Are You Here (2013) Reviews

• What a beautiful little film

  socrates992015-02-01

  I don't recall ever hearing about this movie. Perhaps it was too steeped in 60's attitude for today's audiences. If so that is truly a shame because that probably means today's young people are too far removed from the era to understand it well. In today's world that is a great loss. If we could live as hippies attempted to back then, we'd be far closer to mitigating climate change than we are now and a large part of that lifestyle was the attitude. This movie captures that attitude beautifully. Laura Ramsey as Angela, the young hippie step-mother, brought back memories for me about women who actually existed in those years, who would float through life elevating everyone around them like some magical earthbound angel. I suppose nowadays she seems implausible. But back then she was very possible and meeting someone like her was unforgettable. Ms Ramsey's depiction captures the type in a way I haven't seen done in a very long time. It was a pleasure to reacquaint myself with the woman she represents. In a lot of ways those flower children were more affecting than anyone I've met since. The idea of the film apparently is to bring some of that ethos into the present. The two main leads, Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis, have no problem evoking the era and they do a splendid job. I thought both brought the right mix of humor and pathology to their parts. They seemed to understand what the movie was trying to convey, and they were quite successful for people like me. What's surprising is that younger people apparently don't get it and I don't quite understand why they wouldn't. Amy Poehler is also in the movie but in an unattractive role. I still appreciated her contribution to the mix in what seemed like a risky departure from her usual performance. The story revolves around two friends, pretty much drifting through life who end up supporting each other through the trauma of having one's well-off father die. That death spurs them both to grow up a bit though the transition is not easy for them. The movie is set in farm country where Amish live and coincidentally I live in that sort of country myself. It was actually a bit of a treat to see them carry on in such a setting. I enjoyed the movie very much, understand its point completely and am really bummed to find out that very few others enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone familiar with that era (it's actually set in the present) and not hostile to it. Believe me from my point of view it is far more your loss than mine that this movie wasn't as praised as it should have been.

• Started as one thing, ended as another

  shaitan_lives2014-08-26

  I found this movie leaving a bad taste in my mouth... It started out as a typical 'Zach stoned out of his mind funny' type of thing, and turned into it trying to teach me something about mental illness, but doing it in the poorest way possible. Also, just a side note, I think it is the first time I have ever seen Owen Wilson pick up a stoner role. That's just me. I found it weird watching him smoke up on the couch watching cartoons. It was amusing for the first while, but it ended with a 'what the hell did I just watch' feeling. They introduced mental illness into the story line, a reason for Zach being nuts, and they solved it basically by getting him to shave his beard off. Now, I understand that that shows a drastic change, but they didn't follow it with anything.. Just watch it, it'll make you mad as well. Overall, not really worth the two hours unless you have nothing better to watch. Or if you absolutely love Zach (however you spell his last name) or Owen Wilson, and are dedicated to watching everything they put out.

• TV weatherman and friends discover their more authentic selves

  maurice_yacowar2014-08-22

  There's no question mark in the title Are You There because the question is the answer. Matthew Weiner's black rom-com is about characters who try to discover their authentic selves. To ask if how you're acting is the real you is to begin to discover who you are. One striking scene visualizes characters living out of whack. TV weatherman Steve Dallas (Owen Wilson) lies sleeping on a sofa while all around him, at silent comedy speed, his best buddy Ben (Zach Galifianikis) races through a day or two of frenzied time killing. Combining a still and a fast-action within the frame is an emblem of living as a divided being. Each character has a wide range of potential selves. The apparent ideal is the beautiful free spirit Erin (Naomi Lavette). She was married to the much older man whose funeral calls son Ben and buddy Steve out to Amish country. If Erin seems the stereotypical hippy she's a winning, warm embodiment. Though Steve once rails at her -- not entirely inaccurately -- for being a wispy tumbleweed, she brings Ben and Steve the stability they both need — in the conventional hippy free love kind of way. Her range is Mother Earth and Tumbling Tumbleweed. Steve opens the film with an empty protestation of contentment. "Honest, every morning I wake up happy." This turns out to be a set speech he delivers to his every pickup, explaining why he enjoys being single…yet he always senses he might be missing something. By leaving that last door ajar he wins them all — and even gets the girls to pick up the tab when his plastic always fails. He is so locked in that routine he uses it on a call-girl, not the expected recourse of a swaggering local TV star. The most dramatic discovery is Ben's. The family's black sheep doofus, he's a bipolar nut bar who indulges his every flush of impulsive egotism, however destructive. He ends up a sensible businessman with the integrity to fulfil his promise of giving Steve the huge farm he inherited and the courage to start a new, simple life, perhaps with the single mother Allie (Jenna Fisher) in his complex. Now his complex is a residence, something he can live in. The film closes on him musing on the connection between the Amish farmer with his one-horse wagon, and the plastic red horse Allie's little son is riding. The animal and the plastic here bespeak a simple genuine pleasure. In minor key rediscoveries, Ben's sister Terri (Amy Poehler) mellows from litigious shrike, taking her sterility frustrations out on others, to a respectful sister, easing Ben back into the family. They tear down the past to build a more useful future. Sexy news anchor Victoria (Alana De La Garza) converts to off-camera wife and fidelity. Steve anoints his better qualified assistant Delia (Lauren Lapkus) as his TV successor. Although she's a meteorologist she still needs a boob job to get on camera. TV requires fakery. There's a telling moment when they slog through a remote hurricane story. Ben lolls in his chair, while Delia curls up asleep under the counter. For all Steve's initial swagger he's clearly not at ease with himself. Erin diagnosis his veil of charm intended to prevent any real relationship. The old Steve plays cavalier at his job, arriving at the last minute, usually high. When to win Erin he goes straight, he abandons the fakery in his performance. Instead of losing his on-camera effectiveness he discovers he has an off-camera self. That works even better on-air and, more importantly, it sends him back to Erin and the farm. Reunited with Erin the ex-weatherman knows better than to come in out of the rain. If the script went further perhaps the starstruck meteorologist Delia will some day see past her new boobs and look for her more authentic self. Self-discovery is a process, one misstep after another. But that would be another movie. This one is quite rich and enjoyable enough. In fact, it doesn't deserve the reviewers' tepid reception. I think had it not been written and directed by the Mad Men whiz Matthew Weiner, it would have been more warmly embraced. Because it's so different, our expectations are disappointed and we conclude he went wrong. On the contrary, to his credit he slipped into a modern setting and a predominantly comic genre, and conceived a fine oddball cast of characters and some very funny lines and scenes. In its thematic concern with apparently gifted and successful people feeling hollow, craving more authenticity in themselves and in their lives, this film is clearly of a piece with his Mad Men. Weiner didn't sell out. He moved on. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.

• Not your everyday comedy.

  asher-luberto2014-09-28

  Are you here, is a comedy/drama about the coming of age of Zach's character. This movie is directed by Mathew Weiner(Mad Men, Sopranos), so its not your everyday laugh out loud comedy. He does a wonderful job of showing the everchanging maturity of Zach's character. This is a movie centered around drama and family. Owen Wilson delivers a few laughs, but its not the usual Owen Wilson humor. This movie is rich and fun if your going in expecting less comedy and more drama. In conclusion, if your looking for your typical late night comedy, then this is not what your looking for. But if your looking for A touching drama that delivers a few laughs, then this is a movie well worth your time.

• How can this movie be rated a 5 stars?

  exoexpansion2016-08-09

  This movie is so good..it makes us think about the meaning of life. Owen Wilson is phenomenal. He makes me think a bit about Woody Allen. But Wilson is a bit like him, anyway. He deambulates about himself, his friend and around life, brilliantly. There are, indeed, some reminiscences of Woddy Allen's more introspective work, where he explored complicated people, relationships and inner psychology, spiced with sarcastic comedy. It's not a comedy neither is a drama. I'd call it, a realistic comedy, because our lives are totally like this. From an exterior or disconnected point of view, they are hilarious. But this movie is more accessible and contemporary. Not presumptuous. Just simple.