The MacGuffin

“When people tell me ‘you are famous for being famous,’ I say ‘no, we are famous for having three TV shows.’” – Kim Kardashian

Unease immediately sets in when this quote is presented in the opening moments of Adam Rifkin’s abysmal faux documentary Reality Show, a “message movie” so manipulative and obvious in approach it took everything within me not to walk away from the very task of writing this review. An ever-growing number of Americans are driven by the public misfortune and mockery of others. You know it. I know it. Director and star Adam Rifkin CERTAINLY knows it…and exploits the concept to an embarrassing degree.

I don’t know if Matthew McConaughey’s agent took an especially artistic blow to the head or if one too many TBS airings of Failure To Launch set him down this new path, but if you’re reading this, sir, I’d like to buy you a Coke. The reinvention of McConaughey’s career this last year or so has truly been something to behold. From his turn as a deceivingly perceptive attorney in Bernie to the harrowing and darkly hilarious title character in Killer Joe, McConaughey wants you to know he’s still got chops. Floundering for far too long in the pits of rom-com hell, his career rejuvenation is so inspiring I’m even willing to forgive him for The Paperboy. We all make mistakes.

Harmony Korine’s filmography to date is nothing if not provocative. His claim to (moderate) fame, 1995′s Kids, proved a seedy force to be reckoned with and traumatized teenagers of a certain age with its frankness towards adolescent sexuality. Continuing this despair-ridden trend with the likes of Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy, and Trash Humpers (among countless others to at least some degree), Korine has developed a unique if too often perplexing voice. Spring Breakers looked to me an attempt to break this mold and go for something, well, not exactly crowd-pleasing, but at least a hook you could sink your teeth into. A group of young bikini-clad girls perpetrate a robbery and high tail it to Florida with their earnings for some fun in the sun. Mm, yeah, not exactly…

You’re forgiven if you’ve seen a trailer or plot synopsis for Brad Anderson’s The Call and chalked it up to silly, sub-par thriller fare. These types of films are all too tragically common in the post-Oscar, pre-summer cinematic landscape. You know the ones. Movies in which a life or death situation falls into the lap of our pretty protagonist, he/she is called to duty and uses every tool in the box to ensure the safety and eventual rescue of our kidnapped child/dog/goldfish. While formulaic, such a conceit can sometimes work (Taken), but more often fails (Taken 2). The Call falls into the latter category for the first hour of its running time before saying screw it and hopping the train to Crazy Town in its final half hour. But let’s back up a little…

If Side Effects truly does end up being Steven Soderbergh’s final theatrical release (as he claims to have retired), no one can blame him for swinging for the fences. The director has worn many different hats in his twenty-plus years in the business, releasing films at a breakneck speed and moving seamlessly from genre to genre. Side Effects, then, makes for a suitable career capper, as its mood and intentions change drastically from one reveal to the next. Not in the mood for diatribes on the dangers of big-time pharmaceutical companies? Wait twenty minutes and hold on tight.

Even without context, the opening moments of Michael Haneke’s Amour are among the most harrowing and unforgettable he’s ever put on screen. That may seem daunting for those familiar with his previous work (Funny Games and Caché among others), but there’s a poignancy here that even his most accomplished work sometimes lacks.

After the runaway critical and financial success of 1997′s Good Will Hunting, a reunion between actor and director was an exciting and somewhat inevitable prospect. Less expected was director Gus Van Sant’s experimental Gerry, a barebones effort pitting Matt Damon and Hunting co-star Casey Affleck against the unwielding devastation of mother nature. Gerry marks an interesting point in Van Sant’s career, as it was the first film to find him using his clout to fund clearly personal pet projects (Paranoid Park, anyone?). After suffering such duds as his ill-advised, shot-for-shot Psycho remake and the painfully pandering Finding Forrester, it certainly seemed a step in the right (if not always successful) direction. Let’s call Promised Land a happy middle ground then.

Billed as a “sort-of sequel” to 2007′s Knocked Up, Judd Apatow’s This Is 40 sees Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Apatow’s real-life wife) reprising their roles as Pete and Debbie. Now five years later, their marriage is in something of a rut. Complacency can be a dangerous thing and the occasional contempt they have towards one another (and voice to trusted friends) rings painfully true…one of Apatow’s specialties. Despite Debbie’s staunch refusal to acknowledge it, both are coming up on their 40th birthdays. She views it as an opportunity to improve themselves both physically and emotionally. He sees it as just another number.

If you would, take a few moments to reflect on Stephen Frears’s varied career as a director. From The Grifters to High Fidelity to his Oscar-nominated The Queen, Frears has proven himself time and again to be a capable and effective storyteller. He has jumped from dramas to comedies seamlessly, all the while putting his own distinctive stamp on the material. All the more mystifying, then, that he put in all his chips on Lay the Favorite, one of the most forgettable comedies of 2012.

Based on Matthew Quick’s 2008 novel of the same name, Silver Linings Playbook attempts to walk the fine line between comedy and tragedy. Both main characters are struggling to sort through their own forms of mental illness while coping with recent loss. Not exactly what one would consider the makings for a laugh riot, but when have you ever known director David O. Russell to shy away from a challenge?