The Things You Find On Netflix: 6 Balloons (dir by Marja Lewis-Ryan)

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Poor Katie (Abbi Jacobson)!

All she wants to do is throw a surprise party for her new boyfriend and enjoy the 4th of July. Is that too much to ask? However, things are never easy. Her friends are ruthless in their critique of what she’s planning to wear. Her mother (Jane Kaczmarek) keeps pressuring her to go down to CVS and buy more makeup. As for her father (Tim Matheson) — well, he’s just too damn good-looking. All of her friends want to know if it was difficult for Katie to grow up with a “hot dad.” Katie says it was.

You know what’s even more difficult though?

Trying to throw a surprise birthday party while also trying to take care of your niece and your junkie brother!

From the minute we meet Seth (Dave Franco) it’s obvious that he’s on something. As soon as Katie orders him to roll up his sleeves, we know that this is not a new thing with Seth. Seth is a junkie, the type who shoots up in grocery store bathrooms and who buys his heroin from a man who lives in a yellow tent. Seth isn’t one of those charming junkies, either. He’s not Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting. He’s a manipulative, self-centered asshole who agrees to go to detox but only if Katie agrees to pay for it and not tell anyone that he’s using again. He’s the type who thinks nothing of begging his sister to leave the party that she’s spent weeks planning because he needs a ride to get one last hit before “getting clean.”

6 Balloons is a short film, one that takes place over the course of one long night. While the party goes on without her, Katie drives Seth around the city. Whenever Katie objects to what Seth is asking her to do, Seth guilts her. He continually assures her that he just needs to get high one last time and then he’ll be able to do detox. Meanwhile, Seth’s daughter sits in her car seat and begs to be taken home.

The acting is okay. Both Dave Franco and Abbi Jacobson are best known for their comedic work so it’s interesting to see them taking on such dramatic roles here. At the same time, it sometimes seems like both of them are trying too hard. The same could be said of 6 Balloons. This is a film that could have used a little dark humor. Instead, it’s relentlessly grim and serious and, as a result, a bit of a chose to sit through. For a 70 minute film, 6 Balloons seems to go on forever.

The problem with films about junkies is that, for the most part, hardcore junkies are dull people and not much fun to be around. Christiane F, Trainspotting and several of the films influenced by them dealt with this problem by featuring a propulsive soundtrack and some imaginative cinematography. (Trainspotting also wisely devoted more screen time to Mark and Sick Boy than to Spud. Just imagine how difficult it would be to watch Trainspotting if the entire film had centered on Spud getting high and crawling underneath cars.) With its hand-held camerawork and it’s subdued soundtrack, 6 Balloons takes more of a documentary approach. The film will leave you with no doubt that heroin is bad and it’s not good to be an enabler but, at the same time, it’ll probably also inspire you to glance at the time and ask yourself, “Is this thing over yet?”

Catching Up With The Films of 2017: The Little Hours (dir by Jeff Baena)

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

You don’t necessarily have to be from a Catholic background to find The Little Hours to be hilarious but it probably helps. You also don’t have to be an expert in satirical Italian literature from the Medieval era but, again, it probably helps. Of course, what helps the most is to have a good sense of humor.

Technically, The Little Hours is based on The Decameron, though not even that famously bawdy book featured dialogue like, “Don’t fucking talk to us!” and “Stop fucking looking at us!” Both of those lines are delivered by Aubrey Plaza, who plays a nun in a medieval convent. The fact that Plaza is playing a nun tells you a lot about the humor in The Little Hours. The sets and the costumes are meticulously accurate. It’s easy to imagine that, if you got your hands on a time machine and traveled back to the Fourteenth Century, what you would see would look a lot like The Little Hours. But the dialogue and the attitudes are all straight from the 21st century.

The Little Hours tells the story of three nuns and the people who get in their way. Aubrey Plaza plays Sister Fernanda, the sarcastic nun who is willing to beat up anyone who looks at her for too long. Ginerva (Kate Micucci) is the repressed nun who can’t wait to get everyone else in trouble. Alessandra (Alison Brie) is the nun who is only a nun because her father (Paul Reiser) is making her.

When you’re bored and stuck in a convent, you find interesting ways to keep yourself amused. For instance, gossip is always a fun way to pass the time. Or you can get drunk on communion wine. If you get really bored, you can always join the local coven and dance around a fire. Or you can lust after the new handyman, a handsome deaf-mute named Massetto (Dave Franco). Of course, Massetto isn’t really a deaf-mute. He’s just pretending because he doesn’t want to be executed for having sex with his former master’s wife. Life was never easy in medieval Italy.

The film may be based on The Decameron but all of the dialogue was improved. Whenever I hear that anything’s been improvised, I always know that the end result is either going to be hilarious or it’s simply going to be unbearable. Fortunately, the cast of The Little Hours is full of comedic pros. They all play off of each other well. Each line of dialogue seems like a challenge being delivered by both the character and the performer. Behind every joke is a subtext of “Try to top this.” Supporting roles are played by everyone from Molly Shannon to Nick Offerman to John C. Reilly. Fred Armisen plays the Bishop who has the unenviable task of trying to keep straight everything that’s happened and his display of exasperation is absolutely brilliant.

As you can probably guess, I enjoyed The Little Hours. It’s probably not a film for everyone. As I said, it helps to not only have a Catholic background but to also have a sense of humor about it. But, for those in the right mood, it’s a hilarious film.

Belatedly, Here’s The First Teaser For The Disaster Artist!

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone!

Well, look, I’m just going to admit it. I failed you last month. Usually, I try to keep this site up to date with all the best trailers. However, last month, I got very busy with another one of my summer projects and, unfortunately, I ended up running behind on keeping up with all the latest trailers and teasers.

So, if you’ll indulge me a little, I’m going to try to get caught up. Admittedly, some of the trailers that I’m going to share today are going to be old news. But I still want to share them because they’re films that we’re excited about here at the Shattered Lens.

And who knows? Maybe I’m not the only one who had a busy July. Maybe you missed some of these trailers as well.

For instance, check out this teaser for James Franco’s latest film, The Disaster Artist. Now, if you’re like me and you love getting together with friends and tossing around plastic spoons while watching Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, then you can’t wait for the chance to see The Disaster Artist. Telling the true story of Greg Sestero’s friendship with Wiseau and his involvement in the production of The Room, The Disaster Artist was one of the best books of 2014. Rumor has it that The Disaster Artist is also one of the best films of 2017.

If nothing else, James Franco is getting Oscar buzz. If James Franco wins an Oscar for playing Tommy Wiseau, my life will be complete. If it happens, I might even take a year off so that I can bask in the glories of fate.

The teaser below features the filming of one of The Room‘s best-known scenes:

Back to School Part II #54: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (dir by Nicholas Stoller)

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(For the past three weeks, Lisa Marie has been in the process of reviewing 56 back to school films! She’s promised the rest of the TSL staff that this project will finally wrap up by the end of today, so that she can devote her time to helping to prepare the site for its annual October horrorthon! Will she make it or will she fail, lose her administrator privileges, and end up writing listicles for Buzzfeed? Keep reading the site to find out!)

How many times can the same thing keep happening to the same people?

That’s a question that you may be tempted to ask yourself while watching Neighbors 2. Neighbors 2 is, of course, a sequel to the original Neighbors. In the first film, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne played Mac and Kelly Radner, a married couple who are struggling to deal with the fact that, as new parents, they are now officially adults. When a crazy and wild fraternity moves in next door to them and refuses to tone down their partying ways, Mac and Kelly are forced to take matters into their own hands. Occasionally hilarious mayhem ensues.

In Neighbors 2, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne again play Mac and Kelly Radner, a married couple who are struggling to deal with the fact that, as parents who are awaiting the arrival of their 2nd child, they are now officially adults and may have to finally move into a more family friendly house in the suburbs. When a crazy and wild ~~fraternity~~ sorority moves in next door to them and refuses to tone down their partying ways, Mac and Kelly are forced to take matters into their own hands. Occasionally hilarious mayhem ensues.

Yeah, it’s all pretty familiar. Not only are many of the same jokes from the first film repeated but they’re often repeated at that exact same spot in which they originally appeared. To the film’s credit, it does occasionally acknowledge that it’s repeating itself, though it never quite reaches the self-aware heights of something like 22 Jump Street. Even Zac Efron returns and, again, he is initially the Radner’s enemy before eventually becoming their ally.

That said, the familiarity is not necessarily a bad thing. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne both know how to get laughs, even when they’re telling the same joke that they told a year ago. Zac Efron tends to try too hard whenever he has a dramatic role (like in The Paperboy, for instance) but he’s got a real talent for comedy.

Ultimately, though, the best thing that saves Neighbors 2 from just being a forgettable comedy sequel is the sorority. As opposed to the first film’s creepy fraternity, the sorority in Neighbors 2 is partying for a cause greater than just hedonism. Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz, finally getting to have fun in a movie) starts her independent sorority in response to being told that official sororities are not allowed to throw parties and, instead, can only attend misogynistic frat parties. When Shelby and her sorority buy the house, it’s not just to make trouble. It’s because they need a place where they can have a good time without feeling that they’re in constant danger from drunk and perverted frat boys. A subtext of empowerment through partying runs through Neighbors 2 and it elevates the entire film.

Neighbors 2 is an entertaining film, even if it never leaves as much of an impression as you may hope. (I have to admit that, whenever I try to list all the films that I’ve seen this year, Neighbors 2 is one of those that I often have to struggle to remember.) That said, it’s not a terrible way to spend 97 minutes and it’ll make you laugh. And, ultimately, that really is the most important thing when it comes to comedy.

As for the question of how often can the same thing happen to the same person…

Well, I guess we’ll have to wait for Neighbors 3 to get our answer!

Back to School Part II #52: Nerve (dir by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman)

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For the past three weeks, Lisa Marie has been in the process of reviewing 56 back to school films! She’s promised the rest of the TSL staff that this project will finally wrap up by the end of today, so that she can devote her time to helping to prepare the site for its annual October horrorthon! Will she make it or will she fail, lose her administrator privileges, and end up writing listicles for Buzzfeed? Keep reading the site to find out!)

Recently, I came across someone on twitter wondering if Emma Roberts is ever actually going to play an adult role. Personally, I think the question is a bit unfair (just because you’re playing a teenager, that doesn’t mean that you’re not dealing with “adult” issues) but I understand the logic behind it. Emma Roberts is a Hollywood veteran who made her film debut 15 years ago. She’s currently 25 years old but, more often that not, she’s still cast as a high school student. (At the most, she might occasionally get to be a college student.) Going solely by her film and television roles, Emma Roberts has been a high school student for 12 years now.

But you know what?

I say more power to Emma Roberts. Being a teenager is a lot more fun than being an adult and she should stay in high school for as long as she can pull it off!

Anyway, this year’s Emma-Roberts-In-High-School film was a thriller called Nerve. Actually, very little of the film takes place in high school though a running theme through the film is the desire of a senior named Vee (short for Venus and played by Roberts) to attend the California Institute of the Arts after she graduates. Unfortunately, it costs money to go to a good school and Vee’s mother (Juliette Lewis) doesn’t have any. As well, both Vee and her mother are still struggling to accept the recent death of Vee’s brother.

However, there may be a way for Vee to raise the money. Vee learns that her friend, Sydney (Emily Meade), has become an online star by playing Nerve. Nerve is a game where you can either volunteer to be a player or you can pay to be a viewer. (There’s a third role that you can play in Nerve but it’s not a good role and we don’t learn about it until later in the film.) The watchers dare the players to do something. If the players do it, they win money. If the players fail … well, there are consequences for everything.

Though initially reluctant, Vee agrees to be a player. At first, it’s a lot of fun. The normally cautious Vee gets to experience the exhilaration of taking a risk. She even meets another Nerve player, Ian (Dave Franco) and soon the two of them are a team, partners and perhaps something more. But, as the game progresses, the dares become more dangerous and the stakes get higher. And, of course, Ian has a secret of his own..

The great thing about Nerve is that it tells a story about what’s is pretty much happening right now. It’s easy to imagine a real-life version of Nerve going on right now. As I watched Vee and Ian play Nerve, I was actually reminded of how much fun twitter used to be. And then, just as happens in Nerve, more and more people got involved and things quickly went downhill. The more popular both twitter and Nerve became, the less pleasant the experience. The same is true for just about everything that’s ever happened online. It always starts out as fun until the trolls arrive. (And trolls, of course, have the magic ability to use their mere presence to transform former non-trolls into trolls as well.) Nerve answers the age-old question of why we can’t have nice things.

Beyond that, it’s an entertaining film. Emma Roberts and Dave Franco make for an exceptionally likable couple, the film is quickly paced, and Michael Simmonds’s cinematography gives the film an appealing and slickly flamboyant look. Nerve didn’t really get as much attention as it deserved when it was originally released but I have a feeling that it is a film that will be rediscovered and appreciated by viewers in the future.

I Dare You To Watch The Trailer For Nerve!

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Below, you’ll find the trailer for the upcoming film Nerve and I dare you to watch it! (Hence, the title of this post. Clever, no?)

So, did you watch it? What did you think? It looks like it might be kind of stupid but, for whatever reason, I want to see it. In fact, Nerve is one of those films that you probably have to see when it’s first released because, two or three years from now, it’ll probably seem ludicrously dated.

Is it a romantic comedy? Is it a multimedia satire? Is it a thriller? I’m not really sure.

But it does feature good-looking people running around in their underwear and we all know that’s what audiences really want.

Nerve comes out on July 27th!

Scenes That I Love: The Party Fight From The Room

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today is James Franco’s birthday! That’s practically a holiday here at the TSL Bunker! Or, at the very least, it’s a holiday here in my little office.

We’re all very excited about James Franco’s upcoming film, The Masterpiece. Directed by James himself and based on Greg Sestero’s wonderful book, The Disaster Artist, The Masterpiece will take viewers behind the scenes of the making of The Room! Along with directing, James is playing Tommy Wiseau while Dave Franco will be taking on the role of Greg Sestero.

But, before we see The Masterpiece, why not rewatch a scene from the film that started it all? The scene below is one of the key moments from The Room. Johnny (Tommy Wiseau) finally confronts his “friend,” Mark (Greg Sestero) over the fact that Mark has been sleeping with Johnny’s future wife, Lisa (Juliette Danielle). This is the scene that features the classic lines, “I fed up with this world!”

Enjoy this great scene!

If you’re celebrating James Franco’s birthday today, why not read some of the following James Franco-related reviews:

My review of True Story
My review of Milk
My review of Palo Alto
My review of Veronica Mars
My review of Lovelace
My review of The Iceman
Ryan’s review of Spring Breakers
Arleigh’s review of Rise of the Planet of The Apes
My review of Your Highness
My review of the 83rd Academy Awards
My review of 127 Hours

And, if you’re a lover of The Room, check out Jedadiah Leland’s interview with Tommy Wiseau!

After you’re appreciated The Room, why not read a review of a different film that happens to have the same title?

And finally, here are my thoughts on The Neighbors, Tommy Wiseau’s TV show.

And now, let’s sing it!

Teaser Trailer: Now You See Me 2

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I just shared a teaser for a miniseries that stars James Franco! Let’s follow that up with a teaser for a film that stars Dave Franco!

And after watching the trailer for Now You See Me 2, be sure to read Ryan’s review of the first Now You See Me!

Back to School #73: 21 Jump Street (dir by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Though the TV series that its based is a bit before my time, the 2012 comedy 21 Jump Street is a personal favorite of mine. The film tells the story of how nerdy Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and popular but none-too-intelligent jock Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) first met in high school, went to the police academy together, both turned out to really bad cops together, and then returned to high school together.

Why did they return to high school? Because they’re both working undercover now! As part of a recently revived program from the 80s (and that would apparently be the original television series), young cops are being sent undercover into high school. As all the other cops involved with the program appear to be super cops, Capt. Dickson (Ice Cube) has every reason to believe that Schmidt and Jenko will be able to discover who is responsible for dealing a dangerous new synthetic drug known as HFS.

One of the things that makes 21 Jump Street work is that, at no point, does the film pretend that either Channing Tatum or Jonah Hill could still pass for a high school student. One of the film’s best moments comes when a drug dealing environmentalist/student named Eric Molson (Dave Franco, brother of my beloved James) tells Jenko that he suspects that Jenko may be a cop. “Why?” Jenko asks. “You’re taste in music. The fact that you look like a fucking forty-year old man,” Eric replies.

Not surprisingly, Jenko and Schmidt prove themselves to be fairly clueless about how high school has changed. One thing that I’ve always found interesting about high school films is that often times, regardless of when a particularly film might be set, it still feels like it’s taking place ten to twenty years in the past. That’s largely because most high school films are made by directors who are trying to relive their youth and, as a result, they end up making a film about a high school in 2014 where all of the students look and act as if they’re living in the 90s. The truth of the matter is that things change pretty quickly.

That’s one reason why I haven’t set foot back in my high school since I graduated. As much fun as I did have in high school and even though I’ve been told that I can still pass for high school age (and I still constantly get asked for ID), the fact of the matter is that it’s no longer 2004.

When Jenko and Schmidt return to high school, they do so expecting to have to return to their previous teenager personas. That’s good news for Jenko and not so good news for Schmidt. However, once they arrive (and after their class schedules accidentally get switched), they discover that high school has changed. Jocks like Jenko no longer rule the school and Schmidt is now one of the popular kids…

Before I saw 21 Jump Street, I knew that Jonah Hill was funny. But the film’s big surprise was that Channing Tatum is just as funny. Throughout the film, Tatum shows a willingness to poke fun at his own image and proves that he can deliver an absurd one-liner as masterfully as just about anyone else working today. There’s a lot of reasons why 21 Jump Street is a funny film. It’s full of funny lines and the movie features a lot of very sharp satire of both the action and the teen genres. But the true pleasure of the film comes from the comedic chemistry between Tatum and Hill.

It’s just a lot of fun to watch.

Back to School #69: Superbad (dir by Greg Mottola)

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

One of the great things about the 2007 comedy Superbad is that it has a title that allows for snarky but overworked reviewers like me to come up with an easy review.

For instance, if I disliked Superbad, I could just say, “Superbad more than lives up to its name!” However, since I happen to like Superbad, I can say that Superbad is supergood, supercool, and superfun!

See how easily that works?

Plotwise, Superbad tells a story that will be familiar to anyone who has ever seen a teen comedy. Three guys try to get laid. Seth (Jonah Hill) is the rotund and boisterous one, the one who has a crush on Jules (Emma Stone), who is your basic good girl with a wild side. Evan (Michael Cera) is the sweet and sensitive one. And then there’s Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), the nerdy one with the thick glasses. Fogell is the one who gets a hilariously bad fake ID, one that tells the world that his name is McLovin.

After Jules invites Seth to a party, he and Evan enlist Fogell to use his fake ID to buy them alcohol. However, as often happens in the type of films, things get complicated. While Fogell is buying the beer, the convenience store is held up. The police arrive and Evan and Seth panic and run off. Meanwhile, Fogell is befriended by the two cops (played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader), both of whom are incredibly impressed that their new friend has as wonderful a name as McLovin.

(“You’re name’s McLovin? That’s badass!”

And so, while McLovin bonds with his new cop friends, Seth and Evan continue to try to find beer and make their way to Jules’s party….

Superbad was produced by Judd Apatow and it features his usual combination of raunchy humor and sentimental bromance. In fact, it’s such a male-centered film that I’m always a little bit surprised at how much I enjoy it. However, Superbad is a seriously funny movie. The script (which Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg reportedly starting on when they were 13 years old) is full of great lines and Michael Cera and Jonah Hill make for an adorable comedy team. And then there’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse who takes the character of Fogell to his most logical extreme and then just keeps going. McLovin’s adventures may not be the most realistic or subtle part of the movie but they are still a lot of fun to watch.

Speaking of McLovin and his adventures with the cops, I love the performances of both Seth Rogen and Bill Hader. If you don’t laugh at the way Seth Rogen says, “Oh no! It’s the cops!,” then you need to be worried about your sense of humor.

Superbad is supergood, supercool, superfun, supersweet, and just plain super.