Category Archives: Aubrey Plaza

2019 Films, Aubrey Plaza, Horror, Slasher

Child’s Play-2019

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Child’s Play-2019

Director-Lars Klevberg

Starring-Aubrey Plaza, Mark Hamill

Scott’s Review #948

Reviewed October 17, 2019

Grade: B

In the cinematic genre of horror, when a successful franchise has been dormant for a period it is an inevitability that sooner or later a reboot will be in the offerings.

Child’s Play (2019) resurrects the series of films popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a modern stamp.

The film is formulaic but adds a bit of macabre dark humor that lifts it above mediocrity, but the freshness turns too silly in the final act and neither the film nor the killer is scary.

Kaslan Corporation has launched a successful new global product called Buddi, a revolutionary line of high-tech dolls designed to be human-like companions to their owners, learning from their surroundings and acting accordingly.

Buddi dolls can also connect to and operate other Kaslan products, quickly becoming a phenomenon for kids worldwide. A disgruntled employee tweaks one of the dolls to turn sinister and then commits suicide.

Single mom Karen Barclay (Aubrey Plaza) works as a retail clerk in Chicago raising a thirteen-year-old son named Andy (Gabriel Bateman), who wears a hearing aid. New to the area he struggles to make friends, so Karen takes the defective doll from her store as a substitute friend and picks me up for her son.

As Andy makes acquaintances within the building and takes a disliking to Karen’s new beau Shane (David Lewis), Buddi names himself Chucky and seeks vengeance against those surrounding Andy, eventually turning on the boy.

Child’s Play takes a modernized approach by making the new Chucky a more high-tech doll, much advanced to the original Chucky from the 1988 debut.

2019 Chucky is creepier and more life-like than the original Chucky which provides the film with a fresh look rather than merely a retread of the 1980s.

Set in present times the film feels relevant and glossy. New Chucky is more human than old Chucky with more capabilities and room for thought and deduction making him more devious.

A treat for Star Wars (1977) fans and any fan of cinema history is the inclusion of Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky. While Hamill’s voice is not sinister nor particularly distinguishable to the naked ear, the star power adds fun and familiarity, a throwback and ode to film lore.

Hamill’s voice is pleasant and kind which adds a foreboding and sinister quality.

The film has some clever moments and bits of chilling dark humor that make it a fun experience. When Shane becomes the first victim of Chucky’s wrath and meets a dire fate at the hands of a tiller while hanging Christmas lights, he is beheaded and Chucky leaves the head in a disgusted Andy’s room.

In hilarious and laugh-out-loud form, the head ends up is a wrapped Christmas present for Andy’s elderly neighbor Doreen who props it on her mantle until she can open it.

Bryan Tyree Henry, known for his prominent turns in Widows (2018) and the wonderful If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) adds comedy and a nice guy edge as Andy’s neighbor, Detective Mike Norris.

Plaza, like Karen, is given limited material and unable to shine in her role, not seeming old enough nor motherly enough to add much realism. A big fan of the actress, she is more talented than this part allows her to be.

The film misfires with the cliched misunderstandings and incorrect assumptions that Andy is responsible for the deaths Chucky caused.  Andy’s two apartment buddies are caricatures, and the big finale set inside the retail store is disappointing.

Chucky brilliantly hacks the Buddi toys on the shelves and chaos ensues as parents and children are massacred as a stampede tries to escape the store. The scene does not work as well as a climax should.

Sticking closely to script and offering a predictable formula film the 1988 film Child’s Play is remade in 2019 with added star power. Familiar faces (and voices) Plaza, Henry, and Hamill rise the film slightly above B-movie status, though the dumb finale made me tune out a bit after the main kills were over.

I doubt the film performed well enough at the box office to secure the known actor’s returns and hopefully, this will be a one-and-done project.

2017 Films, Aubrey Plaza, Billy Magnussen, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Elizabeth Olsen, Independent, Independent Comedy, Matt Spicer, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell

Ingrid Goes West-2017

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Ingrid Goes West-2017

Director Matt Spicer

Starring Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen

Scott’s Review #832

Reviewed November 16, 2018

Grade: A-

Ingrid Goes West (2017) is a deliciously wicked black comedy that boldly addresses the current obsession with social media.

Combined with a dynamite performance by young actress Aubrey Plaza and witty writing, the small independent film is a summertime treasure and has received two Spirit Award nominations.

The film is a breath of fresh air and a fine achievement by new director Matt Spicer.

The film immediately catapults the audience into the action as we are treated to a closeup of a sobbing Ingrid Thorburn (Plaza).

We immediately know that she is not well when she fumes with the realization that she has not been invited to her Instagram friend’s wedding and proceeds to interrupt the reception and attack the bride with pepper spray.

Ingrid is carted off to a mental hospital for analysis and recovery.

Once released, we learn that Ingrid’s mother has recently died, leaving her a tidy sum of money as an inheritance. Ingrid suddenly becomes obsessed with Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), a popular and narcissistic young woman whom she follows on Instagram.

Taylor becomes Ingrid’s idol as she decides to move to Los Angeles and insinuates herself into Taylor’s life. She stalks Taylor and steals her dog only to pretend she rescued it, thereby becoming her close friend.

Gradually, Ingrid’s actions become more and more psychotic as Taylor catches wind of Ingrid’s antics.

Aubrey Plaza is perfectly cast as the unstable, manipulative title character. She possesses such strong comic timing, and with her wide eyes, nervous mannerisms, and determination to get what she wants, the audience roots for and falls in love with her.

On paper, we should dislike the character as she takes advantage of nearly everyone in her path, but Plaza embodies her with empathy and smarts. It is delightful to watch how she gets out of scrape after scrape with her quick thinking.

Plaza truly excels in the role.

Bold and calculating are words to describe Olsen’s performance as the selfish Taylor, and this may very well be why it is easy to root for Ingrid.

The character is so plastic and conniving that seeing her as the foil is intensely satisfying. Olsen usually plays good girl roles and possesses a girl-next-door quality, but in this part, she nestles nicely into a bitch role.

Olsen also uses excellent timing with her characters’ dialogue delivery, so much so that Olsen and Plaza had me in stitches during their one-on-one scenes.

I adore the Los Angeles setting. It is beyond appropriate for a film about phoniness, obsession, and plastic personas.

Beneath the sunny veneer lies darkness and tomfoolery in every direction, and besides Ingrid’s landlord/somewhat boyfriend, Dan (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), there are not many likable characters.

Attending party after party and lavish clubs, restaurants, or getaways, being involved in the “scene,” and the City of Angels is the perfect backdrop.

One gripe that knocks Ingrid Goes West down a rung is how the character of Taylor’s artist husband Ezra (Wyatt Russell) is written.

In one of the more authentic scenes, Ingrid realizes as she has a poolside heart-to-heart with the depressed Ezra that his wife is not the girl he knew when she moved to L.A. He and Ingrid seem to connect, but shortly after, it is as if the conversation never happened, and he is ferociously taking his wife’s side again.

A more admirable approach, and one I was hoping for, is that Ingrid and Ezra would ride off into the sunset, but the film misses this opportunity.

The entire film is a clever piece of work. From the performances to the dark humor and the witty dialogue, Ingrid Goes West (2018) succeeds on nearly all levels.

A modern-day Single White Female (1992) with a social media slant, the film goes for the gusto and gets there. I cannot wait to see more from up-and-coming star Aubrey Plaza, as the actress has the comic and dramatic chops to go very far.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 1 win-Best First Screenplay, Best First Feature (won)

2012 Films, Aubrey Plaza, Colin Trevorrow, Comedy, Independent, Independent Comedy, Kristen Bell, Mark Duplass, Science Fiction

Safety Not Guaranteed-2012

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Safety Not Guaranteed-2012

Director Colin Trevorrow

Starring Mark Duplass, Aubrey Plaza

Scott’s Review #440

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Reviewed July 3, 2016

Grade: B-

Safety Not Guaranteed is similar in style to another 2012 independent film, Ruby Sparks, in that they pose the question of “Is this fantasy or reality”?

The film deals with the subject matter of time travel.

The story centers around a magazine journalist, who, along with two interns, follows a man convinced that he is building a time travel machine.

The story then develops into a romantic comedy of sorts and the audience is unsure if the guy is crazy or purely a genius.

It’s an interesting concept, intelligently written, and Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass are both quite likable in the lead roles.

The one flaw for me was, at times, the movie dove into slapstick territory with a silly secondary story of a stereotypically written Indian character attempting to lose his virginity.

Besides that, Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) has intriguing intentions.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 1 win-Best First Screenplay (won), Best First Feature

2016 Films, Aubrey Plaza, Comedy, Dan Mazer, Danny Glover, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Hough, Lowest Rated Films, Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Zoey Deutch

Dirty Grandpa-2016

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Dirty Grandpa-2016

Director Dan Mazer

Starring Robert De Niro, Zac Efron

Scott’s Review #432

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Reviewed June 29, 2016

Grade: D-

It’s a sad day when the only interesting aspect of a film is the gratuitous nudity of one of its stars, but that is precisely the case with Dirty Grandpa (2016).

Zac Efron bravely bares all for the sake of art….or a big paycheck, whichever the case may be.

Otherwise, Dirty Grandpa is complete drivel.

It is crass, rude, mean-spirited, and blatant in its raunch. It also aspires (successfully) to be politically incorrect, quite surprising in these times of fairness and equality for all.

If the film intends to be outrageous, it succeeds in spades.

Unfortunately, there is not much comedy, and the film is quite bad, even where dumb comedies are concerned.

Starring one of the film’s most extraordinary talents of all time, Robert DeNiro, one wonders why he would sign on to appear in this film. Perhaps it has to do with playing a role he has yet to do. We will probably never know unless we ask him.

DeNiro plays Dick Kelly, a retired Army veteran, recently widowed after forty years of marriage. Faithful for decades, he embarks on a road trip to Daytona Beach, Florida, with his grandson, Jason (Efron).

Dick’s goal is to conquer a slutty college girl he and Jason meet while they are eating at a roadside diner.

Lenore (Aubrey Plaza) is a college girl with her friend Shadia (Zoey Deutch). Shadia knows Jason from school. To complicate matters, Jason is engaged to self-absorbed Meredith. This sets off a chain of circumstances in which each pair falls in love while arguing various trivial issues.

Thrown in are scenes of partying, acting silly, and outrageous crude remarks and behavior. The standard bathroom humor is not spared.

Dirty Grandpa’s subject matter is not uncharted territory; the “road trip/buddy movie” has been done many times in film history.

My gripe is not so much with the film’s raunchiness, but it is not funny. Over the top in raunch comedy, it has worked many times- think Pink Flamingos (1972) and other John Waters films.

But those films had characters to root for and who were interesting.

DeNiro’s character is the pits; Efron’s not so bad. The motivation of Dick Kelly is to have sex- almost like the guys in American Pie (1999), but with them, it was cute.

DeNiro plays a man in his 70s.

That is fine, but he is so blunt about his need for sex and whines about not having sex for fifteen years because of his wife’s cancer. So, the audience is to think of him as a nice guy because he waits for his wife to die to score on spring break.

Lame.

Efron is my favorite character. As mentioned above, he has a lot of skin, which is the most appealing aspect of this sorry film.

The chemistry between Efron and DeNiro is not terrible, and I bought them as a grandfather and grandson.

Efron is unafraid to poke fun at his beefcake image and deserves praise. He has a fantastic, chiseled body, and showing it off is good for him.

Efron has the talent. Does anyone recall The Paperboy (2012)? He was superlative in that underrated independent gem. In Dirty Grandpa, he plays the straight man and is the only “normal” character.

He is the voice of reason, if you will.

The supporting characters are as stereotypical as possible.

It is almost as if the film intends to offend but with no good reason. Dirty Grandpa has the dumb jocks, the horny teen girl, the weak, effeminate gay character, the Hispanic drug dealer, and so forth.

Danny Glover’s brief cameo appearance as a horny wheelchair-bound nursing home resident (and old buddy of Dick) is as much laughable (not in a good way) as forgettable.

Most characters are thinly written.

Dirty Grandpa (2016) appeals to unsophisticated moviegoers who find crude, mean-spirited characters funny and deem stock characters acceptable. Every other sensible person will dislike this film.