Bridesmaids of Frankenstein

Of all the movies released this summer, perhaps the one from which I knew the least of what to expect was Bridesmaids. Produced by Judd Apatow, Bridesmaids on the surface appears to differ from his usual brand of comedy. With a story focusing on women and marriage that would seem more at home in a traditional romantic setting, it's a huge leap from the usual guy-centered gross-out humor of Superbad and The 40-Year Old Virgin that we usually associate with the Apatow name. Director Paul Feig was another unknown, as his career to this point has been mostly in television, with episodes of The Office, Arrested Development and Nurse Jackie bearing his name. Tack on a cast of unproven talents, and Bridesmaids had every chance to be an underachieving Sex and the City knockoff, with less charm than the HBO show's best moments. Still, word of mouth and and humorous trailers paved the way for a my most anticipated May release, which reunited two former SNL cast-mates, current star Kristen Wiig and alumni Maya Rudolph as the maid of honor of her best friend, the bride.

Sketchy part of town? Perfect place for six white women

When her best friend is engaged to be married, Annie Walker (Wiig) is happy to accept the duties as maid of honor for her childhood friend Lillian (Rudolph). Having known each other since just about forever, Annie wants to be there for her best friend's big moment. However, Annie is going through a rough patch in her life; stuck in a dead-end job she hates, sharing an apartment with a weird British brother/sister combination, and in a loveless relationship with raging asshat Ted (Jon Hamm), the wedding (and all the celebratory events associated with it) is a scary change for someone who's near rock-bottom in their life, but one she's looking forward to. Things begin to spiral out of control, however, especially with the interference of bridesmaid Helen (Rose Byrne), who has it in her head that she's really Lillian's best friend and tries to take over the planning. Annie's low self-esteem due to all this threatens not only to ruin Lillian's wedding, but also their lifelong friendship in the process.

Shhhh... I'm trying to murder you with my heat vision...

The plot itself seems reliably mundane, which really lowers your guard to the laughs and amusement that accompany it. The gross humor you can expect in an Apatow production does make itself known, especially in a scene where the bridesmaids get food poisoning from a restaurant Annie chooses. But while that brand of scatalogical humor is expected in a film like this, it thankfully doesn't overpower the "other" funny bits that pop up throughout. Sure, the female anatomy jokes could be seen as a little uncomfortable and a lot of the dialogue can be vulgar, but the "vagina jokes" (as opposed to "dick jokes") feel authentic and foul language is also represented in a realistic fashion. It's all funny anyways, and you'll find something to laugh at no matter your gender, whether it be snickering at wry wit or howling at the raw physical humor..

Wiig re-negotiating her SNL contract

That level of funny is in part thanks to the stars and especially Wiig, who co-wrote the screenplay and provides many of the film's best-acted scenes. An every-woman, Annie has to show several sides, from the loving side around Lillian and general snarkiness to her wounded vulnerabilities and rock-bottom depression. Bridesmaids represents Wiig's best on-screen performance, and it does so partially because she doesn't try to play one of her usual eccentric-yet-entertaining personas. Annie's charm is in her likeness to the everyday single woman, and she comes off as honest and sympathetic to any viewers. Rudolph plays well off of Wiig's energies, and the two come off believably as best friends. Rudolph, who is a better actress than most people give credit, flows between the wedding jubilation and nervousness flawlessly. Byrne completes the Big Three with a great performance as the underhanded Helen, especially rewarding as the character doesn't play like a typical catty housewife. Despite being lauded as the film's "villain", Helen is no such thing, and the complexity of the character does so much to let the film go forward. Byrne has had a string of luck with roles this year, as she'll be aiming to be in her third major 2011 film when X-Men First Class comes out later this summer.

No, I didn't eat your Ring Pop; why do you ask?

It's a shame the secondary characters don't get quite as much love as the main trio of stars. Reno 911's Wendy McLendon-Covey and The Office's Ellie Kemper play other bridesmaids but despite getting some quality dialogue and depth, nothing is really done with them. I wouldn't think it was so bad if they hadn't started to go down some interesting roads with these two parts, only to fizzle out about halfway through. The guys of the film also don't get much attention, though that is done intentionally and in a positive way that focuses on the women's characters. Though the roles of Hamm as Annie's dickhead lover and Chris O'Dowd as her speculative beau are relatively small, both put on good shows with what they have. O'Dowd is an underrated performer who may garner more attention from this film, but I'm especially impressed with Hamm, who continually chooses varying roles to increase his range as an actor. Who knows how long Mad Men will remain on television, and it's obvious that he's getting ready to make it on his own. Jill Clayburgh is another underutilized actress, as I thought her role as Annie's mom also had potential but didn't do much overall. The best of the secondary characters however is played by Melissa McCarthy. McCarthy plays Megan, sister of the groom and the most hilarious of the bridesmaids, and brings with her the best and raunchiest dialogue and laughs. She also shows herself to be remarkably sensitive, and in this way her character doesn't overpower the film, as she is never overused to the point of boredom.

If not Fab Four... Significant Six? Doesn't quite feel the same...

I was a little annoyed that several scenes presented in the trailer never made their way into the movie's finished product, a sin every major film commits to some degree but one that in this case left me mercifully unprepared for the jokes when they hit. Bridesmaids manages to feel like it left a lot out while still coming in at over two hours, but for not one moment during the runtime was I bored or unamused while sitting in the theater. A truly wonderful film about friendship that takes a more blue-collar approach to the same ideas put forth by SatC, Bridesmaids places at #5 for 2011. I really, really, REALLY liked this film, and while some might be surprised that I'd even be interested in seeing it, I would recommend it to any choosing to abstain from the big-budget visual porn that comes to theaters this summer, but don't want the rampant stupidity of the Something Borrowed set.

Hometown Team

Ben Affleck might have finally discovered his calling. In recent years, Boston has become a haven for crime movies, from 2003's Mystic River to 2006's The Departed to little-seen 2008's What Doesn't Kill You, Hollywood seems to have become entranced by Boston's criminal history and the kinds of stories that affords. Affleck even got in on the act, making his directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone, overseeing a stellar cast including Amy Ryan, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, and little brother Casey Affleck. As director, Affleck drew on his experiences growing up in Boston to tell the story to the best of his ability, using the same instincts that made him such a star in the first place. Just the latest part of his Hollywood reboot after failing for so many years to be taken seriously by movie audiences, it's almost as though retreating to his roots is what finally saved his career.

Don't look don't look don't look, aw crap

When I first saw the trailer for The Town I was spellbound, my mind still processing what it had seen through my eyes. Not only was the film based in my home city, but in areas I was actually familiar with, as filming had taken place mere minutes from my apartment. On top of that, the film looked AMAZING, with another all-star cast and crew stepping up and putting together one of the more anticipated films this year.

Ben's about to put a beat-down on ya

Based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Massachusetts native Chuck Hogan, The Town introduces us to former pro-hockey prospect and lifetime criminal Doug MacRay, played by Ben Affleck, right as he and his crew of ne'erdowells begin their robbery of a bank in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts (in an area, Harvard Square, that I often frequent). After completely catching everyone by surprise, the gang is methodical in their execution of this endeavor; They almost routinely secure the bank employees, destroy the security footage, and calmly disable the guards while getting the bank's manager (Rebecca Hall) to open the safe so they can loot the contents. Afterwards, in a move not normally carried out by their crew, Jem (Jeremy Renner) decides to take the manager hostage to guarantee their escape, and the crew eventually drops her off when they are sure they've gotten away safely. The crew, despite being upset with Jem for taking such an unnecessary risk, believes they've gotten off scot free. The FBI has no leads, the manager didn't see anything to identify them, and they're already getting ready for the next job. But when the crew discovers that Claire, the manager, lives mere blocks away from their native Charlestown homes, Doug volunteers to get close to her to find out whether she knows enough to finger them for the crime.

Let's talk about Lucky Strikes...

What the film probably does best is in the use of it's rich characters. Doug is a lifetime petty criminal who once had a chance to get out of this town of malcontents when he was drafted to the NHL, but frittered away that opportunity. Now he's pretty much stuck in a perpetual rut, looking for a way out of this criminal career before he ends up like his father (Chris Cooper), a permanent resident of federal prison. After his mother left when Doug was a child, he's really had no choice but to follow the example of the few authority figures in his life: his father, lifelong friend Jem (whose family took him in when Doug's father was pinched), and local mobster Fergie the Florist (Pete Postlethwaite) who's at least partially based on real-life Boston mobster Whitey Bulger. Jem is also a great character, a sociopathic thug with little to no morals outside of his closest friends who will shoot anyone who gives him or his family (blood or otherwise) a hard time. And many of the others are well thought out deep characters, no mere cliches of personalities.

Stop it! Your name is NOT Serena!

As the two friends, Affleck and Renner have amazing chemistry. Though Affleck would probably be run out of town if he couldn't pull off a local accent, but he's also charming and disarming as Doug, who falls head over heels for his target and wants more than ever to get out of this livelihood. Renner is the real prize, however, a local with no ambitions to leave his current situation, a thug of the highest order who seems to get a rush out of a successful heist. What's best about the character is his obvious concern for Doug, who he practically considers a brother. It allows you to connect and feel sympathetic with this character, who otherwise might be a simple bad guy. Speaking of bad guys, the obvious villains in this drama are the FBI investigating the string of bank and armored car heists carried out by this crew. Out in front is Special Agent Adam Frawley (John Hamm), who acts as the main antagonist to Doug's potential freedom. Hamm is quite engaging here, and here manages to maintain a relative sloppiness in comparison to his Mad Men character. There's not so much grace to Frawley, with a perpetual five-o'clock shadow and a hangdog look to his eyes that suggests years of futility and frustration. He's one surprise in the cast based on his limited work elsewhere, the other is Blake Lively as Jem's sister, an oxy-addicted single mother stuck in Charlestown and also with romantic aspirations with Doug. This is no Gossip Girl variation, she plays a character different from any she's played before, and does it WELL, which is probably more than anyone expected of her. Cooper is good, though his role is limited to a couple of small scenes. His character is based on the no-snitch people you read about, the ones who refuse to rat out their buddies to avoid jail time. Hall is good but it's sad to think that her role is almost nonessential come the second act of the film. She does play a part, but the story becomes more a three-way Doug-Jem-Frawley battle for supremacy and while Hall's character is supposed to be in the middle, it doesn't always feel that way. She does do a good job conveying the psychological side of someone who's survived mental trauma, and she's so many light years ahead of her performance in the largely overrated Vicky Christina Barcelona that the London actress finally seems to be making a name for herself as a legitimate actress.

Is another Oscar nomination far in this man's future?

The story is rife with thrills and suspense. There's no real MYSTERY to this tale, only to how Doug will finally escape Charlestown and the same fate as his father. It is very compelling, though, as you find yourself rooting for Doug to not get caught, to be with Claire, to escape Frawley and Jem and Fergie and the whole mess that comes with the territory. On top of that, as a Boston resident I was thrilled with every scene where I recognized the locale from my own strolls down these streets. Any local must feel something different when a film is shot and based in Boston, as sometimes based in Boston means shot in Toronto. But the Boston location means so much more to me, and means I'm even more into what's happening perhaps than people who don't live here, or haven't grown up here. It's simply a thrill and privilege to think my city contributed in some way to this story being told.

"Yeah, I've been knocking over banks for years."

The Town, despite being poorly-named, is an amazing film with great characters holding the story together. Perfectly captured by one of Boston's own, it's one of the best Boston-based films. More down to earth than The Departed and with better characters than Gone Baby Gone, The Town is subtle, nuanced, smart, edgy, and thrilling, and totally deserving to be my new #3 for the 2010. After all these years, Affleck has learned how to do good, and he came home to do it. He makes this town proud.

Yeah, you don't want to be on their bad side