Author: rb809rb

Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas rocked SXSW with “Power Ballad,” the latest music-themed comedy film from “Once” and “Sing Street” director John Carney.

The movie follows Rick Power (Rudd), a wedding band singer who stumbles into a late-night jam session with former boy band star Danny (Jonas) and reignites his passion for songwriting. But Danny leaves not only with a newfound motivation — he lifts one of Rick’s songs, turns it into a No. 1 hit and claims it as his own. Rick then embarks on a quest to reclaim the recognition he deserves, sacrificing everything he loves in the process.

The film features several drunken duets between Rudd and Jonas after the former offers the latter some of his marijuana. If there’s one takeaway from the film, Jonas put it like this: “Be careful who you share a blunt with.”

The Jonas Brothers singer behind solo hits like “Jealous” and “Close” said he boarded “Power Ballad” after he heard Carney was writing a script about “a wedding singer and a former boy band member turned solo artist trying to find himself.” In a nod to the obvious parallels between his character and himself, Jonas quipped: “I said yes!”

“Outside of the more obvious themes … one of the things that I was really drawn to is this idea of how many rooms I’ve been in as a songwriter where it could have gone one way or the other — success and failure and everything between — and moments where your character is called into question,” he added during the Q&A portion of the premiere. “Having been in this business for 20-plus years, it’s wild to see how many people have gone down that path where they come out the other side with success and their friends still around them, and some that come with success and lose everybody in their life.”

Rudd said he was attracted to the film because, like Rick, he is the father of a teenage daughter, and he is a “huge music fan.”

“This is a guy who has a real desire to do something and express himself and has a dream,” he said. “There are certain things that are unrealized, and he’s faced disappointment. These are things that are very relatable, so the character really meant something to me.”

Before the film rolled, Carney was welcomed to the stage by a SXSW programmer who proclaimed, excitedly, “John Carney is the shit!”

“If my mother heard that expression, she wouldn’t have understood the irony of this,” the director replied. “She’d be like, ‘Why is she calling my son shitty?’ I accept this very modern compliment.”

Introducing the movie, Carney warmed Texas hearts by giving a heartfelt shoutout to Austin legend Richard Linklater. “He’s the reason that I’m a filmmaker,” he said. “Not in terms of inspiration, but in terms of giving people permission to make films.”

In 2005, a San Jose woman found a human finger in her Wendy’s chili. Well, she claimed to. When it was discovered that she planted the finger in the bowl herself for financial gain, she was sentenced to nine years in prison for the scam that cost the fast-food chain millions. Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad’s agile and entertaining crime caper “Chili Finger” is ripped from those headlines, but mostly fictionalized, opening with the caveat that only some of the events portrayed in the film are truth-based.

The usually breezy script (by Helstad) is smart enough not to feel like a bargain version of the Coen brothers dark comedies it winks at, even when “Chili Finger” aggressively goes off the rails in its final chapter. Unfolding with an immersive pace to earn our attention and chuckles throughout, the film’s opening sequence is its most brilliant, with an employee of a beer bottling factory in the Midwest dropping his vape on the ledges of fast-moving machinery. While his dangerous attempts to reclaim it scream an impending disaster (frankly, he shouldn’t be operating heavy machinery while high), the loss of his finger still manages to play out as an uproarious surprise, setting the stage for the cheeky black comedy of twists and turns that follows.

Here, the scammer in question is played by the wonderful Judy Greer, whose recent villainous turn in the cozy snow mystery “Dead of Winter” was an inspired casting choice for the prolific actor known mostly for playing agreeable people. Her presence in “Chili Finger” made this critic wonder whether we’ve missed out on some great lead roles from Greer when she was mostly cast in supporting parts for a long while in the aughts. With “Chili Finger,” Greer finds a diverse range of opportunities to give both her comedic and dramatic muscles a workout as Jessica Lipki, a frustrated Midwestern divorce attorney Greer brings to life with a dangerous sense of mystique and relatable vulnerability.

Married to Sean Astin’s (also great) angelic Ron, whose constant naïve sweetness and idiosyncratic hobbies would be a little less irritating if he talked a little less and observed a little more, Jessica doesn’t seem to know how to navigate her newfound status as an empty-nester after sending her daughter off to the East Coast for college. It would be one thing if she and Ron could visit her for the upcoming parents weekend. But to the perennially strapped-for-cash couple, this seemingly ordinary trip would be nothing but an outrageous luxury.

With this grim financial reality at the backdrop, Helstad’s script subtly yet intelligently engages with the urgent economic anxieties of the American middle class, people who live paycheck to paycheck while barely making ends meet, and don’t have enough money to call an ambulance even when a workplace accident as severe as the one we witness early on takes place. Within this context, it’s halfway understandable why an emotionally strained, hardworking middle-aged person desperate to be a present parent in her daughter’s life would think of gaming the system that she legally knows so well. Her method might be despicable, but you can at least see how she rationalized it to herself. What’s wrong with a modest sum to afford a pair of economy-class airplane tickets, some fancy food on the dinner table for a change, and some humble home updates here and there? The insurance will pick up the tab anyway.

Enter the local fast-food chain Blake Junior’s that Ron is a big fan of, and their famous bowl of chili Jessica digs into. When the finger pops up in her food to the horror of the customers and waitstaff, the corporate negotiator to arrive is Blake Jr. II (Madeline Wise), who agrees to pay $100,000 for the damages. (Ron negotiates far beyond Jessica’s small initial offer, unknowingly upping the stakes of her scheme.) Except, business owner Blake Jr. I (a hardball and very welcome John Goodman, in case there is any doubt that we’re in a Coen-esque world) won’t have his reputation tarnished that easily. So he sends his sturdy pal Dave (a hilarious Bryan Cranston), an uncompromisingly tough ex-Marine who immediately sniffs something fishy in the incident.

Crime movies like this are often funny because the rookie criminals are clueless and incompetent, and things snowball beyond their wildest imagination with everyone demanding a slice of the loot they haven’t earned. That is certainly the case in the final act of “Chili Finger,” which also involves the fingerless and broke Trevor (Paul Stanko, the aforesaid factory worker) and his very pregnant girlfriend Nia (Sarah Herrman). Too bad the script feels less controlled and more directionless when each of these characters go head to head with an increasing body count across several bloody incidents.

And yet, “Chili Finger” is still a fun and riotous ride. Like a hearty bowl of (hopefully finger-free) chili would, it hits the spot.