A wise man once said, “Better late than never.” It is under this guiding principle that I’d like to take you through some of the remaining SXSW 2016 movie reviews that I’ll be writing. Because despite all appearances, I did go see movies during that festival. And some of them were really good.
In the interest of keeping you informed as to what you should be keeping an eye on as the year moves forward, here are a few movies that were interesting, for one reason or another.
Keanu
As any fan of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s run on Comedy Central can tell you, the duo can deliver laughs. And the highs for their sketches are extraordinarily high. The valets talking about Liam Neeson and Game of Thrones come to mind along with Luther, the President Obama anger translator. They are instantly recognizable, eternally viral sketches. They get laughs every time.
Their first movie, on a conceptual level, is exactly that sort of high. They play two friends who must go on an action-filled adventure to rescue Keanu, the kitten, from a gang with ties to the drug trade (led by Method Man). The first trailer for the film, directed by longtime Key and Peele show collaborator Peter Atencio, is awash with kitten cuteness, big action overtures and a lot of the racial mannerism humor that has become synonymous with Key and Peele’s work.
The problem is that the movie doesn’t quite pay off the entirety of its concept. It starts very strong, with an action sequence worth of Michael Bay that involves two notorious gangbangers shooting up a church. Amid the flying bullets and scurrying rival gang is Keanu, a resourceful little kitten whose ability to avoid being caught in the crossfire is rivaled only by his ability to instantly warm your heart.
As the film’s story unfolds, it becomes clear that what began with a fun concept is running out of steam very quickly. There are only so many ways that Key and Peele can do something over the top to prove to a bunch of gangsters that they are, in fact, career criminals as their covers would suggest. Eventually, this gets a little repetitive. The movie also loses sight of what’s really entertaining here: the quest for the kitten. It’s as if someone came up with a perfect sketch, then painstakingly stretched it out to a feature-length film. Like any episode of Key and Peele, the highs are incredibly high and the lows are pretty average.
Perhaps the best news is that the SXSW cut of the film is a work in progress version. Historically, that hasn’t meant much. Last year, Trainwreck debuted a work in progress version that was essentially the final version of the film. Keanu is due in theaters on April 29, so there isn’t enough time to make any sweeping changes. If they do anything, hopefully they can tighten up that middle act, because it’s in desperate need of some energy.
9 Rides
Filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry’s journey to the world of cinema is a fascinating one. Sure, he has directed a number of music videos in his time. That’s not anything new for an up-and-coming filmmaker. But he began his life as an NFL football player. That perspective fueled his directorial debut, the 2012 drama The Last Fall.
With 9 Rides, Cherry has continued his growth not only as a storyteller with an interesting perspective, but as a visual innovator. Shot entirely on an iPhone 6s, 9 Rides takes something potentially mundane — the story of an Uber driver — and gives it an immediacy with intimate camerawork and a perpetual sense of motion. The story of our driver, played by TV veteran Dorian Missick, is one that explores the moments that come to define New Year’s Eve. He passes in and out of the lives of nine groups of passengers, each with their own unique story to tell. It’s really his story that matters, though. While working the night away to save up for his forthcoming wedding, our driver is met with situations that challenge him in unexpected ways. Situations that call to question the sanctity of his relationship and the very nature of his responsibility as a man.
Cherry’s film is rough around the edges, as many a festival indie are, but he shows a confident and steady hand in bringing the stories inside this man’s car to life. And he brings to the forefront a great deal of emotional resonance. The complexities of this single character — who is on screen for 100% of the film — are carefully unfolded over time. We root for him, we are unsure of him, we fear for his well-being and we find things in him that are deeply relatable. This is the sign of a filmmaker who understands the story he wants to tell. It’s a clear sign of promise that once he finds his way on to a project with greater ambitions, Cherry will undoubtedly thrive.
Don’t Think Twice
Birbiglia’s Don’t Think Twice is what you might call part 2 of the Keegan-Michael Key double feature at SXSW in 2016. Key was on display full-force in Keanu, but here takes a prominent role within a wonderful ensemble that is Bribiglia’s most soulful, human comedy yet. And that’s saying something, considering the wonderful debut he made with 2012’s Sleepwalk with Me.
The story revolves around a New York improv group and their collective struggle to keep their group together while also finding what’s next. It’s that essential middling issue in any creative endeavor. You can be successful to a point, but what’s next? Birbiglia explores this most deeply with his own character, the group’s leader, while being flanked by a talented fivesome that includes the aforementioned Key, Community’s Gillian Jacobs, Chris Gethard, Kate Micucci and Tami Sagher.
What Birbiglia’s second feature-length effort gets so right is the notion that friendships evolve as success is either found or lost. The film explores each character with equal earnestness, giving every member time to shine beyond simply being funny. There are real emotional stakes and a chemistry that is palpable. But the real gems are the performances of Key and Gillian Jacobs, who play a romantic pair at a crossroads. Their relationship is a rumination on this notion that we all must have forward (and often upward) momentum to find happiness. The performances stand out, even in an ensemble that works beautifully together. It feels trite to call this a coming out party for Gillian Jacobs, as she’s been so good in so many things. But it feels like another step up for her, dramatically.
The key to the whole thing working as well as it does it Mike Birbiglia’s affection for his subject matter — improv comedy — and his affection for his cast. The result is a movie with a lot of heart and soul. A thoughtful study of success, failure and the relationships that are built and tested along the way.
War on Everyone
There’s an ever-present darkness that pervades everything that the Brothers McDonagh — John Michael and Martin — have made for the big screen. These two English filmmakers have delivered numerous films that deal in equal measures of black comedy and the darkest fears of people of faith. These darker elements usually revolve around the things we fear might happen to the children of the world, and the vengeance that often comes with it. For Martin, that is on display in his 2008’s film In Bruges. For brother John Michael, we’ve seen the darkness in 2011’s The Guard and 2014’s Calvary. Both are accomplished explorers of our darkest fears and the humor that can be mined in that pitch-black abyss.
John Michael’s latest film, War on Everyone, has a lot of this darkness. But it also packs in a wild, turbulent onslaught of absurdity. The story of two corrupt cops in New Mexico (Michael Pena and Alexander Skarsgard) and their quest to blackmail, frame and physically damage every criminal in their path, War on Everyone wears its intentions on its sleeve: it wants to challenge every square inch of your comfort zone. And it plays out like a giant middle finger is being pressed against the camera lens at all time. These two men are abrasive and reckless, never ones to shy away from doing the wrong thing.
In the hands of a less confident filmmaker, this could be a very grating experience. But McDonagh carries the entire thing with such masterful pace and energy that it’s impossible to do anything other than laugh, cringe, laugh some more and ultimately feel moved in unexpected ways. Skarsgard and Pena are a dynamic pair. The film also features supporting performances that jump off the screen from Creed’s Tessa Thompson and The Divergent Series’ Theo James. It’s a grimy, violent film that is relentless in its pursuit of the inappropriate, but it’s also astonishingly thoughtful. McDonagh gives us plenty of reason to root for these horrible guys, then imbues them with such complexity that it’s easy to become wildly conflicted, yet still have plenty of fun. Further proof that when one of the McDonagh brothers make a film, it will be a challenging yet thoroughly entertaining affair.
The Trust
In The Trust, Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood play two crime scene technicians who, thanks to being underpaid and underappreciated, look for their fortune outside the law in a town — Las Vegas — where there’s plenty of trouble to be found. Their quest leads them to a vault in which a local crime syndicate has hidden untold amounts of money. They set about breaking into the vault and stealing their retirement.
This film from directors Alex and Benjamin Brewer has all the trappings of your average direct-to-video crime thriller. The plot isn’t particularly novel, nor is any of the visual styling particularly interesting. What it does get right is that it provides ample arena for Nic Cage to be NIC CAGE! He twitches his way to a fully psychotic performance, the kind of performance you always hope he’ll deliver in this kind of movie only to be let down. Elijah Wood plays a decent straight man to balance the equation. And through much of the movie, the two are good enough to keep us interested.
The problem is that even full Nic Cage mode isn’t enough to make a movie good without doing something else that’s notable. And The Trust fails to be notable in any other way. It finds ways to weave in a few odd supporting performances — including Jerry Lewis as Cage’s father and Sky Ferreira as an unexpected bystander to the big heist — but it never really elevates beyond being a showcase for Cage and Wood. Their chemistry is good, which patches a number of the film’s narrative potholes, but it never feels like enough.
My Blind Brother
This will be the second year in a row that I’ve seen a good, tightly drawn ensemble comedy featuring Nick Kroll. Last year it was Adult Beginners, with Kroll playing off the wonderfully talented Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. This year’s entry is Sophie Goodhart’s sharp romantic dramedy My Blind Brother, in which Kroll shares the screen with Parks & Rec’s Adam Scott and Jenny Slate.
Kroll plays Bill, a supportive yet underachieving brother to Robbie (Scott), a blind man who runs marathons for charity. Jenny Slate plays Rose, the girl who ultimately gets between them. From the onset, the story is about the strained bond between an ambitious blind man and the brother who has sacrificed his own happiness to aid in his pursuits. These are roles to which both Scott, with his potential for high energy abrasiveness, and Kroll, whose sardonic delivery really sells the way Bill resents everything he’s given up to help his brother. Slate’s role is to be the sweet, confused girl in the middle. But she’s more than your average love interest. Rose is plagued by an overwhelming fear of disappointing other people, which leads her to make some very poor relationship decisions.
Together, the three characters are a Molotov cocktail of regret, repression and oddly reasoned self-sacrifice. The dynamic works splendidly, delivering comedy and tension, much of which plays up the awkward nature of a love triangle between these three diversely broken individuals. To her credit, Goodhart lets these three very talented actors — with an assist from Zoe Kazan as Rose’s voice-of-reason roommate — fill every frame with personality. It’s their energy that drives the film forward and their ability to give their characters nuance that makes them interesting. It’s far from a one-joke or one-note film, which is saying a lot considering the concept. There are times when the film delivers incredibly awkward moments thanks to some on-the-line humor about being blind and others when it delivers a considerable amount of heart and delight. What matters most is that these three characters are worthy of our time. And thanks to a cast that knows exactly what they are doing and a director smart enough to let them do it, that’s exactly what we get with My Blind Brother.
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