The Kitchen

First Hit: At the beginning, this film had promise, but this promise fell away to mediocrity in the end.

The idea of three housewives taking over their husband’s gang-related activities because the husbands were jailed had intrigue and promise.

Kathy Brennan (Melissa McCarthy) is married with two children. Her husband, Jimmy (Brian d’Arcy James) is part of the local Hell’s Kitchen crime group that fleeces businesses for protection. He’s probably the least aggressive of the three men.

Ruby O’Carroll (Tiffany Haddish) is married to Kevin (James Badge Dale) who is currently the leader of this local crime group. His mother Helen (Margo Martindale) provides her son with direction about the band of thieves he runs. Her husband started the group, and therefore, she still holds some power over the neighborhood.

Claire Walsh (Elizabeth Moss) is married to Rob (Jeremy Bobb) who is a brutish bully of a man, and he regularly beats Claire and is a primary thug in this Hell’s Kitchen enforcement group.

The three men get caught by the FBI while robbing a local business and are sent away. The new temporary leader of the enforcement group said they will continue to financially provide for the wives while their husbands are doing time. However, the stipend is not enough. So the girls get together and decide they can become an enforcement group, thereby overriding their husbands' protection club.

Upon hearing that Rob, Claire’s husband, is in jail, Gabriel O’Malley (Domhnall Gleeson) comes back to the neighborhood and announces his return by shooting and killing a man who is attempting to rape Claire.

Teaching the three women how to efficiently cut up and get rid of the body, he becomes their primary enforcer. However, Claire wanting to never be bullied again, learns to kill and is exceptionally competent at this and cutting up bodies - she's a natural.

As the three women build their protection business, the old group comes after them. But are stymied because as the women take over another neighborhood, the local mafia head Alfonso Coretti (Bill Camp) calls for a meeting, and a deal is created between his group and the girls. Together they neutralize the original Hell’s Kitchen group and gain support by providing protection and labor jobs for the community.

There’s a side story that is hinted at and finally brought to life that Ruby is having an affair with one of the FBI investigators Gary Silvers (Common). This, to me, creates an unnecessary distraction and side story and is not required to advance, what could have been, a good story.

Ruby slowly tries to take over the group that Melissa, Ruby, and Claire started together, and the writer used this FBI link as a significant part of the reason for the takeover by Ruby.

When the women’s husbands get out of jail early, there is trouble as expected, and the conflict doesn’t end well for the husbands.

This story is about women taking charge and with Ruby’s link to a male FBI agent seemingly having some influence, took away the power and guts of this story.

Additionally, I thought the movie was too long by taking too much time to prove points. Also, I didn’t believe the FBI piece of the story needed to be even part of the film. There easily other ways to create motivation for Ruby.

Another part of the film which didn’t quite work was that the director, Andrea Berloff, didn’t ensure each scene was correctly set in the 1970s. For comparison to this sort of attention to detail watch Quentin Tarantino’s latest film and this one – the aspect isn’t there in this film.

McCarthy is strong as the Irish woman who, loves her children, works at creating a good home life, but when push comes to shove, she is tired of playing second fiddle. Haddish is equally strong in this role; however, the whole FBI relationship back story just wasn’t needed. There were other ways she could claim her race, sex, and power. Moss was outstanding as the pushed around wife who wasn’t going to take it any longer. Having been a punching bag for her husband, she commits to protecting herself and does this in spades. But it was her eyes and facial expressions that sold both sides of her really well. Camp was great as the honorable mafia head that kept his integrity in tack by honoring his agreements. Gleeson was excellent as the guy who finally got to have a relationship with Claire that he always wanted. Martindale was instrumental as the once-powerful wife and mother to her family’s mob protection group. She gets her comeuppance. Berloff wrote and directed this film, and as I’ve previously stated, the story lost its effectiveness by adding the unnecessary Ruby and Gary Silvers relationship. The film also ran out of steam and probably needed pruning.

Overall: This film had potential, showed it at times, but ultimately failed to deliver.

Can You Ever Forgive Me

First Hit: Excellent acting about a caustic, friendless author that finally finds her voice.

Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) is a biographer who is fixated on writing Fanny Brice biographies. She appeared once on the NYT Best Seller list but that was years ago. Her Agent tells her she’s got to change, but Lee, an obsessive alcoholic, likes her alienating way of living.

Then Lee loses her late-night editing job because she drinks and swears at her co-workers. Broke, with a sick cat, and behind in her rent she stumbles across an envelope with a typed and signed letter from a famous deceased author. She takes this letter to a book and artifact seller who gives her a few hundred dollars.

Realizing that she could sell forge letters with old typewriters and seasoned paper, she begins a quest of creating letters, signing them, and selling them to collectors and people who sell to collectors.

She befriends Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant) who is a homeless gay man at a bar who is also a drunk. Together the conspire to make and sell lots of these fake letters. Enjoying the fruits of their labor they eat well and Israel gets her old cat healed. Anna (Dolly Wells), one of the buyers of Lee’s fake letter, likes Lee and suggests they have dinner together. Sensing that Anna wants to get close, Lee blows her off but not before she accepts one of Anna’s short stories Anna would like feedback on.

This points out one of the incomplete and unsatisfying parts of the film. The film shows Lee reading this short story but never getting back to Anna. Another aspect of the story I would have liked more visibility into was why was Israel so cold, mean, and alienating towards people.

The forgeries are found out and the FBI is now after Lee. Getting caught through another one of Hock’s blunders, they create a plan to steal real letters and replace the real letters with her fakes.

As one imagines, she gets caught and is told to make restitution for her crimes. The result she now has something to write about and this story is the result.

McCarthy is sublime as Israel. She made this unlikeable character engaging, curiously interesting, and watchable. Grant was fantastic as the bon vivant wanna be that lived life on his charm alone. Wells was strikingly engaging as the bookseller who cared about Israel. I loved her trusting softness. Jane Curtin as Israel’s agent Marjorie was excellent, direct and forthcoming. Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty wrote a strong and engaging screenplay. Marielle Heller did an excellent job of directing this film except I would have liked some closure on Anna’s script storyline.

Overall: This was a crafted film with excellent acting.

The Boss

First Hit:  Not a well thought out plot, however at times, it was laugh out loud funny.

I’m not a big Melissa McCarthy fan. I don’t always find her sense of humor to be my cup of tea. Often, her size/weight are part of the humor kit bag. Here it wasn’t which made the experience better.

As Michelle Darnell, a fabulously wealthy woman wooing crowds with her state it and take it philosophy, she is crassly focused on herself and her money. She was raised in an orphanage because she is returned to the orphanage 3 times by foster parents that find her unlikable.

During her hey-day, Claire (Kristen Bell), her assistant works hard to support her, but is mistreated and finally leaves. Michelle, at the same time, is also arrested and convicted for insider trading and spends time in jail because of her competitor, Renault (Peter Dinklage), turns her in.

Upon release from prison Michelle shows up at Claire’s door without anywhere else to go. Claire trusts here again and they go into business but Michelle double-crosses Claire again. Will Michelle learn? Watch the film to find out.

McCarthy is very funny at times. I appreciated that her weight wasn’t used as a focal point to her humor. Bell is funny, touching and is an actress that I think is underrated because she consistently delivers.  Dinklage is odd in this role and I’m not sure it was well cast. Ella Anderson, as Bell’s daughter, was really good. She carried curiosity, kindness and faith very well. Ben Falcone wrote and directed this occasionally funny film.

Overall:  It was enjoyable and at times, very funny, but plot wise it was just OK.

Spy

First Hit:  It was pretty funny at times and walked a nice line between slapstick and heart.

Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) plays a desk-bound, behind the scenes CIA agent, who gets a chance to go out into the field. Because she is unknown by the person they are attempting to track, and her inexperience in the field, there are numerous opportunities for awkward comedic situations.

Her CIA counterparts Rick Ford (Jason Statham) and Bradley Fine (Jude Law) play their roles straight which adds to the situational and physical comedy.

McCarthy was the best I’ve seen her. Her comedy here wasn’t as pressed as it was in an earlier film, Bridesmaids, and showed more variability and vulnerability in her character. Jason Statham was like most all the roles he plays in other films – very intense and single-minded. Jude Law was fine in his James Bondish sort of way. Paul Feig wrote and directed this film and it worked.

Overall:  I liked this much better than I had thought I would because I hadn’t been much of a fan of the films McCarthy's been in.

The Heat

First Hit:  There are a few really funny moments, a large number of suppose-to-be funny moments, and also attempts to create a heart felt story.

The story around this film is that we have two friendless women, competent; law-enforcement officers that have to work together to both heal themselves and capture a major drug lord. 

The humor, for the most part is not subtle. It is gross humor with a lot of swearing and doing stupid things. The two women are different and approach work differently. Agent Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is a pariah in her FBI division because she is incredibly competent, intelligent and shows up the other men in her squad by closing cases with a lack of humility.

She is also a lonely woman and borrows a neighbor's cat to keep her company. On the other hand, Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) is a lonely, overweight, hard charging bullying Boston cop. She intimidates everyone in the entire squad house. Nobody crosses her and nobody does something she doesn’t want done. The unfortunate part of her character is that it seemed very unrealistic and one of the things that put me off on her character.

Her methods were unprofessional; she intimidates with bullying tactics both her perpetrators, other police staff as well as anyone who crosses her for any reason. Her family doesn’t like her because she busted her brother for drugs and sent to him to prison. The humor is not subtle and although some of the scenes are funny, the humor is based more on overt brashness, bullying and swearing.

It wasn't intelligent humor. For the tenderness, each character has their own sadness which they see they can heal with this partnership. On this end, the film is good but not exceptional.

Bullock is the better of the two characters; rather I liked watching her and what she brought to the role. Sandra portrays a tightly controlled character with humor better than most actors and here she shines again. McCarthy is not someone I enjoy watching (see my previous reviews of her). Her bullying personality, which see appears to use in many roles, is tiring and I would like to see her in a role that expands who she is and in a more heartfelt way. Marlon Wayans as Bullock’s FBI support is very good and I felt grounded when he was on the screen. Katie Dippold wrote an OK script. I felt thought, that this film wanted to be serious, heartfelt and funny but didn’t do a good job of balancing these storylines. Paul Feig directed this film and also directed “Bridesmaids” which I found un-watchable and this film suffered from a lot of the same sort of humor that I don’t find funny. However, the two young teen girls sitting in front of me couldn’t stop giggling at the gross action humor.

Overall:  The film was OK, funny at times, and probably worth watching through Netflix or on video.