Readers of this blog can now bear witness to what may be some kind of record: since seeing the third Transformers on 7/1, I've gone a full two weeks without seeing any current releases in theatres. And for my first voyage to the multiplex in a fortnight, it's entirely apropos that I see a rare mainstream release to address the economic times we're living in--times so tough that a film nerd like me has to reduce his moviegoing budget.
When the bumbling trio (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis) at the center of Horrible Bosses (2011, Seth Gordon) runs into an old friend of theirs who lost his job at Lehmann Brothers and is now turning tricks for money, it's a reminder that the three heroes could have it a lot worse than having to deal with insufferable bosses (Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell) every workday--and also a reminder of the real world outside the theatre auditorium. Which is not to build up Horrible Bosses as a blisteringly topical satire. Nor is it a mainstream comedy graced with the complex, recognizable humanity of something like Judd Apatow's The 40-Year-Old Virgin or the recent Apatow-produced hit Bridesmaids. But it is a lowbrow comedy made with enough intelligence, wit, and awareness of how to play potentially offensive material for good-natured laughs to strike the right stupid/clever balance. Think of other broad but extremely funny summer-comedy successes like Wedding Crashers, Tropic Thunder, and Get Him to the Greek, and you're in the right ballpark.
The movie's Trojan Horse--its weapon capable of overpowering viewer resistance to goofy mainstream comedy--is an expert ensemble cast fully committed to the silly, raunchy nature of the project. Bateman flaunts real leading-man chops, and some of his deadpan reactions here equal those he perfected as Michael Bluth on TV's Arrested Development. Day, another actor who can't help but remind you of his most memorable small-screen creation (in this case, squeaky-voiced man-child Charlie Kelly on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), invites real sympathy as a dental assistant so in love with his fiance he's horrified by the passes his sexually predatory boss (Aniston) makes at him on a daily basis. Aniston, for her part, tears into some memorably racy dialogue--the kind you least expect to be coming out of Jennifer Aniston's mouth--with real gusto. Jamie Foxx, as a self-proclaimed "murder consultant" who mentors the Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis characters, is so subtly weird in his comic spin on the black-ex-con archetype that he reminds you of how good he can be when he puts forth the right effort. SNL's Sudeikis isn't quite a big-screen presence on the level of his fellow TV-alumni co-stars, but he still nabs some of the movie's biggest laughs with his quick, dry asides (I liked his quietly uttered insistence that a hitman's online claim that he doesn't kill children or political figures is what really makes the consumer difference). As Sudeikis' scummy cokehead of a supervisor, Farrell gets to flex the comedic muscles that powered my favorite performance of his (as a tourist-town-hating, conscience-stricken killer with eyebrows perpetually crinkled in quizzical curiosity in In Bruges), but has considerably less screentime than his half-dozen top-billed colleagues. I wanted more of him, frankly.
Brief appearances by Modern Family's Julie Bowen, Ioan Gruffud, The Wire's Wendell Pierce, and a certain comedy legend making a cameo appearance at film's end (it would be devilish to spoil who) add to the fun. But I enjoyed myself most whenever Spacey was onscreen. Some critics--from both "pro" and "con" camps--have accused Spacey of merely rehashing his Buddy Ackerman character from Swimming With Sharks to play the white-collar sadist who bullies Bateman's character here, which feels short-sighted to me. True, both roles demand that Spacey break out those sinister dramatic pauses that he does so well, but context is everything. Buddy was a man full of secrets, a character equally dramatic and comedic in conception, and Spacey responded with a performance of appropriate complexity. Dave Harken, Spacey's Horrible Bosses character, on the other hand, is a cartoonish psycho who requires the actor playing him to bring nothing more than a finely tuned sense of hammy wildness to the role--which Spacey delivers in spades. I can't think of another Spacey performance this is comparable to, but it does resemble fellow theatre veteran Christopher Walken's late-career comedic triumphs in its hilarious sense of exaggeration. Honestly, pretty much every overly haughty and prissy line reading of Spacey's cracked me up.
Not everything in the entire movie made me laugh, it should be clarified (one set piece involving Sudeikis in a private residence's bathroom is just crass--you'll know it when you see it), but a lot more than expected. After those two weeks, it was certainly a sight for sore eyes. Grade: B+
At a scant 69 minutes, Winnie the Pooh (2011, Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall) barely qualifies as a feature, but its charm quotient is off the charts. The characters from A.A. Milne's stories that Disney brought to adorable life in its The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh short collection some years back return here with a refreshing lack of modern touch-ups, and their cuteness is damn near paralyzing. Whenever the dim yet loyal Pooh Bear (voiced by Jim Cummings, who provides the red-shirted ursine hero with the right, gentle tones) finds his senses overtaken by an overwhelming hunger for honey (which happens quite often, as one might expect), it's hard to repress the urge to sigh, "awwww." (Of course, there's always the option of not repressing said urge, but good luck with not arousing the suspicion of the tots and parents surrounding you in the audience.)
For adults, there's not a high amount of narrative intrigue; Pooh's ongoing quest for honey is actually a major plot thread, believe it or not. But that's exactly how it should be with this franchise. Directors Anderson and Hall, along with Pixar honcho John Lasseter, who spear-headed this re-boot, keep the goings-on at Hundred Acre Wood as small-scaled and generally non-threatening as they've always been. And besides, there's plenty else here to stimulate older viewers, from genuinely clever wordplay to gorgeous, hand-drawn animation to an imaginative sense of play bound to awaken anyone's inner child.
The only caveat, really, is that miniscule running time, and I should emphasize that the movie decidedly does not feel any longer than that hour-and-change. So it would be best to catch Winnie the Pooh at a cheap matinee showing, or maybe you could theatre-hop into it after seeing Horrible Bosses, as some blog administrators have been rumored to do. If you wait for DVD, there's the benefit of watching it multiple times without having to tell your friends how many times you revisited it, which is not to say that this proudly literate treat is a pleasure worth feeling guilty over. Grade: B
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