Film Review: Collateral Beauty

Collateral Beauty is steeped in laughable melodrama, and not much else.

Will Smith and Edward Norton aren't too happy about anything.
Will Smith and Edward Norton aren’t too happy about anything.

Collateral Beauty could’ve been a great comedy. I have an untested and non-researched theory that ensemble casts are always better suited for comedies, and not dramas. Having numerous A-list stars in a film means that the story will attempt to give each one of them ample time for their characters to develop, change, and come to a satisfying conclusion. You don’t require those per-character time commitments in a comedy, and therefore ensemble dramas suffer from an abundance of promise and not enough deliverables. There are many other things that went wrong for Collateral Beauty. It’s a bad movie, for one. It’s an embarrassing script that somehow made it to the desks of Hollywood execs, who in turn should be embarrassed that they green lit the project. With a total overhaul of the story and characters, the film could’ve and should’ve been a hilarious new spin on the classic Christmas Carol story. Instead, Collateral Beauty is a plodding, preachy, melodramatic piece of manipulative filth. The more I think about it, the more I’m mad at myself for initially thinking that a few scenes were acceptable to watch.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/20/14-3/26/14

Melting your face off Saturday night.
Melting your face off Saturday night.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/31/13-11/6/13

Appearing Tuesday at The Independent
Appearing Tuesday at The Independent

Do you like classic underground rock? Because this list has The Flaming Lips, Death, The Dwarves, The Sonics, Television, Mazzy Star, The Avengers, The Urinals, and Deerhoof on it. So, if you like classic underground rock, this is a great seven days worth of shows for you.

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