Ah yes, the end of August doldrums, when the studios toss the last remaining logs of the summer movie season onto the fire in the hope that the dying embers from the really big hits will ignite something -- anything -- resembling a large box office take.
Memo to Hollywood: Don't count on it with two new imitative features, "The Rocker" and "The House Bunny." Also on tap are a trio of independent efforts.
"The Rocker" offers yet another cinematic incarnation of the infantile male. I'm telling you, there is some serious low self-esteem out there in Los Angeles. A goofball loser of a guy named Robert "Fish" Fishman is the drummer of a rock and roll band in the 1980s. But the moguls don't like him, so he's tossed out on his drumsticks. Of course, the band makes it big. (Shades of The Beatles and, even more contemporarily, The Goo Goo Dolls, although in the case of the latter, the drummer quit before fame hit.) Fish is miserable and inconsolable right up to the present day. He's tapped into every loser stereotype imaginable. He lives in a tiny room in his sister's house and he can barely hold a job. He's a chump without any change.
Enter his nephew, high school student Matt, whose garage band needs a drummer in order to play at the prom. Needless to say, and for no reason other than for the purposes of the plot, Matt chooses Fish to play the drums. This gives the dope a chance to fulfill his rock and roll dreams. It's actually sort of creepy to see this sad sack of an adult hanging out with teens with visions of glory in his head.
As directed by Peter Cattaneo and written by Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, from a story by Ryan Jaffe, the turgid movie is a pale imitation of "School Of Rock," and nowhere near as funny or zany.
As Fish, "The Rocker" stars Rainn Wilson, a misshapen blob of an actor with no discernible talent except the willingness to act stupid and say gross things. Christina Applegate is along for the harried ride as the mom of one of the kids in the band. She manages to score a few points for sheer grit and determination.
The story goes nowhere and offers no joy. It's just a showcase for Wilson, who has achieved television fame on "The Office" as a sort of butt-head. But I've got news for him, the dumb little character traits of a fool, which work reasonably well on the small screen, just seem overdone and annoying on the big screen. It's not being hammy; it's being a jackass.
"The House Bunny" is a makeover movie that mixes a touch of "Clueless," a dash of "Legally Blonde," and a smidgen of "Animal House," but ends up being nowhere near as good, funny, or interesting as any of them.
A perky, but uneven, Anna Faris is Shelly, a Playboy bunny tossed out of the mansion by Hugh Hefner (playing himself) for a silly indiscretion. She ends up working as the house mother for a college sorority that is comprised of the biggest pack of dateless female losers on the planet. Some of them are also feminists. You know the stereotype: baggy army pants, combat boots, body hair. However, Shelly still has those bunny genes scurrying inside her vapid brain, so she decides to change the look of the sorority sisters and help them get men.
Dumb blonde jokes abound, the crude, horny frat boys come sniffing around, and the acting is embarrassing. The wildly uneven, weakly written and directed, and truly sexist movie drifts into nothingness.
Catherine Breillat is a French filmmaker who makes adult dramas that are sexually explicit and emotionally raw. I've only ever seen her movies at high-toned film festivals, which is where her reputation has been made. In France, especially in Paris, she is highly regarded. Her favorite themes are the relationship between man and woman, sibling rivalry and gender domination. Her strong views on female sexuality, and the men who want to unlock the key to it, make for a fascinating moviegoing experience.
Her newest release, "The Last Mistress" (Une Vieille Maitresse), which played the Toronto Film Festival (and others) in 2007, is more traditional in terms of storytelling than what we usually get from Breillat.
Based on the 19th-century novel of the same name by Jules-Amedee Barbey d'Aurevilly, the exquisite-looking movie is about the impending marriage of a handsome aristocrat to a very beautiful woman who has less experience in the ways of the flesh than her fiance. Things are complicated by the presence of the future husband's robust mistress, played to the hilt by Asia Argento. Breillat explores the philosophy and sociology of female independence with her usual eye on the bedroom. This is the battle of the sexes writ large.
"Bottle Shock" is based on the true events of 1976, when the world was stunned that wine from California could actually compete with wine from France. The movie is lightly comic and mildly romantic, and it creates a pleasant mood, although at times, some of the characters seem to be in a different film -- like something out of John Steinbeck.
The characters include a California vintner (Bill Pullman), an eager young wine stud (Chris Pine), a Latino with wine dreams (Freddy Rodriguez), a lovely wine intern (yes, you read that right -- Rachael Taylor) and the all-important wine snob (Alan Rickman). Thank goodness for Rickman, who's deliciously entertaining as the snooty chap with a nose for a good bouquet.
It all boils down to what became known as "The Judgment Of Paris," the contest in which California wines topped French vintages in a taste test. "Bottle Shock" doesn't have the zip and complexity of "Sideways," but it's refreshing enough to recommend.
"American Teen" is a bland documentary about a group of high school teenagers in a small Indiana town. Nanette Burstein directs with little flash, which is a problem because the quandaries these kids face are utterly typical of most teenagers anywhere in the United States.
There's no real sense of anyone being special or unique. The whole thing is a little bit mundane. This kind of straight-on documentary has been usurped by successful similar efforts on PBS and other television networks.
Put it in black and white and it could be something from the 1960s or 1970s, during the glory days of documentaries. That's not a compliment, it's a comparison. The brilliant Frederick Wiseman made two movies about teenagers, "High School" and "High School II." Ultimately, "American Teen" lacks urgency.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Aug. 26 2008 |