57th LFF Review: Drinking Buddies

Director/ Writer: Joe Swanberg

Starring: Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston, Jason Sudeikis

Synopsis: Kate (Wilde) and Luke (Johnson) work together at a small brewery, drinking together most nights after work. One weekend the colleagues and their significant others enjoy a weekend away where deeper feelings begin to surface.

Without a script – running off a vague plotline – the actors of Drinking Buddies have proved how easy it is to underestimate some talent. Whereas Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston have found themselves in many esteemed films, Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson have (arguably) not. Johnson is recognised more for his turn in New Girl, a not-so-terrific sitcom, now hopefully forgotten with this gem.

It’s hard to sense the improvisation, which becomes the film’s greatest asset – an unnoticeable sheen on the performance. Not that the film requires much technique for a series of a scenes drinking, laughing and romancing. Each actor knows the atmosphere and activity well – as would most 20-40 year-olds – clearly delving into the project with ease. Wilde, as the lead, is the only one who initially seems out of place (as stunning as she is to be believed as a worker in a brewery), quickly denouncing that thought with a rough-and-ready quality that appears innate.

Johnson as her closest friend in the film brings a charm and wit so perfectly fitting to the tone of the film, and to the chemistry, that this will surely bring him a mass of new scripts. Caught between the love of a friend, and a possible lust for said friend, he develops his acting chops to constantly leave the audience and remaining characters guessing about his true feelings. It adds tremendous drama and tenderness to the film, with his cool bravado keeping the film on its toes.

Director Joe Swanberg has a filmography of relatively unknown work, capable of making great films. His style is subtle and distant – you can tell he’s letting things run their course with his finger merely on the record button. However, it’s his control of the narrative that highlights his potential as a great director. He leaves some moments untreated and awkward, and others overdone and unremitting. As you watch it you feel uncomfortable or cheated (in relation to how Hollywood usually treats these stories), reviewing it at the end to see it as a carefully structured film with the aim to get you pontificating.

The comedy is beyond genuine (thanks to the improv), leaving a gigantic smile on your face when you feel it. The drama can occasionally fall flat, as it’s expectedly harder to pull off without a script. Nevertheless, on the whole Drinking Buddies is another independent comedy/drama that will earn its stripes each passing year.

****

Also posted on LiveForFilms

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Review

Director: Dan Scardino

Writers: Jonathan M. Goldstein, John Francis Daley

Starring: Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini, Alan Arkin, Jay Mohr

Synopsis: Burt (Carell) was never a popular boy at school and neither was his best friend, Anton (Buscemi) but together they used magic to find happiness, and worked so hard that they became a hit Vegas act as adults. However, after many years doing the same act friction is developing between the two and hot new magician Steve Gray (Carrey) is jeopardising their hopes of an ongoing career.

Comedy of the last century has been mainly irreverent and extremely adult. The Hangover, Superbad and Bridesmaids are all the polar-opposite of family entertainment. The other lot of hit comedies have been mostly irrelevant; 12A releases like Little Fockers, Grown Ups and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. That’s unfortunately one of only ways to categories successful comedy cinema of late – a collection of cheap or crude clowning around. The cast and premise of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone looked as though it could change things up somewhat but it sadly reiterates everything that’s wrong with contemporary comedy.

Starting off with a clichéd set-up of Burt Wonderstone’s youth (bullies chasing him home, an uncaring mother and a nerdy kid as his only friend) does the film no favours in making it seem fresh. The only stand-out aspect of the opening is a beautifully surreal piece of casting with Alan Arkin as a famous 80s magician introducing his “how-to” magic video on Burt’s TV. Arkin will later settle into his familiar grouch persona but his briefly jubilant and over-the-top acting (perhaps only funny to those aware of Arkin’s persona outside of the film) is amusing.

As cruel as it is to criticism the child actors, these particular two playing young Burt and Anton are beyond awful, hamming it up (maybe under Dan Scardino’s direction) to within-an-inch of the film’s “life”. As the film moves into present day, with Carrel and Buscemi, it’s a slight relief to have the children gone. Nevertheless, despite Carrel and Buscemi as the leads, they are equally terrible. Carrel puts on an incredibly forced deep voice (a characteristic better suited to Will Ferrell) whilst Buscemi quietly reads through his lines, none of which enable him to get a laugh.

With a cast as hilarious as this it’s a profound shock to see everyone doing so badly. Jim Carrey occasionally delivers a quip or performs a comically contorted face, bringing some humour back, but these moments are few and fleeting. Carrel and Carrey back together again after Bruce Almighty was a definite selling point but something about how the characters are written leaves you wanting to see none of them. Burt is a bastard throughout most of the film and so is Grey; the only difference between them is that the former redeems himself (though even then he still appears fairly cold by the film’s joyous end*).

The funniest scene (and it really does get the entire audience howling) is in the last 5 minutes. In most cases this would be a fantastic way to end a comedy – going out on such a high – but instead, it reminds you of just how unfunny the last 95 minutes were.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone brings dangerous attention to the tawdry aspect of performance and showmanship. Burton and Anton's show is funny because it's terrible; captured so well because we are looking at it from within a poorly-constructed presentation (an Inception-esque exercise in criticism). The irony of the title is so well-pronounced - it's a critic's dream tool.
**

*I would have added a spoiler tag but the film is so predictable you know the course of its narrative from the get-go.

By Piers McCarthy. Also posted on LiveForFilms