Talking Back to Tim

We agree...and disagree. He says tomato, I say, tomahto. It's perfect, 'ain't it? Two of Tim's recent reviews ( "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Happy Go Lucky") are just ripe for a toss-up of opinions.

I selected "play" on the DVD player just the other night for "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Approaching it with the expected angst of watching yet another "why did the remake this?!" film, I was even more disappointed than anticipated. Kathy Bates as a hard-nosed government official? Ouch...painful to watch. (For a real kick-ass politician, see Cherry Jones as the President on "24"). There were, subsequently, so many inconceivable, bad moments that I've blocked out the film. I have to admit...I couldn't even watch the whole thing. Painful, indeed. I'd give one fewer star than Tim did to this completely unnecessary remake.

On my first viewing of "Happy Go Lucky," I nearly threw the remote at the screen. I'm a fairly chipper person, but Sally Hawkins' "Poppy" made me want to grind my teeth down to smooth, polished ivory stubs. Is there something...deficient...with someone who remains cheerful in virtually all circumstances? True, she wasn't facing war or terminal illness. Rather, she merely encountered everyday annoyances that would drive the rest of us into a flurry of expletives. Instead, she persists with a loving silliness against a cranky bookstore owner, for example. The degree to which she perseveres with her downright scary driving instructor (a chilling performance from Eddie Marsan) is almost difficult to watch. And is it courage or foolishness that compels her to approach a boisterous homeless man in a desolate setting?

In between these tests of spirit, there are the everyday situations--drinks with friends, dating, a family get together-- into which she weaves an optimism and glee that no doubt draws her friends and family closer to her.

It wasn't until my second viewing of the film that I found the deeper meaning that brilliant director Mike Leigh had no doubt intended (a character study of optimism and saintly goodness). Still, it's hard to watch. Like being the only one at a party who isn't drinking...and just not seeing what's so funny, after all.

Doubt, Debt, Dud

A nun is taken out by a tree limb and copes with oncoming blindness, a pigeon flies in church, rustling leaves abound, light bulbs pop and windows that were closed always seem to open during storms. The encroaching nature symbols come hard and heavy in John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” a film that my co-blogger Jessi screened last December. Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) comments ‘the winds are changing’ and we know she is right. Set in 1962, the turbulent sixties were about to erupt and Vietnam was to be a war that divided the land. In the Catholic Church, Vatican II would ease the formalities and reform the mass to a more user friendly format. The hermetically sealed world of Sister Aloysius and her pious sisters was coming to an end and she is the General Custer of the old guard directing her wrath at the friendly new priest, Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) whose kindness must surely mask some ghastly secrets. I unfortunately didn’t see the original play but it looked like a scaled down “The Crucible” with “Our Town” staging, winning a Pulitzer Prize and several Tonys. This attracted the film adaptations' dream cast and made it prime Oscar bait, though it was closed out of all 5 awards. Being a 12 year Catholic school survivor I had no experience with evil old nuns but my older siblings did. So I am personally grateful that clergy like cool Father Flynn persevered. This film could have been overly pretentious and it is a bit stagy but it's also a great old fashioned movie. Viola Davis and Amy Adams provide strong support but it’s all about the battle of the two leads. As Jessi noted, seeing two of the greatest film stars of our time turn in strong performances is a blessing. Student vs. student, nuns vs. priests, conservative vs. liberal, authority vs. freedom, nature vs. man - Shanley seems to have distilled all dramatic conflict into the films' lean framework. Father Flynn’s great homilies on doubt and gossip also reminded me of those innocent times when good priests inspired me before puberty hit.

"I.O.U.S.A" is like “An Inconvenient Truth” in that it brings basically a fleshed out PowerPoint presentation with grave news to life. Regardless of your political leanings we must come to realize that debts do have to be paid and this film does a good job in describing and breaking down the complex jargon that is our economy. Citizens have sleepwalked as our economy has been sold out to foreign investors and now cry when billionaires are asked to pay their share of taxes- this is what will bring the country down without a shot being fired. To see the heavy hitters in banking and commerce agree on the problem is at least hopeful and former US Comptroller David Walker is a man on a mission: to get the word out on the impending problems of long-term unresolved debt. After last years economic crash this DVD’s release has pretty good timing. Like the sober lessons of oil production peaking in “The End of Suburbia”, this is another essential film tackling a key social problem which is a classic documentary tradition. These films aren’t the most fun to watch but the information they provide is critical.

Speaking of lessons, the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” warned humanity to shape up and behave. The remake has the aliens now on an extermination mission with a lot of flashy special effects. (Including the destruction of Giants stadium in NJ which means my old hometown would have been toast!) Keanu Reeves and Will Smith’s son Jaden along with Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates make some grocery money in this unnecessary remake. The new effects are kind of cool but still…Why don’t they remake bad films? Why would you remake a film that is an iconic classic? Why do I watch them? And does the earth have restless leg syndrome?

Happy, Sad, Spooky, Bland and Overdone- These ain’t no dwarfs

So many interesting flicks out this month! First in “Happy-Go-Lucky!” director Mike Leigh leaves behind the gritty realism that he obviously enjoys for a fresh look at life. Initially I was annoyed by the painfully chipper Poppy (Oscar nom Sally Hawkins), however over the course of this film you see her cheery optimism as a shield and a tactic. She will use her calculated optimism in an attempt to bring people out: a pretentious bookstore clerk, a troubled child who bullies, a homeless man. She directly challenges people’s anger and depression as a sport but also with much empathy. Poppy will enjoy her life regardless of the many reasons not to. In other films she would be a minor character, a friend in a group. By making her the hero Mike Leigh is giving us a life lesson in these trying times. The core of this film is the relationship between Poppy and her angry, bigoted driving instructor (a brilliant, intense Eddie Marsan). Seeing these two interact is so organic and interesting that it’s reminiscent of early Martin Scorsese. This is a great little film, a new “Amelie” for our times.


On the opposite side of the spectrum is a thoroughly depressing “Synecdoche, New York” This would have made a great short film, maybe 20 minutes or so. However it weighs in at over two hours and that’s just too much time to spend in a surreal dream world- thanks! Charlie Kaufman who wrote the great “Being John Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” makes his directorial debut and like his main character here, he’s too locked in his own creation. After a promising start where we see the breakup of Caden Cotard’s (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) marriage, the film gets progressively absurd. In this dream world, he spends 20 years making a play about his life that continues to intersect with his real life (or does it?) If nothing is real and the characters playing characters playing characters are neither really living nor really acting; why does anything matter? In “Brazil” Terry Gilliam gave us a truly brilliant parallel universe that had fun with its own dark view. Kaufman’s film is just confusing and morose. Stay out of Synecdoche, it’s a dark place.


I thought “Let the Right One In” was original and creepy. However, it seems a lot of people really liked this far more than I did. The setting of a cold, dark, depressing Swedish town is spot on. The little girl vampire concept is truly original. So although I am a bit sick of the vampire flick this still seemed much more interesting than the over-hyped “Twilight”. I think I may be a little jaded though since I am myself, a vampire.


The film “The Rocker” has Rainn Wilson breaking out of his Office cube to play an ex-hair band drummer who gets a second chance. The veteran, dream team supporting cast and the fun newcomers rally around our hero, but it’s too bad this film is way too predictable and not as funny as it should be. If it wasn’t so tame and eager to please this may have been something. As it stands, it’s as if “Spinal Tap” met a Lifetime TV movie and that doesn’t rock mate.

Finally we arrive back in Seattle. I was a lad working in a luxury hotel and condo-sitting during the WTO conference. So I had to work and live in the streets during the infamous 1999 riots. I was a spectator, but I felt correctly that it was a foreboding sign of things to come. I saw quirky, passionate and fun loving protestors as well as the masked and easily identifiable teenage ‘anarchists’ who were a very small minority. Then I watched the jack-booted riot police showing that they obviously didn’t care to tell the difference. It was bizarre to see rush hour commuters having to deal with a rowdy police force who were gassing downtown streets and pepper-spraying 16 year old girls. In short it was outrageous. Then you would switch on the TV and see the clueless reporting that repeatedly showed the smashing of a Starbucks window, and characterized all the protestors as vandals while totally ignoring the police brutality. Fractionized, angry protestors, biased media, corporate control issues, and strong arm police tactics- it was like a crash course in political awareness.


It is this defining incident that is the basis for Stuart Townsend’s “Battle in Seattle” a film that uses the “Crash” model of multiple storylines. The characters here feel more like designated representatives: the angry cop, the pregnant wife, the reporter who (laughably) grows a conscience, the lovebird protestors plus Andre 3000, the guy who sings the “Hey Ya” song. Like 2006s’ “Bobby” this film has its’ heart in the right place but just lays it on too thick. Although the recreations are nicely edited into the actual footage, the story is way too contrived and the actors struggle vainly in their one dimensional roles. A documentary on these events would be more impactful than this well-meaning but hollow film. The one thing that felt dead on was the portrayal of the mayor and police chief who are truly confused and dumbfounded by the events that they themselves were responsible for. It was a small justice to see them both lose their jobs.

Great Name for a Book---Bad Name for a Film

"What Just Happened" is one of those irritatingly wonderful films about the film business. While some would argue that movies about making movies don't hold general appeal, I beg to differ. In an age where box office grosses make news on par with weather and local crime, and celebrity shenanigans are part of our morning coffee, there is no doubt a fascination with what goes on behind the scenes.

"What Just Happened" takes the producer's point of view. A nicely controlled performance by his excellency, Robert DeNiro, leads the way. Even Katherine Keener is blisteringly perfect in the fierce role of the big, money-holding backer. DeNiro's "Ben" is struggling to finish a violent film directed by an obnoxious 'hot' director. Sean Penn is seen in the final bits of the film within the film, as the co-star, along with his beautiful white Pit Bull. Do they shoot the dog or not? Without spoiling the film, I can tell you that the way this film examines the audience reactions to violence, and the intricate spinning of those invested in the film, is just brilliant.

At times hilarious (one at first wonders why this big time film producer is living in a very modest apartment---we soon discover he's got a couple of houses in his past), at times touching (the symbolism of the easy chair between Ben and his ex-wife (the lovely Robin Wright-Penn), at times confirming our worst suspicions about actors (a brilliant subplot with Bruce Willis and his scruffy, deal-breaking beard), we see a slice of this very wacky, near-revolting Hollywood life. For those who read the book, by the way, they will recognize the Willis character as the twist on the true story of Alec Baldwin showing up for a film overweight and bearded.

This is a worthwhile film for those curious about "the industry" that I feel would have done better with a different title. I'm not sure if it had a theatrical run or went straight to video, but, in my lil' ol' opinion, a hip, thought-provoking and cerebral title works splendidly on book covers, but risks losing an audience who likes to know, at least to some degree, what they're in for. Case in point: "The Player." Need I say more?

To have and to hold: Coupling probs and my Woodman diss

Since February gave us that cursed Valentines Day, it is timely that three recent DVD releases deal with finding and keeping love. (Eat baguette now, smoke and adjust beret) Since my last post was a diatribe against the loud, kitchen sink approach in todays’ films, I’m happy to report that some seemed to have agreed with my screams to create, understate and find emotional reality.

In “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, RP McMurphy told the mental hospital administrator that his problem was he that he liked to “fight and fuck too much”. There was the very definition of the modern man raging against the machine of conformist society. Author Chuck Palahniuk has given us stories on these two modes of expression, with the film versions of both books now released. In the big budget “Fight Club” Brad Pitt gave us one of his best performances as the idealized alpha male to Edward Nortons’ beleaguered everyman. It also had Meat Loaf with tits. Great flick with a lot to say.

The film version of the second 'f' is “Choke” and it is a smaller film with a first time director but just as absurd. Sam Rockwell bounces back from the overacted angst of “Snow Angels” (on my worst of 08 list) to play a more playful but equally confused main character. Working in a recreated colonial village ala Williamsburg, he moonlights as a low level con man. By fake choking on food in restaurants and allowing rich diners to ‘save’ him, he somehow hits them up for cash down the road. He’s also a sex addict who gave up medical school to put his mentally disturbed mother in a home where she doesn’t even recognize him. Now here’s a guy who would have trouble finding real love! A catalyst in the form of a new female doctor appears and forces him to question his very confusing life, despite having her own issues. A sacred foreskin, flashbacks of his insane youth, chapel sex, a hilarious staged rape and foul mouthed old ladies all come into play. This could have been a god awful film but I did love the absurdity and creativity of it all. The first time director Clark Gregg clearly botches up the staging several times but he gains points for bravery. The supporting cast: beautiful Kelly Macdonald as the bizarre doctor, the excellent Anjelica Houston as the crazy mother and Brad William Henke as the obligatory best friend, who outgrows our main character, all give great quirky performances. Sam Rockwell is also sympathetic in a very difficult role. This reminded me a bit of the superior “The World according to Garp” which also taught us that we all need love despite lifes’ insanity and our own non-traditional upbringings. This could have been a great film but it passes as a pleasant distraction, much like the meaningless sex it portrays.

With over forty films under his belt, writer-director Woody Allen in his prime has given us some great stories on the difficulties of love; “Annie Hall”, “Manhattan” and “Hannah and her Sisters” being his best. However I have to admit that he seems to have really become mediocre and repetitious to me. Pretentious and top-heavy with literary and academic references, his films always feature the well-monied, elites that Allen seems to worship despite the fact that he feigns disapproval of their homogenized WASP values. His characters tend to ramble about the meaning of life while behaving selfishly but never seem to need to work for a living. His obsession with these Upper East Side neurotics became downright claustrophobic, so Allen began to drop in more old school, broad comedies and has gone on a European filming jag in recent years. To fanatical devotees these seem to be a new direction, but to me they seem to be the same characters with new accents.

“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a good case in point. The title itself (taken from two of the characters names plus its’ setting) seems to demonstrate its’ generic, formulaic approach. Lazy writing then puts in unnecessary narration as Allen tells a tale of two good friends on a summer in Barcelona and their dealing with an attractive bohemian painter. Javier Bardem loses the soup bowl haircut and limp from “No Country for Old Men” and proves he can be a romantic lead. Vicky the sensible, engaged one (charismatic Rebecca Hall) and Cristina the free spirit (Scarlett Johansson looking sexy but bored) go through their paces like happy lap horses. Vicky’s businessman fiancé Doug (Chris Messina) is so stereotypically superficial that you wonder why anyone would find this safe relationship appealing, but I guess that’s the point. Allen flies his freak flag a little higher giving us a ménage à trios scenario, and (gasp) a lesbian scene. Infidelity and madness seem intertwined, again demonstrating to us that love seems to be at odds with our animalistic impulses in his view. Barcelona helped fund this film which is why the settings look more tourism less realism. Would Vicky be the bird in her yuppie husbands’ gilded cage? Allen shows us her husband literally wanting a bird in a cage to bang us over the head here. The older host couple of the women also act as a too convenient foil for Vicky’s dilemma. Penelope Cruz shows up after an hour as the clichéd, hot blooded Spanish ex-wife, but gives a strong (and now Oscar winning) performance. This is a welcome relief to the self-absorbed, over-analytical conundrums of our cast despite their equally strong acting. To Allens’ credit he doesn’t try to wrap all the loose ends up nicely. Yet just because a film leaves off a happy ending doesn’t make it less forgettable. These are the same well-off, New York City characters he’s given us for decades, the fact that they are eating tapas and touring landmarks doesn’t make their sexual peccadilloes more interesting. For a Twilight Zone version of Spanish love woes, I prefer the creativity of “Abre los ojos’ and no worries, both this and the American remake feature the beauty of Penelope Cruz.

So we’ve seen the elusiveness of finding love, but how does one keep it? “Eden” shows us an Irish couple struggling with just that. With two children and approaching their 10th wedding anniversary, their relationship has grown stale. The husband, a telephone worker; would rather spend his nights at the pub then with his family. This film, like last years’ “Once” (which had the same producers) again shows us a small slice of life but manages to say a lot in that framework. Eileen Walsh is excellent as the under-appreciated wife who tries to woo her husbands’ affections back through understanding, dieting and new hairstyles. Aidan Kelly as the disturbed lonely husband recalls his heroism of the past while obsessing on a minor flirtation. There is more truth in five minutes of this film than of the two previous films combined and it recalls the suburban loneliness of John Cheever. Life is tough, love is hard but we have to keep trying.

Rehash, Amp Up and Act Cool: A fresh batch of overkill

I’m down with popcorn flicks people! I don’t like to sound like an old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn. I just want mainstream flicks to stop being so damn pretentious for their own good. This whole “pulling out the stops” mode: trying to impress a desensitized audience by overloading their senses is just overkill and it’s getting old. Case in point was the latest “Mummy” flick (“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”). I watch everything – I am a film whore- but this flick was so loud, cartoony and downright stupid that I just had to shut it off, even though I had enjoyed the previous two. It was more interested in being a Universal studio action ride than a film. I was already burned out by Brendan Frasers’ exasperated mugging in “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Brendan- bubby, - more “Crash” less “George of the Jungle” you’re getting too old for this shit. (Poor Maria Bello filling in for the smart script reader Rachel Weisz)

Then there was “Eagle Eye”, more enjoyable but equally excessive. Again we see older, better films plundered for their plot points (“2001”, “Parallax View”, “War Games”, “The Game”) to make an all-inclusive, big budget, super-paranoid thriller involving an omniscient computer in a political conspiracy. Shia Labeouf has a good agent, but he is less an actor and more of a reactor. Obediently diving the green screen demons isn’t compelling but it pays well. I wanted to have more fun but the car chases were so over-cut- that I literally had no idea what was going on. The excessive junkyard cranes of course would have crushed our beloved heroes and why was it necessary to have the computer being (Julianne Moore who keeps her name off the credits) snap high tension wires when that is so ridiculous? Had this movie just gotten off its steroids, stayed a little grounded and thrown in more originality it may have been great. That potential is why I get so irritated. Less is always more, especially in thrillers.

Speaking of less- I had less love for “RocknRolla” a movie by Guy Ritchie who gave us the great “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and the weaker “Snatch” (insert joke here). Madonna could always smell a sinking ship and I have never in my life seen a film so desperately trying to be cool. The Julia Roberts smug part, a leggy femme fatale ‘mastermind’ who says things like “I’m the best there is” is just one of the one hundred stock characters that are paraded through this backlit piece of shite. All of them speak quickly and strive to be clever; none are developed or believable in the least. Poor Tom Wilkinson almost saves himself but he plays the mafia boss and his silk suits and shades overshadow the clichés he is forced to try to spout believably. See “Get Carter” with Michael Caine.

So if you see someone trying to be cool- they’re not, right? Michael Cera is a good comic actor- kind of like a young Bob Newhart. But he is far better as the lovable loser than as a confused emo rocker trying to shake off a bad break-up. “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist” brings on reductive geography to make NYC seem like a one horse town. (You mean the Port Authority isn’t in the village?) Teenagers ride through it on a single crazy night ala “American Graffiti” but once again you want so much to believe and hang loose while the filmmakers continue to kill it. Nick and Nora, like their “Thin Man” ancestors, have a witty, quick-fire banter and Kat Dennings as Nora is great. These two main characters just deserved a better script. Nick plays in a band whose other members are gay (which means they travel with woman’s’ bras in their van) but that’s literally all we know of them. Oh wait one is gay and Asian. The point being that the film wants to be gay friendly because its’ cool not because its’ a reality. The gay bar they visit seems like a homogenized side show but so does everything else in this make-believe club land where there is always parking in front. Nora’s friend gets drunk – but seems more like she is tripping (or someone just acting drunk). Would any drunk consider reaching into a bus terminal toilet that they’ve just vomited in to get their gum? No but again the overkill monster needs to shock us. (The gum joke is then milked endlessly since they liked it so much) This flick gives us cool actors in cameos and indie bands on its wall-to-wall soundtrack but it has no real street cred. Michael, out of those skinny jeans and sign back on as George Michael for the “Arrested Development” film already. You’re lost in this high school poseur fantasy. We know these two people are destined to be with each other. So why was “Sixteen Candles” a cooler film decades ago even when it’s set in a bland suburb? Films like this don’t poke fun at over-ironic hipster pretensions anymore- they ape them. Tragically hip is jaded. Optimism is the new adrenalin. I’d like my pop films to rehab off the kitchen sink approach already. Oh and see “After Hours” for old timey “one night trapped in downtown NYC” fun, before the hipsters took over of course! (And get off my damn lawn!) :)

January Release Doldrums: Reaching back again to 2007

With the weather so bad it’s the perfect time to catch a flick at home, but the releases this month just bite. As the Golden Globes and Oscars happily cherry-pick quality theatrical releases from the past year, the new DVDs are lame. Bad Horror flicks, grade-D college humor and the low-budget sci-fi make you wonder if all is lost in this great new year. I will try to help because public service is what I’m all about. Here are 30 more four shaker suggestions from the past year - one for each gray day since New Year's day. So pop that corn and salt it baby! Oh yeah!

1. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
2. Bill Maher: The Decider
3. Cloverfield
4. The Counterfeiters
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
6. The Edge of Heaven
7. Encounters at the End of the World
8. Grace Is Gone
9. Hot Fuzz
10. I Am Legend
11. In Bruges (2008)
12. Iron Man (2008)
13. I Think I Love My Wife
14. In the Shadow of the Moon
15. John Adams (Series) (2008)
16. Knocked Up
17. Letters from Iwo Jima
18. Liberty Kid
19. The Lookout
20. Michael Clayton
21. Mr. Untouchable
22. The Orphanage
23. Paranoid Park
24. Sicko
25. Superbad
26. Taxi to the Dark Side
27. There Will Be Blood
28. The Wackness (2008)
29. The Wave (2008)
30. Young @ Heart