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.

The most embarrassing "old friend" of all time? Kris Avedisian's DONALD CRIED opens

The not-exactly-new tale of a man who has left his boyhood town and returns there to handle the estate of his deceased grandmother but -- thanks to the loss of his wallet -- must suddenly rely on the good will of an old "friend" is given a whoppingly bizarre but very good telling in the new film opening today, DONALD CRIED. Written and directed by and starring Kris Avedisian (shown at right and below), the movie immediately turns Mr. Avedisian into a moviemaking triple threat. This is a performance -- and a film (if you can last it out) -- that you are not likely to forget.

Cringe-inducing does not begin to describe the effect that Mr. Avedisian, playing the doofus Donald of the title, will have on audiences. And yet so thoroughly and deeply has Avedisian seemed to explore this character that Donald actually grows on you as the movie unfurls. So, too, does the only other character of note here, Peter, played by Jesse Wakeman (below), who also contributed to the film's story. Wakeman plays the usual uptight, successful "business" type who, apparently somewhat popular in high school, could not wait to leave his little Rhode Island town and never went back. Until now.

The odd and extended little dance these two characters do together, as they joust and parry, circle and sort-of bond, slowly shows us that Donald may not be quite as goofy and clueless as he usually appears, while Peter is not the solid tower of strength he might like to be.

Yet the film is certainly no kind of mystery -- unless you include the mystery of human character, of course -- so don't wait for that other show to drop. No, this is a character study, of two quite different characters whom we see now and also get a pretty good sense of who they were back then.

For all practical purposes, the movie is a two-hander. The only other character of note is a young woman played by the fine Louisa Krause, whom Peter hopes to hit on, and we do get one nice scene featuring Donald's mom and two featuring his step-dad, who seems a major asshole (Ted Arcidi, below, right, handles this role with nasty aplomb).

Donald Cried is a movie of very small, incremental change. But the change is there. By the end, you'll feel it, I think, and one hell of a lot more strongly, if quietly, than you ever would have expected.

From The Orchard -- though you can't find the film on that company's web site: What gives? -- and running 85 minutes, the movie opens today in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and in Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt. Elsewhere? Yes, it'll be all over the country in the weeks to come. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdate, cities and theaters.

ON THE MAP: Dani Menkin's ode to world basketball and the surprising '77 Israeli team

I suspect you will have to be neither a huge basketball fan nor a staunch lover of Israel to still be amazed and moved by the new documentary, ON THE MAP. As written and directed by Dani Menkin (who gave us the wonderful Dolphin Boy, as well as the more recent and not-so-hot narrative film, Is That You?), this sprightly, enthusiastic movie introduces us to a certain Maccabi team from Tel Aviv that made sports and Israeli history back in 1977 by putting Israel, as its captain tell us, "On the map--not just in sports but in everything!"

Mr. Menkin, shown at right, is clearly besotted with love for this team, and he manages to share that with his audience in a way that is exciting, refreshing, and even sometimes heart-stopping. It helps, of course, that the story here is top-of-the-line: a come-from-behind, success-despite-all-odds tale of hard work plus talent that pays off bigtime. And Menkin tells it supremely well, using a smart combination of history, culture, some first-class interviews, and archival footage of the players and their games that brings all this to fine, immediate life.

We see the players then (above) and now (below), and we hear from most of them, too. One of them, Jim Boatwright, is now dead, but his ex-wife makes a fine substitute -- funny, appealing and moving, as she tells us of those days and times and what it all meant to her husband.

The captain of the team -- its star player and the man who most helped bring these players all together -- was Tal Brody (below), whom we see in action on and off the court. We also hear from Brody's friend and co-player (some decades back), Bill Walton, who clearly is still moved and amazed by what these Maccabis did. Hearing Walton talk about all this is one of the documentary's highlights.

We learn how history -- from the creation of Israel to its various wars to the 1972 Munich Olympics -- played into the importance of what happened in 1977. We also meet the one black player on the team, Aulcie Perry (below, center), and learn how a plate full of cakes determined his fate with the team, and how and why he later converted to Judaism.

We're there as Moshe Dayan (above, right) congratulates the team, as well as when Prime Minister Rabin resigns from office on the very day of one of the team's most important games. The anecdotes here are well-chosen, pointed and entertaining -- adding up to a first-class documentary that will have you on the edge of your seat, cheering, holding your breath, and finally maybe shedding a tear or two.

From Hey Jude Productions and running just 85 minutes, On The Map opens in Los Angeles this coming Friday, November 25, at Laemmle's Royal and in New York City on December 9 at the Cinema Village. Click here, then click on SCREENINGS, to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters. There will be personal appearances in Los Angeles and perhaps elsewhere, too. Check the theaters' listings for dates and times.

Jim Field Smith and Jason A. Micallef whip BUTTER into an odd, off-key amusement

A strange mix of satire, sweetness, sentimentality and snark, BUTTER would seem to be the kind of movie that wants to have its cake (with butter-cream frosting, of course) and eat it, too. One of the film's surprises is how often it manages to get away with this. Butter is the second ensemble movie I've covered in as many days to have a crack cast of seven actors, all working at the top of their form. This alone makes both films worth seeing. If yesterday's The Oranges outshines the expensive spread in just about every way, in this case second place is perfectly good enough. Butter, despite some flaws, is definitely worth seeing.

Written by Jason A. Micallef and directed by Jim Field Smith (who's shown at right), this is one of those American "heartland" movies that our heartland states most likely despise -- even though, on balance, the population comes off no more or less likable than the New Jersey-based folk of The Oranges. (The heartland's problems, as pictured here however, may strike some viewers as a tad less sophisticated, if no less important, as those on the east coast.)

The plot involves the yearly butter-sculpting competition and the Picklers, Bob (Ty Burrell, two photos below, at right) and Laura (Jennifer Garner, below). Bob is always the winner in the competition, and so, after many years of this, the town's mayor asks him to step down and give others a chance. He does, sadly, which annoys the hell out of the nasty, grasping and ambitious Laura, who decides to enter the contest herself.

Complications ensue, involving an exotic dancer at the local strip joint (Olivia Wilde, below, left, in a very different role for this young lady -- which she handles with utter, low-end aplomb) and an uber-sweet/sad/silent orphan girl named Destiny -- yikes! -- played by Yara Shahidi, who -- despite the filmmakers' stacking the deck so strongly for her than we are inclined to root against her -- is quite appealing.

Also in the cast are the likes of Ashley Greene (shown at bottom, center) -- who, though she proved of no particular note in those Twilight movies, here registers more strongly as the Pickler's daughter -- and Hugh Jackman (below) in a smaller and rather different role as an old flame of Laura's called in to help.

Best of all, perhaps are the "nice" couple who come to the rescue of young Destiny. As played by Rob Corddry (below, left: This kind of role is quite a change for our Rob, who more often plays Mr. Snark) and Alicia Silverstone (below, second left). These two add a note of normalcy to the proceedings, which are ever threatening to go totally out of control. (This actually might have  been the best choice for the film.)

The biggest problem with Butter is its unevenness. Does it want to be a satire? A feel-good film? An expose of the heartland? A political movie? (According to Wikipedia, the film is said to be a satire of the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary, but you couldn't prove it by me.) All of the above? By the finale, we really don't know. But we have laughed a good deal, while enjoying a bevy of fine performances, in a film about a subject of which, till now, we knew next to nothing. These days, you could do a hell of a lot worse.

Butter -- from RADIUS/TWC (please do something about your atrociously feeble web site!) and running 90 minutes -- opens this Friday, in the Los Angeles area at the AMC Loews Brodway in Santa Monica, and in New York at the Beekman, Empire 25, Village 7 and the Kew Gardens Cinema (in Queens).  Elsewhere? Who knows where or when?  Tell The Weinstein Company to improve on this.

Duplass brothers' short, smart DO-DECA-PENTATHLON brings mumblecore full circle

Like The Puffy Chair on steroids, the newest film from those ubiquitous Duplass brothers, Jay and Mark, seems in one sense to have brought their mumblecore experience full circle. In the decade since the arrival of m'core (and the few months since its critically-declared demise), these two brothers have gone on to make several more m'core movies and then bring their own distinctive brand of it to (or near) mainstream with films such as Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home. Not to mention the burgeoning acting career of Mark, who has graced a number of films of late -- from Darling Companion to Your Sister's Sister and Safety Not Guaranteed with perfor-mances good enough to indicate a possible second large career.

Now, with the advent of THE DO-DECA-PENTATHLON, the two film-making brothers -- shown above, with Mark on the left (and, look, there room for you to squeeze in between them!) -- are back at the mumblecore spring. And rather than showing it to be dry, they prove it's bubbling up a gusher of fresh water. Instead of the often passive protagonists found in so much of the m'core genre, these writers/directors give us a pair of brothers (nothing autobiographical here, I am sure), who, since childhood, have not stopped competing -- their most recent foray into the fray having led to an estrangement that has gone on for some time.

Now, during a birthday-centered family reunion (to which one brother has noticeably been uninvited but shows up anyway), this competition flares again -- with results that are funny, sad and, yes, sentimental, but, thank goodness, also short and sweet.

What makes this movie so much different from so much else in the m'core archive is its fraught situation (time is very limited) and the utter insistence of the two guys that they will/must finish this com-petition. All this gives the movie a forward thrust unlike any other m'core I can remember. (Even the in bro's would-be mystery thriller Baghead, there was quite a sense of dawdling to be observed.)

These filmmakers have clearly been learning on the job, for they now waste no time before pushing us into the midst of things and getting their very capable cast cracking with more than able performances. The roles of the brother are of course key here, and as Mark, the one who is now married and gone somewhat to seed (and fat), Steve Zissis, above, is a consistent delight.

As his also seedy, but a lot sexier, brother Jeremy, Mark Kelly (above) proves a perfect foil for Zissis, and together they make the film consistently enjoyable. Supporting roles are just that, but the rest of the cast does a bang-up job of providing that support -- especially Jennifer Lafleur (below, right) as the wife, Julie Vorus as the pair's mother, and newcomer Reid Williams (evidently not on the IMDB yet) as son and nephew to the bros.

As filmmakers, the Duplass brothers keep growing. Their choice of incident and how to frame same grows ever smarter (their Jeff, Who Lives at Home, is also terrific in this regard -- despite the additional task of having to keep several plot balls in the air simultaneously). They still feel the necessity to do that odd zoom-in thing, with the camera sort of hiccuping as it moves. This loony zoom is strange, calling undue attention to itself, but it's no deal-breaker. (Maybe they see this camera move as some kind of signature? Or perhaps it's just an accident?) If I ever get the chance to interview the pair, that'll be my first topic of discussion.

Meanwhile, The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, 78 minutes, from Red Flag Releasing and Fox Searchlight, opens this coming Friday, July 6, in New York City at the Quad Cinema, and in Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Pasadena Playhouse 7.