Jason Reitman’s career began with four very good to great movies in a row. The wicked satire Thank You For Smoking, The massive out of left-field hit Juno, the humane corporate drama Up In The Air, and the criminally underseen Young Adult.
The only other director I can think of in recent times to come out of the box that hot is Quentin Tarantino. Even then, Tarantino had the trifle Four Rooms, of which he was responsible for one quarter of, between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill Volume 1. While Tarantino’s first four caused more of a stir, it was less clean in comparison to Reitman’s.
Then something came free for Reitman. Labor Day and Men, Women, & Children moved neither critic nor moviegoer. Four years have gone by after Men opened and pretty much closed on October 17, 2014. I don’t know how intentional the break was, but I can report with no small measure of satisfaction, that the eleven seasons that have passed since then have served him well.
Because Tully is tremendous.
In some ways, Tully is not the easiest film to describe for two very specific reasons. First, a film that focuses on the seemingly mundane life of a middle-aged woman about to add a third child to her family can easily sound clichéd or dull when discussing the plot.
Yes, Marlo is frustrated with her life. She has a son with behavioral issues, a husband who is aloof, a house she can’t keep up with, and all before the newborn arrives. If Pedro Almodovar hadn’t already used the title to great effect, this film could easily be slightly paraphrased and called Wom(a)n On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown. Which may sound like something you think you’ve already seen, or maybe something you simply don’t want to see.
However, the magic is always in the telling. And I’m here to say there is much magic afoot in Tully. The way Reitman showcases each scene is both specific and loose. There are little glances and expressions traded between Charlize Theron’s Marlo and her husband, well played by Ron Livingston, that tell you volumes about their relationship. There’s the way toys are strewn across the floor and stains are not cleaned from the carpet.
The very home they live in is a character unto itself. The sad siding, the outdated wood paneling. The house is as tired as they are. This is a film not afraid to look real, and even crummy.
Despite the thus far unsavory details I have shared, this is a genuinely entertaining film. After Juno and Young Adult, this is the third film Diablo Cody has written for Reitman. I know I just left the theater a little over an hour ago, but I’m thinking it’s her best of the triptych.
There’s plenty of the quick wit Cody is known for, but here it’s far less stylized than in Juno and to a lesser degree, Young Adult. The humor is unforced and the characters feel very much written as individuals. It’s still Diablo Cody, of course. It’s just that it feels more natural than before.
The introduction of the title character (the pitch perfect Mackenzie Davis), a night nanny hired by Marlo’s well-to-do brother, could have come off as the sort of thing that only happens in movies. Tully is a character with a capital C. Young, literate, sexy, Zen, and immune to the thought of invading one’s space.
In a different movie, she might have propelled the film in a more pedestrian direction. A “hot nanny shakes up the household” kinda thing. And while in some ways that’s true, it doesn’t necessarily play out the way you might think. In fact, I’m sure it doesn’t.
The relationship between the two women is unconventional, but also just what Marlo appears to need. She feels more rested and alive than she has in what seems to be an ancient age. Something that all around her take note of.
At this point, I feel the need to speak on how extraordinary the work of Charlize Theron is. I’ve always thought of her as a fine actress, but on occasion — for reasons unclear to me, she’s often left me a bit cold. I have now decided that I am an idiot.
Theron is just as at home in the skin of a woman who is feeling betrayed by her body, her husband, her children, and life itself as she is playing Furiosa in Mad Max or the Atomic Blonde. Her range is magnificent. She is truly one of our best working actors.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t dwell a bit more on Mackenzie Davis. I loved her in Halt And Catch Fire, was transfixed by her bit part in Blade Runner: 2049, and knocked out by her here. I’m starting to think she should be in everything. I don’t care if it’s a true story about a group of hairy men on an expedition in the Arctic. Room should be found.
If Tully had been nothing but what I’ve laid out so far, a domestic drama with comedic elements, it would have been terrific. There’s plenty here to sustain that sort of story.
Reitman doesn’t settle for that. In the final stretch, Tully reveals some strain of her own. She too is at a crossroads of sorts. At that point I still felt like I knew where the film might be going. I was wrong. Which brings me to the second reason this film is not the easiest to review. There’s what most will call a “twist” that takes place near the end of the film. One that might result in some resistance from some who see it. For a moment, I was unsure. Then I retraced the film’s steps and found that the clues had been laid out from the moment that Tully enters the home.
No fair saying more. Just know that it’s a bold choice, and the type of thing that only a filmmaker confident in their abilities would follow through on.
Which Reitman once again seems to be. Tully might look like a safe reentry on the surface, but it turns out to be so much more than it appears to be. In some ways, it’s the best kind of film. It gives you not just what you want, but even more you didn’t know you wanted.
That’s magic, my friends. And as the film closes with one of the loveliest images you will see all year, it becomes clear, Reitman’s magic is back. Maybe better than ever.
大神!受我一拜!
I agree 100% with your review. Theron so deserves a Best Actress nomination. The critics are really going to have to rally for her though.
A touch of ‘Mulholland Drive’, one might say, regarding the twist. These three (Reitman, Cody, Theron) brought me to the cinema and didn’t disappoint me.
P.S. I also watched I FEEL PRETTY this weekend. So what is the hate and backlash about again ? I don’t get it.
Watch Sasha’s own post on this site of Bill Maher’s terrifically funny takedown of this bullshit “controversy.”
https://www.awardsdaily.com/2018/05/05/bill-maher-smartly-calls-out-outrage-culture-on-i-feel-pretty/
I sincerely hope Theron, Davis and Cody will make the cut at the Oscars. Brilliant work from all three, Theron we’ve always known was a great actress, Davis has been deserving of a critical breakthrough since San Junipero, and Cody delivered a gutsy af script, not many would have dared to attempt that ending.
Haven’t seen the film yet but based on what you said about the ending, I say we need more of those gutsy and women writers with balls.
Refuse to watch another Diablo Cody written film. Sorry not sorry but I think she’s a terrible writer. Still very confused with people being charmed by Juno and her Oscar win.
In my opinion Jason Reitman is stuck. Or perhaps even more so he has never actually moved an inch in his career. His movies aren’t always bad (Young Adult is actually pretty great) but I feel like all of his films that I’ve at least seen except maybe Up in the Air feel like the second film he makes (Up in the Air feels like a third film). His style, the stories he goes for, the performances, everything feels like the film of someone who was a hit in Sundance a couple of years ago and now gets to do something on a slightly bigger budget. The results change each time, sometimes the movies work, sometimes they’re absolutely horrible but it’s like he’s in a perpetual loop of trying to break through. And the result is a mix of an attempt to be stylish and being safe enough to make sure that he gets to do another movie after that. Tully is on the better end of his filmography in my opinion with a great Theron and honest-feeling stylistic flourishes but this doesn’t change the fact that everything feels safe and like it was made without a real reason other than to get something else off the ground. This is especially shown in thetwist which feels ridiculous and completely meaningless, there just so a straightforward point could be made even though the movie made that point already in more interesting ways . Thus it fails to actually achieve anything on an emotional level.
Also, I don’t know whether people just haven’t seen the movie but I’m a bit annoyed that whenever people talk about Mackenzie Davis, no one mentions Always Shine, in which she is phenomenal
Insightful review. In as much as I like Jason Reitman’s films, I prefer his works with Diablo Cody more than his films not written by her. But my problem with Reitman is that his past 2 films with Cody are more of a Diablo Cody the auteur than Reitman as the filmmaker. Looking forward to Tully but it seems like its another the former than the latter.
He’s only made two other films with Cody. So, if you prefer his movies with her, it seems like you’d like this.
I may see this, but I’m in an unusual part of my life right now. How do you separate the art from the artist and their personal life choices. I’m talking about Charlize and her adoption of black children, and one of them she’s purposely putting dresses and makeup on so that he can become a she. If the child was dressing up for a Halloween party, I could understand it. But once I realize that Charlize is taking a black African child (and I’m a minority) and forcing them to go against their natural instincts, I threw in the towel. So in may ways it’s a matter of me getting over the artist’s personal life and behavior.
May I also say the same thing for Tom Cruise and his movies. Lea (what’s her name) has turned me against Cruise because of Scientology. I would never have done this before. I went into Woody’s movies without thinking about his accusations, but now I could care care less about Woody and his movies. (I don’t think they’re very good anyway). The new Mission Impossible looks like a stuntman’s showcase; I saw the last F&F and loved every thrill a minute. But I’m hesitating about going to this Cruise movie.
Okay I wrote it. I’m done.
Yikes. If you look around and find yourself “in an unusual part of your life” where you “realize” Charlize Theron is “forcing” her child “to go against his natural instincts” then you should probably try some of these remedies:
1) Retrace your path to find out where you took the wrong off-ramp to KneeJerk Town.
2) If you read that crap someplace, stop reading wingnut junk sites that fill your head full of inflammatory bullshit.
3) If you somehow came up with this nonsense on your own, try to figure out your own mental issues that make you invent gaspy nonsense out of thin air.
4) How about you try to imagine a mother who allows her pre-school son to dress up and have fun any effing way that he feels like dressing up and having fun.
5) How about try to admire an open-minded mother who allows her son to explore his own whims and curiosity and inclinations without freaking out and forbidding him to do so.
6) Consider that maybe you are not as much of a telepathic child psychologist as you seem to think you are, and admit to yourself that you don’t have the slightest clue about 5-yr-old Jackson’s “natural instincts.”
~~~
[I’m sorry for flaring up on your review page, David. But yeesh, I can’t stand back and let someone hijack this discussion with some weird-ass panic about the child of an actress who was simply enjoying a day out in Disneyland and doing some playacting like his mommy does.]
The shit WAS weird.
Sally you obviously have an agenda … who are you to judge other people’s life that you don’t even know? She never forced her kid to anything , he was always dressed as a boy she was always taking him at karate classes , then when his little sister came up in their lifes he started to play with these princess outfit probably trying to get his mom’s attention, as me when I was wearing Tom boy clothes like my brother when I was a kid. That’s not even our business mind your own business. Charlize Theron is one class act private women, known worldwide for her talented work and not tabloids, her humanitarian work in Africa to all those children is an inspiration, and her childhood drama is a lesson of courage . We are talking about her outstanding fearless work in Tully in this board, and you came here with a specific agenda just to troll you sound desperate and ridiculous .
Thank you for this post and excitement about Reitman’s latest and comeback picture. It seems to have been fashionable to trash his name and the impact that those 4 films made, but they were in quick succession; 4 accomplished and well timed movies. Juno and Up in the Air were my favorites of their respective years. I was disappointed in Labor Day haven’t seen the 2014 one. I think Jason Reitman is an excellent and interesting director in terms of what material he has crafted and how he has done it. Genre bending those first 4 films so they weren’t easily categorized.
I personally felt that while imperfect, LABOR DAY was actually really good.
I liked it, as well. Nothing blew me away about it. But it was just a nice little drama that you just don’t see enough of nowadays.
Broke my heart to see theron miss out for young adult. My heart was then torn and smashed to pieces even more when she missed out for mad max. Please let this be her year… she is surely overdue. Haven’t seen the movie but im sure she kills it… just hope she doesn’t fall short come awards time.
This review makes me drool to see this film!!! A most excellent summary and review!!!
I love love love Davis in the brilliant San Junipero from Black Mirror. Can’t wait to see Tully this weekend.
“I have now decided that I am an idiot.”
don’t be too hard on yourself for liking ‘juno’. 😉
I do think it’s the runt of the litter.
Completely under the radar, but this looks to me, like a slam dunk for Travolta. A 3rd comeback? I can see him, even winning… specially knowing how due he is for a win, and that he’s only been nominated twice, but should have been plenty more (Grease, Blow Out, Get Shorty, A Civil Action, Primary Colors and Hairspray, out of the top of my head).
https://youtu.be/m290GmN-Q7Q
Thanks! Can’t wait to watch it.
大神!受我一拜!