Special guest Dave Boyle joins this week’s show to talk about his San Francisco-set neo-noir, Man From Reno. In honor of the film, Bernard, Dave and CJ share their favorite SF-set movies as well as their Indie Picks of the Week. Plus, Bernard reviews Woody Allen’s latest, Irrational Man, starring Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, and Parker Posey.

Also, a quick shout-out to our sponsor MUBI, the curated online cinema that brings its members a hand-picked selection of the best indie, foreign, and classic films. Visit www.mubi.com/waytooindie to try MUBI free for 30 days.

Topics

• Indie Picks of the Week (1:16)
• Man From Reno (9:58)
• Favorite San Fran Movies (16:25)
• Irrational Man Review (38:12)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

I Am A Ghost review
H.P. Mendoza interview
The Stanford Experiment review
3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets review
Man From Reno review
Dave Boyle interview
Irrational Man review

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It came as a bit of a surprise to me that Woody Allen‘s latest, Irrational Man, marks the director’s very first collaboration with the “Queen of the Indies” herself, Parker Posey. In the dark collegiate comedy she plays Rita, a lonely woman in an unfulfilling marriage who’s drawn to a similarly depressed philosophy professor (Joaquin Phoenix), whose affections are split with a bright, young student (Emma Stone).

Fans have been itching for years for a director to open the floodgates and let Posey unleash her full range of talents as a film’s lead, and though she plays only a secondary role in Allen’s film, it will hopefully mark the start of a long and fruitful partnership between she and the legendary auteur. They’re slated to work together again for Allen’s 2016 project, and I couldn’t me more excited.

During Posey’s visit to San Francisco on the Irrational Man press tour, I spoke with her in a roundtable interview about working with Allen for the first time, her favorite movies in her filmography, a hilarious deleted scene from Best in Show and much more. Irrational Man is out in theaters this Friday, July 24th. [Warning: minor spoilers ahead.]

Having so much experience under your belt as an actor, do you find it easier at this point in your career to get into a dark headspace for a role? Rita is a lonesome woman.

Experience really builds and ages you in a way where the disappointments can make you feel lonely. I was really happy that I was at the right temperature at this time in my life to express that.

There are elements of Rita’s arc that remind me of your character in Personal Velocity. That movie left me wondering what would happen next for this woman. In your mind, where does Rita go after the end of the movie?

I think it’s really tragic, what happens to her. Hopefully she has a good therapist after suffering this disappointment. I think she has enough hold of her fantasy to bounce back from the “irrational man.” She’s intelligent, even if she’s lost herself. She can easily drown in the waters of him, and Emma, too. They both survive this man. It’s a really cool story, for that reason.

Woody Allen has a famously laid-back directing style. Is that something you appreciated, or did you want a more hands-on approach on-set?

I like a lot of freedom when I work, to be left alone in the world that’s been created for you. We’re sliding into this realm. What was different was, after [shooting], he was nowhere to be found! He’d be in the car, going to dinner. [laughs] It’s practical, too. I want to do well, because he has to go to dinner. We all have to eat, even Woody Allen. That’s something that’s very particular to him. He’s going to be 80 this year, and he has a body of work that’s so impressive. The stakes are already high, but he knows that. His ear is so subtle. He doesn’t want any acting; he wants you to be real. I like that way of working.

I was surprised when I realized that you two hadn’t worked together before.

That’s what everyone says!

I think fans who’ve been rooting for you for years…we’ve been waiting for a director to really unleash you, if you know what I mean.

I’m ready to unleash as well! It’s really frustrating to see stories change. I fantasized as a teenager about growing up and becoming a woman and being in grown-up movies. Now, it’s a lot action and werewolves and genre and vampires and video games and sci-fi, movies that are crafted for a gaming culture. The economy’s not that great and people aren’s seeing movies like they used to, so we’ve suffered the loss of a style and a form that we’ve seen kind of disappear. Part of this experience was feeling really blessed.

I do belong in his world and in these kinds of movies. I cherished the experience. To work with someone who is so talented and has a particular way of working—[I was] able to trust that, even if it was hard. I remember he came up to us one day and was like, “What I wrote isn’t very good. You can add whatever you want; feel free.” I added something, and I hear from the video monitor: “That’s terrible!” [laughs] I was like, “Okay. Where’s the shovel, so I can go bury myself?” You’re laughing and crying at the same time.

Didn’t he come up to you and Joaquin early on and tell you you wouldn’t be fired?

Yeah, yeah. And he put his hands out in a really funny way. “Neither of you are getting fired!”

Did that have any effect on your confidence?

Yeah, of course. But he can very easily elicit that feeling from his actors. That’s his right, if it’s not the right fit. You’re in service of his world and his point of view and what he’s trying to accomplish.

Having job security is a good thing, right?

Yeah. We talked about whether I’d be able to survive being let go, or not being right for the part. I think so. I think so. It was a lot of that at work, which also led to, “I hope I’m still in the movie.”

Well, your name’s on the poster, so that’s a good sign.

I know. They reassured me that I was [in it]. [laughs] I only got my twenty pages, so I didn’t know how important my part was. Woody Allen isn’t the kind of writer who says, “Oh, I’ll figure it out in editing,” you know? He does no ADR. He doesn’t like to loop. So you do a scene and he says, “That was good. But it wasn’t good for sound. We’re gonna go again.” I say, “Well, I’m good at ADR!” But he says, “Well, I don’t like doing that.” It brings such a focus and concentration with the whole crew and the actors. It’s a sport, in a way. You feel like you just want to hit what’s happening live on-camera. Joaquin’s so great. He has so much going on, so it’s easy to connect with him.

A minute ago you were talking about how the movie landscape is changing. We mostly see superhero and sci-fi movies in the theater. You’ve had a turn or two in big-budget movies, specifically Superman Returns, which I thought you were the best part of. I’m curious what your experience on that film was.

It was great. We were in Australia for two months with Brian [Singer]. He’s very talented. He’s very special to be an independent director and be able to go into the $200 million budget with spontaneity.

Would you be open to doing another film like that again if Marvel or DC came calling?

Oh, yeah. I think there’s a misconception [about that movie]. I had a good time approaching that character from the outside of the comic book; what she looks like, how she acts—it’s a different style and I really enjoyed it. It’s condensed and crystallized and a little exaggerated, I guess.

You get to go toe-to-toe with Kevin Spacey in most of your scenes.

I like working with great actors, regardless of budget.

Nothing’s made me laugh harder than your “Busy Bee” scene in Best in Show. Why do you think your fans have latched on to that scene in particular?

I don’t know. I guess it’s just so absurd. That’s all Chris[topher Guest] to me, though. It’s not like I wrote the scene. There was a scene that was cut in that movie where I find a piece of dog poop in my husband’s slipper. Very deliberately, the dog pooped right in there. I’m talking to my cleaning lady like, “How did this happen? What are you going to do about this?! How am I supposed to clean this?!!” It was such a funny thing. That’s all Chris. I wish I knew why that was cut. I guess it lasted too long or didn’t make it into the editing. Just that idea that a dog could be so upset—and a big dog, too! He has a little poop, right in there. It’s just so funny. I can’t take it.

Is there any movie fans bring up that surprise you? Like, “Wow—that took hold!”

The Christopher Guest movies. Dazed and Confused. The Hal Hartley movies. Blade. The House of Yes.

I was hoping for Scream 3 or Josie and the Pussycats.

There are the girls I did Josie for specifically, the twelve-year-olds. I wanted to be really silly and funny to appeal to a seven or eight-year-old. It’s so stupid and fun, something that kids do. Party Girl has lasted.

You’ve been on press tours a lot. Is there one question you wish would go away?

That question. [laughs] When you’re asked a question about, “Time Magazine calls you ‘Queen of the Indies,'” I never knew how to answer that. I was called that at a particular time, and then the industry became something else. Then it becomes about your fame and “What’s it like to be called that?” It’s not like I wake up every morning and my neighbor’s like, “Indie Queen!” You know what I mean?

There’s always that guy—that mopey, beer-bellied loser who sits alone by the fireplace at house parties, looking too lost in thought to give a damn about the goofs dancing around him. He’s the loneliest man in the world. Funny thing: he never leaves the party alone. That’s because there’s always that girl. That warm, doe-eyed girl who finds his wallowing sexy as hell. She’s drawn to him as if under a spell, petting his head like a sick puppy. They always leave together, and it always ends in disaster.

In Woody Allen‘s collegiate comedy Irrational Man, Emma Stone plays that girl to Joaquin Phoenix‘s that guy. A depressed college professor, Phoenix’s Abe Lucas shows up for his first day on the job at fictional Braylin College drunk and stumbling, his reputation as an distinguished philosopher the only thing keeping the dean and other staffers from sending him back home packing. He’s a tormented asshole, bored with the world, imposing his passion for indifference on his students. He sees potential in undergrad Jill (Stone) as a writer; she sees potential in him as her future husband. As Jill becomes more forthcoming about her feelings (it doesn’t take long), Abe insists they keep their afternoon talks strictly platonic, which of course only fans the flames of her desire.

Abe’s less reluctant to romp around with academic colleague Rita Richards (Parker Posey, again stuffed in a role too small), a similarly reclusive soul who offers to “unblock” him after she slinks into his faculty housing for an unexpected late-night rendezvous. Their sad-sack sex sessions are a mostly agreeable distraction for Abe, though he continues to spend lots of time with Jill, chatting about existentialist philosophy over coffee and toast. When they eavesdrop on a curious conversation from a neighboring booth at their local diner, the plot gets strapped with rocket-boosters: Abe finds himself reawakened when, inspired by what he overhears, he decides to plan the perfect murder, offing a total stranger in a stunt of misguided vigilante justice. The fact that he’s a professor of “ethical strategies” is the cruel joke of the movie.

Naturally, Abe’s rejection of Jill’s advances gets reneged when the heat between them becomes undeniable (his newfound—albeit twisted—sense of purpose has also lifted his spirits considerably). Phoenix and Stone, sadly, never reach such levels of synchronization. Maybe it’s her age or her eagerness to impress Mr. Allen, but Stone (like many other actors, to be fair) recites Allen’s dialogue in that stagy, stringent way that suggests they’re inextricably bound to the page. Allen’s writing is good (especially his one-liners), but much like Wes Anderson, you sometimes wish his characters would just cut the shit and talk like normal people.

That’s why Phoenix is so great in this movie; he messes with the game-plan a bit. He breaks up the typical Woody Allen cadence, slurring Abe’s words and taking labored, deep breaths to a rhythm all his own. Allen’s known for giving his actors little to no feedback, and Phoenix and Stone seem to react to that pass/fail style of directing in dramatically different ways, resulting in a pair of disparate performances, one doggedly disciplined, the other wild and naturalistic. Neither are bad, though Posey’s unhinged energy aligns more with Phoenix, making Stone feel even more fractured from the group. It’s frustrating that Posey continues to be cast in roles beneath her gifts, but it’s nevertheless a treat to see her finally collaborate with Allen.

Abe and Jill’s romance is one of Hitchcockian flavor, defined by dangerous obsession and poetic twists of fate. There are some amusing homages to Hitchcock classics, like when we see Abe and Jill stroll through a brightly-lit nighttime fairgrounds á la Strangers on a Train. Still, Allen is in his own voice, focusing on humor and theme rather than suspense. The writing’s at its most playful in the movie’s second act, where we follow Abe opening up to Jill and gleefully plotting out his broad-daylight assassination. Before and after this middle section, the movie feels stilted, save for a wickedly funny life lesson Abe teaches his students via an impromptu game of Russian Roulette.

For a movie about intellectuals rattling off eloquently-worded philosophical sermons, Irrational Man feels strangely shallow. These themes of blocked-up libido, cross-generational romance and existentialist neuroses have all been covered in previous films of Allen’s, which makes his latest seem destined to fade into the background of his crowded oeuvre like so many others. Phoenix is so chaotic and off-kilter as the miserable anti-hero, though, that he manages to keep you on your toes when the movie threatens to fall flat.

Emma Stone is not 1/4 Chinese. You may have become aware to this fact in the onslaught of negative responses to Cameron Crowe‘s latest cheeseburger in paradise rom-com Aloha. Among the many, many criticisms of the movie, the most difficult to accept was Crowe’s decision to cast the big-eyed Easy A star as Captain Allison Ng, a character meant to be 1/4 Hawaiian. It’s a decision that Crowe himself is now calling “misguided” in a nearly 400-word explanapology on his website The Uncool.

In the post “A Comment on Allison Ng” Crowe calls Aloha a “misunderstood movie,” before offering, “a heart-felt apology to all who felt this was an odd or misguided casting choice.” Crowe notes that this character had existed in a similar form since 2007, based on a real-life, red-haired local that the filmmaker had once met. While acknowledging that this element to the film has been the point of a lot of discussion, Crowe maintained his pride in Aloha‘s diverse hires. “I am so proud that in the same movie, we employed many Asian-American, Native-Hawaiian and Pacific-Islanders, both before and behind the camera.”

Aloha has been subject to controversy ever since its appearances in several emails released as part of the Sony Hack. Read the full explanation / apology from Cameron Crowe below:

From the very beginning of its appearance in the Sony Hack, “Aloha” has felt like a misunderstood movie. One that people felt they knew a lot about, but in fact they knew very little. It was a small movie, made by passionate actors who wanted to join me in making a film about Hawaii, and the lives of these characters who live and work in and around the island of Oahu.

Thank you so much for all the impassioned comments regarding the casting of the wonderful Emma Stone in the part of Allison Ng. I have heard your words and your disappointment, and I offer you a heart-felt apology to all who felt this was an odd or misguided casting choice. As far back as 2007, Captain Allison Ng was written to be a super-proud ¼ Hawaiian who was frustrated that, by all outward appearances, she looked nothing like one. A half-Chinese father was meant to show the surprising mix of cultures often prevalent in Hawaii. Extremely proud of her unlikely heritage, she feels personally compelled to over-explain every chance she gets. The character was based on a real-life, red-headed local who did just that.

Whether that story point felt hurtful or humorous has been, of course, the topic of much discussion. However I am so proud that in the same movie, we employed many Asian-American, Native-Hawaiian and Pacific-Islanders, both before and behind the camera… including Dennis “Bumpy” Kanahele, and his village, and many other locals who worked closely in our crew and with our script to help ensure authenticity.

We were extremely proud to present the island, the locals and the film community with many jobs for over four months. Emma Stone was chief among those who did tireless research, and if any part of her fine characterization has caused consternation and controversy, I am the one to blame.

I am grateful for the dialogue. And from the many voices, loud and small, I have learned something very inspiring. So many of us are hungry for stories with more racial diversity, more truth in representation, and I am anxious to help tell those stories in the future.

Thanks again

Cameron Crowe

Woody Allen‘s summer movie has become an annual event. For well over two decades the writer/director has pumped out a film a year from his shoebox of notes–his work ethic has to be admired. But he’s always been hit or miss, and lately the pattern has seen something good pop up every other year (two years ago we got Blue Jasmine, two years before that Midnight In Paris, between those films we got the forgettable When In Rome and the harmless Magic In The Moonlight). So, the question is, will Allen stick to that formula and give us something noteworthy this year?

Irrational Man surely has potential. The film is led by the excellent pairing of Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone, which is more than enough to put tickets in our hands. The always great Phoenix has been on something of a tear of late with his odd ball roles in Her and Inherent Vice, Irrational Man looks to keep up the same sort of wacky/serious vibe.

Like most Allen films, the plot details are scarce: Irrational Man follows a philosophy professor (Phoenix) in the midst of an existential crisis who falls for a student (Stone). As per usual, the film was written and directed by Allen himself (he trusts no one). The small cast is rounded out by Jamie Blackley (If I Stay) and Parker Posey(Grace Of Monaco).

Irrational Man opens July 24th. Check out the very Woody Allen-esque first trailer below.

Irrational Man Official Trailer

What if we took a love triangle between Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, and Rachel McAdams, threw in some John Krasinski, and then situated everything on the island of Hawaii?

Could it indeed get any better than this? The new trailer for Cameron Crowe’s Aloha has just been released and we say, actually, yes. Yes it does. And their names are Bill Murray and Alec Baldwin.

Bradley Cooper plays a disgraced weapons consultant who is called in for a special operation in Hawaii, giving him a chance for redemption, new (or old?) love, and reclaiming the name he had once made for himself there. Emma Stone is the soldier assigned to guide and guard him (from himself, mainly) and Rachel McAdams plays the love-torn ex trying to find contentment in her own reclaimed life as wife of John Krasinski and mother of 2. Bill Murray and Alec Baldwin are the two opposing bosses of said military and contracting companies with vastly dissimilar leadership tactics.

Columbia Pictures’ Aloha is set to be released in theaters on May 29, 2015.

Woody Allen returns to his touristic tendencies in Magic in the Moonlight a film set in the gorgeous natural surroundings of the south of France circa 1928. This is a decidedly light and breezy outing for Mr. Allen, but one that has an enchanting air about it, pleasurable until the end. Those who delight in Allen’s witty banter will find a treasure trove of funny lines to recite for their friends, but a momentous work this is not; a lack of narrative finesse and tepid chemistry between its two stars stops the film short of the greatness of Midnight in Paris, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Match Point, his best films of the 21st century.

Driving the film is Stanley Crawford, a British, world-renowned illusionist played by a perfectly casted Colin Firth whose signature sternness serves the role well. Firth plays Stanley with a good measure of high-class English properness (he’s a natural at that kind of thing) mixed with a heavy dose of skepticism and boorishness that makes him a compelling and hilariously crude protagonist. Stanley’s tasked by a friend to debunk a ravishing American mentalist named Sophie (Emma Stone), who’s been dazzling rich folk along the French Riviera. Aside from being known to the world as Wei Ling Soo, the Chinese master magician (he wears a costume and make-up when he performs), Stanley also boasts an unblemished streak of disproving mystics, a streak he has every confidence will remain unbroken given a few days with Sophie at one of her wealthy victim’s sprawling estates.

On the surface, Magic is a sweetly entertaining cat-and-mouse romance full of laughs and stunning vistas, and this is where its pleasures would end in the hands of a less experienced filmmaker. Allen adds introspective depth to the film, however, as his cynicism and disillusionment with the world around him are embodied by Stanley, who’s constantly convinced that all good things are a hoax. (He is a professional hoaxer, after all.) But Allen reckons with this negative energy in the film by telling a story that knocks Stanley down a few pegs and convince him that there are, in fact, unexplainable delights in this world that we should bear no shame in indulging. Sophie, a ray of sunshine and spirituality, is Allen’s emphatic endeavor to make believers of non-believers.

While Sophie’s seances and impromptu “mental vibration” readings stupefy and astound everyone around her, Stanley’s gift for sniffing out phoniness makes him far less vulnerable to her mental miracles. He can’t stop himself from trying to poke holes in her would-be facade, but the more he prods, the more impenetrable her aura becomes. When Sophie, donning a fetching black beret and red skirt, reads Stanley’s “vibrations” and correctly senses that he once had an uncle who drowned, his jaw hits the floor just as everyone else’s. Could this blue-eyed girl really be the link to the great beyond?

Stanley does eventually let down his guard and stamp Sophie as a legitimate mystic (in a moment best discovered in the film), but his transition from skeptic to believer is handled clumsily. Despite several scenes in which Stanley’s disbelief is abated, the actual turn feels jarringly over-enthusiastic, to the point that you wonder whether or not he’s being facetious as he showers Sophie with praise and apologies for his bull-headedness.

Following Stanley’s epiphany, the film more outwardly takes the form of a Rohmer-ish destination romance. The pairing of Stone and Firth works incredibly well comedically, with the funniness of their barb battles magnified by the discrepancy in age and temperament. Romantically, however, the two don’t fit quite as snugly. When actors successfully sell their attraction to one another, you can almost feel the body heat between them, but here, Stone and Firth come just short of sparking a flame. Their body language isn’t forced, but it does feel a bit labored.

The supporting cast is typically excellent for an Allen production, with Eileen Atkins standing out as Stanley’s compassionate, wise aunt. Also making a mark is Hamish Linklater, playing an enthusiastic young man who follows Sophie around like a puppy, singing her romantic ’20s pop tunes on his ukelele (a sight ten times funnier on screen than it is on paper). The set and costume design is shimmery and glamorously detailed, with the fancy cars and mansions looking so stunning the film blurs the line between period piece and pre-war fantasy.

Magic in the Moonlight isn’t the funniest, best looking, or most enjoyable installment Allen’s oeuvre, but it’s perfectly recommendable and memorable. Like its characters, bathed in wondrous sunlight, the film charms with its words and entices with its good looks, strolling along, tugging at the heartstrings ever so gently.

Magic in the Moonlight trailer

Ominous, awash in blue, and unexpectedly epic-looking, Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s upcoming Birdman has an heir of something special from the looks of its first trailer. With a star-studded cast lead by Michael Keaton, Birdman follows a washed-up actor (Keaton), known for playing the titular superhero, who launches an attempted career comeback with a Broadway play. From the looks of this trailer Keaton butts heads with his Broadway co-star (played by Edward Norton) and causes a very concerned-looking Zach Galifianakis stress. Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough, and Amy Ryan also star in the film shot by recent Oscar-winner Emmanuel Lubezki, who is responsible for the beautifully orchestrated long-takes on display in the trailer. Lubezki fans will remember his gripping long-take cinematography from 2006’s Children of Men.

Birdman is set for its domestic release on October 17th of this year, watch Michael Keaton walk through Times Square in his tightey whiteys set to a remix of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” in the trailer below:

Watch trailer for Birdman

We may seem like reclusive budget-shirking obscure film enthusiasts over here at Way Too Indie, and well, some of us are, but we’re not living in any dark holes and far be it from of us to say that a film that had a little money behind it isn’t worth our notice. So here we are, covering our bases. In The Monthly Mainstream we’ll look at what’s doing well at the box-office (and secretly hoping it’s an indie darling) and all those major releases that demand our attention in the name of pop culture.

The first real month of the summer big-budget movie extravaganza! May treated us to some money-infused film fun.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 kicked off the month with an overly involved and schizophrenic plot that is of course fun and dizzying to look at but really only delivers an electric background for Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone to stand in front of and showcase their real-life chemistry. At least it’s not Spider-Man 3? At any rate, it’s beginning of the month release date gave it the ground to win the monthly box-office, but we don’t imagine it will outlive some of the other releases in May. Godzilla crept up real close to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in numbers but everyone’s favorite oft-remade monster did better in its opening weekend than everyone’s not-so-favorite oft-remade comic hero.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Godzilla is a fantastic update on the franchise, getting back to the root of what made the films so popular throughout the 50’s and 60’s, the grandeur of the King of the Monsters juxtaposed with the struggles of interesting people. Granted the people are far less interesting to watch than Godzilla is and therefore he should have been given a lot more screen time, but it’s still a very fun watch and an excellent reboot from Gareth Edwards. Staying firmly within the theme of franchises, the next big film pushed on us this past month was X-Men: Days of Future Past. This follow-up to 2011’s X-Men: First Class origin story invites the old X-Men gang back showing the dire situation in the future where the mutants are being hunted and killed by robots designed to outmatch them at every turn. The only way to re-write history is to send Logan (fan-favorite Wolverine) back into his younger self in the 70’s to prevent Raven/Mystique (another fan favorite, hey J-Law) from making a mistake that will butterfly effect the dire future the X-Men face. Bryan Singer’s return to the franchise is refreshing and the film has a great balance of action and fun with some fantastic uses of slo-mo and plenty of laughs at the expense of the 70’s setting.

Godzilla

Rounding off the month’s explosions, though of a much more magical variety, is Disney’s revisionist tale Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie. We can all agree the woman excels at bad-assery, but the film’s attempt to put a dash of feminism in with a large helping of fantastic imagery, while milking fairy tale nostalgia (of the variety that still keeps horribly written TV show Once Upon a Time going) does not appear to be the magical potion for a well-made film. At any rate the spectacle of it all seems to be just distracting enough to have critics torn on whether or not the film is worth seeing.

Looking ahead in the lovely month of June, we continue to see bedazzled performances. Tom Cruise’s Edge of Tomorrow, YA sap-fest The Fault in Our Stars, the highly anticipated sequel to the clever and cute How to Train Your Dragon, summer screamer The Purge: Anarchy, and then at the end of the month, gearing up for the 4th of July, we’ll be treated to Michael Bay’s way of showing patriotism: destroying America with Transformers: Age of Extinction. And don’t forget to see festival favorite Snowpiercer at the end of the month. So far we’ve all been pretty impressed over here.

Enjoy the pageantry of summer at the movies, but don’t forget to make time for a few indie June goodies. This month has some great options (many of which are on VOD) including Obvious Child, Ping Pong Summer, Venus in Fur, and documentary The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz.

Stay cool folks!

May Box Office Domestic Grosses

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony) – $192,735,902
2. Godzilla (Warner Brothers) – $174,439,686
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past ( Fox) – $90,823,660
4. Neighbors (Universal) – $128,966,365
5. Maleficent (Disney Buena Vista) – $69,431,298

2014 Year-To-Date Box Office Domestic Grosses

1. The LEGO Movie (Warner Brothers) – $255,436,997
2. Captain America: The Winter Solder (Disney Buena Vista) – $255,176,550
3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony) – $192,735,902
4. Godzilla (2014, Warner Brothers) – $174,439,686
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past (Fox) – $162,020,201

Magic in the Moonlight takes Woody Allen back to France and back in time again, though there will be no Midnight in Paris-esque time traveling involved (we think). Set in the 1920s, Colin Firth stars as Stanley, a magician and “the greatest debunker of fake spiritualists,” sent to the French Riviera to investigate Emma Stone‘s Sophie. Sophie, meanwhile, has near everyone convinced she’s a medium with the help of her cleverness and charming looks (the role is played by Emma Stone, after all).

Moonlight also teams Allen up with several actors whom he hasn’t worked with before, including Stone and Firth, Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, and recent 2-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver. The film is set for a US release on July 25th, and if the long-standing Allen trend of hit-miss-hit-miss-hit stays in tact, this may be a skippable effort from Woody (though the trailer is no indication of that). Check out a preview below:

Watch trailer for Magic in the Moonlight

Ten years ago Hollywood graced the world with their Tobey Maguire led rendition of Spider-Man which helped pave the way for a generation of super hero movies to litter our summer line up. Then, Hollywood upped the ante and delivered upon us Spider-Man 2 which was met with critical and financial acclaim. With dollar signs in their eyes and arguably the best source material in the entire Spider-Man universe, Hollywood churned out Spider-Man 3, and came up about two feet short of home plate and was tagged out by a mob of pitchfork wielding critics and fans. Poor Hollywood retreated into its cave of remake henchmen and stewed upon the decision of what to do with the Spider-Man franchise. “We will remake it!” They cried as they threw stacks of $100 bills at each other. “Yes! And we won’t even bother with any of that Nolan-esque gritty reboot nonsense either!” And they made it so. With new directors, writers, and actors, Hollywood was ready to rock-and-roll with their shiny new Spider-Man vehicle in The Amazing Spider-Man!

And rock-and-roll they did not. I can’t imagine a more flat remake than this. It literally treads the same water as the original only more failingly. Andrew Garfield may make an arguably better Peter Parker/Spider-Man with his British-ness and super hair, but everyone forgets that in 2002, Tobey Maguire was being hailed as the true savior of all things spider related.

The Amazing Spider-Man sticks closer to the source material in that they invite Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy to the party and provides a more fleshed out and real super science corporation Oscorp versus the cartoonish one provided in 2002. But the film has the much of the same origin story as the ten year old Spider-Man.

Even if it isn’t exactly the same plot-wise as the original 2002 version, it feels the same. The film still has that sappy ham-fisted moment where everyone agrees to help Spider-Man at a moment of great need. I imagine if a Brooklynite man saw a teenager dressed in a spandex unitard shooting ropes out his wrists and limping around sixty stories overhead, they wouldn’t say, “My good gracious, that man needs our help! Quick! Frank! Help conjure the manpower needed to help this poor unitard wearing teenager in his swinging ways!”

The Amazing Spider-Man also falters with some of the action scenes as well. One particular scene that stands out as especially awkward is one where the villain, a scientist lizard-man, attacks the school Peter Parker attends in an attempt to destroy him quickly. During the whole fight, the musical score accompanying the fight is a wailing and triumphant orchestral movement that is a very strange juxtaposition of the fight scene in which Peter Parker is getting his spider face smashed into everything.

The biologist in me also cringed when the villain grabs a couple of unlabeled beakers of presumably colored water and mixes them together to form a perfectly sized explosion to knock Spider-Man out from his hiding spot. Hollywood still hasn’t grasped the concept that their audience can tell when their being spoon fed fake science. Although, I say this whilst viewing a Spider-Teenager fly around a city fighting crime. But my point is still valid!

Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man languishes in dull territory and left me wanting some grittier content over the already overcooked and cheesy Spider-Man story. It was steering towards campy but narrowly avoids it with some humor, well done special effects and close ups of Emma Stone. It simply lacks any heart. However, Hollywood knows a money maker when they see it and I’m sure there will probably be two more multimillion dollar installments of Spider-Man and we will have two more chances to see random New Yorkers delivering pancake flat lines like, “He needs our help!” Until then, I will be figuring out how to make wall demolishing explosives out of blue and green colored liquids in my nearest science classroom.