Male immaturity seems to be the only strong theme among the comedies of not the last few years. Sure, Bridesmaids attempted to establish a bit of gender equality, but that was certainly the exception, not the rule.  Whether it be a slob who lost the TV-star-love-of-his-life, the potheads that get involved with the trade a little more than they’d like, or, in Our Idiot Brother‘s case, an unwillingness to abandoned the joys and naivete of childhood. There are a few other commonalities that lift these films above their peers, but one of the most important is the lead performance. If Brother had been in the hands of an actor less capable than Paul Rudd, I fear all would have been lost. Fortunately, it wasn’t.

Rudd plays Ned, a hippie, organic farmer, who’s happy to do nothing more than play with his dog Willie Nelson, enjoy the high of some decent bud and occasionally spend some time with his family.  He’s so good and pure that he sells weed to a fully uniformed officer after the latter mentioned he needed it after a particularly rough week.  This early scene perfectly captured Ned’s character, and the outlook for the rest of the movie doesn’t look so promising.  Could anyone so dim really offer an interesting hour and a half in the theatre?

Coming off his eight month prison sentence for the drug peddling, Ned returns to his bohemian farm to find his girl has replaced him with a similar version of Ned.  She makes it clear he’s not longer welcome there and he should keep moving.  She’s also keeping Willie Nelson which seems to sting Ned the most.  This catalyst forces Ned to venture into Brooklyn where moves around between the home of his mother and the homes of each of his three sisters.  If Ned seems a bit more of an idea than a character, his sisters will further reinforce this reaction.

There’s Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), who’s playing cutthroat to get a major foot up at Vanity Fair where she works.  She’s ruthless, and fully willing to skirt the edges of ethics to get what her editor wants.  And there’s Liz (Emily Mortimer), the tired-looking, married mother of two, living in Park Slope where she and her husband (Steve Coogan) instill the most inane of values into their children.  And lastly, there’s Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), an artist’s model, who’s taking an awfully awkward run at stand up comedy, and who’s approaching crisis at the thought of becoming serious with her girlfriend Cindy (Rashida Jones).  There’s the soulless one, the one who let herself go, and the commitment-phobic, underachiever slut.

The script was written smartly by husband and wife David Schisgall and Evgenia Peretz (the latter is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair), and Peretz brother, Jesse Peretz, directed. These three manage to steer these otherwise flat characters, and worn out ideas by anchoring the film around strong moments among those on screen, and some poignant scenes, without which, would render the film lifeless.

Ned’s innocent upsets the lives of all three of his sisters, and, as they put it, he ruins their lives with some frequency. But as a beacon of integrity, roles slowly change, almost imperceptibly, and Ned, despite his flaws, ultimately is exposed for what he is–something much, much more.

Our Idiot Brother suffers from a few of the expected bittersweet indie pitfalls you’d expect.  Let me remind you it premiered at Sundance.  However, the alarmingly talented cast, and sometimes wise, and generous script makes it worthy to take note of.

3 out of 4 stars

There are a lot of experiments in Michael Winterbottom’s latest film, The Trip. The two main actors, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, play themselves. The movie is an edit of a six episode serial that originally played on BBC2 in the UK, and was partially improvised. And large parts of it are made up of imitations, “silly voices”, and jabs that will leave you guessing whether they’re good-natured, or passive-aggressively malicious. Put all of this in the context of a road trip and you can be certain it will be interesting if nothing less.

It is compelling to consider that both Coogan and Bryd0n worked with Winterbottom on his 2002 film, 24 Hour Party People. Since then, Coogan has made an admirable run at making it big in Hollywood. Currently, and unfortunately, he’s fading from mainstream memory and his hopes of making a permanent presence are mostly dashed. Whereas Bryd0n has been creating a strong forward momentum for himself in the UK and continues as an actor, comedian, and radio and television presence.

Such are the characters we see on screen in The Trip. Coogan has accepted an assignment from The Observer to review six restaurants in northern England.  Originally, Coogan’s girlfriend was meant to accompany him.  Through a series of transatlantic phone calls, romantic trouble is hinted at, but not explained, and she is in New York instead.  Coogan ends up bringing Brydon, an acquaintance, not so much a friend it seems.  Coogan is endlessly speaking with agents on both sides of the pond. He makes no qualms of explaining to his travel companion how he wishes to be an auteur (one has to wonder where Hamlet 2 falls into this), working with great directors. He even has a fantasy dream where Ben Stiller sings his praises and lists all the A-list directors wanting to work with him. He looks down on Brydon, always behind a thin mask of humor and sarcasm, for his “low-brow” career, and explains his willingness to sacrifice family for career, protesting just a bit too much considering Brydon is happily married with a child.  It’s unclear where the line is between these two characters on screen, and who they are in real life.  And that’s part of the fun.

Of course, as road trips usually do, the setting facilitates an atmosphere that encourages Coogan and Brydon to philosophize and look inward, or rather encourages the audience to do so.  Backdropped by endless courses of food that seem to be too imaginative for their own good–in one restaurant, they’re served lollipops made of duck fat and peanuts.  Neither of the two ever seem to have much to say about the food other than quips like, “the consistency is a bit like snot,” or, referring to tomato soup, “it’s very tomato-y.”  They prefer to do competing, and often hilarious, imitiations of the likes of Sean Connery, Hugh Grant, and Michael Caine.

The ridiculousness of the food, and the situation, set in bold face the ridiculousness of Coogan and his seemingly unobtainable ambitions.  If Coogan, with his endless jokes and somewhat amenable companionship, is slowly exposed as something other than what he originally presents, the same can be considered of Brydon.  Considering whether he’s as footloose and fancy free, and as unaffected by insult or injury as he pretends to be proves to be just as interesting.

That line between actor and person gets smaller and smaller until it finally disappears as the film approaches its finale.  It’s here that Winterbottom makes what seems to be his only glaring mistake.  The careful consideration the audience has been investing in these two characters (of which, wondering about its accuracy is most of the fun) needs no longer be left up to the imagination.  A heavily melancholic score (music you’ll recognize from Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca) sees the two men separate at the end of the trip and return to their homes.  One to his empty, sterile, high-rise apartment, the other home to a somewhat pedestrian, home-cooked meal, and to the open arms of a wife and child.  The sadness and the funniness of the situation did not need to be spelled out, and it leaves a slightly bad taste at the end of a very delicious meal.

3.5 out of 4 stars

Hamlet comes to us from, like so many other bitchin’ films, Sundance Film Festival and is directed by Andrew Fleming who has a pretty hit and miss, average, mediocre track record.  Fleming directed 2007′s Nancy Drew and 1996′s The Craft.  Which makes this oddball, uproariously hilarious comedy somewhat surprising.

Remember that Cronenberg film Crash (not the Sandra Bullock version that won the Academy Award for best picture, but the 1996 dark drama about people that get off from being in/watching car crashes)?  The tagline of that movie is: The most controversial film you’ll ever see.  I’d like give that honor to Hamlet 2.  The irreverence is so hilarious, your stomach will hurt from laughing, but you feel bad because you know He’s watching you and frowning, but you just can’t stop laughing because it’s so f-ing funny (‘He’ being Jesus, whom the film makes light of).

Steve Coogan leads a talented cast as Dana Marschz, the creepy, and dedicated drama teacher who makes a last ditch effort to put on a play so successful, it will stop the drama department from shutting down at the high school where he teaches in Tuscon, Arizona.  Fleming makes no secret of how he feels towards Tucson, and I have a feeling he may have offended some of it’s residents (you can only call it a shit-hole so many times before people start to get it).  Catherine Keener plays Brie, Dana’s alcoholic wife, and plays her terrifically well.  Other nuggets of joy include Elizabeth Shue playing herself, David Arquette as Dana and Brie’s fitness-fanatical roommate, and Amy Poehler as the ACLU representative who’s married to a Jew and proud of it.

While there are some lulls in the hilarity, it’s worth it to wade through the slow sections to get to the parts that will have burst in to laughter for hours after you’ve left the theater.  If Jesus jokes or sexual humor offend you however, this is definitely not the movie for you, as some of the acts and musical numbers (like ‘Rock Me Sexy Jesus’) might come across as crass…

3 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 61% – Cream of the Crop: 57%