Film Review: “Don’t Worry Darling”

Wilde should be worried: Pre-release hype overshadows mediocre picture

Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) live an idyllic life. Or do they?

Even if you’re not one to follow celebrity gossip, no doubt you’ve seen at least a headline or two about director Olivia Wilde’s new film Don’t Worry Darling. Stories about casting, the Venice premiere, tensions between director and star, and salacious sex scenes have saturated the Internet gossip machine. All this chatter either speaks to genuine interpersonal problems among the cast, or reveals a sly and savvy PR move by Wilde, who gained notoriety when she began dating her film’s star Harry Styles after her much publicized divorce from nice guy Ted Lasso himself, Jason Sudeikis. All publicity is good publicity, as the saying goes, and all the frenzied rumors certainly have kept Wilde’s film in the spotlight. So much so that I have to admit that the constant titillating headlines worked on me: when the screening came through, I of course had to see what all the fuss was about.

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Film Feature: SFFILM 2019 Spotlights #2

Wrap up: 62nd annual San Francisco International Film Festival

The San Francisco Film Festival wrapped up last week, concluding with the announcement of its Golden Gate Awards and its two Audience Awards. Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut comedy feature Booksmart earned the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. Show Me the Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall, Alfred George Bailey’s study of Bay Area photographer Jim Marshall, took the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. If you didn’t get a chance to catch as many films as you would have liked, never fear: many of the Fest’s offerings will be widely released in the months to come. Below we take a look at four films that you’ll be able to see very soon at a theater near you (and you can also check out our previous Fest spotlights post here).

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Film Review: Life Itself

Your life itself deserves better than this trite, facile disaster

Abby (Olivia Wilde) and Will (Oscar Isaac) are so very much in love. Too bad they’re in a Dan Fogelman drama.

I’m trying to come up with one kind thing to say about Life Itself, the new movie from writer/director Dan Fogelman, creator of television’s weep-inducing phenom This is Us, and all I can come up with is, boy, Oscar Isaac sure is nice to look at. When one of the film’s characters proclaims outright, “This is some deep philosophical shit,” you know you’re in trouble. Fogelman commits the cardinal screenwriting sin of telling (and over and over and over, mind you) rather than showing, and the result is a cringe-inducing, treacly, overwrought mess of a picture that even This is Us fans will do well to avoid.

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Film Review: Rush

Rush is a fantastic, tense drama, and character driven.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl revving their dramatic chops
Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl revving their dramatic chops

I don’t care for racing.  It doesn’t interest me and I think the culture surrounding it is silly and uninviting.  That being said, if I were forced at gunpoint to choose a type of car racing to watch, it would be Formula 1 racing.  There’s a dynamic of risk and impending disaster, along with more beautiful environments, in Formula 1 racing.  Rush, the new movie from director Ron Howard about a 1970’s rivalry in Formula 1 racing, is not only a great racing movie and a great sports movie, but a great drama.  Spearheaded by solid direction and terrific performances, Rush also contains all the right pieces fitted together to complete the whole package — impeccable editing, strong writing, and thrilling cinematography.

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Film Review: Drinking Buddies

When Luke met Kate: Can drunk men and women ever be just friends?

Olivia Wilde's Kate and Jake Johnson's Luke are drinking buddies...  and maybe more.
Olivia Wilde’s Kate and Jake Johnson’s Luke are drinking buddies… and maybe more.

Watching Joe Swanberg’s new film Drinking Buddies is a bit like spending a summer evening out having beers with friends. The beers are cool and tasty, the company is good, the conversation can run the gamut from light, playful, and flirty to serious and intense, and the whole experience is decidedly pleasant. Of course, when you awake the next morning, you may only have a hazy recollection of having had a nice time, and by day’s end, you probably will have forgotten much of what transpired. But that’s not to say the diversion wasn’t worth it. Continue reading “Film Review: Drinking Buddies”

Film Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

starring: Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Jim Carrey, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin

screenplay:  John Francis Daley & Jonathan M. Goldstein

director:  Don Scardino

MPAA:  Rated PG-13 for sexual content, dangerous stunts, a drug related incident and language. Continue reading “Film Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone”

Spinning Platters Interview: Chris Pine and Alex Kurtzman on “People Like Us”

Alex Kurtzman and Chris Pine on the set of PEOPLE LIKE US

If I were to tell you that one of this summer’s most character-driven and emotionally mature dramas comes to you from the writing team responsible for three of Michael Bay’s last four films, you’d accuse me of being hopped up on bath salts and run away covering your face and screaming. And yet, such is the case with People Like Us, the directorial debut of writer/producer Alex Kurtzman. In addition to his work with Bay, Kurtzman (along with creative partner Roberto Orci) is best-known for writing action-packed episodes of TV shows like Alias, Hawaii Five-0, and Fringe, and blockbusters like Mission: Impossible III, Cowboys & Aliens, and the J.J. Abrams reboot of Star Trek (as well as its upcoming sequel). And when the time came for him to finally tell a personal story inspired by one of the most shocking chapters from his own life, he chose his dashing Star Trek leading man, Chris Pine, to play his onscreen surrogate.

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Film Review: “The Change-Up”

Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds in THE CHANGE-UP

starring: Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Mann, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin

written by: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore

directed by: David Dobkin

MPAA: Rated R for pervasive strong crude sexual content and language, some graphic nudity and drug use

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Film Review: “Cowboys & Aliens”

 

Daniel Craig in COWBOYS & ALIENS

starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Adam Beach, Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine

written by: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby

directed by: Jon Favreau

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of western and sci-fi action and violence, some partial nudity and a brief crude reference

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Album Review (with bonus movie talk): Daft Punk – TRON: Legacy Original Soundtrack

I’m a fan of the original 1982 movie TRON, even though I’m aware it’s kinda crappy. So I’ve been following the TRON: Legacy hype pretty closely for the last few years. And when I was sent Daft Punk’s TRON: Legacy Original Soundtrack for review, I immediately emailed our lead film reviewer, Jason LeRoy, and called dibs when he got his tickets for a preview screening. Then I began listening to Daft Punk’s film score to get myself psyched. And it worked. I was psyched. Continue reading “Album Review (with bonus movie talk): Daft Punk — TRON: Legacy Original Soundtrack”