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ALSO RELEASED PROFILE
Miss March: Penetration Generation (15) 89min ●●●●● Crude American teen sex comedy (is there any other kind?) about a kid played by burgeoning talent Zach Cregger who awakens from a four-year coma to hear his once virginal high school sweetheart (Raquel Alessi) is now a centerfold in Playboy. So he and his sex-crazed best friend (Trevor Moore) take a cross- country road trip in order to crash a party at the magazine’s legendary headquarters and win back the girl. Unfunny and badly made, Miss March is a stinker. General release from Fri 11 Sep. Whiteout (15) 100min ●●●●● Antarctica-based US deputy marshal (Kate Beckinsale) must investigate the frozen continent’s first murder before winter begins, but dealings with a UN operative (Gabriel Macht), also investigating the murder, making things complicated. Directed by Dominic Sena and based on Greg Rucka and Steve Leiber’s comic book of the same name, this is a big action thriller with a few clever twists and a dark heart. General release from Fri 11 Sep. The Thing (18) 108min ●●●●● John Carpenter’s excellent 1982 monster flick revived on digital big screen projection. Selected release from Tue 15 Sep. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3D (U) 89min ●●●●● Vivid and likeable animated version of Judi and Ron Barrett’s 1978 children’s book set in the town of Chewandswallow, where the weather comes three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan and Bruce Campbell give good voice work. General release from Fri 18 Sep. Three Miles North of Molkom (15) 107min ●●●●● Serio-comic documentary about the Angsbacka No Mind festival in Sweden, an adult playground of shared consciousness. See feature, page 30. Selected release from Fri 18 Sep.
COMEDY/DRAMA ADVENTURELAND (15) 106min ●●●●●
Follically challenged Superbad director Greg Mottola writes and directs his first feature since 1996’s subtle and funny Manhattan road movie The Daytrippers with sweet and funny results. It is the summer of 1987 and English lit graduate James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) is looking forward to touring Europe for the summer when his parents tell him there’s no money in the pot for the vacation. James is forced to find a summer job and ends up as a coconut-shy boy at the decrepit local amusement park Adventureland in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Full of the insane and unemployable, Adventureland turns out to be quite a ride for the sheltered James. Eschewing toilet humour and sexual crudities for something more
organic, deeper and character driven, the clearly biographical Adventureland is a film out of its time, literally and culturally. With its late- 80s setting (which means no mobile phones and no computers, kids) and killer period soundtrack (Hüsker Dü, Lou Reed, Bowie, The Replacements), it plays like an unwitting eulogy to the recent passing of American youth cinema pioneer John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).
On the one hand, it is a fish-out-of-water comedy as Eisenberg’s callow, nebbish, over-educated youth comes into contact with the great unwashed. On the other, it is a coming-of-age tale, albeit one that mixes romance, lust and misplaced loyalties in the same cup. In other words, Adventureland draws on a long line of frat-house farces and ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’ comedies.
Mottola clearly knows that when working with an ensemble cast in a
hothouse setting, honesty and performance are everything. In this, he is well served by Bill Hader as Bobby the insane owner of the park, Kristen Wig as Bobby’s weird wife and Martin Starr as the local deep-voiced nerd. You also couldn’t ask for more from an object of almost folkloric young lust than Margarita Levieva as Lisa P. This gifted young actor (soon to be seen in David Mackenzie’s Spread) pushes the boundaries of pneumatic thrill and bimbo callousness to a new level. That Kirsten Stewart and Ryan Reynolds as the real love interest and pretty boy love rival seem to be in a different much more boring rom-com is annoying, but the squares will always ruin the party. (Paul Dale) ■ General release from Fri 11 Sep. See preview, page 48.
COMEDY/DRAMA THE AGENT (12A) 80min ●●●●●
Four months after submitting the manuscript of his second novel Black, author Stephen Parker (Stephen Kennedy) decides to pay a visit to his literary agent Alexander Joyce (William Beck). It transpires that the latter is not a fan of the new work, which he hasn’t even read in its entirety and which he doesn’t think is worth showing to publishers. Despite his nervousness however, Stephen won’t be brushed off lightly, and produces from his bag his ‘metaphorical gun’ – namely some highly incriminating photographs of Alexander. Made for just £26,000 on HD-video by director Lesley Manning, and adapted from his own play by Martin Wagner, this solidly acted two-hander offers a fairly predictable battle of wills between its two main characters. In critiquing the publishing industry The Agent confirms what we already suspect: that real power in this field lies with the publishers and middle-men, not the writers, and that there is no place for work that doesn’t fit into commercially popular genres. Attempts to ‘open up’ the source material here are fleeting and detract from the claustrophobic atmosphere, and one thinks of Nicholas Ray’s observation that, ‘If it’s all in the script, why make the film?’ (Tom Dawson) ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 18-Sun 20 Sep.
JOHN KRASINSKI Born 20 October 1979, Newton, Massachusetts Background After a series of bit parts, Krasinski landed a key role in the American version of The Office alongside Steve Carrell, and has been a US household name since. UK audiences have had to work harder to notice him, as he’s so far failed to have a breakout cinema hit, starring in panned Robin Williams vehicle License To Wed and George Clooney’s underappreciated comedy Leatherheads.
What’s he up to now? Playing opposite Saturday Night Live’s Maya Rudolph, in the road trip comedy/drama Away We Go. It would be a typically ‘under-the- radar’ indie but for the fact that it’s directed by British awards magnet Sam Mendes. On getting the part ‘I had read the script and thought it was amazing, and then when Sam came on I thought, “This is the perfect project, maybe when 75 other actors pass on it I might have a shot.” Then Sam gave me a call and told me he didn’t have anybody else in mind but me, and I thought it was George Clooney with a terrible British accent. But it was real! So to be a part of a movie like this is still hard to wrap my head around.’
On balancing comedy and drama ‘It’s always exciting to just play the truth of any moment, whether it’s funny or not.That’s what makes this movie so funny; you’ve got an actress like Maggie Gyllenhaal committing to these jokes as if they’re incredibly dramatic scenes.’ On growing a beard for the film ‘Sam said “I need you to grow a full beard”, and I thought “You can’t just ask a guy to go and grow a beard!” I was terrified that it would come out patchy, and I’d have to wear a wig on one side of my face. But luckily, I hit puberty and it all turned out OK.’
Interesting fact. Krasinski has written and directed an adaptation of David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, due to be released later this year. (Paul Gallagher) ■ Away We Go is on selected release from released on Fri 18 Sep. See review, page 49.
51 THE LIST 10–24 Sep 2009 10–24 Sep 2009 THE LIST 51