Short Term 12 (2013)

Whenever someone on Twitter says that Brie Larson can't act there's always someone that brings up Short Term 12 to prove the contrary. Now I love Brie Larson as, to me, she's always proven she can act, but since I had never seen the film, I checked it out. 

The story mainly focuses on Grace (Brie Larson), the young supervisor of a group home for troubled teenagers called Short Term 12, who lives with her long-term boyfriend and coworker, Mason (John Gallagher Jr.). While facing personal issues as she finds out she's pregnant, she has to deal with two difficult kids at the home, Marcus (Lakeith Stanfield), a quiet kid who is about to turn eighteen but doesn't want to leave the facility as he's not ready to face the world out there, and Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), a troubled teenage girl who seems to be deeply scarred. 

As you can probably tell, Short Term 12 is not a plot-heavy film. It's instead a film that tells a simple and yet complicated, complex story about real people, facing real problems, and that deals with themes such as mental health, domestic abuse, self-harm, depression, and emotional trauma with sensitivity and without being judgemental. This is when it really shows that director and writer Destin Cretton lived this situation — he had a two-year experience in a similar caregiving facility — and he makes great use of his personal experience. 

Unfortunately, the characters aren't nearly as complex nor as developed as one would expect from a film relying on its characters so much as Short Term 12 does. While they are not shallow, the characters could have used more characterization and development — they feel incomplete and their development is quite disappointing as there isn't much progression in their lives. Also, the main character, Grace, never seems challenged as she always seems more capable of handling the problems she faces. 

Cinedigm

Despite the not-too-strong screenplay, the cast does a pretty good job. While the role is somewhat predictable, Brie Larson does a great job as Grace, the caring young woman who tries to help others but can't help herself and keeps her problems away from everyone else. She adds so much soul to the character and portrays both Grace's fragility and toughness very well. As for the supporting cast, Lakeith Stanfield delivers quite a powerful performance as Marcus, Kaitlyn Dever gives a solid performance as Jayden, and John Gallagher Jr. is effective as Grace's boyfriend. 

The cinematography, although not particularly beautiful, gets the job done as the shaky camera helps set the tone for these people's world and makes the film, the story feel more real. 

This, however, is not enough to make of Short Term 12 a throughout compelling and engaging film. Actually, it never really involved me as I felt barely any emotion or empathy toward the characters. 

Someone Great (2019)

There's something about Gina Rodriguez that I don't like. It's not her fault, it's just that she reminds me of a person I know and don't like much and that person basically ruined Gina for me. She is a great actress though — I loved her in Jane the Virgin — so, despite me not being the biggest fan of romantic comedies and the trailer basically screaming "I'm a terrible movie", I checked out Netflix's newest original film, Someone Great. 

Set in New York, the story focuses on Jenny (Gina Rodriguez), a nearly 30-year-old music journalist who has just landed her dream job as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco. Not even contemplating the idea of a long distance relationship, her boyfriend of nine years, Nate (Lakeith Stanfield), breaks up with her. To nurse her broken heart, she decides to have one last, outrageous night in New York City with her two best friends, Erin (DeWanda Wise) and Blair (Brittany Snow).

Someone Great isn't heavy plotted — the three friends trying to get tickets for a concert is all the plot the film has — but it's not much of a problem as it is a "moving on" story. The fact that the premise of the story makes no sense whatsoever — why would Rolling Stone even send her in San Francisco? They don't even have offices there! —, that there are many other holes along the way, and that the outcome is predictable and the overall story far from being engaging and entertaining definitely is.

It's not like director and writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson put more thought into the characters though. In fact, for a film that relies rather on its characters than its plot, the characters are tremendously thin — no depth, no development, nothing. We spend an hour and a half with Jenny and her two best friends and yet we don't really know anything about them. Only that Jenny is miserable by the end of her relationship — she is supposed to be very passionate about music, hence the job of her dreams, but this passion of hers never comes through. All she seems to care about is to get back with Nate —, that Erin has commitment issues, and that Blair is uptight, and that they do love drink spirits and smoke weed all day long — seriously, these three do nothing other than that and at the end of the day, literally, they are as fresh as they were in the morning. Also, they don't act like normal human beings but like they were celebrities.

There are also some random strangers the three girls meet that made me feel as if I missed something — I'm specifically talking about Rosario Dawson's character, Hannah. Who is this woman? An old friend? One of Nate's ex-girlfriends? Nate's sister, maybe? All we sense is that Jenny doesn't particularly like her and yet she feels the need to tell her about her break-up with Nate. And why does Erin's girlfriend acts and talks like a psychologist when she clearly is not one?

Netflix

Someone Great also has some positive aspects though. While the comedy is nowhere to be found — there are no big laughs, no small laughs. I only chucked once —, the drama works quite well as the flashbacks to Jenny and Nate's relationship, which are romantic and serious, feel genuine, and really sweet and tender — it also helps that Rodriguez and Stanfield have great chemistry and that they are adorable together. The cinematography is also quite beautiful, and the soundtrack is incredible. The performances are also pretty good, especially Gina Rodriguez's who manages to give her thin character some depth and make her likeable, despite the unlikable character.

The Incredible Jessica James (2017)

Scrolling through Netflix and adding movies and TV series to my watchlist is something I love doing. Putting them off is another thing I love doing. Watching them, not so much. So, if it wasn't for Brittani's review, I probably would have never checked out The Incredible Jessica James. 

The story follows Jessica James (Jessica Williams), a struggling playwright living in New York. She has recently broken up with her boyfriend of two years, Damon (Lakeith Stanfield) and just can't get over it and keeps stalking his Instagram. Essentially forced by her best friend, Tasha (Noël Wells), she goes on a blind date with Boone (Chris O'Dowd), a newly divorcé who is also obsessed in a stalker-like way with his ex (Megan Ketch). Despite both of their disinterest in a new relationship, they establish an instant bond.

Fortunately, The Incredible Jessica James avoids being a clichéd romantic comedy as the unromantic relationship between Jessica and Boone and Jessica's broken heart kind of takes a back seat and leave plenty of room to another plot to develop, the one involving Jessica's job as a teacher at a kids' theatre workshop, which is the heart and soul of the film as it's this part that captures the spirit of all those people who choose to follow their passions.

As for the character, Jessica is quite a flawed one. She is a strong-willed, independent, young woman who has pretty much nothing about her life together —and I could really sympathize and relate to her because of this. She is funny and brilliant, and the energy and passion she puts into teaching kids and helping them realize that they can do whatever they want to do with their lives is amazing. However, she often comes off as an unpleasant person, a bit of a narcissist as she considers herself to be better and smarter than everybody else. She's not so incredible when she acts like that.

Netflix

Despite the character not being always very likeable and her saying "dope" an insane amount of times, Jessica Williams gives a charming and funny performance as the lead. Despite the underdeveloped characters, the supporting cast is equally strong —Chris O'Dowd manages to shine with a warm and likeable performance, and has a pretty good on-screen chemistry with Williams; Noël Wells is delightful as Jessica's friend; and Lakeith Stanfield, although he's barely given something to do, is always a pleasure to watch.

In addition, The Incredible Jessica James does have a nice balance of humour and drama, and keeps the comedy as realistic and natural as possible and does not overdo the drama.

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

I've seen Sorry to Bother You on my Letterboxd homepage many times but, despite it having Tessa Thompson, whom I love, I never bothered watching it, mainly because some of those Letterboxd ratings/reviews were pretty bad. Then Allie over Often Off Topic reviewed it, she talked about how she liked the film, and she really made me want to see it. 

The film is set in an alternate present-day version of Oakland and follows Cassius "Cash" Green (Lakeith Stanfield), a young African-American telemarketer who starts using his white voice and quickly rises through the ranks of his profession. He soon finds himself with plenty of money and no morals as it turns out that the company he works for is completely unethical.

I really liked the idea — the economy is ruined, everyone struggles to find a job so someone creates a company that provides food and shelter for lifelong work contracts— and I was interested in seeing how it'd play out. Unfortunately, it was dreadfully executed and it ended up being tremendously stupid, something that gets more and more ridiculous and uncomfortable to watch as the "plot" moves forward, excruciatingly boring and ultimately unwatchable. It is supposed to deliver a message about the working class and the loss of one's identity, but it gets lost in.

The characters are pretty bad too. Actually, to be fair to awfully written character, I should say Sorry to Bother you features non-existing characters as they have no dimension nor depth whatsoever. Although they aren't presented as caricatures —maybe they would have worked better if they had—, they lack any emotional depth and therefore I didn't sympathize with any of them, nor care about them.

The performances, however, aren't as terrible as one would expect with so little to work with. Lakeith Stanfield gives a solid performance in the lead role as he handles the transition from timid loser to selfish prick very well. Tessa Thompson is equally good as Detroit, Cash's girlfriend, although what sticks the most is her earrings. As for Armie Hammer, who is the only one who is given a character that is presented as a caricature, he's definitely having more fun than I had while watching this crap.

As for the film's style, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it as it's very weird and ambiguous, just like the meaning of the film. The camera work is kind of bizarre, which doesn't necessarily mean bad, but here, I'm more inclined to think that as it is flat and detached as if it was the work of someone who does not like films.