Love Hard (12.24.21)

 

Remember that one Christmas movie where a woman who is down on her luck (yet is still fiercely independent) falls for a guy who lives in a town that is so small that everyone knows each other’s names? Too vague? You know the one… she has a sassy best friend, the guy has a sassy grandma, and a lie or two causes holiday shenanigans until everything goes sideways and feelings get hurt but not too badly because everyone learns to be better people by the end and our two leads kiss and everything is merry and bright? Oh wait, I am describing every Christmas romcom ever written. This includes Netflix’s new holly-decked Love Hard, a film that does very little to distinguish itself from the competition; although it does indeed offer a few genuine laughs on the way to its predictable ending.  

            If you feel like I spoiled the ending for you just now, then you’ve probably never seen a movie before. Although the set up to Love Hard (a portmanteau of Love Actually and Die Hard, although I think I would have gone with Die Actually, myself) sounds vaguely interesting-- the guy the woman falls in love with was actually catfishing her, which she finds out the hard way when she shows up in his small town to surprise him for Christmas-- it still hits all of the holiday romcom tropes with a feverish gusto in its attempts to reconcile the slightly problematic premise (I don’t think it’s a super great idea to convey the message that if you lie on a dating profile you might still end up with the girl) with the expected happy ending. Remember the sassy, high strung yet likeable boss that I mentioned in the first paragraph? Yeah, I didn’t mention him, but I bet you knew he was in here. Other than the two leads themselves, every character in this movie gives the impression that they just jumped out of a cartoon, and all of them (including the leads) are just as two-dimensional as well.  

            The thing is, I did indeed chuckle a few times while watching Love Hard, and even found it pretty charming. The jokes land admirably when the script isn’t dragging out well-discussed topics and treating them like they are original witty observations (we know, movie, the lyrics to “Baby It’s Cold Outside” are problematic and the idea of Santa can be kind of creepy), which is a credit to the cast and writers. Love Hard may have all of the touchstones of an assembly line made Hallmark Christmas movie, but it touches on them much more competently than it has any right to. The end result? I didn’t want to turn off my TV and throw myself into a furnace, which is more than I can say for most Christmas movies.   

            So maybe I’m being a bit hard on Love Hard. In today’s volatile world, maybe a little predictability with a few laughs sprinkled in is just what the doctor ordered.  

            Love Hard is now available on Netflix.  

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on December 24th, 2021. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/ 

Red Notice (11.19.21)

This one was actually published before my reviews for The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and tick... tick... BOOM!, as you can see. Somehow missed it in the shuffle. 

            There once was a young algorithm named Albert who lived in the magical land of Tinseltown. Albert the algorithm had but one dream in his life, a dream that he held close and cherished even when the other algorithms belittled and mocked him:  To one day write a movie script based on an EW “Top 10 Hottest Stars in Hollywood” list that he had found in the checkout aisle of his local Rite Aid. The studios Albert approached sneered and snickered at him, until one day his worth was seen at last by a benevolent streaming giant who offered him $200 million to make his dream come true at last.  

            This is not the story behind Netflix’s Red Notice, but it very well could have been.  

            Ryan Reynolds stars as an art thief guy who wants to steal some golden egg thing. Dwayne Johnson also stars as an FBI man who wants to stop Ryan Reynolds from stealing the golden egg thing. They eventually have to team up against Gal Gadot, who also stars as a different thief who also wants to steal the golden egg thing. Banter and action ensue.  

            One of the problems is that none of these three actors is particularly well known for their actual acting. Do I like all three of them? Yes. Do they all ooze charisma and charm at obscenely high levels? Also yes. But when the biggest selling point of your movie is “Ryan Reynolds acts like Ryan Reynolds in the direction of Dwayne Johnson who acts like Dwayne Johnson while Gal Gadot looks attractive in a red dress,” you might have a problem. At no point does it ever feel like you are watching actual characters in Red Notice, which in turn reminds you that you are watching what is essentially the brainstorming sessions of cynical Netflix executives who, like Albert, only have one goal: to drum up some extra views and subscribers by utilizing elements that have worked well in the past.  

            Acting isn’t everything, of course, and the other parts of Red Notice are serviceable enough. The plot really is as dumb and silly as I described it above, but it is not really any more so than any other dumb and silly action movies that you watch with your brain turned off and your hand in a popcorn bucket (you know the ones… they are written by Albert’s friends). The action ranges from decent to pretty cool, if nothing special (the climatic underground chase scene is the clear standout), and the Ryan Reynolds-delivered quips land a good seventy percent of the time (although the other thirty percent might make you cringe with their forced crassness and general immaturity). There are certainly worse buddy/action movies out there, but there are also a good deal of better ones. Life being finite and all, you would probably be better off searching for one of the latter.  

            Or you can watch Red Notice on Netflix and support Albert the algorithm’s career. Do it for him. For Albert.  

            Red Notice is now available on Netflix.  

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on November 19th, 2021. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

tick... tick... BOOM! (12.03.21)

As Homer Simpson once said, “Trying is the first step towards failure… the lesson is, never try.” As a flawless human being, I am not personally familiar with the concept of failing, but everyone else in the world would do well to not heed this fatherly bit of advice. I am told that a much healthier way of looking at things was expressed by Thomas Edison when he insisted that he “[had] not failed [to make the lightbulb]. [He] had just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Broadway legend Jonathan Larson did not have to write 10,000 musicals before figuring things out, but he did need at least one failure before he hit the big time. That failure and the story behind it is explored in tick, tick… BOOM!, a Netflix adaptation of the off-Broadway show of the same name that beautifully celebrates the creative process, art, and the people who make it. 

            The structure of tick, tick… BOOM! was a bit confusing to me at first. Originally a stage show, BOOM! is about the failure of another stage show entitled Superbia. This is the film adaptation of BOOM! that includes bits as they would have been seen on stage in the original production (ie. with a three-person cast, band, and no sets to speak of), but the majority of the film dramatizes the story as what you as an audience member of the play are supposed to be imagining while watching the actual minimalistic show. That’s how I as a Broadway neophyte interpreted things, anyway.  

            While initially puzzled, I really grew to appreciate the creativity and authenticity of this approach over time. Those two adjectives are perfect descriptors of the entire experience, in fact. You would never guess that this was Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first time directing a feature film if you didn’t know that fact going in, as he seems to fit as naturally behind a camera as he does composing behind a piano. Buoying Miranda’s freshman outing is a screenplay that cleverly adapts the small and personal play in a way that actually works on screen and still manages to convey the intimacy of the original venue, as well as Andrew Garfield’s stunning performance as Jonathan Larson himself. Who knew that guy could sing? I didn’t.  

            Nowhere is the creativity of tick, tick… BOOM! more apparent than in the musical numbers, however. For those who don’t know (I didn’t), Jonathan Larson would later go on to write the smash-hit Rent and get that one string of numbers stuck in everybody’s heads for all of eternity, and a song or two in BOOM! might have the same result on audiences as well (there are also some “talky” songs that basically amount to people randomly moving their voices up and down while talking, however, which I must admit I am not a fan of). The music, choreography, and camera work of the diner number makes that scene a particular stand out, and if you don’t have the time (or patience) to watch the entire movie you should at least look up that bit on YouTube (the cameos in this scene alone are enough to thrill committed theater goers).  

            If failure is an excellent teacher, then the people behind tick, tick… BOOM! probably didn’t learn much. But that’s what happens when you successfully create the lightbulb on your first try.   

            Tick, tick… BOOM! is now available on Netflix.  

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on December 3rd, 2021. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/