Movies on DVD — Spy; The Overnight
Posted on October 4, 2015 by bob in DVD
The Overnight (R)
An attractive, loving couple (Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling) has just moved to Los Angeles with their young son. They’ve not had time to start building a social life. A chance meeting at a nearby park with another father (Jason Schwartzman) and his boy leads to a dinner invitation for what could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship for the families.
Schwartzman’s wife (Judith Godreche) is equally warm and friendly. Their home is spectacular; their combined interests, accomplishments and charisma are the stuff dreams are made of. After the boys are tucked away in their beds, the evening progresses for the adults. Everything about the hosts seems too wonderful to be true. They must have some dark secrets or hidden agendas. No one could be that perfect, or so unreservedly welcoming to newcomers, even in Hollywood comedies.
Without giving away too much of the plot, suffice it to say that the long evening of getting acquainted dangles aspects of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and a signature dramedy from the late 1960s, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. The R rating is for sexual elements, visually and otherwise. The hosts seem to be pushing the intimacy envelope, but their game plan remains elusive. Most of the film has viewers wondering how far will, or should, their sharing go, and what will that mean for any of them beyond the moment? Much is bared – physically and psychologically – throughout the night. The script’s humor is tempered with curiosity about what we don’t know about the hosts’ characters and motivations, which could lie anywhere from ultra-hip to adventurous to Satanic.
The performances are very good all around, teasing the audience as much as each other with vague disconnects between facades and inner truths. It’s like stud poker — the cards everyone sees aren’t the ones that determine who wins. Overall, the film is intriguing, if not compelling, and should prove to be positive career moves for all four principals — especially Scott and Schilling, who are much better known for their TV roles than from feature films. Bigger just might work out better for their careers.
Spy (R)
S
ince Sean Connery wowed the world as Agent 007 in 1962’s Dr. No, there have been over 20 more James Bond films, exceeding the number of Ian Fleming’s source novels about England’s suave superspy. Broadening the tribute, there have probably been even more Bond spoofs, dating back to Woody Allen’s 1967 Casino Royale, followed shortly by James Coburn’s two campy outings as studly agent Derek Flint. But no one could have predicted the passing of that comedic torch to apple-cheeked Melissa McCarthy, backed by Jude Law and Jason Statham. Or that Paul Feig could make it all work so well. He’d struck gold with her as a supporting player in Bridesmaids, but fizzled pairing her with Sandra Bullock for The Heat.
The film opens like an actual Bond flick, with Law crashing an elegant party at a Bulgarian mansion to wrest a stolen nuke from a wealthy megavillain, preceding a Bond-style song behind the Bond-style titles. McCarthy plays his skilled supporting techie of 10 years, monitoring his moves from the bowels of her dreary CIA offices. She also has a Moneypenny-sized crush on her field agent. When he gets killed by the bad guy’s successor, his rich-bitch daughter (Rose Byrne), the trained, but untested, McCarthy is sent to Europe to follow the players and the bomb they’re hawking to the highest bidder. Surveillance leads to contact, which leads to a manic chase around the continent, complete with feints and double-crosses aplenty.
The main surprise is that McCarthy fares better as a lead than she has since moving up from her TV sitcom. She handles both slapstick and dialog deftly, fleshing out a likeable, hilarious protagonist in a cascade of over-the-top situations. Next would be Statham’s willingness to play the fool — a hyperactive agent who’s either gone nuts, or may have always been somewhat short on sanity, after kicking so many butts so deftly as the star of the Transporter trio and other lighthearted-to-serious action fare. If you’re in the mood for zany antics, free from any burdens of mental stimulation, this one’s a safe bet. And lots of laughs.
Mark Glass
Mark Glass is an officer and director of the St. Louis Film Critics Association.
