THE PAPERBOY

THE PAPERBOY
Written by Lee Daniels and Peter Dexter
Directed by Lee Daniels
Starring Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey and John Cusack

Jack Jansen: I smell awful.
Anita Chester: That’s because that blonde lady peed all over your face.

If you like the idea of watching a movie where pretty boy, Zac Efron, parades around in tattered white briefs, covered in dirt and sweat, most of the way through it, then THE PAPERBOY is the movie for you! Fortunately for me, I’m a big fan of any movie where Efron strips down to his bare essentials, especially when said movie actually pushes the young actor past his squeaky clean, good boy image. It is refreshing to know he is interested in doing something more with his career than dancing in gymnasiums and headlining Nicholas Sparks pseudo-romances. I’m not sure getting peed on by Nicole Kidman was what he had in mind when he sought out grittier fare, but he didn’t seem to mind it all that much.

Writer/Director, Lee Daniels’s follow-up to his breakthrough Oscar winner, PRECIOUS, will certainly not earn him the notice and accolades his last film did, but it does solidify him as a director with a clear voice and talent that deserves to be recognized. THE PAPERBOY, based on the acclaimed Peter Dexter novel, is pure trash, but in a good way. It’s the kind of tawdry experience that wears it’s campier elements so boldly and proudly on its sleeve, you might confuse it for actual garbage. Get in on the joke though and it becomes a delightful game, where in order to win, Daniels must constantly top himself with one bewildering atrocity after another. Amidst all this melodrama, and I assure you, there is plenty, there is an actual plot. A convicted murderer (John Cusack) is having his case reinvestigated by a local journalist (Matthew McConaughey) at the insistence of his fiancee (Nicole Kidman, who is deliciously dirty). Efron plays younger brother to McConaughey and is just there to soak it all in.

Daniels must be an incredibly trustworthy individual. Not only does he get A-listers like Kidman and McConaughey to put themselves in shockingly compromising positions (I wasn’t kidding about that urinary, jellyfish-related incident between Kidman and Efron before), but he also has a knack for getting the viewer on his side despite, the difficult circumstances he immerses them in. THE PAPERBOY may not be anywhere near as emotionally devastating as PRECIOUS was, but by surrendering fully to the trash-tastic (and often racist) nature that the 1960’s deep American south setting requires, it becomes a spectacular homage to a style of filmmaking that has sadly long been forgotten.

239. The Paperboy

239. (06 Oct) The Paperboy (2012, Lee Daniels)* 47



A hodgepodge of prurience, decadence and flat-out bad plotting, The Paperboy is as trashy and convoluted as mainstream cinema gets. Something seems off immediately with the inexplicable choice to let Macy Gray narrate. Hers is one of several clumsily developed character arcs in a film where every major plot point seems entirely incidental. Sex, murder and mayhem are presented with astonishing nonchalance.

Matthew McConaughey gets the worst edit with his storyline taking a backseat to scene after scene of Zac Efron in his tighty whities. To his credit, Lee Daniels so lovingly photographs and exploits Efron and Nicole Kidman it's impossible not to admire their work together. Kidman is frankly sublime; it's an unselfconscious, irresistible performance that none of her peers could have tackled so adeptly.

THE LUCKY ONE

THE LUCKY ONE
Written by Will Fetters
Directed by Scott Hicks
Starring Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling and Blythe Danner

Beth: Why did you come here?
Logan: To find you.

The words, “Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks” are not usually words that get me into a movie theatre. Actually, they are usually a pretty clear indication to stay away for me. Of the seven films that were adapted from his works, I’ve only seen two up until a couple of days ago. Sure, THE NOTEBOOK is a standout but it seems as if Hollywood has been trying to recapture that magic ever since, with varying degrees of success. I caved on THE LUCKY ONE though and I’m ashamed to admit why. Essentially, I just could not resist my giant, inappropriate crush on Zac Efron. Hopefully, one day soon, I will come to realize that the words, “Starring Zac Efron” should be just as much of a warning to me as the ones I mentioned earlier about Sparks.

Having never read a Sparks novel, I cannot say whether the blame for such an insipid premise is entirely his or untested screenwriter, Will Fetters’ instead. From the moment THE LUCKY ONE begins with an Efron voiceover spitting out cliche after cliche about destiny and following your path and unexpected surprises, it is practically impossible to take anything that follows seriously. Efron plays Logan (no joke), a marine (again, no joke) who finds a picture of a pretty girl in the sand in Afghanistan (or I guess it could be Iraq; there was a desert and they were none too specific in the film), just in time to save him from being too close to an explosion. From that moment on, he sees her as his guardian angel and vows to find her when he gets home (which he does by matching a lighthouse in the photo to others online of course). After a brief and mandatory difficulty with adjusting to civilian life, Logan finds his mystery girl, Beth (Taylor Schilling), but cannot find the words to tell her why he sought her out to begin with. Suffice it to say, complications arise, including a deceased brother who was also a marine and an ex-husband who is an alcoholic, abusive bully (naturally), postponing Logan’s announcement even further, which is where the film loses me. We proceed to spend all this time waiting for him to tell her his story as if it were a bad thing or underhanded. In reality, its a lovely story. Too bad the film doesn’t see it that way though.

THE LUCKY ONE has one true purpose and that is to sell Efron as a romantic leading man for young women (and myself apparently) to swoon over in repeat viewings. If we aren’t fixated on his beautiful blue eyes looking longingly and pensive into the distance, then we are staring relentlessly at his bulging arm muscles while he carries heavy objects on his back or allowing our gaze to travel south when he strips down to the real lucky ones, his underwear. I would almost be ready to buy into it too if he weren’t trapped in this horrible contrived and confused package. I’m afraid Efron’s true fortune (not that he doesn’t have enough already) will only come once Hollywood starts to see him as more than just a pretty boy. I’m not so sure he’s that lucky though.

PS. Shame on you, Scott Hicks. You are an Oscar nominated director. (SHINE)

DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX

THE LORAX
Written by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul
Directed by Chris Renaud
Voices by Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Danny DeVito


The Lorax: A tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean.

DR. SEUSS’ THE LORAX is perhaps the most blatantly obvious attempt to speak down to people about the perils of industrialization on the environment since AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Yes, I understand this is a children’s film, but the original work from 1971 was a brave warning of trouble to come, while director, Chris Renaud’s follow-up to DESPICABLE ME, is just a complete farce, unlikely to inspire any young people to care about the planet. Sadly, I don’t see it encouraging a lot of laughter and enjoyment in kids either. As is unfortunately too often the case, this is another Seuss adaptation that gets the imagination in the imagery right but doesn’t understand the roots of the story.

It didn’t take very long for me to stop enjoying THE LORAX. This stumpy, little orange thing (voiced by Danny DeVito), with a pretty well maintained mustache appears on screen to welcome us to the tale at the onset of the film. He’s certainly cute but the rhymes he drops sound somewhat watered down. And then before you know it, the entire thing turns into a giant musical number to introduce the good people of Thneedville that make up the story. It is awkward and uncomfortable to watch and while I’m sure Renaud imagined this opening as a grand and triumphant celebration of Dr. Seuss, it merely only serves to confirm that this will be a Seuss translation that doesn’t sustain its expansion into a feature length film. I’m no Seuss expert but I’m pretty sure he would never have used the phrase, “I know, right.”

Weak rhymes and unsuccessful modernization aside, THE LORAX is weighty and that is ultimately its undoing. Ted (Zac Efron) tries to impress a girl (Taylor Swift) by finding her a real tree in a world made entirely of plastic. In doing so, he meets The Once-ler (Ed Helms), who proceeds to tell him about how he chopped them all down long ago to pursue his own greedy needs. Let alone that the entire motivation of this story is about a girl and not really about the environment itself, the manner in which The Once-ler’s story’s is told is almost condemning. By the time he sings about how bad could he possibly be for pushing his own agenda at the expense of the planet, towering on screen and painted as this evil, destructive giant, I was done with it. It’s one thing to use media to scare adults into conforming but its a whole other level of wrong to use that same tactic on children. At least, the movie looks pretty.