AN EDUCATION - It Sure Is

AN EDUCATION, adapted by Nick Hornby from Lynn Barber's memoir, proves that your film doesn't have to have high stakes or amped-up drama to be engaging. It tells the story of Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a bright young British student with dreams of going to Oxford. She finds her plans in turmoil when she meets rich, charming, David.

AN EDUCATION OF SPOILERS

Eventually, with the blessing of her won-over parents, Jenny turns her back on school and decides to marry David. Which is a bit of a problem, being that he's already married. Having screwed up her shot at university by alienating a favorite teacher and mouthing off to the headmistress, Jenny is at a total loss for what to do.

The script does a fantastic job of painting these characters, from bright, eager, bored Jenny to her stick-in-the-mud father who wants the best for her to sleazy/charming David to her teacher (Olivia Williams) to the headmistress. They feel like real people with real problems, which helps sell the romance and allow us to be taken in by David just like Jenny.

Conflicts are natural and arise from the characters and the situations, rather than anything tacked on from the outside.

The film does a great job of showing Jenny's "education" in living life -- going to the symphony, fancy restaurants, art auctions, and Paris. We're seduced along with her and we feel like with David, she has a shot at an interesting life, instead of winding up a drone in academia or the civil service.

If the film has one small flaw, it's that at the end, Jenny tries to get back into school after dropping out, only to find her plans screwed up because she insulted the headmistress. So Jenny enlists the help of her favorite teacher to get her back on track. It's not clear what the teacher did (did she write Oxford? Convince the headmistress to let Jenny back in? Get Jenny whatever the British equivalent of a GED?) to restore Jenny's shot at Oxford and it seems very clear that the headmistress (a great Emma Thompson) isn't going to allow her back in after insulting her.

However, because there's tremendous goodwill for Jenny and her plight, and it is the last few minutes of the film, I was willing to overlook it.

So if you can, go check out AN EDUCATION, as it's a great little film.

THE STEPFATHER - Another Useless Remake

I saw the original STEPFATHER when it came out, so perhaps my memory's a bit hazy; but I recall it being good. And I was looking forward to the remake, despite my general reservations towards remakes. A crazy new dad who kills when his family disappoints him? Sign me up.

The new version feels more like a Lifetime movie than something that should get a theatrical release. The characters are all completely generic, from trying-marriage-a-second-time Sela Ward to her eldest son who keeps getting in trouble.

The biggest flaw is a fatal one for thrillers -- despite David Harris (Dylan Walsh) killing a slew of folks to protect the secret that he's a serial killer who's murdered before -- the film's just not scary for most of its length. There's nothing wrong with having a deliberately paced film with a slow build. That is, as long as it's scary once it gets going. But STEPFATHER doesn't. Walsh kills a neighbor, Sela Ward's ex-husband, and Sela's lesbian sister, none of which are particularly terrifying. This is due to a combination of factors -- one, we don't care about the characters, so we're not concerned when they die; and two, the scenes aren't particularly gripping in their shot selection or editing.

The film also misses a big opportunity by having the main character Michael (Penn Badgeley) start off sympathetic to David. Instead, the filmmakers should've opted for troubled Michael coming home from boarding school and immediately being suspicious of his new dad-to-be.

Similarly, Michael's girlfriend Kelly (Amber Heard) is the obsessively minded voice of reason, pooh-poohing all of Michael's suspicions. This is fine for a bit, because initially, Michael does seem a little crazy in what he's saying. But eventually, it gets ridiculous when Kelly comes up with every excuse in the book to explain away David's increasinly erratic behavior.

If you're going to remake a film, it has to do something different than the original or there's no reason to produce it in the first place. Here, the only difference is that the new version isn't very good.

GENTLEMEN BRONCOS - This Horse Needs To Be Put Down

The team behind NAPOLEON DYNAMITE fucked me again. I should've known better, but the trailers for GENTLEMEN BRONCOS showed two things that gave me hope it'd be a fun movie -- Sam Rockwell in dual, ridiculous roles, and a baked-in conflict that could drive the story (in a young writer finding his novella stolen and publicized to much acclaim by his author idol).

Unfortunately, GB is pretty much the same film as NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, down to the lack of plot, goofball characters (including a schmuck with a weird haircut, an annoying girl, and an odd Mexican guy), and impoverished/70s setting.

It tells the story of Benjamin Purvis, a teen who lives with his mom in a geodesic dome house (for some uknown reason), and who aspires to be a professional author. He attends a literary festival/workshop, where he meets his favorite author, Dr. Ronald Chevalier. The festival has a contest where a winning book will be published. Chevalier steals Benjamin's work and publishes it as his own. Meanwhile, Benjamin's friends Tabatha and Lonnie make an indie film version of his work. Benjamin eventually finds out Chevalier stole his work. A snake shits on Mike White, there's some unrelated gunplay, and that's about it.

The only funny parts of the film are the various versions of Benjamin's book in which Sam Rockwell variously plays Benjamin's version of the hero and Chevalier's much, much gayer version.

The premise -- that of a young author finding his work stolen and published by his idol -- is an interesting one, and it's full of conflict and potential drama. Sadly, Jared & Jerusha Hess opt for oddness instead of milking this conflict. We get two scenes with Benjamin and Chevalier post-plagiarism. In the first, Benjamin punches him in the face. In the second, the situation is resolved by Benjamin's mom -- she registered all his work since he was seven. The main character doesn't even solve his own problem -- it's solved for him.

The film also fails to set up Benjamin as a person with a goal. Why does he want to be published? What does that represent? This lack means that once Benjamin's story is stolen, we're not sure why that matters so much to him (other than the obvious reasons). With one simple bit of dialogue, Benjamin could've explained to his friends what being a published author represents; then, when we saw his book getting that acclaim for someone else, it would resonate more.

There are some more oddball characters, including a truly grotesque version of Pedro from ND, as well as Mike White's odd Big Brother-type character, who serves no real purpose in the film.

The biggest moment of dramatic tension comes during a bit of gunplay that's tacked on for no apparent reason and doesn't even come from the main story. Benjamin's mom (played by a sadly wasted Jennifer Coolidge) goes to a rich man's house to show her horrible line of dresses; he hits on her and Benjaim sticks up for her; then the guy starts shooting for some reason.

The film also fails because we see Benjamin's story and it's horrible. So to see it stolen and published is weird -- it's just as crappy (if not more so) than when he wrote it. And I'm not sure what Hess & Hess were going for in having it adapted into a bad video as well; having his story stolen/ruined once would be sufficient if they bothered to play it out properly.

For some reason that still escapes me, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE made a ton of money, really resonating with pre-teens and teens despite its annoying characters and complete lack of a cohesive narrative. GENTLEMEN BRONCOS follows the same formula with even less returns than ND.