The Bronze & Creative Control

If you like you humor snide and slightly nihilistic The Bronze will be right up your alley. A former bronze medal winner lives in a world of fantasy fueled by her hatred for everyone around her, particularly her father (nicely played by Gary Cole) with whom she still lives and a young teen with aspirations for competitive gymnastics.

Melissa Rauch may be tiny (4’11”) but she looms large as the star and co-writer of this raunchy comedy. We are introduced to her character of Hope as she wakes up and crushes cold medicine and snorts it. That’s followed by a shopping spree (shoplifting is more like it) and a general disdain for people who have jobs. Years ago when Hope won her medal she sustained an injury that basically ended her career.

Now circumstances have placed her in a position to mentor and train an Olympic hopeful. Hope will do everything in her power to sabotage her protégé’s quest. Hilarity ensues.

The Bronze has a seen late in the film where Hope and a rival trainer engage in what can only be described as athletic sex, and it’s a hoot. Rauch, who plays a supporting character on the television show The Big Bang Theory, was not on my radar before The Bronze. Her mean girl antics melted my heart and make me want to see whatever she does next. The Bronze is currently unwinding in area theaters.

Set in a near future where virtual reality sex has transformed society into an even more self-loathing community of narcissism Creative Control examines the consequences of its character’s actions. Set in the confines of an ad agency CC is neither Mad Men nor Putney Swope.

Writer/director/star Benjamin Dickinson has crafted an austere look at how we live and how we will live the day after tomorrow. Shot in black and white with a mostly classical score that emphasizes its serious tone Creative Control shows that advertising will still drag technological advances into the past.

Creative Control plays exclusively at the AMC Gulf Pointe 30, which is no where near Houston’s cool theaters that usually play art and specialty films, and also at the AMC Studio 30.

— Michael Bergeron

by Michael Bergeron