Keeping Up With The Joneses

There's this weird genre that has popped up lately where spies or assassins move to the suburbs and inevitably get caught up in hijinks. Examples are generally along the line of Killers or Mr and Mrs Smith. Invariably the result is never a good one because they always seem to be missed opportunities. While there are some decent moments and some great actors in Keeping Up With The Joneses, it also happens to miss the mark.

Jeff (Zach Galifianakis) and Karen Gaffney (Isla Fisher) are just a regular couple living in the suburbs of Atlanta. Jeff works as the HR person at an aerospace company and Karen works as an interior designer. They are happy together in their small community and get excited when they see that some new neighbours are moving in. These new neighbours turn out to be the complete opposite to them. Tim Jones (Jon Hamm) is a travel writer whose hobby is glass blowing. His wife Natalie (Gal Gadot) runs a food blog and donates to charity. While they seem like the perfect neighbours to have, Karen does some digging and finds that they are actually spies looking into the company that Jeff works for.

As fun as the concept of highly trained professionals moving into suburbia is, it never pans out the way you want. This is especially true when it comes to comedies that use the premise. There aren't enough jokes to fill out the entire thing and you want to put minimal action in there because it would become an action movie otherwise. Also the way that this movie treats Gal Gadot is really bizarre. I'm not one to jump up and down about the treatment of women in movies, but what they've done here is made a character that is contrary to the concept. Natalie is supposed to be this physically strong spy, but she ends up being a character that is just there to be considered attractive. It also falls into the same traps as makeover movies from the 80s and 90s. They take Isla Fisher's character and make wear unattractive clothes, but 'fix' her by putting her in some lingerie or a tight dress.

The movie's casting is a strong choice that helps with the lack of written jokes. Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher are good comedic staples with which to build on. Galifianakis is always funniest when playing a guy from the south as he has mastered the accent pretty well. I was a bit unsure of what was going on with Fisher's accent. I thought she was going for a similar that Rose Byrne has been doing lately where she plays Australian characters, but she seemed to bounce between the two. Jon Hamm has shown now that he is pretty good at playing a goofy character. While he is supposed to be serious, there were moments that you could tell he was having fun. Comedian Bobby Lee also turns up in a stereotypical Asian role as the proprietor of a Chinese snake restaurant that's pretty funny. Patton Oswalt appears at the end as the bad guy, but has very little time and doesn't have a chance to get a good footing.

Keeping Up With the Joneses is not the best comedy to come out this year. It's not bad as such, but there is a lot of down time between jokes. These instances are glaringly obvious and just make for some hollow viewing.

Masterminds

Jared Hess has had a mixed bag of comedies over the years, with nothing yet able to match his opening foray into features, Napoleon Dynamite. This time he teams up with Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson with Masterminds.

David Scott Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis) is an armoured-truck driver for Loomis Fargo. His life consists of maintaining his Barry Gibb haircut, relinquishing himself to his bizarre fiancée Jandice (Kate McKinnon) and dreaming about his co-worker Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig). After Kelly gets herself fired, her sinister friend Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) suggests they plan a heist of Loomis Fargo, and use Ghantt’s affliction for Kelly to set him up as a pawn.

The plan is to have Ghantt complete the robbery, hand over the $17 million to Chambers and hightail it to Mexico, where Chambers will drip-feed Ghantt with enough money to live until it all dies-down and he can return to take his fair share. However, elements of the heist are botched by Ghantt, and FBI Agent Scanlon (Leslie Jones) starts to put the pieces together and track him down.

I have to admit I went into Masterminds with fairly low expectations. This comedy troupe - whether together or apart - produces both hits and misses, but I left pleasantly surprised. It’s not a great film by any long shot but it stands head-and-shoulders above some of the comedies we’ve seen recently. Considering how heavily-saturated the genre is, that could be considered a compliment. The actual comedy is predictably unstable, riding a sine wave of effectiveness. Early moments like David and Jandice’s wedding photography scene with Enya’s ‘Only Time’ blazing, or the robbery sequence keep you watching where other jokes pass by with not a murmur.

Since the film is based on an actual event – the 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery – Masterminds doesn’t really have any crazy, outlandish sequences, which is probably its strongest asset. It relies more on standard slapstick and screwball comedy where others would stage a huge comedy-action sequence. It’s by no means a subtle film, yet in a genre where everybody’s jumping on the shock-train and trying to outdo each other, a film that’s even slightly understated like this is a breath of fresh air.

Galifianakis plays Ghantt as a bumbling idiot which might be exaggerated but it works, although half his performance can be attributed to his hair. McKinnon has just the right amount of involvement, with just a few well-rounded scenes – considering that she’s effectively playing a creepy doll-like character, somewhat reminiscent of Pris from Bladerunner, any more screen time for Jandice would have been a mistake. However both Wilson and Wiig were more of a let-down. Wilson doesn’t really escape from his ‘I’m Owen Wilson’ shoes but manages to whinge a hell of a lot, and Wiig’s Kelly is sidelined for a lot of the film, only really there to further Ghantt’s story. By far the best character in Masterminds however, is Jason Sudeikis’ Mike the assassin. With just the right mix of psychopathic and weirdly genteel, he outclasses the other secondary characters with a minimal amount of screen time.

Masterminds is by no means going to top the list of best comedies of the year, and it will probably be exiled to a life of occasional Netflix viewings. However, its comparatively toned-down approach is a relief point in an increasingly excessive genre.

Birdman

Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) is a fading movie star who was famous two decades. Fearing that he is losing relevance, he decides to star in a stage adaptation of Raymond Carver's story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" that he is also directing, producing and has written. Riggan's best friend and attorney, Jake (Zach Galifianakis), is hoping for Riggan's sake that the play is a success, as his daughter and assistant Sam (Emma Stone).

This film has a lot to say thematically. The method of acting is explored in great depth, with a lot of focus on how actor's draw a solid performance from themselves, as well as which reality is real for an actor. Edward Norton's character Mike Shiner has trouble being honest in real life, but when he is on the stage, all his emotions are real. Riggan also has the same problem. Due to being thought of as Birdman for his whole career, he starts to believe that he actually is Birdman. Of course this fact draws a lot of comparison between Riggan and Michael Keaton, whose most famous role is undoubtably that of Batman in the Tim Burton films.

Riggan is also disgusted by the dominance of superhero movies that proliferate the real world of the movie. Seeing Downey Jr. on TV talking about Iron Man and hearing that he is unable to get actors for his play because they are acting in these types of films. It also has to do with Riggan (read: Keaton) being the precursor to the current crop of superhero franchises. The film also discusses the relationship between creators and critics, with Mike Shiner commenting to a critic that people only become critics when they can't produce something of their own. This comment made me laugh, due to this reviewer straddling the world between creativity and criticism.

Iñárritu has created a superbly technical film. Birdman is simulated to make it seem like the film is one single take. This makes the film feel not only more real, but adds to the sensation of being on the stage as the camera explores the St. James Theatre where the movie was filmed. Antonio Sanchez's drum score is perfect at building the tension that so many of the scenes have and it is perfectly placed.

All of the performances are mind blowing. Keaton flows from being manic to in control to being at his wits end and just all out insane so perfectly. Edward Norton's Mike Shiner is simultaneously loveable and extremely hatable for both his arrogance and brutal honesty. Emma Stone gives Riggan's daughter such depth and humanity that she feels like a real person. Both Naomi Watts and Andrea Riseborough play superb actresses who are just excited to be in a broadway play and Zach Galifianakis is so far removed from his regular idiot persona, here he is closer to his stand-up self, and his performance just feels refreshing.

Verdict: An amazing look at acting for the stage, whilst saying so many other things. Iñárritu is superb at making stunning and technical films as well as drawing the best from his actors. A must see.

The Hangover: Part III

Most of comedy is about the set-up and repetition and then the punchline goes against the grain. In that case, the Hangover: Part III is the biggest punchline in cinematic history. This movie doesn't follow the formula set up in the previous two movies.

Instead the movie begins with Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) escaping from a Thai prison in a very Shawshank Redemption kind of way. Meanwhile in the States, Alan (Zach Galifinakis) has gone of the rails and the Wolfpack comes together to take him to a rehabilitation clinic in Arizona. This is where things go crazy. On the way there, the gang gets attacked by Marshall (John Goodman), an international criminal, who had been robbed by Chow and Marshall wants him. So the Wolfpack are given three days to track down Chow. This leads them on a chase throw the country and finally culminates in a showdown in Vegas.

This movie is more about Alan coming grips with adulthood and finally leaving his abusive relationship with Chow. The other three guys take a back seat to his character development. That's not to say that there aren't some funny situations that happen to the other two.

Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms are pretty funny and most of their jokes come from the reactions to Alan and Chow. Most of the comedy comes from Chow, who we find out is much more ruthless than had been previously depicted. But he still gets a few laughs from his antics.

Verdict: Todd Phillips crafts a funny end to his trademark franchise that could've been better, but still made me laugh.