The Milwaukee Post

14 • Milwaukee Post • July 26, 2013 No bells or whistles – just a darn good film By TOM JOZWIK Special to The Post WAUKESHA – A 14-year-old boy with more potential than self-confidence. His mother, desperate to fill a void in her life. His wisecracking boss, who proves a most unlikely mentor. A wicked stepfather type. A lovely girl next door. Put 'em all together and you've got a handful of stereotypes. But you've also got "The Way Way Back," a well-written and well-worth watching, coming-of-age film. "The Way Way Back" was an entry in January in Utah's Sundance festival of independent films. "The Way" begins with Steve Carell, "The Office" TV show's inadvertently clownish star, asking his prospective stepson Duncan to evaluate himself on a scale of one to 10. The kid's self-rating is too high for the adult's liking and Duncan is forced to endure the first of several verbal slights that lead him (and the audience) to despise Carell's Trent. It's interesting to see the normally comic actor in a totally serious role – and Carell plays his disdainful part flawlessly . Toni Collette is also very good, as Trent's love interest, Pam. Burned by her ex-husband, Pam now finds herself in the untenable position of pleasing the two people who mean the most to her, the two aforementioned males who just can't stand each other. Allison Janney (Betty) is as devil-maycare here as she was no-nonsense in her best-remembered previous production, television's "The West Wing." As Trent's nosy neighbor, Janney has some of the movie's best lines. Liam James delivers an appropriately modulated performance as Duncan, whose story of initiation "The Way" is. Viewers will easily relate to Duncan's adolescent awkwardness and At a glance 'The Way Way Back' 3 1/2 stars Starring: Steve Carell,Toni Collette, Liam James, Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell Director: Nat Faxon and Jim Rash Running time: 103 minutes Rating: PG-13 frustrations with his suddenly blended family As a tagline advertising the film . puts it, "We've All Been There." The "family" of upstate New Yorkers – Duncan, Pam, Trent and Trent's pretty but prickly teenage daughter (Zoe Levin) – travel via station wagon to Trent's summertime beach house, The Riptide, in an unnamed town presumably on the Atlantic Ocean ("The Way" was filmed in Massachusetts). Ignored by his faux sister and uninterested in hanging with chronological adults who drink too much, chatter too suggestively and otherwise evince stupidity in and around The Riptide, Duncan finds his way to an area water park. There, at what he'll eventually call "the only place I'm happy Duncan is ," befriended and hired as a factotum by a supervisor played by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell's hilariously irreverent Owen is the very best thing in this very good movie. At one point, Owen orders Duncan to disperse a group of break dancers. The youngster senses a situation fraught with peril, but Owen sees (correctly) a harmless learning experience for his protégé and jokes, "Worst case scenario: they beat you up and you're horribly disfigured." AnnaSophia Robb and "Saturday Night Live" alum Maya Rudolph are in the cast, too, as are Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, who co-directed and also wrote the screenplay . Submitted photo From left, Rob Corddry, Amanda Peet, Liam James, Toni Collette and Steve Carell talk at the dinner table during a scene from the movie "The Way Way Back." (Rash, Faxon and Alexander Payne received best adapted screenplay Oscars for the 2011 George Clooney movie "The Descendants.") In "The Way," Robb plays the previously mentioned next-door cutie, daughter of Janney's Betty Rudolph is Owen's some. time girlfriend. Rash and Faxon are water park workers, the former portraying a dyspeptic character named Lewis as if he were born to do so. Understand, this isn't groundbreaking cinema; special effects, for example, are unobtrusive to nonexistent. But watching "The Way" might just amount to the most fun you've had at a movie theater in recent memory While the film's ending certainly . won't be revealed here, it will be labeled ambiguous – avoiding, as such, the charge of predictability that could be leveled against certain elements of the plot. That's a charge, by the way, that hardly matters in a movie as enjoyable as "The Way Way Back." West Allis Players shine with 'Seussical' By JULIE MCHALE Post Theater Critic WEST ALLIS – West Allis Players pulled out all the stops on their production of "Seussical the Musical," incorporating a large cast of talented local talent. It is gratifying to see a community production of high quality that incorporates so much involvement and cooperation. It was a delight from start to finish – the orchestra, the choreography, the costuming, the overall musicality, the set design, the pacing and energy – everything worked. This musical, which first hit Broadway in 2000, was not a big hit initially, but it continues to be staged by theaters across the country and is especially accessible to community groups because of its wide appeal. Most of us have been exposed to and enjoyed the creative antics of Dr. Seuss. Composers Stephen Flaherty and At a glance "Seussical the Musical" runs through Sunday at the West Allis Central High School Auditorium, 8516 W. Lincoln Ave.Visit www.waplayers.com for more information. Lynn Ahrens have attempted to include characters and plot snippets from many of Dr. Seuss' works – and even if their endeavors are somewhat faulty as to the story line, the musical numbers and the inclusion of many of his quirky characters and clever rhyming lyrics supersede all deficiencies. Horton the elephant is definitely the main focus as he attempts to save the invisible Whos and take over the care of Mayzie's egg, when she chooses frivolity over responsibility. There are many lessons to be learned here: everyone deserves respect, thinking is a good thing, sometimes our dreams are mis- placed, one sometimes has to pay a price for being different, persistence pays off. Jerry Krajewski was fabulous in the Horton role, in fact he was perfect – period. The Cat in the Hat, well-rendered by Nicholas Callan Haubner, pulled all things together in his role as narrator. He also took on some other minor roles. Jojo, another key character, was strong. Despite his occasional pitch prob-lems, Cody Tuftee exhibited a radiant confidence throughout. This young boy belongs on a stage. His father, Mr. Major, played by Cory Klein, was also impressive. His wife (Stephanie Mather) was a bit screechy in her speaking lines but had a very good singing voice. Gertrude, the bird with the puny tail feather (Ashlee Hosbach) got stronger as the story proceeded. Her singing voice, which is a little weak, is compensated for by her acting ability. Gabriella Smurawa was well cast as the vain, selfcentered bird. Her backup singers, Katherine Gilliland, Annelise Pollard and Lexie Peterson, also deserve mention. Another standout in the cast was Sour Kangaroo (Nastassja Bates), whose voice was soaring and whose "attitude" was glaring. Yertle the Turtle (Michael Jablonski), in his brief role as Judge, also had a voice one couldn't ignore. In fact, the musicality was quite stellar from start to finish. I'm sure most of the credit goes to Pat Breed Kaiser and Deb Brooks for their direction. Director Bill Kaiser deserves a bulk of the credit, however. Putting together a musical with this large a cast and this degree of complexity is no small task. Kudos to him and all the other contributors too numerous to mention. Don't miss this production. Young and old and all the in-betweens will enjoy this show.

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