Displaying items by tag: Johnny Knoxville

LIFE WITHOUT DICK

US, 2022, 100 minutes, Colour.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Harry Connick Jr, Johnny Knoxville, Craig Ferguson, Teri Garr, Geoffrey Blake, John Eddins, Claudia Schiffer, David Koechner, Lee Garlington, Holmes Osbourne.

Directed by Bix Skahill.

In no way to be taken seriously. For audiences who like a very, very light comedy with some twists, some romance, some pratfalls and silliness, 100 minutes to entertain them.

However, with two very ditzy central characters, some basic dialogue, some funny moments, many silly moments, many audiences have found it a mixture of too much and too little.

Sarah Jessica Parker, so well-known from Sex and the City, plays Colleen, an ingenuous would-be painter (framed single colours), with a private detective boyfriend, Dick, Johnny Knoxville, is upset at his packing to leave, holds a gun at him, shoots, and he had put a bullet in the gun. She hides the body in the basement.

There are all kinds of side issues throughout the film though, at the end, one can admire the various strands of the screenplay coming together. She has visited medium, Teri Garr, misinterprets Dick’s behaviour, flashbacks to him at a bar, the encounter with two straightfaced detectives (who do provide some deadpan comedy), is the target of the local Irish Mafia chief, Craig Ferguson, who has employed a singer, his brother-in-law, Daniel, Harry Connick Jr, whose girlfriend, Claudia Schiffer, had laughed at him, so he is becoming a hitman but is unable to shoot straight and is reluctant to shoot. Dick was his target. He visits Colleen and the romance and the complications start. Especially as, we expect in the romantic scene, that she volunteers to do all the shooting which is not seen on screen.

The romance progresses as do the success of the hits. Colleen is in love and conscienceless.

Of course, the romantic complications, the former girlfriend turning up, Colleen misinterpreting, the owner of the yard where the bodies are buried, David Koechner, confesses. Daniel gets his audition, Colleen thinking to shoot him, the revelations about the Mafia boss and a climax after the singing of Danny Boy.

Perhaps, that makes it sound better than it actually is!

SWEET DREAMS

US, 2024, 95 minutes, Colour.

Johnny Knoxville, Bobby Lee, Jay Mohr, Beth Grant, Brian Van Holt.

Directed by Lije Sarki.

There seem to be too intentions in the making of this film. One is a film about rehab. The other is a softball competition film. But, probably the is that this is very much a rehab film using the softball competition as a focus for the energies and striving for rehabilitation.

Sweet Dreams is the name of an institution, for men only, the men managing for themselves, cooking and cleaning, attending meetings, acknowledging their drug and alcohol addictions, their sense of inferiority, their hopes for some kind of change in their lives.

In many ways, this is presented conventionally, the introduction to a range of men, multiracial, but very American in their presence, talk, style, ambitions. The centre is run as a charity, is experiencing financial difficulties. The focus is on softball, training, play, competitiveness, taunts from the rival team… But, of course, some ultimate success.

The surprise of the film, in fact, is the presence of Johnny Knoxville, famous for his jackass movies. This performance is quite different – quite moving at times, especially in the scenes of his explaining himself, his drinking, driving, danger to his young daughter’s life. He is divorced, not allowed to see his daughter.

A lot of the sequences are played for laughs even though there is some tough realism the men and their sense of self-worth, their interactions, issues of hygiene, nicknames and poking fun…

This is very much a film for male audience. There are very few women in the cast at all, the central characters mother and daughter, especially at the end, present with the sense of achievement at the victory that softball. It is a film that men with problems could see which might motivate them to seek some kind of rehabilitation – or for women close to the men to see to encourage them to seek some kind of help.

1. Title, the centre, the hopefulness, the management and intentions, the men, their dreams, addictions, self-worth, rehabilitation?
2. The main action at the centre, the interiors, the rooms, gatherings, the kitchen, the meetings? This field
3. the focus on Morris, his background, talents, sport, the car, his mother, the danger to his daughter, his ex-wife forbidding him to see her? Coming to the centre? Sharing of the room, the smelly inhabitant, the bottom bunk, the urinating? The kitchen, cooking, washing up? His relationship with the other men, some leadership, it is self-deprecation? The phone calls from his daughter? At the meetings, his frank expression of his failures? If the talent with the softball, the team, coaching, defeat, victories? Reunited with his mother and daughter?
4. The manager, a charity, his work, relationship with the men, financial difficulties, the group helping with the finances, the issue of the option of the centre?
5. The other men, the range, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, their stories, personalities, sharing, the taunting of Crews? At the softball, the hopes, the taunts of the of the team, the role of Morris, observing, encouraging, and the final victory?
6. Morris, at the meetings, listening to the stories, the executive for 20 years and his failure, rehabilitation? Some of the others at the Centre for years? The issue of sponsors, Maurice and his discussions, support?
7. Comparative absence of women in the cast, the woman with her addiction, the young women and the softball match?
8. A serious minded comedy, encouraging men into rehabilitation, for women to support men going to rehabilitation?