Movie Review: Joyful Noise

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While she may have shown up on the small screen on Disney’s Hannah Montana as Aunt Dolly, it’s been a while since Dolly Parton has been up on the silver screen. She returned as G.G. Sparrow and co-stars with Queen Latifah as Vi Rose Hill who are two members of a small home town Georgia church choir competing in a contest which doubles as the name of the movie, Joyful Noise.

Typical of most choir or glee club themed movies and TV shows like Glee, Fighting Temptations or the Sister Act movies, a group is having problems getting started or having challenges reaching the next level. Along comes the new person, whether it's a director or a singer who challenges the status quo. Sometimes an unlikely candidate or candidates need to be added to round out the group. Of course this ruffles a few feathers along the way and can cause some great fight scenes. There is a particularly funny scene between GG and Vi Rose that takes place at a restaurant.

Vi Rose’s 16 year old daughter Olivia (Keke Palmer) is one of the lead singers for the choir. When GG’s grandson Randy (Jeremy Jordan) appears, he’s the thorn in the queen lion’s paw on two levels; first, he likes Olivia and he wants to change up the arrangements a bit. So Vi Rose has the pressure of replacing the beloved previous choir director, dealing with alterations to the choir and it's dynamics, a boy who is making the moves on her daughter and trying to remain calm with her autistic son Walter (Dexter Darden) who has his own special needs of Asperger’s Syndrome that have to be taken into account.

GG is surprised by the church board when they appointed Vi Rose to take over as the choir director instead of her. Disappointed that she wasn't selected, surprisingly she doesn’t turn vindictive. The choir does well every year at the competition but the journey to nationals is stymied at the regional level when they come up against a power house choir which would be Glee’s version of Vocal Adrenaline. Vi Rose’s daughter Olivia takes the lead on many songs and gets told by her mom to let God work through her when she starts to belt out Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror. Randy comes along and tries to put a little more musical Tabasco into the choir’s recipe book. Ultimately when they get to the big show down instead of a single song like the other competitors are doing, the group does a mash up giving each of the singers some time to shine in the spot light.

While the singing and the struggle of the choir for competition was the main focus, it wasn’t as far in the front as one would expect by the previews. There were other character drawn story lines given just as much weight during the one hour and 58 minute movie. Family troubles for Vi Rose with her special needs son and somewhat rebellious daughter, the relationship with the children’s dad, GG’s troubled grandson returning to hamlet of Pasachau which itself is having problems with the downturn in the economy and the loss of a loved one all allow interludes for the music to play and songs to be sung. What really stuck out was Dolly when they showed the choir and not for the totally obvious choice. Well, yah, they did mention that she took in her robe a bit to make it more form fitting. But really it was when asked what her favorite color was Dolly said Calirol 289 and you could really see that color stick out in the group shots of the choir when everyone else possessed brown or black hair!

On several occasions I asked myself what were they thinking of for the locations that were chosen and the flow of the scenes. Of course, being a “church” movie there were some scenes which contained some swears and sexual references to go up against the pious background to create some conflict within the plot and earn the movie a PG rating. It almost appeared that several bridging scenes weren’t rendered (the digital version of the cutting room floor) into the final cut. Despite the flaws, the comedy of the story (some at Dolly’s expense about things she jokes about all the time in real life) and the overall message and tone was meant to be uplifting and inspirational and it achieved that goal.

These Movie Monkey reviews have been about the movie going experience and lately, the experience hasn’t been all that fun. I don’t receive free passes to see the movies I’ve written about; the money has come from my own pocket and going the movies instead of being fun, has become a chore and I question if my $8.50 matinee pricing is being well spent. At the end of 2011 the news reports were about the US Box office being off half a billion dollars from the previous year. When you look at the quality of the movies and what happens when you go to the theater, for me, I understand why.

At my local Regal Theater I’ve really lost faith in them. They are supposed to be an art house location and yet the competitor in town ends up showing more art house films or even getting them before what I called my home theater, location 1828. For this particular movie, the 20 minute preshow had audio but no video. I reported it to the staff at the entrance podium just after the preshow started and it hadn’t been fixed before the preshow ended. Luckily I had my “Where’s my Water” app to keep me occupied during the preshow time. Then I and another person had to track down staff because after five minutes they still hadn’t started the show. With watching about a film a week and probably about once a month I was reporting some sort of technical problem to the staff: sound was off, scratches in the film, late starts or short stops…that would be a 25% failure rate.

During this particular show one person pulled out their cell phone FIVE times to do texting sessions and another started their vocal conversation in the theater. I will give them credit, they didn’t have their ringer on and they did leave the theater to finish the conversation. If I go to report them, I would have to leave the theater missing part of the movie and I seriously question if they would have done anything to the offending patrons unlike the folks over at Alamo Drafthouse who take talking and texting during the movie very seriously. I’ve sent comments via their contact us web page and via their Facebook page to either receive no response or have the posting deleted.

With that said, at this time I want to let you know that this will be the last Movie Monkey review that I’ll be doing as my movie watching will be severely curtailed. Whether you’ve been reading the reviews or if you’ve been listening to the audio versions on the blog page or via the podcast, I say mahalo (thank you) from the bottom of my heart for spending your time with me. It has been my honor and privilege to share my movie going experiences with you. As we say in Hawaii, a hui hou…until we meet again.

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.

Movie Review: The Descendants

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At the 2011 Hawaii International Film Festival the closing film was The Descendants. The film screened and director Alexander Payne received the Vision Award to recognize him for his broad insights into all facets of the film trade. The screening had sold out and the word of mouth was very good. I was looking forward to the general release of the film. When it did release, the movie was not showing at the main theater, the Regal Dole Cannery which is the home to HIFF. Instead, Regal pushed it out to a smaller theater. This was surprising considering all the positive buzz the movie has been receiving. Instead of heading out a dozen miles to Regal’s location, I once again headed just 3 miles to the competitor’s location.

The movie was well worth the effort to try to figure out where it was playing and the effort to get there. Starring George Clooney as Matt King, it tells the story of a man navigating through turbulent waters. The opening sequence to set the mood for the story has Matt talking in a voice over about the mainland perception of Hawaii vs the realities of living in paradise. As he talks, somewhat of a controlled rant, images of the beauty, dirt and yet ordinary everyday scenes of life in and around Honolulu backdrop the narration. As a twenty plus year resident of Hawaii, I could fully understand where he was coming from. Hawaii and the cultures here play a very important role in the movie setting the framework in the world of the King family.

Matt is being squeezed from different sides. He is the lone controlling trustee for a large tract of land from the estate of a Hawaiian Princess who married a white businessman that has been handed down through several generations. The trust which currently holds the property will dissolve in seven years and local residents and family members fall on both sides of the coin to retain the land in its pristine condition or to sell it to developers for shopping centers, marinas and housing. Either decision will have an impact on the people in the state of Hawaii but a direct impact on the relatives.

Matt and his family live a comfortable life style. He works as a real estate attorney and lives in what I call an established home, a house that has been around for decades in one of the older neighborhoods of Nuuanu or Manoa. He lives off of his lawyer income and not the money from the trust. He doesn’t want to squander the money that he has. He wants to provide enough for his kids but not so much that they don’t have to work. He’s trying to find the balance between modern day necessities and what having the trust could provide.

His wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) has just had a terrible boating accident and lies in a coma. While everyone tells Matt she’s a strong woman, she’ll pull through, the doctors have said otherwise. They have no hope that Elizabeth will recover and have recommended disconnecting her from life support equipment as instructed in a living will. Matt now has to struggle with this decision. The woman who he married lies there in the bed and he’s unable to receive a response to his statements about how he has treated her and his two girls over the past several years. He says he’ll be more attentive and responsive, but it doesn’t matter now.

His youngest daughter, Scottie (Amara Miller) is acting out in school. His older 17 year old daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) has been sent off to boarding school on the Big Island. Matt needs to pick her up at school and bring her back to Honolulu and break the bad news to her. He wants to try to keep the younger daughter shielded from the bad news as long as possible. He’s challenged because he was never really close with his daughters, as he says he was the backup parent to them.

Matt tries to talk to Alexandra about her behavior and her anger but she won’t listen. He shoots straight from the hip about her mom dying. After a breakdown in the pool festooned with floating leaves she knocks Matt in the gut by letting him know that the reason she is upset and angry is that she had caught her mom cheating. So now the knowledge of an affair adds to the turmoil sending Matt into a further state of shock.

In the end, this is not a total feel good movie. You know early on that Elizabeth is not going to make it so no bright flowers and rainbows let’s watch the couple sit on the beach in each other’s arms as the sun sets on the Pacific Ocean. The acting all around was superb. You are drawn in as Matt and the kids go to talk to her parents. The dad’s gruff exterior with the feeling that Matt wasn’t good enough for his daughter or the dad trying to explain to his dementia afflicted wife are not played in a goofy or over the top manner. Matt takes the kids over to Kauai to show them the land that he has been entrusted. While both Matt and Alexandra talk about the times they have spent camping there Scottie pipes in pointing out that if the land is sold she’ll never be able to have the family camping experience. You feel for them all the way around. In the end you see a family that has some fractures and splits and has to try to heal if they want to stay together.

I think the biggest compliment that could be given to the movie I heard in the restroom afterward. One man was talking to another and saying “I knew this was a George Clooney movie, but I forget it was George Clooney”. If you have a chance to see this 115 minute R rated for language including some sexual references movie, make the effort I think you'll enjoy it.

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.

Movie Review: The Muppets

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The movie that I’ve been waiting a long time to see finally released this weekend. There was the time spent waiting for a movie to even be announced and then when it was, the anticipation of knowing that it was coming, anticipation for the final release date. While sitting in the theater waiting for The Muppets to start, several times shivers crossed by body. It was the good kind, similar to those that you would have anticipating the arrival of the big man in the red suit to visit your house. The wait was finally over and the movie was satisfying, but not wholly fulfilling.

Before we got to the actual Muppets, there was a Disney Pixar short Small Fry. Buzz Lightyear finds himself at a fast food restaurant where there is a Mini Me of himself in the form of a kids meal toy. The Mini Me manages to swap places with the real Buzz while the owner Bonnie was playing in the ball pit. Back in Bonnie’s bedroom the rest of the gang realize that they have a fake Buzz while the real Buzz tries to escape the restaurant. Unfortunately, he ends up in a storage room of unused and defective kid meal toys in a scene that is reminiscent of the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The short seemed appropriate as how many times have the Muppets been used as a promotional tool for a fast food chain?

When the curtain metaphorically rises on the main feature (how many theaters actually have curtains any more that aren’t always open for the preshow spate of commercials) we are introduced to two brothers, Gary (Jason Segal) and Walter (Walter) who grew up in Smalltown USA. The two brothers have a very tight relationship. I’m wondering if they in any way, shape or form border where the Simpsons live in Springfield? Growing up Walter couldn’t help but notice that he was different from everyone around him. It wasn’t until The Muppet Show debuted on TV that he found there were others like him. In turn, he became the Muppets' greatest fan.

Jump ahead a few years. Gary is going with his sweetheart Mary (Amy Adams) out to California. Although it’s supposed to be just Gary and Mary, Gary tells Walter he can come along and they will visit the Muppet Studios. With Walter tagging along, Mary is relegated to become the third wheel. During the tour of the now broken down studios when Walter separates from the group to visit Kermit’s office, he overhears a plan by oil baron Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) and his cronies to buy the studio only to rip it down for the oil underneath. Walter tells Gary and Mary about the dastardly future diggings and convinces the couple to try to let Kermit know that the studio is in jeopardy.

They find Kermit at his Bel Aire home with an electrified fence and images of himself and Miss Piggy in the wrought iron fence. This is not the jovial frog we once knew. He is downhearted and missing all his friends, of course, especially Miss Piggy. With the encouragement of the trio, a road trip to collect the former gang ensues to get them back to the studios. They decided to resurrect The Muppet Show for a special one night telethon to raise 10 million dollars to buy the studios back from Tex. A TV exec (Rashida Jones) tells the gang they aren’t relevant anymore and denies them airtime until miracle of miracles a time slot opens up and she agrees upon the condition they can find a star to host the telethon. Of course in the effort to get the show on the air and meeting the necessary requirements all madness and mayhem breaks loose in all the wackiness and zaniness that is the Muppets.

What works about this movie? It’s the Muppets for pete’s sake! It was wonderfully stupendously awesome to see our beloved friends and generators of laughter up on the big screen once again. I’ll admit that there were times when I had the waterworks going on, especially when the stains of The Rainbow Connection started coming through the theater’s speaker system. Walter is a fun addition to the rest of the gang with his irrational exuberance and upbeat personality, he just needs to update his wardrobe and ditch the powder blue suit. A trade mark of the Muppet movies has been the cameo appearances by Hollywood and TV stars. We were not let down in this department with such luminaries as Alan Arkin, Neil Patrick Harris, Selena Gomez, Whoopi Goldberg, Mickey Rooney and one other that had me floored because it was a great appearance and I had not heard the name mentioned as a possibility for showing up.

What didn’t work? First was a rap number. It came out of the blue and had me scratching my head. If it wasn’t for the subtitles, I wouldn’t have been able to understand what was being said. The second was Jason Segal. God bless the man, it’s because of his efforts that our fuzzy, hairy, and cloth friends, old and new, big and small appeared once again on the silver screen. It was good to see you Wayne and Wanda! On How I Met Your Mother as Marshall Eriksen he does a wonderful job. As Gary…eh, no so much. He was ignoring the supposed love of his life Mary which leads me to number three. Why was Amy Adams in the movie? Certainly as eye candy, unquestionably, no mistaking that! Very sweet eye candy however she was totally under used. The Me Party sequence even with the flashy disco border appeared to be done out of good sportsmanship of her heart. Hopefully when the Blu-ray and DVD come out there will be some deleted scenes showing that there was a bigger plan for her character that for whatever reason just didn’t make it into the final cut.

Even with those few shortcomings, sitting in a theater with a mix of about half and half between adults and kids was one of the most exciting events I’ve participated in over the past several months. It was as if you and one of your best friends are separated for whatever reason for a number of years, let’s say twelve for argument’s sake, but when you get back together you just pick up and continue on as if the last time you saw them was yesterday. Kermit made the comment about us forgetting about them, the Muppets. We didn’t forget about them, we didn’t. We have been patiently waiting for just this moment when they come for a visit, we can buy some soda, sit down together and share a story and a good laugh. Jason Segal, thank you for fighting to bring them back to us and Disney, please don’t let them go away again.

The Muppets is 98 glorious attention grabbing minutes and is rated PG for some mild rude humor. Fart shoes anyone?

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.

Movie Review: The Skin I Live In

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Antonio Banderas was the actor of the weekend. I discovered that I had a free loyalty movie ticket that was going to expire during the next week so I needed to use it or lose it as well as some free popcorn and soda coupons. I used them to see Puss in Boots. Of course, he voiced the lead character Puss in this spin off from the Shrek franchise. Light, care free family fare with Banderas speaking in English with a few words in Spanish. The other movie was very different clocking in at just under two hours (117 minutes to be precise) and rated R for disturbing violent content including sexual assault, strong sexuality, graphic nudity, drug use and language and done in Spanish with English subtitles. Banderas plays Dr. Robert Ledgard in The Skin I Live In.

Ledgard is a renowned plastic surgeon having participated in three of the nine face transplants to have occurred. He passionately believes they as doctors and scientists can do better in these reconstructions with improved skin for skin grafts. Why does he so strongly believe in this? His wife, years earlier, had been in car crash and was severely burned. He believes that had he had the improved skin made by combining cells from pig’s skin with human skin at the time after the accident, he could have saved her.

This feeling, the longing to help a family member or situation is the genesis act for the birth of a mad doctor and scientist. We’ve seen it happen over and over again where they become so obsessed that they leave any sense of morality and ethics along the roadside. Quite frequently the collateral damage is either overlooked or is unknown with consequences to take place down the road. One of the more recent movie examples is Rise of the Plant of the Apes. The good doc wants to create a serum that will cure the Alzheimer’s afflicting his dad; instead it gave the primates the intelligence and spread a virus that killed millions of people. Or on Fringe on TV, an engineer builds a time bubble based off his theoretical physicist wife’s notes in order to go back in time before she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s not realizing that his time bubble created other time bubbles destroying property and lives in the process. It’s just coincidence that in both examples Alzheimer’s was the reasoning. It’s no coincidence that the love for the family member pushed them over the edge.

Experimentation of this magnitude is never done in a vacuum; the doctor inevitably has to have someone else either as an accomplice or as the guinea pig or victim and sometimes both. Ledgard has Marilia (Marisa Paredes) his longtime housekeeper assisting him with keeping victim Vera (Elena Anaya) imprisoned up in El Cigarral, the doctor’s large beautiful estate. Vera is locked in a room with cameras being monitored by the doctor and Marilia. She is not allowed out of the room, food is given via a dumb waiter and only the doctor has the key to the room. Vera wears a beige colored full body unitard that included gloves and foot coverings with individual toes (think the Vibram FiveFinger shoes). Instead of mice as the doctor has told other doctors at a conference, his experimental skin which doesn’t burn and is impervious to mosquitoes has been placed on Vera. These characteristics would have saved his wife, the selfish motive, and helping others, the public motive, by reducing the spread of malaria. These were his justifications for pushing the limits of the science and technology.

This is not your typical mad doctor movie. There is a deliberateness, a slowness and calmness about the mansion. Being a plastic surgeon, artwork (rather large ones too!) showing the human form with lots of skin exposed are decorating the walls of El Cigarral. Classical music stylings featuring piano and strings form the background music for the piece. There is a brightness and clarity in many of the scenes instead of the creepy dark and foreboding typical of the mad scientist genre. What is really dark and foreboding is Ledgard’s soul and spirit as he continues his work on Vera.

Many of the scenes were easily watchable for their visuals but at times left a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach when the implications of the dialogue settled into my brain. Why did Legard continue to do what he did? Why would the accomplice stay there knowing the results come at such a great cost? The gore was not graphic but some of the themes expressed by director Pedro Almodóvar were unsettling…very unsettling. As depicted by the rating, there was violent content that was tough to watch. Almodóvar laid out the story in a non-linear fashion and along different points of view from the characters each adding a new layer changing your perception of the situation giving you information that the characters themselves did not have to round out their world view of the events. This works well to build up to the final climax and reveal that had people in my theater responding to audibly. It came out of nowhere and hit you in between the eyes with a two by four.

If you go see The Skin I Live In, just know that it’s not your run of the mill mad scientist. Banderas does not have the wild grey hair, thick glasses, crooked teeth and lab coat prevalent of most mad doctors…well, actually he does have the lab coat, but only when working in the lab! He’s suave, smooth, calculating and diabolically deliberate, yet charming and sophisticated. If you can handle the implications of his work, you’ll have a different style of movie in your hands.

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.