By Susan Granger
Australian actor Joel Edgerton makes an auspicious directorial debut in “The Gift,” a taut psychological thriller.
It begins as Simon (Jason Bateman) and his sensitive wife Robyn (Rebecca Hall) buy a mid-century modern house in Los Angeles, near the suburb where Simon grew up. They’ve moved from Chicago because Simon has a lucrative job opportunity as a sales executive.
While shopping for home furnishings, they encounter creepy Gordon Mosely (Joel Edgerton), who was Simon’s high-school classmate. Back then, Simon dubbed him “Gordo the Weirdo,” and his sad, lonely demeanor is still oddly ominous.
Eager to become friends, Gordo leaves wine on their doorstep and stocks their koi pond. To Simon’s dismay, he continues to drop by on one pretext or another when Simon is at work and Robyn is at home.
Eventually, Robyn sympathetically insists they accept a dinner invitation to Gordo’s house, an evening which ends awkwardly with Simon declaring, “We would prefer that you don’t visit us anymore.”
But it’s not that easy. As Gordo says, “You are done with the past, but the past is not done with you.”
Do people really change with the passage of time? Can bygones ever be bygones?
Writer/director/producer Edgerton has crafted an intriguing story, exploring the malevolent consequences of teenage cruelty and ruthless bullying. Although there’s a scary moment in the shower, the slick, stylized tension builds slowly as the disturbing truth is gradually revealed.
Thematically, Edgerton evokes memories of “Fatal Attraction,” “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” and deceptive Alfred Hitchcock chillers, aided and abetted by sly, subtly astute performances from Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall and Edgerton himself.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Gift” is an electrifying 8, delivering a timely, turbulent twist.
In “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” director Kyle Patrick Alvarez examines the psychological research conducted in 1971 by Dr. Philip Zimbardo and funded, in part, by the U.S. Dept. of Naval Research.
Zimbardo randomly divided 24 Stanford University students into prisoners and guards and placed them in an improvised prison in the basement of Jordan Hall, paying them $15 a day to participate.
As the volunteers assumed their assigned roles, they exhibited behavior that reflected distress and despair, abuse and degrading, sexualized humiliation, proving how situation shapes conduct.
Taught in journalism classes today, this notorious study illustrates questionable methodology/ethics, the frightening pliability of reality, and the effects of power in all its permutations.
Adapted by Tim Talbott from Zimbardo’s 2007 book, “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil,” it’s a horrifying re-enactment, featuring Billy Crudup as imperious, often patronizing, Zimbardo who later served as an expert witness in one of the Abu Ghraib trials.
Ezra Miller delivers a memorable performance as rebellious prisoner No. 8612, along with Michael Angarano as the cocky, manipulative guard who adopts a John Wayne persona. There’s a simmering class/race undercurrent, epitomized by Zimbardo’s ex-con ‘consultant’ (Nelsan Ellis).
Working closely with Alvarez, cinematographer Jas Shelton emphasizes the claustrophobia with tight close-ups and hall tracking shots. Unfortunately, there are no backstories about the students, except poor prisoner No. 2093 (Chris Sheffield), who was living in his car for the summer.
The muddled third act wavers between ambiguity and oratory, followed by a bewildering epilogue, seemingly at odds with the rest of the narrative. It’s amazing that Zimbardo and Stanford weren’t sued.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Stanford Prison Experiment” is an intense, provocative 6, as role-playing goes horribly awry.
In “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983), Chevy Chase originated the hapless character of Clark Griswold, an eagerly oblivious dad who drove his family to Walley World, America’s favorite fun park.
In the rebooted “Vacation,” Ed Helms plays Clark’s moronic son, Rusty Griswold, an EconoAir pilot who yearns to re-create the same childhood road trip with his wife, Debbie (Christina Applegate), and two bickering sons (Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins).
“You just want to redo your vacation from 30 years ago?” Debbie asks. “Isn’t that just going to be a disappointment?”
For her – you bet, particularly when she revisits the humiliating projectile vomiting of her sorority days and winds up swimming in human excrement.
Then there’s the rented Albanian minivan with a navigation system that speaks only Korean; a suicidal Grand Canyon river-rafting tour guide; the rickety Walley World roller-coaster; and multiple cover versions of Lindsay Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” theme song.
Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”) is a right-wing, Texas weatherman, married to Audrey (Leslie Mann), while Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo do a nostalgic cameo in their original Truckster station wagon.
Writers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (“Horrible Bosses,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”), make their directing debut. Given the haphazard timing and ham-fisted staging, their obvious inexperience is painfully obvious.
And while one would think of the comedic subject as family fare, its R-rating for profanity, sexual vulgarity, graphic nudity, along with crude pedophile and AIDS jokes, should discourage parents from bringing youngsters.
On the Granger Gauge, “Vacation” is a frustratingly un-funny 4. Skip this forgettable trip.
( Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
