17 Again (2009)

17 Again, written by Jason Filardi and directed by Burr Steers stars Zac Efron in this innocent comedy film. The film starts in 1989 during a basketball match at Hayden High School. Mike O'Donnell (Zac Efron) is 17 years old, and is there to see if he is worthy of a scholarship. His girlfriend, Scarlett, told him she was pregnant just before the game started, and in the middle of the game Mike runs out of the gym to be with her, giving up the chance for a scholarship. The film then ellipses in time, showing Mike as a 37 year old man regretting it all. Mike has been turned down for a promotion at work, and is living with his best friend Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon) after Scarlett evicted him from the house. After a series of coincidental events, Mike transforms back into his 17-year-old self by the mysterious school janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray).

17 Again has better performances then expected, and actually, there is something always boiling beneath the rather shallow screenplay. When Ned has to pretend to be Mike's father in order for Mike to apply for high school, the film fragments into a thoughtful romance, which always returns to comedy with a rather serious tone. 17 Again isn’t a sloppy comedy film designed for the girls to stare at Efron for hours, but uses his persona to dig deeper into life challenges that most of us assume to be futile or even impossible. In this way, Efron uses his role in this film to achieve many of our own personal desires and wishes which can only raise his own prolific profile as a flexible actor.

On paper, the film most certainly has the potential to be a predictable comedy film, but director Burr Steers zooms in on key moments which make the film sentimental and magical. When Mike goes to Scarlett’s house and dances with her in the living room, the scene captures all the qualities of the film: comedy, magic, emotion and beauty, showing just in one scene how thoughtful and creative the film actually is. Whether the audience will view the film for Zac Efron, the story, or the Hollywood dream, you are guaranteed to find your personal desire in there somewhere. What could have been a slushy and conventional film turned out to be imaginative and potent so what are you waiting for? View it before you get too old yourself!

Marley and Me (2009)

Who is Marley and Me? Is it John Grogan? (Owen Wilson), Jenny Grogan? (Jennifer Aniston), or one of their three children? Marley and Me follows the life’s of the Grogan family and their pet Labrador Marley who transforms from an innocent puppy to a fully grown nightmare. Parallel narratives soon develop between John Grogan and his family life, and John Groan and his work life as an aspiring journalist in Southern Florida. The tensions between the two immediately step away from the traditional Hollywood formula, showing a rather sentimental outlook to a normal family life that is centred so heavily around love and commitment, immediately transpiring Marley and Me into a sentimental family film.

Despite the ellipsis in time that the film focuses on, the notion of time in this film doesn’t worsen things or discard moments from the past, but time serves as a reminder of how precious life really is and how a family unit is so integral to contemporary American life. John and Jenny try for their first child only to discover that it died in the womb. They try again and they welcome their first baby boy to the family, and again another baby boy, and finally they have a girl. No this isn’t just too perfect and convenient, but rather sentimental and aspiring, transporting the viewer into Hollywood, but a Hollywood that the viewer can finally achieve in themselves- one of family values and animals. Why don’t we all give it a go?

As time passes and the children get older, so does Marley. The past, this time of innocence and memory is fading as the tears roll down the face of the viewer. Marley is taken to the vets initially because of a problem with his stomach. He is released and sent home where he belongs, as part of American life and a family unit. His health later deteriorates and he is ‘put down’ at the vets. The film, although simple on the surface, raises issues of American life, Hollywood dreams, the past and future and even the family film as a contemporary genre. Is Marley in fact more than a dog, is a representative of the first child that Jenny never had? Does this suggest that animals are an integral element to a perfect family unit? Marley and Me is poetic, loving and an aspiring contemporary family film. In the theatre, you feel transported to a family that is far from perfect, but they are ‘real’. This is such a central ideology to the film that no one is perfect but its being ‘real’ that matters, something that Marley represented. Even though Marley did die, his spirit will live on, showing how sentimental and poetic American cinema can truly be.

I Love You, Man (2009)

Despite falling into a classical and formulaic plot, I Love You, Man is a socially engaging piece of cinema that somehow feels authentic in its own respect. Written and directed by John Hamburg, the film follows Peter Klaven who has just got engaged to Zooey Rice. Peter, however does not seem to have anyone special he’d like to share the good news with. After overhearing Zooey's friends tell her that they are concerned Peter does not have any friends, he realizes he needs to find some male friends in order to have a best man for his wedding. This concept forms the foundations to a rather simplistic but overwhelmingly derisive film.

The film is aimed at and advertised for a typical female audience, even though the film primarily focuses on the male figure, in particular masculinity and male sexuality. The film therefore segregates itself from the conventions of the romantic comedy by taking its conventions and almost criticising them entirely. The space that both Peter and his “friend” Sydney spend time together is not a space of “manliness” devoted to the male sex, but rather a space that the female audience can intrude in, giving them an insight into the opposite sex, creating comedy for them. This is not to say the male audience is excluded from the film. For them, the film becomes more than a tool for getting some comedy from, but a meaningful way of looking at the contemporary state of the male self and how this relates to the society in which we exist.

Paul Rudd as Peter Klaven demonstrates good performances, but sadly Rashida Jones (Zooey Rice) does not. Her performances at times verge on amateur which was exposed because of the nature of her role. She was not the ‘typical female figure’ who was about to fall into ‘normal marriage‘, and her character demanded a much more flexible approach which she unfortunately did not achieve. Rudd, on the other hand, stayed true to the nature of his role and the many diverse situations he was faced with, really lifting his profile as a prolific Hollywood actor. The directing most certainly added to the emotions expressed from the film, even if, at times, John Hamburg could have prevented so many shots being to static, prolonging one single situation. This effect at times make certain moments of the film seem too long winded and unfortunately unnecessary.

With a whole range of films of its kind being released as of late, I Love You, Man could have been a predictable, formulaic addition to a genre suffering from genetic exhaustion. The key quality from the film most certainly comes from its unexpected ability to draw in different audience types and providing different messages to them. Women will laugh, Men will laugh at the woman. Overall, I Love You, Man is a unique and highly unforeseen piece of cinema that is jam packed with laughs and moments of endless humour. Even though the plot is shallow, the depth of the film lies beneath, just like the feelings that poor Peter cannot admit to.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Filmic reflectivity involves the exploration of the inner workings of Hollywood as a means of attracting an interest from the mass audience; something that Tropic Thunder unremittingly achieves. Not only is the script constructed from one-liners of ongoing humour and absurdity, but the cast (consisting of Ben Stiller and Jack Black) excel in constructing situations that are so illogical, we almost forget that we are watching a product of their misfortunes- creating the film Four Leaf set in Vietnam.

Inevitably, filming does not go as calculated, and once the director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) dies, the actors are driven into disequilibrium, facing the ‘Flaming Dragon’ gang in their province of the Golden Triangle. The humour spawns from the characters diverse cultural representations which merge tightly together creating a ‘Tropic Thunder’; not a thunder of rage and darkness but one of obscene humour and absurdity which connect with us directly. What could have easily been a film of meaningless gags and torture actually resulted in a potent summer blockbuster showing significance from its opening.

Suburban Girl (2007)

There is a reason the producers changed the title of the film from The Girls Guide to Hunting & Fishing to Suburban Girl. Where the former paints a picture of life and nature, the film has taken this and transformed it to adapt to Brett Eisenbergs (played by Sarah Michelle Geller) more restricted life as an ambitious New York editor who falls for the charms and security of Archie Knox (Alec Baldwin). Through a series of organised chapters, Brett offers the presumed female audience mutual identification through personal issues that the audience will empathise with as existing in their own lives. Although the performances from both Sarah Michelle Geller and Alec Baldwin were satisfying, the narratives transition between solemn and humorous issues unfortunately turned a potentially pleasing romantic story into something more perplexing, obscuring the real emotion and energy that the film could have offered.