Lucy: Because She Got High.

Memorable quote upon leaving the theater: "I thought that bitch had superpowers--she was just high!"

And there you have it, folks.

But really, Lucy ended up being a pretty decent movie, ableit not the mind-blowing Matrix throwback I was hoping for.

Lemme essplain.

The plot revolves around young Lucy, a (grad?) student who is living in Taipei for some reason. We immediately kick off with her boyfriend asking her to deliver a package to the front desk of a hotel. She declines. He makes her. She ends up getting enrolled in a sick drug lord's scheme to be a mule for some new drug. After accidentally getting beaten up in transit, the drug begins to leak--and Lucy goes whack. We find out, after she gets the pouch removed from her lower stomach, that the drug is a synthetic form of a substance that mothers produce when they're pregnant. The hormone/chemical/whatever enables your brain to prep itself to learn all of the rudimentary tasks that you acquire as an infant. And Lucy's packing a good amount larger than the average. Consequently, she gets the gift of using a "higher capacity of her brain" than the rest of us do, and learns some insane tricks (please see: suspending humans in midair, putting crowds to sleep, time traveling, literally falling apart, and more!).

nbd, everyone can do that..

When I saw the premise for this movie I thought it looked crazy cool. Scarlett Johansson has more than earned her acting chops as a badass playing Black Widow in The Avengers, and I was intrigued to see which route they would end up taking with the whole concept itself. But what you get amped up for in the beginning tapers off as the movie plays, and it ends up being a little lackluster by the end.

First half of this film was totally on point. Interesting choices made with the editing sucked me in right off the bat. As Lucy talks to her boyfriend, her responses are intercut with stock film images of wildlife hunting, being entrapped, and generally being in danger. The cuts also give us some information about Lucy's beau and their partying habits. Interesting direction for a mass-audience studio film, and it was refreshing to see some playfulness in editing for a genre that is usually pretty one-note.

The whole beginning half, actually, draws you in because you don't know what to expect. Even immediately after the drugs take effect in her system and Lucy is semi-robotic, we see her making decisions with 20% of her brain that we usually only get to see in assassin flicks. And it's cool!

Girl on a mission.

The problem with the second half is just a matter of jumbliness. The drug lord is trying to hunt Lucy down, Lucy's trying to give info to these scientists, she befriends a French cop that we become momentarily invested in, and then we get to see a brief history of time itself. What I went in expecting was to see a bunch of crazy-cool things that she'd be able to do with a large portion of her brain. But with the way the movie plays, she ends up being so much bigger than humanity itself, that the plotline that we're all focusing on (the drug lord one), gets lost in Lucy's existential fog.

Basically, the main thing keeping you awake in the second half is simply wondering what happens when she reaches 100% of her brain's capacity (and by that point--I mean, good Lord, she can do a whole lot).

Like seeing cellular signals and weaving through them

like the air is a giant iPad screen.

I would've liked to see this one's beginning stretch a little more and have her doing much less transcendental nonsense by the end. If we can't comprehend it, then why are you showing it to us? I rest my case.

6.5 outa 10. Not half as crazy-awesome as I'd thought it would be, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first half. Good acting from Scarlett Johansson as well!

**EDIT** Also, it must be said, there is no evidence to support the claim that humans only use 10% of our mental capacity. That is all.

Chef: If the Food Doesn't Kill You the Feelings Will

After seeing the trailer for Chef a few months ago, I was struck by the food fact that Jon Favreau was starring in a new flick about food family, job vocations, and the value of your life.

...And food.

omnomnom

The plot follows Chef Carl Casper, a guy stuck in a thankless position as head chef of a restaurant that refuses to embrace his talent for cooking his own dishes. After a well-known food blogger shames his skills as a cook, Casper finds himself publicly humiliated after a (very) social media war. Taking time to reevaluate his life, he decides to take some time off to spend with his son, and ends up discovering the food truck that reinvigorates his passion for cooking and mends his broken bond with his son.

d'awww food and fam

This movie totally caught me off guard. I was walking into a flick that I thought was going to be pretty straightforward (and full of food porn). But there are so many layers to this one that it just ends up being a very delightful film. Jon Favreau's Chef Casper is a tough guy at first, hardened by his stifled creativity and his inability to communicate with his half-estranged son. But watching his fully believable transition from a jerk into a well contented man is just so sweet. And the interactions that he has with his son Percy (played by the FANTASTIC Emjay Anthony) are so realistic that I was muttering an "awww" about every five seconds he was on screen.

Actually, let's give this kid his own paragraph:
I have a serious problem with kids that cannot act. Seriously. Child actors are known movie-ruiners. Because child actors have a tendency to be assholes. They think that they're special because they've been picked to do a movie and they're eating up being the center of attention and sometimes their smugness is so tangible that it posses me off. Contrary to being one of these asshole child actors, Emjay Anthony's Percy is the perfect blend of standoffish boy and emotionally invested, starry-eyed kid. His acting in this was tremendous and I felt it necessary to make mention of the fact that this kid is outside the usual parameters of this-kid-has-a-cute-face-so-let's-pretend-he-can-act-ness.

this sweet, sweet babychild

Ok, end rant.

The other thing that I loved about this movie was the commentary that they make about the pros and cons of social media. While Casper is at first about as social media savvy as a three-year-old, he learns quickly that the things that you say publicly have enormous consequences. By the same token, he ends up owing the success of his food truck to this original media outburst and subsequent social media outreach executed by his son, Percy.

The internet, amiright?

And lastly (but certainly not leastly): tha food. Omg.  Seriously, do not go into this movie hungry. You will regret it for the rest of your life. It would be like going grocery shopping hungry. Times a bajillion. Seriously, the food that they make in this movie is so damn delicious that I had to immediately go out and buy a Cubano sandwich from the nearest diner (that actually happened.). If you have time, make sure that you can buy the ingredients for one so that you can make it yourself as soon as you get home.

I'm not kidding.

This movie was total magic. I give it 9 outa 10. Great story. Great music. Great food visuals. Love.

Also, side note: there's like a million celebrities that have cameos in this thing. Awesome.

Hitchcock: The Kinda Sorta Making of Psycho

Had the fortune to see the latest celebrity biopic, one so named Hitchcock in a (somewhat rare) double feature opportunity. The Philadelphia Film Society was offering a screening of Hitchcock followed by a screening of Psycho, the movie whose making Hitchcock loosely follows. They were like "Hey, ya wanna see this?" and I was like "Psh, yeah."

Heh, this guy

So. Plot. What was the plot of Hitchcock? Basically, it follows what occurred before, during, and after the filming of Psycho, a revolution in the horror genre of the 60's. This includes, but is not limited to, problems in production funding, problems in Hitchcock's marriage, problems with the story, problems with the actors, and just general problems.

I have a confession to make: I didn't love this movie.

For one thing, I have discovered that I may be too much of a nerd to take the dramatized flavor of celebrity biopics (unless they're, y'know, political, in which case I need all the drama I can get). When it came to this film, I walked away wondering how much was improvised, how accurate the acting was, and a thousand other things that could've been more easily answered by a cut-and-dry documentary.

Certified badass.

What bugged me about this movie was that I walked out of the movie theatre with about as much information about Alfred Hitchcock as I had had upon walking in. Obviously he was disturbed a little, look at his repertoire. No news there, movie buffs. Psycho is about a murderer who is obsessed with his mother. Marnie is about the effects of childhood trauma. Rope is about two boys that murder their friend and have a dinner party on top of his body, which is stored in a chest. How could this director not have a few dark thoughts?

Don't let his belly fool you, he is not jolly like Santa.

The things that were cool about Hitchcock, though, were the things I learned about the problems in production and how much of an ace his wife, Alma, was. Though the movie claims through its title that it is about the great director Alfred Hitchcock, it is just as equally about his wife. Helping Alfred throughout the production of Psycho from mortgaging their home for the funds with which to make it, proofreading the script, and helping him with the structure of the plot, she really is one of the huge players that made Psycho the tremendous success that it was.

A poster I wish I'd seen more of

The one thing that I liked about this was the personalities of both Hitchcock and Alma. Their sense of humor makes the whole movie worth watching (in addition to the beautiful colors of 1960). Between their witty repartees and their laughing at the truly grotesque, they do add a little bite of humor to the otherwise semi-dreary subjects of their shaky marriage and production woes.

I dunno, the whole film left a bit of an incomplete taste in my mouth. Very cool, but not horribly educational if you are looking to learn about the director himself. The movie offers you a scope of Hitchcock's life, the progress of his film, and the life of his wife.

Interesting, but I'd rather nerd out with a documentary.

6 outa 10.