A Mr. Anderson Double Feature: Silent House & Friends With Kids

I took this past week off from work, tired and worn down from the stresses of a job that sucks forty hours of life from you on a good week. I'm sure you all know the feelings that can sometimes accompany that, even if it's a job you absolutely love. Sometimes you just need to take time off, even if you don't plan to go anywhere or see anyone. Since this is me we're talking about, that meant watching movies. Some TV and video games, certainly, but mostly movies. Because I DID see so much, and because I don't need (or want) a two week buffer for potential reviews, I thought I'd take this opportunity to look at two of the titles I saw last week: the supernatural horror film Silent House and the romantic comedy Friends With Kids.

Silent House is a remake of the Uruguayan horror film La Casa Muda, originally released in 2010. Olsen Twins reject Elizabeth Olsen plays Sarah, a young woman who is helping her father repair their worn down old lakeside summer home in hopes of selling it. While exploring the house, Sarah hears something making noise upstairs, and her father disappears while investigating. What follows is Sarah doing being hunted by something in the house, and her trying to escape whatever it might be. But the closer she gets to freedom, the closer the house's secrets get to revealing themselves to the world.

One of the main draws for seeing Silent House is of course Olsen, who impressed many with her debut in last year's Martha Marcy May Marlene to the tune of several industry awards and nominations. While Silent House does have multiple characters, they do little but provide a backdrop for Olsen, who really proves that her success last year was no fluke. While there's little at first for Sarah to do besides creep from room to room, it is that steady deliberation that makes you fully appreciate Olsen's performance as a modern-day scream queen. And as her character slowly develops over the course of the film, you garner respect for just how deep her role really is.

That tank top is otherworldly.

Unfortunately, directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (who were the creators of the popular 2003 film Open Water) can't seem to make this great short story idea run properly over the length of a full feature film. The film's main gimmick (and it IS a gimmick) is that it is meant to look like the entire tale is shot in one continuous take, with no breaks or sudden shot changes. The fact that much of the film actually looks like it easily follows this formula is impressive, though in the mostly-dark house there are several times when the directors could have stopped the cameras without anyone noticing. More impressive is during the film's many slow moments, when it is far more difficult to get away with cutting off your shots. I don't know how much the directors had to get JUST RIGHT, but their technical prowess is all but unquestioned when you consider the impressive look of the final product.

Okay, NOW she looks a bit more like her sisters...

The story however... Kentis and Lau do an amazing job building tension as Sarah moves from room to room, but all that work is worthless if you don't let some of that out from time to time. True to the film's slow pacing, the tale doesn't feel as though it's going anywhere, and when it does, we've seen it coming a mile away. With the exception of a few small scares, there's also not much frightening going on, with the film in the end taking on a more psychological thriller aspect that changes the whole makeup of what I thought I was watching. Silent House is utterly a disappointment; an excellent performance by Olsen utterly sabotaged by a predictable script and a distinct lack of scares.

On the flip side of that equation is Friends with Kids, my new #1 film for 2012. I feel kind of bad cramming this film into a double feature review, and I hope this doesn't go unnoticed down here as the film likely will be in the outside world. Written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt (who also co-wrote and acted in 2001's Kissing Jessica Stein, but is probably best known for her relationship with John Hamm), the film tells the story of best friends Julie and Jason (played by Westfeldt and Piranha 3D and Parks and Recreations star Adam Scott) who, in their thirties and wanting children, don't want to fall into the traps that have befallen their married friends. After stating that having children would not change things, their friends seem eternally miserable with their lives and marriages after having their kids. As neither Julie nor Jason have found "The One", they decide they will have a baby themselves, sharing equal responsibilities for raising their child while dating other people, thus avoiding the relationship drain from which their friends suffer.

"So, there are no cameras, right?" "Sure."

A lot of the marketing buzz surrounding this release focused on a reunion of sorts, with much of the cast of last year's sensation Bridesmaids returning together to the big screen once again. Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Hamm and Chris O'Dowd all do excellent work together as couples who go from happy-go-lucky to miserable with the difficulties of child rearing introduced to their lives, but any going to see this film with the expressed intention of seeing these actors in action will be disappointed: this is Westfeldt and Scott's show all the way. Jason and Julie are those friends you know (or maybe have been part of): they live in the same apartment building, they've been friends with one another since just about forever, know everything there is to know about one another, have secret games they play constantly, and mesh on just about every level you can imagine with perfect ease. They're also the friends who aren't attracted to one another in the slightest and you CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY, since it's obvious that together they'd make the perfect couple. For their part, Westfeldt and Scott put forth two of the best performances I've seen so far in 2012, their motivations and characteristics feeling more like those of living, breathing, and thinking human beings than you ever see in typical Hollywood fare. Westfeldt is incredibly sweet and brilliant as Julie, and Scott is roguish and charming as Jason, the actors succeeding in making both characters impeccably likable and easy for the audience to relate to.

They're just angry that I ended a sentence with a preposition.

The secondary cast does get some opportunities to hog screen time, but anyone hoping for the hilarity of Bridesmaids should be reminded that Melissa McCarthy was one of the main reasons that film's humor margin was set so highly, and she's nowhere to be found in Friends With Kids. Also missing from this film is the low-brow level of smart humor that made Bridesmaids a widely-revered modern classic. Instead Friends with Kids prides itself on being merely incredibly smart, with only a few poop jokes present (there are diapers, after all) while the main focus of the film is the dialogue concerning adult relationships and how children affect that dynamic. Both couples (consisting of Wiig with Hamm and Rudolph with O'Dowd) have their issues, but Wiig and Hamm seem eternally miserable being around one another, while Rudolph and O'Dowd still seem affectionate even while they're shouting at each other. The few times the film actually focuses on these pairs are wonderful moments; it's a shame the filmmakers couldn't fit them in a bit more to diversify the story a tad. Other notable performances come from Edward Burns as a divorcee and Megan Fox (!) as a modern dancer, both of whom are considered "The Ones" by Julie and Jason respectively. Burns does some of his best work in years, and while Fox really only manages to play herself, she is still tons better than anything else in which I've actually seen her.

Scarier than any part of Silent House.

The only detraction I can come up with for Friends With Kids is that the romantic comedy storyline is still too normal and predictable to fully get behind. If it wasn't for the excellent performance of the cast, especially Westfeldt and Scott, this could easily have flopped into forgettable territory, even in a year when great films seem to be a true rarity. Instead, this is a success for first time director Westfeldt, who creates a nice twist for a classic story, much like the one by the late Adrienne Shelly in 2007's Waitress. It might not be as raunchy as Bridesmaids before it, but Kids With Friends would be well worth hunting down even if there were viable alternatives in the world of cinema right now.

3-D For a New Generation

If you've been reading The Latest Issue in the past few months (and thanks to those who have; since Blogspot started tracking pageviews in July we're almost at 2000 hits from all over the planet!), you've probably seen comments from my good friend Brian over at Moving Picture Trash, insisting that Piranha 3D
is in fact the number one film this year. Since I had intended to see this anyway, why not take Brian up on his challenge, and see if this film qualifies?

Piranha 3D is something of a throwback, an old-school monster movie with new-school special effects. It's the second remake the original Piranha, which was released back in 1978, and the first in the franchise to use 3D technology, though the 3D had to be done in post-production due to the inability to film 3D underwater. It manages to hearken back to the heyday of classic B-style films, replete with humor, gore, and humorous gore. It all begins when a rare earthquake hits the town of Lake Victoria, and the resulting shock opens up a hidden underwater cavern which had been hidden for centuries beneath the earth's crust. When this underwater lake blends with the existing above-ground lake of Lake Victoria (for whom the town was named), it brings with it thousands of meat-eating, flesh-ripping denizens that immediately cause problems for the local town, especially since they're unlikely to get the lake, which has been overrun by college students on spring break, evacuated.

The film actually boasts an impressive ensemble cast, with Elizabeth Shue, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfus (in a nod to Jaws, the movie Piranha originally parodied) as an unexpected cast of big-name stars who have large roles in the film. Other roles go to Steve McQueen's grandson Steven R. McQueen, Gossip Girl's Jessica Szohr, Kelly Brook, Desperate Housewives' Ricardo Chiavara, Eli Roth, Adam Scott, Dina Meyer and Jerry O'Connell. For the most part, these actors get the job done and the film is actually well-acted (odd for a b-caliber film like this to have decent acting), even if the roles are mostly cliched or one-noted. For instance, Christopher Lloyd plays a marine biologist who acts pretty much like Doc Brown from over  twenty years ago. Shue is a classic determined sheriff, albeit one who cares for her kids. McQueen is the normal teenager, aching to be out from under the responsibilities of his family and crushing on Szohr. Scott is a seismologist who investigates the earthquake and discovers the deadly piranhas. Rhames is a bad-ass deputy (I'm almost certain there's a clause in every contract Ving Rhames signs that he must be a bad-ass). And O'Connell is an eccentric pornographic director with Brook as one of his actresses. This ensemble is well-cast and good to play these one-note characters. Okay, the husky Chiavara might be a stretch to play a scuba diver, as he doesn't seem to have the body type, but I'll give him credit for getting off the set of Housewives long enough to play his role.

The special effects are actually quite good, with the post-production 3D doing a really good job of pulling you into the scenes. Surprisingly, the best effects are the underwater scenes, where the cloudiness of the water actually makes the 3D pop better than I think even the filmmakers anticipated.The 3D above water was still impressive, but the more I watched the film I can't help but wonder whether 3D was simply a tool used to draw audiences into the theaters, as there seems to be little point to actually having 3D in this film.Except for a few scare moments, there's few points where the 3D is used very effectively, as most of them are just lame attempts to make the audience feel like something is coming right at them. It's old-school 3D tech use, and while it's a nod to the original 3D scare films, it can't help but feel lame here.

If there's one thing most people came to see, it's the blatantly over-the-top gore that happens when these fish go ape-$#!^ crazy, and when that happens in the final act of the film,.it's a crescendo of shredded wounds, flailing body parts, and exposed bone. Sometimes the violence is almost cartoonish and hilarious in it's implementation, other times it's difficult to watch, especially certain appendages chewed up and spit out (in 3D no less). While much of the death is meted out as standard fare, we're occasionally treated to truly imaginative scenarios, one involving parasailing, another involving a boat propeller. The producers didn't skimp on the fake blood for this one, and it definitely pays off in the end.

Okay, if there was one MORE thing that people came to see, it's the copious amounts of T&A that the film brings in to populate this Spring Break destination town. If there's one thing that might outnumber the piranha population of Lake Victoria, it's the nubile female bodies and litter the beach and swim in the lake. It's almost too bad they can't weaponize sexuality as a weapon against these particular fish (note to potential screenwriters, if you use this idea I want a writing credit) but it was never meant to be more than a one-sided battle. There are various shots of cleavage (in 3D no less) and that doesn't stop even when the blood starts flowing. Heck, O'Connell as the horndog director he is seems like merely an angle to have British actress Kelly Brook and real-life porn star Riley Steele engage in a nude underwater dance scene.It's blatant, but just like the classic use of 3D it's also a throwback, though one that's weathered the test of time better than hackneyed 3D use.

The one thing I disliked about this film was a problem I've had with horror films in the past, children in danger. Am I the only one who didn't care for Elizabeth Shue's two children who end up stranded on a small island after being bribed by their brother (played by McQueen) to stay in the house since he's supposed to be babysitting. I'll give it to this movie for actually making me believe for an instant that these kids were actually in danger of being piranha food, but I should have known better. More cheap gimmickry seems to be the case here, no surprise.

Piranha 3D is a classic monster flick which thankfully doesn't need 3D as it's defining characteristic, as the film would have been just as enjoyable without it. This is true for most of the 3D films being released this year, as the importance of this technology seems to have become grossly overstated, more so than the hype of Avatar, the film that re-spawned the gimmick. Though some parts were only watchable through a shade of my fingers, I couldn't help but enjoy myself at this screening. It will mostly appeal to guys (if anyone out there got their girlfriends to see it with them, I guarantee that 1. They owed you a favor, 2. They didn't speak to you a week or more afterward, or 3. You have the best girlfriend ever) due to all the blood and sex, and while I feel bad about knocking The Crazies off the list, I have to give it up to Piranha 3D for being the best monster movie this summer, and the #9 spot on my Top 10 List. Brian will almost certainly disagree, but while it's not the best movie of the year, I enjoyed it, and I think most like-minded people would too.