New Releases for the Week of October 23, 2015

STEVE JOBS

(Universal) Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, Sarah Snook, Adam Shapiro. Directed by Danny Boyle

One of the brilliant visionaries of our time, Steve Jobs became the guru of technology although he was never an engineer so much as a marketing genius. Under his leadership, Apple became a juggernaut of a company, spearheading the personal computer revolution as well as creating markets for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. His personal life was more tumultuous as he was as a boss a demanding taskmaster and sundered personal relationships in his quest to change the world and gain market share. This driven man has already gotten a biopic and now a second, more prestigious one is coming along that has already garnered rave reviews and Oscar buzz for Fassbender in the title role.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Biographical Drama
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for language)

A Brilliant Young Mind

(Goldwyn) Asa Butterfield, Rafe Spall, Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan. A brilliant British math prodigy who is unable to navigate social behavior due to his autism finds comfort in numbers. Taken under the wing by an unconventional math teacher, he earns a spot on the British Math Team. There, while training in Taipei with the Chinese team, he meets a young Chinese girl and begins to develop unexpected feelings for her. The director based this fictional film on his own documentary about the training of the British math team.

See the trailer and a clip here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Drama
Now Playing: Enzian Theater
Rating: NR

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon

(Magnolia) Henry Beard, Matty Simmons, Bruce McCall, P.J. O’Rourke. If you look at modern American comedy both on television and in the movies, the roots go back to National Lampoon magazine. Founded by a couple of Harvard grads who had worked at the venerable Harvard Lampoon, the magazine became a breeding ground for some of the most brilliant comedians and writers of our time. A favorite from this year’s Florida Film Festival, the film has since received distribution through major indie Magnolia and makes it to the Enzian for a brief run; read my Festival review of the film here.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Documentary
Now Playing: Enzian Theater
Rating: NR

Jem and the Holograms

(Universal) Juliette Lewis, Molly Ringwald, Aubrey Peeples, Stefanie Scott. A young woman becomes an internet sensation when her sisters leak a video of her playing an original song onto a website. She soon becomes a global superstar and is made to jettison her band, which is made up of her other three sisters. Needing to make things right, she and her sisters soon go off on an adventure that she never expected to find. Based on the 80s Saturday morning cartoon.

See the trailer, interviews, clips, a featurette, a music video and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Musical
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for thematic material including reckless behavior, brief suggestive content and some language)

The Last Witch Hunter

(Summit) Vin Diesel, Elijah Wood, Rose Leslie, Michael Caine. For centuries, the evil creatures of the night – source of our most horrific legends – were battled by valiant witch hunters. When the Witch Queen is slain by Kaulder, the best of the witch hunters, she curses him with immortality, separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the Afterlife. Now, hundreds of years later, he continues battling what few rogue witches are left, the last of his kind. When the Witch Queen is resurrected, an epic battle will ensue on which rests the future of the human race.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, a music video and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Horror Fantasy Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for scary and intense creature action and images, and for some rude humor)

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

(Paramount) Chris J. Murray, Brit Shaw, Ivy George, Dan Gill. The most successful found footage franchise in history comes to an end as a pair of brothers find a box of videocassettes in their new house, as well as a camera that allows them to see the spirit world. When a daughter of one of the brothers opens a portal to the ghost dimension, all hell will literally break loose as all the loose threads from the previous films in the series will be tied up at last.

See the trailer, clips, featurettes and a promo here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Horror
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC Disney Springs, AMC Loew’s Universal Cityplex, AMC West Oaks
Rating: R (for language and horror violence)

Rock the Kasbah

(Open Road) Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel. A washed up manager of rock performers is abandoned in Afghanistan by his last remaining client, then in a cave outside Kabul discovers the most amazing voice ever. Determined to help the beautiful woman who possesses that voice reach her dreams of winning Afghan Star (the local version of American Idol), he enlists a motley crew of allies to help him overcome cultural prejudices and take his new client all the way to the top. Incredibly, this is based on actual events and is directed by Oscar winner Barry Levinson.

See the trailer, clips and a featurette here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Dramedy
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for language including sexual references, some drug use and brief violence)

Victoria

(Adopt) Laia Costa, Frederick Lau, Franz Rogowski, Burak Ligit. The winner of the prestigious Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival, this ambitious film was shot in a single night all in one take. It concerns a party girl who meets three guys and a night of wild fun turns into a bank robbery. Sebastian Schipper directs.

See the trailer, interviews and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Crime Thriller
Now Playing: Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: NR

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon

Shenanigans in a bygone era.

(2015) Documentary (4th Row) Henry Beard, Matty Simmons, Bruce McCall, P.J. O’Rourke, Tony Hendra, Anne Beatts, Christopher Buckley, Ellis Weiner, Al Jean, Chevy Chase, Sean Kelly, Ivan Reitman, Judd Apatow, Jon Landis, Michael Gross, Judith Jacklin Belushi, Chris MIller, Danny Abelson, Mike Reiss, Beverly D’Angelo, Jerry Taylor, Brian McConnachie, Meatloaf, Kevin Bacon, Billy Bob Thornton. Directed by Doug Tirola

In the interest of transparency, I was a Mad magazine kid growing up and the National Lampoon, while on my radar, was a bit more sophisticated than my young mind could grasp. However, there’s no denying that for the last 40 years, the Lampoon has been essentially the wellspring of American humor, From its pages, films, radio and stage shows have come some of the most important writing and performing talents in comedy. It has directly or indirectly inspired the comedy of Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons and the comedies of John Hughes, Jon Landis and Judd Apatow. Even for those who weren’t directly involved with either writing it or reading it, its influence has shaped them whether they’ve known it or not.

The Lampoon began with the Harvard Lampoon, one of the country’s oldest humor magazines. Two Harvard grads who’d worked on the magazine (and also co-wrote the now-classic parody novel Bored of the Rings) named Douglas Kenney and Henry Beard. After creating some parody magazines for such publications as Mademoiselle, they got together with Matty Simmons to create the National Lampoon.

The nascent magazine was able to attract such talent as writers Michael O’Donoghue, P.J. O’Rourke and Anne Beatts, as well as artists like Rick Meyerowitz and Michael Gross. Their heyday, during the heady days of Watergate and Vietnam, reflected the country’s angst, anger and frustrations but also pushed the boundaries of humor beyond what had been acceptable what to then. The Lampoon printed what most people were already thinking, only funnier.

The magazine was as rock and roll as comedy ever gets and as most students of rock know, that’s a double edged sword. Sure the magazine was innovative and ahead of its time in many ways, but the creative forces that powered it were prone to drug addiction, burn-out and attrition. While the 70s waned and the 80s waxed, the magazine which had by then branched out into films with Animal House and National Lampoon’s Vacation series, had lost most of those who were it’s creative soul – Kenney died under mysterious circumstances in 1980 and the company really never recovered.

But oh, what a legacy it has left behind. The filmmakers sift through hundreds of hours of archival footage including their stage shows, audio of their radio show and page after page after page of their magazine. Those who were readers of the magazine will get a nice sense of nostalgia while those who weren’t will get a wonderful opportunity for discovery. Nearly the entire original cast of Saturday Night Live worked on the Lampoon stage show, and director John Hughes was on the writing staff during the later years of the magazine, as were Simpsons show runners Al Jean and Mike Reiss.

There are a ton of interviews with the surviving staff of the magazine’s golden era, with Simmons and Beard getting the lion share of face time, while much attention is paid to the writers, artists, performers and celebrity fans of the magazine and its spinoffs. While this isn’t groundbreaking style here, because the material is just so freaking funny (I was breathless with laughter when the film finally spun its final credits) that I’m willing to overlook the lack of innovation, which is a bit ironic since the magazine was known for innovation.

Be that as it may, this is one of the funniest films you’ll see all year and likely for a lot of years to come. Even though some of the material is dated, a lot of it is timeless as well and is as funny now as it was then. Whether you’r of the generation that made the magazine what it was or a Johnny-come-lately, this is a don’t-miss documentary that you should be absolutely certain to catch when it hits the festival circuit near you, or hopefully when it gets a richly deserved distribution deal and shows up either theatrically or on VOD. Whatever the case may be, see it. Or I’ll shoot this dog.

REASONS TO GO: Excepts from Lampoon radio broadcasts and live shows hysterical. The source for humor in its era.
REASONS TO STAY: Definitely a product of its era. Lots and lots of talking heads.
FAMILY VALUES: Nudity, crude and sexual humor, plenty of foul language and drug use.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie’s poster was drawn by Rick Meyerowitz who also drew the poster for National Lampoon’s Animal House and is modeled on its design.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 4/12/15: Rotten Tomatoes: no score yet. Metacritic: no score yet.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Live From New York!
FINAL RATING: 8/10
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