Footloose

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Kenny Wormald, Julianne Hough

My rating: 2 stars

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Everything is better with Bacon, and there is no Bacon in the remake of “Footloose.”

The original, released in 1984, starred Kevin Bacon as our boy hero, Ren, fresh off the bus from Boston, ready to make a new life in a small, southern town where, gasp, dancing is forbidden because three years prior five teenagers were killed in a car accident coming home from a dance party.

That remains true in the remake, starring Kenny Wormald (who?) as Ren. Wormald has starred in such films as “You Got Served”, “Center Stage: Turn it Up” and a two-episode stint on the television show “Dancelife.” That is to say Wormald is a dancer first, actor second.

Therein lies the problem with the “Footloose” reboot. The cast is a collection of dancers better suited for the stage than film. The love interest, Ariel, is played by Julianne Hough. She's best known for her work as a dancer-coach on “Dancing with the Stars.”

So now we have a movie that is a remake (by rule, never as good as the original) filled with dancers, not actors, in the lead roles. It was obvious from the start – and once more when Hough attempts to cry in a scene where her eyes do not water, do not turn red and a tear does not trickle down her cheek – that this is a painfully acted two hours.

I prayed and pleaded that around the next corner Bacon would appear. Sadly, he did not, despite the multiple opportunities for a cameo (He could have played the cop who gives Ren a ticket! Come on, Hollywood).

But whilst sitting through the dancing and remade iconic scenes that didn't work in the “modernized” version of the film, I managed to play, in my head, a game: Six degrees of Kevin Bacon. It was difficult, and I couldn't find the match for Wormald or Hough in the theater. Don't worry, it's there.

I started with Dennis Quaid, who plays Ariel's preacher father and the father of one of the boys killed in the film's opening sequence. He spearheaded the town's campaign to ban dancing and, ultimately, must be won over before the town can move on.

Anyway, Quaid was in “Vantage Point” along with Matthew Fox. Fox played next to Neve Campbell in the TV show “Party of Five.” And Campbell played a high school girl mixed in a love triangle with Matt Dillon and Denise Richards in “Wild Things,” which features, as a cop, Kevin Bacon.

Andie MacDowell plays Quaid's wife in “Footloose.” Her path is quite easy as well. She starred next to Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.” Murray worked with Steve Martin on “Saturday Night Live.” Martin starred in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” in which the Taxi Racer was played by Kevin Bacon.

But then it became more difficult, and I was forced to return to the office to find the next two connections, which, by the way, is way more fun than sitting through this cliché-filled, poorly-updated 2011 version of “Footloose.”

Julianne Hough. I wasn't sure I could do it, but thanks to IMDB.com, I managed. Her partner on “Dancing with the Stars” was Cody Linley. He appeared as Spit McGee in “My Dog Skip,” which starred Kevin Bacon.

Finally, there's Wormald, who will not enjoy the same Bacon-level success in his acting career. Wormald appeared in “Clerks II” next to Kevin Smith. Smith, as his alter-ego Silent Bob, was in “Scream 3,” along with Neve Campbell. You know where it goes from there.

Wasn't this review better with Bacon? I just wish "Footloose" had some.

Moneyball

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill

My Rating: 4 stars

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In 100 years, the name Billy Beane will be regarded as one of the legends of baseball's past. During the 2002 season, when “Moneyball” takes place, he is baseball's leper.

Beane (Brad Pitt) is the general manager of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics, a team worth less than $40 million. They've just lost to the New York Yankees, a team worth nearly $115 million, in the 2001 playoffs. Beane must put together a competitive team on a third of the budget and quickly – the A's just lost their three best players – before next season.

He knows he has to think differently about drafting, recruiting and signing players. He just doesn't know how exactly to do it. Peter Brand, a 25-year-old Ivy League graduate who's developed a rogue concept for evaluating players, does. The keys: get on base, don't give away an out, don't steal. Through a complicated algorithm, Brand knows which overlooked players can succeed at a discounted price.

Brand and Beane form an alliance that changes baseball forever, despite all their critics, including within their own organization.

“Moneyball” was a best-selling book about the true story long before it was a darn good movie. The transition to the screen is nearly flawless, guided by Pitt's careful portrayal of a man risking his reputation and livelihood on a far-flung, untested idea.

The raw material presented in the book – the algorithms, especially – doesn't appear on the surface to be easily accessible. But director Bennett Miller wisely chooses to focus his film on the process of and reaction to challenging ideas rather than the numbers behind it.

What results is the first great baseball movie in recent memory. It's a different sort of underdog story, the outcome of which is still playing out. The on-field names – David Justice, Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford – give the film a dual feeling of nostalgia for that remarkable 2002 Oakland team and promise for what baseball is still becoming.

It's the sports fan's “The Social Network” – the documentation of a sprouting revolution that we know altered an entire landscape. And it plays as unflinchingly.

Not only is “Moneyball” deeply engrossing, but Pitt churns out another brilliant performance. While Beane is not among his most memorable characters, he's able to put a face to an often faceless position. Unless your last name is Steinbrenner or Epstein, general managers and owners are always in the shadows. We hear only of their hiring and firing. Pitt brings Beane to very real life.

He's a man who knows he'll likely lose his career before he'll change the game. Yet, he's a man that cannot accept losing or mediocrity. That's what pushes him to take the ultimate chance that Brand's ideas are worthwhile.

Perhaps it's also why “Moneyball” resonates so well with an American audience. It is the American dream – to build a champion from rubble and a name from anonymity – achieved behind the scenes of America's pastime.

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Drive

Rated: R

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks

My rating: 4.5 stars

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Do you know the story of the scorpion and the frog?

The question is posed by the Driver (Ryan Gosling), of whom we are not given a name, near the conclusion of “Drive.” He's referencing the fable where a scorpion asks a frog to carry him over a river. The frog is afraid of being stung. The scorpion says if he stings the frog, the frog would sink and they'd both drown.

The Driver wears a white silk driving jacket with a yellow scorpion stitched on his back. His day job is as a stunt driver for the movies in Los Angeles. By night, he serves as a getaway driver for armed robbers. We know nothing of his past, yet we know he's seen and done unthinkable deeds.

We meet him explaining the rules: (1) You give me a time and a place and I give you a five-minute window. (2) Anything that happens in that five minutes and I'm yours, no matter what. Then, he drives.

That's the set up and first scene in “Drive.” Of course, it isn't that simple, nor is it a movie filled with sensational chase scenes. There are only two.

The rest is a deliberate, methodical descent into the very dark world of a Los Angeles mob that has ensnared the Driver after he tried to help an ex-convict pull off one last heist to relieve a debt.

The ex-con, Standard (Oscar Isaac), is the husband of the Driver's love interest, Irene (Carey Mulligan), and has been harassed by mob men since his release. They've also threatened the family, which the Driver feels he must protect.

The Driver evokes memories of classic action heroes as he coolly swings a toothpick between the corners of his mouth, expressionless as he executes his craft. He doesn't speak much, yet we assume his capabilities.

But this does not play out like a typical action movie. There are no fantastic explosions with body parts strewn about and there are but a few elaborately orchestrated chases. Director Nicolas Winding Refn doesn't want the audience to leave with a cheap thrill, he wants one to leave stunned and awed. The violence is graphic and feels real in those brief and shocking scenes. "Drive" doesn't rely on violence, either, to keep the audience. Refn brilliantly executed building tension. More is felt in a glance between characters than in their words.

We feel that through the subtle, yet haunting performances. Albert Brooks plays a Bernie, a wealthy businessman who dabbles in crime and whose business partner, Nino (Ron Perlman), simply looks like bad news. Bryan Cranston perfectly plays Shannon, a small-time mechanic who serves as the Driver's boss. Bernie describes Shannon as "unlucky." He is really a pawn.

And of course Gosling as our hero. He says with a look what cannot be put into words. He's hardened by a lifetime in whatever he considers his business. But we're still drawn to him and his mysterious past.

These people are despicable in each of their unique ways, trying to play the game against each other for money and power. The Driver, though, is the most ruthless and we love him for it.

Refn has produced the best kind of action film – one that's about executing the process to get the desired result. The payoffs work because the journey there is so grueling. Don't corner a scorpion.

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Our Idiot Brother

Rated: R

Sarring: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel

My Rating: Three stars

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Ned (Paul Rudd) is not an idiot. He is a loving, trusting, humble individual who simply naively believes everyone is as loving, trusting and humble as him. That's surprising considering his family of ruthless women who each, in varying degrees, find Ned to be a burden.

Ned's troubles start only moments into “Our Idiot Brother,” before we meet the women who, somehow, formed Ned into this hippie, Dude-like master of the universe. He's tabling at a local farmer's market, selling his organic fruit made on his organic farm where he's lived for three years with his free-loving girlfriend (Kathryn Hahn) and Willie Nelson, his dog. He adorns a repulsive black-and-white wool sweater, his innocent smile tucked inside a scruffy brown beard.

A uniformed police officer approaches and through a myriad of gestures implies he wants the ganja. Ned impishly agrees, slipping a sandwich baggie between pieces of red rhubarb. A moment passes before the officer announces that Ned, sweet, simple, naïve Ned, is under arrest.

The film skips ahead several months to when Ned is released from prison. His beard thickened and his demeanor as loose as the day of his incarceration, he returns to his organic farm to find his girlfriend living with a new man, refusing to allow him back into her home. She won't even give him the dog.

So Ned, with no money, no job and no home, hitchhikes his way to find his sisters. There's Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), an ambitious magazine journalist who's about to interview a fashionista and get the scoop on a sex scandal. There's Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), a bisexual woman who lives with and off of her girlfriend, played by Rashida Jones, and struggles as a stand-up comedian. Lastly, there's Liz (Emily Mortimer), who's married to a documentarian filming a legendary ballerina. Liz has two children who eat cupcakes ones each week and don't watch “Pink Panther” movies because they're too violent. The entire family unites for a weekly dinner with the matriarch, played by Shirley Knight.

Ned, of course, is in need of a home and money. The women reluctantly agree to help out. Through a series of painful coincidences, Ned is thrust into various situations in which he's forced to choose between being loyal to his family or choosing what he believes is right. That is the film's brilliance and its downfall.

The progression feels calculated and too coincidental. A car service fails to pick up Miranda on the day of her interview, so she calls her idiot brother for a ride. Later, while helping Liz's husband with his movie, he's told to wait in the car. After hours sitting there, Ned is asked by a cop to move, forcing him to interrupt the documentary.

Thankfully, Rudd carries each scene, careful not to break Ned's innocence to the audience. Without the boyish everyone-really-is-good approach, “Our Idiot Brother” would lose all its magic. Ned doesn't care if he meets a celebrity trying to overcome a personal crisis or a small child just wanting another strawberry from his farmer's stand. He treats people as human beings, without underlying agendas. His parole meetings are so genuinely honest and heartfelt that he admits to his officer that he smoked weed with a neighbor boy.

If not for Rudd, “Our Idiot Brother,” would have been lost not long after its Sundance premiere. Instead, here it is – an adult comedy that evokes a smile, not a laugh, as Ned handles situations with naiveté and an endearing innocence. His innate compassion and love, even while all the women in his life, including his dog-hording ex-girlfriend, connive and manipulate others, is inspiring.

Ned causes us to reflect at film's end, with a sweet taste in the mouth, on what he really represents. He exudes love, acceptance and caring in a world so quick to try to change that. He brings about change in others simply by his presence, despite the wrongs done to him. He only wants what's right and good, and he's certainly no idiot.

Three stars

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