“This ain’t The King’s Speech, bro.” Image via Forbes

January and February are typically Hollywood’s dumping ground months. This is the time when studios just want you to see the Oscar leftovers that they released the last week of December. This is the time of Uwe Boll and Kevin Hart to reign. But once awards season ends, there is something refreshing about watching a movie in which nobody dies from a terminal illness. I don’t care what the groundhog said; with Kingsman: The Secret Service, summer has come early.

Kingsman is one of those movies that plants seeds and bread crumbs early on. At first, they seem pointless but later, they blossom into beautiful flowers and loafs of bread. At a young age, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is visited by Galahad (Colin Firth), a member of the secretive Kingsmen, who are basically England’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The visit is really just to give him a secret necklace that belonged to his father. Fate will bring them together years later, when Eggsy is a delinquent dealing with a drunken step dad. You can normally catch him getting in bar fights at the pub. He is a lot better at starting fights than he is at finishing them. He is basically an Edgar Wright character transplanted into a Matthew Vaughn Joint.

I didn’t realize that Kingsman was based on a comic until the end of the movie, because this story seems like one so perfectly suited for a movie. It occupies this strange halfway zone between James Bond and Austin Powers, in that it is a farce about secret agents who could actually go face-to-face with 007. They use everything from machine guns to, in a very British fashion, an umbrella, as weapons.  This makes for a winning combination of action and comedy.

Part of what makes Kingsman so fun to watch is its inspired casting choices. If we had merely gotten the chance to see the charming and mild-mannered Colin Firth demolish a bunch of bigots, then that would have been enough. Instead, we also get Samuel L. Jackson as a villain who acts Lex Luthor but dresses like Justin Bieber. Despite how crazy and in control he is, there is a big part of him that is largely powerless, especially in the dynamic with his metal-legged sidekick (Sofia Boutella). It is a great reminder that despite how many movies and how many credit card commercial he does, Samuel L. Jackson isn’t always phoning it in. The dude can really lay an f-bomb down.

Kingsman comes from the director/writer team of Matthew Vaugh and Jane Goldman, who more than make up for X-Men: First Class. Vaughn’s directorial style will draw the ire of some and the enjoyment of others. He has an extremely nonchalant approach to violence. Heads explode and hands go flying as if these are both normal occurrences. It feels spiritually linked to Kick-Ass in that all the bloodshed would be shocking if it weren’t so funny. Vaughn’s films are never incredibly “deep,” which is a shame, especially when you’re trying to make a film that’s partially about the ethics of trying to control human population. Kingsman, like Vaughn’s other movies, is a triumph of style over substance. It is the movie equivalent of really filling cotton candy.

Occasionally, Kingsman dips its toes into meta humor. “It’s not that kind of movie,” Valentine (Jackson) says before pulling off a shocking plot twist. This isn’t some way to tear down the action genre, but rather to celebrate something that it is taking a part of. Matthew Vaughn likes to participate in a light meta humor that is more playful than savage. After all, even if the film makes some great strides to avoid plot holes and conveniences, it still rips a page out of the Indepedence Day playbook with the implementation of a computer virus. At one point, a major female character is introduced who should be the love interest. While it is great that the film takes her in a different direction, I am not sure if completely removing her from most of the action is the direction that they should have taken.

Please, don’t let that last paragraph turn you off. I am a blogger, and if I don’t find something to hate on, then my batteries will run out and I will die. I left Kingsman with a giant grin on my face that won’t go away. It proves that great action has a way of secretly getting you invested in characters and mythology. This is the kind of movie that I will probably see on TV one day. When I do, I will stop, and won’t change the channel. That is a high compliment.

Brain Farts From The Edge

• Perhaps Colin Firth is the next Liam Neeson a.k.a. a respected actor who will enter the next part of his career as an action star. It suits him well.
• Kingsman just made me want to go to a pub and grab a pint. Also, are British people just that good at drinking whiskey? Seriously, they chug really good whiskey like its water.
• There is a scene that brilliantly uses a tired classic rock song. It is the most gloriously ‘Murican moment in a very British film. You’ll know when you see it.
• Kingsman has given me at least a little bit of insight into British Bro Culture.
• So, how much longer until Taron Egerton gets cast in a Marvel movie?
• I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Mark Strong is British Stanley Tucci
• This movie also reminded me a lot of Mystery Men. And if you haven’t seen Mystery Men yet then what the hell are you doing here?

“You’re too much of a genius, Alan Turing! We have to throw you in jail!” Logical. Image via Zap2it

As part of Oscar season, it is customary that at least one film is made that is set in or around World War II, and filled with British accents. So if you are going to be the one to make this film, you might as well try to make it good. While The Imitation Game isn’t transcendent, it succeeds at eloquently telling an engrossing life story into under two hours.

On the surface, Alan Turing, played with perfect robotic expression by Benedict Cumberbatch, doesn’t seem like a hero. While he didn’t invent the computer, and his story ends tragically, his life and his story are important, and The Imitation Game does everything it can to highlight that.

The Imitation Game is set as  Hitler lobs his bombs on England, forcing innocent Londonites to hide in bomb shelters and subway stations. The only way the British Army could possibly gain any sort of tactical advantage is to infiltrate Germany’s secure Enigma code. Turing is brought in by a reluctant general (Charles Dance, who I will continue to call Tywin Lannister until the end of time) to break the so-called unbreakable Nazi code. Turing might be a genius but, as these films go, he is also unpredictable. Watch out! We’ve got a free spirit on our hands!

A lot of the heavy lifting done here is based off of the fact that The Imitation Game is based off of such a fascinating story. Because it gives you the sense of what it was like to be alive in Britain during this time, it is more than merely a Wikipedia entry. While the British spent a lot of time running for their lives, they were also just pretending that everything was normal. Just because there is evil afoot, that doesn’t mean that people will put down their guitars or their pints.

Turing didn’t invent the computer. There were others doing similar work at the time. Yet, his discoveries would save millions of lives and lead to a device that we mainly use to watch porn and Dog With a Blog clips. In most biopics, the subject’s personality is usually highlighted by their humor and how personable they are. Strangely, Turing becomes lovable for how alien he is. He is like Abed from Community, or more accurately, a human computer who sees equations where people should be.

The Imitation Game is at its best when it exemplifies what made Turing such a unique individual. It is at its weakest when it falls into the biopic trap. I guess the flashback structure works here, as it highlights Turing’s loneliness. Still, it feels a little bit stale at times. Hearing Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley say, “people we imagine nothing of do things we can never imagine” over and over again threatens to turn this into an Apple commercial. The film sometimes tries too hard to set up Turing as a Christ figure. Sure, that is one way to look at him. However, I wish they spent a little more time with some of his internal conflicts. This was a man who, according to this film, was shunned and bullied his entire life. He has all the right to hate humanity, yet he is tasked with saving an entire civilization.

Once you get past some of the cliches and the “you’re too bold for us!” moments, what you have here is a solid film here that gets you emotionally when you least expect it. I am sure there is plenty more to the story that we didn’t see, and a lot more was likely changed. For instance, in real life there was probably no woman there who offered an anecdote that just so happened to help Turing solve his puzzle. Morten Tyldum never glosses over how Turing was treated for his sexual orientation. The Imitation Game might get a little sappy at times, but it doesn’t sugarcoat the dark details or leave them as a simple footnote before the final credits roll.

Brain Farts From The Edge

• Things that Keira Knightley reminds me of: a dry piece of toast; a person who only eats dry toast; a parrot with a British owner
• I actually thought that Mark Strong (a.k.a. the dude from Low Winter Sun) was Stanley Tucci for the entire film. The whole time I was thinking, “man, Stanley Tucci puts on a good British accent.” Then, I remembered that Mark Strong is the British Stanley Tucci. So maybe I wasn’t too far off.
• Just read that Turing was nowhere near as socially awkward in real life as he is portrayed in the film. In fact, he actually had friends and good relationships with co-workers. I mean…come on…it makes the story better if he…you know what? I give up. I can’t wait for awards season to end so we can stop talking about historical inaccuracies.

Sometimes, you like a movie. Sometimes, you’re not sure if you should like a movie. Sometimes, you only like a movie because you feel like you’re supposed to like that movie. Under the Skin seems to fall under that last category.

Under the Skin is the latest film from British director Jonathan Glazer. I am told by people smarter than me that he is a very good director. Some might call him a visionary. While I haven’t seen Birth or Sexy Beast yet, I can get on board with those claims. The guy knows how to frame a shot and tell an entire three act story using barely any dialogue. This is a pretty big feat considering the fact that most sci-fi movies today are bogged down by exposition.

In Under the Skin, the characters have no names and undefined intentions. The plot itself may be a great mystery, but it feels almost secondary in the grand scheme of things. Scarlett Johansson plays some form of alien life form who dons a beautiful female body and an accent and starts praying off unassuming men. So yes, she is basically the villain from Men in Black II.

Under the Skin might best be described as an existential coming-of-age story where the question being answered is “who are we?” instead of “what is up in the night sky?” In fact, Glazer doesn’t even seem that interested in what life is like on other planets. It is never once revealed where this alien came from or why she is here. This is about an alien who has the chance to see life through a person’s eyes and through that, she learns about what it means to be human.

Maybe that is part of my biggest problem with the film. I personally love science fiction that builds a unique and original world. I like when the production design creates as much of a story as the characters do. Glazer has no interest in that. Because of that, I cannot fault him. Under the Skin would only be a failure if it were attempting to do just that. However, Under the Skin would rather be 2001: A Space Odyssey than Star Wars.

At times, Under the Skin is able to achieve that. From the Hitchcockian music to the innovative low budget visual effects, it is often mesmerizing. Johansson, meanwhile, does so much with so little. A much talked about nude scene in the film is not there for pure shock value. Here we are, watching an alien try to figure out her body in a way that both scares and frightens her.

Yet, there is still something a little cold and uninviting about Under the Skin. I feel the same way about Under the Skin that I once felt about Drive, a similar film that I have since warmed up to: I admire it more than I love it.

Brain Farts From The Edge

• Parts of this film are essentially a Dali painting come to life. Does that make me sound smart?
• The A24 logo is probably my favorite in the industry right now. Also, while I don’t love every film that they make or distribute *cough Spring Breakers cough* I love the fact that they take big creative risks for big rewards.
• This film deserves a second viewing. I will probably regret many of the things I said in this review in the future.
• Now, just a few more days until Guardians of the Galaxy finally comes out.

Image via Time

Whether he’s accidentally taking a stranger’s seat on the train or facing off his doppleganger, Simon is always a little bit out of place.

The Double, based on a book by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, doesn’t necessarily seem like the next logical step forward for a director who was previously known for comedies such as The IT Crowd. However, with just his second feature, Richard Ayoade proves that he has already nailed down his voice and style. He has done with just two films what most people wouldn’t be able to accomplish with many more under their belt.

Ayoade directs The Double as surreal as humanly possible. It is like a Kubrick film meets an episode of Louie. Simon works at a government agency that exists somewhere in either the distant past or the distant future. While all of the technology is outdated, the general vibe is that of an Orwellian future. Simon is nothing but a victim in this world where the suicide rate is high, probably because humans are so out of touch with each other that staring from a distance is an appropriate form of affection.

Not surprisingly, given this unforgiving world and the fact that this character is played by Jesse Eisenberg, Simon has trouble finding a lady. Yet, he is in love with Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), the girl across the courtyard. He mainly resorts to observing her through a telescope. She is like a Manic Pixie Dream Girl to the audience but in reality, she is far from that. Hannah is a mangled, broken marionette who is controlled by people she doesn’t want to be. Hannah doesn’t teach Simon to live life to the fullest, but they can both bond over feeling like Pinocchio.

We never get a chance to see Simon living a normal, happy life. In fact, the closest he ever gets to happiness is when Hannah is within eyesight. But his life gets just a little bit worse when James (Jesse Eisenberg) shows up. James is Simon’s double, and he is a lot more confident and charismatic than Simon is. At first, Simon thinks he can trust his doppleganger, because how could you not trust somebody who looks exactly like you? Simon learns that you probably shouldn’t trust your doppleganger, especially if they are really good at picking up women.

Despite giving consistently good performances, Jesse Eisenberg might be one of the more consistently crapped on actors in Hollywood. He is mainly accused of being a Michael Cera clone. That might be true, and I couldn’t help but see Cera during many scenes in The Double. Playing two different characters in one film can be a challenge, especially if the two separate characters aren’t all that different. Simon and Jesse look exactly the same, and sometimes they even act the same and take on each other’s personas, so the only way to really tell the difference between them is through subtle physical movements. James moves and talks with just slightly more confidence than Simon. The fact that he has to portray two different people, yet keep them somewhat the same, all in the span of just one scene, is fine acting if I have ever seen it. It’s not Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black but hey, nobody’s perfect.

Like in his first feature Submarine, Richard Ayoade directs The Double in a way that very few others could have directed it. He directs every shot and every scene with a special kind of care, like somebody who truly loves the craft. I think the best way to describe him is as a British Wes Anderson: every slow motion shot and musical montage somehow manages to be substance over style.

The Double is one of my favorite films so far this year, and I am not even sure if I fully get it. A second viewing might make clearer who is who and what is what. However, none of the humor nor pain are lost in translation on a first viewing. The Double captures the feeling of one of those days where you just feel like the schlimazel in the game of life. Richard Ayoade directs The Double like a love story, but not the kind of love story you would think it is. The Double presupposes that maybe before falling in love with the girl next door, you should  first learn how to love yourself.

Brain Farts From The Edge

• But seriously, Tatiana Maslany is the greatest.
• Other directors’ styles this made me think of: Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch
• Richard Ayoade has only directed two films and I can already spot the tropes. I actually find that kind of cool. For instance, both Submarine and The Double  have montages that involve people chasing after fireworks because love.
• I love the interplay of shadows throughout the film. Both darkness and light frequently run very close to each other, just like with our two main characters.
• A great alternate title for this would have been Jesse Eisenberg and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
• I feel like most The Double takes place in Abed’s brain on a day where something went horribly wrong in the Dreamatorium. That or that episode of Broad City with Garol. I should probably stop watching so much TV.

For about as far back as I can remember, I have always been obsessed with movie posters.

The best posters can be works of art. The worst can completely change how you feel about the film it is representing, even if you haven’t seen that film yet.

I decided to spend a part of my recent trip to Europe looking around at whatever movie posters they had hanging in public places. The truth is, no matter what language they are in, the posters on both sides of the pond are fairly similar. The most interesting part is trying to figure out why some titles changed, and what local posters tell you about that culture.

Look below for the highlights of the movie posters I found while exploring London and Paris:

God speed, London. Enjoy your share of erectile dysfunction jokes.

I didn’t think anything could make The Lego Movie better. But a title like La Grande Lego Adventure sounds much better to me.

At first glance, there is not much of a difference here. Maybe the French will enjoy this one more because it’s about protecting their art. The only difference here is that it is Monuments Men instead of The Monuments Men. Looks like they took some advice from Sean Parker.

I wonder if the line “I want to kill him and I want him to stay dead” sounds as dumb in French as it does in English.

Interesting that they changed the name. The original name of the film is Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Maybe it was changed because Jack Ryan isn’t as familiar of a name overseas, or maybe Europeans really hate colons. Also, this ad was on a table in a cafe. Like the table was an ad for a movie. Shameless promotion taken to a new level.

This translates to Relationship Status: It’s Complicated. Maybe this is a French remake of It’s Complicated, but with less middle aged white people talking about remodeling their kitchens (I swear that’s all Meryl Streep talks about in it). France might be the land of the French New Wave, the Mona Lisa, and Monet’s collection, but they still have the same love of cheesy rom-coms and movies with titles based on Internet slang as Americans do. I guess we all can get along.

Another thing France and America have in common: we all love to watch Liam Neeson kick some ass and save some lives. Liam Neeson should become a foreign ambassador.

No idea what this is, and IMDB is not helping. Based on the poster alone, I am just going to go ahead and assume that it is the French version of The Bucket List. Gotta have that soft lighting, yo.

“Maybe if we add an extra ‘E’ to it, people will think it sounds more French!” -Steve from Marketing

The only place I have seen this poster is at the Electric Cinema in London. By the way, if you ever go to London, I highly recommend checking out the Electric Cinema. It is London’s oldest, and now hippest, movie theater. I actually like this minimalistic poster better than the normal poster for The Grand Budapest Hotel, which itself isn’t bad. The more widely distributed poster tells you is that there is going to be hotel. The poster above doesn’t tell you the plot, but it creates a mystery of what the plot may be. I love that. Most posters today are about displaying whatever hot celebrities star in the movie. Sometimes, just a briefcase and a puddle of blood are enough to get people to buy a ticket.

NOT PICTURED: American Hustle. I did not have a chance to snap a photo of this one in the wild, but in France American Hustle is called American Bluff. Interesting change, but I still like the original title that it had before it came out the best: American Bullshit.

Philomena

I wanted to hate Philomena, which probably says more about me than the state of the industry. However I could not bring myself to hate Philomena, because it takes what it has and completely owns it.

Philomena, which is co-written by Steve Coogan, comes with a script filled with dry wit. Coogan also stars as Martin Sixsmith, a sad sack who at best has the personality of Wesley Snipes from 30 Rock. Sixsmith begins in a doctor’s office, asking if there is anything wrong with him. It sounds like a standard question, but from the look on his face, it is as if he is begging the doctor to tell him that there is something wrong with him.

Well, Sixsmith is having a rough time. He is fired from his job as a government advisor over a comment that he didn’t even make. Now, he is thinking of returning to work as a journalist. The best he can find in that field is a gig writing human-interest stories. Sixsmith looks down at human-interest stories. You see, Martin is about as insufferable and pretentious as P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks.

Lead characters do not have to be likable; they just have to be interesting. Sixsmith is a bit of a wet blanket and he tries to be as removed as any journalist should be. Luckily, he has an interesting sidekick. Sixsmith is assigned to write a story about Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), an elderly Irish woman who is on a journey to find her son, who was taken from her when he was a baby. So, Martin accompanies her on her journey to find out where her son might be. The journey takes them from Ireland to rural England to Washington D.C.

Philomena is a road trip movie in which there is absolutely no sexual tension between the man and the woman involved. Now, that takes restraint. The film was sold as a drama but that does not give justice to the humorous heart at the center of it all. I mean, there is a scene where Philomena just wants to watch Big Momma’s House on the hotel television. That is about as close as any Martin Lawrence drag comedy will ever get to being nominated for an Oscar.

The best reason to watch Philomena is for Judi Dench, who is England’s Meryl Streep, as you know she will be great in it just because of the mere fact that she is in it. Luckily, Dench doesn’t phone it in. She can be both funny and serious whenever it is necessary. She makes old lady racism seem more fun than hostile. For instance, when she tells a Mexican chef “you must love nachos,” it sounds more like a statement made out of genuine curiosity than out of hatred. Despite her age, Philomena is still amazed by everything, and her curiosity fuels her journey to unravel the mystery about her son.

Some of the best moments in the film come when Dench and Coogan are arguing about hot topics such as sex and religion. Never in a million years would I have thought that the one of the best cinema couples with no sexual tension at all would be Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. This is essentially what makes the film funny.

In the end, it sort of seems like Philomena should not work. It drags and lags at certain parts but in the end, as Philomena herself says, it all comes full circle. Maybe there are some details in the story that they could have gone into more depth on, but once the credits roll around, you feel like Philomena said everything it had to say. Philomena shows that you can make an Oscar-baiting film that is actually enjoyable to watch.

Brain Farts From The Edge:

• I would like to see Philomena from Philomena and Kate Grant (June Squibb) from Nebraska get together for a spin-off where they go on another road trip. That would be so cool.
• Dear Martin Sxismith: As The Dude would say, “you’re not wrong, you’re just an asshole.”
• Speaking of which, this film seems partly like an argument as to why atheists can be kind of sort of completely annoying to engage in conversation.
• In terms of forgiving the people who caused her so much grief in her life, Philomena is like the Nelson Mandela of white Irish Catholic single mothers.
• Yup, nuns still terrify me.
• The only element of Philomena that was just a little too overwrought here was the music. Come on, Stephen Frears, you directed High Fidelity. No one would be angry if you used some more lively music.
• Come on, spellcheck, recognize the spelling for “Philomena.” She’s a nice lady.
• The poster for Philomena looks like the first draft of a poster for a Drew Barrymore rom-com: