This week in movie watching, I finally got around to watching Alfonso Cuaron‘s much laded Y Tu Mama Tambien, the Aaron Paul–Mary Elizabeth Winstead alcoholic indie flick, Smashed, 2011’s overrated horror flop Insidious and the very raunchy and very funny, Bachelorette.
Y Tu Mama También (2001)
What may at first appear to be a tale of sex-driven debauchery and deviance evolves carefully and tactfully into a captivating and steamy exploration of the nature of commitment and friendship. After their girlfriends leave on vacation, two Mexican teenager boys take an sexy, older women on a road trip with hopes of getting laid. As things begin to complicate, their close knit bond is tested and their foundation is deeply shaken.
Even though the lacking budget and rough auditory cuts are clearly evident, director Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) manages to make this gritty minimalism all work to his advantage. Much like his other films, his steady camerawork and fierce attention to detail give an added dimension to what is taking place not just in front of us but in the background too. Cruising down the sun-scorched roads the crew chattering away about their sexual conquests but the real focus is outside the car on a gaggle of police officers patting down some blue collar workers. It’s never mentioned again, nor is it amplified but it’s moments like these that really fleshing out and give his films such a lived in and visceral feel.
While these horny teenagers journey on their path to self discovery, our pre-established assumptions as to what this film is begin to fade away. This is no college road trip film, this is a meaningful exploration of the difficulty of growing up.
A
Smashed (2012)
Smashed greatest assets are it’s central performances from Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim V. The World), Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreations) and it’s sincere, quirky beating heart. Winstead especially is really on her game here and her helpless descent into full blown alcoholism isn’t overtly dramatized or preachy. Instead, it’s just strange and kind of jarring, prioritizing the perspective of the subject rather than trying to wrestle the audience into unwanted emotions. Instead of being told that her character has a problem, we get to see it first hand. The moment she wakes up under a bridge, buzzing from a meth-hangover, confused and ashamed, we know, like her, that there’s a problem. Thankfully, there’s none of the helpless weepy pleading for help or glorification of AA. The crumbling relationships scattered through the film are palpable and tragic but again, not in a downtrodden way. Like life, it just is what it is.
B
Insidious (2011)
What begins as a somber and moody horror-thriller with the makings of greatness deteriorates piece by piece until it’s hollow core is exposed and you just have to laugh or sigh, clearly the last intention of any horror filmmaker. The recognizable faces involved in this project don’t seem at first to be scooped from the bottom of the barrel but eventually show their lazy approach and complete lack of preparation. Director James Wan of Saw fame abandons the grounded realism that he offers in the first act and descends to weak ethereal scares and D-level special effects. The mother-of-all-evil demonic force behind the whole venture loses all capacity to frighten once the reveal his countenance which looks more like Darth Maul’s retarded cousin than any kind of demon. The biggest disappointment with this film is that the ambitious and innovation are clearly there but are devastatingly let down by cheese ball acting, cheap production design and sheer overexposure to what should have remained shadowy and mysterious.
Bachelorette (2012)
Three single, attractive ladies undergo a manic series of absurd obstacles in Bachelorette, which at it’s most base comparison is a hybrid between The Hangover and Bridemaids, but there’s more sardonic wit here and the laughs come quick and hard.
It takes more risks than The Hangover but captures the same manic spirit that made the film so enjoyable and where Bridesmaids found humor in women doing raunchy things, the laughs here aren’t simplified to sex. It’s not funny because they’re girls, it’s just funny. Star Kirsten Dunst proves to really have a knack for comedy with her authoratative attitude and sparkling comic timing as she commands a ragtag crew of chicks, sporting the classic Charlie’s Angels hair color spread, who are more interested in their next line of cocaine than their old, fat friends wedding.
These people are trashy, desperate, sad and lonely, in sum, pretty realistic, so it’s easier to connect to the comedy and the crew’s half-hearted plight to fix the wedding dress that they drunkenly tore. Nothing is too outrageous or overly amplified so the whole affair seems grounded and believable, earning the barrel of laughs it elicits. Bachelorette doesn’t need tigers or monkeys or star cameos to make the laugh quota, relying on it’s genuinely funny script and shotgun delivery.
This is an apt answer to the shit-in-a-sink comedy of Bridesmaids, a raunchy, real film that actually captures the fleeting, magical thing called friendship and cranks up the comedy to 11. Bachelorette is not only the funniest female-led film in a long time, blowing the over-rated Bridesmaids out of the water, it’s just one of the funniest movies in a while. Even though some of the jokes don’t land quite as they should, offering a few laughless punchlines, there is enough fleet-footed momentum and a restless wealth of gags to patch up any dull spots. As the depravity ratchets up, buckle down because once it pops, it just don’t stop.
B+
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