From My Collection: Up in the Air Movie Review

Jason Reitman made a name for himself (outside of trading on his father’s name) by directing two sort of quirky small-scale character-driven comedy-dramas. Thank You for Smoking and Juno both had enough oddball screwiness to their premises and characters to get noticed. But Reitman’s third feature, Up in the Air, based on the novel by Walter Kirn, for which Reitman shares screenwriting credit with Sheldon Turner, his attention is turned toward real life drama. This is a film about a man whose job is to go into other companies to tell their employees that they’ve been laid off so that the bosses don’t have to get their hands dirty.

From My Collection: Bright Star Movie Review

Depicting an artist at work in a film is a tricky thing. The possibilities are greater when dealing with the visual arts because the process of creation is dynamic. But when it comes to filming the story of a writer, what can the filmmaker do to depict process? After all, what is a writer’s process in the majority of cases if not to sit at a desk and think…and write…and drink coffee…and think…and wait for ideas or inspiration? This does not make for very interesting cinema. So the most interesting films centered on writers tend to focus on something that is only tangentially connected to the writing or the finished product. Jane Campion’s Bright Star was a mesmerizing love story to me when I first saw it nearly four years ago and it remained so when I watched it again recently. The movie circumvents the problems of filming a writer’s life and work by making the story about the poet John Keats’ three year unconsummated love affair with Fanny Brawne.

Pirate Radio Movie Review: The Boat that Rocked

First published at American Madness on 18 November 2009.

Republished here a punctuation alteration.

*This review is based on the European release of this film which runs 2 hours and 15 minutes. The film was re-edited and shortened by about 20 minutes for the American release following criticism of its length in the UK.

Don’t be fooled by the way Pirate Radio has been advertised in the US. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character is not the focus of the film. To be sure, he is the lone American in a sea of British characters, which seems to be a theme writer-director Richard Curtis has developed (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love, Actually), but he is just one of many radio DJs living on and broadcasting from a ship in the North Sea to get around the government rules regarding rock music on the airwaves.

(500) Days of Summer Movie Review

First published at American Madness on 23 November 2009.

Reposted here without changes.

(500) Days of Summer rests solidly on the strengths of its charismatic leads Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, who play Tom Hansen and Summer Finn, co-workers at a greeting card company who find, and then lose, romance. Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber and directed by Marc Webb (known primarily for music videos, but making his feature debut here), it is the perfect, and often honest, answer to the contrived and sappy romantic comedies we see produced far too often in Hollywood.

“This is not a love story,” we’re told at the outset by an omniscient narrator. Although a love story is most certainly what it is. The film begins with the recounting of the happy couple’s breakup. That line is designed to set us up for the fact that the couple will not get back together. Armed with the knowledge of what is ultimately to come on Day 280 (or something) of the titular 500, the story then jumps back to Day 1 and then soldiers on ahead depicting the burgeoning romance between Tom, the romantic who believes in love at first sight and soul mates, and Summer, who doesn’t believe in love (perhaps because she’s never experienced it) and refuses for several months to even admit she is his girlfriend.

Antichrist Movie Review: I Have Seen the Antichrist and It is Woman

First published at American Madness on 4 October 2009.

Reposted here with the addition of a single sentence.

Lars von Trier has been known since his breakthrough film Breaking the Waves for putting not only his protagonists, but also his audience, through a series of torturous steps until reaching a climax surpassing all the pain that had come before it. Thus we are treated to the hanging death of the blind Selma in Dancer in the Dark and the gang rape of Grace in Dogville.

As such we don’t enter a von Trier film with the same expectations of being entertained as we would from most other films. His films are not designed with entertainment in mind, but as studies in the human condition with a particular focus on grief and torment as the principle emotions. In a certain respect, his films are highbrow torture porn.

Whatever Works Movie Review: Not Classic Woody Allen, but with a Vintage Appeal

First published at American Madness on 6 November 2009.

I am reposting it here untouched.

Woody Allen has worked tirelessly in the last 30 some odd years turning out a new film every year like clockwork. His great period was from the late 70’s into the mid 80’s when he made such classics as Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Radio Days. Through the 90’s he managed to maintain a steady stream of well-written, sharply funny films achieving greatness once again with Deconstructing Harry in 1998. Since then he’s had a series of mostly forgettable films ranging from the atrocious Curse of the Jade Scorpion to the mediocre Melinda and Melinda.

Finally, after four European-set films and a long absence from the New York that he knows so well, he has returned to that familiar territory in Whatever Works, in which Larry David plays Boris Yelnikoff (What a name!). The character is the typical Allen alter-ego – a neurotic, self-obsessed, sarcastic, caustic middle-aged man who thinks he has a better grasp on philosophy and life than anyone else around him (or the women around him anyway).

Zombieland Movie Review

There are vampire movies and there are zombie movies. They come in all shapes and sizes. They come in comedy, drama and outright horror. Only one of them truly lends itself to comedy, however. Vampires are not inherently funny in the way zombies are. Oh, they’ve tried with vampires. Who can forget a young Jim Carrey starring in Once Bitten? The comedy in some vampire movies tends to spring forth from more situational comedy: Kristy Swanson as the valley girl turned killer in Buffy the Vampire Slayer; James Woods’ wisecracking in John Carptenter’s Vampires; or the outrageousness of From Dusk Till Dawn.

Pixar's Up Movie Review

You have to wonder just how Pixar Animation Studios manages to churn out hit after hit – and not just money-making successes with highly profitable merchandising tie-ins, but quality animated works that never pander and are always thoughtful, interesting films even for the adults who accompany their children (or even those who just enjoy a well told story).

The Last Station Movie Review

Michael Hoffman has directed several films of average quality and The Last Station, written by Hoffman from the novel by Jay Parini, fits right in with his other work which includes such forgettable titles as The Emperor’s Club and Restoration. You’re forgiven if you have little to no memory of these films from 2002 and 1995, respectively.

The Last Station, released last year, earned two Oscar nominations for its stars Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer. They play Sophia and Leo Tolstoy in the early 20th century, before the Bolshevik Revolution altered Russia forever.Leo, or Lev, as he is lovingly called by family and friends, is nearing the end of his life and is set on establishing his overarching philosophy of socialism, hoping to pass his beliefs on to the next generation.

Mammoth Movie Review

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson makes films about the ways people need each other. His newest film, Mammoth, is more specifically about the ways children and parents need each other. Here is a director who is comfortable with vastly different tones while maintaining a similar approach and style. This isn’t as joyous and celebratory as Together and certainly not the depressing nihilism of Lilya 4-Ever, but it falls somewhere in between.

There is something of an Alejandro González Iñárritu influence here, with interconnected action that takes place in three places around the world (New York, Thailand, The Philippines). The casting of Gael García Bernal (star of Iñárritu’s Amores Perros) is perhaps an homage to that influence. Mammoth doesn’t have the heavy-handed serendipity found in the films of Iñárritu, but deals with the interconnectedness of the characters in a more restrained and natural way.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The real problem facing Steve Kloves (screenwriter of all but the fifth Harry Potter film) since, oh, about the fourth film is that the books are so bloated and weighed down by countless minor characters, back stories and pieces of the puzzle that it’s simply impossible to turn them into entirely coherent movies. I think he’s done a fantastic job with the thankless task he’s taken on. The first three films in the series, although still leaving out some key elements that help explain certain motivations, are effective adaptations of the source material. The third film is still the best, due in large part to director Alfonso Cuarón.

Moon Movie Review: The Continuing Story of A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner

At some point while watching Moon, I had a very troubling thought (more on that after the spoiler warning). I’m nearly certain this was the intent of Duncan Jones, in his directorial debut, and screenwriter Nathan Parker. The film made the festival circuit in early 2009 and received a limited release in early summer. But in a crowded summer market, there was simply no room for a sci-fi film based principally on ideas rather than action set pieces and CGI special effects.

The film takes place in a not-too-distant future in which the earth’s energy is now supplied by a substance that is harvested on the dark side of the moon. The process is mostly automated, but requires a human being to monitor and fix problems that arise. This unfortunate individual is Sam Bell (played in yet another in a series of great performances by Sam Rockwell), assigned to his post on a three year contract with the only company being a computer named Gerty and voiced by Kevin Spacey.

When the film opens, Sam is two weeks away from the end of his contract and the arrival of his replacement. As you can imagine, he is quite anxious to get home to his wife and young daughter, from whom he receives the occasional video message and is able to send messages in return. Unfortunately, the satellite link isn’t working, making live communication impossible.

There are obvious comparisons to be made with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in the tone of the film. Its pacing is quite deliberate and the story is focused on the nature of science, exploration, developments, but without the high-minded philosophical rambling. It’s even got a ubiquitous computer that controls the majority of the operations and is capable of doing most anything. The difference is that Gerty, unlike Hal, adheres more closely to Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics – which turns out to be the crucial difference in how the relationship between man and machine plays out.

After having spent so much time in solitude, Sam has begun having glitches in perception which may or may not be hallucinations. One of these episodes leads to the crash of a lunar rover he uses to check the status of the harvesting machines. Left injured, unconscious and stranded after the accident he eventually wakes up in the infirmary being cared for by Gerty. He is told about a crash, but he has no memory of anything. When he gets up from the gurney he can barely stand, his legs almost debilitated.

Jones has got a promising future as a director of thoughtful films as long as he doesn’t get pulled in by the lure of genre and action pictures. The mystery that unfolds from the moments after the crash is revealed to both Sam and the audience simultaneously, expertly controlled by Parker’s screenplay and Jones’s direction. I also have to point out that the film would hardly be what it is without Clint Mansell’s musical score which provides a continually subdued sense of suspense and tension.

If you’ve read a plot synopsis or seen the trailer then you’ll have some idea what’s going on from this point. I do have some criticisms of the film, but I can’t really get into the specifics without issuing a SPOILER WARNING: When Sam wakes up after his crash, he is forbidden from leaving the base despite a stalled harvester (the one he crashed into) that needs fixing. After tricking Gerty, he takes another rover to the crash site and discovers an unconscious body inside. Bringing the body back to the base he realizes it’s himself. We slowly discover together that at least one of them is a clone.

Here is one of the flaws, albeit a minor one, of the screenplay, which fails to provide a sufficient explanation for why Sam is compelled to ignore orders and go to the disabled harvester. We assume at first that he is driven to return to the site of his crash that he has no memory of. But in light of the revelation that the Sam who returns to the crash site is a different Sam who could have no knowledge of the crash or the existence of another Sam, there is little reason for his previous actions.

Okay, so we allow a bit of contrivance to move the plot along. It turns out the first Sam is not simply suffering from hallucinations, but a complete breakdown of his physical body. Everything is failing at once until he is nearly a shell of a man. What is the explanation for this? And why is there a clone ready to take over his duties at a moment’s notice? I ask these questions from Sam’s perspective, not as a critic or audience member.

Now I return to this terrible thought I had. I began to think of at least one of these Sams as a clone, not as a human being. I had this instinct that a clone is little more than a robot, a tool we can call forth to use and dispose of at will. This is exactly how clones are used by the mining company in Moon. This is somehow the logical progression of the literary creations of Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick beginning with Hal in 2001, a complex machine with human qualities that exhibits more emotion in his death scene than in the whole of that film: “Stop Dave. Will you stop, Dave? My mind is going. I can feel it. I’m afraid, Dave. I’m afraid.” The next step was the replicants of Blade Runner that desire to know their expiration date and prefer life over death. There’s also Rachel in that film, a replicant with memory implants that have led her to believe she is a young woman who grew up from childhood to where she is now. She is devastated to learn it’s all been falsified. Then there were the clones harvested for vital organs in The Island.

Jones and Parker are interested in humanity’s attitude toward cloning and want to warn us of where that road could lead. Consider the Clone Wars discussed and depicted in the Star Wars films. Did you ever consider the clones to be people? I never really internalized that feeling. It doesn’t help that those clones were clad in robotic looking suits. Will human cloning eventually become a reality? Almost certainly. Will it be used for nefarious purposes, with the intention of creating a class of laborers to be exploited? We should hope not.

The biggest fault of Moon is its failure to consider or give an explanation for how the real Sam Bell and his wife came to give their consent for this project. I can come up with theories and “just so” stories to explain it, but it’s a big enough hole I shouldn’t have to fill on my own.

But don’t let the few faults deter you from seeing what is a substantially original production, both in its use of effects, which is natural looking and tasteful, and its use of scientific ideas and morals. It’s a rare occasion to find an independent movie this good with such big ideas. These films are always worth seeking out in spite of their occasional warts.

Update 15 May 2010 (12:50AM): I've just learned in reading more about this movie and its director, Duncan Jones, that he is the son of David Bowie. Just an interesting side fact.

Sin Nombre Movie Review: A Crossing of Two Very Different Lives

Many of the iconic American films have been those stories that focus on the aspects that have defined the history of our country: immigrant stories such as The Godfather; the taming of wild country as depicted in the entire Western genre; and stories of expansionism and manifest destiny as seen in Chinatown. It’s easier for us, as Americans, to recognize these themes and how they fit into our understanding of the American story. But what about the national histories of other countries? It’s quite difficult to translate a film steeped in history from one country to another. Without a reference point we can only watch the film unfold as entertainment, missing out on the possibility for a deeper resonance.

Mexico and the United States share a great deal of history. Although we may not be as well informed as to the particulars of life below the border and their own history, we may reflect on our knowledge of immigrant stories, especially those involving Hispanics, when we watch Sin Nombre, last year’s feature debut from director Cary Fukunaga. Being raised in southern California surely made Fukunaga sensitive to the issues surrounding Central American immigrants, but what a bold choice of subject matter for a recent graduate of the NYU film school to tell a story in a foreign language (and rife with slang unknown even to most native Spanish speakers) of immigrants and gangs crossing paths in the slums of Mexico.

The film opens with a harrowing scene in which a young boy nicknamed Smiley (Kristian Ferrer) is initiated into the Marero gang by receiving a beating that lasts until the leader, L’il Mago (Tenoch Huerta), counts to thirteen. It seems Smiley’s introduction to the gang has been made by Casper (Edgar Flores) who whisks him away from his protesting grandmother.

After this brief introduction to Casper and the Marero, which takes place near the Guatemalan border, we abruptly shift to the teenage Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) in Honduras as she meets her father for the first time. Her father has already been deported from the United States where he has a family in New Jersey, but now that he has access to his eldest daughter, he intends to bring her and his brother with him on his next attempt to return.

The journey undertaken by Sayra and her family is the typical dangerous route used by the majority of Central American migrants headed for the US. After crossing from Guatemala into Mexico they have to be on the lookout not only for Mexican border guards, but also marauding bands of pirates and gangs such as the Marero who either steal what money they have or kidnap them in order to extort money from their families in America. They travel on top of a freight train, which carries enough perils of its own. And as if that weren’t enough, there are corrupt police and border guards willing to sell them to gang members and extortion artists.

The train ride takes them through the seediest parts of Mexico along a mostly defunct rail line. The virtual ghost towns and abandoned rail yards they pass through call forth images of the wild and untamed west we hold dear. But these places are often fraught with danger and there’s no John Wayne or Gary Cooper to watch over the less fortunate. My mistaken belief about the immigrants who cross the border into California and Texas has always been that the most dangerous part is avoiding the US border patrol. On the contrary, once they reach the American border, they’re basically home free. The migrants traveling on the train encounter both farm laborers who toss fruit to them as well as youths who throw rocks at them shouting epithets and telling them to go home to their own country.

At one point, the migrants are stopped in a rail yard that we recognize from a scene involving Casper and Smiley and we know that eventually Sayra and Casper will cross paths. The reasons for this convergence I shall not reveal except to say that Casper is done a great injustice by someone in his own gang. Later, while robbing the migrants atop the train, he has the opportunity to save Sayra and exact his own vengeance simultaneously. This, of course, sets him on the lam from his own gang as well as the different branches located throughout the country. He is doggedly pursued by Smiley (anxious to prove his mettle to the gang leader) and El Sol.

So far I’ve provided a lot of exposition, but I haven’t even gotten to the heart of the story which is the bond that develops between Sayra and Casper. In some ways it’s a tired convention, but Fukunaga’s screenplay allows it to happen organically. His attraction (and I don’t necessarily mean romantic attraction) to her takes some time to show. He feels responsible for her, but she may also remind him of his girlfriend, who he may not have realized he truly loved until he lost her. She is drawn to him primarily because she recognizes what he’s gotten himself into by saving her life, but I think there’s more to the attraction. She’s dazzled by the mystery of the young man before her and the tattoos he wears marking him as a killer. There’s an element of danger, but also a level of protection she sees from him that her father has never provided during his absence. It is one of the great strengths of the film that neither of these attractions is explicitly discussed. The actors use body language and eye contact, Fukunaga allows us to watch Casper as he replays video of his girlfriend on his camera.

The attraction of Sayra to Casper is similar to what we see in the character of Smiley who seems to want nothing more from life than to be a Marero. There’s a key scene between Smiley and some other boys his own age where he gets to show off his newly acquired gun. The boys are impressed and want details about his experiences. This is a culture of admiration. They see the gang as something to belong to. It gives them purpose and protection. There is also an element of magical mysticism surrounding the Marero which we see reflected in the nicknames they give themselves: the leader L’il Mago (Little Wizard); the second in command El Sol (The Sun); and Casper, whose name recalls images of a friendly ghost.

This brings me to the larger point I think Fukunaga is trying to make which is the idea that the abject poverty these characters and a great deal of people from that part of the world find themselves in is likely to drive them to a choice between two lives: be part of a gang or be an illegal immigrant in the US.

The writing is truly the film’s strong point, but Fukunaga shows his technical skill as a director in shooting several scenes on top of a moving train. It is seamlessly edited, including the cutting of action sequences and the joining together of two plot lines, by Luis Carballar, who brings with him the experience of working on another film with multiple storylines – Amores Perros – and Hollywood veteran Craig McKay, whose work has included both action and drama, most notably Reds and The Silence of the Lambs.

The title of the film, which means “Without Name” in English seems at first to refer to Casper, who has given up his given name to be part of a gang. However, I’d say it has more to do with the fact that the principal characters’ (Casper, Sayra and Smiley) stories could potentially be anyone’s story. The film may be focused on these people at this time and place, but ultimately there are millions of people who struggle daily with the same kinds of things that these characters struggle with. Any of the three could be the protagonist in his own film. I’d be most interested in seeing how Smiley’s story continues. Tell me you don’t agree.

Top Ten of 2009

This list was made in early 2010, but posted on 17 April 2014 and backdated to 1 January 2010.

1. Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon) dir. Michael Haneke

2. The Hurt Locker dir. Kathryn Bigelow

3. Up in the Air dir. Jason Reitman

4. Precious dir. Lee Daniels

5. Bright Star dir. Jane Campion

6. Fantastic Mr. Fox dir. Wes Anderson

7. Up dir. Pete Docter

8. An Education dir. Lone Scherfig

9. A Serious Man dir. Joel and Ethan Coen

10. The Hangover dir. Todd Phillips

All feature films seen from 2009 (based on US commercial release dates)

* Full length review available on this site
+ from my collection
^ no United States theatrical release

titles in bold received at least one Oscar nomination

2012 dir. Roland Emmerich [USA]
+*(500) Days of Summer dir. Marc Webb [USA]
^*About Elly (Darbareye Elly) dir. Asghar Farhadi [Iran]
Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) dir. Pedro Almodóvar [Spain]
Adventureland dir. Greg Mottola [USA]
Amelia dir. Mira Nair [USA]
*Antichrist dir. Lars von Trier [Denmark]
Avatar dir. James Cameron [USA]
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans dir. Werner Herzog [USA]
The Blind Side dir. John Lee Hancock [USA]
*The Boat That Rocked (Pirate Radio) dir. Richard Curtis [UK]
+*Bright Star dir. Jane Campion [UK, Australia]
Brothers dir. Jim Sheridan [USA]
The Brothers Bloom dir. Rian Johnson [USA]
Brüno dir. Larry Charles [USA]
The Burning Plain dir. Guillermo Arriaga [USA, Argentina]
^Celda 211 dir. Daniel Monzón [Spain]
Chéri dir. Stephen Frears [UK]
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs dir. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller [USA]
Coco Before Chanel (Coco avant Chanel) dir. Anne Fontaine [France]
Coraline dir. Henry Selick [USA]
The Cove dir. Louie Psihoyos [USA]
Crazy Heart dir. Scott Cooper [USA]
The Damned United dir. Tom Hooper [UK]
District 9 dir. Neill Blomkamp [USA, New Zealand]
Il Divo dir. Paolo Sorrentino [Italy]
Drag Me to Hell dir. Sam Raimi [USA]
An Education dir. Lone Scherfig [UK, USA]
Everybody's Fine dir. Kirk Jones [USA]
Fantastic Mr. Fox dir. Wes Anderson [USA]
Fifty Dead Men Walking dir. Kari Skogland [UK]
Food, Inc. dir. Robert Kenner [USA]
Funny People dir. Judd Apatow [USA]
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra dir. Stephen Sommers [USA]
Gigante dir. Adrián Biniez [Uruguay]
The Girlfriend Experience dir. Steven Soderbergh [USA]
The Hangover dir. Todd Phillips [USA]
*Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince dir. David Yates [USA]
The Hurt Locker dir. Kathryn Bigelow [USA]
I Love You, Man dir. John Hamburg [USA]
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus dir. Terry Gilliam [USA]
In the Loop dir. Armando Iannucci [UK]
The Informant! dir. Steven Soderberg [USA]
Inglourious Basterds dir. Quentin Tarantino [USA]
Invictus dir. Clint Eastwood [USA]
It Might Get Loud dir. Davis Guggenheim [USA]
It's Complicated dir. Nancy Meyers [USA]
Julie & Julia dir. Nora Ephron [USA]
^The Last Pulcinella (L'ultimo Pulcinella) dir. Maurizio Scaparro [Italy]
*The Last Station dir. Michael Hoffman [UK]
The Lovely Bones dir. Peter Jackson [USA]
*Mammoth dir. Lukas Moodysson [Sweden]
Map of the Sounds of Tokyo dir. Isabel Coixet [Spain]
The Men Who Stare at Goats dir. Grant Heslov [USA]
The Messenger dir. Oren Moverman [USA]
*Moon dir. Duncan Jones [USA]
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian dir. Shawn Levy [USA]
Nine dir. Rob Marshall [USA]
Paris 36 (Faubourg 36) dir. Christophe Barratier [France]
Ponyo (Gake no ue no Ponyo) dir. Hayao Miyazaki [Japan]
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire dir. Lee Daniels [USA]
The Princess and the Frog dir. Ron Clements and John Musker [USA]
Public Enemies dir. Michael Mannl [USA]
Revanche dir. Goetz Spielmann [Austria]
The Road dir. John Hillcoat [USA]
The Secret of Kells dir. Tomm Moore [Ireland]
+A Serious Man dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen [USA]
Sherlock Holmes dir. Guy Ritchie [USA]
*Sin Nombre dir. Cary Fukunaga [Mexico, USA]
A Single Man dir. Tom Ford [USA]
Star Trek dir. J.J. Abrams [USA]
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 dir. Tony Scott [USA]
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen dir. Michael Bay [USA]
Triage dir. Danis Tanovic [Ireland, Spain]
Trucker dir. James Mottern [USA]
Two Lovers dir. James Gray [USA]
+*Up dir. Pete Docter [USA]
+Up in the Air dir. Jason Reitman [USA]
Watchmen dir. Zack Snyder [USA]
+Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon) dir. Michael Haneke [Austria]
*Whatever Works dir. Woody Allen [USA]
Where the Wild Things Are dir. Spike Jonze [USA]
X-Men Origins: Wolverine dir. Gavin Hood [USA]
The Young Victoria dir. Jean-Marc Vallée [UK, USA]
*Zombieland dir. Ruben Fleischer [USA]