The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

The Adjustment Bureau is a romance movie about a guy who discovers that there is a seedy underbelly to the world that we know: an organization is tasked to adjust people’s life events in accordance with a mysterious doctrine called The Plan. When he meets the woman of his dreams and falls in love with her in a chance encounter, he immediately questions whether or not his fate is just when it’s revealed to him that they are destined to never be together. The bureau has orders to stop him if he tries to make it work, and so begins his mission to defy the Plan and, by extension, his true destiny.

It was fun exploring the theme of fate as depicted in this film. Matt Damon isn’t doing anything particularly special (he runs a lot YAY!), but his female lead Ms. Emily Blunt is completely charming and can really light up a room. As a romance movie and by extension a “chick flick,” The Adjustment Bureau is par for the course in this respect and if you ask me, it’s comfortable.

The film is also designed to give away that warm and fuzzy feeling that maybe we ourselves can be held responsible for our own decisions, that an unseen hand does not control everything, and that maybe we can take charge of our own lives. After all, if we don’t like what’s in the Plan for us, we should have the power to change it and maybe break free from the Vice of God so we may forge our own pathway through the stars. But maybe defying The Plan is The Plan.  What if this is all a big trick?  My god, it’s full of lies!

B+

Dogma (1999)

Dogma is a story about the ongoing battle between good and evil.  Kind of.  When the good Cardinal George Carlin announces the Catholic Church’s new Catholicism WOW campaign, two exiled angels are discreetly informed of a loophole in Catholic doctrine that would enable them to cleanse all of their sins and return home to heaven.  However, since God cast them out directly for their previous transgressions, doing so would go against God’s infallibility and thus all existence would be negated forever.  The Last Scion is called upon to address this in God’s mysterious absence, a dogmatically disenfranchised Planned Parenthood employee by the name of Bethany.  The clock is ticking as she makes her way to New Jersey to prevent the ultimate disaster brought forth by the two angels’ plans.

The beginning of the movie has a few disclaimers pleading with a sensitive audience to not hate this movie because of its seemingly antireligious rhetoric.  To be honest, I thought the message of ultimate religious tolerance was fairly clear.  In today’s world, faith and the lack thereof could be seen as a major problem and I think Dogma’s approach is mostly objective.  I guess I don’t see the problem–I mean, there is lots of blood and violence on the footsteps of a cathedral but hey, God Itself swoops in and cleans up the mess all while looking around at the destruction in what could best be described as quirky disappointment.  It’s a message I agree with–we are all part of God’s creation and He is likely disappointed in us, no matter what cloth we are cut from.

I don’t think Dogma will make you examine your faith any more than before you watched it.  Instead it will let you turn a more satirical eye to the absurdities of the modern church bureaucracy and hopefully make you laugh a little bit about how ridiculous some of this shit is.  It’s okay to have faith in a higher power, but getting too extreme with your ideals can make you an asshole.

Anyway, I thought the movie was pretty good.  Ben Affleck was subdued as the leading man and we got to see Matt Damon a little more.  Plus, there are some fan favorites in Chris Rock and Alan Rickman that come along and chew the scenery.  Those were good casting choices.  The plot isn’t nonsensical, and there is a considerably lower dose of melodrama that was the basis for Chasing Amy.  Dogma is just fine.

B+

Chasing Amy (1999)

I generally have a difficult time rating a movie if I see the main character morph into a prick.  It’s not something I see that often so it certainly stands out and it’s kind of a trope I like.  Movies like this rely heavily on their leads having the ability to lead well both through writing and the actual performing.  A perfect job renders everything transparent, and so it begins where I wonder if the lead has always been a prick from the start.  Does he make a change at the end?  Does he learn his lesson?  Is he likable enough for me to give a crap?  These things are important to me because in the end my reviews are based on how I feel after the movie is over.

Chasing Amy is a movie that has put me into this line of thinking.  It’s about two asshole comicbook maker guys: one is a major homophobe while the other is a super conservative and inexperienced douchenozzle. One day at the club they encounter a slinky and charming lesbian.  The douche falls for her almost immediately and they end up in a rocky and short-lived relationship that culminates in his questioning of her shady and mysterious past that basically paints her as a whore.  It’s not a very funny movie in spite of taking place in Kevin Smith’s View Askew universe where Jay & Silent Bob hail from.

Instead, this movie makes a push as the oscar bait.  It’s full of thoughts and feelings and melodrama and homophobic slurs and two of the biggest asshole characters I’ve seen in a while.  The thing is, no one mentioned to Kevin Smith that Ben Affleck sucks at carrying a movie (as the leading man, not the director–I heard he’s quite good at that).  It has some good writing and dialogue that just gets pissed down the drain due to Affleck’s staggering starchiness.  Maybe that’s what Kevin wanted when making this movie: it has a respectable level of discomfort but I think Damon or even Lee would’ve made a much better lead.

Also: Ben’s hair looks face-punchingly stupid.

B-