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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 2012)
movies BY MOLLY TEMPLETON Sweet Endings Celeste and Jesse break up, charmingly CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER : Directed by Lee Toland Krieger. Written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack. Cinematography, David Lanzenberg. Editor, Yana Gorskaya. Music, Zach Cowie and Sunny Levine. Starring Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Ari Graynor, Eric Christian Olsen, Elijah Wood, Chris Messina and Emma Roberts. Sony Pictures Classics, 2012. R. 92 minutes. 00021 arts “L ikable” might not be the fi rst word that comes to mind when you imagine a semi-romantic comedy about a pair of divorcing thirty- somethings, but it might be just the word for Celeste and Jesse Forever. Writer and star Rashida Jones, who’s arguably most familiar from Parks and Recreation, turned what could have been a one-note role in I Love You Man into an actual char- acter, and has a slippery, almost prickly warmth; she radiates a sense that she’s a lot of fun to be around until you piss her off. Here, she’s equal parts charming and frustrating, a fl awed and slightly uptight trend forecaster whose marriage — to artist Jesse (Andy Samberg, nicely mellow) — has, at the start of the fi lm, already fallen apart. It’s a clever choice to start at the end. The credits play over a montage of Celeste and Jesse’s early years, and when we reach the present, they seem perfectly comfortable, their relationship a mishmash of conversational shorthand, goofy running jokes, genuine affection and the easy habits of longtime companionship. It’s not until their friend Beth (Ari Graynor) freaks out at them over dinner that we learn they’re technically separated. Celeste and Jesse Forever never offers a simple reason for this split, and it never has to: As easy as the title characters can be, they’ve clearly slipped in opposite directions. She’s successful, opinionated and outgoing; he’s a struggling artist with a quiet side. Their familiarity masks a hard-to-describe — and hard to cinematically display — disquiet that comes when nothing is wrong and nothing is exactly right, either. Jones and her cowriter Will McCormack (who plays the couple’s stoner buddy, Skillz) have set themselves a considerable task: Their story needs to be compelling despite being about a relationship that’s anything but, and their characters need to be interesting and sympathetic even when they’re turning nasty and falling apart. SHORTS Paint the Town Brown Local rockers Cosmic Jelly are sort of an elusive band these days. They’re fading away into fond memory and separating offi cially, but it wouldn’t be like them to go out without a bang. On Sept. 2 the group will have a screening and CD release day for their new video, “Let’s Talk About Poop,” which is designed to knock the shit (or should I say poop?) out of your ass. “[The video] was a summer project,” says director, producer and Cosmic Jelly guitarist Brett Sisun. “We started in June and worked through until now. We like to think of it as anti-art that is art.” He goes on to explain that this is the intended message behind one particular image in the video, which features a “Poop Monster” shoving his head through a painting. “People are either horrifi ed by it or love it,” he says. I’ll come clean: Feces totally amuse me, and “Let’s Talk About Poop”— whose title is derived from Sisun’s suggestion that it would make a great name for a TV show — is downright hilarious. The song “Let’s Talk About Poop” is awesome, too, and fi ts perfectly atop the video’s images of splattering defecation, porta- potties and mustache stroking on the john. OK, so perhaps this isn’t as highbrow a project as anything Da Vinci ever came up with, but it’s art nonetheless, and Cosmic Jelly is highly attuned to the ways of Eugene’s artistic community. “We’re all shit smears,” says Sisun. “You can’t be too serious but at the same time you absolutely have to be serious. ‘Let’s Talk About Poop’ is weird, fun and affordable, and that’s what makes it perfect for Eugene.” “Let’s Talk About Poop” smears itself across the screen 5 pm Sunday, Sept. 2, at Kesey Square; FREE. — Andy Valentine 8 /30 THU NEIL YOUNG JOURNEYS 4:30 8:00 A R T ENDS TONIGHT! BERNIE 6:40 C I N E M A S 492 East 13 th 686-2458 9 /1 9 /2 9 /3 9 /4 9 /5 9 /6 schedule for 8.30 - 9.6 8/31 CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER R 3:20 5:30 7:40 9:45 TRISHNA 1:30 1:30 4:00 4:00 4:00 6:30 6:30 6:30 6:30 6:30 6:30 6:30 FRI SAT SUN MON TUE WED THU ENDS TONIGHT! R 9:00 MOONRISE KINGDOM 1:10 3:20 5:30 7:40 9:45 1:10 3:20 5:30 5:30 5:30 5:30 5:30 7:40 7:40 7:40 7:40 7:40 9:45 9:45 9:45 9:45 9:45 Asian Food Market NEXT: SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN SLEEPWALK WITH ME ENDS AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY RUBY SPARKS TONIGHT! Seaweed, rice, noodles, frozen products, deli, snacks, drinks, sauces, spices, produce, housewares, and more. We carry groceries from Holland, India, Pakistan and Polynesia *Adults—$7 * Students w/ID—$6 * Seniors—$5 * Matinees—$5 * Miser Mondays—$3* Sushi & Asian deli take-out COUPON 1211 ALDER 686-9598 COUPONS GOOD UNTIL SEPTEMBER 13 TH , 2012 11AM-MIDNIGHT SUN-THU 11AM-1AM FRI-SAT 11 AM -10PM DAILY SERVING DELICIOUS NEW YORK PIZZA BY THE SLICE AND BY THE WHOLE PIZZA PIE 2.00 OFF ANY 18” LARGE $ ® COUPON 18 AUGUST 30, 2012 EUGENE WEEKLY FREE LARGE SODA W/ PURCHASE OF 2 SLICES Labor Day Special COUPON COUPON NOW 2 LOCATIONS! SY'S NEW YORK PIZZA 55 SILVER LN. 654-0603 EXPIRES 9-5-12 Largest Selection of Asian Groceries 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 WHERE DO WE GO NOW? 5:15 bijou-cinemas.com They pull it off with a light touch, a careful measure of comedy and cringe, and the occasional moment of too- cuteness. Celeste and Jesse occasionally veers toward humiliation comedy, but it always manages to ground those moments in believability and turn even briefl y seen characters into important foils for its central couple. (Emma Roberts is particularly perfect as a sullen teen pop star.) The fi lm is full of close-ups on Jones’ liquid expressions, which slip easily between sulk and room-brightening smile; it’s really her story, but Samberg’s Jesse gets just enough screen time, and character growth, that we can see them slipping apart and pulling themselves together. Mostly, the fi lm succeeds because it doesn’t paint in broad strokes. Celeste is career-focused, but the movie never tells us she can’t have it all because she cares about her job; when she screws up at work, she’s in trouble, but life isn’t capital-O over. Friends get mad at each other; people do stupid things and are forgiven; people do stupid things and maybe don’t quite get entirely forgiven, but their friends know how to at least let it go. Mainstream romantic comedies have taught us to expect the overwrought and the overwritten, and to accept a level of grandiosity that has little to do with how people really interact. Celeste and Jesse isn’t looking to wow you; it’s just looking to charm (sweetest breakup comedy ever?) and maybe asking you to think a little bit about how sometimes relationships end not because you don’t love the other person, but because you can’t love them the same way anymore. ew JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI 5:10 A SEPARATION 5:10 SA SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN 7:20 BERNIE 7:20 H HUNGER GAMES 9:20 BATTLESHIP 9:20 OPEN LABOR DAY, MON. SEPT. 3 10% OFF EVERYTHING IN THE STORE! * Excluding rice, case prices and phone cards. Offer expires 9/5/12 www.sunriseasianfood.com M-Th 9am-7pmsF 9am-8pmsSa 9am-7pmsSu 10am-6pm 180 E. 5TH AVENUE • 762-1700 21 & OVER WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
