"The Help"
Richard's Review: 3 stars
"The Help," an adaptation of a 2009 best seller of the same name by Kathryn Stockett, has a tricky story to tell. Make it too uplifting and it will ring historically false; make it too realistically downbeat and summer audiences might stay away. Luckily, the story of a Southern Belle's social awakening and the women who made it possible, hits most of the right notes.
Set in the weeks and months leading up to the 1963 death of African American civil rights activist Medgar Evers, "The Help" is the story of Jackson, Mississippi native "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone), who comes home from four years at school to discover the woman who raised her, a maid named Constantine (Cicely Tyson), is no longer employed by her family. Her mother says she quit, but Skeeter has doubts.
Meanwhile Skeeter takes a job writing a domestic maintenance column for the local newspaper. When she asks a friend's maid, Aibileen (Viola Davis) for housekeeping tips she realizes there is more to the lives of the maids who raised her and her friends than she previously thought. With the help of a courageous group of housekeepers she tells the real story of the life of the maids, writing a book called "The Help."
"The Help" is set at a time in the South when groups like the White Citizen's Council had an office on Main Street and those same citizens didn't see the irony of arriving at a charity event called The African Children's Ball in a White's Only taxi cab. The film gets the casual racism of the time right, offering up a sense of the era, but in a sanitized Hollywood sort of way. The brutal details of the book -- stories of lynchings and corporal punishment for trifling matters -- have been wiped away. Even the death of Evers, a turning point in the Civil Rights movement, happens off screen and goes largely unexplored.
There are some subtle moments that really ring true however. In one scene Skeeter visits Aibileen as she does her chores to try and convince her to be interviewed for the book. She's meeting with her person to person, but when it starts to rain Skeeter rushes to get out of the rain without offering to help Aibileen gather up the rest of the laundry she had been bringing in from the clothes line. Skeeter wants to level the playing field between them, but she hasn't yet completely let go of the idea of what is maid's work and what is not.
But having said all that, this isn't a history lesson. If you want real life grit rent "Eyes on the Prize" -- Harry Hampton's 1987 documentary on the American Civil Rights Movement from 1952 to 1965 -- because you won't find it here. What you will find is a portrait of the South painted in broad strokes, performed by an eager and talented cast.
Some of the performances are pitched a bit over-the-top -- Jessica Chastain, so understated in "The Tree of Life" seems positively ready to burst in the first half of this movie -- but in the Southern Belle category, Emma Stone (and her football-sized eyes) brings some curly-haired determination to the role. She's obviously different, the filmmakers seem to be telling us, because she's the only one without a pulled back Beehive hairdo. Allison Janney as Skeeter's dramatic mother -- "My daughter has upset my cancerous ulcer," she cries at one point -- really shines and Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook, the town's well-born racist, is a chilling reminder of the genteel face of intolerance.
The performance that sells the picture, however, belongs to Academy Award nominee Viola Davis. As Aibileen she is the soul of the film, a woman who has been hurt by life but is still capable of nurturing the very people who wounded her. Even though she doesn't have the movie's showiest role -- that's Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson -- she's still the film's strongest and most memorable character.
"The Help" is a heartfelt and sincere story that could have been benefitted from a little less of those qualities and a little more realism.
"30 Minutes or Less"
Richard's review: 3 1/2 stars
The plot of "30 Minutes of Less" is simple. That's a good thing because this movie burns along at such a clip there isn't much room left for subplots, story arcs or narrative aesthetics. It's a bottle rocket, a small but entertaining burst of bad taste and action adventure.
Very loosely on the Collar bomb case, a strange Erie, Pennsylvania bank robbery, the story involves a slacker pizza delivery boy (Jesse Eisenberg) who is kidnapped by two moronic criminals (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) who strap a bomb to his chest and order him to rob a bank or, in 10 hours, everything will go boom.
That's it.
There's more about a best friend (Aziz Ansari), his sister (Dilshad Vadsaria) and a psycho killer (Michael Peña) but their stories are add-ons to keep the action moving at a bullet-like pace.
There's nothing genteel about "30 Minutes or Less." The presence of Danny McBride assures that. For me the "Eastbound & Down" star is a love-him-or-hate-him actor. There's no middle ground. If you don't find his brand of foulmouthed, anything-goes humor, then you'll find very little to like here. He isn't the star, per se, but his toxic style sets the tone for the movie.
But, if McBride turns your crank, you'll find much to like here. "Social Network" star Eisenberg gets in a good joke about Facebook, Ansari is a ball of manic energy and there's way more wild action than you usually find in a comedy.
I guess "30 Minutes of Less," the spiritual, but foul mouthed cousin to Eisenberg's "Zombieland," is a mix of unexpected action and jokes.
"Glee: The 3D Concept Movie"
Richard's Review: 3 Gleek stars, 2 for everyone else
And the award for the most unnecessary movie of the week goes to…
In a summer jam packed with remakes, reboots and retro 80s nostalgia, along comes "Glee: The 3D Concert Movie," an exercise in instant nostalgia. "Remember when we could sit around and watch "Glee" on TV every Tuesday night… Wait! We can do that now!"
"Glee: The 3D Concert Movie " literally sings to the choir. If there ever was a movie made for fans, this is it. A concert film, with real life fan testimonials tucked in between the pop songs and show tunes, the music loses most of its context when there isn't a storyline to play off of. What's left is essentially karaoke with some nifty dance moves thrown in.
First the music. Highlights include Lea Michele warbling through a Barbara Streisand tune, and a dirge like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" sung with great charm by Chris Colfer but when Mark Salling sings "Fat Bottom Girls" it doesn't sound so much like a Queen classic as it does the death of rock-and-roll. Ditto a truly odious version of "Safety Dance" that recreates a pivotal moment from Glee's first season. Finally, when the entire ensemble sings "Don't Stop Believin'" I really hoped that, like the season finale of "The Sopranos," the screen would fade to black and someone would whack all the performers.
Better are the interstitials, the "Glee" testimonials provided by hardcore fans of the show. A host of real life Gleeks begin their stories with lines like, "Glee changed my life," and, by inviting us into their lives tell us how the show has helped them through hardships. It's all a bit Oprah, but the stories- -- told by a young gay man forcibly outed in grade eight, a woman with Asperger syndrome and a little person -- have resonance.
I get the appeal of the show -- a group of outsiders who sing inspirational song -- but as they say in the movie, everyone can see themselves in the cast of "Glee," but unless you are a fan already, I don't think you need to see this movie.
"Final Destination 5"
Richard's review: 4 stars from the judge from Splatterville, 2 stars from me
The popularity of the splatter movies that gave birth to several late 90s/early naughts movie franchises seems to be on the wane. "Saw's" blades have been dulled and "Hostel," once the beastly spokesmodel for torture-porn, is becoming an amusement park ride (seriously). Only "Final Destination" continues unabated. Despite the prominence of the word "final" in the title we're now on number five with no end in sight.
Here's the story, or as it is known in the "FD" world, the dull stuff that happens between the gory stuff: Someone has a premonition that all his/her good looking friends die in the most terrible way imaginable. When the vision comes true—usually preceded by the tell tale line, "Something's wrong!" -- whoever survives ends up dying anyway, in increasingly complicated ways. In "#5" a gymnast earns a 9.5 from the Splatterville judge and if you're thinking of getting laser eye surgery any time soon… well, go see "30 Minutes of Less" instead.
What "Final Destination 5" lacks in story it makes up for in gore and cheesy special effects. It's not enough to kill these kids, the "Final Destination" folks find it necessary to crush, spindle and mutilate them usually not just once, but twice. It's the kind of movie which makes audiences shout, "No, you didn't!" and "Awwwwwwwwwwwww! I can never un-see that!" usually while laughing and having a pretty good gruesome time.
If you've seen and enjoyed previous "Final Destination" movies then this chronicle of carnage may be for you. If you've never seen any of the films in the series, however, you may want to keep it that way.
