Argentine director Gabriel Medina’s “The Paranoids” (Los paranoicos, 2008) has sidelong graces more successful than a storyline with its romantic-comedy trappings, notably a pervasive mood of uneasiness and urban discontent. Luciano (Daniel Hendler in a sly, ticklish performance) is a paranoid thirtysomething surviving as an awkward performer at children’s birthday parties dressed as a purple furball from a local TV show; the discovery that he’s attracted to Sofia (Jazmin Stuart), his friend Manuel’s  (Walter Jakob) girlfriend comes around the time he discovers that his every fumble is translated by Manuel into the stuff of a Spanish telenovela about a complete loser. Many of the turns of the tale are gratifyingly witty. There are echoes of Daniel Burman’s neurotic comedies like “Family Law” (2006) and “Lost Embrace” (2004) and not only because Hendler has been his alter ego in them, but because of a pervasively glum mood in the striking Buenos Aires locations. The casting of characteristic Porteño faces and spaces is another satisfaction. The city’s bright and grubby glories come out to play. Lucio Bonelli’s cinematography in both interiors and location exteriors has a bruised beauty and uneasy intimacy that elevates Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin Smith directs and edits a screenplay by Robb Cullen and Mark Cullen, who show their knack for comedy in this line from their press notes: “Robb is a high-functioning moron with no formal education or training.” If it’s not funny, that’s his excuse in a news cycle when “retards” so interest pundits, gag writers and identity activists. “Cop Out” scores a sort of parity by proving incompetent in all departments except maybe craft services and set security. This cop buddy comedy is set in Brooklyn and Queens where lots of Mexicans with tattoos get shot. On their ninth anniversary on the force, detectives Jimmy (Bruce Willis) and Paul (Tracy Morgan) get thirty-day suspensions without pay. That dashes Jimmy’s plans to cover the $48,020 cost of his daughter’s wedding. But wait, maybe parting with his prized 1952 Andy Pafko baseball card will save face for Jimmy since the last one up for auction brought $83,000. If only two ninja-garbed thieves with Tasers didn’t stick up the sports collectible shop just after Jimmy walked in. Which leads to a stolen Benz whose trunk hides a woman from Mexico wearing a crucifix necklace that hides a flash drive with drug cabal data. Like most cop buddies on the screen, Jimmy and Paul go through the usual humiliation issues with their off-duty ex’s and spouses. Their on-duty routine is a very limited overplayed joke about their “homage” to lines of dialogue from other cop films.  With Seann William Scott, Rashida Jones Adam Brody, Kevin Pollak, Guillermo Diaz, Ana de la Reguera, Michelle Trachtenberg. 110m. (Bill Stamets)

By Tom Lynch

Roscoe Village’s Hungry Brain becomes modestly packed as it nears 10pm. On the bar’s small stage, a projection screen has been set up for tonight’s screening, a romance-themed evening from local video blog Everything is Terrible! in acknowledgement of Valentine’s Day. When an emcee introduces the work, the silent, candlelit room, stocked with twentysomethings and endless PBR, gazes in anticipation.

The video mash-up begins. Clips and scenes from direct-to-video movies, infomercials and instructional tapes, all edited down and slammed together to form one film. An eighties tape that teaches the various styles of kissing; a quick look at Alaska Men magazine, the place to find single Alaskan masculinity; a god-awful horror show that features Fabio dressed as some sort of knight.

The crowd loves it. Laughs at every turn, often riotous. (“Alaska Men” really does them in.) When it’s finished, the emcee—who says the Everything is Terrible folks are out of town at the moment—gives away some DVDs as prizes and takes a vote on how the rest of the evening should play out, a mock choose-your-own-adventure. The crowd votes to watch the entire Fabio film.

Of course, as it turns out, two of the seven members of the Everything is Terrible! coalition are in the audience. They’re just apprehensive about appearing in public without their monster costumes. Read the rest of this entry »

Albuquerque insurance company owner Mr. Townsend (Peter Dinklage) sends claims adjuster John (Steve Buscemi) and fraud investigator Virgil (Romany Malco) to Las Vegas to prove that stripper Tasty D-Lite (Emmanuelle Chriqui) was not rear-ended in her 1970 Buick and suffered a neck injury. Citing Dante Alighieri and William Eggleston as inspirations, writer-director Hue Rhodes accessorizes this on-the-road comedy with Sundance-stale quirk. John originally relocated to New Mexico to beat his gambling jones, so his return to Nevada on business suggests a relapse is in the cards. Most of the story is structured as a flashback from the night he attempts to buy $1,000 worth of lottery tickets at a convenience store in the desert. His voiceovers and dream sequences add few laughs. In the adjoining cubicle, there’s Jill (Sarah Silverman) with smiley-faced fingernails who wants to play footsie. Random local color is supplied by an angry, heavily armed nudist and a despondent sideshow act who’s trapped in his “Human Torch” suit by a busted on/off switch, waiting for his fuel supply to run out. Buscemi’s signature persona was the known quantity attached for baiting out-of-state gamblers to bankroll this made-to-order indie. “This is your opportunity to become a true industry insider,” invites the internet site of IndieVest Pictures. Although pitched as “a managed-risk opportunity,” “St. John of Las Vegas” pays out few dividends for the audience. Rhodes only manages to diminish the marquee value of his bankable cast. There’s no tie-in with a new edition of “The Inferno.” With Isabel Archuleta, Tim Blake Nelson, Jesse Garcia, John Cho, Aviva. 85m. (Bill Stamets)

Specifying what is not working in this uncomic and unromantic film is what a constructive critic ought to do. But for this uninstructive film, it’s not worth the bother. “I wanted to make a comedy with romance, versus a ‘romantic comedy,” spins director Mark Steven Johnson (“Ghost Rider,” “Grumpy Old Men”), who claims he’s “blowing out a lot of the conventions of a traditional romantic comedy.” Yet writers David Diamond and David Weissman (“Old Dogs”) bring in the usual genre ingredients, including the unlikely coupling of secondary characters who kanoodle in a church pew at the end. Is any unmarried woman in an American romantic comedy not obsessed with work and skeptical of love? Enter Beth (Kristen Bell from “Couples Retreat,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”). This junior curator at the Guggenheim Museum jets off to Rome for her little sister’s nuptials. Beth clicks with best man Nick (Josh Duhamel from “Transformers,” “Turistas”), a New York Daily News sports writer. After committing myriad faux pas at the wedding, Beth plucks four coins and a poker chip from the Fountain of Love in the square outside the church. They were tossed there by wishers for lovers. Magic strikes like lightning. Beth unwittingly picks up five bewitched suitors. She figures Nick’s otherwise welcome attentions arise from the Roman spell and not from true love. Johnson moves through cliches mechanically, like a projectionist moving celluloid through a projector: there is a baffling lack of heartbeats and punchlines in “When in Rome.” With Kate Micucci, Will Arnett, Alexis Dziena, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Bobby Moynihan, Danny DeVito, Anjelica Huston. 91m. (Bill Stamets)

Yet another single man dating a single mom tries to impress her kids. As formula dictates, he endangers the youngsters, gets banished, and then repairs the damage so a happy new family can ensue. Dwayne Johnson (“Race to Witch Mountain”) plays Derek, a hockey player who’s courting Carly (Ashley Judd). He’s scored no points on the ice the past nine years, but brags of his minor-league record in piling up penalty minutes. This ex-pro sports the nonsenical moniker “The Tooth Fairy” for knocking out the teeth of opponents, although he never places money under their pillows. As Carly’s unimpressed son (Chase Ellison) points out: “you’ve got some inconsistent mythology.” Under his own pillow he finds a summons from the Dept. of Dissemination of Disbelief. His crime is telling an 8-year-old fan he should not dream of a pro hockey career, and almost telling Carly’s daughter (Destiny Whitlock) there’s no tooth fairy. In a blink he’s spirited to the Tooth Fairy Kingdom. Sentenced to community service, he returns to earth as a tooth fairy on call. Read the rest of this entry »

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Another stalker story, no, not about you or your neighbor, or a Hollywood meet-rude, but a small, scruffy minimalist comedy from Uruguay, which also won in the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival’s New Director’s competition. In writer-director Adrián Biniez’s debut feature, he follows Jara (Horacio Camandule), a shy, portly supermarket security guard who works overnight in a Montevideo suburb as he discovers dorky 25-year-old cleaning woman Julia (Leonor Svarcas) and begins to spy on her and then follow her. While classical Hollywood comedies often deal with similar plot devices, in front of a bank of monitors, there’s an instant queasiness. Yet Biniez is astute enough to realize the story he’s telling in his deadpan comedy; as he puts it, “This film is not about the beginning of a relationship, but about what precedes it. A stage where what he knows about her is little more than an image: a big question mark he wishes to decipher.” Camandule’s portrayal of sheer boredom is memorable, too. Biniez acted with Svarcas in “Whiskey” (2004). 84m. (Ray Pride)

Straight teen male virginity is the crise du coeur for Nick Twisp, as played by Michael Cera (“Paper Heart,” “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”). This fawn-like mumbler can endear as a supporting character, but cannot sustain a star turn in his first try. Twisp is the horny Californian invented by C.D. Payne for a book series that started in 1993 with “Youth In Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp.” Screenwriter Gustin Nash (“Charlie Bartlett”) adapts Payne’s material, and Miguel Arteta (“The Good Girl,” “Chuck and Buck”) directs this knowing, charm-impaired, low-key comedy in Michigan, where he fills in as “Illegal Immigrant #2.” Nick has two significant others. There’s his evil alter ego and id-enabler Francois (Cera with a slight mustache and gauche wardrobe) who goads him into juvenile delinquency. Nick’s acting out gets him into the bed of Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday, with such a movie-ready name). Residing at Restless Axles Trailer Park, she has bigger crushes on her poster of Jean-Paul Belmondo and on blond poet and classmate Trent (Jonathan B. Wright). “In the movies, the good guy gets the girl,” notes Cera in a script flaunting more cineaste quips than craft. For just one of the inane twists in Twisp’s saga, Sheeni’s ultra-strict parents get dosed with psycilocybin mushrooms at Thanksgiving. Buzz about some cute echo of “Fight Club” is off-point. With Jean Smart, Mary Kay Place, M. Emmet Walsh, Vijay Joshi, Zach Galifianakis, Fred Willard, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi. 90m. (Bill Stamets)

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(Le Plaisir de chanter, 2008) French novelist-filmmaker Ilan Duran Cohen’s exuberant “anti-romantic comedy” is a musical, thriller and spy movie as well. Like many musically inclined French features of the past decade, it’s pleasingly bonkeroo. (But it still can’t top “Wild Grass,” the insolent new film from 87-year-old Alain Resnais, out in spring 2010.)  To describe its sexy, funny turns would spoil much of the fun. A singing class rife with spies? Clandestine lovers who are spies? A widow’s secrets? A lighthearted joy, indeed. With Marina Foïs, Lorànt Deutsch, Jeanne Balibar, Julien Baumgartner, Nathalie Richard, Caroline Ducey, Guillaume Quatravaux, Evelyne Kirschenbaum, Frédéric Karakozian, Dominique Reymond. 99m. (Ray Pride)

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(Politist, Adj., 2009) Where did these Romanians get their sense of humor from, aside from the last seventy years of history? Oh, right. Writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu, whose 2005 “12:08 East Of Bucharest” demonstrated a sly sense of humor in its sendup of cultural memory, turns his eye to the present day. Cristi, a veteran police detective, wants a peaceful life with his new wife and his bosses. He’s assigned to keep an eye on a teenager who’s a pot-smoker they think can be busted for dealing with a cartel. Differences of opinion ensue, including a climactic scene that brings new meaning to the joke that it would likely be entertaining to watch great actors read the phone book aloud. Sardonic, dour and very funny, “Police, Adjective” is a thoughtful jape.  With Dragos Bucur, Marian Ghenea, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Saulescu, Ion Stoica. 115m. (Ray Pride)