Cast stumbles through Somebody
I wanted to like Dave Franco’s Somebody I Used to Know, I really did. The cast is appealing, the Pacific Northwest setting is arresting, and the running time is a reasonable 105 minutes. That its attractive star, Alison Brie, has a streaking scene is certainly a plus as well. Yet, these positive aspects aren’t enough to negate the film’s lack of originality or its tepid pacing, the story simply plodding along from one predictable plot point to the next. That the actors involved are guilty of the same doesn’t help.
Brie is Ally, a Hollywood producer who has always put work first and finds herself reeling when her reality television show is unexpectedly cancelled. Realizing that doing shots of tequila and talking to her cat won’t cure her woes, she decides to gather her bearings and heads home to visit her mother (the wasted Julie Hagerty). Her hometown, Leavenworth, Oregon, is a lumberjack’s paradise, surrounded by vast forests, bubbling rivers and a mountain or two nearby. It also happens to contain Ally’s ex, Sean (Jay Ellis), who she just happens to run into. A whole evening of catching up spills into a morning of revelations and before you know it, our heroine begins to think that maybe, just maybe, she left something important behind on the way to pursuing her dreams.
Showing up dressed to kill and unannounced on Sean’s doorstep the next day, Ally quickly realizes she’s made a big mistake. A pre-wedding feast is underway, Sean’s family, friends, and fiancée Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons) in attendance. That the groom-to-be failed to mention this event to his old flame is telling.
As expected, much soul-searching, as well as many awkward moments, tense conversations and false assumptions occur leading up to the big day. Ally’s machinations to break up the couple are obvious and uninspired, while Sean’s confusion and Cassidy’s ire are predictably rendered. “A pleasant timewaster” is the most backhanded of compliments any entertainment can receive, yet Somebody fails to reach that modest level of competence, a film that just wastes your time. Streaming on Amazon Prime.
Bland Brady does cast disservice
Without question, 80 For Brady is an innocuous movie, one that would hardly warrant mentioning if it weren’t for the big names involved. Based on a true story, Trish (Jane Fonda), Lou (Lily Tomlin), Betty (Sally Field) and Maura (Rita Moreno) are best friends who, over the years, have developed a tradition of watching Tom Brady every week, after witnessing his first successful game in 2006. Trish is an insecure writer of trashy novels who goes out of her way to get attention. Lou is a cancer survivor who is fearful of the medical report that has arrived at her door, which she refuses to open. Betty is tightly-wound, a former mathematics professor who likes order but cannot connect with her husband (Bob Balaban). Maura is a recent widow who has her own house but stays at a nursing home to be close to her husband’s friends.
They enter a contest to win tickets to the Super Bowl and lo and behold, they end up winning! Once they get to the big game, a series of hijinks occur that creak with predictability. The tickets get lost! Will they find them? They’re invited to a lavish party and accidentally eat some CBD gummies! Will they act silly while high? Betty accidentally enters an eating contest involving hot wings! Will she win?
Yes, it’s a very simplistic, very predictable movie that, though harmless, fails to inspire. Unlike A Man Called Otto, which is similar in plot and tone, the four principals sleepwalk through this. Field seems to be trying and Moreno has moments, but Fonda and Tomlin are barely there. With material this lackluster, is it really their fault? It would be hard to get inspired by a script this thin. Then again, they knew what they were getting into when they signed on. In the end, 80 serves as another sad example of what happens when legendary performers are left with nothing but the dregs during the latter part of their careers. In theaters.
This article appears in The museum built on Native American burial mounds.
