Category: Movies

“The Way Way Back” Way Way Suprised Me (Missed Movies)

Sam Rockwell Way Way Back Occasionally, I will receive in the mail a Netflix movie where I have no idea how the movie ended up on my list. By the time I received The Way Way Back (2013) and popped it in my DVD player, I was expecting a film about prisoners escaping from a Siberian Gulag camp during World War II before realizing that movie was called The Way Back, a 2010 movie I still want to see. Instead, The Way Way Back turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable movie about a teenage outcast trying to understand his life one summer.

The Way Way Back, written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, follows the awkward 14-year-old Duncan, played by Liam James, who goes with his divorced mother Pam (Toni Collette) on vacation to a Cape Cod beach house with her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) and his daughter. Duncan is out of place in the world of adults, and eventually he begins exploring on his own, finding a surrogate family at the local water park managed by Owen, played by Sam Rockwell.

While I would not describe The Way Way Back as a small independent film, it does use a modest budget to illustrate a realistic story that does not overly play to Hollywood stereotypes. The victories and the defeats in the movie are not overblown, and the story seems honest, while also being fun.

I suspect that The Way Way Back ended up in my Netflix Queue because I had read a good review and saw that two actors I like, Rockwell and Carrell are in the movie. Steve Carrell plays against type here, portraying someone who is a jerk, while Rockwell uses his quirky charm to full effect. And Toni Collette is brilliant at playing a troubled mom, as she did in About a Boy (2002). The excellent cast also includes Maya Rudolph and Rob Corddry.

Considering the small budget, The Way Way Back was modestly successful at the box office and created a lot of buzz coming out of The 2013 Sundance Film Festival. But if you missed it the first time around, it is worth a rental.

Conclusion? If you are in the mood for a modest story with interesting characters and are not expecting an overblown adventure, you probably will enjoy the small coming-of-age tale in The Way Way Back. The honesty of the story and the excellent cast make the movie a nice surprise and a good movie that you might have missed. Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie a respectable 86% rating from both critics and audience members.

{Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they did not receive the recognition they deserved when released.}

What did you think of The Way Way Back? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Understanding De Niro

    This new movie montage compiles clips of Robert De Niro seeking understanding.

    Got it? The montage was presented by Chris Wade, Forrest Wickman, Emma Goss, and David Haglund. For a list of the films in the montage, head over to Slate.

    What is your favorite Robert De Niro film? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Oklahoma: Brand New State — Gonna Treat You Great!

    Oklahoma movie On November 16 in 1907, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory joined the United States.  The area became the country’s 46th state of Oklahoma, a state that appears often in popular culture.

    Much of Oklahoma’s pre-state history includes significant events that have been portrayed on film. Such incidents include the arrival of Native Americans forcibly moved to the territory along the Trail of Tears and the big land rush with its early arrivals that provide the name of the University of Oklahoma football team, the Sooners.

    The Oklahoma Land Rush & Far and Away

    Regarding the 1889 land rush, one sees it famously portrayed in movies such as Cimarron (1931) and Far and Away (1992). Check out the scene from Far and Away below.

    Oklahoma!

    While there are plenty of songs relating to the United States becoming a country, one is challenged to think of a memorable song about a territory becoming a state, with one exception. Oklahoma not only has an entire musical set in its final days as a territory, the play and movie versions end with a salute to the territory’s impending statehood.

    Even if you are not a fan of musicals, you probably know and can sing along with the song “Oklahoma!” from the Broadway play and movie Oklahoma! The play was the first musical written by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It is more than OK.

    The classic movie Oklahoma! (1955) starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. A 1999 version of the musical starred Hugh Jackman and Josefina Gabrielle. You may compare the 1999 version of the same scene as above.

    Finally, the 1955 movie has the honor of featuring a rare song about a territory becoming a state, but it is also a rare movie musical that itself is mentioned in a popular song. The 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies by The Kinks features the song “Oklahoma USA,” written by Ray Davies. In the song, a young woman reflects on her boring working-class life: “But in her dreams she is far away/ In Oklahoma U.S.A./ With Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae.”

    In honor of the anniversary of Oklahoma’s statehood, we hope that at least for a day you can escape work and can get out in the open and breathe some fresh air. And we hope you’re doing fine.

    What is your favorite movie or song about a state’s early days? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    What Comic Strips Influenced “Calvin and Hobbes”?

    Krazy Kat
    The documentary Dear Mr. Watterson (2013) opens this week in theaters and on video on demand. The documentary about the great comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and its creator Bill Watterson is directed by Joel Allen Schroeder. To promote the movie, which started as a Kickstarter project, the filmmakers have released this interesting clip that examines three comic strips that apparently influenced Watterson and Calvin and Hobbes. Check it out.

    As you can see from the clip, we do not have the reclusive Watterson, who remains protective of his creation and still refuses to license products related to the comic. So other commentators explain the comic strips whose influences they see in Calvin and Hobbes. The three influences discussed in the clip are Walt Kelly’s Pogo, Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts, and George Herriman’s Krazy Kat. If you want more on Watterson, check out his recent rare interview on Mental Floss.

    What is your favorite Calvin and Hobbes strip? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    12 Years a Slave (Short Review)

    12 Years a Slave The new movie 12 Years a Slave (2013) dramatically recreates the true events from Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography of the same name. The story recounts how Northup, living as a free man in New York, was tricked into traveling to Washington, D.C., where he was abducted and sold into slavery.

    In describing the film, one has to be careful not to ruin the story, but like the miniseries Roots (1977) or the movie Schindler’s List (1993), you sort of know what to expect when you decide to watch it. Not surprisingly, the movie features scenes of nearly unwatchable brutality, and generally the line between good guys and bad guys is clear, and the bad people are really bad.

    Solomon Northop Yet, there are two main reasons to see 12 Years a Slave. One reason is the fine performers, especially actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who portrays Northup, bringing a complicated humanity to the man. Ejiofor makes Northup a three-dimensional human being that helps the audience understand the man’s agony as he discovers his fate and struggles to find a way home. In more than one scene, Director Steve McQueen lets the camera linger on Eliofor’s face and eyes, relying upon the actor to carry a scene without movement or dialogue. Eliofor, who has made small parts memorable in such movies as Children of Men (2006) and Love Actually (2003), here shows that he is an actor who should be commanding more lead roles. Similarly, other performers like Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey (who the New Yorker calls the hero of the film) and Michael Fassbender as an unstable slave owner are outstanding. Producer Brad Pitt also makes a welcome appearance.

    The other main reason to see 12 Years a Slave is that it is a true story. Were the movie fictional, it would carry less gravitas and in some ways would border on unbelievable. But the movie, with a screenplay by John Ridley, presents an essential reminder of the American legacy of slavery and how humans can treat each other in immoral and brutal ways.

    Although in the past I have written how I hate when movies manipulate viewers into cheering for violence against characters, while watching 12 Years a Slave, I found myself longing for Jamie Foxx as Django from Django Unchained (2012) to suddenly appear and render his bloody justice. But unfortunately 12 Years a Slave is not a fantasy, and real life does not end so neatly.

    Conclusion: 12 Years a Slave is essential viewing. The high Rotten Tomatoes rating (critics: 97%; audience: 94%) may partly reflect how a movie with such a subject is beyond criticism, but it also reflects powerful filmmaking.

    Bonus Real-Life Information (Spoiler Alert: Do Not Read If You Have Not Seen the Movie): For some reason, one of the most moving moments in the movie for me was the epilogue where the titles explained what happened to Northup. I found it disturbing that nobody knows what happened to him. Wikipedia explains that some people believe that he may have been kidnapped into slavery again, apparently dying in anonymity on a Southern plantation. Others believe that he died of natural causes in the North. I choose to believe the latter because the former is too horrible to imagine. And so I pray that Northup’s final line in his book came true: “I hope henceforward to lead an upright though lowly life, and rest at last in the church yard where my father sleeps.”

    What did you think of 12 Years a Slave? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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