia turned House of Cards scene-stealer Jimmi Simpson, Knights is an embarrassment of riches in terms of great cameos.

Unfortunately, aside from its likable leads, there isn’t all that much holding this movie together. However, you must credit the film’s inventive premise about die-hard Dark Ages fans so devoted to their Dungeons and Dragons-like role-playing lifestyle that they live in a mock-castle as it's something altogether new for the now over-crowded nerd genre.

The creativity continues from there as shortly into the picture they discover that their weekend adventures in make believe sorcery have taken a turn for the magical when an ancient text purchased on eBay accidently conjures up a real live blood-thirsty succubus from the depths of hell who’s taken the form of Kwanten’s ex-girlfriend.

Unfortunately, it’s around this time that the essential one-joke premise begins to grow stale. Perhaps sensing this, the film switches up genres altogether in an uneasy segue from self-conscious nerd humor to full-on zombie horror when the succubus begins picking off the LARPers one after another.

Obviously when body parts go flying, it’s only a matter of time before the players must put their years of practice to good use when they come face to face with an actual dragon unwilling to be vanquished by the role of the dice or a tap with a foam sword.

Although the premise is bright, the imagery is not as Knights is hindered by the marriage of its gory over-the-top effects with some rather unflatteringly dark lost-in-the-woods night cinematography not helped by a dull Blu-ray transfer.

Furthermore, Knights’s screenwriters do the film a disservice by losing the best thing it had going for it in terms of its offbeat humor to instead turn Knights into a cheap fantasy horror hybrid that continually falters by moving awkwardly back and forth in tone.

As such, Knights of Badassdom becomes one of those movies that’s infinitely more fun to describe to others than it is to watch which easily explains how it earned the greenlight and such an acclaimed cast of actors undoubtedly attracted to the unusual pitch which is certain to be far different from the fare they’re usually offered.

And honestly the ingenuity of Knights makes you wonder if the actors signed on for the novelty of the idea alone without bothering to read the script, since you have a hard time believing they would've joined up if they'd read it from start to finish.

Nonetheless, it does having one major saving grace in the form of actor Jimmi Simpson. Clearly having a ball portraying the ego driven game master, Simpson once again shows viewers and casting directors why he should be cast far more often by cracking us up long after we've started to lost interest in the film overall.

Turning in another undeniably hilarious performance on par with his ongoing supporting guest role on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and his pace-quickening season two performance on Netflix’s House of Cards, Simpson nails the tone the film should’ve adhered to all along by playing the comedy straight and generating laughter naturally.

At its best when it does just that and reminds us of the ‘80s classic of fantastical comedy The ‘Burbs from Joe Dante (whose work should’ve been studied before a single frame was shot), while so much of the film feels as uninspired as a dull night of Dungeons and Dragons, Simpson is the real thing as Badassdom’s film-saving nerdy badass.
   

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Blu-ray Review: Night Train (2009)

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Unfortunately, while I just couldn't get on board with National Entertainment Media's recent release Baby on Board-- the second direct-to-disc offering Night Train (already available for rental at Blockbuster before hitting other chains for sale and rent in July) is a vastly superior work. Additionally, it's also one that you're able to board quite easily as a film fan and then uneasily as you try to figure it all out.

Not quite a horror film due to some clever cuts to shield us from obvious gore nor purely a morality play as mythological ideas and suspense fueled double crosses are woven throughout, at its core, Night Train is essentially a chamber piece.

Furthermore it's one that aside from the scope of the train setting could've actually been played out on the stage as it centers on a main trio of strangers who meet out of random chance around Christmas when they find themselves aboard the Nightingale.



Easily gravitating towards Danny Glover as our main protagonist since he is the conductor (and Danny Glover) and must ensure that all things are running smoothly-- the movie immediately gets us on his side when he lets a strange, troubled, pill-popping foreigner on board without money or a ticket because it's Christmas after all and the weather outside is frightful.



He takes a seat in the same car as a drunk, unhappy, and unsuccessful salesman Peter Dobbs (Steve Zahn) and a bookish pre-med student Chloe (Leelee Sobieski) who pours over gruesome anatomy texts. Yet just moments after he pops more pills courtesy of one of Peter's mini bottles of vodka, the stranger goes out for the count-- a nameless corpse in a train car on Christmas.



While the two passengers and Glover's Miles try to ascertain what happened and get ready to alert the authorities, a box tumbles out of the dead man's belongings revealing an overwhelmingly valuable treasure that-- after some moral hemming and hawing-- the three decide to split three ways.

Realizing that since the man never had a ticket, they could just imagine he was never there in the first place-- soon the trio scheme to get rid of the body to claim the treasure as their own as their interest in the box increases in equal measure to their anxieties and suspicions about one another.

For although this initial and literal stranger on the train is the Nightingale's first corpse, he's far from its last as others show up looking for the box, passengers grow more concerned and the three reveal aspects about themselves one would never have guessed.

Admittedly it's a familiar premise that feels at once like we're moving right into A Simple Plan or Shallow Grave territory but suddenly, the filmmaker mixes things up considerably by giving us a new meaning to the term "pandora's box" as Night Train barrels on to a devastating conclusion.

And in writer/director Brian King's feature filmmaking debut, everything feels eerie from the start of a work with a time and setting you're never quite sure about as the overly CGI looking train footage (ghoulish and supernatural like the unintentional but creepy tinged look of Robert Zemeckis' Polar Express) pops right along with the snow in 1080 pixels.

At once, Night Train is a throwback to vintage film noir and classic Hitchcock like The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train and North By Northwest or as King cites in an extra feature, John Huston's Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon. In the same turn it is also one that knows its cinematic history well with nods to countless works like Murder on the Orient Express utilized throughout a script that was created out of King's affection for the use of trains in old cinema.

Of course, trains themselves can be a metaphor for life (as Glover noted) since they're forever moving and changing as people make choices to get on or off but nonetheless they can be confining and claustrophobic all at the same.



In the standard definition extras-- over fifty minutes in all that's more than half of the film's 91 minute running time-- actress Leelee Sobieski makes an intriguing leap between the three actors (including herself) whom she explains are both "weird collectively... and individually." She cites this decision to cast the very different talents alongside each other as something that heightened the idea of the movie's treasured box being like a toy the three are fighting over in a sandbox.

She's quite right in that it's the characters that drive the piece and Zahn himself chimes in during his solo interview with a similar preference that instead of the treasure or a more clearly defined setting, we're mainly fixated on the three rather strange individuals who together craft the film into a simple, old fashioned American fable or myth.

I couldn't help but realize that in doing so and avoiding specific genre trappings, the need to wrap things up concretely or explain everything too much, King shows that he respects our intelligence enough for viewers to try and get to know the individuals as though we're strangers on the train as well watching the horrific events unfold in near real time.



While admittedly, after a few abysmally bad B-movie thrillers, I wasn't expecting much from the film that skipped the theatre and premiered straight on disc. However, honestly given the dark and uncertain nature of the piece as it slowly moves into Philip K. Dick meets Franz Kafka territory-- although it seems like it would've been a natural for perhaps Lionsgate or Summit Entertainment, I completely understand the lack of a major distributor to put a huge marketing campaign behind a film they can't quite sell as horror or any specified genre.

Although it's definitely not of the caliber of last year's brilliant train thriller Transsiberian-- it's quite a gripping ride that draws you in and doesn't let you step onto the platform easily. For you know that ultimately you're going to have to jumped off-- still dazed and confused by all that's come before it especially since and truer to real life perhaps than films where strangers suddenly tell each other everything in two minutes flat-- we're still not certain who Conductor Miles, Chloe, or Peter were by the time the movie ends.

An unexpected summer sleeper also produced by A-Mark Entertainment, FilmTiger, Rifkin Eberts and Cutting Edge-- the Blu-ray release from National Entertainment Media is exquisitely sharp with heightened artistic external shots that aside from feeling overly digitized add to the ambiance overall. Also featuring Spanish and English subtitles for the deaf and/or hearing imparied as well as impressive-- if not explosive-- DTS HD 5.1 Master Audio and 5.1 Dolby Digital with its widescreen 1.78: 1 aspect ratio-- although the extras are only in standard 480i definition, they're well worth exploring despite a repetition in the interviews and the making-of-featurette footage.



However, you'll want to be sure to view the film before looking for more treasures since spoilers come tumbling out in the extras within an instant. While I may have been an ideal audience member for the movie since much like King, I have a soft-spot for Hitchcock, noir and a genuine fondness for trains on film since the mystery, romance, danger, and metaphors aren't nearly as irresistible in a car, plane, bus, or subway-- it's a ride that I'd recommend taking. And it's definitely all the more enjoyable if you're an experienced ticket holder who's climbed aboard its many cinematic inspirations to be had in journeys of movies past.

Blu-ray Review: Strange Wilderness (2008)

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You have to be a fan of actor Steve Zahn to be able to appreciate the loony mayhem that is director Fred Wolf’s Strange Wilderness. Fortunately, this is one prerequisite that I’ve aced ever since I witnessed my fellow Minnesota native initially playing the sweet, closeted Reality Bites character amidst a terrific ensemble of actors in Ben Stiller’s directorial work.

Balancing out blockbusters with indie films, he followed this up with more great little-seen turns over the years (Safe Men, Happy, Texas), but it wasn't until he finally stole the spotlight away from such larger-than-life celebrity presences as Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, and Don Cheadle, first in Hanks’ underrated, sunny ‘60s feel-great musical comedy That Thing You Do! before he brought a bizarre mixture of humor and pathos to his small time hoodlum turn in Steven Soderbergh’s brilliant Out of Sight that people started to pay attention in a bigger way.

Although unfortunately, despite some truly memorable and instantly quotable laugh-out-loud moments in this film penned by Fred Wolf and Peter Gaulke that finds Zahn starring as the inept son who’s inherited his deceased Jack Hanna-like father’s nature television series, Strange Wilderness loses its way shortly after the characters hit the road in a series of escalating, tired, gross out, and cliched “outsiders on a journey” gags.

And despite the fact that only a third of the way into the roughly 90 minute movie, most viewers will feel like channel flipping as though they've stumbled onto the movie on television and moreover feel the strange sense they’ve seen it all before in countless other Happy Madison productions from executive producer Adam Sandler-- the main reason that the film succeeds at all (in the precious few times that it does) and what kept me watching for its entire running time was none other than Steve Zahn.

Coming right off of an impressive dramatic portrayal in Werner Herzog’s acclaimed Vietnam-set biopic Rescue Dawn co-starring Christian Bale, Zahn is instantly believable in familiar comedy mode as the fictitious version of Peter Gaulke.

The ill-prepared host of the now laughably awful series a three a.m. time slot-- Gaulke’s show is just weeks away from justifiable and long overdue cancellation by network executive Jeff Garlin. So in one last ditch attempt to bring back the viewers and make his father proud, Zahn leads his group of even more clueless staffers (including Allen Covert, Jonah Hill and Justin Long) on a journey to find Bigfoot by traveling down into central America.

Of course, we know they're completely unprepared for the dangers that face them given the group's prior tendency to prep for shows with voice-overs written on bar napkins, nonsensical and erroneous “facts” and pseudo-intellectual observations like “it is estimated that the faster a shark swims, the more distance he covers in a given period of time,” and enlisting crew members to don animal costumes to horrific results. And sure enough, it isn’t long before they’re flat broke and find themselves truly trying to survive in some very “strange” wilderness indeed.

A few years following the success of the movie’s origins as comedic shorts from Wolf and Gaulke via an independently produced series of short video “parodies of wildlife shows… which [were] eventually [aired] on Comedy Central,” former Saturday Night Live writers, stand-up comics and TV writers Gaulke and Wolf decided to turn that idea into a feature length work.

Kick-starting their ambition to see it as a movie by crafting their own version of it on video for potential financiers-- Wolf acknowledges that time and again they encountered “a lot of people interested in making it into a TV show… until Adam Sandler and his producing partner Jack Giarraputo read the script.”

With the blessing of Happy Madison Productions and Sandler’s name enabling them to attract some top-notch talent including Ernest Borgnine (in an inspired casting decision made after seeing him on SpongeBob SquarePants), soon the film was set into motion. And while one can’t argue with some of the incredible performers involved like the always-welcome Justin Long as the perpetually stoned, creepily tattooed new crew member and fun cameos with Robert Patrick and Joe Don Baker—- not to long after the movie's incredibly addictive and wholly original set-up-- the film's tone is destroyed by excess.

Namely in unsuccessfully trying to juggle so many different characters (including a bizarre and overdone turn by Jonah Hill that grates on the nerves within seconds) and an increasing over-reliance on disgusting sight gags-- soon the great premise about the dim-witted host is left by the wayside in lieu of sequences involving animals attacking our lead in the privates and-- I'm not kidding-- an entire conversation centering on the fact that a character's name is Dick.

And overall, Wilderness is a movie that holds our interest for the first portion as we see some of the characters in action creating what has to be the worst animal show ever captured on film-- making the screenwriters’ initial feedback that it would’ve probably worked best as a television show seem especially true in hindsight.

With a great deal of enthusiasm, the actors all try their hardest but sadly, there’s not much to like about a film that alienates more viewers with each successive scene that goes for laughs in the crudest possible manner, forgetting just what made the first act so damn funny to begin with.

Typically for the format, the Blu-ray quality of the 2008 work is quite impressive given the stellar sound and heightened depth perception, however since it was purposely filmed to visually hearken back to 1970s wildlife shows, it’s not a great improvement over the DVD so those who already own it may want to skip the upgrade.

Containing some extra features that relish in the repulsion of the infamous “turkey scene,” Jonah Hill’s bizarre Eddie Vedder modeled song performed alongside Justin Long, a veritable press kit extra on the film just added onto the disc and deleted scenes—the sole standout that shows exactly what the cast is capable of is titled “What Do We Do?” which finds Zahn, Long, Hill, Covert, and Borgnine all riffing in a hilarious exchange about Jack Nicholson, Nell Carter, and others.

As they improvise and challenge one another to be funnier, you can sense Long’s polite discomfort as he apologetically blames his crude outbursts on his character rather than himself (while seated next to the legendary Borgnine) but it’s a great example of just putting a bunch of creative and comically gifted people in a room together and letting them rip.

Likewise, it’s a terrific indication that—instead of the gross-out gags and over-the-top effects-- if Gaulke and Wolf would’ve done more scenes like the one featured in this extra over the course of the film, perhaps they’d be sitting with a much more successful and far less formulaic Happy Madison Production that’s memorable for something other than just simply marveling at the next ridiculous nature observation to be uttered by Zahn’s host.

Movie Review: Sunshine Cleaning (2009)

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Rather than give into the required ultimatum that she must medicate her mischievous grade school age son, Oscar (Jason Spevack)-- the proud and hard-working maid Rose (Amy Adams) decides to go into business for herself in order to foot the bill for private school tuition. Somehow finagling her deadbeat, pot smoking, perpetually fired, younger sister Norah (Emily Blunt) to join the venture, Rose takes the rather unorthodox advice of her married police officer lover (Steve Zahn) to get into the lucrative but biohazard filled racket of crime scene cleanup.

Advertised by Overture Films as a quirky comedy in the vein of the similarly themed and titled Oscar-winner Little Miss Sunshine that also shares some of the same cast and crew including Best Supporting Actor winner Alan Arkin in a fairly similar role to the 2006 movie-- Sunshine Cleaning has surprisingly become the most profitable film released so far in 2009.

As an Overture Films press release notes in a quotation from Executive Vice President of Theatrical Distribution Kyle Davies, the studio’s “aggressive word of mouth campaign, paired with favorable reactions from audiences and critics, have paid off in such a big way,” that the film has earned the “best per-theater average… of any limited or wide release thus far in 2009.”

While Sunshine Cleaning is a bit stormier than its charming Little Miss predecessor-- touching on some pretty melancholy topics throughout and opening with a suicide that jars the audience-- it's nonetheless a surprisingly touching work from Australian director Christine Jeffs (Rain, Sylvia) and first-time screenwriter Megan Holley that is consistently elevated by the solid portrayals of Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, along with supporting players Steve Zahn and Mary Lynn Rajskub.

Additionally, it’s an intelligent look at family and the way that the past still manages to linger in the present. While Blunt seems to be playing the more chaotic sister who's just one or two seconds away from spiraling out of control as she becomes affected by one of the jobs and tracks down the victim's daughter, Mary Lynn Rajskub—soon we realize that both Lorkowski siblings (as well as their flaky father) must find time to attempt to clean up some of their own messes.

And likewise, Adams shows another side of subtle heartbreaking depth as Rose. And on the surface, she appears to be the sister who tries to exude confidence and a sense of having it all together but soon we realize she’s the one on the increasing verge of chaos as the two personalities begin to shift.

Still struggling with both the tragedy of their mother's death as well as a battle with low self-esteem that finds Rose continuously returning for more hotel room trysts with her old high school boyfriend Zahn (incidentally Oscar’s father) who married somebody else—Adams manages to find a way to play the various levels and contradictory thought processes raging through Rose all at the same time that’s simply a marvel.

Intriguingly, Blunt and Adams-- who had previously worked together on-screen briefly indirectly on Mike Nichols’ film Charlie Wilson's War-- revealed in an Entertainment Weekly interview with Nicole Sperling (3/20/09; pg. 46), that they were both interested in the screenplay for Sunshine Cleaning before they even shot Wilson’s War.

Describing their natural chemistry and appreciation for one another as “love at first sight,” the two easily and believably fall into the role of downtrodden sisters in New Mexico in Jeffs’ film that was inspired by a 2001 “All Things Considered” NPR story about “best friends…in the Seattle suburbs who started a biohazard removal/cleaning service.”

Another character driven piece by Overture Films which is responsible for two extraordinary works from last year—The Visitor and Last Chance Harvey-- while Sunshine Cleaning isn't as instantly charismatic as Little Miss Sunshine, it gets its strength from the actors and by only vaguely sketching what may lie ahead in their future.

Never condescending to the audience although ensuring that their futures will be less cloudy than they had been before-- Jeffs and Holley end the film on precisely the right note. Namely, by showing us that all have changed but not trying to pigeonhole them into fixed conclusions. Instead, the filmmakers allow them to be free, breathe, and remain as natural as they were when we were first introduced to the women ninety minutes earlier.

Amy Adams & Emily Blunt