Analeigh Tipton

Damsels in Distress

First Hit:  A lack of focus, comedic moments, and insightfulness make this film more in distress than the damsels.

God where do I start? OK, the good stuff: There are cinema-graphic moments where the lighting, background, and staging, are some of the best I’ve seen on film in a long time.

However, those moments can be best viewed with ear plugs because of the incessant crappy dialogue immediately take one away from the absolutely stunning pictures that are on the screen. I’d almost like to see some still photos of those scenes again but I could never sit through this film again to see the beautiful moments and great sets.

Even some of the room shots, the lighting, the camera’s framing of the subject are, at times, exquisite. Nonetheless, nothing can ruin a film more than ceaseless stupid dialogue and this film has it in spades.

Are there funny moments? Yes there are a couple of good laugh-out-loud moments, but very few people in the theater audience felt the same way. Most of the time the audience was dead silent – this isn’t the objective of a comedy film.

Quickly, three friends Violet (Greta Gerwig), Heather (Carrie MacLemore), and Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) are on campus of a private school and decide to add Lily (Analeigh Tipton) to their group.

Lily is smart, challenges many of Violet’s reasoning and explanations of the way things are on campus and in life. Not sure where the humor in all this was. Oh was it supposed to be about the Roman named Houses (versus Greek house names)? Was it that the girls run a suicide prevention center (where the word "prevention" falls down and is missing on the sign – that’s supposed to be funny too).

Or maybe the funny part is that Greta wants to start a dance craze because it will make the world better (like the Waltz, Charleston, and Twist). The worst thing about this film in the never-ending dialogue of Greta because it is mostly mindless lacking any depth nor is there any modicum of sincerity.

Anyway, there are a couple of things that were amusing – Greta’s dumb boyfriend Frank (played by Ryan Metcalf) wanting his bean ball back because it gives him great solace. Then there is Rick (played by Zach Woods) who belongs to a religious organization that only has sex through the back-end because they don’t want to procreate.

Lastly there are some reasonably good scenes with Fred/Charlie (played by Adam Brody) who is attempting to be two different people, a businessman and a student.

Gerwig is horrible in this role and I inwardly cringed whenever she was front and center in the lens, which was way too much. MacLemore was OK as a follower and none too bright. Echikunwoke, would have been better if given a larger role. Tipton was the best thing in the whole film despite a very small film resume. She may have a career in film if she works at it. Metcalf was clearly fully into his character and made his scenes worth viewing. Woods was articulate enough but thought he was constrained by his script. The character could have been more. Brody was good enough but again the script focused on Gerwig when it could have made a much better film if the talent could have been used more evenly. Whit Stillman needed more wit in this script and certainly less dialogue for Gerwig. The meandering ways, lack of focus, lack of comedic value was ever present in the dialogue. Stillman directed this film as well and besides having some extraordinarily beautiful shots, this was a weakly directed and a completely mismanaged film.

Overall: This movie was not worth the money spent to make it nor any of anyone's time to watch it.

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

First Hit: This film had some very funny, sad, thoughtful moments, but wasn’t memorable.

Cal (played by Steve Carell) is married to Emily (played by Julianne Moore) and they’ve been married for a long time. They were each other’s soul mates but they’ve grown apart.

Emily has an affair with David Lindhagen (played by Kevin Bacon) and it devastates Cal. He moves out. They have three children one is grown and gone while the other two are younger. The boy Robbie (played by Jonah Bobo) is smart, wise and in love with the babysitter Jessica (played by Analeigh Tipton) who is 5 years older than Robbie but she has a crush on Cal.

Cal goes to a singles bar to drown his sorrows and watches as Jacob (played by Ryan Gosling) picks up woman after woman each and every night. Jacob, in turn, watches Cal telling tales in the bar about how his wife did him wrong and decides to help him out. He invites Cal on a shopping trip and then lets him listen to how he picks up women. One night Cal picks up Kate (played by Marisa Tomei) who likes his honesty and charm. He learns that Kate is a “5 years sober” teacher.

In the meantime we watch Hannah (played by Emma Stone) get shut down by a guy who offers her a job when she thought she was going to be proposed to. In a fit of upset, she finds Jacob, whom she turned down on an earlier encounter and makes him take her to his house for sex.

However, they end up in a long conversation and begin to fall in love. As they fall in love, Cal is busy picking up a string of women but missing Emily. Emily dates David but misses Cal. Robbie is making Jessica feel uncomfortable with his ever present text messages outlining his undying love.

This is the setup for what I think was the funniest and most interesting scene in the film. I won’t spoil it, and it has to do with people meeting people and the police having to separate all the men fighting each other.

Carell is good as a heart broken man and good as the newly coiffed player. However the word I used was good, not great as I continued to feel separateness from and not an embodiment of of the character he was playing. Moore was very good as the woman who was searching for femininity and inner glow again. Bacon was perfect for the short but important part as the “other man”. Bobo was very good, although some of his lines and actions seemed more than what a 12 year old would say or do. Tipton was wonderful and perfect as the babysitter who is beautiful, doesn’t know it, and feeling the pressure of her first crush. Tomei was outstanding as the teacher who finds out she slept with, yet another man, who lied to her. Gosling was fully engaging as the guy with the photo-shopped body and used his charms to pick up women but then was able to meet someone whom he really cared about. Dan Fogelman wrote a strong and, at times, surprising script although I think the 12 year old lines were overly adult at times. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa directed the film with skill in many places including the little surprises that lead to a nice climax. However, it was longer than needed and there could have been some pruning of a number of scenes (including lawn raking and bar pickup bits).

Overall: The film was enjoyable and surprising moments that were really funny.

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