21 Jump Street (2012)

4/5

I didn't know this going in, but 21 Jump Street is a comic adaptation of an 80's police procedural TV show about cops who go undercover into high schools and colleges because of their youthful appearances. In this 2012 version, best friends Jenko (Tatum) and Schmidt (Hill) are sent into the undercover unit at 21 Jump Street, aka the Aroma of Christ Korean church, with the mission of infiltrating a drug ring that has popped up at a local high school. Jenko is excited to relive his glory days, but soon discovers that the status symbols and hierarchy that put him on top have completely reversed compared to 7 years prior. Now the environmentally-friendly vegans (Franco, Larson) are the cool kids, and Schmidt realizes he may finally get a second chance at high school popularity.

To put it simply, the movie is awesome. It is one of the funniest I've seen recently, on par with the best of Judd Apatow (and in the same raunchy, irreverent style). It pokes fun of endless remakes, of the action comedy genre, and especially of itself. It spends no time on character development and no time on plot progression. Instead it spends 100% of the time on comedy, and it more than pays off in the jokes department. However, it doesn't try to make a point, and therefore it doesn't have the same potential as the best comedies in terms of staying power. But this movie is spectacularly funny, and I cannot recommend it enough.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232829/

Annie Hall (1977)

5/5

Woody Allen's Annie Hall is the quintessential indie romantic comedy. Much like Psycho, it set the stage for all the parodies and homages to come (When Harry Met Sally, 500 Days of Summer). And watching it 35 years later, it loses none of its humor or warmth. It is still as engaging and moving as the day it came out. The bevy of flattering imitations and cheap knock-offs to emerge from the bowels of Hollywood since have only made me more nostalgic for the original. Because none of the replicas have the same charm that made this a classic; none have the same inventive curiosity and ceaseless awe about love that peppers every scene.

The film's structure jumps back and forth in time, focusing on the emotions of relationships rather than the chronology. This has been attempted in romantic stories since time immemorial, but never have I felt it as keenly as in Annie Hall. We see their moments of happiness, vivaciously experience that pure exhilarating joy. We cringe at the anger and resentment that builds up as their relationship falls apart, comes back together, and continues to breed turmoil. We want them to be together, because we love both of them, but life isn't always so sweet. Sometimes it's bittersweet.

There is so much about the directing to love. I'm constantly amazed that Allen put so much creativity into this film; anybody lesser would have spaced it out over several movies to keep people coming back for more. Annie Hall is filled to the brim and delightfully overflowing with ingenuity and novelty. He breaks down common filmic conventions--like split screen, subtitles, and the fourth wall--then rearchitects them for his own purposes. He has so much to say, and doesn't care how he gets his point across, so he uses anything and everything film has to offer.

But what makes this movie so good is none of that. It is the people. In Alvy Singer, Woody Allen both created and perfected the neurotic Jewish New Yorker; Harry Burns and Jerry Seinfeld are nowhere near as compelling or fulfilling to watch. There is something about how wiry and wimpy he looks, how piercing his voice sounds when he whines, that manages just the right amount of pity and sympathy. And Annie Hall is played to perfection by Diane Keaton, as beautifully awkward and fiercely independent as can be. She is soft, tender, naive, mature, and strong, all in one breath. The characters are nothing special, except that they are human beings, and that makes them more special than the characters inhabiting most movies. This movie will always stay in my heart. It is the first and best independent romantic comedy.

IMDb link:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075686/

One Day (2011)

2/5

One Day feel like a concept film, an experimental trial of style regardless of its impact on content. The movie starts with Emma (Hathaway) on July 15, mid-2000, then reverses back to July 15, 1998 and goes forward year by year until we catch up to the start of the film. The relevance of this day is obfuscated for no particular reason. It initially seems as if it commemorates the day she first meets Dex (Sturgess), as it follows their interactions on that day each year, but the true "secret" is revealed near the end. After that secret is revealed, it goes even further back to uncover even more unseen scenes.

And that is the real problem with the movie. It is mysterious for the sake of being mysterious. It does it to hide the story in the hopes of surprising you at the end, instead of doing it for any thematic benefit. You watch the first half of the film wondering why you're sitting there watching the film at all. This frustration is made worse by the fact that there is no chemistry between the two leads. There is no electricity or excitement. The acting is competent, but there is nothing tying the two together through time and space. They are two independently adequate actors. Ultimately, it doesn't matter how good the technical aspects are (they are decent) because the movie fails to engage us with its storytelling.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1563738/

Chronicle (2012)

4/5

Chronicle tells the story of three high school students who develop superpowers overnight. Andrew (DeHaan) is a shy loner who has never had any friends. He decides to start filming his life, presumably to document the verbal and physical abuse his alcoholic father (Kelly) dishes out. We see how his environment shapes his mentality, and how popularity and embarrassment can dramatically alter fickle adolescent emotions and thoughts. His cousin Matt (Russell) is interested in philosophy and girls. After witnessing the destructive potential of their powers, he institutes rules to govern their use. And the third is Steve (Jordan), the popular kid in school who wants to go into politics because he's good with faces. A good kid with a good heart, he would prefer to use their newfound talents to put on a playful magic show.

These characters are the essence of the story, because this is really a character-driven meditation on teen angst (despite the superpowers). Infused with the kind of puerile humor that would make funniest home videos, it is genuinely engaging and fascinating. How would three high schoolers actually respond to that kind of ability? It is astonishing how rapidly jokes can turn mean and pranks can turn sadistic. And this movie seems ready, almost anxious, to discuss the fragility of human emotion. Much like Irreversible, we see small moments in the events that lead up to the climax that make us think, what if? What if this one word, this one reaction, had been heard and felt?

The movie manages to be both contrived and eminently believable. It uses the "found footage" concept to great effect in offering up realism, but never really explains how it all got edited together (and with other sources spliced in). The experiments the kids do to test the limits of their power are clever and inventive, but the climactic finale is just a little too preposterous for me. I am only able to suspend my disbelief so far; beyond that I am taken out of the experience. I can see how silly I look sitting in the theater, watching a movie where a boy is wrapped head-to-toe in bandages, yelling at the top of his lungs with glass windows shattering all around him.

Overall, this is a great film. It is breathlessly-paced and powerfully-told. It has so much to say, but doesn't always use the right tools. I felt like it came out of the conception phase a little too early; I wanted it to cook a little more and mature a bit before they committed it to film. I wanted to see a classic fable of the teenage years that would stand the test of time. This does not do that, but it's an original, electrifying film nonetheless.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706593/