Young Adult: Not a Comedy, Interesting Psychological Character Piece

Some equivalent to an FDA label needs to be in place for dramedies of the Alexander Payne, Sophia Copolla, or Ed Zwick (his love stories, not his action films), Thomas McCarthy variety (throw the Jennifer Anniston film "The Good Girl" and the Julia Roberts/Susan Sarandon film "Stepmom" onto this pile) to let viewers know that despite the fact that the characters appear quirky in the trailer and Seinfeldesque music is playing in the background, these films ARE NOT comedies.

Now, Jason Reitman films will have to include this warning too.
His first three films, "Thank You for Smoking," "Juno" (a straight-up comedy), and "Up in the Air" balanced comedic moments with heavy themes but they had enough laughter in them not to fall off the wayward end of the dramedy/drama divide. Now watch this trailer and try to guess whether this is a comedy, dramedy or a drama:

If you guessed comedy, you guessed wrong, but at least you're not alone: The Golden Globes also mislabeled the film as well which is especially odd considering they were classified "Up in the Air" in the drama category.

I have not read other reviews so my humor might have differed from a great many moviegoers but I did not laugh once during this film.

At the same time, I became so much more fascinated with this film when I started thinking of all the ways this film could be classified OTHER than a comedy: It has the somber tones of a Thomas McCarthy or Sophia Coppola  films, a mission to exploit shallowness that were characteristic of Douglas Sirk's movies, and the psychological twists of a Hitchcock film ("Spellbound" "The Wrong Man" or in an extreme case "Psycho" are three that come to mind for films driven by a character's psychological state) without the murder plot involved (although the party scene at the end is just as bad).

The film follows Charlize Theron as Mavis. Mavis is an anonymous divorced author on the fringes of fame (she ghostwrote the latter books of a popular children's series), nearly 20 years out of high school in a small town where no one's made it big except her. She decides to travel back to her hometown after receiving an e-mail from an ex-boyfriend that he's just had a baby. Annoyed that he decided to rub it in her face, she sees it as a disparate cry for help and that she's going to try to win her back. It's clear that she's a little full of herself and that she still carries that air of superiority when she goes to visit her old town but greater hints of depression or something more turn into full-on perspective-altering revelations. Add psychologically trippy symbolically rich to the list of attributes to file this film under.

If there's one disappointment, the forgettable Patrick Wilson continues his streak of doing absolutely nothing for me by being pretty much a blank here too as Mavis' ex Buddy. It might be for the better as it fits the story more appropriately: Mavis is too narcissistic to see Buddy as a means to her own ends. It's a credit to Theron (who is already widely acknowledged to be brilliant since winning an Oscar and being nominated again) that Mavis can even come off as sincere and give a one-sided relationship such inherent chemistry.

Far more interesting is Patton Oswalt as Matt Freehauf, who hasn't shaken off the loserdom he earned in high school. He is remembered by Mavis and has also defined himself as "The Hate Crime guy." He was physically beaten for being gay (a "crime" for which he wasn't even guilty) and still has a damaged penis and walks around in a cane. He approaches Mavis at a bar and she acknowledges his presence but the old nerd-beauty power dynamic is firmly in place. It's very clear from the first scene that she's only marginally interested in him. You start to question whether he's even being pathetic by talking to her in the first place. But Matt, at the very least, won't demean himself by going along with Mavis's fantasy that she can break up Buddy's marriage and that's when things get interesting. That's also the first scene. What follows is a very interesting relationship between the two that quietly illuminates the main plot of a very interesting movie.

Just watched my 20th film this year...review of what was the best so far

I've been working on some posts and because they haven't been completed yet, i didn't post them yet. In the meantime, here's a list of the 20 films I've seen so far in approximate order of best to worst, and my attempt to do a short list of the best i've seen so far.

1. Up in the Air
2. Inglolriouos Basterds
3. Soloist
4. Star Trek
5. In the Loop
6. Up
7. Hangover
8. Funny People
9. Extract
10. Invention of Lying
11. Night at the Museum 2
12. Angels and Demons
13. Invictus
14. Proposal
15. Whip It
16. Julia
17. Wolverine
18. Brothers Bloom
19. Land of the Lost
20. Bruno

Actor:
Rob Downey Jr., The Soloist-I will admit that because it was released before Summer, it stands virtually no chance of getting nominated, but there’s plenty to appreciate here. His role of a beat reporter was entirely without glamour and in the hands of many other actors, he would easily be upstaged by Jamie Foxx’s more showier role of a schizophrenic artist. Downey commanded attention through consistency. It was a solid character whose presence felt heartfelt and inspirational in every scene. He also
took on a real-life character and changed him significantly to alter the story while keeping the general spirit of the story alive.

Morgan Freeman, Invictus-I put Downey Jr. first because this was one was a little Oscar-baity. He’s Morgan Freeman playing Mandela, what are you going to expect but something sincere? It was probably technically perfect and a pretty good stretch for Freeman so I’d say he deserves a nom. It just moved me a little less than Downey Jr.

George Clooney, Up in the Air-For the record, I’m still pretty sick on all the Clooney love in Hollywood. He’s a good guy and good actor, but I’m so tired of all these mushy speeches about how he’s the reincarnation of Mr. Smith Going to Washington. Clooney is so overexposed that when I see him on the screen, I get pretty bored pretty quick. As a result, Clooney practically has to mix it up at this point to hold my attention, and that he did in this film. Reitman said iin an interview that he was looking to actually put Clooney in an emotionally vulnerable stage and have him fall in love, and he succeeded. Clooney played a character I could emotionally get behind in his mentoring scenes of Natalie and in his love scenes with Vera. You even felt that heartbreak when he finally got that 10,000,000th mile. Deserves an Oscar nom by a hair, in my opinion.

Jamie Foxx, Soloist-Foxx is usually always on my lists for films I wasn’t even expecting him to be on (Jarhead, Dreamgirls, etc.) and in the Soloist he played it just right. There was one particular scene that I felt was awkward in the wrong way and one scene after that, that didn’t entirely make sense with me (when he proclaimed Steve Lopez was like God, and went a little delusional with singing about how ballerinas are graceful and dance around) and detached me from the character.

(tie) Ricky Gervaise, Invention of Lying and Adam Sandler, Funny People- These aren’t serious Oscar contenders although I wouldn’t have been disappointed to see either of them as Golden Globe nominees in the comedy category. Sandler played moments of sadness very well and on its own would be worthy on my very short list, at least. Gervaise, himself, I admired for taking his comic persona and fine-tuning it just the right amount to meet the demands of this movie.

Actress: Because I don’t watch a lot of Jane Austen films, I always worry that I couldn’t possibly produce a list of 5 leading actresses but I managed 5.
Rachel Weicz, Brothers Bloom-Not a particularly good film but Rachel Weicz’ wide-eyed recluse who is discovering adventure for the first time is practically the only reason she holds your interest. She’s the stand-in for the audience as you’re watching everything unfold for her eyes and if she wasn’t taken in by what she was experiencing you wouldn’t either
Tilda Swinton, Julia-It’s a role reminiscent of Anne Hathaway last year in Rachel Getting Married: Essentially it’s a messed-up woman with addiction problems going nowhere in life. It’s not something I’d endorse for Oscar because it didn’t captivate me but relative to the other 19 films on this list, it’s good enough for 2nd here.
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal-Maybe I’m buying into all the hype of Sandra Bullock’s career comeback, but I do have to admit that while it wasn’t too much more than a standard rom-com role, I was reminded of how fresh Sandra Bullock makes a tired script and how challenging it might have been to pull that off with her increasing age and the number of times I’ve seen it done before..
Anna Chlumsky, In the Loop-As someone who lives in D.C., I see interns like Liza Weld: knows everything, ridiculously ambuitious, and underneath it all, probably a little unsure of what to do with their power.
Anna Friel, Land of the Lost-She’s in the absolute worst film I’ve seen this year. Sometimes you see someone play a role so charmingly that you have to applaud them for making due with a terrible script and leaving it unscathed

Supporting Actor: (this list is not yet fully formed)
Christophe Waltz, Inglorious Basterds-With Javier Bardem and Heath Ledger winning the last two years for being the worst of villains, I imagined before watching Christophe Waltz that he would be equally villainous. What I saw instead was an interesting man of contradictions: A Nazi who is a sophisticated man with a refined sense of manners. He’s not so much defined by his villainy as he is defined by being a worthy opponent to the protagonist.

Tom Hollander, In the Loop-The straight man in the middle of a scene of complete chaos is an always underappreciated role (see Jason Bateman, Arrested Development or John Ritter, Three’s Company). Hollander played it very well

Ed Asner, Up-I don’t usually feel that animated films deserve a shot for acting noms. I still don’t. He’s just #3 on my list because it wasn’t as good of a year for supporting actors as it was for actresses.

Matt Damon, Invictus-I love Matt Damon and think he has one of the best seven or eight bodies of work this decade for an actor (behind Depp, Blanchett Streep, Crowe, DiCaprio and Penn). He absolutely deserved nominations for Good German (over Ryan Gosling) or Talented Mr. Ripley (over Richard Farnsworth) or possibly Bourne Ultimatum (over Virgo Mortgensen). What’s done is done, however, and if we’re simply looking at the best five actors this year, I don’t believe he’s it. Other than donning an accent, there’s nothing particularly notable about Damon here except that he’s in a Clint Eastwood film and everyone in Eastwood’s films get noms. Still, Damon in a weaker performance is good for about 4th here.

Saul Rubineck, Julia-There was one perfectly delivered scene where Julia was accusing Rubineck’s character of sleeping with her when she was drunk, and he’s answering her in a way that is all at once alleviating himself of any guilt, blaming her for her illness, reaching out to help her, and avoiding the question entirely. It’s a scene that was one of the most memorable of my year, and wouldn’t have worked without him pulling it off so well.

Supporting Actress:
Melanie Laurant, Inglorious Basterds-Her character has many facets: Direct and uninterested when being approached by a German soldier smitten with her; uncomfortably nervous when approached by the man who killed her family; and empowered when she and her immigrant lover plot revenge.

Vera Farminga, Up in the Air-Without disclosing a spoiler, I’ll just say she’s a woman with a secret. You can measure how great of a job she does simply by noting that up until the big reveal, she has us looking the other way on first viewing and see the obvious on second viewing.

Zoe Saldana, Star Trek-I heard she was great in Avatar. Star Trek’s cast members are all great in replicating the original roles while reinvigorating them at the same time (something that is very hard to do). Saldanna’s might have possibly been my favorite performance of the cast. The scenes where she approaches Spock in the elevator (and we’re not even sure if they’re together) was a moment that resonated a lot.

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air-Something that I have no objection to taking home the Oscar. If the film is considered comedic, then she was the big scene stealer. She was someone who could be given a spinoff as far as I’m concerned. She had less moments in the script that she could take off and run with as Farminga did as far as I’m concerned.

(tie) Catherine Keener-The Soloist-Keener can make a big impression in a few scenes and make you want to see more of her.
Amy Admas-Night at the Museum-If they gave an Oscar to Cate Blanchett for channeling Katherine Hepburn, why not Amy Adams? Even though her film wasn’t supposed to be taken seriously for Oscar consideration, she was a fantastic homage to Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby.

Screenplay:
Up In the Air (adapted)-Major changes had to made to the book including adding the two female characters. The spirit of the book which is about the transience of being permanently on business travel is also on display there very well.

Soloist (adapted)-From Steve Lopez's book, the film takes and adapts the two characters to fit a more cinematic mold

Inglorious Basterds (original)-I've always heard Tarantino had a knack for dialogue and that sounds most appropriate. Negative points for not making Brad Pitt's part much different than his comedic turn in Burn After Reading. Writing Dianne Kruger, Christophe Waltz and Melanie Laurent's parts alone do deserve big points, however.

In the Loop (adapted)-It was a great film, but it could have felt just a little more cinematic, so a few negative points for that.

Funny People (original)-I had to respect it for integrating all that comedy and finding truth in so many funny moments.

Hangover (original)-It just won best comedy at the globes. It's a great movie that grows on me in time. I'm not going to knock it down

Director:
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air-Kept it at the right length and made what could have been flat material come alive. His chances of winning the Oscar might be significantly lower but has a good chance of winning as producer as well as screenwriter

Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds-Anyone could see that the film is artfully done so there's little convincing to do

Armando Ianoucci, In the Loop-The director went all handheld on us to give us an indie feel. It worked well.

J.J. Abrams, Star Trek-It's hard to establish a unique voice in your directing style as a director of a summer blockbuster when you've only done one film before. I think he set the tone for the revived franchised just right on his first go and that's really when you need it.

Mike Judge, Extract-I liked this film very much. It wasn't as flat-out funny as Office Space but it was interesting and its characters felt real. Bravo to him for following up Office Space with something that feels interesting in its own right but retains the charm of the original.