Loose Thoughts on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

by Tony Dayoub


I've been wracking my brain all week trying to figure out why I can't come up with a coherent review for this weekend's big hit, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It wasn't until I saw it again this weekend, in an obligatory revisit to take my two young boys, when I came to this conclusion. My thoughts are only as scattershot as the film itself tends to be. Dawn of Justice is Zack Snyder's attempt at jump-starting the DC Extended Universe or DCEU, the filmic counterpart to its rival Marvel's own cinematic franchise the MCU. It is reminiscent of those graphic samplers DC Comics puts out a month before they introduce a major storyline that will snake through its entire publishing lineup. The movie tries to whet the viewer's appetite for future installments, but fails to come up with a satisfying story that can stand on its own. So why not mirror the movie itself in presenting my own disjointed thoughts on the failures (and yes, some minor successes) of this schizoid superhero dirge.

Catching Up at the Multiplex

by Tony Dayoub

A day late but, as promised, a few capsule reviews after the jump.

NYFF10 OPENING NIGHT Movie Review: The Social Network (2010)

by Tony Dayoub

Midway through The Social Network, wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) calls his estranged partner Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) from California to inform him that their new partner, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake)—the smooth creator of Napster—has just succeeded in getting a venture capitalist group to invest half a million dollars in Zuckerberg and Saverin's Facebook. It is a crucial scene loaded with mixed emotions between the two partners. Saverin had just rescinded access to Facebook's $19,000 line of credit after discovering Parker has supplanted him as Zuckerberg's financial idea man; Saverin's clingy girlfriend almost burned down his apartment demanding to know why Saverin hasn't updated his Relationship Status from "single;" and Parker has proven his value by securing meetings with big money men while Saverin was going door-to-door in New York selling advertising to small-fish establishments like a tuxedo rental company. It is the most overt display of the rupture developing between Zuckerberg and Saverin. But for just a moment, Zuckerberg is big enough to congratulate Saverin for their success despite his anger over having the monetary rug pulled out from under him. For just a moment, Saverin is equally gracious even though his instincts tell him he is being shut out from his own company. Party boy Parker is inside their house/office with employees and female hangers-on as he pops open a bottle of champagne. And Zuckerberg is just outside, viewing the celebration through a sliding glass door, privy to—but separated from—the festivities inside.

Blu-ray Review: Solitary Man (2010)

by Tony Dayoub

There's a certain kind of "indie" film—your Little Miss Sunshine, or Slumdog Millionaire, or Crazy Heart—films which challenge their audience a bit more than the average mainstream film, but not too much. I put "indie" in quotes because the film is not the true independent from back in Cassavettes' day. It still benefits from the positioning a major actor or a cast of major actors provides. It still gets funding (at least on the tail end of the post-production/marketing stage) from a smaller shingle overseen by a big studio, or what they sometimes call a mini-major like a Lionsgate Films. This year's trendy film in this category is The Kids Are All Right, the one with Julianne Moore and her wife (Annette Benning) meeting their kids' biological father (Mark Ruffalo) whose sperm was used to inseminate each of them. These movies are usually pleasant enough I find. And I usually venture into them with an open heart, predisposed to liking them because of the alternative they offer to "the same old shit." But I usually leave feeling betrayed, for any number of reasons. Either the film's conclusion holds a "message"; or a contrivance is offered in the course of the film to goose up a narrative which hardly seemed evident through the first two-thirds of the film; or in the case of The Kids Are All Right, some annoying alt-rock soundtrack is married to the film in order to tell me how I should be feeling every step of the way (see Away We Go). What a true pleasure it is to encounter a film such as Solitary Man then—a movie which I went into feeling fairly guarded after the number of times I'd been burned—and finding a true gem.

Movie Review: Adventureland - The Scarlet V

Like some of Cameron Crowe's earliest films, his most perceptive looks at romantic triumphs and travails in a specific time period, both in society and in someone's life - Greg Mottola's Adventureland is a sweet-hearted look at romance among college grads coping with their new independence in the summer of 1987. Thankfully, the movie also leaves behind some of the vulgar crassness that seems to always work in Judd Apatow's work (Knocked Up et al.) but which felt strangely out of place in the Mottola's gentler Superbad (2007). Credit much of the movie's resonance to its cast and their performances, each of them investing easily identifiable personae with some surprising gravitas. The summer he graduates, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) finds himself stuck in his Pennsylvania hometown. A planned trip to Europe falls through because his parent's economic situation takes a downturn. In order to raise the money he needs to move to New York for grad school, he takes a job at the local amusement park, Adventureland. There he meets Em (Kristen Stewart), a beautiful but emotionally distant co-worker; Connell (Ryan Reynolds), a studly maintenance man with a mysterious past; and Bobby and Paulette (SNL's Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig), the park's clueless owners. The summer job at Adventureland ultimately offers James some romantic adventures, some hard lessons as he confronts adulthood, and a nostalgic soundtrack to his life. Loathe as I am to admit it, I feel a particular affinity with Eisenberg's James. Like his character, I carried the "Scarlet V" (virginity, as it's referred to in the movie) late into my young adulthood for many of the same reasons. James is starting to outgrow the need to modulate his personality for mass consumption. That is, he no longer feels the need to hide his intelligence in an attempt to attract women. Eisenberg's performance seems rooted in a Woody Allen-esque irony, a shorthand that informs us of James' potentially attractive intellect. This resonated strongly with me, because, after a time, I also discovered that once you show your particular quirks, you become a more distinctive person. And just like the summer in which I all of a sudden found myself with more prospective partners than I could handle, James finds himself caught between the soulful but distant Em, and the hot but shallow Lisa P (Margarita Levieva). Mottola perfectly captures the period and the stage of life in which James finds himself. Using music to stoke the atmosphere, he does one of my favorite things, often overlooked, with the soundtracks - he populates it with songs not just from 1987, but with older songs one might still be listening to at the time, like "Satellite of Love." That song in particular is integral to the story, as James discovers that Connell, who claims to have jammed with Lou Reed, is suddenly outed as a poseur by his lack of familiarity with this iconic tune. The song serves as a metaphor for James' own disillusionment with his idol/friend, as he comes to realize that all the advice he's received from him on women is even more ignorant than any he might have gleaned for himself. Adventureland opens in theaters nationwide tomorrow. This post first appeared at The House Next Door on 4/1/09. Still courtesy of Miramax Films.