MattMaybe Tomorrow?
Directed by: Jonathan Levine
Written by: Jonathan Levine
Produced by: David Hoberman and Jonathan Levine
Edited by: Nancy Richardson
Music by: Arcade Fire
Cinematography by: Terry Stacey
Tagline: He's 79, she's 22 - and they're bringing the world to its knees
CAST:
Jack Nicholson as Noah Pemberton
Jennifer Lawrence as Lucy Curtis
JB Smoove as Jamarcus
Stephen Colbert as Alan Curtis
Diane Lane as Maureen Curtis
Abe Vigoda as Grandpa Martin Curtis
Colin Mochrie as Officer Gregory Brady
Terry Crews as Kevin
PLOT:
Lucy Curtis (Jennifer Lawrence) is a Goth girl in the early 1990s, and a college dropout. She lives in New Jersey with her conservative Catholic parents Alan Curtis (Stephen Colbert) and Maureen Curtis (Diane Lane). Lucy has an odd attraction to death, writing suicidal poetry and watching old horror movies, but turning them off just before the hero triumphs. She lives a sad existence, being judged by her parents and bullied by the popular girls at school, who all see her as a "freak", something Lucy herself has begun to believe through their mocking words.
One day, she is visiting her grandfather Martin (Abe Vigoda) in his retirement home. She takes a break from the stuffiness of the recreation room and sits in the lush gardens of the retirement home and writes a poem, describing the death of a flower. Her concentration is destroyed by a man driving by on a golf-cart, destroying all the flowers in his path. The man (Jack Nicholson) is clearly drunk, and the orderlies attempt to take him inside. He starts screaming expletives at them, causing massive attention to be drawn to him. The gruff matron, Dolores (Catherine O'Hara) marches out and tells the orderlies to take the man, apparently named Noah, back to his room, and he insists on being in the gardens. Dolores reminds Noah that you may only be in the gardens unsupervised if you have family or friends visiting you. Noah spots Lucy, who is watching with pure fascination this randy old man, and tells Dolores that Lucy is his granddaughter. Dolores asks if this is true, leaving Lucy confused as to what to say. Noah motions for her to say something, and going out on a whim, she confirms the lie. Dolores, suspicious, looks at Noah (who is clutching Lucy as if she really was his granddaughter), and warns Noah that if he slips up again, he is out of the retirement home.
After Dolores walks away, Noah lets go of Lucy, and she tries to walk away. He gruffly says "Thanks kid, really saved my hide", but Lucy just continues walking across the garden. She is startled when Noah almost hits her with the golf-cart, and he tells her to get inside just for a "friendly chat between generations". They drive around the retirement village while Noah makes inappropriate remarks to the elderly ladies enjoying their tea and recreationalSunday afternoon strolls. Noah's exact story isn't revealed to Lucy, but he does say that he's in this retirement home against his wishes. After a while of talking, where Lucy tells Noah her story about how she struggles to be accepted, to which Noah can relate. Noah drops Lucy off in the parking lot, where her impatient father is frantically waiting. He catches sight of Noah in the golf-cart, and quietly reprimands Lucy by saying "Damn, I bring you here to visit your grandfather and you don't even know which old man he is..."
Back at home, Lucy is in a much different mood, to the surprise of her parents. Her demeanour is bright and cheery, and she actually makes an effort to speak to her flabbergasted parents about her day. When they ask her what the root of her happiness is, she just states "a new friend", which surprises her parents even more as Lucy had never been one to have any friends.
Lucy starts going to the retirement home more often, several times a week, using visiting her grandfather as motive to get her parents to take her there. However, almost all of the time there is spent with Noah, who she develops a great friendship with. He tells her about his wife and how she died under some tragic, albeit comical, circumstances - she and Noah were at the Grand Canyon two decades before, and she wanted a photo of herself with the Canyon, but fell in. Noah insists she didn't die then, but had a giant heart attack when she saw the bill. Lucy notices how Noah makes very little contact with anyone else in the retirement home - everyone just seems to ignore him completely with the exception of the orderlies, who laboriously try and control the rambunctious Noah.
Lucy attempts to do some research on Noah, and while sitting in the library looking at newspapers, she comes across an article from five years before where she finds out that Noah is actually Noah H. Pemberton, a Wall Street wizard who was kicked off the presidency by his shifty son, Sam and put in a retirement home. Sam failed to maintain the high-profile business, and when it went bankrupt, he used his father as a pawn to get his friends from the retirement home to invest in the business, to which they gladly did before Sam, without the knowledge of his father, ran away to the Maldives before the fraud could come to light.
On Saturday, when Lucy arrived at the retirement home, she found Noah in a red sports car in front, and he beckons her to get in. They drive to the centre of the inner-city, to the fear of Lucy who believes that she is in danger, only to have Noah tell her not to worry. They arrive at a seemingly abandoned warehouse, which is in fact a trendy dance studio run by failed hip-hop star Jamarcus (JB Smoove), who now teaches dance to a wide array of people. Noah claims he comes here once a week "to smoke some pot and move my feet". He attempts to dance, and while it is far from perfect, Lucy is surprised at how skillful Noah is at dancing.
Lucy's parents are still unaware of the identity of Lucy's new mystery friend, and Alan insists Lucy invites her friend over for dinner. She reluctantly agrees, and asks Noah, who expresses the same hilarious horror at the thought of sitting down with some conservatives for dinner. When he arrives at their home, Noah is incredibly inappropriate (but reduces Lucy to stitches several times with his dark sense of humor), causing her parents quite a bit of discomfort. They remain polite throughout the evening, but once he's left, they do quitely express their disapproval of Lucy being friends with such a man.
A few weeks later, Grandpa Martin dies, much to the sadness of Lucy. At the funeral, Lucy is a mess. She is surprised to see Noah also arrived, dressed in a bright yellow suit. Its clear he didn't know Martin very well, but came to support Lucy, who is distraut. After the funeral, Alan is offended by Noah's dress and the fact that he even came to the funeral in the first place. At home, he forbids Lucy from ever seeing Noah again, saying if she does, she will be permanantely disowned because of his lifestyle, beliefs and attitude go against their clean, Conservative Catholic image. Lucy is angry by this, but does not show this directly, but instead writes a poem about her experiences with Noah.
A few days go by before horror strikes - Lucy receives a phone call from the retirement home, saying she needs to come over urgently. She finds Dolores in the hospital wing, where she breaks the news - Noah died overnight, and was found by an orderly named Kevin (Terry Crews), and that apparently Noah signed it that because his son is no longer traceable, Lucy is his sole kin and therefore she is assigned the task of identifying the body. Kevin takes her to the morgue downstairs, and she is close to tears before she is shown the body - the body that clearly isn't Noah, but a close resemblance. She looks at Kevin, who looks close to laughter himself. Lucy goes upstairs and says that is indeed Noah.
She finds Noah's sports car in the parking lot (with the key inside, obviously), and she drives to the inner-city, to the warehouse where she hears Noah's recognizable voice. She finds him and Jarmacus on the roof, each in a beach chair drinking margheritas. Noah is happy Lucy managed to find him, and claims Kevin is a frequent at Jarmarcus' studio, and owed him a favor, so he just waited for old Mike, the man whose body Lucy identified and a close resemblance to Noah himself, to "pop-off", claiming it was always their plan as Mike had no real family, just like Noah, and that Mike should be entitled to the grand funeral Noah had organized for himself. Noah claims that later that week, he is flying to Chile, where he will start a new life. This breaks Lucy's heart, but she sits down and they watch the town below.
A week passes, and Lucy has begin chronicling her experiences with Noah into a poetry anthology. She hears a motorcycle outside her home, and she sees her father angrily storming up to the driver - who is revealed to be a leather-clad Noah. Lucy rushes down, jumps onto the motorcycle and flips off her nasty parents as they speed down the road. While on the highway, Noah jokingly says "Hey Lucy, how about we get married?", to which Lucy replies "Maybe tomorrow"
PRESS SECTION
This is a brilliant film. While not grand opera, this is a great piece of chemistry between the 76-year-old Nicholson and 23-year-old Lawrence, who have such a dynamic connection in this film. This is not a romantic comedy - to suggest that would be quite inappropriate in fact. No, this is a film about friendship and finding someone who you connect with, despite the age or gender barrier.
Nicholson returns with his sharpest, funniest performance since As Good As It Gets, this time playing to the fact that he is advancing in years, and perhaps he isn't independent that much anymore. But his sarcastic lothario personality still shines through, and it is one of his best performances to date. A Best Actor nomination, and perhaps even a win, would be richly deserved for this great veteran of American cinema
Jennifer Lawrence puts aside the complex projects and has fun as Lucy. For once she is actually playing in her age group instead of playing a wife or mother or widow. She's playing a young lady who just reached adulthood and still hasn't found her place in the world. Her performance is everything we love about J-Law - sarcastic and tender, and very vulnerable yet strangely brave. This may be her finest screen performance yet.
The supporting cast doesn't do anything groundbreaking, but they do what they are supposed to - support the leads, and oh boy, do they do that well. Stephen Colbert and Diane Lane are itchingly evil and sinister as the cruel parents of Lawrence, and Catherine O'Hara is wonderful as the loud and rude Matron Dolores. JB Smoove is once again incredibly hilarious in his brief but enjoyable screentime as a hip-hop dance instructor.
Jonathan Levine is a brilliant director, and in this film he is absolutely on top form as a writer and director. This may very well be his breakout film. Only time will tell. But this is a tender, sweet and bitingly hilarious film that reminds us why we love Jack Nicholson and Jennifer Lawrence.
AWARDS
Best Picture
Best Director (Jonathan Levine)
Best Actor (Jack Nicholson)
Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence)
Best Supporting Actor (Stephen Colbert)
Best Supporting Actor (JB Smoove)
Best Supporting Actress (Catherine O'Hara)
Best Supporting Actress (Diane Lane)
Best Original Screenplay
Directed by: Jonathan Levine
Written by: Jonathan Levine
Produced by: David Hoberman and Jonathan Levine
Edited by: Nancy Richardson
Music by: Arcade Fire
Cinematography by: Terry Stacey
Tagline: He's 79, she's 22 - and they're bringing the world to its knees
CAST:
Jack Nicholson as Noah Pemberton
Jennifer Lawrence as Lucy Curtis
JB Smoove as Jamarcus
Stephen Colbert as Alan Curtis
Diane Lane as Maureen Curtis
Abe Vigoda as Grandpa Martin Curtis
Colin Mochrie as Officer Gregory Brady
Terry Crews as Kevin
PLOT:
Lucy Curtis (Jennifer Lawrence) is a Goth girl in the early 1990s, and a college dropout. She lives in New Jersey with her conservative Catholic parents Alan Curtis (Stephen Colbert) and Maureen Curtis (Diane Lane). Lucy has an odd attraction to death, writing suicidal poetry and watching old horror movies, but turning them off just before the hero triumphs. She lives a sad existence, being judged by her parents and bullied by the popular girls at school, who all see her as a "freak", something Lucy herself has begun to believe through their mocking words.
One day, she is visiting her grandfather Martin (Abe Vigoda) in his retirement home. She takes a break from the stuffiness of the recreation room and sits in the lush gardens of the retirement home and writes a poem, describing the death of a flower. Her concentration is destroyed by a man driving by on a golf-cart, destroying all the flowers in his path. The man (Jack Nicholson) is clearly drunk, and the orderlies attempt to take him inside. He starts screaming expletives at them, causing massive attention to be drawn to him. The gruff matron, Dolores (Catherine O'Hara) marches out and tells the orderlies to take the man, apparently named Noah, back to his room, and he insists on being in the gardens. Dolores reminds Noah that you may only be in the gardens unsupervised if you have family or friends visiting you. Noah spots Lucy, who is watching with pure fascination this randy old man, and tells Dolores that Lucy is his granddaughter. Dolores asks if this is true, leaving Lucy confused as to what to say. Noah motions for her to say something, and going out on a whim, she confirms the lie. Dolores, suspicious, looks at Noah (who is clutching Lucy as if she really was his granddaughter), and warns Noah that if he slips up again, he is out of the retirement home.
After Dolores walks away, Noah lets go of Lucy, and she tries to walk away. He gruffly says "Thanks kid, really saved my hide", but Lucy just continues walking across the garden. She is startled when Noah almost hits her with the golf-cart, and he tells her to get inside just for a "friendly chat between generations". They drive around the retirement village while Noah makes inappropriate remarks to the elderly ladies enjoying their tea and recreationalSunday afternoon strolls. Noah's exact story isn't revealed to Lucy, but he does say that he's in this retirement home against his wishes. After a while of talking, where Lucy tells Noah her story about how she struggles to be accepted, to which Noah can relate. Noah drops Lucy off in the parking lot, where her impatient father is frantically waiting. He catches sight of Noah in the golf-cart, and quietly reprimands Lucy by saying "Damn, I bring you here to visit your grandfather and you don't even know which old man he is..."
Back at home, Lucy is in a much different mood, to the surprise of her parents. Her demeanour is bright and cheery, and she actually makes an effort to speak to her flabbergasted parents about her day. When they ask her what the root of her happiness is, she just states "a new friend", which surprises her parents even more as Lucy had never been one to have any friends.
Lucy starts going to the retirement home more often, several times a week, using visiting her grandfather as motive to get her parents to take her there. However, almost all of the time there is spent with Noah, who she develops a great friendship with. He tells her about his wife and how she died under some tragic, albeit comical, circumstances - she and Noah were at the Grand Canyon two decades before, and she wanted a photo of herself with the Canyon, but fell in. Noah insists she didn't die then, but had a giant heart attack when she saw the bill. Lucy notices how Noah makes very little contact with anyone else in the retirement home - everyone just seems to ignore him completely with the exception of the orderlies, who laboriously try and control the rambunctious Noah.
Lucy attempts to do some research on Noah, and while sitting in the library looking at newspapers, she comes across an article from five years before where she finds out that Noah is actually Noah H. Pemberton, a Wall Street wizard who was kicked off the presidency by his shifty son, Sam and put in a retirement home. Sam failed to maintain the high-profile business, and when it went bankrupt, he used his father as a pawn to get his friends from the retirement home to invest in the business, to which they gladly did before Sam, without the knowledge of his father, ran away to the Maldives before the fraud could come to light.
On Saturday, when Lucy arrived at the retirement home, she found Noah in a red sports car in front, and he beckons her to get in. They drive to the centre of the inner-city, to the fear of Lucy who believes that she is in danger, only to have Noah tell her not to worry. They arrive at a seemingly abandoned warehouse, which is in fact a trendy dance studio run by failed hip-hop star Jamarcus (JB Smoove), who now teaches dance to a wide array of people. Noah claims he comes here once a week "to smoke some pot and move my feet". He attempts to dance, and while it is far from perfect, Lucy is surprised at how skillful Noah is at dancing.
Lucy's parents are still unaware of the identity of Lucy's new mystery friend, and Alan insists Lucy invites her friend over for dinner. She reluctantly agrees, and asks Noah, who expresses the same hilarious horror at the thought of sitting down with some conservatives for dinner. When he arrives at their home, Noah is incredibly inappropriate (but reduces Lucy to stitches several times with his dark sense of humor), causing her parents quite a bit of discomfort. They remain polite throughout the evening, but once he's left, they do quitely express their disapproval of Lucy being friends with such a man.
A few weeks later, Grandpa Martin dies, much to the sadness of Lucy. At the funeral, Lucy is a mess. She is surprised to see Noah also arrived, dressed in a bright yellow suit. Its clear he didn't know Martin very well, but came to support Lucy, who is distraut. After the funeral, Alan is offended by Noah's dress and the fact that he even came to the funeral in the first place. At home, he forbids Lucy from ever seeing Noah again, saying if she does, she will be permanantely disowned because of his lifestyle, beliefs and attitude go against their clean, Conservative Catholic image. Lucy is angry by this, but does not show this directly, but instead writes a poem about her experiences with Noah.
A few days go by before horror strikes - Lucy receives a phone call from the retirement home, saying she needs to come over urgently. She finds Dolores in the hospital wing, where she breaks the news - Noah died overnight, and was found by an orderly named Kevin (Terry Crews), and that apparently Noah signed it that because his son is no longer traceable, Lucy is his sole kin and therefore she is assigned the task of identifying the body. Kevin takes her to the morgue downstairs, and she is close to tears before she is shown the body - the body that clearly isn't Noah, but a close resemblance. She looks at Kevin, who looks close to laughter himself. Lucy goes upstairs and says that is indeed Noah.
She finds Noah's sports car in the parking lot (with the key inside, obviously), and she drives to the inner-city, to the warehouse where she hears Noah's recognizable voice. She finds him and Jarmacus on the roof, each in a beach chair drinking margheritas. Noah is happy Lucy managed to find him, and claims Kevin is a frequent at Jarmarcus' studio, and owed him a favor, so he just waited for old Mike, the man whose body Lucy identified and a close resemblance to Noah himself, to "pop-off", claiming it was always their plan as Mike had no real family, just like Noah, and that Mike should be entitled to the grand funeral Noah had organized for himself. Noah claims that later that week, he is flying to Chile, where he will start a new life. This breaks Lucy's heart, but she sits down and they watch the town below.
A week passes, and Lucy has begin chronicling her experiences with Noah into a poetry anthology. She hears a motorcycle outside her home, and she sees her father angrily storming up to the driver - who is revealed to be a leather-clad Noah. Lucy rushes down, jumps onto the motorcycle and flips off her nasty parents as they speed down the road. While on the highway, Noah jokingly says "Hey Lucy, how about we get married?", to which Lucy replies "Maybe tomorrow"
PRESS SECTION
This is a brilliant film. While not grand opera, this is a great piece of chemistry between the 76-year-old Nicholson and 23-year-old Lawrence, who have such a dynamic connection in this film. This is not a romantic comedy - to suggest that would be quite inappropriate in fact. No, this is a film about friendship and finding someone who you connect with, despite the age or gender barrier.
Nicholson returns with his sharpest, funniest performance since As Good As It Gets, this time playing to the fact that he is advancing in years, and perhaps he isn't independent that much anymore. But his sarcastic lothario personality still shines through, and it is one of his best performances to date. A Best Actor nomination, and perhaps even a win, would be richly deserved for this great veteran of American cinema
Jennifer Lawrence puts aside the complex projects and has fun as Lucy. For once she is actually playing in her age group instead of playing a wife or mother or widow. She's playing a young lady who just reached adulthood and still hasn't found her place in the world. Her performance is everything we love about J-Law - sarcastic and tender, and very vulnerable yet strangely brave. This may be her finest screen performance yet.
The supporting cast doesn't do anything groundbreaking, but they do what they are supposed to - support the leads, and oh boy, do they do that well. Stephen Colbert and Diane Lane are itchingly evil and sinister as the cruel parents of Lawrence, and Catherine O'Hara is wonderful as the loud and rude Matron Dolores. JB Smoove is once again incredibly hilarious in his brief but enjoyable screentime as a hip-hop dance instructor.
Jonathan Levine is a brilliant director, and in this film he is absolutely on top form as a writer and director. This may very well be his breakout film. Only time will tell. But this is a tender, sweet and bitingly hilarious film that reminds us why we love Jack Nicholson and Jennifer Lawrence.
AWARDS
Best Picture
Best Director (Jonathan Levine)
Best Actor (Jack Nicholson)
Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence)
Best Supporting Actor (Stephen Colbert)
Best Supporting Actor (JB Smoove)
Best Supporting Actress (Catherine O'Hara)
Best Supporting Actress (Diane Lane)
Best Original Screenplay