Current Film Reviews- Let It Snow

Alright, I got nothing for November, anxiety has wreaked havoc on my life, and the month's almost over, so I need something to make sure I follow through on my personal promise to release something each month. *Looks on Netflix*. Oh, hey, they finally made that film based on that book John Green co-wrote. Alright, some backstory. I first heard about this around the time The Fault in Our Stars came out, and I became intrigued by John Green and the particular genre he worked in. This project was in development, and I thought I would see it in 2015, when I read it. Well, it's four years later, and I've stopped caring, and as far as I can discern, no one has noticed that this came out, so.... screw it. I got nothing else to write about.

    Based on the novel of the same name co-written by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle, the film follows several plot threads that weave and intersect with each other at various points. You have the story of Julie Reyes (Isabelle Merced), who meets the pop star Stuart Bale (Shameik Moore), and shares a fairly good experience with him, despite her own problems at home. There's Dorrie (Liv Hewson), a waitress who's nervous because Kerry (Anna Akana), who she has a burgeoning relationship with, seems not to be interested when she and her group of cheerleaders head into the restaurant Dorrie works at. There's Dorrie's friends Addie (Odeya Rush), who is concerned that her boyfriend Jeb (Mason Gooding) is cheating on her (not to mention her bizarre encounters with a woman who wears tin foil (Joan Cusack) and Tobin (Mitchell Hope, and apparently not Charlie Heaton), who has to deal with his feelings for the Duke (Kiernan Shipka) who is close to JP (Matthew Noszka). Finally, there's Tobin's friend Keon (Jacob Batalon, who seems to specialize in playing wacky best friends), who wants to throw a party but gets into roadblocks along the way.

   The acting is pretty good around the board. They do well to serve the material that they are given, and imbue it with strong emotion and empathy. It really helps invest us in these characters and their various plights, whether serious or wacky. The stories are well done for the most part, and despite somewhat odd premises, manage to resolve themselves without any feeling rushed or undervalued as a result. It is also pretty funny in some parts, with some nice bits and dialogue that feels realistic for teenager to say, while still managing to be pretty funny. It probably helped that Kay Cannon, who directed the superb comedy Blockers last year, helped write the script. I did like the sense of being completely overwhelmed by snow, being from Colorado and having to deal with that every year.

   Because of the intersecting structure of the story, it can be hard to follow what is happening to whom. Sometimes, I'd mix up stories or get confused when something happened because it pertained to a different storyline that happened a while ago. I feel like a film like this shouldn't be that hard to follow, but I was constantly rewinding to see context, and I was still confused. It's also fairly slow, with a lot of padding that sometimes stops the film cold, and are just ... confusing. This is only an hour and a half, but the padding really makes it feel longer.

    I'm not the target audience for this film, but I'm close enough to that audience that I can say that I probably would've adored this film when I was in that age group. It's the kind of warm teen romantic comedies that I was always sort of a sucker for (I enjoyed the two John Green novels I've read). I can imagine that the audience this is aimed at will likely enjoy it, since it seems very congruent with the way they actually act. Again, not the target audience, so don't know that for certain. As for me at this time, it was good. Not great, not even really that good, but good. Nice little film to watch on a lazy day or celebrate Christmas. So, yeah, if you want to watch something like that and you have a Netflix account, this wouldn't be a bad choice.   

Current Film Review: A Futile and Stupid Gesture

      About two years ago, I watched a documentary called Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead, a look into the National Lampoon magazine during its rise and height during the 60's and 70's. It was interesting, if a bit self-congratulatory, seeing how this magazine came to influence a lot of the comedy of the late 20th Century. It's influence can be seen from its lucrative film licensing to its prominent writers and editors (PJ O'Rourke, John Hughes, Al Jean and Mike Reiss of The Simpsons), to the number of its talent that would go on to help create Saturday Night Live. However, the documentary had very "greatest hits" feel, looking only at the best of it, and never its low points (aside from a brief mention of Disco Beavers from Outer Space) . My particular criticism is that doesn't explore the end of the Lampoon to any degree. It just blames it Christian conservatives, and not (based on my reading), a decreasing reader base and a consortium of businesses that simply took the brand (applying to a number of sub-par, "found on a Blockbuster shelf" films), and neglecting the magazine. Still, it was interesting and enjoyable enough that I was exciting for Netflix's biopic of Doug Kenney, the founder of the Lampoon. Though, the time in which the film gestated took a while, and there was no real release date until about a month ago. Now that I've seen it, it was enjoyable overall, but not necessarily a great or even particularly good film. Let me tell you why.

     Based on Josh Karp's biography of the same name, the film tells the true story of Douglas C. Kenney (Will Forte) from the perspective of an hypothetical older Kenney (Martin Mull), who didn't die in 1980 (That's not a spoiler. You can find that fact in about five seconds) . As a Harvard freshman from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, he befriends a fellow student, Henry Beard (Domhnall Gleeson). Together, the two become the lead editor of Harvard's humor magazine The Harvard Lampoon, and release a very successful parody of Lord of the Rings (Bored of the Rings). However, Doug finds his after-college prospects daunting, so he comes up with the idea of a nationwide version of the Harvard Lampoon. After convincing Beard to come on board, they shop around the idea of a humor magazine, until they sign a deal with publisher Matty Simmons (Matt Walsh). They assemble a team of writers and editors, including Michael O'Donoghue (Thomas Lennon), Anne Beatts (Natasha Lyonne),  Tony Hendra (Matt Lucas), and PJ O'Rourke (Nelson Franklin). While having a shaky start, the magazine becomes incredibly successful, and eventually spawns a radio show, starring such talent as Gilda Radner (Jackie Tohn), Bill Murray (Jon Daly), John Belushi (John Gemberling), and Chevy Chase (Joel McHale) (Like I said, a lot of the talent went on to work for SNL). However, in spite of his massive success, Kenney finds that his own personal vices are growing. Incapable of handling those vices and success and work only compounding them, he finds himself at odds with the people closest to him, and his own personal state is deteriorating.

      The film has a couple of good points. The main cast does well, with Forte, Gleeson, and McHale as particular stand-outs. McHale does a good impression of 70's era Chevy Chase (probably helped by the two of them working on Community together). It had some very funny moments, particularly in its metatexual nature. The older Kenney often breaks the fourth wall and discusses the events in meta sense, (and even lists the various parts of the film that weren't true at one point). There was also the interesting gambit where in place of the typical biopic looks into the protagonists deteriorating state, are a bunch of sketches reminiscent of the Lampoon's dark humor streak. Some of these work well, some less so, but it is ambitious and unexpected.  The behind-the-scenes stuff was interesting, if a bit un-detailed. The dramatic moments work well (especially how it makes Kenney's death a mystery, much how it is in real life), along with the comedic ones

    Remember how I said that this was greatest hits? Yeah, it just mostly drives through the most notable moments of Kenney's tenure at the Lampoon, but with little to no look into how they were formulated or the real production behind them. We get only a very brief mention of Bored of the Rings towards the beginning, the radio show and many of the most parodies are only glanced at, and most notably, the production of Animal House and Caddyshack are skimmed over. Key moments, and they are barely explored. None of the memorable scenes or jokes are shown. Also skimmed over were a lot of the famous faces. Aside from Chevy Chase (which is likely because of his major role), most of the other writers, editors, and actors are not given much development, and kind of disappear towards the third act. While each of the original writers are given little introductions, they end up underdeveloped. Some of the other major players (PJ O'Rourke, Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, Lorne Michaels) are given little to no introduction.  A lot of the later SNL actors come off more as impressions than real performances of these people, especially John Belushi. Another big problem was that the film would vary wildly from standard biopic about famous figure and their accomplish, and a strange, surreal dark comedy. Parts from both work at times (as I said earlier), but when put together, come off haphazardly and feel a bit off as a result.

      Despite the less-than-satisfying way the film handles its subject, this was fairly enjoyable and fun for the most part. If you have a Netflix account, and are interested by what I have written, or are interested in the comedic that would influence the many comedies of the past 50 years, I recommend this. It's only an hour and a half anyway, so no real investment of time is necessary.