Movie Reaction: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Formula: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty / Eat. Pray. Love

Richard Linklater has made19 movies that have been released to theaters. Can you name half of them? I could come up with several pretty easily. Dazed & Confused. The Before movies. School of Rock. Boyhood. Everybody Wants Some!! After a few minutes I could remember a few more of his. Bad News Bears. Bernie. I'm pretty sure A Scanner Darkly was him. I guess that puts me over halfway. There's no way I'm getting all 19 though. Now try to order them by box office success or check his rate of Oscar attention. The results will surprise you.

What I'm trying to get at is that Richard Linklater is in that Woody Allen category of directors who you remember for the success, you forget about the failures, and makes a lot less money than you realize. There are many reasons for this. He takes big swings. He can be swayed by his desire to work with specific actors. Often, it seems like he just enjoys the challenge of a hard movie.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette falls under the "challenge" category (although the chance to direct Cate Blanchett certainly helped as well, I'm sure). It's based on a book of the same name. It's about Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett), a wealthy housewife who used to be a visionary architect. After an infamous event with her most famous building, she stops working for 20 years and puts all her focus into raising her daughter. Now 14, her daughter (Emma Nelson), wants to go on a family trip to Antarctica. Oh yeah, Bernadette's husband (Billy Crudup) is a tech millionaire so this family is obsenely wealthy to the point where trips to Antarctica are a reasonable this to ask for. In Bernadette's relative isolation, she's become a nuisance to the other mothers at school, her next door neighbor (Kristen Wiig) in particular. So, she doesn't really want to go on this Antarctica trip, she's distant from her husband, she's probably depressed, she's a genius forcing herself not to express it, and there's this whole mess with the FBI. It's a movie of many ill-fitting parts. Eventually, it does all lead her to Antarctica, where she goes to rediscover herself, I guess.

My understanding is that they had a lot of trouble in pre-production adapting the book into a screenplay, and I believe that. Books tend to have much more plot than movies. Adapting books to movies is often about figuring out who parts of the book can be cut out without removing the soul of it. The more idiosyncratic the book, the more ill-fitting the parts of the movie are. And that's when you most often hear insufferable people making the redundant point that "the book was better"*. I know nothing about this book, but I'm going to guess that all the intersecting story lines had more of a chance to breathe in it. The movie has a checklist feeling of different parts that it had to include.

*Of course the book was better. It was written as a book. That's how it tends to work. That's also why novelizations of movies tend to not be as good or TV shows made into movies lose something in translation. Don't say "the book was better". That's just a backdoor brag way of saying "I read the book". Instead, say something substantive like "I didn't care for that parts of the book it left out" or "they had trouble translating the authorial voice to the movie". You'll still sound a little full of yourself, but at least you'll be adding something to the conversation.

Linklater is at his strongest when his movie rely the least on plot. Dazed & Confused and Everybody Want's Some!! are almost directionless hang-out movies. Boyhood has a loose structure, not really a plot. The Before movies and Last Flag Flying are basically movies about the discussions people have when moving from point A to point B. Any time that Where'd You Go, Bernadette ignores the plot and is just about the people it's great. Cate Blanchett has a distinct and different relationship with everyone in the movie. I love the scenes with her daughter - the one person she refuses to be cynical about. Blanchett is prickly and performative is a way that you see right through but not past. Every scene that she has with another person is interesting, even if it's just Laurence Fishburne listening to her rant. I like Bernadette's character arc a lot, even though I didn't care for the plot machinations involved.

Overall, I did like Where'd You Go, Bernadette, but I wish it could've been stripped down even more. The only reason it's over 2 hours long is to fit in the plot and the plot is the least important part. See it for Blanchett and the people who Blanchett talks to. Then again, can't that be said about all her movies?

Side Thought: I have to give the movie extra-"show don't tell" points. I actually believe that Bernadette Fox could be a famous architect. The different projects of hers look like great architecture (to my untrained eye, at least). Even her house, which she almost purposely lets fall apart, has stylistic flourishes in it, like she couldn't help herself.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Movie Reaction: Good Boys

Formula: Superbad Jr.

I was always going to like Good Boys. I try not to go into a movie with my opinion already formed, but there was no avoiding it. I have a weakness for children swearing and this movie was made with Superbad, my second favorite movie of all time, as the syllabus. So, to an extent, my thoughts on this movie are going to be useless for anyone who doesn't already want to see it.

Good Boys is the exactly movie I expected. It's about three friends (Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, and Brady Noon) getting into trouble on their way to a party. In particular, they have to replace Tremblay's father's drone while running from two teen girls (Molly Gordon, Midori Francis) who they accidentally stole drugs from. This is an over-the-top comedy. It's filled with sixth graders who swear like sailors, physical humor, and sex jokes going right over their heads.

Look, you know right away with that description if this is the kind of movie you'd even let yourself like. What I'm here to confirm is that this is probably the best version of a movie with the description I gave.

First of all, it is funny. The three leads are really good. This shouldn't be a surprise, as all of them have experience working on adult projects (Room, The Last Man on Earth, Boardwalk Empire) where they could hold their own against adult performers. I don't know if they fully understand all the jokes they're making in this, but they sell them like they do. Or really, they sell it like their characters don't get the jokes but the actors do. Children swearing is always funny to me. The movie smartly doesn't make them good at swearing. All the kids say the words but they clearly don't know what they mean. They're play-acting as adults the way all kids do. The sex humor is mostly in the juxtaposition of children around these things. It doesn't feel exploitative. I was never uncomfortable with the situations, because the joke is that they are too innocent to understand them. What really made me fine with it is that the way the three boys deliver the jokes made it feel like they were in on the joke. It's not like laughing after you get a toddler to say "shit". It's laughing at young kids who look too young to be as aware of what they're saying as they are.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg produced this. They have nothing to do with the writing or directing (This is Gene Stupinitsky and Lee Eisenberg's movie). It's clear why they wanted to be involved though. It obviously has the same ribald humor that their comedies have. Just as important though, it tackles the same questions of friendship that most of their movies have (Superbad, Pineapple Express, This Is the End, The Interview). It's about what happens when friends grow up and grow apart. We all roll our eyes at the "comedy man-child" as a trope, but their movies have a genuine interest in what growing up entails. It's funny to see adults act like children. It's funny to see children act like adults. That's this movie in a nutshell. Beneath the easy sex jokes are more thoughtful jokes about mens' fragile egos, the awkwardness of growing up, and not knowing where you belong. I don't want to pretend that this is some profound movie. It's not. However, it is a much more aware and thoughtful movie than it needs to be.

A lot of why the movie works is the supporting cast. It surrounds the boys with a talented adult ensemble including Will Forte, Lil Rel Howery, Rhetta, and Michaela Watkins who have a lot of fun playing in the sandbox for a couple days. The quiet MVPs of the movie are the teens girls played by Molly Gordon and Midori Francis. They are amazing foils who are old enough to see how ridiculous this all is but young enough to play along anyway. The dynamic of the three leads is interesting. Brady Noon is the Jonah Hill character from Superbad. Jacob Tremblay and Keith L. Williams play two sides of the Michael Cera role. All of them are nimble at turning back into the children they are when the situation calls for it. None of them are precocious. They aren't written like 30 year olds who happen to be 12. They're written as 12 year olds who think they know how 30 year olds act.

There's a lot about Good Boys I'm not sure about. I don't know if it's worth a rewatch. I don't know how much the jokes work because of the surprise factor as opposed to just being well written. I don't know what it says about the world that this movie opened significantly higher than Booksmart did earlier this summer. I liked both a lot. I don't know that this could win over anyone on the fence about it going in. It may just be a movie that's better than expected for the people already expecting to like it. What I am sure about is that I really want to watch Superbad again now.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend

Movie Reaction: Blinded by the Light

Formula: 1 / Yesterday

Discovering a new obsession is one of the great thrills in life. I run into it most often with podcasts. I'll find a new one that's so tailor-made for my interests or point of view that I can't help but listen to every episode from the beginning, sometimes for months. Recently, I had the idea for movie fantasy league. I had a great time obsessing over all the details of it in my head for months. A new toy, a new CD, a new relationship. There's nothing better. The problem is that it's yours and no one else's. I may love this new podcast, but no one else I know does. Or it's already old news for them. Or they don't like it the same amount. It's also hard to know which obsessions will take hold the longest and deepest. Growing up, my parents had no way of knowing that getting a TV in my room in the 5th grade would be more significant than getting my driver's license in high school. For all they knew, I'd love watching wrestling forever and Star Wars would just be a phase. To their credit, they humored me regardless, and thankfully, I stopped before I ever became a nuisance about one thing.

For Javed, the protagonist of Blinded by the Light, Bruce Springsteen is his latest obsession, and no one is ready for how hard it hits him. The movie is based on the life of co-screenwriter Sarfraz Manzoor (and his book of the same name). Javed is a British teen with Pakistani parents living in a small town in England in 1987. His family lives paycheck to paycheck even before his dad gets fired from his factory job. He deals with a lot of racism against his community. He's no good talking to girls. And, he can't even find relief at home as his British identity bumps up against his family's culture.

Then he finds Bruce Springsteen, and in a night, he's transformed. I won't say it hit him like a lightening bolt, but let's just say that the night when he discovers Springsteen, he's outside and there is a lot of lightning. Soon after that, he starts taking more chances. He shows his English teacher his poetry; he starts writing for the school paper; he asks the girl he likes out. Springsteen's lyrics speak directly too him and affect him profoundly.

The music is a bit of a Trojan Horse though. This movie is about more than being a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. It's about overcoming obstacles set by society, by family, and mostly by yourself. I had issues with the movie through most of the run time, but when it hits the last 15 minutes, I was welling up with tears until the end credits. The payoff of all the directions the story goes in is great. It's sort of the opposite of my issue with the movie Yesterday. That movie had a terrific high concept premise but struggled to tie it back into a human story. Blinded by the Light struggles more with the Springsteen of it all, then emotionally wallops you at the end.

Let me explain, so it doesn't just sound like I'm anti-Bruce Springsteen.

Have you ever played fantasy sports? I have. It's a lot of fun putting together my team and thrilling when I pull off a close victory. Here's the thing though. No one wants to hear me talk about my fantasy team. My experience with that isn't interesting to anyone else. Now, imagine that I wrote a movie about playing in a fantasy league for the first time, years after it was new and popular. In the movie, I include a bunch of scenes where I make crazy waiver-wire transactions with strangers cheering me on. And, anytime someone doesn't care about my fantasy team, I complain about it or talk about how wrong they are. Meanwhile, I include scenes where numerous people keep telling me how I am a talented and gifted writer who has a voice that the world needs to here. I keep getting all these grand opportunities because of my writing and I always credit it back to my love of my fantasy team. This movie would be annoying, right?

There's a wish fulfillment aspect to Blinded by the Light that exhausted me. It includes some token scenes where someone calls the lead character out for how much of a prick he's being, but they are sandwiched between too many scenes of random crowds singing along to Springsteen songs that he's listening to on his headphones and belting out or people telling him how great and talented his is. I had a hard time ever taking the protagonist's side.

Viveik Karla's performance is so winning that he often tricked me into liking Javed despite everything in the writing of him. I really like Dean-Charles Chapman as Javed's oldest friend. He finds real emotion in a character who could've just been an 80's fashion punchline. Nell Williams as the love interest and Aaron Phagura as the new friend who introduces Javed to Springsteen are more functional than interesting but are easily likable nonetheless. Kulvinder Ghir as Javed's father gives the best performance and has the best arc. And, I was pleasantly surprised to see Hayley Atwell, lovely as always, show up as Javed's teacher, who is given just enough detail to make an interesting character.

I went on much longer about what I didn't like about this movie only because that part is harder to explain. I enjoyed Blinded by the Light a lot. It made me appreciate Bruce Springsteen's music a little more. It tells a specific story about a place and time that I don't often get to see. It has a terrific cast. The film balances numerous story lines quite deftly, and the payoff when they all come together at the end is very effective. If the lead character doesn't bother you as much as he bothered me, then there's room to fall hard for this crowd-pleasing little movie.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend