Wonder Wheel

First Hit:  Although well-acted, there's too much telling versus showing in this film.

I’m not a fan of longish monologues where the actor is telling their history to another actor as a way to tell the audience the necessary or semi-necessary information about themselves. It can work if kept to a minimum, but here it is incessant.

Much of what was told was unnecessary for the character to be seen more fully. The long monologue of Ginny (Kate Winslet) telling her lover Mickey (Justin Timberlake) as to why she felt like she was a disaster of a woman was totally unnecessary. It didn’t add to the film because Winslet is fully capable of making the audience believe her depth of sadness without all the information.

Additionally, I’m not a big fan of talking to the camera as a way to move the film along and to provide a backstory to what we are seeing and why. But Woody Allen (writer and director) felt it necessary to have Mickey talk to the camera several times and the first offense is at the beginning of the film which took me right out of film from the get go.

What we have is Ginny who is unhappily married to Humpty (Jim Belushi) who is an angry drunk so she keeps him sober. They're raising Ginny’s son Richie (Jack Gore) from a previous relationship. Richie is a handful because he’s a pyromaniac. Ginny feels both trapped and grateful for her current relationship with Humpty.

Humpty’s daughter Carolina (Juno Temple), from a previous marriage, shows up one day because she ratted out her gangster husband to the cops. She’s decides to visit her dad because she’s broke and because her husband won’t look for her at her dad's because of the strained relationship.

One day Ginny meets up and talks with Mickey and they start an affair. Hoping to enjoy love in her life once again, she becomes jealous when Carolina also becomes interested in Mickey.

This is the set-up and as we wade through lots of explanatory dialogue we a story is presented in the Coney Island boardwalk setting.

Winslet is excellent. It is her facial expressions that really shares the story despite all the lines and dialogue she's given. Belushi is perfect in this role. A barely educated guy who is a bit brutish, thinks the world of his wife, likes fishing and loves his daughter. Gore as the pyro son is an odd character in the film but he carries the role well. Timberlake is strong as the affable lifeguard who is honest in his dealings with the women. Temple is fantastic. I enjoyed her scenes and her look fit perfectly with the story. Allen wrote his typical screenplay filled with unnecessary justifying lines for the behavior of his characters. I really liked many of the sets and scenes that he put his characters in. The noise of the boardwalk and the overriding ragtime music set a wonderful tone.

Overall:  This is not one of Allen’s better films because the excessive dialogue got in the way.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

First Hit:  This very funny musical parody gives a glimpse of how young pop stars (like the Beastie Boys or One Direction) might respond to immediate fame.

The Style Boyz are three lifelong friends who are musically talented separately but together they are great. Their first album sells like hotcakes and they even have their own dance; “The Donkey Roll.”

Enough people single out Conner (Andy Samberg), the lead singer, to do something on his own which he decides to do leaving his band mates Owen (Jorma Taccone) and Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) to fend for themselves.

Owen joins Connor’s touring support team as a DJ and eventually gets masked during performances. Lawrence is put out to pasture, literally, by becoming a farmer and also dong wood carvings. Conner’s first album is a success and he becomes a big star.

The film uses real music stars to validate Conner’s success by giving them the opportunity to sing their praises of Conner’s work. They even have Justin Timberlake as Conner’s chef. There is also a parody of the television program TMZ with CMZ and how they cover famous artists.

Conner sets out to do his second album and when it drops, it fails miserably and Conner scrambles to put his career back together. This film is about putting his career back together. The songs that truly stand out are:  I’m Not Gay and F#^$ Bin Laden.

Samberg is excellent as Conner the leader of Style Boyz and as Conner4Real, the single act. Taccone and Schaffer are wonderful as his bandmates. They show a level of reverence and their own strength in appropriate levels. Tim Meadows as their manager Harry was wonderful. Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer wrote a wonderful inventive funny script. Schaffer and Taccone did a great job of directing by creating wonderfully funny musical scenes.

Overall:  It was a good laugh and enjoyable.

Inside Llewyn Davis

First Hit:  Although the acting was strong, there was nothing about the character to care about.

When I watch a film, it helps me when there is someone or something to care about.

This film’s main character Llewyn Davis (played by Oscar Isaac) is a former merchant seaman who really wants to be a folk singer. He was part of a singing duo and they put out an album.

For a reason unknown to the audience, his singing partner committed suicide so Llewyn is on his own. He does sets at local New York City clubs, and he sings well, but no one really connects to him. He couch surfs at friend’s homes to sleep. He’s got no money. One of his friends, Jean (Carey Mulligan), who is married, is pregnant by him (maybe). He also manages to piss everyone off that tries to assist him, with his attitude.

We’re dropped into this story midstream and, one day later, I cannot even tell you how it ends – the whole thing was dreary. However, this doesn’t take away from the excellent acting by Isaac, Mulligan, and Justin Timberlake.

Isaac’s voice is wonderful and the songs he sings are sung with woeful sadness and beauty. Mulligan, in a minor role, is excellent. She brings a certain beauty and grounding to the film. Timberlake is mostly fun and the scene where he and Isaac do a song together is funny. John Goodman, as a juiced up jazz musician Roland Turner, steals the scenes he's in with Isaac. Stark Sands as fellow singer and military man, Troy Nelson stands out as a kind simple person and singer. Joel and Ethan Coen both wrote and directed this film. I would not consider this their best by any stretch of the imagination.

Overall:  Although it chronicles life as a folk singer and is well crafted, there isn’t any reason to see or care about the characters.

Runner Runner

First Hit: Great actors in a weak and poorly conceived story.

An enterprising college student Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) gets his peers to go to a gambling site where they lose money. He gets paid to refer people to this site.

This is how he is paying for school because he lost his previous job as a broker and what he wants his MBA. Because one of his student clients loses a bunch of money, school officials tell Richie he can’t continue in his business. With few options left, he bets all he has on a poker gambling website. His quick mind, and with a friends computer help, he figures out that the site cheated.

He decides to go meet the owner of the site – Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Block is not allowed back into the United States because of his business behavior of not paying taxes etc. The FBI is after him as well, but cannot touch him because he’s in Belize.

Block convinces Richie to work for him and but Richie doesn’t know he’s being played, again. In the end Richie is smart enough and finds a way to turn the tides against Block. The story is weak, parts of the idea are strong. The actors are strong, but in a weak script and under poor direction this film fails in many ways.

Timberlake is OK but only because the script he’s given. He makes it work well enough to keep the audience engaged, but overall the film falls flat. Affleck does great in great roles and under decent direction and under poor direction with a mediocre script, he looks lost. Gemma Arterton played Affleck’s and Timberlake’s lover is only OK, but again this is probably because of the script and direction. Brian Koppelman and David Levien wrote a weak script. The idea was good but the execution was really poor. Brad Furman didn’t have a lot to work with but some of the sequencing of scenes was awkward and poorly done.

Overall:  This was a mediocre film but the idea was OK.

Trouble with the Curve

First Hit:  Although very predictable, it was enjoyable as a "feel good" film.

Gus (played by Clint Eastwood) is as gruff and unlikable as can be. This is the kind of role that he’s been taking lately which has me wondering about his ability to actually act differently.

He plays a baseball scout who is going blind, has a daughter who is as driven and as stubborn as he is in her job as a lawyer, and has some awareness that he is starting to lose his physical abilities. His daughter Mickey (played by Amy Adams) is named after Gus’ favorite baseball player Mickey Mantle.

She is angry at her father for abandoning her and not really talking with her when they meet, about once a week, for dinner. She’s quick to leave their encounters and most of the time I didn’t think she worked hard enough to create a constructive conversation.

She goes with him on a scouting trip because she notices her father is failing and Gus’ boss Pete (played by John Goodman) asks her to. They meet up with a Boston Red Sox scout named Johnny (played by Justin Timberlake) who was once recruited by Gus but his arm burnt out early in his career.

The scenes between Mickey and Johnny are some of the best in the film because the better acting in the film is done by these two. Although the film is very predictable, especially when peanut boy throws a bag of peanuts at the next great hope Bo Gentry (played by Joe Massingill), it works well enough to sit through.

Eastwood seems and feels very constrained in this grumpy role. I think he’s comfortable in the role, but it is so confined at times that it is almost painful to watch. Adams, is good as the abandoned daughter who wants to let go of her anger and let love enter her life. Timberlake is the best thing in this film. He’s so relaxed and just a joy to watch. Goodman is OK as Gus’s boss. Randy Brown wrote an expected script in that each next scene and the final outcome was always known. Robert Lorenz didn’t put anything new, interesting or powerful in this film.

Overall:  Enjoyable fluff, perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon family DVD watch.