Charlie Bartlett

Some Spoilers.

One of the many movies I watched because of my love and appreciation of Anton Yelchin, and probably would have never even noticed otherwise. And likewise one of his many movies that wound up surprising me with unexpected greatness. Charlie Bartlett tells the story of a rich high school student who is kicked out of yet another private school and must attend a public school. Charlie's goal in life is to be popular, so he begins to use his rich-kid connections to deal prescription drugs to the student body. Along with listening to their problems and giving them advice, because hey, he's a nice guy.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

I've seen this film twice now, and both times was on TV and edited for content. The original is rated R, just for your information. Also, obviously, the film deals with mature and questionable content. The whole plot is about drugs, and the lead is a full-on drug dealer whichever way you slice it. It's also technically a teen dramedy and ticks all the boxes that usually requires. It touches on a lot of serious subjects and always seems to be on the verge of going down a path that is too dark. The first time I watched it, that all came as unexpected. I was just there to watch Anton and have a giggle, but the movie really is more than that. I sat down with it again yesterday with a totally different mindset, and this time the movie clicked for me.

This time I paid attention to what the movie is trying to say. On the surface it easily seems like a casually promiscuous movie full of characters doing objectionable things and getting away with it. But I was surprised at how morally upright it was in the end (comparatively) and at how good its message and themes were. The movie strikes a neat grey area by having Charlie do bad things with good intentions, particularly selling prescription drugs to students. He doesn't need the money; he does it for two reasons: One, he feel that it's important to be popular during high school years. And two, he actually does care for the students. He knows that they often can't or won't get professional help, and thinks he can be a good third option. And in a lot of ways he is.

The doctor is in.

He spends a lot of time listening to kids who have never had anyone listen to them before, and genuinely tries to help them. When his doling out meds backfires he even continues to listen and give advice free of charge. Charlie always seems to be in the pursuit of doing the right thing. And really this story is about him discovering what exactly the right thing is. He messes up a lot along the way, and almost in some permanent ways, but he mends his mistakes and he gets there, and it's very rewarding when he does.

What's really neat about this character is that, like the film that features him, his surface impression is actually very inaccurate to the real him. Charlie looks and acts like his life is well-put-together, but really he's just as confused and messed up as anyone. His obsession with being liked is very easy to relate to, and slowly we discover ever darker and deeper sides to him. Anger and insecurity which he keeps suppressed -- and even that he does with good intentions -- but it comes out slowly, and impressively subtly for a teen flick. Really I don't think this should count as a teenage movie. It's much too deep, and intricate, and thoughtful for that. Its biggest failings come when it tries to work within the teen flick genre and shortchanges itself.

Charlie's mother played by Hope Davis is excellent.

Anton Yelchin always gave enjoyable performances, but this stands out in a few ways. Firstly he was given a chance to really run wild with exaggerated performances bits. I loved all the scenes where he was at the piano, dramatically showing off. But also there are several moments that required intricate depth too. Like where the character himself his acting -- putting on a front to hide his real emotions -- and he portrays the real emotion and the emotion the character is trying to show. That can't have been easy at all. He pulled it off beautifully.

Also in the cast is Kat Dennings as the love interest Susan, and the school principle Mr. Gardner is her father, played by Robert Downey Jr. He gives a very good performance too. At first he seems like a bad guy, out to get Charlie like Mr. Rooney in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but he becomes more and more clearly a mess too, with his own desire to be liked. And all that tension between him and Charlie finally culminates at the end in a great scene by the pool. I love that scene. It's the moment where the movie fully and finally transcends the teen flick genre. The stakes slowly climb during the whole film, and there both the characters are finally in over their heads and the facades come down. And then the drama resolves as forgiveness is passed around and things that were for so long right on edge of toppling into cynical tragedy turn around into happy and encouraging endings.

"Some days are better than others."

The theme of forgiveness is very strong, and there's also plenty to be said for loving your neighbor and selfless love (there is great, realistic examples of this shown between Charlie and his mother, and Susan and her dad), and the movie is also very understanding in pointing out the true unimportance of being liked just for the sake of being liked. "It's not the popularity; it's what you do with it," it says. And if a kid like Charlie can figure that out, I guess there's hope for the rest of us, too.

The Cabin in the Woods

Major spoilers in the second half of this review. 
&
I saw this film cut for TV.

I don't watch a lot of horror movies -- in fact, you could almost say I never watch horror movies. As a rule, I am not a fan. Even so, I was interested in this one even way back in 2012 when it came out -- drawn in by Joss Whedon's involvement and it's impressively high Rotten Tomatoes score -- but it's R-rated content was more than I wanted to handle... so I waited three years for it to make its television debut.

A long and suspenseful wait. But worth it.

The film was co-written, and directed by Drew Goddard who recently left an impression on me by being the man responsible for the excellent adapted screenplay for The Martian. Goddard and Whedon's styles pair really well with similar senses of humor, and great attention to detail. The characters are very Whedonesque, and credit for the movie's smooth pacing and wonderfully matter-of-fact storytelling go to Goddard.

The cast is full of familiar faces -- with a few Whedon regulars. The young adults who go to the Cabin are Kristen Connolly as Dana, Chris Hemsworth as Curt, Anna Hutchison as Jules, Fran Kranz as Marty, and Jesse Williams as Holden. Then in the office setting, Bradley Whitford, Richard Jenkins and Amy Acker are responsible for raining terror down on the unsuspecting college students.

Switching back from the horror plot to the everyday life of office workers was neat and effective risk.

Even without watching horror movies I am fully aware of their pitfalls and their cliches. This film willingly hops right into all those "required" moments and then immediately and cleverly turns them around, poking fun at them with a sharp humor that points out the all the holes of the genre. For the first two acts, satire is the name of the game, and Goddard and Whedon win every hand as they use the cliches to their advantage. The plot moves along traditionally as obviously stereotyped characters bite the dust one by one in gruesome, terrifying, and brilliantly tongue-in-cheek ways.

The film's one real problem is a bit of a catch 22. It chastises typical horror flicks by doing the exact same things those films do, and while that makes it funnier in a way, and a great satire, it also means that it still has the essence of the films it is criticizing -- so it can't help but drag itself down a little along the way.

I suppose it had to be worth it though. For the most part.

Major Spoilers from here to the end!
Then the third act twists away from the typical (if satirized) mantra. At this point all the kids are dead except the main girl, Dana, (whose death we all know is optional) and the office is celebrating a successful event. But -- surprise! -- Marty, the dumb stoner dude who's been high the whole movie isn't actually dead! He's actually alive (and actually not that dumb) and his excessive smoking has actually kept him from being affected by the chemicals meant to create the cliches the lead to easier deaths. He and Dana escape to underneath the cabin where the control offices are, and that's where things get really interesting.

The film is pretty great up to this point -- it's scary, thrilling, mysterious, hilarious and very well-made -- but the final twist are what clinches the movies status as a mind-blowing and unique horror film. I expected that some twist of the type would come, but was still taken off guard by pretty much the whole rest of the film.

Got to be the movie's hero, but first had to be the movie's resident dummy.

First of all, Marty surviving was absolutely fantastic. Of the three guys, he has the least hero potential for the first two acts; he was the second person to "die" and probably the most boring character-wise (though he was the sensible voice of reason). He was the goofy comic relief. Then suddenly he becomes the hero (though Dana's heroine is still the main character) as the whole story turns round on its head. Dana stays the same in our perceptions but also becomes more endearing (and she's definitely a Whedon-writ female). The two don't get to add enough depth of character fast enough to be satisfying before the film ends, but what is left wanting is part of the charm and the cool brilliance.

I love the final scene. I can't even remember all of what the two unexpected heroes talk about after the climactic battle, but loved it out of some sort of principle because it "wasn't supposed to happen." So they sit on a staircase and share a joint, covered in blood from head to toe, and then the Earth is obliterated.

Because that's what happens when a horror movie doesn't follow the rules.

Worth it!

District 9

Major Spoilers. 
I saw this movie cut for TV.

I heard this film was mind-blowing and amazing back in 2009 when it released, but for some reason I was still surprised when, six years later, I finally watched it, and yes, it blew my mind.

There is basically nothing bad to say about this film. It's extremely creative with its premise, and its mockumentary filming-style; very well thought out, and convincingly realistic. Although it was undoubtedly a no-brainer for the South African filmmakers, the fact that it's set in Johannesburg, and has no big, famous actors (well, at the time) in its cast sets it apart from your typical alien fare wonderfully.

This is one memorable movie.

So there's this amazingly realistic (because anything that could be real really was) science fiction, wholly new kind of alien invasion story, that is interesting enough to be a movie all on its own, and for the first act I was even tricked into thinking that was all it was. There was not one character that seemed fitted to be a leading character or hero; there only appeared to be neutral side characters or villains. I thought the film was being original by not giving us a human character for us to root for, to force us to concentrate on the (granted, very interesting) alien's problem. But as interesting, thoughtful and remarkable the base plot was, in the end it only serves as a complex background for one of the most unexpectedly amazing character pieces I've ever seen.

Sharlto Copley was a producer, not an actor at the time when he took on the role of Wikus van de Merwe for his director friend Neill Blomkamp, but the moment he became Wikus, he became not only an actor, but one of the best in the business.

"My name is Wikus van de Merwe... and what we do here at this department is we try to engage with the prawn of behalf of MNU, and on behalf of humans." With general idea of what to say, Copley and other cast members would just improvise their lines.

Wikus starts a caricatured stereotype of a government employee; dorky, shallow, unremarkable, a jerk, and perhaps slightly endearing, but mostly because you feel sorry for him that he doesn't know how annoying he is. He's obviously overjoyed at getting to be such a main focus of the documentary -- he puts on his best face for the cameras and talks to them incessantly and happily while doing his job, which was sometimes so cruel it made a disturbing contrast. Like the scene where he casually and gleefully oversees the murder of alien eggs as part of population control.

Then, when Wikus's world is turned on its head (as literally as something can figuratively be turned on its head) we see the real him, and he's not a very likable guy either, (much like the first one, only even less nice). Though we do pity his terrible, bizarre situation and admire his desperate fight against it. Still his self-mindedness gets in the way of his reaching a hero status... until the end. In the final climax he enters that exo-suit a desperate coward using up his final thread of hope, and emerges it a brave, selfless, straight-up awesome hero.

I cannot get over how cool this is! And I am becoming have become a fast fan of Sharlto Copley.

I found it very interesting and strangely profound that for the entire movie, this guy would never shut up -- he was seriously talking almost constantly, every chance he had, and to anyone he thought might listen -- but in his last scene, once he has finally become the hero we never imagined he could ever be, he never says a word.

District 9 was a bit of a sleeper for me. It took me whole week to soak it in and realize how blown away I was. Then I had to watch it again to confirm my being blown away, and was blown away again -- by the world, the character, the physical transformation from man to beast, and the heroic one from beast to man; and the incredible performance that made it all convincing. It really is one of the most remarkable movies I've ever seen, with one of the most deceptively extraordinary, mind-blowing heroes at its core.