Julia Louis-Dreyfus Has First World Problems In 'You Hurt My Feelings'
#227: "You Hurt My Feelings," "About My Father," "Serpico," "The Lost City"
Edition 227:
Hey movie lovers!
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This week: We’re into June and the year still lacks for any A+ material. But an idiosyncratic midlife drama starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and a comedy with Robert De Niro at least give us some fun at the theater. For streamers, how about one of Al Pacino’s signature roles? In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” … Barbie!
You Hurt My Feelings
There are moments amongst the ever-present angst running through You Hurt My Feelings where one cannot help but stop to wonder why anyone is complaining. The drama of the movie stems from the not-always relatable feeling of having everything, and that not being quite enough.
Our protagonist, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, lives in an ample home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has a steady career and a published book, a husband she loves, a relationship with her mother and an adult friendship with her sister. Her life is kinda perfect…or at least it should be. When she overhears her husband saying he doesn’t like her latest book, it’s like the pea placed beneath the stack of mattress for our NYC princess. Suddenly her trust in her good fortune is spoiled and she’s sent into the tailspin of a midlife crisis.
Writer/director Nicole Holofcener is the unofficial official bard of the female midlife crisis — she made Enough Said, Friends With Money and wrote Can You Ever Forgive Me?. Her specificity within the worlds of these ‘first world problems’ is remarkably considered, and from it she’s able to draw both humor and, if one is willing to take a deep reading, pretty profound questions about the human experience. Back in 2019, Can You Ever Forgive Me? made me think pretty deeply about we value art in our society.
The central theme of this one is “good lies,” those things we tell or don’t tell the people we love in the name of loving support. Can dishonesty ever be better than honesty?
The movie seems to think so, tentatively. I really appreciate that for as insignificant as its central problem is, it doesn’t overplay the conflict into some grand confrontation at the climax of the story. If anything, Holofcener’s stories are sort of anticlimactic and instead take on a slice of life feel, which is normally a red flag but she manages to walk the tight rope brilliantly.
Stories like this one continue a long tradition of movies and TV shows hyper-focused on the upper middle class intellectuals of New York City, everything from Woody Allen to When Harry Met Sally to last year’s “Fleishman is in Trouble.” This class of book worm bourgeois might not appeal to all viewers but history shows that it really strongly appeals to some (*raises hand tentatively*).
The movie is also quite funny, thanks to some very specific observational comedy writing and the note-perfect delivery of Louis-Dreyfus, who might be the foremost actor of likeable, charismatic a-holes in the entire world. Her husband, a therapist played well by Tobias Menzies, is going through his own crisis of confidence through a rotating cast of colorful therapy patients (including a hilarious scene-stealing turn from David Cross). Again, it’s an example of taking sharp aim at a very small target and then nailing the bullseye.
As with nearly every movie of 2023 so far, flashes of brilliance do not sustain across the entire runtime. This year has been fairly mediocre, a choose-your-own-adventure slate of flawed projects in every genre and subgenre. It’s hard to get too excited now even six months into the year, but several high profile projects are on the near horizon. Keep the spirits high movie lovers!
Something New
About My Father (Theaters): Hollywood executives have long chased the stand-up comedian transition from stage to screen, with a decent track record of success (Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock etc.), but fundamentally they are two different art forms. This autobiographical story of Sebastian Maniscalco, one of the biggest stand-up acts in the world right now, attempts to bridge that gap by inserting a lot of voice over into the narrative, giving the comic a chance to joke directly with the audience in the way he’s comfortable. Those jokes land, but since they come from Maniscalco the person and not Sebastian the character (a subtle distinction), they take a viewer out of the world of the movie.
That movie, about an immigrant father’s hesitancy to accept his son marrying into a wealthy, WASPy family, shares a lot of common DNA with the likes of Wedding Crashers and especially Meet The Parents — and not just because Maniscalco’s father is played by Robert De Niro.
De Niro’s late-career turn as a comedy star is unexpected but nonetheless reliable. He and Maniscalco have a nice comedic chemistry. Leslie Bibb, Anders Holm (“Workaholics”), Kim Cattrall (“Sex and the City”) and David Rasche (“Succssion”) all play very broad, one-note comedy sidekicks as the rich family, but seeing Rasche poke fun at his Carl from “Succssion” character provided some of the best laughs of the movie.
Clean, broad comedy like this rarely exists at the box office anymore. There’s a reason for that. Even when it’s effective, and funny, no one goes to the theater to see it, evidenced by the $6 million opening. I have no doubt a lot of people will catch this movie on streaming, but I do wonder whether that’s enough incentive to keep making this type of movie. Obviously not, since the number of them have dwindled in recent years. So my advice? Catch them while you can.
Something Old
Serpico (1973, Amazon Prime): By now you may have seen the headlines: 29-year-old Noor Alfallah is pregnant with the child of 83-year-old Al Pacino. … um, yep.
Some 20 years before his baby mama was born, Pacino turned in one of the best acting performances of his career as real-life NYC cop Frank Serpico, the whistleblower who brought to light how corrupt many of the city’s police officers were at the time (just at the time, right?). Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network) directs this sort of slow, simmering drama that turns up the heat on Pacino, whose intensity really carries the movie from minute one. His transformation from idealistic beat cop to disillusioned detective is both an excellent encapsulation of 1970s America and a bravura showcase for why many consider Pacino to be the best actor of his generation.
Something to Stream
The Lost City (Amazon Prime): I didn’t have much interest in this movie last year, even after it became a surprise box office hit with just under $200 million worldwide. Then I learned it was directed by Aaron and Adam Nee, the brothers behind the 2015 indie Band of Robbers, one of my favorite micro-budget movies I’ve ever seen.
To go from bottom-dollar sets and using themselves as actors to a legitimate blockbuster starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe and Brad Pitt is insane. The story is silly, but knowingly so. Bullock plays an author of popular romance novels, her latest being about finding a lost treasure alongside her love interest, played by book cover model Tatum. Radcliffe is the crazy billionaire who kidnaps her to find an actual treasure using her book as a guide, Tatum goes to rescue her (with help from Pitt), and what do ya know, they’re falling in love just like the fictional version.
It’s clever if not exactly creative, and while it’s mostly just another blockbuster to have its personality entirely ironed out by the Hollywood machine, there’s a certain quirkiness and specificity sneaking into the peripheries that may or may not have helped the movie connect with people and over-perform commercially. I’d like to think so. Its success means the Nee brothers will certainly get another shot at filmmaking, and I’m excited to follow what the do next.
Trailer Watch: Barbie
Listen, I know the trend and the trend is horrifying. This year we’ve gotten movies about an arcade game (Tetris), sneakers (Air), and a board game (Dungeons and Dragons), with projects coming about Hot Wheels, Beanie Babies, American Girl dolls, and yes, Barbie.
But this one is different! Written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, a couple of sharp-tongued anti-capitalists if there could ever be such a thing in 2023, I’d be absolutely shocked if this was glorified product marketing. Plus, this trailer has already achieved one iconic moment in internet culture with its “You guys ever think about dying?” dance party.
If you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d be excited to go see a movie about Barbie on opening weekend … I’d probably laugh and say something like, “Oh yeah, right, and Donald Trump will be president. Good one.”