The Visit

** out of ****

Through some critics and audiences, M. Night Shyamalan is seeing what I would call an unearned comeback through The Visit, which is his latest film after a long string of idiotic thrillers that had lost him a lot of respect. I’ve never seen a director’s career like his. His early films (mainly The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) were so absolutely strong that I would have never anticipated such aimless fantasy (Lady in the Water) or such inept direction of human behavior (The Happening) from the same director in later films.

For a director whose career has been a needless letdown, the choice to delve into found-footage filmmaking is an obviously terrible idea since that entire subgenre has been almost as disappointing as Shyamalan. This trendy and inexpensive approach to making a movie seems rather desperate on his part, but it also seems to be paying off for him at the moment.

The Visit is about a couple of kids (Ed Oxenbould and Olivia DeJonge) sent to meet their grandparents for the first time. Their mother (Kathryn Hahn) is eager to go on a cruise with her new boyfriend and after reconnecting with her parents via social media, she has decided to send her children on a train to stay with them in rural Pennsylvania.

The “found footage” perspective is provided by the older sister, who is an aspiring filmmaker bringing along cameras to document their visit. After meeting the old couple (The amazing Peter McRobbie and Deanna Dunagan) at the train station, they’re taken out to a remote home where despite a welcoming impression, are provided a questionable curfew as well as boundary rules. When these rules are defied, the kids witness their grandparents displaying some very odd behavior, which is rationalized as senility.

This movie has three obvious problems: 1. The setup of a loving mother sending her own children to stay with their grandparents, from whom she ran away a decade ago, isn’t the typical first step for making amends with one’s kin. 2. The behavior exhibited by the old couple very early in the film would be enough to send any child running to the next closest farm house, even if it could be legitimized as dementia. 3. The documentarian ambition of the older sister to continue filming every terror she encounters defies any relatable sense of self-preservation.

With the suspension of disbelief ready to implode during most parts of the movie, there’s almost no involvement to be felt, but I will not deny the movie has a few big scares. A lot of situations, no matter how ridiculous are well staged and the actors all do great work.

There’s a major argument among some critics that this movie is a very dark comedy. The movie rests on an arc of sincerity that makes it impossible for me to see it as such. I see the humor in the insanity of its campy scares tapping into buried repulsion some audience members may feel about the elderly, but I found it to be in bad taste.

I take no issues with horror movies that aim for smutty politically incorrect concepts, as long as they commit to an R-rating so the movie may wink at its adult audience. This movie, however, is PG-13, which essentially invites the whole family to join in on the “old people are nasty” scares and I find that somewhat morally repugnant. Having the younger brother be a wannabe rapper as comic relief, so that he can do bad raps about the creepy old folks, is maybe as cringe-worthy as the R-rated gross-out moments that infiltrate the conclusion to the movie.

Shyamalan may have our temporary attention with this film’s weirdness, but this is not a return to form; it’s a product of weak storytelling with no concern for plausibility and continues to his abandonment of rich aesthetics and deep passion for well-constructed suspense - which he practically mastered once upon a time. My only hope is that a little positive encouragement from this movie’s success may inspire him to make good movies again.    

Mistress America

***1/2 out of ****

Only months after the release of the very funny While We’re Young, Noah Baumbach already has another film - this time returning for another collaboration with his girlfriend, actress/writer Greta Gerwig, with whom he made Frances Ha.”

I feel as though Baumbach is entering a stage where he’s aiming for a broader audience and I like this. His celebrated early films like The Squid and the Whale earned him acclaim, but they were so steeped in the world of problems faced by upper-class academics, that they could be a little alienating.

His older films also had an atmosphere of bitter realism, but Mistress America, like his last movie, seems to exist somewhere between the unflattering realistic details and dry humor often seen in indie films; and the absurd scenarios usually found in big budget comedies.

If there’s one conventional trope Gerwig and Baumbach thankfully dodge in this middle area, it is the warm-hearted manipulative score that gets applied to so many comedies. The two clearly have an affinity for eighties-style synth-pop music, which helps to enliven this film.

The story follows an aspiring writer, named Tracy (Lola Kirke), beginning her freshman year at a New York’s Barnard University and having a tough time finding a place among the students. She finds brief romantic interest in a fellow writing student (Matthew Shear), who then strangely starts dating someone else, just as they start becoming close. Out of loneliness, Tracy, whose mother is engaged, chooses to meet her soon-to-be stepsister, Brooke (Gerwig), who resides in Manhattan.

Upon their meet in Times Square the film picks up the manic pace of the ADHD socialite that is Brooke. Tracy’s fascination with Brooke is rather instant even if it’s obvious what a mess she is. When Brooke is around, her dialogue is rapid and often lacks any sense of direction, as she often says things like, “I wasn’t brought up that way,” to justify her objection to anything - whether the reasoning makes sense or not. Tracy acquires valuable writing material as words constantly spill from the mouth of this silly thirty-year-old.

The entire time I watched the movie, I found myself wondering if Baumbach might have improved the film by using a brighter aesthetic than his trademark dim and de-saturated look. Somehow, it’s easier to accept dialogue that’s more fun than realistic, if the look of the movie feels a little removed from reality as well.

The movie’s fun spirit climaxes at a strange point when all the characters find themselves in a large house for a long duration of the film, which takes the tone of an absurd one-act farce. It’s an amusing section, but it also feels like a movie (or play) of its own.

The cast is great. Kirke (who may possess one of the prettiest sad-looking faces I’ve ever seen) made a great impression last year, as a sleazy Ozarks thief in Gone Girl. Her beautiful straight-faced screen presence is a wonderful contrast to Gerwig’s wide-eyed obnoxiously cute shtick.

Overall, Mistress America is a fun, dialogue-heavy comedy that suffers a little from minor structural and stylistic flaws. I recommend it because it represents a lot of value that seems to be deteriorating from most comedy movies, whether they’re independent or mainstream.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

**1/2 out of ****

Somehow, I always seem to forget that Guy Ritchie films have value. He continues to be a style-over-substance director, but quite often, his style is very winning. I recall going to see his version of Sherlock Holmes dreading the very idea of it being turned into an action film. Somehow, he managed to pull it off -if not perfectly. The story was just good enough and the actors seemed to be energized by the power of their screen presence in those costumes. Such is the case with his cinematic take on the classic 60s spy TV series, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. -a show I've never seen. I suppose if I've seen enough James Bond movies, I've fulfilled a decent prerequisite.

Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer are both great looking guys possessing charm while Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki are a collective tease. I don't have much more to say. Their character's don't require much description aside from superficial observations.

This is a sharp-looking tongue-in-cheek movie with plenty of special effects but doesn't spare us some authentic exotic locations -all wonderfully lit. It's worth watching when killing time after dinner on a holiday.