The Lovely Bones
Uncertainty
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GO THE VICIOUS KIND It’s a telling detail that indie film’s premier misanthrope, Neil LaBute, has an executive producer credit on writer-director Lee Toland Krieger’s scathing, dysfunctional-clan dramedy. Meet small-town Connecticut construction worker Caleb Sinclaire (Adam Scott, blistering), a sleep-deprived misogynist who maliciously projects his bitterness and insecurities on anyone foolish enough to come near. “All women are whores,” he schools his younger brother Peter (Alex Frost), who has come home from college for Thanksgiving, bringing along his new girlfriend, Emma (Brittany Snow). Reminded of the ex who cheated on him — and also his estranged father (J.K. Simmons) and late mother’s split over adultery — Caleb is convinced Emma is no better. This dude is messed up: First, he’s threatening to kill her if she hurts his bro, then he’s apologizing, flirting and stalking her. So emerges a twisted, most unexpected love triangle. Implausible? Well, who are college girls more likely to want: the sweet virgin or the disturbed bad boy? Inevitably, the film devolves into weepy catharsis, but with slick cinematography and colorfully cruel dialogue for Scott to chew up and spit at every member of this fine ensemble. The Vicious Kindis the most entertaining LaBute movie he never made. (Sunset 5) (Aaron Hillis)
YESTERDAY WAS A LIEThe pitch “a metaphysical noir about a beautiful alcoholic detective searching for the key to understanding nonlinear time” must have been too dizzyingly high-concept for the producers of Yesterday Was a Lie to pass up. But James Kerwin’s film can’t hope to live up to that premise, and it doesn’t. The film follows Hoyle (Kipleigh Brown), a female detective on a hunt for a master guide to understanding the way time fits together. Playing on that theme, the film jumps around aimlessly, repeating dialogue and images of Hoyle’s search while using non sequitur discussions of Dali and Eliot to justify its often impenetrably surreal structure. Shot in gorgeous black-and-white and lit by some extremely competent artisans, Yesterday Was a Lie looks like a higher-budgeted version of the noir film every film student tries to make. But like many postmodern noir films (think Rian Johnson Brick), all that style swirls around a hollow core. Between its New York–style cabs and its palm tree–dotted L.A. skyline, the film never grounds us in time or space — which is probably, obnoxiously intentional — and the anachronistic reveal of Brown researching on an expensive-looking Mac is a real howler. Yesterday Was a Lie deals with some heady themes, and Brown strikes some nice notes on her character’s frustrated journey, but the film is finally too disjointed and incomprehensible to be enjoyed as much else besides an exercise in style. (Sunset 5) (John Wheeler)
