BY MIKEY MIGO
I had the fortunate experience recently of having access to a few premium satellite channels. This is all thanks to a “Free Preview Week” with Direct TV. I try to watch IFC movies, but it’s hard to these days with really awkwardly placed commercials. I didn’t take as much advantage of the “Free Preview Week” as I would have liked to, but I did take in one movie that stood out. The 2007 release called “Nobel Son”. It’s a black comedy starring the iconic Alan Rickman, the lead on “How to Make It In America” Bryan Greenberg, the always talented Shawn Hatosy, and the always lovely Mary Steenburgen. In addition we get Bill Pullman, Eliza Dushku, Danny DeVito, Ted Danson, Tracey Walter, and “Winston” himself Ernie Hudson. A dark comedy with THOSE people? Yeah, color me interested. The story revolves around Greenberg’s character, an unlucky and resourceful college student. His dad, Rickman is a douche bag, self indulgent professor who wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Despite his mom, Steenburgen, being nice his dad is disappointed and unimpressed with his kid. His son is kidnapped by Shawn Hatosy. We come to find out there’s a lot more to the story than just that. Everything comes together, falls apart, and then comes back together in a completely different way at the end. To really get into detail would be to give the movie away. The story is funny, interesting, and has a really strong pace. I think a BIG reason the movie’s pacing and tempo was so intense was the fact that Paul Oakenfold did the soundtrack. Every scene feels like an intense turning point. I don’t want to give the DJ behind the screen all the credit thought. The plot devices were awesome. There is a scene in a mall with a remote control car that’s pretty damn cool among others. The direction was good. Randall Miller directed and co-wrote this piece. The dude directed the recent Bottle Shock as well as underrated 90’s comedies Class Act, Houseguest, and The 6th Man. Those movies didn’t age very well, but they’re solid movies and favorable parts of my youth. This is his best work. He’s sharp and the look of this movie rocked. I even liked the way this movie looked. It had an amped up contrast on top of what felt like an old gritty movie or a dirty cheap indie. I don’t know what I’m missing here. I don’t have really anything bad to say about this movie except that it MAYBE could have been 5 to 10 minutes shorter. Still, this movie was good all around. All the ingredients that I think about when thinking about what makes a good movie are here. I really liked the cast, the direction, the editing, the music, the story, and pretty much everything. I’m not saying its “Godfather” or anything. It’s still really damn good. I do not comprehend why this movie didn’t have bigger success. That’s the beautiful thing with art though. It’s never too late to appreciate it. I recommend YOU do the same. B+
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