Almost There…

So, It’s about the time of the year when we get to the goods cinematically, with all the production companies cranking out their heavyweights for Oscar season.  Unfortunately, all the reviews here don’t really reflect it. At least there’s always the reliably quirky British charm. So we can call this update the calm before the storm? They’re not all that badDon’t worry, they’ll get better I’m sure.

Thanksgiving break was an interesting opportunity to see some new movies. I stopped by Hollywood video back home to see what new releases they had, and it turns out that there is absolutely nothing worth renting right now. I don’t know if it’s because there are really just a bunch of bad movies out there from this year or I’ve just seen them all already. Probably a combination of the two. Then I went hunting for some movies to see in theaters hoping to catch Charlie Kauffman’s “Synecdoche, New York” or maybe even the rising star “Slumdog Millionaire,” but to no avail. The only things playing ANYWHERE were sequels to action movies no one gives a hoot about, the new Bond flick, and a handful of family Christmas movies. God I hate all this mainstream commercialism, with the studios telling us what we can watch. Oh well, here are these, soon there will be better times?

I'm in the desert, so I must wear shades.

– QUANTUM OF SOLACE – (2008 – pg13)     

Dir: Marc Forster; Star: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench
2006’s Casino Royale was a breadth of fresh air for the long running franchise, injecting new layers of depth to the characters and new potential for the future. And in 2008 it all comes crumbling down. Daniel Craig still makes a great Bond, but the story tries to pick up where the last left off, yet only in theme. For instance, one of the great villains in the last movie was inexplicably killed prior to this release and substituted with a much less frightening or inspired Mr. White. It seems as though the screenwriters wanted to mix substance with explosion, but they got so lost in the process that  they figured there need not be any real reason for anything to take place in the first place. I still don’t know what the hell a Quantum of Solace is. Anyway, this is a no-go, the series has fallen on its face, and the filmmakers need to rethink their strategy before forcing millions to see it on label alone. There needs to be something there. After seeing Quantum of Solace I asked myself, what the hell just happened, and why does it matter? Without an answer to my question I drove home in a sad stupor of spoiled possibility.

Mmm Grey

– CHANGELING – (2008 – R)

Dir: Clint Eastwood; Star: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jason Butler Harner
Clint Eastwood is STILL making high quality movies, and Changeling is no exception. It’s the fairly unknown true story of a Los Angeles mother who’s son is kidnapped, and ‘returned,’ although she is convinced that the boy that she’s given is not really her son. Eventually the LAPD tries to suppress her rather than lose face to the anxious media. Doused in a somber aura, like many of Eastwood’s recent works, the depressing plot revelations hit with force. Cinematographer Tom Stern’s visual style is becoming a trademark with Eastwood’s films, filling the screen with an ominously brooding, yet overly conventional veil of austerity. At times,  it seems almost like a vehicle for Jolie, who is great no less, but her scenes are framed in such a way that it feels at times as if it may spiral into ‘just a sequence of scenes of  Angelina Jolie freaking out,’ which seems a tad underintegrated. Butler Harner is also terrific as the genuinely terrifying man who abducted her son. Unfortunately the film never lets up, getting lost in its overlength while also trying to accomplish too much. It’s at its best when Jolie is confined to a mental hospital against her will -a move which echoes the ire of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but this is only a sidenote in a much larger scheme. By the end some closure is reached but it really doesn’t feel as if anything definitive has been said; there doesn’t seem to be a message or anything to take away. In all, it seem as though it’s but a well crafted bit of LA lore and nothing more.

If it's about the child's perspective, we don't have to try!

– THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS – (2008 – R)

Dir: Mark Herman; Star: Asa Butterfield
Schindler’s List inspired the viewer with the truth, in the process giving them hope by showing what one person can do to resist a great travesty. It told its story with a brutally honest and harsh eye. Life is Beautiful inspired the viewer with fiction by giving them an irresistibly likable character and the innocent son he spared of the violent reality of the holocaust.  Boy in the Striped Pajamas does none of this. It may have worked as a novel, but as a film it’s clearly fictional and every plot device set up to drive a reaction is noticeable and contrived. There is no charm to its characters or reality to its stance. Of course the filmmakers could argue that since it’s told from a child’s perspective (the child of a Nazi concentration camp commandant),then this is all the visual depiction of his innocent viewpoint. This worked in E.T. because we were given great performances and nuanced production (read: genuine emotion). None of this exists here; the performances are either melodramatic or awkward as hell (the child actors’ conversations are as blocky and unnatural as bonfire made out of legos). The production values are on par with a weekend tv movie on the BBC and the son’s delusions with reality don’t seem to have any weight or signifcance. There is also a severe lack of attention to detail that is so glaringly obvious. Why, for example, does the interned Jewish kid who the son befriends appear to weigh a good 20 pounds more than a well-fed son of the commandant? Why aren’t there any guards in the guard towers? Why does the concentration camp look like nothing but a couple of buildings populated by a handful of extras instead of the steaming cesspool it should be? All of these annoyances help to detract from the reality of the film. It is all so calculated, it’s clear that we’re all watching a poorly made movie. This is what makes the shocking finale seem all the more loathesomly melodramatic and pointless. It’s the kind of ending that would ONLY work if the story were either true or we were absorbed enough to give a hoot about the characters. I would applaud the effort if only there were a greater one.

"Oh! What-chu-ma-call-it ding dang dilly dilly da da hoo hoo!"

– HAPPY-GO-LUCKY – (2008 – R)     

Dir: Mike Leigh; Star: Sally Hawkins
Enter the incessantly optimistic, cheerful, fun loving, life-living Poppy played to quirky perfection by Sally Hawkins. Give us a taste of her life and her irresistable outlook on the world. Give us some romance, some good times with the girls, some good old fashioned british charm, and throw in an angry pessimist driving instructor (played amazingly by Eddie Marsan) who never gives up on a student, least of all Poppy, who would rather point out the attractive men on the street than focus entirely on the road. Just as it seems that this Poppy may be too good to be true (in an annoyingly happy way), throw in layers of depth and maturity to reinforce the proceedings. We see that Poppy isn’t a child in an adult’s world. She’s a self aware adult who doesn’t care what other people think, and who is ready willing and able to live life with enthusiasm and gusto. It’s all uniquely entertaining, well written and acted, very British, and infectiously encouraging.

————————————–

– PERSEPOLIS – (2007 – pg13)
Animated rendition of Marjan Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novels following her adolescence in and out of post Shah-Iran. A stunningly creative work and a high quality examination of the effects of a super conservative theocracy on both the free spirited and the female, and the dilemma between personal freedom and family comfort. Laced with disarming comedy and striking imagery. One of the more meaningful animated films to ever reach mainstream audiences.

-1408 – (2007 – pg13)
Writer braves night in haunted room 1408, which tends to cause people to die. Like most Stephen King adaptations it starts out with great intrigue and ends in some confused quest for some supernatural figment of a delusional imagination.