This week, we’ve got one Oscar winner, a comedy misfire, a supernatural stinker, and an acclaimed Netflix original series to top the list. Then, we’ve also got a bunch of documentaries worth a look, and two war films, one of which is a new Criterion Collection release. Read on for details:
Spike Jonze’s debut film, 1999’s Being John Malkovich, earned him a Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards, but it was last year’s Her that finally netted him a trophy, specifically for Best Original Screenplay. In Jonze’s fourth film, Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a lonely writer in the midst of a divorce who begins developing an intimate relationship with a computerized artificial intelligence (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Despite its premise, which could have easily played out in campy fashion, Her was yet another critical success for Jonze, earning a Certified Fresh 94% on the Tomatometer. Critics felt the film was sweet, smart, and a surprisingly relevant commentary on the state of modern relationships, and it went on to receive five Oscar nominations in total, including Best Picture.
If nothing else, I, Frankenstein at least had two things going for it: Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy. Both actors have proven in previous films that they’re quite capable, after all. What I, Frankenstein didn’t have going for it, unfortunately, was pretty much everything else. Based on a graphic novel, the film picks up essentially where the original Mary Shelley novel ends, as Frankenstein’s monster (Eckhart) is recruited by a society of gargoyles to fight demons — led by an evil prince masquerading as a rich businessman (Nighy) — who secretly roam the Earth. Aaron Eckhart does his best Paul Bettany impression here, but if critics thought Legion and Priest were bad, it was only because they hadn’t yet laid eyes on Stuart Beattie’s dull, derivative, cacophonous mess of a film. It did have one or two pretty cool posters, though.
In light of Zac Efron’s recent triumph at the box office with Neighbors, let’s look back on a film from earlier this year that didn’t do so well. Here, Efron plays one of a trio of buddies — alongside Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller — who all spend the duration of the film working through relationship problems. Mikey (Jordan) tries to resolve issues with his wife (Jessica Lucas), Daniel (Teller) begins dating his female wingman (Mackenzie Davis), and Jason (Efron) gets involved with a one night stand. Critics weren’t particularly kind to That Awkward Moment, whose cast they found charming but whose script they found predictable and flat. The film wants to upend traditional rom-com scenarios, but it just ends up falling into the same patterns.
Who could have guessed five years ago that Netflix would become a major player in television programming? They brought back Arrested Development (we know it wasn’t quite the same, but still), won Emmys with House of Cards, and are getting ready to drop five seasons of Marvel-related programming. With all that said, one of its acclaimed successes is the comedy Orange is the New Black, which premiered last year to a Certified Fresh 89% on the Tomatometer. Taylor Schilling stars as Piper Chapman, an NYC woman who’s sentenced to 15 months in jail for a drug-related crime she committed a decade before and ends up reuniting with the ex-girlfriend for whom she committed that crime. Season one of the series hits store shelves this month, for anyone who doesn’t have a Netflix subscription, and Schilling has already earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work here, so it might be worth checking out if you’re into some darker, character-driven comedy.
