Uninspired By True Events.

Watching Conviction you just know it's the kind of "inspired by true events" movie that will end with a picture of the real people and a corny song. You do not expect this from 127 Hours though.

Yet both do it and with the same degree of corny smugness as the other, the one difference is that while one feels just redundant for it, the other does it to teach us a metaphysical lesson of sorts and loses whatever credibility it had before. Care to guess which is which?

In Conviction Hilary Swank plays Betty Anne Waters, an unemployed single mom who decides to become a lawyer to get her brother Kenny (Rockwell) out of jail. Kenny was accused of murdering a woman and according to his sister he's innocent. We follow her through her hard years of school as she deals with working at a bar, raising her sons and maintaining that thick Massachusetts accent for as long as she can.
This is one of those movies in which you know how everything will go: the villains are scary (Leo gives a one note performance as an evil cop), the good guys are practically angels (Swank is missing but a halo from her "hard working but tastefully dressed" look) and someone always comes along and makes the movie seem much, much better than it has any right to be. In this case it's both Rockwell who gives another of his crazy cowboy performances and Lewis, who in a mere two scenes pretty much owns the film. The movie is directed efficiently, if not truly memorably by Goldwyn who seems to put more attention to his characters than to any stylistic flourishes yet in the end the movie fails gigantically because it doesn't make Betty someone we are dying to know more of.

Have you ever noticed how watching a Hilary Swank movie, you know it's a Hilary Swank movie? Not because she takes over the screen with her inescapable charm or magnetic screen presence but because every other character always seems to bow to her's.

Watching talented actors the likes of Driver, Rockwell and Lewis gaze teary eyed at Swank as if they were in the presence of something divine lacks the impact it would have if they were staring at Julia Roberts. Swank, unlike Julia, isn't capable of killing the "sanctify me" glare the supporting players emit. With a big movie star, their shine is so bright that they make scenes like these work, with Swank you just know she has a hand for picking screenplays and/or casting herself in films she produced.

Speaking of creative control, remember how once upon a time Danny Boyle was one of the most surprising working filmmakers? Each of his films felt like something completely new and exciting. From the creepy terror of 28 Days Later to the joyful cuteness of Millions and of course the addictive Trainspotting, his career seemed to scream "prolificness".

After going unintentionally mainstream with Slumdog Millionaire he seems to have compromised his vision and turned it into something that resembles conformity. Such is the case in 127 Hours where Boyle shows us the events that led mountain climber Aron Ralston (Franco) to amputate his own arm after getting trapped in a canyon.
And by saying he shows us, it's really because he makes a show out of everything, 127 Hours think it's being introspective and deep when it's mostly being obvious and overtly didactic. At the beginning of the film we see how Aron barely misses his Swiss Army knife when packing for his trip and from the position of the camera and the angle we know that this knife will play a part later on. Of course it does and like the knife, Boyle uses flashbacks and characters to put together a puppet show about how sad Ralston's life was before the accident and how amazing he must've felt after being reborn (no spoilers here considering we learn the film is an adaptation from a book by Aron).

Boyle uses complicated techniques to try and inject some energy into the proceedings but the truth is that this time he tries too hard to express stylistic freedom displayed through conventional methods. When his split screens should be recalling triptychs and art history, all they really do is make us think the editor is just showing off his new software and for all of the metaphysical ramblings he makes Aron say, all we're stuck with is ninety minutes of Boyle interpreting the whole "light at the end of the tunnel" people are supposed to see before they die.

After the film sends us home floating in a cloud of positivity (the Dido meets Enya theme song is arid and cliché) we might not be thinking too much about Aron and the rock but wondering if that Oscar fell upon Boyle and is keeping his true talent trapped?

Grades: Conviction ** 127 Hours **

Due Date *

Director: Todd Phillips
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis
Michelle Monaghan, Juliette Lewis, Jamie Foxx, RZA

Todd Phillips newest entry in his "disgusting heterosexual males have feelings too" series, teams up Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis in a preposterous, unfunny story about daddy issues and wreaking havoc.
Downey Jr. plays Peter Highman, a successful architect on his way home from a business trip in order to attend his wife's (Monaghan) C-section.
In the airport he runs into Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) an eccentric struggling actor who pretty much destroys his carefully laid plans.
After a series of misunderstandings they end on a no-flight list and are forced to cross the country together to get to Los Angeles.
In almost every aspect the film is an odd couple sort of thing-Peter's the control freak, Ethan's the mess-and as usual Phillips exploits the crassness in every single way he can.
Perhaps there are people who will find it funny when Peter punches a child in the stomach and others will laugh out loud as Ethan masturbates while his dog imitates him.
Yet for every "asshole" and "fuck" uttered by these two men, Phillips has an ace up his sleeve to try and make us go "awww".
We learn that Ethan is carrying his father's ashes (in a coffee can of course) and Peter himself was abandoned by his dad at an early age.
So without any intention to be subtle about anything, the screenwriters let us know that in the form of Ethan, Peter will not only get to practice about taking care of children, he will also exorcise his inner demons.
But why oh why do we have to suffer through this expiation as well? Not only is the film overlong and pretty obtuse, it also lacks the slight fun factor Phillips' previous films have had (not they're good movies or anything...)
Downey Jr. who is usually charming, comes off looking as a total monster here and while it's true that the part demanded him to be less nice than usual, most times he's plain ugly to watch.
Galifianakis is another thing altogether. Perhaps you know if you'll like him based on your first impression of him; when he first enters the scene you will either chuckle as you do whenever Monsieur Hulot or Groucho Marx first pop on camera or you'll dread every minute afterwards for having paid the ticket.
Galifianakis is a complete acquired taste, for those who dislike his one-note kind of comedy it doesn't really help that here he plays the same guy from The Hangover, at least he makes them both act the same way.
In the way Peter has to deal with Ethan we too have to put up with the comedian and truth be told he makes Due Date feel like a nine-month long endurance test.

Whip It ***

Director: Drew Barrymore
Cast: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Daniel Stern, Juliette Lewis,
Kristen Wiig, Jimmy Fallon, Eve, Zoe Bell, Alia Shawkat
Drew Barrymore, Carlo Alban, Andrew Wilson
Landon Pigg, Ari Graynor

Very few modern actresses light the screen up like Drew Barrymore. Her adorable, quirky charm is the sort that makes almost everything she's in feel a lot sunnier, if not better, than it actually is.
It would've been almost impossible to imagine that she would be able to translate this feeling into her work behind the cameras, but in this, her directorial debut, she does just that.
You can almost see Barrymore's huge smile as she tells the story of Bliss Cavendar (Page) a seventeen year old girl living in Bodeen, Texas.
She spends her time working at a local fast food restaurant, that specializes in pork, and participating in beauty pageants to please her mom Brooke (Harden). Bliss hopes one day she'll be able to find her true calling and leave her small town.
One day while shopping in Austin she discovers roller derby. Perhaps the exact antithesis of everything her mom wants her to be, she secretly tries out for an underdog team called the Hurl Scouts and gets a spot with them.
But Bliss soon finds out that finding your own path, might affect the lives of others including her best friend Pash (Shawkat) and of course her family.
"Whip It" never tries to reinvent the wheel and if you've seen a couple of sports movies and teenage indie comedies you know how this one will go too.
What makes it delightful is Barrymore's ability to capture the energy and turn it into something akin to lightning in a jar.
Her characters, quirky as they be, aren't relegated to the usual freaks' hall-of-fame, but are adorable misfits that more often than not put a facade to fit into this world they're in.
There's Maggie Mayhem (the excellent Wiig) for example, a tough Amazon by night who has a sweet reason for ditching her teammates because her "man" waits for her at home every night.
Lewis' Iron Maven, is a ferocious player from the rival team, who has more to her than competitiveness. In one of the film's best scenes she turns out to be just a girl, who happens to be reckless on the field.
Even a character like Brooke who could've fallen into caricature is handled beautifully by the screenplay and Harden who gives her tiny flaws which she hides from her daughter (in order to protect her or just to preach?).
Page makes for a charming heroine, the actress stays within her limited range (angsty teenagers who use sarcasm to pull through) but makes Bliss something more than Juno on wheels.
Her scenes with Pigg who plays her rock interest-a hipster with a band-have a kind of innocent beauty to them that make an eventual turn actually feel painful.
Barrymore's film contains enough twee music and retro references to make anyone want to pull their hair out, but she is able to make everything work by looking at it as if it was for the first time.
Not even the "we came second!" spirit in "Whip It" is able to make it feel less liberating and enjoyable than it is, in fact its love for the underdog makes a statement.
While trying to tell a story about finding what you're good at, Barrymore has proven yet another thing she aced.