Movie Review: American Hustle (R – 138 minutes)

If you have been reading this blog for some time, you know how I felt about Silver Linings Playbook.  If you haven’t, let me share with you how I felt about Silver Linings Playbook:  I hated it.  I felt it was exceptionally pretentious – just my opinion.  I felt like Jennifer Lawrence did a great job, well, I felt that all the actors did a good job, but the movie just made no sense to me.  That’s just me, a lot of these quality, classy, awardsy movies make no sense to me!  I need more ‘splosions!  Having that in mind, I was completely unable to watch American Hustle without dragging my bias of David O. Russell into it. 

Here’s the good news, American Hustle has some interesting stuff going on, and in my opinion, is better than Silver Linings Playbook.  Russell’s skill is demonstrated in giving a lot of dialogue to gifted actors, and letting them help to create memorable characters.   In this particular movie, he has some truly outlandish characters in some over-the-top situations. 

Irving Rosenfeld is a small time con-man operating in New Jersey in the 70s.  He has a wife he cares nothing for and a son he loves deeply, so he won’t leave the wife, despite her crazy (and I mean crazy).  He meets Sydney, a young woman looking to find herself, or perhaps to recreate herself.  They fall madly in love and she works with him on his cons.  Eventually, one of their fake loan cons is discovered by Richie DiMaso, an agent with the government.  Instead of busting the two of them, he recruits them to help him bust ‘bigger fish’:  dirty politicians.  This leads to an insane con in which they attempt to bust a local Mayor who is trying to revitalize Atlantic City.  This process involves run-ins with the mob, a fake sheik, a non-existent $10 million, and DiMaso’s beleaguered boss, and lots and lots of 70s clothes and hair.

The plot is crazy enough, but letting these exceptionally talented actors play around inside this crazy plot is what makes the movie special.

• Christian Bale plays Irving Rosenfeld, and really, his entire character is established by the voice-over in the first 10 minutes of the movie as he expertly crafts his comb-over.  And what a comb-over it is.  Bale doesn’t really disappear into this character the way you expect, but he is still incredibly believable as this criminal with a heart of gold just trying to keep his family and loved ones happy. Is the belly real, is is not?  Who knows - it's convincing either way.

• Bradley Cooper plays Richie DiMaso, and plays most of the movie angry, or perhaps angrily hungry for more; more credit, more glory, more love, more of everything.  Cooper is bizarrely coifed in a tight perm, and that perm should probably get a supporting actor nod – because Bale’s comb-over gets the best actor nod.  Cooper continues to excel in Russell’s work, while he showed talent in Silver Linings, he shows teeth here.  DiMaso is aggressive and unrelenting, and I couldn’t help but hope he will get what is coming to him.

• Amy Adams plays Sydney Prosser.  She is very good in this, and it occurs to me that Adams continues to improve in everything she does.  She’s much better here than she was in that one episode of Charmed where she had bad luck, or that one episode of Buffy, or that one episode of Smallville where she ate people – seriously.  Over the past few years she has become a really good actress, and in this, she gets to play a wide range of emotions and characters.  She also gets to do a lot of non-verbal conveying, mainly in her eyes.  She has huge eyes and uses them well to her advantage in this movie.  She does a great job of making sure you never really know what side she’s on, and that’s the point.

• Jennifer Lawrence plays the crazed wife of Irving, Rosalyn.  And when I say crazed, I mean crazed.  She gets to completely cut loose and play a total nutjob, and she does a really great job.  She’s probably the most watchable of the cast, but only because you cannot wait to see what she will do next.  I particularly like the scene when she is given a brand-new, just invented Microwave Oven, and told NOT to put any metal in it.  She promptly puts metal in it – and blames the ‘science oven’. 

• Jeremy Renner plays Mayor Carmine Polito, who really just wants to do right by his constituents.  His large pompadour might not get a nod, but it is close.  He has less to do than the other characters, but he does it well.  Essentially he’s just trying to do the right thing, and gets caught up in this crazy plot.  You really root for his character because he is so fun.  Elisabeth Rohm plays the mayor’s wife Dolly, who immediately bonds with Rosalyn.  She gets to vamp it up as a stereotypical jersey-type wife, and does a great job.

• Louis C.K. inexplicably shows up as Stoddard Thorsen, DiMaso’s boss.  He doesn’t stretch beyond what you’ve seen him do before, but his low-key exasperation fits perfectly next to Cooper’s out-of-control crazy.  He also tells a multi-part story about ice-fishing with his family that DiMaso attempts to use as motivation at differing points, and that was a funny running gag.

• Shea Whigham, who has been good in many things, but who I always remember from the Fast and Furious movies (he was Bryan O’Conner’s snippy co-worker in 4 and 6) has a small part in this, in one of the craziest wigs I have ever seen.

• Michael Pena plays the fake sheik brought in by the government to play a part in the con.  His tight performance is really funny.

• Jack Huston plays a small time mobster who starts to fall for Rosalyn.  He plays a key role in delivering information that slips from Rosalyn to his cronies, but was that all part of the plan?

Really, I would not call this movie a comedy, even though it is being marketed that way, and it just won best Comedy/Musical in the Golden Globes.  It’s an awards-season comedy, which is not really a comedy.   There are funny moments, but really – it’s more of a showcase for some interesting character acting.  In terms of entertainment, it does start slow, but it does keep you interested as the story progresses, and you being to wonder who is being conned, and who will come out on top.  This is another one that I’m glad I saw, but I am not really sure I would say that I enjoyed.  It’s a very actor-y movie designed to show the quality of the players – it might even work as a play - take that under advisement, high-school drama groups!

6 out of 10 – again that number reflects my opinion, not the quality of the work!  Gained points for the hair and costumes, surely it will be up for the hair/makeup and costuming Oscars.  Lost points for the length, it really could have done just fine at 90 minutes.  It’s well over 2 hours, and a tighter running time would have helped to eliminate some of the slower parts.  Gained points for the complicated sting-type operation – lost points for the dance scene, did they do the Hustle?  If they did, then it gains points there.

Bonus Video 1:  The Sting – similar, older, better.

Bonus Video 2:  Confidence – far and away my favorite con-man movie.

Bonus Video 3:  Cast Interviews

Movie Review: Her (R - 126 minutes)

This is another quirky Oscar-Bait movie, although it’s also a Spike Jonze movie, so be forewarned.  If you like Spike Jonze movies, you will probably like this one.  If you are saying, who is Spike Jonze?, let me see if I can clear that up for you.   He started out by making music videos, and helping to create JackAss.   He worked with Fatboy Slim (the Weapon of Choice video is his) and the Beastie Boys.   His first full length movie was Being John Malkovich, which was written by Charlie Kaufman (incidentally, Adaptation featuring Nicolas Cage playing Charlie Kaufman and his imaginary twin brother is also a Jonze movie, seriously).  He also did Where the Wild Things Are.  If you haven’t seen Being John Malkovich, I’m not even sure how to describe it.  An aspiring puppeteer finds a strange portal on a ½ floor of a building, yes - it's half a floor.  This portal also you to enter the mind of John Malkovich…yes, that John Malkovich.  At first you are just observing, but if you hang out long enough, you can figure out how to control or take over John Malkovich.  That’s bizarre enough, but then what happens when Malkovich himself enters the portal is something else entirely. 

I can’t say I enjoyed that movie, it’s exceptionally weird, there’s way too much puppeting (pupeteering?) and Jonze seems to revel in making the majority of the cast look as bad as possible – I mean, there are some really bad wigs in that movie.  I only bring that up because when I first saw the trailer for Her, I thought to myself, “Wow, that is some awful looking hair, it reminds me of Being John Malkovich”.

Her takes place in the not so distant future.  Theodore is a lonely writer who works at a place that writes emotional letters for people.  So if you need to write a letter, but want it to be really emotional and beautiful, you hire them to do it.  He is going through a divorce, and is a bit aimless.  He buys a new Operating System for his computer that is essentially a fully functioning and evolving A.I.   He then proceeds to date, fall in love with, and have a relationship with, the Operating System, which has a female voice and calls itself Samantha.

Yes, it is a bit bizarre, but you can also see how this could be a possibility in the future.  As Theodore and Samantha’s relationship progresses, they go out to dinner, they have a lovely date on a beach, they double date with friends, and even have fights.  Almost everyone around Theodore acknowledges that the relationship is legitimate – apparently quite a few people are dating OS-s; almost everyone except for his ex-wife, when they meet up to finalize the divorce. 

The movie is too long, and really boring, and bizarre – again, if you like Spike Jonze’s movies, you’ll like this.  The performances are really good, and that is what pulls you into the movie.  I did hear someone say that without Phoenix and Johansson, this wouldn't be the movie it is.  I agree, those two performances take what would have been just weird and make it touching and interesting.

• Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore with a very lonely sincerity that was almost off-putting.  He is exceptionally sincere, and really just wants to heal the hole in his heart that losing his wife created.  Phoenix is always interesting, and does a great job in this.  He does make you root for him, but he also gets a little creepy to the point where I wanted to yell at the screen, “Stop hooking up with your computer!”  He has been nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance, so I would assume an Oscar nom is also a possibility.  Also, it's still weird to see him and think - he was that kid in the movie Parenthood.

• Chris Pratt inexplicably is in this movie as a co-worker at Theodore’s office.  He seems to just be playing Chris Pratt, but since I enjoy Chris Pratt, that works for me.  I especially liked when he asked Theodore to bring his girlfriend on a double date how he did not bat an eye when Theodore responded that she was an OS.  

• Rooney Mara plays the ex-wife Catherine.  She really only has the one scene and some flashbacks, so who knows if she was good or not.  She does try to bring some reality crashing down on Theodore, but it didn’t really work, but kudos for the try!

• Amy Adams plays Amy – Theodore’s friend.  She and her husband (boyfriend? I guess I’m not sure) set Theodore up with a friend of theirs on a date that goes well, but then doesn’t.  Adams plays a woman working on a documentary who wants more than she has, and starts a friendship with an OS, so understands Theodore’s relationship.  The endpoint for she and Theodore is a little predictable, but since it was what I wanted to happen, I was pretty happy with that.

• Matt Letscher plays Charles, who is with Amy, and friendly with Theodore.  He have very few scenes but was entertaining while he was around.

• Olivia Wilde has almost a cameo as the blind date. 

• Scarlett Johansson plays Samantha, and there was a lot of talk of her getting nominated for this voice-only performance.  Personally, I think it would be a crime to give her a nom for this when Andy Serkis has yet to be nominated for any of the amazing work he has done, but I will admit that she does a great job.  She has a lot of varying emotions to convey with only her voice, and it is very impressive.

All in all, it is an interesting movie, but it is a little boring.  I thought the ending was inevitable, but well done.  I’m not sure I liked it, but I’m glad I saw it. 

5 out of 10.  Again – well done, just not my style.  Gained points for Chris Pratt.  Lost points for the high waisted pants, boy, I really hope that is not a style choice that we are headed for in the future.  Gained points for the bitchy little alien in the game that Theodore plays voiced by Spike Jonze, Lost points for suggesting that this is where we are heading – as Theodore walks with Samantha, he notices that everyone is talking on their device, presumably to their OS, that they are also presumably in a relationship with.  Yikes.

Bonus Video 1:  Weapon of Choice – brilliant.

Bonus Video 2:  Spike Jonze in a Fatboy Slim video

Bonus Video 3: Cast Interviews

Movie Review: 47 Ronin (PG13 – 118 minutes)

The story of the forty-seven Ronin dates back to early 18^th century Japan.  The story is the most famous example of the bushido – or the Samurai code of honor.  Feudal Japan was ruled by many different lords, or Shogun.  There were also daimyo, lords who ruled over smaller city-states.  The Daimyo had Samurai to help watch over his lands and people.  This particular story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (which turns a Samurai into a Ronin), after their Daimyo Asano Naganori was compelled to comit seppuku (which is a honorable ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka.  The Ronin avenged Naganori after waiting and planning for almost two years.  In turn, these ronin were also obliged to commit seppuku for committing murder.  The story has passed down through generations, becoming legend.  It is used to describe the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that all people should strive for.  The story has been told in plays, books, and movies.  Each year on December 14^th, the Sengakuji Temple holds a festival commemorating the Ronin at their gravesites.

It’s an engaging old story, but since it’s been made into a movie at least 5 times before, how do you make it one more time, and make it watchable in this day and age?  Well, you up the romance and fantasy elements, add some impressive visuals and throw in Keanu Reeves (who some people had forgotten about), and release it in 3D. 

This version of the story follows a half-breed, Kai, who is found running through the woods – away from something – as a boy by Lord Asano and his Samurai.  Oishi, the lead Samuari wants to kill the boy, as he is clearly (clearly) a demon, but Lord Asano (much to the delight of his daughter), takes pity on him, and allows him to live as a sevant in his home.  Kai and the daughter, Mika, remain friends throughout their lives and Kai swears his loyalty to Lord Asano for the kindness he has been shown.  He slays a crazy beast (a chimera-type deal that was trampling horses and what-not), but one of the other Samurai takes credit for it.  Meanwhile, the Shogun is arriving for a tournament, at which Lord Asano’s champion will battle the visiting Lord Kira’s champion.  Lord Kira is a bit of a dick and has eyes for Lord Asano’s daughter and his lands and his people.  He also has a witch at his side. 

The witch incapacitates Lord Asano’s champion, and Oishi’s son and Kai discover this just a bit too late.  Kai makes the supremely poor decision to put on the champion’s armor and head out to the fight – which he loses, and is discovered.  

The Shogun sentences him to death, but Mika throws herself in the way, and then Lord Asano looks bad and has to apologize, and apparently commit seppuku.  At this point, Kira conveniently offers to marry Mika and keep watch over the lands.  The shogun gives her a year to mourn.   Kira banishes Asano’s Samurai, making them Ronin, and bitter and angry.  Oishi is thrown into a pit, and the Ronin scatter. 

A year later, Oishi is released as the wedding is being prepped.  Oishi begins assembling his Ronin, starting with Kai.  They then hatch a plan that they know will lead to their doom, but they are determined to avenge their master.

If you know the true story, you know how this movie will end, so there’s no surprise there.  The added bits of the romance between Kai and Mika, the entire character of Kai, and the fantasy elements of the witch and the beasts are all fictionalized, and are really just there to up the visual aspects. 

  That being said, I think it was a wise decision.  Telling this story straight would leave you with basically a Western-style vengeance story; and really, Westerns haven’t been doing that well lately.  Adding the fantasy elements gives you a visual genre feast.  Directed by Carl Rinsch, this is his first full-length feature.  He had previously done some short movies.  I really loved the visuals in this movie, especially in the quiet moments where nothing is happening.  The staging and cinematography are beautiful.  The cast is wonderful, considering there’s not that many characters you really get to know.

• Keanu Reeves plays Kai and does a serviceable job.  Listen, we all know he’s Keanu Reeves, and we’re all aware of his range.  The advantage is that now he seems to be aware of his range as well, and it fits this story well.  He does a good job, the fighting bits look great, and I was happy to see him in this role.

• Hiroyuki Sanada, most recently seen in this summer’s Wolverine, plays Oishi.  While Reeves is the star, the movie really belongs to Sanada and his character of Oishi.  He’s very watchable and does a great job portraying a man willing to do anything for honor and loyalty.

• Ko Shibasaki plays Mika.  She really is just the damsel in distress, which is disappointing, but she does have  few moments of defiance that were interesting.
•  
• Tandanobu Asano plays Lord Kira, and he is pretty devious and nasty through the whole movie.  He’s played Hogun in both Thor movies, so he knows his way around a big genre movie.  I especially love the bit where he refers to Asano’s daughter as his concubine – accidentally on purpose, then his little facial reaction afterwards.  Hilarious.

• Min Tanaka plays Lord Asano, and he was very imposing.  He plays his acceptance of Kai in an interesting way, as well as his non-acceptance of his daughter’s attachment to Kai.  Also, when he removed his shirt to commit seppuku, he’s remarkably built for a man of his age.

• Jin Akanishi plays Oishi’s son, and really (spoiler alert) is the one to make it through the story.  His journey from timid young man to Samurai is a small part of the story – but well done.

• Rinko Kikuchi plays the witch, and man, does she play the witch.  She was in Pacific Rim this summer, and really seems way more at home in this movie as the bad guy, then as the good guy in that flick.  She vamps her way through the role, chewing up the scenery while casting spells, having magic hair, creating poisonous spiders, and turning into a fox (but what does it say?).  She was great.

• My favorite part was, of course, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the Shogun.  He was raised as a US Army brat and has been acting since 1987, he played a bailiff in the very first episode of Star Trek: TNG, and was insanely perfect as Shang Tsung in Mortal Combat in 1995.  He was a major part of the perfection of Showdown in Little Tokyo, the best worst martial arts movie ever made.  In this, he doesn’t do much but let the costuming do the work, and work it does.

Along those lines, the costuming in this movie is fantastic, as are all the sets.  Like I said, visually very impressive.  The story was good, the acting was fine, all in all, an enjoyable movie.

8 out of 10.  Gained points for that dragon – a shame it was ruined in the trailer, but it was still pretty impressive.  Lost points for everyone turning on Kai so quickly – really guys?  He totally stepped in and tried to help out!  Gained points for the Tengu, which of course reminded me of the Tengu in the Power Rangers movie, anyone else?  No?  Just me?  That’s fine, I can live with that. 

Bonus Video 1: Mortal Kombat, so awesome.

Bonus Video 2:  Showdown in Little Tokyo, because I have to mention it every third blog-post or so…

Bonus Video 3:  Cast Interviews:

Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks (PG13 – 125 minutes)

P.L. Travers wrote the Mary Poppins books, and fought for 20 years to not allow Walt Disney to turn her beloved character into one of his movies.  This movie covers the last part of that story, where he finally gets her to come to L.A. and sign over the rights to the characters.

In case you haven’t seen Mary Poppins (what is wrong with you?), it was released by Disney in 1964, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.  It was a touching and funny story about some children and a magical nanny, but also about the importance of family and being there for your children.  It is exceptional.

Saving Mr. Banks tells the behind the scenes story of Disney essentially woo-ing the rights away from P.L. Travers, who was a miserable woman, but was using that miserable personality to cover-up some trauma from a difficult childhood.  As she reluctantly travels to Los Angeles and goes through the process of working with the writers and lyricists, she reflects on that childhood – and that allows this movie to tell the two stories in a parallel fashion.  When she was a very young child, her father worked as a bank manager in Australia.  The family had to move out to the middle of nowhere as he got a new job, and she idolized his imaginative take on life.  He preferred to have fun pretending, and not to work, but he was also very much an alcoholic, losing work, and disappointing his wife.  It’s very clever, and has some genuinely moving moments when you realize why she is fighting so hard to protect her creations. 

It is directed by John Lee Hancock, who directed The Blind Side and the Alamo, but perhaps is most notorious for being the director of Snow White and the Huntsman (he was the one who was caught snogging with Kristen Stewart, causing the breakup between her and R-Patz!  The Horror!  Sarcasm!)  And, while I always say that film is the director’s medium, this movie really benefits from a stellar cast, and a director smart enough to let them work their own magic.

• Emma Thompson plays P.L. Travers with class, elegance, and some world-class bitchiness.  She is aggressive and unapologetic when dealing with Disney and his employees.  She cares only about protecting what she sees as the most important thing to her, Mary Poppins.  Thompson’s portrayal of Travers is almost flawless as she gradually starts to accept the translation of her literary character to film.  Even more impressive is the pictures and recordings of the real Travers over the end credits, so that you know exactly how good a job Thompson did.

• Tom Hanks – who, again, is probably one of the best actors working today – plays Disney perfectly.  I have some memories of seeing Walt Disney footage on the Magical World of Disney TV shows, and Hanks is incredible.  Again he takes on a different accent, which seems to be perfect.  He plays Disney absolutely as the friendly, warm creator of Disneyland – but you also get to see the moments of the man who did create an empire, and was not used to taking No for an answer.  He was self-assured, and confident, and Hanks covers both very well.

• Paul Giamatti as Ralph, the driver, was one of the highlights of this movie.  It’s a small role, but he’s quietly perfect in it – he never lets Travers bring him down, no matter how mean to him she is. 

• Bradley Whitford plays writer Don DaGradi, and does a good job in being bewildered by Travers, but then finding a way to work with her.

• B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman play Robert and Richard Sherman, the musicians and lyricists who did the songs for Mary Poppins.  They are small roles, but both of them are memorable, and have some great scenes.

• Rachel Griffiths plays the real-life inspiration for Mary Poppins, Aunt Ellie, who comes to help Travers’s family in flashbacks as they struggle in the outback.  She has very few scenes, but plays them just right, and you can see how Travers pulls from her to create Mary Poppins.

• Ruth Wilson plays the mother in the flashbacks, and really does a great job as you see her slowly start to unravel as the story goes on.

• The “Mr. Banks” of the title is played by Colin Farrell, who plays Travers Goff, the father in the flashbacks.  He’s incredibly fun as a father, and you can see why his daughter wants to be just like him.  However, he is not great as a father, and his drinking and lack of ambition slowly start to drive the family to ruin.  The decline is well-depicted, and you really start to feel for the family and the daughter in particular, and can see how she created these characters, and why they are so important to her.  Honestly, he probably should get a nomination for supporting actor.

Overall, the movie is a bit long in places, but it is a touching story.  How much of it is accurate is of course, up to the historians to debate, but it is not a documentary, it is a movie – and it is by Disney, so it is a bit polished for them.  It’s touching, it’s entertaining, and it has some fantastic performances.

6 out of 10 – so far, the second best of the Award-season flicks I’ve seen (second to Captain Phillips).  Gained points for Giamatti, what a great job he does.  Lost points for not fully using the Australian outback to its potential – kangaroos, crocodiles, etc.  Gained points for Disney handing out pre-signed cards at Disney-land.  Also gained points for the real pictures over the credits.

Bonus Video 1:  Bedknobs and Broomsticks – similar to Mary Poppins, but with Angela Lansbury from 1971.

Bonus Video 2: Disney - doing some Disney stuff, so you can see how good Hanks is.

Bonus Video 3:  Cast Interviews:

Movie Review: The Spectacular Now (R-95 minutes)

I do make the effort around this time of year to see some of the “Oscar-bait” movies that are released.  These are the smaller-budget, art-house, festival-circuit films that seem to be released mainly in December to keep them fresh in the voters’ minds for the awards season early next year.  I have never been a fan of these movies, I prefer to go to movies for an escape.  I am looking for something big and fun, where I can see every single penny of the budget on the screen.  These movies are more about the characters, the story, and the acting.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it definitely is a showcase for multiple talents:  writers, actors, and especially directors (film is a director’s medium, stage is the actor’s medium).  I rarely enjoy these movies, just because they are not entertaining.  They are not meant to be, they are meant to display the drama of life.  That’s why I prefer a big, dumb action movie over a quiet small drama film, I have enough drama in my real life – let me go to the movies to see something fun!

The Spectacular Now is not fun, and was actually released in September, but it had a very limited release, so chances are that not many people saw it.  It was strangely marketed as a comedy (never ever believe any art-house or Oscar-bait movie that states it is a comedy…it’s not – at least not in the traditional sense).  It is essentially a 95 minute character study of an 18 year old drunk.  Sutter is currently in his senior year of high school, and thrilled with his girlfriend as they bounce from party to party, drinking and living it up.  He doesn’t really care about his classes anymore, and hasn’t really thought much about applying to college.  He’s too busy, living in the ‘now’, and enjoying the moment.  

His older sister lives nearby with her husband, and his mother seems to be a nurse working a lot of double shifts, so no one is around to tell him to stop drinking.  He and his girlfriend break-up as she begins to realize how aimless he is.  After waking up after a drunken stupor in a classmate’s front yard, he starts to date her (Aimee), and begins want more.  He convinces his sister to give him the where-abouts of his father, who he believes was kicked out by his mother years ago.  He goes to visit him, and realizes that his father is a shiftless drunk livening in the ‘now’, with absolutely no ambition.  Shocked by the realization that he is very much like his father, he decides to make some changes.  Living in the now is fine, but you do need to be aware of preparing for the future.

Directed by James Ponsoldt, who also did Smashed (a movie about two married alcoholics whose marriage is tested when one decides to get sober) and Off the Black (an aging alcoholic gets a younger friend to pose as his son at a high school reunion), this movie again centers around an alcoholic.  The difference between this and the other two movies is that the alcoholic is younger this time.  Perhaps Ponsoldt is familiar with the ways of alcoholics; maybe they just fascinate him, who knows.  Either way – I found the amount of drinking by these children exceptionally off-putting.  Even more off-putting was the fact that there was really no repercussions to the underage drinking.  There is one car accident, and it actually doesn’t really have to do with the drinking.  Pondsoldt does a great job with actors he is familiar with, and creates a small intimate story with some really great performances.

• Miles Teller plays Sutter, and he does have to carry the entire movie on his own.  He’s that kid that annoyed you in high school, who rules the school, and has no ambitions for anything further.  He was previously in 21&Over and Project X, so clearly he is great at playing a hard-partying high-schooler.  He is certainly good in this, and gets better as the film progresses, and we get to watch him convey Sutter’s hard discovery that perhaps his life philosophy is not all that it is cracked up to be.

• Shailene Woodley plays Aimee, and she does a really good job of being at first surprised that Sutter would like someone like her, then genuinely caring about him, and then completely in love with him.  Her character gets a little less to do, but she does a good job with what is there.  She was good in the Descendants, and has Divergent coming out soon – apparently Teller is in that as well.

• Brie Larson, who has done a lot of TV work (she was the daughter on United States of Tara), plays Cassidy.  She is Sutter’s perfect girlfriend who parties with him, until she realizes that maybe she wants more, and starts dating the star athlete and class president.  She’s very good in a quietly layered performance.  It could have been a one-note character, and she does as much with it as she can.

• Masam Holden plays Ricky – who is Sutter’s friend (his only friend?).  Sutter sets him up with a girl, and Ricky attempts to get Sutter to realize some things about himself before he hurts Aimee.
• Dayo Okeniyi plays Marcus, the athlete/president who Cassidy trades up to.  He’s pretty great, and does get one moment with Sutter that helps Sutter realize that everyone thinks he is a joke.

• Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Sutter’s mom, and while she is good she’s barely in the movie, and I just kept wanted her to stop Sutter from drinking so much.  Did I mention that all the teen drinking bothered me?  But not nearly as the complete lack of consequences of the teen drinking bothered me?

• Andre Royo plays the one teacher in the high school that we are introduced to.  He attempts to get Sutter to focus on his schoolwork, to no avail.  He again helps Sutter begin to realize that maybe people have written him off.

• Bob Odenkirk continues to prove he has a future as a real actor as Sutter’s boss in his after-school job.  He is yet another character that helps Sutter realize he’s going nowhere, but that people genuinely like him and want him to take the next step.  Odenkirk has very few scenes, but is very good.

• Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Sutter’s older sister.  Again – very few scenes, but very good.  She gives Sutter access to his father, which is the catalyst for making him want to change.
• Kyle Chandler plays the long-lost father, and is very good.  If you are familiar with Kyle Chandler, you are not surprised by that statement.  When Sutter first reaches out to him, you hope that he’s going to be a great father figure, and provide the guidance that Sutter needs.  However, when Sutter goes to meet with him, you (and Sutter) realize that this is the worthless future that Sutter is headed towards. 

Overall, like I said, the movie is a character-study of an aimless 18 year old alcoholic.  It is well-directed, and well-crafted, but really not my cup of tea.  I just wanted someone to punch Sutter in the face.  Maybe that would have shortened the movie!

3 out of 10 – Remeber, that number is how I reacted to the movie, and does not reflect the actual quality of the film.  I really didn’t like it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not quality.  It is a quality film – and Ponsoldt seems to be a good director, but holy crap did I hate this movie.  I really needed one of these drunken teens to be arrested for underage drinking.  At least no one died.  Oh - spoiler alert, no one is killed in a brutal drunk-driving accident, although someone should have been.

Bonus Video 1:  Less Than Zero – older, vaguely similar.

Bonus Video 2:  Chronicle – just because.  See this because it’s interesting.

Bonus Video 3:  Cast Interviews.