"Ghostbusters" (2016) Review

There is a beautiful scene in Ghostbusters in which Melissa McCarthy’s character gives the other members of the team a pep talk after the citizens of New York denounce them as frauds. I’m paraphrasing here, of course, but she essentially says that even though everyone is doubting them, they know what they’re doing and should ignore the vitriol and save the day anyway.

It’s a fitting metaphor for the film itself, when you think about it. From the moment it was announced, Paul Feig’s reboot of Ghostbusters received backlash and bile from fans of the original film from 1984, making it the subject of untold amounts of rage-filled comments. Its trailer has become the single most down-voted trailer in YouTube history.

So, even though the angriest denizens of the Internet were counting them out, director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy) and the four talented comediennes he chose to be our new Ghostbusters were so sure-handed and confident, they rose above the hatred and won the day in the end.

Of course, this new version of Ghostbusters is nowhere near as good as the classic original. It was never going to be. But it’s not worth all the fuss, and it’s far from the disgrace to the original film’s legacy that the angry commenters were expecting (and probably hoping for). When all is said and done, it’s a scrappy, good-natured summer blockbuster that, while not perfect, delivers a lot of laughs, a few chills, and a ton of thrills.

When a book about the paranormal that she co-wrote resurfaces, Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) is let go from her teaching position at Columbia University. The at-first-skeptical Dr. Gilbert soon realizes that all her theories were true when malevolent ghosts begin to invade Manhattan. Teaming up with her former friend, Dr. Abby Yates (McCarthy); eccentric engineer Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (the particularly outstanding Kate McKinnon); and New York history enthusiast Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), Dr. Gilbert forms a paranormal extermination team called the Ghostbusters in order to save the world from a demonic entity.

While the story hits a lot of the same beats as the original, it’s the chemistry between these four women, as well as Feig’s unique sense of comedic timing, that keep this reboot feeling fresh. Wiig, McCarthy, McKinnon, and Jones bounce off of each other to great effect, giving us a sense of camaraderie that harkens back to how well Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson worked with each other in the original. There is genuine wit and inventiveness in the design of the ghosts, and there are even a couple of creepy sequences that sent chills down my spine.

However, even though Ghostbusters gets a lot of things right, that makes the things that it gets wrong all the more frustrating. The film needed some more time in the editing room to tighten up the baggy pacing. As demonstrated in his previous works, Feig encourages improvisation in his cast. While this often leads to some very funny bits, it keeps scenes dragging on for far longer than necessary. There are scenes that begin and end very abruptly, and quite a few of the jokes land with a resounding thud. Additionally, there are several surprise cameos from some recognizable faces, but their presence just serves as a distraction as it takes the focus away from the core group.

But once the team gets to busting, the proton packs get to firing, and the jokes get to flying, the film is an absolute joy to watch, especially in a 3D presentation that ranks among the best I’ve ever seen. The 3D effects go out and over the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, so it creates the illusion that slime, ghosts, and laser beams are invading the theater and jumping right at you. It’s a truly effective technique, and it made me wonder why more 3D movies don’t take advantage of it.

So after all that hullabaloo over this new Ghostbusters destroying the integrity of the original and insulting the memory of its co-writer Harold Ramis… it’s time to relax. Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters is not an insult to the original. Harold Ramis, God rest his soul, is not spinning in his grave. The original Ghostbusters is still readily available to watch and enjoy, and is probably on your home video shelf right now. I know it’s on mine. And when the reboot is released on Blu-ray, it will not replace my copy of the original. It will have earned a place right alongside it.

Grade: B-

"The Diary of a Teenage Girl" Review

Oh to be young again! To have the world at your fingertips and not know what to do with it. For most of us, reminiscing about our teenage selves brings back a multitude of memories — your first dance, first kiss, the fight you had with your parents about getting in five minutes after curfew. As adults, we explore these memories through rose-colored glasses, glossing over how things truly felt way back when. Writer/director Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl removes these glasses and plops viewers right back into the tumultuous life of being a teenager.

The film is told from the perspective of Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley), a 15 year old aspiring cartoonist who lives in San Francisco, during the 1970s. Minnie exists in the world of most teenage girls: her bedroom walls are covered in art and posters of Iggy Pop and Janis Joplin, she holds telephone conversations with her best friend in the bathroom while her little sister listens on the other side of the door, she passes notes to boys in class, and most importantly, she records life’s daily confusions in an audio cassette diary. Where Minnie’s story diverges from that of a typical teenage girl is found in the film’s R-rating: Minnie likes having sex.

Exploring sexuality is nothing new for coming-of-age films. The Diary of a Teenage Girl exists in the minority though for its honest, full-throttle approach to teenagers and sex. For Minnie, and her sexuality, sex is not the awkward “I don’t know what I’m doing here” scenario often depicted in films on the same subject. Minnie is bewildered, but very much empowered by the sex she is and is not having. It’s a rare approach, one that might leave audiences cringing more than usual, but it is an honest one. The film takes ample time to explore the internal world of Minnie and with that comes the familiar teenage, wildly inconsistent thoughts on love and body image — grounding Minnie’s exploration of sex in the naïveté of a 15 year old girl.

While the movie’s honest approach to teenagers and sexuality deserves a fair amount of praise, the argument could be made that it tries a little too hard in this arena. Maybe the film’s first person perspective is to blame, but the film lacks a well-roundedness that could’ve easily been achieved by amping up the performances of the other characters in Minnie’s world, especially since the film features a well stacked cast. Kristen Wiig, Alexander Skarsgard, and Christopher Meloni all play supporting characters, and there was definitely a missed opportunity to give the film a little more depth through their performances. 

Nostalgia is the name of the game for The Diary of a Teenage Girl and on that front, the film delivers. The good, the bad and the ugly are all out in the open as Heller uses Minnie to help us all remember the innocence, and the confusion, of our youth.

Rating: B-

"The Skeleton Twins" Review

“The Skeleton Twins” is one of those movies that you might breeze over judging a movie by its trailer. If you give it a chance, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at the story that’s told. 

Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are Maggie & Milo, twins who haven’t spoken to each other in ten years. After Milo attempts to commit suicide, Maggie is called as his next of kin ironically at the very same time she’s about to attempt suicide. The initial reunion is awkward. What do you say after ten years? How do you support your sibling who is in an obviously dark place, when you are as well? This is the core of the film as the two begin to mend their relationship.

Milo moves in with Maggie and her husband Lance (Luke Wilson) to recover. Lance is the unknowingly obnoxious guy you don’t want to see your sister with, but has a good heart. He’s fired up about the baby that he and Maggie are trying for, but Maggie has her own plans that she’s kept from Lance. In fact, each twin has their own bag of secrets that they’ve developed over the past ten years. As the film moves forward, secrets are shared amongst the twins and then told in spite. 

The film’s strength rides on the relationship between the twins, but it also is brought down because of the twins relationship. They have an obvious chemistry and connection as siblings that at times is fun to watch, but it’s a lot like watching two people that have inside jokes that you don’t understand. Most of the movie you peer in to the lives of the main characters, but never really care about them. 

The movie does provide some laughs and funny moments. Unfortunately, due to the lack of relatability to the characters, the film can drag at times. Regardless, this is a solid film that is worth a Netflix viewing.

Rating: B