One Night at McCool's (2001) - Stars shine in Zwart's under-appreciated farce

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Liv Tyler will catch most people's attention, lounged forward showing cleavage in a jaguar-patterned dress on this poster for Harald Zwart's One Night at McCool's

Buxom beauty Jewel wrecks havoc on several men's lives in connection to one fateful night at McCool's.

 

One Night at McCool's is written by Stan Seidel (True Colors (1991-92)) and directed by great Dutch filmmaker Harald Zwart (Hamilton (1998)).

It is a hilarious farce, which interweaves one out there cliche to the next in an inventively written and clever script. There's a colorful team of characters, good pacing and cool music, (a Johnny Cash song and a rad shooting in the end to The Village People are highlights.)

A fantastic cast really kicks butt here: Michael Douglas (Summertree (1971)) wins just by the hairpiece he dons here alone as a hitman but of course the legend backs it up with gusto; Liv Tyler (Silent Fall (1994)) is gorgeous and extremely sexy; John Goodman (Argo (2012)) is wonderful as a religious policeman; Paul Reiser (Red Oaks (2014-17)) plays a lawyer with a gigantic ego; and Richard Jenkins (The Mod Squad (1999)) is a bowl of laughs as a Catholic priest.

 

Watch Zwart and Tyler in the latter's hair, makeup and wardrobe test for the film here

 

Cost: 18 mil. $

Box office: 13.5 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.75 times its cost)

[One Night at McCool's premiered 19 April (UK) and runs 92 minutes. Shooting took place from August - November 1999 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #11 to a 2.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 6.2 mil. $ (45.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1.8 mil. $ (13.3 %) and France with 483k $ (3.6 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Zwart returned with Hamilton (2001, miniseries), A-ha: Forever Not Yours (2002, music video) and theatrically with Agent Cody Banks (2003). Tyler returned in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001); Matt Dillon (The House That Jack Built (2018)) in Deuces Wild (2002); and Douglas in Don't Say a Word (2001). One Night at McCool's is rotten at 33 % with a 4.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of One Night at McCool's?

The House That Jack Built (2018) - Something's amiss in Von Trier's depraved, unpleasant serial killer pic

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Matt Dillon's titular culprit stares ominously past us through a plastic curtain on this poster for Lars Von Trier's The House That Jack Built

Jack carries on a conversation with a mysterious man named Verge about some perhaps pivotal, perhaps randomly elected murders he has committed during a 12 year period as a prolific serial killer.

The House That Jack Built is the 14th film, (depending on how you count them), from Danish master writer/director Lars Von Trier (The Idiots/Idioterne (1998)), with Jenle Hallund (Melancholia (2011), script consultant) contributing story elements.
In terms of music, digressions, structure, style, themes and tone, the film is classic Von Trier, who has stated that due to his failing health, it may be his last. It is packed with references and wry, pitch black humor, which, however, caused almost nil amusement on my part, simply because the macabre context kills the tasteless stabs at comedy here.
The film does not aim to enlighten with a psychological portrait of its titular serial killer; rather it opens up to an insight into him through a series of killings, which he talks about to Bruno Ganz (In Order of Disappearance/Kraftidioten (2014)), playing classical Greek literary figure Virgil. A recent, great serial killer film that does the opposite thing, namely probing a serial killer objectively through his formative years, prior to his murderous misdeeds, is Marc Meyers' My Friend Dahmer (2017), which I recommend for those who can stomach such intensely disturbing fare.
The House That Jack Built begins relatively light on the violence scale but later catches up with gruesome depravities that will make most stomachs turn, and which makes the film unfit for consumption for most average moviegoers. SPOILER The special effects are top notch, as we are used to from Von Trier's works, and particularly the offing of two kids and subsequent dealing with their corpses shocks and repels. SPOILER Jack is a nasty bugger, a compulsive, sadistic, narcissistic, arrogant misogynist-psychopath-megalomaniac, and it is not exactly a pleasure to get to know him. It is clear that Von Trier has created him with care and sympathetic insight, which only makes the film more questionable.
SPOILER Von Trier has ordered the film as a descent into hell for Jack, who thereby, as the advanced audiences will gather early on, may escape worldly punishment but gets his due eventually. SPOILER The idea seems to be that all the wrongs in the world, which Von Trier present through Jack, are redeemed through the fact that he eventually is dropped into the fiery depths of hell. - The last scenes which make up the hell section of the film are its best and somehow most tolerable part, I think, but still I cannot really condone the film, its logic or the general experience of it.
Matt Dillon (Tex (1982)), whose skeletal facial structure somehow seems tailor-made for Jack, is eerily authentic here, and the various ill-fated actresses are all good, although it is impossible to envy their jobs here. Unpleasant and possibly immoral, The House That Jack Built is cerebral, technically astute and not a Von Trier film I can immediately come out in favor of. In fact it may be a few years before I know for sure what to think about it.

Related posts: 

Lars Von Trier:  Nymphomaniac (2013) short version, vol. 1 & vol. 2, or, Lars Von Trier's Suck It  
Melancholia (2011) - Von Trier's heightened reality doomsday reflections 
Antichrist (2009) - Von Trier's cabin-in-the-woods psycho-horror 
The Early Years: Erik Nietzsche Part 1/De Unge År: Erik Nietzsche Sagaen Del 1 (2007) - Thuesen and Von Trier's hilarious film school comedy (autobiographical screenplay) 
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The Boss of It All/Direktøren for det Hele (2006) - Von Trier's hilarious absurd comedy 
Dear Wendy (2005) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed megaflop (writer)
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Dogville (2003) - Von Trier's implacable, truly unique drama  
The Five Obstructions/De Fem Benspænd (2003, documentary) or, Lars von Trier vs. Jørgen Leth
Dancer in the Dark (2000) or, Selma the Immigrant    
Zentropa/Europa (1991) - Von Trier's audacious ode to the heavy continent is a fever dream on celluloid
Epidemic (1987) - Von Trier's trippy, bizarre second film  
The Element of Crime/Forbrydelsens Element (1984) - Von Trier's ultra-strange debut

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9.9 mil. $
Box office: 0.5 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[The House That Jack Built premiered 14 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, out of competition) and runs 155 minutes. The project was originally envisioned as a TV-series but later changed into movie format. Von Trier has described it as a celebration of life as "evil and soulless". Shooting took place in Sweden, Denmark, including Copenhagen, Italy and England from March - May 2017. The premiere in Cannes provoked walkouts from reportedly 100 audiences and critics, followed by a 6-minute applause, and the US release has also been crowned with controversy, as ratings authority MPAA has threatened distributor IFC Films with sanctions due to a screening of the unrated director's cut of the film without a waiver. The film has premiered to a predictably small reception in Von Trier's native Denmark, where 8k have bought admission so far. The film's current gross includes grosses from the US, France, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Its gross needs to explode inexplicably for it to avoid becoming a box office disaster, (which is normal for Von Trier's artistic, critically lauded works.) Von Trier has announced that he will return with a series of short films called Études. Dillon returned in Running for Grace (2018). The House That Jack Built is fresh at 63 % with a 6.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The House That Jack Built?

Girl Most Likely/Imogene (2012) - Wiig is great as another dysfunctional woman in Berman & Pulcini's unfocused fare

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+ Worst Poster of the Year
 

The sorriest poster of 2012 to be sure, this pink-hued thing for Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman's Girl Most Likely with miserable-looking Kristen Wiig and Darren Criss win Film Excess' Worst Poster of the Year

Imogene is a teetering middle-aged woman in New York, who loses her shallow boyfriend, her shallow friends and her magazine job and then stages a suicide attempt that she hopes will solve all of her problems. Instead, it gets her home to live with her problematic mother and brother.

I really looked forward to Girl Most Likely, based on its funny trailer and the good people involved, its star Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids (2011)) first and foremost. Wiig is really good in the film, and she makes it float as an enjoyable escapade, but she and the other actors cannot hide the fact that it's script and concept is half-baked at best. Michelle Morgan (Middle of Nowhere (2008)) is the responsible writer. In my opinion, it needed a serious core and more of a sense of general direction (the meaning of the title, for instance, never comes into play, (and was also first picked after the first screening in Toronto under the film's inauspicious working title Imogene.)) The persistent quirkiness of the characters instead come off as a little forced, which is a shame. A much better film was hiding somewhere in this material, I think.

Girl Most Likely does have some laughs, and its other notable players worth mentioning favorably include Bob Balaban (Ghost World (2001)) and charming young Darren Criss (Glee (2010-15)) as Wiig's love interest.

The change of title after its release indicates a generally unfocused film, unfortunately, which isn't among the most successful from its directing couple Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who have previously delighted especially with their quaint masterpiece The Extra Man (2010). They are now in post with Ten Thousand Saints (2015) a drama with Asa Butterfield, Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Emile Hirsch and others.

Related posts:

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini: 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]
American Splendor (2003) or, Happily Unhappy Together

Another better but still thoroughly bad poster for Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's Girl Most Likely

And a third ... Wiig looks nice, but this can hardly even be called a poster

Watch the hilarious trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 1.3 mil. $ (US only)

= Some uncertainty although almost certainly a big flop

[Girl Most Likely may have been made for a scant budget of up to 5 mil. $, but that would still make it an very big flop. Its star and genre make it best suited for its home market, where it didn't catch any fire, and it has only had cinematic releases in 13 other countries worldwide. Some of its failure undoubtedly can be attributed to its really awful posters.]

What do you think of Girl Most Likely?

What is your favorite Kristen Wiig-moment in anything she has done so far?