Time for another edition of this fun idea. It's been too long, and with the opening of another Alamo Drafthouse here in Dallas, what better time to celebrate the vagaries of what's possible in the dark.
Day 1
****The Very Dry Spy showcase, spotlighting the more cerebral spy films out there
Harry Palmer double feature:
"Funeral In Berlin" and "The Ipcress File"
****US Premier, Texas Filmmaker Showcase Panel
"Aint Them Bodies Saints", dir. by David Lowery
**** Midnight Madness event
"Vicious Lips". dir. by Albert Pyun
Day 2
****US Premier, Texas Filmmaker Showcase
"The Retrieval", dir. by Chris Eska
****The Very Dry Spy showcase, spotlighting the more cerebral spy films out there
Alfred Hitchcock's "Topaz"
"The Spy Who Came In From the Cold", dir. by Martin Ritt
****World Premier special event with director Q&A
"Only God Forgives", dir. by Nicolas Wending Refn
****Texas Filmmaker showcase
Shane Carruth appreciation, special screenings and roundtable with cast/crew of "Upstream Color" and "Primer"
****Midnight Madness event
"100 Years of Adolf Hitler", dir. by Christophe Schlingensief.... yes a real thing starring Udo Kier
Day 3
Saturday Premier day/closing festivities
"Fruitvale Station", dir. by Ryan Coogler
"Call Girl", dir. by Mikael Marcimain
"The Grandmaster", dir. by Wong Kar Wai
"The Immigrant", dir. by James Gray
"The Past", dir. by Asghar Farhadi
****Midnight Madness event
"Threads", dir. by Mick Jackson
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Saturday, June 08, 2013
My Pantheon
I recently re-read "The American Cinema" by Andrew Sarris, partly in moist eyed remembrance of my most influential and favorite American film critic, but mostly due to the fact it'd been over ten years since I last read it. Having seen a large body of many of the directors mentioned certainly helps in appreciating Sarris and his razor-sharp analogies, and it struck me: what changes would Sarris make today, in 2013, if any? Does he still write off Aldrich, Lumet and others quite so easily now that time has given their canon lenghty and discussive analysis? And, more importantly, what would my pantheon look like? So, here, in quick succession with only a few minutes (and looks back over my best of lists for the past 30 years or so) is how I'd rank things (foreign directors accepted). If one is so inclined, comments and your own rankings on your own blogs is encouraged!
I. Pantheon Directors
Martin Scorsese
Jean Luc Godard
Jean Pierre Melville
John Cassavetes
Michael Mann
Olivier Assayas
John Frankenheimer
Coen Brothers
Wim Wenders
Francesco Rosi
Edward Yang
Tony Scott
Sam Fuller
Abel Ferrera
II. The Second Tier
Michael Winterbottom
Sidney Lumet
Johnny To
Robert Altman
Roman Polanski
Francis Ford Coppola
Frank Perry
Brian DePalma
John Carpenter
Emir Kusturica
Terence Malick (despite my love wavering the last 2 films)
Takeshi Kitano
III. Highly Regarded, but too soon to tell
Paul Thomas Anderson
Wes Anderson
Julio Medem
James Gray
Christopher Nolan
You Le
Fatih Akin
Andrew Dominik
David Fincher
Jacques Audiard
Darren Aronofsky
Rian Johnson
Wong Kar Wai
I. Pantheon Directors
Martin Scorsese
Jean Luc Godard
Jean Pierre Melville
John Cassavetes
Michael Mann
Olivier Assayas
John Frankenheimer
Coen Brothers
Wim Wenders
Francesco Rosi
Edward Yang
Tony Scott
Sam Fuller
Abel Ferrera
II. The Second Tier
Michael Winterbottom
Sidney Lumet
Johnny To
Robert Altman
Roman Polanski
Francis Ford Coppola
Frank Perry
Brian DePalma
John Carpenter
Emir Kusturica
Terence Malick (despite my love wavering the last 2 films)
Takeshi Kitano
III. Highly Regarded, but too soon to tell
Paul Thomas Anderson
Wes Anderson
Julio Medem
James Gray
Christopher Nolan
You Le
Fatih Akin
Andrew Dominik
David Fincher
Jacques Audiard
Darren Aronofsky
Rian Johnson
Wong Kar Wai
Friday, June 07, 2013
A Meta Life: Stories We Tell
Filmmaker/actress Sarah Polley deserves to be titled in that order, if it makes a huge difference. Yes, she's a luminous actress, but over the past 4 years and 3 films, Polley has ascended into something bigger than that... a woman crafting tremendous, personal works of art that transcend her young age.
Polley's latest film, "Stories We Tell" is a documentary, turning the lens on herself and her own family as she scalpels away at the truth of the infectious personality of mom Diane and exactly what happened in the late 70's. Using direct interviews, grainy home video footage and even actor-portrayed recreations, "Stories We Tell" charts the timeline of her family with judicious investigation. Why doesn't she look like the rest of her family? What causes a marriage to fade into boredom and familiarity? And what's the responsibility of future generations to trace the truth of past ones? All of these questions are answered in Polley's capable hands, at great personal cost to all.
In actuality, Polley has probably been answering these questions for years now. Her debut film, "Away From Her" was a moving and real depiction of a woman's slow ascent into sickness, featuring a wonderfully nuanced performance by Julie Christie and, obviously, based on the slow progression of cancer that eventually took Polley's own mother when she was just 11 years old. Last year, Polley released "Take This Waltz"... a film starring Michelle Williams as a woman torn between the comforts (and boredom) of marriage and the exciting possibility of an affair. I was on the fence about the film, amazed by certain moments of spontaneity but taken aback by the weird outbursts of Williams' character. After seeing "Stories We Tell", it's clear "Take This Waltz" was more autobiographical than anyone realized. Both films, seen as a fictional and then non-fictional rendering of the same woman- Polley's mother- compliment each other and deepen the conflicted and quizzical feelings Sarah must have about her mother. While most of us can appreciate a parent in the here and now, Polley is recreating her through grainy images, interpretive writing and tough questions.
In "Stories We Tell", a unique structure is used where her own father reads aloud fom a text (we find out at the end of the film where it came from) and Polley frames the images around the meta-textual musings. It's ironic (and somehow perfect) that the most memorable images of the documentary are stationary reaction shots of Polley as she listens, her face or mouth or eyes tightening or twitching in discovery as the words are made. Not only is it a human moment, but a touching one that forces the audience to discover and relate to her own discovery. The best non-fiction works, like those of Jonathan Caouette or Ross McElwee, not only mine the potential of a great personal story but they allow us unsettling peaks behind the emotional curtain of the author or storyteller. Sarah Polley has created a brave undressing of her family that not only belongs in this class of personal docudrama, but stands head and shoulders above anything else this year so far.
Polley's latest film, "Stories We Tell" is a documentary, turning the lens on herself and her own family as she scalpels away at the truth of the infectious personality of mom Diane and exactly what happened in the late 70's. Using direct interviews, grainy home video footage and even actor-portrayed recreations, "Stories We Tell" charts the timeline of her family with judicious investigation. Why doesn't she look like the rest of her family? What causes a marriage to fade into boredom and familiarity? And what's the responsibility of future generations to trace the truth of past ones? All of these questions are answered in Polley's capable hands, at great personal cost to all.
In actuality, Polley has probably been answering these questions for years now. Her debut film, "Away From Her" was a moving and real depiction of a woman's slow ascent into sickness, featuring a wonderfully nuanced performance by Julie Christie and, obviously, based on the slow progression of cancer that eventually took Polley's own mother when she was just 11 years old. Last year, Polley released "Take This Waltz"... a film starring Michelle Williams as a woman torn between the comforts (and boredom) of marriage and the exciting possibility of an affair. I was on the fence about the film, amazed by certain moments of spontaneity but taken aback by the weird outbursts of Williams' character. After seeing "Stories We Tell", it's clear "Take This Waltz" was more autobiographical than anyone realized. Both films, seen as a fictional and then non-fictional rendering of the same woman- Polley's mother- compliment each other and deepen the conflicted and quizzical feelings Sarah must have about her mother. While most of us can appreciate a parent in the here and now, Polley is recreating her through grainy images, interpretive writing and tough questions.
In "Stories We Tell", a unique structure is used where her own father reads aloud fom a text (we find out at the end of the film where it came from) and Polley frames the images around the meta-textual musings. It's ironic (and somehow perfect) that the most memorable images of the documentary are stationary reaction shots of Polley as she listens, her face or mouth or eyes tightening or twitching in discovery as the words are made. Not only is it a human moment, but a touching one that forces the audience to discover and relate to her own discovery. The best non-fiction works, like those of Jonathan Caouette or Ross McElwee, not only mine the potential of a great personal story but they allow us unsettling peaks behind the emotional curtain of the author or storyteller. Sarah Polley has created a brave undressing of her family that not only belongs in this class of personal docudrama, but stands head and shoulders above anything else this year so far.
Monday, June 03, 2013
Cinema Obscura: Threads
When films like "Mad Max", "The Day After" or "The Road" set the viewer in a savage, post-apocalyptic world where survival is boiled down to the essentials like a knapsack of canned goods or warm clothes, Mick Jackson's startling TV movie "Threads" shows us just exactly how we got to that violent point in mankind. Released to great acclaim on BBC television in 1984, "Threads" has since vanished from home distribution, which is a shame because not only is it a highly plausible and fascinating pseudo documentary, but a very scary entry in the post apocalypse genre that's been rejuvenated by the likes of zombie plagues ("The Walking Dead") and big budget vehicles ("I Am Legend").
Beginning with the intimate and working out towards the global, "Threads" open with the young romance of Ruth (Karen Meagher) and Jimmy (Reece Dinsdale), deciding to get married after Ruth becomes pregnant. We're then introduced to both families in the urban town of Sheffield, one a bit more higher along the class system than the other. There are hints and reports of growing threats between Russia and the United States, inferred through snippets of radio broadcasts and newspaper headlines. Slowly, life becomes unruly when submarines are sunk and encroachments along the borders of certain nations are mentioned. Grocery stores run low. Local authorities go underground to convene special recovery governments and talk through their plans. After establishing some sympathy with our neutral observers, "Threads" launches the mushroom cloud at about the one hour mark, and the rest of the film is a harrowing exercise in death, survival and nuclear winters. What makes "Threads" so believable, besides its ominous cuts to text on the screen that states things like "500 million tons of radioactive dust in the atmosphere" and the devastating effects on crops and human life years after the explosion, is the bureaucratic breakdown of society. Not only are ordinary people unable to cope with the nuclear attack, but the independent governments set up around England are under-manned, underwhelmed and simply not prepared to deal with survival on a grand scale. Often overlooked is the basic fact that, upon any first nuclear strike, an EMP wave will knock out all communication and electricity immediately. In our wired society today, that spells disconnect and panic. "Threads" succinctly analyzes every aspect of the possible disaster. And with eloquent minds like Carl Sagan and Dr. Arthur Katz lending contributions to the film, its science is both foolproof and real.
Director Mick Jackson would go onto fame in the 90's with endearing films like "LA Story" (more of a cult classic than anything) and "The Bodyguard", but its his modestly hidden TV terror classic "Threads" that ranks as his best work. Writer Barry Hines also deserves alot of the credit. If one has grown tired of the fictional accounts of what the world would be like after a nuclear holocaust, "Threads" documents a convincing 1-2-3 step process. And that final scene, lingering on 13 years after the disaster, just calls for its own movie.... a hugely sad and nihilistic salute just when one thinks there may be a glimmer of optimism.
Beginning with the intimate and working out towards the global, "Threads" open with the young romance of Ruth (Karen Meagher) and Jimmy (Reece Dinsdale), deciding to get married after Ruth becomes pregnant. We're then introduced to both families in the urban town of Sheffield, one a bit more higher along the class system than the other. There are hints and reports of growing threats between Russia and the United States, inferred through snippets of radio broadcasts and newspaper headlines. Slowly, life becomes unruly when submarines are sunk and encroachments along the borders of certain nations are mentioned. Grocery stores run low. Local authorities go underground to convene special recovery governments and talk through their plans. After establishing some sympathy with our neutral observers, "Threads" launches the mushroom cloud at about the one hour mark, and the rest of the film is a harrowing exercise in death, survival and nuclear winters. What makes "Threads" so believable, besides its ominous cuts to text on the screen that states things like "500 million tons of radioactive dust in the atmosphere" and the devastating effects on crops and human life years after the explosion, is the bureaucratic breakdown of society. Not only are ordinary people unable to cope with the nuclear attack, but the independent governments set up around England are under-manned, underwhelmed and simply not prepared to deal with survival on a grand scale. Often overlooked is the basic fact that, upon any first nuclear strike, an EMP wave will knock out all communication and electricity immediately. In our wired society today, that spells disconnect and panic. "Threads" succinctly analyzes every aspect of the possible disaster. And with eloquent minds like Carl Sagan and Dr. Arthur Katz lending contributions to the film, its science is both foolproof and real.
Director Mick Jackson would go onto fame in the 90's with endearing films like "LA Story" (more of a cult classic than anything) and "The Bodyguard", but its his modestly hidden TV terror classic "Threads" that ranks as his best work. Writer Barry Hines also deserves alot of the credit. If one has grown tired of the fictional accounts of what the world would be like after a nuclear holocaust, "Threads" documents a convincing 1-2-3 step process. And that final scene, lingering on 13 years after the disaster, just calls for its own movie.... a hugely sad and nihilistic salute just when one thinks there may be a glimmer of optimism.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Trailers I Love
Not only is it cool to see a local boy doing good, but one that I've converesed with a few times and probably shared a theater with over the years in Dallas. High anticipation for David Lowery's "Aint Them Bodies Saints".
Monday, May 27, 2013
The Last Few Films I've Seen, spring edition
1. Detective Dee and the Mystery Flame (2010)- At the beginning, I was wondering how I was going to get through all the exaggerated wire-fighting and usual Tsui Hark bloatedness, and then the film clicked with me about the time the gang travels to an underground lair full of mythological weirdness. As a fairy tale, it works splendidly.
2. Oblivion (2013)- As an unrequited fan of Joseph Kominski's "Tron: Legacy", I had high expectations for this one. Visually, its terrific, but its rehashed narrative combining every science fiction film of the last 40 years is a bit much.
3. Pearl Jam Twenty (2011)- No idea why it took me this long to see Cameron Crowe's documentary about my second favorite band of all time! Crowe keeps his egotistical misty-eyedness to a minimum here, and I actually even learned something about the band. Full of great video clips and weaving a compelling story that pits Pearl Jam like a modern day Rolling Stones (complete with concert killings), "Pearl Jam Twenty" is a must for fans of the Seattle scene. And the moment that Eddie Vedder begins singing "Better Man" in concert, then the crowd takes over, and he leans back and just raises his arms in complete harmony is just a tender, magical moment that speaks volumes about the band and their following.
4.Trance (2013)- Danny Boyle's art heist-amnesiac thriller gets points for returning himself to the crazed, image splitting buoyancy of "Trainspotting", but when it's all over, it doesn't really amount to much. Everyone looks to be having tons of fun though.
5. The Lady Vanishes (1939)- A bit stodgy, yes, but this is Hitchcock firing on all groundbreaking cylinders, establishing the thriller genre and the death-on-a-train genre in one glorious swoop. I gasped when one plot point is explained in the fogged up window of a train and thought to myself just how ravaged a filmmaker Hitchcock has been over the last 70 years.
6. Daddy Longlegs (2009)- Ben and Josh Safdie's very uncomfortable ode to Cassavetes is most indebted to the performance of Ronald Bronstein as the wreck of a father to two young boys and the hell he puts them though. I've yet to delve into the films of Bronstein himself ("Frownland" has been called about as divisive a film as the mumblecore wave have crafted), but he's a palpable presence here and you sort of begin to root for him in an awkward way.
7. Broken City (2013)- Wahlburg is a P.I. caught up in city corruption with mayor Rusell Crowe... yawn.
8. Something In the Air (2013)- The latest film from French auteur Olivier Assayas feels like his most personal since “Cold Water” in 1994. Both films feature a young man named Gilles (this time played by Clement Metayer) acting as the surrogate for Assayas himself, tantalizingly poised on the precipice of awkward adulthood. But where “Cold Water” dealt with interior feelings of belonging and amour fou (in the relationship with beautiful but dangerous Virginie Ledoyen), the stakes are a bit higher in “Something In the Air”. Set in Paris after the May events of ‘68, this Gilles and his close sect of friends find themselves mixed up in violent student activism… so violent that they accidentally hurt a security guard during a routine vandalism attempt and are forced to split up in hiding. And while the first third or so of “Something In the Air” deals with these subversive acts of revolution, the real thrust of Assayas’ narrative kicks in after this action, setting up Gilles, Christine (the wonderful Lole Creton), Alaine (Felix Armand) and their various lovers to seek out their own paths in life. The title, while initially evoking the revolutionary scents in the air, subtly changes to denote the forks in the road each individual takes with their lives. Assayas handles all this reverie beautifully, never losing his gentle touch on relationships and staying to true to the way he continually crafts a knockout finale. It may not all be 100% accurate, but the way in which Gilles the man on screen become Assayas the filmmaker is still precise, loving and attuned to the nuances of everyday emotions. I really liked it, if you can't tell.
9. The Iceman (2013)- Oh what have Lumet and Scorsese wrought? Ariel Vromen's account of true life 70's hit man Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) is overbearing, grungy and belligerent with little charisma and even less narrative center. Was this just an excuse for everyone to put on funny moustaches? Check. Other than that, "The Iceman" never builds towards any resolution, instead wallowing in 70's funk and macho bravado.
2. Oblivion (2013)- As an unrequited fan of Joseph Kominski's "Tron: Legacy", I had high expectations for this one. Visually, its terrific, but its rehashed narrative combining every science fiction film of the last 40 years is a bit much.
3. Pearl Jam Twenty (2011)- No idea why it took me this long to see Cameron Crowe's documentary about my second favorite band of all time! Crowe keeps his egotistical misty-eyedness to a minimum here, and I actually even learned something about the band. Full of great video clips and weaving a compelling story that pits Pearl Jam like a modern day Rolling Stones (complete with concert killings), "Pearl Jam Twenty" is a must for fans of the Seattle scene. And the moment that Eddie Vedder begins singing "Better Man" in concert, then the crowd takes over, and he leans back and just raises his arms in complete harmony is just a tender, magical moment that speaks volumes about the band and their following.
4.Trance (2013)- Danny Boyle's art heist-amnesiac thriller gets points for returning himself to the crazed, image splitting buoyancy of "Trainspotting", but when it's all over, it doesn't really amount to much. Everyone looks to be having tons of fun though.
5. The Lady Vanishes (1939)- A bit stodgy, yes, but this is Hitchcock firing on all groundbreaking cylinders, establishing the thriller genre and the death-on-a-train genre in one glorious swoop. I gasped when one plot point is explained in the fogged up window of a train and thought to myself just how ravaged a filmmaker Hitchcock has been over the last 70 years.
6. Daddy Longlegs (2009)- Ben and Josh Safdie's very uncomfortable ode to Cassavetes is most indebted to the performance of Ronald Bronstein as the wreck of a father to two young boys and the hell he puts them though. I've yet to delve into the films of Bronstein himself ("Frownland" has been called about as divisive a film as the mumblecore wave have crafted), but he's a palpable presence here and you sort of begin to root for him in an awkward way.
7. Broken City (2013)- Wahlburg is a P.I. caught up in city corruption with mayor Rusell Crowe... yawn.
8. Something In the Air (2013)- The latest film from French auteur Olivier Assayas feels like his most personal since “Cold Water” in 1994. Both films feature a young man named Gilles (this time played by Clement Metayer) acting as the surrogate for Assayas himself, tantalizingly poised on the precipice of awkward adulthood. But where “Cold Water” dealt with interior feelings of belonging and amour fou (in the relationship with beautiful but dangerous Virginie Ledoyen), the stakes are a bit higher in “Something In the Air”. Set in Paris after the May events of ‘68, this Gilles and his close sect of friends find themselves mixed up in violent student activism… so violent that they accidentally hurt a security guard during a routine vandalism attempt and are forced to split up in hiding. And while the first third or so of “Something In the Air” deals with these subversive acts of revolution, the real thrust of Assayas’ narrative kicks in after this action, setting up Gilles, Christine (the wonderful Lole Creton), Alaine (Felix Armand) and their various lovers to seek out their own paths in life. The title, while initially evoking the revolutionary scents in the air, subtly changes to denote the forks in the road each individual takes with their lives. Assayas handles all this reverie beautifully, never losing his gentle touch on relationships and staying to true to the way he continually crafts a knockout finale. It may not all be 100% accurate, but the way in which Gilles the man on screen become Assayas the filmmaker is still precise, loving and attuned to the nuances of everyday emotions. I really liked it, if you can't tell.
9. The Iceman (2013)- Oh what have Lumet and Scorsese wrought? Ariel Vromen's account of true life 70's hit man Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) is overbearing, grungy and belligerent with little charisma and even less narrative center. Was this just an excuse for everyone to put on funny moustaches? Check. Other than that, "The Iceman" never builds towards any resolution, instead wallowing in 70's funk and macho bravado.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Current Cinema 20
The Company You Keep
Robert Redford’s “The Company You Keep” is old fashioned, crackling entertainment. Blending real life drama (American terrorist organization the Weather Underground’s murder and bank robbery in the early 70’s) and misty-eyed recollection for a more revolutionary time through Redford‘s now aged good looks, “The Company You Keep” is a well guarded thriller that rarely takes a mis-step. Starring Redford (and a host of endowed actors, whose call list can become distracting at times) and Shia LeBouf, the film examines the undercurrents that are torn open when wanted activist Susan Sarandon turns herself in and reporter LeBouf uncovers more to the story than anyone originally bargained for. Not only is this Redford’s best film in years (both in front and behind the camera), but its an interesting study of the generation gap and the misnomer of documented history. “The Company You Keep” rolls trough a surprising number of plot points in a short period of time, and while the film could have probably been 3 hours long, its succinct enough and directed with precision.
Mud
Filmmaker Jeff Nichols has taken a break from his experimental efforts and crafted a very straight-forward coming of age tale in “Mud”. Two teenagers (Tye Sherian and Jacob Lofland) befriend a fugitive (Matthew McConaughey) on a literal island and come to know the reasons he’s hiding himself there. Nichols expertly trades in the white-trash spectrum of life, breathing energy and introspection into the deep south like few current filmmakers, and “Mud” is no exception, even if it’s a bit safe and ordinary from what I was expecting. Nichols is also adroit at the repression of violence and its cathartic results (especially in his brilliant debut film “Shotgun Stories”) and “Mud” does deliver the goods there as well in a thundering shootout finale. In fact, I almost wanted the entire film to be about the Joe Don Baker character- an intimidating man who enters 3/4th of the way through the film and enters a dark hotel room full of tough looking guys and asks them to kneel and pray with him. It’s a stunning moment that deserves its own movie.
To the Wonder
I know I’m not being a good “auteurist” here, but Terence Malick’s latest effort, “To the Wonder” is a bit of a sham. Yes, it looks and sounds beautiful… and it even manages to make a Sonic drive in look downright ethereal. It encompasses a lulling soundtrack and features some beautiful people twirling and playing in the sunlight, but that’s about as deep as the film gets. What has made Malick such a cinematic force in the obsessive circles was his ability to create tactile feelings out of swaying atmosphere and complex settings. Think of the impact of turn of the century Texas in “Days of Heaven“, or the almost pacifist fields of grass in “The Thin Red Line”. “To the Wonder” is almost as place specific- the wind swept plains of southern Oklahoma, yet gone are any attachments to his men and women. Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko are introduced as lovers, and for the next 90 minutes they fight, break up and get back together without any current of connect ability for me. I simply didn’t care what happened to them. More interesting to me was the marginal story of conflicted local priest played by Javier Bardem, questioning some higher authority just like Kurylenko in poetic voice-over, and going about his daily duties in the community. Here was something substantial, as his devotees (seemingly played by non-actors) struggle with life itself. The way he gently hides from a woman constantly knocking on his door or the way the camera can barely keep a convict, grumbling about the brightness of the sunlight through the prison window, in frame feel like dazzling moments of real randomness. These scenes with Bardem, when juxtaposed against the fluctuating, childlike romance of Affleck and Kurylenko, only drives home how truly insignificant Malick’s couple really are.
Robert Redford’s “The Company You Keep” is old fashioned, crackling entertainment. Blending real life drama (American terrorist organization the Weather Underground’s murder and bank robbery in the early 70’s) and misty-eyed recollection for a more revolutionary time through Redford‘s now aged good looks, “The Company You Keep” is a well guarded thriller that rarely takes a mis-step. Starring Redford (and a host of endowed actors, whose call list can become distracting at times) and Shia LeBouf, the film examines the undercurrents that are torn open when wanted activist Susan Sarandon turns herself in and reporter LeBouf uncovers more to the story than anyone originally bargained for. Not only is this Redford’s best film in years (both in front and behind the camera), but its an interesting study of the generation gap and the misnomer of documented history. “The Company You Keep” rolls trough a surprising number of plot points in a short period of time, and while the film could have probably been 3 hours long, its succinct enough and directed with precision.
Mud
Filmmaker Jeff Nichols has taken a break from his experimental efforts and crafted a very straight-forward coming of age tale in “Mud”. Two teenagers (Tye Sherian and Jacob Lofland) befriend a fugitive (Matthew McConaughey) on a literal island and come to know the reasons he’s hiding himself there. Nichols expertly trades in the white-trash spectrum of life, breathing energy and introspection into the deep south like few current filmmakers, and “Mud” is no exception, even if it’s a bit safe and ordinary from what I was expecting. Nichols is also adroit at the repression of violence and its cathartic results (especially in his brilliant debut film “Shotgun Stories”) and “Mud” does deliver the goods there as well in a thundering shootout finale. In fact, I almost wanted the entire film to be about the Joe Don Baker character- an intimidating man who enters 3/4th of the way through the film and enters a dark hotel room full of tough looking guys and asks them to kneel and pray with him. It’s a stunning moment that deserves its own movie.
To the Wonder
I know I’m not being a good “auteurist” here, but Terence Malick’s latest effort, “To the Wonder” is a bit of a sham. Yes, it looks and sounds beautiful… and it even manages to make a Sonic drive in look downright ethereal. It encompasses a lulling soundtrack and features some beautiful people twirling and playing in the sunlight, but that’s about as deep as the film gets. What has made Malick such a cinematic force in the obsessive circles was his ability to create tactile feelings out of swaying atmosphere and complex settings. Think of the impact of turn of the century Texas in “Days of Heaven“, or the almost pacifist fields of grass in “The Thin Red Line”. “To the Wonder” is almost as place specific- the wind swept plains of southern Oklahoma, yet gone are any attachments to his men and women. Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko are introduced as lovers, and for the next 90 minutes they fight, break up and get back together without any current of connect ability for me. I simply didn’t care what happened to them. More interesting to me was the marginal story of conflicted local priest played by Javier Bardem, questioning some higher authority just like Kurylenko in poetic voice-over, and going about his daily duties in the community. Here was something substantial, as his devotees (seemingly played by non-actors) struggle with life itself. The way he gently hides from a woman constantly knocking on his door or the way the camera can barely keep a convict, grumbling about the brightness of the sunlight through the prison window, in frame feel like dazzling moments of real randomness. These scenes with Bardem, when juxtaposed against the fluctuating, childlike romance of Affleck and Kurylenko, only drives home how truly insignificant Malick’s couple really are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
