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.

It actually took me until the very end of the movie to realize that El Jefe means Chef and I don’t know how I feel about myself now. Image via LA Weekly

The uplifting Chef marks the return of Jon Favreau. Well, he never really went anywhere, but when you direct something like Cowboys & Aliens, you seem like the shell of a director for at least a little while. While Chef isn’t a consistently good meal, it is easily digestible. Sorry, I needed just one food metaphor in here. For the non-foodie out there: Chef is not perfect, but it is enjoyable to watch from start to finish.

In Chef, Jon Favreau plays, you guessed it, a chef. More specifically, he is Carl Casper, who is somewhat of a celebrity chef known for his unique food sensibility. Chef Carl also doesn’t like to play by the rules, which isn’t helpful for his current job in a restaurant run by an owner (Dustin Hoffman) who knows more about tradition than variation. Carl struggles professionally, especially after Ramsey Michael (Oliver Platt), the most powerful food critic in town, gives him a terrible review.

Meanwhile, Carl struggles in his personal life, too. He is dealing with a divorce and a son who grows more and more distant by the day. It seems Spielberg definitely taught Favreau a lot during their time together, as family issues have always been a dominant part of Spielberg’s films. Yet, a lot of this movie seems like Favreau trying to erase everything he did in Cowboys & Aliens. In the movie, Carl keeps talking about wanting to go back to basics. Chef is about the farthest thing from any of the big budget blockbusters Favreau has been doing over the past few years but hey, without the Iron Man connection, we would have missed out on a great Robert Downey Jr. cameo here.

I have trouble nailing down Favreau’s directing style, but what I will say about him is that he is both passionate and curious about any topic that he turns into a movie. Those are some of the best qualities anybody could ask for in a director. Seriously, if you can make a grilled cheese sandwich look interesting (no offense to grilled cheese sandwiches), then you clearly deserve to sit in the director’s chair. Chef is a celebration of fine cuts of pork and good parenting.

Chef will be interesting to look at a few years down the road, because it serves as what I can only describe as propaganda for all things trendy. Chef is what would happen if Twitter and The Food Network had a baby. Without Favreau’s touch, Chef would be nothing but a marketing director’s attempt to reach out to the 18-35 demographic. I enjoy watching the growth and progression of a food truck, and while all of the endless shots of food porn work out just fine, the social media references are a mixed bag.

Movies and TV shows have been trying to incorporate social media for a while now, yet the combination still doesn’t feel organic. Chef is about a food truck that becomes successful (spoiler alert?) thanks to Twitter. Chef represents Tweets in these little boxes that pop up over people’s heads, like modern day thought bubbles. Whenever a Tweet gets sent out, it turns into a little blue bird that flies away. Sure, it’s a little cute, but it sometimes takes you out of the world. This will also work against Chef in the future. I don’t know what new technology will be available in the future, but what I do know is that Chef will eventually feel outdated. Looking at the Tweets pop up onscreen will be one day be the equivalent of seeing Michael Douglas talking on a giant cellphone in Wall Street.

Those problems are years down the road, though. In the present day, Chef wraps up just a little too nicely. Everybody is a little too happy, and everything works out just a little too well. I am not saying that I was looking for a dark existential story in Chef, but I did hope it would acknowledge that not everything in life works out perfectly, as most good movies should. Having said that, I liked this movie. I enjoyed myself, and I never for a second regretted seeing it. The moments of joy don’t always work against it. And all of that pork. What I am trying to say is that I recommend you see Chef, especially if you don’t mind mixing meat and dairy.

Brain Farts From The Edge

• I wouldn’t be surprised if the working title for Chef was Anatomy of a Social Media Campaign.
• The idea of a ten-year-old who owns an iPad and knows how to use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram terrifies me.
• I am not the first one to say this, but there is something a little odd about Jon Favreau putting himself in a love triangle with Sofia Vergara and Scarlett Johansson.
• Chef feautres the song “Bang Bang” by Joe Cuba. This song was also featured in The Wolf of Wall Street. Jon Favreau stars in both Chef and The Wolf of Wall Street. Nice try, illuminati.
• This movie has a great ensemble, and everybody works really well together. Also, Favreau has chemistry with just about everybody.
• Speaking of actors, Bobby Cannavale deserved more screen time.
• If Chef was directed by the Coen Brothers, it would have ended with Ramsey Michel beating up Carl Casper in an alley.
• Despite my qualms with the movie’s use of new media, this blogger is happy to see that a movie is acknowledging the power that bloggers now have.
• I am trying to decide which dish I wanted most. While those Cubanos looked great, I am going to have to go for that brisket from Austin.

A man and a woman as partners? In a movie? Do you think there’ll be sexual tension between them? Image via Business Insider

The differences between Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the latest Captain America installment, shows how much the Marvel Universe has changed and expanded in just three years.

The Winter Solider happens to combine both the worlds of Captain America and The Avengers: half of it is a promotion for a bunch of Marvel stories that I have little interest in, and the other half is a Captain America movie. Leave it to Disney to replace traditional product placement with promotion of their own products.

The latest Captain America has the honor of being the sequel to two different movies: The First Avenger and The Avengers. My head hurts. Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America (Chris Evans) is now a full-time agent for the government agency S.H.I.E.L.D., working with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to bring down all existential threats. Trouble is afoot in the nation’s capital, and nobody is to be trusted. I know this because Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) says “don’t trust anybody” multiple times (I tried to count), in case you forgot that this is a movie and bad things are supposed to happen in movies.

While the first Captain America was a send-up killin-Nazi World War II films, The Winter Soldier takes place mostly in the present day, and is more in line with paranoid, post-911 political thrillers. I really liked the first Captain America even though others did not. It had a Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe to it: very inspired by the past, and very much into taking itself seriously while also acknowledging its own silliness. Winter Soldier only seems committed to doing that sometimes. With its undertones about N.S.A. surveillance, The Winter Soldier fancies itself as an allegorical comic book movie of Dark Knight proportions. Hey, at least it tries.

However, there are some more interesting aspects of the Captain America mythology that transcend current events, such as Captain America serving as a symbol of hope to uplift an entire frightened army, and also to sell a lot of war bonds. However, the two films have made this idea into something of an afterthought. It will get to that as soon as it finishes telling you how this one scene totally relates to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Winter Soldier is essentially two different films, with one half being better than the other. Besides one great car chase, the first half is bogged down by exposition. Every time somebody is about to do something, they have to take a break from what they are doing to explain why they are doing it. The more it tries to elevate its plot, the more The Winter Soldier becomes a great, big muddle.

But then, after a few plot twists in a row, The Winter Soldier does something that the normal blockbuster usually fails to do: it surprises you. It settles the difference between two separate timelines and mixes them with a tinge of Cold War paranoia. First and foremost, this is an action movie, and once everybody stops explaining things, The Winter Soldier delivers. This was one of the few times where I actually regretted not shelling out a few extra bucks for IMAX 3D. The Russo Brothers, perhaps known best for their work on TV comedies such as Arrested Development and Community, were an odd yet fun choice to helm The Winter Soldier.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is just part of the movie that I wanted to see. There are high stakes and tension, as well as an awesome performance by Robert Redford. However, to get to all of that, you have to slog through a muddle that is completely unsure of itself. Winter Soldier is a mess that only works sometimes. For the future, I hope Marvel works on separating its individual heroes from the universe somewhat. While I love world-building and characters who step out of their respective films and into another, it would be great if Marvel’s films could hold back a little bit and let the characters grow just as much as the mythology.

Brain Farts From The Edge

• In the beginning, Captain America shows he has a list of all of the things he missed when he traveled forward in time. Here are the ones I caught: “Berlin Wall, Nirvana (Band), Steve Jobs (Apple)”
• There’s a very small Pulp Fiction reference. Look closely. It’s brilliant.
• No, I don’t know why Garry Shandling is in this either.
• There is a part where Captain America and Black Widow have to hide out at Sam Wilson’s (Anthony Mackie) house. They say that they aren’t safe outside. He says it’s cool. It is almost exactly like a scene from Zoolander.
• I really wish they could have brought Loki into this. Speaking of which, I should probably watch the Thor movies now.
• With all of these crossovers, I have been trying to imagine if there were Disney-Marvel crossovers, given that Disney owns Marvel. So far, I have two: Elsa from Frozen is asked to join The Avengers; The Daily Bugle goes digital so they hire Dog With A Blog to be their new web editor.
• So much of this movie looks like it was shot on Google Maps. with a heavy use of Google Street View.
• Superheroes could probably defeat villains much faster if they didn’t spend so much time uploading stuff to hard drives.
• Now, how much longer until Guardians of the Galaxy comes out?