Jason Bateman has long been saddled with the reputation as a go-to guy for playing the uptight, no-nonsense straight man in comedy. After having finally watched “Arrested Development,” I can see why he got typecast – he’s quite skilled at it. But too much of a good thing can get quite boring, and he’s rarely given a great supporting cast to whom he can react.
It appears that in order to get a different kind of role, Bateman had to step behind the camera himself for “Bad Words.” His performance recalls two others in films that also began with the same word: Billy Bob Thornton in “Bad Santa” and Cameron Diaz in “Bad Teacher.” Bateman tackles a character, Guy Trilby, who is more or less irredeemably rotten to the core, save the one classic written-in soft spot that gets exposed over the course of the film.
Guy exploits a loophole in a national spelling bee – he never graduated from middle school – and enters himself into competition at the ripe old age of 40. His presence alone angers parents, but they’d probably put a bullet through his head if they knew the shenanigans he pulled to fluster their kids. Stuck in arrested development as an 11-year-old bully, Guy ruthlessly humiliates vulnerable and insecure teenagers into making mistakes at the microphone.
Bateman and writer Andrew Dodge clearly intend these moments to be funny, but all too often, “Bad Words” seems too far away from any sort of moral compass. Rather than eliciting laughs, they activate our sympathy and pity for the kids Guy is picking on. It’s not unlike the feeling I had watching “The Wolf of Wall Street,” wondering how I could possibly find humor and levity at the expense of someone else’s livelihood.
It’s hard to think of any stylistic development of the past five years with quite the impact of found footage. Once “
Genres naturally go through cycles, and right now, the romantic comedy is in a bit of a slump. When I started writing this blog nearly five years ago, it was riding high with smash hits like “
On the occasion of the United States’ 238th birthday, why not celebrate a lesser-trumpeted American fascination? (Not that freedom, liberty, and equality aren’t nice.). This is a value we share with pretty much the whole world, and we might have even invented it.
Director Bong Joon Ho, like many cinephiles, is a big fan of Tilda Swinton. And at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, he tracked her down and professed his admiration at a brunch. Afterwards, they mutually decided they would work together on something in the future.
John Carney’s “Begin Again” was first screened for audiences under the title “Can A Song Save Your Life?” An interesting question, to be sure, but perhaps not the right one … or at least not the one preoccupying most viewers. Their biggest question is (or ought to be), can these songs save this movie?
Cannes Film Festival – Official Competition, 2013
The title of the film “
London Film Festival, 2013
Most great documentaries about political malfeasance features countless interviews with academics and reporters, the majority of whom are extremely knowledgeable about the topic. Yet rarely do you see direct participants sit down and talk with filmmakers about their role in the events. (We can thank their cautious PR people, worried of a negative soundbite in a nonstop news cycle.)
RiverRun Film Festival
Xavier Dolan has had quite a run over the past few years. This May, the 25-year-old wunderkind not only cracked the official competition slate at Cannes, but also won the Jury Prize. Just five years ago, his debut feature “I Killed My Mother” announced his arrival on the international scene at the Cannes sidebar Director’s Fortnight.
Joe Swanberg had a modest little hit on his hands last summer with “
Unlike many “apocalyptic” movies of our era, David Michod’s “
Marshall and the Movies 
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