Love musicals? Try John Howarth and Michael Fields' MARYJANE: A MUSICAL POTUMENTARY

Where did this very enjoyable and surprisingly encompassing movie -- MARYJANE: A Musical Potumentary -- come from, and why isn't it receiving a more major release? To answer that first question, the film is based on a stage musical put together by Michael Fields (shown below), first produced by Dell'Arte International (where Fields is part of the staff), a theater and school located in Humboldt Country, California (and yes, Humboldt is probably best-known as the "pot" capital of the USA, if not the entire world).

Why isn't the film getting the kind of release that it deserves? Probably for a number of not-so-good reasons, beginning with the fact that it's pro pot (Bill Maher would certainly approve), which is still a no-no in certain circles, despite marijuana's ever-increasing legality. Although the film won a Best Musical award at the Oregon International Film Festival (OK: it's not Cannes), there are no "names" attached to the movie save that of Ed Asner, who

has but a very small role in the film and does not appear until nearly the finale. Despite this lack of names there are some immensely talented folk involved in the musical -- from the several people who wrote its songs, to the performers themselves, to the director/  cinematographer/editor and co-screenwriter, John Howarth, shown at right). The theater production is said to have been the most successful ever produced by this company, and it's easy enough to understand why: Its subject matter could hardly be more "right" for the location nor more topical, too, for the entire nation.

To make the transfer from stage to film, Mr. Howarth has done some very clever stuff: inserting timely documentary-type interviews with police and fire department personnel (as below) who talk about the specific pot-produced problems that marijuana growing increases regarding the necessary protection of the community at large. Not to mention what weed production has done to the local ecology. Not good.

While the musical is definitely more pro pot than not, it also manages -- quite well, too -- to let us see the whole picture of a community whose very livelihood (not only for the growers and sellers but for so many other local businesses that thrive on the pot economy) has come to depend almost entirely on this product.

And yet the movie's never preachy nor finger-wagging. Instead, via one highly enjoyable musical number after another (there are said to be 16 in all), the ideas here come to wonderful fruition in the charming and funny lyrics that are also sometimes surprisingly smart and dark. (The music is good, too: often bouncy and buoyant, occasionally emotional and moving.)

Maryjane: A Musical Potumentary makes wonderful fun of its subject, as well as recognizing its many benefits. It addresses what will doubtless arrive once pot is completely legal and big business begins to put these small businesses out of business. A song such as I Am the Industry pleads in its own nasty way to keep pot illegal, while I Just Wanna Get High asks why liquor is legal but pot is not.

The adorable Humboldt Honey satirizes the hippie ladies of the town; The Rasta Tea Party offers up pot's "spiritual" side with its own side dish of satire; the beautiful What Have I Done, My Son and Child are hugely moving numbers sung with great passion and feeling.

Maybe the best of all is the spectacular song and dance set to an Hispanic style addressing the "trimmigrants": those workers, visitors and locals, who trim the marijuana and make pretty good money doing it. This particular number is a knockout.

Toward the end, as someone sings, "I'd like to teach the world to smoke in perfect harmony," you'll suddenly become aware, not just of satirizing that old Coke pop-song jingle, but also of how beautifully some of these numbers are being rendered -- in perfect harmony.

The cast could hardly be bettered -- many of them hail from the Dell'Arte alma matter -- as does the leading lady, Joan Schirle (near left and below), who is simply terrific whether acting, singing, dancing, whatever.

TrustMovies admits that he was not expecting much from this unknown-to-him little movie when he sat down to view it, and this may account in some part for his huge enthusiasm.
But only in some part.

Maryjane: A Musical Potumentary ought to have received a much wider release. Fortunately, it hit VOD just yesterday, April 20, from Green Apple Entertainment. Presented in widescreen with an aspect ratio of 16×9 (1.78) and Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, it is now available on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, DISH/ Sling TV, DirecTV, FandangoNow, Xbox, VUDU -- with more venues coming shortly. The movie's very good soundtrack is available now, too.

Daley/Goldstein/Perez's GAME NIGHT: smart, fast, witty, laugh-out-loud Hollywood comedy

TrustMovies has not laughed this much or this consistently throughout a mainstream comedy in a very long time. GAME NIGHT, written by Mark Perez and co-directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (shown below, with Daley on the left), is such fast, smart and clever fun that the only reason it will not be a blockbuster hit is that it's just too fast, smart and clever for our current dumbed-down audiences that seem to prefer those Hangover guys or Bad Mom gals.

The directors and writer have concocted a simply delightful mix of oddball characters, laughs, thrills and surprises that just keep coming and coming. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that you never get sated, because so much of this is so witty and genuinely clever. Comedies most often tend to be hit and miss affairs, but if enough of the humor is on-target, the film will pass muster. Praise be, Game Night is almost entirely hit and hit. The humor is one with the surprise and thrills, and there are plenty of all three.

The film's premise is a group of friends -- two couples and their single friend (the very funny Billy Magnussen) who always has a new pretty-girl on his arm -- all of whom love to play games and are extremely competitive. The lead couple and the film's main protagonists are played by Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams (above), and both are, as expected, first-rate. Bateman's glamorous brother (Kyle Chandler, below) is even more competitive, bringing to the plot a twist that sets everything in motion.

Once that plot kicks in (almost immediately), the movie moves so fast that you'll be panting to keep abreast of its twists and turns. The hook here is that you (as well as the characters) can never be sure when an event is part of the game or instead real and therefore maybe life-threatening.

Fortunately the supporting cast is filled with smart and funny actors who juice up the proceedings quite merrily. The sweetly goofy Magnussen (above, left) and curtly acid-tongued Sharon Horgan (above, right, of that great Amazon series, Catastrophe) make a fine pairing, as do the other game night couple, Kylie Bunbury (below, left) and Lamorne Morris (below, right), who unveil their own what-celebrity-did-you-sleep-with? problem as the evening continues.

Best of all, perhaps is that terrifically versatile actor (for starters, compare his work in Other People, The Post, American Made and the USS Callister episode of Black Mirror's fourth season), Jesse Plemons, below, who creates here one of his most indelible and oddly adorable characters as the cop-next-door.

And that's hardly all. No less than Danny Huston, Michael C. Hall and an uncredited Jeffrey Wright pop up in smaller but significant roles. Aside from this crack cast, though, what makes the movie work best is its extraordinarily smart script, in which situations, characters, humor and thrills keep bubbling up and bouncing over each other with consummate agility and ease. "Is it as good as Game Night?" will likely be the new touchstone question asked by intelligent audiences from last week onward.

Arriving one week ago via Warner Brothers and marketed with all the usual non-flair this crass company has for anything that proves a bit different or a cut above, the movie is now playing all around the country and may still be in a theater near you in this, its second week of wide release. Click here to find out.

Anthony Edwards' MY DEAD BOYFRIEND brings a character, if not a corpse, back to oddball life

How well do we know that person whom we live with and presume to love? Of course, you'll immediately realize that the answer here is going to be
"not very."

But wait. That doesn't begin to cover the manner in which the non-heroine of the new movie, MY DEAD BOYFRIEND, doesn't know her own live-in guy, whom she comes home one day, after being fired at her latest job, to find dead in his recliner, his corpse having been, from all we can tell here, simply watching TV.

As written by actor Billy Morrissette (from the novel by Arthur Nersesian) and directed by actor Anthony Edwards, shown at right, the movie fairly bubbles with the fun to be found (for the audience, if not for the girlfriend in question) in discovering just who this dead guy really was.

Further, as played by John Corbett (shown below, in that recliner, and at bottom, right), this fellow, who goes by the name of Primo Schulz, proves quite the guy who got around -- to various women and occupations -- all of which grow wilder and funnier as the movie moves along. And Corbett gets the chance to behave in a number of ways that we're not used to seeing from this actor.

The actual star of the film is Heather Graham, who plays Mary, Primo's last (or so she imagines) girlfriend, and the one who discovers his lifeless body. Ms Graham, still beautiful and sexy, plays everything here just a tad too annoyed to make us care much about what happen to her. Her character is not particularly likable, and while this is fine so far as some movies go, this one needs a gal to root for. And Ms Graham, who goes from annoyed to further annoyed, until she begins beating people with a cremation urn and wantonly slapping faces, is not that character.

The movie, however, is still rather fun as it romps along, introducing us to a number of smart actors, including Katherine Moennig (above, right), as Mary's best friend; Griffin Dunne (below, right), who plays an admirer of Ms Graham's character, and Gina Gershon who has perhaps the plumiest role as an art dealer, of which Ms Gershon typically makes the most.

In the role of what turns out to be the romantic lead, a young actor named Scott Michael Foster does a creditable job warming up to the movie's anti-heroine.

There's a pretty good soundtrack here, too, and a couple of nice musical numbers -- one of which makes use of that fun little song from the old Mary Tyler Moore show, which was also used recently to better purpose in the much more accomplished movie, Christine.

From Momentum Pictures and Orion Releasing (how nice it is to see that old Orion logo on-screen again!) and running 90 minutes, the movie releases this Friday, November 4, simultaneously in "select theaters" and via VOD/Digital HD. In New York City it will play the Cinema Village. Elsewhere? Not sure, but as it's available both VOD and digitally, if you want to take a look, I am sure you can find it.

Blu-ray/DVDebut: Kendrick and Rockwell rock in Paco Cabezas' delightfully loony MR. RIGHT

Individually Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell are worth seeing in almost any movie they choose to make (it takes a bad director to bleach out either of these talents). Together, however, they seem a perfect match, and under the fine tonal hand of director Paco Cabezas (shown below, clearly getting into the spirit of things), the pair takes the infinitely clever but woefully under-seen MR. RIGHT into the stratosphere.

We've viewed a number of previous comedies in which a killer, instead of being the villain, proves to be the hero. But none, I think, have been quite as much frolicsome fun as this. But before you let your kids view the movie, please note that its "R" rating is thoroughly deserved. There's blood spilled copiously, lots of sexual references, and language that would make your grandmother blush. There is also plenty of terrific action, swell performances, and a wealth of humor that comes from smart characterization, clever dialog (the screenwriter is Max Landis), and crazy situations that may belie reality but make the movie a hilarious treat.

Kendrick (above) and Cabezas introduce our heroine as a gal who consistently gets involved with the wrong man (the opening is funny indeed, and how the filmmaker handles a barely seen bottle of wine proves just right).

Mr. Rockwell is introduced in similarly fine fashion, and what his character does to the woman who has hired him may raise eyebrows, but soon enough we get the explanation, and it's the perfect remedy for anyone worried about the morality at work here.

Once the pair meet, and are of course smitten, the movie takes off and doesn't slow down until the credits roll. Along for the funny, bumpy ride is a great supporting cast, including Tim Roth as Rockwell's bête noire (shown above with Katie Nehra, who play Kendricks best friend);

Anson Mount (above), who plays one of two very angry, very dumb brothers who have foolishly tried to hire Rockwell as assassin; and the versatile James Ransone (below, left, of The Wire and so much other good stuff), who plays the other, even stupider brother.

Very nearly stealing the movie is RZA (above, right), as an also mentally-challenged bad guy who has enough good guy left in him to have us (as well as Rockwell and Kendrick) still rooting for him.

As I say, the "tone" here counts for so very much, and Cabezas keeps it light and airy, despite all the bullets and blood. This is tricky, to say the least, but thanks to his and his cast's light touch -- there's a simply amazing, very nearly classic scene midway along in which Rockwell teaches Kendrick to find her flow while the two toss knives at each other -- the movie never loses its footing and in fact just grows crazier and more enjoyable as it scoots happily along.

After a very limited theatrical release that garnered a mixed bag of reviews 37% critic-positive on Rotten Tomatoes and 54 % from the audience, it's obviously a matter of taste. But those of us who like the film, really like the film. And so, I suspect, since you're reading TrustMovies, might you.

From Focus Features and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and running just 96 magical minutes, Mr. Right, already available On-Demand and via Digital HD, will also be out on Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday, June 7 -- for purchase or rental.