list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Rocket Science on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Rocket_Science/269948/default.aspx Title: Rocket Science
Year: 2007
Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Plot: Jeffrey Blitz's inspirational drama Rocket Science proves that many a handicap can be overcome, no matter how daunting the obstacle at hand may initially seem. Newcomer Reece Thompson plays Hal Hefner, a 15-year-old high-school student with a minor yet socially alienating (and painful) disability: he stutters uncontrollably. Determined to work through the problem, Hal opts for an extreme route -- he joins the school debating team, which sends him on a headfirst plunge into breakneck speech competitions -- and offers a much-needed boost toward correcting the problem. Blitz, like his onscreen alter ego, struggled with a stammer as a young man -- a disability he eventually surmounted -- which imparted him with a lifelong interest in speech and storytelling. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 19
Number of Lists: 13
Number of blog posts: 4
Number of discussion threads: 2
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:57:26 GMTRocket Science2007Jeffrey BlitzJeffrey Blitz's inspirational drama Rocket Science proves that many a handicap can be overcome, no matter how daunting the obstacle at hand may initially seem. Newcomer Reece Thompson plays Hal Hefner, a 15-year-old high-school student with a minor yet socially alienating (and painful) disability: he stutters uncontrollably. Determined to work through the problem, Hal opts for an extreme route -- he joins the school debating team, which sends him on a headfirst plunge into breakneck speech competitions -- and offers a much-needed boost toward correcting the problem. Blitz, like his onscreen alter ego, struggled with a stammer as a young man -- a disability he eventually surmounted -- which imparted him with a lifelong interest in speech and storytelling. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide19Tag Target (>10)13423http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s269948.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Rocket_Science/269948/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/groups/Community_Recommendations/Re_Collaboration_Best_Films_of_2008/643/38302/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: seven-ate-9
Post To: Community Recommendations
Post Date: 12/12/2008 1:31:05 PM
Body: Delighted me: (Sorry if a bunch of these are 2007, I have a one-year old and I'm just getting caught up) Redbelt (2008) Kung Fu Panda (2008) JCVD (2008) (In my opinion, Van Damme's "CopLand") Rocket Science The Fall The Promotion (SWS really impressed me) Chop Shop (Shows you a part of NYC I guarantee you haven't seen before) In Search of a Midnight Kiss (hysterical) Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Eagle vs. Shark Iron Man Let me down: Pineapple Express Zack and Miri All the boys love Mandy Lane The Wackness Sex and the City Wanted (atrocious is too light a word)
]]>Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:31:05 GMTseven-ate-9Community Recommendations12/12/2008 1:31:05 PMDelighted me: (Sorry if a bunch of these are 2007, I have a one-year old and I'm just getting caught up) Redbelt (2008) Kung Fu Panda (2008) JCVD (2008) (In my opinion, Van Damme's "CopLand") Rocket Science The Fall The Promotion (SWS really impressed me) Chop Shop (Shows you a part of NYC I guarantee you haven't seen before) In Search of a Midnight Kiss (hysterical) Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Eagle vs. Shark Iron Man Let me down: Pineapple Express Zack and Miri All the boys love Mandy Lane The Wackness Sex and the City Wanted (atrocious is too light a word) http://www.spout.com/blogs/dibot/archive/2008/7/25/33105.aspx Post By: dibot
Post To: dibot Blog
Post Date: 7/25/2008 9:54:24 PM
Body: The internet keeps crashing on me. Making me crazy. Please be advised.Breaker Morant is based on the actual events during the Boer War, and subsequent court marshalling of three Australian officers. The government has set them up for a fall, providing them with an inexperienced defense attorney and allowing him little time to prepare his case. The trial scenes are tense and the flashbacks to what the men actually did in the field are also engaging. But I was really fascinated with how the men held up in their cells, preparing to face their verdict, and the politics of it all. Very good.Ah, the Sweet Smell of Success, good in so many ways. Burt Lancaster ("Field of Dreams") is a gossip columnist and Tony Curtis ("Reflections of Evil") is a PR agent trying to get his clients some publicity. Only Lancaster's shutting him out because he wants Curtis to break up his sister's relationship with a musician. Then the plot gets twisty. Curtis is fast talking and sleazy and grasping for fame. The dialogue is so quick you have to sit up and take notice. Two of my favorite lines: "The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river." and "That fish is four days old. I'm not buying it." I thoroughly enjoyed this.Rocket Science reminded me of Thumbsucker. Mostly because the main kid is shy and then suddenly inspired to join the school debate team. The style of this is different though, less dreamy than Thumb. It was funny, but not too funny. The best bits being with the younger kid who lives across the street from the love interest. The soundtrack has some really cool instrumental covers of classic Violent Femmes songs. I'm lukewarm on this.Hellboy II: The Golden Army is just a whole lotta fun. Ron Perlman ("In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale") just eats up this character and loves every minute of his screen time. Director Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth" lets his imagination run wild with all the creatures and sets in this story. And the story starts strong and just keeps on going, quickly re-establishing the Team and introducing a very worthy villain in Luke Goss ("The Dead Undead"), an elf who wants to destroy the human race. Go see it.A classic noirish thriller, The Third Man, stars Joseph Cotten ("The Survivor") as a writer who goes to visit a friend in post WWII Berlin, only to discover the friend has been killed just before he arrived. Cotten then sets out to solve the mystery of his friend's death. It's fast paced and intriguing, asking which loyalty a man should follow. There's a femme fatale love interest. And Orson Welles ("Moby Dick") is awesome. Very good.
]]>Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:54:24 GMTdibotdibot Blog7/25/2008 9:54:24 PMThe internet keeps crashing on me. Making me crazy. Please be advised.Breaker Morant is based on the actual events during the Boer War, and subsequent court marshalling of three Australian officers. The government has set them up for a fall, providing them with an inexperienced defense attorney and allowing him little time to prepare his case. The trial scenes are tense and the flashbacks to what the men actually did in the field are also engaging. But I was really fascinated with how the men held up in their cells, preparing to face their verdict, and the politics of it all. Very good.Ah, the Sweet Smell of Success, good in so many ways. Burt Lancaster ("Field of Dreams") is a gossip columnist and Tony Curtis ("Reflections of Evil") is a PR agent trying to get his clients some publicity. Only Lancaster's shutting him out because he wants Curtis to break up his sister's relationship with a musician. Then the plot gets twisty. Curtis is fast talking and sleazy and grasping for fame. The dialogue is so quick you have to sit up and take notice. Two of my favorite lines: "The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river." and "That fish is four days old. I'm not buying it." I thoroughly enjoyed this.Rocket Science reminded me of Thumbsucker. Mostly because the main kid is shy and then suddenly inspired to join the school debate team. The style of this is different though, less dreamy than Thumb. It was funny, but not too funny. The best bits being with the younger kid who lives across the street from the love interest. The soundtrack has some really cool instrumental covers of classic Violent Femmes songs. I'm lukewarm on this.Hellboy II: The Golden Army is just a whole lotta fun. Ron Perlman ("In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale") just eats up this character and loves every minute of his screen time. Director Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth" lets his imagination run wild with all the creatures and sets in this story. And the story starts strong and just keeps on going, quickly re-establishing the Team and introducing a very worthy villain in Luke Goss ("The Dead Undead"), an elf who wants to destroy the human race. Go see it.A classic noirish thriller, The Third Man, stars Joseph Cotten ("The Survivor") as a writer who goes to visit a friend in post WWII Berlin, only to discover the friend has been killed just before he arrived. Cotten then sets out to solve the mystery of his friend's death. It's fast paced and intriguing, asking which loyalty a man should follow. There's a femme fatale love interest. And Orson Welles ("Moby Dick") is awesome. Very good. http://www.spout.com/blogs/jj79/archive/2008/6/6/30766.aspx Post By: JJ79
Post To: JJ79 Blog
Post Date: 6/6/2008 4:28:01 PM
Body: You know when a movie is so coyingly pretentious that it just can´t help itself but be preachy while not really answering the questions it poses? You know when a character has such a hard time with something that you want to just smack him upside the head, hoping to motivate him a bit? You know when characters are introduced for no reason other than to set up a punch line, and yet, long after that punch line has been laughed at, the character remains in the story? "Rocket Science," a story about a stuttering young man on the debate team, is annoyingly independent, tongue-in-cheek holier than thou, and the primary reason art house movies get a bad name. As Hal Hefner´s father walks out on him, his brother and his mother, the stuttering high school student is invited to join the debate team by Ginny Ryerson, a better-than-everyone-else type of student who lost the debate trophy the year before when her partner flaked on her. Her mission is to "fix" Hal, making him the premier member of the team and cementing her status as a miracle worker. "Rocket Science" begins and ends with a rather pointless voiceover that focuses on the nature of love, mostly. It´s from this beginning that the audience starts having an inkling something isn´t going to be quite right with the narrative. Ostensibly, Hal wants to excel at the debate because he has fallen head over heels for Ginny, hoping to impress her with how good of a speaker he turns out to be. I´m guessing we can all figure out how the story ends, can´t we? That´s only half the fault of screenwriter/director Jeffrey Blitz; stories like this can really only go in one of two ways. Either the main character makes a remarkable breakthrough, or he ends up being humiliated. (Next paragraph spoiler?) This isn´t an inspirational story. Guess how "Rocket Science" ends. There´s a very basic reason why this film doesn´t work. The premise is simply unbelievable. It´s a well-known fact in this school that Hal has a speaking problem. And, I´m no expert, but I have to believe that putting the kid on the spot--in a play and then again as a debater--is nothing but cruel and unusual punishment for something out of his hands. What teacher or adviser would allow that? Is everyone as caught up in the search for Ginny´s crown as to think she can make headway with Hal? Even when the school´s so-called expert can´t do anything? (For the record, he´d be a bigger help if Hal suffered from hyperactivity.) Everything about the events on screen want to have a basis in reality, yet none of it feels real, let alone comes close to being real. Adults are too comical or dense (depending on which the script calls for) to help Hal in any meaningful way; the kids are either plucky versions of Ginny or caricatures (like Hal´s older brother). And when the Big Emotional Scene comes at the very end of the film between Hal and his father, we have to ask ourselves why this deadbeat dad´s brain is being picked on this particular subject. He seems to have no positive experience with it to offer Hal. I imagine the crew behind "Rocket Science" are thrilled beyond belief at what they were able to put on screen. It makes them feel smart, superior and independent. Judging by the film, I´d also hazard a guess that the people who don´t like the film--myself included--are unsophisticated schlubs who "don´t get it." The thing is, there is nothing here to get. No life lesson, no revelation from on high about how to live your life. Nothing. Aside from a fantastic performance from Reece Thompson who plays Hal, "Rocket Science" is an attempt by a writer-director to gain indie credibility. It doesn´t work because, as I said, even the premise is fundamentally flawed. This isn´t a hyper-reality or a riff on modern reality; it´s Blitz´s reality in which the kids are pseudo-intelligent and the adults can´t gain any sort of traction in their own lives. For instance, Hal´s mother begins to shack up with Judge Pete, the father of one of his friends. In the middle of the night, Hal hears the two having sex…and Judge Pete telling his mother to "use her finger." Any parent would be mortified to be overheard engaging in "normal" sex by a child, but for Hal to know their sexual proclivities? No mention of it is made, perhaps to the betterment of the film (and the audience´s mental well being). A subplot seemingly tacked onto the film designed to redeem Ginny´s former partner, Ben, falls equally as flat. He hopes to mentor Hal in such a way the boy will be able to compete in the district debate tournament. Regardless of experts not being able to solve his stuttering and neither of them actually attending school anymore, Ben thinks he can take over Ginny´s job. Despite giving it the old college try, the inevitable happens. And Ben isn´t nearly as upset over it as he should be, leading the audience to collectively shrug their shoulders, mentally asking, Who cares? We don´t, that´s for sure. Independent movies aren´t independent because the director wants them to be an "indie." That´s not the way it works. Cloying, too cutesy, "Rocket Science" is that kind of movie. One that thinks it´s going to change the world and be the second coming of "Little Miss Sunshine," last year´s indie darling. Or even "Napoleon Dynamite." Please. It´s not the second coming of anything, except maybe the second coming of sleeping pills. "Rocket Science," flaws and all, rates a 4 out of 10. A massive script-polish is the only thing that could have saved this turkey.
]]>Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:28:01 GMTJJ79JJ79 Blog6/6/2008 4:28:01 PMYou know when a movie is so coyingly pretentious that it just can´t help itself but be preachy while not really answering the questions it poses? You know when a character has such a hard time with something that you want to just smack him upside the head, hoping to motivate him a bit? You know when characters are introduced for no reason other than to set up a punch line, and yet, long after that punch line has been laughed at, the character remains in the story? "Rocket Science," a story about a stuttering young man on the debate team, is annoyingly independent, tongue-in-cheek holier than thou, and the primary reason art house movies get a bad name. As Hal Hefner´s father walks out on him, his brother and his mother, the stuttering high school student is invited to join the debate team by Ginny Ryerson, a better-than-everyone-else type of student who lost the debate trophy the year before when her partner flaked on her. Her mission is to "fix" Hal, making him the premier member of the team and cementing her status as a miracle worker. "Rocket Science" begins and ends with a rather pointless voiceover that focuses on the nature of love, mostly. It´s from this beginning that the audience starts having an inkling something isn´t going to be quite right with the narrative. Ostensibly, Hal wants to excel at the debate because he has fallen head over heels for Ginny, hoping to impress her with how good of a speaker he turns out to be. I´m guessing we can all figure out how the story ends, can´t we? That´s only half the fault of screenwriter/director Jeffrey Blitz; stories like this can really only go in one of two ways. Either the main character makes a remarkable breakthrough, or he ends up being humiliated. (Next paragraph spoiler?) This isn´t an inspirational story. Guess how "Rocket Science" ends. There´s a very basic reason why this film doesn´t work. The premise is simply unbelievable. It´s a well-known fact in this school that Hal has a speaking problem. And, I´m no expert, but I have to believe that putting the kid on the spot--in a play and then again as a debater--is nothing but cruel and unusual punishment for something out of his hands. What teacher or adviser would allow that? Is everyone as caught up in the search for Ginny´s crown as to think she can make headway with Hal? Even when the school´s so-called expert can´t do anything? (For the record, he´d be a bigger help if Hal suffered from hyperactivity.) Everything about the events on screen want to have a basis in reality, yet none of it feels real, let alone comes close to being real. Adults are too comical or dense (depending on which the script calls for) to help Hal in any meaningful way; the kids are either plucky versions of Ginny or caricatures (like Hal´s older brother). And when the Big Emotional Scene comes at the very end of the film between Hal and his father, we have to ask ourselves why this deadbeat dad´s brain is being picked on this particular subject. He seems to have no positive experience with it to offer Hal. I imagine the crew behind "Rocket Science" are thrilled beyond belief at what they were able to put on screen. It makes them feel smart, superior and independent. Judging by the film, I´d also hazard a guess that the people who don´t like the film--myself included--are unsophisticated schlubs who "don´t get it." The thing is, there is nothing here to get. No life lesson, no revelation from on high about how to live your life. Nothing. Aside from a fantastic performance from Reece Thompson who plays Hal, "Rocket Science" is an attempt by a writer-director to gain indie credibility. It doesn´t work because, as I said, even the premise is fundamentally flawed. This isn´t a hyper-reality or a riff on modern reality; it´s Blitz´s reality in which the kids are pseudo-intelligent and the adults can´t gain any sort of traction in their own lives. For instance, Hal´s mother begins to shack up with Judge Pete, the father of one of his friends. In the middle of the night, Hal hears the two having sex…and Judge Pete telling his mother to "use her finger." Any parent would be mortified to be overheard engaging in "normal" sex by a child, but for Hal to know their sexual proclivities? No mention of it is made, perhaps to the betterment of the film (and the audience´s mental well being). A subplot seemingly tacked onto the film designed to redeem Ginny´s former partner, Ben, falls equally as flat. He hopes to mentor Hal in such a way the boy will be able to compete in the district debate tournament. Regardless of experts not being able to solve his stuttering and neither of them actually attending school anymore, Ben thinks he can take over Ginny´s job. Despite giving it the old college try, the inevitable happens. And Ben isn´t nearly as upset over it as he should be, leading the audience to collectively shrug their shoulders, mentally asking, Who cares? We don´t, that´s for sure. Independent movies aren´t independent because the director wants them to be an "indie." That´s not the way it works. Cloying, too cutesy, "Rocket Science" is that kind of movie. One that thinks it´s going to change the world and be the second coming of "Little Miss Sunshine," last year´s indie darling. Or even "Napoleon Dynamite." Please. It´s not the second coming of anything, except maybe the second coming of sleeping pills. "Rocket Science," flaws and all, rates a 4 out of 10. A massive script-polish is the only thing that could have saved this turkey. http://www.spout.com/groups/Filmspotting/Rocket_Science_discussed_on_Filmspotting_175/304/19222/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: mitch-4
Post To: Filmspotting
Post Date: 9/1/2007 12:37:29 PM
Body: (Rocket Science) I agree with Adam's comment applauding the director's choice not to give the payoffs some of the storylines seem to be leading to. Though this leaves the tone a bit depressing, it's ultimately more satisfying than a too-pat triumph or revenge wish-fulfillment would have been.(spoiler notice probably needed here)However! Since he didn't go through with those temptations to cheap triumphs, why spend all that time and effort on the storylines building toward that? I'm thinking particularly of the whole digression of seeking out last year's almost-champ, practicing with him, and entering the tournament as home-schoolers. It was a lot of buildup for a rather short and undramatic deflation. Question: was their coach from the public school (Margo Martindale's character) actually behind the protest and ruling that had them disqualified? Or was she just accompanying the official, as someone who knew these boys and might help defuse the situation? Random comments:I liked the cello and piano arrangement of "Blister in the Sun"! My complaint above about excessive buildup is meant to be related to Sam's comment about some of the minor characters being written just as comic turns, not genuine personalities. That probably applies to the Korean neighbor/classmate to some extent and certainly to the kid who voyeurs across the street from Ginny Ryerson's house. It's probably mistaken for me to try to stretch that to also cover the almost-champ from last year whose subplot bothered me. ==Mitch
]]>Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:37:29 GMTmitch-4Filmspotting9/1/2007 12:37:29 PM(Rocket Science) I agree with Adam's comment applauding the director's choice not to give the payoffs some of the storylines seem to be leading to. Though this leaves the tone a bit depressing, it's ultimately more satisfying than a too-pat triumph or revenge wish-fulfillment would have been.(spoiler notice probably needed here)However! Since he didn't go through with those temptations to cheap triumphs, why spend all that time and effort on the storylines building toward that? I'm thinking particularly of the whole digression of seeking out last year's almost-champ, practicing with him, and entering the tournament as home-schoolers. It was a lot of buildup for a rather short and undramatic deflation. Question: was their coach from the public school (Margo Martindale's character) actually behind the protest and ruling that had them disqualified? Or was she just accompanying the official, as someone who knew these boys and might help defuse the situation? Random comments:I liked the cello and piano arrangement of "Blister in the Sun"! My complaint above about excessive buildup is meant to be related to Sam's comment about some of the minor characters being written just as comic turns, not genuine personalities. That probably applies to the Korean neighbor/classmate to some extent and certainly to the kid who voyeurs across the street from Ginny Ryerson's house. It's probably mistaken for me to try to stretch that to also cover the almost-champ from last year whose subplot bothered me. ==Mitch http://www.spout.com/blogs/moviebabe/archive/2007/8/23/18624.aspx Post By: MovieBabe
Post To: MovieBabe Blog
Post Date: 8/23/2007 3:54:00 PM
Body: By Tricia Olszewski You'd imagine that most 14-year-old boys feel the same way about sex comedies as they do about each of their battled-for baby steps toward the big deed itself – it doesn't matter if it's any good, the point is that they're getting some. About a decade ago, though, budding horndogs Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg allegedly became fed up with the subpar antics of their cinematic counterparts. Fuck this noise, they thought. We can do better, they said. And today you have Superbad, a movie to be filed under “ribald” whose script started out as a seed in two boys' dirty minds. Of course, the final product has gone through polishings and fleshings-out since its first wobbly-legged drafts, informed by the writers' subsequent experience (Goldberg's penning for Da Ali G Show; Rogen's starring on such Judd Apatow productions as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up) and maturity (though a certain period joke might have been in the original). If you're not familiar with the R-comedy magic previously created by King Apatow and his court, Superbad sounds August-unexceptional: Two high-school seniors, thus far none too popular with the ladies, try to score some alcohol for a hottie's party. They've been accepted to different colleges, so the best friends are thinking it's gonna be their last big blowout. The ultimate goal: to get laid. Duh. But audiences who've laughed their asses off at Rogen's other work will be pleased to know that the Greg Mottola-directed Superbad is not just another teen movie. At 25, Rogen wisely deemed himself too old to star – even though he and Goldberg named the characters after themselves – but found a worthy surrogate in Jonah Hill, whose bawdy, loud-mouthed, obnoxious-if-he-weren't-so-funny turn as Seth is the '00s Bluto Blutarsky. Michael Cera's the straight man as Seth's awkward friend Evan, an extension of Cera's awkward George Michael Bluth from the celebrated but canceled television series Arrested Development. Seth and Evan spend most of their time moaning about their lack of action – Evan pines over one particular sweetheart, Becca (Martha MacIsaac), while Seth is happy to fixate on girls in general, especially ones who “look like they can take a dick.” So when the sexy Jules (Emma Stone) improbably invites Seth to her party, he's determined to become the booze-bringing life of it. Enter Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who's so nerdy that even Seth considers him “the fucking anti-poon.” But, he's got a fake I.D., and even though it's a terrible one (stating that Fogell is actually the one-named, 25-year-old Hawaii resident “McLovin”), it'll have to do. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't. Superbad tosses its hopeless antiheroes into some fantastically ridiculous situations as they make their way to said party, including Fogell's adventures with a couple of cops (Rogen and Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader) and Seth and Evan's rather more disturbing run-in with a potential pedophile (“So, you guys on MySpace?”) and his psychotic but alcohol-holding friends. Together, the main characters riff on typical Apatow topics – the production values of porn, say, or how unfair it is that women can show off their boobs but guys have to hide their boners. The dialogue is at times overwhelmingly hyperactive, though Hill's wild-eyed and -haired mania is more difficult to settle in to than Cera's dry, soft-spoken Bob Newhart-isms. As with any solid teen comedy, Superbad isn't just about getting loaded and lucky, with Seth and Evan's friendship and impending separation – because of school, and, God willing, just maybe because of girlfriends – anchoring the story. Admittedly, the filmmakers don't always handle the material's tonal transitions smoothly, especially the friends' abrupt if inevitable blowup. But then they offer yet another inspired dick joke -- and as any 14-year-old will tell you, sometimes that's what really counts. To anyone thinking about writing, directing, starring in, or providing catering for a movie: Please, enough with Napoleon Dynamite Syndrome already. Nerd stories may have been around since the birth of nerds, but there's a difference between focusing on the unpopular – like Superbad – and “celebrating” the just plain weird. Rocket Science, unsurprisingly a Sundance favorite, falls into the latter category, this time propping up a high-school stutterer and his odd family and friends for evisceration/good fun. To his credit, first-time feature writer-director Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound) doesn't make his central character, Hal Hefner (what an ironic name!), a colorful idiot. (Don't worry, though, there are plenty of those here anyway.) Instead, Hal (Reece Thompson) is a smart if shy New Jersey kid with a speech impediment, one so bad that he practices his lunch order on the bus ride to school. His parents just split up – loudly and unexpectedly – and his brother, Earl (Vincent Piazza), is a bullying thief. Hal isn't totally friendless, though: There's his neighbor and classmate, Heston (Aaron Yoo), an Asian who does nothing but smilingly, creepily leer at whatever's going on and, it's implied, is sexually confused. (His dad, “Judge Pete,” isn't, however, as he's banging Hal and Earl's mom.) And eventually there's Lewis (Josh Kay), an 11-year-old who invites Hal in for 7-Up after questioning Hal's right to ride his bike in front of Lewis' house. (Lewis' parents – you'll love this – are always shown playing “Blister in the Sun” on the cello and piano as part of their marital therapy.) The reason Hal begins lurking on Lewis' street to begin with is Ginny (Anna Kendrick), a cute but ruthless senior who's a star on the debate team. Ginny used to be paired with another sharp talker, the slick, good-looking Ben (Nicholas D'Agosto). On the night of an important debate, however – the very night Hal and Earl's father walks out! -- Ben falls silent in the middle of his argument and drops out of school. And so Ginny recruits Hal to replace Ben, impolitely reasoning that “deformed people are the best – maybe because they have a deep reserve of anger.” Ginny's strategy continually and painfully proves to be a bad idea, yet she persists in trying to mold Hal – and he, naturally in love, improbably continues to let her despite his multiple failures. It turns out that some sort of scheme is involved, but it doesn't make much sense. Then again, nothing besides Hal's stutter and the deep hurt it causes him feels real here. Thompson will make you ache – though not over Hal's alleged crush on the baby-faced beeyotch, who, even if her debate skills are impressive, is not for one moment likable. But Thompson makes his character's emotional wounds palpable as he tries to speak the words so clearly being bullhorned inside his head. Blitz is trying to communicate worthy messages, predominantly about finding one's own voice and taking chances, but they're so bogged down in preciousness that you can't see the intentions beneath the quirks.
]]>Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:54:00 GMTMovieBabeMovieBabe Blog8/23/2007 3:54:00 PM By Tricia Olszewski You'd imagine that most 14-year-old boys feel the same way about sex comedies as they do about each of their battled-for baby steps toward the big deed itself – it doesn't matter if it's any good, the point is that they're getting some. About a decade ago, though, budding horndogs Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg allegedly became fed up with the subpar antics of their cinematic counterparts. Fuck this noise, they thought. We can do better, they said. And today you have Superbad, a movie to be filed under “ribald” whose script started out as a seed in two boys' dirty minds. Of course, the final product has gone through polishings and fleshings-out since its first wobbly-legged drafts, informed by the writers' subsequent experience (Goldberg's penning for Da Ali G Show; Rogen's starring on such Judd Apatow productions as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up) and maturity (though a certain period joke might have been in the original). If you're not familiar with the R-comedy magic previously created by King Apatow and his court, Superbad sounds August-unexceptional: Two high-school seniors, thus far none too popular with the ladies, try to score some alcohol for a hottie's party. They've been accepted to different colleges, so the best friends are thinking it's gonna be their last big blowout. The ultimate goal: to get laid. Duh. But audiences who've laughed their asses off at Rogen's other work will be pleased to know that the Greg Mottola-directed Superbad is not just another teen movie. At 25, Rogen wisely deemed himself too old to star – even though he and Goldberg named the characters after themselves – but found a worthy surrogate in Jonah Hill, whose bawdy, loud-mouthed, obnoxious-if-he-weren't-so-funny turn as Seth is the '00s Bluto Blutarsky. Michael Cera's the straight man as Seth's awkward friend Evan, an extension of Cera's awkward George Michael Bluth from the celebrated but canceled television series Arrested Development. Seth and Evan spend most of their time moaning about their lack of action – Evan pines over one particular sweetheart, Becca (Martha MacIsaac), while Seth is happy to fixate on girls in general, especially ones who “look like they can take a dick.” So when the sexy Jules (Emma Stone) improbably invites Seth to her party, he's determined to become the booze-bringing life of it. Enter Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who's so nerdy that even Seth considers him “the fucking anti-poon.” But, he's got a fake I.D., and even though it's a terrible one (stating that Fogell is actually the one-named, 25-year-old Hawaii resident “McLovin”), it'll have to do. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't. Superbad tosses its hopeless antiheroes into some fantastically ridiculous situations as they make their way to said party, including Fogell's adventures with a couple of cops (Rogen and Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader) and Seth and Evan's rather more disturbing run-in with a potential pedophile (“So, you guys on MySpace?”) and his psychotic but alcohol-holding friends. Together, the main characters riff on typical Apatow topics – the production values of porn, say, or how unfair it is that women can show off their boobs but guys have to hide their boners. The dialogue is at times overwhelmingly hyperactive, though Hill's wild-eyed and -haired mania is more difficult to settle in to than Cera's dry, soft-spoken Bob Newhart-isms. As with any solid teen comedy, Superbad isn't just about getting loaded and lucky, with Seth and Evan's friendship and impending separation – because of school, and, God willing, just maybe because of girlfriends – anchoring the story. Admittedly, the filmmakers don't always handle the material's tonal transitions smoothly, especially the friends' abrupt if inevitable blowup. But then they offer yet another inspired dick joke -- and as any 14-year-old will tell you, sometimes that's what really counts. To anyone thinking about writing, directing, starring in, or providing catering for a movie: Please, enough with Napoleon Dynamite Syndrome already. Nerd stories may have been around since the birth of nerds, but there's a difference between focusing on the unpopular – like Superbad – and “celebrating” the just plain weird. Rocket Science, unsurprisingly a Sundance favorite, falls into the latter category, this time propping up a high-school stutterer and his odd family and friends for evisceration/good fun. To his credit, first-time feature writer-director Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound) doesn't make his central character, Hal Hefner (what an ironic name!), a colorful idiot. (Don't worry, though, there are plenty of those here anyway.) Instead, Hal (Reece Thompson) is a smart if shy New Jersey kid with a speech impediment, one so bad that he practices his lunch order on the bus ride to school. His parents just split up – loudly and unexpectedly – and his brother, Earl (Vincent Piazza), is a bullying thief. Hal isn't totally friendless, though: There's his neighbor and classmate, Heston (Aaron Yoo), an Asian who does nothing but smilingly, creepily leer at whatever's going on and, it's implied, is sexually confused. (His dad, “Judge Pete,” isn't, however, as he's banging Hal and Earl's mom.) And eventually there's Lewis (Josh Kay), an 11-year-old who invites Hal in for 7-Up after questioning Hal's right to ride his bike in front of Lewis' house. (Lewis' parents – you'll love this – are always shown playing “Blister in the Sun” on the cello and piano as part of their marital therapy.) The reason Hal begins lurking on Lewis' street to begin with is Ginny (Anna Kendrick), a cute but ruthless senior who's a star on the debate team. Ginny used to be paired with another sharp talker, the slick, good-looking Ben (Nicholas D'Agosto). On the night of an important debate, however – the very night Hal and Earl's father walks out! -- Ben falls silent in the middle of his argument and drops out of school. And so Ginny recruits Hal to replace Ben, impolitely reasoning that “deformed people are the best – maybe because they have a deep reserve of anger.” Ginny's strategy continually and painfully proves to be a bad idea, yet she persists in trying to mold Hal – and he, naturally in love, improbably continues to let her despite his multiple failures. It turns out that some sort of scheme is involved, but it doesn't make much sense. Then again, nothing besides Hal's stutter and the deep hurt it causes him feels real here. Thompson will make you ache – though not over Hal's alleged crush on the baby-faced beeyotch, who, even if her debate skills are impressive, is not for one moment likable. But Thompson makes his character's emotional wounds palpable as he tries to speak the words so clearly being bullhorned inside his head. Blitz is trying to communicate worthy messages, predominantly about finding one's own voice and taking chances, but they're so bogged down in preciousness that you can't see the intentions beneath the quirks. http://www.spout.com/blogs/janitorjay/archive/2007/4/30/7882.aspx Post By: janitorjay
Post To: janitorjay Blog
Post Date: 4/30/2007 9:54:00 PM
Body: It is no surprise that Jeffrey Blitz's freshman narrative has been picked up for distribution. He has managed to take a strong, independent-minded story and package it so well that it becomes accessible to the mainstream. What struck me most about the film was its refusal to follow Hollywood convention, either in its plot or its characters. The story is engaging from the opening moment, bringing you into the world of high school debate with ease. If you are as calloused by Hollywood's handling of storyline as I am, you believe you can see the plot progression a mile away. But every step along the way, Blitz chooses the road less traveled. The result is a story worth following. The characters were bold and fascinating. Blitz has chosen to follow individuals that are routinely ignored in film. No too-cool-for-school jock with his cheerleader girlfriend ("Varsity Blues"). No deeply-disturbed, drug-abusing teen prostitute ("Thirteen"). No stereotypical pathetic nerd who yearns for acceptance (any teen movie from the 80's). Rather, he gravitates toward the average: normal teens stumbling through the pains of adolescence while learning their place in the world. The actors brought these characters to life by making them honest, and in turn making me care. One of the tragic downfalls of much independent film is the lack of attention to fit and polish. I will always argue that story is supreme in film, but a professional look and feel will always help convey that story. Blitz accomplishes the Hollywood feel without compromising.
]]>Tue, 01 May 2007 01:54:00 GMTjanitorjayjanitorjay Blog4/30/2007 9:54:00 PMIt is no surprise that Jeffrey Blitz's freshman narrative has been picked up for distribution. He has managed to take a strong, independent-minded story and package it so well that it becomes accessible to the mainstream. What struck me most about the film was its refusal to follow Hollywood convention, either in its plot or its characters. The story is engaging from the opening moment, bringing you into the world of high school debate with ease. If you are as calloused by Hollywood's handling of storyline as I am, you believe you can see the plot progression a mile away. But every step along the way, Blitz chooses the road less traveled. The result is a story worth following. The characters were bold and fascinating. Blitz has chosen to follow individuals that are routinely ignored in film. No too-cool-for-school jock with his cheerleader girlfriend ("Varsity Blues"). No deeply-disturbed, drug-abusing teen prostitute ("Thirteen"). No stereotypical pathetic nerd who yearns for acceptance (any teen movie from the 80's). Rather, he gravitates toward the average: normal teens stumbling through the pains of adolescence while learning their place in the world. The actors brought these characters to life by making them honest, and in turn making me care. One of the tragic downfalls of much independent film is the lack of attention to fit and polish. I will always argue that story is supreme in film, but a professional look and feel will always help convey that story. Blitz accomplishes the Hollywood feel without compromising. http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/funny/MemberTagFilms.aspxfunny
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