Year in Reviews 2012: Movie Edition - Part 4

Blogger's Note:  Check out part 1, 2, and 3 if you missed them.  You won't be disappointed.  Well, you could be I guess.  But it's worth the risk.

As always, these are in no particular order.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012 - Wes Anderson) - If you've ever seen a Wes Anderson movie, you know you can spot a Wes Anderson movie a mile away.  He was in the hipster vanguard, dating back to 1998's Rushmore, which I love, and possibly to 1996's Bottle Rocket, which I've never seen love.  Every aesthetic aspect of Anderson's movies smacks of the Ironic 60's; from the mod costumes, to the British Invasion soundtracks, part homage and part parody. His movies are weird and whimsical, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.  Moonrise Kingdom definitely works.  It's a story of young, forbidden love, 12 year old Khaki Scout Sam Shakusky falling in love with the slightly older Suzy Bishop.  The two run off together to the chagrin of Sam's foster parents, Suzy's attorney parents (played by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), the Khaki Scout Master (played by Edward Norton), the local cop (played by Bruce Willis), and basically everyone else who inhabits the beautiful New England island of New Penzance.

The grown up cast also features Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, and Jason Schwarztman.  All are great, as one would expect, but the kids are really what make the movie.  Jared Gillman as Sam and Kara Hayward as Suzy are the perfect pair to capture the innocence of a young and earnest love that doesn't really know any better.  More than any other of Anderson's movie, this one shows actual heart, rather than an ironic twist on what true sentiment might actually look like.  Not to say Moonrise is sentimental, because it's not, but it's Anderson's most honest movie yet and highly enjoyable.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962 - David Lean) - For my full take on 5 Things That Make Lawrence of Arabia the Consummate Epic click here.  I guarantee it's the only take on David Lean's classic that drops a quote from The Wire.

Fargo (1996 - Joel Coen) - I am a huge fan of the Coen brothers, and their classic crime story is without a doubt their masterpiece.  Not necessarily my favorite, but it's pretty great.  William H. Macy is a portrait of frustrated ineptitude as Jerry Lundegaard, a hapless car salesman who plots his wife's kidnap and ransom to extort money, and respect, from his wealthy father-in-law.  Unfortunately for Jerry, the criminal "professionals" he hires are only slightly less inept than he is and things go south in a hurry.  Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare are the mismatched kidnapper duo; one neurotic and one a sociopath.  Frances McDormand is terrific as Marge Gunderson, the unassuming, sharp, and very pregnant, small town cop who is investigating the case.  Dark, funny, and full of awesome Midwest accents and cadence, it also sets the pace in movie uses for wood chippers.

The Cooler (2003 - Wayne Kramer) - Another great performance from William H. Macy, this time as Bernie Lootz, a hard luck gambler employed by one of the last old school, pre-corporate casinos in Las Vegas as a cooler.  When a player gets hot at the black jack table or roulette wheel, they send in Bernie, a walking whatever-the-opposite-of-a-rabbits-foot-is and suddenly lady luck waves bye bye.  But when Bernie falls for waitress Natalie, played by Maria Bello, his luck, begins to change.  And that's bad for business.  Alec Baldwin stars as Shelly Kaplow, the hard core casino boss trying to hold on to the joint before the corporations take him over too.  He is none too pleased with Bernie's sudden stroke of good fortune.  He's old Vegas to the core, preferring to solve his problems with a ballpean hammer when possible.  A pretty good show about luck, destiny, and choices.  However, I saw Macy's butt on multiple occasions so that may have soured it for me a little.

Winnebago Man (2009 - Ben Steinbauer) - I wrote a full blown review of Winnebago Man a while back.  It's one of the most entertaining and thoughtful documentaries I've seen in a while.  Predictably funny, surprisingly poignant, and full of swearing.

TV Extravaganza: 30 Rock, The Americans, Parenthood

Well, my last post went over like a lead balloon.  Apparently not a lot of 1980's game show enthusiasts trolling my corner of the web or among my loyal fans.  Oh well, I enjoyed the walk down whammy lane.

Moving on.

Let's talk TV.  Three things:

1.  Yesterday was the series finale of 30 Rock.  To which I can only say, blerg.  My wife and I have been fans of Tina Fey's brainchild since the beginning, thanks to Jenna Fischer--no, really (thank you MySpace)--and it has been one fun ride.  No show could match 30 Rock's jokes-per-minute pace, save for maybe Arrested Developement but the cats at TGS are the champs by volume (thanks to AD's tragically short run).  There have been so many great gags and throw-away lines over it's seven seasons that it's immently rewatchable.  I love watching old episodes and culling out new one-liners for every occasions.  I'd love to have the comedic mind-grapes of Tina Fey and her slew of writers.

Besides the terrific jokes, what made 30 Rock unique was there was never any of that cliche' staple of the sitcom of the two leads of opposite sex ever hooking up.  Fey's frazzeled and trying-to-have-it-all Liz Lemon and Alec Baldwin's Vice President of East Coast Televison and Microwave Progarmming Jack Donaghy were close plutonically, rare in TV shows, and well, life, I guess.  But as weird and unlikely buddies, Fey, the liberal "artist" with a degree in Theater Tech and an unhealthy relationship with ham, and Baldwin, as the conservative corporate raider with mommy issues and a perfect head suit, had more on screen chemistry than most TV "couples."

Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy are two of the greatest television characters ever.  There supporing cast was pretty great too.  Tracy Morgan's Tracy Jordan is the hilarious amalgem of every crazy celebrity to grace the headlines of TMZ, and Morgan is alarmingly natural in the role.  Jenna Maroney, played by Jane Krakowski, is equally insane, never growing out of the paranoid insecurity of a second-rate child star from Florida.  Results were mixed with Jenna, but still solid comedic chops from Krakowski.  The ancillary characters were great too:  applefaced goon and possibly immortal Kenneth the page, balding submits-to-dominant-exercise-dummies Pete, Twofer, Frank, and even Lutz.

Though comedy was obviously king, 30 Rock had no shortage of heart and was adept at pulling it off without being cloying or precious.  The end of the penultimate episode is the perfect example, a heartwarming final moment that is still funny and so 30 Rock.

I will miss Liz and Jack and the rest of the TGS gang.

2.  Watched the pilot for the new FX show The Americans.  Pretty great.  It stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, Soviet spies living as a married American couple in early 1980's Washington, DC.  When I first heard about this show I was very excited, as I love Cold War era spy stuff, but I was concerned with the casting of Keri Russell.  I haven't seen her in much, I was never a Felicity watcher, but the with few times I'd seen her in something and her cutsie look, I wasn't sure if she had the gravitas to play a ruthless KGB operative.  Uh, wrong.  She's like Shaft; a bad motha--shut your mouth!  Granted, it's only been one episode, but she is ruthless and intense.  Rhys is more than solid as well, but as the softer touch of the two.  It's a pretty clever plan by the producers, to make the husband the half of the spy couple who seems more enticed by the American way of life.

From the looks of the pilot, the series will feature plenty of action, some intense old school cloak-and-dagger stuff, the mental toll of duty to county and possiblity of the good life as a defector, the moral ambiguity of the espionage game on both sides, not to mention the equally ambiguous nature of a family life built on a lie.  The couple has two pre-teen kids who don't know what their parents really are and at times it appears Elizabeth and Philip aren't really sure who or what they are either.

It was a great opening to the series and I'm looking forward to more.

3.  The wife and I finally started watching Parenthood the other night.  Not the Ron Howard directed movie, but the Ron Howard produced TV show.  We had watched the first couple episodes a couple years ago and really enjoyed it, but for some reason never followed up with it.  Inspired by a Grantland article encouraging binge watching it, we gave it nother go and ended up mini-binging the first four episodes in one shot.

Couldn't be more different than The Americans, or Breaking Bad  or Mad Men or the host of other acclaimed TV dramas of the past several years.  And I think that's why I like it.  While I do love many of those shows, they're all pretty dark and heavy, so it's nice to have a drama that is a little more lighthearted and a lot more relatable.  Not that Parenthood is all giggles and smiles, like any real family the Braverman's have real family problems, and the show has gotten a repuation as an eye-wetter, but tonally it is much different from any of those other shows.  Sometimes something good happens!  And very few people die or get their feet run over by riding lawnmowers.

The performances feel authentic.  Peter Krause, Monica Potter, Craig T. Nelson, Dax Shepherd, Lauren Graham, and the rest of the cast are all great.  They seem like they might actually be a real family.

It's a family drama that rings true as it warms the heart and wets the eyes.  Looking forward to binge watching some more soon.

Friend of the Program: Does Rock of Ages Rock?

Blogger's Note:  today we at Critical Errors are very happy to present our very first Friend of the Program.  He's a salesman from Ferdinand, Indiana, owner and proprietor of the My AFI Project blog, a father of three, a pisces, and my uncle, Jeff Graves!  Unky Jeff and I have had many a movie conversation over the years and hopefully he'll be a regular contributor at Critical Errors.  Also, check out his movie themed blog, the aforementioned My AFI Project, as he blogs his way through the AFI Top 100 movies.  Without further adieu....


Rock of Ages (based on the 2009 hit Broadway play of the same name) is a nostalgic look back at the big hair, power ballad laden days that were the 80’s. It pays tribute to everyone from Pat Benatar to Twisted Sister in a no holds barred romp that makes no apologies for its excesses. As far as plot goes there is nothing new here. It tells your basic story of a girl from the sticks who comes to the big city to try to make it big, meets a boy and faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles on her way to both love and success. Change the time and setting and one could easily see Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in the lead roles (Though I’m not sure Judy ever climbed aboard a stripper pole). Instead they are filled here by relative newcomers Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta. This is a movie that never met a cliché it didn’t love.

That being said, nobody buying a ticket to see this at the local cineplex is laying down their hard earned money to see the leads or get lost in a deep plot. They came to see Tom Cruise in hair extensions and a cod piece. They came to see Alec Baldwin in a wig. They came to see Russell Brand be, well, Russell Brand (though I’m not exactly sure why). They came to hear their favorite Journey, Reo Speedwagon, Night Ranger etc. songs revamped and retooled into big production numbers. They came because they are fans of the play and wanted to see if director Adam Shankman could recapture the same magic he had with his successful adaption of Hairspray in 2007.

As mentioned before, the plot offers very little here so the success of this movie depends on the performances of its players. In the lead roles of Sherrie Christian and Drew Boley (who meet, fall in love, have a misunderstanding and get lost in their pursuits of making it in this cruel world only to find out that what they really needed all the time was each other) Hough and Boneta do an adequate job. They both look nice on the screen and they sing the songs well. What they don’t have though are the chops or the chemistry to stand out in the middle of a big, loud production with a star studded cast and make you really care about what happens to them. We are far more interested in what the next song is going to be.  They are drowned out by the likes of Alec Baldwin playing worldly wise and financially stressed club owner Dennis Dupree, his sidekick Lonny played by Russell Brand. Katherine Zeta Jones is a vengeful rock and roll hating crusader assisted by Bryan Cranston her mayor husband (who once more indulges in his penchant for appearing on screen in his tighty whiteys). Paul Giamatti is great as usual as a slimy talent manager while Malin Akerman plays a bespectacled yet simmering reporter. All have their moments to shine and when called upon to sing do so with gusto and, most likely with the help of autotune, on pitch.

The key performance though is that of Tom Cruise as aging and possibly fading rock god Stacee Jaxx. The only time I can remember hearing Cruise sing in a movie was his destruction of You Lost that Loving Feeling in Top Gun so I was not overly confident in his ability to crank out some of the 80’s most iconic tunes in a convincing manner. I wouldn’t call his performance over the top but he brings an intensity to it that won’t diffuse any notions that he is possibly a bit unhinged. He commits to the role and he makes us believe in it too. He also carries off the singing very well. I’m not sure how much help he got from the boys in the sound editing room in post-production but I don’t think fans of Guns and Roses and the other bands covered by his performance are going to take to the streets in protest. I can honestly say I can’t think of any other actor who could have carried this part and with it the weight of the movie as well as Cruise did.

As for the music itself, I don’t have any real complaints. There are plenty of sing along moments and even some standout performances. I particularly liked Katherine Zeta Jones and her church ladies’searing rendition of Hit Me With Your Best Shot and the Greyhound bus occupants spontaneously combusting into Night Ranger’s Sister Christian. Also you won’t be able to forget Baldwin and Brand’s interpretation of I Can’t Fight This Feeling (though they may have ruined the song for me forever). What I never got though was a goose bump inducing moment that one would expect to get from this kind of movie. At times I felt like there was so much going on during the musical numbers that the music got a little lost. I have never seen the play but something tells me that over all this would work better in a live performance. So while the songs were fun I didn’t find myself totally engaged.

If you’re looking to be totally blown away then Rock of Ages is going to be a disappointment. But, if you can keep your expectations to a reasonable level there isn’t any reason why it can’t be a fun night at the movies. Rock on!