Tag: Scarlett Johansson

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Together apart: Marriage Story works through tears and humor

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver fight, laugh, and search for authenticity while going though separation and divorce in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. NETFLIX

Though Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story openly invites comments on the irony of the title—this is, after all, a movie about divorce—it’s in their separation that Nicole and Charlie Barber (Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver) see one another for who they are, as opposed to who they’d become while married. The life they built together was full of creativity, financial success, and critical acclaim. They have a wonderful son. Is it tragic that a marriage like this ended in divorce? Or is the tragedy that building this life led to buried resentment, unspoken frustrations, and uneven power dynamics, and that the most logical thing to do—go their separate ways—comes at such a steep emotional, financial, and legal cost? Or is the struggle to divorce entirely justified, and we should accept the pain inflicted as a natural part of the human experience?

Funny and frustrating (in a great way), Marriage Story paves the way for a mature discussion on the subject of divorce. Nicole and Charlie live in New York as part of a successful theater company: He writes and directs, she acts, and together they win awards and adoration. Nicole, however, feels she has always lived in his shadow, as a supporting player in what is ultimately his story. She left a burgeoning movie career and her roots in Los Angeles for the New York stage, and wants to reclaim her success. Charlie, meanwhile, feels blindsided by her complaints, and wants to continue with his career and maintain their home in New York.

Everything is cordial, if tense, at first. It’s when the facts of living a bicoastal life with a child emerge that the rocky road to divorce reveals itself, even if the idea is amicable. As the bureaucratic and spiritual difficulties arise, they have to confront one another, and have the conversations they’ve been avoiding. How do you tell someone how hurt and rejected you feel by them without insulting them? How do you lay claim to part of their life that you feel you’ve earned without ruining them? And should those concerns stop you in the first place?

Baumbach’s film challenges us to reexamine how we think about relationships and how they end, dispensing with the notion that someone has to be right or wrong for a marriage to come apart. There are many rights and countless wrongs, all of which deserve the light of day. As Nicole and Charlie’s lawyers (Laura Dern and Ray Liotta, who steal every scene) bicker on their clients’ behalf, they hear their feelings put into words in a way they would never have said, but left to their own devices their truth would have gone unspoken.

This review has focused on the emotional maturity of Marriage Story, but the movie’s not just one big dissertation on divorce law. It boasts an exceptional lead and supporting cast, excellent dialogue, and a rich sense of humor. Like the film’s characters, you won’t know whether to laugh or cry, and will frequently do both.

Marriage Story / R, 136 minutes / Violet Crown Cinema

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema 375 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056, drafthouse.com/charlottesville z Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213. regmovies.com z Violet Crown Cinema 200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000, charlottesville.violetcrown.com z Check theater websites for listings.

SEE IT AGAIN

Remember the Night NR, 91 minutes / Alamo Drafthouse Cinema December 1

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Arts

The 2019 VAFF offers a diverse lineup with over 150 films

The Centerpiece Film of the 2019 Virginia Film Festival is Harriet, starring Zackary Momoh as John and Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman. Credit: Glen Wilson / Focus Features

Oscar buzz abounds among the spotlight films screening at the 32nd Annual Virginia Film Festival, from the opening night feature, Just Mercy, starring Michael B. Jordan, to writer-director Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story with Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda and Ray Liotta. VAFF Director and UVA Vice Provost for the Arts Jody Kielbasa also announced appearances from guest programmers: artist Federico Cuatlacuatl, filmmaker Michelle Jackson, filmmaker and programmer Joe Fab, film scholar Samhita Sunya, artist and scholar Mona Kasra, and Washington Jewish Film Festival director Ilya Tovbis.

Music fans will get an exclusive look at the Bruce Springsteen concert film Western Stars, and actor, writer, and director Ethan Hawke is coming to town to reflect on his career and screen the 2007 film Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, in which he stars alongside the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Ann Dowd known for her role as Aunt Lydia in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” will participate in a discussion following Dismantling Democracy, a political documentary she narrates.

Senior guest programmer Ilana Dontcheva says a synergy emerged among the submitted films, resulting in a new sidebar featuring women writers and directors, and director Wanuri Kahiu will be at the screening of her film, Rafiki (a love story between two women that was banned in 2018 in Kenya), for a conversation about her career and the creation of the Afrobubblegum Movement.

The Virginia Film Festival takes place October 23-27; tickets will go on sale to the public at noon on Monday, September 30. More information can be found at virginiafilmfestival.org.

Categories
Arts

Rough Night loses direction on gender gags

Zoë Kravitz, Jillian Bell, Scarlett Johansson, Ilana Glazer and Kate McKinnon star in Rough Night, which is neither a re-hashing of Bridesmaids nor the bawdy crowd pleaser it aspires to be. Courtesy Sony Pictures

The story of Rough Night centers around a disastrous bachelorette weekend organized by an old friend who doesn’t know the difference between entertaining someone and monopolizing her time—which is a distinction the movie itself also has difficulty making.

Featuring a terrific cast with great chemistry, a mix of A-listers and promising up-and-comers, and written and directed by a duo best known for their work on the smash hit “Broad City,” Rough Night obviously wants you to enjoy its many individual components so much, it never pays attention to whether they all work together.

Rough Night
R, 101 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Rough Night follows a group that gathers in Miami to celebrate the upcoming marriage of Jess (Scarlett Johansson) to Peter (Paul W. Downs, who also co-wrote the movie). Four of the five were inseparable pals in college: aspiring politician Jess, activist Frankie (Ilana Glazer), wealthy Blair (Zoë Kravitz) and Alice (Jillian Bell), who obsessively planned the getaway down to the most ludicrous detail. Jess’ Australian friend Pippa (Kate McKinnon) joins them, to the chagrin of possessive Alice. The friends decide to order a male stripper for Jess, who initially enjoys the attention but steps aside when he begins acting strange and aggressive in a very un-stripperlike manner. Alice, who cannot slow down for a moment, then leaps onto the chair where he is sitting, smashing his head against the fireplace and killing him instantly. From there, the group panics, and ideas for a cover-up begin almost immediately. The chaos that ensues challenges the bond between the friends that had gone unquestioned for 10 years.

To its benefit, Rough Night is not Very Bad Things, Weekend At Bernie’s, Bridesmaids or any of the movies that the plot might make you recall. Director and co-writer Lucia Aniello has a very clear vision of the movie’s comedic core, depicting the buildup to making a horrible decision and how it managed to seem almost reasonable at the time. Waiting to call the police sounds logical, moving the body away from the window seems like a good move, and by the time the women resolve to dump the corpse in the ocean, it almost seems like the most obvious thing in the world.

Rough Night loses itself when it can’t decide between madcap antics or character interaction, and as a result both suffer. At any given moment, it’s exclusively one or the other, and the over-the-top actions are much less funny when they don’t feel rooted in what we believe that person would do. Not that Rough Night—or any movie, for that matter—needs to be completely believable, but if we’re supposed to laugh at the absurdity of what’s happening on the screen, we need to understand the circuitous logic of the person doing it. You can do anything in a movie, as long as it’s motivated in some way. Very little in Rough Night is, and outrageous gags that were intended to be laugh-out-loud rarely rise above a chuckle, if that.

While all this is happening, Peter has been having what he perceives as a wild guys’ weekend at a wine tasting with his groomsmen. When a perplexing phone call from Jess makes him think the wedding may be off, he and his friends (including Bo Burnham, Eric Andre and Hasan Minhaj) concoct an absurd plan to reach her by pulling a “sad astronaut,” a reference to Lisa Nowak’s supposed nonstop drive while wearing adult diapers. After an inspiring speech, Peter hits the road, aided by Red Bull and expired Russian amphetamines. It’s a sideplot that mirrors Jess’ experience, and the specific idea is just as preposterous, but the comedy connects because it is constantly moving in one direction with no detours. These guys really are that boring; watching them arrive where they do, so calmly and reasonably, is a lot of fun because the characters make collective sense.

We know nothing about the main group of women except for one attribute each, and that they were friends in college. When everything stops so Frankie can make an activist joke or Pippa can perform whatever miscellaneous attribute that is unfairly foisted on such an unfocused role for such a talented performer, it just deadens the gag.

Rough Night is not a terrible movie; it is made by people who have been excellent in other mediums, and it stars a lot of people we ought to be rooting for who deliver good performances when they are able. But a little bit of focus goes a long way, and that would have made Rough Night the bawdy crowd-pleaser it clearly aspires to be but unfortunately is not.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

47 Meters Down, All Eyez On Me, The Book of Henry, Cars 3,  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Megan Leavey, The Mummy, Paris Can Wait, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Wonder Woman

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000  

All Eyez On Me, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Cars 3, David Lynch: The Art Life, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, It Comes at Night, Megan Leavey, The Mummy, My Cousin Rachel, Raising Bertie, Wonder Woman