“White Irish Drinkers” (2011)
\nWritten and Directed by: John Gray
\nStarring: Nick Thurston, Geoffrey Wigdor, Stephen Lang, Peter Riegert,
\nKaren Allen and Jackie Martling
\nPhotographed by: Seamus Tierney
\nRunning Time: 109 min.<\/p>\n
Rating: 0<\/p>\n
David Lynch\u2019s \u201cInland Empire\u201d never received a theatrical release in San Diego, and only one of Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s past seven features has screened in America\u2018s Finest City. So how is it possible that the rank, amateurish \u201cWhite Irish Drinkers\u201d will defile the sacred arc light of the Ken Cinema starting April 22?<\/p>\n
Welcome to Bland Diego.
\nIt\u2019s the same old story: Thick-headed and explosive Danny (Geoff Wigdor) wants to pave a career of crime for his doe-eyed younger brother Brian (Nick Thurston). But Brian has a sentimental side; he can\u2019t as much as bring himself to pocket an engraved cross dangling from a pawn shop shelf. And he\u2019d rather paint watercolors in the basement of a neighboring bagel shop than dabble in criminal activity. When the Rolling Stones play a one-night gig at Brooklyn\u2019s Lafayette Theatre and Danny devises a way to abscond with the $30,000 take, Brian must choose between an honest, all-American work ethic or crime family loyalty.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a girl in the picture, Shauna (Leslie Murphy), a fickle, free-spirited bar rag who frolics naked through a cemetery with the smitten Brian, who later captures the Hallmark moment in watercolor and deposits the canvas on her doorstep. At least writer, director John Gray avoids the hackneyed son-meets-best-girl-and-brings-her-home-to-meet-repugnant, hard- drinking-father- (Stephen Lang) and-beaten-down-mother (Karen Allen) scene. But that\u2019s the only clich\u00e9 he manages to sidestep.<\/p>\n
TV biopic bon vivant director John Gray (\u201cThe Marla Hanson Story,\u201d \u201cMartin and Lewis,\u201d the remakes of \u201cBrian\u2018s Song\u201d and \u201cHelter Skelter\u201d) appears to have spent far too much time documenting real life human decay on the small screen. In this case, the pictures are larger and the emotions more intense, but the stench of television, particularly Gray\u2019s handling of his cast, permeates the multiplex. Thurston towers over Wigdor\u2019s musty Vinnie Barbarino swagger and holds his own with the more seasoned cast members, but scenes between Brian and his friends reveal nothing more than a bush-league director rushing his equally helpless cast through their lines. As much as I admire the talents of Stephen Lang, Karen Allen and Peter Riegert, Gray casts them adrift, and when left to their own devices there\u2019s not a fresh lick to be had in their overly familiar characterizations.<\/p>\n
Gray\u2019s idea of layering is a running gag involving the tongue-scorching temperature of mom\u2019s entr\u00e9es or a boss (Riegert) so cheap his marqu\u00e9e constantly throws grammatical caution to the wind.<\/p>\n
There is one graceful moment to be found amidst the calculated ugliness. Wanting to impress her, Brian finger-etches Shauna\u2019s portrait on a fogged-up bar room window. It\u2019s a lovely, unexpected flash of originality, but not enough to recommend this monumental time-waster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWin Win\u201d (2011)
\nWritten and Directed by: Tom McCarthy from a story by McCarthy and Joe Tiboni
\nStarring: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Alex Shaffer, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young and Melanie Lynskey
\nRating: 1<\/p>\n
Writer\/Director Tom McCarthy has already demonstrated a gift for confederating disparate characters, but how does one go from \u201cThe Station Agent\u201d and \u201cThe Visitor\u201d to reheating a formulaic made-for-ESPN cupcake? His latest, \u201cWin Win,\u201d is merely an attempt to blind side naive audiences with the absurd notion that itinerant youth can magically change their lives through contact sport and clean suburban living. And neither the performances nor an occasional moment of observational humor succeed in pulling it above the level of early-\u201980s feel-good.<\/p>\n
Volunteering as coach for a floundering high school wrestling team isn\u2019t about to keep Mike\u2019s one man legal practice (he \u201chelps old people\u201d) from teetering on the brink of collapse. (McCarthy and co-writer Joe Tiboni are both former
\nhigh school grapplers.) When Mike learns the government pays $1,500 a month to look after seniors he quickly moves his client, the demented but financially fit Leo Poplar (Burt Young), from the latter\u2019s comfortable but untenable digs to a more manageable nursing facility (Leo foots the bill), where brief daily visits are all that\u2019s needed for Mike to fulfill his part of the bargain.<\/p>\n
No sooner does Mike determine the disenfranchised senior\u2019s living situation then who should arrive on scene but Leo\u2019s estranged grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer). And wouldn\u2019t you know it, the peroxide blond, uni-grimaced runaway lives to wrestle! In no time, the kid enrolls and becomes the team\u2019s star attraction. A throwaway line by Stephen (\u201cHe\u2019s good to wrestle; Mike cleared him\u201d) is the only evidence offered of how a volunteer gym coach is endowed with enough clout to have strings pulled for him posthaste.<\/p>\n
There isn\u2019t an actor at work today more capable of adding depth and dimension to a sad sack than Paul Giamatti, but asking an audience to suddenly root for a character heretofore exposed as an unscrupulous wretch can only result in a no-win situation. Mike is more than just a flawed schlemiel cobbling together life\u2019s meager resources in order to rise above a lousy situation. He\u2019s a contestable jerk who lies to his wife (Amy Ryan) and relies on an Alzheimer\u2019s patient and a troubled teen to save his hide. Aside from derisory stabs at forced humor where is the feel good in any of this? Even more contemptible is McCarthy\u2019s newfound eagerness to aim for cuddly, obvious targets. Kicking things off is a recurring bit concerning a noisy basement boiler in Mike\u2019s office that is pitched to a sitcom mentality.<\/p>\n
Bobby Cannavale\u2019s big, dumb goomba horndog routine (\u201cThe Ten,\u201d \u201cPaul Blart: Mall Cop,\u201d \u201cThe Other Guys\u201d) was stale decades before he was born and McCarthy fails to scratch off any new layers. As written and performed, Cannavale\u2019s
\nTerry Delfino is strictly a one-note affair: the over-sexed recent divorcee can\u2019t get his mind around his ex\u2019s cheating
\nways. Add to that some unwelcome slapstick: Terry adds color commentary (and more unwarranted comic relief) to Mike and Kyle\u2019s inevitable knock down, drag out \u201cRed River\u201d moment on the front lawn. There is also an insufferable subplot concerning Kyle reuniting with his fresh-out-of-rehab mom played by the fetching and always welcome\u00a0 Melanie Lynskey.<\/p>\n
Unless you favor great actors trying vainly to pump new life into formulaic pap, \u201cWin Win\u201d is a losing proposition.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“White Irish Drinkers” (2011) Written and Directed by: John Gray Starring: Nick Thurston, Geoffrey Wigdor, Stephen Lang, Peter Riegert, Karen Allen and Jackie Martling Photographed by: Seamus Tierney Running Time: 109 min. Rating: 0 David Lynch\u2019s \u201cInland Empire\u201d never received a theatrical release in San Diego, and only one of Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s past seven features […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Welcome to Bland Diego: Two indie films offer losing propositions","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}