Jeff Who Lives at Home (2011) or, Signs of Jeff

♥♥♥♥♥

The very small-typed tag-line above the picture of Ed Helms as a boy reads, 'The first step to finding your destiny is leaving your mother's basement.' For Mark and Jay Duplass' Jeff Who Lives at Home

QUICK REVIEW:

Jeff lives in his mother's basement and gets as his day's assignment to fix a shutter in a door. That leads him on an 'adventure' with his brother and later also their mother.

Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) is back as comical male #1 of today as the pot-smoking Jeff, who follows different signs in his uneventful life to look for his destiny. Ed Helms (We're the Millers (2013)) is perfect as his dope of a brother, and Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise (1991)) is predictably good as their mother.
As an audience member you don't take an incredible lot with you from the dramedy romance Jeff, but it matters less as the film is so good and makes you roar with laughter so many times.
It is well-written and directed by New Orleanian brothers Mark and Jay Duplass (Cyrus (2010)) and very unusually, - and almost completely successfully, - shot hand-held and with plenty of zooms by Jas Shelton (C.O.G. (2013)). Jeff Who Lives at Home is one of the year's most pleasant and funniest films, one to watch.

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 7.5 mil. $
Box office: 4.7 mil. $
= Huge flop
[After premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, Jeff got its release many months hence in March 2012 and didn't score the audiences it deserved. It made 4.2 mil. $ in North America (89 % of the total gross), and its poor distribution was handled by Paramount Vantage.]

What do you think of Jeff Who Lives at Home?
Seen other movies by the Duplass brothers?
If so, how was/were it/they?

The Descendants (2011) - Payne and Clooney score with a Hawaiian story of heartbreak, loss and family

♥♥♥♥♥♥

3 Time Film Excess Award Winner:

Best Film 
Best Non-adult Actor: Amara Miller 
Best Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael

6 Time Film Excess nominee:


Best Film (won)
Best Screenplay: Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne, Jim Rash (lost to Rory Stewart Kinnear, Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin)
Best Director: Alexander Payne (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Actor: George Clooney (lost to Jack Black for Bernie)
Best Non-adult Actor: Amara Miller (won)
Best Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael (won)

+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Dramedy of the Year
+ Best Hawaii Movie of the Year

Star George Clooney and some Hawaiian ambiance on the poster for Alexander Payne's The Descendants

Matt King is a big landowner in Hawaii, whose wife gets into a boating accident that leaves her in a coma. It turns out SPOILER that she was cheating on him. And that she is now dying. With two difficult daughters and an unrelated, hard decision to make, Matt has a lot on his plate.

George Clooney (Up in the Air (2009)) is outstanding as Matt King, his probably best role to date, and he gets impressive co-actors here in Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars (2014)) and Amara Miller (A Merry Christmas Miracle (2014)) as his daughters, as well as great performances from veterans Beau Bridges (Night Crossing (1982)) and Robert Forster (Jackie Brown (1997)).
They all come together in master filmmaker, co-writer-director Alexander Payne's (Citizen Ruth (1996)) adaptation of Hawaiian writer Kaui Hart Hemmings' (The Possibilities (2014)) 2007 novel, written with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Way Way Back (2013), both). Their well-written, smart dramedy script won Descendants its only Oscar (out of 5 nominations).
The film's balance is more drama than comedy; it abounds with touching moments, fine, subtle photography by great cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Sideways (2004)), lots of great original Hawaiian music and exciting Hawaiian locations.
The Descendants has more heart and more meanings than Payne's best film before this, Sideways. It is painfully good and full of humanity, formidable in every way, a masterpiece and certainly among the year's best films.
Payne is not out of the bushes with another project yet to follow his great Nebraska (2013). 

Related posts:


Alexander Payne: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   
Nebraska (2013) or, Father and Son
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
About Schmidt (2002) or, Dear Ndugu ...

George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller all give resounding performances in Alexander Payne's The Descendants

Watch the unfortunately not very good official trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 177.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[Descendants became a sleeper hit in the US, where it racked up 82.6 mil. $ (47 % of the total gross) in its 156 days long run. It was received with enthusiasm by public and critics alike in many countries, making it onto many top 10 lists of 2011.]

What do you think of The Descendants?
What is your favorite Payne film?

To Rome With Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date

♥♥

Stars on the poster of Woody Allen's To Rome With Love

Americans in Rome fall for the wrong people; Italians in Rome fall for the wrong people.
Everything is wholly gaga in Rome, which initially serves laughter here and there, but after roughly 45 minutes, it is clear that the film has nothing left to offer.
Alec Baldwin has a bizarre character, who just follows Jesse Eisenberg around without really being there, (the film is described as magical realism, but it never succeeds with anything resembling 'real' magic, unfortunately.)
A few other actors charm accidentally, Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha (2012)) mostly. Penélope Cruz has been made into a tawdry tramp here, which is a little hard to take. Judy Greer (Deconstructing Harry (1997)) is OK but doesn't compare to great writer-director Woody Allen's (Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)) earlier, charming, full-bodied female characters.
Allen also plays in the film, battling a young, local rough-neck communist. Rome is a hired, rushed job full of compromises and left-hand work. It is an almost completely ludicrous movie, and probably the weakest that Allen has ever completed.
Allen is at the moment finishing his Magic in the Moonlight (2014) and preparing his next film, as is the prodigious master's modus operandi.  

Related posts:

Woody Allen: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep your Heart
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship With Alvie Singer 

Allen wanted to call the film Bop Decameron, then Nero Fiddles, but was eventually forced to accept the title (which he reportedly hates); To Rome With Love

Here's the trailer for the film

Budget: Est. 17 mil. euros, equal to approximately 18.37 mil. $
Box office: 73.2 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of To Rome With Love?
Do you agree that it is Woody Allen's poorest film to date?