Room

From the creative genius of Tommy Wiseau comes the long-awaited….what? This isn’t a sequel to The Room? YOU ARE TEARING ME APART LISA! So...Lenny Abrahamson’s Room may not be the same emotionally nuanced masterful work of cinema as Wiseau’s not-at-all-related film of almost the same name is, but what it does promise is a unique experience and some hefty story matter. 

Joy is twenty-four years old. She has a son, Jack who’s five years old, and they live in Room; a small shed with a toilet, bath, television and squalid kitchen. Their only source of light is a skylight and they have limited furniture, including a wardrobe. Once a day at the same time, Jack goes into the wardrobe as their captor and Jack’s father, Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) enters Room and rapes Joy. After planning and executing an escape plan the two adjust very differently to the outside world. 

Room is based on the novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue, which was inspired by the sickening Fritzl case where a father imprisoned and abused his daughter for nearly three decades, fathering seven children. Room may well be toned down in comparison, but it’s still an intense, often brutal story. Taking inspiration from such things would be challenging enough but adapting them into a novel and then for the screen would certainly have its hurdles, and indeed Emma Donoghue should be praised for her screenplay. Whilst there are a fair few supporting cast, the two leads are the focus and are both brilliant. Brie Larson gives an extremely honest, often understated performance as Joy, who seems to have adapted herself to the Room so well that her plans of escape feel selfless, although this is challenged in the second half. Jacob Tremblay is astoundingly good as Jack, capturing the innocence, inquisitiveness and ultimately the transformation of his character with a surprising amount of nuance, especially given the subject matter he would have had to deal with. 

Room is essentially split into two acts, before and after the Room, and it feels as if it puts near equal amounts of time into each portion. Abrahamson hasn’t made this film nearly as dark as it could have been, where the first act and back story could have conceivably been History X or Requiem level dark. I don’t think this is because he wants the story to be more family friendly but rather that it would clash with the second act where Jack is first seeing the hope and the beauty of the world. However if building this contrast is one of the underlying intentions of Room, then it could have had a stronger emotional payoff in parts, however nit picky that issue may be. 

That’s not to say Room doesn’t have some other frustrating issues. The sequence between the two acts has a montage from Jack’s perspective that feels sentimental when it should really be about the awe of the outside world in that moment. William H. Macy is criminally underused, elements of the cinematography seem ill-conceived and overall there are some pacing issues that make sections of the film feel rushed. The second act seems to have a lot more focus and was for me more interesting than the intense first act. At times I wondered if the film would have been better served to put more time into one of the periods over the other. These changes however would lead to a drastically different film and it’s undeniable that Room holds a lot of weight as is. 

Room is a captivating, sometimes challenging and thought-provoking film that feels like a unique release in a period where a lot of different films are following the same formula. Where in parts the direction lets it down, its writing and performances more than make up for it.

Trainwreck

Judd Apatow's last few movies have been getting a tiny bit more serious than his earlier films. Trainwreck (based on an autobiographical script by comedienne Amy Schumer) straddles a fine line between being a serious and silly comedy.

Amy (Schumer) is taught a valuable lesson by her father Gordon (Colin Quinn) when she is younger: the idea that monogamy is outdated and doesn't work. Flash forward twenty years and Amy still follows this rule, sleeping with as many guys as possible, despite dating gym-junkie Steve (John Cena). Amy works for men's magazine S'nuff and is assigned the job of writing an article about sports doctor Aaron Connors (Bill Hader), with whom she has her first serious relationship. Confused by her feelings, she looks to her younger sister Kim (Brie Larson) for guidance.

Schumer definitely brings her own brand of comedy to the table here. Her TV series Inside Amy Schumer questions the gender pigeonholing that takes place in society and in a way Trainwreck follows suit, although taking a more autobiographical tone and mixing that with Apatow's mass appeal filmmaking. The movie does make a decent attempt to ask why can't women go and sleep with as many guys as they want in the same way men do. However, this attempt only makes up the first third of the film. The remainder seeps into typical rom-com territory, with Amy eventually succumbing to the archetypical female in a romantic comedy. In fact the entire second half of the film is pretty by the book in that regard.

Overall however, the film is pretty funny. Schumer isn't as crass as Melissa McCarthy but finds the right balance of dirty jokes, as well as jokes about her ineptitude with sports (sports being a major part of this movie). The film also has one of the funniest funeral scenes I have seen outside of Death at a Funeral. The film also handles its more tender moments with grace.

The performances are a bit of a mixed bag. Schumer does an okay job at taking the lead role, but the best parts for me were Colin Quinn and basketball player LeBron James. Quinn brings his usual acerbic dry delivery to the role, making Amy's father Gordon a memorable character. James plays against how you think he would be in real life, super protective of his friend Aaron's feelings and a bit of a sensitive soul. British actress Tilda Swinton is extremely unrecognisable as Amy's boss Dianna, all fake tan and hair done up. It's actually quite a remarkable thing to see if you are a fan of her work. Hader isn't at all trying in this film, instead letting Schumer take the limelight. Brie Larson has also done better elsewhere.

There are some great smaller supporting roles and cameos. Mike Birbiglia plays Amy's brother in law who annoys her with his extremely submissive personality. Randall Park hilariously plays one of Amy's colleagues and Ezra Miller is also funny as the office intern. There are some great cameos by Matthew Broderick, as well as Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei who both appear in a film within a film called The Dogwalker.

Although it could have been better in terms of its structure, Amy Schumer's first foray into feature film writing is pretty funny and enjoyable to watch.

Mark Reviews: The Gambler

Hey guys, I'm back. And this time I was in a serious movie because a lot of you guys have been running around saying I'm not a serious actor. But you know what? I am. And you can count your lucky stars that I'm here today to explain it to you, because you probably won't get my ambition of being in a movie like this.

This time around, I play another character which I'm not at all. An English professor. And you better believe that I do it well, because I'm the greatest actor to have ever lived. So what, my character has a gambling problem, you're probably at home watching too much porn.

And because I'm bad at Blackjack in real life, I'm not good in it in this movie. But I make it seem convincing that I know what I'm doing. But still, I end up owing money to Michael K. Williams and some Korean guy.

Even when pissing in public, I'm a better actor than you

You probably already know this, but I don't like working with other people, mainly because I have to carry the film. But I have to say, Brie Larson is a dream. If I wasn't already married with 15 kids, I'd definitely get in there. Not because she's beautiful, but because she's an amazing actress. And when I say in the film that she's a genius, I meant Brie herself and not the character she played. Oh yeah, John Goodman was good too, but hey, I've worked with Burt Reynolds, so what you gonna do.

So I can hear you all saying, "Hey Mark, isn't this a remake of the Jimmy Caan 1978 film?", well let me tell you something, this ain't the first time I've been in a remake before. You may remember I was in a remake of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and I made that character my own instead of just doing a Charlton Heston impression. See I bet you didn't expect to come and read me doing a pretty good self evaluation of my own performance. You don't need to go Harvard or MIT to get a education these days.

My recommendation for if you are going to see this movie, don't take your brother Donnie because the smarts are just going to go over his head and Ma don't want him gambling no more.