Jason Bateman Mouths "Bad Words"

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Jason Bateman: No More Mr. Nice Guy

By Skip Sheffield

Jason Bateman stomps on his Mr. Nice Guy reputation with “Bad Words,” his directorial debut, and grinds it into the dirt.

With his hair shorn in an angry buzz cut, Bateman plays the thoroughly reprehensible Guy Trilbey, a 40-year-old sore loser. How sore? Because he did not win a spelling bee back in the eighth grade, thanks to a convenient loophole he has decided to sabotage the system and compete again as an adult against 12 and 13-year-olds.

“Bad Words” is rated R for the bad words that regularly issue from the lips of Guy Trilbey, who has contempt for just about everybody.

Bateman himself says that the script by Andrew Dodge does for spelling bees what “Bad Santa” did for Christmas.

The problem is it’s pretty much a one-joke idea except for Guy Trilbey’s inappropriate behavior toward everyone. Guy heaps his disdain on the journalist who is following him and likes him well enough that she is seduced by him.

Kathryn Hahn plays the journalist, Jenny Wigeon, who apparently feels bad sex is better than no sex at all.

Guy despises the Golden Quill National Spelling Bee director, Dr. Bernice Deagan, played by Allison Janney in condescending schoolmarm mode.

The biggest heap of contempt and blind hatred is dumped on the spelling bee’s founder Dr. Bowman, played by Philip Baker Hall. It would be a spoiler to reveal why Guy hates Dr. Bowman so strongly, so we’ll say no more.

The only person Guy seems to like, other than himself, is Chaitanya Chopra, a pint-sized, very bright 12-year-old boy of Indian parentage. Chaitanya is played by Rohan Chand, a very appealing young actor with huge brown eyes and a ready smile.

Yep, there is a moral to the story after all, and that what gives this otherwise vulgar movie “redeeming social value.” Yes it is quite funny, but there are as many groans as there are laughs. Jason Bateman is probably better off playing the good guy he seems to be.

 

Catherine Deneuve is "On My Way"

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Timeless Beauty Catherine Deneuve is “On My Way”

By Skip Sheffield

In the constellation of beautiful movie stars, Catherine Deneuve has been one of the fairest of all for more than half a century.

At age 70 Deneuve is still quite beautiful. In her latest film, “On My Way,” she almost seems to be playing herself.

Bettie (Deneuve) is a former Miss Brittany who missed the Miss France finals because of a car accident. Widowed by a man she never really loved, Bettie has settled in the routine of running her family restaurant. The rather dull routine is spiced up by an ongoing affair with a married man her age. As we meet Bettie she has just learned her lover has jilted her for a 25-year-old chick.

Bettie lives with her crabby, domineering mother (Claude Gensac). Things are going none too well at the restaurant. Bills are piling up and creditors are threatening.

When Bettie’s estranged daughter Muriel (singer Camille) calls with an urgent request that would entail a road trip, Bettie figures what does she have to lose?

The assignment is to take her surly grandson, Muriel’s son Charly (Nemo Schiffman), to his grandfather’s so Muriel can interview for an internship that could turn her life around.

Bettie hasn’t seen Charly in several years, and he is not too keen on travelling with his grandmother. The relationship is rocky at first. At one point Charly tries to run away, but eventually a mutual bond develops, and it is sealed when Bettie decides to attend a reunion event of former Miss France candidates at a lakeside resort.

Director Emmanuelle Bercot was born three years after Deneuve shot to stardom in “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” in 1964, but she is keenly in sync with the prospect of a woman whose life has been built upon her physical appearance and is facing the inevitable aging process.

There is an underlying melancholia to “On My Way,” adapted from a screenplay written expressly for Deneuve by Jerome Tonnerre, but it is never defeatist. It is often funny and yes, sexy. Bettie never gives in to self-pity or forces that would dominate her. Catherine Deneuve is a poster girl for women facing old age without fear or regret.

 

Check-In Time at Grand Budapest Hotel

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The Mad Fantasies of Grand Budapest Hotel

By Skip Sheffield

Wes Anderson lives in some kind of parallel, crazy, beautiful universe.

His latest fantasy is “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” and it is his grandest vision to date.

Even more than “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” Anderson’s surrealistic take on Jacques Cousteau, “Grand Budapest Hotel” is a strange and wonderful creation, filled with one-off characters that seem vaguely familiar yet distinctly artificial.

The pink wedding cake hotel of the title is obviously not real, but enchanting just the same. The story begins in 1932 in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka- not Hungary- in mountains that look vaguely like the Alps.

At the center of the story, inspired by Viennese author Stefan Zweig and fleshed out by writer-director Wes Anderson, is a prissy, fastidious and somewhat androgynous concierge named M. Gustave H.

This role is perfect for Ralph Fiennes, a delicate-featured actor who can be effeminate, manly, refined and sexy all in the same character.

Gustave, a “most liberally perfumed man,” is a by-the-books perfectionist at the complete service of his oddball guests- especially the wealthy older women he often seduces.

Gustave’s boy Friday is a novice Lobby Boy named Zero (wide-eyed newcomer Tony Revolori). Zero has zero education and zero family, but he is eager to please.

Plot is the least important part of “Grand Budapest Hotel,” but the main device is the theft of a priceless painting called “Boy with Apple.” The painting had been owned by dowager and hotel guest Madame D (Tilda Swinton), who expires with a hotly-contested will.

The large cast of characters is familiar to Wes Anderson fans, because most of them have been in his previous seven films. F. Murray Abraham is the mysterious hotel owner Mr. Moustafa. Adrien Brody is the weasely Dmitri. Willem Dafoe is the violent, dangerous Jopling. Jeff Goldblum is the officious Deputy Kovacs. With shaved head, Harvey Keitel is a tattooed inmate known as Kovacs. Edward Norton is Police Inspector Henckls and Bill Murray makes the most of a brief appearance as M. Ivan.

New to the Anderson ensemble is Saoirse Ronan, baker of the delectable pastries that figure prominently in the plot and a love prospect for Zero.

There is a little bit of everything: a tense stalking scene, an intricate prison break, chases, a runaway sled, a crowded, noisy gunfight and a funicular that provides the only transportation to the hotel, yet looks like a child’s toy.

“Grand Budapest Hotel” is heavy with nostalgia and movies of the 1930s. It had a special resonance for me, because much of the first seven years of my life was spent in grand hotels and resorts not unlike the Budapest. Seeing “Grand Hotel Budapest” was like awaking to a dream sad and sweet, accompanied by an indescribable sense of loss.

Have Sex, Feel Better

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“Better Living” at Living Room Theaters

By Skip Sheffield

“Better Living Through Chemistry” is a rather racy offering for FAU’s Living Room Theaters. It will be interesting to see how this modern sex farce goes over with an older audience.

Actually “Better Living” is a bit more subversive than just a sex farce. If you were to take it seriously you might think the best thing to spice up a stale marriage is a wild extramarital fling, powered with drugs and alcohol followed by a plot to murder an annoying mate.

But you can’t take this movie, written and directed by Geoff Moore and David Posamentier, too seriously because it is played as a bawdy comedy with a wink and a nod.

Sam Rockwell is Douglas Varney, a meek and mild pharmacist in the small town of Woodbury in Anywhere, USA (but suspiciously like Southern California).

Doug works for his father-in-law Walter Bishop (Ken Howard). Walter is a loutish, domineering blowhard who thinks he knows everything.

His daughter Kara (Michelle Monaghan) also has a domineering streak, which has kept wimpy Doug in a submissive state. Doug and Kara’s 12-year-old son Ethan (Harrison Holzer) is out of control; insolent and uncommunicative at home and disruptive in middle school.

When Doug’s delivery man Noah (Ben Schwartz) fails to deliver a prescription on time, Doug decides to deliver it himself.

Elizabeth Roberts (Olivia Wilde) answers the door clad in a silky slip with a drink in one hand and cigarette in the other. The bill is $180 but Elizabeth has only $20, and her rich husband is out of town.

It begins with a lingering kiss on the lips. Mrs. Roberts is one seductive babe and Doug is vulnerable.

This is a sex farce, not a morality play. Elizabeth is fond of mind-altering, sex-enhancing drugs, and Doug has the ingredients at the ready. As Doug becomes more reckless, he takes up smoking and paradoxically decides to challenge his fitness-freak wife to a bicycle race.

When by chance Doug meets Elizabeth’s husband Jack (Ray Liotta) it dawns on him maybe Jack isn’t the unreasonable ogre Elizabeth painted him.

Then DEA Agent Andrew Carp (Norbert Leo Butz) pays a visit to the pharmacy. Doug’s situation becomes uncomfortably serious.

Sam Rockwell is a versatile actor who can play both milquetoast and wild man in the same role, which serves him well here. Olivia Wilde has the right combination of raw sex appeal and covert menace, while Michelle Monaghan’s good girl learns a satisfying life lesson.

Stick around for the end and enjoy a famous person cameo that reassures everything is all in good fun.

 

Laugh with the "Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins"

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A Red-Hot, Very Funny Show

By Skip Sheffield

Barbara Bradshaw made her Boca Raton debut in 1975 in the inaugural season of Caldwell Playhouse for its very first show. She was the title character in the Neil Simon comedy “Star-Spangled Girl.” It was not a very good play, but Barbara was the best part of the show. Michael Hall obviously recognized talent when he saw it. Bradshaw became the resident leading lady at Caldwell and even taught Theater 101 at College of Boca Raton (now Lynn University).

Barbara is no longer an ingénue, but as an actress she is busy as ever and taking on new challenges.

Barbara Bradshaw makes her Women’s Theatre Project debut in the one-woman show “Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins.” The show continues through Sunday, March 16 at the Willow Theatre of Sugar Sand Park, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton.

Born in California, Molly Ivins had the misfortune to be raised in Texas in an ultra-conservative suburb of Houston. Her father James, an oil executive known as General Jim or Admiral Jim, was a staunch authoritarian right-winger. Of course his rebellious daughter would grow up to be a “bleeding-heart liberal.”

Throughout her career Molly Ivins would insist she was not a liberal, but on the other hand she was contemptuous of lock-step conservatives who trampled human rights and kowtowed to big business.

The script, created by Margaret and Allison Engel, is lifted directly from Ivins’ satirical columns in the Minneapolis Tribune, where she was the first female police reporter; the Texas Observer magazine, New York Times, Washington Post and finally Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

As the title indicates, Molly Ivins was very witty. She was also laugh-out-loud funny as quoted by Bradshaw.

“Red Hot Patriot” is performed without intermission in less than 90 minutes on a spare set resembling a newsroom. There is one wordless walk-on role of “copy boy,” performed deadpan by Joseph Franklin.

Genie Croft directed the show, but the major lifting is done by Barbara Bradshaw, memorizing a complicated, diverse monologue. I left the Willow Theater with renewed respect both for Bradshaw and for courageous Molly Ivins, who died prematurely at age 62 of breast cancer in 2007.

Tickets are $25, but you can get a discount through the Cultural Connection. Call 561-445-9244.

Set the WABC Machione for "Mr. Peabody and Sherman"

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Mr. Peabody and Sherman” Finally Hits the Big Screen

By Skip Sheffield

“The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” aired from 1959-1964 and continues to this day in television re-runs. The crudely-animated show featured corny puns, satire and self-referential humor aimed more at adults than children.

“Peabody’s Improbable History” was a regular segment of the show. In it a dog named Mr. Peabody and his adopted human boy Sherman would journey back to key moments in a time-travelling device known as the WABAC (pronounced “Way-Back”) Machine.

Now “Mr. Peabody and Sherman” is a 3-D animated feature movie. It is bigger, longer but not necessarily better than the more sarcastic black-and-white original.

Still, “Mr. Peabody” is a lot of nostalgic fun for Baby Boom era adults. I imagine the 3-D special effects have been added to appeal to a younger generation. It was a 12-year effort for director Ron Minkoff (“The Lion King”) to make “Mr. Peabody” a reality.

Tiffany Ward, daughter of “Rocky & Bullwinkle” creator Jay Ward, served as executive director and creative consultant for the script, based on her late father’s characters and expanded by screenwriter Craig Wright.

An all-star cast of voices was recruited, topped by Ty Burrell as Mr. Peabody, the world’s smartest dog, and Max Charles as Sherman, his adoptive human son.

The setup comes when Sherman gets in a conflict with snobby Penny Peterson (Ariel Winter) at school and Mr. Sherman tries to mediate with her parents (Stephen Colbert and Leslie Mann) when social worker Mrs. Grunion (Allison Jenney) threatens to remove Sherman from Mr. Peabody’s custody.

Sherman has been forbidden from using the WBAC machine without Mr. Peabody, so of course Sherman does so in an effort to impress Penny.

Sherman and Penny travel to ancient Egypt, revolution-era France and ancient Troy, where they experience misadventures with historic characters.

The relationship between Mr. Peabody has been expanded and deepened for the movie. This adds sentimentality that was not in the original, but in aiming the movie at a family market it is smart to emphasize family values.

"The Wind Rises" a Class Act

 

For a sheer class act, you won’t go wrong with “The Wind Rises,” which is billed as the last animated film by Japanese writer-director master Hayao Miyazaki.

Jiro (voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a Japanese boy who aspires to be a pilot, but because of poor eyesight he settles on a career of aircraft design instead. Jiro joins the aircraft company that designed the famed Japanese Zero in 1927. The chief designer, Italian Caproni (Stanley Tucci), becomes Jiro’s mentor and inspiration.

The story also illustrates the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, a major tuberculosis epidemic and Japan’s entry into World War II. A romantic side plot has Jiro falling in love with Nahoko (voice of Emily Blunt).

Like his earlier works "Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle," “The Wind Rises” is majestic, lyrical and beautiful.

More West Bank Violence in “Bethlehem”

Hard on the heels of “Omar” comes the similarly-themed “Bethlehem,” co-written by Israeli director Yuval Adler and Arab journalist Ali Waked, who spent years on the West Bank.

Shadi Mar’i plays Sanfur, the 17-year-old younger brother of Abu Ibrahim (Tarik Kopty), a notorious Palestinian guerrilla fighter. Like “Omar” there is an Israeli Shin Bet (secret police) officer, Razi (Tsahi Halewi) who is pressuring Sanfur to give up terrorist secrets. Unlike “Omar” there is no romantic angle.

“Bethlehem” is a grim, gripping thriller set in one of the most violent, dangerous places on earth.

 

It's Never To Late to Declare Your Love

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"Fighting Over Beverley"

By Skip Sheffield

How lucky are we that an internationally-acclaimed playwright has taken a personal interest in a local theater company?

The playwright is Israel Horovitz. The company is Theatre at Arts Garage and the play is “Fighting Over Beverley,” running through March 23 at 180 N.W. First St., Delray Beach.

Arts Garage theater artistic director Louis Tyrrell first became acquainted with Israel Horovitz when his Florida Stage performed his work in Manalapan.

Horovitz visited Delray Beach last year when his “Gloucester Blue” was staged.

Set in Gloucester, Mass. in the winter of 1997, “Fighting Over Beverley” is a romantic comedy triangle with a twist: the characters are all but one senior citizens.

Archie (Dennis Creaghan) is a 70-year old British veteran of World War II. When he was 20 he fell madly in love with 18-year-old Beverley (Sandra Shipley. Instead of marrying Archie, Beverley jilted him and was swept away by a heroic American pilot who lost his leg when his plane was shot down.

Zelly (Paul O’Brien) whisked Beverley back to America, leaving Archie to stew ever after. Archie, who lived with his mother until her death, never married. Now that mom is gone he has embarked on a quixotic quest to win back Beverley.

Zelly is understandably upset when he discovers the true nature of Archie’s visit to their Gloucester home. Emotions rise through the first act and peak in the second act when Beverley and Zelly’s daughter Cecily (Erin Joy Schmidt) makes her appearance.

Cecily has just left her abusive husband. Through Cecily’s eyes we see a marriage that is not exactly made in heaven.

Director Tyrrell has cast first-rate professionals, including the locally-based Creaghan and Schmidt; O’Brien, who is an Israel Horovitz specialist who has acted in 14 of his plays, and British born and bred Shipley, who also has numerous Horovitz credentials.

It is quite a treat seeing such polished pros parrying Horovitz’s clever banter. While there is a serious side to the subject, “Fighting Over Beverly” is never a downer. This play has special meaning for someone who loved, lost and mourned at a young age. I did and I do still.

Tickets are $30-$45. Call 561-450-6357 or go to www.artsgarage.org.