"Little" Review: The Laughs Make Up For The Story

There is certainly an attrition in regard to the person we were as a child versus who we are as an adult. Why that happens and if we can continue to be ourselves from adolescence to adulthood is what Little takes aim at. While the movie has some pacing and story issues, the calories you’ll burn laughing evens things out!

Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) is the type of boss you don’t want to have. She’s mean, self-centered, condescending, and has enough money and power to get away with it all. Her assistant, April Williams (Issa Rae), is her talented but overlooked and overworked doormat. Jordan’s latest technological invention, Homegirl (voiced by Tracee Ellis Ross- think Alexa but a cool black version) is in beta testing. When her biggest client, Connor (Mikey Day) gives her 48 hours to give a new innovation before he leaves her firm, Jordan goes Hulk on her employees. She just happens to be mean to a little girl who casts a spell on her in the process.

The next morning, Jordan wakes up as the middle school version of herself (Marsai Martin). She quickly pulls in April to help her figure out what’s going on, while using her to continue the day to day activities in the company. Shenanigans ensue as Jordan learns more about herself, friendship, and what it means to be yourself.

Both a blessing and a curse, the screenplay fires off jokes like a TV sitcom. It seems like the jokes come at least once per minute of screen time. Many of the jokes hit, but others noticeably don’t. When you have power players like Issa Rae, Marsai Martin, and Regina Hall (while she’s in less of the film in comparison) the funny moments of this film are not just in the dialogue but also in their expressions. All three nail their character’s persona. It is a pleasure to watch Martin outside of her role on Black-ish as she commands the screen acting as a 38 year old in a 13 year old’s body. The rapport between her and Rae is so authentic and infuses life into some of the scenes that in other hands would be hackneyed.

While the laughs come consistently and the film taps into some emotional moments, many of the scenes within the film feel common in a bad way. Inspired by the movie Big, Little doesn’t do much innovating in the body switching, Freaky Friday, type of genre. Due to that, some of the storytelling and transitions force you to forgive it for following the leader rather than lead you down a refreshingly original path.

Regardless, this film is packed with the right kind of girl power. Co-writer/director Tina Gordon takes us on a funny ride. Both Hall and Martin serve as executive producers on the film, making Marsai Martin one of the youngest executive producers in Hollywood. This movie finds itself lending to crowds somewhere in between date night and an outing with the girls, but it’s an overall entertaining time at the movies.

Rating: B-

"Night School" Review: A Lesson in Bad Comedy

Let’s start with an alliteration. Night School begs for comedy charity chuckles. Let’s do the math. Kevin Hart plus Tiffany Hadish doesn’t make comedy gold. Now, let me take you to school.

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, Night School follows the story of Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart), a high school drop out who has used his quick wit and charm to get ahead in life. He has it all. His girlfriend Lisa (Megalyn Echikunwoke) is a beautiful businesswoman, and the porsche he drives is equally elegant. The only problem is he’s maxing out on his credit cards to keep her impressed and in his life. After a freak accident following his proposal to Lisa, Teddy finds himself unemployed and unable to keep up the facade. So he decides to go to night school in an effort to become a financial analyst. 

From there we’re introduced to the ragtag bunch of night school students in Teddy’s class. There’s the stressed and under-appreciated stay at home mom Theresa (Mary Lynn Rajskub), woke brother Jaylen (Romany Malco), former jock Mackenzie (Rob Riggle), high school teen queen Mila (Anne Winters), wanna be pop star Luis (Al Madrigal), and in confinement convict Bobby (Fat Joe).  They’re all led by an underpaid teacher named Carrie (Tiffany Haddish). 

The problem with the film is that at the script level its thinner than a sheet of paper. With six names on the writing credits you would think that someone would say, “hey, let’s make sure the stakes are more than our main character has to hide educating himself from his fiance.” There is no major emotional investment for the viewer to take the ride on this unlikely story. Yet, the six writing credits may explain why the story goes into so many different directions. It’s a caper comedy, teen comedy (equipped with choreographed dance moves from a group of students during a prom scene), buddy comedy, and more. So we’re forced to hope that the banter amongst the characters will be worth the entry. It’s not.

You start out wanting to see more of Haddish, but quickly realize she’s underused in her role. Hart works too much and brings nothing new to this character. So the lesser names in the ensemble wind up bringing more creativity to the mix. Romany Malco is almost unrecognizable as Jaylen and he brings a full character to the screen and some good moments of humor. Even though Fat Joe can’t act, you can tell he was being himself as the Skyped in convict, and it makes for some good bits. In fact, the small details in the film are worth paying attention to. I’ve compiled my top five things to look for if you dare to go:

1) Fat Joe’s graduation jewelry.

2) The names of the sodas at Christian Chicken where Teddy works. Names like Ruth’s Beer and Coconut Christ Water were pretty funny.

3) How (Jaylen) Romany Malco brushes his hair. If you pay attention to what he’s doing, you’ll see it’s pretty funny.

4) Poor editing during the film. There are more than a few times when an action takes place from one angle and then the same thing happens again in the very next cut. (Haddish hitting Hart in the Christian Chicken parking lot for one.)

5) The terrible dub-overs in the film. There were plenty of times where you wonder if the audio is out of synch. My theory is that to keep the rating PG-13, certain dialogue had to be changed. There is a specific moment where heffer is used instead of the clear f-bomb Haddish actually said.

Overall, this film is a great pitch concept and nothing more. Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish are talented comedians at the top of their game, but this experiment didn’t produce a great outcome. I stayed awake through the end in order to write this review, but the man snoring extremely loud in the last ten minutes of this twenty-minutes-too-long movie provided more laughs and conversation amongst the audience than the movie itself. Save your money on this one!

Rating: D

"The Big Sick" Review

‘The Big Sick’ Review By Ryan Boera

Kumail Nanjiani weaves an exceptionally brilliant story of love and sacrifice in his newest romantic comedy, ‘The Big Sick’. 

In an archetypal romantic comedy, the two, leading lovers tend to be young, likable and otherwise destined for each other. Yet, they are kept apart by some complicating circumstance until, surmounting all obstacles, they are finally wedded. In Kumail’s case, this obstacle takes the form of class differences and parental interference. Two themes that undoubtedly heighten the relevance of the film. 

Kumail is a Pakistani comic who meets an American graduate student named Emily (Zoe Kazan) at one of his stand-up gigs. As their relationship unfolds, he gloomily anticipates what his traditional Muslim parents will think of her. Parents who will jump at the opportunity to gift upon their son an “arranged” marriage. Suffice to say, they don’t approve of Emily. 

‘The Big Sick’ undeniably occupies the romantic comedy genre, however, I would argue it’s gift is that it pushes the categorial envelope. The screenplay is incredibly intelligent, to put it modestly. But more importantly, it handles difficult topics; it’s topics other filmmakers are afraid to even look at, with such grace and deference that it has almost created a new standard for the genre as a whole. 

Romantic comedies have become passable films. Two-hour, running clichés, rather. Studios evolving into hamster-like wheels that churn out flick after flick with no integrity. The longer we allow these clichés to consume our films the harder it becomes for us to escape them. At which point you must tip your hat to Kumail and Emily Gordon (an author and Kumail’s life partner) for crafting such an intriguing piece of literature. 

The film is exceedingly honest, an open book of sorts, and so ridiculous it must be a true story. Kumail learns from his relationship that honesty is the best policy. A golden-rule that protrudes from the screen with vibrant colors. It is hard-pressed not to laugh at the unbearable circumstances presented throughout the film. Somehow, the tension and the humor live symbiotically together. 

Even at the risk of running too long, ‘The Big Sick’ is good for more than just a few laughs. In fact, the anticipation of the succeeding one-liner is so ever-present in the theater, you can feel the audience’s mouths agape with expectancy. Above all else, ‘The Big Sick’ will make you laugh, cry, and think, and that’s a win in anyone’s book. 

Rating: A-

"Central Intelligence" Review

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart team up to save the world in Central Intelligence. It’s a shoot ‘em up, buddy comedy that seems far too familiar with decent laughs sprinkled in. In fact, if Twins, 48 Hours, and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion met up at the bar to discuss making a film, Central Intelligence would be the outcome!

In high school, Bob Stone (Johnson) was picked on and bullied, while Calvin Joyner (Hart) was the man on campus. (It should be noted the CGI work on the two stars to make them look younger is pretty dog on good.) Twenty years later, Calvin is an accountant, married to his high school sweetheart Maggie (Danielle Nicolet), but that may be the only accomplishment he’s had in life post high school that he is proud of. After getting a Facebook friend request by Bob Stone, Calvin decides to meet with him on a whim.

The meeting reveals Bob to be a handsome, muscle bound man with a few lethal fighting skills under his belt. No longer a nerd, Bob seems to have a low key infatuation with Calvin for sticking up for him in high school. As the film moves forward, Calvin quickly gets wrapped into the mysterious world of Bob, the CIA, and his forensic accounting skills are needed to save the world. All of these revelations are made by the time of their high school reunion the next night.

The film has its laugh out loud moments, with hilarious cameos from some of the best in the business. While The Rock is a great actor and he commits to his role in this film, the man child in a giant’s body (especially compared to Hart) feels a little forced at times, thus making Bob seem more like a caricature. At the same time, the film's underlying spy duality keeps the audience guessing as to what's what and who is who as the Rock flips between moments of the nerd in a stud's body to CIA action hero star we're accustomed to seeing. Hart playing the straight man in this buddy comedy is a change that works to let him show his acting chops while still hitting his unique, spastic physical comedy. 

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, Central Intelligence is a popcorn flick probably best served for Netflix and chill. You’ll laugh while you’re watching, but forget that you saw it by the end of the year. While saving the world takes a little Hart and a big Johnson in this film, me saving you some money this weekend just took you reading this review! 

Rating: C+

"Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" Review

Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone are known for their comedy sketches and parody videos as a part of The Lonely Island. They came to prominence with their Saturday Night Live digital short “Lazy Sunday”. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is simply them coming together and fleshing out a feature length version of one of their videos. It’s a rock mockumentary for the popular culture of the 21st century, that’s actually funny. 

Conner4real (Samberg) is a young singer/rapper at the top of his game. He started out in the hip hop group called The Style Boyz with his childhood friends, Owen (Taccone) and Lawrence (Schaffer). Stepping out from the group he catapulted himself to the top of the charts and hearts of his fans. After the huge success of his first album, we find Conner preparing for his latest, Connquest. To ensure the albums success, Conner wrote all of the songs and used 100 producers to create all of the beats. 

With songs like “Equal Rights”, about marriage equality but stitched together with homophobic lines, and “Finest Girl” which makes references to killing Osama Bin Laden, Connquest tanks. The rest of the film is about Conner realizing he has a bunch of “yes men” around him and getting back to his roots. 

While the set up is typical of a VH1 Behind the Music episode, that’s a part of what makes it wonderful. The film mocks pop culture, pop music, and hip hop in a way that’s right on the money by marrying the documentary style filmmaking with comedy. Popstar is written by Samberg, Schaffer, and Taccone and there is a palpable sense that they wanted to mock the culture while hitting dramatic beats and actually telling a story rather than stringing together numerous sketches.

As the film unfolds, numerous celebrity cameos of popular artists and comedians are woven into the film. Some are brief, and other’s continue to come back, but most of them add to the humor of the film because of the irony of making fun of the business they helped create or are still a part of. There are a few TMZ or CMZ as it’s called in the film, scenes that are hilarious! They nail Harvey Levin and crew’s office sessions. 

This film is a little funnier than the trailer, and I cracked up watching the trailer. So if you don’t find the trailer funny, than you probably won’t find the film funny either. But there’s no escaping the fact that this is clever satire that encapsulates this social media/reality TV/need to be liked generation in an affectionate, genuine, comedic film.

Rating: B

"Mistress America" Review

There is something very necessary about portraying the female experience in all its varying forms. It is a story often left behind — or at least out of focus. Mistress America — directed by Noah Baumbach and cowritten with Greta Gerwig — is  a unique approach to the complicated relationships that enrich and detract from being a girl in this world. And no, this isn’t about a boy.

Tracy (Lola Kirke) is the Barnard babe we all wish we were when we started our freshman year at college. She is intelligent, knows how to rock a blazer and her literary aspirations are classically indie. There is one tiny problem though: she does not fit in, or at least her peers seem to have little interest in letting her join in on the freshmen fun. Tracy laments to her mother about her lonely days and nights on campus and her mother reminds her to get in touch with Brooke (Greta Gerwig), her soon-to-be step sister.

Brooke is the thirty-flirty-and-thriving NYC woman, hitting all of the benchmarks of a fabulous New York City lifestyle. At first glance, she does not seem to be the answer to Tracy’s dashed college dreams, but in girl world, the solution to the problem is not about finding the perfect solution — it’s about finding the best solution for right now. Fans of Gerwig’s character from Frances Ha may find Brooke a little grating. She’s manic and blissfully unaware of her shallowness. For Tracy though, Brooke offers up the fun and sophistication that has been lacking from her college experience. They are an immediate pair, informed by Gerwig and Kirke’s obvious chemistry.

Mistress America could’ve easily turned into a self-aware commentary on this generation and the plight of the aimless twenty-something. Instead, the film becomes a situational comedy featuring quick-witted characters who offer a plethora of depth depending on the life experience of the audience member. By stepping away from the will-the-girl-get-the-boy formula, Baumbach and Gerwig have created a film about the other, if not more important, relationships that come in and out of a girl’s life. This film is about the positive and negative experiences we all go through as we chose who to align ourselves with — how you find yourself through the good and the bad. 

Baumbach and Gerwig clearly know how to get things done. Speaking after the screening I saw, Gerwig noted that Mistress was shot in only 60 days — an extended vacation compared to the 50 days the pair used to shoot Francis Ha. Baumbach and Gerwig also know how to use their time to tell a story that is often not told. Combining an 80s touch and feel (especially apparent in the soundtrack) with quick dialogue, Mistress America offers up the charm, quirk and depth of your favorite short story.

Rating: B

Mistress America releases this weekend in select theaters!