Tag Archives: Angelika Film Center

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On The Couch 2011 #25: The Company Men

During the manic movie-watching month that was December, 2010, I saw the preview for The Company Men numerous times at The Angelika and at Brooklyn Heights Cinema and I really wanted to see it. I planned on it being 1 of the final movies I saw in the year of the 52. Unfortunately, it wasn’t released in 2010. I eagerly anticipated its release in 2011 and somehow completely missed that it even came out in the theater. How long this movie play? One day? A full weekend? I swear I didn’t know it had been released until it was already out on DVD.

Needless to say, once I found out it was out, I moved it immediately to the top of my queue. Then it arrived and sat on next to my TV for about a month before I finally got around to watching it. That’s no fault of the movie. How many of you out there have experienced the same “excited to see this movie that ends up doubling as a mail away coaster for weeks” aka The Netflix Syndrome.

The Company Men is very good. This movie deserved to do well in the box office. Kevin Costner steals his scenes as Ben Affleck’s carpenter brother-in-law. Costner’s New England accent comes and goes, but he has some of the best lines in the movie.

While watching The Company Men, I realized that in every Ben Affleck movie, there is a point where he gives us what I call Affleck Face. It’s usually right after everything is going wrong for his character and then it suddenly all goes right. Here, it’s right after he has the interview of his life and meets up with his other out of work friends. They ask how the interview went, and Ben goes into full out Affleck Face. It’s a shit eating grin/smirk that can occupy the whole screen. It’s infectious. It is 100% confidence concentrate. It makes me as the viewer think nothing can go wrong for Affleck from there on out. It makes me as the viewer think that nothing can wrong for me from there on out. In The Boiler Room, Affleck even describes Affleck Face. How does Affleck Face smile? “From ear to ear, baby.”

Affleck Face

The Company Men is a movie for our times. It’s about people who have worked hard their whole lives, only to have the rug pulled out from them and get laid off, just so the company can boost its share price. It’s a movie that a lot of people in this economy can relate to. Maybe that’s why it didn’t do well. Maybe people can relate to this movie a little too well right now. If you’re out of work and can’t find a job, do you really want to escape from your troubles by watching a movie that hammers home how crappy the job market is right now? Maybe people didn’tt want to watch a guy who made $160,000 try to find a job when they made a quarter of that and need a job too.

Whatever your reason for not seeing The Company Men, see it. It’s good. And everyone could use more Affleck Face in their life.

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At The Theater #45: Inside Job

As soon as Shades of Ray ended, I hopped on the subway into Manhattan on a far too crowded for 9:45 AM A train to catch my first movie at the theater for the day, Inside Job at the Angelika Film Center.

I really like seeing movies at the Angelika. I think this has a lot too do with the ground level café area, which is strange because I think that café is overpriced. But it’s a nicer place to wait for friends than most movie theater lobbies. I’m flying solo today, so instead I found it a nice place to walk through on my way to the downstairs theater.

The three person audience for the 10:45 AM screening of Inside Job was a nice cross section of viewers. There was me, a female NYU student and an old man who claimed after to movie to have worked for one of the investment banks featured in Inside Job, “though long before any of this went down” he was quick to point out.

Waiting for Inside Job to start, I popped open Flixster on my iPhone and experienced something that would occur at the start of three of the four movies I saw in the theater today; I would regret seeing this movie instead of another in the same time slot. It happened here when I saw that I Love You, Phillip Morris was playing at 10:35 AM at Clearview’s Chelsea. I’ve wanted to see that for the past few weeks and cursed myself, thinking that a comedy would be a better way to start the day than a sure to be depressing documentary about the 2008 financial crisis.

This regret passed quickly. Inside Job should be on everyone’s must-watch list. It’s bound to frustrate you and infuriate you, but you need to see it. It’s the Food Inc. of the financial industry. Unfortunately for us, unlike Food, Inc., which ended with some hope, Inside Job shows us how the financial industry screwed us and why it’s bound to happen again. It also explains terms you probably heard on the news, but never had explained, like what exactly a credit default swap is.

It amazes me that in the wake of the two financial crises that bookended the last decade that there isn’t an outcry for stronger financial regulations. But the financial industry has its fingers in so many pies, that better regulation seems unlikely. Inside Job shows not only how powerful the industry’s lobby group is in Washington, but even their hold on business education in America. The same professors who are teaching ideas that fall in line with the way the financial industry thinks are serving on the boards of major corporations. Conflict of interest?

The most egregious part of Inside Job is that no one involved in the economic collapse in 2008 will even admit that mistakes were made by their companies. The fear of lawsuits and any culpability make interviewing these people pointless.

Matt Damon is a great as the narrator. His voice is the only part of Inside Job that won’t piss you off. It’s a nice anchor in the storm.

Inside Job is the scariest movie of 2010. Make sure you see it.

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At The Theater #13: Greenberg

Dear Noah Baumbach,

In your attempt to create a movie that could be described as Garden State for old people, you succeeded in some respects. Unfortunately, you decided to mimic possibly the worst parts of Garden State in Greenberg.

You got a lot of the surface elements right. Ben Stiller plays Roger Greenberg, a single guy on a bunch of psych meds who isn’t certain of his place in the world, similar to Zach Braff’s character Andrew Largeman in Garden State. Also like Garden State, he meets a girl who changes the way he looks at and interacts with the world. You included an indie-music heavy soundtrack. You even had Roger stand in front of garish wallpaper in one of the early scenes, but without the matching shirt.
Garden State: like Greenberg for young people…and much better too.

What you failed to capture was any of the charm that made fans of Garden State fall in love with that movie. Before, I could never understand why some of my friends hated Garden State so much. But watching your movie, I now have more of an understanding of their opinion. If the charm of Garden State was lost on a viewer, I think his experience would resemble mine while watching Greenberg.

I find it hard to believe that you could be responsible for one of the best movies I have seen this year, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and one of the worst, Greenberg. The Fantastic Mr. Fox is full of humor and has a great plot, two things lacking in this movie. Some might point out that The Fantastic Mr. Fox was an adaptation, but to I would point out to them that I have enjoyed your original work as well. I thought The Squid and the Whale was a good movie, even though some of my peers labeled it as pretentious crap. I’d point out the great comedic bits, like anything involving Ivan the tennis instructor or eldest son Walt’s lifting of a Pink Floyd song as his own in a school talent contest. But where’s the humor in Greenberg?
If the point of Greenberg was to show just how unglamorous Los Angeles could be, then congratulations, mission accomplished. Also Greenberg succeeded in making me more afraid of being 40 and single and Couples Retreat did of making me afraid of 40 and married. And if it was any way your goal to make a movie that I would like less than Remember Me this year, good try. You weren’t successful on that last one, but I can appreciate attempt.

The blame for me watching and not enjoying your movie does not only fall on your shoulders. I would like to take to task both the Cobble Hill Cinema and the Angelika Film Center for subjecting me to so many multiple viewings of the Greenberg trailer that it seemed almost preordained that I see this movie. Why were they cramming this movie down their audience’s throats?

Sincerely,

Tuesday Night Movies

PS: Garden State had a better soundtrack