She Said

Director: Maria Schrader
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Jennifer Ehle, Lola Peticrew, Samantha Morton, Molly Windsor, Ashley Judd, Zach Grenier, Peter Friedman, Tom Pelphrey, Angela Yeoh, Keilly McQuail, Mike Houston, James Austin Johnson, Gwyneth Paltrow 
Running Time: 129 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

Maria Schrader's She Said doesn't give any false illusions as to what it is or pretend to be some kind of escape from reality. This much is clear in an early scene from 2016 when we hear Donald Trump (voiced by SNL's James Austin Johnson) screaming at a reporter about the leaked Access Hollywood tape. The fallout from that would be minimal, if nonexistent, serving as a reminder that those in power say what they want only until the public decides they've heard enough. But this isn't about him, at least not directly. Rather, it's the jumping off point that emboldens those investigating Harvey Weinstein, whose sexual abuses stand in a category of its own. 

The film depicts how Weinstein bullied and silenced victims into staying quiet for decades, with a lot of help along the way. And while it's easy to see how he got away with it in this context, what's most ironic about that Trump scene is how it might might be the film's only sensationalistic moment. In showing very little, Schrader tells a lot, with a tone similar to classic investigative journalism procedurals like All The President's Men and Spotlight. Based on the 2019 book widely credited for igniting the #MeToo movement, it's full of uncomfortable, disturbing testimonials from Weinstein victims that's direct and no-nonsense enough to be mistaken for a documentary. 

Schrader keeps things moving while Screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz takes a practical, fact-based approach, both making as formidable a team as the two leads driving this story. It may not be everyone's idea of edge-of-your-seat suspense and there are only so many different ways to hear about Weinstein removing his bathrobe and demanding a massage, but it happened. So, as sickeningly repetitive as it is to hear, the survivors lived this, and listening to how it permanently altered them provides plenty of unexpected tension. For those who appreciate films that get into the nuts and bolts of print journalism, there's a lot to respect, as the most salacious of stories is presented in a sensibly straightforward style that doesn't pull punches.

It's 2017 when New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) receives a tip from actress Rose McGowen (voiced by Keilly McQuail) regarding an alleged sexual assault she experienced at the hands of Miramax head Harvey Weinstein when she was 23. After speaking with other prominent actresses who refuse to be named for fear of career ramifications, Kantor enlists the help of fellow Times reporter Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan). Together, they uncover a trail of allegations, hush money payments and settlements linked to Weinstein over the years, but face an uphill battle, with many of the women having signed NDAs that prevent them from talking. 

Digging deeper with each new interview with former employees and assistants, an alarming pattern emerges, along with the possibility of a massive cover-up that extends far beyond the Miramax offices and into the legal realm itself. With the full support of Times editors Dean Baquet (Andre Braugher) and Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson), Kanto and Twohey move forward despite mounting pressure threats against their sources. Undeterred, they work to get these women heard and expose Weinstein's crimes, whatever the cost.

As strong as Mulligan and Kazan are separately in their scenes, they're even better together, entirely believable as reporters with differing personalities and tactics sharing the same goal. Twohey is the  more seasoned and aggressive of the two, reflected by her cynical, somewhat hardened nature. In contrast, Kantor is a deer in headlights, struggling to persuade sources to talk to her and go on the record. But as the investigation wears on, we see how their styles compliment each other, especially when circumstances call for one to rein the other in.

Kantor's empathy and likability proves to be an asset in dealing with the victims while Twohey's strength lies in navigating legal obstacles that derailed all previous attempts to nail Weinstein. Both actresses hit these notes perfectly, especially Mulligan whose character is all business, even while emotionally collapsing under the weight post-partum depression. She convincingly plays Twohey as if uncovering the truth is not only a mission for justice, but an escape that could make her feel full again. It's obvious how personal this is for both, with Schrader trusting the actresses to show it and leave the telling to the victims. Balancing this with the strategizing taking place within the Times' offices, she impressively showcases the processes that surround an investigative undertaking of this magnitude. 

In devastating turns, Samantha Morton and Jennifer Ehle play ex Weinstein assistants, one of whom sacrifices her career to protect a friend while the other's traumatic sexual assault is dredged up at the worst possible moment. As powerful flashbacks show their days at Miramax, both are now forced to contemplate the potential ramifications of coming forward and reopening deep emotional wounds. But Schrader avoids tastelessly recreating the assaults, instead detailing the events that led to them and its lasting psychological impact.

Even if we only hear Weinstein (Mike Houston) yelling over the phone and briefly catch sight of this loud brute at the end, it's still more than enough for him to make the worst possible impression. Braugher is particularly good in his scenes handling him, as he and Clarkson give probably the two most overlooked performances, credible every step of the way as practical but fair editors. And while famous Weinstein victim Gwyneth Paltrow does make a vocal cameo as herself, Ashley Judd appears full-on, essentially retracing the actual steps she took to come forward and expose him. 

Schrader clears all these creative hurdles in an unfussy manner since anything less could cause a serious, real-life topic to come across as the type of tabloid smut this film's rallying against. Still, it's impressive how thorough the script is in presenting exactly what happened and how. She Said finds a comfortable middle ground, neither a condescending lesson for viewers already familiar with journalism's inner workings or a bore to those who aren't. That we know the end result of Weinstein's trail of terror hardly dampers the proceedings, only further establishing it as a morality tale better suited to the big screen than most suspected.     

Easy A

Director: Will Gluck
Starring: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, Aly Michalka, Stanley Tucci
Running Time: 93 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

There's one glaring flaw in the central premise of Easy A, the latest teen comedy to adapt a literary classic into a modern high school setting, and I'm kind of surprised no one's noticed it. Or maybe they have, but like me, don't care because it gets too many other little things right to dwell on it. Or maybe it just isn't a flaw at all. Maybe we're supposed to believe a high school girl losing her virginity is still big news. A huge scandal in fact. Stop the presses. Yet it's also the movie's biggest asset, because we do believe that in this optimistic world this throwback movie creates for itself full of generally good, well-meaning people, that it could be. We also buy that Emma Stone's character could actually be in high school, be that virgin girl, and no guy would want to date her. Not easy at all, but she pulls it off and the further the story moves away from that initial premise the closer it gets to exploring its full consequences and becoming a rare standout among teen coming-of-age comedies. But the big story here is that in genre where stupidity usually reigns supreme, none of the characters come across as stupid, especially its protagonist, who Stone plays in a star-making performance as the most infectiously likable high school heroine not named Buffy or Veronica.

Narrating her own story via web cam, California high schooler Olive Penderghast (Stone) runs down the series of events that led to her being falsely labeled as the school slut, beginning with her lie to best friend Rhie (Aly Michalka) about losing her virginity to a guy from the local community college. Her made-up story is overheard in the bathroom by the school's religious zealot Marianne (Amanda Bynes) who spreads the rumor like wildfire, making Olive infamous, if not exactly popular, for the first time in her high school career. Thrilled she has any reputation at all, she embraces her perceived exploits with a revealing new wardrobe frequently stitched with a scarlet letter "A" and a cocky attitude to match. But perception and reality blur when her gay friend Brandon (Dan Byrd) needs help in appearing to be straight, getting it in a very physical and public (albeit fake) way. By this time what's true and what's not becomes almost irrelevant as Olive is now basically known as a hooker to her peers and must deal with the unhappy consequences of that notoriety.

Emma Stone's Golden Globe nominated performance kind of sneaks up on you because it isn't apparent right away just how much she has to do and how difficult it is to make it look this natural. It turns out her brief but memorable supporting turns in comedies like Superbad, The House Bunny and Zombieland didn't even give an inkling as to her full capabilities as an actress. Asked for the first time to carry a picture she gives a multi-faceted performance I'd put up against Natalie Portman's in Black Swan in any awards race any day of the week so it's a relief that audiences and critics have duly taken notice of how strong it is despite its placement in the often disparaged teen comedy genre. While Bert V. Royal's clever script does admittedly give her some depth to work with, she has to supply much of it, bringing an insanely likable mixture of wittiness, goofiness, insecurity and confidence to Olive. In a pivotal scene when a date goes bad she has to go through an entire movie's worth of emotions in just a few minutes and nails it. The tone of the film is sometimes all over the map but she's right there to cover for it every step of the way, elevating the kind of material that has made some of the biggest, most talented actresses look like fools even when performed well. To say Stone has officially arrived as a top tier star doesn't even begin to cover it, so just as long as she doesn't do anything crazy like  sign up for a 3D Spider-Man reboot, her acting future looks bright.

Despite the film having a plot hole big enough to drive a truck through with the school's overblown reaction to Olive's "scandal," the screenplay's smart, getting so many smaller details right that nearly every other film in this genre routinely botch. A few of the supporting characters are so likable and easygoing at times that they do feel almost too cool or too cleverly written to be believable as actual people but that's okay, mainly because they're not made to look like morons and it's such a rare event when periphery players in a teen comedy are memorable in any way at all. With an all-star line-up of actors, Easy A accomplishes the feat of juggling many supporting characters and sub-plots that never seem like filler. It's rare seeing a teen movie (or ANY movie) with parents (Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci) who are actually clued into reality and supportive of their daughter, but the slice-of-life scenes with Olive and her family are written and performed so well you won't just wish there were more of them, you'll wish you could move in with them. And as someone who references The Bucket List entirely too much in everyday conversation, Tucci's delivery of a joke at that film's expense was greatly appreciated as the comic zinger of the year for me.

The rest of the cast, including Thomas Hayden Church as Olive's English teacher Mr. Griffith (who teaches- you guessed it- Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"), Lisa Kudrow as his guidance counselor wife and Malcolm McDowell as a cranky principal all contribute a lot and are fleshed out really well considering the amount of screen time they're given. You know a film's in good shape when even the stereotypical "gay best friend" isn't just comic relief and is developed enough that we actually kind of care what happens to him. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of Amanda Bynes' annoyingly screechy Marianne, a walking stereotype if there ever was one. In a tired religious fanaticism sub-plot that seems directly ripped from Saved! Bynes mugs and overacts as if she were still in Hairspray. That nonsense starkly contrasts the romantic subplot with Olive and her would-be boyfriend, "Woodchuck" Todd (Penn Badgley), so unobtrusively interwoven into the plot it almost feels invisible. Because both actors are such naturals on screen and the issue isn't shoved down our throats, when they do eventually get together it feels earned.

At one point Olive makes reference to the fact that she wishes her life were a John Hughes movie and we get a montage of '80's films like Say Anything, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles and Can't Buy Me Love. The most frustrating aspect of Easy A is that in paying tribute to the spirit of those movies it has so many small moments where you think it can break free and match their quality, but it's always just a step behind Stone's comic brilliance. It's also drawn comparisons to Mean Girls but unlike many, I don't think the film has anything substantial or particularly subversive to say about fame or scandal since there isn't much of either present on a big enough scale. But even as the American Pie-type sex humor doesn't always mesh with the sweeter, more innocent tone, it's better at balancing them than could reasonably be expected. Honest and sincere in its intentions to a fault, here's a teen comedy so optimistic and lacking in cynicism that it not only acknowledges the hopeful possibility that high schoolers would be shocked that a classmate is having sex, but also thinks highly enough of them to believe they've actually seen a John Hughes movie.

Whatever Works

Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley, Jr., Henry Cavill, Michael McKean
Running Time: 92 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

Could there possibly be a better idea than having Larry David star in a Woody Allen movie? He does a better Woody Allen than Woody Allen. The only idea I can think of that comes close is casting Evan Rachel Wood as his wife. Your level of appreciation for Allen's latest New York-set comedy, Whatever Works is entirely dependent on how you feel about David as a comedian. If you love the brand of self-loathing comedy he dishes out on Curb Your Enthusiasm, this movie is your dream come true. If not, then you'll hate it. It's that simple. Me? I think he's a comic genius and was counting down the days until he was given an opportunity to finally star in a feature film. The teaming of these two comic minds doesn't disappoint. But what's even more hilarious than anything that happens in it is Allen actually thinking he would attempt to give a real performance. He had to know that his star would just make fun of the material.

As David would be more than willingly admit, he isn't necessarily a good actor, but he's perfect for the role and the entire reason the film succeeds. This is an unproduced script Allen dusted off from the 1970's and it really feels (and even looks) like it, with dated humor and references that when delivered/mocked by David all of the sudden become a lot less dated and much funnier. We can congratulate Allen for not only realizing he was too old to play the role himself, but casting a youngster who does a better job than he ever could in not just hiding the flaws in the script, but making them work in the movie's favor.

The primary appeal of the film is that David seems as befuddled as we are that he's starring in a Woody Allen movie. As Boris Yelnikoff, an eccentric chess teacher from Greenwich Village who "almost" won the Nobel Prize for physics, he even pauses to break the fourth wall and tell us how befuddled he is in the opening minutes. When he's not complaining about life, he's berating kids, dumping chessboards on their heads and insulting their mothers. A cynical misanthrope prone to panic attacks, his most memorable one caused him to jump out of his apartment window and shatter his leg after his wife told him she was leaving him. He now walks with a limp, which David hilariously overplays.

Boris' world of rigid routine and order is disrupted when a runaway from Mississippi named Melodie St. Ann Celestine (Wood) shows up outside of his apartment looking for a place to crash. After some coaxing he agrees and discovers the bubbly, airheaded beauty pageant contestant is just about the only person he's ever met not just willing to put up with his neurotic behavior, but loves it. Naive and unaffected by everything around her, she views his petulant diatribes as brilliant nuggets of wisdom and develops a serious crush. Just the thought of that is hilarious in itself, but how Boris' handles the information is even more priceless. They get married with Melodie becoming more his caregiver than wife. With the arrival of Melodie's estranged parents Marietta (Patricia Clarkson) and John (Ed Begley Jr.), the film goes from being funny to being so stupid that it's funny.

The introduction of all these supporting characters relatively late in the game (including a potential love interest for Melodie played by Henry Cavil) does kind of throw everything off balance, but in sort of a good way. That's because David is there to mock them and Allen's attempt to tie life lessons up in a bow before the final credits roll. There's this underlying feeling running through the third act that Allen, who's completely stuck in an Annie Hall time warp, thought he was making an enormously important picture about the transforming energy of New York and that in the face of self-doubt and chaos everyone has to find their place in the world and do "whatever works" best for them. But what's so funny about that is Allen's seemingly silly message becomes digestable and almost strangely profound because of David's performance...as himself. Or rather a slightly nastier version of the "himself" he plays on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He makes it okay for us to go along for the ride because he never takes anything seriously. Wood, more known for playing sullen teenagers, tackles a type of role we've never seen her in and perfectly compliments David's neurotic insanity. She plays it completely sweet and sincere and it's a surprise to discover she's this good at comedy.

It also helps that Patricia Clarkson is such a lively presence as Melodie's uptight, religious mother and, as usual, the underrated Ed Begley, Jr. steals the few scenes he's in as the ultra-conservative but clueless dad. Both their sub-plots are ludicrous, but they sell it like pros and David's sarcastic reaction to their arrivals helps a lot. Ironically, the end result seems close to what Allen must have been aiming for and it could be considered his most enjoyable comedy in years, ending a string of lackluster efforts interrupted only by the drama Match Point in 2005. All he had to do was dust off one of his old scripts and insert Larry David. Maybe we should just insert David into every movie from now on. At least we'd be guaranteed to laugh, if nothing else. Hardly a minute went by when David was onscreen that I didn't. Insults are just funnier when delivered in his dry, deadpan style.

Not surprisingly, public response to the film has been unfairly harsh and it's fun to imagine how much worse a review David would give it and himself than the critics who trashed it. They missed the point. He doesn't have to be a good actor. He just has to be himself. A big monologue comes at the end with Boris telling us what he's learned. Yeah, right. It's Larry David. We know he never learns anything. But thanks to him, Whatever Works works.