2014: The Year in Film: Everything is Awesome: "The LEGO Movie" Review

Yep. Late. But guys, I've finally reviewed every movie that I saw in 2013, so we've officially moved into 2014 once and for all, and it's only September. So, win?

So I'm pretty jealous of Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, guys.  These two young-ish dudes managed to leapfrog from "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", which, meh, to 21 Jump Street and its sequel, which are some of the more enjoyable comedies of the last few years. Next they get tabbed to write and direct "The LEGO Movie" with a star studded cast, which is basically the nerdy childhood dream of an embarrassingly large portion of the male population aged 20-35.  As a disclaimer for purposes of this review, my brother and I spent inordinate amounts of time playing with/building LEGOs as youths, so that sentimental afterglow is absolutely going to shine through in this review. So if you don't like LEGOs (first, what are you, an asshole?), this review probably isn't for you. Also, I wandered into the LEGO store while walking around a mall the other day (my phone was being repaired, I haven't willingly stepped into a mall for non-Apple repair-related purposes since at least 2008) and let me say that if I was a child today all I would do is want Legos. Star Wars? Lord of the Rings? Marvel superheroes? Ridiculous. I know that Lego started producing licensing sets after losing a lawsuit against Megablocks in an effort to differentiate themselves and justify their higher pricing, but still. Awesome. All we had were cops, space ships, pirates, knights/robin hood and generic "town" sets in my day, kids. Count your Han Solo blessings.

So I went through a long phase in my life where I didn't watch animated movies, guys. I'd written them off as kiddie schlock (and most of them are!) but Wall-E is the one flick that brought me out of my prematurely curmudgeonly ways. Since that time, I've gained a begrudging respect for the occasional animated flick, even if it is a complicated calculus at making something smart and complicated enough for adults while still pleasing to the simple minds of mewling babes.

Enter: The LEGO Movie.  Here we're introduced to everyman Emmet, (voiced by the rising king of everything, Chris Pratt) who's blissfully content in his dull, lonely existence filled with corporate speak and conformity until he finds himself dragged via a case of mistaken identity into an epic struggle for the survival of his world.

The Good: This is a smart flick. It's funny, clever, incorporates the fact that nearly the entire thing takes place in a LEGO world brilliantly in spots, and is one of the very few movies I've ever seen that managed to clearly be geared towards kids yet still be funny for my cranky, cynical, postmodern quasi-hipster tastes. The star-studded cast (Pratt, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Will Arnett, Will Ferrell and Liam Neeson among others) is clearly having a blast, and Arnett as Batman steals every scene. The fact that Fox News and other conservative media outlets were slamming a movie that is, for all intents and purposes, a commercial for a massive toy multinational for being "anti business" speaks to how the flick rises above what could have easily been nothing but an advertisement for LEGO products to be a sweet, fun, surprisingly smart time at the movies. The computer animation really makes the LEGO environments shine, and the differing worlds that make up the universe all feel distinctive and look great.



The Bad: There isn't much here. This flick is one of the best-reviewed and most beloved of the last year, and there's a reason for that. If anything, the movie is TOO referential and TOO clever for its own good, but it's a PG rated cartoon for kids... I'm not sure I'm prepared to slam it for making audiences laugh.

All in all, the LEGO Movie is a really fun time.  It's hilarious in spots, surprisingly touching in others, and ultimately thoughtful and much more than the sum of its parts. I'm a childless 30 year old dude and I loved it, guys.

8/10.

2013: The Year in Film: "Nebraska" Review

Not as late but still really late!

BIG Alexander Payne fan, you guys. His last two films have been Sideways and The Descendants, (he's directed About Schmidt and Election, as well) both films that break the mold of what American indie dramedies are and can be. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with an indie movie, but the trend towards undying quirk and cuteness is an obnoxious one, and the bulk of indie "dramedy" films are coalescing into one black hole-like mass from which there is no escape, only utter annihilation.  Payne's films exist alongside your traditional indie flick (Think: Juno or Little Miss Sunshine) but tend to feature less on the cutesy quick-witted dialogue and quirky "uniqueness" with stock melancholy and more on the average, everyday doldrums of life. It's a fine distinction, but it is certainly a distinction.

Enter: Nebraska, a film that's very much in the same vein as Payne's last two, but also very different in its own right.  Here we meet a family, which moved from Nebraska to Montana years before, and one that's struggling through the same malaise as the entire region. The patriarch, Woody Grant, is falling into senility and alcoholism and Woody's wife and children (June Squibb, Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk) are struggling to keep up, at turns treating Woody like a child and trying to help where they can. So when Woody is determined to claim his publisher's sweepstakes million-dollar prize by any means necessary, even if it requires walking from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska, it falls to his son David to help his ailing father.

The Good: Bruce Dern's performance is, in a word, remarkable. Every fiber of his being goes into creating this otherwise forgettable elderly resident of the plains, and the body language, shuffling gait, mannerisms and cantankerous gruffness overlying a sweet sincerity employed in imbibing Woody with a pitiable, but recognizable charm and humanity is the performance of a lifetime. Will Forte is inspired casting, as he remains charming and personable behind sad eyes and a defeated demeanor. June Squibb is tremendous as the frumpy, foul-mouthed family matriarch and serves as the film's moral center. But the real star here is the setting and the very real and fully-formed residents therein. As Woody reunites with family and begins bragging about his "prize" in his hometown he becomes a minor celebrity and source of excitement, and as someone who grew up in rural northwest Ohio in a place not so different than Nebraska, the depiction of the small, fading town felt uncomfortably spot-on. The decision to shoot the film in black and white was an inspired one, as it really makes the film feel even smaller and more intimate than it already would, and really emphasizes the cold, stark beauty of the terrain. The sweeping shots of the plains would have been beautiful in color as well, no doubt, but the decision to do the film in black and white makes everything feel smaller and that does the story justice.



The Bad: there's not a lot, and I'm generally in favor of Payne's treatment of the characters, although there was quite a bit written at the time of this film's release about his mockery of his subjects. At times things can get a little silly, but I'm not sure that it ever rises to the level of legitimate shortcoming of the film. My main criticism is that the film and the characters feel a little underdeveloped. We're dropped into these people's lives and other than a few moments, we don't necessarily get to know them as much as we'd like. Again, that's a minor criticism, but it made me feel detached from the goings-on.

In all, I think it's become a cliche to think of everyone from Indiana to Colorado and in-between as wholesome, hard-working, god-fearing folks who just want to live in peace and quiet.  I feel that does a disservice to millions of individuals, and obviously, so does Nebraska native Alexander Payne, who paints a picture of these people who most of the "enlightened" internet commenter class would consider to be bumpkins as morally complex and highly flawed people in their own right. For that alone, this is a noteworthy work, and when you throw in a performance like the one Bruce Dern turns in here? You've got a great piece of Americana.

8/10.