romantic comedy

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: funny, poignant, original and profoundly authentic

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Photo caption: Renate Reinsve in THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. Courtesy of NEON.

One of the very Best Movies of 2022 is finally available to watch at home. In writer-director Joachim Trier’s masterpiece The Worst Person in the World, Julie (Renate Reinsve) is roaring through her life like a locomotive in search of tracks. She’s a medical student until she isn’t, having decided that her passion is psychology instead. Then, she’s convinced her avocation is photography. Each career plunge is accompanied by a new hairstyle and a new boyfriend. She’s charming and talented – and completely restless and unreliable. Surely she can’t keep up this pace of self-reinvention forever, can she?

Julie falls in love with Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) a graphic novelist in his forties, and settles into a dead end retail job in a bookstore and a role as the young companion of a literary figure. Rocking a black cocktail dress for an event celebrating Aksel, she sneaks out and crashes another party. There, she meets the barista Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), and they flirt, after deciding not to cheat on their partners.

Is Julie going to dump Aksel and break up Eivind’s relationship? Real life is more complicated than that, and so is The Worst Person in the World, which maintains a profound authenticity through its moments of silliness, sexiness and poignancy.

I’ve been a huge fan of Trier, since his first feature Reprise, which I named the 4th best movie of 2005. I didn’t care for his well-crafted follow-up Oslo, August 31. But I’ve been strongly recommending his under-appreciated Louder Than Bombs. Reprise is available to stream on Amazon, and you can find the other two on many streaming platforms.

Famed director Howard Hawks said that a great movie has “three great scenes and no bad scenes.” There are no bad scenes in The Worst Person in the World, and Trier hits Hawk’s mark with the moments when:

  • Julie, on her 30th birthday, reflects on what her mother, grandmother and other female ancestors were doing when they were 30.
  • Julie and Eivind meet and share nonsexual intimacies – which is smolderingly sexy.
  • Time stands still for the rest of Oslo when Julie has the impulse to find Eivind again.

The title of the film does not refer to Julie; it’s a self-deprecating joke by another character, who is a good person himself.

Renate Reinsve is relentlessly appealing as Julie; Reinsve won the best actress award at Cannes. Lie (who starred in Reprise and Oslo, August 31) and Nordrum are also superb.

Technically, The Worst Person in the World is a romantic comedy, but it’s so smart, so authentic and so original, I can’t bring myself to describe it as such. The Worst Person in the World is Oscar-nominated both for Trier’s screenplay and for best international feature film. After an extremely limited year-end Oscar qualifying run and a couple of weeks in theaters in February, The Worst Person in the World can now be streamed from Amazon, Apple, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: funny, poignant, original and profoundly authentic

by
Photo caption: Renate Reinsve in THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. Courtesy of NEON.

In writer-director Joachim Trier’s masterpiece The Worst Person in the World, Julie (Renate Reinsve) is roaring through her life like a locomotive in search of tracks. She’s a medical student until she isn’t, having decided that her passion is psychology instead. Then, she’s convinced her avocation is photography. Each career plunge is accompanied by a new hairstyle and a new boyfriend. She’s charming and talented – and completely restless and unreliable. Surely she can’t keep up this pace of self-invention forever, can she?

Julie falls in love with Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) a graphic novelist in his forties, and settles into a dead end retail job in a bookstore and a role as the young companion of a literary figure. Rocking a black cocktail dress for an event celebrating Aksel, she sneaks out and crashes another party. There, she meets the barista Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), and they flirt, after deciding not to cheat on their partners.

Is Julie going to dump Aksel and break up Eivind’s relationship? Real life is more complicated than that, and so is The Worst Person in the World, which maintains a profound authenticity through its moments of silliness, sexiness and poignancy.

I’ve been a huge fan of Trier, since his first feature Reprise, which I named the 4th best movie of 2005. I didn’t care for his well-crafted follow-up Oslo, August 31. But I’ve been strongly recommending his under appreciated Louder Than Bombs. Reprise is available to stream on Amazon, and you can find the other two on many streaming platforms.

Famed director Howard Hawks said that a great movie has “three great scenes and no bad scenes.” There are no bad scenes in The Worst Person in the World, and Trier hits Hawk’s mark with the moments when:

  • Julie, on her 30th birthday, reflects on what her mother, grandmother and other female ancestors were doing when they were 30.
  • Julie and Eivind meet and share nonsexual intimacies – which is smolderingly sexy.
  • Time stands still for the rest of Oslo when Julie has the impulse to find Eivind again.

The title of the film does not refer to Julie; it’s a self-deprecating joke by another character, who is a good person himself.

Renate Reinsve is relentlessly appealing as Julie; Reinsve won the best actress award at Cannes. Lie (who starred in Reprise and Oslo, August 31) and Nordrum are also superb.

Technically, The Worst Person in the World is a romantic comedy, but it’s so smart, so authentic and so original, I can’t bring myself to describe it as such. This is one of the best movies of 2022. The Worst Person in the World is Oscar-nominated both for Trier’s screenplay and for best international feature film.

ON THE ROCKS: waste of talent

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Rashida Jones and Bill Murray in ON THE ROCKS

The inoffensive but unsatisfying On the Rocks, which can technically be described as a romantic comedy, wastes of the talents of Sofia Coppola, Bill Murry and Rashida Jones.

Laura (Rashida Jones) suspects that her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans), the striving CEO of a startup, is cheating on her. Her father Felix (Bill Murray), a worldly art dealer and serial womanizer, encourages her to stalk Dean, and propels them into increasingly crazy dad-daughter escapades.

The problem is that the suspicious wife plot is so tired that not even the considerable talents of Murray and Jones can make it sparkle. From Shakespeare through Howard Hawks to I Love Lucy, we’ve seen comedies based on mistaken perceptions, so we should expect SOME new element or nuance. This is, after all, from the writer-director of The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. The dad-daughter issues in On the Rocks just aren’t enough.

I did enjoy the character of Felix, for whom wordly is a gross understatement. Completely at home with the billionaire class, he also knows every cop, concierge and maître d’, and glides smoothly among all of them with charm and craftiness. He also can’t resist hitting on anybody without a visible Adam’s apple.

Murray is winning as Felix, but he can’t elevate the predictable screenplay. As we watched On the Rocks, I said to The Wife, “I’ve always said that I could watch Blil Murray reading the phone book, but this IS Bill Murray reading the phone book.”

On the Rocks is streaming on AppleTV.

BREAKING FAST: just another gay Muslim romantic comedy

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Haaz Sleiman and Michael Cassidy in BREAKING FAST. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

In Breaking Fast, successful physician Dr. Mo (Haaz Sleiman) is a practicing Muslim who is out to his family, friends and work colleagues; although he lives in West Hollywood, he’s not part of the gay club scene. He has a longtime boyfriend Hassan (Patrick Sabongui), and Mo’s most flamboyant behavior is scoring the best desserts from the local Middle Eastern bakery for family gatherings.

Hassan’s family is not so tolerant, and Hassan – buried deep in the closet – believes that he must enter a sham heterosexual marriage, which Mo cannot stomach, and they split. Then, Mo meets meets Kal (Michael Cassidy), sparks fly, and the audience recognizes that Kal is perfect for Mo. But Kal is neither Arab nor Muslim, and Mo is still obsessed with losing Hassan. A romantic dramedy ensues.

The term “Gay-rab” pops up. And there is a stereotypical Gay Best Friend, Sam (Amin El Gamal), who is so gay that his party features a gospel choir singing Happy Birthday.

Sleiman is an adorable lead, and the flawless main characters must navigate a straightforward conflict.

This is a first feature by writer-director Mike Mosallam. He delivers solid entertainment here, elevated with insights into the quandaries faced by LGBTQ Muslim-Americans. Authentic-seeming cultural glimpses in the lives of Arab-Americans, Muslim-Americans and LGBTQ LA are a bonus.

There’s even an effective cameo by Veronica Cartwright. BTW it’s good to see these Arab-American actors getting chance to play something other than terrorists on episodic TV.

Although the most striking aspect of Breaking Fast is its breaking ground on the topic of LGBTQ Muslims, we should note that it’s a romantic comedy about someone on his forties, which isn’t all that that common, either.

So, this is just another gay Muslim romantic comedy…I predict that Breaking Fast will become the Feel Good hit of the 2020 Cinequest. And I wouldn’t bet against Breaking Fast getting a shot at theatrical distribution. Cinequest hosts the world premiere of Breaking Fast.

LONG SHOT: to be remembered as minor Theron

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Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron in LONG SHOT

The romantic comedy Long Shot looked eminently skipable to me until I read Manohla Dargis’ NY Times review, which concluded that the unexpected pairing of Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen worked. We didn’t like it as much as Manohla did, but The Wife and I had a moderately good time.

Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen play folks who grew up next door to each other as kids. Twenty-five years later, he has gone on to become a talented muckraking journalist of minor note and uncertain employability. She has become the US Secretary of State and a presidential hopeful, a glamorous celebrity and the most powerful woman in the world. When their paths cross as adults, the Beauty and the Beast connect, sparks fly and comic stations ensue. The most biting gags send up Rupert Murdoch and Fox News.

The drop-dead-beautiful Theron, of course, won the Best Actress Oscar for playing the not-drop-dead-beautiful serial killer Aileen in Monster. She has also become cinema’s best action star (male or female) with Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde. But she’s also made two of the smartest comedies of the century in Young Adult and Tully, both times bravely playing an unsympathetic character. Long Shot is easily within her range, and she’s predictably excellent.

Rogen is always good in a comedy, and he’s fine here, too. Director Jonathan Levine previously directed two even better comedies, 50/50 and Warm Bodies.

This isn’t cinema for the ages, but Long Shot contains plenty of chuckles and several hard guffaws.

THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT: an amiable parable

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THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT

In the amiable comedy The Way You Look Tonight, Peter meets a woman through a dating app, but can’t find her again despite their connection and a torrid one-nighter.  Still yearning for his mystery flame, he dates a series of women, but remains unfulfilled.  Now, it’s hard to write about this movie without spoiling the hook, but let’s just say that he discovers that a group of people exist with a startling fictional condition.

Indeed, the two funniest sequences are when Peter finds out that he is the last human to find out about this condition and when he attends the support group for the afflicted (of COURSE they have one).

Nick Fink is appealing as Peter and the rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, especially the horde of actresses who play his dates.

Can someone get past appearance –  age, race, body type – to connect with a soul mate?  The Way You Look Tonight is actually a parable cloaked in a romantic comedy.  This is the first feature for writer-director John Cerrito.

Cinequest hosts the world premiere of The Way You Look Tonight

VANILLA: rich in character-driven humor

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Kelsea Bauman-Murphy and appendage in VANILLA

In the winning comedy Vanilla, Elliot (Will Dennis) is stuck in a regimented life of coding software, emerging from his apartment only for gym workouts and food.  Kimmie (Kelsea Bauman-Murphy) is a kookie free spirit, but she’s stuck, too, unable to fulfill her aspiration to become a stand-up comic.  Events conspire to lead the two into a three-day road trip from New York to New Orleans.  Kimmie pitches it to Elliot as a date.  But Elliot really sees the chance to reconnect in New Orleans with his ex-girlfriend Samantha, for whom he still pining. What could go wrong?

We have an odd couple on the road, so funny stuff happens – and this is a funny movie.  Naturally, the audience is waiting for the two to jump into bed together.  But Vanilla is fundamentally a portrait of these two people, both comfortable in their ruts.  Elliot is posing as an entrepreneur, and Kimmie is posing as a comedian-in-the-making; something is going to have to shake up these two so each can grow.  Kimmie seems utterly intrepid, but we learn that she can be paralyzed by self-consciousness, just like Elliot.

Vanilla is written and directed by its star, Will Dennis, in his first feature film.  It’s an impressive debut, rich in character-driven humor.

Dennis understands not to linger on a gag; (Yorgos Lanthimos should pay close attention to this).  Dennis has Elliot try to eat a beignet in a bayou tour boat; it only works because it’s the briefest of gags.    There’s a montage of bad would-be comics at an open mic night that is brilliant in its understanding of why they think they’re funny and why they’re not.  Dennis also works in a random encounter with America’s most earnest fish store guy (Lowell Landes).  And “Anyone ever tell you that you have a Natalie Portman thing going on?” becomes a very funny come-on line.

Dennis is very good as Elliot, subtly capturing his unease, judginess and pathetic obsession with Samantha.  Bauman-Murphy makes Kimmie’s kookiness, which could easily be annoying, lovable.

Jo Firestone is perfect as Elliot’s ex Samantha.   Firestone shows us a glimpse of why Elliot would fall for her, and then a massive dose of why she’s bad for him.  Let’s just say that I recognized Samantha (as a friend’s ex-girlfriend, not mine).

The satisfying ending of Vanilla is authentic, true to the characters and NOT what would be expected from a run-of-the-mill rom com.

Cinequest hosts the world premiere of Vanilla, where Silicon Valley audiences will appreciate Elliot’s delusion that his clunky app will go viral – if only users would spend enough time learning it.

JULIET, NAKED: okay rom com with a fresh premise

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Ethan Hawke, Rose Byrne and Chris Dowd in JULIET, NAKED

Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd sparkle in the affable romantic comedy Juliet, Naked. This rom com has a fresh premise – boy loses girl and finds her pursued instead by his lifelong idol. But the core of the film is, is it ever too late to jump start your life?

Annie (Byrne) lives what has become a very unsatisfying life in a British beach resort. Upon her father’s death, she returned to her hometown to help raise her little sister and the take over her father’s tiny museum. She fell in love with the local professor Duncan (O’Dowd), and they’ve been living together for over a decade. But now the sister is grown, she’s outgrown the museum, and the self-absorbed Duncan just doesn’t care about her opinions or her wants. She’s very unhappy – and it’s all sneaked up on her.

Duncan, on the other hand, is completely fulfilled by his obsessive fandom for the pop singer-songwriter Tucker Crow, who disappeared into seclusion twenty years ago. He’s filled a room of their apartment with Tucker Crowe memorabilia, and lives for the online discussions that he moderates discussions on his Tucker Crowe website. He derives status and gratification from being the world’s leading self-appointed authority on Tucker Crowe.  He is a major league bloviator.  In the movies, O’Dowd always seems so lovable; here, he;s successful in stretching himself into an unsympathetic character.

Tucker Crowe (Hawke), is living in an exile of self-loathing. Whereas Annie has settled for a life she no longer wants, Tucker has blown his life up with bad choices. After fathering several kids with several mothers – and abandoning them – he is now trying for redemption as the stay-at-home dad for his youngest, an eight-year-old boy. It turns out that one act of bad behavior in particular has – to him – discredited all his hit songs.

Rose Byrne and Chris Dowd in JULIET, NAKED

A turn of events lead to Annie kicking out Duncan, and Annie and Tucker – two unhappy and lonely people – meet online. Comedy and romance ensues. Among the funnier moments are when Duncan meets Tucker in real life, when Tucker stumbles into Duncan’s Tucker Crowe shrine and when all of Tucker’s exes and progeny descend on Tucker and Annie in a hospital room.

Ethan Hawke, who is a fair musician, nails a sweet cover of The Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset. Hawke also performs many of the songs on the soundtrack, including a very fun punk anthem during the closing credits.

Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke in JULIET, NAKED

Overall, I liked Juliet, Naked as an agreeable romp. The Wife recommends it as a home video watch, not for a special trip to the theater.

The Wife also said she was distracted by all the clumsy efforts to hide Rose Byrne’s pregnancy – extra-roomy dresses and Byrne’s awkwardly front-carrying duffels and all manner of objects. I didn’t notice, but Byrne did gave birth in November 2017, so I assume that The Wife was once, again, far more observant than I.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS: heckuva date movie

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Henry Golding and Constance Wu in CRAZY RICH ASIANS

Crazy Rich Asians is wildly popular for a reason – it’s damn entertaining and probably the year’s most appealing date movie.  Nick (the hunky Henry Golding) is getting serious about his New York girlfriend Rachel (Constance Wu) and wants to take her to meet his family in Singapore.  Now Rachel, being a beautiful NYU economics professor who is fluent in multiple languages, is just about anybody’s ideal daughter-in-law.  What Rachel doesn’t know is that Nick’s family is super, super rich – so rich that their set puts on $40 million weddings.  The family matriarch, Nick’s mom Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh – the leading lady in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), is never going to approve Nick marrying an American, even a Chinese-American rock star like Rachel.  As the lovers try to win over the formidably stern Eleanor, comic situations ensue.  Will love prevail?

As you can tell, this story follows a familiar arc for a romantic comedy, but with an Asian cast, an Asian location and lots of Asian cultural references.  But his isn’t a just rom com with a gimmick.  Director John M. Chu keeps the pages turning quickly all the way through the two hours running time (a little long for this genre) without any slow spots.   The three main characters are surrounded by wacky friends and family, and most of the biggest laughs come from the foibles of the supporting characters.

I saw this film in a heavily Asian audience, and Ken Jeong’s scenes in particular drew howls from the Asian crowd.  The rapper Awkwafina, who has gotten good notices for her performance in Oceans Eight, is hilarious as Rachel’s zany friend.  We’re going to be seeing a lot more of Awkwafina in the movies; she has Lucille Ball’s lasered-in earnestness.

Awkwafina in CRAZY RICH ASIANS

Michelle Yeoh in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and SK Global Entertainment’s and Starlight Culture’s contemporary romantic comedy CRAZY RICH ASIANS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

The Asians in my audience also responded knowingly to the references to Chinese family traditions and parents’ relations to their adult children, much of which is, of course, also universal.

Crazy Rich Asians has some fine set pieces, including an over-the-top wedding where the bridal party wades down a flooded aisle – and a reception so decadent that it makes Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby look Amish. There’s also a mouth-watering street food scene in Singapore.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. Here’s the teaser (not the trailer because the trailer gives away two of the most impactful lines).

Stream of the Week: RUBY SPARKS – be careful what you ask for

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Paul Dano and Chloe Kazan in RUBY SPARKS

The inventive Ruby Sparks is about romance and it’s very, very funny, but it transcends the genre of romantic comedy. A shy writer who has produced a great novel at an early age is now drifting, his writing is blocked and he has isolated himself into a lonely existence. He imagines his perfect love object, and he can suddenly write in torrents about her until…she becomes real. Yes, suddenly he has a real life girlfriend of his own design.

This is everyone’s fantasy of a perfect partner – but what are the limits of a partner that you have designed yourself? Because he can tweak her behavior by rewriting it, this brings up the adage “Be careful what you ask for”. When he is threatened by her independence, he changes her personality on the page and she becomes unattractively clinging and needy. Can his realized fantasy make him happy?

Paul Dano in RUBY SPARKS

Paul Dano is outstanding as the writer and screenwriter Zoe Kazan (granddaughter of Elia Kazan) dazzles as his creation. (Off screen, Kazan and Dano are a couple.) Chris Messina is dead on perfect as the writer’s brother, and the film benefits from an especially strong cast: Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Steve Coogan, Aasif Mandvi and Elliot Gould. Ruby Sparks is ably directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the co-directors of another exceptional indie comedy, Little Miss Sunshine.

The biggest star in Ruby Sparks is Zoe Kazan’s ingenious screenplay. It’s funny without being silly, profound without being pretentious, bright without being precious. Every moment is authentic. It’s clear that Kazan is a major talent as a screenwriter.

Ruby Sparks is available to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.