MRwOS reviews "Thelma" and performs "Walk on my Hands"

 MRwOS Episode 7: Thelma (Walk on my Hands)

Welcome to Movie Reviews with Original Songs, aka MRwOS! I am your host, David Coile, and I’ll be reviewing a movie I’ve watched recently, then playing one of my original songs that has similar themes.

If you enjoy the program, I encourage you to like, follow, and share it with your friends, or to support the program by subscribing to patreon.com/davidcoile or by making a contribution through Paypal or Venmo @DaveCoile. 

In this episode, I’ll be reviewing the film “Thelma” followed by a performance of my original song “Walk on my Hands”

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“Thelma” is a charming caper comedy about a nonagenarian who falls victim to an over the phone scam. When the police and her family won’t help, Thelma decides to track down the scammers on her own and demand her money back. 

Thelma is played by June Squibb, who I know from scene stealing supporting roles in the films of Alexander Payne, such as “Nebraska” and “About Schmidt”, and she does a bang up job in her first starring role. She’s joined by Richard Roundtree as her friend Ben, who reluctantly gets drawn into the whole affair. In many ways, this film could be a geriatric sendup of the type of films Roundtree used to star in, specifically the blaxploitation classic “Shaft” from the 1970s. The two sneak around, search for clues and confront the bad guys in familiar ways while trying to overcome elderly obstacles.

At first I was concerned that it was being too hard on the older generation, but other generations get skewered just as much, including Thelma’s ineffectual grandson (played by Fred Heckinger) and his  overconfident parents (played by Parker Posey and Clark Gregg). 

Though the filmmaking isn’t especially innovative, the plotting is tight– pay attention to the details, because they pay off in the end. Writer-director Josh Margolin based Thelma on his own grandmother, who nearly fell victim to a similar scam. The love and affection he has for her is pervasive, and it makes for a very entertaining film. 

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I wrote my song “Walk on my Hands” back in the early 2000s, and it was written from the perspective of a young adult crying out for independence from his parents. But I think it shares some common sentiments with the elderly, who often get treated like children, even when they’re still fairly capable. 

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That’s it for this episode of MRwOS! If you enjoyed the program, I encourage you to like, follow and share it with your friends, or support the program by subscribing to patreon.com/davidcoile, or maybe just throw a tip my way via Paypal or Venmo @DaveCoile. I’ll see you next time with another movie review and original song. Until then, Fade Out, Everybody!

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MRwOS: Movie Reviews with Original Songs

Review: TBS Binge-A-Thon

I've been sick as a dog this week, which means I've been camped out in front of the TV in pure couch potato mode. Luckily, TBS has been putting on a "binge-a-thon" this week (between Christmas and New Year's), in which they show all their original programming from first to last episode throughout the week (apparently all of their shows are in their first seasons). I'm happy to say that this was not a wasted effort. Here are my thoughts on the shows, from worst to best:

Angie Tribeca was created by Steve Carell and his wife Nancy, and it's a comedy that follows an LAPD homicide detective and her questionably competent precinct.  Apparently the Carrels are big fans of Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers, because it's exactly the kind of humor you would expect from the makers of Airplane, Top Secret or Hot Shots!  Unfortunately, the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker trifecta did it better with their Naked Gun franchise, and even more so with the original Police Squad. Angie Tribeca is full of corny jokes and manages to be amusing at times (a statistical certainty when they toss off as many gags as they do), but it lacks the deadpan performances that made Police Squad kick, and as much as I like Rashida Jones, she ain't no Leslie Neilsen.

It's been six years since Lost ended its enigmatic run, but here comes Wrecked with the parody no one was really looking for. I went in expecting the humor to be as stale as the premise, but it actually turned out to be pretty fun. It's very silly, but there are several good performances that keep it together. If you remember Lost fondly, or if you long for a more contemporary Gilligan's Island, this is probably a worthwhile program to check out.

The end of John Stewart's run on The Daily Show mostly led to a bunch of new satirical news programs. However, former correspondents Samantha Bee (who also now anchors her own comedy news program on TBS) and Jason Jones decided to break the mold and create the delightfully surreal sit-com, The Detour. Jason Jones stars with Natalie Zea, Liam Carroll and Ashley Gerasimovich, as a family on a road-trip to Florida. Along the way, they keep getting sidetracked in ridiculous ways. The episodes are a little uneven, but the performances are top notch-- they couldn't have cast this show any better. I found myself thoroughly charmed by the family, and I'm eager to see what happens in the second season.

Another former Daily Show correspondent, Wyatt Cenac, leads the large ensemble cast of People of Earth, a show about a local support group for alien abductees, while also following the machinations of the aliens working behind the scenes. I've found this show to be consistently the funniest of the bunch, with lots of great characterizations and inventive scenarios. I thoroughly recommend it for fans of both comedy and sci-fi.


My favorite show of the binge-a-thon was Search Party. It's a biting satire of self-involved 20-something hipster culture, while still managing to be an exceptional product of that aesthetic. Alia Shawkat (aka Maeby from Arrested Development) stars as a girl having her quarter-life crisis who becomes obsessed with the disappearance of an old dorm mate she barely knew in college. The mystery is twisty and engaging, and the sophisticated humor cuts deeply. The show has been picked up for a second season, but this 10-episode run is a complete and satisfying story all on its own. Some will be turned off by the four main characters-- they're all unlikeable in their own ways-- but if you appreciate finely crafted serialized television, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

Short Reviews: Tarzan Infiltrates the Swiss Army Shallows!

They've been making Tarzan films forever. Way back in the 30s and 40s, Johnny Weissmuller's take on the character was hugely popular, spawning several sequels and giving us the definitive Tarzan call. But after that, there weren't any terribly memorable Tarzan films until the 80s, when you had the critically panned Tarzan, the Ape Man (with Bo Derek, no less) followed a few years later by the better received Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (I remember this fondly because I had a crush on Andie MacDowell at the time). But the most prominent Tarzan in recent years has been the Disney series, starting with the 1999 animated film and followed by several direct-to-video installments. Now comes a new live action version, The Legend of Tarzan, that attempts to resuscitate the franchise.


It's a diverting film, if not quite an inspired one. One of the things it does right is jump into the main story without dwelling much on the character's origin-- Tarzan's storied past is shown via periodic flashbacks; just enough to frame the larger tale. It certainly looks good, with adequate special effects; and I'm not sure how many effects it took to make the 67 year old Samuel L. Jackson look so spry and youthful-- he's clearly going to be a scene stealer into his 120s. Chistoph Waltz also does a typically exceptional job as a mustache twirling villain. The biggest problem with the film is its stars. Alexander Skarsgard is a capable actor (I really liked him in The Diary of a Teenage Girl), but here he gets cheesy-- his every movement is portentous as he stares deep into the soul of the world (do apes not blink? Is that what I'm supposed to get from this?). Margot Robbie (who I liked in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) puts on this girlish American accent that I had a hard time taking seriously. The plot is somewhat confusing, but it's really just a set-up for its absurd-yet-entertaining climax. If you're looking for a summer adventure, this'll get the job done, but I'd rather watch The Jungle Book a few more times.

In Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston played a chemistry teacher turned drug dealer savant (while starring in maybe the greatest TV show of all time). In The Infiltrator, Cranston gets to play the other side, this time as an undercover cop trying to bring down famed drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar. Cranston does an expert job in a role that requires several overlapping performances. The film itself is not quite so elegant, as it breezes through the plot points without giving us a chance to really get to know many of the important supporting characters. The film ultimately lacks some emotional weight, but it's worth seeing just for Cranston's performance.

Swiss Army Man is the strangest film I've seen in a long time, which shouldn't be surprising since it's about a suicidal man whose life is saved by a farting corpse. As the corpse, this continues Daniel Radcliffe's string of interesting post-Harry Potter roles-- some of them are so odd, it makes me wonder if he's trolling his fan-base. Paul Dano plays the suicidal man with his usual manic energy, which is 100% appropriate for this role. The two go on a journey from a deserted island back to civilization, with many lessons learned along the way. It is a truly odd film, but also quite thought-provoking. At this point, I'm not even sure it's a comedy. Where does reality begin and fantasy end? Is it a metaphor? Or just one man's fever-dream before dying? My first thought was that it was about accepting yourself for who you are no matter what society says-- but then I thought it might be a parody of those kinds of films. Whatever the case, take a friend with you because you'll have a lot to talk about afterwards.

I wasn't a big horror fan as a kid, but I've grown to appreciate how cinematic it can be. The Shallows is a solid entry into the killer shark genre. Blake Lively does an expert job as a medical school drop-out honoring her mom's memory by surfing an uncharted bay in Central America. The movie sets up the stakes visually in a clear and concise way, then unveils the horror of the situation with clockwork precision. It's the not the scariest film out there, but it doesn't throw cheap scares at you, either. Aside from a slightly confusing ending, I thought this was a great film. Genre-fare done extremely well.

Short Reviews: Mutants, Avengers and Nice Guys Singing with Gangsta Cats...

X-men: Apocalypse - Overall, a big disappointment after Days of Future Past and First Class. The first two films in the reboot focused on the competing ideologies of Professor X and Magneto with Mystique stuck in the middle, and that made for a compelling conflict. In this installment, they pay some lip service to the triangle, but mostly focus on introducing new characters and a generically realized villain. Aside from the design work done for some of the new characters (Storm, Psylocke and Nightcrawler look pretty awesome), the film is muddled and shallow. And if you're a comic book purist, you'll be thoroughly upset with the liberties taken with some of the characters.

Sing Street - Director John Carney has made headlines lately after trashing Kiera Knightley's work in his previous film, Begin Again. While I also had trouble with Knightley's casting in that film, Sing Street shows that Carney bears plenty of responsibility for his missteps. Like Once, this film is set in Ireland, but it's about a teenage boy in the 80s who starts a band to impress a girl. There's a certain sweetness and local flavor that lifts it up, but the songs are as mediocre as the ones in Begin Again and fail to fully support the rebellious stance taken by the story. The film is a pleasant, but fails to rise above the level of unreflective adult nostalgia.

The Nice Guys - Shane Black was once the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, having penned the highly influential Lethal Weapon series. More recently, he's been directing his own scripts, most notably the massive blockbuster Iron Man 3, but also the cult favorite Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The Nice Guys follows in the vein of that small, neo-noir buddy film, but doesn't quite match its lofty virtues. The film makes some confusing choices at the beginning and then the last third of the film just sort of happens. However, the chemistry between Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling and Angourie Rice (stealing the show as Gosling's character's daughter) is glorious and alone probably worth the price of admission. I'm not sure if there's going to be a sequel, but I'd love to see this crew again in a better film.

Captain America: Civil War - For my money, the Captain America series has been the highest quality Marvel Studios franchise to date, and Civil War keeps the streak alive. I'm in awe of the Russo brother's ability to keep a movie this big this balanced. Every one of the huge cast of characters gets their moment in the sun, but unlike other superhero films, Civil War knows which ones are the stars and which ones are merely the supporting cast. The themes of the film are interwoven masterfully with personal motivations, and you also get the best mass superhero battle of all time! Highly recommended. See it again and again...

Keanu - I really enjoy Key and Peele's sketch comedy show and was looking forward to a feature length treatment of their sensibilities. But greatness on the small screen doesn't always translate to the big one, and in many ways Keanu feels like a comedy sketch stretched from 5 to 100 minutes. There are some very funny scenes, and Key and Peele put on some tremendous performances, but there's just not enough to carry you all the way through.

Movie Reviews: Inherent Vice, Force Majeure, The Babadook, Predestination

As film noir stories go, Inherent Vice (2014) isn't all that different:  There's a down-on-his-luck detective, a femme fatale, unsympathetic cops, and a convoluted mystery with all sorts of twists and turns.  It's the film's style that really makes it stand out.  As directed by P. T. Anderson, everything's a little more pastel, a little more shaggy, and little more hazy as befits a stoner P. I. like Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix).  I appreciate filmmaking that puts you in the subjective space of its protagonist (the recent alien thriller, Under the Skin, is another fine example of this); it's a little off, but it rings truer.  Aside from its stylistic trappings, this is a really fun film.  It has an all star cast, and Martin Short nearly steals the show with an especially welcome cameo.  Some folks will be turned off by the implied drug use in the film, and this movie is definitely a hard-R, but if you can handle that, you'll be thoroughly entertained.

When I read the plot summary for Force Majeure (2014), I thought it was going to be a comedy.  If it had been made in America and not Sweden, I suspect it would have been (and I don't think that would be a wrong approach).  Instead, it's a very insightful exploration of family dynamics after a life-or-death moment; after a family of four on a ski trip stare down an avalanche and survive.  Do you know how you would behave?  I should note that, despite the ski resort setting, this is not an adventure film-- don't go in expecting adrenaline pumping stunts or anything like that.  This is a talkie; it asks a lot of great questions that you'll want to talk about afterward-- be sure to see it with friends.

The Babadook (2014) is a good old-fashioned haunted house movie, to the point that the special effects were pretty low budget.  But you know what?  Those cheap effects managed to spook me just fine.  Not that it's about the special effects.  No, this film is about the relationship between a widowed mother, her young son and the strains on their relationship; The Babadook only brings things to a head.  As the mother, Aussie actress Essie Davis goes through several emotional transformations, and she does so brilliantly.  I really liked this film, but it's more relationship oriented than most horror flicks, which may turn off many fans of the genre.  On the other hand, if you're more a fan of drama, this might be a right horror film to check out if you want to test the waters.

Predestination (2014) is part of a new trend in which smaller films are released simultaneously in theaters and on pay-per-view.  I watched this one on TV at a friend's place, which was fitting as it felt like a very good episode of the Twilight Zone.  As with most time travel films, it's hard to go much into the plot, except to say that I enjoyed the film even when I could see the twists coming.  This is the second team-up between Ethan Hawke and the Spierig Brothers (the previous being Daybreakers, which is now on my watch list), and they do a good job.  Ethan Hawke is one of those actors who I don't particularly care for, but I put up with him because he usually chooses good films to make.  I don't want to overpraise this film-- there's not much to it beyond its central plot and one great performance.  But if you're looking for a blast of hardcore sci-fi, this will scratch that itch.

Movie Reviews: Hunger Games, Nightcrawler and St. Vincent

The first two Hunger Games movies were basically the same but with different stakes.  Both revolved around Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) facing impossible odds in the gladiatorial arena, pitted against other children for the entertainment of the rich and powerful.  The second movie advanced the dramatic dilemmas from the first film, but it happened around the edges.  Considering the cliff hanger ending of Catching Fire, I was wondering how they were going to include the games again in Mockingjay, Part 1, the latest installment in the series.

Surprisingly, they don't.  In fact, this sequel has very little in common structurally with the first two films.  The first two films were action movies with political and romantic undertones, but the action is gone from this sequel.  We're left with a somber, political drama about a group of rebels on the precipice of war.  The political intrigue and romantic triangle are front and center, with the constant threat of anybody and everybody dying at any moment.  It's a slow, dark meditation on the realities of war, and what it means to be a figurehead for something so potentially liberating and yet necessarily destructive.

It's a good film, but you definitely will want to see the first two films ahead of time; and if you haven't developed any attachment to characters by then, you many find Mockingjay to be a bit trying.  I think it's fascinating, though, that the filmmakers would take a chance on doing a film this different.  I understand that it's based on a book, so they have to follow that story.  But in the last few years, the rules of blockbuster films have been rewritten.  Studios are now willing to trust that the audiences will follow the characters they love under changing circumstances, and that's a big deal.  I lament that smaller and standalone films may be endangered, but I'm excited to be living through this development of big budget, character driven blockbusters.  

Nightcrawler was released on Halloween, so I've taken my time getting around to seeing it-- but thank god I did!  This is an amazingly intense film noir about a down on his luck hustler (Jake Gyllenhaal) who gets involved in guerrilla journalism.  He follows the police around late at night, trying to get video footage of crimes, accidents, or any type of viscerally nasty images he can sell to the local TV news rooms.  I've always thought Gyllenhaal was a competent actor, but he acts the hell out of this role.  He's a thoroughly despicable guy with just enough charm to keep us watching.  One thing I like about this movie is that, even though it follows the very gritty underbelly of Los Angeles, it's not an ugly film.  The cinematography is pristine, and it makes the violence and corruption a bit more cozy.  And maybe that's what this film is about: how cozy we're getting with this kind of sensationalism.  I can't say this film is for everybody, but I loved it-- one of my top films of the year.

Last Friday, I was trying to decide what movie to see, so I asked a friend which comedy I should go see:  Horrible Bosses 2 or St. Vincent.  When I mentioned Bill Murray was in the latter film, she said to see that... as long it's actually funny; she said that when they cast comedic actors in dramas, the results tend to be dour.  I decided to see St. Vincent and the funniest thing about it was that she was right-- it was kind of a depressing drama starring comedians.  But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I really like dramatic Bill Murray, particularly in films like Lost in Translation and Broken Flowers.  And he does an excellent job as a drinkin', gamblin', curmudgeonly guy taking care of the kid next door.  Melissa McCarthy, who's shown that she has comedy chops to rival Murray's, reveals that she can do a great job in a straight role as a mother struggling to take care of her son while making ends meet.  Naomi Watts was underused in the otherwise great Birdman, but here she has a chance to actually act, if only in a stock role as a Russian stripper-prostitute.

And that brings us to the problem with the film-- it's full of stock characters in stock situations.  The acting is really great, and they raise up the rest of the movie, but the movie needs to be raised a lot.  In a lot of ways this felt like one of those after school specials I used to avoid watching back in the 80s.  In that decade, you could've had the same film (minus the stripper-prostitute) starring Ed Asner and a young Ricky Schroder.  For some, this film might be worth seeing for the performances, but, personally, I was a bit bored with it.

Movie Review: Gone Girl

I don't know if anybody else felt it, but it seemed like there was a big build up to Gone Girl being released.  It's a collaboration between two recent Best Picture winners (Ben Affleck, who won for 2012's Argo, and David Fincher, who won for 2010's The Social Network) and the author of the hugely popular and critically acclaimed 2012 novel, Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn).  And you know what?  it feels like a big film, too.  In a lot of ways, it was like the kind of big film that was Hollywood's bread and butter in the pre-Star Wars days.  It's something you might imagine Hitchcock releasing to great fanfare back in the day.

This is a movie that needs a big star in the middle of it, and Ben Affleck rises to the challenge.  Usually I think he sleepwalks through his roles-- he's often the least good actor in his otherwise admirable directorial efforts-- but Fincher seems to have brought out some nuance in his performance.  He plays a man who comes under a huge amount of media scrutiny once his wife (famous as the inspiration for a children's book character named "Amazing Amy") disappears.  As a celebrity of his caliber, Affleck knows what this kind of scrutiny is like, and he's had his fair share of media mishaps, just like the character he's playing.

But the film is littered with fine performances.  I really loved Carrie Coon, who plays twin sister to Affleck's character; Kim Dickens plays a strong police detective who follows the evidence wherever it goes, even as it zig-zags; even Tyler Perry does an excellent job as the celebrity attorney trying to land the case.  The one person I had reservations about was Rosamund Pike, who plays the missing wife; much of the film is told through the narration of her diary, but her voice didn't always feel convincing.

Then again, maybe that's on purpose.  Nothing in this movie is at is seems-- there are many twists and turns, and it's hard to discuss the film without spoiling things.  Let it suffice to say that David Fincher does an excellent job handling the many layers involved.  I highly recommend this film.

TV Review: Forever

Forever is an example of the formula "Sherlock Holmes + X-factor = new detective show".  In this case we have a New York medical examiner who just happens to be immortal.  Well, not quite immortal-- he dies pretty easily, but is always resurrected a short time later, emerging naked from a nearby body of water.  This has been going on fairly regularly for the last 200 years or so.

It stars Ioan Gruffud who has admittedly amazing hair, but who never struck me as having any charisma; still, he does a reasonable job.  He mostly teams up with a detective (Alana de la Garza) who plays Watson to his Holmes, but there is a smattering of other supporting characters, most notably Judd Hirsch who has so far had nothing to do as the doctor's companion for the last 70 years or so.

I find the premise of the show to be interesting-- the idea of someone who's lived so long bringing his experience to bear in modern crime investigations could lead us down new avenues.  But so far the show has tried to make him too much like Sherlock Holmes-- he's able to deduce amazing things from very small details.  This feels like a missed opportunity; his real power is his long life experience which should give him grand insights into human behavior.  Giving him hyper-observational abilities seems like stacking the deck.

The serial immortality of the main character does invert expectations, sometimes comically.  In most crime investigation shows, you worry about the hero dying, but here we get to count how many reckless ways the doctor gets himself killed.  In only two episodes, he must have died (and been resurrected) 5 or 6 times already.  And if you think too much about it, you start wondering what happens to his clothes once his body disappears and recomposes in the Hudson Bay.  Does he have to get a new driver's license each time?  Now that pay phones are so rare, how does he call Judd Hirsch's character to pick him up?  These types of questions aren't taken very seriously by the show-- it's all just a gimmick.

The only way the immortality aspect has become important is in a developing storyline involving another immortal who's stalking the doctor.  We don't know much about this guy yet, but he certainly seems sinister!

So, as it is, I don't think it's a great show.  It doesn't take advantage of its premise except in the most superficial way, and that leaves it feeling like just another Sherlock Holmes knock-off.  But there is an interesting foundation for the show and I could see it becoming more interesting several episodes in.  If it lasts, I might check back mid-season.

Movie Review: The Drop (2014)

The trailers for The Drop suggest this movie is about a couple thugs robbing a mob-connected bar and how the shit then hits the fan.  You'd be forgiven for thinking this was a clone of the 2012 film, Killing Them Softly, but you'd also be very, very wrong.  The Drop is both more complex and more straight-forward, but also quite a bit more subtle.

There are actually several intertwined story-lines, all revolving around Bob, who tends bar at his cousin Marv's place.  Aside from the bar heist, the biggest storyline involves Bob finding a dog that's been beaten and left for dead in a local woman's dumpster.  Bob and the woman build a relationship as he learns to take care of the puppy.

The other story lines aren't immediately obvious, but rather unveil themselves as the movie progresses.  This movie is masterful at adding plot-points casually, making them look like natural character development and bits of local flavor.  I really admire how this script was put together; it's tightly constructed, but comes off as really loose.  There are slow points in the film when you may mistakenly believe that nothing important is going on.

Bob is played by Tom Hardy, who is proving to be an actor's actor.  In his last three films (playing the title character in Locke and Bane in The Dark Knight Rises), he's been virtually unrecognizable from one part to the next.  I wouldn't be surprised if it starts with his voice-- each character he plays seems to talk in a very unique way; Hardy would've been a natural in the age of radio plays.  But his body language is amazingly distinct, too.  He fully inhabits his roles in a way that would give Daniel Day Lewis a run for his money.  The other actors on hand are in fine form, too.  It's notable that this was James Gandolfini's last film role (though apparently there was some television pilot he did after this).

This film works on several levels.  If you appreciate character driven plots, and if you appreciate well constructed scripts, you'll really appreciate this film.  Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Violet & Daisy (2011)

Violet & Daisy begins with a walk-and-talk between two young female assassins on their way to a job. It's very similar to the first Jules and Vincent scene in Pulp Fiction, so I was immediately expecting the movie to be a chatty, sub-Tarantino bloodletting.  But I was pleasantly surprised by this film.

Saoirse Ronan gives her usual soulful performance, and it's nice to see Alexis Bledel post-Gilmore Girls.  But the highlight of the film is James Gandolfini's turn as the target of a hit who, despite everyone's intentions, can't seem to get killed.  As the job continues to go awry, Gandolfini develops a relationship with Daisy (Ronan) and, to a lesser degree, Violet (Bledel).

What separates this from a Tarantino film is that there is some genuine sweetness.  And though there is gun-play and a couple bloody scenes (the worst is probably the first scene in the film), it's not really a film about violence.  There are nice personal moments throughout.

However, for all its heart, it lacks the sharp dialogue and sure directorial hand that Tarantino would bring.  There are chapter headings throughout the film that are nothing but a distracting contrivance, and many of the scenes lack rhythm, hurting otherwise fine performances.

This movie was a mixed bag for me.  The central twist to the film is interesting, and there are several moving scenes.  But too much of the film is trying to be hip without quite succeeding.  There are rewards here, but watch at your own risk.