BEFORE: I have NOT worked my path to October 1, the gap between here and there is simply too big - I don't even know how to calculate the odds of there BEING a path, let alone the odds against me finding it. Let's say there are 40 to 50 slots between here and there, even with an average of 10 actors that I could use to link out of each film, that's 10 times 10 times 10... OK, 10 to the fortieth power, that's a lot of possible chains. Maybe it's easier to program just a few days at a time for now, until I can really get busy with some scrap paper and work out a chain when there are like 20 slots left. 30 to be on the safe side.
But what I did was create some possible horror-film chains, played around with some chains on scrap paper, and kind of organized 2/3 of the horror movie list into strands of 13 or 14 films - now in a typical year maybe I could just dig a little deeper into the cast lists and find a way to put two strands together, thus creating a larger chain that's close to 30 days long, maybe drop in a documentary about a director who makes horror movies or a Marvel movie about Venom or Morbius or Werewolf By Night and then go with that. But this year, if I factor in a few days off for NY Comic Con and possibly also a week down in North Carolina or a vacation somewhere else, maybe I'll just stick with one of the larger strands I already have, there's one that's 16 films long, and that's the most appealing one to me, with 3 or 4 films I really want to see, and another 5 or 6 that have been on the list for simply too long, having been passed over the last couple of Octobers. OK, so I don't have a set chain for October yet, at least I have a target to aim for on October 1 - well, two targets, because I can always flip the chain over. And if I can't get to that target, I just came up with 6 other potential targets, which greatly increases the chance of me hitting one of them around that time. So something CAN happen, I just needed to know what to try to link to, maybe.
Molly Shannon carries over from "Year of the Dog".
THE PLOT: High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.
AFTER: You might expect this film to be another total bummer, because it's apparently "Loss of a Loved One" theme week here at the Movie Year. AND, you would be RIGHT, well, mostly. There is some comedy here, some dark and some not-so-dark. Since the film.is set in a high school, which is by its very nature a ridiculous place, then naturally there will be at least some slice-of-life comedy. Like Greg narrates his thoughts to us as if he's writing a screenplay (gee, HOW do these screenwrters come up with these things?) and he takes us on a tour of the school and shows us all of the social groups, and how he maintains a loose relationship with all of them, as a defense mechanism. It's kind of like how Ferris Bueller completely ran his school, only Ferris was much, much cooler than Greg. Everyone thought Ferris was a righteous dude, but Greg just wants to put his head down and survive high school without making any mortal enemies.
College? He hasn't even considered it as an option yet, because he's so busy slacking off and making amateur movies, "Wolfpack"-style, with his friend Earl. Actually they don't call each other "friends", even though they sure seem like it, they call each other "co-workers" because they spend so much time working on their films. Together they take classic films like "The Third Man" or "Nosferatu" and they change the title in an intentionally dumb way and then make whatever movie that title suggests. Look, I don't know why Greg hasn't considered filmmaking as a career, or realized that many colleges offer a film production major, maybe he'll get there, I don't know. It took me until I was 17 to figure out that I could study film, and inspiration for me came from reading George Lucas' biography - and visiting my sister at NYU certainly opened my eyes, too, suddenly I wanted what she had, a room in New York City and access to higher learning. (To be fair, yes, I followed her, but she was studying acting and I wanted no part of that, my eyes were on the film program.)
Earl gets sidetracked, however, when his mother finds out that a girl in his class is sick, she has leukemia, and somehow having the idea that her son is some kind of social butterfly (he really isn't, he's just trying to navigate all the cliques) she keeps nagging him to go and visit her, cheer her up or something, spend time with her. Look, moms know best most of the time, but Greg's mom really doesn't understand how high school works on a social level. But Greg goes to visit Rachel anyway, even though she doesn't want it and her divorced (?) Mom kind of creeps on him, but he sticks it out and he and Rachel find they have some things in common, and they do become friends.
Earl keeps Rachel company during her chemotherapy and against his own better judgement, shows her some of the films that he and Earl have made. She enjoys them, for some reason - bear in mind this was made in 2015 and Netflix wasn't really a thing yet, that's the only explanation I can come up with. Meanwhile, Madison, one of the hot girls in school (and Greg keeps telling us that the hot girls are like moose, and boys are chipmunks, and moose will just walk on chipmunks and crush them and not care. It's not really a great analogy, but whatever) suggests that Greg and Earl should make a film for Rachel to cheer her up. Greg starts spending more and more time making this film for Rachel (and/or to satisfy Madison?) and less time on his schoolwork, and meanwhile Rachel finds that her chemo is doing more harm than good, so she chooses to stop her treatments.
Greg somehow blames Earl for the falling-out he has with Rachel, and Earl accuses Greg of being unable to care about anybody but himself. And Greg's admission to college gets rescinded because of his poor grades in senior year, because he focused so much on making that film and not on his schoolwork. Everything has turned into a kind of downward spiral, and even though Madison asked Greg to the prom, he instead chooses to visit Rachel, who's back in the hospital. Yeah, the outlook isn't good for anyone here, especially Rachel. But later on Greg gets a card from Rachel, who wrote to his college on his behalf and explained the whole situation, so who knows? Maybe some lessons were learned in the end, however the movie kind of ends there so we never really learn if Greg ever made a career for himself in filmmaking.
From what I just read on Wikipedia, the book this is based on actually has more of a "should I go to film school" angle to it, which sure, makes total sense. However it also ends with a "should I make a film about Rachel" question, and I despise films about screenwriters or wanna-be directors that end with them writing or making the film you just watched. It's a total narrative cop-out, so kudos to the movie here for avoiding that well-worn cliché.
I'm going to let this one slide a bit, go easy on it because it's got a bunch of actors I like in it, like Nick Offerman, who is always great. Nick Offerman plays Greg's father and he has a cat named Cat Stevens, so another point there. Also in addition to the voice of Hugh Jackman, Jon Bernthal appears as a high-school teacher, and he played The Punisher on Marvel's Netflix series of the same name, so we almost get a Punisher and Wolverine team-up in this film, only not really at all.
Also starring Thomas Mann (last seen in "Beautiful Creatures"), RJ Cyler (last seen in "Sierra Burgess Is a Loser"), Olivia Cooke (last seen in "Thoroughbreds"), Nick Offerman (last seen in "Dumb Money"), Connie Britton (last seen in "The Land of Steady Habits"), Jon Bernthal (last seen in "Wind River"), Matt Bennett (last seen in "Manson Family Vacation"), Katherine Hughes, Masam Holden (last seen in "Elizabethtown"), Bobb'e J. Thompson (last seen in "Cellular"), Gavin Dietz, Edward DeBruce III, Natalie Marchelletta (last seen in "Not Fade Away"), Chelsea Zhang (last seen in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"), Marco Zappala, Kaza Marie Ayersman (last seen in "Fathers & Daughters"), Etta Cox (last seen in "Warrior"), Karriem Sami, Cheryl Kline, Joan Augustin (last seen in "Love & Other Drugs"), Nicole Tubbs (last seen in "White Noise"), and the voice of Hugh Jackman (last seen in "The Son") with archive footage of Klaus Kinski (last seen in "Count Dracula").
RATING: 6 out of 10 extra pillows
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