The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
The Hudsucker Proxy was possibly the last Coen Brothers movie that I had heard of. I still have not seen a few of their movies, but I had heard of all of them before this one. Sitting between two of my favorite Coen Brothers movies (Barton Fink and Fargo), I was excited to check out a film that included two of my favorite actors.
I found The Hudsucker Proxy very interesting. It’s clearly a Coen Brothers movie, but it seems so unpolished compared to most of their other work, especially their later entries. Tim Robbins plays a naive man named Norville who is promoted to President of Hudsucker Industries after the former President commits suicide, as a way for the board to deviously make money from their stock.
The movie takes place in the 1950s, and that’s definitely a plus. The period setting is skillfully evoked, just as 1940s Hollywood was in the previous Barton Fink. If you pay close attention, the beginning reveals that it’s actually a fictional New York City, with the buildings moved to exactly where the Coen Brothers want them. Leave it to them to decide that the real NYC wasn’t good enough, and that they wanted something better for them.
I’ll make one last comparison to other Coen Brothers fare before evaluating this movie on its own. The Hudsucker Proxy seemed to me like a combination of their very early Raising Arizona and their immediate precursor to this, Barton Fink. The film has really quirky and bizarre extra and secondary characters, like Fink did. It also depicts a seriously dark and dehumanizing workplace, like Fink did before it, only Proxy creates a mechanistic, dangerous setting in the mailroom, akin to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Yet the film is not nearly as dark as Fink, and plays out much more like the screwball comedy that was Raising Arizona. This synergy of styles results in a mostly enjoyable film that moves between satire and silliness in its attempts at humor.
The humor is definitely there; the film will certainly garner some laughs. One particularly interesting and funny scene comes from two extras (a mailman and a bus driver) narrating the actions of Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Their heavy New York accents and privy knowledge of Leigh’s intentions make this scene stand out as one of Proxy’s most memorable and hilarious. Unfortunately, not all the humor is top-notch; as I said, the movie seems less refined, and the humor with it. A lot of the jokes in this movie seem subpar for the Coens, and are a bit more obvious and common than the humor in their other films. How many times will we see a bumbling character claim to know a foreign language only to say something offensive in it to someone important? It’s already been too many.
The cast is pretty solid. Paul Newman may be the best here, making the evil corporate Vice President of the company shine, cigar always in mouth and devious smile always on it. Newman’s eyes alone are enough to bring the right blend of comical corruption to his character. Tim Robbins is one of my favorite actors, so I was excited to see him in a leading role early on in his career. Maybe it was because I just watched it, but at times he seemed to be channeling Jack Nance’s performance in Eraserhead (at least before his hair is restyled). Still, Robbins sometimes made me feel as though he was being wasted. It may have been his character, the standard good-hearted ignorant buffoon, but I was expecting more. That may have just been my preconceptions butting in and ruining a fine enough performance, though.
Even amidst all the bizarre and wacky characters, Jennifer Jason Leigh seemed to be a bit over the top. Her Pulitzer-winning reporter character is done in the style of fast-talking actresses like Katherine Hepburn, but sometimes it seemed like she was trying too hard. To be honest, however, that style of acting has always been funny (funny weird, not funny comical) to me, as I wasn’t a huge fan of Cate Blanchett’s performance in The Aviator as well. Maybe I just need to see some old Hepburn films to truly appreciate the style.
Quintessential geriatric Patrick Cranshaw is used wonderfully as usual, and Jim True-Frost puts in a memorable performance as the elevator operator Buzz. You’ll also see good cameos from Steve Buscemi and Bruce Campbell, and if you look hard enough you might be able to catch Ian McKellen and Sam Raimi (listen hard enough and you can catch Coen Brothers regular John Goodman, as well).
As might be expected from a Coens movie, there are a lot of really great scenes. Wordless montages that perfectly convey meaning, such as Robbins’ initial attempt to get a job, or the creation of the Hula Hoop. The latter scene features an excellent little boy hula hooping, which brings plenty of laughs just in itself. There’s also a bunch of great tracking shots, whether it’s down a board meeting table or following someone running. And perhaps most memorable and tricky of all is a montage dominated by people laughing that transitions between its shots through newspaper clippings coming to life. There’s also plenty of symbolism throughout the film, most involving circles, that include the narrative style of starting with a flashback and looping back to end with the same scene. All in all, plenty of excellent filmmaking from the Coen Brothers.
Unfortunately, the film doesn’t stand up to the rest of their canon. The aforementioned subpar humor detracts from it a bit, but the real killer of the movie is the ending. I was having a pretty good time before the clock mechanic was able to stop time, and had to battle a randomly evil old janitor to save Norville’s life. The whole thing was this movie getting too outlandish, and it would have been much better to have an ending that included more established elements from the film.
If you’re a Coen Brothers fan, The Hudsucker Proxy is worth seeing. It’s also a pretty good comedy for people who like styles a bit deviant from the mainstream. It’s not the best at anything it is, but it’s a decent enough entry to both screwball comedies and Coen Brothers fare. It’s almost like the last film in an era for the Coens. Their next, Fargo, would meet critical and commercial success and begin a new, much more mature, phase in their filmmaking.
Final rating: 7/10
–James A. Janisse
Youth in Revolt (2009)
Michael Cera is notorious for playing the same character time after time, and indeed, his initial character in Miguel Arteta’s follows suit. The appeal to this raunchy romantic comedy came from the fact that Cera’s character creates an alter-ego, French bad-boy “Francois”, ensuring that Cera would have to at least pretend to be different.
The experiment worked, and the result is very enjoyable. Cera’s real character, Nick Twisp, is an intellectual high schooler who is obsessed with the idea of losing his virginity. It’s his usual fare, but it’s still enjoyable, and it’s clear that Cera’s been cautious of approaching different roles because he knows that he’s the master at what he does. Nick and the love of his life, Sheenie, played by newcomer Portia Doubleday, are intriguing characters because they are able to have both intellectual interests and carnal lusting obsessions.
Nick’s alter ego is Francois Dillinger. What’s nice about Cera doing duo roles is that he devotes his entirety to being a different character. Francois walks differently and holds himself differently. His mannerisms are distinct from Cera’s, and of course his voice and the things he says are disparate too. Whenever Francois is on screen, there are laughs to be had.
Unfortunately, he’s not really around as much as you’d expect from the trailers. In fact, this movie has the most deceptive trailers that I’ve seen lately. It implies a different causality for the creation of Francois than what happens, and makes it look like Francois would be the central plotline, when really his screentime makes him almost secondary. The worst disservice the trailer does to the film is make it look like it should be a laugh-a-minute comedy, when really the film is a bit more complex than that.
Like I said, there are funny parts throughout the whole movie. Francois has the most, but a strong supporting cast keeps them coming as well. Fred Willard plays his usual eccentric and genial older male by being Cera’s friendly next-door neighbor. Steve Buscemi brings a dirtbag-type humor to a small role not written for comedic results from anyone but him. Adhir Kalyan has a small but memorably role, and Zach Galifianakis is around for a little bit, if you’re into that kind of thing. I certainly am not, but I seem to be in the minority with that opinion.
The movie doesn’t only offer humor, but also something rare in most comedies today – intelligence. At the same time, it’s willing to be raunchy and explore its R rating. Francois has some delightfully scandalous lines, and characters speak with believable obscenity. The chemistry between Cera and Doubleday also comes off as very sincere, and their straightforward feelings for each other makes their romance an easy one to root for. While it may not be the funniest comedy of its type, it certainly has the highest average between humor, heart, and wit.
I enjoyed most of the movie, except for a few scenes that seemed to just be laying down generic plot material, and the few out of place animation sequences that included such unfunny sight gags as felt puppet birds having sex. Many going into it expecting it to be the new funniest movie may be disappointed, but if they don’t like it then they’re overlooking the sentiments that the movie uniquely has.
Final rating: 7/10
–James A. Janisse
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
It’s hard to believe that “Reservoir Dogs” is Tarantino’s directorial debut. The film is simultaneously funny, brutal, clever, vulgar, retrospective, and introspective. This movie is a fantastic way to start a career, and remains today a film with few weakpoints.
The movie follows a group of men on a diamond heist. Hired by Joe and his son Nice Guy Eddie, the men know nothing of one another and refer to each other as their codenames, which are colors – Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, etc. There is no Mr. Black.
The story is told in the now-trademark Tarantino style of non-linearity. The criminals’ pasts are shown in seamlessly integrated flashbacks, fleshing out the character relationships as we watch them deal with a heist gone wrong. The film’s present-line plot is amazingly simple – wait in the warehouse for the others and try to figure out who the snitch could be. The execution of this story, with revelations at expert points, is what makes the movie so outstanding.
The acting helps as well. Tarantino uses other actors who are undoubtedly familiar but not A-list stars, and brings out fantastic performances from all of them. I don’t think I’d be starting any arguments if I said that this was Steve Buscemi’s greatest role. It may be in the way Tarantino uses his camera, employing long, unbreaking shots that allow the actors to act out their scenes more theatrically. Their signature clever and lengthy dialogues are uninterrupted by editing, and the characters seem more realistic and natural because of it.
What proves Reservoir Dog’s quality is its re-watchability. Every time you see this film, you can pick up even the smallest bit of dialogue that you may not have heard, and because Tarantino crafts his dialogue so carefully, every bit is worth hearing. Tarantino uses his dialogue and backstories, as well as his talented cast, to make compelling characters. In fact, one of the shortcomings of the movie is the relatively little amount of information we know about its characters. When they’re so interesting and well-acted, you can’t help but want to know more, but sadly, the film leaves many things unaddressed.
Besides that, the only other complaint I have about the film is Tim Roth’s somewhat abrasive acting while he’s bleeding to death. I’m not saying it isn’t good, but it does get a little irritating after repeated views. Agonizing screams aside, the film is also a pleasant one to listen to. The soundtrack is truly upstanding, with a collection of music that meshes so well together, and that is worked diogenicaly into the film with Stephen Wright as a deadpan broadcaster.
Between his long, flowing, continuous shots and his ear for a badass soundtrack, as well as a fantastic job by the cast of the movie, Tarantino made his first feature film a classic. As long as you can stand some violence, there is no reason that you shouldn’t see Reservoir Dogs.
Final rating: 9/10
–James A. Janisse
