Review: Paranorman is sharp, scary, and just shy of spectacular

"AHHH!!! It's the Mystery Machine! We're so dead."

Grade: A-

There's a moment near the end of Chris Butler and Sam Fell's Paranorman where it is clear the movie was aiming squarely at adults.

It's a moment that I won't spoil, but it is one that got more audible gasps from the screening audience than any other scary scene in the movie. It is also a moment that cements the theme of Paranorman in such a delightfully subversive way that it will surely put a smile on the face of most of the adults in the audience.

Essentially, Paranorman is about the tried moral: "Don't judge a book by its cover." The second feature by the company behind stop-motion instant classic Coraline, Laika, Paranorman centers on a middle-schooler Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who can see and talk to the ghosts hanging around his small Massachusetts town. Norman's ability is a source of consternation for his father (Jeff Garlin), concern for his mother (Leslie Mann), and annoyance for his boy-crazy teen sister (Anna Kendrick). his ability also guarantees daily abuse from his classmates, especially lunk headed bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, voicing way against type). Despite his rep and clear desire to shoulder his burden alone, Norman finds a friend in the relentlessly optimistic Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), who also deals with his fair share of abuse due to his chubbiness. Oddly, Norman's harassment seems at odds with his hometown's claim to fame. As the site of a colonial era witch trial, almost every business in town, plus a statue in the town center, is based around witches. What the town doesn't know is that the witch that fuels their livelihoods actually placed a curse on the town, and only a creepy malcontent (John Goodman) who can talk to ghosts has been able to keep the witches curse at bay for years. When the grumpy old ghost whisperer dies suddenly, it's up to Norman and his friends to find a way to satisfy the witch before her curse raises the dead.

As the first film by Laika after Coraline, Paranorman has pretty high expectations to live up to, and while it doesn't quite ascend to the heights or dig to the depths that Coraline did, it still works as a focused, charming, and sharp fable. In many ways, Paranorman is the descendant of the same 80's Speilbergian kid adventure flicks like Goonies and ET that inspired JJ Abrams' Super 8. The characters are broad but lovable archetypes, with Neil and his musclebound brother, Mitch (Casey Affleck), being the real standouts, that have enough pathos to be far more relatable than characters with more unique characteristics. The well-paced plot  centers around the kids interaction with an unnatural force, but its subtext is filled with a sharp, witty, and thematically consistent examination of a moral that is increasingly relevant to today's kids. Yet, Paranorman tackles its central theme with an honest, earnest tone that never speaks down to anybody in the audience, regardless of age. It is this approach that, unfortunately, leads to Paranorman's central weakness. 

As a "kids" movie, it may be too heady and scary for its target audience. Granted, animated features have never been squarely targeted a kids, but that's what the marketing teams would like moviegoers to think. This means that many parents are going to take their kids to Paranorman expecting something goofy and lightweight and finding something far heavier. To a degree Paranorman is a bit slight, especially as it is intensely focused on a theme that most older children may have already grasped and most parents certainly should have grasped, but it is that focus that enabled Butler and Fell to allow Paranorman to move so confidently, and effectively, between scares, laughs, and drama. The on-point voice performances also help Paranorman excel because the reticent scenery chewing and over-the-top antics are all grounded in character issues that draw back to the central theme. Speaking of character, Butler, Fell, and the Laika team have done an absolutely phenomenal job with the stop motion animation, especially the character designs, which are all charmingly unique and varied but in a way that makes the characters seem disturbingly human. All things considered, it's almost rare to see this kind of thematic and character focus in an animated feature outside of Pixar, but then again, looking at Laika's work so far, it should be expected.

Paranorman may not be anywhere near as bright, bubbly, and riotous as this summer's other animated entries, but its heart is in the right place and that heart has pumped out some talented meaningful work that kids, parents, and those without either to accompany them to the theater should not miss.

In-Between the Scenes Observations:

• If only one episode of Ghost Whisperer ended the way Paranorman did, I assure you it would have been even more popular.
• Guns, knives, and brass knucks are drawn at the mid point of the film; Mild ultraviolence ensues. parents beware.
• Sadly, there is at least one loud, angry Black woman stereotype; can't win'em all.
• The 3D enhancement was totally unnecessary and only makes the film even darker. But, hey, tickets!
•  There's no twist at the end, but after about an hour away from Paranorman, the impetus for the witch's curse will hit you pretty hard.

Review: Timothy Green's life isn't odd, just old fashioned

"Yeah, I don't know what to tell you. We love our leaves on Krypton."

 Grade: C+

For years, pockets of society have railed pretty hard against Disney for making slight, unambitious entertainment that tries to please all but clearly only satiates a very specific majority: children.

As if that's a crime.

Disney has never had to make edgy, sharp entertainment; it's great if they do, but they never needed to develop fare that pushes the boundaries of art, nor should they be expected to, because their audience simply doesn't demand such "sophistication". Does this mean that Disney deserves any less regard as a credible creative force with the power to affect the masses? Not really, and even if the company did receive less regard for lacking creative ambition, I'm sure they could use a spare hundred or two from their coffers to dry their scant tears. So, when Disney releases something as rote, cute, and middle-of-the-road as Peter Hedge's The Odd Life of Timothy Green, there should be no cause for alarm (there won't be) or inflammatory criticisms. Simply, audiences should adjust their expectations and accept the fact that hedges flick won't set the world on fire, but the kids and families will get a mild kick out of it before their memory of Timothy Green's odd life falls away like leaves on an autumn tree.

Odd Life centers on Jim (Joel Edgerton) and Cindy (Jennifer Garner) Green, a small town couple who have struggled to bring a child of their own into the world. At the end of their rope after years of trying every medical option available, Jim and Cindy write down their wishes for a perfect kid and bury those wishes in their backyard garden, which seems suspiciously on-the-nose in its cutesy progressiveness. That same magical night upside-down rain falls from the heavens and out from the ground, literally, pops Timothy (CJ Adams), the most adorable and precocious 10-year old since Disney's last movie or show starring a precocious ten year old. With the exception of the leaves growing from his ankles, Timothy is the absolute child of Jim and Cindy's dreams. Once adjusted to the shock of having "birthed" a magical plant child, Jim and Cindy quickly open their hearts and home to Timothy, who has that ever-elusive power to positively change the lives of everyone within spitting distance, especially Jim and Cindy's less-than-loveable families. As his "parents" and the town come to love the eccentric Timothy, especially teen outcast and potential crush Loni (Odeya Rush), and his propensity to absorb sunlight for energy like Superboy's skinny cousin, the young man struggles to keep a devastating secret from Jim and Cindy that will change the course of their lives.

Hedges film, based on a story by Ahmet Zappa, handicaps itself early by working with a framed structure that telegraphs an ending that would have been far more effective without the framing. That structure, in combination with a languid pacing that is typical for prestige picks and films made before the turn of the century, may be a bit of a turn off to moviegoers still attuned to the flash and fire of the Summer Movie Season. Yet, the pacing is absolutely central to telling this type of psuedo-Oscar bait story about a relatively heavy topic as it lends some somberness in the moments where Timothy isn't letting his precociousness generate a few chuckles and chortles. Despite the slightly somber tone, Odd Life builds some humor out of the central conceit that Jim and Cindy's wishes were a tad incomplete, which makes Timothy appear to have his head firmly entrenched in the clouds as he doles out sage down-to-earth advice. Granted, Odd Life is far from a riotous experience, especially once the central joke wears thin, but it is amusing enough to keep the younger and younger at heart members of the audience from dozing.

Star CJ Adams does most of the heavy lifting with the comedy in Odd Life, bringing an easy charm and restraint to the proceedings that recalls Freddie Highmore's turn as Charlie in Tim Burton's Charlie & the Chocolate factory adaptation.Adams imbues Timothy with that fictional balance of old soul wisdom and childlike innocence to make Timothy a lot more bearable and lovable than he could have been. Making Adams job easier are Edgerton and Garner, who are both a tad saccharine and square but acceptable as Timothy's parents and straight man/woman. Edgerton acquaints himself fairly well, though he is mostly reduced to staring in shock or frowning as he grapples with a daddy-issue storyline. Garner, on the other hand, seems to have abandoned any pretense of embracing her athleticism and sexiness as she did at the height of Alias' popularity and become a real-life mom. On screen, there is little to hint that Garner was once kind of a big time action star as she ladles on the doting and a relentless stream of hugs and kisses. Together, the three make a cute (there's that word again) and reasonably convincing if not particularly memorable family who most won't mind spending an hour and a half with.

The family at the center of Odd Life, and the accompanying performances, is a perfect encapsulation of all that is wrong and right with Odd Life. It is twee but inoffensive. Slightly charming but possessed with a great potential to incite eye-rolling. Heartwarming but rote. Life-affirming but not particularly memorable. I can't begrudge Hedges and his crew for not aiming higher because they don't need to. Odd Life doesn't have to be a gritty affair that plunges into the depths of a marriage struggling under the weight of the couple's failure to reproduce. it merely has to be a mildly funny and sometimes spritely little tale about how one magical little boy changed one couple's, and a handful of townsfolk's, lives.In aiming for that target, Odd Life succeeds, just don't expect much more than that.

In-Between Observations:

•  David Morse, Ron Livingston, and Diane Weist all occupy small roles that add up to a handful of extended cameos; a sad waste of talent.
• Timothy Green's Odd Life is very much like the early days of kal-El's Strange Life; up to and including absorbing energy from the sun.
• CJ Adams has moments where his posture makes him look 62 rather than 12. If this is acting, great job; if not: poor kid.
• Mila Kunis+Sarah Hyland=Odeya Rush; there is nothing cookie cutter at all about Hollywood casting.

Review: The Campaign snags a few chuckles, trails top political satirists by a mile

"My god, what a magnificent permanent."

Grade: B-

Spend a half hour watching John Stewart or Stephen Colbert, and you're likely to surmise that American politics are insane.  With its curious and often infuriating mix of celebrity, special interests, and uncivil conduct, politics in good ole' U-S-of-A seems less like a path to civic engagement and more of a last stop for those poor souls with poly-sci and law degrees who had a hankering for fame but were too smart and not quite attractive or talented enough to be movie, TV, or music stars.

Thanks to shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or any number of web series or comedy specials highlighting a particularly politically charged comic, this is not news, which makes Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis' latest send-up of the American electoral process, The Campaign, seem a little late to the party.

Despite being about a decade late, director Jay Roach, who has jabbed at the political machine to better results with HBO movies Game Change and Recount, attacks the inanity of politics with a fervor matched only by the over-the-top antics of his leading men. Ferrell and Galifianakis play fierce and foolish North Carolina congressional seat competitors, Cam Brady and Marty Huggins, respectively. Brady, the Democratic incumbent who has been unchallenged for four terms, is the quintessential Will Ferrell dolt. He is a man possessed by an inkling of an intelligence and a boatload of false confidence that powers his ridiculous platform built on Jesus, Freedom, and America. Huggins, the same type of effete social leper Galifianakis has perfected in the Hangover series and Due Date, is a humble tour guide and family man with an unbridled love for his hometown of Hammond, a lifestyle that belies his political pedigree. When a pair of greedy industrialists (John Lithgow and Dan Akyroyd, recalling Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy in Trading Spaces as much as the real-life Koch brothers) set their sights on building a Chinese-run factory in Hammond, Huggins is tapped to run against Brady in a election that quickly escalates into a cavalcade of shenanigans and tomfoolery topped only by the antics of real-life politicians.

Roach, Ferrell, and Galifianakis do their best to deliver a steady stream of laughs with Seth McFarlane-esque relentlessness, throwing so many jokes and gags at the audience that at least two out of ten jokes will make all but the most disaffected and cynical crack a smile. The thing about that approach is that it reeks of desperation, and when combined with the very real prospect that Ferrell and Galifianakis may both be peaking, it makes The Campaign seem even less edgy than it the creators and stars think it is. That's not to say that there are no solid laughs, just that the laughs are far less clever than the subject matter would lead the public to believe. Gags built around Huggins' peculiar family, Brady's numbskulled stumping, a drunk driving arrest, and Dylan McDermott's mafioso-like campaign manager all contribute to some genuine chortle-out loud moments. That said, much of the gags are exactly the type of over-the-top farce to be expected from Ferrell, with a dash of Galifianakis' subversive jabs to offset Ferrell's farce. Fans of either will probably be paralyzed with laughter; everybody else will probably be satiated with one or two good laughs before having enough, which should happen right around the climax.

For a 90-minute flick, The Campaign gets down right exhausting by the time things mosey around to the end of the election. By the time everything starts to wrap up, in fairly predictable fashion, the onslaught of gags, digs, and gross-outs has worn out its welcome, becoming a big screen reminder that even the best comedians lose their touch after about five years. Ferrell and Galifianakis are both at a point where their public personas have reached a saturation point (Ferrell probably more so than Galifianakis, but the bearded one is closing in fast), and their appeal in The Campaign will rest largely on your appreciation for their unique comic stylings as much as it will your tolerance for broad political satire, especially when far more pointed and impactful satire is available each night on cable for roughly less than the cost of a movie ticket. Yet, as America closes in on another Presidential election cycle, The Campaign may strike a chord with audiences who don't want to feel too insulted by watching Comedy Central's one-two punch of satirists or even something like the more inflammatory Real Talk with Bill Maher because it manages to at strike an adequate balance between broad comedy and biting satire that should make everybody in the red and blue states, with the exception of North Carolina, laugh together...for a moment.

In-Between Observations:

• Ferrell continues to lose fans in the South as the digs at North Carolinians are vaguely reminiscent of the shots at Southerners from Talladega Nights.
• Seriously, how many times can Zach Galifianakis play Alan?
• Jason Sudekis, unfortunately, fades into background as Ferrell's campaign manager, only to be outdone in the laughs department by Dylan McDermott. How did that happen?
• Ferrell's pompous Brady is a Democrat and Galifianakis' compassionate Huggins is a Republican. Shouldn't that be reversed?

Review: Lawless entertains with simplicity, charm, and blood

"Cars that transform into giant metal men, you say? I believe we can break them."

 Grade: A

"They don't make'em like they used to."

There's something to that simple statement that speaks as much to our yearning for the trappings of our youth as it does to our yearning the simplicity of those trappings.

Typically, when that saying is applied to movies, it's used an excuse to gripe that a new film is nowhere near as good as an older film remembered through rose-colored memories. Occasionally, it's used to point out an achievement in cinematic storytelling that harkens back to a "simpler", bygone era of filmmaking that put character and narrative above bombast and spectacle.

Director John Hillcoat and Screenwriter Nick Cave's Lawless, an adaptation of Northern Virginia-born writer Matt Bondurant's The Wettest County on Earth", is a superb example of the second circumstance.

Bringing together a cast that could rival a Nolan production, and borrowing a few of his repertory players to boot, Hillcoat and Cave,  craft an affecting, if simple narrative about the Bondurant brothers, three siblings who dominated the moonshine trade during the late 1920's in the isolated Appalachain-esque town of Franklin, Virginia. Tom Hardy, fresh off his lauded performance as the megaphone-voiced Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, plays the eldest Bondurant, Forrest, a reticent, broad shouldered bootlegger who evokes Karl Childers as much as he does Batman's latest heavy, whose is as devoted to the sale and procurement of white lightning as he is the cultivation of his family's legend of invincibility. Shia LaBeouf harness all that qualities that make him the prickly, smart ass you probably love to hate in a role as the youngest Bondurant, Jack, who has his sights set on being a big time gangster in the vein of Al Capone or Floyd Banner (Gotham's own Commissioner Gordon, Gary Oldman, appearing to have finally caught up with Bane). Jason Clarke rounds out the trio as middle brother Howard, a shell-shocked WWI vet who loves the consumption of the bush whiskey a bit more than the rest of his kin.

The Bondurants maintain an iron grip on the distribution in a town where everybody seems to have still, mostly through fear, intimidation, (sounds familiar, I just can't place it) and the propagation of their legend in and beyond Franklin. As the limp hand of Prohibition spreads to Franklin, the Bondurants find themselves forced to face giving up their enterprise to the likes of new Commonwealth attorney Mason Wardell and his foppish right hand Special Agent Charlie Rake (Guy Pearce, clearly reveling in Rake's snide villainy), a dapper hitman well versed in "The Chicago Way". Refusing to back down and undermine their legend and legacy, The Bondurants face enemies from within and beyond Franklin that threaten to change the peace of their kingdom by spilling as much, or more blood, than necessary. Suffice to say, shootings, beatings, and tar and featherings abound.

Lawless sounds terribly simple on paper, and in truth, it is, but the simplicity of narrative is what allowed Cave and Hillcoat to breathe such great life into Lawless' greatest achievements: its characters and the performances. Cave and Hillcoat, both responsible for 2005's phenomenal The Proposition (which also featured Pearce), have crafted some amazing and memorable characters in the Bondurant brothers and their opposition in the form of Charlie Rake. It is rare to come out of the theater today and hold on to the memory of the characters on screen over the spectacle of set pieces or left-field plot twists, but Cave, Hillcoat, and their cast have done an exceptional job in achieving that rarity. Tom Hardy, Shia Labeouf, and Guy Pearce especially excel at building great performances out of characters that were likely amazing on the page. Hardy harnesses his physicality to greater effect here than he did as Bane, making the audience believe his invincible with a few choice actions and even fewer words. In fact, if Lawless was screened right before Dark Knight Rises, I would be much more inclined to believe in the legend of Bane than I did after listening to Alfred Pennyworth's warning. Shia LaBeouf plays the role he has always played as that young punk whose appetite is bigger but not faster than his mouth. yet, in Lawless, his antics have greater context as he lives in the shadow of two brothers whose legend he knows he may never be able to live up to. And, Guy Pearce delivers one of the most memorable gangland villains to hit the screen in a while with his preening, snakish performance that makes the audience laugh at rakes as much as they cringe at his brutality. Even the extended cameos in lawless bear the fruit of great performances as Gary Oldman steps back on the rwrong side of the road with menace and wryness in his role as Banner.

Because Lawless is such a uncomplicated narrative, the performances shine especially bright, but Cave and Hillcoat still manage to integrate a few welcome surprises, all of which a character-based and surprisingly logical despite appearing mythic in nature. Nothing makes this more evident than the closing scenes that focus on Forrest, a man who is defined by an outsized legend. Yet, Cave and Hillcoat wrap things in such a way that will make it hard for many in the audience to restrain an awe-filled smile. In many ways, that is Lawless' most unique and endearing quality. It takes a story built on equal parts legend and fact and weaves them into a narrative that manages to make audiences believe that these characters could ably embody the proportions of the myths built around them. It is also a film that makes you like these characters more than they deserve to  be liked. In achieving both tasks, Lawless recalls Brian DePalma's The Untouchables, a movie from my youth that I remember fondly for its great characters and, hindsight being 20-20, simple but effective narrative. Which goes to show that, with the right amount of craft, care and attention to character and narrative, they can make'em just like the used to, if not better.

In-Between Observations:

• Dane Dehaan plays Shia LaBeouf's "sidekick" with as much nuance as he brought to his role as would be world destroyer in Chronicle. Definitely, one to watch.
• Jessica Chastain also does a great job as a Chicago girl looking for peace in the woods of Franklin and brings a quiet dignity to her role that few gangster dames can cop to.
• Lawless manages to wrap up a plot pint in less than ten minutes that FX's Sons Anarchy could not wrap up in almost ten episodes. Ten minutes of screen time vs. ten hours. One point for movies.
• Bane's deadliest weapon is not fear or a gas mask, it's a pair of brass knuckles. Trust me.

After the Fact Review - Total Recall

This remake is a bad idea, isn't it?

 Grade: C+

Ah...August. The time of year when the studios start to unload the crap that couldn't draw at the height of summer. The first sacrificial lamb out the gate: Len Wiseman's remake of Paul Verhoeven's 1990 sci-fi mindbender Total Recall.

I remember seeing the original Total Recall when it hit HBO, but I don't recall all the details--pun only kind of intended--but I do remember a few of then-star Arnold Schwarzeneger's cheesy one-liners, the triple breasted hooker, the collapsible disguise, the rebel leader with the alien in his chest, and Schwarzenger's eyes bugging out in the Martian atmosphere. What will I remember from Wiseman's version: Kate Beckinsale is unstoppable, Colin Farrell is embracing his place as a B-list Tom Cruise, Jessica Biel has the charisma of a shard of dead wood, and Walter White may be the man behind the rise of the Galactic Empire's duo-tone styling. Not quite the same quality of memories.

The difference in the memories I took from Wiseman's Total Recall and those I took from Verhoeven's is directly related to Wiseman's decision to eschew the oddly endearing weirdness and intelligence of the original and its source material, Phillip K. Dick's "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale", in favor of a straight-up, stone-faced sci-fi actioner with some middling commentary on economic equality.

This time, there are no trips to Mars, as the action centers around the conflict between the remaining inhabitable zones in a post-apocalyptic 22nd century Earth: the upper class United Federation of Britain and the home to the working and lower class, the former Australia, now known as the Colony. Farrell plays Doug Quaid, a Colony inhabitant who is grossly dissatisfied with riding a super-size subway that cuts through the Earth's core to get to his job as a factory worker. Looking for a way to break out this rut, Quaid makes a jaunt to Rekall, a dream factory that manufactures exciting, interactive memories of lives unlived for its clients. Doug's trip to Rekall does a little more than leave him with a few breathless memories of a fake life as a secret agent, it appears to have activated some latent memories of a real life as a secret agent. With thes old memories unlocked, Quaid must outrun his formerly doting wife turned lethal undercover agent, Lori (a relentless Kate Beckinsale), and Bryan Cranston's conniving Chancellor Cohagen, and, with the help of a mysterious woman of/from his dreams (Jessica Biel), discover his true identity while stopping a war that threatens the stability of the Colony.

As a straight-faced, routine action flick, Total Recall does its job adequately, if not particularly memorably or inventively, and hits the beats it needs to, from brutal fisticuffs to the standard high speed chase to mildly intense yet bloodless gun battles, all at a fairly solid clip. As a remake, it fails to capture the essence of its quirky, off-kilter original by dropping the more humorous elements and sly intelligence in favor of an ultra-serious tone, empty social commentary, and an even grimmer, more cluttered aesthetic that rips off Blade Runner, Minority Report, and any number of recent sci-fi flicks about an amnesiac tough guy punching his way back to his memories. This leads to a take on the material that is so rehashed that it becomes impersonal, making much of the narrative lack weight. In Recall, the story of the amnesiac secret agent freedom fighter is so rote that it's been packaged into an interactive experience, the likes of which so placates the populace that they seem to care significantly less about gaining economic equality than the main characters do.

Yet, for all its lack of wit and insight, Total Recall is a solid diversion that exists in the same space as flicks produced by Luc Besson's action factory. It is inoffensive and exciting enough to make two hours blaze by with solid pacing, occasionally engaging set pieces, and acceptable if not revelatory performances. Speaking of which, Bryan Cranston and Kate Beckinsale pretty much get co-MVP honors--shocking, considering Cranston's ouevre and the fact that Beckinsale's husband just happens to be the director--for what its worth, performing with a bit more joy and devilishness as the top baddies than Farrell and Biel, who are saddled with the thankless, personality-free hero roles. These performances, as with the narrative, are serviceable but not bothersome and help make the flick live up to its placement as the first entry in the August box office sweepstakes: not good enough to draw the big crowds but not bad enough to bore the few souls who drop ten or twelve bucks on a ticket out of their skulls.

In-Between Observations:

• The triple-breasted hooker returns in a way that clearly pushes the limits of the PG-13 rating.
• Why do near-future societies always look like some variation on Tokyo?
• I know actors need to work, but this Jessica Biel thing has really run its course.
• The Synthetics are clearly stormtrooper knock-offs but they may be the best looking knock-offs we've seen in a while.
• Yes, 90% of Kate Beckinsale's moves in Total Recall are ripped from her more notable role as Underworld's dominatrix vampire assassin Selene.