The Way Back

First Hit: This is a very well done film about redemption.

There are lots of films made about someone redeeming themselves after having a difficult time. Not all of them do it well; this one does.

Here we have a well-crafted storyline that evolves as the character evolves. By slowly revealing the depth of Jack Cunningham’s (Ben Affleck) angst, the audience is interested and wants to know more with each passing frame.

In an early opening scene, we find him in a liquor store buying a box full of beer and hard liquor. It is a holiday, and he’s heading over to his sister’s home. The stop at the store is telling because the store proprietor seems to know him, and the amount he’s purchased is unquestioned.

Cunningham is an alcoholic. He works in construction. After work, he stops by a dive bar where he is well known and makes idle bar talk and jokes with other patrons. On those nights, he’s help home by a fellow customer.

While showering the next morning, he’s got a can of beer in the soap holder, and while the water washes over him, he pounds down another beer before he’s even out of the shower. We see this scene multiple times; it is his habit. We also see him on the job with his ever-present metal coffee mug, which isn’t filled with coffee, but vodka. He drinks on the job.

Jack doesn’t care about much except Angela (Janina Gavankar), his ex-wife, which we discover because he calls and leaves a message on her phone. He also shows enthusiasm when he visits his sister Beth (Michaela Watkins) because he enjoys and appears to love, and care about, her two children.

Outside of these two things, he lives a day to day existence of going to work, going to the bar, and being led home to fall asleep in his clothes. He begins each day with a shower and a beer.

He gets offered a part-time job coaching the local high school team because he was their best player some twenty years prior. Back then, he was so good he was offered a full scholarship to Kansas University but didn’t take it. We learn why, in an intimate conversation with one of his basketball players.

Watching Jack decide to try this coaching job was another great scene. He downs at least two six-packs of beer while holding his phone next to his ear, practicing his speeches as to why he can’t take the coaching job. Outstanding scene.

It’s little scenes like this that make this film work well. Another such scene is Jack’s lunch with Angelea and their subsequent joint attendance to a friend’s son’s birthday party. Powerful scenes that open the door to the story a little bit farther.

The basketball scenes are some of the best I’ve seen shot for a film because they were very realistic to high school basketball. The movie gets it right with the noise of the gym, the anxious players, and the boys' willingness to buy into someone that knows basketball. Jack knows how to motivate them, as he motivates himself into caring about something more than his loss.

Affleck is amazing. His performance, by far, is the best acting by a man this year. Because of his very own public battle with alcohol, he makes this character real. He shows us that we know that he knows what it is like to carry the demons of addiction around. Gavankar is terrific as his former wife, who wants to move on with her life. She shows equanimity in both loving her former husband and reviling his behavior as an alcoholic. Watkins is superb as Cunningham’s sister. Her wistful ways of sharing her wish for her brother to seek help, are spot-on. The boys on the basketball team were outstanding. Brad Ingelsby wrote a dynamic screenplay that takes us on a road of discovery. Gavin O’Connor showed great and deft skills by giving the audience the right amount of information in each new scene to let the audience engage in this story as it unfolds.

Overall: This film shows how a film can be crafted by someone who cares about the story they want to tell.

Brittany Runs a Marathon

First Hit: Enjoyable at times, but I somehow think the story didn’t address the elephant in the room.

Brittany (Jillian Bell) is introduced to us as a woman who sleeps long hours, binge drinks, is overweight, and her life is slipping away from her. She resents a woman who lives above her in the building, calls her Martha when her name is Catherine (Michaela Watkins). The resentment comes because Brittany believes Catherine has money, is kind to her, is married, and runs every day.

Brittany has a social media hungry roommate named Gretchen (Alice Lee) who obviously uses her as a fat funny friend.

To show how low Brittany will go, she’s drinking in a bar, a guy tells her he’d like her to go with him to the restroom for some action, then pulls out paper cocktail napkins and says, “to protect your knees.” It is a humiliating scene and provides an emphasis on how her life is falling apart.

She goes to the doctor, who advises her that she needs to change her habits and life. One of the recommendations is to lose 45 – 55 pounds.

Up until this point, Brittany’s sarcastic, mean humor is tolerable by her friends and even her doctor, but later in the film, it changes.

Brittany goes to a gym, and when the gym representative tells her their least expensive program is $129.00 a month, she wisecracks herself out of joining the gym. Finally, she decides to try running like her neighbor Catherine does. To make extra money, Brittany decides to house and dog sit in wealthy homes.

When she goes into a home she’ll be sitting in, she discovers the night sitter, Jern (Utkarsh Ambudkar) who thinks of himself as a functional art creator.

There are several scenes where we see Brittany struggling to make smart decisions about what she eats and not going out drinking because she’s making progress in her running resulting in the loss of some weight.

There are also scenes where Catherine and Brittany’s sister Shannon (Jennifer Dundas), Jern, and Gretchen are the brunt of some very vicious comments by Brittany. Even strangers, including one scene at Gretchen’s home, when Brittany drunk, slams an overweight guest.

This brings up the elephant in the room, often when Brittany gets vicious, she does it when she’s been drinking, and unfortunately, this film doesn’t address this. However, the film does discuss the importance of learning to like yourself, respecting your body, and a willingness to receive help, support and guidance from friends, people that are showing up to you.

The film does follow Brittany in her attempt to run a marathon, but for some reason, it came across a bit haphazard. It was inspirational to a point, but at times it seemed to miss essential aspects that could have raised this film to another level.

Bell is okay as Brittany, and I appreciated that she did lose and gain weight to deliver an authentic performance. Lee was instrumental as the social media affected roommate and friend. Watkins is lovely as the sober, and inspirational, neighbor and in the end, friend. Lil Rei Howery (as Demetrius) and Dundas as Brittany’s brother-in-law and sister were excellent. They showed a supportive understanding of Brittany’s behavior. Ambudkar was funny and enjoyable to watch as Brittany’s the co-house sitter. Paul Downs Colaizzo wrote this screenplay based on his former roommate, the real, Brittany O’Neill’s adventure to start running and run a New York City Marathon. Colaizzo also directed this film, and he knew what he wanted, but I’m not sure it was enough.

Overall: This film seemed to float between wanting to be a comedy, through sarcasm, and a drama with powerful messages to share.

Brigsby Bear

First Hit:  A very creative interesting film about a young man coming to terms with his past.

The first thing about this film when watching the initial scenes are that James (Kyle Mooney), and his so called mom and dad, Ted and April Mitchum (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams respectively) are odd people. They live as a family in an underground bunker in the middle of nowhere (looks like a high-desert area in the southwest part of the United States).

James is obsessed with the "Brigsby Bear" videos he watches on an old VCR player. Afterwards, he writes up a synopsis of the video and posts the synopsis on a blog site using a very old, out of date, portable computer. He’s all alone except for his parents and never seems to go outside. Stealing away one night, with a gas mask on, he ventures outside. While watching the sky on top of the bunker’s concrete entrance, he sees the flashing lights of police cars in the distance. Panicking he goes back into the bunker to wake up his parents.

However, he's too late and the police are inside the bunker. He’s taken to a police station where Detective Vogel (Greg Kinnear) tells him he was abducted as a baby and that Ted and April aren't his real parents. He’s introduced to his real parents Greg and Louise Pope (Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins respectively). He also has a sister Aubrey (Ryan Simpkins) who is very standoffish to James because she suddenly has an older brother who is weird and not cool. As a teenage girl, it is horrible to have a geeky strange older brother who's name is plastered all over the news.

Greg and Louise take James to see and work with a psychologist named Emily (Claire Danes) who insists that James must begin the process of forgetting about Brigsby Bear. Although he asks everyone else about Brigsby, he discovers that no one else has ever seen Brigsby Bear. Then he learns that his former Dad created all the Brigsby videos to teach him life lessons in addition to reading, math, and the importance of right and wrong.

James has grown up with Brigsby as his only touchstone to life outside of Ted and April, so he decides to do a film to help him understand it all. The film he hopes to make will complete the Brigsby Bear story. When he shares this idea with Aubrey’s friends they offer to help him make this film.

The rest of the film is about creating new friendships by creating this film together. Even Detective Vogel gets into the act. The way this unfolds is interesting and only until we get close to the end of the film do we really see how this is James’ way of saying "goodbye" to the life he once had and saying "hi" to the life he is entering.

The film’s creative naivete, as witnessed by the way both sets of parents are characterized, shows how James is a mirror of his parents and a reflection of the film he creates. This makes this movie captivatingly perfect.

Mooney was excellent as the partially blank tablet young man trying to find his way into a world he knows little about. Hamill was strong as the surrogate dad and the evil sun. Walsh was puzzlingly good. I was puzzled because he reflected a certain level of spacy-ness himself. There were times I thought he as putting on an act and other times I felt true and solid engagement to the role. Watkins was clearly less puzzling and good in this role. Simpkins was excellent. I thought she did an excellent job of being put off by James presence as well as embracing him as she learns more about him. Danes was solid as a therapist who lacked clear empathy towards James and his path to grow. Kinnear was excellent as the detective who began to see James and support his efforts to move his life forward his way. Jorge Lendeborg Jr. was fantastic as Aubrey’s friend who is the first to be open to James and his story. Their interactions while building the film and at the party were priceless. Alexa Demie as another one of Aubrey’s friends who takes James under her wings and was excellent. Kevin Costello and Kyle Mooney wrote this interesting script and Dave McCary’s direction gave it all life.

Overall:  I thought this was a very creative and bold film.

Afternoon Delight

First Hit:  At times, very insightful and interesting, other times the film was lost and some scenes needed cutting or a re-write.

The home life of Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Jeff (Josh Radnor) is one of a couple that is out of sync with each other. Rachel isn’t working, or attempts to write from time to time.

Jeff has made it big with developing “apps” and the results have put them in a nice home in Silver Lake California, a close community to downtown LA. They have a young son and hang out with friends, like themselves, mid-thirties, successful, and working a lot.

Their sex life is spoken about by whether they put the dog out or not. It’s code. Mostly they don’t have sex because as we learn Rachel would like it in the afternoon while Jeff is always working. To spice up their life they and another couple go to a strip club where Jeff buys Rachel a lap dance with McKenna (Juno Temple).

It unnerves her in two ways, she’s intrigued by her feelings and also confused by them. She doesn’t want to be curious but is. Rachel tracks down McKenna and begins to have coffee walks with her. One day McKenna is being thrown out of her car and Rachel offers her their nanny’s room.

Rachel discovers that McKenna makes no bones about being a sex worker but is also of a very sweet kind disposition and loves kids. But when Rachel has a real opportunity to let McKenna show this side of her, she fails and things blow-up.

Hahn is very effective as a troubled wife, who has some demons (the energy work scene points out this very powerfully) she needs to deal with. Radnor is good as the pre-occupied husband. Temple is sublime as the sex worker. She brings a real presence to the film and succeeds in being the driver of the story. Jane Lynch is both interesting and horrible as the therapist treating Rachel. She brought a strong presence, but as a comedy sequence where “she shares” her own story, it fails miserably. These scenes needed a full rewrite. Jessica St. Clair, Michaela Watkins, Annie Mumolo were all very good in their roles and Rachel’s closest friends. Jill Soloway both wrote and directed this film. From a writing aspect, some scenes were great while others were horrible. She did a good job of directing the film and giving strength to the characters, however some scenes were just not required or needed re-writing.

Overall:  This film has some very good things to say and could have been better.