Mini Reviews (September 2010)

Easy A (September 26/10)

Entertaining yet uneven, Easy A follows smart-alecky high schooler Olive Pendergast (Emma Stone) as she becomes the focus of gossip after word gets out that she lost her virginity to a college student - with the situation escalating as Olive agrees to perpetuate similar rumors about her exploits with several less-than-popular colleagues. Filmmaker Will Gluck has hard-wired Easy A with a fast-paced, easygoing opening hour that's consistently elevated by Stone's winning performance, as the actress does a superb job of transforming her character into a likeable (and surprisingly relatable) figure that one can't help but root for and sympathize with. (It also doesn't hurt that the supporting cast has been filled by an almost astonishing number of familiar faces, with Stanley Tucci's tremendously appealing turn as Olive's sarcastic yet compassionate father undoubtedly standing as a highlight.) It's worth noting, however, that the movie does lose some steam as it takes an expectedly dramatic turn towards the end, as, despite what screenwriter Bert V. Royal clearly believes, the narrative simply isn't deep enough to withstand the increasingly pervasive emphasis on sentimental elements (and all the John Hughes references aren't really helping, either). Still, Easy A is an agreeable endeavor that remains worth a look if only for Stone's star-making work as the central character (ie she's good even when the movie isn't).

Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut, Jack Goes Boating casts the actor as the title character - a low-key limosine driver who embarks on a tentative relationship with a fellow oddball (Amy Ryan's Connie). Jack Goes Boating has been infused with a pervasively quirky sensibility that grows tiresome almost immediately, as the far-from-authentic nature of the various characters is exacerbated by an emphasis on dialogue that couldn't possibly sound more stagy. (It's certainly not surprising to learn that the movie based on a play by Robert Glaudini.) And though Hoffman admittedly crawls into the skin of an unlikeable character with his usual ease, there's never a point at which Jack becomes someone that the viewer wholeheartedly wants to root for or sympathize with. The lack of compelling figures certainly applies to the supporting cast, as John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega pop up as friends of Jack who are undergoing marital difficulties - with their ongoing exploits effectively bringing the proceedings to a dead stop on an all-too-frequent basis (ie they're just not interesting, so it's impossible to care about their problems). Jack's possible coupling with Connie seems like it should be a highlight within the proceedings, and while Hoffman and Ryan are admittedly good together, the two characters have been imbued with so many artificial qualities that it becoes impossible to buy into their possible relationship. The movie's watchable yet uninvolving atmosphere reaches its breaking point with the rather interminable dinner party that closes the proceedings, as the hopelessly over-the-top nature of the sequence ensures that Jack Goes Boating concludes on as anticlimactic and annoying a note as one could envision - which effectively cements the movie's place as a periodically passable yet oppressively uneven piece of work.