Much Ado About Nothing

Directed by: Joss Whedon

Written by: William Shakespeare (play); Joss Whedon (screenplay)










It's tough to do a modernized version of Shakespeare. Really tough. Most fall flat (see Ethan Hawke's "Hamlet") while those that don't totally fail are forced to rely on stylistic gimmicks (Baz Lurhrmann). Most don't even try to really modernize, but try exotic time periods and locations (Sir Kenneth Branagh).

Joss Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing" succeeds. It's good.

I'm not sure what else to say except that Whedon's adaptation feels natural and organic. It doesn't go over-the-top. The choice to shoot in black-and-white film is a bit of a stretch at first, but quickly is forgotten and helps with the simple, straight-forward feel of the movie.

What surprised me most was the way the actors, especially character actors such as Nathan Fillion, manage to take total control of the Shakespearean language and make it sound totally natural. None of the conversations felt forced or over-wrought.

To be honest, it's been a long time (ten years or more) since I've read the original Shakespeare, so it's tough for me to judge the how much of the source material was scratched and molded to fit Whedon's vision. In any case, it worked.

They Came Together

Directed by: David Wain

Written by: David Wain and Michael Showalter










I tried to enjoy this movie. I really tried. The movie had a lot of things that I, theoretically, should have enjoyed. And yet, it was almost physically painful to watch this movie from beginning to end.

At multiple points, my wife and I simply looked at each other and said some variation of, "This is stupid."

I'll boil it down: the biggest problem is that the film doesn't know what it wants to be. It tries to spoof the cliche romantic comedy genre, but doesn't have enough bite or satire. It seems like it tries (maybe?) to make the characters likable, but they also exist as caricatures and, as such, lack any real humanity. Some jokes are parody, some are slapstick, and some seem like they were ripped from "Family Guy." In any case, none of these features belong together.

It felt, very simply, like a bunch of funny people got together and decided that it would be really funny to make a movie on this topic. And then they did, with complete impunity from editing or criticism. "They Came Together" would have been much better if boiled down to an extended SNL sketch, but didn't have enough substance to fill an entire movie.