About a Boy (2002)

Hugh Grant often plays such unlikeable characters — Bridget Jones's Diary, Two Weeks Notice, and Paddington, to name a few —, he has over the year become an actor I particularly dislike. His charm is undeniable though and since he's also quite a good actor, I figured I should check out more of his work. About a Boy was my first pick — Netflix has been shoving it on my face for the whole month — and I'm glad I gave it a shot because it is a funny, sweet and heartwarming feel-good film.

Based on Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, the story follows Will Freeman (Hugh Grant), a 38-year-old self-centred slacker who has liver comfortable off the royalties of a song written many years before by his now-deceased father and has never worked a day in his life. 

The idea that he might be what single moms need comes across his mind, so he shows up at a Single Parents Alone Together meeting, and pretends to be a single father. As a result of a date with one of the single mothers, Suzie (Victoria Smurfit), Will meets Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), a 12-year-old vegetarian who lives with his depressed and hippie mother, Fiona (Toni Collette) and is constantly made fun of at school because he's different. When Fiona attempts suicide, Marcus realises that two people are not enough and sets out to pull Will into the equation. 

It's a fairly simple story whose outcome is clichéd and predictable as it's the personal epiphany kind of story that we have seen many times before. Thankfully, the bullet was dodged as the intelligent screenplay is filled with intriguing and well-developed characters. 

Will is a lazy, shallow, manipulative, self-absorbed man with a fear of commitment who invents a son to hit on single mothers as he believes them to be more desperate than he is. He is a very unresponsible and unlikeable character and yet we warm to him because, unlike it happens most of the time, there's no sudden change of heart toward the end in Will; it's rather a process, a slow growth. We witness his coming-of-age as his relationship with Marcus develops. 

Marcus is a shy, nerdy, socially awkward kid who is constantly bulliled because of the hippie lifestyle his mother has forced on him and his quirk of singing out loud without even realizing it. On top of that, he has to deal with and take care of his depressed mother, which is definitely too much to ask for to a 12-year-old. He's a real kid with real problems, reason why we care for him.

Fiona, although she has very limited screentime, makes for a compelling character too. She doesn't have a lot of characterization but her development makes her so interesting. As expected, she does change at the end of the film; however, she doesn't go straight from point A to point B but takes many detours along the way — whenever she is about to recover, she always goes back to the starting point.

The only character I found a bit underwhelming was Rachel Weisz's Rachel. Although Will's relationship with her is different from his past, meaningless, shallow ones and it's because of this romance that we realise Will is growing up, it felt as if both the character and the romantic subplot was underdone — and I would have probably forgotten about it if it wasn't for Weisz in the role. 

About a Boy isn't just well written, it's also filled with great performances from its cast. Hugh Grant give arguably his best performance ever as he brings to the character of Will a depth, a complexity I haven't seen before. He is charismatic as usual but he doesn't come off as pretentious or obnoxious; instead, he's rather likeable and we soon find ourselves sympathizing with him as he slowly takes off Will's mask of superficiality and insecurity. His very expressive face does wonder when it comes to conveying Will's emotions — whether it's anger, selfishness, or hurt — but it's the way he handles the comedy, making you laugh throughout either with a witty line or a weird facial expression, that will win you over. 

The rest of the cast provides Grant more than solid support. Although he struggles a bit as he has too much weight to carry, a young Nicholas Hoult is believable as Marcus, the sky, awkward kid who befriends Will and manages the emotional side egregiously. In addition, the chemistry he has with Grant is outstanding which makes their interactions a real pleasure to watch. Toni Collette is good as Marcus's mother, Fiona, although her performance could/would have been great if she was given some of the film's comedy. Rachel Weisz really makes the best of her small, underused role with yet another brilliant performance of hers.

About a Boy also has a great balance between comedy and drama. As a result, the film manages to make you laugh with its witty and clever humour and touch your heart. The score by Badly Drawn Boy is very fitting and enhances even more the emotions conveyed by the actors.

Also noteworthy is the film's narrative style, the often hated because impersonal, cold voice-over. It's not your typical voice-over though, it's a double voice-over which is very nice as it's often the source of humour and gives us an insight on Will and Marcus's thoughts.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

I don't remember why I was drawn to Little Miss Sunshine when I first watched —it was probably on some list featuring dark comedies—, all I know is that I ended up loving this quirky road trip indie movie, and I loved it every single other time I watched it over the years. It's quite embarrassing that I've never written about it, so here it is. 

Just in case you are not familiar with this —I'm judging you if you are not though—, the story follows the Hoovers, a dysfunctional family composed of Richard (Greg Kinnear), his wife, Sheryl (Toni Collette), his father, Edwin (Alan Arkin), his brother-in-law, Frank (Steve Carell), his step-son, Dwayne (Paul Dano), and his daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin). When Olive qualifies for the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, the family goes on a road trip on their old Volkswagen bus to take her to the contest. 

As it happens with road trip movies, Little Miss Sunshine does not have a plot, only plenty of clichés of the genre and a series of bizarre and unlikely situations and worst case scenarios. It does, however, take some surprising and amusing twists and turn and ultimately it ends up being a quite powerful story of a family who, despite all, love each other, stick together and would do anything for each other.

The story certainly wouldn't be as effective, engaging and entertaining if it wasn't for the characters though, which is by far the aspect of Little Miss Sunshine I love the most. First, there's no main character, no one is more important than the other, and, while they share the same goal, each out of them has his/her own arc. Second, they all have a distinctive personality and quirks that make them unique and memorable —Richard is a neurotic motivational speaker who hates losers; Sheryl is a chain-smoking wife who tries to make everybody happy but she is fed up with her husband's optimistic crap; Edwin is the foul-mouthed, heroin-snorting grandfather; Frank is the depressed gay uncle who has just attempted to commit suicide because his lover left him for his rival professor; Dwayne is a moody teenager who has taken a vow of silence until he gets into the Airforce; and Olive is a little girl who is exactly the opposite of what beauty pageant encourage young girls/women to be. No matter how stereotyped they are, these characters are interesting, believable and you care about them.

Fox Searchlighting Pictures

The actors all do a fantastic job, but there still are a few standouts. While Alan Arkin is the one who won an Oscar for his sharp, sarcastic, hilarious performance as the grandpa, and Abigail Breslin got a deserved nomination as she gives a charming, full-of-heart performance and brings quite a spark to the film, Steve Carell and Paul Dano are those, in my opinion, who deserved the awards. Although unknown at the time the Little Miss Sunshine was filmed —at some point, the filmmakers weren't even sure about him because of this—, Carell proves he is more than a comedian with a serious, subtle performance as the brilliant professor; Dano, who has to rely on his body language and facial expressions only for most of the film's running time, carries the role of the troubled teenager effortlessly and delivers some of the film's most emotional and touching moments.

Ultimately, Little Miss Sunshine is a charming, dark, funny and touching film, with great jokes, memorable moments —Olive performing at the beauty pageant sure will stick with you—, and a commentary on the futility of beauty pageants.

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

I loved Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler and specifically adored Jack Gyllenhaal's performance in it so I was really looking forward to seeing them team up again. And it finally happened with Velvet Buzzsaw, a horror film about the art world.

The story mainly follows Morf Vanderwalt (Jake Gyllenhaal), a pompous and feared art critic who can make or break an artist with a single review and is connected with artists and other people in the art business, including Josephina (Zawe Ashton), the young assistant of Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), a big name art dealer. When Josephina steals the paintings left behind by her deceased neighbour to show Morf and Rhodora and eventually sell them, Morf becomes obsessed with finding out more about the painter. Meanwhile, the people who are profiting from the dead artist's art are targeted by a supernatural entity.

Velvet Buzzsaw doesn't have much of a plot with its threads that go nowhere as they are picked up only to be discarded pretty soon. Despite this, it is genuinely interesting and gripping as it does a good job at critiquing modern art world, a world driven by greed and hypocrisy, a world in which money is more important and art itself and the artist. It also shows how the work of a critic can affect an artist, not only professionally.

The dialogue is pretty empty but it sounds so sophisticated it ends up being quite charming. And the over-the-top and pretentious characters, although some of them could have used more dimension and development, are interesting and somewhat likeable, and invested me right from the beginning.

As for the performances, most of them are great. Jake Gyllenhaal does a wonderful job as Morf and yet again proves himself to be one of the most skilled actors alive. He embodies Morf completely, to the point that it doesn't feel like watching Gyllenhaal but the actual over-the-top, silly character he plays here. The other standout is Toni Collette who plays an art adviser and steals most of the scenes she is in —when she shares the screen with Gyllenhaal, the eyes are on him. The other actors too give fascinating performances, Zawe Ashton being the only exception —I didn't like her at all, specifically because of the weird way she delivers her lines.

Netflix

The cinematography is gorgeous, as it should be in a film about art, and the score is effective at making some scenes more intense, suspenseful and thrilling, especially when it comes to the artistic deaths, which I really enjoyed. That said, I feel like Gilroy should have stuck just to the satire about the art world and avoided the horror genre as it doesn't add much to the film other than a bit of entertainment factor.

Hereditary (2018)

I saw the trailer of Hereditary a couple of times in cinemas before the movies started but it didn't impress me so I decided I would pass it. Over the past months though, pretty much everyone in the blogosphere has been speaking so highly of it that I rethought my decision and decided to watch it for my horror challenge.

The film follows a family of four, Annie (Toni Collette), her husband, Steve (Gabriel Byrne), son, Peter (Alex Wolff) and daughter, Charlie (Milly Shapiro), after the death of the family matriarch. While each member is still trying to handle the grief their own way, a tragedy occurs and they learn things aren't as they seem. 

Despite some predictable elements --I knew there was something going on with Joanne as soon as the character was introduced--, the story is quite original and twisted, and, although it unfolds very slowly, it grabs your attention right from the start and keeps you glued to the screen, anxious and frightened, until the very (unfortunately unsatisfying) end. The first part of the film is more of a dark family drama than a horror but the drama there works beautifully and, as someone whose family has been through something like that, the blaming, the guilt, the fighting, it feels so real it's heartbreaking.

And it's thank to that drama that director and writer Ari Aster can properly develop the characters, make them believable and relatable. We find ourselves really invested in them, we care about them and root for them --maybe not all of them, but it's still impressive considering how poorly nowadays horrors do under this aspect-- and when the terrible things happen, it's has a huge impact on us.

Of course, the cast deserves to be praised for it too. First of all, Toni Collette. She gives such an intense, mesmerizing performance as the mother who descends into madness --her presence and vulnerability are outstanding, especially during the confrontation between her character and her son. Alex Wolff stole the scene for me though as he gives an exceptional performance as the son --and frankly, I don't give a damn if he doesn't look anything like the actors playing his parents. Not all kids look like their parents in real life anyway. Milly Shapiro also gives a strong performance, but the hype surrounding her (haunting and creepy) performance was so high that it kind of let me down. It's not as disappointing as Gabriel Byrne's performance as the husband/father though as he pretty much sleepwalks through the movie.

A24

As his directorial debut, Ari Aster did a really good job. Although some scenes drag on a little, he was able to establish such an eerie, creepy, unsettling atmosphere throughout the whole movie, and it's beyond impressive.

Ultimately, Hereditary is more than your typical horror as it deals with themes such as family, loss, grief, specifically dwelling into the relationship between parents and their children. It's not the kind of horror that relies on stupid scare-jumps to scare its audience, it's the kind of film that relies on the atmosphere and the beautiful and terrifying visuals. It's different and it works because of it.