Laggies

First Hit:  Turned out to be a really good film because of excellent acting.

Although I really disliked the title, the film worked. Laggies refers to young adults that are lost and lagging behind their peers in developmental and societal growth.

Here we have Megan (Keira Knightley) who has been living with her boyfriend Anthony (Mark Weber). He wants to marry Megan and begin to follow the path their friends are taking, marriage then children. These long term  friends ("the group") are from high school and they continue to support each other and do everything together.

The setup is that Megan does things with her friends which are viewed as immature, and as she begins to see she is out of step with her group, she begins to wonder what to do with her life and what it means. Although Megan obtained her MFC degree, she found the work unrewarding. The pressure to act like a grown-up, get a job and contribute to society, is growing but she feels like she is floating. Enabling her situation is her father Ed (Jeff Garlin) because he  lets her work for him spinning a directional arrow sign on a sidewalk guiding people to is tax service office.

When Anthony asks her for her hand in marriage, she freaks and splits for a week to “get her head together”. She meets a high school kid Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her friends who take a liking to this older, yet like them, woman. Annika sneaks her home and when her father Craig (Sam Rockwell) finds her in Annika’s room he decides to question her as to why. Throughout this week little lessons begin to appear to Megan and in the end, she finds a way to make steps towards taking charge of her life.

Knightly is absolutely fantastic. She perfectly embodies a young lost woman and then shifts to become a more responsible woman, yet keeping her young enthusiasm in tact. Weber is good as Megan’s fiancé. Garlin is strong as the enabling father. Moretz is sublime. Her intelligent innocence shines through with wisdom and grace. Rockwell is perfect as Moretz’s father. Andrea Seigel wrote a wonderful insightful screenplay. Director Lynn Shelton did an excellent job of letting this story unfold with good acting.

Overall:  I really enjoyed how this film unfolded although I disliked the title.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

First Hit: Inventive filmmaking and acting made this a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I like when people take some risks. Edgar Wright took the story written by Michael Bacall, Bryan Lee O’Malley and Wright, himself, and turned it into a visual reality based on the combination of comic book graphics and real life.

Like in the very old days of TV Batman, Wright’s team used graphics in expressing actions and words while adding interesting patterns of staging and lighting to this story. Telephone rings and you see “rrrriiiiinnnngggg” super imposed on a wall or table. People fly through the air like they do in amazing Asian martial arts fighting scenes. Edgy music adds a powerful punch to the background visuals and adds to the fun and enjoyment of this film.

And I just loved the names of the characters including: Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) who is in a band named Sex Bob Ombs, had an old girlfriend name Kim Pine (played by Alison Pill) that broke his heart (he was pining for her), finds Knives Chau (played by Ellen Wong) who is a high school girl who likes Pilgrim and cuts to the chase, runs into Ramona Flowers (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) whom he falls in love with immediately and she changes hair color weekly, and discovers that to hang with Ramona he must defeat her seven evil ex’s.

The band members’ names are Stephen Stills (played by Mark Webber), Young Neil (played by Johnny Simmons) and Julie Powers on drums (played by Aubrey Plaza). When the band gets invited to play a "battle of the bands", Pilgrim also has to defeat the seven ex’s if he wants to keep his new girlfriend. In these scenes he is a martial arts master and as soon as he conquers an evil ex, a pinball score rises over the ex’s head and the person turns to coins (a payoff).

All through this, there are other amusing and funny moments as the story unfolds. There are lessons to learn for all the characters and the film is fun to watch. It has a level of freshness to it that felt like I was seeing something interesting on the screen that didn't measure its worth by how big the explosion had to be.

Cera is still playing the nerdy boy with some smarts which he occasionally uses. He plays this role often and someday he might want to try something totally different. Wong was fabulous as Knives. She captured the character extremely well. Winstead was also very strong as Ramona. Pill was good as the previous girlfriend who broke Pilgrim’s heart. Webber, Simmons and Plaza were great as band members who put up with and supported Pilgrim through the adventure. Kieran Culkin was fabulous as Pilgrim’s gay roommate. Wright directed with film with fun and an eye for color and scenes which spoke clearly.

Overall: Not sure I’d like to see a lot of films shot this way, but when one comes along that is this well crafted, it is definitely worth it.