It Should Happen to You (George Cukor, 1954) - There's always plenty going on beneath the surface of a Garson Kanin script. And here, as in the eternally underrated Tom, Dick and Harry and The Rat Race, his real subject is the American Dream. Judy Holliday, who originated the lead in Kanin's Born Yesterday on stage and won an Oscar for it on screen, plays Gladys Glover, a newly-unemployed model whose plan to make a name for herself involves just that: plastering her moniker across a Columbus Circle billboard. It brings her fame, but as beau Jack Lemmon suggests in one telling, prescient exchange, she hasn't done anything to warrant it. And anyway, isn't it OK to be part of the crowd? The dialogue is absolutely scintillating, the satire spot-on and the performances from Holliday and Lemmon (in his big screen debut) spectacular, while Charles Lang's crisp on-location photography adds immeasurably to the film's fresh feel. (4)
***
*ONE BIG SPOILER*
An American Tail (Don Bluth, 1986) is an erratic animated feature with some bravura moments. A first glimpse of The Statue of Liberty, viewed through a green bottle. An operatic trawl through the underbelly of New York. A climactic reunion amid the fountains of an orphans' commune. Elsewhere, the animation is as changeable as the storyline and having a kid with a strong American accent voice your Russian immigrant hero is rarely going to work, no matter how appealingly drawn he is - in both senses of the phrase. Yes, it's formidably scary, admirably heavy and has a handful of nice James Horner songs, but a tighter script, slicker chase sequences and a more coherent worldview could have made this something genuinely special. (3)
***
Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010) - "I'm fair to middling, Leonard Maltin would give me two-and-a-half stars," muses Ben Stiller's Greenberg in this ultra low-key comedy-drama. A bit harsh - I'd say he's worth a three at least. Like its believable, often dislikeable hero, the film is shambling and nearly aimless. Unlike him, it's also charming and funny. Not all of it works - there are subplots and episodes that drag on or appear extraneous - but Stiller (who's good) and Greta Gerwig (who's absolutely superb) make the utmost of the material. The highlight is Stiller's birthday meal, which features a flurry of ridiculous lines, before ending in a profoundly discomforting tantrum. (3)
***
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller, 2008) - This is a bit of a weird one. The first 10 minutes were so dreadful I almost did the unthinkable and stopped watching. It picked up after that, with some very funny jokes, a brilliant scene with Paul Rudd as a surfing instructor and a narrative that - again, much like its hero (Jason Segel) - is a little flabby and sometimes misguided, but ultimately goes the right way. I don't really have any interest in Russell Brand, but I thought he did quite a good job here. Bill Hader, I very much like. (2.5)
***
Zoolander (Ben Stiller, 2001) wasn't half bad. Well, it was half bad, but the rest of it I enjoyed a great deal. There are a surprisingly large number of laughs (the scale model of the reading centre, the statue gag at the end, just about everything Owen Wilson does...) and there's a bit of an edge, belying the countless cameos, though when it doesn't work, it really doesn't, and boy is Will Ferrell unfunny in it. (2.5)
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