BLACK BEAR

Aubrey Plaza     Sarah Gadon     Christopher Abbott

     In a rather tangled two-part plot, writer/director Lawrence Michael Levine explores some version of the “life imitates art” juxtaposition.  To illustrate his point he uses a recurring image of the main character in a meditative position surrounded by nature.  The first scenario is presented with certain actors in certain roles followed by those same actors and characters enacting a different story.  

     In Part One, Aubrey Plaza plays the role of a director (Allison) seeking inspiration at an isolated retreat owned by Gabe (Abbott) and Blair (Gadon), an unmarried couple expecting a baby.  One of the first evenings with them is disturbing—for the viewer, as well as for Allison—by the couple’s constant bickering and by Blair’s jealousy toward Allison.

     Suddenly, in Part Two, a movie is being shot, with the plot being somewhat the same as in Part One, but with the characters shifted around.  Here, Gabe is a movie director married to Allison, the star of the movie.  That is, “Gabe” and “Allison” are the married couple, and “Blair” is a rival of Allison.  Living up to what Allison has claimed in the first movie—that she was an actor difficult to work with, Allison portrays that character in the movie, being late to the set and arguing with her husband (the director, now, in the movie being shot) about the script.  Lying is a sub-theme throughout both parts of Black Bear.

     The movie demonstrates Aubrey Plaza’s skill in portraying a chameleon personality who can act out a scene on the spur of the moment and thus has some mystery about her.  Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon, her co-stars, likewise show very different personas, depending on what is called for in the script.  

     As intriguing as this might be for those informed about anti-mimesis (Oscar Wilde’s belief that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”) and the notion that we only see what artists have taught us to see, I think most viewers of this movie will not be entranced by it.   I appreciate what writer/director Lawrence Michael Levine has tried to do, but figure that such esoteric content will be lost on most, and that they will see the movie as a bit of a jumble.

     On the other hand, I figure that actors themselves will love the script, which embodies what they have to do on a regular basis.  It also reflects the constantly changing relationships they see every day in their own lives.

     The symbolic significance of the black bear of the title is more difficult to determine. If it refers to William Faulkner’s “The Bear”, I can only relate it in terms of Falkner’s equating the bear in his story to nature or to the wilderness and its death.  The last scene of the movie is Plaza’s character encountering a big black bear with interest and a glint in her eye. Is she encountering the bear as something of nature to which she needs to get reconnected? Or is it about nature on its road to destruction?

 

This is a film primarily for those in the business of filmdom or to those who ponder humans’ relationship with nature.

 

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES

Zac Efron     Adam Devine     Aubrey Plaza     Anna Kendrick

          Mike (Devine) and Dave (Efron) need much more than wedding dates in this film.  Their parents and sister and her fiancé sit down for a serious talk before the occasion, which will take place in Hawaii, and they beg them not to ruin still another family get-together.  They’re shown videotapes of their bad behavior in the past, and after being defensive, they listen to their sister’s plea.  The family believes that if the two bring “nice girls” as dates, it will have a taming effect on them.

          I suppose that it’s no accident that this movie is like an extended sitcom—and a bad one that seems never-ending—because the experience of the director (Jake Szymanski) and writers (Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien) has been primarily in television.  It’s a predictable farce, with the young men getting dates, Tatiana (Plaza) and Alica (Kendrick), who are as bad as they are in real life (e.g., they have just been fired from their waitress jobs for coming to work drunk).  They have schemed to get invited and are just looking for a “vaca.”  So original—not!  So funny—not!

       The writers seemed to have no boundaries in coming up with “pranks” to ruin a wedding; it seems like whatever they thought of that would be terrible to happen at a wedding, they put in the script.  Of course, drugs and alcohol play a large role, along with lying, screaming, and conniving with little thought given to consequences.  This gets very tiresome as scene after scene intended to be funny falls flat, either because it’s expected or because it’s too cruel/awkward/crude.

          Given the roles presented to them, the actors do a credible job in acting their parts.  Efron and Devine do come across as brothers with a mix of competitiveness and love, and Plaza and Kendrick as women at sea not knowing what to do with their lives.  When they get serious, the characters are mildly interesting, but they inevitably end up looking one-dimensional—any change that transpires appears to be magical.  In that vein, the story ends illogically in that all of the incompetent doofuses end up being organized, effective heroes after all the havoc they’ve wrought.

            I see no reason for anybody anywhere at any time to see this movie, and there are a ton of reasons not to see it.  To name a few:  It glorifies alcohol and drugs, it glorifies foolhardy risk-taking and impulsivity, it contains constant yelling and swearing and has a paucity of soul searching, thoughtful contemplation.  Someone might reply to this, “It’s entertainment!  It doesn’t have to have any depth or serious thought.”  My reply?  “It doesn’t?” 

Skip this movie; it will be bad for you.

Grade:  F                                    By Donna R. Copeland

FRESNO

Natasha Lyonne     Judy Greer     Aubrey Plaza     Fred Armisen

Fresno is a pretty preposterous wannabe comedy about two sisters who have lasting conflicts.  Martha (Lyonne) is the “good” sister, who has a job as a maid at the Fresno Suites and has managed to buy a house.  Her sister Shannon (Greer) has a slew of problems as a result of pathetically poor judgment.  She has just gotten out of rehab (sex addiction), and Martha is trying to help her get back on her feet.  Shannon is hostile to just about everyone and makes a point to voice her opinions, no matter what they are.  This characteristic is one of the many faults with the film; that is, how does this angry person pick up so many sexual contacts?  Not that she spends any time getting acquainted with her contacts; she proposes sex at the drop of a hat—or anything else.

Shannon is supposed to be helping Martha clean rooms, but the first chance she gets, she slips away for a quickie with a hotel guest.  Martha discovers her, and the encounter ends up very badly with a dead body on their hands, and the rest of the film is an absurd story about the various ruses they use to get rid of the body, strategies usually thought up by Shannon. 

This involves visiting the deceased’s sister, getting the body out of the hotel unseen, keeping ice on it to keep it from smelling, finding a place to bury it, stealing or raising enough money to bury it, and so on and on and on.

The works of writer (Karey Dornetto) and director (Jamie Babbit) have primarily been in television.  I found the script to be sorely lacking in coherence and got the impression ideas were simply strung together without much regard to logic.  For instance, Shannon has not demonstrated an ounce of empathy at any time, and we’ve mentioned her poor problem-solving skills; but suddenly she shows empathy toward two people and gives them good advice!  The script also has her sleeping with her therapist and his helping her in a matter he shouldn’t, both of which would get his license revoked.  The character could have been anyone—why make him a therapist?

The four main actors—Lyonne, Greer, Plaza, and Amisen—are good in their roles, and this is just about the best thing I can say about Fresno.

An attempt at comedy without much coherence.

Grade:  D- By Donna R. Copeland

NED RIFLE

Aubrey Plaza     Parker Posey     Liam Aiken

            Some of the smartest, wittiest dialog is in Ned Rifle.  I would love to read the script so I could savor the cogent commentary that was spoken at such a rapid pace it was difficult to grasp all the references.  It's a spoof on intellectuals acted out by well-read characters, on religion by religious believers, on the pharmaceutical industry by a sincere doctor, and on common "normal" people for their prudeness and reliance on stereotypes to form their opinions.   This is all done in hyperstylized mode that reminds of an old movie that has been modernized.

            Ned Grim (aka Rifle) (Aiken) has been sheltered by a minister's family while his father is missing and his mother is in the penitentiary for unclear reasons.  We only hear the cryptic gossip about her, and never really get the full story.  Ned carries a grudge against his father "for what he did" to his mother, and now he feels that to be a good Christian he needs to kill him as the devil's representative.  Various things will stand in his way, most notably a stalker of his Nobel Prize-winning uncle who wants him to give her access to the uncle.  This odd character shows up at every turn, with time revealing her horrific history, which makes you worry about Ned's safety, for he is naive and trusting and utterly committed to Christian charity.  

            In this zany movie, colorful characters keep turning up with various connections to one another and situations you just wouldn't expect, such as the mother having her story ghost written "by a young graduate student", a prior intimate of the father who is suddenly re-appearing, a bit of family history that shows the father and his brother as writers competing with one another, and one character surprisingly central to everyone.  

           

            Plaza is a stand-out in this performance with her outlandish get-ups, her geeky lightning-speed brain, apparent innocence covering up so much.  Aiken’s character is more subdued, but he still carries a quiet presence that makes you notice him.  Posey is always good, but her screen time in this picture is relatively brief. 

            I admire Hal Hartley’s ability to write scripts that can proceed through three sequenced films, with the last one standing on its own so that the viewer will not have had to see the previous ones.  I am actually one of those people, and I had no trouble getting engaged with Ned Rifle and being able to make sense of it.  In fact, this makes me want to see its antecedents.  Although I am sure the academically loaded dialog went past many, I was fascinated by it.

A satire of academic, religious, and medical worlds, and frequent biases among ordinary people.

Grade:  A-                                    By Donna R. Copeland