Man Up: Splendidly Screwball Romance

To me, witty banter is the hallmark of a good romantic comedy. The verbal give-and-take between the lead actors is what causes the crackling chemistry that makes you want them to overcome all obstacles, fall in love, and live happily ever after. This is why I love the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s. And this is why I found myself so charmed by Man Up, a wonderfully sweet British romcom that features plenty of verbal sparring and sparks.

Lake Bell (with a formidable British accent) plays Nancy, a 34-year old woman who hasn't been in a relationship for a while and is bitter and lonely. She runs into Jack (a dashingly sweet Simon Pegg), a 40-year old man who is trying to get over his recent divorce and thinks that Nancy is the blind date his friend arranged for him. In true madcap romcom fashion, Nancy allows that misunderstanding to continue, and the two of them embark on a lovely date wandering across London. As they head into bars and stroll along, they discover more about each other, and despite the mistaken identity, there's no mistaking the instant connection between the two of them.

Both Bell and Pegg are wonderful comic actors and there is an ease to their rapport as they let their conversations spiral into all sorts of delirious tangents that are hysterical and heartwarming. The supporting cast is stuffed with some great British actors that keep things entertaining and delightful till the very end. Of course, Nancy cannot keep up the charade indefinitely, but the movie only gets maudlin for a brief moment before launching into full-scale, over-the-top, grand romantic gestures in a fashion that is reminiscent of Love Actually and other great British romantic comedies that believe in going big or going home.

Written by Tess Morris and directed by Ben Palmer, Man Up came and went fairly quickly in theatres. But now is the perfect time to discover it and add it to your collection of truly witty and wonderful comedies. Featuring two actors at the top of their game and a delightfully zippy plot (the entire movie takes place in one day, which is always one of my favorite storytelling devices), this movie serves as a reminder that the art of the romantic comedy is alive and well. 

Magic Mike XXL: How to Make a Woman Smile

It's hard to even contemplate watching Magic Mike XXL without giggling. It's a movie about a bunch of male strippers going to Myrtle Beach for an annual stripper convention. There's nothing serious about this plot. And yet the reason this is a good movie is that it has such straightforward ambition. It wants to make you smile, laugh, and enjoy yourself. And it fully succeeds in doing so.

The second sentence of this review has already given away the entire plot. Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez, and Kevin Nash get together, sit in a van, and go on a road trip. Along the way, they have some adventures that involve honing their craft with gleeful abandon in assorted venues. While Magic Mike was a more serious story about a man who is fed up with the stripping game and eventually chucks it all to start a furniture business, Magic Mike XXL is a look at the camaraderie and joy that can be associated with this ridiculous enterprise. At the beginning of the movie, there is a splendid scene where we see Channing Tatum dance by himself in his furniture workshop. It is a meticulously choreographed piece of art, one that immediately tells you how much pleasure this man takes in movement, and how he needs this one last adventure before he returns to respectability.

The rest of the movie follows in that same vein. All of these men know that this will be their final show, and therefore, they wax philosophical about what it is that stripping means to them. In one immensely memorable scene, they dare Big Dick Richie (Manganiello, in probably his least subtly named role) to walk into a convenience store and do anything to make the glum-looking cashier smile. It's a fun and surprisingly sweet moment and highlights that this is no misogynist enterprise. It seems odd to call a movie starring five dudes a "women's picture," but that is ultimately what it becomes. These men love what they do because it makes women happy, and that's the only goal.

There are some fun cameos from fantastic actresses like Elizabeth Banks, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Andie MacDowell. They all have very different relationships with these men, but they all get along famously and collaborate as true equals to get the show on the road. And of course, every single performance is a well-honed delight. The story may be silly, but these performances are taken incredibly seriously. Every actor delivers to the best of their abilities, none more so than Channing Tatum. After watching Magic Mike XXL, I can't say I have any desire to actually participate in such an event in real life (the way some of the women get thrown around during a performance seems guaranteed to give me a hernia), but I am glad I got to watch it on screen. Sure it's sexy, but mostly, it's enormously entertaining, good-hearted, and guaranteed to make you smile. 

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: Growing Up & Making Movies

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was written by Jesse Andrews (adapted from his novel of the same name) and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, a man who has always had a passion for movies. In high school, he would borrow friends' cameras to make short films, and then he embarked on a career in Hollywood by becoming a personal assistant to stalwart directors like Martin Scorsese and Nora Ephron. His passion for filmmaking is evident throughout this film, both because its protagonist is a teenage boy who makes bizarre and wonderful short films, but also because the movie itself is a self-referential, winking ode to the power of storytelling and cinema.

Thomas Mann plays Greg, a high school senior who has carefully navigated the social world of adolescence and established a reputation as someone who is affable and gets along with everyone while not actually being friends with anyone. He has constructed a careful veneer of anonymity so he inspires zero comment. But all of that changes when his parents (played by the fantastic duo of Connie Britton and Nick Offerman) force him to go see Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a girl who goes to his school and has just been diagnosed with leukemia. He is extremely reluctant to visit her, and she is extremely reluctant to receive a pity visit, but they endure it for the sake of their pushy mothers. And of course, what follows is a sweet and awkward friendship, inspired by their weird sense of humor and the oddity of their personal circumstances.

That takes care of "Me" and "the Dying Girl." The last member of the trio is Earl (RJ Cyler), who is a kid that Greg makes ridiculous short film parodies with. They take classic movies, change the titles to puns (so for example, Rashomon becomes Monorash), and film them with low-budget homemade special effects. Despite the fact that they have made dozens of films together, Greg still refers to Earl as his "colleague," because he thinks having friends is some sort of vulnerability. However, Greg, Rachel, and Earl clearly form a fast friendship, and not labeling it as such doesn't make it any less true.

The entire movie is narrated by Greg, who directly addresses the audience, breaking the fourth wall and drawing you into this engaging story. And apart from the central trio, every single character in this movie has some thoroughly weird and novel backstory; Greg's father is a connoisseur of exotic foods, the students at his high school are a motley collection of oddballs, and even Mr. McCarthy (Jon Bernthal), the History teacher, gets to deliver a touching spiel about his dead father that has its own little moral. This is a perfect movie for people who love storytelling and unpredictability.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is bittersweet and lovely, and brimming with characters that resemble no one you have ever met before. It suggests that we are all a bunch of weirdos with our own little tales to tell. It is remarkable to watch where these characters end up, and at the end, you have a story that is poignant and satisfying. The tone of this movie is darkly comic and sarcastic, but it has a soft center that will grab your heart and soul. There's a reason it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance this year; watch and learn how a tiny movie about three strange kids can bring an audience roaring to its feet.

Jurassic World: Nostalgic Entertainment

If you loved Jurassic Park, Jurassic World is certain to entertain you. It is emphatically and unapologetically a nostalgic reboot of a beloved franchise. It follows all the familiar tropes and features characters that are all doing what they're supposed to as prescribed by Hollywood. And it's a formula that makes for two hours of fun mindless entertainment.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays Claire Dearing, the park operations manager of Jurassic World, a theme park that has been opened on Isla Nublar after all the horrors of the original Jurassic Park. The team have learned from their mistakes and this new park feels like Disney World - it is carefully curated to maximize the tourists' exposure to these prehistoric creatures, while keeping the dinosaurs carefully controlled according to their level of danger. Chris Pratt plays Owen Grady, a Navy veteran who is part of a research project to train the park's Velociraptors. He develops a reputation as a raptor whisperer, serving as the "alpha" who can get the beasts to follow his lead. However, while he thinks he is engaging in a simple study to understand these creatures, it is actually part of a much more nefarious plan.

In the meantime, attendance at Jurassic World is down, so the geneticists have developed a new hybrid dinosaur called the Indominus Rex. We arrive at a weekend when Claire has to juggle wooing investors with the thoughts of the money they will make when tourists come flocking to see the new attraction, and babysitting her two nephews who have come to visit her for a vacation. Of course, Claire is a woman with an Anna Wintour bob, attired in a white suit and spiky stilettos, so we know she can't deal with children. She sends them off with VIP passes to tour the park, but a short while later, she will have to team up with Owen to rescue her nephews as they end up lost in the park with a bloodthirsty Indominus Rex on the rampage. You can't complain that's a spoiler - what else did you expect from this movie?

Pratt is always a joy to watch and Howard gamely holds her own as they trample through Jurassic World trying to dodge dinosaurs and rescue the moppets. Irrfan Khan also has a surprising but welcome turn as Simon Masrani, the billionaire owner of the park, who tries to do some good when the bad guys reveal their motives for wreaking havoc across the park. Obviously it is 2015, so the special effects are fantastic, and the dinosaurs are as wonderful and varied as you would want them to be. And despite the high-stakes action and drama, the movie doesn't forget to give you some jokes and lighten the tension whenever possible.

Jurassic World is certainly epic in scope, and the latter half of the movie amasses quite an impressive death toll. However, at its core, it is a supremely fun movie, a thrilling adventure that is comforting in its predictability while still subverting some tropes. Deftly directed by Colin Trevorrow, this film doesn't take itself too seriously, and is a loving homage to everything that made the original movie such a pleasure to watch. None of the characters feel fully fleshed out, and the plot certainly leaps about with abandon, but who cares? We have fights featuring raptors and the beloved T. rex, pterodactyls swooping in from the sky, and some pulse-pounding action sequences punctuated with witty banter. It's simply a joy to watch. 

Ex Machina: Robot Rights

If you're looking for a film that will thrill you and creep you out in equal measure, Ex Machina is the film you seek. An eerie futuristic tale about what happens when you develop artificial intelligence that craves free will, it is a visually arresting, mind-bending morality play.

Domhnall Gleeson plays Caleb Smith, a computer programmer who wins a company lottery to spend a week with the visionary CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). Nathan lives in a beautiful house in the middle of nowhere with only one mute servant named Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno). This is where he conducts cutting-edge research that will add to his genius reputation, and Caleb is eager to see what new discoveries Nathan will share with him. After signing lengthy non-disclosure agreements, Caleb is finally introduced to Ava (Alicia Vikander), a robot equipped with incredible artificial intelligence that makes her nearly indistinguishable from a human. Caleb's task is to have multiple conversations with Ava, engaging in a Turing test to see whether she truly could pass for human.

Ex Machina was an independent film with a small budget and almost all of that money went to designing Ava's look. It's money well spent. Every scene was filmed with and without Alicia Vikander and then digitally altered so her face and hands remain human, but her scalp, arms, and legs are transparent and filled with wires, to remind us that this humanoid entity is only a machine. However, as the movie progresses, Ava starts wearing wigs and clothes, covering up her robot features and convincing Caleb that she deserves all the rights of an actual human being. Her motives are always in question, and it's impossible to tell when the lines between human and robot truly get blurred. It's a phenomenal performance, and Vikander deserves multiple awards for it.

Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson also put in riveting performances as the cold, venal tech billionaire and the intelligent but lowly employee with a bleeding heart. Nathan sees Ava solely as a game-changing invention and is not remotely touched by her humanity. Caleb, however, quickly looks beyond her robotic origins, becoming horrified as he discovers more of his employer's secrets and the inventions that preceded Ava. The movie starts out slow and cerebral, but it ramps up to a bloody and brilliant climax that leaves you reeling in your seat and makes you question whether you can truly tell the difference between good and evil, free will and determinism, human and machine.

Written and directed by Alex Garland, Ex Machina is an example of the scintillating filmmaking that can currently be accomplished with a small budget and technical wizardry. These special effects would have been expensive and impossible in previous years, but now they are dexterously wielded to enhance the look of the film and propel the plot forward. This is an extremely visceral and thought-provoking movie, a modern retelling of Frankenstein that will make you claw at your skin, hold your breath, and debate questions of science, ethics, gender politics, and philosophy. Watch it immediately. 

Amy: A Harrowing Tale

Directed by virtuoso British filmmaker Asif Kapadia, Amy is a documentary about the troubled life of singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. The movie came and went fairly quickly in theaters this summer, as most documentaries are wont to do, but you can now watch it on DVD or streaming. It is a thoughtful, sobering, impossibly sad look at the price of fame and fortune in the modern era.

The startling thing about Amy is the amount of archival footage the filmmakers were able to obtain. Because Amy Winehouse was born in 1983, she was surrounded by camcorders (and later mobile phones), allowing her friends and family to document her childhood and teenage years well before she was famous. In these videos, we get the sense of the ordinary and fun-loving girl she was. She had warm friends, a loving but messy relationship with her divorced parents, and that extraordinary voice that would bring her adulation and recognition but ultimately serve as her downfall.

We follow the story of Amy's career - the initial foray into jazz clubs and low-key venues, the introduction to a record label, and the 2003 release of her acclaimed debut album, Frank. Her artistry, not just as a vocalist, but as a poetic lyricist, is touted throughout the film, with her handwritten words floating on the screen alongside her mesmerizing voice singing many previously unheard of songs. Composer Antonio Pinto also provides a beautiful background score in between her own music that underscores the beauty and grief of her life. Her love and passion for music is what comes across most powerfully in all the TV and radio interviews she did; watching that waste away is what breaks your heart.

Amy faced many struggles. As a young teen she suffered from bulimia. As she became more famous and started to face more pressure, she turned to drugs and alcohol. She fell into tempestuous relationships with similarly troubled men who could only enable her addictions instead of  helping her. Her friends, family, and employers had no idea how to stop her downward spiral - at one point they convinced her to go to rehab, where we get deeply ironic footage of her singing, "They tried to make me go to Rehab, I said, 'No, no, no.'" But after brief spells of sobriety, she always fell back into her old ways. Despite her soaring career and her 2008 Grammy wins for her second album, Back to Black, her personal life was a continually poisonous mess of addiction and insecurity.

The overwhelming emotion you will experience while watching Amy is sadness, not anger. The movie is not interested in blaming anyone for her circumstances - they were a perfect storm that conspired to destroy her utterly. Towards the end, her worried family and friends were all on the sidelines, unaware of how dire things have gotten and how they could possibly help. Her bodyguard was the only remaining person who was close to her; he knew she was being pushed beyond her limits, but he too could do nothing to stop it. We see her increasingly erratic performances, her fading confidence, her distressing appearance, and finally arrive at 23 July 2011, when her body was carried out of her house. Ultimately, Amy is a sad and powerful documentary that celebrates the music of a true genius but also mourns the songs that we will never get to hear.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation: Predictable Fun

I recently traveled to Singapore, which entailed 40 hours total on a plane. This gave me the opportunity to watch every single movie I missed this summer, so you can expect a slew of movie reviews to catch you up on the 2015 releases that are now available on DVD. First up, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

This movie got great reviews when it came out. However, since I only watched it after seeing Spectre, I was struck by the similarities between the Mission: Impossible and Bond franchises. Both feature super spies who run around engaging in death-defying stunts, charming sexy ladies with questionable motives, and gruffly dealing with geeky boffins who provide tech support that is in need of excessive troubleshooting. And this time around, both men have gone rogue, relying on their friends to provide back-up as they go against the orders of their respective countries to investigate a shadowy criminal organization and expose corruption at the highest levels of government.

So what makes Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt different from Daniel Craig's James Bond? Well one is uniquely British, while the other is uniquely American. This mean that the Mission: Impossible movies will always have this veneer of earnestness, a sense of the important righteousness of the leading man's crusade, which is in vast contrast to the coolly ironic self-deprecation of a Bond film. Tom Cruise never disappoints as an action star but he certainly does not kindle any romantic flames like Daniel Craig can. As a result, Mission: Impossible is the perfect summer blockbuster; a fun action-filled romp that will keep you vastly entertained, but will not require any use of your brain.

I was quite impressed with Rebecca Ferguson, the leading lady who plays Ilsa Faust in the movie. She holds her own in a myriad of action sequences with Cruise, beating up villains, toting guns, riding bikes and generally kicking ass, all while wearing impossibly high heels that made my feet hurt just by looking at them. However, she certainly comes in for her fair share of objectification over the course of this movie. While the Bond movies have never been a feminist paradise, generally Bond is also required to strip down and engage in some amorous foreplay. In Mission: Impossible, the heroine seems to constantly be reduced to some state of undress, while Hunt has one shirtless scene and then spends the rest of the movie in earnest fist fights, with almost no hint of romantic chemistry with the half-dressed woman beside him.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is a great piece of entertainment, an action-packed fun film that delivers exactly what you expect. It also features Simon Pegg as Benji, the requisite tech support guy, who offers up the British sarcasm and comic relief you need to keep this franchise from getting too self-important. While James Bond is still my go-to for action with a dash of lust and intelligence, Mission: Impossible is certainly a viable option for people who are going to the movies for completely predictable escapism. You don't always know what you're going to get with a Bond movie, but you certainly know what you're going to get with Mission: Impossible. 

Mockingjay - Part 2: A Bittersweet Finale

I dearly loved The Hunger Games books and the movies. Therefore, I approached the finale, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, with a heavy heart, knowing it would be my last chance to spend time with Katnis Everdeen. Unfortunately, like the final book, the final movie couldn't measure up to its predecessors. While it's a decent film, it didn't meet my impossibly high expectations.

The movie picks up with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) in the sick bay, trying to get her voice back after being violently strangled by the brainwashed Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Furious at the Capitol for turning the gentle Peeta into a monster, Katniss throws herself into the Rebel cause, going into battle to help turn all the remaining Districts against the Capitol and bring down President Snow once and for all. Like the previous movies, this one is meticulously faithful to the books, following Katniss's crusade, President Coin's careful manipulation of the Rebel propaganda machine, and the subsequent heart-pounding race through the booby-trapped Capitol, which serves as an arena for the series' bitter conclusion. The action sequences are spot-on and director Francis Lawrence is able to ratchet up the tension and fear at every moment. Even when you know what's coming, you're not quite sure when and how it will happen, and there are enough visceral surprises to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Where the movie fails is in its emotional moments. The dialogue feels far too corny and stilted, prosaic in comparison to the distinctly unnatural events taking place in the rest of the movie. The actors are all delivering fantastic performances, but the script doesn't pack the emotional heft of the previous films. Part of this might be due to the movie's incredibly grim tone. There is absolutely no comic relief on offer this time around - everyone is angry or defeated and even the garish colors of the Capitol have been darkened by war. When faced with the relentless onslaught of death and destruction, it is impossible to care any more about the Katniss-Gale-Peeta love triangle or take refuge in the bittersweet hope offered at the end. Too many people have died and the war has taken its toll. While the characters have years to recover and regain some sense of optimism by the movie's coda, the audience doesn't have that luxury.

The Hunger Games tells an extremely powerful story and I exhort everyone to read the books and watch these films. While I may not have enjoyed the ending, the more I think about it, the more it seems destined to be a story that will always be unsatisfying. A series that begins with the premise of children killing each other in an arena for sport cannot possibly end with the words, "and they lived happily ever after." The finale delivered by the author, Suzanne Collins, and the film's director, Francis Lawrence, offers up the only palatable conclusion. Even if the world isn't perfect, Katniss must remind herself of all the goodness she has seen; after all, "there are much worse games to play." 

Master of None: Thought-Provoking Hilarity

Master of None feels like the television version of Aziz Ansari's brilliant book, Modern Romance. While the book dissected the evolving nature of romance in the modern era, Master of None uses each episode to examine different sociological phenomena in the 21st century. While extremely funny, this show is also insanely incisive, featuring a bold look at daily life that hits on hilarious and uncomfortable truths.

"Plan B," the first episode of the show, is probably its most conventional. We are introduced to Dev (Ansari), an Indian-American actor who lives in New York City. In the first five minutes he has slept with a woman named Rachel (Noel Wells) and taken her to the pharmacy to buy Plan B. Needless to say, that is not a great date. We are then introduced to his friends, which include an Asian man, Brian (Kelvin Yu), a black lesbian, Denise (Lena Waither), and the "token white friend," Arnold (Eric Wareheim). Already, this is more diversity than you get on your standard network television show. The episode involves Dev going to his friend's kid's birthday party, then having to babysit another friend's kids, and is a typical rumination on the perils and rewards of having children. It's funny, but not revolutionary. But then we get the second episode, "Parents." We are introduced to Brian's father and Dev's parents (played by Ansari's real-life parents). The episode features flashbacks of Dev's father's childhood in India and Brian's father's childhood in Taiwan, two poverty-stricken tales that contrast sharply with the life of relative indolence they have been able to provide their American-born sons. It's a poignant but funny examination of the first-generation experience and announces that Master of None has many interesting and perplexing things to explore over the course of its first season.

While "Parents" was probably my personal favorite, most people tout the show's fourth episode, "Indians on TV," as its masterpiece. In it, we get a full treatise on Hollywood's diversity problem, the shady calculations that go on in the executive suite when making casting decisions, and the casual racism that Indian actors face when they go in for auditions. Dev is tired of always playing cab drivers and convenience store clerks, and he has to take a principled stand about doing a fake Indian accent. And he is extremely annoyed that a show can only feature one Indian guy, because apparently audiences can't handle two at the same time. It's a funny but sad look at how brown people are still treated by Hollywood in 2015.

Despite its short 10-episode season, Master of None manages to represent a vast swathe of humanity. There's the beautiful "Old People" where Dev spends time with his girlfriend's grandmother and discovers what it means to be an old person who led a decent life but still has thwarted dreams and ambitions. There's the "Ladies & Gentlemen" episode (directed by the wonderful Lynn Shelton) that serves as a commentary on the different ways in which women and men are treated and how men are oblivious to the very real threats, snubs, and unconscious biases that women face on a daily basis. Some of the dialogue can feel a bit earnestly heavy-handed, but for the most part, Master of None cleverly walks the tightrope between comedy and sincerity, shining a spotlight on the absurdities of daily life and gently nudging us out of complacency. It is also very romantic, with "Nashville," a charming episode about Dev's first successful date with the woman of his dreams, and later, "Mornings," which traces a year in that relationship, charting the passionate beginning, the comfortable companionship, and the inevitable arguments. 

Co-created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, Master of None showcases the phenomenal stories you get when you make a show about people with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. It is a worthy addition to your Netflix queue, and while it is supremely easy to binge watch in five hours, I guarantee there will be episodes you will return to multiple times, to steep in their audacity and cleverness. Even if this show features people who don't look like you, it speaks universal truths that almost anyone can recognize. Thanks to its structure and wholesale tackling of different topics, there's at least one episode that will make you sit up and take notice. This isn't really a show that needs to be watched in order, and it has become my favorite past time to recommend particular episodes to particular people as the ideal starting point. So hop on the couch and settle in for some quality television. You're in for a real treat.