Of Puppets And Puzzles

These two vastly different movies open today at multiplexes (and some art houses in PUZZLE’s case) near us all:

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS

(Dir. Brian Henson, 2018) 

This movie, directed by a son of Jim Henson no less, about felt getting filthy, is getting savaged by critics but it’s not really that bad. It’s a premise that’s not exactly new – i.e. underneath the warm and fuzzy front is the sleazy, foul mouthed, and raunchy side of show biz * – but it has its moments largely due to its cast made up of Melissa McCarthy, puppeteer Bill Barretta, Joel McCale, Maya Rudolph, and Elizabeth Banks.

The plot revolves around the serial killings of a ‘80s TV show, The Happytime Gang, which Barretta voicing the burnt out private detective Phil Phillips is partnered with McCarthy as Detective Connie Edwards to investigate.

Now it’s a pretty standard film noir-ish scenario which isn’t very interesting on its own, but it moves along briskly aided by a bunch of crude sight gags and tossed off one-liners. 

There are good some good ideas batted about such as the bigotry that puppets face from humans but it really doesn’t do much with that, and I wish the material was more inspired than jokes like the “asshole says ‘what?’” running gag that was old when it was used in WAYNE’S WORLD two decades ago, but for a throwaway comedy in these dog days of summer, I’ve seen a lot worse.

* Some folks are crying that this movie is a rip-off of Peter Jasckson’s MEET THE FEEBLES, which incidentally is on YouTube in its entirety right now. You’re welcome.

And now for something completely different:

PUZZLE (Dir. Marc Turtletaub, 2018) 

Kelly Macdonald (TRAINSPOTTING, GOSFORD PARK, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, Boardwalk Empire, among numerous other notable credits) is superb in this story of a lonely woman finding her niche by putting together jigsaw puzzles with an eccentric Indian inventor (Irrfan Khan *).

Macdonald portrays Agnes, an awkward Connecticut housewife, with two college aged sons (Bubba Weiler and Austin Abrams), and a mechanic husband (David Denham, best known as Roy, Pam’s ex-fiancé on The Office US), who is given a 1000-piece puzzle of a world map for her birthday, and finds that she has a skill for putting it together quickly.

Agnes visits a puzzle shop in New York to buy more puzzles and sees a flier that says “Champion desperately seeking puzzle partner.” She takes home the number in one of the film’s most charming moments she texts “Hi. My name is Agnes. I think I might be good at this. Puzzles I mean.” Her nervousness is priceless here as it’s her first text ever as she was just given an iPhone by her son for her birthday.

Agnes soon meets up with Robert (Khan), who lives in a spacious apartment in the city, and they pull their puzzle-making talents together for a shot in a competition. Agnes keeps that she’s going to work on puzzles with Robert secret from her husband, telling him she’s going to help her Aunt who broke her leg a few times a week. As one might guess, a romance develops between Agnes and Robert, whose poetic philosophy regarding puzzles makes Agnes swoon (hey, it won me over too), but it’s handled with such poignant precision that nothing cringe-worthy happens.

PUZZLE is a quiet, lovely film with a gentle, thoughtful screenplay by Oren Moverman (JESUS’ SON, I’M NOT THERE, LOVE AND MERCY). Macdonald, who should really be a household name, puts is a highly affecting performance in service of an ultimately uplifting story in which all the pieces fit together perfectly (the movie is called PUZZLE so, of course, I’m gonna work in a line like that).

So the bottom line on these two new movies is that unless you’re looking for cheap laughs, skip the filthy puppets and seek out PUZZLE. I bet you’ll be glad you did.

* Khan is also an actor who should be a household name - he's done many films for Bollywood, Britain, and Hollywood including roles in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE DARJEELING LIMITED, LIFE OF PI, and JURASSIC WORLD. A film that I highly recommend of his is THE LUNCHBOX (read my review).

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Despite Some Clunkiness, The Gender-Swapped GHOSTBUSTERS Goes Over Like Gangbusters

Opening today at a multiplex near you:

GHOSTBUSTERS (Dir. Paul Feig, 2016)

The extreme nerd rage over the release of this reboot has amounted to one of the stupidest controversies in movie history. I loved the 1984 original too and consider it a comedy classic, but it really doesn’t strike me as blasphemy to make a new version with female leads.

Especially when the core cast is comprised of such comic greats as Saturday Night Live alums Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones and Melissa McCarthy, who's hosted SNL multiple times, who are more than capable of filling the ghost-busting shoes of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson.


Factor in writer/director Paul Feig, whose films I’ve liked for the most part (really enjoyed BRIDEMAIDS and SPY; THE HEAT not so much), and the prospect of a new GHOSTBUSTERS is a big “why not?”

If it sucks it’ll just be a big “so what?” as it’ll just be another addition to the world of offshoots from the first film which included a lame sequel, a couple of animated series, and multiple video game adaptations.

Thankfully though, GHOSTBUSTERS 2016 doesn’t suck – it’s a spirited update with a lot of laughs and likability, but it does take a bit to get going.

That is, after its superb opening which posits the lanky Zach Woods (The Office, Silicon Valley) as a tour guide in a haunted, fictional mansion who gets scared half to death by what will be later labeled a “class-four apparition.”

From there Feig’s film settles into a laid back groove as it introduces Wiig as Erin Gilbert, a mousy, uptight professor at Columbia (same university from the original), who is trying to keep a book about ghosts being real that she wrote with her childhood friend Abby Yates (McCarthy) secret as it would threaten her tenure.

Erin goes to confront her former friend at the Higgins Institute of Science (whose Dean is played by SNL writer/ Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show announcer Steve Higgins in a amusingly crude cameo) about her selling the book online, and finds that Abby and her new assistant, nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzmann (McKinnon) have been perfecting new ghost catching equipment (which looks a lot like the gear from the original).

The trio investigate the mansion from the prologue which results in Erin getting slimed, and denied tenure as well as losing her job. Erin, Abby, and Jillian go into business together and set up headquarters in a shabby office above a Chinese restaurant (they wanted the firehouse from the original but it wasn’t in their budget).

They are soon joined by Jones as a sassy subway worker who has encyclopedic knowledge of the city’s history, and Chris Hemsworth as their airheaded, and just plain odd receptionist that Wiig’s Erin crushes on.

A creepy Neil Casey, a writer/comic actor who should be familiar to viewers of Inside Amy Schumer as well as various other Comedy Central shows, is the movie’s villain – the still bitter over being bullied Rowan North who has plans to harness the power of evil spirits to take over New York.

At nearly 2 hours, GHOSTBUSTER’s running time has a lot of fat that could be trimmed, and there are a number of clunky bits of what I assume is improv, but the energy is high enough to provide a more than reasonable amount of fun. Even in the case of the big inevitable overblown CGI-saturated climax.

Cameos by Murray, who sadly wasn’t given a funny line; Aykroyd, who does have one even if it’s a call back; Hudson, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver, all as new characters, also add to the good-will vibe, but you just know their involvement will do little to silence detractors. I bet the appearance of Slimer won't even do that.

The leading ladies are great together, though Wiig seems a bit restrained, and McCarthy, while still funny, doesn’t really bring much in the way of new schtick (expect the standard scene of her being violently thrown against a wall). That leaves McKinnon to be sharply weird, which she’s got down to a T; and Jones to be loud, abrasive, and possibly the most fearlessly funny of the foursome.



Fairing well too are appearances by Andy Garcia as the mayor, and Ciecely Strong (another familiar face from SNL) as one of his top aides. It's a well choosen comic cast for sure, even if some of Hemsworth's attempts to steal the movie are groaners.



It may be only a good, not great update as it doesn’t have the quotability that made the original a classic, but, despite its flaws, the new gender-swapped GHOSTBUSTERS goes over like gangbusters.

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