She's Coming Undone and He Has Nothing to Do With It: 'Laggies' and 'White Bird in a Blizzard'

Shailene Woodley, Gabourey Sidibe and Mark Indelicato in “White Bird in a Blizzard." Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

WOMEN going through existenial crises is the theme of two films opening in U.S. theaters today.

In Lynn Shelton's romantic comedy, “Laggies,” Megan (a well-cast Keira Knightley) is 28 and has not much to show for it since she graduated high school. Reality dawns as she prepares to attend her 11-year high school reunion.

Lest mediocrity clump down and swallow her whole, she takes some drastic measures and is aided and abetted by 16-year-old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz, also well-cast) who, after all, owes her elder. (See video below).

The ensuing fallout is delightful and amusing, if not always satisfying. Yet an unapologetic chick flick.

A chick flick of a wholly different temperament is “White Bird in a Blizzard.” It is based on the novel of the same name by Laura Kasischke.

Sensitively directed by Gregg Araki and his biggest film to date, it is engaging but also fails to satisfy as one wants. A good deal of discontent with this thriller may be derived from a somewhat convoluted plot.

At its center are mother and daughter, Eve (Eva Green) and Kat (Shailene Woodley). Both are trying to find their way in an increasingly obtuse world. One doesn't succeed, and there is hope for the other in a tale where issues related to abandonment and lost youth drive the plot. (See video below).

On a side note, it is difficult to ignore in “White Bird in a Blizzard” the presence of two high-profile black actresses and speculate about what these supporting roles suggest about their respective career trajectories.

Gabourey Sidibe has in Beth a vibrant character as Kat's best friend. The young actress seems to be thriving since her rise in “Precious.” On the otherhand, Angela Bassett in a role far beneath her considerable talent as the youngster's therapist, Dr. Thaler, has been struggling to find her footing since her splash in “What's Love Got to Do With It.”

Meanwhile, the most interesting aspect of both films, which both had their world premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, their shortcomings, notwithstanding. Indeed, where they most succeed is in permitting women to be less than paragons.

To dare not be salt of the earth. To be flawed, a slacker. To unburden themselves of the shackles of nurturer and dutiful. To be woefully imperfect, damn it!

Too often in film and TV when women are floundering, they are victims whose circumstances are caused by some man. He beat her. He sexually harassed her. He cheated on her. The louse left her for a younger and/or hotter woman.

Conversely, the women in “Laggies” and “White Bird in a Blizzard” have men who love them, perhaps too much. These females are the bad guy, if you will.

In these films, as in two popular but very different treatments of the female in full free fall, set in Brooklyn, incidentally – CBS' “Two Broke Girls” and HBO's “Girls, the protagonists are negotiating life's vicissitudes at the instigation of other catalysts.

It is refreshing, emancipating and wonderful to witness this oft-neglected aspect of the female experience.

“Laggies” is rated R for language, some sexual material and teen partying; visit http://www.laggiesthemovie.tumblr.com/ to learn more about the film.
“White Bird in a Blizzard” is rated R for sexual content/nudity, language and some drug use; visit http://www.magpictures.com/whitebirdinablizzard/ to learn more about the film.

That Hum Beyond Gunshots and Car Crashes Is 'The Spectacular Now'

IT'S summertime. The livin' is easy and the flicks are engineered for high-octane action.

But amongst the clatter and clamor of "R.I.P.D.," "Fast & Furious 6," "2 Guns" (which opens today) and "Elysium," (opening 9 Aug.), there are quiet little films such as "The Spectacular Now." Like the bullet-splattering, violence-ridden, Washington/Wahlberg-powered "2 Guns," it opens today, albeit in very limited release. (See video above).

"The Spectacular Now" is the sort of film that one rarely sees anymore: One that depicts teen love and angst in a thoughtful manner. Here are two youngsters, trying to make their way. They are not on hard drugs, though one has a budding alcohol problem if he's not careful; they are not sex-crazed; they do not hate their parents. The protagonists are not afflicted by ADHD or another of the other myriad maladies that affects so many young people in this age.

Indeed, this pair is normal, with many of the peccadilloes and contradictions that used to define teens before the technological revolution and an uber acquisitive culture claimed their minds and souls, morphing this segment of society into the disrespectful, entitled, maladjusted, morally challenged set much of it is today.

Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is popular and outgoing. This Big Man on Campus comes into the life of low-key good girl Aimee Finicky (Shailene Woodley) via a drunken episode informed by the breakup with his blonde bombshell girlfriend. Sutter and Aimee are an unlikely pair. He lives in the "now," or rather talks a good game of it. Aimee's feet are firmly planted in the future. Yet, they attract like magnets.

This ying and yang is the hook that drives "The Spectacular Now." As Sutter and Aimee's relationship takes on additional shades and layers, they draw increasingly close - each encouraging the other to take a stand against life's challenges that would make him/her cower.

It is not clear where James Ponsoldt's direction ends and where the acting begins in this story based on Tim Tharp's book of the same name. The interaction between the main two characters is so effortless. "The Spectacular Now," which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, is intelligent and gutsy enough to depict life as messy as it sometimes is.

Though tender, it avoids becoming overly sentimental. SW is particularly winning as awkward, brainy Aimee. Here's a heroine for the wallflowers of the world - past, present and future

"The Spectacular Now" is an island of calm in an ocean of massive waves and unrelenting undertow.

"The Spectacular Now" is rated R for alcohol use, language and some sexuality - all involving teens; visit http://www.spectacularnowmovie.com to learn more about the film. "2 Guns" is rated R for violence throughout, language and brief nudity; visit http://www.2guns-movie.net to learn more about the film.

John Green Shares Recipe for the Good Life

HOW refreshing it is when one actually speaks the truth – straight, no chaser – in this culture. How utterly wonderful when we are told like it is. For instance, what constitutes true greatness.

That is what best-selling author John Green did when he delivered the commencement address to the Butler University (Indiana) Class of 2013 nearly two weeks ago. His speech has not gone unnoticed. In fact, it is on a trajectory to go as viral as the YouTube videos that he created with his brother Hank. (See commencement speech video above).

“I just want to note that the default assumption is that the point of human life is to be as successful as possible, to acquire lots of fame or glory or money as defined by quantifiable metrics like number of Twitter followers or Facebook friends or dollars in one’s 401K.

“That’s the hero’s journey, right?,” the man who has all of these things asks rhetorically. “The hero starts out with no money and ends up with a lot of it. The hero starts out an ugly duckling and becomes a beautiful swan. Or starts out an awkward girl and becomes a vampire mother.”

Vlogbrothers Hank and John Greene. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

JG rejects this notion, asserting to a laughing audience that this is not the real hero’s journey, the one from weakness to strength. It is unclear from the video whether the young people, who likely imagine themselves future masters and mistresses of the universe, are laughing out of nervousness or whether they think the speaker is joking, though some of his remarks are rather caustic.

In this Great Recession and in this era of unprecedented student loan debt, “The Fault in Our Stars" author is serious and one hopes that all who have ears – young, middle and old – will really hear him.

“Your student loans will come due and you will need a very good answer for why exactly you went to college in the first place,” he asserts.

“Which answer you will have a hard time coming by as you sit in your, job provided you are lucky enough to have a job and suffer the indignity of people calling you by the wrong name or if you are forced to wear a nametag, the indignity of people calling you by the right name too often … And that is the true hero’s errand, the journey from strength to weakness.”

Ansel Elgort will play the male lead of Gus in the film adaptation of John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars." Archive photo

It is in this space, JG promises his listeners, that they will acquire the empathy and humility necessary to be heroes living the good life.

“You are probably going to be nobody for a while. You are going to make that journey from strength to weakness and while it won’t be an easy trip, it is a heroic one. For, in learning how to be a nobody you will learn how not to be a jerk and for the rest of your life if you are able to remember your hero’s journey from college grad to underling, you will be less of a jerk.”

In closing comments JG, who specializes in young adult fiction, imparts “rock-solid advice about proper adulthood” from practical to deep to funny. The soon-to-be graduates are admonished against worrying too much about the lawn and encouraged to fade away rather than burn out. He also suggests they use their knowledge about the Internet against “old" people, presumably those 30 and up. Further, JC recalls the story of a Kuwaiti roommate during a time of strife in the former’s country to make a point about empathy

“For the rest of your life you will have a choice to read graffiti in a language you do not know. And you will have a choice about how to read the actions and intonations of the people you meet. And I would encourage you as often as possible to consider the ‘Happy Birthday, sir, despite the circumstances’ possibility.”

Visit http://www.johngreenbooks.com/ to learn more about John Green. Rx

In 'The Descendants,' Managing Family Crises

George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller in "The Descendants." Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.


IN “The Descendants,” directed by Alexander Payne (“Sideways”), George Clooney stars as Matt King, a man suffering an existential crisis spawned by two separate events. The film opens today.

"The Descendants" is rated R for language, including some sexual references.

Day 17 NYFF: Reckoning & Lunacy in 'The Descendants'

THE 49th New York Film Festival closes down shop today with a journey to the lush, beautiful environs of Hawaii in “The Descendants.”

Making its U.S. debut at NYFF with four screenings, “The Descendants” is based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. It stars George Clooney as Matt King, a man suffering an existential crisis spawned by two different family events. (See trailer above).

The first is the boating accident off of Waikiki that left his wife in a coma and him to care for (or vice versa) his two troubled daughters, 10 year-old Scottie (Amara Miller) and 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley). The strong supporting cast also includes Beau Bridges and Nick Krause.

Also challenging Matt is the impending sale of his family’s ancestral land. Passed down from Hawaiian royalty and white missionaries, the land is home to some of the last unspoiled acreage of tropical beach on the islands. Workaholic, but responsible Matt is the trustee.

Matt's large extended family of mostly deadbeats must agree to sell the land if it is to further benefit from the property before a law forbidding land ownership through perpetuity takes effect. “The Descendants,” directed by Alexander Payne (“Sideways”), has a wider U.S. release next month and a review will be published to coincide with it.

Other screenings today at NYFF include “Policeman,” “Ten Nights of Dreams,” “The Woman with Red Hair” and “Cold Fish.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2011/schedule to learn more about the 49th New York Film Festival: including schedule, repeat screenings, ticket and venue information.