Review: 'Laggies' starring Keira Knightley, Chloe Moretz, and Sam Rockwell

NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival. Laggies opens on October 24th.

Film festivals, in particular Sundance, have always been fertile ground for the "arrested development" comedy. Usually these movies involve men, are generally pretty comfortable and inoffensive, although they tend to be presented as more meaningful than they really are. Indie stalwart Lynn Shelton has always been given to headier comedies that explore uneasy relationships, such as in movies like Humpday, Your Sister's Sister, and Touchy Feely. With Laggies, Shelton puts a twist on the formula with a female protagonist, and while the film has its charms and is quite a bit of fun at times, it's also improbable and a step down compared to Shelton's more challenging work.

The fault doesn't lie solely at Shelton's feet; however, as Laggies marks her first time directing someone else's script. Novelist Andrea Seigel penned the story which centers on high school beauty Megan (Keira Knightley), who ten years after graduation is still best friends with her closest clique. She's been dating her high school sweetheart Mark (Mark Webber), drifting aimlessly through life while her friends are moving forward with babies and weddings. Her stagnation is enabled by her father (Jeff Garlin), who hires her to twirl a giant arrow sign luring in customers to his tax business. Basically she's going nowhere fast, and it's begun to piss off her friends.

After screwing up the wedding of her uptight best friend (Ellie Kemper), witnessing her father in a compromising position, and Mark's sudden marriage proposal, Megan freaks out and looks for anywhere to escape. Running into the 16-year-old Annika (Chloe Moretz) and buying the girl a bunch of liquor, Megan feels a kinship with her and, seeing a brief respite from responsibility, spends the evening drinking with Annika and her friends. Another encounter leads to Megan staying at Annika's house for the week, lying to Mark that she's off at a career-building seminar. Basically she decides to give up her old friends and start again with new, younger ones.

Sound plausible? Of course not, and at least the oddness of the situation is addressed, mostly by Annika's lawyer father (Sam Rockwell), a single dad who seems intrigued to have a sexy woman in the house again but disturbed by this adult hanging out with his child. And he darn well should be disturbed, because Megan is a tough character to root for. She lies, makes awful decisions that hurt a great many people, and is often irresponsible in the way that isn't cute. More sympathetic is Annika, played beautifully by Moretz, who desperately is seeking some sort of motherly connection to balance her father's overprotective nature. Similar to how he gave The Way Way Back a boost of comic energy last year, Rockwell steals every scene he's in and makes everyone around him better. The rest of the supporting cast is solid, although someone needs to tell Mark Webber it's time to move on from the boring nice guy roles. There are other personality traits beyond "nice". Short Term 12 break-out Kaitlyn Dever makes the best of limited time as Annika's rambunctious best friend.

Megan's dysfunction is relayed in broad strokes, and the consequences of her most dangerous actions can be forgiven with a hug, some sweet music, and a joke. When her irresponsibility actually causes an accident that endangers Annika, it isn't treated as a very big deal. Yes, the film skates on the edges of believability but it calls on us to take certain things seriously when there are never any repercussions for Megan. While it's true that adults don't always have the answers and sometimes make childish mistakes, Laggies says as long as you look like Keira Knightley everything will be fine.

 Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Read More

Review: Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women & Children' starring Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, and Ansel Elgort

At one point do we admit that Jason Reitman peaked with Up in the Airand now he's basically finished? Okay, one could make a case for Young Adult based solely on Charlize Theron's performance, but it seems Reitman is more intent on delivering messages than telling stories. His latest film, the blandly-titled Men, Women & Children is like a relic from 1999 when fear of the Internet was at its peak and every episode of 60 Minutes had some new horror story to peddle. 

A desperate grab to seem relevant and profound, the film actually begins with a few from a satellite hovering deep in space, analyzing and collecting data about all of the people down on Earth below. Emma Thompson's super-serious narration leads us into the lives of the people below, who have all had their lives changed by the Internet and technology. Like the similarly-themed Disconnect from last year, a series of connected stories show us the absolute worst of what the social networking age has to offer, boiled down into Afterschool Special simplicity. Adam Sandler, taking a break from vacationing with his pals in terrible comedies, goes dramatic as Don, whose marriage to Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) has gone stale. We know he's sad because even his beard is tragic. He masturbates to porn so much the spyware has killed his computer, forcing him to use the one belonging to his teenaged son, Chris. Chris has watched so much Internet smut he can no longer get it up with real girls. Damn libido-killing Internet.

So what else is happening in this "Pale Blue Dot" of ours? Yes, the film quotes Carl Sagan in a lazy attempt at profundity. Body image issues crop up with a pair of high school cheerleaders: Hannah (Olivia Crocicchia), who has a modeling website of questionable legality run by her celebrity-seeking mother (Judy Greer). Hannah's pencil-thin friend Allison (Elena Kampouris) has basically quit eating because she frequents chat rooms with others obsessed with being thin. They tell her to sniff her dinner but eat celery, instead. The girl needs a visit to the Golden Corral buffet, STAT. But not nearly as badly as hyper-protective Patricia Beltmeyer (Jennifer Garner) needs to get herself a life. You think wireless wire-tapping is bad? Patricia tracks her daughter Brandy's (Kaitlyn Dever) every move, every keystroke, every phone conversation and text message, leaving the quiet and sensitive girl afraid to even have friends. When she makes one anyway in MMORPG-obsessed Tim (Ansel Elgort), it's the kind of freeing experience we know is doomed from the start.

This is not a happy movie, or even really a hopeful one. We get the message within the first 30 seconds: the proliferation of social networking and online communication has made us less capable of forming new relationships, of experiencing the real world around us. The rest of the film is a sledge hammer exercise, with Reitman and co-writer Erin Cressida Wilson adding nothing new to the discussion.

This is too talented of a cast for it to be a total buzzkill, though. Individual scenes and certain relationships work better than others, and perhaps this film would have been served by pairing down the number of stories it's trying to tell. Dever and Elgort, standouts from Short Term 12 and The Fault In Our Stars most recently, have genuine chemistry in the film's most complicated romance. His character Tim is struggling with abandonment issues and found a sense of camaraderie in online gaming that he couldn't find playing football. Brandy is as much a lifeline for him as he is for her, and their relationship feels more genuine than any of the film's many overdone dissections of the digital experience. When Don and Rachel's marital malaise leads to Internet dating sites, hook-ups with paid escorts, and her begging a creepy Dennis Haysbert to give her a good f**k, things have gotten so ludicrous it's impossible not to laugh.

Seriously, though, it does seem as if Reitman is sinking right before our eyes. The guy who gave us perfectly contemporary films Juno and Up in the Air is now trying too hard to be relevant. Men, Women & Children wants desperately to make an impact on your life, but chances are you wouldn't even "Like" it on Facebook.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Read More

New Trailer for Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women and Children'

In case you haven't figured it out, social networking isn't always so social. For all the ways the Internet has connected us to the world at large it has also disconnected us personally. This is nothing new, and Hollywood has already told that story umpteen times. So what makes Jason Reitman's Men, Women and Children different from the rest? The phenomenal cast he's put together with Adam Sandler, Ansel Elgort, Kaitlyn Dever, Emma Thompson, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons, and Dennis Haysbert,

The latest trailer introduces us to a number of characters whose lives have been affected, generally for the worse, by the Internet. This trailer seems to be dealing mostly with the search for love and companionship, which technology has made easier and complicated at the same time. While incredibly somber, this looks like a step up from Reitman's last film, Labor Day. Then again that one looked good in trailers, too, and Reitman has since written it off as a mistake. The reviews out of the festival circuit have been mixed, and their doesn't seem to be much buzz for a film opening in just a couple of weeks on October 1st.

Get More: Movie Trailers, Celebrity News

Read More

First Trailer and Images from Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women, & Children'

What amounts to a slump for someone like Jason Reitman are the solid reviews and underwhelming performance by his dark comedy Young Adult, and the overall disastrous response to Labor Day. That last film in particular didn't truly feel like Reitman at the height of his powers, which is finding humor and truth in uncomfortable relationships. His first three films; Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air hit on that difficult tone perfectly. And now with his latest film Men, Women, & Children on the way it seems Reitman is doing something new by exploring the dark side of technology.

Gathering a large and varied ensemble that includes Adam Sandler in a rare dramatic role, Jennifer Garner, The Fault In Our Stars' Ansel Elgort, Short Term 12's Kaitlyn Dever, Emma Thompson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Judy Greer, J.K. Simmons, and Dennis Haysbert, the new trailer suggests an interconnected story about relationships ripped apart in the Internet Age. Is it possible to find a human connection in a world dominated by social networking? It's a pretty gloomy piece of footage and is totally free of Reitman's usual brand of humor, but with Eric Cressida Wilson (Secretary) co-writing the screenplay there's bound to be some offbeat laughs in there somewhere.

Men, Women, & Children will hit the Toronto International Film Festival before opening this October.

Read More

Sundance Review: 'Laggies' Starring Keira Knightley, Sam Rockwell, and Chloe Moretz

Film festivals, in particular Sundance, have always been fertile ground for the "arrested development" comedy. Usually these movies involve men, are generally pretty comfortable and inoffensive, although they tend to be presented as more meaningful than they really are. Indie stalwart Lynn Shelton has always been given to headier comedies that explore uneasy relationships, such as in movies like Humpday, Your Sister's Sister, and Touchy Feely. With Laggies, Shelton puts a twist on the formula with a female protagonist, and while the film has its charms and is quite a bit of fun at times, it's also improbable and a step down compared to Shelton's more challenging work.

The fault doesn't lay solely at Shelton's feet, however, as Laggies marks her first time directing someone else's script. Novelist Andrea Seigel penned the story which centers on high school beauty Megan (Keira Knightley), who ten years after graduation is still best friends with her closest cliq. She's been dating her high school sweetheart Mark (Mark Webber), drifting aimlessly through life while her friends are moving forward with babies and weddings. Her stagnation is enabled by her father (Jeff Garlin), who hires her to twirl a giant arrow sign luring in customers to his tax business. Basically she's going nowhere fast, and it's begun to piss off her friends.

After screwing up the wedding of her uptight best friend (Ellie Kemper), witnessing her father in a compromising position, and Mark's sudden marriage proposal, Megan freaks out and looks for anywhere to escape. Running into the 16-year-old Annika (Chloe Moretz) and buying the girl a bunch of liquor, Megan feels a kinship with her and, seeing a brief respite from responsibility, spends the evening drinking with Annika and her friends. Another encounter leads to Megan staying at Annika's house for the week, lying to Mark that she's off at a career-building seminar. Basically she decides to give up her old friends and start again with new, younger ones.

Sound plausible? Of course not, and at least the oddness of the situation is addressed, mostly by Annika's lawyer father (Sam Rockwell), a single dad who seems intrigued to have a sexy woman in the house again but disturbed by this adult hanging out with his child. And he darn well should be disturbed, because Megan is a tough character to root for. She lies, makes awful decisions that hurt a great many people, and is often irresponsible in the way that isn't cute. More sympathetic is Annika, played beautifully by Moretz, who desperately is seeking some sort of motherly connection to balance her father's overprotective nature. Similar to how he gave The Way Way Back a boost of comic energy last year, Rockwell steals every scene he's in and makes everyone around him better. The rest of the supporting cast is solid, although someone needs to tell Mark Webber it's time to move on from the boring nice guy roles. There are other personality traits beyond "nice". Short Term 12 break-out Kaitlyn Dever makes the best of limited time as Annika's rambunctious best friend.

Megan's dysfunction is relayed in broad strokes, and the consequences of her most dangerous actions can be forgiven with a hug, some sweet music, and a joke. When her irresponsibility actually causes an accident that endangers Annika, it isn't treated as a very big deal. Yes, the film skates on the edges of believability but it calls on us to take certain things seriously when there are never any repercussions for Megan. While it's true that adults don't always have the answers and some times make childish mistakes, Laggies says as long as you look like Keira Knightley everything will be fine.

Read More