The Way Way Back & The To Do List
This past Sunday, I did something I had never done before - I went to see three movies in one day. There were two reasons for this. The first is that it rained pretty much all day anyway. And the second is that I live in the middle of nowhere. If I want to see non-blockbuster movies, I have to drive 40 minutes away, first of all, and then sometimes these movies are only in theaters for a week. I already missed out on Before Midnight earlier this summer because it was only in theaters for ONE WEEK!?!?!! So, the first movie was Fruitvale Station which I already raved about. The next two movies have more in common than I initially thought. They are both funny, coming of age stories, although one is quite a bit raunchier than the other.
The Way Way Back is this sort of charming little gem of a movie. It's from writer / directors Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, who took home an Oscar a few years ago for writing The Descendants. And while I liked The Descendants quite a bit, I sort of almost think this is a better movie. It stars Liam James as Duncan, a shy boy who goes to a beach house for the summer with his mom (Toni Collette) and her new-ish boyfriend (Steve Carrel, who is delightfully mean!). During the summer, he hates on the boyfriend, hides from his crazy, drunk neighbors (among them a hilarious Allison Janney), crushes on the older girl next door (Annasophia Robb) and begins a friendship with the local water park owner (Sam Rockwell). He grows up and comes out of his shell and gets a father figure in Rockwell's Owen.
The movie has a lot of cliched moments; it's almost generic with a sort of paint by numbers quality. Still, it also feels real. It's heartwarming and hilarious, but it could have been an even better movie had the entire thing felt as fearless as Rockwell's performance. All of the performances here are gems, from Duncan's quirky eventual co-workers at the water park to the super bratty daughter of Carrel's character, but Rockwell is best in show by a mile. He is a fast talking charmer who tells jokes by the minute. He is lovable and hilarious. And while he might get on the nerves of Maya Rudolph's character, he never gets on the audiences nerves and you are left wanting so much more of him. His character may be sort of a mess up, but in the end, he's the closest thing to a father and a friend that young Duncan has. His relationship with Duncan is the heart and soul of this movie and takes it from being just another cliched coming of age story to the sort of movie you tell your friends to go see.
While The Way Way Back is all sweet-natured, hilarious charm, The To Do List is a raunch fest in the vein of American Pie. Aubrey Plaza stars as Brandy, a high school valedictorian who graduates knowing so many facts and acing all the tests, but being completely clueless about anything and everything to do with sex and boys. So, she does what she does best. She makes a to do list of every sexual encounter she has heard about and sets out to do them all before the end of the summer. With help from her friends including Alia Shawkat, her parents (Connie Britton, Clark Gregg), and her older sister (a scene stealing Rachel Bilson), she sets out to woo every man from Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Johnny Simmons to Andy Samberg and Scott Porter.
It's refreshing and a nice change of pace to see this sort of movie have a female star. And Plaza is definitely up to the challenge of all the gross and awkward moments. She plays Brandy as an over achiever who plans to lose her virginity in much the same way she would study for a(n AP) Biology test. And this is a very, genuinely funny movie. It's also very raunchy. Like, very, very raunchy. And it's also a little on the gross side, especially a specific part in the public pool where Brandy works for the summer. I won't get into it, but it's pretty awful. For all the funniness of this movie, however, it just lacks something that American Pie had in spades: heart. Brandy is kind of a bitch. I found myself wondering why someone like Alia Shawkat's too cool for school character would even give Brandy the time of day, let alone be her friend. It's sort of hard to root for someone who makes it so hard to like them. Just when I would start to give up on this movie, however, Rachel Bilson would come on screen and say or do something hilarious, reminding me why I've loved her so from her days as Summer on The O.C. She might not be the best actress, but with the right material, she's sort of hilarious. She should be a bigger star and maybe post-The To Do List, more people will take notice.
The Way Way Back - B
The To Do List - B-
Labels: Allison Janney, Johnny Simmons, Rachel Bilson, Sam Rockwell, Steve Carrell, Toni Collette