Begin Again: Music & Second Chances in New York

Over Labor Day weekend, AMC is offering free tickets to see Begin Again in participating movie theaters. I snatched up two tickets on Friday and my friend and I went in with fairly low expectations - after all, if they were resorting to free ticket promotions, how good could the movie be? Turns out, really good. If the intention of this promotion is to increase word of mouth, they certainly succeeded, because I'm here to tell everyone to watch this movie.

The central characters are the talented but unassuming songwriter Gretta (Keira Knightley) and the alcoholic and down-on-his-luck music producer Dan (Mark Ruffalo), with New York City contributing a great deal in the background. The movie begins with Gretta's best friend Steve (the always delightful James Corden) forcing her to sing one of her songs at an open mic night in an East Village bar. As she reluctantly sings, Dan, who just stopped in to have a drink, is mesmerized and decides that he needs to sign Gretta on as an artist for his label.

The first half of the movie unfolds mostly in flashbacks. We see how Gretta arrived in New York from the UK with her pop star boyfriend Dave (a hilariously well-cast Adam Levine) and the gradual dissolution of that relationship. We learn how Dan went from being a Grammy award-winning producer to a complete shambles of a human being who is an embarassment to his estranged wife and daughter (Catherine Keener and Hailee Steinfeld, both putting in remarkable supporting performances). And after establishing the mess that both these characters are in, the movie generously give them a second chance to build themselves back up and make beautiful music. 

Writer-director John Carney is the man responsible for Once, and he is a master of making movies about music and real people. The movie is slyly devious, threatening to slip into Hollywood cliche, then thwarting the audience's expectations to deliver a funny and heartfelt movie. The relationships don't pan out in typical rom-com fashion and are instead grounded in genuine human emotion. Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo are impeccable and the supporting cast is thoroughly delightful, elevating the movie in every scene. Gregg Alexander is responsible for the movie's evocative soundtrack and he has captured every character's personality to give the movie an added layer of authenticity. 

Begin Again was initially released in June and got lost in the morass of big-budget summer blockbusters. However, by re-releasing it now, in the quieter fall months when quality independent movies can be discovered more easily, The Weinstein Company is wisely courting more attention for this gem of a movie. Therefore, if you have no plans this Labor Day, head to your local theater and watch Begin Again. Then tell all your friends to do so and ensure this movie gets the attention it so rightfully deserves. 

Happy Endings: Spectacular Sitcom Shenanigans

Happy Endings aired on ABC from 2011 to 2013. During that time, it was critically acclaimed and adored, with many people begging audiences to tune in and boost the show's ratings. Sadly, I, like many others, did not pay attention, and the show was ignominiously cancelled. However, it has subsequently developed a cult following among people who discovered it online and on demand. Over the past month, I've binged through the entire run of Happy Endings and discovered a show that is wonderfully witty, sweet, and entertaining.

Stop me if you've heard this premise before: a group of six friends have adventures and fun times in an American city. Sure, it seems old hat, but Happy Endings delivers in its execution. The main characters are ditzy blonde Alex (Elisha Cuthbert), whose sister is the hyper-organized blonde Jane (Eliza Coupe), who is married to the put-together but laid-back Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.). Alex was supposed to marry Dave (Zachary Knighton) but she jilted him at the alter in the very first episode, which leads to a fair amount of confusion as they try to remain friends without descending into bitter arguments at every get-together. Dave is Alex's male ditz equivalent who owns a food truck and lives with Max (Adam Pally), a gay slob who is always looking to make a quick buck without actually being employed. The final member of the group is Penny (Casey Wilson), who grew up with Alex, Jane, and Dave, dated Max in college until she discovered he was gay, and is now perpetually on the hunt for a boyfriend. It's a fantastic cast of characters who initially seem like tropes but quickly reveal themselves to be far more zany and bizarre than anyone you've seen on traditional sitcoms.

The quality of the writing on this show is incredible. It's a constant barrage of jokes, and the cast has an "amahzing" rhythm and chemistry that allows them to sustain His Girl Friday-esque levels of high-speed banter. This is a show you could re-watch multiple times and still catch layers of jokes you missed the first time around. The jokes can be silly, sophisticated, satirical, or self-referential, but you are guaranteed at least one gut-busting laugh per episode. And apart from verbal dexterity, the cast excels in physical comedy (particularly Casey Wilson), which allows for even more comic gags. There is also a great deal of warmth and heart to the show, which often bursts out in the season finales and makes it so satisfying to watch.

Happy Endings should have stayed on TV for multiple seasons. It suffered from poor marketing and the hyper-competitive nature of network television that never really gives comedies a chance to find an audience. Thankfully, we at least have 57 episodes to indulge in. I urge you to seek out this show, and then seek out anything this cast does from here on out. They may no longer be able to make us laugh as a group, but they're still out there making comedy.

The Hundred-Foot Journey: A Delicious Summer Movie

Lasse Halstrom is a man who directs very soothing, pretty movies. The Hundred-Foot Journey is no exception. Based on a novel by Richard C. Morais, it is a story of rival Indian and French restaurateurs in a picturesque French village and the clash of cuisines and cultures that ensues. It's guaranteed to put a smile on your face and make you very hungry.

The protagonist is Hassan (Manish Dayal), a young man who grew up in Mumbai but had to seek asylum in London with his family when a political riot resulted in the family restaurant being burnt down, killing his mother along with it. His father, known only as "Papa,"  is played by the brilliant Bollywood actor Om Puri, who tends to show up as the patriarch in a lot of these Hollywood-Bollywood collaborations. Disgusted by the English weather, Papa uproots Hassan and his four brothers and sisters for the sunnier climes of France. When Fate delivers them to a restaurant for sale in a beautiful village, Papa decides they have found their calling. Of course, the reason that restaurant is for sale is because it is next door to the only Michelin-starred restaurant around for miles, owned by the decidedly unfriendly Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). However, Papa forges ahead, determined to teach the local population a thing or two about Indian cuisine.

Hassan's mother taught him to cook and he is an excellent, intuitive chef. He strikes up a friendship with Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), a sous-chef in Madame Mallory's restaurant, and starts to learn about French cooking. He is determined to convince Madame Mallory that he is just as capable as any of the chefs in her kitchen, while Madame Mallory is just as determined to run this loud Indian family and their curries out of town. The acting prowess of Om Puri and Helen Mirren comes as no surprise, and the two spar beautifully over the course of the movie, while the relative newcomers Manish Dayal and Charlotte Le Bon have a charming chemistry as two chefs who bond over their shared love of food even if they don't share the same culture. If you understand Hindi and/or French, you might also experience a frisson of delight as you pick up on occasional throwaway lines in those languages, as nothing is subtitled. The Englishness of the movie is a bit bizarre - for example, there's no reason a French chef would have to translate the lyrics of La Marseillaise to English for his colleagues - but that's Hollywood for you.

Like with all Lasse Halstrom movies, there are critics who will argue it is too treacly or pristine. Although the movie does expose the ugly underbelly of racial prejudice and French nationalism in this beautiful village, it's all dealt with rather deftly, and after one big episode, everyone is happy to just get along. But this is only meant to be a light piece of cinematic fiction in the middle of August and not a gritty Oscar biopic about race relations. As far as I'm concerned, writer Steven Knight has scripted a perfectly-paced movie that is sweet without becoming overly sentimental, funny without being farcical, and dramatic without tipping into melodrama. It is a "Goldilocks" movie, never veering too far in any one direction and buoyed by fantastic performances from the four leads. It's a palate-cleanser that will make your summer much brighter and I heartily recommend it. 

Boyhood: The Ordinary Magic of Growing Up

Richard Linklater is going to win the Best Director Oscar for Boyhood. The fact that I'm willing to make that claim in August, when Oscar season hasn't even begun, should be a solid indication that this movie is a cinematic triumph.

Boyhood follows a boy named Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from the ages of six to eighteen. And when I say "follows," I mean it is literally the same actor from the ages of six to eighteen. Shot over a period of twelve years, this movie is one of the most ambitious and intriguing cinematic projects you could hope to witness. Watching that boy turn into a man over the course of two and a half hours is spellbinding. Watching his older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) grow up into a woman is similarly miraculous. It is a unique experience that is crazy in scope and brilliant in execution and will likely never be replicated again.

The movie plays like a series of vignettes that capture slices of Mason's life as he grows up. There might not be a key moment every year - sometimes there are just meandering conversations or a Harry Potter midnight release party. But we always glimpse another change in Mason's life that will shape the man he will become. His divorced parents, Olivia and Mason Sr. (played magnificently by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke), are going through their own upheavals that make each year another challenge and another adventure. But as Mason and Samantha hurtle towards adulthood, it's remarkable to see them turn into fully-formed human beings who will carry these experiences with them for the rest of their lives.

The movie's soundtrack is another master stroke, weaving in tracks that were popular each year and giving you a foothold in time as you progress through the movie. The technology is a similar clue, as you watch Mason move on from Game Boys to Wiis. As Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson mentioned in their Pop Culture Happy Hour discussion of this film, this is the first real piece of nostalgia for the mid-2000s, which is a bizarre thought. And yet, as a child of the 90s, I felt incredibly old as I realized "Oops!..I Did It Again" came out 14 years ago, and that these children were excited about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when they were eleven years old while I was already a sophomore in college.

Boyhood is not a universal tale of childhood. It is a distinctly white American childhood that I could barely relate to, apart from the pop cultural references. I would love to see every country make their own version of this movie that follows a child over the course of twelve years and presents the unique challenges he or she faces. But Boyhood is a twelve-year time capsule, a wonderful rendering of the ordinariness of life and the unstoppable passage of time that will turn every child into a young adult. The movie has no definitive ending - Mason is eighteen and sadly Linklater won't keep filming to show us how his life turns out in another twelve years. But I am inexpressibly grateful that we at least got to see him grow up. 

Guardians of the Galaxy: Gloriously Entertaining

Despite never having read a Marvel comic in my life, I have become enamored of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Given their penchant to not take themselves too seriously, every Marvel film has been a blast to watch in theaters, delivering spectacular visuals alongside hilarious hi-jinx. As their canon of superheroes gets increasingly obscure, they just keep adding to the intricacy of their interconnected plots and delivering well-written, eye-popping blockbusters that make you wish there was a new Marvel movie out every month. Well this month, they've presented us with Guardians of the Galaxy, and it's just spectacular.

Apart from the opening scene, Guardians of the Galaxy is set completely off Earth. That already makes it unique in the Marvel franchise, which has hitherto been very Earth-bound in all its cinematic endeavors. Sure we've gotten trips to Asgard in the Thor films, but the heroes are always focused on drama that's taking place on Earth. But in Guardians, after establishing that our hero, Peter Quill (the disarming and fantastic Chris Pratt), was a boy on Earth before being beamed up to a spaceship, we head straight off into extraterrestrial worlds of aliens, spaceships, and wonder.

The Guardians are comprised of the roguish smuggler Peter Quill, a.k.a. "Star-Lord" (a self-appointed nickname), Rocket (a mutant wisecracking raccoon voiced expertly by Bradley Cooper), Gamora (a green-skinned assassin played with no-nonsense ferociousness by Zoe Saldana), Drax the Destroyer (a hilariously literal warrior played by Dave Bautista), and Groot (a tree, voiced by Vin Diesel, who only says "I am Groot" and steals the scene every time). They are the very definition of a motley crew, a bunch of complete oddballs who are forced together by circumstances and bound by mercenary plans that eventually evolve to a heroic calling. There's a great deal of exposition that's necessary to establish these characters, none of which I'll go into here, but it is done expertly and seamlessly by writer-director James Gunn, who knows how to tell this story without getting too bogged down in the details.

The movie's villains are portrayed equally magnificently by Lee Pace, who appears to be done playing nice guys and is gleefully evil as Ronan the Accuser, and Karen Gillan, who has left Doctor Who behind and is now playing a bad-ass blue-skinned henchwoman with murderous intent. We also get to glimpse Josh Brolin as Thanos, the ultimate big bad in the Marvel universe, who will presumably have a much larger role to play in future films.

This movie is incredibly funny, filled with characters who are terribly flawed yet manage to come together and save the world despite their obvious disinclination to do anything of the kind. The visual effects are glorious, and despite the fact that two of the Guardians are an animated raccoon and a tree, you're totally along for the ride. The film also features a brilliant soundtrack of 70s pop hits, courtesy of Star-Lord's Sony Walkman, which is one of the few possessions he retained from his childhood on Earth. These songs reach out into the audience and grab your soul. Even though the action is taking place among multi-colored aliens fighting in spaceships, suddenly hearing The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" or Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling" grounds everything and gets you completely invested in the movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy is everything you want a summer blockbuster to be and is yet another runaway hit from Marvel Studios. These people have found the winning formula and they know how to deliver clever, witty, intricate movies that keep you solidly entertained for two hours and leave you wanting more. I can't believe I have to wait until May for the second installment of The Avengers, but you can bet I'll be first in line at the theater.