Back into the bubble. Here's more inelegant but timely reporting on the films seen Thursday at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
-The Candidate (Kandidaten) (Kasper Barfoed, 2008)
Country: Denmark
Genre: Thriller
Synopsis: A lawyer investigating his father's suspicious death is set up to look like a murderer.
Notes: This conventional thriller does nothing to distinguish itself from the many other boilerplate suspense pics that Hollywood churns out. Substitute English for Danish and Mark Wahlberg for this film's lead and you'd have something not only that looks wholly familiar but also wouldn't be deemed worth the time at a festival. Few surprises greet the nondescript main character. As urgent as the circumstances would seem to be, there isn't much tension as he runs around seeking the truth. I've been hoping to come across a solid genre movie, something the fest is light on, but the bland, mechanical Candidate fails to fit the bill.
Grade: C-
-All Around Us (Gururi no koto) (Ryosuke Hashiguchi, 2008)
Country: Japan
Genre: Marital drama
Synopsis: A couple experiences ups and downs during the first eight years of their marriage.
Notes: This is a nicely observed portrait of married opposites and the push and pull of their relationship through new and recurring challenges. Amid all of the misery the husband observes at his job as a courtroom sketch artist, the trauma the wife feels based on expectations of herself and the marriage, and the noncommunication between them, they discover what it takes to make it through the hard times. Unfortunately the image disappeared for a few minutes during a pivotal scene--if not the pivotal scene--so I feel like I may be slightly underrating this based on missing some key moments.
Grade: B
-Melodrama Habibi (Une chanson dans la tête) (Hany Tamba, 2008)
Countries: France, Lebanon
Genre: Melodrama (?)
Synopsis: A washed-up French singer who charted just one song in the 1970s and a lonely 30-year-old Lebanese beautician cross paths when a coffee magnate brings him to Beirut to sing at his wife's birthday party.
Notes: If my synopsis doesn't make this sound hopelessly convoluted, suffice it to say that there's even more nonsense that makes this a film in search of main characters and tone. (I didn't even mention the wheelchair-bound coffee baron's wife being accidentally carjacked and held for ransom along with the Mercedes.) At times it opts for wacky gags. Other moments mine a lightly mournful element. The larger problem, though, is the lack of a firm identification of whose story (or stories) it is. It's too scattered to belong to the singer, played by Patrick Chesnais, or the beautician but just concentrated on them enough to avoid being an ensemble piece. The conclusion seems particularly bizarre considering the relative lightness of everything preceding the downbeat ending.
Grade: C-
-Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, 2008)
Country: USA
Genre: Music documentary
Synopsis: The Sengalese pop superstar records, releases, and tours in support of his album Egypt.
Notes: Although the film provides a brief overview of N'Dour's career--most, like me, will know him from collaborations with Peter Gabriel--the bulk of the doc covers his album about the Sufi Islam saints. Reception outside of his homeland is favorable, but in Senegal the album is met with controversy because of the intermingling of popular music and religion. The film can be a bit repetitive, but there's plenty of joyful music to move things along and keep it enjoyable.
Grade: B-
-Quiet Chaos (Caos calmo) (Antonio Luigi Grimaldi, 2008)
Country: Italy
Genre: Grieving process dramedy
Synopsis: A man figures out his own method of dealing with his wife's death and raising their daughter on his own.
Notes: A gentle touch is deployed as Nanni Moretti's executive sets his own process and timeline for responding to the unexpected death of his wife. The actor's placid appearance and demeanor presents a character who must put on a brave face for his child, yet it's also a reflection of his own uncertainty regarding how he should be reacting. The film also utilizes some heartwarming humor, although nothing about Quiet Chaos could be construed as reaching for easy tugs at the heartstrings. With more time to reflect on it, I might be willing to bump up the grade a hair for this splendid film.
Grade: B+
-The Chaser (Chugyeogja) (Na Hong-jin, 2008)
Country: South Korea
Genre: Crime drama
Synopsis: A former police detective turned pimp searches for the man who he believes is capturing and selling his women.
Notes: My genre description and synopsis don't really do justice to what is an unusual movie in a familiar form. Director Na Hong-jin plays to the audience with liberal sprinklings of humor throughout and plays with the viewers as he frustrates satisfying expectations. It's a film that can be goofy in one scene and fairly brutal in the next. I'm not sure that these abrupt shifts are always successful, but it's a compelling film because of its loose spirit. I especially liked how the chases and fights are sloppy in ways that they might actually be in real life rather than the perfectly choreographed and executed action we're accustomed to seeing. One other observation...what is it with South Korean filmmakers and hammers?
Grade: B
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
CIFF 2009, Day Five: All in the family
Four days of film festival attendance have pretty much turned my brain to mush. Fourteen hours, six films, and some scattered thoughts...
-Dunya & Desie (Dana Nechushtan, 2008)
Countries: Netherlands, Belgium
Genre: Cross-cultural, coming-of-age crowd-pleaser
Synopsis: Best friends search for their identities through their pasts.
Notes: Set in Holland, the film features polar opposite best friends. Eighteen-year-old Dunya comes from a conservative family of Moroccan heritage trying to arrange her marriage while Dutch native Desie is something of a wild child who casually picks up and drops boyfriends. Like Bend It Like Beckham, it's a comedy in which the cultural outsider wants to become more like those in her adopted homeland, much to the consternation of her traditional parents. Dunya & Desie can be broad and predictable, but I found it to be a pleasant break from weightier fest fare.
Grade: B-
-It's Not Me, I Swear! (C'est pas moi, je le jure!) (Philippe Falardeau, 2008)
Countries: Canada
Genre: Coming-of-age dark comedy
Synopsis: A boy misbehaves in order to restore normalcy to his fractured family.
Notes: This offbeat kid's eye-view of the effects of divorce and family dysfunction features a ten-year-old protagonist with sociopathic and suicidal tendencies...and it's supposed to be mostly funny. Amazingly, director Philippe Falardeau pulls it off due to a strong lead performance from Antoine L'Écuyer. He indicates that there's a good kid fighting to get out, but with all of the unhappiness around him, acting destructively is the only way to rid of his sadness and gain the attention and love he desires.
Grade: B+
-Boogie (Radu Muntean, 2008)
Country: Romania
Genre: Male crisis movie/a day in the life drama
Synopsis: A run-in with old friends causes a man to assess his life as a husband and father.
Notes: Consider Boogie to be the Romanian response to Hollywood's male crisis movies. The film takes its title from the main character Bogdan's nickname, which suggests his untamed youthful days. Meeting up with two old pals while he and his pregnant wife are on a seaside vacation with their young son leads to a spousal argument and Bogdan evaluating what his life has become compared to his still unattached friends. The guys prod Bogdan into being who they used to know, although it becomes apparent that they wish they had what he possesses. It's an austere, well-observed film that maintains Romania's recent track record for uncompromising realism.
Grade: B+
-Prom Night in Mississippi (Paul Saltzman, 2009)
Country: Canada, United States
Genre: (genre)
Synopsis: A Mississippi high school is challenged to hold its first integrated prom in 2008.
Notes: Charleston, Mississippi native and current resident Morgan Freeman offers to pay for the school's prom if they will have just one dance rather than separate events for white and black students. Prom Night in Mississippi has some affecting moments in how it shows students who seem willing to get past the racism of their parents and grandparents yet feel constrained by their small town elders' attitudes. The subject matter lends itself to scenes that elicit strong reactions--the lone interracial couple's interviews can be heartbreaking--although overall the doc plays like a less substantial version of The Order of Myths, another nonfiction film exploring current segregation perpetuated in part by tradition.
Grade: B-
-Tulpan (Sergei Dvortsevoy, 2008)
Countries: Germany, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland
Genre: Anthropological drama
Synopsis: A family struggles with life on a Kazakh steppe.
Notes: To my eyes, films this "real" make it impossible to determine where documentary ends and fiction begins. (I've come across some notes that call Tulpan a narrative feature, but some of this is surely documented reality.) Similar in style to The Story of the Weeping Camel, the film settles into a family's yurt and watches the problems these people face. Pregnant sheep are delivering stillborn lambs. The head of the family's single brother-in-law returns from the navy and tries to find a wife in an area with few young, single women. As a depiction of a way of life, Tulpan can be a pretty amazing film that peaks with a sheep birthing scene. To emphasize the anthropological and documentary elements would be to overlook the humor in the film. Tulpan shows the difficulties these people face, but it also finds room for laughter at a rambunctious child, a cranky camel, and the sailor's overblown tales of sea creatures.
Grade: B
-Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke, 2008)
Country: Mexico
Genre: A day in the life deadpan comedy
Synopsis: A teenager has a minor car wreck and tries to get someone to repair it, but everybody he meets wants a favor of some sort.
Notes: There's definitely a strong directorial vision at work in Lake Tahoe, but as with other deadpan comedies I've run into at the festival, I'm just not in tune them. The film is gorgeously photographed and eventually peels back an emotional core that seemed missing previously. I just wish I found it funnier.
Grade: C
-Dunya & Desie (Dana Nechushtan, 2008)
Countries: Netherlands, Belgium
Genre: Cross-cultural, coming-of-age crowd-pleaser
Synopsis: Best friends search for their identities through their pasts.
Notes: Set in Holland, the film features polar opposite best friends. Eighteen-year-old Dunya comes from a conservative family of Moroccan heritage trying to arrange her marriage while Dutch native Desie is something of a wild child who casually picks up and drops boyfriends. Like Bend It Like Beckham, it's a comedy in which the cultural outsider wants to become more like those in her adopted homeland, much to the consternation of her traditional parents. Dunya & Desie can be broad and predictable, but I found it to be a pleasant break from weightier fest fare.
Grade: B-
-It's Not Me, I Swear! (C'est pas moi, je le jure!) (Philippe Falardeau, 2008)
Countries: Canada
Genre: Coming-of-age dark comedy
Synopsis: A boy misbehaves in order to restore normalcy to his fractured family.
Notes: This offbeat kid's eye-view of the effects of divorce and family dysfunction features a ten-year-old protagonist with sociopathic and suicidal tendencies...and it's supposed to be mostly funny. Amazingly, director Philippe Falardeau pulls it off due to a strong lead performance from Antoine L'Écuyer. He indicates that there's a good kid fighting to get out, but with all of the unhappiness around him, acting destructively is the only way to rid of his sadness and gain the attention and love he desires.
Grade: B+
-Boogie (Radu Muntean, 2008)
Country: Romania
Genre: Male crisis movie/a day in the life drama
Synopsis: A run-in with old friends causes a man to assess his life as a husband and father.
Notes: Consider Boogie to be the Romanian response to Hollywood's male crisis movies. The film takes its title from the main character Bogdan's nickname, which suggests his untamed youthful days. Meeting up with two old pals while he and his pregnant wife are on a seaside vacation with their young son leads to a spousal argument and Bogdan evaluating what his life has become compared to his still unattached friends. The guys prod Bogdan into being who they used to know, although it becomes apparent that they wish they had what he possesses. It's an austere, well-observed film that maintains Romania's recent track record for uncompromising realism.
Grade: B+
-Prom Night in Mississippi (Paul Saltzman, 2009)
Country: Canada, United States
Genre: (genre)
Synopsis: A Mississippi high school is challenged to hold its first integrated prom in 2008.
Notes: Charleston, Mississippi native and current resident Morgan Freeman offers to pay for the school's prom if they will have just one dance rather than separate events for white and black students. Prom Night in Mississippi has some affecting moments in how it shows students who seem willing to get past the racism of their parents and grandparents yet feel constrained by their small town elders' attitudes. The subject matter lends itself to scenes that elicit strong reactions--the lone interracial couple's interviews can be heartbreaking--although overall the doc plays like a less substantial version of The Order of Myths, another nonfiction film exploring current segregation perpetuated in part by tradition.
Grade: B-
-Tulpan (Sergei Dvortsevoy, 2008)
Countries: Germany, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland
Genre: Anthropological drama
Synopsis: A family struggles with life on a Kazakh steppe.
Notes: To my eyes, films this "real" make it impossible to determine where documentary ends and fiction begins. (I've come across some notes that call Tulpan a narrative feature, but some of this is surely documented reality.) Similar in style to The Story of the Weeping Camel, the film settles into a family's yurt and watches the problems these people face. Pregnant sheep are delivering stillborn lambs. The head of the family's single brother-in-law returns from the navy and tries to find a wife in an area with few young, single women. As a depiction of a way of life, Tulpan can be a pretty amazing film that peaks with a sheep birthing scene. To emphasize the anthropological and documentary elements would be to overlook the humor in the film. Tulpan shows the difficulties these people face, but it also finds room for laughter at a rambunctious child, a cranky camel, and the sailor's overblown tales of sea creatures.
Grade: B
-Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke, 2008)
Country: Mexico
Genre: A day in the life deadpan comedy
Synopsis: A teenager has a minor car wreck and tries to get someone to repair it, but everybody he meets wants a favor of some sort.
Notes: There's definitely a strong directorial vision at work in Lake Tahoe, but as with other deadpan comedies I've run into at the festival, I'm just not in tune them. The film is gorgeously photographed and eventually peels back an emotional core that seemed missing previously. I just wish I found it funnier.
Grade: C
CIFF 2009, Day Four: The system
The truth is that there's nothing terribly smart about putting yourself through the full paces of a film festival's schedule for several days in a row. For nine of the eleven days at the single location Cleveland International Film Festival you can inhabit the theaters for six sessions beginning around 9:15 a.m. and lasting for about fourteen hours. Four of those nine days have midnight screenings that allow you to stick around until 1:30/2:00 a.m. the following day. That's seventeen hours in and around the theater and seven movies.
Carrying this heavy load is for the strong-willed and, let's face it, foolish--myself included. Although all that's being done is watching movies, sitting through that many films in a day, let alone for multiple days, takes a special kind of stamina. Even "just" five films in a day is a lot.
While some days are easier than others, I have found that I will reach a rhythm that may be the moviegoing equivalent to, in athletic terms, being in the zone. The mind becomes clear--or maybe empty is a better word--and you enter a stage where you're on automatic. That may explain why I've had trouble putting down my thoughts on these films. I lack the mental energy to do so.
I hit this level today, although as the end of the day approached, I also started to feel the weariness that catches up with you. The idea is to push through it, but the smart thing would be to do something as novel as take a break or even skip a session or two.
Not today.
-Children of Invention (Tze Chun, 2009)
Country: United States
Genre: Immigant drama/children at risk drama
Synopsis: Single immigrant mother often overlooks her children as she focuses on work.
Notes: A divorced Hong Kong native falls prey to direct marketing schemes as a way of supporting her kids. She sinks her limited resources into direct marketing schemes, which cause bigger problems for her than loss of money and time. Meanwhile, her young son and daughter must amuse and care for themselves while she's physically and mentally away. Although there is a whiff of Nobody Knows in Children of Invention, the circumstances and potential outcome are never as dire. On the film's plus side are the unforced child performances and bright, clean cinematography. The downside is the split focus and shallow depth. The film concentrates on the mother's story for the first half, but just when it presents a major crisis, attention shifts to the kids. Picking one of the perspectives--parent or children--and sticking to it for the duration would have made a stronger movie and allowed it to go beyond surface level.
Grade: C+
-Crude (Joe Berlinger, 2009)
Countries: United States, Ecuador
Genre: Environmental activism documentary
Synopsis: Lawyers sue oil company for environmental damages in Ecuador.
Notes: The title refers to oil, but it could just as well mean how the legal process operates in this case. The suit against Chevron has been fought for at least fifteen years and may continue for that many more. Texaco, now owned by Chevron, operated oil wells in the Amazon jungle and is now being blamed for causing contaminated conditions that lead to severe health problems and premature deaths among the people living in the area. Crude is primarily about the legal battle, and it stirs up plenty of anger at corporations, although it's always hard in situations like this to know what they can rightfully be blamed for and what is bluster.
Grade: B-
-Sin By Silence (Olivia Klaus, 2008)
Countries: United States
Genre: Women's issue documentary
Synopsis: Battered women convicted and imprisoned for killing their husbands work to make their voices heard about domestic abuse.
Notes: Chalk up attending this screening to a confluence of the right circumstances. I didn't plan to see this, but my desire to watch the Dayton-Kansas NCAA Tournament game, this film's short running time (49 minutes), and a Twitter follow convinced me to give it a chance. Sin By Silence is a solid piece probably best suited to fill an hour on PBS. The short is centered on the Convicted Women Against Abuse, a prison group that helps these inmates come to terms with the harm they suffered and try to earn retrials for those prosecuted when battered women's syndrome was not recognized by the courts. The film doesn't excuse what they did or paint them as victims. Rather it explains the silence that led to the actions they felt they needed to carry out and tries to find the answer for preventing abusive situations.
Grade: B
-Eldorado (Bouli Lanners, 2008)
Countries: Belgium, France
Genre: Road movie/deadpan comedy
Synopsis: Weird people are encountered on a trip when a loner auto restorer gives a ride home to the man who tried to steal from his house.
Notes: It very well may be that movies like this play better outside of a film festival's pell mell, or maybe Eldorado simply isn't that funny. It's a slow, stone-faced comedy broken up occasionally by unexpected bits of oddity. The film owes a lot to Jim Jarmusch, but as much as I like his films, I'm not sure how well they'd play in the middle of a scheduled six movie day.
Grade: C
-Sugar (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2008)
Country: United States
Genre: Baseball movie/neorealist drama
Synopsis: A prospect from the Dominican Republic faces challenges upon coming to the United States to play in the minor leagues.
Notes: The studio and festival have requested no reviews of the film--never mind that it premiered at Sundance in 2008--but I think it's worth pointing out that this is a must-see for baseball fans when its limited release begins on April 3. Jose Rijo's appearance in the film and his involvement in the scandal with the Dominican Republic camps and player signings makes Sugar very timely even if it was completed more than a year ago. With the number of Latin American players in the majors and trying to break in, this tells a story that impacts the game but with which many of the fans, like me, are unfamiliar.
Grade: A
-Machan (Uberto Pasolini, 2008)
Countries: Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany
Genre: Sports comedy/based on a true story/social concern drama
Synopsis: Poor Sri Lankans fake being on the nonexistent national handball team to get them out of the country so they can look for work in Europe.
Notes: An enterprising studio exec looking to cash in on the success of Slumdog Millionaire might want to think about picking up the remake rights to Machan. Yes, I'm aware that Sri Lankans and Indians are not the same, but this plucky underdog story has the potential to appeal to those who like Danny Boyle's film and are interested in other tales from this corner of the globe. Based on a true story, this feel-good film about poor people trying to find better opportunities and pulling a fast one on government officials fits into the The Full Monty mold. A nice Hollywood polish could tighten up this genial but overly broad, slowly paced, and diffused focus film.
Grade: C+
Carrying this heavy load is for the strong-willed and, let's face it, foolish--myself included. Although all that's being done is watching movies, sitting through that many films in a day, let alone for multiple days, takes a special kind of stamina. Even "just" five films in a day is a lot.
While some days are easier than others, I have found that I will reach a rhythm that may be the moviegoing equivalent to, in athletic terms, being in the zone. The mind becomes clear--or maybe empty is a better word--and you enter a stage where you're on automatic. That may explain why I've had trouble putting down my thoughts on these films. I lack the mental energy to do so.
I hit this level today, although as the end of the day approached, I also started to feel the weariness that catches up with you. The idea is to push through it, but the smart thing would be to do something as novel as take a break or even skip a session or two.
Not today.
-Children of Invention (Tze Chun, 2009)
Country: United States
Genre: Immigant drama/children at risk drama
Synopsis: Single immigrant mother often overlooks her children as she focuses on work.
Notes: A divorced Hong Kong native falls prey to direct marketing schemes as a way of supporting her kids. She sinks her limited resources into direct marketing schemes, which cause bigger problems for her than loss of money and time. Meanwhile, her young son and daughter must amuse and care for themselves while she's physically and mentally away. Although there is a whiff of Nobody Knows in Children of Invention, the circumstances and potential outcome are never as dire. On the film's plus side are the unforced child performances and bright, clean cinematography. The downside is the split focus and shallow depth. The film concentrates on the mother's story for the first half, but just when it presents a major crisis, attention shifts to the kids. Picking one of the perspectives--parent or children--and sticking to it for the duration would have made a stronger movie and allowed it to go beyond surface level.
Grade: C+
-Crude (Joe Berlinger, 2009)
Countries: United States, Ecuador
Genre: Environmental activism documentary
Synopsis: Lawyers sue oil company for environmental damages in Ecuador.
Notes: The title refers to oil, but it could just as well mean how the legal process operates in this case. The suit against Chevron has been fought for at least fifteen years and may continue for that many more. Texaco, now owned by Chevron, operated oil wells in the Amazon jungle and is now being blamed for causing contaminated conditions that lead to severe health problems and premature deaths among the people living in the area. Crude is primarily about the legal battle, and it stirs up plenty of anger at corporations, although it's always hard in situations like this to know what they can rightfully be blamed for and what is bluster.
Grade: B-
-Sin By Silence (Olivia Klaus, 2008)
Countries: United States
Genre: Women's issue documentary
Synopsis: Battered women convicted and imprisoned for killing their husbands work to make their voices heard about domestic abuse.
Notes: Chalk up attending this screening to a confluence of the right circumstances. I didn't plan to see this, but my desire to watch the Dayton-Kansas NCAA Tournament game, this film's short running time (49 minutes), and a Twitter follow convinced me to give it a chance. Sin By Silence is a solid piece probably best suited to fill an hour on PBS. The short is centered on the Convicted Women Against Abuse, a prison group that helps these inmates come to terms with the harm they suffered and try to earn retrials for those prosecuted when battered women's syndrome was not recognized by the courts. The film doesn't excuse what they did or paint them as victims. Rather it explains the silence that led to the actions they felt they needed to carry out and tries to find the answer for preventing abusive situations.
Grade: B
-Eldorado (Bouli Lanners, 2008)
Countries: Belgium, France
Genre: Road movie/deadpan comedy
Synopsis: Weird people are encountered on a trip when a loner auto restorer gives a ride home to the man who tried to steal from his house.
Notes: It very well may be that movies like this play better outside of a film festival's pell mell, or maybe Eldorado simply isn't that funny. It's a slow, stone-faced comedy broken up occasionally by unexpected bits of oddity. The film owes a lot to Jim Jarmusch, but as much as I like his films, I'm not sure how well they'd play in the middle of a scheduled six movie day.
Grade: C
-Sugar (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2008)
Country: United States
Genre: Baseball movie/neorealist drama
Synopsis: A prospect from the Dominican Republic faces challenges upon coming to the United States to play in the minor leagues.
Notes: The studio and festival have requested no reviews of the film--never mind that it premiered at Sundance in 2008--but I think it's worth pointing out that this is a must-see for baseball fans when its limited release begins on April 3. Jose Rijo's appearance in the film and his involvement in the scandal with the Dominican Republic camps and player signings makes Sugar very timely even if it was completed more than a year ago. With the number of Latin American players in the majors and trying to break in, this tells a story that impacts the game but with which many of the fans, like me, are unfamiliar.
Grade: A
-Machan (Uberto Pasolini, 2008)
Countries: Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany
Genre: Sports comedy/based on a true story/social concern drama
Synopsis: Poor Sri Lankans fake being on the nonexistent national handball team to get them out of the country so they can look for work in Europe.
Notes: An enterprising studio exec looking to cash in on the success of Slumdog Millionaire might want to think about picking up the remake rights to Machan. Yes, I'm aware that Sri Lankans and Indians are not the same, but this plucky underdog story has the potential to appeal to those who like Danny Boyle's film and are interested in other tales from this corner of the globe. Based on a true story, this feel-good film about poor people trying to find better opportunities and pulling a fast one on government officials fits into the The Full Monty mold. A nice Hollywood polish could tighten up this genial but overly broad, slowly paced, and diffused focus film.
Grade: C+
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
CIFF 2009, Day Three: Trouble every day
To varying degress each of the films I saw on this day were concerned with problems in front of us or lurking in the shadows.
-At the Edge of the World (Dan Stone, 2008)
Countries: Antarctica, Australia, United States
Genre: Environmental activism documentary
Synopsis: Anti-whaling activists pursue Japanese whaling ships near Antarctica.
Notes: The Sea Shepherd organization takes aggressive action to stop whalers, who they insist are violating international treaties under the guise of killing the creatures for research. Their efforts, on display in this approving doc, involve using two ships and a helicopter to scan the sea for the whaling fleet and then using smaller boats to drop lines in the water to seize up the whalers' propellers. Oh yeah, they're not above ramming the other ships. Some consider the group eco-terrorists. They sail without a nation's flag,which effectively make them a pirate ship. (The group claims that whaling interests pressure countries to strip them of the flags they have flown under.) Also, while it's not fully clear why, there's tension between Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace. Regardless of one's opinion on the matter, this is dangerous work being undertaken, and the film's strongest element is the camerawork that shows with startling immediacy how risky the mission is. At the Edge of the World speaks more about the mission than eco-politics, and honestly, that's what makes a more interesting film.
Grade: B-
-Welcome to Farewell-Gutmann (Bienvenido a Farewell-Gutmann) (Xavi Puebla, 2008)
Country: Spain
Genre: Workplace drama/dark comedy
Synopsis: Three human resources employees have the tables turned on them as they compete for their deceased boss's job.
Notes: Tagging this as a black comedy may be somewhat generous as the film's deadpan tone doesn't have (or shoot for) much in the way of laughs or jokes. It makes some efforts at humor in the form of bleak recognition and suspicion of corporate culture but is a little more serious-minded than what most think of when they hear "comedy". The most immediate comparison that comes to mind is Neil LaBute's body of work, although Welcome to Farewell-Gutmann lacks the delight in cruelty and sense of furor that his films possess. With its talky, performance-oriented style, Farewell-Gutmann plays like a play, but there's little to take from actors whose characters are unpleasant and, more egregiously, uninteresting. Ten mintures or so into it I felt like I had this film pegged as a non-starter. If the schedule had permitted walking out to see something else, I would have.
Grade: D
-The Last Days of Shishmaref (Jan Louter, 2008)
Countries: Netherlands, United States
Genre: Anthropological and environmental concern documentary
Synopsis: Climate change is expected to wipe away an Alaskan island community in a decade or so.
Notes: This frustrating doc observes the lives of the approximately 500 residents of the small Alaskan village of Shishmaref. The film spends the bulk of its time looking at the people's subsistent and poverty-filled way of life, yet the thrust of it is that global warming is causing storms and erosion that will lead to the sea swallowing the place in ten to fifteen years. The only information regarding the enviornmental impact comes from an ABC news report, a Climate Channel piece, and a segment of Al Gore on Oprah, all of which echo one another. The Last Days of Shishmaref is made in the traditional neutral approach (even though it obviously isn't).
The story is told through watching and listening to the affected people, but after awhile the lack of outside information and perspective becomes glaring. Where are people who could speak to what is happening and what might be done? Blame is leveled at the Bush administration, but the film doesn't detail what is needed and why it would cost $180 million--or $100 million, depending on the source--to move a 500-person community that has unpaved roads, no running water or sewers, and no roads into it. The film is nicely shot and gives a sense of the Shishmaref people's removal from society and distrust of the larger culture, but it provides an incomplete view of the problem and its solutions.
Grade: C-
-Three Blind Mice (Matthew Newton, 2008)
Country: Australia
Genre: One crazy night dramedy
Synopsis: An evening of shore leave changes everything for three Australian sailors.
Notes: The overlapping dialogue and freewheeling style borrows from Altman and, most recently, Rachel Getting Married, but its biggest shortcoming is fleshing out the characters through the slow leak of information. One of the sailors has been harmed by others in the navy---tortured might be a more apt way of putting it--but rather than building to something like Rachel's rehearsal dinner scene or the revelatory moment in A Celebration, Three Blind Mice stumbles along with minor nonsensical moments. The characters aren't developed enough to care about what happens to them. It doesn't help that none of them are particularly likable. The night's forward momentum keeps the film reasonably engaging. In general it's solidly made but at arm's length.
Grade: C+
-Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig) (Henrik Ruben Genz, 2008)
Country: Denmark
Genre: Secrets in a small town noir/dark comedy
Synopsis: A new marshal finds out how that residents of a small Danish town have their own way of dealing with things.
Notes: The oddball locals, the mix of noir and black humor, and the lighting are strongly reminiscent of the Coen brothers' films. If only the screenplay had the rigor and jokes. Terribly Happy gets by for awhile on its resemblance to Fargo and the like, but this riff on small town provincialism doesn't hold enough surprises or laughs to distinguish itself. The stretched out ending doesn't help either.
Grade: C+
-Tokyo! (Michel Gondry, Bong Joon-ho, and Leos Carax, 2008)
Countries: Japan, France
Genre: Omnibus film
Synopsis: Three directors make Tokyo-centric shorts.
Notes: Michel Gondry's delightful first segment about finding one's place in the big city is the kind of funny, creative, handcrafted item that's become his stock in trade. As with the sweded films in Be Kind Rewind, the short film within Gondry's short is a hoot. Leos Carax's middle segment is a weird but tolerable story of a sewer-dwelling creature that terrorizes the city. Bong Joon-ho's concluding short about choosing separation from and feeling loneliness amid a large population provides a nice capper.
Grade: B
-At the Edge of the World (Dan Stone, 2008)
Countries: Antarctica, Australia, United States
Genre: Environmental activism documentary
Synopsis: Anti-whaling activists pursue Japanese whaling ships near Antarctica.
Notes: The Sea Shepherd organization takes aggressive action to stop whalers, who they insist are violating international treaties under the guise of killing the creatures for research. Their efforts, on display in this approving doc, involve using two ships and a helicopter to scan the sea for the whaling fleet and then using smaller boats to drop lines in the water to seize up the whalers' propellers. Oh yeah, they're not above ramming the other ships. Some consider the group eco-terrorists. They sail without a nation's flag,which effectively make them a pirate ship. (The group claims that whaling interests pressure countries to strip them of the flags they have flown under.) Also, while it's not fully clear why, there's tension between Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace. Regardless of one's opinion on the matter, this is dangerous work being undertaken, and the film's strongest element is the camerawork that shows with startling immediacy how risky the mission is. At the Edge of the World speaks more about the mission than eco-politics, and honestly, that's what makes a more interesting film.
Grade: B-
-Welcome to Farewell-Gutmann (Bienvenido a Farewell-Gutmann) (Xavi Puebla, 2008)
Country: Spain
Genre: Workplace drama/dark comedy
Synopsis: Three human resources employees have the tables turned on them as they compete for their deceased boss's job.
Notes: Tagging this as a black comedy may be somewhat generous as the film's deadpan tone doesn't have (or shoot for) much in the way of laughs or jokes. It makes some efforts at humor in the form of bleak recognition and suspicion of corporate culture but is a little more serious-minded than what most think of when they hear "comedy". The most immediate comparison that comes to mind is Neil LaBute's body of work, although Welcome to Farewell-Gutmann lacks the delight in cruelty and sense of furor that his films possess. With its talky, performance-oriented style, Farewell-Gutmann plays like a play, but there's little to take from actors whose characters are unpleasant and, more egregiously, uninteresting. Ten mintures or so into it I felt like I had this film pegged as a non-starter. If the schedule had permitted walking out to see something else, I would have.
Grade: D
-The Last Days of Shishmaref (Jan Louter, 2008)
Countries: Netherlands, United States
Genre: Anthropological and environmental concern documentary
Synopsis: Climate change is expected to wipe away an Alaskan island community in a decade or so.
Notes: This frustrating doc observes the lives of the approximately 500 residents of the small Alaskan village of Shishmaref. The film spends the bulk of its time looking at the people's subsistent and poverty-filled way of life, yet the thrust of it is that global warming is causing storms and erosion that will lead to the sea swallowing the place in ten to fifteen years. The only information regarding the enviornmental impact comes from an ABC news report, a Climate Channel piece, and a segment of Al Gore on Oprah, all of which echo one another. The Last Days of Shishmaref is made in the traditional neutral approach (even though it obviously isn't).
The story is told through watching and listening to the affected people, but after awhile the lack of outside information and perspective becomes glaring. Where are people who could speak to what is happening and what might be done? Blame is leveled at the Bush administration, but the film doesn't detail what is needed and why it would cost $180 million--or $100 million, depending on the source--to move a 500-person community that has unpaved roads, no running water or sewers, and no roads into it. The film is nicely shot and gives a sense of the Shishmaref people's removal from society and distrust of the larger culture, but it provides an incomplete view of the problem and its solutions.
Grade: C-
-Three Blind Mice (Matthew Newton, 2008)
Country: Australia
Genre: One crazy night dramedy
Synopsis: An evening of shore leave changes everything for three Australian sailors.
Notes: The overlapping dialogue and freewheeling style borrows from Altman and, most recently, Rachel Getting Married, but its biggest shortcoming is fleshing out the characters through the slow leak of information. One of the sailors has been harmed by others in the navy---tortured might be a more apt way of putting it--but rather than building to something like Rachel's rehearsal dinner scene or the revelatory moment in A Celebration, Three Blind Mice stumbles along with minor nonsensical moments. The characters aren't developed enough to care about what happens to them. It doesn't help that none of them are particularly likable. The night's forward momentum keeps the film reasonably engaging. In general it's solidly made but at arm's length.
Grade: C+
-Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig) (Henrik Ruben Genz, 2008)
Country: Denmark
Genre: Secrets in a small town noir/dark comedy
Synopsis: A new marshal finds out how that residents of a small Danish town have their own way of dealing with things.
Notes: The oddball locals, the mix of noir and black humor, and the lighting are strongly reminiscent of the Coen brothers' films. If only the screenplay had the rigor and jokes. Terribly Happy gets by for awhile on its resemblance to Fargo and the like, but this riff on small town provincialism doesn't hold enough surprises or laughs to distinguish itself. The stretched out ending doesn't help either.
Grade: C+
-Tokyo! (Michel Gondry, Bong Joon-ho, and Leos Carax, 2008)
Countries: Japan, France
Genre: Omnibus film
Synopsis: Three directors make Tokyo-centric shorts.
Notes: Michel Gondry's delightful first segment about finding one's place in the big city is the kind of funny, creative, handcrafted item that's become his stock in trade. As with the sweded films in Be Kind Rewind, the short film within Gondry's short is a hoot. Leos Carax's middle segment is a weird but tolerable story of a sewer-dwelling creature that terrorizes the city. Bong Joon-ho's concluding short about choosing separation from and feeling loneliness amid a large population provides a nice capper.
Grade: B
We interrupt this festival coverage for...
...sleep.
I'm back from four days at the festival but have only written about one of them here. Never fear, more coverage will appear in this space, but I simply couldn't keep up. Being at Tower City Center for up to seventeen hours a day doesn't leave much time for writing or sleeping, so I opted for scribbling some thoughts on a steno pad and stealing four or five hours sleep when I got to the hotel.
I'm back from four days at the festival but have only written about one of them here. Never fear, more coverage will appear in this space, but I simply couldn't keep up. Being at Tower City Center for up to seventeen hours a day doesn't leave much time for writing or sleeping, so I opted for scribbling some thoughts on a steno pad and stealing four or five hours sleep when I got to the hotel.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
CIFF 2009, Day Two: Auteur Day
Typically I do not associate the Cleveland International Film Festival with showcasing a lot of films from name directors. It's not that they don't have them. They're just not in the abundance that larger fests have. I mention this because each of the films I saw today has a recognizable name (in cinephile circles) at the helm.
Since this is my first update from the fest, I feel like I ought to point out that:
a) Sleep is very much at a premium.
b) I'm recovering from some creeping crud that does not have me at peak energy.
c) Time for writing is slim. Time for editing or thoughtfulness is basically nil.
In other words, don't expect high caliber writing. This is mostly seat-of-the-pants stuff written in spare moments or in the rush to get to bed.
-Achilles and the Tortoise (Akiresu to kame) (Takeshi Kitano, 2008)
Country: Japan
Genre: Art theory 101.
Synopsis: Artist embarks on a lifelong search for his creative breakthrough.
Notes: Kitano jabs the art world and artists themselves for pretentiousness, particularly based on their insulated existences in which any old experiment is congratulated as brilliant. Essentially the film is a call for art to be born out of life experiences rather than through imitation or messing around with technique. It's intermittently funny on a modest level and sort of diverting as Kitano goes through the various styles of painting, but ultimately he hammers away at his points without much variation. It could also be filed under "vanity project" as the actor-director's paintings are front and center in the film, but I didn't dislike the film so much to feel like it deserves a catty label like that.
Grade: C
-Night and Day (Bam gua nat) (Hong Sang-soo, 2008)
Country: South Korea
Genre: Male crisis art film
Synopsis: A man runs from trouble and a stable life but wonders if the temptations in his new freedom are worth the consequences.
Notes: I started writing how this is very much of a piece with Hong's other films and male protagonists, but without doing the leg work to confirm that I'm not confusing him with someone else, I'll put a qualifier on that claim. This episodic look at a painter conjures his sense of boredom and aimlessness without the film feeling boring or unfocused. More interestingly, Hong digs into the tension between longterm wishes to be moral through resistance to temptation and the instinct that craves immediate satisfaction.
Grade: B
-24 City (Er shi si cheng ji) (Jia Zhang-ke, 2008)
Country: China
Genre: Social commentary fictional dramatization/documentary
Synopsis: One city is an example of an evolving China.
Notes: Having not read the festival program notes recently, I wasn't sure if this film was a fictional narrative or a documentary. Save for the presence of Joan Chen, without foreknowledge it's not always clear which parts are mere reportage and which are performances. Three generations of Chengdu residents tell their stories about their ties to a government-run aeronautics factory that is being converted into luxury apartments and a business park. This one can be demanding of the viewer's patience but eventually won me over as it became clearer how Jia was demonstrating China's shift to a more capitalist or consumer-oriented way of life.
Grade: B
Since I only had time for restroom breaks between the first three films, I bailed on the day's fourth session for lunch/dinner and watching the second half of the Dayton Flyers' NCAA Tournament game. I was going to see Orz Boyz (Jiong nan hai), but hunger and hoops won out. Then it was back to the grind.
-Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani, 2008)
Country: United States
Genre: Neorealist drama
Synopsis: Cab driver takes an interest in his seemingly suicide-determined customer.
Notes: Bahrani has been tabbed Someone to Watch by the festival, and he continues to show why with this, his third feature. Bahrani tends to spotlight people and places who exist in the background or who aren't given much consideration, like Man Push Cart's food cart operator or Goodbye Solo's Sengalese immigrant taxi driver. Souleyman Sy Savane is extremely charismatic as Solo, an amiable cabbie who agrees to a stranger's request to drive him into the mountains and what must certainly be the spot where he will commit suicide. Through Savane's performance and Bahrani's subtle revealing of the changing relationship between Solo and William, his fare, the film gains quiet power and builds to an uncertain conclusion.
Grade: B+
-La Belle personne (Christophe Honoré, 2008)
Country: France
Genre: French romantic fatalism
Synopsis: Love hurts in all forms, especially among beautiful people at a Parisian high school.
Notes: The Class this isn't. French teens (and one of their teachers in the form of Louis Garrel) brood and lust for each other in the kind of doomed romanticist movie that only the French can pull off convincingly. (Seriously, Garrel's character would not be viewed in the same terms in a U.S. movie.) Oh yeah, several Nick Drake songs underscore the complicated matters of the heart. I have a soft spot for the French New Wave and its inheritors, so keep that in mind in regard to my favorable assessment.
Grade: B-
I'd planned on seeing The Disappeared at midnight, but I figured there was no way I'd get this entry done or hit the hay at a reasonable hour if I did. (I also thought skipping it would leave me freshed for Tokyo!, tomorrow's midnight pic.) One of the weird things that happens at film festivals is that I'm compelled to see films I'd circled on my schedule even if I'd probably have little interest in seeing them outside this setting. Chalk up one win for sanity tonight in scratching this one off the list.
Since this is my first update from the fest, I feel like I ought to point out that:
a) Sleep is very much at a premium.
b) I'm recovering from some creeping crud that does not have me at peak energy.
c) Time for writing is slim. Time for editing or thoughtfulness is basically nil.
In other words, don't expect high caliber writing. This is mostly seat-of-the-pants stuff written in spare moments or in the rush to get to bed.
-Achilles and the Tortoise (Akiresu to kame) (Takeshi Kitano, 2008)
Country: Japan
Genre: Art theory 101.
Synopsis: Artist embarks on a lifelong search for his creative breakthrough.
Notes: Kitano jabs the art world and artists themselves for pretentiousness, particularly based on their insulated existences in which any old experiment is congratulated as brilliant. Essentially the film is a call for art to be born out of life experiences rather than through imitation or messing around with technique. It's intermittently funny on a modest level and sort of diverting as Kitano goes through the various styles of painting, but ultimately he hammers away at his points without much variation. It could also be filed under "vanity project" as the actor-director's paintings are front and center in the film, but I didn't dislike the film so much to feel like it deserves a catty label like that.
Grade: C
-Night and Day (Bam gua nat) (Hong Sang-soo, 2008)
Country: South Korea
Genre: Male crisis art film
Synopsis: A man runs from trouble and a stable life but wonders if the temptations in his new freedom are worth the consequences.
Notes: I started writing how this is very much of a piece with Hong's other films and male protagonists, but without doing the leg work to confirm that I'm not confusing him with someone else, I'll put a qualifier on that claim. This episodic look at a painter conjures his sense of boredom and aimlessness without the film feeling boring or unfocused. More interestingly, Hong digs into the tension between longterm wishes to be moral through resistance to temptation and the instinct that craves immediate satisfaction.
Grade: B
-24 City (Er shi si cheng ji) (Jia Zhang-ke, 2008)
Country: China
Genre: Social commentary fictional dramatization/documentary
Synopsis: One city is an example of an evolving China.
Notes: Having not read the festival program notes recently, I wasn't sure if this film was a fictional narrative or a documentary. Save for the presence of Joan Chen, without foreknowledge it's not always clear which parts are mere reportage and which are performances. Three generations of Chengdu residents tell their stories about their ties to a government-run aeronautics factory that is being converted into luxury apartments and a business park. This one can be demanding of the viewer's patience but eventually won me over as it became clearer how Jia was demonstrating China's shift to a more capitalist or consumer-oriented way of life.
Grade: B
Since I only had time for restroom breaks between the first three films, I bailed on the day's fourth session for lunch/dinner and watching the second half of the Dayton Flyers' NCAA Tournament game. I was going to see Orz Boyz (Jiong nan hai), but hunger and hoops won out. Then it was back to the grind.
-Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani, 2008)
Country: United States
Genre: Neorealist drama
Synopsis: Cab driver takes an interest in his seemingly suicide-determined customer.
Notes: Bahrani has been tabbed Someone to Watch by the festival, and he continues to show why with this, his third feature. Bahrani tends to spotlight people and places who exist in the background or who aren't given much consideration, like Man Push Cart's food cart operator or Goodbye Solo's Sengalese immigrant taxi driver. Souleyman Sy Savane is extremely charismatic as Solo, an amiable cabbie who agrees to a stranger's request to drive him into the mountains and what must certainly be the spot where he will commit suicide. Through Savane's performance and Bahrani's subtle revealing of the changing relationship between Solo and William, his fare, the film gains quiet power and builds to an uncertain conclusion.
Grade: B+
-La Belle personne (Christophe Honoré, 2008)
Country: France
Genre: French romantic fatalism
Synopsis: Love hurts in all forms, especially among beautiful people at a Parisian high school.
Notes: The Class this isn't. French teens (and one of their teachers in the form of Louis Garrel) brood and lust for each other in the kind of doomed romanticist movie that only the French can pull off convincingly. (Seriously, Garrel's character would not be viewed in the same terms in a U.S. movie.) Oh yeah, several Nick Drake songs underscore the complicated matters of the heart. I have a soft spot for the French New Wave and its inheritors, so keep that in mind in regard to my favorable assessment.
Grade: B-
I'd planned on seeing The Disappeared at midnight, but I figured there was no way I'd get this entry done or hit the hay at a reasonable hour if I did. (I also thought skipping it would leave me freshed for Tokyo!, tomorrow's midnight pic.) One of the weird things that happens at film festivals is that I'm compelled to see films I'd circled on my schedule even if I'd probably have little interest in seeing them outside this setting. Chalk up one win for sanity tonight in scratching this one off the list.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Cinema paradiso
The next week and a half is a good time to be a cinephile in central Ohio. Tonight the Wexner Center is screening HUNGER, the debut film of writer-director Steve McQueen. I've yet to see it, but advance word, such as J. Hoberman's rave review, is strong. At last year's Cannes Film Festival McQueen won the Caméra D'Or for this film about a hunger strike in a Northern Ireland prison.
I'm regularly impressed with the world-class filmmakers the Wexner Center is able to bring in for visits, so it comes as no surprise that they landed one of only two appearances that McQueen is making to promote the U.S. opening of the film. (The other is in New York, naturally.) McQueen will introduce HUNGER at this evening's screening. More information is available here.
If you're willing to drive a couple hours north and stay indoors while the weather is becoming more spring-like, more than 300 films await at the 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival. Opening night is Thursday, March 19, with the jam-packed daily schedules commencing on Friday the 20th and lasting through Sunday, March 29.
I've been attending CIFF since 2005 and have felt it's particularly good at finding interesting Scandinavian films that often never reach Columbus. For instance, Joachim Trier's REPRISE played CIFF in 2007 and had a cursory commercial release in 2008 but never opened here.
This year their Pacific Pearls sidebar looks potentially strong, with new films from Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Sang-soo, and Johnnie To. CIFF also has some of the IFC Festival direct titles, like Joe Swanberg's ALEXANDER THE LAST, which just premiered at SXSW.
Other higher profile titles include the baseball drama SUGAR from the co-directors of HALF NELSON; 2009 Sundance buzz film MOON with Sam Rockwell; James Toback's docu-biography about Mike Tyson; and Joe Berlinger's oil documentary CRUDE. Writer-director Ramin Bahrani has been tabbed as Someone to Watch, and all three of his feature films will be screened, including his latest GOODBYE SOLO.
Keep an eye on this space during the festival as I plan to cover eight of CIFF's eleven days as best as can be done with catching up to seven films in a day and not having time for much else, including sleep. Coverage will begin on March 20, although my first post will probably not hit the web until I get to the hotel on the 21st.
I'm regularly impressed with the world-class filmmakers the Wexner Center is able to bring in for visits, so it comes as no surprise that they landed one of only two appearances that McQueen is making to promote the U.S. opening of the film. (The other is in New York, naturally.) McQueen will introduce HUNGER at this evening's screening. More information is available here.
If you're willing to drive a couple hours north and stay indoors while the weather is becoming more spring-like, more than 300 films await at the 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival. Opening night is Thursday, March 19, with the jam-packed daily schedules commencing on Friday the 20th and lasting through Sunday, March 29.
I've been attending CIFF since 2005 and have felt it's particularly good at finding interesting Scandinavian films that often never reach Columbus. For instance, Joachim Trier's REPRISE played CIFF in 2007 and had a cursory commercial release in 2008 but never opened here.
This year their Pacific Pearls sidebar looks potentially strong, with new films from Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Sang-soo, and Johnnie To. CIFF also has some of the IFC Festival direct titles, like Joe Swanberg's ALEXANDER THE LAST, which just premiered at SXSW.
Other higher profile titles include the baseball drama SUGAR from the co-directors of HALF NELSON; 2009 Sundance buzz film MOON with Sam Rockwell; James Toback's docu-biography about Mike Tyson; and Joe Berlinger's oil documentary CRUDE. Writer-director Ramin Bahrani has been tabbed as Someone to Watch, and all three of his feature films will be screened, including his latest GOODBYE SOLO.
Keep an eye on this space during the festival as I plan to cover eight of CIFF's eleven days as best as can be done with catching up to seven films in a day and not having time for much else, including sleep. Coverage will begin on March 20, although my first post will probably not hit the web until I get to the hotel on the 21st.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Big screen/small screen
Let's get this out of the way upfront. Ideally, seeing a film at the movie theater is the best viewing experience. As big as televisions have become and as clear as their pictures can be, they cannot compare to the size of a theater's screen and the rich images presented from light projected through celluloid.
Whenever possible, I try to watch films, especially new releases, at the theater rather than viewing screener DVDs. Although I usually don't have the choice between theatrical or home viewing, more screener opportunities are available to me. There's also the entirely different matter of awards season when DVDs of in-release and upcoming films arrive in the mail as frequently as circulars featuring pizza coupons and tire sales prices.
For instance, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and THE WRESTLER showed up at my home Thanksgiving weekend. I waited until the local press screening to watch the Danny Boyle film. I felt that was the best way to see and evaluate it. Granted, this was no noble sacrifice. Holding off meant I enjoyed a better audio-visual experience than I could get at home.
Such thinking probably stems from well-meaning (and possibly snobbish) senses of purism and directorial intent--films are meant for the theater and should be seen there--although by no means have I lived by a hardline stance of projected film or nothing. There's respecting the art, and then there's trying to abide by an impossible standard. Film is better than video, but seeing is better than not seeing.
As an operating principle I still keep a preference for going to the cinema, but an HDTV and Blu-ray player have considerably weakened my resolve when both options are available. The small (or smaller) screen may not be better than or equal to the big screen, but the difference is much less noticeable than it used to be. I'm amazed at how stunning Blu-ray discs and upconverted DVDs look. Even non-anamorphic DVDs can deliver nice pictures.
With local theaters rapidly churning through specialty films that often open unscreened for press or available only on screeners, I've found it much harder to keep up with smaller arthouse fare with a theater-as-primary-option mindset. I suppose that's one reason why the theatrical vs. home viewing issue is on my mind. If I want to see these movies, chances are I'll need to do so at home. Additionally, IFC Festival Direct skips theatrical runs for video-on-demand, and Gigantic Digital is trying the strategy of opening in large markets while doing day-and-date online streaming for the rest of the country. A trip to the movie theater won't be an available choice.
While I hold the theatrical experience in high esteem--yes, even with the talkers and texters that threaten to, and do, ruin it on occasion--I'm ready to declare home viewing is now good enough to make me more flexible regarding what I'll watch where. (I've used home video primarily for watching films I couldn't see elsewhere.) Sure, HDTV and Blu-ray can't reach the thrilling heights of my personal moviegoing highlights, such as seeing 70mm prints of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, and PLAYTIME on huge screens, but technology can now come closer than ever before to replicating the AV splendor at home. What a great time it is to be a cinephile.
Whenever possible, I try to watch films, especially new releases, at the theater rather than viewing screener DVDs. Although I usually don't have the choice between theatrical or home viewing, more screener opportunities are available to me. There's also the entirely different matter of awards season when DVDs of in-release and upcoming films arrive in the mail as frequently as circulars featuring pizza coupons and tire sales prices.
For instance, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and THE WRESTLER showed up at my home Thanksgiving weekend. I waited until the local press screening to watch the Danny Boyle film. I felt that was the best way to see and evaluate it. Granted, this was no noble sacrifice. Holding off meant I enjoyed a better audio-visual experience than I could get at home.
Such thinking probably stems from well-meaning (and possibly snobbish) senses of purism and directorial intent--films are meant for the theater and should be seen there--although by no means have I lived by a hardline stance of projected film or nothing. There's respecting the art, and then there's trying to abide by an impossible standard. Film is better than video, but seeing is better than not seeing.
As an operating principle I still keep a preference for going to the cinema, but an HDTV and Blu-ray player have considerably weakened my resolve when both options are available. The small (or smaller) screen may not be better than or equal to the big screen, but the difference is much less noticeable than it used to be. I'm amazed at how stunning Blu-ray discs and upconverted DVDs look. Even non-anamorphic DVDs can deliver nice pictures.
With local theaters rapidly churning through specialty films that often open unscreened for press or available only on screeners, I've found it much harder to keep up with smaller arthouse fare with a theater-as-primary-option mindset. I suppose that's one reason why the theatrical vs. home viewing issue is on my mind. If I want to see these movies, chances are I'll need to do so at home. Additionally, IFC Festival Direct skips theatrical runs for video-on-demand, and Gigantic Digital is trying the strategy of opening in large markets while doing day-and-date online streaming for the rest of the country. A trip to the movie theater won't be an available choice.
While I hold the theatrical experience in high esteem--yes, even with the talkers and texters that threaten to, and do, ruin it on occasion--I'm ready to declare home viewing is now good enough to make me more flexible regarding what I'll watch where. (I've used home video primarily for watching films I couldn't see elsewhere.) Sure, HDTV and Blu-ray can't reach the thrilling heights of my personal moviegoing highlights, such as seeing 70mm prints of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, and PLAYTIME on huge screens, but technology can now come closer than ever before to replicating the AV splendor at home. What a great time it is to be a cinephile.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
2009 Oscars predictions
Fearless predictions for a night of Academy Awards:
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Screenplay: Milk
Best Animated Feature: WALL-E
Best Animated Short Film: La Maison en petits cubes
Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Costume Design: The Duchess
Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire
Best Documentary Short Subject: The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
Best Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign-Language Film: Waltz with Bashir
Best Live-Action Short Film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Best Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Song: "Jai Ho", Slumdog Millionaire
Best Sound Editing: The Dark Knight
Best Sound Mixing: The Dark Knight
Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Screenplay: Milk
Best Animated Feature: WALL-E
Best Animated Short Film: La Maison en petits cubes
Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Costume Design: The Duchess
Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire
Best Documentary Short Subject: The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
Best Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign-Language Film: Waltz with Bashir
Best Live-Action Short Film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Best Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Song: "Jai Ho", Slumdog Millionaire
Best Sound Editing: The Dark Knight
Best Sound Mixing: The Dark Knight
Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Must Read After My Death
MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH (Morgan Dews, 2007)
Conservative politicians and social commentators love to hold up the good old days of post-World War II America as the golden age of family values that contemporary society has abandoned. Men were the hard-working breadwinners, and women cheerfully attended to domestic duties, be it watching over the couple's precious little angels or serving as the perfect homemaker and hostess. The film adaptation of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and the television series MAD MEN are recent examples of the many challenges to the LEAVE IT TO BEAVER myth of family life. Now comes the documentary MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH, which exposes the howling inner voices in a frayed marriage.
Filmmaker Morgan Dews' maternal grandmother left an archive of Dictaphone and tape recordings, silent 8mm home movies, photographs, and journals from the 1960s with the stipulation "must read after my death". Contrary to the smiling faces in the pictures and films, these source materials reveal a deeply unhappy home life completely unknown to Dews.
From outward appearances Charley and Allis were a typical couple. He slaved at a job that sometimes took him out of the country for four months a year. She stayed home in Hartford, Connecticut with their four children, three boys and a girl. The Dictaphone letters provided a way of communicating privately and were thought to be something the kids might cherish later, especially when Charley and Allis passed on.
While these recordings might sound like romantic correspondence, audio love letters from afar, they are anything but. Their words seep with anger and disappointment. The recordings may have permitted Charley to assert long distance control--he repeatedly stresses the importance of good housekeeping--while also revealing that he and Allis had an open marriage. Charley freely speaks of his dalliances in Australia, going so far as to have one woman sit in and appear on a recording, while Allis is more careful in describing the release she gets from being with another man.
The Dictaphone gives way to a reel-to-reel tape recorder that Allis uses to document her innermost thoughts, some of which were for the purpose of sharing with her psychiatrist. In naked detail she spells out family problems and frustrations with her own failings as a mother and a woman. The story she tells is a familiar one. Charley hates work, drinks too much, and accuses her of raising the children poorly. Allis feels trapped in having to conform to society's expectations and wishes she could run away. From what she says, her psychiatrist cautions against bucking the system but rather finding a way to meet what the culture demands from her as a wife and parent.
Credited as producer, director, writer, and editor, Dews builds MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH through the unhappy recorded voices atop counterpoint images more befitting of Norman Rockwell paintings. The obvious but effective tactic of contrasting words and visuals scrapes off the veneer of domestic bliss that people put on for the world and which gets pasted in scrapbooks and hung on walls. Dews wisely limits the narration to the Dictaphone letters and tapes to maintain the sense of being told secrets about lives of quiet desperation. Including other voices, even a neutral narrator, or perspectives with the benefit of intervening years, would break the confessional-like quality that makes the film so intimate.
MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH comes mostly from Allis' viewpoint, although Dews' editorial choices must be factored into the equation as well. Eventually one wonders how reliable her reporting is and what her purpose is in not only documenting her feelings but also in saving these recordings and desiring they be heard. It's fair to assume that she is speaking from the heart and considers these tapes to be a way for her to vent about the things that she cannot (or will not) say to her husband. Nevertheless, how calculated is it that the amassed materials provide the final word on Charley? This is her truth, but is it the truth or a full representation of it? Dews leaves these questions unanswered, which is all he can do as he tries to reconcile the grandmother he knew with the anguished woman uncovered to him.
This raises the question of what today's archived online lives consisting of blog posts, YouTube videos, and tweets will mean to future generations. For better or worse, interior lives have become more public. Will our self-penned MRS. DALLOWAY-like remembrances pull back the curtain on common human fears and desires through the ages and liberate us from social mythmaking, or is it all merely self-indulgent slop that sullies us in the memories of our descendants?
As a 1960s housewife's distressed expression of suburban ennui, MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH must be difficult for her family to hear and see, but her grandson has assembled these private thoughts into a compelling reminder that the challenges of marriage and parenting are the same now as they were in supposedly rosier times.
Grade: B
(On February 20 MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH is receiving a day-and-date opening in theaters and online from Gigantic Releasing. For those in markets where this independent film has not opened, a three-day, commercial-free, unlimited stream can be purchased at Gigantic Digital for $2.99.)
Conservative politicians and social commentators love to hold up the good old days of post-World War II America as the golden age of family values that contemporary society has abandoned. Men were the hard-working breadwinners, and women cheerfully attended to domestic duties, be it watching over the couple's precious little angels or serving as the perfect homemaker and hostess. The film adaptation of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and the television series MAD MEN are recent examples of the many challenges to the LEAVE IT TO BEAVER myth of family life. Now comes the documentary MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH, which exposes the howling inner voices in a frayed marriage.
Filmmaker Morgan Dews' maternal grandmother left an archive of Dictaphone and tape recordings, silent 8mm home movies, photographs, and journals from the 1960s with the stipulation "must read after my death". Contrary to the smiling faces in the pictures and films, these source materials reveal a deeply unhappy home life completely unknown to Dews.
From outward appearances Charley and Allis were a typical couple. He slaved at a job that sometimes took him out of the country for four months a year. She stayed home in Hartford, Connecticut with their four children, three boys and a girl. The Dictaphone letters provided a way of communicating privately and were thought to be something the kids might cherish later, especially when Charley and Allis passed on.
While these recordings might sound like romantic correspondence, audio love letters from afar, they are anything but. Their words seep with anger and disappointment. The recordings may have permitted Charley to assert long distance control--he repeatedly stresses the importance of good housekeeping--while also revealing that he and Allis had an open marriage. Charley freely speaks of his dalliances in Australia, going so far as to have one woman sit in and appear on a recording, while Allis is more careful in describing the release she gets from being with another man.
The Dictaphone gives way to a reel-to-reel tape recorder that Allis uses to document her innermost thoughts, some of which were for the purpose of sharing with her psychiatrist. In naked detail she spells out family problems and frustrations with her own failings as a mother and a woman. The story she tells is a familiar one. Charley hates work, drinks too much, and accuses her of raising the children poorly. Allis feels trapped in having to conform to society's expectations and wishes she could run away. From what she says, her psychiatrist cautions against bucking the system but rather finding a way to meet what the culture demands from her as a wife and parent.
Credited as producer, director, writer, and editor, Dews builds MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH through the unhappy recorded voices atop counterpoint images more befitting of Norman Rockwell paintings. The obvious but effective tactic of contrasting words and visuals scrapes off the veneer of domestic bliss that people put on for the world and which gets pasted in scrapbooks and hung on walls. Dews wisely limits the narration to the Dictaphone letters and tapes to maintain the sense of being told secrets about lives of quiet desperation. Including other voices, even a neutral narrator, or perspectives with the benefit of intervening years, would break the confessional-like quality that makes the film so intimate.
MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH comes mostly from Allis' viewpoint, although Dews' editorial choices must be factored into the equation as well. Eventually one wonders how reliable her reporting is and what her purpose is in not only documenting her feelings but also in saving these recordings and desiring they be heard. It's fair to assume that she is speaking from the heart and considers these tapes to be a way for her to vent about the things that she cannot (or will not) say to her husband. Nevertheless, how calculated is it that the amassed materials provide the final word on Charley? This is her truth, but is it the truth or a full representation of it? Dews leaves these questions unanswered, which is all he can do as he tries to reconcile the grandmother he knew with the anguished woman uncovered to him.
This raises the question of what today's archived online lives consisting of blog posts, YouTube videos, and tweets will mean to future generations. For better or worse, interior lives have become more public. Will our self-penned MRS. DALLOWAY-like remembrances pull back the curtain on common human fears and desires through the ages and liberate us from social mythmaking, or is it all merely self-indulgent slop that sullies us in the memories of our descendants?
As a 1960s housewife's distressed expression of suburban ennui, MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH must be difficult for her family to hear and see, but her grandson has assembled these private thoughts into a compelling reminder that the challenges of marriage and parenting are the same now as they were in supposedly rosier times.
Grade: B
(On February 20 MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH is receiving a day-and-date opening in theaters and online from Gigantic Releasing. For those in markets where this independent film has not opened, a three-day, commercial-free, unlimited stream can be purchased at Gigantic Digital for $2.99.)
Monday, February 09, 2009
The Muriel Awards
The 2008 year-end awards keep trickling out. I'm one of the participants in Paul Clark's brainchild The Muriels. The winners are being rolled out on a daily basis through February 22, so check out what this ragtag bunch has selected as last year's finest contributions to cinema as well as 10th, 25th, and 50th anniversary picks.These awards are voted on by a collection of cinephiles/critics from around the country. Unlike a lot of other awards, The Muriels aren't about influencing and predicting the Oscars or being the first one on the scene. While I'll be finding out the winners at the same time you are, past history tells me that they should be an interesting and eclectic bunch.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
#1
Next Tuesday Paul Markoff and I will tape our annual Academy Awards preview and Best and Worst Films of 2008 episodes of Now Playing. Our first show, taped in March 1997, was an hour-long special debating the Oscar nominees and predicting the winners. At the end we tacked on our own Top Ten lists for 1996.
Neither of us were seeing movies at the rate at what has become the norm with the show in production. It goes without saying that the movies I chose to see and pay for in my pre-critic days went through a filtering process more than the practically limitless abundance made available to me as a critic.
Naturally, that first pre-critic Top Ten list probably looked much different than it would have if I'd been reviewing films. For '96 I picked BIG NIGHT as the best film of the year. Would I still keep it in that lofty spot? I don't know--I think I've only seen it once--but I suspect I probably wouldn't. It takes time to develop critical faculties, and the person on the verge of reviewing films and engaging in the practice in those early years isn't the same person I am now.
As Now Playing nears the start of its 13th production year, it is interesting to look back at those films I've chosen to laud as the year's best with a critic's authority. I think it's a pretty respectable list--of course I would--and I don't regret any of these picks even if I wouldn't be averse to a tweak here or there.
If I were to replace any, the likeliest candidate is 2000 topper TRAFFIC, although what would assume its spot--off the top of my head, ALMOST FAMOUS, DANCER IN THE DARK, GEORGE WASHINGTON, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, and WONDER BOYS would challenge--is hard to say.
My Top Ten lists prior to 2003 are not on this website. I'm not sure if I even have all of them still. Nevertheless, I thought it might be fun to share what movies I selected each year. Perhaps there's a pattern to discern, perhaps there isn't. Anyway, enjoy.
1997: The Ice Storm
1998: The Truman Show
1999: Being John Malkovich
2000: Traffic
2001: Mulholland Dr.
2002: Punch-Drunk Love
2003: Gerry
2004: Dogville
2005: Kings & Queen (Rois et reine)
2006: The Prestige
2007: There Will Be Blood
2008: WALL-E
Neither of us were seeing movies at the rate at what has become the norm with the show in production. It goes without saying that the movies I chose to see and pay for in my pre-critic days went through a filtering process more than the practically limitless abundance made available to me as a critic.
Naturally, that first pre-critic Top Ten list probably looked much different than it would have if I'd been reviewing films. For '96 I picked BIG NIGHT as the best film of the year. Would I still keep it in that lofty spot? I don't know--I think I've only seen it once--but I suspect I probably wouldn't. It takes time to develop critical faculties, and the person on the verge of reviewing films and engaging in the practice in those early years isn't the same person I am now.
As Now Playing nears the start of its 13th production year, it is interesting to look back at those films I've chosen to laud as the year's best with a critic's authority. I think it's a pretty respectable list--of course I would--and I don't regret any of these picks even if I wouldn't be averse to a tweak here or there.
If I were to replace any, the likeliest candidate is 2000 topper TRAFFIC, although what would assume its spot--off the top of my head, ALMOST FAMOUS, DANCER IN THE DARK, GEORGE WASHINGTON, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, and WONDER BOYS would challenge--is hard to say.
My Top Ten lists prior to 2003 are not on this website. I'm not sure if I even have all of them still. Nevertheless, I thought it might be fun to share what movies I selected each year. Perhaps there's a pattern to discern, perhaps there isn't. Anyway, enjoy.
1997: The Ice Storm
1998: The Truman Show
1999: Being John Malkovich
2000: Traffic
2001: Mulholland Dr.
2002: Punch-Drunk Love
2003: Gerry
2004: Dogville
2005: Kings & Queen (Rois et reine)
2006: The Prestige
2007: There Will Be Blood
2008: WALL-E
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Best Films of 2008
1. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
Both a sensitive depiction of loneliness and a stinging rebuke of consumerism, WALL-E is an ambitious family film with plenty of humor and a cute-as-a-bug protagonist to amuse the kids and thougthfulness to engage adults. WALL-E is packed with physical comedy and sight gags as old as the silent films that provide inspiration for a hero in the tradition of Chaplin's Little Tramp. The sleek space-age design and graceful moments of quiet, such as a lovely robot dance among the stars, give comfort and peace from the heavy themes. WALL-E'S echo of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY--call it the second dawn of man--serves as a cunning tribute to Kubrick's film and an optimistic note for the future of slumbering mankind. Writer-director Andrew Stanton packages the fun and high-mindedness in dazzling ways to make WALL-E successful as popular entertainment for all ages and art that merits serious discussion.
2. THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
THE DARK KNIGHT upends the traditional view of the blockbuster as possessing all brawn and no brain. Director Christopher Nolan administers the visceral stimulation required of an action movie and contemplates the urgent questions regarding the use of power to combat evil and the importance of imagery in the fight. Heath Ledger's riveting turn as The Joker, a sociopath conducting fear experiments on the public for his anarchic amusement, provides a terrifying reminder that the social fabric can be easily torn.
3. WENDY AND LUCY (Kelly Reichardt, 2008)
A simple story of a woman on the verge of losing everything, WENDY AND LUCY gains quiet power in how director Kelly Reichardt depicts the immediacy and peril in living day-to-day. As Wendy, a strapped young woman driving across the country in search of work with her dog her lone companion, Michelle Williams gives a heartbreaking performance. While the film deals Wendy the indignities of her economic situation, acts of decency and compassion provide the most stirring moments in a gorgeously photographed film.
4. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (Jonathan Demme, 2008)
The challenge of a drug addicted past and family tensions in the present is beautifully elucidated in RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. The handheld camerawork draws us into an intimate and suffocating look at what it can be like to hurt many people and desire redemption. The stylistic choice allows the camera to get close while having the freedom to wander within a confined setting, which is precisely the situation Anne Hathaway's Kym finds herself in. Director Jonathan Demme unfolds RACHEL GETTING MARRIED like a novel that gives the immersive experience of being in an environment. The wedding and reception scenes are, in a sense, superfluous to the main narrative, yet this multicultural celebration of community and family is precisely what Kym feels outside of even while in its midst.
5. FUNNY GAMES (Michael Haneke, 2007)
Provocateur Michael Haneke didn't need to remake his 1997 Austrian thriller, especially a decade later as an English-language clone, but as multiplex performance art FUNNY GAMES is a wickedly amusing joke on viewers not expecting a film to toy with them so mercilessly. Coming on the heels of the torture porn trend in horror movies and amid countless reality TV programs, the timing couldn't be better for Haneke's stern lecture decrying the audience's bloodlust and the phoniness and debasement passing for realism in pop culture. Uncomfortable yet ultimately exhilirating, FUNNY GAMES uses suggested violence, intense moralizing, and dark humor to jolt modern moviegoers into recognizing what we consume for entertainment and question whether it's edifying.
6. MAN ON WIRE (James Marsh, 2008)
It's clear from the beginning of the documentary MAN ON WIRE that French wirewalker Philippe Petit survived the forty-five minutes he spent performing on the cable strung between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers without a net or any safety measures, but knowing this doesn't diminish the tension. Director James Marsh employs a heist film's structure to lay out the specifics of how the high wire artist and his friends schemed to get to the top of the towers, let alone pull off this inconceivable feat. Recreated scenes, home movies, and photographs are expertly edited together to heighten the sense of daring and danger.
7. A CHRISTMAS TALE (UN CONTE DE NOËL) (Arnaud Desplechin, 2008)
French auteur Arnaud Desplechin makes gloriously messy films about human interactions, so what better hothouse of domestic clashes is there for him to examine than the dysfunctional family Christmas movie? Featuring a who's who of France's finest actors, including Catherine Deneuve as the clan's matriarch and Desplechin surrogate Mathieu Amalric, A CHRISTMAS TALE unpacks a familial history of grudges, joys, disappointments, and fears that would keep a psychoanalyst busy for decades. For as brutally honest or supposedly truthful as the characters are with each other--with Desplechin it can be hard to discern between the real and the imagined--the airing of grievances is quite playful in tone and the director's inventive cinematic techniques.
8. TRANSSIBERIAN (Brad Anderson, 2008)
Emiliy Mortimer and Woody Harrelson find more adventure than they desired during a week-long trip aboard the Trans-Siberian Express in Brad Anderson's Hitchcockian thriller. TRANSSIBERIAN is a superb suspense film with plenty of intriguing developments to challenge the characters and keep viewers on the edges of their seats. As usual Mortimer is terrific playing a woman struggling to resist indulging her wild old ways as temptations and pressures mount.
9. DOUBT (John Patrick Shanley, 2008)
Writer-director John Patrick Shanley's moral drama actively involves the viewer in assessing the truth of a nun's allegation of a priest. In DOUBT the truth gets tossed about like a kite on a blustery day. It shifts direction abruptly, is difficult to control, and gets battered in the process. However, Shanley's film is not an argument against doubt but a reasoned case for a healthy dose of skepticism to balance out faith, even if such thoughts are unsettling. DOUBT inspires more uncertainty than it resolves, but unquestionably it houses philosophical inquiries and top-notch acting from Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis to mark it as a compelling piece of cinema.
10. AMERICAN TEEN (Nanette Burstein, 2008)
Nanette Burstein's sharply-felt documentary about Warsaw, Indiana high school seniors visits the hallways, bedrooms, and basements where the formative years are spent and finds things are not all that different regardless of when one is a teenager. The primary participants resemble their fictional teen movie analogues--Hannah, the artistically-minded outsider; popular mean girl Megan; Colin, the star basketball player in a hoops-mad community; and lovelorn band geek Jake--but are depicted with greater complexity than their central casting counterparts often receive. Burstein captures teenage angst and hope with such emotional potency that it is unlikely to make viewers wistful for a frequently idealized time in life.
Both a sensitive depiction of loneliness and a stinging rebuke of consumerism, WALL-E is an ambitious family film with plenty of humor and a cute-as-a-bug protagonist to amuse the kids and thougthfulness to engage adults. WALL-E is packed with physical comedy and sight gags as old as the silent films that provide inspiration for a hero in the tradition of Chaplin's Little Tramp. The sleek space-age design and graceful moments of quiet, such as a lovely robot dance among the stars, give comfort and peace from the heavy themes. WALL-E'S echo of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY--call it the second dawn of man--serves as a cunning tribute to Kubrick's film and an optimistic note for the future of slumbering mankind. Writer-director Andrew Stanton packages the fun and high-mindedness in dazzling ways to make WALL-E successful as popular entertainment for all ages and art that merits serious discussion.
2. THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
THE DARK KNIGHT upends the traditional view of the blockbuster as possessing all brawn and no brain. Director Christopher Nolan administers the visceral stimulation required of an action movie and contemplates the urgent questions regarding the use of power to combat evil and the importance of imagery in the fight. Heath Ledger's riveting turn as The Joker, a sociopath conducting fear experiments on the public for his anarchic amusement, provides a terrifying reminder that the social fabric can be easily torn.
3. WENDY AND LUCY (Kelly Reichardt, 2008)
A simple story of a woman on the verge of losing everything, WENDY AND LUCY gains quiet power in how director Kelly Reichardt depicts the immediacy and peril in living day-to-day. As Wendy, a strapped young woman driving across the country in search of work with her dog her lone companion, Michelle Williams gives a heartbreaking performance. While the film deals Wendy the indignities of her economic situation, acts of decency and compassion provide the most stirring moments in a gorgeously photographed film.
4. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (Jonathan Demme, 2008)
The challenge of a drug addicted past and family tensions in the present is beautifully elucidated in RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. The handheld camerawork draws us into an intimate and suffocating look at what it can be like to hurt many people and desire redemption. The stylistic choice allows the camera to get close while having the freedom to wander within a confined setting, which is precisely the situation Anne Hathaway's Kym finds herself in. Director Jonathan Demme unfolds RACHEL GETTING MARRIED like a novel that gives the immersive experience of being in an environment. The wedding and reception scenes are, in a sense, superfluous to the main narrative, yet this multicultural celebration of community and family is precisely what Kym feels outside of even while in its midst.
5. FUNNY GAMES (Michael Haneke, 2007)
Provocateur Michael Haneke didn't need to remake his 1997 Austrian thriller, especially a decade later as an English-language clone, but as multiplex performance art FUNNY GAMES is a wickedly amusing joke on viewers not expecting a film to toy with them so mercilessly. Coming on the heels of the torture porn trend in horror movies and amid countless reality TV programs, the timing couldn't be better for Haneke's stern lecture decrying the audience's bloodlust and the phoniness and debasement passing for realism in pop culture. Uncomfortable yet ultimately exhilirating, FUNNY GAMES uses suggested violence, intense moralizing, and dark humor to jolt modern moviegoers into recognizing what we consume for entertainment and question whether it's edifying.
6. MAN ON WIRE (James Marsh, 2008)
It's clear from the beginning of the documentary MAN ON WIRE that French wirewalker Philippe Petit survived the forty-five minutes he spent performing on the cable strung between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers without a net or any safety measures, but knowing this doesn't diminish the tension. Director James Marsh employs a heist film's structure to lay out the specifics of how the high wire artist and his friends schemed to get to the top of the towers, let alone pull off this inconceivable feat. Recreated scenes, home movies, and photographs are expertly edited together to heighten the sense of daring and danger.
7. A CHRISTMAS TALE (UN CONTE DE NOËL) (Arnaud Desplechin, 2008)
French auteur Arnaud Desplechin makes gloriously messy films about human interactions, so what better hothouse of domestic clashes is there for him to examine than the dysfunctional family Christmas movie? Featuring a who's who of France's finest actors, including Catherine Deneuve as the clan's matriarch and Desplechin surrogate Mathieu Amalric, A CHRISTMAS TALE unpacks a familial history of grudges, joys, disappointments, and fears that would keep a psychoanalyst busy for decades. For as brutally honest or supposedly truthful as the characters are with each other--with Desplechin it can be hard to discern between the real and the imagined--the airing of grievances is quite playful in tone and the director's inventive cinematic techniques.
8. TRANSSIBERIAN (Brad Anderson, 2008)
Emiliy Mortimer and Woody Harrelson find more adventure than they desired during a week-long trip aboard the Trans-Siberian Express in Brad Anderson's Hitchcockian thriller. TRANSSIBERIAN is a superb suspense film with plenty of intriguing developments to challenge the characters and keep viewers on the edges of their seats. As usual Mortimer is terrific playing a woman struggling to resist indulging her wild old ways as temptations and pressures mount.
9. DOUBT (John Patrick Shanley, 2008)
Writer-director John Patrick Shanley's moral drama actively involves the viewer in assessing the truth of a nun's allegation of a priest. In DOUBT the truth gets tossed about like a kite on a blustery day. It shifts direction abruptly, is difficult to control, and gets battered in the process. However, Shanley's film is not an argument against doubt but a reasoned case for a healthy dose of skepticism to balance out faith, even if such thoughts are unsettling. DOUBT inspires more uncertainty than it resolves, but unquestionably it houses philosophical inquiries and top-notch acting from Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis to mark it as a compelling piece of cinema.
10. AMERICAN TEEN (Nanette Burstein, 2008)
Nanette Burstein's sharply-felt documentary about Warsaw, Indiana high school seniors visits the hallways, bedrooms, and basements where the formative years are spent and finds things are not all that different regardless of when one is a teenager. The primary participants resemble their fictional teen movie analogues--Hannah, the artistically-minded outsider; popular mean girl Megan; Colin, the star basketball player in a hoops-mad community; and lovelorn band geek Jake--but are depicted with greater complexity than their central casting counterparts often receive. Burstein captures teenage angst and hope with such emotional potency that it is unlikely to make viewers wistful for a frequently idealized time in life.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
2008 in Film: The Honorable Mentions
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (4 LUNI, 3 SAPTAMÂANI SI 2 ZILE) (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
Without a doubt this devastating portrait of a woman looking to get an illegal abortion in Romania during the 1980s is difficult to watch. Anamaria Marinca's searing performance anchors writer-director Cristian Mungiu's unblinking film, which confronts those on both sides of the issue with tough questions about personal freedom and legislated morality.
BE KIND REWIND (Michel Gondry, 2008)
Writer-director Michel Gondry sprinkles his affection for childlike imagination and handcrafted art throughout BE KIND REWIND, a fun and funny goof on backyard moviemaking. Gondry's intent is not to mock crude, no-budget creations but rather to pay tribute to the artistic spirit freed from commercial aspirations and demands. It's filmmaking as joyful activity and expression instead of a box office competition.
BLINDNESS (Fernando Meirelles, 2008)
Short of putting nothing but white on the screen, the desaturated visual conceit, which emphasizes white and gives the disorienting sensation of limited sight, is as close as the audience can get to experiencing what the characters in BLINDNESS live. Director Fernando Meirelles presents a grim vision of societal breakdown and a survival situation in which most people are susceptible to their worst impulses, but the dynamic style makes the unpleasant content more palatable.
ELEGY (Isabel Coixet, 2008)
Ben Kingsley's commitment-phobic college professor falls harder than he thought possible for Penelope Cruz as his younger student in this moving study of love and aging. Kingsley brings out the complexity in a man whose intellectual curiosity is matched only by his disinterest in deeply knowing the women he beds, but it's Cruz's performance, which transcends the object of desire role, that brings meaning to ELEGY.
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (Werner Herzog, 2007)
The title of Werner Herzog's documentary refers to his experiences while visiting Antarctica and ruminations on the planet's demise. In ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD Herzog alternates between astonishment and curiosity at the weird and wonderful people, creatures, and landscapes he sees and resignation about the potential for mankind to ruin it all. On the whole the nature footage is impressive, but the strange, beautiful world revealed in the underwater photography is so stunning that it produces feelings of rapture.
IRON MAN (Jon Favreau, 2008)
Director Jon Favreau populates IRON MAN with actors more accustomed to prestige pictures than summer blockbusters, but the choices pay off with richer performances across the board. Quick with a quip and projecting a reckless air, Robert Downey Jr. is perfect as an intelligent and wealthy ladies' man with self-destructive impulses. His low-key line readings bring a lot of humor to his interactions with his human and robot counterparts. As Stark's loyal assistant Pepper Potts, Gwyneth Paltrow lends quiet grace and value to what might otherwise have been an unremarkable Girl Friday part. Favreau forges a strong film through the combination of character development and comedy with the explosions and impressive special effects expected during the the big movie season.
MILK (Gus Van Sant, 2008)
Biographical films can feel like museum pieces, but Gus Van Sant's blending of archival footage and meticulous period recreation in MILK brings to life a vibrant community ready to boil over from the pressure put upon them. As a case study of political mobilization, MILK provides an intriguing look inside one man's conquering of the system. While the director puts his distinctive stamp on the material, MILK is an actor's picture. Penn's riveting performance captures Milk's complexity. Milk never apologizes for who he is, and it's Penn's looseness in the role that rounds out his acting and allows him to inhabit the character rather than impersonate the man.
THE ORDER OF MYTHS (Margaret Brown, 2008)
For all of the grand statements about what the election of Barack Obama means about current racial attitudes in America, THE ORDER OF MYTHS provides an example of one practice that shows how much work remains. This documentary about Mobile, Alabama's still-segregated Mardi Gras celebrations examines how people hold onto traditions. Director Margaret Brown resists playing gotcha as she challenges those who prefer to cling to mindsets that value the past while destroying the present and future.
PARANOID PARK (Gus Van Sant, 2007)
Merging his experimental impulses with a more accessible story (or at least something with the semblance of a plot), Gus Van Sant and cinematographer Christopher Doyle paint the inner life of a teenage skateboarder in the grays and blues of confusion, guilt, and alienation. Where MILK found the director focusing on a man attempting to be larger than himself, PARANOID PARK stares at a kid who finds himself wishing he could be so small as to be invisible.
PRICELESS (HORS DE PRIX) (Pierre Salvadori, 2006)
Audrey Tautou sparkles as a gold digger teaching Gad Elmaleh the ways of seduction for profit in PRICELESS. Although more risque than classic Hollywood romantic comedies, this French charmer is a throwback to glamour, graceful physical comedy, and sexually-charged battle of wits.
REDBELT (David Mamet, 2008)
Mixed martial arts and David Mamet may not seem made for each other, but both concentrate on hitting hard, whether with hands and feet or words. Physical and verbal combat come into play in the twisty tale of an honorable jiujitsu instructor played by Chiwitel Ejiofor. The venue may seem an unlikely one for Mamet, but it's an apt setting for the corrupting influene of commercialism upon art and principle.
SNOW ANGELS (David Gordon Green, 2007)
Although the interweaving stories of burgeoning and disintegrating love in SNOW ANGELS display trappings of suburban hell films, writer-director David Gordon Green embraces the characters in his rurally located movie rather than keeping them at arm's length with snarkiness and irony. Viewing these often unlikeable people with empathy, and sometimes humor, instead of judgment and condescension makes all the difference in what could have otherwise been a miserabilist tour of a rocky relationship landscape. In retracing the steps that led to tragedy, Green and lead actor Sam Rockwell provide the context rarely found in news reports or fictional films about common misfortunes. SNOW ANGELS can painfully burrow into one's heart, but such is the cost of empathy, or any human connection for that matter.
TELL NO ONE (NE LE DIS À PERSONNE) (Guillame Canet, 2006)
Films in the Hitchcock mold one of my favorite things, and this French suspense movie does not disappoint. Well-acted by François Cluzet as the prototypical "wrong man", a doctor suspected of murdering his wife and possibly others, and smoothly directed by Guillaume Canet, TELL NO ONE artfully delivers pulpy thrills.
THE WRESTLER (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)
While director Darren Aronofsky and screenwriter Robert Siegel's tour of the small-time wrestling circuit is enlightening, THE WRESTLER'S greater value comes as a portrait of aging via Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei's powerhouse performances. Rourke wears the physical and emotional scars of a man beaten for a living who continues to revel in what he does. Rourke's portrayal of the titular wrestler peels back the qualities people like about the character beyond his signature move. Tomei's naked performance, in every sense of the word, demonstrates how her fortysomething stripper is in charge of what she does yet ultimately draws her worth from the eyes of strangers. Both characters are sacrifices who give themselves up for the pleasure of others. Randy isn't nicknamed The Ram for nothing. Through the moving and observant performances, THE WRESTLER pins down the human cost of these professions.
Without a doubt this devastating portrait of a woman looking to get an illegal abortion in Romania during the 1980s is difficult to watch. Anamaria Marinca's searing performance anchors writer-director Cristian Mungiu's unblinking film, which confronts those on both sides of the issue with tough questions about personal freedom and legislated morality.
BE KIND REWIND (Michel Gondry, 2008)
Writer-director Michel Gondry sprinkles his affection for childlike imagination and handcrafted art throughout BE KIND REWIND, a fun and funny goof on backyard moviemaking. Gondry's intent is not to mock crude, no-budget creations but rather to pay tribute to the artistic spirit freed from commercial aspirations and demands. It's filmmaking as joyful activity and expression instead of a box office competition.
BLINDNESS (Fernando Meirelles, 2008)
Short of putting nothing but white on the screen, the desaturated visual conceit, which emphasizes white and gives the disorienting sensation of limited sight, is as close as the audience can get to experiencing what the characters in BLINDNESS live. Director Fernando Meirelles presents a grim vision of societal breakdown and a survival situation in which most people are susceptible to their worst impulses, but the dynamic style makes the unpleasant content more palatable.
ELEGY (Isabel Coixet, 2008)
Ben Kingsley's commitment-phobic college professor falls harder than he thought possible for Penelope Cruz as his younger student in this moving study of love and aging. Kingsley brings out the complexity in a man whose intellectual curiosity is matched only by his disinterest in deeply knowing the women he beds, but it's Cruz's performance, which transcends the object of desire role, that brings meaning to ELEGY.
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (Werner Herzog, 2007)
The title of Werner Herzog's documentary refers to his experiences while visiting Antarctica and ruminations on the planet's demise. In ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD Herzog alternates between astonishment and curiosity at the weird and wonderful people, creatures, and landscapes he sees and resignation about the potential for mankind to ruin it all. On the whole the nature footage is impressive, but the strange, beautiful world revealed in the underwater photography is so stunning that it produces feelings of rapture.
IRON MAN (Jon Favreau, 2008)
Director Jon Favreau populates IRON MAN with actors more accustomed to prestige pictures than summer blockbusters, but the choices pay off with richer performances across the board. Quick with a quip and projecting a reckless air, Robert Downey Jr. is perfect as an intelligent and wealthy ladies' man with self-destructive impulses. His low-key line readings bring a lot of humor to his interactions with his human and robot counterparts. As Stark's loyal assistant Pepper Potts, Gwyneth Paltrow lends quiet grace and value to what might otherwise have been an unremarkable Girl Friday part. Favreau forges a strong film through the combination of character development and comedy with the explosions and impressive special effects expected during the the big movie season.
MILK (Gus Van Sant, 2008)
Biographical films can feel like museum pieces, but Gus Van Sant's blending of archival footage and meticulous period recreation in MILK brings to life a vibrant community ready to boil over from the pressure put upon them. As a case study of political mobilization, MILK provides an intriguing look inside one man's conquering of the system. While the director puts his distinctive stamp on the material, MILK is an actor's picture. Penn's riveting performance captures Milk's complexity. Milk never apologizes for who he is, and it's Penn's looseness in the role that rounds out his acting and allows him to inhabit the character rather than impersonate the man.
THE ORDER OF MYTHS (Margaret Brown, 2008)
For all of the grand statements about what the election of Barack Obama means about current racial attitudes in America, THE ORDER OF MYTHS provides an example of one practice that shows how much work remains. This documentary about Mobile, Alabama's still-segregated Mardi Gras celebrations examines how people hold onto traditions. Director Margaret Brown resists playing gotcha as she challenges those who prefer to cling to mindsets that value the past while destroying the present and future.
PARANOID PARK (Gus Van Sant, 2007)
Merging his experimental impulses with a more accessible story (or at least something with the semblance of a plot), Gus Van Sant and cinematographer Christopher Doyle paint the inner life of a teenage skateboarder in the grays and blues of confusion, guilt, and alienation. Where MILK found the director focusing on a man attempting to be larger than himself, PARANOID PARK stares at a kid who finds himself wishing he could be so small as to be invisible.
PRICELESS (HORS DE PRIX) (Pierre Salvadori, 2006)
Audrey Tautou sparkles as a gold digger teaching Gad Elmaleh the ways of seduction for profit in PRICELESS. Although more risque than classic Hollywood romantic comedies, this French charmer is a throwback to glamour, graceful physical comedy, and sexually-charged battle of wits.
REDBELT (David Mamet, 2008)
Mixed martial arts and David Mamet may not seem made for each other, but both concentrate on hitting hard, whether with hands and feet or words. Physical and verbal combat come into play in the twisty tale of an honorable jiujitsu instructor played by Chiwitel Ejiofor. The venue may seem an unlikely one for Mamet, but it's an apt setting for the corrupting influene of commercialism upon art and principle.
SNOW ANGELS (David Gordon Green, 2007)
Although the interweaving stories of burgeoning and disintegrating love in SNOW ANGELS display trappings of suburban hell films, writer-director David Gordon Green embraces the characters in his rurally located movie rather than keeping them at arm's length with snarkiness and irony. Viewing these often unlikeable people with empathy, and sometimes humor, instead of judgment and condescension makes all the difference in what could have otherwise been a miserabilist tour of a rocky relationship landscape. In retracing the steps that led to tragedy, Green and lead actor Sam Rockwell provide the context rarely found in news reports or fictional films about common misfortunes. SNOW ANGELS can painfully burrow into one's heart, but such is the cost of empathy, or any human connection for that matter.
TELL NO ONE (NE LE DIS À PERSONNE) (Guillame Canet, 2006)
Films in the Hitchcock mold one of my favorite things, and this French suspense movie does not disappoint. Well-acted by François Cluzet as the prototypical "wrong man", a doctor suspected of murdering his wife and possibly others, and smoothly directed by Guillaume Canet, TELL NO ONE artfully delivers pulpy thrills.
THE WRESTLER (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)
While director Darren Aronofsky and screenwriter Robert Siegel's tour of the small-time wrestling circuit is enlightening, THE WRESTLER'S greater value comes as a portrait of aging via Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei's powerhouse performances. Rourke wears the physical and emotional scars of a man beaten for a living who continues to revel in what he does. Rourke's portrayal of the titular wrestler peels back the qualities people like about the character beyond his signature move. Tomei's naked performance, in every sense of the word, demonstrates how her fortysomething stripper is in charge of what she does yet ultimately draws her worth from the eyes of strangers. Both characters are sacrifices who give themselves up for the pleasure of others. Randy isn't nicknamed The Ram for nothing. Through the moving and observant performances, THE WRESTLER pins down the human cost of these professions.
Friday, January 23, 2009
On guilty pleasures
Wednesday a student was talking to me about anticipating that night's LOST season premiere while also expressing that the show must be a guilty pleasure. I was surprised that such a complex and popular program would get the guilty pleasure tag because the well-reviewed and highly-rated series is not the sort of disreputable entertainment normally associated with the term.
Then again, despite plentiful references to old philosophers and decades of popular culture, LOST'S science fiction and fantasy trappings banish it to dwell in the valley of genre rather than the hilltops of high art. As tends to get ingrained in us at an early age, if something is entertaining and accessible, it must be lightweight and can't be taken seriously. Difficult art that is less pleasing to the senses--stuff that feels like work to consume or is emotionally oppressive--has heft and merit.
In other words, fun is equated to the unserious and pleasures of the flesh and unpleasant means intellectual rigor. Certainly there is some truth in the thinking that pleasant, easy-to-watch fare lacks substance and skill and more demanding works display greater smarts and artistry, but intelligence, enjoyment, and craftsmanship are not (and should not be) mutually exclusive.
Two of 2008's most gratifying, thoughtful, and proficient films were entertainments for the masses in the forms of an animated children's comedy and a comic book action movie. Presumably "low" films like WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT may not have the sheen of high art--heavens, what self-respecting "important" movie would have frivolous ancillary products?--but existential explorations of loneliness and the limits of power thrive underneath their slick surfaces.
(While this blog entry is not intended as an indictment of yesterday's Academy Award nominations, that body tends to reinforce attitudes which consider prestige, somberness, and superficial seriousness more worthy of praise. The vacuous awards bait that is THE READER stands as the most egregious example.)
As a mass media consumer and critic I try to remain open to the potential of spotting artistic value in all films (or TV shows, books, music, etc.), whether the object appears to be studio schlock or art-damaged obscurity. So I don't put stock in the concept of guilty pleasures. I like what I like, and I don't feel as though it is necessary (or productive) to apologize for those preferences. Calling something a guilty pleasure only tends to marginalize it more.
Plus, when most people claim to reveal their pop culture guilty pleasures, they don't appear to feel any guilt about liking those things. Maybe there are shades of embarrassment in admitting these likes--the tough guy who enjoys romantic comedies or the literature professor with a weakness for Rob Schneider movies, for example--but guilt doesn't factor in.
Not that I'm going to change the dialogue, but I'd like to rename so-called guilty pleasures with the more precise label of disreputable favorites. All right, so that won't fit as easily on the cover of Entertainment Weekly or roll off the tongue as smoothly, but in my mind "disreputable favorites" describes what is meant when people talk about guilty pleasures. It's the stuff that mass audiences reject, critics pan, and cultural stereotypes proclaim we shouldn't appreciate yet we find ourselves enjoying anyway.
I say it's time to stop feeling guilty and start embracing the disreputable.
Then again, despite plentiful references to old philosophers and decades of popular culture, LOST'S science fiction and fantasy trappings banish it to dwell in the valley of genre rather than the hilltops of high art. As tends to get ingrained in us at an early age, if something is entertaining and accessible, it must be lightweight and can't be taken seriously. Difficult art that is less pleasing to the senses--stuff that feels like work to consume or is emotionally oppressive--has heft and merit.
In other words, fun is equated to the unserious and pleasures of the flesh and unpleasant means intellectual rigor. Certainly there is some truth in the thinking that pleasant, easy-to-watch fare lacks substance and skill and more demanding works display greater smarts and artistry, but intelligence, enjoyment, and craftsmanship are not (and should not be) mutually exclusive.
Two of 2008's most gratifying, thoughtful, and proficient films were entertainments for the masses in the forms of an animated children's comedy and a comic book action movie. Presumably "low" films like WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT may not have the sheen of high art--heavens, what self-respecting "important" movie would have frivolous ancillary products?--but existential explorations of loneliness and the limits of power thrive underneath their slick surfaces.
(While this blog entry is not intended as an indictment of yesterday's Academy Award nominations, that body tends to reinforce attitudes which consider prestige, somberness, and superficial seriousness more worthy of praise. The vacuous awards bait that is THE READER stands as the most egregious example.)
As a mass media consumer and critic I try to remain open to the potential of spotting artistic value in all films (or TV shows, books, music, etc.), whether the object appears to be studio schlock or art-damaged obscurity. So I don't put stock in the concept of guilty pleasures. I like what I like, and I don't feel as though it is necessary (or productive) to apologize for those preferences. Calling something a guilty pleasure only tends to marginalize it more.
Plus, when most people claim to reveal their pop culture guilty pleasures, they don't appear to feel any guilt about liking those things. Maybe there are shades of embarrassment in admitting these likes--the tough guy who enjoys romantic comedies or the literature professor with a weakness for Rob Schneider movies, for example--but guilt doesn't factor in.
Not that I'm going to change the dialogue, but I'd like to rename so-called guilty pleasures with the more precise label of disreputable favorites. All right, so that won't fit as easily on the cover of Entertainment Weekly or roll off the tongue as smoothly, but in my mind "disreputable favorites" describes what is meant when people talk about guilty pleasures. It's the stuff that mass audiences reject, critics pan, and cultural stereotypes proclaim we shouldn't appreciate yet we find ourselves enjoying anyway.
I say it's time to stop feeling guilty and start embracing the disreputable.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
For your listening consideration
My half-hour conversation with Columbus Alive's Melissa Starker about the Central Ohio Film Critics Association 2008 award winners and some of the year's other notable films is now online. Listen to the podcast here.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Worst Films of 2008
There's value in observing what makes films successful and what makes them fail. Sometimes it's easier to learn from bad movies than it is from the good ones. Explaining what works can be more difficult to pin down than spotting the techniques that lead to cinematic disaster.
There's value in finding what you like, what you don't like, and why you have those likes and dislikes. I'm an introspective sort anyway, so to me it's helpful to understand why certain things speak to me and other things don't.
High-mindedness aside, if I wasn't a critic, I would not have subjected myself to most of the films making my worst list, but I believe there is an obligation to keep up with what's out there, even if that means visiting the dregs of the cinema.
1. COLLEGE (Deb Hagan, 2008)
Although COLLEGE has its roots in raucous higher education comedies, what it really wants to be is SUPERBAD minus the affection for the characters. COLLEGE double majors in raunch and degradation of the trio of high school friends and actors portraying them. It's humiliation as career move for former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell and squeaky clean AMERICAN IDOL finalist Kevin "Chicken Little" Covais. The filmmakers are all too happy to dish out the indignity. For as much disdain that COLLEGE possesses for its characters and actors, it is equally as contemptuous of its audience. Nudity and vulgar depictions of hard partying and hazing are apparently all COLLEGE thinks viewers want. Original or funny jokes don't matter. Being offensive is one thing; COLLEGE makes you feel dirty for having watched it.
2. MEET THE SPARTANS (Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, 2008)
MEET THE SPARTANS, a feature-length parody of 300, isn't terribly different from VH-1's BEST WEEK EVER, except for the lack of self-conscious irony and smugness. It stands above (or below) the culture and takes potshots at easy targets. The triumvirate of celebrity bad girls are mocked, Spartans are totally gay for each other, and reality TV judges are self-absorbed clowns. Burn! Writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have made a career out of pop culture-mocking time capsules with exceedingly short shelf lives. Maybe there wouldn't be anything so wrong with the disposability of their movies if they were funny.
3. ZOMBIE STRIPPERS (Jay Lee, 2008)
Like so many exploitation movies, the title ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is more enjoyable and memorable than the actual product. Unsurprisingly ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is poorly acted, written, directed, edited, and lit, but it is so tedious to watch that this might be the first movie that would be improved if Uwe Boll were calling the shots. At least the oft-derided director would have dropped the pretense of shoehorning in political subtext in an attempt to bring class to such a trashy film.
4. AN AMERICAN CAROL (David Zucker, 2008)
Writer-director David Zucker has been coasting for a long time on early career, exclamation point-punctuated creative successes (AIRPLANE!, TOP SECRET!, and POLICE SQUAD!), so objections to his latest so-called comedy are not primarily political. He hasn't made anything worthwhile since THE NAKED GUN, and AN AMERICAN CAROL'S recycled silliness keeps him on the schneid. Sure, jokes based on meager Republican talking points don't do the film any favors, mainly because putting ideology first is rarely funny. As unworthy of debate as the film's flimsy grandstanding is, AN AMERICAN CAROL isn't particularly inflammatory except for a tasteless invocation of 9/11. Reasonable people can disagree about issues facing the nation, but AN AMERICAN CAROL'S comedy style and politics are sorely missing that kind of thoughtfulness.
5. NOBEL SON (Randall Miller, 2007)
The nasty, self-satisfied NOBEL SON comes straight from the mold of mid- to late-1990s Tarantino imitations dominating video store shelves. Like so many of its theatrical and direct-to-video brethren, NOBEL SON is fueled by perceived cleverness rather than actual wit and innovation. Lots of "style" is imposed with little effect on this glib exercise in plot convolutions and hateful characters.
6. THE WOMEN (Diane English, 2008)
MURPHY BROWN creator and THE WOMEN writer-director Diane English aspires to present strong women, but this miserable lot come off as fragile, helpless, and sorely lacking an arsenal of witty retorts that their counterparts in the 1939 original possessed. Rather than a funny, empowering look at modern females, THE WOMEN serves laughless reinforcement of many of the old stereotypes.
7. MAX PAYNE (John Moore, 2008)
A video game adaptation slathered with action scenes and film noir atmospherics might sound like potentially brainless fun, but the mind-numbing repetition, emotionless performances, and needlessly complicated plot make MAX PAYNE earn a title promising extreme suffering.
8. MAMMA MIA! (Phyllida Lloyd, 2008)
In a classic example of mistranslating material from stage to screen, first-time movie director Phyllida Lloyd calls for her actors to deliver broad performances that reach the last row of the auditorium. For a medium dominated by close-ups, and a shot selection Lloyd often favors, the over-the-top acting style quickly becomes overbearing. Usually it is a joy to watch Meryl Streep practicing her craft, but in MAMMA MIA! it's embarrassing to see her mugging and flouncing about like a skittish teenager. ABBA's songs are as insanely catchy as always, perhaps maddeningly so, but if that's all MAMMA MIA! has to offer, one would be better served by their greatest hits CD than the mostly amateur hour singing in the film.
9. DISASTER MOVIE (Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, 2008)
Friedberg and Seltzer's DISASTER MOVIE is their "better" 2008 parody, meaning that they provided a more solid framework for stringing together sketches and I actually laughed a few times. Hip fave-turned-backlash recipient JUNO takes a few well-deserved licks, but other than that it's the same old toothless humor that might be called juvenile if the film could reach the intellectual standard of playground taunts.
10. FOUR CHRISTMASES (Seth Gordon, 2008)
Apparently Hollywood believes nothing gets folks into the holiday spirit like movies about how much scorn people deserve. CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS, SURVIVING CHRISTMAS, and DECK THE HALLS are some examples with little to no good will toward men or filmmaking prowess. (At least the crude and misanthropic BAD SANTA has the charity to donate laughs.) This joyless affair with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn as family-avoiding grinches employs Christmas gatherings more for MEET THE PARENTS-like possibilities, but whatever the aim, FOUR CHRISTMASES couldn't be more unappealing in spirit and cinematography.
There's value in finding what you like, what you don't like, and why you have those likes and dislikes. I'm an introspective sort anyway, so to me it's helpful to understand why certain things speak to me and other things don't.
High-mindedness aside, if I wasn't a critic, I would not have subjected myself to most of the films making my worst list, but I believe there is an obligation to keep up with what's out there, even if that means visiting the dregs of the cinema.
1. COLLEGE (Deb Hagan, 2008)
Although COLLEGE has its roots in raucous higher education comedies, what it really wants to be is SUPERBAD minus the affection for the characters. COLLEGE double majors in raunch and degradation of the trio of high school friends and actors portraying them. It's humiliation as career move for former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell and squeaky clean AMERICAN IDOL finalist Kevin "Chicken Little" Covais. The filmmakers are all too happy to dish out the indignity. For as much disdain that COLLEGE possesses for its characters and actors, it is equally as contemptuous of its audience. Nudity and vulgar depictions of hard partying and hazing are apparently all COLLEGE thinks viewers want. Original or funny jokes don't matter. Being offensive is one thing; COLLEGE makes you feel dirty for having watched it.
2. MEET THE SPARTANS (Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, 2008)
MEET THE SPARTANS, a feature-length parody of 300, isn't terribly different from VH-1's BEST WEEK EVER, except for the lack of self-conscious irony and smugness. It stands above (or below) the culture and takes potshots at easy targets. The triumvirate of celebrity bad girls are mocked, Spartans are totally gay for each other, and reality TV judges are self-absorbed clowns. Burn! Writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have made a career out of pop culture-mocking time capsules with exceedingly short shelf lives. Maybe there wouldn't be anything so wrong with the disposability of their movies if they were funny.
3. ZOMBIE STRIPPERS (Jay Lee, 2008)
Like so many exploitation movies, the title ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is more enjoyable and memorable than the actual product. Unsurprisingly ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is poorly acted, written, directed, edited, and lit, but it is so tedious to watch that this might be the first movie that would be improved if Uwe Boll were calling the shots. At least the oft-derided director would have dropped the pretense of shoehorning in political subtext in an attempt to bring class to such a trashy film.
4. AN AMERICAN CAROL (David Zucker, 2008)
Writer-director David Zucker has been coasting for a long time on early career, exclamation point-punctuated creative successes (AIRPLANE!, TOP SECRET!, and POLICE SQUAD!), so objections to his latest so-called comedy are not primarily political. He hasn't made anything worthwhile since THE NAKED GUN, and AN AMERICAN CAROL'S recycled silliness keeps him on the schneid. Sure, jokes based on meager Republican talking points don't do the film any favors, mainly because putting ideology first is rarely funny. As unworthy of debate as the film's flimsy grandstanding is, AN AMERICAN CAROL isn't particularly inflammatory except for a tasteless invocation of 9/11. Reasonable people can disagree about issues facing the nation, but AN AMERICAN CAROL'S comedy style and politics are sorely missing that kind of thoughtfulness.
5. NOBEL SON (Randall Miller, 2007)
The nasty, self-satisfied NOBEL SON comes straight from the mold of mid- to late-1990s Tarantino imitations dominating video store shelves. Like so many of its theatrical and direct-to-video brethren, NOBEL SON is fueled by perceived cleverness rather than actual wit and innovation. Lots of "style" is imposed with little effect on this glib exercise in plot convolutions and hateful characters.
6. THE WOMEN (Diane English, 2008)
MURPHY BROWN creator and THE WOMEN writer-director Diane English aspires to present strong women, but this miserable lot come off as fragile, helpless, and sorely lacking an arsenal of witty retorts that their counterparts in the 1939 original possessed. Rather than a funny, empowering look at modern females, THE WOMEN serves laughless reinforcement of many of the old stereotypes.
7. MAX PAYNE (John Moore, 2008)
A video game adaptation slathered with action scenes and film noir atmospherics might sound like potentially brainless fun, but the mind-numbing repetition, emotionless performances, and needlessly complicated plot make MAX PAYNE earn a title promising extreme suffering.
8. MAMMA MIA! (Phyllida Lloyd, 2008)
In a classic example of mistranslating material from stage to screen, first-time movie director Phyllida Lloyd calls for her actors to deliver broad performances that reach the last row of the auditorium. For a medium dominated by close-ups, and a shot selection Lloyd often favors, the over-the-top acting style quickly becomes overbearing. Usually it is a joy to watch Meryl Streep practicing her craft, but in MAMMA MIA! it's embarrassing to see her mugging and flouncing about like a skittish teenager. ABBA's songs are as insanely catchy as always, perhaps maddeningly so, but if that's all MAMMA MIA! has to offer, one would be better served by their greatest hits CD than the mostly amateur hour singing in the film.
9. DISASTER MOVIE (Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, 2008)
Friedberg and Seltzer's DISASTER MOVIE is their "better" 2008 parody, meaning that they provided a more solid framework for stringing together sketches and I actually laughed a few times. Hip fave-turned-backlash recipient JUNO takes a few well-deserved licks, but other than that it's the same old toothless humor that might be called juvenile if the film could reach the intellectual standard of playground taunts.
10. FOUR CHRISTMASES (Seth Gordon, 2008)
Apparently Hollywood believes nothing gets folks into the holiday spirit like movies about how much scorn people deserve. CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS, SURVIVING CHRISTMAS, and DECK THE HALLS are some examples with little to no good will toward men or filmmaking prowess. (At least the crude and misanthropic BAD SANTA has the charity to donate laughs.) This joyless affair with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn as family-avoiding grinches employs Christmas gatherings more for MEET THE PARENTS-like possibilities, but whatever the aim, FOUR CHRISTMASES couldn't be more unappealing in spirit and cinematography.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
7th annual Central Ohio Film Critics Association awards
Here's the press release I sent to publicize the Central Ohio Film Critics Association 2008 awards:
WALL·E collects top prize in 7th annual Central Ohio Film Critics Association awards
(Columbus, January 8, 2009) Andrew Stanton's WALL·E was named Best Film in the Central Ohio Film Critics Association’s 7th annual awards, which recognize excellence in the film industry for 2008. The film also won two other awards, including Best Screenplay-Original (Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon) and Best Animated Film. Stanton was runner-up for Best Director.
The Dark Knight, which finished fourth on the Best Film list, was awarded three prizes: Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Ensemble, and Best Cinematography (Wally Pfister). Ledger’s win marks the third time COFCA has honored the actor. He won 2005’s Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work) and Best Lead Performance for that year’s Brokeback Mountain.
Other multiple award winners include Slumdog Millionaire, Frozen River, and The Wrestler. Best Film runner-up Slumdog Millionaire claimed Best Director (Danny Boyle) and Best Screenplay-Adapted (Simon Beaufoy). Frozen River’s two awards went to Melissa Leo for Best Actress and Breakthrough Film Artist. Frozen River placed third on the Best Films list. Best Actor Mickey Rourke and Best Supporting Actress Marisa Tomei pinned down two awards for The Wrestler, which ranked seventh in COFCA’s Top 10.
Other individual winners include: Actor of the Year Robert Downey Jr. for his exemplary work in Iron Man and Tropic Thunder and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’s Alexandre Desplat for Best Score.
Other honored films include: Man on Wire for Best Documentary; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile) for Best Foreign Language Film; and Ghost Town for Best Overlooked Film.
Founded in 2002, the Central Ohio Film Critics Association is comprised of film critics based in Columbus, Ohio and the surrounding areas. Its membership consists of more than 25 print, radio, television, and new media critics. COFCA's official website at www.cofca.org contains links to member reviews and past award winners.
Winners were announced at a private party on January 8.
Complete list of awards:
Best Films
1. WALL·E
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Frozen River
4. The Dark Knight
5. Frost/Nixon
6. Milk
7. The Wrestler
8. Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10. In Bruges
Best Director
-Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
-Runner-up: Andrew Stanton, WALL·E
Best Actor
-Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
-Runner-up: Sean Penn, Milk
Best Actress
-Melissa Leo, Frozen River
-Runner-up: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Best Supporting Actor
-Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
-Runners-up (tie): Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt and Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Supporting Actress
-Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
-Runner-up: Misty Upham, Frozen River
Best Ensemble
-The Dark Knight
-Runner-up: Slumdog Millionaire
Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)
-Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man and Tropic Thunder
-Runner-up: James Franco, Milk and Pineapple Express
Breakthrough Film Artist
-Melissa Leo, Frozen River (for acting)
-Runner-up: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River (for directing and screenwriting)
Best Cinematography
-Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight
-Runner-up: Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Screenplay – Adapted
-Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
-Runner-up: Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
Best Screenplay – Original
-Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, WALL·E
-Runner-up: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Best Score
-Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-Runner-up: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Documentary
-Man on Wire
-Runner-up: American Teen
Best Foreign Language Film
-4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile)
-Runner-up: Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)
Best Animated Film
-WALL·E
-Runner-up: Kung Fu Panda
Best Overlooked Film
-Ghost Town
-Runner-up: RocknRolla
COFCA offers its congratulations to the winners.
Previous Best Film winners:
2002: Punch-Drunk Love
2003: Lost in Translation
2004: Million Dollar Baby
2005: A History of Violence
2006: Children of Men
2007: No Country for Old Men
For more information about the Central Ohio Film Critics Association, please visit http://www.cofca.org/ or e-mail info@cofca.org.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Marley & Me
MARLEY & ME (David Frankel, 2008)
In MARLEY & ME newlyweds John and Jennifer Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) welcome a cuddly bundle of joy into their home only to discover that it's more than they can handle. The feisty puppy that grows into an untamed dog named Marley wrecks their house but wins their hearts.
John's humorous stories about his troublesome yellow Labrador earn him a promotion from the mundane metro beat to a newspaper column, but writing about canine hijinks isn't what he expected of his career.
No one is going to mistake MARLEY & ME for Bergman, but the deft touch with which it addresses spouses' and parents' professional and personal trade-offs proves this to be a more substantial and poignant picture than expected for what appears to be merely a cute dog movie. It is that and something more.
The film is a surprisingly nuanced study of marriage, suburban family life, and deferred dreams. MARLEY & ME and REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, Sam Mendes' better pedigreed, angst-ridden drama about a dissatisfied couple in the 1950s, are different sides of the same coin. Where REVOLUTIONARY ROAD believes the suburbs crush hopes, MARLEY & ME discovers that unexpected joy can be found in a life that doesn't completely resemble one's youthful visions of adulthood. Such an affirming message isn't exactly earth-shattering, although it is more novel in the movies, where suburbia is frequently equated to hell.
Don't think MARLEY & ME is too serious, though. This is a relatable and entertaining film that laughs knowingly at one dog's mischief-making and the owners growing accustomed to him. Wilson and Aniston are funny and real as their characters cope with life's ups and downs. As John's crusty editor Arnie, Alan Arkin is a reliable source of dry wit, and Eric Dane provides an amusing contrast as the carefree, rising star reporter John wishes he had the freedom to be.
John and Jennifer don't realize how attached they will become to their dog. It's appropriate then that MARLEY & ME has the same effect on the viewer.
Grade: B
In MARLEY & ME newlyweds John and Jennifer Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) welcome a cuddly bundle of joy into their home only to discover that it's more than they can handle. The feisty puppy that grows into an untamed dog named Marley wrecks their house but wins their hearts.
John's humorous stories about his troublesome yellow Labrador earn him a promotion from the mundane metro beat to a newspaper column, but writing about canine hijinks isn't what he expected of his career.
No one is going to mistake MARLEY & ME for Bergman, but the deft touch with which it addresses spouses' and parents' professional and personal trade-offs proves this to be a more substantial and poignant picture than expected for what appears to be merely a cute dog movie. It is that and something more.
The film is a surprisingly nuanced study of marriage, suburban family life, and deferred dreams. MARLEY & ME and REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, Sam Mendes' better pedigreed, angst-ridden drama about a dissatisfied couple in the 1950s, are different sides of the same coin. Where REVOLUTIONARY ROAD believes the suburbs crush hopes, MARLEY & ME discovers that unexpected joy can be found in a life that doesn't completely resemble one's youthful visions of adulthood. Such an affirming message isn't exactly earth-shattering, although it is more novel in the movies, where suburbia is frequently equated to hell.
Don't think MARLEY & ME is too serious, though. This is a relatable and entertaining film that laughs knowingly at one dog's mischief-making and the owners growing accustomed to him. Wilson and Aniston are funny and real as their characters cope with life's ups and downs. As John's crusty editor Arnie, Alan Arkin is a reliable source of dry wit, and Eric Dane provides an amusing contrast as the carefree, rising star reporter John wishes he had the freedom to be.
John and Jennifer don't realize how attached they will become to their dog. It's appropriate then that MARLEY & ME has the same effect on the viewer.
Grade: B
Thursday, January 01, 2009
A new beginning
It's been some time since I last posted here. I won't bother going into the details of a blogging sabbatical that I didn't intend to take. For one thing, the reasons are mostly mundane.
If anything, this entry is here to inform you that I have not fallen off the face of the earth and that I am still reviewing films, even though most of what I have written has not migrated to the web in recent months. Those backlogged reviews may or may not appear here. It depends if I get around to it.
If there's one thing that 2008 taught film critics, it's that you better be doing it because you love it. Many critics found themselves laid off and nudged (or pushed) into early retirement last year. Considering the financial health of the nation's newspapers, the forecast for this year isn't any brighter for those seeking to making a living writing about the cinema.
To be sure, I have not been affected as the film criticism I do has not been for pay. I've been fortunate to incorporate a movie review program into my job. Film critic duties are not my in the job description, though, which is why I don't really consider myself a professional even though I've been at it since 1997.
Or maybe it's just my weird way of looking at it. After all, in 2008 I did get my first check for writing a 100-word blurb for The Nashville Scene. For all of the words I've written, it was that minor piece that provided a sense of accomplishment and has probably been read by more people than anything else I've done.
Now that a new year is here, it's time to make a fresh start. I'm still digging through awards consideration screeners and finalizing my best and worst of 2008 lists. I hope to begin posting those lists within the next week. I have some other ideas for things I'd like to write about here on a regular basis, but for now I need to hold myself to getting content up consistently instead of promising new features.
The majority of my traffic comes from searches and review aggregate sites. Those visitors will never come across entries like this, so to those who've been stopping by expecting something new, thanks for being patient and maintaining an interest. Things should be picking up here again.
If anything, this entry is here to inform you that I have not fallen off the face of the earth and that I am still reviewing films, even though most of what I have written has not migrated to the web in recent months. Those backlogged reviews may or may not appear here. It depends if I get around to it.
If there's one thing that 2008 taught film critics, it's that you better be doing it because you love it. Many critics found themselves laid off and nudged (or pushed) into early retirement last year. Considering the financial health of the nation's newspapers, the forecast for this year isn't any brighter for those seeking to making a living writing about the cinema.
To be sure, I have not been affected as the film criticism I do has not been for pay. I've been fortunate to incorporate a movie review program into my job. Film critic duties are not my in the job description, though, which is why I don't really consider myself a professional even though I've been at it since 1997.
Or maybe it's just my weird way of looking at it. After all, in 2008 I did get my first check for writing a 100-word blurb for The Nashville Scene. For all of the words I've written, it was that minor piece that provided a sense of accomplishment and has probably been read by more people than anything else I've done.
Now that a new year is here, it's time to make a fresh start. I'm still digging through awards consideration screeners and finalizing my best and worst of 2008 lists. I hope to begin posting those lists within the next week. I have some other ideas for things I'd like to write about here on a regular basis, but for now I need to hold myself to getting content up consistently instead of promising new features.
The majority of my traffic comes from searches and review aggregate sites. Those visitors will never come across entries like this, so to those who've been stopping by expecting something new, thanks for being patient and maintaining an interest. Things should be picking up here again.
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