The Painted Veil (Warner Independent Pictures, PG-13)
What happens when you combine a cheating wife (Naomi Watts) her bland immunologist husband (Edward Norton) and a cholera epidemic in a small Chinese village? Well, madness does ensue, but, unfortunately for them, it's not the slapstick kind.
Not much really happens in this lush telling of Brits in 1920s China, but it is interesting to watch. Watts and Norton make the kind of believably mismatched couple who can only become close in an impossible situation. They risk their lives stupidly time and again in a dangerous game of one-upmanship, simultaneously punishing themselves and each other.
The fun (if you can call it that) in a film like this, is seeing who can actually make it out sane and alive. If you know your tragedies, you'll be able to spot the survivor by the half-way point. That won't, however, take anything away from the experience.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Serious Funny: Look Both Ways
Look Both Ways (Kino International, PG-13)
As much as I like big, Hollywood-player heavy films, sometimes a small movie is just right. The director is an unknown property. The stars might as well be people you run into at the gas station. And, when the end product is as good as Look Both Ways, you quickly realize those things couldn't matter less.
Meryl Lee (Justine Clarke) and Nick (William McInnes) are having a crappy day. She just got home from her dad's funeral, he just found out he has cancer, and they meet at the site of a horrible accident. Take that, rom-com-meet-cute.
Look Both Ways is a study in sudden change and how people deal with it. For Nick, this means obsessively going over everything he's ever done that may have lead to his cancer. While Meryl Lee is besieged by images of impending doom: sharks in the community pool, careless drivers that run her over and masked intruders who attack her at home with knives and guns.
Writer/director Sarah Watt has filled her film with simple characters in the midst of life-changing events that stick with you. It also strikes a perfect balance between moments of real-life comedy and pain. Watt realizes that personal experience can turn a character's anguish into the audience's amusement.
Clarke and McInnes are perfect as the mix-matched leads who meet at the perfect time in their lives. Clarke's Meryl Lee is believably lonely and dissatisfied. So often when Hollywood films pick actresses to portray women like her, they are unrealistically gorgeous. Clarke is perfectly pretty, but we have no trouble seeing her as someone with a small, solitary life.
McInnes is ideal as a man with a once exciting, globe-trotting life. He's all rugged-handsomeness and new-found vulnerability. Someone who wouldn't have given Meryl Lee the time of day before the exact time they crossed paths.
As much as I like big, Hollywood-player heavy films, sometimes a small movie is just right. The director is an unknown property. The stars might as well be people you run into at the gas station. And, when the end product is as good as Look Both Ways, you quickly realize those things couldn't matter less.
Meryl Lee (Justine Clarke) and Nick (William McInnes) are having a crappy day. She just got home from her dad's funeral, he just found out he has cancer, and they meet at the site of a horrible accident. Take that, rom-com-meet-cute.
Look Both Ways is a study in sudden change and how people deal with it. For Nick, this means obsessively going over everything he's ever done that may have lead to his cancer. While Meryl Lee is besieged by images of impending doom: sharks in the community pool, careless drivers that run her over and masked intruders who attack her at home with knives and guns.
Writer/director Sarah Watt has filled her film with simple characters in the midst of life-changing events that stick with you. It also strikes a perfect balance between moments of real-life comedy and pain. Watt realizes that personal experience can turn a character's anguish into the audience's amusement.
Clarke and McInnes are perfect as the mix-matched leads who meet at the perfect time in their lives. Clarke's Meryl Lee is believably lonely and dissatisfied. So often when Hollywood films pick actresses to portray women like her, they are unrealistically gorgeous. Clarke is perfectly pretty, but we have no trouble seeing her as someone with a small, solitary life.
McInnes is ideal as a man with a once exciting, globe-trotting life. He's all rugged-handsomeness and new-found vulnerability. Someone who wouldn't have given Meryl Lee the time of day before the exact time they crossed paths.
Foreignocity: Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight Pictures, R)
If films like Trainspotting and 28 Days Later didn't convince you that director Danny Boyle knows what he's doing, then Slumdog Millionaire certainly will.
Indian street kid Jamal (Dev Patel) gets the chance of a lifetime when he appears on his country's version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. But, after making it through with only two questions to go, the authorities figure no "slumdog" could know all the answers without somehow cheating. Jamal then has to explain to his interrogator how a poor kid from the slums managed to learn so much.
Boyle, along with writers Simon Beaufoy and Vikas Swarup, use flashbacks to tell Jamal's story, and every one is vivid. Diving into a dung heap to get an actor's autograph, living with his older brother in a city dump, making easy money from tourists at the Taj Mahal...All leading to his triumphs on the popular game show.
Slumdog Millionaire takes the hard, run-down living of street life and constantly contrasts it with the small moments of splendor in his short life. Jamal's memories, for instance, are usually filled with the dusty, fast-paced images of someone lying, stealing and begging just to survive. But, his most recent memory of the girl he longs for, Latika (Freida Pinto), is a bright picture fixed in glorious slow motion.
It would be easy for me to say that Patel and Pinto make this movie great and leave it at that. The truth, though, is that literally every performance is amazing. From the children who portray the street kids at various ages, to the cop (Irrfan Khan) who listens to Jamal's stories and the doubtful game show host (Anil Kapoor).
There are several new-comers to film populating this movie, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see many of them for years to come.
If films like Trainspotting and 28 Days Later didn't convince you that director Danny Boyle knows what he's doing, then Slumdog Millionaire certainly will.
Indian street kid Jamal (Dev Patel) gets the chance of a lifetime when he appears on his country's version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. But, after making it through with only two questions to go, the authorities figure no "slumdog" could know all the answers without somehow cheating. Jamal then has to explain to his interrogator how a poor kid from the slums managed to learn so much.
Boyle, along with writers Simon Beaufoy and Vikas Swarup, use flashbacks to tell Jamal's story, and every one is vivid. Diving into a dung heap to get an actor's autograph, living with his older brother in a city dump, making easy money from tourists at the Taj Mahal...All leading to his triumphs on the popular game show.
Slumdog Millionaire takes the hard, run-down living of street life and constantly contrasts it with the small moments of splendor in his short life. Jamal's memories, for instance, are usually filled with the dusty, fast-paced images of someone lying, stealing and begging just to survive. But, his most recent memory of the girl he longs for, Latika (Freida Pinto), is a bright picture fixed in glorious slow motion.
It would be easy for me to say that Patel and Pinto make this movie great and leave it at that. The truth, though, is that literally every performance is amazing. From the children who portray the street kids at various ages, to the cop (Irrfan Khan) who listens to Jamal's stories and the doubtful game show host (Anil Kapoor).
There are several new-comers to film populating this movie, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see many of them for years to come.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Dramarama: The Brave One
The Brave One (Warner Brothers, R)
Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) is living a quiet, contemplative existence in the city she loves, New York. She has a career as a talk radio host, a doctor fiance and big, lovable dog. But one night in the park will soon change that.
Erica and here fiance head out to walk the dog one night and get attacked by a group of thugs. After handing over all their possessions, they receive a brutal beating that leaves Erica comatose and her beloved dead.
The Brave One deals with what it takes for someone to regain the courage to venture out in a place where everything they've loved and held dear has been so horribly ripped from them. For Erica, that means arming herself and showing New York's criminals that they aren't always the boss.
The big debate here is whether or not Erica is doing the right thing. She starts off just wanting some way to feel safe, but quickly becomes a woman on a mission; looking in all the dark corners of the city for trouble to stop and wrongs to avenge.
Director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) does a fantastic job making us feel Erica's fear after the attack. In one scene, as she tries to leave her apartment for the first time since being released from the hospital, we see her apprehension. The walls of the long, narrow hallway leading to the outside slowly close in. The closer she gets to the door, the less she can see - the light from outside is so bright it's blinding. Eventually, we find Erica back in her home, knowing she couldn't find the strength to leave yet.
The performances in The Brave One are astounding. Foster is perfectly frail and broken as Erica, and she somehow maintains this even after she begins to defend the people of New York. We only see flashes of the anger that hides beneath. Terrence Howard does solid work as Detective Mercer, a man hot on the trail of the city's vigilante force.
Foster and Howard make for an interesting team. Their characters share a similar loneliness that has very different origins, and the audience can see them connecting on several levels. You can easily believe that if circumstances were different, they'd possibly be made for one another.
Watch for one particular instance near the end of the film (you'll know when you see it). This is a moment so cool it made me applaud and cheer in my own living room. And, think that just maybe, Erica and Mercer will find their way back to each other once the dust settles.
Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) is living a quiet, contemplative existence in the city she loves, New York. She has a career as a talk radio host, a doctor fiance and big, lovable dog. But one night in the park will soon change that.
Erica and here fiance head out to walk the dog one night and get attacked by a group of thugs. After handing over all their possessions, they receive a brutal beating that leaves Erica comatose and her beloved dead.
The Brave One deals with what it takes for someone to regain the courage to venture out in a place where everything they've loved and held dear has been so horribly ripped from them. For Erica, that means arming herself and showing New York's criminals that they aren't always the boss.
The big debate here is whether or not Erica is doing the right thing. She starts off just wanting some way to feel safe, but quickly becomes a woman on a mission; looking in all the dark corners of the city for trouble to stop and wrongs to avenge.
Director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) does a fantastic job making us feel Erica's fear after the attack. In one scene, as she tries to leave her apartment for the first time since being released from the hospital, we see her apprehension. The walls of the long, narrow hallway leading to the outside slowly close in. The closer she gets to the door, the less she can see - the light from outside is so bright it's blinding. Eventually, we find Erica back in her home, knowing she couldn't find the strength to leave yet.
The performances in The Brave One are astounding. Foster is perfectly frail and broken as Erica, and she somehow maintains this even after she begins to defend the people of New York. We only see flashes of the anger that hides beneath. Terrence Howard does solid work as Detective Mercer, a man hot on the trail of the city's vigilante force.
Foster and Howard make for an interesting team. Their characters share a similar loneliness that has very different origins, and the audience can see them connecting on several levels. You can easily believe that if circumstances were different, they'd possibly be made for one another.
Watch for one particular instance near the end of the film (you'll know when you see it). This is a moment so cool it made me applaud and cheer in my own living room. And, think that just maybe, Erica and Mercer will find their way back to each other once the dust settles.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Foreignocity: The Lives of Others
The Lives of Others (Sony Pictures Classics, R)
Most of us can live our lives basically the way we want to. You travel when and where you want, talk to who you like and ignore people you don't. But, the inhabitants of East Germany in '84 have no such luck.
The Stasi (East Germany's secret police) have the citizens on lockdown. Every move they make is liable to be recorded, written down or reported back to Stasi agents by an informant. Such is the case with popular playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch). His plays have always towed the socialist party line, but when a leading Stasi minister takes an interest in Dreyman's actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria (Martina Gedeck), the order goes out to wire Dreyman's apartment and find something to pin on him.
Within days, long-time agent Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) begins to split his time between teaching at the Stasi school during the day and spying on Dreyman and Christa-Maria at night. But, the loyal Stasi soon finds himself becoming interested in their lives in ways he never dreamed of.
The Lives of Others paints a full, bleak picture of life in a closed society. In a world where every word and deed can come under scrutiny, there are no bright colors or crisp shapes. The film is colored beige, brown and tan; everything is well-worn and used to the end of its life. The paranoia seems to have seeped through and taken away all youth and joy.
Muhe is perfect as Wiesler. We get the feeling that the character would probably be just as unsociable and bland had be been raised in West Germany, which makes his actions even more perfect. For all his un-excitable ways, Muhe manages to imbue Wiesler with a subtle, growing spark. For instance, when Wiesler takes important evidence to a superior, we don't see that spark in his eyes, but in the way he holds the document.
The Lives of Others is filled with small, gem-like moments such as this one. And even though it stretches on a bit too long past the two hour mark, it's definitely worth your time.
Most of us can live our lives basically the way we want to. You travel when and where you want, talk to who you like and ignore people you don't. But, the inhabitants of East Germany in '84 have no such luck.
The Stasi (East Germany's secret police) have the citizens on lockdown. Every move they make is liable to be recorded, written down or reported back to Stasi agents by an informant. Such is the case with popular playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch). His plays have always towed the socialist party line, but when a leading Stasi minister takes an interest in Dreyman's actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria (Martina Gedeck), the order goes out to wire Dreyman's apartment and find something to pin on him.
Within days, long-time agent Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) begins to split his time between teaching at the Stasi school during the day and spying on Dreyman and Christa-Maria at night. But, the loyal Stasi soon finds himself becoming interested in their lives in ways he never dreamed of.
The Lives of Others paints a full, bleak picture of life in a closed society. In a world where every word and deed can come under scrutiny, there are no bright colors or crisp shapes. The film is colored beige, brown and tan; everything is well-worn and used to the end of its life. The paranoia seems to have seeped through and taken away all youth and joy.
Muhe is perfect as Wiesler. We get the feeling that the character would probably be just as unsociable and bland had be been raised in West Germany, which makes his actions even more perfect. For all his un-excitable ways, Muhe manages to imbue Wiesler with a subtle, growing spark. For instance, when Wiesler takes important evidence to a superior, we don't see that spark in his eyes, but in the way he holds the document.
The Lives of Others is filled with small, gem-like moments such as this one. And even though it stretches on a bit too long past the two hour mark, it's definitely worth your time.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Should I Waste Two Hours On This?: Dan In Real Life
Dan In Real Life (Walt Disney Studios, PG-13)
I had heard a lot about this movie around the time it came out and despite my instincts that it wouldn't be that great, I Redboxed it anyway. You know what? I was right and everybody else was wrong.
Dan (Steve Carell) and his three daughters have driven to Rhode Island for an extended family getaway with his parents and siblings one weekend. It doesn't take long for Dan to meet Marie (Juliette Binoche) in a local bookstore, have one of those deep, meaningful conversations with her and fall instantly in love. The problem? Dan soon finds out Marie is dating his brother, Mitch (Dane Cook).
I had so many issues with this film that it's hard to know where to start. First off, I don't like Marie. It's obvious from the get-go that Dan is interested in her romantically. And what does Marie do? She encourages him by not telling the poor slob that she's seeing someone until after they "connect".
I'm convinced that no decent person would do this, certainly not a character I'm supposed to feel for.
Another problem is that Marie is with Mitch, and I don't mean that this is a problem for Dan...It's a problem for me. There is honestly no way in hell a woman who seems as worldly and sophisticated as Marie would date douche-man Dane Cook. I was hoping the character of Mitch would be a college professor or scientist or globe-trotting journalist, but he's not. He's just an overgrown frat boy who works as a trainer in a gym.
Now I'm getting to the biggest issue I had with this film. NO FAMILY ACTS LIKE THIS ONE. I understand it's a weekend family reunion of sorts, but these fuckers do everything together. And when I say together, I mean, like, all 18 of them. Walking on the beach, eating every meal, exercising, bowling, having a family talent show complete with a stage and costumes, competing in some odd crossword puzzle challenge, on and on and freakin' on.
I'm pretty sure the writer of Dan In Real Life was an abused orphan who never actually had a real family and this is his ultimate fantasy of what family life must actually be like. This was such a glaring oddity from early in the film that I became more and more angry as the entire clan did stuff together. If I weren't currently well acquainted with a white family I would wonder if white folks really do act like this when they get together.
At one point, these supposedly super nice/family oriented people decide to set lonely Dan up on a date with a woman that he grew up with who still lives in town. Apparently, she had a pig face as a child. Do you know what these gracious, lovely people do? Begin making fun of her pig face (without her around, of course) to the extreme of creating a song about it. The scene went on forever, too. What the fuck, you guys? I'm supposed to like these assholes? Seriously?
While Dan In Real Life isn't horrible, it's not believable or good enough in other ways to make me not care that it's not believable.
I had heard a lot about this movie around the time it came out and despite my instincts that it wouldn't be that great, I Redboxed it anyway. You know what? I was right and everybody else was wrong.
Dan (Steve Carell) and his three daughters have driven to Rhode Island for an extended family getaway with his parents and siblings one weekend. It doesn't take long for Dan to meet Marie (Juliette Binoche) in a local bookstore, have one of those deep, meaningful conversations with her and fall instantly in love. The problem? Dan soon finds out Marie is dating his brother, Mitch (Dane Cook).
I had so many issues with this film that it's hard to know where to start. First off, I don't like Marie. It's obvious from the get-go that Dan is interested in her romantically. And what does Marie do? She encourages him by not telling the poor slob that she's seeing someone until after they "connect".
I'm convinced that no decent person would do this, certainly not a character I'm supposed to feel for.
Another problem is that Marie is with Mitch, and I don't mean that this is a problem for Dan...It's a problem for me. There is honestly no way in hell a woman who seems as worldly and sophisticated as Marie would date douche-man Dane Cook. I was hoping the character of Mitch would be a college professor or scientist or globe-trotting journalist, but he's not. He's just an overgrown frat boy who works as a trainer in a gym.
Now I'm getting to the biggest issue I had with this film. NO FAMILY ACTS LIKE THIS ONE. I understand it's a weekend family reunion of sorts, but these fuckers do everything together. And when I say together, I mean, like, all 18 of them. Walking on the beach, eating every meal, exercising, bowling, having a family talent show complete with a stage and costumes, competing in some odd crossword puzzle challenge, on and on and freakin' on.
I'm pretty sure the writer of Dan In Real Life was an abused orphan who never actually had a real family and this is his ultimate fantasy of what family life must actually be like. This was such a glaring oddity from early in the film that I became more and more angry as the entire clan did stuff together. If I weren't currently well acquainted with a white family I would wonder if white folks really do act like this when they get together.
At one point, these supposedly super nice/family oriented people decide to set lonely Dan up on a date with a woman that he grew up with who still lives in town. Apparently, she had a pig face as a child. Do you know what these gracious, lovely people do? Begin making fun of her pig face (without her around, of course) to the extreme of creating a song about it. The scene went on forever, too. What the fuck, you guys? I'm supposed to like these assholes? Seriously?
While Dan In Real Life isn't horrible, it's not believable or good enough in other ways to make me not care that it's not believable.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Shortness: SherryBaby
SherryBaby (IFC Films, R)
Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is fucked up. She just finished a three year prison sentence and hasn't seen her young daughter in as much time. Sherry's also battling a serious drug addiction and a dependence on sex that could undo her attempts at total rehabilitation.
SherryBaby is a hard film to watch. We see her take one step forward and then half a dozen steps back into the pit she's trying to claw her way out of. I've known people like this; ones who make you wonder how they could have gone so wrong so early in their lives. In Sherry's case, though, one moment at her daughter's birthday party makes everything crystalline. And to heart-breaking effect.
Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is fucked up. She just finished a three year prison sentence and hasn't seen her young daughter in as much time. Sherry's also battling a serious drug addiction and a dependence on sex that could undo her attempts at total rehabilitation.
SherryBaby is a hard film to watch. We see her take one step forward and then half a dozen steps back into the pit she's trying to claw her way out of. I've known people like this; ones who make you wonder how they could have gone so wrong so early in their lives. In Sherry's case, though, one moment at her daughter's birthday party makes everything crystalline. And to heart-breaking effect.
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