Stan & Ollie (2018) - Brilliant work in simple, hilarious homage masterpiece

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+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Dramedy of the Year + English Movie of the Year + Best Homage of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Nina Arianda

A hat in mid-air and the two stars in full character getup feature on this simple poster for Jon S. Baird's Stan & Ollie

Laurel and Hardy reach the top as cinema's most beloved comedy double act in the 1930s but never achieve the great financial wealth or creative ownership of some of their peers. In 1953 the two are back together after many years apart in order to revive their joint career with an English tour; but reigniting stardom while staying friends proves no easy feat.

Stan & Ollie is written by Jeff Pope (Philomena (2013)), inspired by A.J. Marriot's book Laurel & Hardy - The British Tours (1993), and directed by Scottish master filmmaker Jon S. Baird (Filth (2013)), whose 3rd feature it is.
This is a simple and sincere, unseeming masterpiece; an honest, exceedingly good film, which simply doesn't have a flaw to it that's worth mentioning. Stan & Ollie is a film about friendship and professional companionship; about comedy and performing, and about life, getting something worthwhile out of it, and about reaching its inevitable end.
The film brims with enthusiasm and affection for its duo of subjects and their comedy, which is recreated with rare bravura by the master performances of acting greats Steve Coogan (The Other Guys (2010)) and John C. Reilly (Sing (2016)), who even give a great song performance with Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Coogan's empathized and impressively detailed invocation of Stan Laurel is awesome, and Reilly's inhabiting of the quite different Oliver Hardy is just as good. Their comedic acts highlight Laurel & Hardy's simpler, good-for-all brand of universal comedy, which seems to have all but disappeared now; but boy what a joy it is to see it back for a good show here in Stan & Ollie, - and boy, did the two of them make me laugh!
The film also has good supporting performances: Rufus Jones (Camping (2016, miniseries)) is spot-on as the dubious British booking agent, Shirley Henderson (Yes (2004)) is just right as Ollie's adoring shrew wife, but it is Nina Arianda (Hannibal (2015, TV-series)) who steals scenes and gets more than a few laughs of her own as Stan's imperiously proud, brief and lingually challenged Russian émigré wife. Fondly remembered from her turn in the comparable period showbiz dramedy Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), Arianda has a meatier part here and stands out.
Stan & Ollie has good production values, and it never sentimentalizes its time period by glossing it up. The photography is simple and to the point; SPOILER only in the final performance we linger profoundly at the duo's shadows on the stage, as Ollie's declining health forces them to the precipice of their collaboration.
The film opens with a delightful, long Steadicam shot through a major Hollywood studio in full swing, and the script tells the story with perfect command, never rushing, but getting its points down nonetheless, SPOILER reaching a (for some audiences personally) familiar culmination, where hard words are uttered between the two pals, which hurt like stab wounds.
Stan & Ollie is a wonderful film. - Don't miss seeing it on a big screen!

Related posts:

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 21.7 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say, - but presently a flop
[Stan & Ollie premiered 21 October (BFI London Film Festival, UK) and runs 97 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London, in the spring of 2017. Reilly reportedly spent 4 hours daily in the makeup chair. The film opened #32 to a 78k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #20 and in 754 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 5.4 mil. $ (24.9 % of the total gross) North America was the film's 2nd biggest market; the UK were by far the biggest with a 13.6 mil. $ (62.7 %). Italy looks to be the 3rd biggest now, with 946k $ (4.4 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, 3 BAFTAs and 7 British Independent Film awards, winning none. It has yet to open in at least two more markets: Israel (6 June) and Turkey (28 June). Baird does not have an announced follow-up yet. Coogan returned in Hot Air (2018), Reilly in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) with a voice performance and physically in Holmes & Watson (2018). Stan & Ollie is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.48/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Stan & Ollie?

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) - Streep, Frears and Co. drop us a delightful present

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+ Best True-Story Movie of the Year

 

The stars shine and look charming and game on this poster for Stephen Frears' Florence Foster Jenkins

 

In 1944, New York high society lady and patron to the musical arts Florence Foster Jenkins gets inspired by a spectacular singing performance to pick up her own singing ambition again - and perform in public. The only minor problem is that she really can't sing.

This true-story music comedy-drama is the summer's delightful present from English master filmmaker Stephen Frears (Philomena (2013)) and writer Nicholas Martin (Big Bad World (1999-01)). - It feels like a present, because it is so delightfully played and because, in the context of our time, this is a story that could have been just as wondrous twenty years ago as today or in thirty years. It is not and doesn't aspire to be immediately relevant to today's world, which may sound like a bad thing but is actually liberating.

Florence Foster Jenkins is especially amazing the more showbiz-savvy people around the world, because it has to do with the musical and high societal part of New York in the 1940s but also because it is such an actors' film: Meryl Streep (Doubt (2008)) gives a performance as the title character which is stunning, fantastic and which manages to show yet another side to the amazing actress' unbelievable breadth. Her singing performances in the film, - which she does herself, managing to hide completely that she has a perfectly good singing voice, - are the film's best parts, and especially the one towards the end had me laughing hysterically and crying at the same time. Streep delivers with such a sincerity and empathy for the character that Florence isn't just funny beyond belief, - it is also profoundly moving. - Especially in the many moments when it is pretty obvious that the character feels she can wing her performance - on or off stage, but always with a focused audience present who do notice her every flaw, - are just priceless.

Jenkins is married to St. Clair Bayfield, whom she has a loving but platonic relationship with, due to her suffering from long-term syphilis. Hugh Grant (About a Boy (2002)) instills a boatload of feeling and humanity to Bayfield, who has a mistress (the lovely Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015))), but is capable of loving them both in different ways. Simon Helberg (A Cinderella Story (2004)), if overwrought at first, also makes a winning, beautiful performance as Jenkins' pianist Cosmé McMoon, a nervous, tender, gay fellow from Texas. The sensitive characterizations are balanced with also keeping the film's vibrant humor alive throughout. In a smaller role, which includes a lovely dance with Grant, Nina Arianda (The Humbling (2014)) is a lovely broad here, and Christian McKay (Me and Orson Welles (2008)) is perfectly cast as a snotty newspaper critic.

There are moments in the film, when we don't know where it is heading. A harsher critic might write that it works in jumps and starts. It also has some minor continuity issues here and there. I trusted the filmmakers and actors completely and wasn't at all bothered by this. Florence Foster Jenkins transported me to another, captivating and very charming world. 

SPOILER At a climactic moment near the film's end, Jenkins reflects to her doting husband: "People may say I couldn't sing, but no one can say I didn't sing." This sums up the lesson of the film very well in all of its touching simplicity. At a time when masses are gloating over the cold rejections of amateur talents on primetime TV in a hundred different languages everywhere the world over, it is worth stopping and remembering the individual's worth and his/her right to express him/herself regardless of the measure of talent.

Florence Foster Jenkins is a film you shouldn't miss in the theater. It's a true joy.

Related posts:

Stephen Frears: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

Philomena (2013) - Dench astounds in Frears' powerful true-story drama

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 19 mil. $

Box office: 43.7 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Florence Foster Jenkins premiered 23 April (Belfast Film Festival) and runs 110 minutes. Filming took place in and around May 2015 entirely in the UK: In London, Liverpool, other parts of England and in Glasgow, Scotland. The film opened #8 to a 6.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has grossed 26.7 mil. $ to date. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets to date are the UK with 4.1 mil. $ (9.4 %) and Australia with 2.7 mil. $ (6.2 %). The film has yet to open in a few big markets (namely Germany and Japan). Many are hoping it will attract Oscar nominations for Streep and perhaps Grant and Helberg, and I certainly hope it will not be forgotten and decided old hat by January as I think it is in danger of, (abetted by its relatively small gross.) Florence Foster Jenkins is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Florence Foster Jenkins?