Lynn Shelton
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Connections, in both directions
At the age of 28, rootless Megan (Keira Knightley, "Begin Again") realizes she's appalled by the high school friends she still hangs around with.
If this movie and last summer’s “Begin Again” are any indication, she might really be a comic actress.
But together with her turn in this past summer's superior rom-com "Begin Again," it not only stands to remind audiences of her impressive range as an actress, but -- steeped as her character is in a down-to-Earth charm and girl-next-door approachability -- it also shows that she can rock a punchline every bit as well as she can a petticoat.
But it's also the way the actress is making herself at home in lighter films, like the delightful "Begin Again," from earlier this summer, in which she spends her time navigating the New York music scene with Mark Ruffalo.
When she’s not squeezing into corsets or chunky cardigans, as she does in this month’s The Imitation Game, Keira Knightley’s carving a niche for herself over the pond in low-budget crowd-pleasers like Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World and this year’s music industry romance Begin Again.
That traditional obstacle-to-love vital to all romcoms (in Ron Howard's Splash , she's a fish) has been removed in this story of Hannah and her sister, leaving only the characters' neuroses, fears and inadequacies as their impediments.
You almost forget that the actress made her mark in serious period pieces playing trussed-up women — "Pride & Prejudice" (2005), which earned her an Oscar nomination, and " Atonement ," in 2007, for example.
In movies like “Atonement” or “Pride & Prejudice,” the star’s fashion-model gawgeousness doesn’t distract from her sizable acting skills so much as complement them.
Knightley effectively trades period costume-wear (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement) for oversized pyjama bottoms and a credible American accent to play Megan, who bolts from a surprise marriage proposal to hide out with a new group of teen pals.
Or the Oscar-nominated actress who, after building a name on period dramas such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Atonement," realizes that she's got a knack for smart, modern romantic comedies.
You almost forget that the actress made her mark in serious period pieces playing trussed-up women — "Pride & Prejudice" (2005), which earned her an Oscar nomination, and " Atonement ," in 2007, for example.
In movies like “Atonement” or “Pride & Prejudice,” the star’s fashion-model gawgeousness doesn’t distract from her sizable acting skills so much as complement them.
Knightley effectively trades period costume-wear (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement) for oversized pyjama bottoms and a credible American accent to play Megan, who bolts from a surprise marriage proposal to hide out with a new group of teen pals.
Or the Oscar-nominated actress who, after building a name on period dramas such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Atonement," realizes that she's got a knack for smart, modern romantic comedies.
In any other movie, Megan is akin to the disaster that is Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married” without all the ugly character traits, but she still breaks a lot of people’s lives, trust and hearts along the way.
Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno pussyfooted around the idea of a "normal," romantic, male-female couple having sex on camera for pay (they couldn't bring themselves to do it), and countless bromances sing the praises of sticking by your best pal forever, but it took Lynn Shelton to force the issue.
Positioned as a middlebrow, hipster subversion of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, or a subtle counterforce to the blunt object that is Brüno, Shelton’s film could be so much crueler than it is; she has everything she needs for a withering satire of 30-something bromantic navel-gazing (after all, as aging beer bellies protrude, their navels do get easier to see).
If Kevin Smith’s movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno had an ounce of spontaneity and a drop of wisdom, it might have resembled Humpday, the new film from Lynn Shelton.
On the surface, the premise of Humpday – with its “end of gay” reverberations – certainly sounds more provocative than Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), which gets predictably cuddly toward the end.
And before you can say Zack and Miri Make a Porno , Ben and Andrew have resolved to make one with each other.
YA novelist Andrea Seigel's central idea - that of taking an adult whose degree hasn't turned into a career (Megan twirls a sign promoting her dad's accounting firm) and having her grow up by returning to her high school years - is a good one, but it falls into the trap of having Megan 'grow up' by finding a new man, her own career path still rolling out into uncharted waters (at least she provides a nice yin yang, Megan having ditched a career in marriage counseling when she couldn't relate to her clients with Craig's (Sam Rockwell, "The Way Way Back") work as a divorce lawyer).
Similar to how he gave The Way Way Back a boost of comic energy last year, Rockwell steals every scene he's in and makes everyone around him better.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Directed by Adam McKay
influenced Humpday (2009)
Themes
But it is much sharper and more, er, adult, in its funny business than its recent comedy brethren – the slew of movies either written, directed or produced by Judd Apatow ( Talladega Nights , Superbad , Pineapple Express ) in which the “man crush” is a key theme, as well as this year's I Love You, Man , which overtly explores the pitfalls of a blossoming friendship between two straight guys.
Perhaps that's why this dual character study, featuring a balls out performance from Moss and an eerie one from Waterston feels like so many other movies, everything from "3 Women" to "Your Sister's Sister" to "Rosemary's Baby" and "Repulsion," yet defies coming into its own focus.