Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wilds Things Are is a fun-filled adventure for kids and adults alike. Young Max (Max Records) has a fight with his mom (Catherine Keener) and takes off to a mysterious island where he encounters several of Maurice Sendak's fabled creations. Cooly enough, Max soon finds himself elected King after befriending and destroying several dwellings with rage filled Carol (James Gandolfini). As time passes, Max and the beasties socialize, have a dirt fight, explore the mysterious island, philosophize about life, and build a new home (while Max comes to realize that being supreme ruler has its fair share of pitfalls). The subject matter's tame, the resolution picturesque, the narrative complex in its simplicity, and the characters overflowing with childishly provocative wisdom.

The friendly monsters each represent a different component of the troubled childhood psyche, generally united in their desire to remain somewhat aloof. Their observations are modestly delivered in a bewildered yet confident fashion that adds a significant degree of magical charisma to the film. Director Spike Jonze consistently displays his offbeat comic charm as educational systems and grown-up situations are subtly satirized. And every shot of the Wild Things gazing peculiarly into the camera produces youthful feelings of unrestrained happiness.

Pretty wild.

Funny People

Funny People's pretty funny but the last third of the movie tanks. Extremely successful comedian George Simmons (Adam Sandler) gives down on his luck funny man Ira Wright (Seth Rogan) the opportunity to write jokes for him after he discovers he has a terminal illness. The two develop an odd sort of acquaintanceship, Wright's fortunes improve, and Simmons is miraculously cured. Afterwards, George decides to make amends for his lecherous youth and make it up with one time girlfriend Laura (Leslie Mann), at which point the film takes a disastrous turn, with even the fight between George, Ira, and Laura's husband Clarke (Eric Bana) falling flat. Which is unfortunate since so many films end when their cantankerous antihero awakens moralized (As Good as it Gets for instance), and director/writer Judd Apatow decided not to follow this trend.

There are more problems: in Funny People's last act, we lose supporting characters Leo Koenig (Jonah Hill) and Mark Taylor Jackson (Jason Schwartzman) whose offbeat temperaments helped carry the opening moments. There's a terrible musical interlude where George sings a maudlin song whose only saving grace is that it must have been ironic (it attempts to generate sympathy for Simmons but we haven't known the character for long enough to grow attached, so Apatow circumvents our expectations by making the song terrible, although, perhaps the irony is absent insofar as we should have been expecting something terrible). And unfortunately, the dramatic aspects of the script require a little bit more depth than either Rogan or Sandler provide, which, to their credit, only increases the value of their comedy, for you have to be really funny to find yourself playing dramatic roles which are somewhat out of your league.

But Funny People has many positive features as well. James Taylor, Norm MacDonald, and Eminem have hilarious cameos within, as do many others. Throughout, we consistently catch glimpses of the extremely cheesy films Simmons has starred in during his career, an example of Sandler humbly making fun of his earlier work. And George and Ira positively change and grow throughout as a result of their constructive enmity, Ira falling for complicated love interest Daisy (Aubrey Plaza), George learning how to not be such a dickhole.

Not bad.

Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is an exceptional film. It's a tribute to film, a film fanatic's crowning achievement, a celluloidic lapis lazuli heuristically annihilating the Third Reich. Strong performances all around, Christoph Waltz (Col. Hans Landa) trying to steal the show ala Frank Booth unsuccessfully due to Brad Pitt's (Lt. Aldo Raine) non-Jeffrey Beaumontesque counterpoint. Aren't these names simply outstanding: Lt. Aldo Raine, Col. Hans Landa, Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), Marcel (Jacky Ido). Set up and executed like a post-modern fairy tale, Basterds unreels like a quaintly distinct incandescent extremity, bluntly interdicting fictional necessities in a multicultural absurdist panorama. Every introduced character is compelling; every scene an odd mixture of frank subtlety; the pipe, how about that pipe!; and I really don't know what else to say. Don't want to go into too much detail and ruin it (especially considering that I'm reviewing it six weeks later) and know that I won't have enough time to analyze it until at least mid-December. So I'll just say that, those things, and hope you like it, or don't.

Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day

Am not the biggest fan of Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day. Mike Clattenburg's characteristic trashy charm is certainly present but the film itself simply isn't that funny. Don't get me wrong, it's great seeing Ricky (Rob Wells) gain the confidence to finally start bossing around Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and what fan of the series could avoid feeling stricken as Bubbles (Mike Smith) falls in love? But too many of the jokes are recycled, seeing Ricky try and graduate high school simply isn't as funny as when he went after his grade 10 (probably the funniest plot twist of the series), and J-Roc (Jonathon Torrens) and Tyrone (Tyrone Parsons) don't make solid substitutes for the hapless Cory (Cory Bowles) and Trevor (Michael Jackson). Additionally, too much of the focus is on Randy (Patrick Roach) and Lahey (John Dunsworth) and Lahey's insane ramblings simply went to far (although I did appreciate their ridiculous depths). Countdown to Liquor Day is definitely on a grander scale: Lahey's opened a new trailer park and everyone has the option to settle down and fly right if they can only read the writing on the wall and stop fucking around. But they can't, which is good, and they won't, which is also good, but there's got to be another way to hilariously keep doing the same thing over and over again if The Trailer Park Boys are to survive as a credible film franchise.

(500) Days of Summer

Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer playfully illustrates the pain associated with falling for the wrong person in a style that reflects its protagonist's neurosis. Just forget about her, get over it, move on, times change; unfortunately for Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), this is easier said than done because he's fallen for Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), a fickle, mercurial, beauty, whose catlike credence has designated Tom as plaything (although she feels bad about it). The film jumps back and forth between different days in Tom's infatuation as he suffers through his enjoyment of suffering. It's pretty funny and functions as a warning for those in similar situations: bail, get out, forget about it, it won't work, even if you secretly don't want it to work, even if you like suffering, even if suffering is all you have. Having Tom work for a company that creates greeting cards was a great idea. Good flick.

Gamer

Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine's Gamer synthesizes reality television and online gaming in a sadistic salute to mendicant masochism. Computer genius Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall [Six Feet under]) has created two billion dollar programs: Society and Slayers. Prime time participants have had nanites inserted into their brains in order to enable a third party to control their actions with hypersensitive virtual controllers. In Society, such participants live out the carnal fantasies of their masters for the benefit of their adoring public. In Slayers, death row inmates are given the chance to avoid the electric chair/ if they can survive 30 rounds of a bellicose bloodbath orchestrated within a simulated war zone. Running man Kable's (Gerard Butler) almost free, his controller Simon (Logan Lerman) a world renowned celebrity. But has Kable been framed by Castle for a crime he didn't commit and will an underground band of hackers be able to reunite him with his wife (and Society star) Angie (Amber Valletta), just in time for them to rescue their daughter?

It's all just a matter of time, depending on the ratings.

Gamer's a bit cheesily melodramatic and predictable but it's also entertaining and well executed (including a cameo from Star Trek's John De Lancie). It competently examines the age-old appetites versus intellect dynamic by creating a world where people ravenously devour realistic fantasies at the expense of the impoverished individuals forced to willingly yield their pride, while simultaneously championing methods of destabilizing this dominant discourse. There's also a scene which is so revolting that it ruined waffles for me (a sign of great directing). Taylor and Neveldine painstakingly point out that there are things that remain popular even though they're humiliating and that working class dignity is something for which people must fight. Their portrayal of the future resonates in the present and stands as a prominent warning against fascist social slayers.