Review: You Hurt My Feelings

Image courtesy of A2.

Nicole Holofcener's "You Hurt My Feelings" is a low key but often subtly funny dramedy about how the white lies we tell to others to soften blows can occasionally have negative consequences. It also explores the dangers to the ego of exposing oneself to the world - especially through artistic means - and inviting criticism.

Much like the director's previous work - which includes "Enough Said" and "Lovely and Amazing" - Holofcener has a strong sense of how people's minds work and a great ear for dialogue. For a comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the film has a surprisingly understated vibe and the laughs build off the behaviors of the various characters who are feeling angst for various reasons throughout the course of the picture.

At its center is Beth (Louis-Dreyfus), a creative writing teacher whose memoir sold fairly well - but not as well as it could have, her mother reminds her - and who is struggling to put the finishing touches on a novel. Her agent doesn't seem too excited about the novel and, during the film's central moment, Beth overhears her seemingly supportive husband, a psychiatrist named Don (Tobias Menzies), tell an actor friend (Arian Moayed) that he too isn't too enthused either about his wife's latest work. This sets the film off on the course of its various characters having trust issues with each other - or even trusting their own abilities.

While Beth frets about her novel, Don wonders if he is doing a poor job at his own work. He occasionally mixes up patients' histories, one bickering couple demands that he refund them $33,000 for years of therapy they believe have been fruitless, and another patient mumbles insults just within earshot at the end of each session.

Meanwhile, Beth and Don's son, Eliot (Owen Teague), is struggling to write his first play while working at a so-called "pot" shop. Beth's worries about his handling drugs result in one of the film's best gags late in the picture. At the same time, Eliot's girlfriend has dumped him and he wonders if he was at fault. All the while, Beth's sister (Mikaela Watkins) is unhappy in her line of work - picking out decor for new homeowners who are seemingly never satisfied, while her husband (the actor) struggles in his career and gets a complex after being fired from a play.

During the course of the film, the characters learn that honesty may be the best - if not the easiest - policy, even if it's difficult to see in the short term. The strife between Beth and Don after she feels betrayed when overhearing his pan of her novel results in a great scene during which the two characters air out all their grievances, which ultimately end up being holiday gifts that they later laugh about when realizing their problems are so trivial.

At just 93 minutes, "You Hurt My Feelings" breezes by and it might feel slight in comparison to some of Holofcener's other films ("Enough Said" is probably my favorite), but there are some universal truths that are often humorously and occasionally awkwardly -  I don't mean that as a slight - drawn out by the characters in this film that will likely ring true for many. It may not be the director's best film, but it's a funny and enjoyable showcase for its talented cast.

Review: Master Gardener

Image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Paul Schrader's past three films have all centered around men whose troubled pasts inform their mostly peaceful present existences, which are shaken up by the presence of newcomers or challenges that threaten to expose their pasts. 

In "First Reformed," Ethan Hawke's pastor was a former alcoholic with a crisis of faith whose son was killed in Iraq and whose quiet existence is upended by the arrival of a younger woman and her environmentalist husband. "The Card Counter" followed Oscar Isaac's former military torturer who indulges in nonstop card games to prevent him from doing something harmful.

Joel Edgerton plays Narvel Roth, the latest troubled man at the center of one of Schrader's films - in this case, the engrossing "Master Gardener." Roth has a deeply troubled past - which I won't divulge - but has been working for some time as the gardener extraordinaire for Miss Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), an heiress with a sharp tongue whose estate includes a massive - and, apparently, award winning - garden. As the film opens, they are preparing for a spring show.

Haverhill tells Narvel that she has a favor to ask him: Her niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell), who lost her mother to cancer and her father to a drug overdose, has been struggling with "lifestyle issues" and could use some mentoring. She requests that Narvel take Maya under his wig, show her the ropes of gardening, and help to straighten her out. At first, Narvel - whose myriad past problems help him to notice others' struggles - recognizes that Maya is an occasional drug user, and learns that she has an abusive drug-dealing boyfriend.

Although Maya is a quick study in the garden, her extracurricular activities lead to some problems at the estate, especially when Narvel notices a bruise on her face. It's difficult to describe what happens next without giving away Narvel's secret, although there's a scene early on in which he strips to the waist in front of a mirror that gives us a glimpse, and how he uses his past to confront Maya's problems.

"Master Gardener" is kind of a thriller and sort of a romance. It deals with some controversial topics - and some have argued that the film doesn't appear to want to tackle those subjects in depth, although I believe the topics exist in the context of the film to enable Narvel to prove to Maya that a troubled past doesn't necessarily limit the possibilities for one's future. 

Seemingly out of the blue, there is a strangely surreal sequence that might be a dream or a fantasy that doesn't entirely work. On the whole, however, "Master Gardener" is a compelling film with a tightly controlled performance by Edgerton. Swindell is also very good, and Weaver gets in a strong supporting performance as Haverhill, who is also more complex than she might outwardly appear. 

Perhaps the biggest shock is that the film, considering that it's one by Schrader (writer of "Taxi Driver" and director of such downer classics as "Affliction" and "Hardcore"), is ultimately hopeful. The director's work as of late has been notably grim and bleak - albeit quite good - and described as Bressonian, so it's genuinely surprising that the film's coda suggests that people can, in fact, change for the better. This is another very well made film from a director who has been on a winning streak as of late.

Review: Hypnotic

Image courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment.

Robert Rodriguez's "Hypnotic" is the type of lower budget action thriller that was once prominent and has all but disappeared as movie studios focus on getting their latest blockbuster on eight of the 10 screens at your local multiplex. Although the film has its flaws and its inspiration very obviously comes from one specific source, "Hypnotic" is intermittently entertaining, even if its nonstop twists eventually become a bit too much.

Rodriguez has long made pulpy action films and thrillers - his best work includes "El Mariachi," "Desperado," "Sin City" and "Planet Terror," his contribution to the underrated "Grindhouse" double feature - but his latest is more of the mind-bender variety. At one point in the film, the lead character played by Ben Affleck believes that he's witnessing the road he's on curve upward and head up into the sky, and the rest of the world appears to be upside down above him. My first thought was that Rodriguez had been binge watching Christopher Nolan movies lately.

That director is an obvious source of inspiration for this thriller, which finds Affleck's Austin-based Detective Daniel Rourke searching for his young daughter, who was kidnapped in front of his eyes in a park. As the film opens, Rourke is undergoing some sort of hypnotic therapy when he's called to the scene of a bank robbery. He spots a mysterious man (William Fichtner), who is apparently using some sort of hypnosis to convince security guards and a bank teller to carry out the robbery. Even more strange, Rourke's missing daughter's name appears on a piece of paper in a bank vault.

When Rourke follows the mystery man to a rooftop, the stranger convinces two cops who are accompanying Rourke to shoot each other before he disappears by slipping over the side of the roof. Rourke, baffled, learns that a woman called in the tip to the police. He is led to the business of a psychic named Diana (Alice Braga), who spins a fantastical web about a government agency - of which she was once a part - that employs hypnotics, and how one particularly powerful hypnotic (Fichtner) had escaped its grasp and was in search of a top secret weapon known as Domino.

The plot veers off in many directions and engages in numerous sleights of hand, many of which involve a character breaking out of a hypnotic state, only to find that their reality is different than what they supposed it to be at any given moment. This is both a compelling manner in keeping this thriller propelling forward, but it's also - on occasion - an easy way out when the story starts becoming too labyrinthine. In other words, it occasionally works, but others times doesn't.

"Hypnotic" is much more polished than your typical Rodriguez picture, who typically tends to lend a grindhouse vibe to his movies - think "Machete" or "Planet Terror" - or make movies for his children (the "Spy Kids" movies, for example). As a Nolan-inspired knockoff, "Hypnotic" isn't half bad. It's not a great thriller, but it moves quickly and has some surprising twists. It even recycles an old joke from "Desperado." 

But I appreciate that a modest, mid-range budgeted thriller can make its way to theaters, when so many others of its type are heading directly to streaming to allow for the summer's blockbusters to take up every single screen. It's nice to know that such movies still - at least, for the time being - exist.

Review: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.

I've long been feeling superhero fatigue, especially how the two major comic book companies have utilized the concept of the extended universe - which, on the surface, is aimed at incorporating any given sequel into an overarching story that spans across multiple mediums (movies, TV shows, etc.), but to me has always felt more like marketing.

So, I'm always pleased to find any given chapter in these ongoing sagas that stand out slightly from the pack and feel like, for lack of a better phrase, their own thing. This is the case for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," which isn't as good as the original entry in this franchise, but better than the second film. 

The characters in this series have always felt like the oddballs and outcasts of the extended Marvel Comics Universe - and, in this case, that sentiment goes a long way. Thankfully, there are few throwbacks or callouts to previous Marvel movies - with one small exception involving one character's plot line - and seemingly not too many setups for future Marvel movies. It's a standalone movie without the endless references to previous movies and much less in the way of marketing.

It also focuses - often grimly, I'd warn younger viewers - on the topic of animal cruelty, which makes for a more compelling narrative than just the latest plot about a supervillain who plans to destroy or take over the world (although there is that too). The character of Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) takes center stage here, even though the character himself is in a coma of sorts for most of the proceedings.

As the film opens, a powerful being (Will Poulter) attacks the Guardians' fortress, severely injuring Rocket - for whom he had been sent to kidnap. The Guardians discover some sort of device that is implanted in Rocket and they band together to find the villain who implanted the device so they can save him. The details on this are either nebulous or I missed something.

Regardless, the film features a significant amount of flashbacks that show a younger Rocket, who had been captured by a mad scientist known as the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), whose plan is to create perfect utopian societies by speeding up the evolutionary process. 

To do so, he experiments cruelly on pretty much anyone or anything he can get his hands on - including a cute, young Rocket, who befriends a rabbit, otter, and walrus who are also held in captivity. There are some grueling scenes involving the torture of animals, but a rescue sequence late in the picture will likely please PETA. I thought the be-kind-to-your-furry-friends subplot was a nice added touch.

There's also a subplot involving Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and her lost memory, and how that affects her relationship with Quill (Chris Pratt). But what's nice about this "Guardians" is that it gives every character a few memorable moments - Drax (Dave Bautista) finding that he's good with kids, Nebula (Karen Gillan) having newfound appreciation for teamwork, and a Groot (Vin Diesel) joke that I saw coming since the first installment of this series.

No, "Volume 3" doesn't reinvent the wheel. It's a little overlong and there are, perhaps, too many scenes of characters in peril in which they all miraculously survive. The 1970s needle drops of the first film have been replaced primarily by 1990s ones. Some relationships are left unresolved, and while this is being billed as the final "Guardians" film, I'll believe it when I see it. 

Comic book movies as of late have felt increasingly tired and repetitive - but this is the rare case of a director (in this case, James Gunn) elevating the material by injecting his own nutty personal tastes and attitudes into material that might otherwise, at this point, feel bland. In short, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is pretty decent.