"Footloose"
Richard's Review: 3 stars
When I went to high school people didn't dance as much as they swayed, or maybe gyrated when the music really hit them. The adventurous among us occasionally tried the Hustle or the Bump, but that was about it. According to "Footloose," a remake of the 80s classic from "Hustle and Flow" director Craig Brewer, now-a-days high school seniors have moves that would make Mikhail Baryshnikov green with envy.
Ren McCormack (Kenny Wormald) is a big city kid forced by circumstance to move to the small town of Bomont, Georgia to live with his uncle. He's a rebel who soon finds a cause in town. Three years prior a group of teens were killed in a car crash after a dance. In reaction the town banned public dancing, amplified music and other rites of teenage passage. Ren, a former gymnast and dancing fool, challenges the law, butts heads with the local preacher Reverend Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid in the John Lithgow role) and falls in love with the minister's daughter Ariel (Julianne Hough). Will the town lift the ban? Will the love birds ever get to break dance in public?
"Footloose" is a little grittier than you would imagine a movie starring Ryan Seacrest's girlfriend to be. Director Brewer's roots are in indie filmmaking and it shows. The slickness normally associated with contemporary teen fare is by and large missing here, replaced with the steamy Southern feel that permeates his other films. You won't hear a line like, "You're sexier than socks on a rooster," in any of the "Twilight" movies.
McCormack and Hough shine the brightest when they are in motion on the dance floor, but Miles Teller as Willard (played by Chris Penn in the original), Ren's dance-challenged best friend steals the show on and off the dance floor.
Rebooting a well-loved classic is a tricky business. Brewer has wisely not messed with the formula too much. There are slight changes. Ren is now from Boston instead of Chicago, the tractor game of chicken from the original is now a bus race and the dancing has been updated but the upbeat rebellious core (and most of the songs) of the '84 movie is intact.
"Take Shelter"
Richard's Review: 3 1/2 stars
Fear of the end of the world was a predominant theme at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. I blame the Mayans. Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" is a study of depression and family dysfunction set against a backdrop of impending disaster and "Taking Shelter," starring "Boardwalk Empire's" Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain explores pretty much the same thing but from a much different point of view.
Shannon plays Curtis a hard-working husband and father who begins to have visions the apocalypse.
Plagued by nightmares, hallucinations and panic attacks, the terror he feels extends beyond his dreams. "It's a feeling," he says. "Something is coming." He can't describe what it is coming but finds solace by building a storm cellar in his backyard, a sort of panic room for him and his family to hide in when the end of the world comes. But a question remains: Is he mentally ill or is he a prophet?
"Take Shelter" is a strong effort that is marred by a disingenuous ending that feels like a cheat compared to the rest of the film. I won't tell you what it is, and it didn't sour me on the whole film, but it was a disappointment.
Other than that -- maybe go and get a popcorn refill in the last five minutes of the film! -- there's much to enjoy here. Shannon has usually been seen playing larger-than-life characters so it's refreshing to watch his empathic work as an everyman who doesn't understand what is happening to him. Motivated by a great fear we feel his anxiety grow as the character surrenders his self-control.
Chastain in her fourth movie this year once again proves she is as versatile as anyone working today. She brings strength, resilience and purpose to a character that could have been very one note.
"Take Shelter" is an interesting movie with beautiful cinematography, effective performances and an intriguing story. Too bad it sells itself short in the closing minutes.
"The Big Year"
Richard's Review: 3 stars
Not since The Beverly Hillbillies' Miss Jane has there been such a bird crazy character. "The Big Year," a new comedy starring the triptych of comics Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, is based on a true story of birders trying to break a world record.
"This is a true story," the opening credit reads. "Only the facts have been changed." Wilson is Bostick, the world's best birder (they don't like being called bird watchers). He is the king of The Big Year, an annual competition to see the greatest amount of birds in North America in a calendar year. There's no prize other than bragging rights, but, jokes Brad Harris (Jack Black), "the bird seed endorsements are huge." The film follows Bostick and the efforts of two newcomers to The Big Year, Stu (Martin), a wealthy CEO who is finally taking time to smell the roses and look at the birds, and Harris, an unhappy office grunt who loves anything that flies, as they vie for the top spot.
Whether or not audiences will migrate to "The Big Year" depends on their tolerance for a soundtrack stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey with bird songs like a jazz version of "Blackbird," and the trio of leading men.
Each plays to his strength. Black provides the slapstick, Martin is the silver-haired charmer and Wilson plays the edgy jerk he's perfected in movies like "Drillbit Taylor." The three different styles work well together even though nothing about it really feels fresh. Despite its subject it never really takes flight. There's a more ripple of giggles throughout but the big laughs are fewer and further between. Surely some Blue Footed Booby jokes could have spiced things up just a bit.
Having said that, "The Big Year" is enjoyable enough, particularly if you like footage of our fine-feathered friends. The final third tugs at the heart strings when it becomes more about the characters than their birding obsession. Not really memorable, but at least it's not another installment of Martin's dreadful Inspector Clouseau series.
