Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

First Hit:  This film was continually filled with very funny scenes that made sense – Enjoyable.

This is one of those films I anticipated not liking very much.

Physical comedy at this level can be pressed to the point that it becomes not funny. However, this film was different. Dave (Zac Efron) and Mike (Adam Devine) play brothers who do everything together. They are party boys and the scenes of their past antics as shown in the screen, have fun intentions but ended up being disastrous and funny.

What makes this film work is the boys' relationship to each other and that each bizarre sequence is well thought out and leads to another elevated scene.

The premise of the film is that their sister Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) is getting married and their parents don’t want Mike and Dave to wreck their sister’s wedding with their antics. To make them change their ways, the parents tell them they are not allowed at the wedding unless they have respectable wedding dates. They get dates however they are not just happenstance like Dave and Mike believe.

Alice (Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) are out of work because they show up to work drunk, are loud and obnoxious and only want to drink and have fun. Each has a different reason for their behavior and together they are almost as bad as Dave and Mike.

The girls see the guys on a TV program promoting a Craigslist ad to take dates, all expenses paid, to Hawaii for their sister’s wedding. Tatiana comes up with a plan to meet the guys and lie their way into this free trip. For them it was a vacation. The film then takes us to Hawaii and the fireworks of these four people’s antics begin. However, in the end they might make steps forward in their lives.

Efron was perfect for this role. He’s found a niche of being handsome, smart and dumb enough to be both funny and serious in this role. Devine presses his comedy a bit more than I like; however, it works well in this film. Kendrick continues to surprise me at her ability to stretch her persona. Here she compulsively lies and it really works. Plaza is very strong in this role. She’s all out and does a great job of being all out. Beard is wonderful as the sister. Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brian wrote a script full of great and funny scenes. Jake Szymanski did a wonderful job of getting laughs out of this funny script. He kept the flow going and there isn’t a dull moment or a time where I found myself saying, this is too much; it was just funny.

Overall:  This film surprised me at how it kept moving and kept itself on track in a fun way.

The Lobster

First Hit:  A strange, different and odd film about forced coupledom.

This film is set in the near future and everyone in society must be coupled or face going to an oddly sterile hotel where they have 45 days to find a mate. If they don’t find a mate they will be turned into the animal of their choice. They can extend their time by hunting down and shooting and tranquilizing others who are escaping. If they are lucky enough to find a mate they can live in a couple’s room, then a yacht for a couple weeks, and if successful they can return to the city as a couple.

Upon entering the hotel, they are given a strict protocol to live by, including no masturbation, along with deciding the animal they want to be turned into if they don’t find a mate; hence the film’s title “The Lobster”. This is the type of animal David (Colin Farrell) selects.

There are some macabre scenes (like the punishment for masturbating), amazingly darkly funny scenes (shooting range practice scene), and simply weird scenes (how do the loners survive in the forest day after day). One of the traits in choosing their possible partner is the sharing physical or mental aspects like; shortsightedness, or limps, or lisps, or cold-heartedness, or the love of biscuits.

Another odd part about this film is that it portrays everyone being so subservient to people who’ve placed themselves in authority. How everyone minds the hotel managers (Olivia Colman and Garry Mountaine) is really bizarre because I would have probably rebelled.

Even more perplexing was how the escapees (“Loners”) minded the direction and instructions of Loner Leader (Lea Seydoux). I kept wondering who empowered these people in this way? Why did others follow their instructions?

The cast of characters in this story were really oddly interesting as well:  Nosebleed Woman (Jessica Barden), Biscuit Woman (Ashely Jensen), Lisping Man (John C. Reilly), Short Sighted Woman (Rachel Weisz), Limping Man (Ben Whishaw), and Heartless Woman (Angeliki Papoulia) among others.

Farrell did a terrific job with his character. He gained so much weight for this role which seemed to also affect his natural intensity. Seydoux was clearly strong as the leader of the Loners. She was very commanding. Reilly was funny as the lisping man who got caught masturbating. Weisz was wonderful as the Short Sighted Loner who loved to eat rabbits and was the narrator of this film. Papoulia was very good as the Heartless person. Barden was amazingly sweet as the Nosebleed person. Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippu wrote this strangely effective script even though it was filled with obvious logical holes. Lanthimos did a great job of getting the actors and scenes to coalesce and wonderfully execute this story and idea.

Overall:  The film was very entertaining most of the time, yet the holes in the story kept my mind wandering and asking questions while the celluloid rolled.

Me Before You

First Hit:  I bought this story fully because of Emilia Clarke's ability to create joy and hope.

Lou Clark (Clarke) is a priceless and amazing character.

In this story, she’s got a boyfriend named Patrick (Matthew Lewis) who is clear about what he wants out of life but doesn’t really hear Lou or understand her needs and therefore there is a gap in their relationship.

Lou is a pleaser (not in a bad way) and suffers through her relationship with joy because she wants to please and support Patrick. We also watch her please customers in the small bakery where we see her working when the film opens. She pleases her family by working to keep the family in their home because her father had lost his job and her working provides for the entire family.

After losing her job at the bakery she interviews to be a caretaker for a young man who has had his spinal cord severed. Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) was an extremely active, risk taking, wealthy man who gets hit by a motorcycle. He’s in constant pain, doesn’t smile much, and everything has to be done for him. His paralysis means just about everything below his neck cannot move without assistance.

Lou is offered the job and brings her joyous pleasing personality and wild clothing style to Will’s home each day. He resists her charm but slowly, over time, he cannot be but infected by her joyous view of life. He hears and understands her.

As the film unfolds, the audience, might expect a particular type of ending, however it is a bit different and that alone makes this film socially poignant as well.

Clarke is so wonderfully strong on the screen; she steals every frame she is in. I bought her character hook, line, and sinker. Claflin is really good as the suffering Will. His indifference towards Lou at the beginning was perfect. Stephen Peacocke as Nathan is wonderful as the physical therapist that does the heavy lifting for Will and his family. Jojo Moyes wrote a fantastic script. Thea Sharrock did an excellent job of directing the story and the actors.

Overall:  I really enjoyed and was touched by the this film.

Love & Friendship

First Hit:  Definitely funny and well-acted, however a bit more telling than showing.

This was a clever take on life in the late 1700’s. Women of a certain societal stature were to be taken care of by their wealthy husbands or their families.

Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) has had a few dalliances in her life and is currently engage to Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel), while having an intimate affair with a married Lord Manwaring (Lochlann O’Mearain). She’s looking for a way to both secure her future income while also securing the future of her daughter Frederica Vernon (Morfydd Clark).

They are basically homeless and stay at the homes of friends and relations until marriages are arranged and settled. Assisting Lady Susan, by being a sounding board to her manipulative plans, is American Alicia Johnson (Chole Sevigny) who continues to be threatened to be sent back to Connecticut by her husband (Stephen Fry) for colluding with Lady Susan.

At first Lady Susan was attempting to marry Frederica to a Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett), who was rich, quite talkative, and very odd in his speaking and thought patterns. However, Frederica cannot stand him. From  here the story takes off.

The strongest aspects of this film were how they kept in the period, how it was shot and by clearly showing how manipulative people can be. However, this film did a lot of telling through the dialogue which got a bit monotonous at times.

Beckinsale was excellent as the intelligent manipulative Lady Susan. Clark was correspondingly strong as the daughter. Sevigny was great as Lady Susan’s confidant. Bennett was the hit of the film by stealing every scene he was in. Whit Stillman did a wonderful job of writing and directing this adaptation of the Jane Austen novella called “Lady Susan”.

Overall:  This film, especially Bennett, was very funny while also keeping a serious tone.

Maggie's Plan

First Hit:  Oddly interesting story about love, marriage and life through three very different personalities.

The three are Georgette (Julianne Moore), her husband John (Ethan Hawke) and Maggie (Greta Gerwig).

Georgette is a precise, egocentric professor that is focused on her career. She works at a prestigious university (Columbia) and her career path is to be well known and a department head. She has two children with John and abdicates most household care to him.

John works as a part time professor at a lesser college while also working on a novel. He’s famous for some of his anthropological work, but his heart is on writing a novel. On the campus he teaches, he meets fellow professor Maggie who believes she can only have relationships that last 6 months.

Because she wants children, she decides to get pregnant by asking a friend (mathematician) to give her his sperm that she can insert. However, she engages John in conversations and begins to give the attention he’s not getting at home. The relationship starts with John giving her sections of his book to review and ends in a marriage. However, things go array, the relationship changes and realizing that there needs to be a change she creates "Maggie’s Plan".

Moore is very solid as the precise, smart and career focused Georgette. Hawke is very good as the guy who continues to succumb to an illusion of what he wants and what love is. Gerwig is great as the main character who has a clear idea of what she wants and how to get it. Travis Fimmel and Maya Rudolph are very good as friends of Maggie. Rebecca Miller wrote and directed this quirky independent film in a sure handed way.

Overall:  I enjoyed the way this film played out.