This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.
The Matrix - Nobody can be told what the Matrix is, but forgive me if I try. The Wachowskis' cyberpunk kung-fu movie still holds up beautifully to this day, thanks to its innovative special effects and stylish visual sensibility. Borrowing elements from cyberpunk stories, Japanese anime, and video games, this is genre filmmaking at its finest. There have been plenty of films that have tried to follow in its footsteps, but few managed to nail the right combination of ideas, aesthetics, and endlessly watchable screen violence.
American Beauty - Lester Burnham is Kevin Spacey's signature role, the suburban sad-sack who blows up his life and family by embracing what he truly wants. It's an iconic performance, one that anchors a fantastic ensemble of strong actors, young and old, navigating a lot of thorny material. Sam Mendes and Alan Ball keep their debut feature a darkly funny satire for the most part, but then there are those transcendent moments of emotional clarity, highlighting the genuine bonds between these deeply screwed up people.
Fight Club - This was the first time I really understood who David Fincher was, the fearless provocateur who introduced most of us to Chuck Palahniuk's work with this delightfully dirty, disturbing adaptation. Through an examination of the modern male id, cult dynamics, and the soulless consumer culture, the film captures a slice of the American zeitgeist like no other film of its era. Also, I don't think that it's a stretch to say that "Fight Club" is where Brad Pitt became the Brad Pitt we know today, via the irrepressible Tyler Durden.
The Sixth Sense - It's easy to forget that M. Night Shyamalan once made a truly great film at the start of his career. Built around fantastic performances from Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Wilis, and Toni Collette, "The Sixth Sense" is a genuinely spooky ghost story with lovely redemptive aims, and one of the best endings of the decade. The strong spiritual element elevates funhouse scares above the usual salaciousness of horror films, while the characters are so beautifully drawn, it's easy to become invested in their lives.
Three Kings - A student-teacher of mine once dismissed this film sight unseen as typical Hollywood Orientalist nonsense. While "Three Kings" certainly has its flaws, the filmmakers took every opportunity to criticize America's involvement in and attitudes toward the first Gulf War, often in some some pretty vicious terms. I really appreciated its alternative point of view, gonzo style, and bleak sense of humor. This is the kind of chaotic, but smart, thoughtful, and passionate film that I wish David O. Russell was still making.
Being John Malkovitch - Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry did their best work together, and while I don't think that "Being John Malkovitch" was their best collaboration, it is still a groundbreaking film. The sheer off-the-wall wildness of the concepts and the willingness of the filmmakers to dive headlong in to metanarratives on top of metanarratives, make for a challenging watching experience. I was a little put off at the unconventional nature of the film the first time I saw it, but now I love it a little more every time.
Eyes Wide Shut - The final film by Stanley Kubrick is a surreal journey into the dreams and fantasies that lurk beneath the surface lives of a lovely couple, played by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. I've written before that i consider this to be one of the primary films that made me a cinephile, as I came out of my first screening entranced with the menacing atmosphere, coded imagery, sterile sensuality, and brutal score. Decades later, I still can't decipher everything, but its mysteries remain as alluring and disturbing as ever.
The Iron Giant - Brad Bird's feature debut had everything stacked against it, from Warner Bros's lousy marketing to an animation studio in financial crisis However, there is perhaps no animated film more deserving of the enthusiastic audience that eventually embraced it. This thoughtful space-age fairy tale about a boy and his giant robot isn't afraid to talk about big, deep, important things, or to embrace big emotions. I think it may be the last traditionally animated masterpiece to have come out of Hollywood.
Magnolia - The existential melancholy of this collection of lonely people struck such a nerve with me. The performances, the music, and Paul Thomas Anderson's storytelling all contribute to the unique mood of the film. Here is a universe full of coincidences and strange miracles, perhaps best exemplified by the moment where every character sings the same sing in unison. It's a notion that wouldn't have worked in a different film, with a different filmmaker. But with Paul Thomas Anderson, you can't imagine "Magnolia" without it.
Titus - I was obsessed with this one for a while, having become fascinated with the idea of a Shakespeare play full of gory murders, dismemberments, and cannibalism. In the hands of Julie Taymor, "Titus Andonicus" becomes a theatrical phantasmagoria of Grand Guignol delights, borrowing elements from every time period and a huge range of cultures. Harry Lennix very nearly steals the show as the villain, while Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange do some of their best work as rival rulers, each of them out for revenge.
Honorable Mentions
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Rosetta
Topsy Turvy
The Straight Story
Election
All About My Mother
Dogma
Fantasia 2000
Galaxy Quest
Ratcatcher
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Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Sunday, March 12, 2017
"Lion" and "Silence"
Two more reviews of prestige pics here, that are for for now the end of my awards season coverage. It's been quite a run.
"Lion" seemed like an unlikely story to be made into a film, when I first ran across the magazine articles about Saroo Brierly a few years ago. As a five year-old, Saroo got on the wrong train, which took him from his rural Indian village to Calcutta (now Kolkata), where it was impossible for him to find his way home again. It was only twenty-five years later, with the help of Google Maps, that he was able to find his way back. However, the journey between those two endpoints definitely yielded some good drama.
The trials and tribulations of young Saroo (Sunny Pawar) take up the entire first half of the film, and it's fantastic. Pawar is deeply compelling as a lost child in an unfamiliar place, who has to dodge multiple dangers and pitfalls in order to survive. Though Calcutta is pictured as sinister and forbidding at times, director Garth Davis also takes the time to show its more picturesque and inviting sides. Saroo's village is poor, but surrounded by natural beauty. Sadly, once the story moves to the adult Saroo (Dev Patel), who now lives in Australia, the film loses a lot of that atmosphere. Saroo's search for his origins follows a far more typical dramatic arc, including difficulties with his adoptive parents (Nicole Kidman, David Wenham), a girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara), and adoptive brother Mantosh (Divian Ladwa)
Now, all the more famous actors give perfectly good performances, and Davis does his damnedest to make Google searches and flashbacks to mundane events look as exciting as possible. But compared to the first half of "Lion," the second half just doesn't have the same degree of verve and dramatic heft. It also feels a bit padded, as if to purposefully give Mara and Kidman more screentime. The finale is very satisfying, though, and overall this is a perfectly good bit of feel-good melodrama that shines a spotlight on the talents of its Indian actors the way that's rare to see in western films. I was surprised to learn that "Lion" was Garth Davis's feature debut, since his work here is so surefooted. I can't embrace the film fully because of that second half, but this is definitely worth a watch.
Now Martin Scorsese's "Silence" is a far more fascinating picture, an examination of religious faith, set in 17th century Japan, where the heroes are a pair of Portuguese priests. Japan was still largely closed to outsiders, and Christianity was considered a forbidden practice, so any converts were brutally persecuted. The two priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) journey to Japan after they hear rumors that one of their mentors, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), has renounced his faith after the persecution of his converts in Nagasaki. Their goal is to find Ferreira and tend to the Christians still in hiding, while evading the local inquisitor, Inoue (Issey Ogata). They quickly find themselves tested by the Japanese authorities, who employ incredibly harsh tactics, including torture, to stamp out Christianity.
Scorsese famously worked on "Silence" off an on for over two decades as a passion project, and the result is an uncompromising, difficult, gorgeous film. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto is the real star of the picture, with his transporting images of the Japanese landscape, that look remarkably like they were plucked out of a classical jidaigeki film. Many of the performances are very strong, especially Liam Neeson as the mysterious Ferreira, and Tadanobu Asano as an interpreter for the priests. However, I was most impressed by the script that Scorsese and co-writer Jay Cocks famously labored over, which is so much harsher and more troubling than I expected. It would be very difficult to sell this as a religious film, since there is so much persistent, fundamental questioning of the characters' faiths. And that's exactly what makes it so unique and involving.
Still "Silence" is far from perfect. I think the film's biggest flaw comes down to how it treats the Japanese. There are several excellent Japanese characters, and generally "Silence" does a much better job of portraying them than we've seen in roughly analogous WWII films like "Unbroken" or Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence." However, this is only true up to a point, and "Silence" still relies on a few too many white savior tropes, even if the film doesn't turn out to actually be an example of that kind of story. Scorsese's treatment of religion and the priests' relationship with the converts also comes across as a bit too whitewashed and unlikely. As complex and boundary pushing "Silence" feels on subject, it's still got some ways to go in others.
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"Lion" seemed like an unlikely story to be made into a film, when I first ran across the magazine articles about Saroo Brierly a few years ago. As a five year-old, Saroo got on the wrong train, which took him from his rural Indian village to Calcutta (now Kolkata), where it was impossible for him to find his way home again. It was only twenty-five years later, with the help of Google Maps, that he was able to find his way back. However, the journey between those two endpoints definitely yielded some good drama.
The trials and tribulations of young Saroo (Sunny Pawar) take up the entire first half of the film, and it's fantastic. Pawar is deeply compelling as a lost child in an unfamiliar place, who has to dodge multiple dangers and pitfalls in order to survive. Though Calcutta is pictured as sinister and forbidding at times, director Garth Davis also takes the time to show its more picturesque and inviting sides. Saroo's village is poor, but surrounded by natural beauty. Sadly, once the story moves to the adult Saroo (Dev Patel), who now lives in Australia, the film loses a lot of that atmosphere. Saroo's search for his origins follows a far more typical dramatic arc, including difficulties with his adoptive parents (Nicole Kidman, David Wenham), a girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara), and adoptive brother Mantosh (Divian Ladwa)
Now, all the more famous actors give perfectly good performances, and Davis does his damnedest to make Google searches and flashbacks to mundane events look as exciting as possible. But compared to the first half of "Lion," the second half just doesn't have the same degree of verve and dramatic heft. It also feels a bit padded, as if to purposefully give Mara and Kidman more screentime. The finale is very satisfying, though, and overall this is a perfectly good bit of feel-good melodrama that shines a spotlight on the talents of its Indian actors the way that's rare to see in western films. I was surprised to learn that "Lion" was Garth Davis's feature debut, since his work here is so surefooted. I can't embrace the film fully because of that second half, but this is definitely worth a watch.
Now Martin Scorsese's "Silence" is a far more fascinating picture, an examination of religious faith, set in 17th century Japan, where the heroes are a pair of Portuguese priests. Japan was still largely closed to outsiders, and Christianity was considered a forbidden practice, so any converts were brutally persecuted. The two priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) journey to Japan after they hear rumors that one of their mentors, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), has renounced his faith after the persecution of his converts in Nagasaki. Their goal is to find Ferreira and tend to the Christians still in hiding, while evading the local inquisitor, Inoue (Issey Ogata). They quickly find themselves tested by the Japanese authorities, who employ incredibly harsh tactics, including torture, to stamp out Christianity.
Scorsese famously worked on "Silence" off an on for over two decades as a passion project, and the result is an uncompromising, difficult, gorgeous film. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto is the real star of the picture, with his transporting images of the Japanese landscape, that look remarkably like they were plucked out of a classical jidaigeki film. Many of the performances are very strong, especially Liam Neeson as the mysterious Ferreira, and Tadanobu Asano as an interpreter for the priests. However, I was most impressed by the script that Scorsese and co-writer Jay Cocks famously labored over, which is so much harsher and more troubling than I expected. It would be very difficult to sell this as a religious film, since there is so much persistent, fundamental questioning of the characters' faiths. And that's exactly what makes it so unique and involving.
Still "Silence" is far from perfect. I think the film's biggest flaw comes down to how it treats the Japanese. There are several excellent Japanese characters, and generally "Silence" does a much better job of portraying them than we've seen in roughly analogous WWII films like "Unbroken" or Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence." However, this is only true up to a point, and "Silence" still relies on a few too many white savior tropes, even if the film doesn't turn out to actually be an example of that kind of story. Scorsese's treatment of religion and the priests' relationship with the converts also comes across as a bit too whitewashed and unlikely. As complex and boundary pushing "Silence" feels on subject, it's still got some ways to go in others.
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Friday, March 10, 2017
"Sully" and "Snowden"
Last fall had and awful lot of films based on true stories and famous figures from our recent past, including Clint Eastwood's "Sully" and Oliver Stone's "Snowden." Let's do a little comparing and contrasting.
Eastwood's "Sully," which looks at the events around the "Miracle on the Hudson" plane landing in 2009, is a fairly straightforward tale of heroism. Tom Hanks plays Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who with his First Officer Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhardt), landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after bird strikes took out both of the plane's engines. The film recreates the entire dramatic flight, using the NTSB investigations into the accident as a framing device. Sully is placed at the forefront, grappling with PTSD, guilt, and his newfound status as a hero.
There's been some controversy about the film portraying the NTSB as actively trying to find pilot error when there was none, but it works great as a dramatic device, and helps the film to make its case in holding up Captain Sullenberger as a heroic figure. The recreation of Flight 1549, the water landing, and the rescue efforts are all thrilling to watch. Eastwood goes back to it three different times, each in a different context, and it works every time. Sully's subsequent troubles are considerably less compelling, though it impossible to find any character played by Tom Hanks unsympathetic. There's very little to Sully as a character beyond being a sterling American good guy, with a lovely wife, Lorraine (Laura Linney), who finds himself in extraordinary circumstance.
That lack of depth ultimately hurts the film a bit. "Sully" is told in terms that are a little too simple, and Clint Eastwood can't resist giving our hero a little extra vindication. The result is a feel-good film that feels like it's trying too hard to make the case for a figure that has largely been lionized in the American consciousness already. It's also hard to ignore that the film feels awfully light on content, though it runs a scant 96 minutes. I'm thankful that the flashbacks to Sully's early days as a pilot were kept to a minimum, but surely Eastwood could have dug slightly deeper into his personal life? Why not get poor Laura Linney off the phone for just a scene or two? Or simply give us more POV characters during the fateful landing?
"Snowden" doesn't have this problem. It chooses to dramatise how the NSA spying scandal first broke in 2013, with former NSA and CIA employee Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meeting reporters Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) and Glen Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) in Hong Kong. However, the bulk of the story takes place in flashback, tracing Snowden's career in the US intelligence community and his relationship with girlfriend Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley). "Snowden" does an excellent job of getting across how invasive and damaging the government's spying activities were, but Stone goes a little too far in painting Edward Snowden as a heroic figure.
Edward Snowden, unlike Captain Sullenberger, is a controversial figure in many circles, and still living in exile in Russia. So Oliver Stone goes to bat for him in the film's closing moments, and goes to bat with everything he's got. The final scene is an intereview with the present day Snowden that transitions into a closing credits sequence laying out more arguments for his position, with a laudatory Peter Gabriel song on top. It's too much, and actually undercuts a fair bit of the film. Up until that point I found the storytelling a little clumsy, but it was a decent biopic. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does an uncanny cocal impersonation of Snowden, which went a long way toward helping him disappear into the part. However, the romance was pretty tepid, and I'd already seen the Oscar winning documentary "Citizenfour," so the 2013 scenes were awfully repetitve.
"Snowden" is at its best when the title character is acting as a guide to the intelligence organizations that employed him, their operations, their culture, and the fears that drove them. Watching the CIA and NSA employees at work is frightening, and Snowden wrestling with the moral and ethical implications is far more dramatic than what happens once he finally decides to go public. It's easy to see why Oliver Stone was interested in this material, but at the same time he makes some perplexing choices, and lets the story ultimately become too much of a polemic.
It's worth mentioning that Eastwood also put the real Captain Sullenberger at the end of "Sully," but was wise enough to keep the appearance limited to the credits.
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Eastwood's "Sully," which looks at the events around the "Miracle on the Hudson" plane landing in 2009, is a fairly straightforward tale of heroism. Tom Hanks plays Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who with his First Officer Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhardt), landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after bird strikes took out both of the plane's engines. The film recreates the entire dramatic flight, using the NTSB investigations into the accident as a framing device. Sully is placed at the forefront, grappling with PTSD, guilt, and his newfound status as a hero.
There's been some controversy about the film portraying the NTSB as actively trying to find pilot error when there was none, but it works great as a dramatic device, and helps the film to make its case in holding up Captain Sullenberger as a heroic figure. The recreation of Flight 1549, the water landing, and the rescue efforts are all thrilling to watch. Eastwood goes back to it three different times, each in a different context, and it works every time. Sully's subsequent troubles are considerably less compelling, though it impossible to find any character played by Tom Hanks unsympathetic. There's very little to Sully as a character beyond being a sterling American good guy, with a lovely wife, Lorraine (Laura Linney), who finds himself in extraordinary circumstance.
That lack of depth ultimately hurts the film a bit. "Sully" is told in terms that are a little too simple, and Clint Eastwood can't resist giving our hero a little extra vindication. The result is a feel-good film that feels like it's trying too hard to make the case for a figure that has largely been lionized in the American consciousness already. It's also hard to ignore that the film feels awfully light on content, though it runs a scant 96 minutes. I'm thankful that the flashbacks to Sully's early days as a pilot were kept to a minimum, but surely Eastwood could have dug slightly deeper into his personal life? Why not get poor Laura Linney off the phone for just a scene or two? Or simply give us more POV characters during the fateful landing?
"Snowden" doesn't have this problem. It chooses to dramatise how the NSA spying scandal first broke in 2013, with former NSA and CIA employee Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meeting reporters Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) and Glen Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) in Hong Kong. However, the bulk of the story takes place in flashback, tracing Snowden's career in the US intelligence community and his relationship with girlfriend Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley). "Snowden" does an excellent job of getting across how invasive and damaging the government's spying activities were, but Stone goes a little too far in painting Edward Snowden as a heroic figure.
Edward Snowden, unlike Captain Sullenberger, is a controversial figure in many circles, and still living in exile in Russia. So Oliver Stone goes to bat for him in the film's closing moments, and goes to bat with everything he's got. The final scene is an intereview with the present day Snowden that transitions into a closing credits sequence laying out more arguments for his position, with a laudatory Peter Gabriel song on top. It's too much, and actually undercuts a fair bit of the film. Up until that point I found the storytelling a little clumsy, but it was a decent biopic. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does an uncanny cocal impersonation of Snowden, which went a long way toward helping him disappear into the part. However, the romance was pretty tepid, and I'd already seen the Oscar winning documentary "Citizenfour," so the 2013 scenes were awfully repetitve.
"Snowden" is at its best when the title character is acting as a guide to the intelligence organizations that employed him, their operations, their culture, and the fears that drove them. Watching the CIA and NSA employees at work is frightening, and Snowden wrestling with the moral and ethical implications is far more dramatic than what happens once he finally decides to go public. It's easy to see why Oliver Stone was interested in this material, but at the same time he makes some perplexing choices, and lets the story ultimately become too much of a polemic.
It's worth mentioning that Eastwood also put the real Captain Sullenberger at the end of "Sully," but was wise enough to keep the appearance limited to the credits.
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Wednesday, March 8, 2017
"Hacksaw Ridge" and "Hell or High Water"
Working my way through more Best Picture Oscar nominees, I've decided to group together the two entries about men with guns shooting at each other. I liked both, but wouldn't count either among my favorites from last year.
"Hacksaw Ridge" tells the story of conscientious objector Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), who enlists to fight in World War II with the intention of becoming a medic. When he refuses a firearm during training, under Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn), multiple attempts are made to have Doss removed from the army. He's pressured to quit, refused leave to marry his sweetheart Dorothy (Teresa Palmer), and finally arrested for insubordination. With the help of his father (Hugo Weaving), Doss is eventually vindicated and sent to the Pacific theater, where he takes part in the Battle of Okinawa.
"Hacksaw Ridge" is a very old-fashioned, straightforward tale of WWII heroism, without the complications of politics or cultural re-evaluation. The Japanese are by and large anonymous cannon fodder, and the Americans are occasionally loutish and bullying, but we root for them anyway. Doss's conscientious objector status is the main point of controversy, but this feels like less of a actual issue that the film wants to address than it is set-up for his eventual heroism in the back half of the film. So while the filmmaking is very strong, and I'm happy to see such good performances from Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, and Hugo Weaving, "Hacksaw Ridge" does nothing remotely interesting with its material. A few expletives aside, John Ford could have made this in the 1960s with Jimmy Stewart.
To its credit, this is a very well executed film. The battle scenes are convincingly brutal, and it's a very entertaining watch throughout. I also admire the frank discussions of Doss's faith and family history, even if they weren't handled as well as I thought that they could have been. It's really not until the film's epilogue, and the brief snippets of interviews with the real Desmond Doss, that it becomes clear how much of the film was true to life. Without it, "Hacksaw Ridge" comes off as a little too simplistic, when Steven Speilberg and Clint Eastwood are regularly delivering their patriotic pictures with a healthy dose of cynicism these days. As war films go, I find nothing objectionable about "Hacksaw Ridge," but nohing that particularly elevates it either. Hopefully the Mel GIbson comeback will yield better things in the future.
Now "Hell or High Water" is a more interesting piece of work, a modern day cops and robbers story about a pair of brothers, Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine, Ben Foster), who are committing a series of bank robberies in Texas. Two Texas Rangers, Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham), are hot on their trail, trying to work out their motivations and methods in order to anticipate the brothers' next targets. The narrative is about evenly split between the Howards and the Texas Rangers, and examines the relationships of both sets of men. The movie works nicely as a crime picture and neo-Western, with some thrillingly staged heist scenes and chases. There's also some pointed, but not too pointed social commentary as we learn how the depressed ecomonic state of this part of the country has fueled the actions of the Howard brothers.
Texas has never looked more barren, a dust-swept frontier where the rules of morality are starting to get shaky in the face of so much loss and ruin. All the major players have reason to start questioning the rules and their own codes of behavior. And as we observe and get to know them, they challenge easy descriptors and categorization. Toby is pegged early as the good brother, the more careful one who has stayed out of trouble, while wild-card Tanner has a record. Hamilton is casually racist and seems to come from the good ol' boy tradition, but it's soon clear why Parker good-naturedly puts up with him. The performances are a lot of fun, particularly Foster and Bridges,' and the script works in some great humor in unexpected places. The film is worth a watch for the Rangers' brief encounter with a very blunt waitress alone.
David Mackenzie is a Brit who has directed a lot of diverse, interesting titles like "Perfect Sense" and "Starred Up," and this is yet another film that doesn't look like anything else he's ever tried. And I'm so glad that he did, because his sensibilities are spot-on. Kudos should also go to Taylor Sheridan, who also scripted the recent "Sicario," for adding just the right amount of local color and thematic murk. I especially appreciate the epilogue for giving us closure without actually giving us any closure. This is a movie I just like more and more the more that I think about it.
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"Hacksaw Ridge" tells the story of conscientious objector Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), who enlists to fight in World War II with the intention of becoming a medic. When he refuses a firearm during training, under Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn), multiple attempts are made to have Doss removed from the army. He's pressured to quit, refused leave to marry his sweetheart Dorothy (Teresa Palmer), and finally arrested for insubordination. With the help of his father (Hugo Weaving), Doss is eventually vindicated and sent to the Pacific theater, where he takes part in the Battle of Okinawa.
"Hacksaw Ridge" is a very old-fashioned, straightforward tale of WWII heroism, without the complications of politics or cultural re-evaluation. The Japanese are by and large anonymous cannon fodder, and the Americans are occasionally loutish and bullying, but we root for them anyway. Doss's conscientious objector status is the main point of controversy, but this feels like less of a actual issue that the film wants to address than it is set-up for his eventual heroism in the back half of the film. So while the filmmaking is very strong, and I'm happy to see such good performances from Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, and Hugo Weaving, "Hacksaw Ridge" does nothing remotely interesting with its material. A few expletives aside, John Ford could have made this in the 1960s with Jimmy Stewart.
To its credit, this is a very well executed film. The battle scenes are convincingly brutal, and it's a very entertaining watch throughout. I also admire the frank discussions of Doss's faith and family history, even if they weren't handled as well as I thought that they could have been. It's really not until the film's epilogue, and the brief snippets of interviews with the real Desmond Doss, that it becomes clear how much of the film was true to life. Without it, "Hacksaw Ridge" comes off as a little too simplistic, when Steven Speilberg and Clint Eastwood are regularly delivering their patriotic pictures with a healthy dose of cynicism these days. As war films go, I find nothing objectionable about "Hacksaw Ridge," but nohing that particularly elevates it either. Hopefully the Mel GIbson comeback will yield better things in the future.
Now "Hell or High Water" is a more interesting piece of work, a modern day cops and robbers story about a pair of brothers, Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine, Ben Foster), who are committing a series of bank robberies in Texas. Two Texas Rangers, Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham), are hot on their trail, trying to work out their motivations and methods in order to anticipate the brothers' next targets. The narrative is about evenly split between the Howards and the Texas Rangers, and examines the relationships of both sets of men. The movie works nicely as a crime picture and neo-Western, with some thrillingly staged heist scenes and chases. There's also some pointed, but not too pointed social commentary as we learn how the depressed ecomonic state of this part of the country has fueled the actions of the Howard brothers.
Texas has never looked more barren, a dust-swept frontier where the rules of morality are starting to get shaky in the face of so much loss and ruin. All the major players have reason to start questioning the rules and their own codes of behavior. And as we observe and get to know them, they challenge easy descriptors and categorization. Toby is pegged early as the good brother, the more careful one who has stayed out of trouble, while wild-card Tanner has a record. Hamilton is casually racist and seems to come from the good ol' boy tradition, but it's soon clear why Parker good-naturedly puts up with him. The performances are a lot of fun, particularly Foster and Bridges,' and the script works in some great humor in unexpected places. The film is worth a watch for the Rangers' brief encounter with a very blunt waitress alone.
David Mackenzie is a Brit who has directed a lot of diverse, interesting titles like "Perfect Sense" and "Starred Up," and this is yet another film that doesn't look like anything else he's ever tried. And I'm so glad that he did, because his sensibilities are spot-on. Kudos should also go to Taylor Sheridan, who also scripted the recent "Sicario," for adding just the right amount of local color and thematic murk. I especially appreciate the epilogue for giving us closure without actually giving us any closure. This is a movie I just like more and more the more that I think about it.
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Monday, March 6, 2017
China's Search For Crossover Hit
With the failure of "The Great Wall" at the U.S. box office, the Chinese film industry has struck out again at creating a film that appeals to both Chinese and U.S. audiences. "The Great Wall" has been the most expensive attempt to date, with a budget of over $150 million. Starring Matt Damon, Andy Lau, and Pedro Pascal, the film is a historical fantasy about repelling an invasion of monsters. Critical notices were poor on both sides of the ocean, but the film didn't far too poorly at the foreign box office, and will probably turn a profit eventually. However, it's far from the success of the Marvel movies or other Hollywood blockbusters.
It's been an awkward relationship that the U.S. and Chinese film industries have been navigating these past few years. While Hollywood has been eager to jump into co-productions with the Chinese to access the quickly expanding Chinese moviegoing audience, the Chinese have also been trying to jump-start their own film industry to compete internationally on the same level as the big Hollywood studios. The one thing that the Chinese have always insisted on is the promotion of distinctly Chinese elements in their media, which has lead to more U.S. films incorporating Chinese actors, locations, and product placement to win over wary Chinese censors and appeal to Chinese audiences. The success of these tactics have been very hit or miss. When it comes to the Chinese trying to appeal to the American audiences, however, it's mostly been misses.
To date, the most successful Chinese produced films in the U.S. are still "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," from 2000, currently the highest grossing foreign language film in the U.S., "Hero," made in 2002 and released in the US in 2004, and "Fearless," aka "Jet Li's Fearless," released in 2006. Clearly the Americans appreciate period martial arts spectacle. So it makes sense that the big, expensive Chinese blockbusters being pushed hardest at international audiences tend to be period action films. However, the tendency has been toward very serious epic war films, like John Woo's "Red Cliff." These have done okay, but have generated little enthusiasm outside of Asia. And I should note that the highest grossing Chinese films in China these days tend to be comedies like "The Mermaid" and "Lost in Thailand," or fantasy films like "Monster Hunt" and "Journey to the West."
Matt Damon being recruited to star in "The Great Wall" may have caused a kerfuffle over racial politics and claims of perpetuating the stereotypical "white man savior" narrative in the U.S., but clearly this was attempt by the filmmakers to give their movie broader international appeal. Its director, Zhang Yimou, also made "The Flowers of War" with Christian Bale in 2011. Like "The Great Wall," it was clearly making a play for American audiences, with a familiar Caucasian lead and much of the dialogue in English. And like "The Great Wall," it was critically panned and called out for being pandering. I really hope that everyone has figured out by now that just sticking a white action star in the middle of one of these movies isn't helping anything.
I am heartened by the fact that at least the Chinese are trying different things. Last year's "Skiptrace" was a Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville buddy comedy that was a good-sized hit in China. It didn't have a US theatrical release, but a future film in this vein might, and I suspect it would perform better than the big epics. After all, the buddy comedy with a foreigner is a familiar kind of story to American audiences already, and Jackie Chan has successfully starred in several of them, like "Rush Hour" and "Shanghai Noon." And there's no reason why a comedy should be considered any less culturally Chinese than a grandiose war movie.
It's tempting to want to give a list of dos and don'ts to Chinese filmmakers about what would make a Chinese film more likely to be a crossover success. The truth is that there's no real formula, and most of the big successes like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" have been flukes. However, it really helps if the films are good and they're entertaining first and foremost. Including Chinese elements are all well and good, but personally I think developing and supporting Chinese stars and Chinese talent are more important, because that's what's really going to drive the industry in the long run.
A crossover hit is more likely to happen, after all, if they can figure out how to make films that U.S. audiences will want to see because they're Chinese, not in spite of it.
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Saturday, March 4, 2017
"Hidden Fences" is All Prestige
I was all set to write a fake review of the famous "Hidden Fences" from the Golden Globes, but after giving it some thought, there are a few things I want to say about "Fences" and "Hidden Figures" that require legitimate reviews for. So here we go.
"Fences," based on the August Wilson play, is an acting showcase for Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. He plays Troy, a 1950s Pittsburgh garbage collector, whose genial exterior hides deep wells of dissatisfaction and bitterness with his lot in life. She plays his wife, Rose, who has remained loyal and supportive despite growing tensions in the family between Troy and their son, Cory (Jovan Adepo), an aspiring football player. Washington also directed the film, which he doesn't manage to make particular cinematic, but it works fine as a delivery mechanism for some excellent performances. Washington and Davis both played these roles on Broadway in a recent revival and won Tonys for their efforts. I'm not going to say they deserve Oscars for the film version of "Fences," but I wouldn't be surprised if either of them won.
But when all is said and done, "Fences" came across as pretty slight to me. Maybe it was the oddly toned epilogue and the ill-considered final shot. Maybe it was because as hard as everyone tried, "Fences" never stopped feeling like a stage play with too many important developments happening offscreen. It's a great looking film, with strong cinematography and production design. Maybe I was just disappointed that I didn't get to see more of this version of 1950s Pittsburgh, as the camera seems so reluctant to leave Troy and Rose's kitchen and backyard. I appreciate that August Wilson is a national treasure, but this is one of those cases where fidelity to the source material was a little too strong, to the detriment of the final film. And as good as the leading performances are, I can't help wishing I'd seen the Broadway versions instead.
Now "Hidden Figures" aims much lower, though it's still very much a prestige pic. It's a typical feel-good underdog movie, about three smart, talented African-American women overcoming adversity and prejudice. Set in the early 1960s, Katherine Goble (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) work as computers handling complicated mathematical calculations for the Langley Research Center. The Space Race with the USSR is in full swing, and Katherine gets assigned to work on Project Mercury, which aims to put an American in space, under the prickly Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) and dismissive Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons). Meanwhile, Dorothy contends with the incoming IBM computer threatening the computing group's jobs, and Mary struggles find a way to become an engineer.
To call "Hidden Figures" formulaic would be too kind, as it hews very close to the template of films like "The Help" and "The Great Debators," full of impassioned speeches against the racism and segregation common of the era. The melodrama is pumped up as high as it can go, and the films is full of shameless little fictions, like our three heroines being gal pals who gossip together after hours and rally to find Katherine a husband. There are some nice historical recreations of the Project Mercury tests, and science and history geeks should get a kick out of all the early technology on display. However, the story feels very obvious and calculated. I couldn't help rolling my eyes when Kevin Costner desegregates the ladies' rooms by going after the "Colored" sign with a sledgehammer. I mean, it's a great moment and it works in context - but it's so shamelessly over the top.
It's been heartening to see so many films about the African-American experience this awards season, even though many of them haven't been very successful. Both "Fences" and "Hidden Figures" have their flaws, but on the whole they're good, solid films, ones I'll be happy to point to as the ones that are getting it right. However, neither are really to my taste, and I can't help wishing that both sets of filmmakers could have done a little better, maybe taken some more risks. I mean, it's not like the source material didn't have the potential for greatness, right?
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Thursday, March 2, 2017
My Favorite Eric Rohmer Film
I nearly titled this entry "The Eric Rohmer Film I Disliked the Least," as I did with Jean-Luc Godard's entry. Of the French New Wave directors, Rohmer is probably the one I enjoy the least on average - which means, of course, that I spent an awful lot of time tracking down his films and trying to figure out what other people saw in him. I've come to the conclusion that Rohmer simply does not make films I can connect to easily.
I was left completely cold by some of his most famous films, including "My Night at Maud's" and "Claire's Knee," part of his series of Six Moral Tales, where the heroes grapple endlessly with ethical behavior. They're full of beautiful young people playing out their love games and light comedic farces, but are too wrapped up in their own little neuroses to be much fun to watch. They're always terribly passionate and sincere, yet too often insufferable, and have a tendency to make lousy deicisions. However, as Rohmer got older, I found his output grew more interesting. After the Six Moral Tales came the Six Comedies and Proverbs, which were more varied and fun. And then the Tales of the Four Seasons, including my favorite, "A Tale of Autumn," or "Autumn's Tale."
Unlike most of Rohmer's other films, the would-be lovers are much older, and their interactions more direct and matter-of-fact. I found the forty-something heroine, Magali (Béatrice Romand), a very likeable presence. She runs a vineyard in the south of France, and is altogether a very successful and thriving woman. However, with her husband dead and her children grown, she admist to her friend Isabelle (Marie Riviere) that she has become lonely. Isabelle suggests placing a personal ad, which Magali shoots down, so Isabelle decides to place one in secret, attracting a man named Gerald (Alain Libolt). Then there's Rosine (Alexia Portal), the girlfriend of Magali's son Leo (Stéphane Darmon), who tries to set up Magali with her old professor, Etienne (Didier Sandre). Isabelle and Rosine are the ones who act like the typical Rohmer protagonists, who get themselves into trouble by trying to be too clever. )
Each of the Four Seasons films has a great sense of place, opening with picturesque landscape shots and frequenly having the characters take long walks as we get to know them. Magali and Isabelle are introduced as they ramble around the vineyard, discussing their lives and their agriculture. There's a comfortable familiarity to their conversation, an ease and openness that extends to most of the relationships that we see in the film. Everyone has been through the throes of love before, and likes to think that they understand it better than they do. Maturity turns out to be no safeguard against foolishness, but there's a remarkable warmth to even the most uncomfortable situations. When Isabelle cheerfully explains her plot to Gerald, he's taken aback, but good natured enough to take her at her word. Etienne, similarly, would clearly rather be with Rosine than Magali, but plays along.
As you might expect, what follows are misunderstandings, intrigues, hurt feelings, and complications in abundance. And it's the steadier, more even-tempered personalities of the characters that make the farce palatable. I don't find most of Eric Rohmer's films funny, or the little ironies in his plots especially illuminating. However, i was completely won over by the climactic wedding sequence where all the storylines in the film finally come together, culminating in a scene of a grumpy Magali failing to keep her ire in check as she's escorted home by a nervous would-be suitor. And later, depite all her protestations and attempts to isolate herself, she finds herself intrigued by possibilities. Because Rohmer is so hands off with the characters, the ending is ambiguous and can be read in many ways, but the personal journeys of his three heroines are easy to discern and appreciate.
Much has been written about Rohmer's approach to filmmaking, which boils down to shunning artifice in search of capturing moments of reality. They really don't look like much at first glance. And yet, his films are often fantastical in their construction, full of contrivances and clever plots that comment on the human condition. I still find Rohmer's work a bore more often than not, but he's certainly responsible for a few irresistable bits of cinema magic too. It just took a little time and a little patience to find them.
What I've Seen - Eric Rohmer
La Collectionneuse (1967)
My Night at Maud's (1969)
Claire's Knee (1970)
The Marquise of O (1976)
Perceval le Gallois (1978)
Le Beau Mariage (1982)
The Green Ray (1986)
A Tale of Springtime (1990)
A Tale of Winter (1992)
A Tale of Summer (1996)
A Tale of Autumn (1998)
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I was left completely cold by some of his most famous films, including "My Night at Maud's" and "Claire's Knee," part of his series of Six Moral Tales, where the heroes grapple endlessly with ethical behavior. They're full of beautiful young people playing out their love games and light comedic farces, but are too wrapped up in their own little neuroses to be much fun to watch. They're always terribly passionate and sincere, yet too often insufferable, and have a tendency to make lousy deicisions. However, as Rohmer got older, I found his output grew more interesting. After the Six Moral Tales came the Six Comedies and Proverbs, which were more varied and fun. And then the Tales of the Four Seasons, including my favorite, "A Tale of Autumn," or "Autumn's Tale."
Unlike most of Rohmer's other films, the would-be lovers are much older, and their interactions more direct and matter-of-fact. I found the forty-something heroine, Magali (Béatrice Romand), a very likeable presence. She runs a vineyard in the south of France, and is altogether a very successful and thriving woman. However, with her husband dead and her children grown, she admist to her friend Isabelle (Marie Riviere) that she has become lonely. Isabelle suggests placing a personal ad, which Magali shoots down, so Isabelle decides to place one in secret, attracting a man named Gerald (Alain Libolt). Then there's Rosine (Alexia Portal), the girlfriend of Magali's son Leo (Stéphane Darmon), who tries to set up Magali with her old professor, Etienne (Didier Sandre). Isabelle and Rosine are the ones who act like the typical Rohmer protagonists, who get themselves into trouble by trying to be too clever. )
Each of the Four Seasons films has a great sense of place, opening with picturesque landscape shots and frequenly having the characters take long walks as we get to know them. Magali and Isabelle are introduced as they ramble around the vineyard, discussing their lives and their agriculture. There's a comfortable familiarity to their conversation, an ease and openness that extends to most of the relationships that we see in the film. Everyone has been through the throes of love before, and likes to think that they understand it better than they do. Maturity turns out to be no safeguard against foolishness, but there's a remarkable warmth to even the most uncomfortable situations. When Isabelle cheerfully explains her plot to Gerald, he's taken aback, but good natured enough to take her at her word. Etienne, similarly, would clearly rather be with Rosine than Magali, but plays along.
As you might expect, what follows are misunderstandings, intrigues, hurt feelings, and complications in abundance. And it's the steadier, more even-tempered personalities of the characters that make the farce palatable. I don't find most of Eric Rohmer's films funny, or the little ironies in his plots especially illuminating. However, i was completely won over by the climactic wedding sequence where all the storylines in the film finally come together, culminating in a scene of a grumpy Magali failing to keep her ire in check as she's escorted home by a nervous would-be suitor. And later, depite all her protestations and attempts to isolate herself, she finds herself intrigued by possibilities. Because Rohmer is so hands off with the characters, the ending is ambiguous and can be read in many ways, but the personal journeys of his three heroines are easy to discern and appreciate.
Much has been written about Rohmer's approach to filmmaking, which boils down to shunning artifice in search of capturing moments of reality. They really don't look like much at first glance. And yet, his films are often fantastical in their construction, full of contrivances and clever plots that comment on the human condition. I still find Rohmer's work a bore more often than not, but he's certainly responsible for a few irresistable bits of cinema magic too. It just took a little time and a little patience to find them.
What I've Seen - Eric Rohmer
La Collectionneuse (1967)
My Night at Maud's (1969)
Claire's Knee (1970)
The Marquise of O (1976)
Perceval le Gallois (1978)
Le Beau Mariage (1982)
The Green Ray (1986)
A Tale of Springtime (1990)
A Tale of Winter (1992)
A Tale of Summer (1996)
A Tale of Autumn (1998)
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