#quality comedy

EMPIRE RECORDS

Dir. ALLAN MOYLE; Wri. CAROL HEIKINNEN; Music. BASIL POLEDOURIS; Starring. ANTHONY LaPAGLIA, RORY COCHRANE, JOHNNY WHITWORTH, LIV TYLER, RENÉE ZELLWEGER, ROBIN TUNNEY, ETHAN EMBRY, COYOTE SHIVERS, JAMES “KIMO” WILLS, BRENDAN SEXTON III, MAXWELL CAULFIELD, DEBI MAZAR, BEN BODE; R.T. 90 mins; 1995, USA

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: “Rex Manning Day” has come to Empire Records, the small record store managed by Joe Reaves (LaPaglia) and staffed by a motley crew of teenage misfits.  The washed-up soap opera star-turned-washed-up pop star (Caulfield) has come to Empire for a signing day to promote his new album, but the staff are going through a small personal crisis, with Joe in a bit of a tight spot because his junior manager/foster son Lucas (Cochrane) has stolen the previous day’s cash receipts and lost them gambling in Atlantic City in a misguided attempt to stave off Empire’s takeover by big-brand chain Music Town.

WHY IT’S LOST: This film was VERY badly received at the box office and by critics, tanking on its release while being almost universally panned, largely derided as a glorified music video intended to shift a soundtrack album.  It seems strange now, of course – Empire Records has become a major cult favourite with a large and loyal following, and is even being adapted into a stage musical destined to hit Broadway in 2020 …

WHY YOU SHOULD DISCOVER IT:  Personally, I loved it RIGHT AWAY.  I never got what the critics hated about the movie – for me, there’s nothing but simplistic, archetypal genius in its primary colours, its button-cute bubblegum pack of punks and delinquents, its anarchic sense of humour and its thoroughly addictive alt rock-heavy soundtrack.  I remember spending the latter half of my teenage years wishing Empire Records was real and operated in my hometown, because I would have applied for a job like a shot – it’s the kind of fun workplace you ONLY get in Movieland, where everybody just hangs out and goofs off and never seems to do any actual WORK.  They’re an adorable bunch, too – Anthony LaPaglia (Criminal Minds) just might be the coolest boss in movie history, emotionally mercurial but ultimately just a really nice guy, while future CSI star Rory Cochrane frequently steals the film as cocky but self-deprecating career screw-up Lucas, the constant target of Joe’s exasperation; the rest of the ensemble are similarly pitch perfect, a rich collection of then fresh talent who have rightly gone on to VERY great things since, from Liv Tyler and Johnny Whitworth (Blindspot, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) to The Mentalist’s Robin Tunney, future Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger and (my personal favourite) Ethan Embry (Sneaky Pete), whose pure, irrepressible goofiness fuels some of the film’s biggest belly laughs; and then there’s Grease 2 star Maxwell Caulfield, who makes Rex Manning one of the oiliest, sleaziest pricks ever committed to film, a preening narcissist you just love to hate.  This is teen comedy at its most infectiously enjoyable, riotous, gently subversive and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious, but like the best films in this genre there’s plenty of heart too, the humour tempered with bittersweet emotion and rich pathos to help us care and invest a little more.  Director Allan Moyle may be best known for Pump Up the Volume (and rightly so), but this will always be my favourite of his films – when it comes to pure, screwball escapist teen comedy, I can’t think of anything better outside of John Hughes …

THE BROTHERS BLOOM

Dir./Wri. RIAN JOHNSON; Music. NATHAN JOHNSON; Starring. MARK RUFFALO, ADRIEN BRODY, RACHEL WEISZ, RINKO KIKUCHI, MAXIMILLIAN SCHELL, ROBBIE COLTRANE, ZACHARY GORDON, MAX RECORDS, ANDY NYMAN, RICKY JAY; R.T. 114 mins; 2009, USA

WHAT IT’S ABOUT:  The Brothers Bloom are a pair of orphans who have been living by their wits and impressive grifting skills since they were boys, and have now become true giants in the world of con artistry.  Stephen (Ruffalo) is the brains, weaving cons of intricate beauty and multi-layered brilliance, while Bloom (Brody) is the soul, a master emotional manipulator who can win over the toughest mark … and then there’s Bang Bang (Kikuchi), their mysterious Japanese pyrotechnic wiz technical expert.  But when Bloom grows disaffected with their lifestyle and breaks up the band, Stephen concocts one final, special con, designed to finally give his brother what he truly desires, targeting reclusive, multi-talented heiress Penelope Stamp (Weisz).

WHY IT’S AWESOME:  Rian Johnson has become a household name after writing and directing The Last Jedi, the second instalment in the new Star Wars trilogy – right or wrong, the work he did on that movie pushed him into the stratosphere of the business and put him front and centre on the radar of everybody even remotely interested in movies this century.  Myself, I’ve been following his career since the beginning, from his singularly ingenious indie high-school murder mystery debut Brick, which instantly marked him as one to watch, to his breakthrough time-travel masterpiece Looper, which cemented his reputation as one of the most interesting, original and truly BRILLIANT writer-directors working today.  Most people overlook this film in that mix – compared to Johnson’s other work, it’s light, frothy, a little throwaway maybe, essentially a cinematic cappuccino – but in my opinion that’s a criminal oversight, because this is arguably his crowning achievement, quite simply one of the greatest comedy crime capers ever made.  Johnson’s at his most playfully deceptive here, as adept at wrong-footing the viewer and playing with our expectations as Stephen and Bloom are with their hapless marks, and there’s a joyful irreverence and gleefully mischievous sense of humour that’s largely missing from his more serious work (but nonetheless something he did bring back when needed in his tour of duty in a galaxy far, far away), and the film is all the better for it, letting us know it’s all right to have fun with the Brothers and their elaborate, over-the-top schemes.  The film is also effectively powered by its dynamite leads – Mark Ruffalo brings his trademark easy charm and cuddly lovability to bear as the dominant elder Brother, but he’s matched scene-for-scene by Adrien Brody, whose hangdog vulnerability and marvellously complex subtlety are put to fine use throughout, while Rachel Weisz is sweetly sassy but also surprisingly gutsy as the seemingly easy mark who ultimately proves as sharp as the Brothers themselves, and Pacific Rim’s Rinko Kikuchi constantly steals the film without saying a word; there are strong supporting turns from Robbie Coltrane, the late Maximillian Schell (in his final role) and an ingenious cameo from Ghost Stories’ Andy Nyman, but it’s the main foursome who dominate here.  Tight, tricky and always surprising, this is cinema at its most manipulative, but there’s nothing to lose in surrendering to it, and everything to gain – Johnson was at the height of his powers here, and while it’s not QUITE his best work to date, it’s EASILY his most rewarding, and definitely his most heartfelt and pure. Simply perfect escapist cinema …

COLDBLOODED

Dir./Wri. WALLACE WOLODARSKY; Music. STEVE BARTEK; Starring. JASON PRIESTLEY, KIMBERLEY WILLIAMS, PETER RIEGERT, ROBERT LOGGIA, JAY KOGEN, JANEANE GAROFALO, JOSH CHARLES, DAVID ANTHONY HIGGINS, DOIRIS GRAU, MICHAEL J. FOX; R.T. 92 mins; 1995, USA

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Cosmo Reif (Priestley) is a shy, retiring young man who makes a modest living as an LA mob bookie, but a shakeup in “management” leads to his reassignment as a hitman.  Learning the trade under the tutelage of veteran button-man Steve (Riegert), Cosmo discovers he’s a natural at the business, quickly becoming a pro, but when he falls in love with yoga instructor Jasmine (Williams), he finds a good reason to try and get out of the life.

WHY IT’S LOST: Wallace Wolodarsky has had modest success on TV as a staff writer on The Simpsons and an actor for Wes Anderson, but hasn’t had much success as a filmmaker on the big screen.  His feature debut snuck into cinemas without any particular fanfare and largely vanished without a trace after receiving a few mixed reviews.  Today you’d be hard-pressed to find ANYONE who even knew it existed …

WHY YOU SHOULD DISCOVER IT:  That’s a shame, because I think this is a slice of genuine black comedy GENIUS. Wolodarsky has a true talent for wry observational humour, his keen, satirical eye for skewed slice-of-life paying off magnificently as he makes the business of contract killing seem so brilliantly mundane and matter-of-fact.  The consistently hilarious script is packed with sparky, endlessly quotable dialogue, dripping with dry wit and perfectly judged ludicrousness, with characters talking about the moral dilemmas of murder-for-hire as if they were discussing the weather, and it’s a wonderfully low-key approach that Wolodarsky extends to his direction.  Like the rest of his Beverley Hills 90210 alumni, Jason Priestley hasn’t had the greatest success on the big screen over the years, but he’s a strong choice here, bringing a subtle but enormously endearing air of awkwardness to the character – it’s never expressly stated that Cosmo’s on the autistic spectrum, but there are enough indications that I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the intent.  He’s given strong support from a uniformly excellent cast too – Local Hero star Peter Reigert is fantastic as Cosmo’s burned-out mentor in the art of murder, while Father of the Bride’s Kimberley Williams is sweet but feisty as the girl who turns his life around, and there are quality turns from Janeane Garofalo, the legendary Robert Loggia and a wonderfully game Michael J. Fox.  The end results are a fiendishly inventive little black comedy that pokes wondrous fun at mob movies and contract killers without ever losing our sympathy – Grosse Pointe Blank may have covered similar ground with far greater success, but this should come highly recommended to anyone who likes their comedy good and dark (like me).  Well worth hunting down.