Based on the 2009 young adult novel “Undiscovered Gyrl” and directed by the book’s author, Allison Burnett, Ask Me Anything is the brash-but-not-bold tale of a recent high school graduate deferring college to make poor relationship decisions instead. Starring Britt Robertson (Dan in Real Life, the upcoming Tomorrowland) as Katie Kampenfelt, the film begins with Katie’s deferment of college and her high school guidance counselor’s suggestion that she start a blog in order to better work through what she’s actually searching for. The film has the openness of the blogging format (a la MTV’s show Awkward), but its twist ending and unreliable narrative make for a mixed-up and confusing viewing experience with very little takeaway.

Katie starts her anonymous blog explicitly detailing in as nonchalant a way as possible her thoughts on life as they pertain to her. Immediately we discover she has a boyfriend, Rory (Max Carver), but is more concerned with her ongoing tryst with a community college film professor, Dan (Justin Long), who is about 15 years older than her. Her mother (Molly Hagan) has a moustached boyfriend (Andy Buckley), and demonstrates a lack of interest or insight in her daughter’s life. Her father (Robert Patrick) is a sofa-bound alcoholic, whose death she seems always to be preparing for. She gets a great job at a bookstore with a wise boss to guide her (Martin Sheen) and then has to drop the job almost immediately when mom’s cop boyfriend discovers her boss has a sexual assault history. A new job drops into her lap in the form of Paul Spooner (Christian Slater), who needs a nanny to aid his wife (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) with their newborn.

When Dan moves and shrugs off Katie for his age-appropriate girlfriend, she spirals out of control, breaking up with and then dangling her boyfriend for attention. More predictably, she promptly allows a flirtation and then affair to happen between her and Paul. It’s one bad decision after the next and we might be able to feel some iota of sympathy for Katie if her issues weren’t just so obvious and remorseless. Burnett tries to build a deeper connection, throwing a seemingly random, clinically depressed, old high school acquaintance into Katie’s life to ask her the deep questions she won’t ask herself, including those about sexual abuse as a child. Old home footage of her childhood play out on-screen whenever Katie engages in sex in an overt attempt to express her sex use as a form of escape and to feel significant. It’s not especially affective in off-setting the sense of fantasy in this girl’s world. It’s hard to take her seriously or care about her decisions when every adult in her world is given plenty of opportunity to intervene and then doesn’t.

This especially works against the film’s ending, which I won’t spoil, but will say is very much trying to make a point about perspective, voyeurism, and teenagers in the digital age, but only succeeds in leaving us feeling lied to and taken advantage of. I get the point of it, what Burnett was hoping to achieve, but think there might have been a better way to get there other than dumping a ton of emotion into the last 10 minutes.

With such a promising cast, it very much seems that this film should have been able to go further. But here we have a case of too much reliance on emotional connection to the writing, and whereas the novel’s quirky blog style and adorable typos helped teenagers build a rapport with Katie, the film doesn’t feel like a blog, it feels like a look into the life of a person determined to choose wrong and with no desire to have anyone tell them not to.

Burnett has proven he has writing down, having written several screenplays and multiple best-selling novels, but the bond between reader and character is most definitely not the same as the bond between character and viewer. And this attempt at page-to-screen just doesn’t seem to entirely translate.

Ask Me Anything opens in LA and in VOD on Friday Dec. 19th.

Friday at Comic-Con in Hall H was primarily focused on two of television’s hottest shows, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. We won’t bore you with television news, but… oh, who are we kidding? If you love good films, chances are you watch both of these amazing shows and therefore should know you can check out the new preview of The Walking Dead Season 5 here, and be sure to catch the gag reel from Game of Thrones here.

Alright, on to movie news.

RADiUS-TWC Preview Horns and Everly

The first film-related panel of the day showcased two of RADiUS-TWC’s upcoming films, Everly and Horns. To speak on Everly was the film’s lead, Salma Hayek, and director Joe Lynch. The film is the story of a woman whose mob boss ex-boyfriend decides he wants her killed. She holes up in her apartment and defends herself agains the would-be assassins one by one. Lynch talked about his excitement to make a film starring a badass woman and “strong female character” which he said shouldn’t even be a term any more as a female ought just to be allowed to be a “strong character.” No argument here.

Salma talked about the difficulty of making a film shot entirely in one small location, as well as Lynch’s decision to shoot chronologically. For good measure she also mentioned that she “barely wear[s] anything at all through the whole film.”

The real meat of this panel was when director Alexandre Aja, writer Joe Hill, and star Daniel Radcliffe (and let’s be honest, mostly Radcliffe) made their entrance to show off Horns. Based on Hill’s novel, the film stars Radcliffe as Ig Perrish, a young man who wakes up one morning to discover he’s growing horns. His new accessories are fitting as he’s been demonized in his hometown for a year since his girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple) was murdered and the finger of blame was pointed at Ig. With his horns comes the disturbing gift of getting anyone near him to reveal their darkest secrets and innermost evil desires. At first alarming Ig soon realizes he can use his new gift to track down who really killed Merrin and force them to confess to it.

After a full-audience rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Radcliffe, who just turned 25, Hill, who looks plenty like his father Stephen King and has his voice, remarked on the splendor of Hall H saying “Joss Whedon’s butt sweat once graced this chair. I can almost feel his essence wafting up to me.”

After that weirdness they showed an especially fun clip from the film where Ig convinces some reporters hounding him that they ought to fight each other before doing some investigating at a local bar. The bartender ends up starting the place on fire, and Ig walks coolly out the front door with smoking billowing around him, horns protruding, with a red shirt, yellow hoodie and great brown leather jacket. (Any similarities to Gryffindor colors were exclaimed to be purely coincidental — “I’m too young to be referencing my own past work in my new films” joked Radcliffe.)

Of course the audience got a bit swoony, unable to keep from asking Radcliffe questions that related this role to Harry Potter. He very eloquently spoke highly of his experience with the franchise and explained how much he loved the script for Horns immediately, finding himself quite drawn to the dark anti-hero Ig. Aja chimed in saying “Potter was only the beginning of something great.”

Based on what we saw the film has a bit of ridiculousness (how could it not with that premise?) but looks thoroughly enjoyable.

20th Century FOX Presentation

Next up was the two hour jam-packed presentation from 20th Century Fox. First on their slate, The Maze Runner, which they teased by immediately showing an extended look at one of the opening scenes in which teenager Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) finds himself in a fast-moving elevator which opens into a grassy glade surrounding by tall stone walls and filled with many other boys his own age and he himself can’t remember his own name.

Then out came director Wes Ball along with the author of the novel, James Dashner, followed by cast members Will Poulter, Kaya Scodelario, and Dylan O’Brien. They answered a few questions around the film, while audience questions focused mainly on the book series and Ball revealed they are hoping to complete the entire series, even showing a conceptual poster for The Scorch Trials, the title of the second book. Another long clip was shown of the bug-like creatures that terrorize the boys as they run through the maze. Things got slightly awkward when O’Brien accidentally let slip a spoiler that really wouldn’t surprise readers of the book, but was a bit of a giveaway for those who will just be seeing the film.

Next up was Jorge Gutierrez‘s colorfully vibrant cartoon, Book of Life. Showing a longer trailer for the film, it really does look impressively creative with breathtaking animation. (Here’s the first trailer.) Championing on behalf of the film was Gutierrez, producer Guillermo del Toro, Channing Tatum, Rob Perlman, and Christina Applegate. Always a fan favorite at Comic-Con, del Toro received the biggest welcome and was eloquent with his responses to questions regarding the film. The man has always been good in deciphering the difference between being a film’s director, and thus owner, and a film’s producer, which is when he plays advocate.

While del Toro is always geeky charming, and there were plenty of questions for Channing Tatum, especially one alluding to his best asset being his “visual” ones and not necessarily his voice, the real charmer was director Gutierrez who spoke with childlike enthusiasm about his childhood in Mexico and his deep connection with Dia De Los Muertos, a day when the dead are honored and believed to commune with the living.

The panelists left with the audience chanting “Hellboy 3” and del Toro smiling ear to ear.

Next up was Hitman: Agent 47, based on the video game. The film stars Rupert Friend, who sent in a short video hello introducing the first trailer. Clearly his work on Homeland has prepped him well to be a calm collected super-human assassin. The film looks ho-hum and the brief panel with Hannah Ware and Zachary Quinto didn’t inspire much enthusiasm for the film, just a few thank yous from fans to Quinto for his Star Trek work.

Next was a hilarious preview of New Girl co-stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr.‘s film Let’s Be Cops. The extended trailer does indeed look hilarious, albeit completely ridiculous. Jake Johnson sent in a video as he’s currently filming Jurassic World (I mean honestly, what is that movie even going to be like with all these comedians?!) that showed him in a hotel with a long-haired, thong clad man. Weird. Funny. Everyone involved, including Nina Dobrev, Rob Riggle, and Keegan-Michael Key, all sounded like they had a lot of fun filming it.

Last in this jam-packed panel was more on Kingsman: The Secret Service. First a video with Mark Hamill, who has a role in the film, introduced an extended scene from the film. In the scene Colin Firth‘s secret agent character smoothly takes out some local thugs who give main character Eggsy (Taron Egerton) a hard time. The film looks action-packed and surprisingly clean for a comic-book adaptation. Perhaps because the main villain, played by Samuel L. Jackson hates the sight of blood?

At any rate it certainly looks like an interesting addition to the action-packed films on the roster this weekend and seeing Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson in the same panel was not something I’d have imagined every seeing.

The Musk of Tusk: An Evening with Kevin Smith

After a jam-packed day an hour and a half listening to Kevin Smith babble on was almost soothing. Known as a yearly frequenter and panel giver at Comic-Con, this year Kevin Smith started by giving Comic-Conners exactly what they’d want to hear: insider info on the new Star Wars film. Smith is one of the privelaged few who had the chance to visit the film’s set in London by invitation of JJ Abrams. Smith, while careful not to break his NDA, told an extended story (is anything LESS than extended with him?) about walking onto set and going aboard the Millennium Falcon.  He then segued strangely well into a sex-story concerning his wife. And that’s Kevin Smith for you. He got surprisingly more audience questions in than you’d think, considering how long-winded he is. Two of those questions were from children and it was hilarious to watch him try to keep his swearing at a minimum (as if they hadn’t JUST heard the sex story).

Eventually Smith revealed that Tusk is what he considers to be his best film to date, and he’s also working on a film he hopes children, especially girls will love, called Yoga Hosers. Finally Smith gave us the first trailer for Tusk, which he elaborately explained came from an idea developed during one of his podcasts, called Smodcast, where he discussed an ad someone in real-life posted about wanting someone to come stay with them and agree to dress in a walrus suit. Smith began to speculate this would make a great horror film, where the man actually wanted to turn his house guest INTO a walrus. After spitballing the premise, Smith got Twitter to affirm his decision to make the film with the hashtag #WalrusYes, and here we are a year later and his film is coming out in September.

The trailer is fantastic. In it, Justin Long plays a podcaster who travels to Canada to interview his latest subjective for his podcast and discovers the old man (Michael Parks) actually wants to keep him hostage and turn him into a walrus. It’s completely bizarre and looks delightfully creepy AND very Kevin Smith-ish, with Justin Long cracking a joke at the end of the trailer that he “doesn’t want to die in Canada.” It looks great, and you can check out the trailer here. After the trailer, actors Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment came out to about their roles in the film.

In closing Kevin Smith assures us that though the trailer doesn’t explicitly show it, “We do turn him into a f***ing walrus. And it is f***ed up.”

It looks fantastic and it would be wonderful to see a Kevin Smith film we can get behind after all these years.

First time director, Sam Esmail, may not have picked especially uncharted territory for his directorial debut Comet, which focuses on the rocky relationship of an oddly paired couple, but his storytelling technique reflects the perspective of an enlightened and astute new addition to the film scene. In a parallel universe, Dell (Justin Long) and Kimberly (Emmy Rossum) move back and forth between different periods of their 6 year relationship. An epic first meeting/date in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, an afternoon in a Paris hotel before a wedding, a train ride a year after their first breakup, a relationship defining phone call, and a meeting years later. Their relationship and personalities are revealed through each major juncture with a magical realism quality framing all of it, à la PT Anderson or Michel Gondry. Meteor showers, double suns, reality and fantasy lines blur as scenes transition with special effects that provide a cosmic backdrop.

The music and visual effects somewhat save the film, however, as it’s literally all dialogue, and each scene’s distinct look (props to cinematographer Eric Koretz) showcase the conversations beautifully.  Long and Rossum carry the weight of the film as they talk their way through every scene. And in this parallel universe witty fast paced speak flows in abundance. Quippy romantic soliloquies & sharp bantered humor, marks of an unrealistic romance, are strangely viable because of our pretend setting and the actors’ ease. What isn’t made clear is why a fatalistic, love-doubting and yet clearly romantic dude, and a somewhat self-absorbed and insecure borderline manic-pixie girl should be together. Because of the limited purview of the film we’re not allowed access to the moments where their love makes any practical sense.  She doubts his commitment to the long haul, yet he’s the one always in pursuit. He is a cancer-curing hero who is always afraid of missing the moment and thus lives for 5 minutes from now, yet has trouble committing to the future. Comet‘s many disjointed parts don’t all add up, but they are engaging to watch and hypnotic to listen to.

While it could have been another love story about unrealistic people and irrational infatuation, Comet manages to hold to the indie film spirit. Which makes it, perhaps impractically, immensely easy to enjoy. Long plays insufferable in a way that  still allows him to seem charming, and he definitely carries the majority of the chemistry between himself and Rossum. Rossum keeps up with the banter well enough, but her character isn’t given enough common sense to win us over. If she could have conveyed some sort of inner wisdom, it would have worked in her favor, but she seems to delight in her character’s insensibility and takes for granted that Kimberly is simply wanted.

Perhaps love doesn’t follow rules, so if Sam Esmail wants to dream up new ones in a world of his imagination, he’s just clever enough to make it interesting, if not remarkable.

Everyone has that friend. The guy that’s always too loud, too drunk, makes fun situations better, makes serious ones unbearable, and is strangely predictable in their obnoxious behavior. Lumpy (Tyler Labine) is that guy. After causing a sad, drunken scene as the best man at Scott (Justin Long) and Kristin’s (Jess Weixler) wedding Lumpy drunkenly wanders into the desert and dies from a head wound he received while…well, drunk. But is there more to the story? For all of Lumpy’s shortcomings, he is a decent guy trying to put his life together, and it takes a tragedy for his best friend Scott to see the big picture with his hard-partying friend. Best Man Down mashes a bunch of genre’s together to come up with a funny, entertaining, and surprisingly emotionally touching film.

The tragedy of Lumpy’s death not only casts a dark shadow over Scott and Kristin’s wedding, but it also forces them to cancel their upcoming honeymoon as Scott feels it is his duty to make sure his friend is properly buried. Both Scott and Kristin essentially write off Lumpy as a down on his luck loser that while a loyal friend, will never really amount to anything meaningful. As they head home to Minnesota to plan the funeral it becomes very clear that Scott does not know his alleged best friend as well as he thought. A mysterious number on Lumpy’s phone leads the new couple to Ramsey, a distant teenager growing up in a dysfunctional home. Scott and Kristin assume the worst but soon discover Lumpy and Ramsey have developed an innocent meaningful friendship, and that Lumpy was truly trying help create a better life for this young woman.

The acting in Best Man Down is one of the strongest qualities found in the film. Justin Long shows nice range as the level-headed Scott, trying to do what he thinks is right for his friend. Tyler Labine is a blast to watch on the screen. He is energetic and fun as you would expect from the role, but shows a lot of emotional depth during several powerful scenes between Lumpy and Ramsey. The real star of the movie is Addison Timlin as the 15-year-old Ramsey. She conveys a lot of maturity and has a very natural chemistry with the older actors. While the title is Best Man Down, her screen presence really leaves you feeling that she truly was the main character of this story.

Ted Koland crafts a clever script that takes a really simple story and lets it naturally unfold. The film has some nice bright funny spots that help keep things in perspective when dealing with the darker, more dramatic tones of the film. Some sub-plots are unnecessary and sort of bog down the script at times. A needless addiction issue with Kristin is hinted at throughout the movie but then is too quickly resolved. Some of the characters in Best Man Down felt contrived and under-developed. I wish the script had spent more time focusing on Lumpy, especially his interactions with Ramsey. Both of those characters were wildly entertaining and could have helped bring more understanding to their fragile relationship.

Best Mad Down is a solid first film from writer/director Ted Koland. The script wanders a bit, but it still packs an emotional punch. The Minnesota scenery is a nice touch as every character shivers the second they get outside, which many people from the area can relate to. If anything this movie will help bring awareness to the misunderstood sub-culture of fat, hairy, loud, drunk guys.

Best Mad Down trailer: