A road trip to the boozy Seventies awaits CBUS in theaters this weekend – a time when people smoked in cars they were driving drunk without seatbelts. Chaos! But if you’re up for it, a couple of great time machine options await, as well as some Angry Birds and a surprisingly feminist comedy about the woes of Greek sisterhood.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
So, sororities aren’t permitted to have parties in their houses? What kind of bulls**t is that? Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising not only finds it a teachable moment, but the perfect springboard for a funny, and dare I say socially conscious, sequel.
College freshmen Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her new friends Beth (Kiersey Clemons) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein – younger sister of Jonah Hill) don’t appreciate the “super-rapey” nature of frat bashes, so they decide to start an independent sorority. Guess where they find a perfect home base?
Right next door to the home Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne) have just put in escrow. The buyers have 30 days to think it over, so the desperate Radners turn to old frenemy Teddy Sanders, (Zac Efron) to help them drive the new neighbors out before their ragers tank the sale.
Director Nicholas Stoller and the writing team led by Rogen and frequent partner Adam Goldberg are all back, so expect more of what made the first film such a down and dirty treat.
Though not quite as riotous as the original, Neighbors 2 still lands as one of the better comedy sequels. The laughs are familiar but they are steady, finding a comfort zone where raunchy charm and admirable conscience co-exist.
Grade: B-
The Nice Guys
Tell me you’ve seen any of the countless trailers for Shane Black’s new action comedy The Nice Guys. Funny! I haven’t had such high expectations for a new film yet this year.
And hey girl, guess what – Ryan Gosling is a hoot! If you found his scene-stealing performance in last year’s gem The Big Short a joyous change of pace, you will surely enjoy this masterpiece of comic timing and physicality.
Gosling plays Holland March, an alcoholic PI with questionable parenting skills who reluctantly teams up with muscle-for-hire Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe). What begins as a low-rent missing persons case snowballs into an enormous conspiracy involving porn, the government, and the all-powerful auto industry. (It is 1977, after all.)
A brightly lit (if smog-choked) Southern California noir-turned-buddy-action comedy, The Nice Guys does a surprisingly good job at finding its tone. All the lurid, twisty plot fodder could easily weigh the film down in gritty drama, but Shane’s heart is in the budding, unsanitized bromance.
Ultimately, the twists and surprises don’t amount to much. The Nice Guys is a shiny Shane Black toy that begs to be played with now, even if it’s forgotten later. Kind of like the Seventies.
Grade: B
Belladonna of Sadness
Who’s looking for a psychosexual acid trip? Well, it’s your lucky day because Belladonna of Sadness – Eiichi Yamamoto’s 1973 animated cult flick – gets new theatrical life thanks to a 4K restoration.
Belladonna of Sadness finds tragedy in the repression and objectification of women, but the film seems at a loss as to how to express its themes without objectifying heroine Jeanne.
The story pits feminine power against the systemic misogyny of medieval time as an allegory of modern feminism – well, modern in 1973. Jeanne slowly comes to the realization that embracing Satan to break from the repressive nature of bureaucratized Christianity may be her only road to personal power.
It’s a startling revelation, subversive in many ways, most of which are depicted in this film with wild abandon. As genitalia morphs into lion mouths and giraffe heads during extended, orgiastic sequences, Yamamoto equates sexual liberation with personal empowerment.
Yamamoto’s hypnotic yet jarring visual style, rupturing panoramic still drawings with bursts of movement and color, looks like nothing else onscreen. The aesthetic meshes with Masahiko Sato’s psychedelic score to create the trippiest film to open on national screens since the Age of Aquarius.
Grade: B
Also opening in Columbus this weekend:
- LOUDER THAN BOMBS (R)
- THE MEDDLER (PG-13)
- MEN AND CHICKEN (NR)
- MY GOLDEN DAYS (R)
- PELE: BIRTH OF A LEGEND (PG)
- WELCOME TO HAPPINESS (NR)
- WHAT WE BECOME (NR)
Reviews with help from George Wolf.
Read more from Hope at MADDWOLF and listen to her weekly horror movie podcast, FRIGHT CLUB.
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