CRAZY STUPID LOVE

Written by Dan Fogelman

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

Starring Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone

Jacob: Be better than the Gap.

Well, I'll give them "crazy" and "stupid" but that's pretty much where the love stops for me. CRAZY STUPID LOVE is yet another romantic comedy that gets lost in all the crazy highs and stupid lows we have all come to associate with that elusive and all-encompassing emotion we call love. And while love certainly causes all of us to exercise poor judgment from time to time without question, a good chunk of us still crave its complexity regardless. We've all certainly been there but hopefully when we were there, we were nowhere near as pathetic as this ensemble comedy is.

CRAZY STUPID LOVE is the second directorial effort from duo, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS), and even though two heads should be better than one, you would think no one was in charge from how aimless and tired this plot plays out. Their choices, whey they actually make some, are simple enough for any love struck idiot to understand. We know from the moment the film starts that the love is gone for Cal and Emily (Steve Carell and Julianne Moore) by what they're wearing on their feet. Everyone at the restaurant is playing footsie under the table with their fancy footwear except for these two. Cal is wearing running shoes so we know that he's given up trying. He also drinks from a straw and his wife does the driving so we know he's a sad man. At one point, they end up in an argument in a school parking lot, shortly after it looks like they might reconcile no less, and it begins to rain down heavily on Carell after Moore walks away from him dramatically. "What a cliche," he exclaims and I could not have agreed any more.

After Cal and Emily separate at the beginning of the film, Cal tries to get back out there. This is where he meets Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a smooth operator, who for some inexplicable reason, takes pity on Cal and decides to help him become a real man. Of course, becoming a man people can respect means buying into a world of materialism and detachment, two paths that certainly do not lead to love. As fantastic as it is to watch Gosling let loose for a change, it is clear from the start that ultimately it will be his womanizing ways that will need adjusting in order for him to find true happiness, especially if he intends to land the beautiful Hannah (Emma Stone). And as if there weren't enough tumultuous sub-plots intersecting already, screenwriter, Dan Fogelman (TANGLED), gives us a few more love conundrums to ponder involving a babysitter with an inappropriate crush, a 13-year-old lovesick boy and Kevin Bacon. The point is to distract and make us laugh but all it does is weight the whole project down with heavy awkwardness.

I will not pretend to know too much about love. It seems to me it comes in many different forms and we can only know what it does to us as individuals when we're in it. I can say that my experience has been that it is a transformative emotion well worth every pain that comes with it. It is tricky enough to navigate in the real world though and hard to take seriously in a world as contrived as the one created in CRAZY STUPID LOVE. While Ficarra and Requa attempt to convey how our modern society has made it even more difficult to find love and hold on to it once we have it, they still hold true to the archaic notion that we all have one perfect partner, a "soul mate" if you will, waiting out there for us to find. As far as love in the present day goes, that notion is about as stupid and crazy as they come.

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THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

Written by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko

Starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson and Mark Ruffalo

Joni: Each of my mom’s used your sperm.

Paul: As in two? As in both of them?

Joni: Uh-huh, as in gay.

I don’t know if anyone has told you this already but family can be fairly complicated. Take Nic and Jules (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) for example. They’ve been together for about 20 years and have two teenage children, one of which (Mia Wasikowska) is about to head off to college. The other (Josh Hutcherson) is somewhat aimless in his adolescent life and decides he needs to know more about where he came from. More specifically, he wants to meet the man who supplied the sperm that made both him and his sister possible. Enter Mark Ruffalo and along with him a disaster of familial proportion.

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is the fourth film by Lisa Cholodenko, who has regularly explored the nature of complicated relationships and what happens to them when those involved make mistakes they know could crumble their foundations. Deciding to meet sperm donor, Paul (Ruffalo), is not that mistake. His introduction into this family’s life though certainly seems to have given all its members free reign to act out. Naturally, his emergence puts Nic and Jules into a tailspin and how they each approach the situation exposes some of the couple’s deeper issues. Bening and Moore play the couple so perfectly, you can feel a palpable sense of unbalance in the way they treat each other and an urgency to survive. It’s as though years of experiences, both great and harrowing, have been worked into their collective performances.

While Nic and Jules struggle with feelings of inadequacy and replacement, their kids, Joni and Laser (Wasikowska and Hutcherson) try hard to see themselves in Paul. When all three sit to talk for the first time, it is apparent that both nature and nurture played a part in the two kids’ growth. The delicate nature of the introduction is almost lost on the kids because they simply don’t know better. They don’t know that you can go from relating to feeling completely alien in a matter of seconds and that when that happens with the father you never met, the damage can be severe. In their innocence, they thought they wanted something but could never have truly prepared for what they got. And the same can be said for Paul. The potential of family woos him into thinking his life is empty and it isn’t long before he tries any way he can to latch on. Ruffalo is the consummate boy pretending he can be a real man.

Cholodenko has learned to breathe in the six years since her last feature. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is like a breeze with a bit of a bite on the back end. As awkward and troubling as all these interactions are, they pass by smoothly and make for a refreshing film – one where a fantastic cast portray real people with equally real problems that deal with them like a good family should, with sensitivity, solidarity and a little humour to keep the mood light. Yes, the kids are all right but the movie is even better.

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A SINGLE MAN

Written and Directed by Tom Ford
Starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode and Nicolas Hoult


George: It takes time in the morning for me to become George.

At one point not so long ago, it was the big joke that what everyone in Hollywood who wasn’t already doing so really wanted to do was direct. While that often led to disastrous results, one can still muster high hopes for directorial debuts from the likes of someone as sophisticated as Tom Ford, most known for his work in fashion as a designer. With A SINGLE MAN, based on the Christopher Isherwood novel, Ford takes everything he knows about style and substance and translates his impeccable attention to detail from the runway to the big screen. In doing so, he has not only made a first feature that stands out with incredible promise for his future endeavors but he has also made one of the best films this year amongst directors both fresh and seasoned.


It is November 1962 and it has been eight months since George (Colin Firth) lost his lover of 16 years, Jim (Matthew Goode), in a car accident. We meet George on a very important day; it is the day in which he has decided will be his last. From the moment he wakes, he looks as though the battle is already lost. Every movement, every task looks laboured and difficult to manage. George has been living too long without the love that gave his life meaning and the manner in which Firth carries George allows his pain to resonate past the screen. I’m not a huge Firth fan; I’ve got nothing against him but I’ve never been thoroughly engaged by anything he’s done prior to this. That said, I can honestly say that his work in A SINGLE MAN is the singular best work of his career. He even eclipses a ravishing Julianne Moore! His eyes are sad, his demeanor is heavy but it is the constant struggle between the restraint he is required to exhibit publicly and the emotional collapse he is hiding beneath the surface of every pore that makes Firth unforgettable.


As one would expect, any film by Tom Ford is going to look good. Lensed by up and coming Spanish cinematographer, Eduard Grau, with a production design by “Mad Men” designer, Dan Bishop, A SINGLE MAN is both sensual and authentic. It also has the point of view of an easily distracted gay man with a roaming eye. Conversations about the Cuban missile crisis can only hold George’s attention for so long before his eyes turn to close-up shots of shirtless men playing tennis or something equally tantalizing. Not only is this perspective one that would have been spit upon in 1962, it is still a rare find today to come across a film that is unapologetically gay. Ford, an openly gay man himself, clearly has no interest in pandering to anyone as a filmmaker and the directness with which he tells this painful story of loss and loneliness is invigorating and commendable.


George likes to think of himself as invisible. After Jim’s death, he did everything he could to be exactly that but he felt that way long before this. For George, and sadly for so many others, being gay means having to swallow any words that might affirm who you are. The goal is to go unnoticed and it isn’t all that difficult. People see what they want to see and can go on living in that ignorant bliss for a long time until they can’t anymore. In George’s world, he lived as open a life as he could, even going so far as to live with his lover in a glass house, but that meant scrutiny. What they refused to see before, they don’t want to see now and with no outlet to validate the love that George lost, his life loses all meaning. Fortunately, Ford frames George’s plight with sympathy and care and subsequently, A SINGLE MAN becomes more than just a film – it becomes an indisputable argument for a generation of gay men and women still fighting for their civil rights today.

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