Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Recently Seen

The Fountain

Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” should’ve moved me a lot more than it did. Instead, by its fragmented hop between 3 seperate centuries featuring the same 2 people, it almost becomes a joke... subtitled the movie where Hugh Jackman cries- a lot. Even though I buy the film’s 3 plotlines (although only 1 of the three are intended to be representative of an actual plot, while the other 2 are figments of the character’s imaginations), there’s still something very cold about the film. A heartbreaking score from composer Clint Mansell aside, “The Fountain” never gels even though it presents Hugh Jackman and the luminous Rachel Weisz in a moving relationship that bears resemblance to the worst type of sitcom predicament. When the film does get around to maintaining some worthwhile images in the final minutes, it’s too little too late. Not only do the scenes from 500 and 2500 take away from the emotional immediacy of the story, but they add an abstract frame of reference that plays up the ‘trippy’ idea of the story and flattens any chance of development between Izzi (Weisz) and her conquistador husband, Tom (Jackman).

Fast Food Nation

Richard Linklater’s “Fast Food Nation” is my choice for his most accomplished film to date (although I haven’t seen “A Scanner Darkly” just yet). Bristling with sharp characterizations and an abundance of ideas, Linklater focuses on a dozen or so people whose lives revolve around the manufacturing, producing and selling of red meat on a daily basis in rural Colorado. It all has a rather jaundiced tone, of course, but what sets “Fast Food Nation” apart from other films that aim to condemn mass consumerism is the attention Linklater and script writer Eric Schlossier give to mundane details- the scene involving a group of border-hopping Hispanic workers given their orientation via an English video that none of them seem to understand… the crass body language and verbal tone of a Human Resources manager giving Sylvia(Catalina Sandino Moreno) news about her husband’s involvement in a plant accident and then tells her the “bad news” of his termination- all the superfluous things that usually get in the way of more self-aggrandizing films that feature an ‘us vs. them’ mentality are given equal measure to the grand dialogue setpieces of Kris Kristofferson and Bruce Willis. In any other film, the ratio of big moments to small ones highly outweigh each other, but in “Fast Food Nation”, Linklater weaves a balancing act that cascades from the ‘very poor’ to the ‘very used’ with compassion and intelligence. He’s still naturally drawn to scenes of hanging out- such as the cameo of Ethan Hawke who infuses the film with ample doses of left wing radicalism and Avril Lavigne as an environmental activist who sparks the passion of fast food check out girl Amber (Ashley Johnson)- which have been his independent calling card since day one, but “Fast Food Nation” also clearly understands the importance of keeping the ideas flowing. And in the final moments, when Sylvia (and us) are finally given glimpses of the killing floor where our fast food originates, I couldn’t imagine a more poignant, fitting emotion to end the carnage on. Like the rest of the film before it, it’s a mundane and intelligent reaction in a landscape littered with corporate logos and mass murder on several levels.

Deja Vu

And what better way to wash off the serious overtones of one film by immensely enjoying the overblown ideas and logic of Tony Scott’s “Déjà vu”. Ok. Internet friends know my adoration for Scott (hell I think I’m the only person in the universe who included “Domino” in his favorite films of 2005) and “Déjà vu” is no exception. It ranks pretty high up there with “True Romance”. With his latest, Scott has toned down the MTV visuals a few notches and allows the story and strong leading performance of Denzel Washington to carry the brunt. Through all the macho posturing and glib statements about terrorism, “Déjà vu” hits some pretty high emotional arches; just watch the chemistry between Washington and Claire (Paula Patton) when he’s watching her past reel before his eyes or the natural interaction of the computer geeks as they work their magic inside the whatever-the-hell-it-is-machine. And that’s what a lot of people miss in the films of Tony Scott. Flashback to last year in "Domino". I'm sure alot of its detractors will find it hard to place any blame of the film's shortcomings on Keira Knightley, who gives a sensitive and sexy performance. The same happens in "Deja Vu". Scott always wants to make more than a Bruckheimer financed action film, and he often carves out sublime little moments between his characters, giving his films an extra dose of personality. Plus, he’s a director who understands the nuances of charismatic lead performances, presenting Denzel with what feels like his most loose and vivid performance in a few years. This is the most fun I've had at the movies in a while, and it features one helluva car chase that has implications for 2 different dimensions!


Emilio Estevez’s “Bobby” also suffers from some of the same glib and sketchy characterizations as Aronofsky’s film, and it too features a powerful condensation of images and ideas in the last few minutes, but the parade of high profile mugs on display feels like an insider’s pat on the back rather than a cohesive story. In the remembrance of Robert Altman, I wondered what he would’ve done with this material (or for that matter, maybe he already did with “Nashville”). There’s not a cliché unturned or a plot device left unchecked in "Bobby"- even the use of music (Donovan and Cream for a scene featuring drugs!) is uninspired. It’s clear that Estevez’s intentions are good, but something is lost in translation. It’s all surface. The best examples of truth in “Bobby” radiate from relatively little-seen actors, such as Nick Cannon's turn as an African American campaigner or the performance of Freddy Rodriguez as a kitchen cook who gives up his seats to a Dodger game to play an integral part in history. The beautiful faces that routinely pop up in "Bobby" detract from the more serious affair of creating a realistic and authentic portrayal of a dramatic political event. Estevez is certainly no Altman.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Emergence of the New (Old) Bond

If one were to approach the somewhat limited career of Daniel Craig on rational terms, his ascension into the role of James Bond would've been obvious. Did any one of the 25 million people who showed up over "Casino Royale's" opening weekend even see his performance as a British crime boss in the accomplished "Layer Cake" from 2 years ago??? That performance alone sold me as a fan of Craig's. His steely-eyed determinism, coupled with a fierce sense of intelligence, elevated what should've been a routine Brit crime pic into a marvelously energetic and surprising documentation of the London underworld. Without Craig holding down the fort, I don't know if "Layer Cake" would've been as affecting. And then there was a pair of films from director Roger Michell, "Enduring Love" and "The Mother" both from 2004. Neither presented Craig as the torch bearer to a legacy of great spy films, but instead represented, at opposite ends of the spectrum, his range and precision as an actor. In "Enduring Love", Craig played a mild mannered professor whose life becomes the obsessive focal point of a man whose life he saves from a hot air balloon accident. As the stalker increasingly nears closer to the things Craig holds dear (namely his wife), his character turns into a panicked and desperate every-man, suddenly looking to violence as a resolution. It's an interesting performance because Craig reveals the perversity beneath someone who has to act out in a way that's totally disassociated with his normal means of life. Then, in "The Mother" (perhaps his finest role to date) Craig plays the fixation of yet another person's unrealistic obsession, but this time with much more empathy and restraint. Craig, while renovating the house of his married lover, falls in a sexual relationship with his lover's mother, who is in her 60's. I know... sounds morbid right? But it works, and Craig pulls off the performance of his small career, precariously balancing more mixed emotions as he struggles being the father of an autistic child and the masculine playtoy for two very different women. It's one of those performances that could've easily fallen apart at the seams, but Craig's temperament holds a steady tone.

So, here we are in 2006. We have a blue-eyed and blond haired James Bond and the die hards are crying about it. Get over yourself. "Casino Royale" is a very good film, made even better due to the control of Daniel Craig as an actor. Two things work well for this film (and I really want this entry to be more about the progression of the actor Daniel Craig and James Bond than a review for the film... after so many, that would be boring!): 1- the series is given a starting point... a point where one can mold and embellish a character in any way they wish because we all know that we're one form in youth and certainly something else as we grow older, gain life experience and have the shit routinely kicked out of us. In "Casino Royale", we're given a lean and mean James Bond, not yet jaded by the evil empire of adversaries and certainly still interested in love rather than disposable sex. In Daniel Craig's world, the possibility of true love still exists in the (of course) eye-appealing visage of Eva Green. Unlike every other Bond film, Craig doesn't seduce and destroy for the pleasure or because women throw themselves at him, but he seduces (partially) only to advance the narrative of the chase. 2) for the first time, a Bond hero feels like he's not invincible. Perhaps that was part of the attraction to so many James Bond fans- basically every film up until now was a wish fulfillment fantasy concerning a hero with cheesy gadgets who ran out of exploding buildings carrying the girl on his arm without a wrinkle in his styled hair. Hopefully with the franchise now, those days are over and we're given a more realistic view of Bond's world. And without going deeply into politic-speak, I imagine there are very few films nowadays that won't have some sort of political or social overtone towards post 9-11 tensions and government unrest. "Casino Royale" directly presents the villians as financiers of terrorists. Goodbye cold war ruskies and hello poverty-striken freedom fighters and terrorists! And where did this rejuventaion of style come from? I'd love to say it was due to the one-two punch of Matt Damon's "The Bourne Identity" and "The Bourne Supremacy", two films within a series about a globe-trotting secret agent that challenged the traditional thinking of the spy genre. For the first time in a long while, Damon's Jason Bourne was a protaganist who did get beaten sometimes, suffered a cut lip and bruised ribs and, certainly, was given emotion through disorientation, betrayal and lost love. Additionally, the Bourne series featured two diverse directors (Doug Liman for the first and Paul Greengrass for the second) who gave each frame of the film a kinetic charge. I can't imagine "The Bourne Identity" without that masterful scene in a well light apartment as Liman cut out all excess during a vicious fight between Damon and a knife-wielding assasin, emphasizing the sounds of violence and underscoring the scene with a persistent phone ring. In Greengrass' version, it's all pretty damn good including the you-are-there immediacy of his cinematography, but its especially the car chase scene towards the end of that film where you feel the hits. What these 2 films did (and did well) was unmask the invincibility of the hero while slowly inserting gestures of political malignance, making one of the second film's worst villains a member of our US Government. I really don't know if the success of these 2 films spurned the maturation of the 2006 Bond in "Casino Royale", but the bottom line is that it doesn't matter. We finally have a James Bond to match the harsh realities of our modern times.

So if there's one defining moment that defines my appreciation for Daniel Craig as James Bond it's this- after a relatively brutal fight down the spiraling steps of a casino hallway, Bond sends Vesp (Eva Green) back to her hotel room. Once he arrives in her room later, she's till outfitted in her cocktail dress and sitting on the floor of her shower, crying. Bond slowly crawls in with her and sits next to her. She's upset about just witnessing the death of Bond's assailant by his hands, and she whispers that she can't wash the blood off her own hands. Craig, as Bond, gently puts his arm around her and lightly sucks two of her fingers. It's a moment that's both gentle and telling- gentle because it wouldn't be found anywhere else in the Bond catalog before this and telling because, hopefully, it marks a profound shift in the icy facade of James Bond.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Broken social scene - shampoo suicide

Ever since seeing the film "Half Nelson" back in the late summer, I've been obsessing over a song in that film called "Shampoo Suicide" by a then unheard-of band called The Broken Social Scene. After I purchased 3 of their albums, I'm still obsessing and have fallen in complete awe of this band's sound. So, with the purpose of a blog being in a share-universe, I pass one song along to you all in the hopes that you like it as much as i do.

Friday, November 10, 2006

DVD classic- I, Vitelloni

Years before Federico Fellini came to cinematic prominence with films like “La Dolce Vita”, “81/2” and even “Nights of Cabiria”, he struck a minor miracle with his third film entitled “I, Vitelloni”. Probably one of the few best films about hanging out and not wanting to grow old ever filmed, it follows the lives of four young Italian friends as they chase women, party, obsess over future desires and kick about lazy jobs in a resort town. This was way before Fellini’s sprawling interest documenting the large social stratus of Rome… and it’s even a little tender when one of the friends, eventually, runs away to the city. It’s even more devastating because we know what this man will become in the amoral wash of “La Dolce Vita”. Fellini’s only intent here is to charm and present these five men as aimless, young and discontent… a feeling we all have at 23. And for its 1 hour and 45 minute running time, “I, Vitelloni” strikes a resonant chord as it observantly details the languidness of small time Italian life, as well as giving any film lover the glimpses of family and friendship that emerges in the later works of Scorsese and others.

Each character is drawn with vivid and humanistic flourishes. Fausto (Franco Fabrizi) is a relentless skirt chaser. When he impregnates Moraldo’s (Franco Interlenghi) sister Sandra, he learns to grow up fast and lands himself a boring job in an antique store that gives him equally flirtatious time with the shop owner’s wife. Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste) dreams of becoming a famous playwright, but when his idol comes to town, he receives a life lesson in major disappointment. Alberto (Alberto Sordi) continually worries about his mother and the effect the relationship his sister carries on with a married man will have upon her. In between the interruptions of modern life, Fellini frames his four young protagonists as genuinely likeable and ingratiating subjects. They fill their days walking along the beach, going to parties that last all night and drinking until they can’t stand up. But what’s even more prevalent in Fellini’s general outlook throughout the film are the bittersweet emotions that slowly build beneath the surface. We know someone, for all their posturing and talk of starting adult lives somewhere else, has to get out alive. And when it does happen and one character hops the train for Rome, there’s a simple camera move that’s earth-shattering in its translation of that single moment when we outgrow one part of our life and face ahead to the uncertain future as an adult. At its core, “I, Vitelloni” is about that five seconds of film, and everything up until that point is preparation.

So in regards to films about hanging out, I think there are 4 definitive versions that capture a vulnerable sense of time-standing-still. Only “I, Vitelloni” is an outright masterpiece, but…

2. Mean Streets, Scorsese’s ode to youth and violence that rolls Catholic guilt, taboo romance and violent urges into one rabble rousing tale of youth loose at night.
3. Beautiful Girls, Ted Demme’s highly overlooked 1995 film about the return home of one man to his childhood. It’s a film that reaches poignant heights and never gets old.
4. Diner, Barry Levinson’s portrait of 50’s youth enriches upon each viewing simply because the banter between the film’s actors feels so natural.
5. The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich’s supreme elegy to small town Texas life that gets it right on so many levels. If you didn’t grow up here, the nostalgia may be lost on you.