Thighs Wide Shut

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s
Search For a Kool Place
Further Afield
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 107 min

Ken Kesey, The Merry Pranksters & that Further bus - for those who have read Tom Wolfe’s Acid Tested book, you probably know a thing or three about the trials and travails of that combo of peoples and vehicle.  For the rest of us illiterate, image craving bunch, probably not so much outside of those names and the fact that they did lots of drugs and stuffs, and bright colors and things!

Well, on the bus’ inaugural trip (Wolfe wasn’t on it!), from Kesey’s Cali home to 1964 World’s Fair in New York, stuff certainly did happen (like LOTS OF STUFF!!!) and all of it was filmed for a documentary… that was never made!!!!  Years later, Alison Ellwood & Alex Gibney took the 100+ hours of film and turned it into something (mostly) cohesive, with Stanley Tucci‘s voice driving the bus

While not eggzactly the most enthralling documentary chronicling 60s hippie dippie life and experimentation, Ellwood & Gibney’s Magic Trip is still a vital and important moving document, which will hold historical value for time eternal (future generations will need to see how people on LSD acted, in a time when it was legal!!!).  Even though sex, drugs and rock n roll are givens we take for granted in today’s society, it was pretty radical sh%t back then.  Educated people jumping on a wildly painted bus, taking boatloads of acid, swapping partners left and right, and to what end? Or to what beginning?

Their destination may have been the World’s Fair, but when they got there, they truly realized that all the eye opening memories were forged on that bus ride.  What a long strange trip it was indeed!  Hop on board, even if the bus has already come and gone

Bus A Don’t Move: there were two editions of the Further bus, and both are collecting dust/rust on Kesey’s farm (where his widow still lives) in Pleasant Hill, Oregon

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Trip hums along in NY & the SF area tomorrow, on demand everywhere now, and elsewhere elsewhen

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Attack The Block
Menaces II Society’s Rescue
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 88 min

For some reason, aliens always land in highly caucasian areas.  So what if some aliens landed in the hood (where some white folk also happen to live)?  Could the hoodrats stand a better chance than the white collar crowd??????  Such is the question that no one asked cept writer/director Joe Cornish, and he answers it in his Attack The Block.  With a crew of novice actors (including John Boyega, Leeon Jones, et al) + a few seasoned ones (Jodie Whittaker, Nick Frost, and Luke Treadaway), a soundtrack by Basement Jaxx, and a teeny budget under 9 million £ss, Cornish makes good use of what he has at his disposal for a solid and fun run through the urban jungle.  It’s hactually quite impressive what he pulled off with so little.  His CGI furry aliens with glowing teeth look more believable than most CGI creatures that run amok in mucky big budget disasters!!

And while we did have a jolly good time watching this (it’s hard not to), we will say that it did not fully live up to the post-SXSW hype.  Guess what, it’s not the best movie of the year.  Attack The Block thinks itself mad super dope cool, clever and hilarious, but we didn’t love it as much as it loves itself.  Hell, it’s not even on par with the brilliant Misfits.  Wait, you haven’t been watching the best show on telly for the past 2 years??  Attack that block (on Hulu) before you attack this one

Justin Case You Need More Reminding: WATCH MISFITS WATCH MISFITS WATCH MISFITS WATCH MISFITS

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Block is a party worth joining tomorrow in NY/LA/Toronto/SF/Seattle/Austin & Chicago, and elsewhere elsewhen

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Crazy, Stupid, Love.
It’s Not So Complicated Too
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
PG-13 | 118 min

Are you a fan of Steve Carell(‘s sad sack funny guy shtick), Ryan Gosling(‘s serious hotness), Julianne Moore(‘s less is moore approach) and/or Emma Stone(‘s beyond sexy Daisy Duck eyes)? If yer a human being living on planet earth and go to the movies, then the only answer can be ‘yes, to all the above‘.  If not, you might be Hollywood Elsewhere.  Crazy, Stupid, Love is not crazy, nor is it stupid, and nor nor did we out right love it.  BUT, if you love (or even juss like) Carell, Gosling, Moore and/or Stone, then you will dig on them digging on each other.  Here’s another litmus test –  Did you like It’s Complicated?  If you did, you will like CSL.  Nuttin fancy, juss cute people making cute.  No harm, no foul.  Lots of smiles, and if there aren’t smiles, you know eventually that those frowns will be turned upside down

So what’s this movie about?  Who even cares, but we will say that there was a lil bit of a twist that even took us by sirprize!!!  And that sirprize isn’t that Josh Groban is pretty decent at playing a dork, or that Kevin Bacon is beyond decent at playing an unlikable person, or that Analeigh Tipton is solid at being awkward, or that Marisa Tomei can make good use of a bad useless role, or that John Carroll Lynch really is the Zodiac, or that Jonah Bobo has an odd name and should totally play a young Brian Wilson in that 5thcoming biopic

Crazy Stupid Hot Chicks: there were plenty on hand, but we’d like to get our hands on these two the mostest!!

Crystal Reed

&

Karolina Wydra

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Stupid isn’t so at a theater near jews tomorrow

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Terri
Paining Growths
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 105 min

New rule of thumb: if John C Reilly co-stars in a movie about strange kid who’s name is also the title of the movie then it is probably worth seeing.  First Cyrus, and now Azazel Jacobs‘ Terri.  Terri is pajama wearing outcast Jacob Wysocki.  John C is his mentor.  Creed Bratton is his pilled-up uncle.  Bridger Zadina is his hair-pulling friend.  Olivia Crocicchia is his adorable crush.  Simple filmmaking + awesomely complex characters + some fingering scandals = Terri-fied

16 & Not Pregnant: Olivia Crocicchia, we’ll keep our eye on you… when you turn 18

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Terri  is varied currently in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Submarine
Sinking & Swiming with Wales
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 97 min

Remember how awesomes and clevers and fresheses in teen angstness and confusion Rushmore was?  Well, we’ve all been waiting for the next Rushmore (which was the next Harold & Maude or if….?) and there hasn’t been a next one.  Lots of tries, lotsa failures.  Not even Wes Anderson could get back to that way cool of school.  Enter the Welshish graped Submarine (based on the Joe Dunthorne novel), which comes purty darn close to Rushmoreian heights and low-ts (it was quite a downer, if you don’t remember).  And its protagonist, Oliver Tate (an incredible incredible incredible Craig Roberts), is even more likable and loveable and rootable-er than Max Fischer could ever be!  Richard Ayoade‘s flick is sharp as a tack and not tacky like the B-Sharps, even with all the flashy film techniques and snappy editing goings on.  It’s got 2 apathetic parents (the very well paired Noah Taylor & Sally Hawkins), one spirtual guru goon (constantly sirprizing Paddy Considine) and one adorable bobbed girl in a red jacket (paging Yasmin Paige), and they’re all problematic peeps causing mad problematics for our lil man Tate.  The first 1/3 is brilliant, and the 2nd third is moody, and the 3rd third is moody blues, and yet all three thirds are juss plain cool to watch as a whole movie.  It’s no Rushmore, cause Rushmore is our Rushmore?

Oh Snap!: yer telling we you don’t want to see a movie that looks like this?

Verdictgo: Jeepers Mos Def Worth A Peepers

Submarine stays afloat in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…