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Film Review – Win Win (B+)

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Win Win
@ The Neon
April 21, 2011
Grade: B+

I’ll always think it’s a better idea when making a sports movie to try to convert an athlete into an actor rather than the other way around; especially when the athlete portrayed on screen is supposed to be elite. So, I was pleased that director Tom McCarthy chose former New Jersey state wrestling champion Alex Shaffer to play Kyle in Win Win. Shaffer’s athletic ability is needed to play the role of wrestling phenom Kyle because no audience is going to accept Frankie Muniz or some similarly sized actor as a dominant 119 pound wrestler. Shaffer was the right choice because he actually is a phenom and it’s believable that his abilities are  capable of delivering a sudden jolt of relevance, perspective and excitement to the lives of three grown men, as Kyle is able to do for his new wrestling coach Mike Flaherty, played by Paul Giamatti and his two assistants, played by Bobby Cannavale and Jeffrey Tambor.

Flaherty is a relatively unsuccessful, too nice for his own good lawyer and volunteer high school wrestling coach who early on makes an uncharacteristic and morally questionable decision you know he’ll end up paying for. Flaherty assumes legal guardianship of an elderly, confused client named Leo Poplar (Burt Young) who happens to have a 16-year-old grandson named Kyle in need of a place in the world thanks to a train wreck of a mother. Flaherty and Kyle’s paths soon cross and, as a wrestling coach, it’s not long before Flaherty, Terry (Cannavale) and Coach Vig (Tambor) realize they have stumbled upon a talent the likes of which they’ve never seen. Coach Vig sums up the excited yet intimidated feelings of all three coaches by exclaiming during Kyle’s first practice, “I don’t think we can teach him anything.”

The story progresses in fairly predictable, sports movie fashion: losing, discovery of talent, trust building, winning, loss of trust, losing, moral victory. Which is not to say that the story doesn’t work, it just doesn’t really matter. There are touching moments, the performances are good and the characters are easy to root for, but Win Win is good because it’s funny. The funniest moments coming as a result of Kyle’s talent and laid back persona garnering the rather unhealthy affection of his coaches. Terry verbalizes the feelings of the other coaches and wrestlers when first seeing Kyle’s back full of tattoos during a weigh-in by saying, in all seriousness, “This kid’s so #&@!ing cool.”

Although the cast is strong and all of the known actors, including Amy Ryan (The Office, The Wire) as Flaherty’s strong, smarter than everyone else wife, deliver as you’d expect them to, Win Win does not work AT ALL without newcomer Alex Shaffer. Aside from his athletic talent which got him the part, he has no trouble conveying the emotions and attitude of a soft spoken teenage boy without a home. He also has no trouble assuming a dominant position when on screen with his older and infinitely more experienced counterparts. You’ve seen stories like this before, but Shaffer’s frequent interactions with his eager mentors provoke easy laughter, which is all I ask out of a comedy.

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Film Review – Cedar Rapids (B+)

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Cedar Rapids
@ The Neon
March 11, 2011
Grade: B+

Ed Helms (The Hangover, The Office) somehow summons a more naive and innocent Andy Bernard in his portrayal of Tim Lippe in Cedar Rapids. Lippe is a trustworthy, small town insurance salesman whose lifetime of honesty and insurance adjusting has culminated in a dream assignment, a trip to the ASMI insurance convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Lippe’s task while in Cedar Rapids is to take home the coveted “2 Diamond” insurance award which goes to the agency that most closely sells insurance the way God would.

Lippe quickly learns during his first trip to the convention that Cedar Rapids is full of distractions that will not allow him to concentrate solely on the 2 Diamond award. The convention is an eye opening experience, as the very green Lippe encounters many insurance agents who view Cedar Rapids as a sort of Hedonism of the Midwest. One such agent, Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly), Lippe has been expressly instructed to avoid. Of course, Lippe winds up sharing a room with Ziegler and discovers that avoiding him is impossible. Reilly’s Ziegler is a combination of every alcoholic blowhard you’ve ever encountered. Loud, obnoxious and frequently hilarious.

Spellbound by Ziegler, a morally ambiguous love interest named Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche), and the lure of alcohol, drugs and sex that are readily available at the convention hotel, the impressionable Lippe loses sight of his task and allows himself to be consumed by Cedar Rapids the way a 21-year-old might react to seeing Vegas for the first time. Between Ziegler pressuring the group to let loose and their other roommate Ronald (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) serving as a voice of reason, Lippe humorously bounces back and forth between uncharacteristic debauchery and adhering to his nerdy, insurance-centric persona.

An 80 minute conversation between Ed Helms and John C. Reilly would likely be entertaining, so it’s no surprise that pairing them up, letting them develop characters at opposite ends of the moral spectrum and placing them in an absurd scenario resulted in funny scene after funny scene. The actual plot of the movie at times becomes an afterthought, as the directionless conversations between the four main characters take over. Fortunately, this was not problematic. It was more so the ridiculous dialogue between the characters than their circumstances that had The Neon opening night crowd guffawing throughout.

As endearing and captivating as Ed Helms was, it was really John C. Reilly who the audience wanted to see. He turned in the best comedic performance I’ve seen in some time, delivering all the humor you’d expect out of a drunken, divorced, loudmouthed insurance salesman.

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Film Review – Barney’s Version (A-)

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Barney’s Version
@ The Neon
March 3, 2011
Grade: A-

Of course Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Cinderella Man) plays Barney Panofsky, the hero of Barney’s Version. If you ever find yourself in need of an actor to dominate a role that calls for an insecure, self destructive, witty, snarky, alcoholic, Giamatti should be at the top of your list.

Barney's First Marriage

At first, it seems as though Barney is cursed. The movie begins with an older Barney. Seemingly innocent, lonely and depressed. Shortly thereafter, the audience is surprisingly and refreshingly shown a young, vibrant Barney about to begin his first of three failed marriages. When this first marriage ends tragically, I thought, “Is this just going to be a series of unfortunate events that results in a beaten down man?” As the story progresses, however, it becomes apparent that Barney is a ticking time bomb, too paranoid or drunk to realize that he doesn’t have it half bad. Because his insecurities and paranoia will not allow him to accept his good fortune, Barney inevitably self destructs.

The source of Barney’s neuroses probably stem from the fact that the women and friends with which he surrounds himself are infinitely more beautiful and well-liked than he. A fact that loudly pronounces itself to Barney when his third wife, Miriam (Rosamund Pike), who is the only of his three wives he actually loves, announces that she needs a week to herself. What should have been a harmless week apart for a long-married couple with two grown children plagues Barney. While Miriam is away, Barney’s insecurities come bubbling up as his mind attacks itself with thoughts of losing the best part of his life. In response to imagined dangers, Barney launches a very real preemptive strike that destroys his final marriage.

Barney’s Version is actually quite lighthearted and humorous despite the personal hells that the audience experiences alongside Barney. Much of the humor is provided by Barney’s father, played by Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman is as likable as always and serves as an example to Barney of what life can be like if you allow yourself to enjoy it. The two are more friends than father-son and Barney  seems to be at his happiest when in the company of his dad.

The final tragedy Barney endures, the progression of Alzheimer’s that robs him of his charm and wit, at first seemed like a throw-in to me. Like an unnecessary evil that the audience could have done without. But, as some time has passed since I saw Barney’s Version, I find myself rethinking that stance. I’m wondering now if that terrible disease finally gave Barney’s brain a rest. A chance to let the self-loathing evaporate and to allow Barney to simply observe, rather than destroy.

Whether the Alzheimer’s was relevant or not, Barney’s Version is tremendously entertaining thanks in large part to Giamatti who convincingly conveys decades of a complicated man’s life.

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