Posts Tagged ‘Steve Coogan’

Short Take: Touching and whimsical, with impressive psychological and emotional depth

Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

Screenwriter: Zoe Kazan

Cast: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Chris Messina, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Steve Coogan

Length: 1h 44m

Synopsis: Calvin (Paul Dano) is a writer in his 20’s, widely considered to be a wunderkind by the literary community as a result of his great and early success with his first novel at age 19. He hasn’t had any successes since, and is trying to write through the personal shortcomings in his life. When he begins dreaming of the perfect girl (Zoe Kazan) that would help him get his life back together, he begins writing a new novel around her. As he writes he finds himself falling in love with her, even giving her a name: Ruby Sparks. One morning, he wakes to find that he has written his perfect character into existence, and must deal with the ramifications of bringing his fictional creation into the real world.

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Short Take: Funny and unique, yet the premise goes largely unexplored

Director: Adam McKay (Step Brothers, Anchorman)

Screenwriter: Adam McKay (Step Brothers), Chris Henchy (Land of the Lost (2009))

Cast: Will Ferrell (Step Brothers, Blades of Glory), Mark Wahlberg (The Lovely Bones), Steve Coogan (Hamlet 2), Michael Keaton (Toy Story 3)

Length: 1h 37m

Synopsis: Allen Gamble (Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) are New York City detectives who are stuck in the proverbial daily grind. Hoitz is always itching to escape the office and do some hardcore investigating, while Gamble is perfectly content with doing endless paperwork. Both partners, however, envy co-detectives Highsmith (Jackson) and Danson (Johnson), who continually create headlines and make the detective life look glamorous and movie-like. These two would-be celebrities end up meeting their maker sooner rather than later, though, which inspires Hoitz and Gamble to take more initiative and be more ambitious with their investigations. This newfound attitude steers them towards a possible grand-scale white collar crime not dissimilar to the Bernie Madoff fiasco, but because of a series of mishaps their Captain (Keaton) and even the District Attorney step in and order them to back off. Despite this order Hoitz and Gamble are unable to let go of the case, and wont stop until they’ve got their man. Read the rest of this entry »