50/50 Review

By: T.J. “No one likes putting a dick in their mouth” Mulligan

We’re all going to die.  This is not news to anyone, let alone those with enough cognitive capacity to access the internet and read a review for a movie about cancer.  In fact, the internet has done much to alter our views of death.  Not only do we know that we will one day croak, but we can obsess over every little ailment we suffer because the internet links it as a symptom to some fatal disease.  Got a headache?  It could be a brain tumor.  Got a stomach ache?  Could be a bowel obstruction.  Feeling fatigued and nauseous all the time?  Could be HIV.  Maybe we’re too informed these days, but having these multitude of diseases constantly in our collective conscious allows us to view them more often in lighter terms.  This is what we get in 50/50, a sympathetic-yet-humorous look at a subject that epitomizes the term deadly serious.

50/50 is about Adam Lerner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a man in his twenties living and working in Seattle.  He has a seemingly dependable but distant girlfriend, Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), a less-than-mature but loyal best friend, Kyle (Seth Rogen) and a parental unit made up of an overbearingly concerned mother (Anjelica Huston) and a father (Serge Houde) suffering from Alzheimer’s.  In short order, Adam is diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer and must begin chemotherapy immediately in order to fight it.  Adam breaks the news to those closest to him, each dealing with it in their own unique way, and is forced to deal with it himself, both on a physical and mental level.  Along the way he meets new people who try to help him cope - such as psychiatrist-in-training Katie (Anna Kendrick) and two older cancer patients, Alan (Phillip Baker Hall) and Mitch (Matt Frewer) - and learns who he can truly lean on when he loses faith in everyone, even himself.

In the last few years Joseph Gordon-Levitt has arrived as an acting force in Hollywood, proving his chops time and again in works like Brick, (500) Days of Summer and Inception.  This trend continues in 50/50, where he valiantly leads a remarkable cast.  While there isn’t a bad performance of note in the film, notable accolades belong to Seth Rogen, who reminds us how great he can be with the comedically meaty supporting role of Kyle, and Bryce Dallas Howard, who’s able to play the relatively stereotypical role of Adam’s objectionable significant other with a level of sincerity that makes the character pop (in other words, yes, I believe Opie’s little girl has broken her fair share of hearts).

The tone of the film is hard to pin down from scene to scene.  Considering the heaviness of the subject matter and the lightheartedness the comedy tries to implement, it’s not hard to see why this is the case.  Perhaps the biggest compliment to 50/50 is that it is never bogged down trying to make the audience feel one way or another.  There are moments meant to make you laugh, moments meant to make you sad, moments meant to make you quietly say “fuck yeah” or “fuck you” to yourself, but mostly they are open to audiences interpretation.  This fluidity of the tone makes for an interesting viewing experience as part of an audience, but gives it more of an individualized, personal touch.

As much as the ever-changing tone acts as a positive, however, it also acts as the films biggest negative as well.  As good as the film is, it doesn’t do much to lend itself to multiple viewings in my book.  The comedic moments are too infrequent and un-dynamic for it to make the list of go-to comedy titles and the drama falls a little too short of an ability to stick with the viewer strongly after watching (that is outside of one moment near the end which, fair warning, will probably result in some leaky eyes).

In all, 50/50 is a good film that happens to lack a few key elements that would make it anything more than that.

I give 50/50 3 electric trimmers (and attachments) out of 5.

Rear Window (1954) Review

By: T.J. “I don’t know how many times I chased down leads based on women’s intuition” Mulligan

If you’re like me you have a fairly active imagination.  You’re driving down the road and up ahead you see a medium-sized canvas bag.  Most likely it’s filled with clothes or something equally innocuous and haphazardly fell out or off of someone’s vehicle without them noticing.  But what if it’s something else, something more sinister.  Maybe it’s a bomb.  Maybe it’s filled with weapons and ammunition.  Maybe it’s a body (or pieces of a body).  You pass it as you keep going and likely forget about it only minutes later, dismissing it as something mundane and your brain as crazy for thinking otherwise.  But you never know, not unless you actually look harder and see the truth for yourself.  Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window plays on this sort of theme, letting plenty of time to think (and over-think) along with dashes of paranoia drive the actions of its characters.

Rear Window is about L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart), an action photographer who is laid up in his apartment with a broken leg suffered on the job.  Aside from occasional visits from his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) an his girl Lisa (Grace Kelly), Jeff is mainly left to himself, confined to his wheelchair with only the view of a courtyard through his rear window to keep him entertained.  Because of a recent heatwave, almost every window in view from Jeff’s apartment is open, allowing him to see in and view the activities of the different tenants.  One night, as rain is pouring down, he notices the man from the apartment directly across from his (Raymond Burr) venturing out frequently, taking a traveling sales bag with him each time.  The next day he realizes that the man’s wife (Irene Winston), who has been bedridden, is now nowhere to be found.  When Jeff spies the man cleaning a saw and knife, his mind becomes set: this man murdered his wife, and Jeff is going to prove it at least to himself.

If you’ve read some of my other Hitchcock reviews you’ll know that I’ve been slightly less than impressed with what I’ve seen of his thus far.  Not that I think he was bad at what he did, far from it, I just haven’t found most of the Hitchcock I’ve watched to be particularly engrossing.  That went out the proverbial rear window with this flick.  From the opening credit sequence I was hooked by the compelling plot, the classic performances and the brilliant camera work.  I’ve been waiting to see the “master of suspense” parlay that title into a work that fully entertains me as well and this is it.

The fact that the camera rarely moves from shots that are from Jeff’s apartment or of Jeff’s apartment adds an almost claustrophobic sense to the film.  It’s hard not to feel slightly cooped up, much like Jeff, just from seeing shots from the same perspective over and over, but it never feels stale or overdone.  Much admiration deserves to be heaped on Hitchcock’s D.P. Robert Burks conveying these feelings while always keeping the visuals fresh and exciting.

Outside of the ending, which felt extremely abrupt, this film had me at attention the whole time (though it’s hard not to be attentive when Grace Kelly is onscreen).

I give Rear Window 4 scratching sticks out of 5.

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy Review

By: Joshua “I don’t know about you George, but I’m feeling seriously under-fucked!” Richey

The spy film subgenre is as popular as it’s ever been thanks to films like Mission Impossible and The Bourne Identity; but it’s been a while since we’ve seen a good old fashioned spy film, a film that doesn’t involve car chases, well placed one-liners and beautiful women. Thomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is just that, an old school spy thriller that’s based off John le Carre’s 1974 novel. 

In the early 1970’s, Control (John Hurt) is forced to step down as the head of British Intelligence after a top secret mission to uncover an in house spy goes bad. George Smiley (Gary Oldman), Control’s protégé, is also forced out due to the mishap. Some years later, after Control’s death, Smiley is brought out of retirement to track down the mole, which is believed to be someone at the very top of MI6 and that is feeding information to the Soviets. George uses his mentor’s notes and the help of Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), an on the run agent that has been setup after stumbling upon information about the mole’s identity, to narrow the mole down to one of his four former colleagues: Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds) and Toby Esterhase (David Dencik).  One of these men are the mole, and it’s up to George and his assistant Peter (Benedict Cumberbatch) to track him down.

It’s important to know going in that Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is different from the spy films that we’ve grown used to seeing. Heck, even the film’s trailer makes it appear to be an action packed thriller that it just never is. Instead, it’s a dialogue driven chess match. While it’s still as captivating as anything that you would see in a James Bond film, there are those that will be turned off. (I noticed three people around me that were sound asleep not even 30 minutes into it) For those that can enjoy the slow build up, you’re in for a treat. TTSS has an incredible look, every scene shot with brilliant murky lighting that is topped off with the best efforts of an extraordinary cast. If you have it in you to enjoy substance over explosions, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is just right for you.

I give Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 4 chess pieces – a tinker, a tailor, a soldier and a spy — out of 5.