Double Feature Review: The Heavy & The Light
Whether it’s due to flu season combined with COVID spikes or just not wanting to leave the house when it gets dark at 4:30 in the afternoon, it’s sometimes really hard to keep up with new movie releases. Despite it being a simple action, going to go sit elsewhere and enjoy a film, just leaving the house seems like a lot of work. So in case you’ve missed these, here are two that have recently made their way to streaming, and their tones couldn’t be more different.
On the one hand, we have Causeway - a moving story of an injured veteran trying to return back to her life, despite it seemingly causing more damage than her time serving in Afghanistan. On the other, we have the (totally true, no, don’t question a single thing) story of famed parody artist Weird Al that will make you both laugh and question what reality is. I’d recommend watching them in that order, too.
Causeway
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Tyree Henry, Linda Emond, Jayne Houdyshell, Stephen McKinley Henderson
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
R
Run time - 1 hr, 32 min
On Apple TV+ November 4, 2022
My bias is easily seen when it comes to my appreciation of this movie: I adore Jennifer Lawrence, and I was irrationally excited to have a new project of hers on my tv screen. Thankfully, I didn’t end up having to defend liking it solely because of my appreciation of everything she does. Causeway is an emotional tale that can resonate whether you have any true connection to the military or not, and it’s a beautiful look at someone trying to heal and looking at what life can - or should - be after your story takes a turn you didn’t expect. Lawrence demonstrates this mindset flawlessly, giving what could have been stereotypical and trope-y an extra level. A lot of this is also due to the chemistry she has with Brian Tyree Henry.
The friendship between the two leads feels lived in and has moments of both utter joy and broken hearts. Causeway could be a master class in how trauma, whatever that trauma may be, can affect people so differently, and even if someone claims to be coping and healing, there could be so much simmering underneath the surface. While (hopefully) many viewers may not be able to relate exactly to the tragedies both of these characters went through, the baseline of emotion is all too familiar. This isn’t a movie of extreme highs and lows or dramatic plot twists. Instead, it’s a character study that will draw you in, without ever needing a gimmick or shock to keep you invested.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Vanilla Flavored Sno Cones
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Diedrich Bader, Rainn Wilson, Julianne Nicholson, Evan Rachel Wood and an alarming number of cameos
Directed by Eric Appel
TV-14
Run time - 1 hr, 48 min
On Roku Channel November 4, 2022
I may have been late to the game in regards to Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, so I’m extremely glad to have gotten in early on the masterpiece that is Weird. Unsurprisingly, it is a fantastic parody of the standard celebrity biopic. It takes on the standard emotional beats of every “rising above adversity” narrative, including the inevitably unsupportive parents, a stroke of dumb luck and finding a mentor. That could be normal enough, until you watch and hear Al’s mom (Nicholson) request that he just stop being who he is and doing what he loves. Almost every sentence of dialogue is a laugh line, and it only gets more absurd as it goes. The first half of the movie, there are plenty of moments where you pause and wonder how much of this story is true, and then it goes fully off the rails.
One of the best scenes comes about a third of the way in: a pool party that has more cameos than can be imagined. To avoid spoiling some of the best surprises, I won’t go into detail, but I highly recommend googling afterwards to see how many of the celebrity impersonators you got correct (it’s almost expert level considering how many of them don’t even have dialogue). Despite so many hilarious one-off moments where you go, “Wait, THEY are in this too??” Daniel Radcliffe does phenomenally and doesn’t allow anyone else to steal the show. This film continues Radcliffe’s wonderful career arc where he made his fortune via Harry Potter and allowed himself to take on any role or project that he wanted to. Some of the most fun moments in this movie involve him playing against Evan Rachel Woods - in a spot-on Madonna look and impersonation - where the plot goes sideways in the most hilarious of ways. The Roku Channel app may be frustrating, but it’s incredibly worth battling in order to watch this movie and spend roughly 100 minutes cracking up.