What We Learned This Week at the Movies: July 14– July 26, 2013

Movies Seen In Theatres This Week:  Hitchcock’s Blackmail, Much Ado About Nothing, The Heat, Despicable Me 2, The Lone Ranger

Lesson 5. Silent but Deadly - The Pure Joy of SIFF's Hitchcock 9

One of the genuine perks of living in Seattle is being able to participate in all the fantastic programs that SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival) has to offer. We’ve written before about how much we’ve enjoyed taking part in SIFF’s Crash Cinema and are looking forward to doing it again next month, but last week Jeff was able to check out the first installment of their Hitchcock 9 series. Some of Hitchcock’s best early silent films are on display, fully remastered and on the big screen at their uptown location. Plus, they have live scores performed by area bands!

Blackmail was first up, which is regarded as Hitchcock’s best silent film as well as one of the best films of the 1920’s. The original score, composed and performed by the group Diminished Men, was the perfect accompaniment. It was dark, subtle, jazzy, and with a nearly chaotic instrumental quality. It reminded me of the score of a Tarantino film, but with an extra layer of smoke on top. In short, it brought out all the tension of Hitchcock’s film, without distracting from the master-filmaker’s imagery. Beyond that, it added a level of grit that wasn’t in Hitchcock’s polished composition that really enhanced it for a modern audience. For an audience that’s unused to silent film, this is the perfect introduction and I enjoyed every minute of it. We’ll continue to fan-boy SIFF and write about their programs as they come. To all interested and aspiring filmmakers in the Seattle area, join us for Crash Cinema (where we’ll make a movie in 8 hours, then take part in SIFF’s mini-festival on the big screen) August 24.

Lesson 4. Enjoy The Summer - Avoid The Heat

The next sentence that I’m about to write is hard for me, but here goes. The Heat is terrible. I really wanted to like it, I love Mellissa McCarthy and even in this boring rehash of unfunny ideas she still found a way to make me a laugh a few times. That’s the last good thing I can say about The Heat. The plot was weak and beyond far-fetched, every character is a stereotype, the humor just falls very flat. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on The Heat simply because it’s not worth bashing. It’s so dull I’m not really sure how this film opened so well (opening weekend of over 60 million dollars). I’m glad it did because I want McCarthy to keep getting projects, but don’t waste your time with this film. Even Identity Thief, which released earlier this year, was better than this. I’m disappointed in director Paul Fieg (who was the director of Bridesmaids, several episodes of The Office, as well as the creator of the perfect show, Freaks and Geeks) because there is nothing that can save this film. Just a heads up, it’s a hard R. There are some strongly gory scenes and swear words all over the place (so much in fact that it’s a running joke when Sandra Bullock does begin to swear -  it’s supposed to be hilarious…stupid, stupid stupid.) Alright, I’m done. Just avoid The Heat  

Lesson 3. Reverse Trailer-Cide

Recently I watched Despicable Me 2 and I am proud to say that this film archives far greater levels of… disappointment. I think I’m the only person that didn’t enjoy the first Despicable Me and now I’m one of the few that doesn’t care for the sequel. The Despicable films are fine enough, and serve as good kid’s entertainment, or at least they should. The problem with this film is that it forgets that it should be serving families and turns into a “romantic comedy” and a pretty lame one at that. Despicable Me 2 focuses far too much on the love story of Gru (Steve Carrell) and Lucy (Kristen Wiig) and not nearly enough on what the film was billed as, an animated action comedy with Gru saving the world he once tried to destroy. This is the problem with both Despicable films, they have trailers and advertisements that are far more interesting than its final product. The first film was built as a subversive, bad guy is the good guy, anti-hero kids film then it was just a typical cute cartoon. Not bad, but not what it promised. The sequel was billed as a cute action family cartoon and we get a RomCom made with computers. It’s just sadly disappointing. I’m really looking forward to the trailer for Despicable 3, but I’ll skip that film no matter how good it looks.

Lesson 2. Never Trust a Film with Pointless Cannibalism

Do I need to write more? The Lone Ranger has pointless cannibalism. I just kept saying to myself, what the hell were they thinking? How could they do this? It can’t get worse… It. Just. Did. There are so many issues with The Lone Ranger from Armie Hammer’s lame-sauce portrayal of the title character, to multiple failed story framing devices, to needless freeze frames, to useless… There’s a lot wrong with the film, but I want to rant about this: at one point in the making and writing of this film the bad guy, Butch Cavendish (played by William Fichtner who is the only watchable thing in the entire film), was supposed to be a werewolf. Now in theory I have no issue with this except… THEY CUT IT FROM THE FILM AND DIDN’T RESHOOT A THING!!! All they did was cut around every direct reference to it, so we still have small hints that something is wrong with Cavendish BUT IT’S NEVER FINISHED! We have were-bunnies in this film, the pointless, repetitive, use of the term Windigo (a Native American term for a werewolf-type creature) and POINTLESS CANNIBALISM! At one point Cavedish cuts a man’s heart out and eats it – and it’s never explained or mentioned! This is the nut shell problem with the film, it encapsulates everything that’s wrong with The Lone Ranger. The real lesson is that The William Tell Overture is far far entertaining and compelling than this film could ever… EVER hope to be.

Lesson 1. Blind Love is The Best Love

My blind love, Joss Whedon, is very strong - which makes me very happy to say that Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing is great. This black and white film was made in 12 days in the middle of The Avengers shoot. Whedon needed some down time, and this is what he did with it. The cast is full of actors from the Whedon Universe (Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Fran Kranz, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, and Sean Maher… just to name a few) and they all shine. It’s clear they enjoy working with Whedon and trust him completely. The adaptation of Shakespeare’s play works very well, and Whedon decided to make it a much smaller story, really focusing on the relationships between Benedict and Beatrice and Claudio and Hero. This choice really works when transferring the play to film. After watching the film it amazes me that it was shot in 12 days because this is one of the most unique and beautifully filmed movies of the year so far. Whedon uses his home in Santa Monica as the backdrop for this classic comedy and it really helps us to connect to a film that could easily go off the rails quickly.  It’s because of the familiarity of an American home, with actors we (fans) know, and the outstanding camera work leads the audience to accept the most difficult thing about adapting Shakespeare for a modern audience: the language. Much Ado uses dialogue straight from the play and doesn’t miss a beat, very quickly you buy that this is how these characters speak and the reason for that is the completely familiarity to what’s on screen, who is creating it and the actors who are KILLING IT on screen because they understand what they’re saying and perform the play to its fullest extent. Much Ado is full of amazing performances all around, but three in particular stand out. Fran Kranz playing Claudio gives a performance full of depth and layers that make the characters journey toward love so beautiful and crushing. Nathan Fillion as Dogberry brings a level of humor to the film that puts it over the top as a great comedy and he does this by grounding his character in reality. Finally, Amy Acker’s Beatrice is one of the best performances of the year, period. She is the center, the heart, and the soul of this film. She understands where the character is at all times and her “If I were man” speech is one of the captivating speeches on film, and my personal favorite version of the soliloquy that I’ve ever seen. Much Ado About Nothing is crazy amounts of fun and definitely worth seeing in the theater. Do it, you won’t be sad.