Berlanti/Berger/Aptaker's LOVE, SIMON proves a groundbreaking mainstream surprise

As much of a breakthrough in its own way as was Brokeback Mountain in its, LOVE, SIMON -- the new teenage rom-com from screen-writers Elizabeth Berger and Issac Aptaker (based upon a novel by Becky Albertalli) and director Greg Berlanti (shown below) -- does something that TrustMovies did not expect to see happen in his own lifetime. That would be the full-out nationwide release by a major studio (20th Century Fox, deserving of kudos for bravery) of an absolutely mainstream, feel-good romantic comedy that, by its finale, sends the audience out the doors cheering and applauding.

So? What's new about that? Well, the titular Simon is gay, and yet everything that Julia Roberts ended up with in all her early rom-coms, along with just about any and every hero/heroine of every teen rom-com you can think of got in theirs, is gladly given to our Simon. Sure, there have been a number of small indie films that have addressed gay issues in rom-com, feel-good ways. But there has been nothing as remotely mainstream/big-budget/wide-release as this movie.

Further, there's no life-destroying angst that ends in sickness, suicide or murder here. No horrendous bullying from peers that lays waste to GLBT lives. Nope. Just the usual funny, feel-good, sure-they've-problems-but-they-can-still-work-it-all-out rom-com plot machinations. And when, at the joyous climax and the even-better denouement, everything is (as we used to say in the old days) SWAK, these moments are going to resonate with certain audiences like nothing they've yet been allowed to experience in a mainstream film.

What is even odder about Love, Simon is that -- groundbreaking as it is -- it is nothing approaching a great film. Instead, it's a perfectly serviceable example of a cute, smart, well-made rom-com. Nicely-acted (that's Nick Robinson, in the title role, above and below, left, with Katherine Langford, who plays his erstwhile best friend), written with a pretty good ear for both teen chatter and adult lingo, and directed with enough poise and energy to easily get us from first scene to last, the film's effects are likely to sneak up on you.

As the complications in our hero's life, as well as those of his several friends (and even one fellow who could be perceived as an enemy) pile up, we begin to understand and feel what it is like for these kids to try to negotiate high school -- even when it is shown as sweetly and in the generally positive way it is here.

Sure, there are a few missteps now and then: Early on, Simon's attempt to strike up a conversation with a hunky landscape worker falls flat (and more because it seems unbelievable than anything else), while the rendition of the school administrator (or maybe counselor) is simply too broadly imagined, despite the very game attempt from that fine actor, Tony Hale.

Overall, these are minor compared with how well the film captures its leading and supporting characters, each of whom is brought to fine and believable life by a raft of good young performers. In the roles of Simon's smart and loving family members (shown below, from left to right, next to Robinson) are Talitha Bateman as his younger sister, Jennifer Garner as his mom and Josh Duhamel as his dad, all of whom are just fine. Duhamel, in particular, gets a lovely scene with his son near movie's end.

While I consistently enjoyed Love, Simon, it was not until the finale that it hit me just how unusual and special the movie was. Here, in this public preview screening, along with what I can only assume was a fairly typical South Florida audience who were laughing, caring and finally applauding just like me, it suddenly seemed that -- movie-wise, at least -- some kind of parity had finally been achieved.

From 20th Century Fox and running 109 minutes, the film opens across the entire country next Friday, March 16. Click here to find the theaters closest to you.

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.

Streaming tip: Take a chance on Martin Rosete and Josep Ciutat's nifty little thriller, MONEY

Sick of super-heroes? Can't blame you, particularly after subjecting oneself to the supposed "amusements" of the latest and just-about-worthless Thor installment. If your pleasure runs more to character, dialog and oddball incident, you might enjoy a small but smartly done crime puzzle called MONEY. As written with relish and enough little tricks up his sleeve to last the requisite 86 minutes by Josep Ciutat (his first screenplay) and efficiently and crisply directed by Martin Rosete (his first full-length film after a slew of short ones), the movie also boasts a very good quintet of actors, each of whom captures character and moment with the proper intensity and believability. This little movie is a tasty surprise.

Mr. Ciutat has concocted an unusual but well-thought-out what's-going-on-here? puzzle that plays out quite briskly and felicitously, and Mr. Rosete (shown at right) gives the tale just the right pacing and lustre that it needs to engage and hold us.

One seemingly wealthy couple Kellan Lutz and Jess Weixler (below, right and left, respectively) is having one of the husband's work mates and his date over for dinner. Mr. Lutz captures both the "hot" quality of his slick character as well as the man's weakness, while Ms Weixler unveils quite a reserve of strength under her elegant exterior.

That work mate turns out to be a prime asshole (played  by Jesse Williams, below, with a cocky surety that will have you rooting for him to get his comeuppance), while his date (the glamorous and feisty Lucía Guerrero, shown at bottom) proves to have a bit more on the ball that her hosts might have initially imagined.

Into this quartet arrives a fifth wheel who provides the film with its fuse, trigger and explosives in the form of a very fine actor, Jamie Bamber (below), who would -- were the others not so very good, as well -- steal the movie. Bamber's entrance changes everything. But then, again and again, things continue to change -- in terms of both plot and character.

I don't want to make major claims for the movie, as it does have a bit of the "exercise" about it. Yet it is so well-written, -directed and -acted that it consistently rises above mere exercise into what I'd call nifty entertainment. Also, Money is not, thankfully, super-violent. Yet its occasional use of violence is very smartly handled.

So if you're browsing Netflix streaming and, as usual, find so much to choose from that you can't easily decide, take chance on this original and clever movie about money and its uses. It's also available on DVD for purchase or rental, and probably on other streaming venues, too.

Sacha Guitry's LA POISON gets The Criterion Collection treatment on Blu-ray & DVD

Sacha Guitry. Hmmm... Of course, you've heard the name of this Russian-born, French playwright/filmmaker/actor. But his actual work...? Not so easily or quickly identified. As much as TrustMovies prides himself on knowing and appreciating French film, he is embarrassed to say that, until viewing LA POISON -- the 1951 film to be released on Blu-ray and DVD this coming week via The Criterion Collection -- he had never actually seen a Guitry movie. All that has now changed, as I plan to lap up each and every film by this fellow that I can find.

La Poison proves an original surprise from its opening credits onward. In those credits, which suddenly move from the usual written-words-on-screen to an in-person appreciation, as M. Guitry -- shown above, center, with two of his actors from the film -- takes the time and trouble to thank each of his actors, as well as his cinematographer, editor, set designer, music composer and every last person who collaborated on the film for their efforts. (He even makes a quick phone call to thank a woman we never see but whose voice we hear in the film.) Guitry also manages to get in a delightful bit of praise for, as well as a dig at, La Comédie-Française, regarding those two actors (Jean Debucourt, left, and Jacques Varennes, who flank him, above.

Because, La Poison is the first and only piece of Guitry I've seen, I must base my ideas and opinion solely on it. From this, I'd say the man had a great gift for witty dialog, smart and subtle satire, and a marvelous appreciation of human hypocrisy combined with a gift for unveiling that hypocrisy in all its varied splendor. His theme here is marriage gone about as sour as marriage can go, which had led to its participants' plans to do away with each other. Hers (Germaine Reuver, above), the poison of the title, is the more standard approach, while his (that great and unique French actor Michel Simon, at left, below) turns out to be something quite different that blossoms and evolves in amazing ways as the plot unfurls.

Guitry's film begins slowly and sweetly, with a look a "typical" French provincial town that turns out to be both typical and not so. The town's priest (Albert Duvaleix, above, right), as in the work of Marcel Pagnol, dispenses as much logic and solid, worthwhile advice, as he does religion, while the town gossip, (Pauline Carton, below), rather than being some mean-spirited bitch, turns out to be pretty smart, as she and the town pharmacist go over the various ailments that plague the citizens, and she compares here own notes regarding a person's character with the prescription given him (or her). This is a scene -- cleverly mixing humor, intelligence and moral ambiguity -- that you will not have encountered.

Once the "murder" plot is set in motion, the pace picks up mightily, as do the film's humor, satire and surprise. How Guitry works out his particular and peculiar "morality" is as smart, shocking and delightful as anything you'll have seen. Tt will have you alternately laughing and gasping, and always alert so as not to miss a single, clever, engaging bit of word play or moral hypothesis.

Performances are all you could want (Guitry clearly knew his actors and what they could accomplish like the back of his hand), and his keen appreciation of what human beings -- including, yes, children -- so often understand and can reveal seem to me pretty extraordinary. (That's Jeanne Fusier-Gir, above center, as the town florist.)

Criterion's new Blu-ray is spectacular indeed. The transfer could hardly look better, competing I should think, with the film's quality at the time of its theatrical release. Supplements include a lovely appreciation of Guitry, his work, and particularly this film, by no less than Olivier Assayas, while the supplementary 24-page booklet includes a fascinating essay by Ginette Vincendeau that details the movies strengths, as well as its misogyny, along with details of Guitry's life and WWII activities. It's a must-read (but see the film first), as is the wonderful obituary on Guitry included here, which was written by François Truffaut.

Arriving on both Blu-ray and DVD from The Criterion Collection this coming Tuesday, August 22, La Poison, in French with English subtitles and running just 85 minutes, will be available for both purchase and rental.

Note to parents/grandparents: Take the kids to see Disney's fine PETE'S DRAGON remake

Been meaning to post on this one since we saw it (with our grandkids) opening weekend. It is a wonderful film, but I remember when I first heard that its director was to be David Lowery -- the filmmaker who gave us Ain't Them Bodies Saints -- my initial thought was him?! Well, "him" has done simply a splendid job of making a kids' movie that adults may love even more than the children they accompany to the theater. Within the first few minutes of the movie, Lowery shows he is perfectly in command of story and style, giving us a loss so fraught in such a beautiful, sad and delicate manner, you'll be holding your breath, first in shock and then in wonderment.

The film captures the loss of parents in a child's life as well as anything I've seen since Bambi (and that, of course, involved anthropomorphized animals as stand-ins). From loss we go almost immediately to the wonder, and Lowery (at left) and his team have created a dragon so special and amazing (note his chipped tooth/fang, below) that he'll be a keeper in yours and your kids' minds probably as long as you are able to retain any movie memories. The decision to give the big guy fur instead of scales help turn him into a kind of precious pet.

We're dealing with a primal theme here -- enormous loss and how to cope -- and Lowery manages both the reality and the fantasy with aplomb and finesse. His family scenes sparkle and charm but also carry requisite weight, while the fantasy is by turns spectacular, exciting and full of delight. There are some scares -- something no kids' movie should be without: they love these -- but nothing too strong to harm.

In the cast are two excellent child actors -- Oakes Fegley (above, right), adorable and winning as Pete; and Oona Laurence (above, left), who was so amazing in Lamb -- and both excel.

In the roles of the adults who surround them, the movie provides equally fine actors -- from Robert Redfrord (above, center), as the old codger who once had a run-in with this same dragon, and Bryce Dallas Howard (above, left) as the helpful forest ranger,

to Wes Bentley (above, left) and Karl Urban (above, right) as a pair of good/bad brothers who provide help/harm to our heroes little and big.

Lowery, who co-wrote/adapted the screenplay with Toby Halbrooks, never talks down to either the kids or us adults. You can sit back and drink it all in without fear of being somehow "reduced." This is how to make a children's film gleam and resonate; one hopes that it proves a kind of model for a new direction in Disney live action.

Pete's Dragon continues to play screens nationwide. Click here to access the web site, then click on Get Tickets to find the theater nearest you. 

Dan Trachtenberg's 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE opens with zero fanfare but lots of surprise

Generally, when a mainstream movie is not screened early for the press, this means the studio wants to hide its latest lemon. Not here. That's the first surprise. The second and more important one comes from the fact that movie audiences were not lambasted with countless and lengthy trailers of 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE in advance of its opening. These days trailers more resemble endless spoilers that tell the entire story and give away plot points that rule out one of the prime enjoyment factors of films: surprise. First-day Friday audiences (along with those, like TrustMovies, who attend the film's first preview screening the night before) plunked their tushies down in seats in near-total mystery concerning just what kind of film they were about to see.

This is a terrific idea, really: giving audiences back the genuine surprise factor that make movie-going such fun. But it is a double-edged sword. At the Boca Raton, Florida, screening last night, the small theater was only one-fifth filled, at most. Is this what not-beating-your-audience-over-the-head-with-every-last-detail gets you these days: no audience? But wait. The audience who showed up appeared to enjoy the film quite a bit. So if word of mouth spreads as it should, the movie, directed (for most of its running time) with low-key panache by newcomer Dan Trachtenberg (shown above), should eventually recoup its cost and maybe do even better than that. (Plot-wise, if not box-office-wise, a sequel is almost guaranteed.)

In keeping with the moviemakers' desires (and with this critic's own standards regarding refusal to reveal a lot of plot), I'll just say that a very good time was had by me and my spouse during this 103-minute movie that thoroughly held our interest, even when, at the end, it goes way over the top. It is always fun -- and, yes, surprising.

This is all the more special considering that the film boasts a cast of basically three people. But the actors -- John Goodman (above), here in role that matches his imposing size and girth; Mary Elizabeth Winstead (two photos above), who continues to be the go-to girl for just about any kind of role; and John Gallagher, Jr. (below), who manages to be funny and charismatic by refusing to push it -- have been chosen wisely and come through with flying colors.

The dialog is smart and believable, the story and screenplay (the several writers here include Damien Chazelle) is, too (for the most part, anyway: our leading lady, who wants to become a clothing designer, seems to morph instead into a superhero by film's finale); and the direction serves the goal. That's all I'll say about this movie that both jumps and mashes genres. From Paramount Pictures, it opens today just about everywhere. Click here to find the theater nearest you.

Streaming tip: Riley Stearns' indie, FAULTS, proves a superb surprise in every way

One of those streaming surprises that catch you up between breaths in their twisty, funny, spacey logic, as well as a movie that knows exactly what it's doing while keeping a number of steps ahead of its audience, FAULTS , written and directed by Riley Stearns, opened theatrically in a very limited released almost one year ago, and, as often happens to low-budget independent films, simply disappeared. It's available now via Netflix streaming and Amazon (and probably elsewhere), and it is a don't-miss movie for anyone who enjoys something different that is just about perfectly executed.

Mr. Stearns, shown at left, has come up with something equal parts darkly comic, timely and increasingly bizarre, and he has cast it to perfection, too, -- using his wife, that superb actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and an equally fine actor, Leland Orser, in the leading roles.  Ms Winstead (shown below and currently getting her long overdue moment in the sun in the new PBS series, Mercy Street), has given nonstop great performances in everything from the latest remake of The Thing to Smashed. I would say that she has outdone herself with Faults, except she always outdoes herself. That seems to come naturally to the woman.

Her co-star, Mr. Orser (shown below), too, proves a surprise. A fine actor (and one of the reasons Taken 3 was a better movie that most critics wanted to admit), he matches Winstead scene for scene and surprise for surprise. What these characters do and go through in the course of this 89-minute movie is, as we used to say, a humdinger.

The story is a simple and sturdy one: a down-on-his-luck fellow whose career has been all about deprogramming victims of cults, is hired by the parents of a young woman who's been recently "cultivated."  His job is to deprogram her as quickly as possible. That he himself is in big financial trouble proves no small inducement to take this latest case.

The movie is by turns funny, bizarre, dramatic and understated. And the performances from the entire cast are simply terrific. These include Beth Grant and Chris Ellis and the parents, Jon Gries as Orser's boss, and Lance Reddick as the boss' hired hand.

Everything works in Faults, and the beauty of the film is how it works. Part mystery, part comedy, part drama, part "exposé," a movie this good does not appear all that often. Pounce, please -- and do so before you learn much more about this very special film. (I am adding it now to my best-of-last-year list.)

Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg's THE WORLD'S END: surprise entertainment of the year

Who'da thunk it? In this summer season of stupidities, in which something like World War Z (wow, another zombie movie!) can actually pass for an intelligent blockbuster, along comes a special-effects laden film that's super smart, super entertaining (for real adults), super fast, super silly, too -- offering a kicker that is actually pretty profound.

THE WORLD'S END is the most all-out fun I've had at the movies this summer, certainly since This Is the End, to which it bears more than a little comparison. That movie, which tackled Armageddon Hollywood style and from Hollywood's viewpoint, was also a lot of fun. This one goes it several notches better by being smarter, funnier, and well... British, and consequently not so self-referential (drink takes the place of fame). As directed and co-written by Edgar Wright (above, right), and co-written and starring Simon Pegg (below), this is even better than the pair's earlier Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz because it risks more and explores more, all the while delivering some grand entertainment.

I think the most amazing thing about this movie is that it takes the form of the old "quest" scenario (wouldn't Joseph Campbell be impressed!) and then takes that quest into practically uncharted territory. The irony, of course, is that quest is for one more glass of ale and the opportunity for five old friends from school to reunite and drink themselves silly as they recreate a pub-hopping event from their youth that they never quite finished.

The five fellows (above) are just about perfectly portrayed by Pegg (at center) and his usual co-star Nick Frost (left), Eddie Marsan (near left), Paddy Considine (near right) and Martin Freeman (right). Each stands out in his own way, with Mr Pegg, as usual, the furthest out.

Also along for the ride and adding immeasurably to the fun while grounding things (as women tend to do) is Rosamund Pike, shown at left. Ms Pike (Barney's Version to Surrogates, Fugitive Pieces to Made in Dagenham) is a pleasure to watch in whatever she appears, and so it is here.

Events grow crazier while not for a moment losing their weird crediblity, and so the fun keeps escalating exponentially. Mr Wright wrote a short note which was copied and handed out to all us critics at press screenings, asking us to allow audiences to experience the movie in the same way that we had -- meaning all surprise and no spoilers. Amen to that! There are plenty of those surprises, large and small, none of which I hope have escaped via this review.

I must say that this is difficult because some of the inspired wordplay is utterly divine; you'll just want to repeat it immediately. A paean to beer, Brit style and bad behavior, The World's End (the name of a pub, by the way) is gleefully anarchic in a very smart manner, as it asks an impertinent question: Is humanity, such as it is, really worth saving? And the answer? Ooooh... No spoilers here.

In their epic quest to down just one more glass of ale, the writers/director/actors have also given us a movie that is achingly funny, shockingly smart, even oddly moving and, well, “deep.” This is grand entertainment and great story-telling that honors both the groundlings and us smarty-pants critics by giving us all a good time.

The movie, at this point one of the year's best -- from Focus Features and running 109 minutes -- opens Friday all over the place. To find a theater near you, click the web site, enter your zip code, then click on whichever ticket procurer you prefer....