The Tree Of Life
When he's making his own films, Terence Malick always hews to his own view of narrative structure. Long takes, long silences and stream-of-consciousness voiceovers are standard. So are big themes.
The natural world, and our place in it, is one of his favorite haunts in films like The Thin Red Line, The New World, Days of Heaven and now The Tree of Life. With admirable chutzpah, Malick sets out to draw a dramatic circle around the whole of the known universe. It could work. Malick did something similar in The Thin Red Line quite successfully. In The Tree of Life the result is an amazingly literal, bloated and ham-fisted ode to existence. The photography is gorgeous, a given with Malick, but only so much awe can be sucked from watching the birth of supernovas set to a crescendo of gregorian chant.
Brad Pitt is fine as a middle class Texas patriarch and the child actors are equally good. Sean Penn is given very little to do other than mope his way through massive glassed-in high rises, a clearly more successful son of Pitt's underachiever. It's meant to read as a slice of life, with the joys and sorrows of family life echoed by the changing tide of nature. But when characters are heard asking existential questions of God while we watch majestic, and eventually tedious, images of natural splendor, it's iphone time. I didn't boo, but if I'd been in the Cannes audience I might have.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The Double Hour
A first film by Guiseppe Capotondi, The Double Hour belongs to the genre of dubious memory thrillers perfected in Memento. Part of the excitement of watching these films is sifting through the narrative red herrings, usual flashbacks or -forwards, that try to lead us astray. The acting is uniformly good and the story has it's good points. The tension in the film is mostly psychological and Capotondi is clever at building a sense of claustrophobic dread. As I often find, to my ongoing dismay, the film loses it's rhythm somewhere after an hour. I think the fault is in the script, which places too much of a burden on the film's romantic scheme. The pace begins to drag and I wondered if I had missed a clue that would come back in a shocking ending. No such luck. Existential film disappointment continues.
A first film by Guiseppe Capotondi, The Double Hour belongs to the genre of dubious memory thrillers perfected in Memento. Part of the excitement of watching these films is sifting through the narrative red herrings, usual flashbacks or -forwards, that try to lead us astray. The acting is uniformly good and the story has it's good points. The tension in the film is mostly psychological and Capotondi is clever at building a sense of claustrophobic dread. As I often find, to my ongoing dismay, the film loses it's rhythm somewhere after an hour. I think the fault is in the script, which places too much of a burden on the film's romantic scheme. The pace begins to drag and I wondered if I had missed a clue that would come back in a shocking ending. No such luck. Existential film disappointment continues.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
French movie & US version of The Killing
I enjoy swashbuckling, history and cleavage so I wandered out to see The Princess of Montpensier. I can report that there's a shortage of breasts and swordplay. The film has a typically French preciousness without much sense of humor. It's refined, it's about chaste love and it's oh so dull.
AMC's The Killing, a remake of a Danish mystery series, is sadly disappointing. Not having seen the original, it's hard to say what was lost in translation. The pacing is slow and the domestic and political storylines that fill time between actual sleuthing are not compelling. The show has a galling habit of dragging along and finally throwing in a twist before each ending.
That bites.
I enjoy swashbuckling, history and cleavage so I wandered out to see The Princess of Montpensier. I can report that there's a shortage of breasts and swordplay. The film has a typically French preciousness without much sense of humor. It's refined, it's about chaste love and it's oh so dull.
AMC's The Killing, a remake of a Danish mystery series, is sadly disappointing. Not having seen the original, it's hard to say what was lost in translation. The pacing is slow and the domestic and political storylines that fill time between actual sleuthing are not compelling. The show has a galling habit of dragging along and finally throwing in a twist before each ending.
That bites.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Hanna
It's no secret that trailers can be misleading and Hanna's are squarely in that group. Yes, it is a thriller with breakneck action sequences and psychotic hitmen. What the trailers don't reveal is the true nature of the beast, a strangely touching coming-of-age tale set against a thriller. Saoirse Ronan plays the title character with adolescent ferocity at once powerful and uncertain. I thought she had sprung from anonymity, but at 16 she's an old hand from various films and tv series.
Hanna's strength as a film comes from it's fusion of genres into a working hybrid. Contrasting tender scenes of childhood friendship with murderous skirmishes, Hanna builds a good bit of suspense as to it's ultimate direction. For a while. I had an inkling that things would founder when Cate Blanchett's character, a CIA honcho, failed to develop beyond a stylish caricature. What a waste. Likewise her mercenary killers. The writers did some creative thinking on this script, but they seemed to have drawn a blank when it came to the thriller part of the equation. That's too bad considering the potential the film hints at as it winds up. Still, I appreciate Hanna for striking out in a fresh direction.
It's no secret that trailers can be misleading and Hanna's are squarely in that group. Yes, it is a thriller with breakneck action sequences and psychotic hitmen. What the trailers don't reveal is the true nature of the beast, a strangely touching coming-of-age tale set against a thriller. Saoirse Ronan plays the title character with adolescent ferocity at once powerful and uncertain. I thought she had sprung from anonymity, but at 16 she's an old hand from various films and tv series.
Hanna's strength as a film comes from it's fusion of genres into a working hybrid. Contrasting tender scenes of childhood friendship with murderous skirmishes, Hanna builds a good bit of suspense as to it's ultimate direction. For a while. I had an inkling that things would founder when Cate Blanchett's character, a CIA honcho, failed to develop beyond a stylish caricature. What a waste. Likewise her mercenary killers. The writers did some creative thinking on this script, but they seemed to have drawn a blank when it came to the thriller part of the equation. That's too bad considering the potential the film hints at as it winds up. Still, I appreciate Hanna for striking out in a fresh direction.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Source Code
These sci-fi, quantum theory, parallel universe, uncertainty principle movies are speaking my language. Have Schrodinger's cat, will travel.
I rolled along nicely for the first 30 minutes. Good enough plot, good enough execution. Somewhere soon after, I started guessing and my enjoyment faded accordingly. The twists became predictable, the love story banal. The ending collapsed in a heap of romantic frippery. So, thirty three percent of a good thriller.
These sci-fi, quantum theory, parallel universe, uncertainty principle movies are speaking my language. Have Schrodinger's cat, will travel.
I rolled along nicely for the first 30 minutes. Good enough plot, good enough execution. Somewhere soon after, I started guessing and my enjoyment faded accordingly. The twists became predictable, the love story banal. The ending collapsed in a heap of romantic frippery. So, thirty three percent of a good thriller.
Dogtooth (4 subjective stars)
Happily this film requires little by way of explanation. It is a darkly surreal take on the nuclear family. The film won a prize at Cannes and was also the Greek nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Oscars. There are no stylistic winks from filmmaker to audience and therein lies much of it's stark beauty. The shooting style is formal in the sense that the camera is mostly stationary and used to frame the action. Both the camerawork and the satirical conviction of the film give it the sense of a complete work of art. Yipee!
Happily this film requires little by way of explanation. It is a darkly surreal take on the nuclear family. The film won a prize at Cannes and was also the Greek nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Oscars. There are no stylistic winks from filmmaker to audience and therein lies much of it's stark beauty. The shooting style is formal in the sense that the camera is mostly stationary and used to frame the action. Both the camerawork and the satirical conviction of the film give it the sense of a complete work of art. Yipee!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Of Gods and Men
This French film tells the true tale of Trappist monks living near and serving an impoverished Muslim village in the mountains of Algeria during the 90's. As they go about their labors growing vegetables and tending to the health of the villagers, the monks strike an idyllic balance between the faiths. The Trappists are then faced with a stark choice: they can abandon the monastery and their mission to serve the poor or face death at the hands of approaching Muslim fundamentalists.
My sister Sarah, a historian, likes to pronounce that "Fact is stranger than fiction". In this case, I think fiction could have improved a critical plot point. While there is some disagreement among the monks about staying in harm's way, I would have preferred a little more argument on the side of survival. And while I enjoyed the contemplative pacing of most of the film, it's too long. When the meandering pace winds down there's little drama to pivot on and the air starts coming out of the tires. The actors are good, but the monks as characters are not particularly vivid.
Apparently the story was headline news in France in '96; perhaps the filmmakers felt they had to be adulatory or stick to certain known facts. The heart of the story, a christian attachment to serving the poor, is a theme I would love to see come back into vogue. One of the monks was also a Koran scholar and the film is certainly clear about the lack of any religious acrimony between the villagers and the monastery. A disappointing treatment of some good themes.
Coming Soon: Dogtooth - recommended (for a change)
This French film tells the true tale of Trappist monks living near and serving an impoverished Muslim village in the mountains of Algeria during the 90's. As they go about their labors growing vegetables and tending to the health of the villagers, the monks strike an idyllic balance between the faiths. The Trappists are then faced with a stark choice: they can abandon the monastery and their mission to serve the poor or face death at the hands of approaching Muslim fundamentalists.
My sister Sarah, a historian, likes to pronounce that "Fact is stranger than fiction". In this case, I think fiction could have improved a critical plot point. While there is some disagreement among the monks about staying in harm's way, I would have preferred a little more argument on the side of survival. And while I enjoyed the contemplative pacing of most of the film, it's too long. When the meandering pace winds down there's little drama to pivot on and the air starts coming out of the tires. The actors are good, but the monks as characters are not particularly vivid.
Apparently the story was headline news in France in '96; perhaps the filmmakers felt they had to be adulatory or stick to certain known facts. The heart of the story, a christian attachment to serving the poor, is a theme I would love to see come back into vogue. One of the monks was also a Koran scholar and the film is certainly clear about the lack of any religious acrimony between the villagers and the monastery. A disappointing treatment of some good themes.
Coming Soon: Dogtooth - recommended (for a change)
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Black Swan
The conceit animating Black Swan is that a young ballerina must harness her duality before she can truly become a star. She must come to terms with her 'dark' side. So far, so good. Enter the Svengali-like ballet master who will push her to new artistic and sexual awareness. She must embody both the virginal White Swan and the seductress Black. Let's see, male-centered, Madonna/whore formulaic view of women. Check. Expect gratuitous sex scenes. Check again. But if sexism alone negated good filmmaking, we'd have an empty library of classics.
What makes this film falter is Aronofsky's lack of conviction. If a director like Almodovar were given this material, Natalie Portman's character, Nina, would toss her mother out a window, have sex with everyone, win the coveted part, dump the ballet master and sail off to paradise with her rival ballerina. Black Swan could have been a great movie. Nina becoming the Black Swan on stage is a great scene.
Aronofsky wants to seem subversive, but only inside the formula. Nina is a straw woman, set up to become hysterical, paranoid and sexual within certain limits. He stuffs the film with horror touches, disorienting shifts in perspective and melodramatic scenes. Nina masturbates (how daring) and it's supposed to be disturbing (unless your a man). Given the exact same script, I think Almodovar would have made his female stars less cold, sexier and easier to believe. Without having seen his earlier films it's hard to be sure about Aronofsky, but there is certainly something mechanical and generally misanthropic about this film.
The conceit animating Black Swan is that a young ballerina must harness her duality before she can truly become a star. She must come to terms with her 'dark' side. So far, so good. Enter the Svengali-like ballet master who will push her to new artistic and sexual awareness. She must embody both the virginal White Swan and the seductress Black. Let's see, male-centered, Madonna/whore formulaic view of women. Check. Expect gratuitous sex scenes. Check again. But if sexism alone negated good filmmaking, we'd have an empty library of classics.
What makes this film falter is Aronofsky's lack of conviction. If a director like Almodovar were given this material, Natalie Portman's character, Nina, would toss her mother out a window, have sex with everyone, win the coveted part, dump the ballet master and sail off to paradise with her rival ballerina. Black Swan could have been a great movie. Nina becoming the Black Swan on stage is a great scene.
Aronofsky wants to seem subversive, but only inside the formula. Nina is a straw woman, set up to become hysterical, paranoid and sexual within certain limits. He stuffs the film with horror touches, disorienting shifts in perspective and melodramatic scenes. Nina masturbates (how daring) and it's supposed to be disturbing (unless your a man). Given the exact same script, I think Almodovar would have made his female stars less cold, sexier and easier to believe. Without having seen his earlier films it's hard to be sure about Aronofsky, but there is certainly something mechanical and generally misanthropic about this film.
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