"They Came Together": Dissecting The Rom-Com

Now Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

They Came Together is a weird sort of film, one held together by a flimsy premise, and yet somehow still ends up more or less working as a feature film.  Essentially, the idea here is to take every tired and idiotic romantic comedy trope and lampoon the hell out of it.  And yeah, that is pretty much the running gag for the entire film, and for some reason, it mostly works.  The characters are all shallow archetypes and the cast portraying them feels like a Best of 2000’s SNL reunion show, and they go through the motions of the guy meeting the girl, then falling in love, then breaking up before finally getting back together in the end, and all the while winking to the camera over how stupid the whole enterprise actually is.  Unfortunately, though, for every joke that works, there’s another that doesn’t.

See, the way the film is structured, it feels like a series of sketch comedy bits with the intention of dissecting the romantic comedy formula and showing the audience the gross innards of the fluffiest and most brainless of film genres.  However, the sketches don’t seem to be able to sustain themselves just off that gag for the entire 80 minute runtime, so there are moments where gross-out humor and non-sequiturs take over a scene, and these sequences feel forced and out of place.  Most importantly, they’re often not very funny, which is really the death knell for any comedy.

However, the parts that are funny really do work.  I love the idea of breaking down the stupidity inherent in a genre and exposing it to a wider audience.  As a movie lover, it demonstrates to me that at least some in the industry recognize the inanity of repackaging the same product over and over to give essentially the same experience to an unthinking audience.  I imagine that some folks who take a look at They Came Together will pick it up thinking it’s just another romantic comedy, but come from it seeing just how susceptible they’ve been to Hollywood laziness.

And so, despite some portions that don’t really work as well as I’d like, I’m giving They Came Together a recommendation.  It’s not the greatest spoof ever, but it does an adequate job of getting its point across and the parts that are funny are really damn funny.  And without spoiling any of the jokes, that’s about all I can say about it.  Give this one a look.

Can you think of any romantic comedies that work as more than just brainless fluff?  Name a few in the comments below.

"Night Moves": An Emotional Bait-And-Switch

Now Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

Night Moves is the kind of plodding, thoughtful film that is immediately going to turn a lot of people off because of its minimalist dialogue and stoic protagonist.  I get that; a lot of people need something to be happening in every shot, and this isn’t a movie for them.  However, once one gets acclimated to the slower pace, it’s easy to get caught up in the raw tension that the film evokes, leaving the audience in a constant state of guessing what’s going to happen next.  One critic called the film “almost Hitchcockian,” and I think that’s a fairly apt description.

This is the story of three environmentally-mind young people who only refer to each other by their first initial: J (Jesse Eisenberg), D (Dakota Fanning), and H (Peter Sarsgaard).  They purchase a boat and seem to be planning something big to do with it.  As more and more information is revealed through dialogue, we as the audience realize that this isn’t a fishing trip; they plan to blow up a dam.  And, surprisingly enough, the film makes us sympathetic to their cause.  They’re only concerned about the harm that the damn is doing to the salmon population, and they want to make a statement that people need to use less energy so that the dam is not necessary for their consumptionist needs.  It’s a fair enough point, and it’s easy to see how they’re pushed to the point of eco-terrorism in a world that doesn’t seem to care.

And the first half of the film focuses on the tension of covertly preparing their illegal deed, whether it’s buying enough explosive fertilizer or navigating a populated park with a boat-sized bomb, the risk these folks face is eternally palpable.  Jesse Eisenberg pulls off a surprisingly understated performance with only subtle indications to his inner thoughts, and Peter Sarsgaard carries the bravado of a man who may not actually know as much about what he’s doing as he says.  The real breakout performance, though, is Dakota Fanning, who comes off as confident and stalwart at first, but when the shit hits the fan, she begins to slowly crumble.

And shit does hit the fan, for the second half of the film shifts tone once their deed has been carried out.  The consequences of the terrorist act suddenly become very real, and the guilt that begins to consume the characters becomes overwhelming.  Director Kelly Reichardt smartly limits the perspective to J for the remainder of the film, emphasizing the isolation and fear inherent with keeping their crime secret, as well as having to worry whether his compatriots will crack under the same pressure that he feels.  This culminates in a climax that at once seems shocking, yet inevitable.

The film’s epilogue is bit strange and unnecessary in light of the climax, but it’s probably unfair to judge the entirety of the film based on the oddness of the last five minutes.  Overall, Night Moves is a haunting tale of dramatic tension and guilt.  The purpose is not to watch the characters in motion, but to feel the weight of the few moves they make in a life-altering course of events.  Even when they realize their actions caused more damage than they knew, the characters remain sympathetic, which is amazing considering that they are in fact the villains.  Night Moves is well worth your time.

Who knew that Dakota Fanning could act?  Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

"Draft Day": Ready For Some Football?

Now Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

There are few things that I care about less than sports.  However, one of those things is the politics that go into building a sports team.  I know a lot of people get really hyped about seeing their favorite NCAA players make it into the pro teams, but to me, that’s even more boring than the game itself.  So what’s the big home video release this week?  Draft Day, the story of a general manager struggling with decisions over who to draft for the Cleveland Browns.  My enthusiasm was through the roof.

But you know what?  On a technical level, the movie isn’t half bad.  Not only does it do a decent job of conveying the gravity of the choices inherent in the final hours leading up to the all-important first round of draft picks, but it also portrays a cast of characters that are worth giving a damn about.  Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that any of these characters are deep.  The main character is Sonny Weaver Jr., played by Kevin Costner, and his story arc is the standard spiel about proving himself as a good manager, even when his choices seem questionable even to himself.  Jennifer Garner plays a love interest to the best of her limited ability.  Dennis Leary plays the Browns’ coach who argues with every decision Weaver makes.  Throw in a few to-be-drafted players to make us care about who makes the final cut, and we have a working, if fairly standard, coming-of-age sports drama.

Now, one would think that the negotiations between managers would be a dull affair, but the film constantly lets you know that the clock is ticking.  At the start of almost every scene transition, there’s a countdown to signify when the draft is going to begin, and as the number gets lower, the tension gets higher.  Stylized split-screen edits were a smart move that make telephone negotiations into visual collages, with characters walking into each other’s frames and back into their own reality without the slightest hiccup to reduce the tension.  It was a much appreciated touch for what could have been some truly bland visual storytelling.

Praise aside, though, the film does suffer from being a bit too much of a victim of genre conventions.  We all know that Weaver is going to make the right calls in the end because the right calls are telegraphed to us from a mile away.  The coach is going to be humbled by Weaver’s climactic genius, just as we’ve seen a million naysayers in a million movies before be proven wrong.  And of course Garner’s character is going to end up with Weaver, because her character literally serves no other purpose within the narrative.   It’s the classic cowboy transposed into a sports picture, saving the day from the evil Seahawks general manager and riding off into the sunset with his girl by his side.

So is Draft Day a good movie?  Eh, I’d say good enough.  It’s nothing spectacular, and it probably doesn’t help that personally I find the subject matter a bit on the dull side.  If you have any interest in football, I’d say there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.  Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t be interested enough to want to watch it in the first place.

Have a favorite sports flick?  Let me know in the comments below.