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The Scenester: Year One, Food, Inc. and Ryan Reynolds' washboard stomach
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The Scenester: Year One, Food, Inc. and Ryan Reynolds' washboard stomach
Admit it, you want more from this week's Movie section.
Year One [B-] did not screen in time for publication, but we sent Pat Rapa anyway. Here are his thoughts on the matter:
Biblical comedies have a decision to make regarding the jokes/story ratio. Will this be a Python-esque romp or a Mel Brooksian schlockfest? Harold Ramis' Year One ' wherein Jack Black and Michael Cera wander into the Old Testament from the Stone Age ' falls somewhere between the two, and falls quite a bit. The problem is not Black's hyper mugging or Michael Cera's flustered muttering, as you might expect, but the strange shifts in tone from wacky to serious. Too many scenes end with plot-advancing dialogue where a zinger would do. That would work better if "plot" were something this collection of character-driven sketches appeared to be striving for throughout. So many holes. How'd they escape the snake? Why is rival Marlak suddenly their friend for 5 minutes? The thing is, Year One is hilarious when it wants to be, full of gross-outs and cameos. David Cross makes a great weasely Cain. Hank Azaria has his least annoying film moment ever as Abraham. Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Matt Besser and McLovin all have their scene-stealing moments. Let them all get stolen, Mr. Ramis. You have a schlockfest. Let your people go.
Cindy Fuchs gave Food, Inc. [B] the review treatment this week, but that's not all CP has in store for you. Felicia D. over at our excellent Meal Ticket blog has an interview with director Robert Kenner:
Meal Ticket: What was the inspiration behind this film? Did you have some kind of motivating personal experience?
Robert Kenner: It wasn't really that. I was just curious, you know, to find out where our food comes from. An interesting exploration. I wanted to talk to all the different producers of our food system, and I found out agribusiness did not want to talk. Not only could I not see into their kitchens, they didn't want to speak to me at all. I was a threat. They don't want us to know where our food comes from. Food has fundamentally been transformed without us seeing it, or thinking about it. What we realized was that there is a movement percolating ' we didn't know about it until we got out there. It's going to take a movement to change things.
Read the rest of Felicia's interview here.
More movies after the jump.
Read my review of Herb & Dorothy [B] here.
The first line of my C- review of the The Proposal: "According the audible sighs heard throughout the screening, the real star of Anne Fletcher's rom com is Ryan Reynolds' abs." For those who don't believe me, check out the cover of this week's Entertainment Weekly:
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No, seriously, THOSE ARE HIS ABS.
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