Preview: “America: The Motion Picture”

This could be amusing or insufferable — but I have a sneaking suspicion I will be laughing like an inebriated hyena throughout most of it. Thank you, Netflix, for the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sequel I didn’t know I needed.

The logline: “In this wildly tongue-in-cheek animated revisionist history, a chainsaw-wielding George Washington assembles a team of rabble rousers — including beer-loving bro Sam Adams, famed scientist Thomas Edison, acclaimed horseman Paul Revere, and a very pissed off Geronimo — to defeat Benedict Arnold and King James in the American Revolution. Who will win? No one knows, but you can be sure of one thing: these are not your father’s Founding… uh, Fathers.”

The voice talent: Channing Tatum as George Washington; Jason Mantzoukas as Samuel Adams; Olivia Munn as Thomas Edison (well, why not?); Bobby Moynihan as Paul Revere; Judy Greer as Martha Washington; Will Forte as Abraham Lincoln; Raoul Max Trujillo as Geronimo; Killer Mike as Blacksmith; Simon Pegg as King James; Andy Samberg as Benedict Arnold.

My Top 10 of 2013

To begin, as I do every year, with my standard disclaimer: This may be my list of the Top 10 Movies of 2013 – but it’s not necessarily a rundown of the year’s 10 Best Movies. Because, quite frankly, I haven’t seen every single movie released anywhere during the past 12 months. But this most certainly is a list of my favorite films to open in U.S. theaters in 2013.

(To be sure, at least one hasn’t yet opened in a Houston theater – but it will, soon.)

These are, of course, purely arbitrary and totally subjective choices. And I’ll freely admit that, a decade or so hence, I might look back on the following lineup and want to make additions or deletions. At this point in time, however, I can honestly state these are the 2013 releases that impressed me most. And best. So there.

Why is this year’s list different from previous lists? Well, it’s a funny thing: While compiling these titles, I found that they more or less naturally divided themselves into pairs. Kinda-sorta like the animals Noah led onto the ark. Or like my Top 10 list of 2006, which really was a Top 20. If there still were such a thing as the revival house circuit, these would be five terrific double features. 

Nebraska and Inside Llewyn Davis – The year’s most melancholy and bleakly funny road movies. In Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, a dutiful son (beautifully played by Will Forte) tries to better understand, or at least bond with, his willfully unknowable father (Bruce Dern) during a long-distance drive that ends in disappointment, followed by a quietly moving moment of grace. In Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, a self-absorbed and (apparently) second-rate early-‘60s folk singer (Oscar Isaac) is repeatedly impeded by his bad decisions and worse attitude, and winds up discovering after a long auto trip that, sometimes, you can’t move far or fast enough to get from where you’re stuck.

American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street – A double dose of adrenaline rushes, explosively funny and exhilaratingly entertaining, and all the more gobsmacking for being based on real-life events. David O. Russell’s American Hustle is a bold and brassy dark comedy about con artists eager to deceive everyone, even themselves, and the fine art of making people believe what they really want to believe, even when they should know better. Martin Scorsese’s marathon Wolf of Wall Street traces the rise (to dizzying heights) and fall (to impermanent and not-so-terrible depths) of a self-made wheeler-dealer, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio, in the performance of his career so far), whose insatiable appetites – for more money, more women, more drugs – fuel his frenzied pursuit of success and excess. Some folks have chided Scorsese for not explicitly condemning Belfort’s bad behavior. (Like, we poor dumb lugs watching the film really need to be told: Hey, kids, don’t try this at home.) My gut response to both films: Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Gravity and Hours – The clock ticks, the tension mounts, the audience sweats. Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, a thrillingly spectacular existential adventure, focuses on a lost-in-space astronaut (Sandra Bullock, never better) who has no reason to survive, and will do so only if she chooses to. Eric Heisserer’s Hours, a smartly crafted small-budget indie drama, focuses on a desperate father (Paul Walker, exceptionally fine in one of his final roles) who struggles to keep his prematurely born child alive in an evacuated New Orleans hospital in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The Great Gatsby and Tim’s Vermeer – Two very different tales of obsession – one deliriously romantic, the other meticulously schematic, both uniquely fascinating. In Baz Luhrman’s audaciously stylized take on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Leonardo DiCaprio affectingly plays the flip side of his Wall Street Wolf, a man who pursues wealth only as a means to an end – i.e., to recapture the elusive object of his desire. In Penn & Teller’s documentary Tim’s Vermeer (set to open wide in January after Oscar-qualifying runs in New York and L.A.), a San Antonio inventor named Tim Jenison sets out to prove his theories about 17^th-century painter Johannes Vermeer by replicating one of the Dutch Master’s masterpieces. Much like Jay Gatsby, he goes to extremes, for a very simple reason: He can.
   

This is the End and The World’s End – Apocalypse winningly played for laughs, with surprisingly serious undercurrents. For all of its free-wheeling and foul-mouthed hilarity, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s This is the End  is the most weirdly sincere religious-themed movie since The Rapture. (And, mind you, I mean that as a compliment.) Meanwhile, Edgar Wright’s The World’s End – the latest gem from the guys who gave us Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead – persuasively insists that life as a delusional, struck-in-the-past under-achiever is preferable to a life as an extraterrestrial-enhanced mutant with all human frailties smoothed away. Or something like that.

Ten Runners-up: Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, The Sapphires, 12 Years a Slave, One PM Central Standard Time, Fruitvale Station, Medora, Herblock: The Black & The White, LUV and In a World…

Guiltiest Pleasure of 2013: Big Ass Spider!

Best Movie of 2013 That Hasn’t Yet Opened in Theaters: The Retrieval.

Worst Movie of 2013: Movie 43.

I Stand Alone: While fully realizing I am in a tiny minority, I still feel The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was much funnier than its critical reception would indicate. But, hey, I kinda-sorta liked MacGruber, too, so what do I know?

Live from Houston: Nebraska star Will Forte remembers Saturday Night Live

Whenever I speak with an alumnus of Saturday Night Live -- especially a recent graduate of the show -- I find it difficult, if not impossible, to refrain from asking a question or two about their experiences as a member of the comic ensemble that old fogeys like me still call the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. So when Will Forte appeared a few weeks ago at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival for a screening of Nebraska -- which, not incidentally, is my favorite movie of 2013 so far -- I couldn't help myself.

Fortunately, Forte is a gracious gentleman as well as a great comedy-sketch artist -- and, as you'll see in Nebraska, an exceptionally fine actor -- so he indulged me. We talked a great deal about his movie for CultureMap.com. But we also shared some words about SNL, which I will share with you.   

Did you ever see Saturday Night, James Franco's documentary about a typical week of production for Saturday Night Live?

Oh, sure. Definitely.

Because the movie makes a point that many other folks often raise regarding SNL: Viewers always think the best cast in the show's history is the one they saw when they first watched the show. Which means, I guess, is that by the time you were cast as part of the ensemble, you weren't just worried about comparisons to John Belushi or Chevy Chase or Dan Aykroyd. You were standing on the shoulders of several giants.

It is really interesting to see the different waves. Because I was born in 1970. And when I was just a kid, I watched the beginnings of SNL. I would watch it for Mr. Bill – but I would also see the other stuff. And when I got older, I loved the Eddie Murphy era – I was such an Eddie fan. And every step of the way, there was a new cast that I would love.

Of course, you’re right: I always looked back to that original cast as, well, there would be no show without them. And they were untouchable. I don’t say that to demean any of the other casts, because there have been so many other wonderful, wonderful casts. And I have so many comedy heroes that come from each era.

And now you are viewed as a comic hero by other people. It reminds me of the final part of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, when the son of one of the earthlings who colonized Mars asks his father to show him some Martians. So dad takes him down to the river, and tells him to look at his reflection -- to show him, in effect, "Hey, we are Martians now."

Well, when I came in, it was right after Will Ferrell had left. And I had been such a huge Will Ferrell fan. There were still some wonderful people there. But he had been such a major part of that show, and now the show seemed to be searching for its new identity. And there were a couple years there when it seemed like people were down on the show.

But when that influx of new blood came in, with Bill [Hader] and Andy [Samberg] and Jason [Sudeikis] and Kristen [Wiig], we really started to jell together. You could just feel this new identity forming. I could still sense a lot of criticism of the show. But it didn’t matter to me because I was really proud of it. And you could feel the tide starting to turn -- people starting to catch on a little bit, giving us a chance. And then when people are finally OK with it again – everybody leaves.

So it’s interesting now to read things where people are going like: “Oh, this is nothing like the Bill Hader days!” But it’s just the natural ebb and flow of the show. Because that show is in really good hands right now. These new people are fantastic. And it’s going to be fun to see the identity that they create. And it seems like people are very optimistic, which is great. So I hope they get the benefit of the doubt. Because it’s really exciting to see what path the show is going to take. There’s always an element that’s similar, because there’s that same structure. But it’s different at the same time.

It’s interesting, though, what you said about the Martians. Because the first several years I was there, I – I don’t know how to describe it, but, yeah, I was very nervous. It’s like coming into this Nebraska situation. I was telling myself: “What an honor it is to be here. Don’t ruin these wonderful heroes of mine. Don’t take their show and ruin it.” So I felt this pressure.

And I realize I put pressure on myself. This show was very special to me even before I got there. That’s why it’s such a unique place. It’s been there so long that people feel an ownership over it, you know? The fans feel an ownership. So it was interesting to get in there and – well, for a couple of years, I didn’t really feel like I was part of the show. I felt like, oh, I’m just kind of in here. But then I got to a certain point, and I got to this place – a really exciting place – where I felt, “Hey, you know what? I’m on freakin’ Saturday Night Live. I’m part of this thing. I’m part of the history of this thing, for good or for bad. And no matter what you think of me as a fan of the show – I got to do this. I got to be here. What a unique opportunity.”

I look back at my time on that show as, it was my dream job coming into comedy – and I got to do my dream job. And I have nothing but wonderful, wonderful memories. Everyone should be so lucky as to do their dream jobs.

MacGruber does not suck

I feel slightly relieved to see that, according to Movie Review Intelligence, I am not the only critic who thought MacGruber was pretty damn funny. Full disclosure: I laughed until I was thoroughly ashamed of myself when I caught a "work in progress" version of the flick last spring at SXSW -- even though I'm not at all a fan of the Saturday Night Live sketches that "inspired" it -- and it struck me as equally amusing when I saw an officially  "complete" (albeit mostly unchanged) version at a Houston screening Thursday night. Indeed, I still can't understand why the folks at Rogue Picture wimped out and refused to screen the movie any earlier for critics who hadn't made the trek to Austin in March. Were they... oh, I don't know... afraid of getting bad reviews? My, what a quaint notion.