Review: 'Ted', starring Seth MacFarlane and Mark Wahlberg

The magical story of a lonely boy who wishes his favorite teddy bear alive sounds may sound like the start of a heartwarming family fairy tale, but in the hands of Seth MacFarlane it's the set up to the most crude, offensive, and possibly funniest movie of the year. The Family Guy creator has a comedic style that is unflinchingly in your face, hard R-rated, and smarter than anything so lewd has any right to be. It's an unfair combination that few can match, and Ted sees MacFarlane at the height of politically incorrect powers.

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18 Great Overlooked Films Of 2018

So what makes for a great overlooked film, or a hidden gem as I like to call them? For me, it's simple. Any movie that resonated with me, that I found some connection with, and feel others will find a similar connection if they give it a chance. As with any year, there are so many movies that it's easy for a lot of great ones to simply fly under the radar. Fantastic performances go unnoticed, unique storylines sit waiting to be discovered (or copied), and as usual I struggled to find just 15 to put down here.

That's why I cheated and made it 18. Not that it's cheating when it's my list, right?

I went with films that surprised me with their spirit, like the Kodi Smit-Mcphee survival thriller Alpha, or spoke my language politically like The Oath did. Some of these movies spoke to my baser instincts, as the giallo-inspired Let the Corpses Tan did,  while Ibiza put both of my favorite actresses together for a silly international comedy. And that Brett Haley; I think he has a movie on my list every single year. There's a lot of good to be found in each of these movies, so check 'em out below and then check 'em out at home!

And when you're done, be sure to follow all of our end of the year coverage here!

The Mercy (review)
Director: James Marsh
Cast: Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis, Simon McBurney



Jonathan (review)
Director: Bill Oliver
Cast: Ansel Elgort, Suki Waterhouse, Patricia  Clarkson, Matt Bomer



The Oath (review)
Director: Ike Barinholtz
Cast: Ike Barinholtz, Tiffany Haddish, John Cho, Billy Magnussen, Carrie Brownstein



Final Score (review)
Director: Scott Mann
Cast: Dave Bautista, Pierce Brosnan



Let the Corpses Tan (review)
Directors: Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani



Alpha (review)
Director: Albert Hughes
Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee,  Johannes Haukur Johannesson



Night Comes On (review)
Director: Jordana Spiro
Cast: Dominique Fishback, Tatum Marilyn Hall



Hearts Beat Loud (review)
Director: Brett Haley
Cast: Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Blythe Danner, Sasha Lane, Toni Collette, Ted Danson



Ibiza 
Director: Alex Richanbach
Cast: Gillian Jacobs, Vanessa Bayer, Phoebe Robinson, Richard Madden



Revenge (review)
Director: Coralie Fargeat
Cast: Matilda Lutz



Marrowbone (review)
Director: Matthew Stagg
Cast: George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth



I Kill Giants (review)
Director: Anders Walter
Cast: Madison Wolfe, Imogen Poots, Zoe Saldana, Sydney Wade



Thoroughbreds (review)
Director: Cory Finley
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin



Monsters and Men (review)
Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Cast: John David Washington, Anthony Ramos, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Rob Morgan



Assassination Nation (review)
Director: Sam Levinson
Cast: Suki Waterhouse, Odessa Young, Hari Nef, Abra, Joel McHale, Bill Skarsgard, Bella Thorne



Mom and Dad (review)
Director: Brian Taylor
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters, Zackary Arthur



Kickboxer: Retaliation (review)
Director: Dmitri Logothetis
Cast: Alain Moussi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mike Tyson, Christopher Lambert



Never Goin' Back
Director: Augustine Frizzell
Cast: Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone, Kyle Mooney

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Review: Seth MacFarlane's 'Ted 2' Starring Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried, and Morgan Freeman

The problem with sequels, especially those crafted by the same minds behind the first film, is that they inevitably get greedy. That goes double for a film like Ted 2, a sequel to Seth MacFarlane's unexpectedly robust Ted, which finished up its raunchy run with more than $500M, a record for R-rated comedies. MacFarlane is a brilliant guy; whatever one wants to say about Family Guy or his stable of button-pushing animated ventures, MacFarlane is smart enough to know that his style of humor connects with people. And because of that, he knows he can use comedy to try and say something important. That's a great idea, but Ted 2 probably wasn't the right vehicle for him to do it.

That's not to say Ted 2 isn't funny; it's often quite hilarious and crude in all of the ways we expect. There are more jokes about more bodily fluids than anyone should ever hope for, and there's enough pot smoke to keep Method Man and Redman high for years. But MacFarlane is grasping at something profound with his screenplay, and every attempt he makes to say something relevant is undercut by the inevitable rude or racist joke, or somebody smoking out of a penis bong.

The MacFarlane indulgence begins near the beginning with a rousing Broadway musical number that goes on way too long and adds nothing to the narrative. MacFarlane's love of these big musical acts is well known but this one lasts an eternity. From there the story kicks off in the same delightfully loopy tone as the original, albeit with a few real-world circumstances. Ted and his gal Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) decide to get married, but it's a bittersweet event as John (Mark Wahlberg) is still grieving over his divorce to Lori (Mila Kunis, who doesn't appear at all). So he indulges in more weed with his teddy bear pal, but it isn't long before he too is facing a marital crisis. Ted and Tami-Lynn's marriage hits a roadblock and they are fighting non-stop, so John comes up with the kind of hair-brained idea only a complete moron would come up with: have a baby to save the marriage.

So this is what the movie is going to be about, right? Ted and Tami-Lynn trying to have a kid? For a while, yes, but MacFarlane has never been very good at walking down a straight path, narratively speaking. He indulges in too many subplots that add nothing, including a last-minute kidnapping scheme involving the return of Giovanni Ribisi's stalker character. The film's best gags occur while Ted and Tami-Lynn are trying to figure out how to become parents because obviously it's going to be tough since he's a stuffed animal. There's a disastrous and gag-worthy trip to the sperm clinic, and an attempt to steal the golden semen from NFL QB Tom Brady. These scenes are great, simple, and allow MacFarlane to indulge in being as offensive as possible.

But then MacFarlane gets greedy. Ted and Tami-Lynn attempt to adopt a child, only to learn that the state of Massachusetts doesn't consider him to be an actual human being. He has no social security number, he doesn't pay taxes, and he doesn't exist as anything other than property. So his marriage to Tami-Lynn is revoked and he even loses his job, but if he wants to have a child he'll need to sue for his rights. Yes, Ted 2 becomes a courtroom movie about Ted's fight to be considered equal. Ugh. Ted and John hire a starry-eyed young lawyer named Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) to try their case, but when things get tough they go on a pot-filled road trip to New York to try and hire a big shot attorney played by Morgan Freeman, who sadly seems out-of-place here.

The problem is that MacFarlane is trying desperately hard to equate Ted's plight to the struggles of African-Americans and gays, but his approach is incredibly clumsy. Simply showing a brief scene from Roots isn't going to cut it, and it's tough to take serious when Seyfried is in court equating a teddy bear's rights Dredd Scott and people who literally fought and died just to be considered. We get that the point MacFarlane is trying to make is that anyone who feels is deserving of equal respect, but isn't this the same Ted who has never contributed one decent thing to society ever? Interestingly, the defense actually makes that case against Ted and it rings truer than MacFarlane probably intended.

The dynamic between MacFarlane's Ted and Wahlberg is different this time, but we still believe in these two as "Thunder Buddies for life". Only now the focus has shifted to Ted's problems, not John's. That said, they still make a goofy pair of slacker buds we'd want to hang out with forever, watching Law & Order while high and obsessing over Sam "Flash Gordon" Jones.  Ever the genius when it comes to pissing all over pop culture icons, MacFarlane dreams up a couple of laugh-out-loud memorable scenes involving Jurassic Park and a field of weed, and a great Breakfast Club dance montage using Bone Symphony's classic "One Foot in Front of the Other".

MacFarlane flopped hard with A Million Ways to Die in the West, and compared to that Ted 2 is an unmitigated success. It's not nearly as funny, as vulgar, or as original as the first film, but there are still enough good laughs to make for a perfectly decent sequel. Hopefully if there's a third time hanging out with the bear and his human pal, MacFarlane will leave all the serious stuff elsewhere.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Review: 'Chappaquiddick', Ted Kennedy's Legacy Gets Battered And Bruised

"I'm not going to be President", a somber Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) tells his overlooked friend/cousin Joe Gargan (Ed Helms) minutes after he escaped drowning in a car that had tumbled off of a bridge in the New England island of Chappaquiddick. Little did he know how accurate he would be. If his escape had been a harrowing tale of survival then maybe that could be spun into political gold, but instead the incident, which saw Kennedy's loyal aide Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) die in those frigid waters, would become a scandal that dogged his career to the end.

John Curran's film Chappaquiddick isn't so much about the crash, those details are common knowledge and have been for decades. It's a gripping and timely tale about the concoction of the story around the scandal, and the efforts by Kennedy, using the currency of his family legacy and a distracted public, to keep his reputation intact. This is a film about power, and how being born with the right name can be enough to reshape reality.

In the summer of '69 Ted Kennedy is still in the earliest stages of his political career, but he's already feeling the weight of his fallen brothers, Joe, President John F. Kennedy, and Bobby who would die just a year earlier. Ted's the public face of the family now and is expected make a move for the White House , but at this point he's undecided on a future path, despite the pressure put on him by his father (Bruce Dern). That weekend he's hosting a "reunion" of loyal Kennedy staffers known as the "Boiler Room Girls", all lovely single women of 28-years-old or younger, at an event in which the only other attendees are grabby married men, most of them Kennedys or Kennedy acolytes. Mary Jo is one of those campaign staffers and she was very close to Ted, some say too close, which only complicated matters when their late night drive ended up in tragedy. Once it happens and Ted is slow to alert the police, perhaps at the cost of Mary Jo's life, the spin machine moves into place. But not before Ted, who is wholly unsuited to political maneuvering at this point, makes a number of bone-headed errors that must be cleaned up.

Curran gets a lot of material to work with here, and along with screenwriters Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan he makes the most of it. While the actual direction of the film is purely functional, the parallels drawn to today and Clarke's powerful performance are what make this such an engrossing story. I daresay Clarke is considerably more charismatic than Ted Kennedy was back then. It's tough to reconcile the shifty Ted Kennedy of 1969 with the stoic champion of the working class that he would be throughout his senatorial career, but you have to understand going in that this is not a film meant to bolster his reputation. It leaves him pretty scarred up, as Ted continually puts his own concerns ahead of any true justice for Mary Jo. Even his decision to reveal that it was him behind the wheel is a calculated one meant to gain sympathy, although he persists in claims that he will always follow his "true north" and do what's right. All women are given short shrift, not just Mary Jo. Olivia Thirlby plays Mary Jo's best friend Rachel Schiff, but she's barely given much to do other than be another of Kennedy's loyalists. Disappointing as the portrayal of women may be, it's a calculation that fits with the time and the all-male group of power players involved.

It's also interesting the depiction of the news cycle and how easily it could be manipulated. While today we both love and lament the speed which stories are broken, there was no Internet back then. There weren't dozens of news outlets picking apart every facet of the event. If Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick were to have happened within a year or two before his death in 2009, his career would have been over that day. But in 1969 there was room to maneuver and plot out a strategy. In this case, Ted and his spin doctors were helped by the Apollo moon landing and the country's fascination with space exploration. But mostly we see the effect that the name Kennedy has in swaying public perception and marshalling defenders. It's an early indicator of how the names Bush, Clinton, and Obama can steer opinion in these hyper-partisan times. Suffice it to say, if he were Ted Johnson and not Ted Kennedy he would have been toast. Instead he gets off with a slap on the writst, and goes on to have one of the longest senatorial careers in U.S. history, thus proving that his rewriting of history to paint himself as a victim worked.

So again, Chappaquiddick is not hero worship of the Kennedys like so many other movies made about the most famous family in political history. In the end, Ted selfishly gives up on his "true north", his belief in what's right, in order to do what's convenient. Sounds like your standard everyday politician, doesn't it? We hate those, don't we?  Chappaquiddick presents the Kennedys in a vastly different light than we're accustomed to seeing, and probably won't see again on the big screen for a long time.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Travis Hopson's Top 20 Movies Of 2019

2019 started off with a bang, thanks to a very strong lineup at Sundance. Four of the movies that made this list were there, and others easily could've been added. The rest of the year had its ups and downs, and other than Avengers: Endgame I felt the superhero lineup was average at best. But in their place were a number of films I simply didn't see coming, and that's why I don't listen when people claim there are bad years for movies. That's simply not true.  With nearly 1000 movies released annually, there's great stuff everywhere, and it's easier than ever to find them.

I want to again apologize for the lateness. You already know the reason why, but on the plus side I was sorta able to put this together concurrently when not pulling what little hair I have left out.

These are my picks for the best movies of 2019. It's cool if you don't agree. That's why it's mine. Hit me with your picks because I always dig seeing what others choose. Enjoy!

20. Terminator: Dark Fate (review)
Director: Tim Miller
Cast: Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna
19. Little Women
Director: Greta Gerwig
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Timothee Chalamet
18. Alita: Battle Angel (review)
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Keean Johnson
17. Luce (review)
Director: Julius Onah
Cast: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, Tim Roth
16. Brittany Runs a Marathon (review)
Director: Paul Downs Colaizzo
Cast: Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Lil Rel Howery
15. Knives Out (review)
Director: Rian Johnson
Cast: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Don Johnson
14. Dolemite Is My Name (review)
Director: Craig Brewer
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Wesley Snipes, Craig Robinson, Mike Epps, Titus Burgess, Keegan-Michael Key
13. The Lighthouse (review)
Director: Robert Eggers
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe
12. The Two Popes (review)
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins
11. Ad Astra (review)
Director: James Gray
Cast: Brad Pitt, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler

10. Uncut Gems (review)
Director: The Safdie Brothers
Cast: Adam Sandler, Laketh Stanfield, Idina Menzel, Eric Bogosian, Kevin Garnett, Judd Hirsch, Julia Fox

Thank goodness I took my blood pressure meds before seeing Uncut Gems. The anxiety-inducing drama has Adam Sandler in a career best performance as the ultimate gambler, a diamond jeweler with a heavy load of debt and no shortage of those looking to collect. Following on their hit film Good Time, the Safdie Brothers offer another gritty, street-level character study that manages to stay at an incredibly high level of tension throughout, right up until the moment it suddenly stops, practically giving you a heart attack in the process.

9. Marriage Story
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda

At this point I should probably just rip my heart out. Noah Baumbach's scalpel sharp look at the painful process of divorce is almost too real to bear. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson both give heartbreaking performances as the couple trying to navigate through the implosion of their marriage with a minimum of collateral damage, and finding it to be virtually impossible. Based in part on his own troubles, Baumbach does eventually weave in a hopeful thread which makes the emotional exhaustion you feel worth it.

8. Midsommar
Director: Ari Aster
Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter

Please don't watch Midsommar if you're thinking of breaking up with your significant other. It might give them ideas, ideas of burning bears and flower crowns. I really dug Midsommar the first time I saw it, the vibrant colors, hypnotizing, pulsing atmosphere, and weird cultish behavior all in service of what turns out to be a relationship movie. It's not right to simply call this a horror movie because there's so much more going on, which becomes even clearer upon with Aster's full director's cut. In a tremendous year for star Florence Pugh, it's her grief-stricken tour-de-force here that stands as truly unforgettable.

7. The Report (review)
Director: Scott Z. Burns
Cast: Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Tim Blake Nelson, Ted Levine

As we would see from Scott Z. Burns later in the year with The Laundromat, making entertaining movies out of serious, dense subject matter is hard. Burns managed to pull it off early in the year with The Report, a deep, incisive and gripping political thriller about the real-life Daniel Jones, a senate staffer investigating the CIA's torture program. The film exposes with raw nerve the moral rot at the heart of our government post-9/11, all done under cover of the American flag and in the name of national security. This was Adam Driver's first of many performances during the year that proved he can pretty much do whatever he wants and I'm going to be down for it.

6. Avengers: Endgame (review)
Directors: The Russo Brothers
Cast: Pretty much everybody Marvel has under contract

As anybody who just saw The Rise of Skywalker knows, it's damned hard to just stick the landing. I think that was all of our concern going into Avengers: Endgame, especially after the shocking finale of Infinity War. How do you go about wrapping up a full decade's worth of storylines? It turns out, you just turn it into the massive superhero spectacle everybody wants it to be. Who will ever forget the massive finale battle ("On your left."), with literally hundreds of characters on screen at once, the Avengers broken and Thanos appearing triumphant? The beginning is a bit somber, as it should be, but the story eventually rebounds with a lot of wonky time travel and science mumbo-jumbo that doesn't make any sense and, honestly, doesn't really need to. It's just meant to the kind of fun you'd find splashed on your favorite comic book pages. When the MCU began with 2008's Iron Man, I don't think any of us thought it would lead to this, the highest-grossing movie of all-time. So yeah, it's damned hard to stick the landing, but Avengers: Endgame proves it isn't impossible.

5. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (review)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie

Tarantino's love letter to a turbulent era in Hollywood history is the director's eccentricities boiled down to their essence. He indulges in cinematic details like none other, gives actors like DiCaprio and Pitt room to breathe in fictionalized, heightened portrayals, and can't stop himself from the occasional controversy. Its meandering pace, colorful violence, and frequent diversions aren't for everyone, but at this point in his career who would want Tarantino to change? I certainly don't.

4. Parasite (review)
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Chang Hyae-jin, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam

The thing about any movie by Bong Joon-ho is they are very rarely what they appear to be on the surface. Parasite is absolutely a film you want to go into knowing as little as possible because it takes so many twists and turns, reorienting itself on a dime so you don't know who you're supposed to be pulling for. Is it the poverty-stricken family of grifters? Or the naive and out-of-touch family of wealth? After a tense game of cat and mouse orchestrated beautifully by Joon-ho and cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, you won't know which way is up and feeling of unpredictability is extremely satisfying.

3. The Farewell (review)
Director: Lulu Wang
Cast: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen

A fake wedding and cultural misunderstandings make for a funny and deeply intimate gem from writer/director Lulu Wang. Starring Awkwafina in a breakthrough dramatic performance, this biographical drama is as personal as it is universal in exploring familial reconciliation, mortality, and even gentrification, all done with a sense of humor that connects when you need it most.

2. Ford v. Ferrari (review)
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Noah Jupe, Tracy Letts, Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe, Josh Lucas

In my favorite scene of James Mangold's incredible, thrill-a-minute Ford v Ferrari, Tracy Letts' Henry Ford III gets taken on the ride of his life in the GT40 MK. Thinking he's man enough to handle it, Ford is shaken, rattled, and rolled into tears, not of terror but of pure joy. That's how I felt, having been reminded that big-budget studio can be both wildly thrilling popcorn entertainment and well-crafted human drama. Sometimes we overstate that Hollywood doesn't make movies like this anymore, but it's really true in this case. Studios just aren't willing to take a gamble, even with stars the caliber of Damon and Bale, but it paid off and I hope this is a sign of things to come.

1. 1917 (review)
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Madden

I also had this very high in my Top 100 of the decade, and think its placement there is entirely justified. I don't think anybody expected this much from Sam Mendes, coming out of too-long stint in the massive Bond franchise, with the prior film being a major letdown. And to learn his WWI film would be a single continuous take (yes, there are hidden edits), it all sounded like an overwhelming prospect for the former playwright. But once again, Mendes proved he is among the greatest filmmakers working today. The technical achievements, given incredible weight and searing beauty by cinematographer Roger Deakins, only add to the visceral sense of being there in the trenches, never knowing where the danger might be coming from one moment to the next. The emotional stakes are established early and only increase as these two British soldiers go on their suicide mission, and we are right there with them through every horrific second. Not only will this go down as one of the great war movies but one of the great films, period. In a storied career, this is Mendes at the absolute pinnacle of his talents.

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Review: 'Submission' Starring Stanley Tucci And Addison Timlin

Submission debuted a year ago at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and if it had opened then we probably wouldn't have heard a word about it or cared that much. But to arrive now, after months that have brought us #MeToo, #TimesUp, and too many Harvey Weinstein-types to count, Submission's play on sexual power between a male professor and his talented, beautiful student/protégé couldn't come at a worse time.  With added eyes on the film, viewers will most likely overlook the strong performances by stars Stanley Tucci and Addison Timlin and instead focus on the wasted opportunity to say something important about this moment in our time.

That, and there are an entire library's worth of clichés to deal with. Tucci, sporting a rare head full of hair, plays Ted Swenson, that most frequent of cinematic creatures; the white, middle-aged author with one moderately successful novel, now a bored college professor struggling with his second book. >yawn<  Ted has a lovely, loyal wife (Kyra Sedgewick) and a comfortable life, but of course it isn't enough. He's bored, frustrated, and needs to feel special again. Perfect timing that he comes across Angela Argo (Timlin), one of his writing students who shows legitimate promise to be a real writer. Or maybe he only feels that way because she praises him constantly. She's a fan of his book...y'know, that one book he wrote, and wants desperately for his opinion on her work. Ted is only too happy to oblige because she stroked his ego. Angela keeps stringing the mouse along with new chapters from her book, which just so happens to be about a student in a passionate affair with her teacher. Hey, whaddaya know? What a coinkydink!

Seriously, are there men out there as dumb as Ted? Or do they exist only in Hollywood movies? Michael Douglas used to play guys this dumb all the time back in the '80s and '90s (Disclosure was a personal favorite). But all these years later it's dispiriting to see the same idiot intellectuals falling into traps of their own design. There's never a moment that we see anything other than a schemer in Angela, and never a moment when Ted doesn't look like a blind moron who is about to step on the wrong end of a rake.

Writer/director Richard Levine adapted Francine Prose's novel, Blue Angel, which was something of a firestarter back in the day. Now it reads as rote and overfamiliar, perhaps because it has been adapted so many times by others. His film relies on numerous tropes but the most problematic one for the time we live in is that of the young, man-eating vixen ensnaring innocent men and destroying their lives. While Angela is no saint, Ted doesn't have a halo over his head, either. Forgetting the inevitable, disgusting infidelity (which Levine shoots as grotesquely as possible to maximum effect), he's also a leech who sees Angela's success as his own, literally co-opting her work to cover for his failures. At this point. Submission is still a conversation-worthy piece with tremendous work by Tucci and Timlin. We expect that from Tucci, but Timlin has been on a career high and I'm afraid not enough people are noticing it. Here she strikes an alluring balance between Angela's innocence and deviousness. You want Ted to help her one minute but you're screaming for him to get away from her the next.

Submission's final act throws what little nuance there was out the window completely and concocts a nightmare scenario that turns Angela into a monster and Ted as the naïve deer in headlights. Those are the least interesting ways to portray either character, and feel like a way to avoid a more realistic outcome to a problem that couldn't be more timely. It's a shame because doubtful there will be many more films with this cast that will be willing to say anything at all.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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10 Great Overlooked Films from 2014

Have you noticed there are more movies than ever coming out each week? There were over 600 major releases that opened last year, and with the ease of digital distribution and streaming network that number is only going to increase. So there's simply no way anybody can catch them all. It's simply not possible.

The "Overlooked" list is always a tough balancing act for me. Last year I left off a criminally underseen indie like Short Term 12 because it ended up at the top of my "Best" chart, and that problem has reared its ugly head again. Why should I put great movies like Frank or God Help the Girl here when I have them so high elsewhere? And as is the case every single year, there are more than enough films deserving of your attention that sadly got lost in the tidal wave of big-budget sequels and franchises. So here are just 10 of them you may have missed that are definitely worth your time.

The One I Love (review here)
Director: Charlie McDowell
Cast: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson


Film Clip: 'The One I Love' by WSJ Live

The Skeleton Twins (review here)
Director: Craig Johnson
Cast: Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell


Kristen Wiig is Mad at Bill Hader in THE SKELETON TWINS Clip ('Wow') by The Seven Sees

Enemy (review here)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Gadon, Melanie Laurent, Isabella Rossellini


Enemy - Clip 2 by Flixgr

Joe (review here)
Director: David Gordon Green
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan


Joe Movie CLIP - Trouble (2014) - Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan Drama HD by Trailer 2014

Cold in July (review here)
Director: Jim Mickle
Cast: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Vinessa Shaw


Cold In July - Clip: Beat Down by Dread Central

Fort Bliss (review here)
Claudia Myers
Cast: Michelle Monaghan, Ron Livingston

Keep On Keepin' On
Director: Alan Hicks
Cast: Clark Terry, Justin Kauflin


Film Clip: 'Keep on Keepin' On' by WSJ Live

Force Majeure
Director: Ruben Ostlund
Cast: Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli


Film Clip: 'Force Majeure' by WSJ Live

The Babadook (review here)
Director: Jennifer Kent
Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman

THE BABADOOK Movie CLIP - The Book (2014) - Horror Movie HD by Horror Movie Trailers

The Book of Life (review here)
Director: Jorge Gutierrez
Cast: Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Ron Perlman, Ice Cube, Kate del Castillo


The Book Of Life - Clip - Land Of The Remembered by MyMovies_International

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Review: 'The Lorax', featuring Zac Efron and Taylor Swift

Adapting the timeless works of Dr. Seuss into feature films has proven to be a lucrative, if not always creatively successful venture. The problem has always been in finding a style that can adequately capture the author's unique style. Live-action movies like How the Grinch Stole Christmas were hamstrung by leaving the animated format, and The Cat in the Hat suffered a similar fate made worse by Mike Meyers' inability to be funny. A CGI version of Horton Hears a Who! better interpreted Seuss' daffy visual style, and that model is employed yet again with equal vibrancy in The Lorax, a film that shows the author's cautionary tale is as vital today as ever.

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Box Office: 'Star Wars' Tops $1B As New Releases Start Strong

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- $153.5M/$544.5M

The amazing thing about Star Wars: the Force Awakens' $153M second weekend is that it faced such stiff competition. A slew of varied films from A-list stars such as Jennifer Lawrence, Will Ferrell, Will Smith, and Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't put a dent in the powerhouse, which dropped only 38% and amassed $544M domestically, the fastest to that number ever. Worldwide it's doing even better with $1.09B, ranking fifth all-time. Uhhh...it's only been out for 12 days, ya'll.

2. Daddy's Home (review here)- $38.8M
While we can all count on Will Ferrell as one of today's most consistent comedy stars, his opening weekends don't tend to be all that huge. Case in point, Daddy's Home, which sees him paired with another reliable box office star in Mark Wahlberg, opened at $38.8M, the 3rd-highest of his career. It's a solid score for both stars, especially Wahlberg who could use a bounce-back after Ted 2 underwhelmed earlier this year.
3. Joy (review here)- $17.5M
Despite the many hit films and awards already under her belt, Joy makes the strongest case for Jennifer Lawrence as a box office draw. The film, largely built and promoted around her, got off to a very good start with $17.5M. The biopic on entrepreneur and inventor Joy Mangano was directed by David O. Russell and reteams Lawrence with Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper, the foursome having worked together on awards fodder American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook. Certainly, the Oscar potential in Joy helped out considerably and will likely carry it along for a few weeks, but this is a win for Lawrence, for sure.
4. Sisters- $13.8M/$37.1M
Barely moving an inch from last week when it dared to open opposite Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy, Sisters. The fairly mediocre film didn't even drop a full percentage point this week, meaning that its attempt at counter-programming was a definite success. Women can't live on lightsabers and Wookies alone, fellas.
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip- $12.7M/$39.3M
6. Concussion (review here)- $11M
Traditionally football movies have only done okay at the box office, but what about a movie that hammers the NFL for being negligent about the health of its players? Well, that's one Hell of a tough sell. Concussion, which is earning Will Smith the best reviews he's had in years, opened with a lackluster $11M.The film centers on the discovery of the connection between NFL players and severe head injury, which the league and commissioner Roger Goodell denied for way too long. There was a lot of pre-buzz that the story would be toned down to ease up on the league, but the advanced controversy doesn't seem to have attracted much of an audience domestically. Now, Smith is a huge star overseas and there's a good chance the film is huge internationally. And considering the Oscar talk swirling around Smith's performance we could see a boost somewhere down the line.
7. The Big Short- $10.5M/$16M
8. Point Break- $10.2M
Nobody wanted a remake of Point Break, the classic bro flick that starred Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. But we got one anyway, and Warner Bros. decided on top of all the negative buzz they would also not screen it for critics. Bad call, gang. The film opened at $10.2M which is about as bad as could have been expected. In the famous lead roles are the less-than-famous Edgar Ramirez (who thankfully has Joy to fall back on) and Luke Bracy, neither of which is known to put butts in seats.
9. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2- $5.3M/$264.6M
10. Creed- $4.6M/$96.3M

The 70mm gamble by Quentin Tarantino appears to have paid off as The Hateful Eight's (review here) road show opened with $4.5M at 100 select locations outfitted for the format. That's an incredible $45K per site average, which would look even more amazing if it weren't for the ridiculous business done by Star Wars last week. This came after weeks of haggling over the actual theaters that would present the film in 70mm, plus The Weinstein Company's significant expense outfitting them so they could.  The only downside is that it probably could have done better except the film was leaked onto the Internet early, although this is likely to affect the theatrical version a bit more.

And finally (God damn this was a busy week!) Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's bear-mawling survival thriller The Revenant (review here) opened in 4 locations, earning $471K in the process. It's a hefty start for a film that is expected to earn Leonardo DiCaprio an Oscar nomination, and depending on who you ask it may get him his first win. It's worth noting that Inarritu's Best Picture-winning Birdman didn't start off so hot but Oscar buzz and international audiences powered it to over $100M. Don't be surprised if something similar happens here.

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Box Office: 'A Quiet Place' Makes The Most Noise With $50M, 'Blockers' Scores $21M

1. A Quiet Place (review)- $50M
On a week in which all of the new releases got off to strong starts it was John Krasinski's well-reviewed horror A Quiet Place that made the most noise. Its $50M opening weekend has to be music to the ears of Paramount, as it ranks as among their best debuts in years, and definitely their biggest since Star Trek Beyond back in 2016.  The number charts as the second biggest opening for an original horror movie ever, just a tad behind M. Night Shyamalan's The Village in 2004. The reason is simple: awesome reviews and a truly unique premise. The film sits at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and the audience consensus is high as well. We talk a lot about the negative impacts of Rotten Tomatoes but this is a case there it, along with good word of mouth, have taken a small-ish film to box office heights.
2. Ready Player One- $25M/$96.9M
Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One only had a single week at the top of the charts, but I don't think Warner Bros. will complain. The pop culture adventure flick scored another $25M domestic for $96M overall, but worldwide its playing like a champ with $391M.
3. Blockers (review)- $21.4M
Teen sex comedies don't always find the mark with audiences but Blockers is proving to be a winner. The comedy from director Kay Cannon (writer of the Pitch Perfect trilogy) stars John Cena, Leslie Mann, and Ike Barinholtz as parents who set out to stop their teen daughters from losing their virginity on prom night. The premise seemed like a potential minefield, especially in today's sex positive climate, but reviews have praised the film for being more thoughtful and feminist than expected, especially considering the five male writers who worked on it.
4. Black Panther- $8.4M/$665.3M
5. I Can Only Imagine- $8.3M/$69M
6. Tyler Perry's Acrimony- $8M/$31.3M
7. Chappaquiddick (review)- $6.2M
In a win for older-skewing dramas, Chappaquiddick, which centers on the 1969 scandal that nearly destroyed senator Ted Kennedy's career, opened with $6.2M. That's pretty good considering it only opened in 1500 theaters, and of course the serious material that isn't likely to attract anybody under the age of 35. I really enjoyed it and other critics are favoring it, as well. It could probably do with an expansion so that more people can have a chance to see what all of the good buzz is about. If this were later in the year we'd probably be talking about it as an awards season dark horse, especially for Jason Clarke's lead performance.
8. Sherlock Gnomes- $5.6M/$33.8M
9. Pacific Rim Uprising- $4.9M/$54.9M
At $267M worldwide Pacific Rim Uprising is looking like a dude, and well short of the underwhelming $411M of the first movie.
10. Isle of Dogs (review)- $4.6M
Cracking the top 10 is Wes Anderson's wonderful animated film, Isle of Dogs, which expanded to 554 theaters and earned $4.6M for $12M after three weeks.

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Review: Alien Trespass

Remaking old sci-fi films has become kinda common place. More often than not, these films lack the heart of the original work, mainly because there's no real love for the material and the director/writer rarely can match the sensibilities of the time period. A way around this is simply spoof some of those old classics, like in the 1996 film, Mars Attacks. While it was fun, I always thought the attempt to transfer the 1950's style cheesiness into a more modern setting didn't quite work out. Better to just set the film during a time when it makes sense for people to be so....simple. Alien Trespass, which draws it's inspiration from those old 50's classics, decides neither to spoof or modernize. It's spaceboots are firmly planted in the days of poodle skirts and Ford Fairlanes(not the Andrew Dice Clay movie!), and it's all the better for it.

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Review: 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile', Zac Efron Slays As Ted Bundy

*NOTE* This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival. The film hits Netflix on May 3rd. 

A sense of deja vu hit me while watching Joe Berlinger's buzzy Sundance film with the eye-catching title, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. The feeling that I had sat through a similar film at Park City with a lot of buzz, a loaded cast of stars, and a big name playing an infamous figure in celebrity history. That film, sadly, was Lovelace, and like it, Berlinger's movie doesn't have much going for it other than a charismatic, perfectly-cast lead.

Zac Efron's All-American good looks and boyish charm make him the right choice to play serial killer Ted Bundy, who seduced his way into murdering dozens of women. Even as charges mounted against Bundy in multiple states and he fought to defend himself in a court of law, women were willing to throw themselves at his feet, taken by his smile and magnetic personality. But Berlinger's film teases more than just a look at Bundy's prolific murder career. One woman totally swept off her feet by Bundy was Liz Kloepfer(Lily Collins), a single mother who let's him into her home and into her life.

Berlinger teases us with a movie that he gives up on way too early, one that explores Bundy's duality as a family man living with Liz, while hiding his darker side from her; a hug and a birthday celebration with a butcher knife clutched in his hand.  We see Liz falling in love with Bundy, and accepting his excuses as his name mysteriously comes up as a suspect in a series of killings, always of young women. Bundy's got an excuse for everything, and Liz is eager to hear them.

The perspective Berlinger chooses is a fascinating one and something we haven't seen before. Berlinger's documentarian instincts kick in exploring the personality of the one person who was duped by Bundy more than anyone.  But Berlinger doesn't show us how he won her over to such an extent that she was willing to overlook the obvious signs of danger. We see their first date, in which he picks her up at a college bar (the idea of Bundy stalking a place frequented by young women is chilling in itself), perhaps with the idea of killing her, if she hadn't revealed to him that she is mother to an infant. From there, Berlinger jumps ahead a few years just as the accusations are beginning to swirl, and it feels like some crucial context is missing.

Still, if Berlinger had stuck to his guns we'd be talking about a much better movie than the finished product. However, Berlinger can't help but veer into less-interesting, oft-covered territory. Soon the movie is less about Liz and more about Bundy's many arrests and the eventual circus trial in Florida, with much of the insane dialogue pulled straight from the actual televised event. Despite the title, which is quoted from the statement by Judge Edward Cowart (John Malkovich) when sentencing Bundy to the death penalty, we don't see any of the murders take place. The Bundy we see, at least in the beginning, is the caring man Liz fell in love with. Later, as certain revelations about Liz come to light, it makes the decision to show things from her point-of-view confusing.  Berlinger could almost be accused of romanticizing Bundy, especially by refusing to show his crimes, but I found him to be pretty heinous simply for the mental abuse he was willing to inflict on the women around him. I didn't need to see him in action.

As the film begins to drag on, Liz fades into the background although Berlinger keeps tabs through brief scenes of her downward spiral. Bundy won't stop calling her, despite having a new woman (Kaya Scodelario) ready to defend him privately and publicly. Liz drinks and smokes herself into a tailspin, but still manages to find a safe new boyfriend (Haley Joel Osment) who, we know instantly, doesn't stand a chance against the spectre of Bundy. As she sits riveted by TV coverage of the trial, we're also taken by the sheer lunacy of it. But as the credits roll minutes later, and Berlinger shows archival footage of the real events he just depicted on screen, it dilutes rather than enhances their impact. If Berlinger wanted to do a documentary, he should've. Oh wait, he did, and it's already available on Netflix.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Box Office: 'Jurassic World' Remains on Top; 'Ted 2' Bears with $33M Debut

1. Jurassic World- 54.2M/$500M
In its third week Jurassic World continues to trample the competition with an amazing $54M and hitting the $500M in blazing fashion. At this number it has now surpassed Avengers: Age of Ultron to be the top domestic film of 2015, and is now 8th worldwide all-time with $1.238B. Wow.
2. Inside Out- $52.1M/$184.9M
While Pixar's Inside Out may never hit #1 in the weekly box office race, its overall numbers are the best the studio has had since Toy Story 3.  The imaginative journey through a young girl's mind earned $52M and slipped only 42%, so it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
3. Ted 2 (review here)- $33M
Maybe it's a matter of outsized competition like Jurassic World and Inside Out, but Seth MacFarlane's Ted 2 opened with a relatively modest $33M, well off the $54M pace set by the original. The first film broke $500M and was the highest-grossing original R-rated comedy ever, which was a mountain nobody expected this one to climb. Perhaps audiences were just plain over it; the novelty of a crude, pot-smoking bear is fun for awhile but hardly the stuff of franchises. Whatever the case, the film isn't performing as strong as some would have thought, but at a cost of only $68M it certainly won't be a flop, and it could still prove to be huge overseas just as the prior one was.
4. Max- $12.2M
The family-friendly canine drama Max sunk its teeth into a solid $12.2M debut, not bad for a film surrounded by blockbusters. Perhaps its still capitalizing on the good will inspired by American Sniper, as there are similar thematic parallels dealing with PTSD, only in this case it has to do with a military dog whose handler is killed in Afghanistan. All of this is decent news for a $20M production with no big name stars. Then again it did have one cool-looking soldier dog gracing the posters so that might have helped.
5. Spy- $7.8M/$88.3M
6. San Andreas- $5.2M/$141.8M
7. Dope- $2.8M/$11.7M
The interesting thing about Dope is that everybody loves it; the reviews out of Sundance were phenomenal, and the marketing has been all over the place. You can't turn on a TV without an ad for Dope turning up, pushing the urban summer comedy. And yet its numbers are only average, possibly due to all of the money being sucked up by bigger films. Perhaps a later release, closer to the tail end of summer, would have helped.
8. Mad Max: Fury Road- $1.7M/$147M
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron- $1.6M/$452M
10. Pitch Perfect 2- $1.3M/$180.9M

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Review: 'Learning to Drive' Starring Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley

When you watch a lot of movies, you start to get an idea of what makes them good or bad, or at least what makes them work for you or not.  For myself, one of my common irritations is when characters do stupid things without motivation, just because the story itself wouldn't work if they were smarter.  It's not that characters can't make mistakes, but the story needs to justify the mistake, or at least provide cover.  Going back to classical drama, hubris is a great way to push characters into stupid errors.

These days you're more likely to notice this in genre pictures.  It's what's behind the horror audience's plaintive cry, "why would you go down into that basement!?"  But it can happen just as often in straight-up middlebrow crowd-pleaser dramedies.  And Learning to Drive is a great example.

Specifically, nobody in this movie has ever thought to ask the people close to them, "what is it that you want or need here?"  It would be one thing if this were just part of the toxic dynamic between Wendy Shields (Patricia Clarkson) and her soon-to-be-ex-husband Ted (Jake Weber).  They've also passed it to their relationship with their daughter, Tasha (Grace Gummer), who we find is no better in her own romantic life.  But it's everywhere, in every relationship we see, and it's downright frustrating to see everyone keep making the same mistake without even the filmmakers seeming to understand that they're doing it.

Wendy lives on the upper west side of Manhattan, and evidently has her entire life since she's never learned to drive herself.  Wendy and Ted's ridiculously uncomfortable breakup happens in one of the cabs she uses to get around when Ted can't drive her somewhere.  In her distress, she leaves an envelope in the cab.  The driver, Sikh immigrant Darwan Singh Tur (Ben Kingsley), finds it and returns it the next day on his day job as a driving instructor.  Wendy takes his card, thinking if she learned to drive herself she'd be able to visit Tasha on the farm in Vermont where she's staying for a few months.

Back around 2000, writer Sarah Kernochan said in an interview that she, "requires that female characters be very real, that they have all the dimensions that the male characters do."  Well, Wendy does have all the dimensions that Darwan does, which is "not many", and they're both laced with stereotypes.  She's a flibbertigibbet who falls to pieces at the drop of a hat, and who has evidently learned nothing about the human condition from her decades-long career as a literary critic.  He's a Magical Person of Color with her, preternaturally calm and collected, but emotionally unavailable when his arranged wife, Jasleen (Sarita Choudhury), arrives from Punjab.

Of course, the driving lessons turn out metaphorical, standing in for the emotional lessons Wendy has to learn.  Largely, they take the form of "be present", which I agree is good advice.  If only the lesson were actually learned.  Wendy gets her cathartic moment when she admits she hasn't been present in her life, but there's nothing to exemplify actual personal growth and change in her behavior.  Darwan makes adjustments to be literally, physically present more with Jasleen, but they still come as dictates for how he believes things should be.  He's still not emotionally present and responding to her expressed needs.

Clarkson and Kingsley are undeniably fine actors, but they're doing a good job of acting in a bad story.  Good characterizations can't help against a backdrop shot through with pandering clichés: Wendy's "thank goodness we women don't have sexual feelings or desires like those piggish men do" group hug with her sister; the cultural tourism of Darwan's visits to his temple that provide all of the Orientalism with none of the actual Orient.  Learning to Drive plays hard towards what it thinks its audience wants, but unsurprisingly never bothers to ask them what they need.

Rating: 2 out of 5

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