REVIEW: “Love Wedding Repeat” (2020)

April 21, 2020 by Keith Garlington

I like romantic comedies. I genuinely do. They have been around since practically the beginning of movies. In fact I cut my classic cinema teeth on several early rom-coms including “Bringing Up Baby”, “The Philadelphia Story”, and “It Happened One Night”. But over the last few years romantic comedies have arguably become the most frustrating genre and finding a good one is getting harder and harder.

That’s not to say we don’t still get a few winners. But unfortunately too many end up like the new Netflix Original ” Love Wedding Repeat”, a promising yet exasperating movie that comes off as an R-rated Hallmark Channel flick and a “Four Weddings and a Funeral” knock-off. Writer-director Dean Craig puts a handsome cast together, but some spotty chemistry and dreadfully uneven humor undermine everything else. It’s kind of like a wedding cake – beautifully decorated but bland and tasteless.

A prologue begins with an Englishman named Jack (Sam Claflin) looking into a bathroom mirror and giving himself a pep talk. Turns out he just spent a magical weekend in Rome with Dina (Olivia Munn), an American friend of his sister and an aspiring war journalist. The two have really hit it off and now he hopes to seal it with a kiss. During their romantic nighttime stroll they stop by a fountain. The music swells and their eyes lock. The two move in closer and……in pops an obnoxious college buddy to shatter the moment. It’s one of those maddening movie instances that could have been fixed with one glaringly obvious line of dialogue. We don’t get it, so Jack and Dina go their separate ways.

Photo Courtesy of Netflix

Fast-forward three years. It’s wedding day for Jack’s manic sister Hayley (Eleanor Tomlinson) who is set to marry Roberto (Tiziano Caputo) at a posh Italian villa. Jack is essentially the wrangler, not only tasked with walking his sister down the aisle, but keeping things together and making sure the wedding goes off without a hitch. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to quickly figure out where things are going.

Guests start arriving which is the film’s chance to introduce the side characters, all with parts to play in the inevitable avalanche of complications and (attempted) comic mayhem that’s on the way. First we meet Bryan (Joel Frey), Jack’s neurotic best friend and Hayley’s maid/man of honor. There’s Jack’s hot but catty ex-girlfriend Amanda (Frieda Pinto) along with her sulky, insecure boyfriend Chaz (Allan Mustafa) who’s consumed with the size of his privates. We get a chatterbox in a kilt named Sidney (Tim Key). And then you have Rebecca (Aisling Bea), a daffy looker whose connection to the family still eludes me.

Oh, and I can’t forget Dina who Jack hasn’t seen since that squandered night in Rome three years earlier. He’s determined not to let her slip through his fingers again but first he has to pull off this wedding. That becomes significantly harder once Hayley’s coked-up ex-boyfriend Marc (Jack Farthing) shows up, uninvited and intent on causing a scene. A panicking Hayley comes up with the most logical solution (please note to dripping sarcasm). She talks Jack into slipping a powerful sedative into Marc’s drink, putting him to sleep and saving her big day.

Of course that’s not how it plays out. Of course the wrong person gets roofied. Of course chaos ensues. But just as things mercifully seem to be playing out, we suddenly get a weird “Groundhog Day” moment where Craig basically rewinds and asks “What if it happened this way? What if someone else mistakenly took the sedatives?” Sadly the reset doesn’t fix anything. It’s basically the movie changing course and bowing down to every predictable expectation and outcome.

Photo Courtesy of Netflix

The sad thing is we get really good efforts from the cast but they mostly go to waste. The writing ranges from adequate to juvenile to mind-numbing and not one single character makes it out unscathed. The closest is Frey’s Bryan who is fun to watch and provides the film’s lone laugh-out-loud moment. But even he gets hit with a lame, tawdry bathroom scene that is nothing short of embarrassing. On the other end you get Mustafa’s Chaz who is hands-down one of the worst characters I’ve seen in ages. His one-note blathering about his bedroom insecurity never stops.

Others do the best they can with what little they’re given. Claflin shows some legitimate leading man chops, but he’s handcuffed by a script that would rather bounce him from one absurd scenario to another instead of letting him set his feet and build his character. Munn has always had a fun and witty personality, but this movie barely utilizes it. And by never playing to her strengths she’s left spinning her wheels with a character who never moves forward. And then Tomlinson, an eye-catching actress I wasn’t familiar with but who definitely deserved better material.

Strangely, “Love Wedding Repeat” isn’t a boring movie. It actually keeps your attention. You just keep waiting and waiting for it to get better only to be frustrated when it never does. I found it easy to root for the cast who deserve a ton of credit for keeping the film afloat. But even they can’t sustain it among a deluge of half-witted gags, crass and shallow dialogue, and uninspired storytelling. It’s a baffling experience. So many good parts are in place, but without the underpinning of a good story and good direction there’s nowhere for it to go but down.

VERDICT – 1.5 STARS

REVIEW: “The Quarry” (2020)

April 20, 2020 by Keith Garlington

When the South by Southwest film festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of movies missed their planned world premieres. One was “The Quarry”, a mystery thriller from director and co-writer Scott Teems. His last dramatic feature was the terrific “That Evening Shade” way back in 2009. His latest sees him back in a rural setting, a place where he clearly feels at home.

“Guilt’s a heavy burden, isn’t it? Most men can’t carry it alone.” That line comes near the start of the third act and nicely sums up a driving theme of “The Quarry”. Guilt is interwoven into the very fabric of Teems and his co-writer Andrew Brontzman’s story. It’s all over the place, guilt of all varieties, and nearly every character is weighted down by it to some degree.

The movie opens with the image of a house engulfed in flames. There’s no context for it whatsoever, but it’s there for us to stick in the backs of our minds for later. Next we’re in a beat-up van traveling down a rural two-lane highway with a whiskey-swilling preacher named David Martin (Bruno Birchir). He’s on his way to the dried up bordertown of Bevel to take a church pastorate when he comes across a man (Shea Whigham) near dead on the side of the road. He stops to help but his acts of kindness turn violent, leaving him crudely buried in a shallow grave at the bottom of a quarry.

The unnamed mystery man (literally listed as “The Man” in the credits) assumes David’s identity, takes his van full of belongings, and heads off for the preaching gig in Bevel. It may not sound like the most rational next move but for a man riddled with guilt and regret, what starts as a desperate cover story turns into a potential saving act of penance. But as a character rather pointedly reminds us later on, “The past is always with us.”

Photo Courtesy of Lionsgate Films

Once in town the pseudo preacher meets Celia (Catalina Sandino Moreno), a disillusioned local who provides room and board for the church. And little does the man know, he’s been marked by a 12-year-old named Poco (Alvaro Martinez) who scouts easy targets for his thieving, pot-growing big brother Valentin (Bobby Soto). The two loot the stranger’s van and in the process find something linking him to the quarry. Enter Police Chief John Moore (Michael Shannon), a bit of a miscreant himself, who oversees the investigation. He doesn’t like the brothers, isn’t crazy about preachers, and has a thing for Celia.

Despite having all of these combustible elements in place, “The Quarry” turns out to be a slow-burning southern noir that’s often content with just setting us down with its characters rather than spinning some thorny, tightly wound mystery. There is some genuine suspense especially when the real David’s body is discovered. And you have the lingering question about Whigham’s character. Is he a murderous psychopath or a well-meaning loner in over his head? Perhaps neither, maybe a bit of both.

Whigham’s understated approach doesn’t offer us many clues. And while I really like the performance, there’s not a lot of meat to it. We’re basically kept wondering about him until the very end when Teems tries to unload too much too quickly. Still the gravelly man-of-few-words method fits, veiling secrets but occasionally teasing us with glimpses of redemption. A baptism scene hints that maybe the man has found happiness while his straightforward plain-speak from the pulpit spurs growth in the congregation. Glimmers of light? Maybe.

Photo Courtesy of Lionsgate Films

Shannon’s Chief Moore is the exact opposite. Outspoken and transparent to a fault, Moore is an open book, ugly pages and all. He’s a man stuck in a rut and destined to stay there; trashing the very idea of an idyllic small town Americana and letting his own apathy effect his policing. It’s a role handmade for Shannon and grooved towards his strengths, much like the various characters he has played for Jeff Nichols. With this film many of the best moments are spent watching and absorbing two wily pros like Shannon and Whigham work out a scene.

You could argue that “The Quarry” is too pensive to be called a tense crime thriller and not deep enough to be considered a brooding, existential meditation. Yet I enjoyed the space it occupies in between the two as well as the ideas it explores. Can you have forgiveness without confession? Is there absolution without atonement? Can you ever really escape your past? Add to it the rich and rugged texture of the setting accompanied by the effective groans of Heather McIntosh’s aching score. They work together to maintain a bleak, melancholy tone befitting its characters and the dead-end roads they seem to be traveling.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

First Glance: “Capone”

April 17, 2020 by Keith Garlington

Talk about a movie that instantly had me in its corner! I’m a bit of a sucker for period gangster stories and have read countless books about the Mafia’s heyday in America. Among those were some great biographies of the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. So naturally a movie titled “Capone” is gonna catch my attention. But then you cast Tom Hardy in the titular lead role. Now I’m invested! Having the criminally underrated Linda Cardellini onboard as Mae Capone is just icing on the cake.

“Capone” looks at a chapter in the gangster’s life rarely chronicled. It takes place in Florida after his 11-year prison sentence for tax evasion (he served a little over 8 years). Capone was hardly the untouchable “Public Enemy No. 1” of the Prohibition Era. His mental and physical health was steadily deteriorating which looks to be a key focus of the film. The first trailer looks terrific; a bit batty but in a really good way. The one question is the film’s writer-director Josh Trank. This is his first movie since the 2015 disaster that was “Fantastic Four”. How will he bounce back? I’m anxious to see.

“Capone” is set to release May 12th on demand which is exciting news. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “The Roads Not Taken” (2020)

April 16, 2020 by Keith Garlington

For filmmaker Sally Potter her new movie “The Roads Not Taken” came from an intensely personal place. Her brother, musician Nic Potter, died in 2013 following a two year battle with young onset dementia. She pulled from her own emotional experiences caring for him mixed with what she describes as a “preoccupation with the nature of the mind“. This isn’t an autobiography, but it’s clearly something close to Potter’s heart.

Interpreting the film can be a challenge but it turns out to be well worth the effort. The title is the first hint that Potter is doing something unique. This isn’t your standard illness-driven drama and its inquisitive nature might catch some people off-guard. In one sense it is very much a thoughtful examination of neurological disorders and the devastating effects they have on sufferers and family caregivers alike. But it’s also an inquiry into a damaged mind – one that sees memory fragments of two pivotal choices from a man’s past and then wonders how life would be different had he chosen…you know…the roads not taken.

The film opens to the sounds of a ringing phone and a door buzzer. Leo (Javier Bardem), a Mexican immigrant and former writer, lays unresponsive in his cramped Brooklyn apartment. On the phone is his worried daughter Molly (Elle Fanning), at the door his caregiver Xenia (Branka Katić). Leo suffers from an unnamed ailment but it has all the marks of dementia. Molly arrives and lets herself in, relieved to find her father in his bed. And this begins the story which takes place over the course of one grueling day.

Photo Courtesy of Bleeker Street

Much of the movie focuses on Molly caring for her father – getting him dressed, taking him to doctor appointments, keeping him from wandering off. And the simplest things such as going to the bathroom or getting into a cab, Potter shows to be both physical and emotional challenges. Throughout the day they encounter people who repeatedly refer to Leo is if he wasn’t there. “Can he hear me?” “Does he understand what I’m saying?” Molly, partly out of hope and partly out of denial, takes offense and often lashes out at the implication that her father may be gone. It’s Potter’s way of looking at our treatment of the sick while showing us a young women coming to terms with her father’s condition.

But a chunk of the film takes place inside Leo’s head. Through what initially looks like flashbacks, we see reflections of two key moments from his life. But instead of reliving past events, Leo’s mind is actually piecing together where those paths would have led had he chosen to follow them. It’s an audacious perspective that works far better than I expected.

The first is set in Mexico and wonders what would have happened if he had stayed with the love of his life Delores (Salma Hayak) instead of leaving for America. The second looks at a time when Leo took off for Greece, leaving behind his now ex-wife (Laura Linney) and his infant daughter. What if he had stayed in Greece and finished writing his book instead of returning home to his family?

Photo Courtesy of Bleeker Street

I won’t spoil where either of the two scenarios go, but Potter uses them to offer up plenty of food for thought. Together they can be read as a tragedy, as an elegy on regret, and even as a hopeful meditation if looked at through a certain lens. Most importantly, Potter doesn’t take her subject matter lightly. While maybe not as visceral as the father and daughter narrative, these scenes shed some light on who Leo was. It’s not always flattering but it is illuminating, filling in the lines of his character while slyly earning our empathy and scorn at the same time.

Potter’s movie leans heavily on its two lead performances, both dramatically different but equally essential. Bardem’s long face and dark, weary eyes convey a perpetual state of lostness. It’s a carefully calculated performance that sees the actor plowing some of the same somber, melancholy ground that earned him in an Oscar nomination for “Biutiful”. Fanning continues to get better and better, here giving a performance rich with depth and maturity. Molly’s story is just as heartbreaking as Leo’s and you can see her optimism crumbling through Fanning’s gripping portrayal.

In addition to writing and directing, Potter (a composer herself) wrote the score and was a co-editor for what must have been a cathartic undertaking. I can see where her personal approach could push some people away. Perhaps one-half of the film is built more on hope rather than science/medicine. Maybe it does challenge us to look past the eyes and into the soul. But for me, that’s when some of the deeper questions Potter poses came into focus. And that’s when I knew I really loved her movie.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

RETRO REVIEW: “Tremors” (1990)

April 15, 2020 by Keith Garlington

Imagine a movie that opens with Kevin Bacon standing on a ledge and peeing into a vast Nevada canyon. Inspiring, right? Yet it’s an opening that strangely fits “Tremors”, a goofy creature-feature comedy that barely made a dent in the box office back in 1990, but went on to earn a pretty big cult following over the next few years. Enough in fact to spawn at least five direct-to-video sequels and an ill-fated 2003 television series.

That indelible opening image introduces us to Bacon’s character, Valentine McKee (how’s that for a name). He and his older but not always wiser partner Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) are a couple of redneck “handymen” in the small town of Perfection, population 14. Val and Earl are basically jacks-of-all-trades, doing all sorts of odd-and-in jobs for the motley group of townsfolk. But the pair dreams of brushing off the dust of Perfection to strike it rich in the bigger town of Bixby.

But the boys have their plans interrupted by a pack of giant subterranean slug-like varmints who begin devouring residents and destroying the town. Val and Earl team alongside their fellow local eccentrics fight to fend off the underground beasts. In the process the two guys learn that maybe Perfection isn’t such a bad place after all.

PHOTO: Universal Pictures

The origin of “Tremors” is as amusing as the movie itself. Writers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock came up with the idea while doing safety videos for the United States Navy. They shared their concept of “land sharks” with director Ron Underwood who was doing documentaries for National Geographic. They shopped it around soon getting Universal Pictures to distribute.

A big part of the fun comes from the wacky assortment of supporting characters. Finn Carter plays a grad-student named Rhonda. She’s out in the desert doing seismology studies when the big worms hit. Victor Wong plays Walter, the town’s lone store owner. But the best may be Michael Gross and Reba McEntire. They play Burt and Heather Gummer, a gun-loving couple who just happen to have their own “bunker” filled with firearms and explosives. Gross was just coming off the successful TV show “Family Ties” while Reba was (obviously) a beloved country singer. The two steal nearly every scene they’re in.

PHOTO: Universal Pictures

“Tremors” builds on its foundation of goofy, often foul-mouthed, banter (how it managed a PG-13 rating is beyond me) and modestly budgeted special effects that fall somewhere between cool and comically bad. But to be honest the effects are part of the film’s strangely infectious charm. The slugs themselves (designed by Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis) are well conceived and Underwood has a lot of fun easing us and the characters into understanding what makes them tick. Three things are certain: they’re huge, they’re hungry, and they have a weakness (you know, because they always have to have a weakness).

Unashamedly silly and playfully irreverent, “Tremors” is born from plenty of inspiration while still carving out its own offbeat identity. It’s smartly made and you can’t help but see traces of old westerns, slice of 1950s sci-fi, maybe even a bit of satire. While I may not hold it in as high regard as it’s passionate cult following, I do see where their enthusiasm comes from. And after watching this 30-year-old movie again, it’s kinda surprising to see how well this kooky concoction still holds up.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

REVIEW: “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”

April 14, 2020 by Keith Garlington

Immediately after World War II the scars of German occupation ran deep across many European lands. One such place was the island of Guernsey, sitting in the English Channel just off the coast of Normandy. During the occupation many residents were taken and shipped to Nazi labor camps never to return while their families tried to survive under oppressive German rule. Guernsey was liberated in 1945 but the scars remained.

That troubling bit of history serves as a backdrop for the Netflix Original film “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”. Based on the 2008 novel of the same name, the story follows a London-based writer who becomes infatuated with a small book club from Guernsey. She’s drawn to the island in hopes of learning more about the five club members and their tangled history during the German occupation.

PHOTO: Netflix

Set in 1946, a delightful Lily James stars as Juliet. With a couple of novels under her belt, Juliet’s writing career has taken off which pleases her encouraging publisher Sidney (Matthew Goode). She has signed on to write stories for the London Times and she has a wealthy American boyfriend (Glen Powell) who is quite keen on marrying her. Things couldn’t be better.

One day she receives a letter from a man named Dawsey (Michiel Huisman) from Guernsey. He had come across a book that once belonged to her and had shared it with his book club (you guessed it – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society). His hopes are Juliet could steer him towards another book by the same author. She sends him a copy as a gift and writes back inquiring about the Society. And so their correspondence begins.

As Juliet learns more about the Society through Dawsey’s letters she is inspired to write about them. She travels to Guernsey to meet the small group she has become so enamored with. As she digs deeper into their backstory she uncovers some old but still painful wounds traced back to the German occupation. Some of the Society are willing to help her, most notably Dawsey (enter the romantic angle). Others want no part of the memories her questions bring back.

PHOTO: Netflix

Director Mike Newell uses his camera to great effect, capturing beautiful vistas but also the swirling emotions of his characters. A really good cast fleshes out the unique personalities Juliet encounters within the Society, specifically Tom Courtenay, Penelope Wilton, and Katherine Parkinson. Each are given plenty of time to reveal more about their characters as Juliet’s investigation unfolds.

“Guernsey” could be called too simple and it hits a point where it becomes obvious how things will play out. Yet it’s still a warm and well-crafted story with a charming, old-fashioned flavor to it. Lily James sparkles in the lead role and a strong supporting cast breathes personality and emotion. I found it to be a nice, unexpected surprise and another good pickup for Netflix.