Featuring dazzling performances from an all-star cast led by Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, and Bill Hader, Rebecca Miller (The Ballad of Jack and Rose, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee) delivers a brilliant genre-bending film that works on many levels. Equal parts whimsical, rom-com, and highbrow, Maggie’s Plan feels like a Woody Allen film.

Greta Gerwig plays Maggie, a free-spirited neurotic character we’ve gotten used to seeing her play over the last few years (Lola Versus, Frances Ha, and Mistress America, to name a few). She decides she’s ready to have a baby, despite her good friend (a wisecracking Bill Hader) begging her to reconsider this idea. Maggie becomes desperate enough that she’s willing to accept a sperm donation from a goofy former classmate for artificial insemination. But her plan changes (as the title suggests) when she meets a handsome novelist John (the always wonderful Ethan Hawke). They begin spending more and more time with each other, and once it’s revealed that he’s going through some marital issues with his wife (Julianne Moore), it’s easy to see where the story is heading. But this is when the film does something interesting. It jumps ahead three years to show Maggie with a kid of her own and now married to John. Gradually, Maggie begins to feel neglected and wonders if she made a mistake marrying John. So, Maggie comes up with a new plan.

One of the best qualities of Maggie’s Plan is that, just when you think you know what’s going to happen next, Miller throws a curveball at the traditional story arc. Maggie’s Plan provides interesting perspectives relationships and love, suggesting that love is messy and that it’s not about who you want to spend the rest of your life with, as much as it’s about figuring out who you can’t spend your life without. The only shortcoming is a drawn out third-act that could be trimmed down by about 15 minutes. But aside from that, the film is an absolute delight.

Rating:
8/10

Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer‘s Trainwreck is an odd little thing. How does a movie so raunchy and brash ultimately turn out to be one of the most polished, classiest comedies of the year? Seems these two comedy juggernauts are the only ones in on the secret. Trainwreck‘s only rival is Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy‘s Spy, a movie whose humor works very well, but lacks the discipline and sophistication of the former’s more socially aware material.

Yes, I said sophistication, and yes, Trainwreck sees Schumer tearing through Manhattan on a boozy sex rampage, with most of the humor stemming from calamitous events involving her nether region. This is the same well-crafted gross-out humor that rocketed Schumer to the front of the mainstream media line, the stuff that fuels her eminently popular show, Inside Amy Schumer. Her charm is her fearlessness and willingness to make herself look like an ass, as long as we know she’s being completely honest with us. It’s a winning formula, and one she employs to great success in her big-screen collaboration with Apatow.

Schumer, as she’s liable to do, plays a variation of herself (her character’s name is Amy) in the conventionally-plotted rom-com, which she wrote herself. Rabid sex monster Amy Townsend’s origin story is dispensed with quickness in the film’s opening: in a flashback to her childhood, we see her father (perennial grump Colin Quinn) explaining to she and her sister (played later by Brie Larson) that monogamy is for fools. Hence, Amy’s adult life has been defined by reckless sexcapades rather than traditional romantic pursuits. She’s got a steady boyfriend (an inexplicably hilarious John Cena), but he’s just there to take her to the movies and share the occasional meal with; she gets her rocks off with other men all the time, unbeknownst to the lovable muscle-head. (One of the movie’s biggest laughs belongs to Cena, whose ambiguously gay character intimidates another man by growling, “You know what I do to assholes! I lick ’em!”)

She works at a faux-classy magazine called S’Nuff, her editor a wickedly egocentric witch played by Tilda Swinton (whose character work has been fantastic of late). Her latest assignment is to do a profile on sports doctor Aaron Connors (Bill Hader), whose clientele includes Lebron James and Amar’e Stoudemire (both of whom play themselves, to moderate amusement). As you’ve probably guessed by now, Hader’s character turns out to be “the one,” the guy who finally convinces Amy to give monogamy a go. Their relationship hits some snags when Amy’s demons (sibling jealousy, deceased mom, dad-instilled bad attitude) compel her to reject Aaron’s affection, but things work out in the end, because Apatow.

The classic rom-com formula is represented here without deviation, but the movie works because it’s all just a frame for Schumer’s personality and charisma, which is rich and colorful enough to carry any plot, even unimaginative ones, to success. Moment to moment, she’s crazy funny, from her line delivery, to her facial expressions, to her self-deprecating physical humor. As in her other work, her social commentary sneaks up on you. While having tea with her sister’s prudish, soccer-mom friends, one woman confides that she has yet to explain to her son what gay people are. With a priceless look of befuddlement, Amy interjects: “Well…they’re people.”

Celebrity cameos, if anything, are the movie’s achilles heel. Some work (Cena), some don’t (James), but there are just so goddamn many of them stuffed in there that the movie threatens to combust under all the pressure. A moronic intervention scene including unfunny cameos by Matthew Broderick and Marv Albert is egregious, but not nearly as bad as a shoehorned fake arthouse movie-within-the-movie starring Marisa Tomei and Daniel Radcliffe, who’s only thrown in there to make Potter fans squeal.

Schumer and Hader bring the movie back to life whenever they share the screen, however. They glide in and out of tone with grace and synchronicity, and unlike a lot of rom-com couples, their arguments feel just as real as their romantic exchanges. Apatow and Schumer, despite their reputations as champions of crude humor, are storytellers of taste and restraint. They’re never cruel to us or their characters, and that discipline is what sets Trainwreck apart.

Pixar’s Inside Out is that is both the weirdest and the most universal movie the studio has ever made. It’s from the mind of Pete Docter, who’s brainstormed one of the most conceptually out-there movies in the studio’s history, a coming-of-age story like no other that stands as one of Pixar’s very best offerings.

Inside Out goes smaller than Pixar’s ever gone before; smaller than Toy Story, smaller than Ratatouille, even smaller than A Bug’s Life. It takes us inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl named Riley, who’s piloted by five adorable sprites bouncing around a Star Trek-inspired command center inside her head. Each of them personifies one of Riley’s primary emotions: Joy is played by Amy Poehler, Sadness by Phyllis Smith, Anger by Lewis Black, Fear by Bill Hader and Disgust by Mindy Kaling. (They all fill their roles perfectly, though Smith’s performance is particularly outstanding.)

The story’s outer layer follows Riley as she goes through a common childhood dilemma: she’s been uprooted from her hometown in Minnesota to move to a stuffy, two-story fixer-upper in San Francisco with her mom (Diane Lane) and dad (Kyle MacLachlan), who hopes to get his start-up off the ground. She goes through all the crises associated with this kind of adjustment period you’d expect, but the film’s primary concern is the chaos that ensues in her candy-colored “headquarters.”

To this point, Joy’s been the captain of the ship, helping to fill Riley’s head with happy memories represented by golden orbs that pop into the control room like glowing gumdrops on a conveyor belt. But due to Riley’s sudden, upsetting change of environment, the control room begins to look more like a panic room.  Sadness feels a sudden urge to take the reins as her blue orbs begin popping into the control room instead of the Joy’s golden ones. Joy tries her best to suppress sadness’ takeover, but when an accident flings both of them out of the control room, Riley’s world is thrown into disarray. While Anger, Fear and Disgust jostle and compete back in the control room, Joy and Sadness try to find a way back home as they traverse the outer reaches of Riley’s headspace.

Emotionally, Inside Out gets pretty turbulent. As things begin to break down inside Riley’s mind, we see her slowly descend into depression in the outside world, mourning the loss of her old friends, her hockey team, her old house, and a time when her parents didn’t bicker so much. It’s likely that audience members who haven’t reached Riley’s age yet won’t recognize the gravity of certain scenes of desperation and loneliness, but Docter and co-director Ronnie del Carmen handle much more sensitive, layered issues than in most of Pixar’s previous work.

The movie’s mostly a comedy, though, with the cast providing some big laughs to go along with the endless string of visual gags. Erratic, twisted humor is provided by Richard Kind, who voices Bing Bong, Riley’s childhood imaginary friend who’s been pushed to the back of her mind, doomed to a vagabond existence. The wide range of emotion covered by this character was a welcome surprise.

Though designed to appeal to mainstream audiences, Inside Out is audacious because it dares to visualize cognitive experiences, like when songs get stuck in your head, how long-term memory works, where dreams come from, and why we forget imaginary friends. The craftsmen at Pixar manage to represent these complex mental inner-workings in inventive ways, like a long-term memory night crew who discard Riley’s least valuable memories as she sleeps (piano lessons get the boot, save for “Chopsticks” and “Heart and Soul.”) These concepts are clever and often hilarious, and I have no idea how Pixar got them to fit together so perfectly to make up such a cohesive mental ecosystem, but there’s more to them than that.

From the “Train of Thought” to “Dream Productions,” a film studio in charge of amusing Riley as she sleeps, every little piece of the world Pixar’s created represents a piece of us. All of us. We feel connected to the characters because they exist within us already. We know them. They way they jockey for position in Riley’s head? We feel that competition play out inside us every day of our lives. That’s the key to Inside Out‘s power. It’s recognition, empathy, consolation, acceptance; everyone on the planet can relate to this movie. This isn’t a story about Riley’s brain. We don’t see talking synapses or blood vessels or grey matter. This story is about Riley’s mind. In other words, it’s a story about the nature of feeling.

Colorful, detailed and stylized, the imagery churned out by Pixar is jaw-dropping as usual. Design is the strong suit, though, as the surface-level aesthetics don’t quite have the richness or texture of movies like Toy Story 3 and Up. The scenes outside Riley’s head look phenomenal, but the “inside” scenes look too sterile and clinical, resembling more of a Dreamworks or Disney Animation aesthetic. (That’s a minor, minor knock, as those two studios have produced some terrific-looking work.)

The movie’s most glaring weakness is the Disgust character, who largely feels inconsequential. Kaling is fine in the role, going all-out diva, but Disgust is easily the least defined character of the five mains. Another stumble is the movie’s middle section, which feels slightly bloated. Joy and Sadness visit some amazing places on their way back home, but their journey feels too linear. These lapses in excellence are fleeting, though, as the sheer magnitude of Docter and Pixar’s ambition and imagination burns bright in every piece of character and set design, making it hard not to get swept up at any given moment.

The patented Pixar “big idea” here is that we must express and be in tune with our emotions because they’re what connect us with others. It’s a legitimately profound message, and though it can be argued that it’s just plain common sense, to see these psychological maneuverings play out on-screen forces you to take a look back at all the times you’ve pushed others away, or went back on a promise, or ran away from a difficult situation, all because you insisted on keeping your emotions locked up. Inside Out encourages us to open the floodgates.

The new promo for the 2015 MTV Movie Awards has us rolling in the movie theater aisles. Just when you thought you’ve achieved the zen pinnacle of wisdom for peace in all things according to your childhood tee-ball coach, Bill Hader and Amy Schumer have arrived on scene to deliver the ultimate reality check. Of course winning is everything.

That is the theme of their campaign to have us all tuning in to the MTV Movie Awards on April 12th hosted by Amy Schumer which is traditionally filmed at the Nokia Theater and known for breaking all sorts of awards season rules. Judging by Schumer’s particular shade of humor, this year is sure to hold a few comedic shockers.

Amy Schumer participated in the reality show Last Comic Standing on NBC and came in fourth place in their fifth season. She also came in second in Comedy Central’s Reality Bites Back. She currently stars in her own show Inside Amy Schumer on Comedy Central.

Though Amy Schumer is starting to get quite a footing as a comedian in Hollywood, audiences are still on the fence. This will be her first foray into the world of hosting and she has some big shoes to fill. Last year’s host was Conan O’Brien.

She also wrote and is starring opposite Bill Hader in the movie Trainwreck which is set to be released in July 2015. It looks like we will all be starting to see a lot more of Amy Schumer.

Be sure to catch the MTV Movie Awards with Amy Schumer on Sunday, April 12th at 8/7c and see Hader and Schumer destroy a movie theater below.

You might be thinking “Already?!” but yes, award season is already starting. Today, New York’s Gotham Independent Film Awards put out their nominees, a list filled with pleasant surprises and some very obvious choices.

Let’s start with the obvious choice: Boyhood. Any indie award would be insane to deny Richard Linklater’s film, possibly the indie event of the year, some love, so Gotham understandably gave it four nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Ethan Hawke), Best Actress (Patricia Arquette) and Breakthrough Actor (Ellar Coltrane). Also unsurprising is Birdman nabbing three nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor (Michael Keaton). Expect to hear even more about Birdman in the months to come.

Because the Gotham Awards are about independent film, that gives some great underrated films and performances the chance for some exposure through a nomination. The biggest surprise might be Under the Skin and Scarlett Johansson scoring nominations for Best Picture and Actress. It’ll be unlikely for Jonathan Glazer’s strange sci-fi to get much love outside of critics’ circles this year, so nominations like these are nice to see. Another great choice by Gotham: Giving Ira Sachs’ wonderful Love is Strange a Best Picture nomination. Sachs’ film, a quietly heartbreaking drama, seems bound to get left out this year once the awards race kicks into high gear (if Best Actor weren’t so competitive this year, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina would have been locks). Any recognition for Love is Strange is a huge plus.

Read on below for the full list of nominees, including the nominees for Breakthrough Director and Actor. For those more interested in the bigger awards, take note of Oscar Isaac’s nomination for A Most Violent Year. The film hasn’t come out yet (it opens AFI Fest next month), so this nomination might be a hint of another shake-up in the coming weeks. And if anyone’s wondering where current Best Actor frontrunner Steve Carrell is, Gotham decided to give Carrell and co-stars Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo a special award for their ensemble performances in Foxcatcher.

The Gotham Independent Film Awards will hold their awards ceremony on December 1st.

Best Feature

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Love Is Strange
Under the Skin

Best Actor

Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins
Ethan Hawke in Boyhood
Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Miles Teller in Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)

Best Actress

Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights
Julianne Moore in Still Alice
Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin
Mia Wasikowska in Tracks

Best Documentary

Actress
CITIZENFOUR
Life Itself
Manakamana
Point and Shoot

Breakthrough Actor

Riz Ahmed in Nightcrawler
Macon Blair in Blue Ruin
Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood
Joey King in Wish I Was Here
Jenny Slate in Obvious Child
Tessa Thompson in Dear White People

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Ana Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
James Ward Byrkit for Coherence
Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler
Eliza Hittman for It Felt Like Love
Justin Simien for Dear White People

Viewing an on-screen relationship from somewhere in the middle can be a difficult place to be in as a film viewer. Finding two characters in a juncture in their story when one’s had no time to form any sort of attachment yet, makes for the sort of film viewing that practically demands distance. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby most certainly asks that of its viewers. Asking for patience in abundance as it fills us in on the current, past, and potential future of a young New York couple. And to make sure the severity of their rift is felt, the film opens with a suicide attempt.

Eleanor Rigby (Jessica Chastain) has a name inspired less by the Beatles and more by missed opportunity and a sense of fate. After a brief scene of young love between her and boyfriend Conor (James McAvoy), she’s seen biking down the Brooklyn bridge. With a sense of calculation, she leaves her bike and heads for the fence.

In the hospital, Conor, her now husband, flies to her side, panicked. But when she’s healed and it’s time to leave, it’s her sister Kate (Jess Weixler) who takes her back to their childhood home to stay with their parents. Her French musician mother Mary (Isabelle Huppert) awaits her on the front steps, glass of wine in hand. Her father Julian (William Hurt), the academic and therapist, is especially concerned and encourages Eleanor to take some classes while she figures out her life.

Eleanor enrolls and when her father encourages her to crash Professor Friedman’s (Viola Davis) class, she does so with hardly any real argument why Professor Friedman should allow her to join the class, but an unlikely friendship is sparked between the two and Eleanor finds her to be an encouraging outsider. A safe friend unaware of Eleanor’s tragic recent past.

Meanwhile Conor does his best to find out how Eleanor is, since she’s thrown away her phone, resorting eventually to stalking her at the school. He passes her a note in her class one day and upsets her enough that she leaves class. Despite what little we know of their former selves before this juncture in their relationship, it’s clear Eleanor has changed greatly and it’s equally true Conor wants to return to what they once had. One of them stuck in the ambiguity of who they are, and who they are as part of a couple after a major life change, and the other stuck in the remembrance of how good things once were.

It’s easier to understand The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby when one takes into account that it was originally two films. Him and Her. One focused on their relationship from Conor’s perspective, the other from Eleanor’s. At times throughout the film there seems to be much left unsaid, much that was most likely covered in the individual films that was cut to make Them work without being overwhelming.

But it’s exactly that hesitation that keeps The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby from true greatness. In his feature directorial début (or should we call it third film?), Ned Benson has crafted a tale of two people completely unable to communicate. And though the inability to communicate with someone at a juncture where grief makes it entirely hard to relate is realistic, as an editing and filmmaking tool it makes for somewhat frustrating viewing.

The emergence of the so-called “anti-romance” is a sign of the times, of the burgeoning destruction of the Hollywood ending in favor of realism and relatable romantic scenarios. And while I appreciate this perspective and the way it resonates in our modern world, I can’t help but always wonder where the realistic side character is, the one yelling at the main characters to grow up and just have a normal conversation. Bill Hader‘s Stuart, Conor’s best friend and chef at his restaurant, comes close. Doing his best to explain to Conor the egg shells he has to walk on around his friend when it comes to his marriage. And Viola Davis is truly fantastic as Professor Friedman, but her wisdom and usefulness to Eleanor seems to stem entirely on her not actually knowing anything about Eleanor and her immediate life. She just seems to accidentally give Eleanor the friendship she needs at a time when she accidentally needs it.

Plenty of conversations with their family members would seem to be the ideal pathway to character growth, but strangely it’s these scenes that drag the most. Much of the time spent skirting around the obvious topics needing real study.

The audience is only clued in to Eleanor and Conor’s central concern rather late in the film, though it’s not hard to figure out they don’t suffer from simple relationship troubles. Strangely Benson chooses to show flashbacks from the couple’s early days, before they were married and in the blissful throes of young love, rather than scenes from their marriage. In a sense it brilliantly shows the same blind spot the main characters seems to possess, an idea of when things were new and good, juxtaposed with the present when they seem so bad, while showing an unawareness of when they were just in the middle, living out their love on a day by day basis.

With all that anti-romance, anti-Hollywood ending, the characters fall into an age-old trap, resorting to reinventing themselves, albeit by returning to former passions and plans they once had before their marriage and troubles. So although the film won’t allow us to call its ending “sad” per se, it certainly doesn’t warrant the descriptor of “realistic”. Though I’ll give kudos to Son Lux for the musical placement, toying quite effectively with our hearts in a few key areas with some well-placed songs in a way that gives the implication of romance without actually showing it.

Chastain and McAvoy give phenomenal performances, every other scene playing out like the clip played by the Academy before they announce who gets the Oscar. But without the structure the story needs, their performances simply hit the screen as heavy and ineffective, the lack of insight into their psyches making for a detached relationship with viewers.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby has all the realism of watching a pair of friends go through a rough spot in their relationship, without any of the catharsis of being able to advise and yell at them as perhaps a good friend ought to.

There’s an indelible spark that exists between actors who trust each other fully. Through 9 years of making millions pop with laughter together on Saturday Night Live, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader have developed a rare rapport few other on-screen pairings can touch. With the legendary variety show now in the rear view mirror, the duo hope to ditch the silly sketch costumes, expand their repertoire, and evolve as actors. Wiig’s already gotten a head-start with Hateship Loveship and Bridesmaids (to a lesser extent), but Hader is taking his first stab at dramatic acting with The Skeleton Twins. Lucky for him, he’s got his old partner-in-crime to ease him into the brave new world of the un-hammy.

Hader’s luck is doubled by the film’s writer-director, Craig Johnson, who sets he and the rest of the cast up for success. The smartly written material (co-penned by Mark Heyman) is optimized to challenge Wiig and Hader with emotionally charged dialogue while utilizing their comedic gifts whenever levity or tonal contrast is appropriate. Johnson creates the perfect environment for his actors to excel, and they do; Wiig steps up, Hader steps up, and the result is a fine picture that makes all parties involved look good.

Wiig plays Maggie, a dental assistant living in Nyack, N.Y. who’s so dissatisfied with her marriage to her husband (Luke Wilson) that when we meet her she’s in a bathroom with a fistful of pills, seconds away from ending it all. Suddenly, a phone call. Her twin brother Milo (Hader), a struggling actor in L.A. whom she hasn’t spoken to in 10 years, has narrowly survived his own suicide attempt, his slit wrists being mended by hospital staffers. Maggie insists her brother leave L.A. and stay with her in upstate New York where they grew up to rehabilitate and hopefully reconnect. Death and happenstance bring the estranged siblings together, and suddenly the film’s title clicks into place. Just in case we didn’t get the message, we’re shown a fuzzy flashback of their late father (he took his own life) dangling Mexican skeleton toys in front of them when they were kids. It’s straightforward symbolism for sure, but it does the job and the image sticks.

Aside from his sister and her bubbling marital anxiety, waiting for Milo back home is some serious baggage in the form of his old English teacher Rich (Ty Burrell), who seduced him back in high school. When Milo visits his former educator at the bookstore he works at now, Rich goes pale; his worst nightmare just walked through the door. He’s got a wife and a 16-year-old son now, but it’s clear he’s still got a deep affection for Milo. Hader and Burrell’s exchanges are at once tender and crushing, and it’s in these scenes that Hader reveals the depth of his abilities as an actor.

Meanwhile, Maggie’s got her own demons to reckon with. She begins to hate herself all over again as she gives in to the advances of her young diving instructor (Boyd Holbrook), her latest affair (of which there have been many). But the real romance here is between the siblings themselves, strange as it sounds. Incestuous the film is not, but when we see Maggie and Milo (dressed in drag for Halloween) slow dancing and holding each other in a deep embrace; or when we see them lock eyes blissfully as they lip-synch Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (they sing the entire song, and it’s hilarious and sweet); or when they get high on laughing gas together at the dentist’s office and lay on the floor, heads touching, it’s clear that this is a love story about soul mates, albeit an unconventional one. This peculiarity is to the film’s benefit.

Like in any good love story, Maggie and Milo go through periods of disdain for one another, exacerbated by the fact that they know precisely how to hurt each other worst (it’s a twin thing). These moments of conflict cut deep and, like Hader’s scenes with Burrell, are heartbreaking because they’re given time to breathe and bloom, to the credit of Johnson and his crew. If it was Wiig and Hader’s aim to show the breadth of their range, mission accomplished.

Wildly entertaining as they are, the incidental bursts of sibling bonding (Starship, laughing gas) feel somewhat obligatory considering the leads’ reputations as broad comics, though “shoehorned” is a word that never comes to mind. The true value of the film exists in the subtle push-and-pull dynamics of the more restrained, weightier exchanges. Structurally, Johnson and Heyman lean on rom-com conventions too often, with plot developments feeling too orderly and neat. It’s a little too easy to stay one step ahead of the story, which doesn’t reflect the spontaneity of the performances.

It’ll be interesting to see if Hader and Wiig continue to team up for movies, if only to see their partnership blossom and mature over the years. Perhaps one day they’ll be two of the industries premiere dramatic actors, collecting Oscars left and right, and we’ll look back on The Skeleton Twins as a watershed moment in their careers. They show enough potential here that the idea isn’t entirely wacky. But for now, the film is just fine as an amusing, unexpectedly poignant take on the inextricable link shared by twins (miserable ones, to be exact).

The Skeleton Twins trailer

Taking the electric chemistry they had on Saturday Night Live and exercising it in a more dramatic arena, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader reunite in The Skeleton Twins, in which they play estranged twins brought together by tragedy who are forced to reckon with their dark past, where it’s led them, and try to keep each other laughing before they mope themselves to death. The film, directed by Craig Johnson, also stars Luke Wilson and Ty Burrell.

In a roundtable interview with other journalists, we spoke to Wiig, Hader, and Johnson about the script taking eight years to complete, Hader tackling his first dramatic role, the importance of the film’s unique tone, Wiig and Hader’s “Starship” duet, and more. The Skeleton Twins hits select theaters this Friday, with a wider release to follow.

You’ve been working on the script with Mark Heyman for around eight years. How did the final film differentiate from the initial script?
Craig: We had a couple versions of it where we hadn’t figured out the tone yet. There were versions where Milo was a drag queen and some were over-the-top. There was a road trip element…

Kristen: Maggie was a cat…

Bill: But they were still twins! [laughs]

Craig: They’re joking, but it was not too far off. [laughs] Mark and I just said, “What kind of movie do we want to make?” We wanted to do something that was tonally down-to-earth, bittersweet, funny, sad, reflective…We’re fans of Alexander Payne’s movies. We went back into it, and that draft was much more similar to how the final movie ended up. The eight years in between wasn’t consistent. There were two-and-a-half years where the script sat in a drawer.

Kristen: Then you heard [in a nasal-y voice], “Ooooh let me out! Remember me!” from the drawer.

Bill: “You submitted me to the WGA in 2003! My tummy hurts…”

Craig: [laughs] Does that answer your question?

Bill and Kristen, you’ve established a strong comedic chemistry over many years at SNL. Doing these more emotionally intense scenes, does the dynamic feel different?
Kristen: No, it doesn’t.

Bill: Yeah, not really. We’ve worked with each other for so long. Acting is acting, and I feel very lucky and privileged to come up with Kristen and do Saturday Night Live. You fail together and you learn from each other. Any time Kristen would do something we would go out on the floor to watch it because she’s such a good live performer. You learn from her. When you do something like this, it’s a different style of acting, but it’s the same thing of, you’re thinking about your character, you have ideas, you show up having done your homework…

Kristen: The outcome is different, but you still want to get to the best place. [At] SNL, yes we would be in crazy wigs and characters and stuff, but we knew the job was to make the characters funny and make it work. This [film] was like, who are these two people? We have to make them believable and real.

Bill: You’re going over your material…It’s like homework for me. You go over it so that you’re confident when you show up on the day.

Was it hard for you to keep everything in check tonally? The subject matter can be pretty touchy at times.
Bill: We were all over the place. The tone of the movie is really hard to achieve. Craig and the editor, Jenny, did an amazing job, because they’re very disciplined. There was a lot of stuff that we did that was really, really funny, and some things that were incredibly bleak and more hard to watch. Craig was disciplined enough to say, “This is what’s right for the movie.”

Craig: Getting the tone right to a movie like this was critical. It was everything. We knew that that was marching order number 1. There are so many things that factor into that: How comedic do we go? How dark do we go? Music is huge for that. Music is really important to me, so finding the right music for the score and source music was critical. It’s intuitive. It’s hard to say when you know you’ve got it, but there’s this feeling of, “This is starting to feel right.” We’d screen rough cuts of it to get feedback. It has so much to do with gut-checking yourself and being honest. “Am I leaving this in because it makes me laugh, when it doesn’t feel like what the characters would do?”

Kristen: It’s so interesting that people say that it’s a different tone and doesn’t fall into total comedy or total drama. It’s funny, because that’s what life is. We watch these stories of these people’s lives, and it’s not all just one thing.

Craig: Movies are ruled by genres so often, and things go binary and go black & white pretty quickly. Many movies don’t; there’s a whole tradition of wonderful movies that are similar in tone to this one. I just watched The Ice Storm by Ang Lee, and that’s in a similar world.

Bill: [In old news reporter voice] “Craig Johnson compares himself to Ang Lee! What do you think?”

Kristen: “He implies he’s even better!”

Bill: “Ang Lee angry! Craig Johnson’s body found eaten by a tiger! Probably Ang Lee!”

When you two do the sing-along to Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”, I was surprised you ended up doing the whole song. It was stuck in my head for five days.
Craig: You’re welcome!

Bill: It’s still in our heads…

Craig: [To Bill] When you first saw that cut, I remember you saying, “You really go punk rock on that Starship scene!”

Bill: Yeah, ’cause you keep going!

Craig: It was never written in my head to actually be that song, but when we found it and it was a duet with Milo trying to get Maggie to sing, it just naturally turned into a little more of a showpiece.

Having just gone through a debate of, “Which is more craptastic, Starship or Steve Miller Band?”, how did you arrive at that particular song?
Craig: “We Built This City” is often on the top of lists of worst songs of all time, but it’s of an era.

Kristen: We all know it.

Bill: Whether you like it or not, that’s what they’re saying! They’re sitting on a big pile of money like, “Craptastic paid for all of this!”

Craig: I knew that I wanted a song from the ’80s, a song that they probably grooved on as little kids, and they probably did that routine as little kids. I listened to a ton of different ’80s hook-y ballads and lip-synced them to see what worked. That duet just worked. It had the right amount of uplift and back-and-forth.

Bill, being that this is your first dramatic role, what made Milo stand out?
Bill: I’d always wanted to do something like this. Avy Kaufman, the casting director, saw me do a table read for a drama and she thought it was really good and recommended me to Craig. I read the script, and it was the first script I’d ever received that was like this. Every script before it was very much in tone like either SNL stuff or Judd Apatow stuff, which isn’t bad, but I like a lot of different types of movies. It was cool. Craig had a lot of faith in me, and it was great when Kristen got brought on. I was a little anxious doing this, so having Kristen there…She’s such an amazing actor, and there’s a security to that. Working together feels very effortless. That’s what I needed to do my job.

Your scenes with Ty Burrell are really heavy and intense. What was your chemistry like with him?
Bill: The first three days of shooting was with Ty. It was great because he totally set the tone for the movie. I was a huge fan of his. He was so nice. Having him there going, “This is really cool what you’re doing,” meant the world to me. Those scenes were some of the toughest scenes subject-wise. Everything about those scenes was pretty tough.

Craig: It was the first three days, so we were all finding our footing. At the end of those three days I was breathing a sigh of relief, because everything felt right. The tone felt right, Ty and Bill had chemistry…

Bill: The last scene we shot was the scene where Ty’s talking to me on the couch, and he improvised the line…

Craig: When Bill says, “What am I to you? Am I just a blowup doll?”, Ty says, “I treated you terribly, but it’s not because I don’t care about you, or don’t respect you, or don’t love you.” The “don’t love you” wasn’t in the script. I could see the heartbeat of the movie at that point. I like working with actors that are willing to improvise. I’m very specific when I write the script, but I always like it when there is a bit of wiggle room.

Bill: He felt something, and in the moment he just said it. He did that, and it sparked a reaction in me.

What are your favorite comedian-turned-dramatic-actors?
Craig: I like what Adam Sandler does in Punch Drunk Love.

Kristen: Peter Sellers is up there.

Bill: I don’t really think in those terms. I think it puts you in a box, in a way. I like people who swerve. I always like Jeff Bridges, because you never knew what you were going to get from him.

I think it’s inspiring for audiences to see actors branch out.
Bill: That is true. That’s 100% true. I guess I always lose sight of that because you sit at home going, “I can do all these things! I can do anything!” But those are the actors I like. Lately, I’ve liked what Bryan Cranston did in Breaking Bad and knowing him from Malcolm in the Middle.

We were just talking about Bill’s relationship with Ty, but now Kristen I want to talk to you about your relationship with Luke Wilson. At the beginning of the movie I thought we would end up disliking Lance, but that never happened.
Kristen: Just because something’s good on paper doesn’t mean it’s right for you, and I think that’s one of the reasons why she and people stay with people who may not be the best thing for them. It’s hard to talk yourself out of it. “What’s my problem?” I think she thought something was wrong with her because she wasn’t fulfilled by this seemingly great person. I think that added to her depression a bit. When you wake up every day and ask, “What’s wrong with me?”, it’ get’s a little tiring. She and hopefully the audience realize that sometimes it’s not a fit, and that’s okay. When you release someone you’re actually doing them a favor, because he needs to be with someone who thinks he’s really great and loves his weird shoes.

Craig: It was really important for us when we were writing that relationship that, because Lance is an innocent in it, we saw her racked with guilt and pain about her behavior. It’s killing her. That put it more on a balanced level.

Kristen: It’s hard not to immediately take sides. “He’s so great! What’s her problem?” I think you do feel that way at times in the movie.

Craig: We tried to make it harder to judge each character, which I think is what life is like.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen that shows how family dysfunction is a generational thing. You see the mother, and there are hints about what the father is about. Did you have a backstory for what the dynamic was within the family?
Craig: I certainly do.

Bill: When we finally got Kristen on and we had a start date, Craig and I walked around my neighborhood, and he just told me the whole backstory. It was helpful.

Craig: I kind of want to leave it up to the audience. I think if you go back to it and start thinking about timelines and when the mother left in relation to when the father died, you can start piecing together dynamics.

Bill: Okay, now I’m backtracking on by big, righteous thing. John Candy in Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. He breaks my heart in that movie, and he’s really funny.

Craig Johnson is now getting some artwork for his Sundance hit The Skeleton Twins, a film that stars Saturday Night Live alums Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as estranged twins who reunite after reaching rock bottom. The film also stars Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell, and Boyd Holbrook and hits theaters on September 19th. The official movie poster for The Skeleton Twins first premiered on EW.com, check out the image below.

Official Movie poster of The Skeleton Twins

SNL-alums Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader confront harsh realities in the upcoming release from Roadside Attractions The Skeleton Twins. Writer/director Craig Johnson (previously of True Adolescents) won the Walt Salt Screenwriting Award along with his co-writer Mark Heyman (Black Swan) at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for The Skeleton Twins, which received many positive notices including one here at Way Too Indie.

In this dramatic comedy, Hader and Wiig play siblings living with one another after failed suicide attempts. Wiig shows anxiety as the wife of Luke Wilson, who happily announces to her brother that, “We’re trying to get pregnant,” because ‘phrasing it with “we” makes it not sexist.’ Hader, an unsuccessful gay actor, struggles with living in a small town and lip-synchs with his sister to Starship’s “Nothing Going to Stop Us Now.”

The Skeleton Twins will be in theaters on September 19th, watch the trailer below:

The Skeleton Twins trailer

Writers David Wain and Michael Showalter won over audiences (though not critics) with their 2001 nostalgic summer-camp satire Wet Hot American Summer and attempt to repeat their success with their new rom-com parody They Came Together. The film pokes fun at just about every romantic comedy trope and cliché out there, but committing the same mistakes as the cookie-cutter genre it’s parodying isn’t ironic enough to justify laughs. Many of the punchlines are either beaten to death by repetition or are needlessly explained why they’re funny. And there’s nothing funny about that.

The film begins at a dinner table where Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly (Amy Poehler) recall how the two of them met to their friends Kyle (Bill Hader) and Karen (Ellie Kemper). Right off the bat the film acknowledges that their story is very much like a corny romantic comedy, as if admitting their own corniness gives the film a free pass. Not long after the lovebirds start describing how they began to date, Kyle blurts out from across the table, “You weren’t kidding, your story really IS like a corny movie!”. Cue the eye rolls.

Both Joel and Molly had broken up with their significant others shortly before running into one other (literally) on their way to the same party. However, it was not love at first sight. The two start off on the wrong foot by getting into a loud argument after blaming the other for the collision. They definitely don’t seem right for each other. After all, Joel works at the Corporate Candy Company which threatens to shut down Molly’s small indie candy shop. Though in the very next scene the two instantly settle their differences in a book store upon discovering their love for the fiction genre. It’s suppose to be ridiculous, that’s the joke.

There are moments where the self-aware comedy works. One of the few laugh out loud moments is when Molly recites a paragraph of specific details while ordering a muffin, only to find out that the entire passage is actually verbatim on the menu. But unfortunately, many of the gags are simply exhausting. Case in point when Joel replies to a bartender, “You can say that again”, who then proceeds to repeat his line over and over until it becomes annoying. A similar instance occurs when someone shouts “swish” after every missed shot on the basketball court. It’s funny maybe once or twice, but definitely not on the fourth or fifth.

They Came Together certainly relies on the undeniable charm of Rudd and Poehler. Maybe a bit too reliant. Both actors do their best with the material, at times elevating the writing better than anyone else could, though even their great comedic chemistry is not enough to save the film. Perhaps that’s why Wain gathers an army of an ensemble including appearances from Ken Marino, Jason Mantzoukas, Ed Helms, Melanie Lynskey, Max Greenfield, Jack McBrayer, Kenan Thompson, and even Judge Judy. These are all welcoming additions but unfortunately all the talent goes to waste with the weak script.

Even a with a short-and-sweet runtime of 83 minutes, They Came Together overstays its welcome with repetitive jokes. The real kicker is many of those jokes weren’t all that great to start with. For example, there is a running joke that New York City plays SUCH an important role in the film that it’s almost a character itself. I suppose this is a dig towards Woody Allen for claiming the city is its own character in his rom-com Manhattan, but I think the joke will mostly fall on deaf ears. They Came Together tries too hard to become a self-aware parody that it forces its humor, generating much less laughs than expected.

Those who understand and appreciate the humor of David Wain and Michael Showalter have no doubt been anticipating They Came Together, the first film the duo has worked on together since Wet Hot American Summer, their TV endeavors aside. (Fans will be happy to hear that in the Q&A following the premiere the duo said a Wet Hot American Summer prequel is in the works). To appreciate their comedy means also appreciating those they pay homage to, the spoof films of Mel Brooks and Jim Abrahams, who perfected the craft of effectively using films to make fun of films with a distinctly self-aware humor. They Came Together, rather than directly parodying romantic comedy films (though there are some obvious references dashed about the film), seeks to poke fun at the entire genre, incorporating almost every major romantic film cliché there is. What makes it more effective than say an outright parody film like Date Movie, is it’s use of major comedic talent and that Wain/Showalter touch that, though sometimes baffling and always ridiculous, almost always elicits a laugh.

The film is about Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly (Amy Poehler) as they tell the story of how they met to two friends at dinner (Ellie Kemper and Bill Hader). Set in New York City (which is repeatedly jabbed at as the “third main character” of the film), Joel works for a large corporate candy company and Molly operates a small candy store. Joel is just getting over his smoking-hot ex (Cobie Smulders) who cheated on him with his successful co-worker. Molly has also recently broken up with her boyfriend and turns down her accountant’s advances (played by Ed Helms) to focus on herself. When friends try to set them up at a Halloween party they run into each other on the way there and instantly dislike each other. It isn’t until they see each other later at a book store where they discover a mutual love for (gasp) fiction books that Molly agrees to a date and their romance begins. From there almost every romantic film cliché appears. She’s lovably klutzy. He’s a responsible older brother, caring for his aimless sibling (Max Greenfield). They fight over family differences (hers are all white supremacists, whoops) and break up. He finds solace in his ex, she tries dating her accountant, eventually leading up to a wedding that needs breaking up and a solid ten minutes of every romantic movie ending they could fit in.

Wain and Showalter prove once again there is no joke they won’t beat to death, going just over the line enough to bring it back to life. It’s a humor that revels in straddling the line between ridiculous and ridiculously funny. The two delight in the humor of repetition and certain scenes take it to the point of exhaustion. Those who don’t find it funny, will find it utterly obnoxious. Much of the film’s success relies on the impeccable chemistry between Pohler and Rudd, two actors well aware of each other’s methods by now and perfectly cast in their stereotypical roles. It’s idiocy for the sake of idiocy, but has so much charm and excellent timing that this reviewer’s funny bone was tickled for 90 minutes straight.

If you aren’t laughing, you’ll probably be shaking your head, but there are very few people in this world not won over by Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. Let’s be honest, we’d watch them read the phone book.

SFFS Awards Night

On May 1st, right in the middle of the 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF57), the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) held and awards night gala, honoring some of the industry’s most vital filmmakers and contributors. It was a star-studded event, with Richard Linklater, John Lasseter, Jeremy Irons, screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, and more receiving awards presented by young stars including Zooey Deschanel, Josh Gad, and Parker Posey. Check out pics from the red carpet below:

The Skeleton Twins

On the same night, a few blocks away in Japantown, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig were in attendance to introduce their dramedy (heavy on the drama) collaboration with director Craig Johnson, The Skeleton Twins. Hader, ever the entertainer, had fun with the press on the red carpet, pretending to cough to screw with photographers (I still managed to snap a couple good ones), and even conducting almost an entire interview in an Australian accent. Check out the hilarity below:

Palo Alto

Adding to the illustrious Coppola family legacy at SFIFF57 was Gia Coppola, niece of Sofia and granddaughter of Francis, with her gritty slice of teen life Palo Alto. Based on a book of short stories written by James Franco (who also acts in the film), it’s the best representation of modern day teens I’ve ever seen, an impressive outing for a first time filmmaker. Coppola and star Emma Roberts made an appearance on the red carpet at the Kabuki, both looking gorgeous as usual. (Photo credit: Adam Clay)

Last Weekend

Taking over the red carpet this past weekend were the directors and stars of Lake Tahoe-set family drama Last Weekend, which made its world premiere at the festival. Many of the ensemble cast were in attendance, including Patricia Clarkson, Joseph Cross, Chris Mulkey, Alexia Rasmussen, Devon Graye, and Fran Kranz. First time co-directors Tom Dolby and Tom Williams (lovingly referred to by the cast members as “Tom-Tom”) celebrated the film’s successful launch on the red carpet with their stars, as well as on a second carpet at the film’s after party. (Photo credit: Adam Clay)

A 3rd generation filmmaker of one of cinema’s most lauded families, Gia Coppola impresses in her debut feature, Palo Alto, an adaptation of a book by James Franco (who’s also in the movie) that captures the listless, limbo-like haze of high school through interweaving stories of several troubled teens. While the film technically falls into the “teen drama” column, its authentic, unapologetically filthy depiction of adolescence sets it apart.

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Photos Courtesy Adam Clay

Much of Palo Alto‘s authenticity stems from its cast, all appropriately aged (this is important) and all quite…normal looking. It’s a good thing, as most teen movies’ stars are too prettied up to be relatable. Jack Kilmer, son of Val (who makes a brief, comical appearance), and Emma Roberts lead the brilliant cast, who all convince as conflicted, bored, lustful youths partying, getting in trouble, and goofing around in parking lots. Coppola, a photographer whose work impressed Franco enough to entrust the stories of his hometown to her, has a natural eye for composition and color, capturing the intensity and urgency of teen life with her luscious, moody imagery. Each character is chaotically emotional and has a unique set of inner conflicts to reckon with. This is the best representation of modern teens in memory.

SFIFF57 offered up another debut feature, this time from co-directors Tom Dolby and Tom Williams with the world premier of the Lake Tahoe-set Last Weekend. A family drama about an affluent couple (Patricia Clarkson and Chris Mulkey) hosting their spoiled adult children and their significant others for a weekend in their home on the sparkling lake, the film has its moments but is hampered by a script that needs more sharpening. Watching entitled rich folk complain about everything while feasting in paradise is a joke that gets old quick.

Click to view slideshow.
Photos Courtesy Adam Clay

The film, which has almost zero plot to speak of (not a knock), is completely fueled by the contentious family dynamics. The savvy young cast, which includes Zachary Booth, Alexia Rasmussen (Proxy), Joseph Cross (Milk), Devon Graye (Dexter), and Jayma Mays (Glee), all approaching their prime, embody their bratty roles tastefully, never going overboard or outshining each other. Clarkson and Mulkey guide them along, and the fresh faces keep up without a stutter. Cross and Clarkson share some particularly venomous scenes together, epic mother-son spats that steal the show. Fran Kranz (Cabin in the Woods) and Rutina Wesley (True Blood) play nothing roles that amount to a well-acted waste of time.

Tsai Ming-Liang made a Miyazaki-like announcement at the premiere of his new film Stray Dogs in Venice that the stunning film about an impoverished family would be his last, to the sadness of many arthouse aficionados. The lauded auteur is leaving the cinema world on a high note, however, as Stray Dogs is as gorgeous, boundary-pushing, and incomparable as his previous work (What Time is it There?, The Hole).

As has become his signature style, Tsai presents his tale in a series of fixed, ultra-long shots whose uncompromisingly elongated form reveals intricacies and shifting emotion unseeable by way of conventional quick cuts or even shots like Scorsese’s Copacabana classic. Spectacle is not the objective here, with the shot lengths surpassing the ten minute mark in some cases. Tsai paints a dark, stark portrait of a family living in squalor on the streets of Taipei. We see the children bathe in a dingy public restroom, the father hold up advertising signs at a busy intersection in the pouring rain. It’s a haunting, gut-wrenching film, and one whose beauty lies not just in Tsai’s immaculately composed shots, but in the 4th dimension of time itself. And you don’t even have to shell out an extra ten bucks for 4-D glasses!

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the festival so far has been Craig Johnson’s The Skeleton Twins, which from movie stills ostensibly appears to be a star vehicle for SNL all-stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, but actually turns out to be an unexpectedly affecting sibling drama peppered with funny moments for the comedians to please loyalists. Hader and Wiig play the titular troubled siblings Milo and Maggie, each with self-destructive tendencies.

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After ten years of not speaking, Maggie invites her brother to stay with her after a suicide attempt. She’s in denial about her dissatisfaction with her marriage to the cheerful Lance (Luke Wilson) while Milo, an emotional wreck more aware of his fatal flaws, struggles to tie up loose ends in his past life while trying desperately to keep Maggie afloat in her failing marriage. It would be fair to categorize The Skeleton Twins as a dramedy, though the dramatic element is more intensified here than your average Apatow effort. It’s a dark movie, and Hader and Wiig’s comedic chops translate well to the emotional spectrum of acting (Wiig’s already proven this, but this is Hader’s first dramatic leading role). In fact, the laughs sometimes outstay their welcome, as the comedic scenes are egregiously tailored to the actors’ signature personas and distract from their better, dramatic character moments. This one’s definitely worth keeping on your radar.

In the near future of Her, LA has a few new buildings in its skyline and is as smoggy as ever. The haze only adding to its dreaminess. The metro extends all the way to the beach (something all Angelinos have been craving for years), and the fashion trends favor nerd appeal, with high-waisted pants for men and minimal makeup on women. People walk around, hardly acknowledging one another, muttering into the small wireless earpieces they wear to stay constantly connected to their smart devices.

We’ve already become a society that doesn’t bat an eyelash at people staring at small square screens in their hands around the clock, so this next possible step depicted in director Spike Jonze’s vision of the future does seem entirely likely. It’s when Jonze presents another technical possibility that a unique, and dare I say plausible, love story emerges.

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) writes love letters for a living; a romantic profession that fits his introverted and lonely personality. Having recently split with his wife (Rooney Mara), he mopes from work to home, shrugging off invitations from co-workers (Chris Pratt) and long-time friends (Amy Adams and Matt Letscher). Intrigued by new software, he buys himself a new operating system. After answering only a couple quick set-up questions (including a very open ended “how is your relationship with your mother?”), and choosing a female voice for his new OS, Theodore’s new computer is up and running.  She decides to call herself Samantha and with Scarlett Johansson’s sultry voice giving her life, it’s easy to see why Theodore instantly finds himself being pulled into deeper and deeper conversations with her.

Samantha has the ability to learn and adapt and through her newborn digital eyes Theodore begins to see the beauty in his ordinary life, not to mention a companion who always has his best interests at heart. Samantha’s unbridled curiosity and rapacious interest in Theodore are the sort of ingredients that would win any man’s heart. Given he’s also a romantic attuned to the power of words, it isn’t long until he is very much in love with this bodiless digital cloud of a dream girl.

Theodore and Samantha’s relationships have some obvious challenges, which seem surprisingly easily overcome. First off: public acceptance. Turns out people are falling for their operating systems on the regular, and this is a future where people ask very few questions. They overcome their physical differences, being that Samantha lacks any physical form whatsoever, and all I can say is, thank you Mr. Jonze for the black screen during that scene. Later Samantha does try to find herself a surrogate to be with Theodore, but it’s too uncomfortable for him and ends up being a strong “life” lesson for her in accepting her own form. Even the most basic of relational difficulties, jealousy, insecurity, boredom, all seem overcome in time. Instead it’s a more unanticipated technical difficulty that threatens their love in the end and there is no geek squad that can intervene in matters of the heart.

Her is well crafted and engaging to view, with many thoughtful details that include familiar LA locations. Production designer, and long-time Spike Jonze collaborator, K. K. Barrett has thought up a future that seems like it could be one trend away from being the current LA; and set decorator Gene Serdena styles Theodore’s futuristic home in a way that would have the Jetson’s drooling.

Joaquin Phoenix seems to do his best work when given an introverted character, allowing his eyes to convey both the loneliness of Theodore and his reawakening. He and Johansen have a subtle chemistry, the only kind a man and his computer could convey, but one that is believable and endearing. Johansen puts many a voiceover actor to shame, and it’s not hard to imagine the very facial expressions Samantha would make if there were a face to go with that voice.

Whether Jonze really intends for there to be any sort of moral message isn’t exactly obvious. Relationships grow, both together and apart. People, and technology, can and do change. What magic keeps any couple together? It’s really the same old love story we’ve heard a million times, but it never gets old when it’s told right. Society may or may not be headed toward this future possibility, but it can be counted as certain that people will always be looking for love, in whatever form it can and may eventually take. And it’s that age-old quest, reflected in both Theodore and Samantha, that makes Her a fantastic film.

Her trailer