Seriously, what the hell are you watching?

Steph and I headed to Silvercity this weekend to see Slumdog Millionaire, because she hadn't seen it, and the experience proved that although I'm convinced my tastes are better than most, they're obviously not in line with the masses. While buying tickets, I looked up at the board to make sure Slumdog wasn't sold out, and it wasn't. In fact, in a theatre showing many good and great films including Slumdog, Revolutionary Road, The Dark Knight, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Valkyrie, and other interesting possibilities like Seven Pounds, Gran Torino, and Defiance, there were only two films that sold out on Saturday night:

Bride Wars
and
Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Are you fucking kidding me? Why do people watch this shit? I'm honestly curious. help me out.

We Can Be Happy Here

Revolutionary Road
2008, dir. Sam Mendes. 1 hour 59 minutes
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates

In 1999, British theatre director made his film debut with American Beauty, a film about, among other things, suburban ennui. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and since then, suburban ennui has been seedy ground for many a film, from We Don't Live Here Anymore to Life As A House to The Ice Storm to Little Children. It's said that original book that started this whole genre in Richard Yates' 1961 novel Revolutionary Road, which has now been made into a film by none other than Sam Mendes.

Leo and Kate, in their first appearance together since Titanic 11 years ago, star as a young couple who start out with dreams of high life, but end up in the Connecticut suburbs with a cookie cutter house and cookie cutter lives, just like every one else.
The happy facade has slowly fallen away over the course of almost a decade, and they decide to move to Paris. They even have passage booked on a steamboat (not that anyone wants to be on a boat with DiCaprio and Winslet), but as often happens, best laid plans ...

The two leads give as good performances you're going to see this year, but the film is just so relenting in its misery that it's hard to feel good about what you're watching. It's likely than everyone watching will be uncomfortable because either a) they don't want to become like this couple, or b) they're worried they already are. The best performance comes from Michael Shannon, who plays a young man from a mental institution who tries to befriend the couple. His character is only person in the film who is perceived as not normal within the world of the story, yet it is only her who can truly articulate the obvious truths of every other character. In any year that Heath Ledger hadn't accidentally killed himself AND played The Joker, Michael Shannon would be winning an Academy Award. If you can stomach it, this is a film to see, but it's not a good time, and probably not a date movie.

4 stars out of 5.

Saw Sunday night with Steph and Paddy at the World Exchange.

If You Don't Invite Me, I Can't Come In

Let The Right One In
2008, dir. Tomas Alfredson. 1 hour 55 minutes

Supposedly, Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was the first book to ever have its film rights sold to a motion picture studio, and its said that Dracula is the most filmed fictional character in cinema. Combine that with all the films about vampires that don;t include Dracula, and its clear that vampires are very popular material indeed. The latest literary (and now cinematic) fad are the Twilight novels (if you haven't read them, then congratulations, you're not a 13 year old girl). Now, from Sweden, also based on a best-selling novel, is the film Let The Right One In, and it is one of the best vampire films ever made, because it eschews all the classic (and thus cliched) aspects of the vampire tale and replaces them with the chilling realism of what it is to be undead.

The film is about a young 12 year old boy, Oskar, who is an outcast and loner in school, frequently the target of sadistic bullies. A similarly-aged girl, Eli, moves into Oskar's apartment building, and Oskar slowly befriends her, despite her reservations. She resists, because although Eli is 12 years old, she has been 12 for a very very long time. This relationship between the two young outcasts looking for friendship at the cusp of adolescence is at the heart of the story; Oskar feels like he'll never grow up and escape it all, and Eli KNOWS she won't.

Let The Right One In's strengths are in what other films may think of weaknesses. Instead of artificial looking CGI and special effects, This film uses camera angles and other optical effects to give the impression of things like a vampires power to fly without actually having to show it. You think you see it, which is sometimes better than having actually seen it. The two young actors feel intensely believable in their roles, and the film retains enough gore and thrills to please to usual horror fans, too. Hopefully, people can overcome any resistance to subtitles they may have and go check out this film.

5 stars out of 5.

Steph and I saw this at the Bytowne on Friday night.

This Could Be My Ticket Back To The Top

The Wrestler
2008, dir. Darren Aronofsky
starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood

I saw one review for The Wrestler that said, "Witness the resurrection of Mickey Rourke," and I don't think anyone could have put it any better. After years of small roles and b-movies with cookie cutter performances, Rourke has again showed the kind of acting skill he routinely displayed twenty years ago. In the film, Rourke plays the eponymous character named Randy The Ram Robinson, a wrestler once at the top of the game in the 1980s, but who has, with age, fallen to wrestling in community centres and high school gymnasiums for a couple hundred bucks at a time. His body, and spirit, are broken from the toll pro wrestling takes on a person, almost every person, who has ever been in the industry. After a heart attack, Rourke is told he must quit, and he does try, but he finds he has no other place in this world than in the ring, and is drawn back in for a rematch of a classic main event battle he had in the 80s.

Supporting Rourke are Marisa Tomei as a stripper that Randy is friendly with, and Wood and Randy's estranged daughter. Tomei's character Cassidy, like Randy, is also a performer in an industry that does not bode well for the aging, and who also finds that she must move on, but proves to have a bit more strength to do so, probably because she has some family left, whereas Rourke really doesn't. Wood, as Randy's daughter Stephanie, has all but given up on him, basically because he all but gave up on her when she was growing up. Randy tries to reconnect with Stephanie after his heart attack, but finds that his problems still prevent him from fully taking responsibility for his relationship with his daughter.

The Wrestler is only the fourth film from Darren Aronofsky, and although it may not seem to have anything in common with Pi, Requiem For A Dream, and The Fountain, at the heart of it, all are about the failings of the body holding back the strength of the mind. Rourke, like the protagonists of those other films, has desires of greatness, but is held back by his weaknesses and the passages of time, which are inescapable for us all. Rourke is any many ways a doppelganger for Randy, but hopefully this performance will allow him to escape those trappings.

5 stars out of 5

Seen Friday night at the Bytowne with Steph, Paddy, and Gary. Had some popcorn and a diet Pepsi.

Golden Globes Results

FILM

Best Picture, Drama: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Picture, Comedy Musical: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor, Drama: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Best Actress, Drama: Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign Language Film: Waltz With Bashir
Best Animated Feature: WALL·E
Best Actor, Musical/Comedy: Colin Farrell
Best Actress, Musical/Comedy: Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Original Score: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millonaire
Best Original Song: Bruce Springsteen, The Wrestler

Steph got 10 of 14 correct, whereas I only got 5, so props to her.

Dancing Ain't F__King

Showgirls
1995, Paul Verhoeven, 131 minutes.
Starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plumber

As a disclaimer, I should say that I carry more respect for filmmakers who try really hard and take risks in the hopes of making a good film, but fail, than I do for directors and producers who make merely make by-the-numbers films that always ok. When I played baseball, I always swung as a hard as I could. Most of the time, I struck out. Occasionally, I hit home runs. Some people hit the ball everytime, but never got more than a single.

Showgirls is for me in the upper pantheon of cinematic swings for the fences, up there with Heaven's Gate, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and Spike Lee's 2004 film She Hate Me. Don't get me wrong, Showgirls is an awful film, but underneath its dreck, I feel that there are massive piles of potential.

Starring Saved By the Bell sweetheart Elizabeth Berkley, Showgirls is about a girl who hitches in to Las Vegas with only a suitcase to her name, and within an hour has even less than that. Her dream is to become a dancer in one the extravagant Casino dance shows, but of course ends up at a sleazy strip club. A series of chance encounters eventually gets her a shot at the big show, where she eventually realizes how much the classy dance performance, the strip club, and even prostitution are all really the same thing.

Don't kid yourself, the film is truly awful, and is known as much for being the highest grossing NC-17 film of all time as for anything else. Berkley can't act, that's for sure, but I can't help think that beyond Berkley's piss poor lead performance, and the occasionally painful dialogue, the film does get across exactly what it is trying to say about Las Vegas, and by extension, the entertainment industry as a whole. It's probably not inconceivable that the Hollywood system is not different, and I think that that may have hit too close to home for many people, which probably lead to some overly harsh reviews. MacLachlan, Gershon, and Plumber do credible jobs in their roles, and the set design and choreography is appropriately cheesy. The films does drag on longer than it needs to, and the ...

SPOILER ALERT





... rape scene near the end is more graphic than it needs to be ...






SPOILERS OVER

... but overall it's not a bad film, and one wonders what a more credible actress might have brought to the role. Widely available on DVD, Steph and I saw this on Saturday night at the Mayfair, where they may not have had any more heat, but at least they had some popcorn.

2 1/2 stars out of 5.

In Heaven, Everything Is Fine

Eraserhead
1977, David Lynch. 90 minutes
starring Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Jeanne Bates, Jack Fisk

If you've seen Eraserhead, and you're talking to someone who hasn't, their inevitable question will be "what is it about?", and that will probably be a question you dread. Most people who have watched the film will probably argue that it is also an irrelevant question, but for the sake of simplicity, let's just say that, loosely, Eraserhead is about a man who finds out that he fathered a child prematurely, so he moves in with the mother and the child, and discovers that the child is severely deformed. And yet as I write that, the plot seems even more irrelevant than ever.

Eraserhead isn't really a narrative film, per se, and yet it does have a fairly straightforward plot line. In that way, it's one of the mot narrative surrealist films. If you were having a party and wanted weird video installations throughout your home as decoration or art, Eraserhead might be a wise DVD to purchase. David Lynch shot it on a shoestring budget over a period of 5 years, which adds to its disjointed feel. Upon this viewing, for the first time on a big theatre screen, it struck me how much its style and plot foreshadowed most of Lynch's later work, for everything from Blue Velvet to Lost Highway to INLAND EMPIRE. If you do get a chance to ever see this film on the big screen, be sure to check it out.

4 stars out of 5

Steph, Gary and I made our first trip to the new Mayfair, where I wanted to have popcorn, but they were sold out, something I've never seen in 23 years of going to the movies. Poor form Mayfair, poor form. Also, someone please turn on the furnace in that place ... it's freezing.


Fun Fact of the Day: The general rule of thumb for film screenplays are that one page of script equals one minute of film. So, for example, a 90 minute film should have a script between 90 and 100 pages. Eraserhead's script was about 18 pages long.

Doubt Can Be As Powerful As Certainty

Doubt
2008, John Patrick Shanley.
Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis


Based on the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play, Doubt is the story of a Catholic priest and two nuns, and question whether the priest acted inappropriately with a young altar boy. When performed as a play, there was only one single act. Shanley had intended for the second act to occur after the play was over, in the thoughts and conversations of the audience as they pondered whether or not the priest was guilty.

Steph and I saw this at the Bytowne on New Years Day, and many of my friends and family have also seen the movie in that time. Everyone has had an opinion; some say he's guilty, some innocent, and some are just not sure, which is as equally valid as the first two opinions.

One friend pointed out various shots and plot points as way to come to a conclusion, but I believe those clues to merely be red herrings. In fact, I'm not sure there is an actual answer (supposedly there is, and the director and Hoffman are the only ones that know it, but as its not in the text itself, I believe it to be thus irrelevant). The purpose of the story is not to make you decide whether the priest is innocent or guilty, but to examine the way that you decide such things.

Meryl Streep gives a performance as the head nun that is subtle in the way that it is theatrically over the top. It is arguably one of her best, but the list is a very very long one, going all the way back to The Deer Hunter 30 years ago, and never missing more than a couple years in a row since. Hoffman, I believe, has the most difficult role, including his two sermons that frame the film, put comes off superbly, avoiding moments where it would have been easy to over-act. Viola Davis, although she only appears in the two scenes of one single sequence, demonstrates how determining whether the priest was right or wrong may be over simplifying things. Amy Adams, although I believe she is the weak link in the film, manages to stay afloat between the heavyweights of Streep and Hoffman.

This is a great film, and one that everyone I know that has seen it is still talking about. Playing now at all the major theatres, and for the next week or so at the Bytowne. Check it out.

5 stars out of 5

Are you cool? I need you to be cool.

Resevoir Dogs
1991
dir. Quentin Tarantino. Star. Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Lawrence Tierney.

Steph, Paddy and I saw this on Monday at the Bytowne. Steph split our usual diet pepsi and popcorn. There were a few problems with the print, including sound problems on the second reel, and a weird purple haze around any black objects or clothing in the film (and since the thieves all wear black suits, this was kind of annoying).

I was never as much a fan of Resevoir Dogs as I was Pulp Fiction, but like many films, that changed once I saw it up on the big screen. Even though it seems more intimate than most heist films, because it shows more of the aftermath and none of the actual heist, I found that Tarantino's alternating extreme close-ups and very wide shots gave the characters a larger-than-lifefeel that has always been absent in my home viewings. Overall, a great time at the movies.

5 stars out of 5

Synecdoche, New York

Synecdoche, New York
2008. dir. Charlie Kaufman. star. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Emily Watson, Tom Noonan, Jennifer Jason Leigh.
2 hours 5 minutes

Steph and I caught this on Friday night at the Bytowne, where we split some popcorn and a diet Pepsi.


Synecdoche, New York is the sixth film to come from the pen of Charlie Kaufman, and the first he has directed himself. And like he previous efforts, such as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the film is by no means straightforward. It (loosely) concerns a playwright (played Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his forty-year effort to put together his massive theatre project that includes, among other things, and life-sized replica of Manhattan built inside a warehouse in …. Manhattan (keep repeating to yourself, “Charlie Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman”). But that is merely the plot, and the film is about two more grandiose concepts: the human mind, and life itself. Heavy stuff.

As the theatre project takes hold, it gradually becomes clear that Hoffman is making a play of his own life. He casts fill-ins for his ex-wives and girlfriends, and then eventually even himself. He ends up spending so much time with these actors, however, they then become an integral part of his real life, and so much must cast actors to play the actors who are playing his love interests. And so on, and so on.

I was in no way confused by Synecdoche, NY, but it is a film that I want to revisit again. One of the central themes, though, is that every one is the central character in their own life, and that their interpretation of the other people around them is not reality, but in fact, just their interpretation. Next time you’re on the bus, or train, or plane, or in a store, or whatever the situation may be, remember that the person beside you is living an entire life, just as complex as your own. It may give you a new perspective on things.

5 stars out of 5


Fun Fact of the day: Philip Seymour Hoffman's character's last name in the film is Cotard, which is a reference to Cotard's Syndrome, which is defined as a rare neuropsychiatric disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that he or she is dead, does not exist, is putrefying or has lost his/her blood or internal organs.
Once you see the film, it will make sense.

New Movies this Weekend

A couple new movies this week, and a few classics as well:

Friday:

Synedoche, NY
2008. dir. Charlie Kaufman. star. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan
This is the directorial debut of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. I am told that you will not understand this on your first viewing, so we'll see. Steph and I checking this out tonight.
exclusively at the Bytowne



Heaven and Earth
2008. dir. Deepa Mehta
I've seen a preview a couple of times. Seems like it's an India-Canada immigration drama. Mehta's last film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.



The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
2008. dir. Mark Herman. star. David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga
The story of two young boys interacting through opposites sides of a concentration camp fence during World War II in Germany. Expect tears.
exclusively at World Exchange Cinemas



Bolt
animated crap, with the voices of Hannah Montana (or whatever the fuck her real name is) and John Travolta. It'll be shit. You know I'm right.

Twilight
As I'm not a 15 year old girl, I have no comment on the vampire tale. I bet it'll suck, though (hahahahahahahahahahah ... I am funny)


Monday through Wednesday:

Check out the Mayfair before it becomes something else (though hopefully something better)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1968)
The Sting (1973)
both dir. George Roy Hill. star. Paul Newman, Robert Redford.

Butch Cassidy is a great western with awful fucking music and a stupid bicycle scene. Without that crap, it'd be one of my favorite westerns.



The Sting is considered a classic (and it won the 1973 Best Picture Oscar, though I feel that The Exorcist and Cries And Whispers are far better films).




Wednesday

Australia
2008. dir. Baz Luhrman. star. Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman.
Big Aussie epic centering around the bombing of Darwin. I'm sure it'll be the feast for the eyes, though I have no idea whether it'll be any good. A warning though, it clocks in a a whopping 2 hours and 44 minutes.



Four Christmases
2008. dir. Seth Gordon. star. Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon.
The premise is that Vaughn and Witherspoon play a couple who have to visit all of their families on Christmas. Since both of their sets of parents are divorced, that means 4 christmases. Hence the tile. The trailer has some laughs in it, though don't all trailers? We'll see, I guess.

Quantum of Solace

2008, dir. Marc Forster. Star. Daniel Craig, Mathieu Almaric, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, and various pleasant looking women.
1h 47m


The 22nd "official" James Bond film came out on Friday to packed, sold-out theatres, but Steph and I managed to see it with Noah and Paul at Silvercity. Steph and I split some peanut butter M&Ms and a diet Pepsi.

QoS is the first James Bond sequel, beginning right after the last scene of Casino Royale (though somehow Bond lost the vest of his suit in that short time), and that is inherently the problem. The movie is more focused on wrapping up loose ends of the CR, and not concrened enough with it's own plot, which is almost arbitrary. Another issue is that supposedly, Le Chiffre (the villain from CS) is merely an employee for Dominic Greene (villain of QoS), yet Greene is kind of a pushover and far less bad-ass than Le Chiffre. Overall, I feel like Casino Royale in 1 1/3 movies, but Quantum of Solace is only 2/3 of a movie. The play well back to back, but Casino Royale is too long, and QoS too constricted.

3 stars out of 5

I've Loved You So Long

I've Loved You So Long (2008, dir. Philippe Claudel; star. Kristin Scott Thomas)
1hour 57 minutes

Saw this Saturday night with Steph, and we split a diet pepsi and some popcorn.

**** SPOILERS AHEAD ****


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I've Loved You So Long is a new film from France that concerns a woman who gets out of prison after 15 years, serving time for murder. She goes to live with her younger sister, who was not allowed any contact with her sister during that time. Kristin Scott Thomas plays the newly freed woman, in a fairly emotionless performance until the last 5 minutes.

My problem with the film is simple; instead of actually caring about the characters and the story, all I actually cared about was who she killed, and why she killed them. We find out fairly early on that she killed her own child, and the fact that she plays a doctor made me suspect that euthanasia was the "why." And in the last 15 minutes or so, I found out that I was correct, though not fully correct. Because although Scott Thomas' character did euthanize her son, for valid reasons (the condition is never really revealed, though it must have been bad), she apparently never told anyone that that was how and why she killed her son. This serves only to support the feelings of the character, while not being realistic in any way (it also ignores the fact that her method would have been discovered in any halfway competent autopsy, which would be mandatory in any case of homicide). For me, anytime I am more concrned about the contruction of a film, rather than the film in and of itself, signals that the film isn't all that good to begin with.

2 1/2 stars out of 5.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

2008, dir. Kevin Smith; star. Seth Rogan, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Jason Mewes, Traci Lords, Katie Morgan, Jeff Anderson
1 hour 42 min

Steph, Paddy and I saw this Sunday night at Silvercity. Had a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms.

So is the story any good in Kevin Smith's new film? No, not really (it forgot to actually end itself, although I've since learned that's only the fault of the editor ... Kevin Smith himself). Did everyone in the theater laugh for literally the entire time? Yeah. It was actually pretty funny, though it wasn't straight up Kevin-Smith-funny, but more of an amalgam of Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow's styles, though Apatow has nothing to do with it. Although Mewes and Anderson are both Smith regulars, Rogan, Banks, and Robinson (who have the three biggest roles) are all Apatow vets. Rogan and Robinson are both playing the same characters they usually play. (I'm not sure Rogan is actually capable of being anyone but himself at this point).

But hey, it's got lots of laughs, and, as you might imagine, lots of tits. What else can you ask for on a Sunday night?

But, I warn you, it did have the most digusting thing I've seen in a film all year ... an extreme version of an occasional by-product of anal sex.

3 1/2 stars out of 5

Something to watch for: a cameo by Kenny of Kenny vs. Spenny during the high school reunion scene.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky

2008, dir. Mike Leigh; star. Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsam
1 hour 57 min

Steph and I saw Happy-Go-Lucky Saturday night at a packed house at the Bytowne. We split a popcorn and diet pepsi.

Happy-Go-Lucky, as the title suggests, is a upbeat (Steph felt TOO upbeat) film about a 30 year old woman named Poppy living in London working as a kindergarten teacher. Nothing seems to bother this woman much, and she manages to stay happy ALL THE TIME. Really, it's kind of disturbing. Sally Hawkins is pretty good as Poppy, and Eddie Marsam plays her disgruntled (and blatantly racist) driving instructor.

This film was definitely less of a downer that Miek Leigh's last film, Vera Drake, which was about a woman giving out illegal abortions during World War II in England.

4 stars out fo 5

Rachel Getting Married

Steph and I saw this on Saturday night at the Bytowne, which was pretty packed. The trailers make it seem like a comedy, and although there are a few funny lines, it's actually a pretty depressing film. Anne Hathaway puts in a strong leading performance, which will probably grab her an oscar nomination, which is clearly what she was gunning for in most of her big scenes. So, despite not being the comedy I thought it would be, overall teh film was pretty strong. Plus it's nice to see Debra Winger in a film again.

Fun Fact: the dishwasher scene is based on a real (and apparently more prolonged) agrument between Sidney Lumet (father of screenwriter Jenny) and Bob Fosse.

4 1/2 stars out of 5

"W."

W. (2008, Oliver Stone)

Saw this Sunday night with my brother Paddy and my girlfriend Steph at SilverCity in Gloucester. Had a bottle of diet Dr. Pepper and some dark chocolate Hershey Kisses.

Josh Brolin does a great job as still-President Bush, and many of the supporting actors are good, especially Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, but I'm not sure there's much point to this film right now. Some people say it's too soon, and no one's in the mood for a movie about Bush, but I think it's really that there's no real new information here. It feels more like a TV movie-of-the-week. Oliver Stone should have waited 10 years or so, to let history start settling the dust of Bush's presidency. But, solid effort, and great work from Brolin.