Thursday, May 26, 2011

Menace, Dread, And A Monkey: The Hangover 2


This review originally appeared on the San Francisco Appeal.

If you liked "The Hangover" but thought what the movie needed was sweatier actors, a bigger sense of menace and dread, and chicks with dicks, then "The Hangover 2" might be the movie for you. But the truth is, if you've seen "The Hangover" then you've also seen "The Hangover 2," because aside from the above, and the addition of a monkey, (an addition I actually applaud), they are the same movie. In fact, this feels more like a remake than a sequel.

Perhaps writer and director Todd Phillips thought the very fact that everything that happens in the first movie is repeated in the sequel is a comedic premise in and of itself. "Ha ha ha! You see? It's so ridiculous that the same debauchery and amnesia would HAPPEN AGAIN. Hilarious!"

Sorry, no.

So, this time around, Stu (Ed Helms) is the one getting married, though, of course, not to the stereotypical ball buster he was with in the first movie. His bride is a young Thai-American woman (played by Jamie Chung, who will always be that boring chick from "The Real World: San Diego" to me), and while it's possible to read some kind of disturbing stereotyping going on with that choice, it probably just exists to get the guys to Thailand.

And get to Thailand they do. Yes, all of them. Phil (Bradley Cooper) has a kid, but is still a bit of a douchebag. Doug is around as much as he was the first time, which is to say, almost not at all. (And how annoyed must actor Justin Bartha be, not getting to have any fun in either of these movies?) Even Alan (Zach Galifianakis), the nut-job responsible for their original mayhem, is asked to join them in Thailand, out of sheer pity.

After a rehearsal dinner, in which Stu's future father-in-law does not hide his contempt for his daughter's choice in life-mate, the "Wolf Pack" take to the beach for a nice, quiet bonfire and a few beers. The bride's little brother, Teddy (Mason Lee) tags along, much to the chagrin of Alan, who views Teddy as a potential threat to his bonding time...

The rest plays out as the first one did. A blurry morning after in a hotel room; someone missing; no memory of the night before; etc. etc. Instead of a baby, there is a monkey. Instead of a missing tooth, there is a tattoo. Instead of a tiger in the room, there is Chow (Ken Jeong). Just recounting these plot points is pissing me off. The sheer lack of imagination should be offensive to anyone who pays money to see this.

And sure, perhaps all this would be forgivable if the movie was actually funny. But it isn't. Instead, there is an overwhelming sense of danger and gloom that overshadows most of the fun. The action sequences aren't particularly exciting, certainly not funny, and definitely not new. Galifianakis's Alan, whose utter weirdness in the first movie was the source of a lot of laughs, is just played out in this one, and nothing he does is surprising in any way.

The goal of many sequels is to be bigger than the film that preceded it. But much of the success of "The Hangover" lay in the complete outrageousness of its comedic situations, and much like Stu in the private dance room of a Bangkok strip club, they simply blew their wad the first time around.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

SFIFF: "Miss Representation" Has The Potential To Inspire




This review originally appeared on the San Francisco Appeal.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom has gotten a bit of a bad rap. In case you've forgotten (and I am sure she hopes everyone has), she ran into an Internet smackdown when she came to the defense of her (then) boyfriend, Mayor Gavin Newsom, in the comments of a post on SFist. The original post accused her of being "not a girl's kind of girl" and Siebel maintained that she was. This all branched out even further than one local blog, and before we knew it, Siebel was known as the Bumblebee. (I actually can't even fully remember how that one came about, so if anyone wants to enlighten us, please do!)*

Well, Jennifer Siebel is now Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of current California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, the mother of a young daughter, with a son on the way. And it looks like she's really taken past accusations of not being "a girl's girl" to heart, directing the documentary "Miss Representation," which takes a critical look at how the media depicts and represents women and girls.

Newsom throws herself into the movie right off the bat, perhaps trying to deflect any criticism that by being a Beautiful White Woman of Privilege, she can't possibly have been negatively affected by any of this stuff. So, we see images of her looking forlornly at trees, while accounting the heartbreaks of her life, which include the death of a sister, sexual molestation, and anorexia. These are all horrible things, of course, and I suppose they do provide us with some insight into why she's taken on this subject. I just could have done without the soft focus glamour shots...

The rest of the film is pretty standard documentary filmmaking: Lots of media clips, talking heads, and statistics. There are a lot statistics thrown across the screen, and unless all the statistics come from the same source, and this source is attributed in the credits, I'd have to say these stats are basically uncited, which seems questionable to me. Not because I doubt the stats in any way, but just because it's an easy way for someone who does disagree with the film's premise to shoot down the picture as a whole. (For the record, some of the stats that stuck with me: Teens these days consume over 31 hours of television every week; John Boehner appeared on the cover of at least three national magazine covers during his first week as Speaker of the House, while Nancy Pelosi appeared on none during her entire time as Speaker; women are 51% of the population, and yet comprise only 17% of Congress.)

Where the movie shines the most is with the "talking heads," an impressive gathering of people who are almost universally enlightening, funny, and inspiring. These include Gloria Steinam, Nancy Pelosi, Condoleeza Rica, Rachel Maddow, Geena Davis, Jennifer L. Pozner, Margaret Cho, Katie Couric, Pat Mitchell, and, yes, Gavin Newsom and his piercing green eyes.

Perhaps even more inspiring, and at times, heartbreaking, are the Bay Area high schoolers who are interviewed, all of whom are incredibly bright, articulate, and much more insightful than the youth normally presented in the media. And it is in their words and experiences that we have proof of the negative effects of sexist media and culture.

You really only need to randomly turn the channel on your TV a few times before you'll probably be presented with a scantily clad woman speaking cattily about another woman. And that's most likely just Fox News! And I'm not going to feign innocence about my consumption of the junk television that is disseminating horrible representations of women. And really, I wouldn't feel any sense of loss if every one of the "Real Housewives" franchises was yanked from the screens tomorrow.

Yes, the power to change lies partly in our hands, and in the choices we make when it comes to entertainment. But even more important is forcing change at the top, where this media is created, and correcting the disparity of female representation in TV networks, advertisers, and movie studios.

"Miss Representation" is not a perfect film, but it does manage to raise some important issues in an entertaining way, and I think it has the potential to inspire. Especially now that it's gotten the blessing of perhaps the most powerful woman in media, Oprah Winfrey, on whose network the movie will premiere in October.

* I can! In a comment that followed the comment Siebel Newsom left on that SFist post you reference, "one of Jennifer Siebel's closest and oldest friends" said she "spent a childhood with (Siebel Newsom) saving bees from swimming pools." This turned into a running joke on the lengthy comment thread. I know this, yet can't remember how old my husband is. True story. -- EB