Movie Review: Ricki and the Flash

Ricki and the Flash
Clinica Estetico, LStar Capital, TriStar Pictures, USA, 2015. 

Let's check some films that the readers of this site have suggested. 

Ricki (Meryl Streep) is a rocker stuck in the 1980s. Although she is living her dream, her band the Flash has seen its better days and plays in small bars. Ricki's day job is being a cashier and she's skint. When her daughter Julie (Streep's real daughter Mamie Gummer) divorces and gets a nervous breakdown she needs to go meet her ex-husband Pete (Kevin Kline). Pete is living in a nice house with his new wife. Rock life has been Ricki's main priority so she is estranged from Julie and sons Josh (Sebastian Stan) and Adam (Nick Westrate). The sons have different lifestyles than their mother (she's a Republican), green/leftist Josh is getting married and Adam is gay.

Pete and Ricki

Julie

Ricki makes progress with Julie but Pete's wife Maureen (Audra McDonald) drives Ricki away. Ricki's boyfriend Greg (Rick Springfield) wants to deepen their relationship but Ricki feels that she has messed up her life. So making up with the past is the way to go. Finally Ricki shows the uptight wedding guest's how to rock. It was amusing to see the the shocked faces of the wedding guests when the band started to play.

Emily (Hailey Gates) and Josh

Ricki and Greg

Meryl Streep sings adult oriented rock songs well and shows again her versatility. The soundtrack has good classic rock and some pop cover songs. The character of Ricki (Streep) was inspired by scriptwriter Diablo Cody’s rocker mother-in-law, Terry Cieri, so there is some personal touch in the story. But there are some things that prevent this from becoming one of my favourite Meryl Streep films. The comedic drama is well acted but has quite traditional redemption plot so no surprises here. Emphasis on the word comedic as the marketing tried to market this as a comedy although this is clearly a drama with some funny moments. Rick Springfield is also a fun rocker but it is a pity that the rest of the Flash, with many musicians from famous bands, have only minimal roles so the story is more about Ricki and less about the Flash. Generally it is a warm-hearted film with enjoyable dialogue. Still I think that the slice of life style approach does not fully work here as the other characters do not fully use their potential and somehow the story feels incomplete. We do not learn much about the family members of Ricki except that one kid is neurotic, one is gay and one is green. Still it is very watchable thanks to Meryl Streep's performance and music.

Rating: Good

Starring: Meryl Streep, Rick Springfield, Rick Rosas, Joe Vitale, Bernie Worrell, Ben Platt, Peter C. Demme, Jim Roche, Alexa Klienbard, Keala Settle, Joe Toutebon, Big Jim Wheeler, Brooklyn Demme, Eamon O'Rourke, Aaron Moten, Adam Shulman, Kevin Kline, Chinasa Ogbuagu, Majora Carter, Gus Halper, 'Sister' Carol East, Cherise Boothe, Mamie Gummer, Bill Irwin, Ripley Sobo, Lucy Owen, Sebastian Stan, Nick Westrate, Hailey Gates, Josh Tobin, Carmen Carrera, Li Jun Li, Gabriel Ebert, Lisa Joyce, Jimmy Kieffer, Scott Ripley, Kelsey Didion, John Dreher, Suzanne Lenz, Scott Vicari, Desi Domo, Eliza Simpson, Audra McDonald, Emily Cass McDonnell, Cynthia J. Hopkins, Em Grosland, Charlotte Rae, Beau Sia, Jeff Biehl, Victoria Haynes, Joshua Elrod, Tubten Rabten, Anna Robertson, Tony Costa, Christopher Tierney, Isabella Way, Leah O'Donnell, Erin Mullin, Trevor F. Salter, Mason Ames, Katherine Crockett, Jos Demme, PigPen Theatre Company, Renée Albulario, Leasen Beth Almquist, Barbara Christie, Semar Ghebremichael, Chris Giarmo, Lawrence Goldhuber, Andrew Haserlat, Perri Lauren, Will Mann, Mayumi Miguel, William Ryall, Chinaza Uche, Alain Van Beaux, Nicholas Ward, James Young 

Director: Jonathan Demme

Movie Review: Kiki's Delivery Service (2014)

Kiki's Delivery Service (Majo no takkyûbin) (2014) 

Being, D.N. Dream Partners, Edko Films, Kadokawa, Kinoshita Komuten, Kodama Printing, Nippon Television Network, Oricon, Studio3, Toei Company, Yomiuri Shimbun, Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation, Japan, China, 2014. 

Based on the novel by Eiko Kadono (unfortunately the English translations are either sold out or cost an arm and leg). 

Thirteen year old witch-girl Kiki (Fûka Koshiba) must leave home and live one year among normal people. So Kiki and talking cat Jiji move into a small island village. She gets a temporary housing at Osono's (Machiko Ono) and Fukuo's (Hiroshi Yamamoto) bakery. Kiki starts a delivery service that has a bad start as the village kids and grumpy inventor boy Tombo (Ryōhei Hirota) only want to see the witch fly. Not until after doing a job for perky laundry shop owner Sumire (Yo Yoshida) the villagers become interested in the delivery service. Kiki meets also a singer Takara Kami (Yuri) who has lost her will to sing. 

Kiki and Jiji

Osono and Fukuo (at background)

Sumire's laundry shop

Kiki delivers the packages and everything seems fine. When little hippo Maruko falls ill zookeeper Nazuru (Hirofumi Arai) blames the witch. Kiki gets depressed and loses her flying ability. But Kiki's friends still believe in Kiki and help her to regain her self-confidence.

Takara Kami

Maruko

Studio Ghibli made a classic anime about the same story in 1989 with Hayao Miyazaki. It is quite unfair to compare the live action film with the anime as the both films have enough differences to make them frrl like different stories although the original source is the same. Even if it was an adaptation of the anime it would still be one of the better ones. The starting point and the structure of the story are the same but the struggles Kiki goes through have different reasons and many characters are different than in the anime. Most crucial difference is that in the anime version Kiki temporarily lost her powers due artist's block and regains them when he must save Tombo. In the live action film the reason is more dramatic as she loses her skills because people are cruel to her and unjustly accuse her for being an evil witch. It is a growing-up story where Kiki must remember what she wants to be and also learn that she can not please everyone. Although the main characters are older than the characters they are performing, the casting of Fûka Koshiba is well-made and she has got the character of Kiki right with right amount of spunkiness and optimism. Ryōhei Hirota as Tombo does not speak much but makes his character interesting through his gestures that slowly make him the friend of Kiki. The live action version is a nice and colourful children's movie, not as masterpiece as the anime version but generally pleasant and nice interpretation of Kadano's stories.

Tombo

The director of the film, Takashi Shimizu, is more known for being a horror director, Ju-On The Grudge- series being the most well known in the West. Although being out of character as a children movie director, there is nothing to complain. It is still hard to believe it is the work of director of "Ju-On" when you watch the bright-coloured and cute story.

Tadanobu Asano, known for many Japanese films such as Zatoichi (2003), Gohatto and  Lupin III (2014), appears as veterinarian Dr. Ishi.

Dr. Ishi

Rating:Good

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Rie Miyazawa, Machiko Ono, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Fûka Koshiba, Minako Kotobuki, Miho Kanazawa, Michitaka Tsutsui, Miki Hayashida, Ryohei Hirota, Misato Shimizu, LiLiCo, Yo Yoshida, Hirofumi Arai, Yuri, Kirato Wakayama, Suzuko Hara, Fukiko Hara 

Director: Takashi Shimizu 

Movie Review: Big Man Japan (Dai-Nihonjin)

Big Man Japan (Dai-Nihonjin)
RealProduct, Yoshimoto Kogyo Company, Japan, 2007.

Masaru Daisatô (Hitoshi Matsumoto) a.k.a Sato has an unusual job. He seems to be a regular unhappy middle-aged man but when necessary he is powered up and he turns into Big Man Japan battling monsters threatening Tokyo. His family life has suffered because he has to be always on alert. His Manager Kobori (Ua) takes care of PR and sells ad space from his skin. She also rips him off. The public does not like him because the battles cause damage to infrastructure and he is fat. Someone paints insulting graffiti on his house walls. Also a TV show about his fights gets poor ratings. In the old days monster fighters were respected and celebrated. 

Masaru Daisatô

Lisää kuvateksti

Manager Kobori

Sato's Grandfather (Taichi Yazaki) was also Big Man Japan, but the continuing electric shocks caused dementia. When mysterious North Korean monster appears and beats Big Man Japan, the ratings of his show suddenly surge. Then series of monster-related scandals eat away the popularity again.

Strangling monster

Ad space for sale

Leaping monster

Presented in pseudo-documentary style the movie is quite slow, it is kind of anti-Marvel movie. The hero is not young or energetic but a downbeat middle-aged man who is just doing his job and continuing the family business. The rituals performed before his transformation are more for keeping up the old customs than really necessary. The origin of the monsters are never explained but they ascend to heaven when they die. There is also satire about the historically troublematic relationship between USA and Japan.

Yayyyy!

This is the Spinal Tap of the superhero movies. Although advertised as hilarious comedy this is actually quite tragic comedy. The humour is dry and deadpan and it is easy to miss the subtle comedy. This is contrasted by the monsters who are absurd and surreal, "only in Japan." Also the ending takes an absurd turn spoofing Japanese superhero shows and America saving the day. "We're all living in America, America ist wunderbar."

The Super Justice Team

Part of The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge (#24. Movie that is located in a place you have always wanted to visit: Japan)

Rating: Good

Starring: Hitoshi Matsumoto, Riki Takeuchi, Ua, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Haruka Unabara, Tomoji Hasegawa, Itsuji Itao, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Takayuki Haranishi, Daisuke Miyagawa, Takuya Hashimoto, Taichi Yazaki, Shion Machida, Atsuko Nakamura, Daisuke Nagakura, Motohiro Toriki, Keidai Yano, Junshirô Hayama, Kôichi Kitamura, Norio Nakayama, Toshihiro Koike, Atsuo Tanaka, Yoshio Takahashi, Yoshihiro Kasuya, Yumiko Ise, Roselyn Yoshio, Kaho Okajima, Jeong-Suk O., Yoshihisa Shimazaki, Katsumune Ônuki, Norihito Kobari, Masayuki Sekine, Takumi Matsumoto, Ryushin Tei, Tatsuya Ôba, Salam Diagne, Yasuhiro Roppongi, Yutaka Mishima, Hidetoshi Ito, Ai Nagano, Kiyozumi Honda, Satoya Ishii, Seijirô Nakamura, Yûki Baba, Shunsaku Yajima, Hiroko Toda, Tetsuya Kume, Yuka Kamebuchi, Hiroko Nohara, Miho Silica Nakajima
Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto     

Movie Review: The Magic of Belle Isle

The Magic of Belle Isle

Magnolia Pictures, Castle Rock Entertainment, Revelations Entertainment, Summer Magic, Firebrand Productions, Voltage Pictures, USA, 2012.

Wheel-chair bound cowboy-novel writer Monte Wildhorn (Morgan Freeman) suffers from from writer's block. For change of scenery, his nephew Henry (Kenan Thompson) rents a cabin for him from Belle Isle Village. As a part of the deal Monte must take care of the home owner's dog Ringo. Monte has lost his will to live after his wife's death and plans to spend whole summer drinking himself to death. However Monte finds other interests after meeting the neighbours. In the house next door lives single mother Charlotte O'Neil (Virginia Madsen) with her three daughters Willow (Madeline Carroll), Finn (Emma Fuhrmann) and Flora (Nicolette Pierini).

Monte and his favourite drink, alcohol

Ringo the Dog

Finn and Charlotte

The second youngest daughter Finn has vivid imagination. She befriends Monte and wants to learn write stories. Monte meets also mentally handicapped Carl (Ash Christian) and his mother Karen (Jessica Hecht). Little by little Monte finds inspiration to write again. There is also a change for romance with Charlotte.

Karen and Carl

O'Neil family dinner

"The Magic of Belle Isle" is a feel-good drama comedy with some eccentric characters. The story is quite traditional and predictable but so what as the story is warmly told. Basically the movie feels like well made TV-movie. Morgan Freeman's wryly humouristic remarks bring smile on the face. Virginia Madsen is likable in her role. Also the kid trio acted well and it is nice to see that they have gotten more roles afterwards.

Part of The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge (#41. Movie that has an elderly man as the main character)

Rating: Good

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Kenan Thompson, Virginia Madsen, Emma Fuhrmann, Madeline Carroll, Nicolette Pierini, C.J. Wilson, Ash Christian, Debargo Sanyal, Fred Willard, Jessica Hecht, Christopher McCann, Lucas Caleb Rooney, Kevin Pollak, Boyd Holbrook, Kevin, Tilly, Rosemary Howard, Johnny Serret

Director: Rob Reiner

Movie Review: Waitress

Waitress

Fox Searchlight Pictures, Night & Day Pictures, USA, 2007.

Jenna Hunterson (Keri Russell) is unhappily married waitress who is pregnant. She wants to win pie baking contest and escape his terrible life. No-good husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto) would rather keep her between the fist and the stove. Pie diner boss Cal (Lew Temple) is rude but Jenna's best friends are her workmates cheery Becky (Cheryl Hines) and shy Dawn (Adrienne Shelly). Meeting nice gynecologist Dr. Jim Pomatter (Nathan Fillion) stirs Jenna's feelings but he is married. Still Jenna starts an affair with the Doctor.

Jenna

Dawn and Becky

Earl

To escape reality Jenna invents new pies with their names that relate to her life and problems. There are for example "I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie", "I Can't Have No Affair Because It's Wrong & I Don't Want Earl to Kill Me Pie" but also "Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse Pie." Jenna develops a friendship with eccentric and grumpy owner of the pie diner Joe (Andy Griffith).

Dr. Jim Pomatter

Joe

Jenna fears that she can not love the baby. Earl finding out about the pregnancy does not make the situation any easier as jealous Earl makes Jenna promise that she will not love the baby more than him. Jenna feels stuck in her life but her friends try help her make the right choices.

Mmmmm, pie!

This is romantic drama comedy with quirky humour but more in indie-style than Hollywood-style. That means that the end is not regular romantic comedy "they lived happily ever after"- end but more like "emancipation of Jenna" as she must find her own way without hurting other people. Keri Russell carries the film well as sweet waitress and also the other small-town characters are interesting and meaningful. However the middle part of the story seems to grind to a halt for focusing too long on the on/off relationship of Jenna and Dr. Jim and the pie-baking theme gets downplayed. It is not perfect but charming indie film.

Sadly director Adrienne Shelly was murdered before the film premiered.

Let's make this part of The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge (#1. Movie about food)

Rating: Good

Starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith, Adrienne Shelly, Eddie Jemison, Lew Temple, Darby Stanchfield , Heidi Sulzman, Lauri Johnson, Sarah Hunley, Cindy Drummond, Nathan Dean, Caroline Fogarty, Christy Taylor, Jennifer Walsh, Hunter A. King, Mackenzie King, Donna Leslie, Nora Paradiso, Danny Allen, Andy Ostroy, Hailey Parker, Rylee Stefanelli, Bella Stromel, Kira Grace, Elaine Levine, Doreen Powell, Sophie Ostroy, Eleya Avery-Ault, Evan King, Jesse Schneider, Zoe Schneider, Henry Arthur Smith, Athena Stamos

Director: Adrienne Shelly 

Movie Review: Summertime (Kesäkaverit)

Summertime (Kesäkaverit) 

Starring:  Anna Paavilainen, Iina Kuustonen, Minka Kuustonen, Lauri Tilkanen, Sampo Sarkola, Pihla Viitala, Eero Ritala, Milka Ahlroth, Matleena Kuusniemi, Aku Hirviniemi, Beata Hämäläinen
Director: Inari Niemi 

Solar Films, Nordisk Film, Finland, 2014.

Twenty-somethings Iiris (Anna Paavilainen) and Karoliina (Iina Kuustonen) are going to Hanko. Iiris has lived years in Spain doing odd jobs. Karoliina is good at everything. They have a summer job at Olli's (Eero Ritala) café working as waitresses. They plan to spend summer having fun without men. They meet also a third waitress Eeva (Minka Kuustonen). Eeva is clumsy and a bit cloudcuckoolander but she is also watching her aunt's villa, so the other girls decide to move into the villa too. 

Welcome to Hanko

Karoliina and Iiris

Eeva has trouble with coffee machine

Karoliina is student at university, but the other girls try to decide what to do with their lives. The girls spend their days at work and partying evenings. Soon Iiris begins a summer romance with tennis teacher Jussi (Lauri Tilkanen). Also Karoliina tries to flirt with café customer Tommy (Sampo Sarkola). Also Iiris' sister Hertta (Pihla Viitala) visits. Already having a family, Hertta tells stories about her labour experience. The girls also have to think about challenges of growing up. 

Olli

Tommy and Jussi

Summer selfies

This movie is fun and lightweight summer comedy. Not very deep, but entertaining female buddy movie (the literal title translation of the movie would be Summer Buddies). The first half is almost pure comedy and the second half turns into drama when moral hangover hits. Nothing too serious though that the buddies couldn't get through. The chemistry of the cast is good and the actors seem to have enjoyed filming the movie. Movie also makes good use of the beach and city sceneries of Hanko.

Party!

Hertta and her husband Akseli (Aku Hirviniemi)

Hanko Casino

Rating: Good