Quick takes on 5 films

Little Men is the kind of movie that critics love, but for the rest of us, it’s pretty “meh”, and the ratings on rotten tomatoes pretty much play that out. It’s about a boy and his parent who move into the recently deceased grandfather’s apartment. The family is struggling financially, which the boy is fairly unaware of, not understanding why they are moving. Under the apartment is a retail store which has long been rented out to a single mother running a fabric shop. The boy befriends the woman’s son, and they quickly become close. However, the boy’s parents want to raise the rent on the woman, to help their own situation but also because the grandfather hadn’t raised it in decades, and she is paying a fraction of the going rate in the burgeoning New York suburb. She tries to play on the parents emotions, explaining how she was a close friend to their deceased father, but to naught. The boy however only understands that his parents and his best friend’s mom are not getting along, and the other family is going to be forced to leave. The film tries to be deeper than it is, and it hard for me to get behind young actors for the most part anyway. Not terrible, but not as heralded as you might read.

Coming Through the Rye is better, and has some strong moments, but overall I still didn’t get in touch with the characters. Strong acting by Alex Wolff portraying Jamie. Taking place in the 60’s or early 70’s, Jamie is a young man with some emotional problems. His goof-off brother dropped out of school and was promptly drafted for the Vietnam War. Jamie has little social skills and is often bullied at his all-boys boarding school. He has a fixation on J.D. Sallinger after having read Catcher in the Rye, and sets out to get Sallinger’s permission to turn it into a play. The film almost feels like a modern John Hughes-esque all day adventure, coming-of-age tale. A nice film overall, and it has moments of great film-making, but falls just a little short.

Don’t Think Twice is fantastic. You’d think with Keegan-Michael Key it would just be a zany comedy, since it is about a comedic troupe after all, but it is a lot more. Jack and his best friends run an improv comedy show in New York, which caters to the people with a low cover. They are all talented and each dreams of making it to Saturday Night Live (called “Weekend Live” in the movie). When one of them does get picked up, it creates a rift in their tight group, leading to hurt feelings all around. It has plenty of funny moments, but it is also easy to tear up at the end, and well worth a viewing or two.

In a Valley of Violence is good, not great, but an entertaining couple hours. It caters to the “B” movie crowd and makes no attempt to hide it. Set as an old school western, it stars Ethan Hawke as a wondering gunslinger with a past. On his way to Mexico, his detour through the small town of Denton runs afoul of the local dirty sheriff, played by John Travolta. Spoiler alert, Hawke ends up killing everything that moves. Downright silly dialogue at times, but this film isn’t just for fans of the genre. It is enjoyable and has some nice action scenes, and Ethan Hawke is, as always, captivating on the screen.

The remake of The Magnificent Seven doesn’t reach the heights of the original in many ways, but it can be a diverting afternoon, thanks in most part to its strong cast of Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke (more western Hawke!), Chris Pratt, Peter Sarsgaard, and others. When an evil tycoon threatens a struggling town, the inhabitants call on a ragtag group of do-gooders to save the day. The film builds very well for the first half, but doesn’t quite do enough to flesh out the main characters. It rushes to a fairly nice final battle, but then ends so suddenly that I wasn’t sure it was over when  the credits started rolling. Western fans will probably find plenty to like, and the film’s esteemed cast do their parts to keep it all flowing.