The House (2017) - Young filmmaker career-crashes with starry comedy flop

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The two stars look silly on this poster for Andrew Jay Cohen's The House

Two really goofy parents find themselves in a pickle, when their daughter gets into her dream college - but without a scholarship. - Could an underground casino in their basement be the solution to their financial woes?

 

The House is written by co-writer/co-producer Brendan O'Brien (Neighbors (2014)) and debuting co-writer/co-producer/director Andrew Jay Cohen (American Storage (2006, short)).

Will Ferrell (Zeroville (2019)) and Amy Poehler (Sisters (2015)) almost compete in silliness here and in that way play two fairly similar characters in The House, a film that shows that the two together is no comedy match made in heaven. The film is simply rarely very much fun, although to some degree it may amuse and entertain lightly.

The House deals with the hysterical monetary demands of American middle class life, - and the ludicrous individuals that seem to grow currently in this section of society. The film is like a sketch blown up to feature length without much success but with plenty of violence, gambling and Nick Kroll (Sing 2 (2021)) as a corrupt council chairman. The House is a forgettable trifle.

 

Related post:

 

Andrew Jay Cohen: Neighbors (2014) - Stoller's low-flying raunch turkey (co-writer)

 

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 34.1 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.85 times its cost)

[The House premiered 26 June (Los Angeles) and runs 88 minutes. Shooting took place around September 2015 in California, including in Los Angeles. The long period before release indicates that the studio realized they had a dud on their hands. The film opened #6 to an 8.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 25.5 mil. $ (74.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 3.4 mil. $ (10 %) and the UK with 1.5 mil. $ (4.4 %). Cohen seems to have ended his career in movies completely after The House. Ferrell returned in Daddy's Home 2 (2017); Poehler in 4 TV credits prior to her theatrical return in Wine Country (2019). The House is rotten at 20 % with a 3.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The House? 

Hard Eight (1996) - Anderson debuts with downbeat crime drama

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 + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best Debut of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.13 Times the Cost + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Nevada Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

 

The iconic dark green of the dice table makes up the background on this simple poster for Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight

Sydney is an oldtimer and a veteran gambler, who knows some shortcuts in the business. He now takes the younger John under his wings, who finds himself in trouble, and later also the waitress and prostitute Clementine ...

 

Hard Eight is written and directed by debuting Californian master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (Punch Drunk Love (2002)).

Anderson establishes an oppressive mood across this well-acted, downbeat, short-story-like tale, which also benefits from strong photography (by Robert Elswit (Syriana (2005))) and music (score by Jon Brion (Step Brothers (2008)) and Michael Penn (Boogie Nights (1997))).

We accept and embrace spending the running time here with these hard-pressed, desperate (loser) characters, mainly because Philip Baker Hall (The Zodiac (2005)), John C. Reilly (Rubberhead (2014, TV movie)), Gwyneth Palthrow (The Good Night (2007)), Samuel L. Jackson (The Incredibles (2004)) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Culture (1997, short)) are so absolutely excellent in their character portrayals.

 

Related posts:

Paul Thomas Anderson: 2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Phantom Thread (2017) - Anderson's exquisite drama of an English dressmaker and his Alma 

The Master (2012) - Anderson's stunning post-war reflection 
Boogie Nights (1997) - Anderson's irresistible porn 'Casino'

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

Here is a 3-minute clip from the film

 

Cost: 3 mil. $

Box office: 222k $ (North America only)

= Box office disaster (returned 0.07 times its cost in North America; projected total return of 0.13 times the cost)

[Hard Eight premiered 20 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 102 minutes. It is based on Anderson's own short film Cigarettes & Coffee (1993). Shooting took place in 1995 in Nevada. The film opened #27 to a 69k $ first weekend in 29 theaters in North America, where it grossed 222k $. It was also released in a handful of other markets, but grosses are regrettably not reported. If the film made a final gross of 400k $ it, would still rank as a box office disaster. It was nominated for 5 Independent Spirit awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Anderson returned with Michael Penn: Try (1997, music video) and theatrically with Boogie Nights (1997). Hall returned in The Little Death (1996); Reilly in Boys (1996); and Palthrow in The Pallbearer (1996). Hard Eight is certified fresh at 81 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hard Eight? 

Molly's Game (2017) - Chastain is luminous in Sorkin's great true-crime debut

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Star Jessica Chastain in an extreme close-up in B/W and shades looks cool AF on the poster for Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game

 

Molly Bloom's career as an Olympic skier collapses with an accident, and a few years later she gets arrested by a small army of FBI agents, now as the leader the country's highest stakes illegal poker game.

Molly's Game is written and directed by debuting great New-Yorker filmmaker Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men (1992, writer)), adapting the same-titled 2014 memoir by the real-life Molly Bloom.

Jessica Chastain (The Color of Time (2012)) is out of this world in the complex, riveting part as the extremely driven and intelligent Bloom, SPOILER who eventually finds herself in over her head in pursuit of a goal that begins to fade in the horizon. She is radiant here as the tough survivor. Idris Elba (Thor (2011)) is good as the sexy attorney who takes her case despite its legally dubious elements.

Sorkin relates the story with dense dialog and a high pace. Molly's Game is grand in width, comparable to a down-played style-wise recent film in the Martin Scorsese tradition, though with a female protagonist, which Sorkin's great script and Chastain's flawless performance never makes a sensational point in and of itself.

There is fun (Chris O'Dowd! (The Program (2015))), dramatically satisfying moments, - Kevin Costner (Dragonfly (2002)) is good as Bloom's psychologist father, - excellent lighting, editing and more. Molly's Game is a splendid piece of work that is more than it may appear.

Related posts:

Aaron Sorkin: The day after the day after ... the 2018 Oscars

Oscars 2018: Predictions and Film Excess' favorites

Moneyball (2011) - Miller makes compelling baseball movie history (co-writer) 

The Social Network (2010) - Fincher's a-hole biopic leaves me cold (and more anti-Facebook than ever) (writer)

A Few Good Men (1992) or, You Can't Handle the Truth! (writer)

 Watch a trailer for the film here 

 

Cost: 30 mil.$

Box office: 59.2 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.97 times its cost)

[Molly's Game premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 141 minutes. Bloom approached Sorkin with her book on her own, as he was her favorite writer. Shooting took place in Ontario, including Toronto, and in New York from November 2016 - January 2017. The film opened #19 to a 1.1 mil. $ first weekend in 271 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 1,708 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 28.7 mil. $ (48.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 5.8 mil. $ (9.8 %) and France with 4.3 mil. $ (7.3 %). The film was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, lost to James Ivory for Call Me By Your Name. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, and several other honors. Sorkin returned with The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020, VOD). Chastain returned in Woman Walks Ahead (2017); Elba in The Mountain Between Us (2017); Costner in The Highwaymen (2019). Molly's Game is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Molly's Game?

Saint John of Las Vegas (2009) - Slight deadpan comedy debut unduly dumped

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+ Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year

Splashy graphics with three of the film's stars on this poster give a vague sense of the luck-centered story of Hue Rhodes' Saint John of Las Vegas

John is addicted to gambling, and his vice gets an opportunity to soar when he heads on a trip to Las Vegas and its surrounding area to uncover insurance scams. He also has a new, sweet girlfriend, but the itch to gamble just won't leave his hands...

Saint John of Las Vegas is written and directed by feature-debuting Hue Rhodes (Practice (2006, short)). It is a funny little deadpan-comedic flick with a high Vegas quality to it. Rhodes has screwed it together well, - and gotten Steve Buscemi (The Messenger (2009)) to co-produce and play the title character, protagonist John, whom Buscemi inhabits with gusto.
Romany Malco (Top Five (2014)) looks good in any project, here in an undefinable partner part. There are fine, original characters at play here, even if the film is basically slight.

Related posts:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2 mil. $
Box office: 111k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.05 times its cost)
[Saint John of Las Vegas premiered 10 June (Cinevegas Film Festival, Las Vegas) and runs 85 minutes. Rhodes had come into contact with co-producer Spike Lee (Pass Over (2018)) as an NYU film student and later Buscemi and co-producer Stanley Tucci (Medora (2013, documentary)). Shooting took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in Las Vegas, Nevada. The film opened #52 to a 21k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #50 and in 14 theaters, grossing 102k $ (91.9 % of the total gross). The only other market for it was Russia with 9k $. The catastrophic performance of the film seems to have stubbed out Rhodes' budding career, although CinemaBlend's interview with him around the time of its release reads enthusiastically that "it certainly won't be his last." He has had no credit since. Buscemi returned with a voice performance in G-Force (2009) and physically in Youth in Revolt (2009); Malco in Bored to Death (2009, TV-series), Off Duty (2009, TV movie) and theatrically in Gulliver's Travels (2010). Saint John of Las Vegas is rotten at 23 % with a 4.28/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Saint John of Las Vegas?

After the Storm/海よりもまだ深く (Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) (2016) - Koreeda's striking portrayal of a disappointing man

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+ Best Japanese Movie of the Year

The faces of the four main characters of Hirokazu Koreeda's After the Storm adorn this pleasant poster

Ryota is an under-achiever, a gambler and a disappointment to his mother and ex-wife. During the period up to and during the 24th annual typhoon in Japan, he tries to make up for his flaws, especially because he wants to keep his son in his life.

After the Storm is the 12th theatrical fiction feature from Japanese master writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows/Dare mo Shiranai (2004)), who presents another great drama with humanistic insight, once again asserting himself as one of the truly unique and gifted filmmakers around today. The original title is taken from an old Japanese pop song that is heard in the film and which translates to 'even deeper than the sea'; strictly speaking a better title than After the Storm, which only refers to an actual storm that the action takes places around.
The film's unassuming cinematography leaves the space wide open for the actors, and they honor this with some terrific performances: Hiroshi Abe (A Yell from Heaven/Tengoku Kara no Êru (2011)) is right on as Ryota, who is a bum of a man, but one whom Abe's resourceful portrayal makes sympathetic even through his stealing, lying and wasting away of his money. Ryota has loafed through too much of his life with a goal for himself that he hasn't been able to make happen, while he has let the most important things, his nearest relations, fall apart. We come into his life at a time when this becomes crystal clear for himself as well, though he is unable to make up for his flaws and change the way his life has turned out.
All the actors here give honest, terrific performances, but two that especially also deserve singling out are those of Kirin Kiki (Lake of Tears/Umi no Koto (1966)) as Ryota's very direct, endearing mother and young Taiyô Yoshizawa (Kamisama no Wadachi (2017)) as his intelligent son, who may or may not be following in his father's footsteps, more or less inevitably, just as Ryota seems to have followed in his father's.
After the Storm doesn't match the greatness of Koreeda's recent masterpiece Like Father, Like Son/Soshite Chichi ni Naru (2013), and may appeal to a narrower audience, - certainly to Koreeda fans, - simply because it is very talky, deliberately contemplative in its form and may appear slow. It doesn't have much action; much of the plot moves through dialog, and the result is an entirely realistic drama with universally recognizable behavioral patterns and themes such as divorce, unfulfilled ambitions, gambling, parental responsibilities, neglect - all of it seen against Koreeda's stories' usual arena that is Family.
The film wouldn't achieve the level of impact it does if it wasn't for the outstanding dialog as well, which is both character-specific, wise and funny. In fact After the Storm is surprisingly funny; honest and unapologetic in its dealing with Ryota's vices, family strings and Japanese traits. It deals with the past, sometimes nostalgically but also as a burden that needs overcoming daily, and is both poetic and ultimately moving, another Koreeda treasure that shouldn't be missed.

Related posts:
 

Hirokazu Kore-eda: 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]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Like Father, Like Son/そして父になる (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) (2013) - Koreeda's magnificent reflection on upbringing and family 
 

Watch a short trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: In excess of 5.1 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain
[After the Storm premiered 18 May (Cannes' Un Certain Regard section) and runs 117 minutes. Koreeda began thinking up the film in 2001, visiting his mother who lived alone in a housing complex following the death of her husband, Koreeda's father. Shooting lasted 1½ month from May 2014 on, during the year that Koreeda was also shooting his Our Little Sister/Umimachi Diary (2015). 89k paid admission to the film in its opening weekend in Japan, where it grossed 3.1 mil. $ (60.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 815k $ (16 %) and South Korea with 672k $ (13.2 %). In North America, it opened #47 to 27k $ in 6 theaters and peaked at #46 in 35 theaters and grossed 252k $ (4.9 %). The box office sheet is incomplete with several markets missing. The film was nominated for an Asian Film Award. After the Storm is certified fresh at 95 % with a 7.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of After the Storm?

The Cooler (2003) or, Lady Luck for Bernie

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+ Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year

William H. Macy looks doubtfully out at us in delicious neon on the poster for Wayne Kramer's The Cooler

QUICK REVIEW:

Bernie is a 'cooler' [a person whose bad luck 'cools' off winning tables] in a second tier Las Vegas casino, but as he falls in love with a lovely waitress, the customers begin to win, and his boss Shelly becomes furious.
The acting between William H. Macy (Fargo (1996)) and Maria Bello (A History of Violence (2005)), with an Oscar-nominated Alec Baldwin (It's Complicated (2009)) as the pit-bull-like boss on the sideline, is strong, - and it's also The Cooler's main attraction. The film also has some nice secondary performances, especially from Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas (1990)) as a heroin-junkie-singer.
The drama is strong and realistic in this romantic gangster dramedy, and it walks a fine line in dealing with the uglier sides of life without overdoing it and turning dour.
The film is co-written and directed by South-African filmmaker Wayne Kramer (Running Scared (2006)). I would probably have taken The Cooler in a different direction, but in Kramer's hands, the lady luck-theme is given the floor and SPOILER we receive a happy ending.
Lovely movie.

 

Related posts:

 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 10.4 mil. $
= Even-Steven

What do you think of The Cooler?
Other recommendable gambling-movies?