Liberal Arts
Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Richard Jenkins - Dir: Josh Radnor

Josh Radnor is best known for his character on TV's How I Met Your Mother. Here he writes, directs and stars and makes a very good job of this likeable and not-at-all-dumb rom-com, focused on 35-year-old Jesse, whose New York life is somewhat directionless until he gets an invitation to attend his old university professor's retirement dinner in Ohio.
Once there Jesse rediscovers the closeted joys of university life and, particularly, smart sexy student Zibby (a radiant Olsen). But he's 35 and she's 19. He's done all this before, she's just discovering everything for the first time. Do they have a future – or even a present – together?
Actually, calling this a rom-com does the film a disservice. It's a touching drama that is funny and smart, casting an affectionate eye on the strangeness of youth and how much we change without realising it. It manages to perfectly capture the eternal longing for that (probably illusory) time in life when everything seemed simpler.
Add in a fantastic turn from Jenkins as the retiring mentor, himself unsure of the life-changes he is going through, and a delightful cameo from Allison Janney as a cynical English professor and you have a film that, while unlikely to set the world on fire, is a remarkably pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

Identity Thief should have worked. And I'm sure it will rent in huge quantities because everyone will think that. It should have worked. Jason Bateman is always reliably funny and is perfect for the everyman character whose identity is stolen and whose life subsequently collapses. Melissa McCarthy is perfect for the brash and crass thief, living it up on his credit. But somehow it fails to gel and every little bit that should be funny just becomes grating. The secondary characters are underused and gags are milked way beyond their expiry date. If you want a good laugh, look elsewhere.

Mama, which boasts a 'presented by Guillermo Del Toro” credit, is a creepy little story, taking the brooding feeling so well captured in Spanish films such as The Orphanage and running with it, impressing with both overall mood and sudden jump shocks. It kicks off with two small girls abandoned in a forest hut after the murder/suicide of their parents. Five years later they are discovered, feral but surprisingly alive. As they rehabilitate with their uncle and his girlfriend, mysteries compound and supernaturally Bad Things ensue. Who is Mama? Great spooky stuff; unfortunately silly ending.

Sly Stallone has at least kept control of his career with the likes of the Expendables films and seems a little more discerning than yer JCVDs, Seagals and Cages. In Bullet To The Head he's a hitman (ageing, natch) who reluctantly teams with a young cop (Sung Kang) after his partner is killed. There are two big pluses: the New Orleans setting and the brutally efficient direction courtesy of action veteran Walter Hill who keeps the mood dark and oppressive. It does insist on continually stating the bleedin' obvious - some of the dialogue is appalling – but it's an enjoyably tough little cookie.

Following the current rule that every horror film made before 1990 must be remade, we now have Evil Dead which, for reasons known only to the distributors, missed out on a general cinema release in New Zealand. It only showed in Auckland. But, as far as such remakes go, this is a pretty good one, sticking fairly closely to the 'cabin in the woods” template of the original, impressing with its frequently over-the-top special effects, and not doing anything too offensively stupid. The only real loss is the humour that was so essential to the original. And there's – obviously – no Bruce Campbell.