50/50

Based on real experiences from the life of writer and cancer survivor Will Reiser, 50/50 is a poignant, funny movie that blends comedy with the most serious kind of subject matter. I'd imagine it's difficult to bring humor into a story about a guy getting cancer, but with a competent script, solid actors well-suited for both comedy and drama, and some reserved directing from Jonathan Levine, the filmmakers accomplished their goal.

50/50
Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard

When Adam Lerner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is abruptly diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, his life radically changes: his girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) distances herself from him, his best friend (Seth Rogen) encourages him to start using cancer as a pity tool for sex, his overprotective mother (Anjelica Huston) freaks out and constantly checks in on him, and he becomes the third patient ever for a young therapist (Anna Kendrick) seeking her doctorate. From the summary, it may seem as if a lot is going on, but in fact, the movie lounges easily from one point to the next, fading in and out of subplots as Adam struggles to retain his sanity in the wake of horrible circumstances. 

There's no shortage of jokes, the funniest of which come from Rogen, a comedian who wore out his welcome early with me but who I've actually found increasingly likeable in recent years. Gordon-Levitt plays the whole thing straight, but a lot of humor is derived from his occasional deadpan deliveries; his dips into the dramatic provide an anchor for audience relatability, giving us a canvas on which to project our own loved ones who may be suffering similar fates. Anna Kendrick plays her usual on-screen self - a charming, insecure girl who talks a bit too much - but I enjoy her work, so I didn't have any problems with her. And Bryce Dallas Howard, someone who (to me, anyway) is known for playing mostly likeable characters, goes against type here in a career choice similar to Rachel McAdams' in this year's Midnight in Paris.

Jonathan Levine, who directed the interesting Sundance indie The Wackness as well as the abysmal All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (I hope it stays shelved forever, that's how bad it is), takes a more reserved approach behind the camera than usual. His normal stylistic flourishes are left behind in favor of emotional character moments, and perhaps the best compliment I can give him is that 50/50 doesn't feel like a Jonathan Levine movie. He coaxes some really good performances out of his actors, and this is clearly the best film with which he's been involved. Michael Giacchino's score is beautiful, and this guy continues to show why he's nipping at John Williams' heels to become the best in the business. Somehow, the man is able to make a scene where trash is dumped out of a car incredibly romantic with just a few notes (you'll know the scene when you see it). He's pumping out iconic score after iconic score, and he's still in his prime.

I won't get into too many details, since most of this movie is more about the feelings it conjures and less about the individual scenes that accomplish said conjuring. 50/50 is as funny as a movie about cancer can be without turning into a downright farce, but it's real strength lies in the dramatic beats. JGL fans will be pleased. Until next time...

Contagion

Contagion doesn't feature insane killers, demons, or haunted houses, but it's one of the most effective horror films of the year. Walking out of the theater, my audience warily eyed each other, making sure not to touch anyone or anything as we went our separate ways. Steven Soderbergh continues to prove himself as one of the finest directors of ensemble casts working behind the camera today, and his controlled direction coupled with a fascinating script by Scott Z. Burns makes for a hell of a movie. It's unsettling, but it's also exceptionally crafted and well-acted, so I have no qualms about recommending it for everyone.

Contagion
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard

Before the movie came out, many (myself included) wondered what the point of Contagion was: doesn't it look too similar to every other outbreak movie of the past twenty years? But this film reminded me that the devil is in the details: it's not only about the subject matter, but how the story is executed, and I'm glad I checked it out. Soderbergh adds all kinds of touches that make the movie stand out, from his shallow focus compositions to an excellent montage showing the spread of the deadly disease across the world. There's a detached quality here, and the director does a good job of keeping the audience at arm's length throughout the movie and not falling into the trap of making the movie about any one character over another; the main characters are the disease and the fear it inspires.

The acting is fantastic from everyone involved. Matt Damon sells his character's emotional breakdowns, Kate Winslet makes a big impact with a smaller part, Laurence Fishburne does some of his best work in years, and Jude Law is fantastic as a renegade blogger searching for the truth. Even Gwyneth Paltrow (who dies in the trailer) does well with the small screen time she has. Tiny performances by Elliot Gould, Demetri Martin, Enrico Colantoni, Bryan Cranston, and John Hawkes didn't disappoint, but the standout actress for me (as much as I love Kate Winslet) has to be Jennifer Ehle, who is not a big name yet but certainly should be after this movie. She evokes a young Meryl Streep not only in appearance but in quality in her role as a doctor on a quest to discover the cure for the disease.

Marion Cotillard's character is the weak link here, but that's no fault of hers. The script seems to forget about her since she disappears for a huge chunk of the movie - close to 40 minutes, I'd wager - and then when she returns, her motivations have completely changed with a pitiful implication of why we're supposed to empathize with her climactic decision. This is a script flaw more than an acting complaint, so I just want to reiterate that I had no issues with Cotillard's performance. Because there are so many characters introduced, and because Soderbergh keeps the audience from fully engaging with any of them (except for maybe Matt Damon and his daughter), this problem feels particularly egregious. But I'll also reiterate: just because we don't get to truly know any of these people, that doesn't mean that Contagion is not a captivating thriller.

Cliff Martinez adds an eerie electronic-based score punctuated with grating feedback noises, subtly adding to the horrific atmosphere Soderbergh creates. Martinez has been doing some good work this year with this and the scores for Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive (one of my favorite films of 2011) and the Matthew McConaughey flick The Lincoln Lawyer (which I still haven't seen).

The escalating panic and hysteria that Contagion depicts are perhaps the scariest moments in the film; it's easy to assume this movie's cynical view of the world is pretty realistic if such a situation were to occur. The involvement of the internet in breaking news and Jude Law's character becoming a prophet for people is not outside the realm of believability, nor are the looting, violence, and destruction presented. Burns' script is captivating, frightening, and well-constructed, and Soderbergh's take on the material is a perfect visual partnership with the script's tone. Contagion is not anything that I plan on revisiting any time soon, but that's not because I didn't like it: it's just because everything it suggests is too unnervingly realistic. And that unsettling feeling is the film's greatest success. Until next time...

The NJNM Podcast: Ep. 56 - Tombstone

In this week's episode, Tyler and Ben discuss George P. Cosmatos' 1993 film, Tombstone.

Introduction

Character Name Game Intro - 1:30

Media Consumed

Tyler

"Storage Wars" - 1:48

Ben

Season 2 of "The Shield" - 6:15
Season 8 "Entourage" - 6:52

Review

Tombstone - 9:00

Wrap-Up
Next Week: The Last of the Mohicans - 54:15
Listener Voicemail/E-mail/Twitter - 56:13

Character Name Game - 58:20
Up My Queue - 1:01:10

Where You Can Find Us - 1:07:24

Bunraku

Bunraku is one of the strangest films I've seen in 2011. Highly stylized and set in a post-apocalyptic world constructed out of constantly folding origami (!), it tells the story of a Drifter (Josh Hartnett) who teams with a samurai named Yoshi (Japanese pop star Gackt) to bring down the personification of evil, an oppressive Woodcutter named Nicola (Ron Perlman). The movie combines elements of samurai films, westerns, film noir, martial arts movies, and more, and the production design blends with those genres to create one of the most interesting cinematic worlds I've ever seen.

Bunraku
Writer/Director: Guy Moshe
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ron Perlman, Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, Gackt

To be clear: this is an interesting world, but not necessarily an interesting movie. Bunraku suffers from a case of style overload, attempting to blend far too many things; unfortunately, this results in every aspect of the film feeling not quite deep enough to matter. It's a purely visual experience, but in that regard alone, it's fascinating. The movie is shot entirely on sound stages with CG backgrounds, so comparisons to Sin City are sure to arise, but I feel like it's doing Bunraku a disservice to try to hold that visual comparison to just one movie. You can get the sense from the trailer that this origami world is unique, with a mixture of influences ranging from the canted angles of German expressionism to the paper mache whimsy of Michel Gondry.

There is a ton of action in this movie, but, like the film itself, it's all flash and no substance. The fight choreography is terrible, clearly trying to make the heroes seem like epic warriors who can beat their way through a hundred men without a scratch, but by relying on the typical "one guy attacks at a time" and "one punch knockout" cliches, it appears as if anyone with functioning limbs could fight just as effectively. (For multiple examples of how this can be done correctly, see Tony Jaa's The Protector.) There was one really excellent side-scrolling scene that shows The Drifter fighting loads of men down continuing levels of stairs in one long continuous shot, but it was essentially a vertical version of the same shot from 2003's Oldboy with video game sound effects pumped in. I'll give this movie one thing, though: it had an extended fight sequence in an abandoned circus before that takes place on a trapeze and the trampoline below it, something I've never seen before. (It would have been right at home in the gymnastics-based karate movie Gymkata.)

Josh Hartnett is no stranger to film noir (The Black Dahlia, Lucky Number Slevin, Sin City), and he does his standard thing here with a little more fighting than usual. Late in the movie, Hartnett battles a roving band of parkour jesters who dance around in the background as they attack him one at a time. Sigh. Woody Harrelson plays a bartender (remember "Cheers," anyone?) who is ostensibly there to guide Yoshi and The Drifter to the evil Woodcutter (Ron Perlman, playing basically any bad guy he's ever played, but one who actually has a scene in which he chops wood), but mainly Woody just sits in the shadows and creepily watches everyone fight in the rain. Oh yeah - and he also tells the origin story of Spider-Man through origami. Yep, that's all I need to say about that. Demi Moore also shows up for a few minutes as Ron Perlman's whore, looking so disinterested in everything that she must have been doing someone a favor by appearing in this film at all.

Another issue with Bunraku is length, clocking in at an absurdly long two hours and four minutes, far too long for a film like this. If the run time was closer to 90 minutes - even 100 minutes, like last year's similarly stylized The Warrior's Way - it would have been much easier to digest. But putting us through plodding action scenes, killing off Perlman's henchmen one by one, and adding a totally unnecessary subplot about a people's army forming near the end of the movie makes Bunraku more of a chore than a little piece of pop culture fun. The predictable ending is totally not worth the two hour wait, and at the point which we realize that almost none of the action scenes have any consequences, they actually become pretty boring and we just wait for the filmmakers to finish their masturbatory exercise and eventually finish telling the story.

Bunraku is filled with stock characters, bizarre editing choices, and a captivating backdrop. But because it blends so many different elements together into a massive hodgepodge of a movie, nothing stands out or seems truly important. I was never able to engage with any of the characters, and that may be fine for some people (especially in a film like this). As for me, I'd like to actually feel something about the people I'm watching on screen - whether that be rooting for them, hating them, something, anything - and this movie failed to provide me with a reason to do that. It's unique, but only you can decide if that's enough to be worth your time. Bunraku is available now on VOD and hits theaters on September 30, 2011. Until next time...