STRAYS**

STRAYS is a foul-mouthed animation/live action comedy that never fully commits to the sheer filth of TED, and thus finds itself stranded in "meh".  Will Ferrell voices a relentlessly optimistic and naive dog called Reggie whose owner Doug (Will Forte) is clearly abusing him.  When Doug finally totally kicks Reggie out, he finds himself taken in by a group of strays, led by wise-cracking street-smart Bug (Jamie Foxx). Through Bug and fellow strays Maggie (Isla Fisher) and Hunter (Randall Park), Reggie comes to realise that his owner didn't in fact love him and commits to hunt him down and bite his balls in vengeance.

The film starts off strong with some excellent black comedy at Reggie's expense but settles into a rather heartwarming but gentle buddy comedy that falls between two stalls. I just wish writer Dan Perrault (American Vandal) and director Josh Greenbaum (BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR) had had the courage to fully commit to X-rated humour. 

STRAYS is rated R and has a running time of 93 minutes. It was released on August 17th.

SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY

The celebrated Hollywood director and raconteur Peter Bogdanovich returns to our screens after a 17 year hiatus with a romantic comedy that one can only generously describe as "inspired by" Woody Allen romantic comedies. It's set in New York. The opening credits feature an easy listening track from the 1950s.  The lead character is a young prostitute with a heart of gold and a over-egged Noo Yoick accent in the manner of Mira Sorvino.  She's forms a relationship with a much older successful married man.  People have irritable but witty conversations on side-walks and disparage the irritatingly perfect weather in Los Angeles. Psychoanalysis features. There's even a wise-ass voice-over and a knowing love of Hollywood convention.

Does this blatant channelling of Woody Allen make SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY a bad film?  No. It's not a bad film. It's a fairly dull film - contrived in its chamber comedy set-up - often mis-firing in its humour.  It goes a little something like this.

NEBRASKA - LFF 2013 - Day Three

I am so in love with NEBRASKA it may well be my favourite film of the festival to date, even above the stunningly beautiful GRAVITY.  It's the kind of movie that makes you laugh, reminds you of your real life, gives you beautiful visuals, and when you leave you just want to call your dad and tell him you love him.  

So the story is one of an old man and his son reconnecting on a road trip.  The old man is Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), an alcoholic with Alzheimer's who gets one of those publisher's scam letters and thinks he needs to go to Lincoln, Nebraska, to claim his million dollars. In act of frustration and desperation, his lovely son David (Will Forte) decides to take him and pander to his happy wishes.  But en route, Woody has an accident and they end up detouring to his old home town of Hawthorne, where they catch up with his family and old friends - all of whom have stories about his past and apparently, claims on his newfound wealth.

The movie is consistently laugh-out-loud funny - whether due to the blunt chastisements of Woody and his wife Kate (Jane Squibb) or the menacing idiocy of David's cousins, or the deadpan banter between the ageing brothers.  There's even a brilliant moment of Coen Brothers-style goofball comedy when David and his brother Ross (Bob Odenkirk) decide to "liberate" a compressor that Ed Pegram (the deliciously menacing Stacy Keach) supposedly stole years ago. But what really elevates this film is the wonderful relationship between Woody and David, the evident care that even his badgering wife feels for him, and the touching portrait of a real family complete with inane conversations, petty grievances, and weary old stories. 

There were many moments in this film where I was close to tears and many more where I laughed out loud. Kudos to directer Alexander Payne (THE DESCENDENTS) and writer Bob Nelson for creating a dramedy so consistently engaging and funny and wise and to cinematographer Phedon Papamichael for his stunning widescreen black and white landscapes and family tableaux. 

You can listen to a podcast review of this film below, or subscribe to Bina007 Movie Reviews in iTunes.

NEBRASKA is rated R in the USA and has a running time of 110 minutes.  It played Cannes and London 2013. It opens in the USA on November 22nd; in the UK and Ireland on December 6th; in the Netherlands on December 19th; on February 6th in Argentina; on February 7th in Sweden; in Belgium on February 19th; and in Italy on February 20th.