On the couch

Peter Madden reviews Kick-Ass and Waitress.

Kick-Ass
Directed by: Matthew Vaughan
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong

Waitress
Directed by: Adrienne Shelly
Starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith,

Kick-Ass couldn’t have a better name.
Matthew Vaughan’s crazy, comic book-influenced action comedy co-written by Jane Goldman (that’s Mrs Jonathan Ross to you and I) is based around one simple question: what would happen if someone tried to become a super hero? Not a good samaritan type but an bonefide, spandex wearing, alter ego having, pose-striking hero.
A fine example of a film suffering from slightly-deceptive-traileritis, Kick-Ass is far more than its preview might suggest. While it was sold as some good-humoured albeit violent teenage larks in lycra, it is actually far darker and far more interesting than all that. Although there is still an abundance of larks, laughs and lycra.
Aaron Johnson, soon to be known by his full name, “rising star Aaron Johnson”, is front and centre as Dave Lizewski – about as average a teeneager as one can get. His life’s boring; he has geeky, goofy friends; the ladies don’t pay him much heed and there’s a small issue of getting mugged with annoying regularity.
So what happens when such a kid decides to try and make a difference? Bereft of the sweet radioactive bite of a mutant spider or a convenient does of cosmic/gamma radiation?
Well not much initially. Beyond looking a bit silly while wearing a scuba diving suit and stout walking boots. Soon enough though crime-fighting escapades come a-callin’ as a Dave interrupts an assault, has his antics uploaded to youtube and becomes an overnight sensation.
Going by the name Kick-Ass, Dave draws the attention of drug kingpin, Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong) and real life crime fighting duo, the father-daughter team of Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz).
Drug dealer bashing and bully wrangling ensue as Kick-Ass good samaritan antics get him caught up with the more serious work that Big Daddy and Hit Girl are up to.
It is this pairing that makes for some of the film’s darkest and most entertaining moments as, after the initial glee of watching an 11-year-old caped crusader swear like a docker and beat the snot out of some bad guys, you have to wonder what sort of life the poor kid has.
That’s not to say that proceedings are in any way serious or navel-gazing. Deleriously destructive action scenes and one-liners are the name of the game and the cast and production bring their A-game.
Kick-Ass has so much going for in the way of giddy-making mayhem that it’s easy to mis out on the fact that it’s both well-acted and far more involving than the average action film should be.
And far from wallowing in the consequence-free violence that normally serves as the backbone for comicbook movies it actually serves to remind the viewer that every KERPOW! ZACK! and WHAM! that Batman suffered really bloody hurt.
It’s an important lesson to remember when you’re laughing your ass off at Hit Girl dispatching yet another Mafia goon.
Taking me quite by surprise this week was Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress. Released a few years ago, shortly after the multi-talented Shelly – she wrote, directed and co-starred in the film – dies,  it slipped onto and back off our screens with a faint ripple of critical appreciation but not too much of a roar at the box office.
Funnier than a romantic-drama; more dramatic than a romantic-comedy and more romantic than a comedy-drama, it stars Keri Russell as Jenna, a waitress living in a podunk town in the American South trapped in a marriage to an abusive jack-ass (Jeremy Sisto).
Her only way out of this lousy life is her plan to capitalise on talent for pie-making and win the €25,000 top prize in a local competition.
A spanner (so to speak) is thrown into the works when she discovers she’s pregnant. After a rocky start she befriends and then begins an affair with new local doctor Dr Pomatter (Nathan Fillon).
A simple story of small-town adultery is made brilliant by characters and plot twists that run counter to the light and fluffy way the film is shot. The talented cast all display good comedic timing and the laughs come from surprising places – particularly the names Jenna gives her pies.
An underappreciated gem.