50 / 50

Title:  50 / 50
Director: Jonathan Levine’s
Released: 2011
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Seth Rogan, Anna Kendrick, Anjelica Huston, Matt Frewer

Plot: Adam (Gordon-Levitt) a Seattle based radio researcher, whose sole problems seem to be a lack of sex with his Artist girlfriend Rachael (Dallas Howard), getting to work on time and what seems like some minor back problems. It is soon the latter which throws his world into turmoil as he discovers that it is being caused by a malignant neurofibroma-sarcoma schwannoma (try saying that after a couple of drinks) a rare form of cancer with a survival rate of 50 / 50

Review: It’s probably safe to say that Cancer isn’t exactly the most prime of choices for comedy and judging by how noticeably empty the theatre was when I originally saw this film, it seems that a lot of people had seemingly come to the same conclusion. Still with a script by Will Reiser who himself battled and won his own fight against “The Big C” he has here crafted a fantastic script based on these experiences which certainly doesn’t tread on eggshells around such delicate subject matter.
While certainly a grim situation its one that Adam doesn’t have to fight this battle on his own, as he finds support from his long term friend and full term slacker Kyle (Rogan), who also frequently uses Adam’s conditions, to their…..well mainly his own sexual advantage to pick up girls, while also receiving support from trainee councillor Kate (Kendrick) and for whom he is only her third patient and from whose sessions an unlikely friendship begins.

Following Adam throughout his battle, he maintains a largely positive front despite soon discovering that his girlfriend is dealing with things slightly less well, clearly having signed on to be his girlfriend and not his nurse, while still feeling the pressure to stand by her man yet she refuses to attend his treatments allowing her own personal dislike of hospitals to take precedence and generally struggling to deal with the situation, leading to best friend Kyle proving to be the unlikely pillar of support even as Adam’s situation grows increasingly grim. Rogan here clearly drawing from his own experiences as the best friend of Will Resier you have a real sense that the role was written specifically for him to play, especially when so many of their shared experiences make reappearances here and while Rogan might be pulling out the same stoner chic which he has carved a living from over the last few years made his calling card, here it more of a throwback to “Knocked Up”  as he tones down his usual frantic energy to allow the natural humour to shine through.

The humour throughout never feels forced outside of the occasional outrageous one liners which are unsurprisingly given to Rogan, yet at the same time it feels wrong to mark this as a comedy, for humour is shown frequently here as shown more as a coping method of handling the situation, than anything resembling cheap laughs from which is essentially an extremely grim subject and it’s a black veined humour which runs throughout this film, which such memorable quips including “The more syllables it has, the worse it is” as joked by prostate cancer patient Mitch (Frewer) during a post chemo chat over hash macaroons a man who is almost like the living representation of acceptance, the fifth and final step on the “five stages of grief”, the stages of which Kate struggles to guide Adam through as she battles her own confidence issues, having still not earned her doctorate and not having the experience to provide all the answers with Kendrick herself describing this character as “the worst therapist in the world”.

With Kate and Kyle providing Adam with his main support Adam also finds himself receiving slightly less wanted support from his mother Diane played here by the always fantastic Anjelica Huston, who again makes such a small role still memorable, as she is already caring for her Alzheimer’s stricken husband yet still is insistent on dropping everything to move in and care for her son as well, while Adam’s attempts to subtly break it to her about his diagnosis by opening with the questionable “Have you ever seen Terms of Endearment?” easily being one of my favourite moments of the film.

Levine has assembled a great cast with Gordon-Levitt once again pulling off another memorable lead performance, while maintaining his indie charms despite recently making more mainstream movies as his profile has risen in the last few years and receives great support from the rest of the cast, who are all equally believable in their roles so that you actually care for these characters, especially during some of the darker moments and Levine effortlessly manages to shift the tone between these moments

“50/50” is yet another great film to come out of the fantastic year for cinema that 2011 turned out to be and while it’s subject matter left it to be truly only discovered once it was released on DVD, much like director Jonathan Levine’s previous indie gem “The Wackness” and again like my review for “Drive” I feel I that I’m truly not doing it justice with this review, even more so when I came home from having watched the film and tried to explain to my wife about the film, only to be greeted with confusion over how a film about cancer could be both funny and not drowned in the usual over emotional tones and as such I can really only urge you to go and watch it yourself to truly understand just how good this film really is.

Looper

Title: Looper

Director: Rian Johnson

Released: 2012

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Jeff Daniels, Emily Blunt, Piper Perabo

Plot: In 2074 time travel exists in a highly illegal form were it is used primarily by the mob to send people they want to disappear back to 2044. Here a group of contracted  hitman known as loopers, despatch of these future targets in return for the silver bars strapped to the back of their targets. When a loopers contract is ended their future self is sent back in time to face the same fate as their usual targets, while the looper receives a hefty pay off, released from their contract and left to live out their remaining thirty years in an arrangement known as “Closing the Loop”. Its an arrangement that Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is happy to live by until his future self (Willis) escapes after being sent back leading him on a manic pursuit to find him, while also on the run from his boss Abe’s (Daniels) person goon squad the “Gat Men”.

 

Review: For one reason or another some directors never seem to get the recognition they deserve as despite bursting onto the scene with his highly inventive high school noir “Brick” and following it with the sorely overlooked Con-Drama “The Brothers Bloom” director Rian Johnson has returned after a short absence with something not short of a bang, as he now brings his distinctive style to rework the time travel movie.

I guess in many ways it is comforting to see that in 2044 not a huge amount has really changed, sure there are a couple of jet bikes (alas ones which barely work half the time) here and there and a strange mutation has left 10% of the population with minor telekinetic powers a situation Joe dryly describes with the quote

“Everyone thought we were going to have superheroes, but all we got was a bunch of assholes at clubs floating quarters.”  

But despite this things are still pretty much the same as normal with the divide between the rich and poor only more prominent than ever. Joes life meanwhile is one of cold blooded efficiency and carefree drug abuse, while seemingly only caring for his showgirl girlfriend of sorts Suzie (Perabo), with his refusal to break the rules maintaining, what he believes to be a happy existence and one which suddenly comes crashing down around him with the sudden arrival of his future self, who is less than happy to stick to the arrangement.

Once again Johnson has taken the established ideas laid out by the genre predecessors, which in this case is largely films such as “Back To The Future”, “The Teminator” and even “12 Monkeys” and still managed to give it a fresh new spin, giving us something which we haven’t seen done a hundred times before. Meanwhile Johnson keeps things grounded in a setting drenched in familiarity that he ensures that our focus is on the story, rather than looking out for hints of what the future might hold. Infact Johnson’s future vision features more elements of 50’s Americana and 40’s gangster culture than it does anything resembling a futuristic look, with no random fashion choices or mock advertisements for “Saw 23” or “Jaws 19” in sight. Still this is not to say that Johnson doesn’t have fun with the paradox effect, as seen when another looper also loses his future self, which for what would seem to be such a well planned operation, seemingly still happens enough for them to already have a contingency plan in place, which for this looper is that he soon find himself being paid a visit by the surgeon, the effects of which we are soon witnessing on his future self as his limbs and features suddenly start disappearing only to be replaced by aged scar tissue, while the exploring the idea further as one of the main themes of the film, as future Joe attempts to monkey with the timeline himself as he heralds the warning of a mysterious figure known only as “The Rainmaker” whom he intends to stop before he becomes the figure of power he is in the future.

While perhaps not as tightly scripted as his previous films Johnson still manages to throw enough interesting ideas into the mix to hold the attention of the audience while still ensuring that even the tiniest of details ultimately serve a purpose, no matter how trivial they might seem when they first appear. At the same time he doesn’t allow the story to get bogged down in time travel jargon and theories, but instead lays out the framework for his vision of how time travel works and builds his story around these rules. Ultimately though the films rests on the performances of it’s two leads as Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues to impress with yet another memorable performance rounding out an incredible year for him as he effortlessly switches between cold blooded killer and a surprisingly softer side, while with the help of a few prosthetics is a striking younger double of Bruce Willis, who gets to play to both his strengths as he growls dialogue and gets to kick ass in equal measure as he plays things like a grumpier time travelling John McClain. However it is the scenes were the two leads are acting opposite each other that the film is at it’s strongest, as they share an incredible onscreen chemistry with Gordon-Levitt more than capable of confidently holding his own with a screen veteran like Willis and made me wish that there was more scenes like this, rather than the two characters heading off on their individual paths, especially when the plotline involving Sara (Blunt) and her son Cid (Pierce Gagnon) threatens to derails the film yet ultimately proving another essential piece of the puzzle especially in how they tie into the reoccurring themes of nature vs. nurture, family and redemption which feature throughout. Meanwhile the rest of the supporting cast are all good in varying degrees with Jeff Daniels’s surprisingly vicious turn as Abe being especially noteworthy as his presence seems to constantly be tainted with the air of violence which usually follows in his wake, either via his hammer favouring punishments or at the hands of his Gat Men.

Ultimately with this film Johnson has crafted a film with enough original ideas to stand up alongside the films which came before it, while still giving the audience plenty to think about while even more randomly he also released a directors commentary, which you can download onto your Ipod and listen to while watching the movie to clear up any grey areas. Still by scraping the usual complex science for more largely physical ideas, he has ensured that if his work wasn’t known before this film, it sure as hell will be after this, as this is bold and original film making at its best.

Don Jon

Title: Don Jon
Director: Joseph Gordon-Levit
Released: 2013
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levit, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Glenne Headly, Brie Larson, Rob Brown, Jeremy Luke, Channing Tatum, Anne Hathaway

Plot: Jon (Gordon-Levit) a modern day Don Juan, ruled by his material possessions as well as his lust for casual sex and porn, only to soon find his life thrown into turmoil by his new relationship with the feisty Barbara (Johansson) .



Review: Not content with making the successful transfer from indie favourite to the Hollywood mainstream, Joseph Gordon-Levit extends his range here to include directing as he appears both side of the camera with his "Jersey Shore" esq tale. It's an interesting change of pace for JGL, while at the same time not so surprising when you consider some of the varied  roles he has undertaken previously, from a gay rent boy in “Mysterious Skin” to a high school private eye in “Brick”, he has continued to surprise with the roles he has been able to pull off while needless to say approaching all of them with a fearless attitude as anyone who has seen “Mysterious Skin” can certainly attest to. Here though he goes into Guido mode as Jon, as he engages in an endless cycle of working out, casual sex, cleaning his apartment and nightly rounds of what could almost be seen as a highly choreographed routine of porn watching before finishing out his week by attending confession to cleanse himself of his numerous sins.

Porn of course is the main subject of interest here, as Jon certainly loves his porn even openly admitting to preferring it over sex with one of his many real life partners. Needless to say these nocturnal activities don’t sit too well with Barbara, which leads to the surprising main meat of the film as Jon attempts to break away from his porn addiction. Of course if you’re now taken by surprise by that last part you would certainly be experiencing the same feeling I had while I was watching this film, as honestly the last thing I was expecting here was a study on how pornography has warped men’s expectations of sex. A subject certainly given some thought here, as Jon bemoans how his real life partners are unable to compare to his porn fantasies, their flaws being reeled off in almost a checklist. Of course such commentary on society and its porn obsessions, I’m still unable to tell if it’s a subject close to JGL or if he is just using working the subject into the film due to it currently being such a hot topic.

Jon trying to find redemption from his porn obsession forms the meat of the second half of the film, which is also the weakest part, as Jon soon meets Ester (Moore) through his night school classes, who might be what he has been looking for all this time, while together they engage in their own mutual and highly unorthodox form of therapy to try and cure each other’s issues, which generally involves smoking pot and having sex in Ester’s car. Sadly which I’m sure that JGL intended for these scenes to have some form of emotional resonance with the audience, who instead suddenly find themselves jerked to the polar opposite of the film they were watching in the first half, which ultimately proves to be detrimental to the film as a whole.

Ultimately though it is hard to classify exactly what this is trying to be classed as, with most critics seeming to be mark it as a modern romantic movie and one which aims to shy away from the more textbook fairy tale ending kind of romantic movie. JGL certainly has the experience with this films be it via “500 Days of Summer” or perhaps to a lesser extend “10 Things I Hate About You”, so it wouldn’t be overly surprising that he would choose to make a similar sort of film for his debut. Still this doesn’t truly describe the film for while the film certainly sees Jon trying to deal with two very different relationships, only the first half could be seen as trying to break this mould, especially when JGL includes a mock trailer for one of the kind of movies he is trying not to make, while also clearly making use of his little black book of celebrity fans, as Anne Hathaway and Channing Tatum camp up the romantic leads.

Such confusion over what sort of film he is trying to make alongside the polar opposite halves to this film only makes it something of a shame especially when the first half shows such potential with JGL perfectly embodying the Guido stereotypes, which have become so familiar to those of us who may have caught an episode of “Jersey Shore”. You know while flicking through the channels looking for the Discovery channel and of course not intentionally watching it for the sleazy cheap thrill it provides…but I digress as JGL here if anything only continues to prove himself every bit the human chameleon as he perfectly embodies another role. This of course is more than just dressing hip and speaking with a Bronx accent, as he even manages to include even the smaller details of the culture such as striping down to his vest when eating dinner with his family, while his ear for dialogue is none the better than these moments, as Jon has to contend with a father (Danza) more obsessed with watching the game than the lives of his children and a mother who puts most interrogators to shame with her constant stream of questioning.

Equally strong is the supporting cast which JGL assembles here, from a pitch perfect Scarlett Johansson who gives one of her best performances since “Ghost World” with a classy trashy attitude to boot as she refuses to be just another conquest for Jon, teasing him relentlessly and could at one point potentially be the one to make him settle down if it wasn’t for her adverse reaction to his porn watching habits.  Julianne Moore is equally watchable and brings a suitable amount of emotion to her more powerful scenes as she reveals that she is dealing with the loss of both her son and husband.

Despite JGL once again confirming that he is still one of the most interesting actors currently working today, he however appears less comfortable behind the camera, with a disappointing second half striving to show redemption only proving detrimental to the overall film with its sudden mood shift. This is not to say that there aren’t still sparks of potential and flashy cinematography throughout, its just more of a stumble than a memorable debut.