Dogs Bark

Chick Burps - - Obvious Child (2014, USA, Color, ) - - 23 October 2015

Strongly recommended. I'm thinking that we need a new movie category maybe called, ‘Psycho Rom Com.’ Boy meets girl twice a week on an outpatient basis. Bridesmaids or Silver Lining Playbook would both qualify and Obvious Child falls into this booby hatch quite nicely. A nice thing about this genre . . . honesty. In Obvious Child - - like Juno - - we have a very frank look at how women deal with unplanned pregnancies, often chaotically and not with ethical simplicity, whether they chose to have ‘it’ or the abortion. Funny how these scripts often are written and/or directed by women, here newcomer Gillian Robespierre. Her cast is wonderful; led by the astonishing small-screen comic, Jenny Slate. The usual gal pal is played by unusually brilliant Gaby Hoffmann (Field Of Dreams), who’s grown up into a marvelous talent. TV actors Richard Kind and Jake Lacy provide the father and the romance, respectively and with dignity.  

 

Family Court - - The Judge (2014, USA, Color, 141 min) - - 5 October 2015

Not recommended.  There’s little in humanity more tortuous than the struggle between fathers and sons. Novels, plays and movies have turned this puzzle over and over again, searching for ways to crack it. Perhaps the fall of Lucifer was the first of these stories but certainly this plot predates literature.  So . . . when we peer up the track and see the ultimate crusty old fart and cocky young snot on a collision course, great drama is anticipated. But writing precedes acting, directing can run both off the rails and that’s what’s wrong with The Judge. Robert Duvall (The Godfather) and Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man) are the respective bodily effusions and are almost worth the admission price, as is the great photography (Janusz Kaminski, Saving Private Ryan). But Nick Schenk (Gran Torino) and Bill Dubuque awkward script and David Dobkin’s (Wedding Crashers) direction drape The Judge in a dark robe.