Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler
Director: Ralph Fiennes
It's difficult to rate Shakespeare films - so long as they are not staged ineptly, the scripts are probably gonna be pretty good. Coriolanus is a 21st century update of the Shakespeare tragedy, and the 21st century nature doesn't seem to take away its power. Comparing it to the Ethan Hawke Hamlet, for instance - that film plays up its modernity, setting its soliloquies in commercial setting; this one never really revels in its updatedness.
One negative is that it's difficult to properly parse the relationship between Coriolanus and his wife and mother - whether scenes between them were cut out (I doubt this, though alas I've never read the play) or the modern staging takes away from the bond he and his mother have, I'm not sure, but I felt like that central relationship was not fully addressed. Either that or I was just distracted by Coriolanus's war scenes and tempestuous rows and had no patience for the quieter talking scenes.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Prince Avalanche - 2013 - 3 Stars
Actors: Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch
Director: David Gordon Green
I heard an interview with the leads of this film on NPR when it was released, and one of the reasons for it being set in the 1980s was to ensure that cell phones didn't ruin its central conceit - two guys largely cut off from the trappings of civilization. Great - but Rudd's character seems like your prototypical film protagonist these days. He's decidedly not a man-child, but he has other issues with accepting his lot. His natural daffiness is at odds with his character's emphasis on self-sufficiency. Overall it's a good little movie, but one unfortunate, obvious montage struck it down to a 3 star film.
Director: David Gordon Green
I heard an interview with the leads of this film on NPR when it was released, and one of the reasons for it being set in the 1980s was to ensure that cell phones didn't ruin its central conceit - two guys largely cut off from the trappings of civilization. Great - but Rudd's character seems like your prototypical film protagonist these days. He's decidedly not a man-child, but he has other issues with accepting his lot. His natural daffiness is at odds with his character's emphasis on self-sufficiency. Overall it's a good little movie, but one unfortunate, obvious montage struck it down to a 3 star film.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
The Twelve Chairs - 1970 - 3 Stars
Actors: Ron Moody, Frank Langella
Director: Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks films don't often have tonal issues - they are usually straight comedies. Perhaps this film is also a straight comedy, but the film functions as a mismatched buddy comedy where we don't know enough about either person to say how mismatched they are. I love Mel Brooks and I like what he's trying to do here, but either the humor is too old-fashioned or the film doesn't succeed at what it's trying to do. There are still some solid scenes, but ultimately it feels like a mish-mash. And I like using the word 'but' to contrast the beginning of the sentence with the end.
Director: Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks films don't often have tonal issues - they are usually straight comedies. Perhaps this film is also a straight comedy, but the film functions as a mismatched buddy comedy where we don't know enough about either person to say how mismatched they are. I love Mel Brooks and I like what he's trying to do here, but either the humor is too old-fashioned or the film doesn't succeed at what it's trying to do. There are still some solid scenes, but ultimately it feels like a mish-mash. And I like using the word 'but' to contrast the beginning of the sentence with the end.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
The Raid: Redemption - 2011 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim
Director: Gareth Evans
One of the virtues of a great action film is lack of exposition - I always admired Predator's ability to get us right into the chopper with Arnold, Jesse, Carl, and all the rest in less than five minutes. The Raid: Redemption doesn't quite achieve that level of elegance, but it's awful close. What follows that tiny bloodless beginning is a smorgasboard of punches, kicks, stabs, and gunshots. All manner of death and dismemberment are on display. The film throws in some exposition midway through and it becomes a bit of a grind at the end - likely a product of the lack of character development at the beginning. Still, American action films should take a hint - your movie doesn't need to be 150 minutes to be awesome.
This is an Indonesian film - make sure you see this before you see An Act Of Killing, or you'll think Indonesia is filled with bloodthirsty monsters.
Director: Gareth Evans
One of the virtues of a great action film is lack of exposition - I always admired Predator's ability to get us right into the chopper with Arnold, Jesse, Carl, and all the rest in less than five minutes. The Raid: Redemption doesn't quite achieve that level of elegance, but it's awful close. What follows that tiny bloodless beginning is a smorgasboard of punches, kicks, stabs, and gunshots. All manner of death and dismemberment are on display. The film throws in some exposition midway through and it becomes a bit of a grind at the end - likely a product of the lack of character development at the beginning. Still, American action films should take a hint - your movie doesn't need to be 150 minutes to be awesome.
This is an Indonesian film - make sure you see this before you see An Act Of Killing, or you'll think Indonesia is filled with bloodthirsty monsters.
Cosmopolis - 2012 - 4 Stars
Actors: Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon
Director: David Cronenberg
Cosmopolis is an ideas movie, so even though it has way too many ideas, I love it anyway. Featuring Pattinson as a brooding financial wunderkind eking through Manhattan traffic in his limousine, the film manages to be visually interesting and does not induce claustrophobia. I imagine the novel's ideas are more fully fleshed out, but as an 100 minute discourse on our techno-dystopia and how the whims of a few affect the bottom lines of many, you can't do much worse. I also have an affinity for films who suggest infinities outside of themselves - this one sprawls out in all directions.
Director: David Cronenberg
Cosmopolis is an ideas movie, so even though it has way too many ideas, I love it anyway. Featuring Pattinson as a brooding financial wunderkind eking through Manhattan traffic in his limousine, the film manages to be visually interesting and does not induce claustrophobia. I imagine the novel's ideas are more fully fleshed out, but as an 100 minute discourse on our techno-dystopia and how the whims of a few affect the bottom lines of many, you can't do much worse. I also have an affinity for films who suggest infinities outside of themselves - this one sprawls out in all directions.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp - 1943 - 4½ Stars
Actors: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr
Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
I imagine this film is adapted from a novel, and one of the trickiest things about adapting novels to film is showing character changes. A novel takes days to read, in which the characters stew about in your mind - they coalesce and evanesce. Here you've got less than three hours to show the journey of a man from early manhood to old age - how do you make the shifts in his life not seem forced?
Blimp... has some masterful montages and monologues that help it tell this story. Very little in the plot seems contrived - this is to say that at no point do you think 'the story has to go here' and then it does. We don't know where it's necessarily headed, and if you're telling someone's life story (fictional or actual), that's the best job you can do.
Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
I imagine this film is adapted from a novel, and one of the trickiest things about adapting novels to film is showing character changes. A novel takes days to read, in which the characters stew about in your mind - they coalesce and evanesce. Here you've got less than three hours to show the journey of a man from early manhood to old age - how do you make the shifts in his life not seem forced?
Blimp... has some masterful montages and monologues that help it tell this story. Very little in the plot seems contrived - this is to say that at no point do you think 'the story has to go here' and then it does. We don't know where it's necessarily headed, and if you're telling someone's life story (fictional or actual), that's the best job you can do.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
The Comedy - 2012 - 3 Stars
Actors: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim
Director: Rick Alverson
Most of what I've heard about this film beforehand is that the title 'The Comedy' is misleading, but it's actually pretty accurate. This isn't to say that The Comedy is funny, because it's not (nor is it anti-comedy, despite the Tim and Eric starring roles), but it could be - it's more an examination of comedy. What if someone was trying to be funny, only he didn't find himself funny, nor did he have an audience for his humor? That's The Comedy.
There's no real arc to the film so it's hard for me to rate it any better than this. It's sort of an anti-Samsara - we need to get Heidecker's character into a theater so he can check that one out, and maybe riff on it a bit. To a degree, it's a film that doesn't need to be watched, just explained to other people; it may be better as a concept than an actual piece of art. On the other hand, a non-watcher would miss out on Heidecker's performance, which is quite good.
Director: Rick Alverson
Most of what I've heard about this film beforehand is that the title 'The Comedy' is misleading, but it's actually pretty accurate. This isn't to say that The Comedy is funny, because it's not (nor is it anti-comedy, despite the Tim and Eric starring roles), but it could be - it's more an examination of comedy. What if someone was trying to be funny, only he didn't find himself funny, nor did he have an audience for his humor? That's The Comedy.
There's no real arc to the film so it's hard for me to rate it any better than this. It's sort of an anti-Samsara - we need to get Heidecker's character into a theater so he can check that one out, and maybe riff on it a bit. To a degree, it's a film that doesn't need to be watched, just explained to other people; it may be better as a concept than an actual piece of art. On the other hand, a non-watcher would miss out on Heidecker's performance, which is quite good.
Samsara - 2011 - 4½ Stars
Subject:
Director: Ron Fricke
Ron Fricke was the cinematographer on Koyaanisqatsi and in the 30 years since that film's release, to my knowledge, he has directed 2 feature length films and one short film. All have had similar themes and similar use of images as Koyaanisqatsi, but neither Baraka nor Chronos came close to that film's power. Not so with Samsara, which marries stunning images to a wonderful narrative, expunging (most of) the cheap ironies which marred Koyaaniqatsi. Music is the only place where this film lags - it's largely unobstrusive, sometimes propulsive, but nowhere close to Philip Glass's scores for the Qatsi trilogy. I'm likely overrating this one, but it'd be the first film I'd show extraterrestrials upon arriving on this planet.
Director: Ron Fricke
Ron Fricke was the cinematographer on Koyaanisqatsi and in the 30 years since that film's release, to my knowledge, he has directed 2 feature length films and one short film. All have had similar themes and similar use of images as Koyaanisqatsi, but neither Baraka nor Chronos came close to that film's power. Not so with Samsara, which marries stunning images to a wonderful narrative, expunging (most of) the cheap ironies which marred Koyaaniqatsi. Music is the only place where this film lags - it's largely unobstrusive, sometimes propulsive, but nowhere close to Philip Glass's scores for the Qatsi trilogy. I'm likely overrating this one, but it'd be the first film I'd show extraterrestrials upon arriving on this planet.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
The Spectacular Now - 2013 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley
Director: James Ponsoldt
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead
Adolesence lends itself to film because there's a natural tendency for someone to guess at what a high schooler will become as an adult. Thus there's an inherent dramatic irony to coming-of-age films - the characters typically see life's infinite possibilities, whereas we see the forming of habits and personality that will put them into a certain box. The walls around their life are getting tighter just as they think the walls are getting looser. The Spectacular Now uses this dramatic irony quite well, without necessarily resorting to high drama or other classic tropes of teenagerdom. Often silence (or deflection) says more. Ponsoldt also employs more long takes in conversation than would be customary in a film like this, which enhances the reality of dialogue.
One of the conceits of the film is that Shailene Woodley's character has never had a boyfriend - this gets into tricky territory for films, because filmmakers want to cast attractive people, but on the other hand given her looks, this is somewhat ludicrous.
Director: James Ponsoldt
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead
Adolesence lends itself to film because there's a natural tendency for someone to guess at what a high schooler will become as an adult. Thus there's an inherent dramatic irony to coming-of-age films - the characters typically see life's infinite possibilities, whereas we see the forming of habits and personality that will put them into a certain box. The walls around their life are getting tighter just as they think the walls are getting looser. The Spectacular Now uses this dramatic irony quite well, without necessarily resorting to high drama or other classic tropes of teenagerdom. Often silence (or deflection) says more. Ponsoldt also employs more long takes in conversation than would be customary in a film like this, which enhances the reality of dialogue.
One of the conceits of the film is that Shailene Woodley's character has never had a boyfriend - this gets into tricky territory for films, because filmmakers want to cast attractive people, but on the other hand given her looks, this is somewhat ludicrous.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Two-Lane Blacktop - 1971 - 4 Stars
Actors: James Taylor, Warren Oates
Director: Monte Hellman
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead
Two-Lane Blacktop's characters don't have a backstory, nor do they have a destiny. I've been thinking a lot about why Hollywood films these days are so long these days, and it's often because we need to find out the character's backstory and their destiny. Otherwise, why are we watching the movie? We need to find out who these people are and what motivates them. Two-Lane Blacktop says forget all that - you just need some fast cars and some barely-scripted dialogue, and you can make a movie out of that. Two-Lane Blacktop comes from an era that the film is so revered as a form of entertainment that films didn't have to compete for your attention - they didn't need to justify your time or its existence. It's a movie, you should watch it.
This film either has something much deeper going on or it has literally nothing going on at all. I imagine some would find some of the choices pretentious or awkward, but most of them worked for me.
Director: Monte Hellman
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead
Two-Lane Blacktop's characters don't have a backstory, nor do they have a destiny. I've been thinking a lot about why Hollywood films these days are so long these days, and it's often because we need to find out the character's backstory and their destiny. Otherwise, why are we watching the movie? We need to find out who these people are and what motivates them. Two-Lane Blacktop says forget all that - you just need some fast cars and some barely-scripted dialogue, and you can make a movie out of that. Two-Lane Blacktop comes from an era that the film is so revered as a form of entertainment that films didn't have to compete for your attention - they didn't need to justify your time or its existence. It's a movie, you should watch it.
This film either has something much deeper going on or it has literally nothing going on at all. I imagine some would find some of the choices pretentious or awkward, but most of them worked for me.
Friday, August 30, 2013
The Spanish Prisoner - 1997 - 4 Stars
Actors: Campbell Scott, Ricky Jay
Director: David Mamet
Why is there not a statue of David Mamet somewhere? No one writes dialogue like Mamet and no one writes plots like Mamet. Yet he's become a ghost of the cinema in the 2000s, hardly writing or directing anything for the screen. We must demand that he return, because there won't be another David Mamet or anything like him again.
Indeed, no one writes like Mamet, but a lot of people direct like him - he's not a particularly interesting director. Everything's very matter-of-fact. He doesn't get great performances out of people - it seems like at times he doesn't want them. Even so, The Spanish Prisoner is the closest thing we get in these diluted times to the wonder of Alfred Hitchcock.
Director: David Mamet
Why is there not a statue of David Mamet somewhere? No one writes dialogue like Mamet and no one writes plots like Mamet. Yet he's become a ghost of the cinema in the 2000s, hardly writing or directing anything for the screen. We must demand that he return, because there won't be another David Mamet or anything like him again.
Indeed, no one writes like Mamet, but a lot of people direct like him - he's not a particularly interesting director. Everything's very matter-of-fact. He doesn't get great performances out of people - it seems like at times he doesn't want them. Even so, The Spanish Prisoner is the closest thing we get in these diluted times to the wonder of Alfred Hitchcock.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
The Naked City - 1948 - 4 Stars
Actors: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff
Director: Jules Dassin
How much credit do we give to films that break molds? How much generosity do we have towards films that explain things we as a modern audience already know? The Naked City attempts to lay out how homicide investigations work, then leads us methodically through their chase. This feels novel for the time, but it's quite tedious to any veteran of procedural shows. The film's 'gimmick', and the reason why it's any good at all, is that it also has the twist of being shot largely on location. The film even makes it a point to state early on that it's shot on location. As a result, it's hard for me not to experience the exhiliration that must've been watching the film's climax in 1948 - that this feels REAL, and the earlier slow-paced scenes drive home that reality even more. It's a shame how in these days of CGI how so much of film has retreated once again to the studio.
Director: Jules Dassin
How much credit do we give to films that break molds? How much generosity do we have towards films that explain things we as a modern audience already know? The Naked City attempts to lay out how homicide investigations work, then leads us methodically through their chase. This feels novel for the time, but it's quite tedious to any veteran of procedural shows. The film's 'gimmick', and the reason why it's any good at all, is that it also has the twist of being shot largely on location. The film even makes it a point to state early on that it's shot on location. As a result, it's hard for me not to experience the exhiliration that must've been watching the film's climax in 1948 - that this feels REAL, and the earlier slow-paced scenes drive home that reality even more. It's a shame how in these days of CGI how so much of film has retreated once again to the studio.
This Is 40 - 2012 - 3 Stars
Actors: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann
Director: Judd Apatow
There isn't a great film trapped inside This Is 40, but there's certainly a much better one than what ends up on screen. Juggling comedy and drama is an Apatow forte, but here he manages to make a film that's tonally all over the place - it doesn't know if it wants to be a well-observed drama about the difficulties of marriage (I was reminded most of Husbands and Wives) or a wacky comedy about same. Confounding the matter is the service he has to give to the ensemble of recognizable faces - there's almost something Shakespearean about how he gives minutes of this film over to side characters who have no stake in the action. Rudd and Mann are excellent, and even the Apatow children have difficult scenes and manage them well. I guess I'd just like to see Apatow make a film without all these people. If I can be permitted to read into things, I suspect part of the issue with this film is that Apatow got his start in television, where it's awfully hard to let an audience expecting a comedy to go several minutes without laughing. This could've been an effective drama with several gut laughs instead of a misshapen comedy (still w/ some gut laughs) but whose dramatic elements are scattered. I'm just not sure Apatow will ever make that kind of film though, and his comedic instincts are not evolving, so I unfortunately expect diminishing returns.
Director: Judd Apatow
There isn't a great film trapped inside This Is 40, but there's certainly a much better one than what ends up on screen. Juggling comedy and drama is an Apatow forte, but here he manages to make a film that's tonally all over the place - it doesn't know if it wants to be a well-observed drama about the difficulties of marriage (I was reminded most of Husbands and Wives) or a wacky comedy about same. Confounding the matter is the service he has to give to the ensemble of recognizable faces - there's almost something Shakespearean about how he gives minutes of this film over to side characters who have no stake in the action. Rudd and Mann are excellent, and even the Apatow children have difficult scenes and manage them well. I guess I'd just like to see Apatow make a film without all these people. If I can be permitted to read into things, I suspect part of the issue with this film is that Apatow got his start in television, where it's awfully hard to let an audience expecting a comedy to go several minutes without laughing. This could've been an effective drama with several gut laughs instead of a misshapen comedy (still w/ some gut laughs) but whose dramatic elements are scattered. I'm just not sure Apatow will ever make that kind of film though, and his comedic instincts are not evolving, so I unfortunately expect diminishing returns.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - 2011 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner
Director: Brad Bird
Mission: Impossible has always had a relation to media since the TV show began in the 1960s - think of 'This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds'. The idea of disappearing, erasable, non-traceable items, posing as other people, etc. It's fared a lot better with technology than its 1960s franchise counterpart Star Trek - the idea of fully manned spacecraft now seems absurd. But spies in an era of facial recognition technology and drones? Still necessary. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's best sequence involves the use of a 'real', intra-movie special effect to deceive someone, which both functions as great visual fun as well as a nod to how much film special effects and the conceits of the spy film (and perhaps espionage in general) owe to one another. In addition, it gets around the problem of modern cinema where a character is sitting at a computer looking intently and typing furiously - due to machinations of a particular plot, these computer scenes are often considered action.
I wanted to rate this higher, but action films today (well, not just today, Hitchcock's films often have this issue) have a problem with the final setpiece because you know how the film has to end. Still, for the first 90 minutes, this movie is as good as modern action films get - low exposition, minimal character development, but still high tension and excitement.
Director: Brad Bird
Mission: Impossible has always had a relation to media since the TV show began in the 1960s - think of 'This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds'. The idea of disappearing, erasable, non-traceable items, posing as other people, etc. It's fared a lot better with technology than its 1960s franchise counterpart Star Trek - the idea of fully manned spacecraft now seems absurd. But spies in an era of facial recognition technology and drones? Still necessary. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's best sequence involves the use of a 'real', intra-movie special effect to deceive someone, which both functions as great visual fun as well as a nod to how much film special effects and the conceits of the spy film (and perhaps espionage in general) owe to one another. In addition, it gets around the problem of modern cinema where a character is sitting at a computer looking intently and typing furiously - due to machinations of a particular plot, these computer scenes are often considered action.
I wanted to rate this higher, but action films today (well, not just today, Hitchcock's films often have this issue) have a problem with the final setpiece because you know how the film has to end. Still, for the first 90 minutes, this movie is as good as modern action films get - low exposition, minimal character development, but still high tension and excitement.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Kind Hearts And Coronets - 1949 - 4 Stars
Actors: Alec Guinness, Dennis Price
Director: Robert Hamer
Old films can sometimes feel like cinematic vegetables - necessary to consume, sure, boring and bland, without question. One of the joys of a director like Hitchcock that so many of his films traffic in dark humor as well as thrills - they're fun, they look like fun to write, direct, and act in. Kind Hearts And Coronets is a film in this tradition. It's a slow starter that relies heavily on narration, but as it gathers momentum it becomes darkly funny, featuring many twists and turns - it's more like a high-class British noir film (noir in theme, not in style). I hadn't even realized that Alec Guinness plays eight different roles, which is good, because that would've been distracting.
Director: Robert Hamer
Old films can sometimes feel like cinematic vegetables - necessary to consume, sure, boring and bland, without question. One of the joys of a director like Hitchcock that so many of his films traffic in dark humor as well as thrills - they're fun, they look like fun to write, direct, and act in. Kind Hearts And Coronets is a film in this tradition. It's a slow starter that relies heavily on narration, but as it gathers momentum it becomes darkly funny, featuring many twists and turns - it's more like a high-class British noir film (noir in theme, not in style). I hadn't even realized that Alec Guinness plays eight different roles, which is good, because that would've been distracting.
Holy Motors - 2012 - 4½ Stars, 2 Stars
Actors: Denis Lavant, Edith Scob
Director: Leos Carax
I was going to think of films and directors to try to describe Holy Motors by way of analogy, but that is decidedly unfair - this is a singular film. At no point is it predictable or does it allow you to get into a rhythm with it. I've given it two ratings because I feel like this aspect of the film succeeds wildly while the other parts of the film are not so well-developed. Its singularity gets in the way of everything it attempts to do.
Warning: I won't spoil any plot elements, but I will be discussing themes which are kinda spoilers for this one
What I'm having trouble grappling with is the idea that Holy Motors is more than a meta-film. It's both an imagination of what could be - how the world theoretically could be, what's going on behind our collective backs - and seemingly also a meditation on the role of the stage/film actor in society. Since the latter film has been done a thousand times and is not particularly interesting or emotionally affecting, I'm trying really hard to get past that. We don't really get a sense of what our lead character truly is (nor does his existence present very much that's equal to our own), so how can we empathize with his life? Indeed, I think that's the trouble with this film and why it doesn't fully work for me - the layers of artifice make it very difficult for any of the emotional sequences in the film to resonate, as they would in a more conventional film. Or is the emotional content our (and the characters') awareness of the artifice itself?
I'm reminded very much of films like 8½ and Synecdoche, New York, and I didn't love either one of those. Then again I'm also reminded of David Lynch and I do like him. I don't know - I wish this had been just a little different, I think I might've loved it. It is one film that I can legitimately call 'post-modern' - every element in this film is unstable and prone to alteration.
Director: Leos Carax
I was going to think of films and directors to try to describe Holy Motors by way of analogy, but that is decidedly unfair - this is a singular film. At no point is it predictable or does it allow you to get into a rhythm with it. I've given it two ratings because I feel like this aspect of the film succeeds wildly while the other parts of the film are not so well-developed. Its singularity gets in the way of everything it attempts to do.
Warning: I won't spoil any plot elements, but I will be discussing themes which are kinda spoilers for this one
What I'm having trouble grappling with is the idea that Holy Motors is more than a meta-film. It's both an imagination of what could be - how the world theoretically could be, what's going on behind our collective backs - and seemingly also a meditation on the role of the stage/film actor in society. Since the latter film has been done a thousand times and is not particularly interesting or emotionally affecting, I'm trying really hard to get past that. We don't really get a sense of what our lead character truly is (nor does his existence present very much that's equal to our own), so how can we empathize with his life? Indeed, I think that's the trouble with this film and why it doesn't fully work for me - the layers of artifice make it very difficult for any of the emotional sequences in the film to resonate, as they would in a more conventional film. Or is the emotional content our (and the characters') awareness of the artifice itself?
I'm reminded very much of films like 8½ and Synecdoche, New York, and I didn't love either one of those. Then again I'm also reminded of David Lynch and I do like him. I don't know - I wish this had been just a little different, I think I might've loved it. It is one film that I can legitimately call 'post-modern' - every element in this film is unstable and prone to alteration.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Happy People: A Year In The Taiga - 2010 - No Rating
Subject: Russian sable trappers living in Siberia and their life during each season
Director: Dmitri Yasyukov, Werner Herzog
I give documentaries no rating when I feel that they are about interesting subjects and capably done, but there's nothing extra to them. I feel like it's unfair to rate a documentary by how interesting the subject is, even if the documentary doesn't really hang together as a narrative. This documentary never constructs a narrative, nor does it build to anything, but it is still worth seeing. It's a bit too eager to suggest that people using plane tools, chainsaws, plastic sheeting, and snowmobiles are doing things by the 'traditional way', but some of the traditional ways are also shown and are fascinating.
I'm curious about Herzog's involvement in this project, as he is listed as a director (and narrates). One scene in particular feels like Herzog's contribution to the film, and also feels out of place and mean.
Director: Dmitri Yasyukov, Werner Herzog
I give documentaries no rating when I feel that they are about interesting subjects and capably done, but there's nothing extra to them. I feel like it's unfair to rate a documentary by how interesting the subject is, even if the documentary doesn't really hang together as a narrative. This documentary never constructs a narrative, nor does it build to anything, but it is still worth seeing. It's a bit too eager to suggest that people using plane tools, chainsaws, plastic sheeting, and snowmobiles are doing things by the 'traditional way', but some of the traditional ways are also shown and are fascinating.
I'm curious about Herzog's involvement in this project, as he is listed as a director (and narrates). One scene in particular feels like Herzog's contribution to the film, and also feels out of place and mean.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
L'Avventura - 1960 - 4 Stars
Actors: Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti
Director: Michaelangelo Antonioni
I'm not sure I've seen a more stunning black-and-white film than L'Avventura. Thing is, I can't even imagine how difficult it is to try to shoot this kind of film in black-and-white, because how can you be sure how color textures will go together when they're reduced to shades of two colors? No matter. There's a myriad of terrifically composed shots in here.
L'Avventura is one of those films where at every moment, the characters' feelings, thoughts, and actions all make sense, but when you look at the film as a whole, they simply does not. Which is fine - it seems Antonioni is going for a scripted Cassevetes feel, where it's only the moments that matter. Part of me also thinks that the actions in the film don't make sense because the characters do not have cell phones (or lack easy communication with people who are not present) - it's interesting to think about how that changes our perception of the way people should be reacting to one another.
Director: Michaelangelo Antonioni
I'm not sure I've seen a more stunning black-and-white film than L'Avventura. Thing is, I can't even imagine how difficult it is to try to shoot this kind of film in black-and-white, because how can you be sure how color textures will go together when they're reduced to shades of two colors? No matter. There's a myriad of terrifically composed shots in here.
L'Avventura is one of those films where at every moment, the characters' feelings, thoughts, and actions all make sense, but when you look at the film as a whole, they simply does not. Which is fine - it seems Antonioni is going for a scripted Cassevetes feel, where it's only the moments that matter. Part of me also thinks that the actions in the film don't make sense because the characters do not have cell phones (or lack easy communication with people who are not present) - it's interesting to think about how that changes our perception of the way people should be reacting to one another.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Safety Not Guaranteed - 2012 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Mark Duplass, Aubrey Plaza
Director: Colin Trevorrow
I honestly thought this was a Duplass brothers film throughout - it makes similar choices and has a similar tone to the two films of theirs which I've seen, but also seemed superior - I thought they 'got it' here. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at the end to find out that while it is not their film, they were executive producers. Safety Not Guaranteed manages to carry on two solid parallel plots and service four characters without (fully - one character may not get full service) resorting to cliches, while also turning what was an Internet joke into a sincere examination.
Director: Colin Trevorrow
I honestly thought this was a Duplass brothers film throughout - it makes similar choices and has a similar tone to the two films of theirs which I've seen, but also seemed superior - I thought they 'got it' here. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at the end to find out that while it is not their film, they were executive producers. Safety Not Guaranteed manages to carry on two solid parallel plots and service four characters without (fully - one character may not get full service) resorting to cliches, while also turning what was an Internet joke into a sincere examination.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Arbitrage - 2012 - 3 Stars
Actors: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon
Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Arbitrage is a plot film - we're forced down a path towards our characters having to make moral choices. Trouble is, while the plot is excellent, the character development is weak - all of our characters are out of the Cliche School Of Stereotypes. While the film plays out excellently, it doesn't feel like a lived-in film. Richard Gere is surprisingly good here, though - I've only seen a few movies of his, and while his character doesn't feel real, to some degree he's not supposed to.
I may be holding it against this film that I saw it after Blue Jasmine and that both movies feature the ultra-wealthy. Indeed, it is better than a film called 'Arbitrage' has any right to be called (and the film does not feature the concept of arbitrage at all).
Also nice to see Chris Eigeman getting work here as Gere's flunky.
Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Arbitrage is a plot film - we're forced down a path towards our characters having to make moral choices. Trouble is, while the plot is excellent, the character development is weak - all of our characters are out of the Cliche School Of Stereotypes. While the film plays out excellently, it doesn't feel like a lived-in film. Richard Gere is surprisingly good here, though - I've only seen a few movies of his, and while his character doesn't feel real, to some degree he's not supposed to.
I may be holding it against this film that I saw it after Blue Jasmine and that both movies feature the ultra-wealthy. Indeed, it is better than a film called 'Arbitrage' has any right to be called (and the film does not feature the concept of arbitrage at all).
Also nice to see Chris Eigeman getting work here as Gere's flunky.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Never Let Me Go - 2010 - 4 Stars
Actors: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield
Director: Mark Romanek
Note: Minor spoilers ahead
Dystopian films often follow a prescribed narrative - tons of exposition, as wide a look as we can possibly get at the dystopian world, then an escape. Never Let Me Go is a dystopia that suggests a world actually lived in; it's not loads of security that keep people where they are, but a recognition of their ultimate fate. Indeed, it seems as though we've missed a lot of exposition, but this works to the film's advantage - it keeps us in a similar state to our characters. Like many films adapted from books, the plot feels messy, but I enjoy when a film suggests a large world outside the view of the camera lens for our imaginations to play around in.
We're hardly aware that this film takes place in a different society than our own - in this way, the film reminded me of Tarkovsky's Stalker - directors too often mistrust a viewer's eyes, not realizing that good acting and writing can make up for what seem to be budgetary limitations.
Director: Mark Romanek
Note: Minor spoilers ahead
Dystopian films often follow a prescribed narrative - tons of exposition, as wide a look as we can possibly get at the dystopian world, then an escape. Never Let Me Go is a dystopia that suggests a world actually lived in; it's not loads of security that keep people where they are, but a recognition of their ultimate fate. Indeed, it seems as though we've missed a lot of exposition, but this works to the film's advantage - it keeps us in a similar state to our characters. Like many films adapted from books, the plot feels messy, but I enjoy when a film suggests a large world outside the view of the camera lens for our imaginations to play around in.
We're hardly aware that this film takes place in a different society than our own - in this way, the film reminded me of Tarkovsky's Stalker - directors too often mistrust a viewer's eyes, not realizing that good acting and writing can make up for what seem to be budgetary limitations.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Blue Jasmine - 2013 - 4 Stars
Actors: Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin
Director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen films are successful if they manage to develop a meaningful subtext. The overarching text is usually going to be flawed in the ways most Allen films are flawed - characters don't feel three-dimensional, anyone who isn't a Woody Allen surrogate feels like an alien, and Woody left behind the real world in the 1970s. Most of these flaws are present here. It's whether or not even within that flatness and tone-deaf-ness, something more resonant emerges.
Cate Blanchett's character - a wealthy socialite from New York - does feel like someone Woody Allen has a grasp on, and he does an excellent job of showing how the trappings of such a life aren't easily discarded even after one's circumstances have changed. Blanchett's acting here is also phenomenal - Allen films these days tend to be worth seeing just for the performances he can drag out of people.
Director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen films are successful if they manage to develop a meaningful subtext. The overarching text is usually going to be flawed in the ways most Allen films are flawed - characters don't feel three-dimensional, anyone who isn't a Woody Allen surrogate feels like an alien, and Woody left behind the real world in the 1970s. Most of these flaws are present here. It's whether or not even within that flatness and tone-deaf-ness, something more resonant emerges.
Cate Blanchett's character - a wealthy socialite from New York - does feel like someone Woody Allen has a grasp on, and he does an excellent job of showing how the trappings of such a life aren't easily discarded even after one's circumstances have changed. Blanchett's acting here is also phenomenal - Allen films these days tend to be worth seeing just for the performances he can drag out of people.
Friday, August 2, 2013
The Player - 1992 - 2 Stars
Actors: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi
Director: Robert Altman
It's difficult to be generous to a film like this, because it is SO satisfied with itself. It thinks it is the greatest. It even has an answer to any criticism - any elements of the film which feel 'off' such as, well, all of them - short of the masterful directing - are Hollywood sendups. Flat characterization? Ponderous satire? A plot that argues for itself as superfluous and necessary at the same time? The Player has its cake, eats it too, then invents new words for possession and consumption and does both of those to cake at the same time as well. It is an ouroboros wrapped in a Mobius Strip. At bottom, it is meaningless. Ah, just like Hollywood chatter! How droll! And so forth.
Even more maddening is that it's the kind of movie that critics love, and I love reading critics, so after I get done with writing this, I'm going to read 4 or 5 paeans to this. Maybe it would've been better in 1992 - observations about car/cell phones and bottled water belong with Lorena Bobbitt jokes in the dustbin of humor.
Director: Robert Altman
It's difficult to be generous to a film like this, because it is SO satisfied with itself. It thinks it is the greatest. It even has an answer to any criticism - any elements of the film which feel 'off' such as, well, all of them - short of the masterful directing - are Hollywood sendups. Flat characterization? Ponderous satire? A plot that argues for itself as superfluous and necessary at the same time? The Player has its cake, eats it too, then invents new words for possession and consumption and does both of those to cake at the same time as well. It is an ouroboros wrapped in a Mobius Strip. At bottom, it is meaningless. Ah, just like Hollywood chatter! How droll! And so forth.
Even more maddening is that it's the kind of movie that critics love, and I love reading critics, so after I get done with writing this, I'm going to read 4 or 5 paeans to this. Maybe it would've been better in 1992 - observations about car/cell phones and bottled water belong with Lorena Bobbitt jokes in the dustbin of humor.
The Parallax View - 1974 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Note: Very Minor Spoilers Ahead
These days, action movies have a shorter and shorter window to be exciting. What I mean is, movies have to wow you in the first hour or so, because they're likely not going to surprise you near the end. The Parallax View concludes with an incredible setpiece where everyone's fate is legitimately questionable. It's not a great film, but a jaunty one - over in only 100 minutes where a modern film about this subject would be at least 130. As such, it does feel like it leaves the viewer wanting a little more exposition.
It's amazing how outdated the ideas in this film are - Cold War paranoia, assassinations, journalism being a really important profession. At one point our protagonist buys a plane ticket on the actual plane. Considering our shadow organizations now operate behind computer terminals, it's difficult to make paranoia cinematic these days, but at least we'll always have The Parallax View.
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Note: Very Minor Spoilers Ahead
These days, action movies have a shorter and shorter window to be exciting. What I mean is, movies have to wow you in the first hour or so, because they're likely not going to surprise you near the end. The Parallax View concludes with an incredible setpiece where everyone's fate is legitimately questionable. It's not a great film, but a jaunty one - over in only 100 minutes where a modern film about this subject would be at least 130. As such, it does feel like it leaves the viewer wanting a little more exposition.
It's amazing how outdated the ideas in this film are - Cold War paranoia, assassinations, journalism being a really important profession. At one point our protagonist buys a plane ticket on the actual plane. Considering our shadow organizations now operate behind computer terminals, it's difficult to make paranoia cinematic these days, but at least we'll always have The Parallax View.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Zero Dark Thirty - 2012 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Films steeped in history where one character knows he or she is right and the rest of the characters don't believe him or her are problematic. We know whether the character is right or wrong, but that doesn't make his or her convictions about the rightness or wrongness of the claim any more dubious or certain. People guess right all the time. This is even more problematic when the 'history' we're talking about happened a year before the film's release.
Zero Dark Thirty would be an incredible film if I didn't know the story, but since I know the story, the tension is gone. It's a stunning piece of film craft (and indeed, of US propaganda), and I got to study the film craft, because I wasn't distracted by the story.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Films steeped in history where one character knows he or she is right and the rest of the characters don't believe him or her are problematic. We know whether the character is right or wrong, but that doesn't make his or her convictions about the rightness or wrongness of the claim any more dubious or certain. People guess right all the time. This is even more problematic when the 'history' we're talking about happened a year before the film's release.
Zero Dark Thirty would be an incredible film if I didn't know the story, but since I know the story, the tension is gone. It's a stunning piece of film craft (and indeed, of US propaganda), and I got to study the film craft, because I wasn't distracted by the story.
Friday, July 26, 2013
The Marinovich Project - 2011 - 4 Stars
Subject: NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich's rise and fall (and rise)
Director: John Dorsey, Andrew Stephan
People tend to think of athletes who failed to live up to their potential as contempible. Chuck Klosterman wrote a fascinating piece about Ralph Sampson, who was a good-not-great NBA player who still managed to disappoint people with how not-great he ended up being. Marinovich's story seems to be indeed that he got lost in other people's narrative of what he was expected to do. I'm not sure about the craft of the documentary, but it was an interesting choice having Marinovich on the beach telling his life story.
It wouldn't be a 30 for 30 without a subconscious jab at the NCAA - amazing how responsible it seems to be for messing up careers.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Computer Chess - 2013 - 3 Stars
Actors: Patrick Riester, Wiley Wiggins
Director: Andrew Bujalski
To what extent should we give credit to a film for getting the 'look' of a thing right? Sure, all the early 80s haircuts and nerd mannerisms are in place in Computer Chess. The black and whiteness of the film helps establish this feel (chess is also a game only in black and white, get it?). However, Computer Chess can't really decide if it's a lo-fi comedy or a fictional examination of the people who would make computers play chess against one another in the early 1980s. Are these people risible or compelling? Furthermore, Computer Chess merely sketches the characters and expects us to fill in the gaps - I suppose part of the issue is that people who would program computers to play chess are not ultimately either that interesting or risible.
Director: Andrew Bujalski
To what extent should we give credit to a film for getting the 'look' of a thing right? Sure, all the early 80s haircuts and nerd mannerisms are in place in Computer Chess. The black and whiteness of the film helps establish this feel (chess is also a game only in black and white, get it?). However, Computer Chess can't really decide if it's a lo-fi comedy or a fictional examination of the people who would make computers play chess against one another in the early 1980s. Are these people risible or compelling? Furthermore, Computer Chess merely sketches the characters and expects us to fill in the gaps - I suppose part of the issue is that people who would program computers to play chess are not ultimately either that interesting or risible.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
The Act Of Killing - 2013 - 4 Stars
Subject: Indonesians involved in 1965 slaughter of Communist revolutionaries re-enact their roles for a movie
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
The Act Of Killing examines gigantic questions - the effect of conscience on one's health and happiness, the role and power of art in human socieities, the ways in which art and life are linked, the combinaton of allure and revulsion with which humanity responds to violence, the extent to which winners write history, how corruption in its modern and archaic senses are inextricably linked. The fact that one film tackles all of these things (and indeed offers few answers) is an incredible achievement. I can either write 20 more words about it or 2000, and indeed, 20 should suffice for now.
I suspect in a few years this will stand as one of the great documentaries of our time - I rate it 4 stars because I find it hard to rate documentaries as highly as narrative films (the lumpiness inherent to the genre sometimes makes for confused viewing).
Friday, July 19, 2013
Not Fade Away - 2012 - 3½ Stars
Actors: John Magaro, James Gandolfini
Director: David Chase
There's a point in Not Fade Away where I was disgusted. I thought David Chase had made a simpering, yay-me, yay-us, thinly veiled memoir pic. And about the goddamn mid 1960s, a period in time I could not be less interested in. He had done such an effective job of convincing me of this that I had forgotten this was made by David Chase. Indeed, I shouldn't've been worried at all.
There's a clue in the movie about how the movie's going to end, but it's still a ballsy choice. I sure hope this thing made its money back, because I want to see what David Chase can do if he's turned away from memoir-type pictures.
Director: David Chase
There's a point in Not Fade Away where I was disgusted. I thought David Chase had made a simpering, yay-me, yay-us, thinly veiled memoir pic. And about the goddamn mid 1960s, a period in time I could not be less interested in. He had done such an effective job of convincing me of this that I had forgotten this was made by David Chase. Indeed, I shouldn't've been worried at all.
There's a clue in the movie about how the movie's going to end, but it's still a ballsy choice. I sure hope this thing made its money back, because I want to see what David Chase can do if he's turned away from memoir-type pictures.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Margin Call - 2011 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany
Director: J.C. Chandor
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead
Margin Call is probably the overall best film I've seen about high finance. Stories about high finance that also peddle in morals always have two problems: being super-rich always looks really awesome in movies, and the montage where our protagonist learns how to cheat people out of money looks fun instead of soul-destroying. Margin Call avoids the stylish montage and flaunting the trappings of the hyper-rich. It contains speeches, but doesn't pound you over the head with its points. This is a movie for Adults - sadly, too few of these are made.
I want to rate this film higher because of my appreciation of its craft, but it's not a very exciting movie. The characters aren't sharply drawn, which is part of the point. The camera work is functional - again, part of the point, no whiz-bang effects. I doubt anyone decides to study finance because they saw Margin Call when they were young.
Director: J.C. Chandor
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead
Margin Call is probably the overall best film I've seen about high finance. Stories about high finance that also peddle in morals always have two problems: being super-rich always looks really awesome in movies, and the montage where our protagonist learns how to cheat people out of money looks fun instead of soul-destroying. Margin Call avoids the stylish montage and flaunting the trappings of the hyper-rich. It contains speeches, but doesn't pound you over the head with its points. This is a movie for Adults - sadly, too few of these are made.
I want to rate this film higher because of my appreciation of its craft, but it's not a very exciting movie. The characters aren't sharply drawn, which is part of the point. The camera work is functional - again, part of the point, no whiz-bang effects. I doubt anyone decides to study finance because they saw Margin Call when they were young.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Frances Ha - 2013 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner
Director: Noah Baumbach
Female friendships seem both more natural and more daunting than male ones. They can be more intimate and therefore more fleeting. Things that seem true when people are in the same environment (like college) change when people enter actual society - what we expect out of a career, in relationships, etc. changes significantly. Or maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but that's what's depicted on-screen in Frances Ha.
Gerwig stars (and co-wrote) as a would-be modern dancer trying to make a living off that in New York City. Her performance, and indeed, all the performances are excellent. The film makes the point that when you lie to your best friend it's often because you're lying to yourself, too - it's not meant to be hurtful.
Director: Noah Baumbach
Female friendships seem both more natural and more daunting than male ones. They can be more intimate and therefore more fleeting. Things that seem true when people are in the same environment (like college) change when people enter actual society - what we expect out of a career, in relationships, etc. changes significantly. Or maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but that's what's depicted on-screen in Frances Ha.
Gerwig stars (and co-wrote) as a would-be modern dancer trying to make a living off that in New York City. Her performance, and indeed, all the performances are excellent. The film makes the point that when you lie to your best friend it's often because you're lying to yourself, too - it's not meant to be hurtful.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
The End Of Summer - 1961 - 4 Stars
Actors: Ganjiro Nakamura, Setsuko Hara
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
I was tempted to start this entry with something remarkably crude about people who don't like Ozu (creating a natural juxtaposition with Ozu's obsession regarding social graces), but there's no call for that, is there? Ozu is a masterful director, but his films are certainly not for everyone.
This film feels very un-Ozu, as it opens on neon signs and the first scene is set in a bar. Eventually we get rolling with a complicated family relationship (one which, were I presented with pictures and names, I don't think I'd be able to sort out who's who - there's even a point in the movie where Ozu puts in a scene of blatant exposition involving some side characters making sure we know how everyone's related). It's hard to know what's the foreground and background in Ozu films - times in Japan are changing. The modes of dress among old and young are different. The ways in which people go about their business are also different. We see how these things affect the way the characters interact with one another.
There's a bit of (surprising) hamfistedness here, but in all, it's another wonderful examination of how everyday people live.
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
I was tempted to start this entry with something remarkably crude about people who don't like Ozu (creating a natural juxtaposition with Ozu's obsession regarding social graces), but there's no call for that, is there? Ozu is a masterful director, but his films are certainly not for everyone.
This film feels very un-Ozu, as it opens on neon signs and the first scene is set in a bar. Eventually we get rolling with a complicated family relationship (one which, were I presented with pictures and names, I don't think I'd be able to sort out who's who - there's even a point in the movie where Ozu puts in a scene of blatant exposition involving some side characters making sure we know how everyone's related). It's hard to know what's the foreground and background in Ozu films - times in Japan are changing. The modes of dress among old and young are different. The ways in which people go about their business are also different. We see how these things affect the way the characters interact with one another.
There's a bit of (surprising) hamfistedness here, but in all, it's another wonderful examination of how everyday people live.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
This Is The End - 2013 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel
Director: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead, Plus A Long Mini-Essay With Spoilers
How much of the Apatow/Feig type oeuvre would you have to have seen to find this film funny, I wondered? It stars the actors who've tended to dominate comedy films over the last 5 to 10 years, playing exaggerated versions of themselves while making references to their acting resumes. Whatever the case, the movie worked on me, and I wasn't sure it would. What could have been a meta-film was played remarkably straight - I don't think anyone says at any point 'This is like a movie!' or something asinine like that. Besides an extended parody to The Exorcist (spoiled in the commercials), direct allusions to other movies either weren't there or went over my head. The laughs diminish as the plot winds down, but isn't that always the way? Whoever manages to do the reverse in comedy will be a millionaire.
MINI ESSAY ABOUT THE MEANING OF THIS FILM VIS-A-VIS FUTURE FILMS
One thing this movie plays with is the idea that the Apatow/Feig genre seems to feature lazy characterization in general - that as bro hangout type movies, the characters aren't well defined as anything except for versions of the actor that the actor has already portrayed. I'm not sure I believe this - I think Seth Rogen's character in Funny People is actually well-acted and quite un-Seth Rogen-y at points - but certainly there's something to this idea.
A caveat to the proceeding: I haven't seen much of James Franco's dramatic work. I saw Spiderman and Freaks and Geeks, but besides Pineapple Express (which I've only seen half of), I don't consider Franco under the Apatow umbrella.
This film is an apotheosis of sorts. For one, it nicely seems to preclude other films starring these actors as themselves - I mean, obviously retconning wouldn't be out of place in this genre, but the film ends with the world in ruins. However, it puts the image of these people 'playing themselves' into our minds. I don't think it will take away from their future dramatic performances, whatever they may be, but I think their comedy performances may be affected. Where can they go with characterization from here? What kind of fake job and life can they invent for a Seth Rogen surrogate to be embodied by his amiable yet hilarious-to-anger stoner? I guess to some degree it doesn't matter - Rogen is 31 and aging out of this genre, or so one would think. Regardless, by playing themselves as wealthy Hollywood types, the actors do distance themselves from the audience somewhat (although one could argue that with the preponderance of TMZ-type revelations and WTF-style interviews, a certain audience is much closer to these people than they might otherwise be despite the gap in income and/or success).
However, the one thing that seems to keep these people alive comedically, as well as the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost combination, regardless of their wealth and fame, is a love of cinema. I saw a stand-up comic's performance and everything was basically about his life as a stand-up comedian - things he saw in hotels and on planes, people he met at bars, things that happened when he went to perform somewhere. The material was good but not 100% relatable - everything he said felt like a performance, nothing seemed all that vital. The beauty of the bottomless chasm that is cinema's navel is that one only needs to retain one's inner fanboy to remain vital in a culture where Movies are king. One can be rich and famous but as long as the characters one portrays on screen are still quoting movies and the films themselves are using movies as cultural currency, they work. I think. We'll see.
Director: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead, Plus A Long Mini-Essay With Spoilers
How much of the Apatow/Feig type oeuvre would you have to have seen to find this film funny, I wondered? It stars the actors who've tended to dominate comedy films over the last 5 to 10 years, playing exaggerated versions of themselves while making references to their acting resumes. Whatever the case, the movie worked on me, and I wasn't sure it would. What could have been a meta-film was played remarkably straight - I don't think anyone says at any point 'This is like a movie!' or something asinine like that. Besides an extended parody to The Exorcist (spoiled in the commercials), direct allusions to other movies either weren't there or went over my head. The laughs diminish as the plot winds down, but isn't that always the way? Whoever manages to do the reverse in comedy will be a millionaire.
MINI ESSAY ABOUT THE MEANING OF THIS FILM VIS-A-VIS FUTURE FILMS
One thing this movie plays with is the idea that the Apatow/Feig genre seems to feature lazy characterization in general - that as bro hangout type movies, the characters aren't well defined as anything except for versions of the actor that the actor has already portrayed. I'm not sure I believe this - I think Seth Rogen's character in Funny People is actually well-acted and quite un-Seth Rogen-y at points - but certainly there's something to this idea.
A caveat to the proceeding: I haven't seen much of James Franco's dramatic work. I saw Spiderman and Freaks and Geeks, but besides Pineapple Express (which I've only seen half of), I don't consider Franco under the Apatow umbrella.
This film is an apotheosis of sorts. For one, it nicely seems to preclude other films starring these actors as themselves - I mean, obviously retconning wouldn't be out of place in this genre, but the film ends with the world in ruins. However, it puts the image of these people 'playing themselves' into our minds. I don't think it will take away from their future dramatic performances, whatever they may be, but I think their comedy performances may be affected. Where can they go with characterization from here? What kind of fake job and life can they invent for a Seth Rogen surrogate to be embodied by his amiable yet hilarious-to-anger stoner? I guess to some degree it doesn't matter - Rogen is 31 and aging out of this genre, or so one would think. Regardless, by playing themselves as wealthy Hollywood types, the actors do distance themselves from the audience somewhat (although one could argue that with the preponderance of TMZ-type revelations and WTF-style interviews, a certain audience is much closer to these people than they might otherwise be despite the gap in income and/or success).
However, the one thing that seems to keep these people alive comedically, as well as the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost combination, regardless of their wealth and fame, is a love of cinema. I saw a stand-up comic's performance and everything was basically about his life as a stand-up comedian - things he saw in hotels and on planes, people he met at bars, things that happened when he went to perform somewhere. The material was good but not 100% relatable - everything he said felt like a performance, nothing seemed all that vital. The beauty of the bottomless chasm that is cinema's navel is that one only needs to retain one's inner fanboy to remain vital in a culture where Movies are king. One can be rich and famous but as long as the characters one portrays on screen are still quoting movies and the films themselves are using movies as cultural currency, they work. I think. We'll see.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Bernie - 2011 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine
Director: Richard Linklater
Hollywood's portrayal of small-town folks has often been a concern for this blog. Despite seeming to be the exact sort of person that would enjoy it, I abhor condescension on screen, and I don't like the way rural areas of the United States are typically depicted: either full of eccentrics, bumpkins, or both. Now while Bernie's full of both eccentrics and bumpkins, there isn't anyone there to try to teach them to be better or different.
Jack Black's portrayal of a Southern churchgoing (assistant) funeral director is excellent - he too stops from playing the character with a wink to the audience. The personality is naturally a ham, so there is no need to add more. A complicated film - at bottom, it seems to be about what social obligations mean in a town where everyone knows everyone.
Director: Richard Linklater
Hollywood's portrayal of small-town folks has often been a concern for this blog. Despite seeming to be the exact sort of person that would enjoy it, I abhor condescension on screen, and I don't like the way rural areas of the United States are typically depicted: either full of eccentrics, bumpkins, or both. Now while Bernie's full of both eccentrics and bumpkins, there isn't anyone there to try to teach them to be better or different.
Jack Black's portrayal of a Southern churchgoing (assistant) funeral director is excellent - he too stops from playing the character with a wink to the audience. The personality is naturally a ham, so there is no need to add more. A complicated film - at bottom, it seems to be about what social obligations mean in a town where everyone knows everyone.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Premium Rush - 2012 - 4 Stars
Actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon
Director: David Koepp
Somehow it's become de rigueur that any action film in a large city involves large parts of it on fire or blowing up. Whether it's a catharsis for the attacks of September 11th, 2001 or some inborn desire to see harmless chaos, I don't really care - I do know that it's fundamentally boring and uncinematic. Here's a better story: the adrenaline rush of the mundane coupled with a loopy story.
Premium Rush has all sorts of plot problems - it even falls into the trap of ensuring that our protagonist is a genius who has chosen to live his life a certain way - but when a film has several great action setpieces, who cares? The film loses steam in its final third as we wind our way to the conclusion, but more movies should be like this. I don't want to blow cities up, I want to see their hidden thrills, licit or otherwise - on this scale, Premium Rush is a smashing success.
Director: David Koepp
Somehow it's become de rigueur that any action film in a large city involves large parts of it on fire or blowing up. Whether it's a catharsis for the attacks of September 11th, 2001 or some inborn desire to see harmless chaos, I don't really care - I do know that it's fundamentally boring and uncinematic. Here's a better story: the adrenaline rush of the mundane coupled with a loopy story.
Premium Rush has all sorts of plot problems - it even falls into the trap of ensuring that our protagonist is a genius who has chosen to live his life a certain way - but when a film has several great action setpieces, who cares? The film loses steam in its final third as we wind our way to the conclusion, but more movies should be like this. I don't want to blow cities up, I want to see their hidden thrills, licit or otherwise - on this scale, Premium Rush is a smashing success.
The Loneliest Planet - 2011 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Hani Furstenberg, Gael Garcia Bernal
Director: Julia Loktev
Films like The Loneliest Planet exist in the imagination. As such, they offer few answers. And they're sort of a chore to watch, too, because to get the mind into this state of contemplation is not easy - the plot and characterization needs to be spare. The characters are blank slates on which we project our cultural expectations. They don't even necessarily talk much, because talking is the quickest way to ruin this state of contemplation.
However, films like this grow better as they fulminate and coalesce in the mind; their power grows the more one thinks about them. I don't think all films should be more like this, but I think fans of film should make sure to seek out a movie like this every so often to readjust one's expectations of what a film can do.
Director: Julia Loktev
Films like The Loneliest Planet exist in the imagination. As such, they offer few answers. And they're sort of a chore to watch, too, because to get the mind into this state of contemplation is not easy - the plot and characterization needs to be spare. The characters are blank slates on which we project our cultural expectations. They don't even necessarily talk much, because talking is the quickest way to ruin this state of contemplation.
However, films like this grow better as they fulminate and coalesce in the mind; their power grows the more one thinks about them. I don't think all films should be more like this, but I think fans of film should make sure to seek out a movie like this every so often to readjust one's expectations of what a film can do.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Looper - 2012 - 4 Stars
Actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis
Director: Rian Johnson
Looper is a time-travel movie that doesn't give you a ton of exposition, and films that toss you around like this tend to either improve or get worse on a second watch. They improve when the characterization deepens and the plot's elegance becomes more apparent, they get worse when the characters appear flat and so the resolution to the story is a mere formality.
One of the excellent things about Looper is that it feels lived in - elements of the story which are not particularly important and aren't fully explained are still present in the film. This happens in just about every film, but we typically ignore it because it's information we already know. It's more vital for films set in the future to attempt this - it's too easy for a director to focus just on things present in the story, without explaining the world at large.
Director: Rian Johnson
Looper is a time-travel movie that doesn't give you a ton of exposition, and films that toss you around like this tend to either improve or get worse on a second watch. They improve when the characterization deepens and the plot's elegance becomes more apparent, they get worse when the characters appear flat and so the resolution to the story is a mere formality.
One of the excellent things about Looper is that it feels lived in - elements of the story which are not particularly important and aren't fully explained are still present in the film. This happens in just about every film, but we typically ignore it because it's information we already know. It's more vital for films set in the future to attempt this - it's too easy for a director to focus just on things present in the story, without explaining the world at large.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Star Trek: Into Darkness - 2013 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Zachary Qunito, Chris Pine
Director: J.J. Abrams
I was exposed to near-fatal levels of Star Trek as a child, and while I enjoyed the original series on the rare occasions I saw it, I loathed Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Both seemed to contain a self-seriousness that the franchise doesn't merit. I mean, c'mon, it's space in the future. I also missed the 2009 Star Trek reboot, but this film seems to embrace the silliness intrinsic to the series. The sharply deliniated characters of the original bounce off one another, there's goofy moments, there are also emotional moments, popcorn is consumed, people leave the theater satisfied.
We're nearly 50 years closer to the future imagined by Star Trek when the Original Series began, so now we know that picture of the future is absurd. Regardless, elements like 'inaccurate guns' are so necessary to preserve action cinema - one wonders how action cinema will evolve in this time of drone strikes and targeting from space, etc.
Director: J.J. Abrams
I was exposed to near-fatal levels of Star Trek as a child, and while I enjoyed the original series on the rare occasions I saw it, I loathed Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Both seemed to contain a self-seriousness that the franchise doesn't merit. I mean, c'mon, it's space in the future. I also missed the 2009 Star Trek reboot, but this film seems to embrace the silliness intrinsic to the series. The sharply deliniated characters of the original bounce off one another, there's goofy moments, there are also emotional moments, popcorn is consumed, people leave the theater satisfied.
We're nearly 50 years closer to the future imagined by Star Trek when the Original Series began, so now we know that picture of the future is absurd. Regardless, elements like 'inaccurate guns' are so necessary to preserve action cinema - one wonders how action cinema will evolve in this time of drone strikes and targeting from space, etc.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Damsels In Distress - 2011 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody
Director: Whit Stillman
Whit Stillman's films often feel too trifling to be movies, and this one is certainly no different - while there's an air of sadness to this film, it's whimsical sadness. Everything is intentionally rendered as being both massively important and incredibly not-important, with our main character being analytical in an eccentric way. The film never really comes together and how the plot resolves I can't even remember, but I don't really care - I enjoy Whit Stillman films a lot. Even though he's 60 years old, here he somehow evokes the anxieties and pleasures of college-bound youth, while getting some fantastic shots.
Director: Whit Stillman
Whit Stillman's films often feel too trifling to be movies, and this one is certainly no different - while there's an air of sadness to this film, it's whimsical sadness. Everything is intentionally rendered as being both massively important and incredibly not-important, with our main character being analytical in an eccentric way. The film never really comes together and how the plot resolves I can't even remember, but I don't really care - I enjoy Whit Stillman films a lot. Even though he's 60 years old, here he somehow evokes the anxieties and pleasures of college-bound youth, while getting some fantastic shots.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Upstream Color - 2013 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth
Director: Shane Carruth
Rating this movie is quite silly - so silly that I may take the rating off by the time I finish this post. I've read a lot of reviews comparing this film to The Tree Of Life, but that film was at least 90% comprehensible - the end was a puzzle, but not so much of one that you couldn't invent a meaning for the ending yourself. Upstream Color is alternately opaque and enchanting, an unsolvable mystery. But all that is okay - there are pieces of the film that will resonate and others that will fall away. All in all, I kinda have no idea what happened but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Carruth is a filmmaker of the 21st century or perhaps beyond. His films are like nothing else going - here's hoping this one does well enough that he can continue to make more.
Director: Shane Carruth
Rating this movie is quite silly - so silly that I may take the rating off by the time I finish this post. I've read a lot of reviews comparing this film to The Tree Of Life, but that film was at least 90% comprehensible - the end was a puzzle, but not so much of one that you couldn't invent a meaning for the ending yourself. Upstream Color is alternately opaque and enchanting, an unsolvable mystery. But all that is okay - there are pieces of the film that will resonate and others that will fall away. All in all, I kinda have no idea what happened but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Carruth is a filmmaker of the 21st century or perhaps beyond. His films are like nothing else going - here's hoping this one does well enough that he can continue to make more.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The Public Enemy - 1932 - 3 Stars
Actors: James Cagney, Edward Woods
Director: William Wellman
The Public Enemy opens with a statement that this film is intended as a cautionary tale about hoodlumery and gangsterdom. It then sets out very methodically showing that by way of vignettes - we see James Cagney's rise to being on the payroll of a prominent bootlegger, then his fall when the winds of the mob world shift against him. The trouble is, few of these scenes feel real - they all feel as though they are in the service of the opening statement. Worse, Season 3 of The Sopranos spoils the best scenes. Still, James Cagney's performance is worth seeing, even if the rest of the film is ho-hum by today's standards.
Director: William Wellman
The Public Enemy opens with a statement that this film is intended as a cautionary tale about hoodlumery and gangsterdom. It then sets out very methodically showing that by way of vignettes - we see James Cagney's rise to being on the payroll of a prominent bootlegger, then his fall when the winds of the mob world shift against him. The trouble is, few of these scenes feel real - they all feel as though they are in the service of the opening statement. Worse, Season 3 of The Sopranos spoils the best scenes. Still, James Cagney's performance is worth seeing, even if the rest of the film is ho-hum by today's standards.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
A Separation - 2011 - 4½ Stars
Actors: Peyman Moadi, Leila Hatami
Director: Ashgar Farhadi
There are films where the individual pieces fit together to form a much greater whole, and films where the whole spills out all over the pieces - the pieces don't form a whole. I was going to call this film Cassevetes In Iran, but that's doing this film a disservice - Cassavetes films are spilling films, they might end up somewhere or nowhere at all. This one knows what it's doing at all times, and it's all here - class, culture, love, family, and ultimately what we value highest. Confident direction also helps what could be a visually uninteresting film.
Director: Ashgar Farhadi
There are films where the individual pieces fit together to form a much greater whole, and films where the whole spills out all over the pieces - the pieces don't form a whole. I was going to call this film Cassevetes In Iran, but that's doing this film a disservice - Cassavetes films are spilling films, they might end up somewhere or nowhere at all. This one knows what it's doing at all times, and it's all here - class, culture, love, family, and ultimately what we value highest. Confident direction also helps what could be a visually uninteresting film.
Friday, March 8, 2013
The Imposter - 2011 - 4 Stars
Subject: An adult in Spain poses as a missing child from Texas
Director: Bart Layton
The Imposter features at least one Errol Morris moment - I'm defining an Errol Morris moment as a point at which you have been watching utter insanity unfold on screen for a good long while, and then things get exponentially crazier. As such, I can overlook the fact that it seems to be a made-for-TV documentary that got dropped into a theater release - an alternate title for the film could be The Establishing Shot (and indeed, its actual title is pretty bad). Regardless, it pulls off something I'm not sure I've seen a documentary film attempt. A must-see.
Director: Bart Layton
The Imposter features at least one Errol Morris moment - I'm defining an Errol Morris moment as a point at which you have been watching utter insanity unfold on screen for a good long while, and then things get exponentially crazier. As such, I can overlook the fact that it seems to be a made-for-TV documentary that got dropped into a theater release - an alternate title for the film could be The Establishing Shot (and indeed, its actual title is pretty bad). Regardless, it pulls off something I'm not sure I've seen a documentary film attempt. A must-see.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
The Getaway - 1972 - 4 Stars
Actors: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Note: Very Minor Spoilers
A film directed by Peckinpah and written by Walter Hill, while watching it I felt that two testicles simply wasn't enough - all male viewers of this film should be issued an extra ballsack to hang under their existing one. At the very least, all theatergoers should've been given a Stetson. Regardless, this was still quite an enjoyable film, featuring some excellent setpieces and tension building.
Even though this film is unnecessarily long at 123 minutes, I like the strange twists and turns at the margins. There are Buffalo films like Cabin In The Woods, and then there's anti-Buffalo ones like this, featuring bizarre scenes with Virgil Salazzo coercing a veterinarian to clean a gunshot wound while he has a kitten perched on his naked chest. Sometimes unnecessary scenes - the development of secondary characters, or interactions between our main characters and people who have no bearing on the plot - suggest life how it's lived.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Note: Very Minor Spoilers
A film directed by Peckinpah and written by Walter Hill, while watching it I felt that two testicles simply wasn't enough - all male viewers of this film should be issued an extra ballsack to hang under their existing one. At the very least, all theatergoers should've been given a Stetson. Regardless, this was still quite an enjoyable film, featuring some excellent setpieces and tension building.
Even though this film is unnecessarily long at 123 minutes, I like the strange twists and turns at the margins. There are Buffalo films like Cabin In The Woods, and then there's anti-Buffalo ones like this, featuring bizarre scenes with Virgil Salazzo coercing a veterinarian to clean a gunshot wound while he has a kitten perched on his naked chest. Sometimes unnecessary scenes - the development of secondary characters, or interactions between our main characters and people who have no bearing on the plot - suggest life how it's lived.
Monday, March 4, 2013
The Cabin In The Woods - 2011 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth
Director: Drew Goddard
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead
I feel like the most ignored aspect of our age as it relates to art is just how many stories we are bombarded with. As a consequence of this irradiation, story-makers come up with new stories by nesting them in older stories, or relating them to process of creating stories. Cabin in the Woods's gimmick establishes that if we are familiar with the artifice of horror films, why not add an additional insane layer of artifice over and above that one?
There's all sorts of play with the idea of a horror film viewer as a cruel person - the implication of the Cabin gimmick is that by exposing ourselves to a story where youngsters are needlessly maimed or killed by a strange force, we need and/or want that death to happen. I give this film high marks for inventiveness, but it plays in a territory of cuteness that I have a difficult time loving.
Director: Drew Goddard
Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead
I feel like the most ignored aspect of our age as it relates to art is just how many stories we are bombarded with. As a consequence of this irradiation, story-makers come up with new stories by nesting them in older stories, or relating them to process of creating stories. Cabin in the Woods's gimmick establishes that if we are familiar with the artifice of horror films, why not add an additional insane layer of artifice over and above that one?
There's all sorts of play with the idea of a horror film viewer as a cruel person - the implication of the Cabin gimmick is that by exposing ourselves to a story where youngsters are needlessly maimed or killed by a strange force, we need and/or want that death to happen. I give this film high marks for inventiveness, but it plays in a territory of cuteness that I have a difficult time loving.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Moonrise Kingdom - 2012 - 4 Stars
Actors: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward
Director: Wes Anderson
It's been a long time since I've seen a 'new' Wes Anderson film - likely close to five years - and I think the layoff has energized me as well as him. I've forgiven his dollhouse aesthetics - Ozu has this fussiness about interior spaces, what's wrong with wanting to be precise? I've forgiven his unnecessary archness, and oversincerity cast as humor - a trait certainly on display in this film, but limited to the background. And I love his strengths here, as he invents a fake geography and literature (and I think new songs) as well for his world.
Most of all, I think Wes Anderson's aesthetic works best with children. All of his films feature children, but many of them are played by adult actors and are actually adults. These characters are children in that they haven't yet realized that the world isn't their playground, and that shooting for the moon and missing slightly isn't the end of the world. Awkward dialogue works for children, too, because children are awkward - I could see some of this film being laughed at in a theater, but I'm not sure I laughed once. That doesn't mean I didn't still enjoy myself.
Director: Wes Anderson
It's been a long time since I've seen a 'new' Wes Anderson film - likely close to five years - and I think the layoff has energized me as well as him. I've forgiven his dollhouse aesthetics - Ozu has this fussiness about interior spaces, what's wrong with wanting to be precise? I've forgiven his unnecessary archness, and oversincerity cast as humor - a trait certainly on display in this film, but limited to the background. And I love his strengths here, as he invents a fake geography and literature (and I think new songs) as well for his world.
Most of all, I think Wes Anderson's aesthetic works best with children. All of his films feature children, but many of them are played by adult actors and are actually adults. These characters are children in that they haven't yet realized that the world isn't their playground, and that shooting for the moon and missing slightly isn't the end of the world. Awkward dialogue works for children, too, because children are awkward - I could see some of this film being laughed at in a theater, but I'm not sure I laughed once. That doesn't mean I didn't still enjoy myself.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Marathon Man - 1976 - 4 Stars
Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier
Director: John Schlesinger
Marathon Man is what I'm going to term a Buffalo film - the sort of movie where every part of it gets used. No element is introduced and forgotten. This can feel satisfying or manipulative - I tend towards manipulative, because it increases the amount of artifice. While every part here gets used, I'm not sure every part is necessary. That said, Marathon Man features at least three excellent setpieces, strong visual work, and solid plotting. Maybe I'm jaded, but they just don't do paranoia like they did in the 1970s.
William Devane plays a creepy guy in this - I don't know how, between this and Family Plot, he didn't get more work as a go-to slimeball. Maybe William Atherton kept beating him out for parts in the 1980s.
Director: John Schlesinger
Marathon Man is what I'm going to term a Buffalo film - the sort of movie where every part of it gets used. No element is introduced and forgotten. This can feel satisfying or manipulative - I tend towards manipulative, because it increases the amount of artifice. While every part here gets used, I'm not sure every part is necessary. That said, Marathon Man features at least three excellent setpieces, strong visual work, and solid plotting. Maybe I'm jaded, but they just don't do paranoia like they did in the 1970s.
William Devane plays a creepy guy in this - I don't know how, between this and Family Plot, he didn't get more work as a go-to slimeball. Maybe William Atherton kept beating him out for parts in the 1980s.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
The Fugitive Kind - 1961 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani
Director: Sidney Lumet
The Fugitive Kind is based on a play, and plays often present big challenges to movie writers and directors. There tend to be more monologues, and these can be difficult to stage and frame in an interesting way. Plays often take place in a limited number of locations, so the film version can start to feel hemmed in by its setting. Plays get by on the vitality of the actors right in front of us - movie acting has a larger barrier.
The Fugitive Kind is loaded with symbolism, and this is one element of plays that I don't think translates well to the screen - plays are clearly bounded by three walls. We know at all points that it is a production, and we're more willing to forgive unrealistic choices for the sake of symbolism, because we're always confronted with the artifice. (This is part of why Dogville works as a movie - stage that film on a set made to look like a small town and it likely falls apart). Lumet makes some great choices - his close-in work reminds me of 12 Angry Men - but he cannot fully overcome the play-ness of the source material.
Director: Sidney Lumet
The Fugitive Kind is based on a play, and plays often present big challenges to movie writers and directors. There tend to be more monologues, and these can be difficult to stage and frame in an interesting way. Plays often take place in a limited number of locations, so the film version can start to feel hemmed in by its setting. Plays get by on the vitality of the actors right in front of us - movie acting has a larger barrier.
The Fugitive Kind is loaded with symbolism, and this is one element of plays that I don't think translates well to the screen - plays are clearly bounded by three walls. We know at all points that it is a production, and we're more willing to forgive unrealistic choices for the sake of symbolism, because we're always confronted with the artifice. (This is part of why Dogville works as a movie - stage that film on a set made to look like a small town and it likely falls apart). Lumet makes some great choices - his close-in work reminds me of 12 Angry Men - but he cannot fully overcome the play-ness of the source material.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Jeff, Who Lives At Home - 2012 - 3 Stars
Actors: Jason Segel, Ed Helms
Director: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
The Duplass brothers seem like the new Millenium's answer to John Cassavetes - their films are about the moment that is happening on screen. While Jeff, Who Lives At Home builds to a crescendo, that crescendo is not very sensible if one considers all the action before it, but those moments are irrelevant - it's about what's happening now. They get solid performances out of excellent actors, and their films are more about performance than super-sharp dialogue or plotting.
One thing I've found difficult to parse in movies that are kinda comedies such as this one is the reality of certain comic characters - it's as if the comic aspects are heightened to soothe what might be a very bored audience otherwise, but this heightening robs the film of some pathos it could have otherwise elicited.
Director: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
The Duplass brothers seem like the new Millenium's answer to John Cassavetes - their films are about the moment that is happening on screen. While Jeff, Who Lives At Home builds to a crescendo, that crescendo is not very sensible if one considers all the action before it, but those moments are irrelevant - it's about what's happening now. They get solid performances out of excellent actors, and their films are more about performance than super-sharp dialogue or plotting.
One thing I've found difficult to parse in movies that are kinda comedies such as this one is the reality of certain comic characters - it's as if the comic aspects are heightened to soothe what might be a very bored audience otherwise, but this heightening robs the film of some pathos it could have otherwise elicited.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Modern Romance - 1981 - 4 Stars
Actors: Albert Brooks, Kathryn Harrold
Director: Albert Brooks
There are lowercase c comedies which involve ridiculous people getting into ridiculous situations saying ridiculous things. Hollywood has made an industry of these. Then there are capital C Comedies that try to get at the way people actually are, where the humor often derives from seeing a heightened version of ourself on the screen. Modern Romance belongs in the latter category and succeeds beautifully at portraying the neuroses involved with an on-again, off-again love affair.
Brooks utilizes a device I have almost never seen in a comedy film: the long take. After his breakup we get a several minute long shot of him bouncing around his apartment with uncertainty. Comedies usually excise the mundane, but this one revels in it, mining Brooks's character's self-doubt beautifully. Furthermore, Brooks's character exists in a lived-in world - he has a real job that's not just a series of montages. The film uses this job to comment on his love life in two brilliant sequences.
Director: Albert Brooks
There are lowercase c comedies which involve ridiculous people getting into ridiculous situations saying ridiculous things. Hollywood has made an industry of these. Then there are capital C Comedies that try to get at the way people actually are, where the humor often derives from seeing a heightened version of ourself on the screen. Modern Romance belongs in the latter category and succeeds beautifully at portraying the neuroses involved with an on-again, off-again love affair.
Brooks utilizes a device I have almost never seen in a comedy film: the long take. After his breakup we get a several minute long shot of him bouncing around his apartment with uncertainty. Comedies usually excise the mundane, but this one revels in it, mining Brooks's character's self-doubt beautifully. Furthermore, Brooks's character exists in a lived-in world - he has a real job that's not just a series of montages. The film uses this job to comment on his love life in two brilliant sequences.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
The Ambassador - 2011 - No Rating
Subject: A journalist attempts to pass as a 'business diplomat' in Africa
Director: Mads Brugger
When I was young, I had a National Geographic book called Our World that contained maps and blurbs about all the countries of the world. Since it was a National Geographic book, positive traits were accentuated and negative ones softened - countries with intractable civil wars were also described as beautiful, etc. African countries's vast resources would also be mentioned, as though those were a way out of poverty and suffering for its nation's citizens. As The Ambassador shows, suffering is only increased by the presence of valuable resources, as the world's wealthier nations figure out ways to bribe corrupt governments for cheap access to said resources.
The Ambassador is part investigative journalism, part satire, part weird Morgan Spurlock/Sascha Baron Cohen stunt. We see secretly filmed conversations and events as Brugger obtains papers that claim he is Liberia's ambassador to the Central African Republic, papers which would enable him to transport conflict diamonds from the Republic back to Europe without scrutiny. It's one of the strangest documentaries I've seen, but it adds up to less than the sum of its parts, in part because we're unsure just how deep the stunt goes.
Director: Mads Brugger
When I was young, I had a National Geographic book called Our World that contained maps and blurbs about all the countries of the world. Since it was a National Geographic book, positive traits were accentuated and negative ones softened - countries with intractable civil wars were also described as beautiful, etc. African countries's vast resources would also be mentioned, as though those were a way out of poverty and suffering for its nation's citizens. As The Ambassador shows, suffering is only increased by the presence of valuable resources, as the world's wealthier nations figure out ways to bribe corrupt governments for cheap access to said resources.
The Ambassador is part investigative journalism, part satire, part weird Morgan Spurlock/Sascha Baron Cohen stunt. We see secretly filmed conversations and events as Brugger obtains papers that claim he is Liberia's ambassador to the Central African Republic, papers which would enable him to transport conflict diamonds from the Republic back to Europe without scrutiny. It's one of the strangest documentaries I've seen, but it adds up to less than the sum of its parts, in part because we're unsure just how deep the stunt goes.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Across 110th Street - 1972 - 2½ Stars
Actors: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto
Director: Barry Shear
I was trying to get information on Wikipedia about the titular song (played so memorably at the beginning of Jackie Brown) and ended up seeing information for this movie. According to critics, 'it is elevated above normal blaxploitation fare'. I'd agree with that assessment, but I'd also lament that elevation. The film sets up to be better than what it turns out to be - the second half of the movie is perfunctory in almost all respects.
One thing Across 110th St does really well, as do many 1970s on location New York films - they get all kinds of interesting shots when they're in apartments. This is because New York apartments are so damn small that the director has to be creative.
Director: Barry Shear
I was trying to get information on Wikipedia about the titular song (played so memorably at the beginning of Jackie Brown) and ended up seeing information for this movie. According to critics, 'it is elevated above normal blaxploitation fare'. I'd agree with that assessment, but I'd also lament that elevation. The film sets up to be better than what it turns out to be - the second half of the movie is perfunctory in almost all respects.
One thing Across 110th St does really well, as do many 1970s on location New York films - they get all kinds of interesting shots when they're in apartments. This is because New York apartments are so damn small that the director has to be creative.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Goon - 2011 - 3 Stars
Actors: Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel
Director: Michael Dowse
It's ballsy to make a hockey comedy - it's inevitable that the film will be compared to the industry standard, Slap Shot. Despite the reverence that film has from the hockey community, Slap Shot is not just a raunchy comedy revolving around the game. Smuggled inside all the slapstick is a 70s-type character study about a guy whose way of life is becoming outdated and the hockey wives and girlfriends that put up with 'living the dream' in the minor leagues. I was genuinely surprised how slow the film is compared to modern comedies of the same stripe (and as compared to its august rep - one which I imagine is cemented as the film is a rite of passage among young teenage hockey players). So when I saw Goon, I expected it to abandon the character beats of its forerunner in favor of wall-to-wall humor, but strangely it didn't.
I could easily write 1500 words on the morality or sense of hockey teams' practice of having a player who is generally terrible at the game and whose only job is to fight and throw body checks - i.e. a Goon. The film nicely deals with this conundrum by at least presenting it as one. There's also some solid laughs, although Jay Baruchel's character seems to be a parody of bawdy sidekicks, as he is almost unbearably filthy. This seems strange to say, but Seann William Scott is excellent in this movie - any hockey fan should recognize in his performance the simple and taciturn nature of most players.
Director: Michael Dowse
It's ballsy to make a hockey comedy - it's inevitable that the film will be compared to the industry standard, Slap Shot. Despite the reverence that film has from the hockey community, Slap Shot is not just a raunchy comedy revolving around the game. Smuggled inside all the slapstick is a 70s-type character study about a guy whose way of life is becoming outdated and the hockey wives and girlfriends that put up with 'living the dream' in the minor leagues. I was genuinely surprised how slow the film is compared to modern comedies of the same stripe (and as compared to its august rep - one which I imagine is cemented as the film is a rite of passage among young teenage hockey players). So when I saw Goon, I expected it to abandon the character beats of its forerunner in favor of wall-to-wall humor, but strangely it didn't.
I could easily write 1500 words on the morality or sense of hockey teams' practice of having a player who is generally terrible at the game and whose only job is to fight and throw body checks - i.e. a Goon. The film nicely deals with this conundrum by at least presenting it as one. There's also some solid laughs, although Jay Baruchel's character seems to be a parody of bawdy sidekicks, as he is almost unbearably filthy. This seems strange to say, but Seann William Scott is excellent in this movie - any hockey fan should recognize in his performance the simple and taciturn nature of most players.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Compliance - 2012 - 3 Stars
Actors: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker
Director: Craig Zobel
Compliance is so strange that I don't even think I can discuss it without adding a jump. After the jump, YOU WILL BE SPOILED.
Director: Craig Zobel
Compliance is so strange that I don't even think I can discuss it without adding a jump. After the jump, YOU WILL BE SPOILED.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Queen of Versailles - 2012 - 4½ Stars
Subject: Jacqueline Siegel, wife and co-owner of the largest house in the United States, and her family's life
Director: Lauren Greenfield
The best documentaries feel accidental, and this is because documentaries are unpredictable. Sometimes they take many years to complete, and your subjects (assuming they are people) can change. The best example is of course, Hoop Dreams, which began as a trifling look at how young high school basketball players are recruited out of inner city Chicago, and ended up examining poverty, race, sports, and the way life shapes your dreams. The Queen of Versailles examines the opposite condition - on how life lived as a dream can return to reality - but is nearly as poignant. I don't even think I can say any more without soiling the potential experience, but this tale is Shakespearean at bottom and as old as accumulated wealth is in human history.
Director: Lauren Greenfield
The best documentaries feel accidental, and this is because documentaries are unpredictable. Sometimes they take many years to complete, and your subjects (assuming they are people) can change. The best example is of course, Hoop Dreams, which began as a trifling look at how young high school basketball players are recruited out of inner city Chicago, and ended up examining poverty, race, sports, and the way life shapes your dreams. The Queen of Versailles examines the opposite condition - on how life lived as a dream can return to reality - but is nearly as poignant. I don't even think I can say any more without soiling the potential experience, but this tale is Shakespearean at bottom and as old as accumulated wealth is in human history.
High And Low - 1963 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai
Director: Akira Kurosawa
What could have been! High and Low starts out with an excellent premise and is both well-acted and well-shot. After the first hour, I had it ranked in the pantheon with all the other Kurosawa films, marveling at his range - this is, after all, not a historical epic. The second half of the film is almost something else entirely, and while it's still interesting, it is much more uneven. Premises set up in the first half are not really paid off in the second, and the stakes go way down. Still, it's almost fun to see Kurosawa direct a botched, imperfect film - he manages to comes up with some fascinating shots.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
What could have been! High and Low starts out with an excellent premise and is both well-acted and well-shot. After the first hour, I had it ranked in the pantheon with all the other Kurosawa films, marveling at his range - this is, after all, not a historical epic. The second half of the film is almost something else entirely, and while it's still interesting, it is much more uneven. Premises set up in the first half are not really paid off in the second, and the stakes go way down. Still, it's almost fun to see Kurosawa direct a botched, imperfect film - he manages to comes up with some fascinating shots.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Topkapi - 1964 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov
Director: Jules Dassin
My brother does not get cable, and thus subsists on over-the-air television (and stolen cable TV shows). While he's revealed that he will watch TMZ and other odious programming of this sort, he also gets a TV channel called This! that shows exclusively movies. We've dubbed This!'s programming '[Grandpop] movies' because it shows mostly films of the 60s through the 80s of medium to poor quality - thrillers, Westerns, courtroom dramas, etc; the sort of films our grandfather seemed to watch endlessly on AMC in our youth.
Topkapi seems like a film for my grandfather's generation - it's almost a full-length advertisement for Mediterranean cruises. It features exotic locales, exotic accents, an undercurrent of sexuality, and goofy farce, and it's all pretty kinda stupid and laborious at bottom. However, Topkapi is also a heist film, and while the rest of the movie is forgettable, the heist sequence is among the best I've seen, redeeming the entire affair.
Director: Jules Dassin
My brother does not get cable, and thus subsists on over-the-air television (and stolen cable TV shows). While he's revealed that he will watch TMZ and other odious programming of this sort, he also gets a TV channel called This! that shows exclusively movies. We've dubbed This!'s programming '[Grandpop] movies' because it shows mostly films of the 60s through the 80s of medium to poor quality - thrillers, Westerns, courtroom dramas, etc; the sort of films our grandfather seemed to watch endlessly on AMC in our youth.
Topkapi seems like a film for my grandfather's generation - it's almost a full-length advertisement for Mediterranean cruises. It features exotic locales, exotic accents, an undercurrent of sexuality, and goofy farce, and it's all pretty kinda stupid and laborious at bottom. However, Topkapi is also a heist film, and while the rest of the movie is forgettable, the heist sequence is among the best I've seen, redeeming the entire affair.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Horrible Bosses - 2011 - 3 Stars
Actors: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day
Director: Seth Gordon
Would that I wrote for something like Cahiers Du Cinema or the Village Voice - Horrible Bosses is begging to be evaluated from a Marxist perspective. Alienation from labor, bourgeois discontent, product placement, and an ending which relies on bourgeois technology. It's got it all. Plus, it's a mainstream Hollywood film.
Big Hollywood comedies are rarely 'warts-and-all' - this film feels like it has been focus grouped a thousand times. It appeals to a certain demographic - both in terms of the plot, the humor, and the actors it employs. But it made me laugh, and Kevin Spacey gets to chew on scenery with a twisted take on his character from Glengarry Glen Ross. I just wonder if studio comedies always felt so un-free; even if there does appear to be some improvisation in this film, nothing in this film feels shaggy or makes one ask the question 'Why is that scene in the movie?' And sometimes those scenes are the most fun.
Director: Seth Gordon
Would that I wrote for something like Cahiers Du Cinema or the Village Voice - Horrible Bosses is begging to be evaluated from a Marxist perspective. Alienation from labor, bourgeois discontent, product placement, and an ending which relies on bourgeois technology. It's got it all. Plus, it's a mainstream Hollywood film.
Big Hollywood comedies are rarely 'warts-and-all' - this film feels like it has been focus grouped a thousand times. It appeals to a certain demographic - both in terms of the plot, the humor, and the actors it employs. But it made me laugh, and Kevin Spacey gets to chew on scenery with a twisted take on his character from Glengarry Glen Ross. I just wonder if studio comedies always felt so un-free; even if there does appear to be some improvisation in this film, nothing in this film feels shaggy or makes one ask the question 'Why is that scene in the movie?' And sometimes those scenes are the most fun.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Following - 1998 - 4 Stars
Actors: Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw
Director: Christopher Nolan
Note: Minor spoilers for this film and Inception
It's very easy to read the first film in Christopher Nolan's career in terms of all the ones that have come after, and certainly thematically it's all here. It's perhaps even easier to compare Nolan to Hitchcock only that Nolan's characters reside a more solipsistic world, and that more than Hitchcock, Nolan uses our knowledge of conventional film plotting against us. Easier still is to read this as a meta-film whereby the protagonist, obsessed with 'following strangers', is a man just looking for the same thrills that a film would provide, and he is provided with them by a 'director'. Nothing annoyed me more about Inception that the trite revelation that at bottom, it's about the experience of going to a movie theater - I know what that's like, I've done it quite a lot, I go to the movies to see past my own navel, engrossing though it is.
But let's can all that rot - Following is a great little Rube Goldberg of a film. Had I known nothing about Nolan, the second half of the film would have caught me more by surprise, but the way it all turns out is quite surprising nonetheless. It's tempting to dismiss Nolan's later films as mere reworkings of this plot, and indeed, having seen 4 of his movies, I am now bearish on his future as a maker of great films. Still, even if he keeps making the same movie over with more bells and whistles, it figures to (maybe) be interesting.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Note: Minor spoilers for this film and Inception
It's very easy to read the first film in Christopher Nolan's career in terms of all the ones that have come after, and certainly thematically it's all here. It's perhaps even easier to compare Nolan to Hitchcock only that Nolan's characters reside a more solipsistic world, and that more than Hitchcock, Nolan uses our knowledge of conventional film plotting against us. Easier still is to read this as a meta-film whereby the protagonist, obsessed with 'following strangers', is a man just looking for the same thrills that a film would provide, and he is provided with them by a 'director'. Nothing annoyed me more about Inception that the trite revelation that at bottom, it's about the experience of going to a movie theater - I know what that's like, I've done it quite a lot, I go to the movies to see past my own navel, engrossing though it is.
But let's can all that rot - Following is a great little Rube Goldberg of a film. Had I known nothing about Nolan, the second half of the film would have caught me more by surprise, but the way it all turns out is quite surprising nonetheless. It's tempting to dismiss Nolan's later films as mere reworkings of this plot, and indeed, having seen 4 of his movies, I am now bearish on his future as a maker of great films. Still, even if he keeps making the same movie over with more bells and whistles, it figures to (maybe) be interesting.
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