Screen Savor: Meddler, monster and lobster

So far, 2016 has been a good year for femmes d'une certaine age, with decent movies starring Sally Field and Helen Mirren, among others. Susan Sarandon (of questionable politics fame) can add her name to the list with writer/director Lorene Scafaria's The Meddler (Sony Pictures Classics/Stage 6). Not a perfect movie, it nevertheless gives Sarandon, and co-stars Rose Byrne (as daughter Lori) and J.K. Simmons (as possible love interest Zipper), the chance to shine.

Marnie (Sarandon), a bored but well-provided for widow, has moved to L.A. to be closer to screenwriter daughter Lori (Byrne). Neither woman has fully processed the loss of Joe, husband and father, respectively, although Lori is seeing therapist Diane (Amy Landecker). Marnie appears to think that all she and Lori needs is constant communication – by phone, by text and in person. Lori disagrees.

Marnie doesn't limit her meddling to Lori. She also offers unsolicited advice to Apple Store employee Freddy (Jerrod Carmichael, who also plays twin brother Fredo), retired police officer Zipper (who has taken a strong liking to Marnie), Lori's ex, action movie star Jacob (Jason Ritter) and Lori's lesbian friend Jillian (Cecily Strong).

Comedic situations aplenty arise, along with some that also tug heavily on the heartstrings. Sarandon is fabulous as Brooklyn transplant Marnie, and despite the movie's flaws, is the main reason to see The Meddler.

Out actress/director Jodie Foster goes for the gold with her suspenseful, albeit predictable, high-profile hostage drama Money Monster (TriStar). Following a devastating financial software glitch, investors big and small, lost ridiculous sums of money on Ibis, a company that Lee (George Clooney), the outrageous and over-the-top host of the Money Monster cable show, promoted as a sure thing.

Parcel truck driver Kyle (Jack O'Connell) is among those who lost everything (read: the $60k he inherited from his late mother). With a pregnant girlfriend named Molly (Emily Meade) and little chance of future financial stability, Kyle slips into the TV studio with a gun and a pair of vest bombs. One vest is intended for Lee and one for Walt (Dominic West), the sleazeball behind Ibis. But Walt is mysteriously unreachable, so all the pressure is on Lee, and his faithful and long-suffering director Patty (Julia Roberts) to make sure that no one dies – on live TV!

The predictability factor – including the truth behind Walt's whereabouts and missing millions, as well as the tense finale – almost threatens to bankrupt the project. However, the combination of Foster's steady hand and taut pacing combined with strong performances from Clooney, Roberts and, especially O'Connell, makes this take on money monsters inc. a well-timed and thought-provoking swipe at Wall Street, greed and consequences.



You've probably never seen anything like Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster (A24). That is unless you've seen his 2009 homeschooling morality tale Dogtooth. Like that film, The Lobster takes the absurd and the surreal to a whole new level, one that has a way of remaining with the audience. A dystopian drama without the dystopia and sci-fi thriller without the science, The Lobster is a black comedy about relationships, human and animal, that is as dark as a lobster's shell.

In the first few minutes of the film we see a woman drive to a field and shoot and kill a donkey. Shortly thereafter, David (Colin Farrell, who gained weight and a mustache for the part) and his wife end their marriage. David checks into a hotel with his brother, who is now a dog, to begin the process of finding a new mate or be turned into the animal of his choosing. David chooses a lobster because he likes the water, believes that they can live a long time and have an exoskeleton for protection.

At the hotel, with its restrictive rules and bizarre procedures, David makes friends with a lisping man (John C. Reilly) and a limping man (out actor Ben Whishaw), both of whom are eager to move from single to coupled status. However, that's not as easy as it sounds, and soon David and the others resort to unreasonable tactics. For instance, the limping man causes himself to have nosebleeds so that he can be paired up with the nosebleed woman (Jessica Barden) and the usually sensitive David creates an unfeeling persona so that he may become partnered with the heartless woman (Angelika Papouli).

David's plans go awry and he sneaks away from the hotel to join the loners in the surrounding woods. The loners, who are regularly hunted by the people in the hotel, welcome David, but they also have their own peculiar rules, including no romantic entanglements (otherwise they wouldn't be loners, right?). Of course, it doesn't take long for David and the loner known as the shortsighted woman (Rachel Weisz) fall in love and things go from bad to worse. The Lobster can be a tasty treat, even without drawn butter, if you are willing to go along for the ride.