The Grand

The Grand is a mockumentary in the tradition of Christopher Guests.  The formula is simple: a fantastic ensemble cast, quirky characters, and some choice cameos/short appearances.  It also features appearances from a few poker players including Doyle Brunson and Phil Laak.  By far the best poker personality present though is Phil Gordon, of celebrity jeopardy fame.  He’s a perfect mixture of professionalism and incredulousness at his partner while playing the straight man of the announcing team.

The feel is incredibly loose and improvisational (director Zak Penn apparently had the actors improvise much of the dialogue.  Additionally, the plot/ending was decided by the actual poker game the cast had going).  Chris Parnell’s character, a Dune fanatic, is probably the most absurdly enjoyable, but David Cross has more than a few great moments.  David Cross and Cheryl Hines play twins, possibly a play on brother-sister poker duo Howard Lederer and Annie Duke (like Hines’ character, Duke has gotten the better of her brother).

Much of the film is shot in the ESPN-style poker tournament style and is most probably the most realistic depiction of professional poker I’ve seen in a film.  This gives it an air of realism that makes the hilarious dialogue all the more humorous.

Arbitrary song of the day: The White Stripes – Icky Thump

The Man from Earth

The Man from Earth is a nice little low-budget movie filmed entirely in and around a small house.  It’s a fairly simple premise: the main character, Professor John Oldman, is a 14000 year old Cro-Magnon.  The film consists entirely of John discussing this with his colleagues who all believe him to various degrees.  At first, the film felt slow and the dialogue cliched.  Even once the film got underway, the dialogue mostly consisted of just the typical questions of disbelief that you would find in any sci-fi plot twist.  The acting in general is kind of weak and at times feels like an over-acted play (I know, a bit redundant, as all plays are over-acted).  Dr. Phlox, especially, seems a bit over-the-top at times.  However, once John’s narrative kicks in a bit, this is much less of an issue.

There are some other issues as well.  Dr. Gruber’s first scene was fairly bewildering and seemed tacked on in order to provide some “action”.  Additionally, they discuss how the widespread belief at the time of Christopher Columbus was that the Earth was flat.  It’s a little upsetting to think that there are reasonably intelligent people out there who still believe the fiction written by Washington Irving about Christopher Columbus in the 19th century.  Navigators and scholars have known that the Earth was roughly spherical since before the Common Era.  This was particularly offputting since those discussing it were supposed to be professors.

There are a couple irritating characters.  The film makes Edith, a literalist Christian, intentionally annoying.  Even the other characters find her obnoxious.  Art is equally annoying, though thats just because he’s a jerk.  But, I suppose I can see how these characters were useful for driving the dialogue.

Overall, The Man from Earth had enough plot twists and a good enough premise to keep me interested.  Surprisingly for a dialogue-driven film with a mediocre dialogue, The Man from Earth works very well.

Arbitrary song of the day: Beck – Deadweight

Some short movie notes

So, Netflix is gonna stop selling used movies now?  Why’s that?  Anyway, get your $6 cheap-as-free movies from Netflix while you can (until Nov. 30).  I will probably be getting Anchorman, Borat, There Will Be Blood, The Lives of Others, The Squid and the Whale, The Weatherman, and The Savages while I can.

The Rage in Placid Lake

Really, there isn’t much “rage”, nor is there a lake.  The main character, Placid Lake, is a seventeen year old with hippie parents.  Placid gets picked on in school by a group of bullies and so decides to change his life.  Much to the chagrin of his parents, Placid decides to get a conventional job and try to move up the corporate ladder.  This twist on the hippie kid/conservatives parents dynamic was pretty funny and I didn’t think that it got old throughout the film, despite how often it was used.  This is a fantastic offbeat Australian comedy that anyone who likes indie comedies should probably watch.

Wet Hot American Summer

I hadn’t really heard anything about this film before watching it, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  I basically chose to watch it based on David Hyde Pierce’s absurd mustache and the fact that I like Paul Rudd.  Wet Hot American Summer pokes fun at summer camp films – I can’t name any off the top of my head, but for some reason the genre is familiar.  I needn’t describe the plot at all because it merely serves to poke fun at this genre of movies and drive the movie from gag to gag.  At first I didn’t realize how absurd it was exactly.  At least not until the gang hitches a ride into town, gets addicted to heroin, and arrives back to camp in perfect condition in the span of an hour.  The film is filled with semi-famous and entirely-recognizable people such as Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, Elizabeth Banks (who seems to be in every movie I want to see right now), Judah Friedlander, and H. Jon Benjamin.  It’s not a “good” movie and is extremely uneven, but it was definitely funny.

Arbitrary song of the day: Bloc Party – She’s Hearing Voices