Wednesday, April 16, 2003
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
First of all, what's so bad about being a barber? I saw Barbershop a couple of weeks ago about a disgruntled barber and now this. Hmm...
Lots, and I mean lots of things to like here. I seem to gush over the directors of the films I've been writing about lately, and honestly a discussion of my favorite directors can't even start without mentioning the Coen brothers. This has to go right up there with Barton Fink as one of my favorites of theirs. Its brimming with all of the odd eccentricities that make the Coens hands-down the most unique directors in Hollywood. The characters are every bit as wacky as you'll find. In the great Hollywood tradition of 1940s film noir, there's murder, blackmail, adultery, and a bit of UFOs thrown in for good measure. And its certainly not for the casual Friday night movie watcher. Roger Deakins's black and white cinematography is just beautiful. Just a movie I thoroughly enjoyed.
No Man's Land (2001)
Oscar winner of last year's best foreign film, I like Amelie better, though I can see No Man's Land's appeal. It's got politically charged statement that it saves for the very last frame, basically that the UN is an impotent bunch of clowns in the Bosnian conflict. In the film a pair of Bosnian soldier's and a Serb soldier trapped together in a trench between the front lines, one of them stuck on a mine that will explode if he gets up. In comes the UN forces to the rescue and the media circus in tow. As the situation develops, its clear that this serves as a metaphor for the foreign intervention in Bosnia and its inability to actually solve anything there. It's a good movie, worth seeing, but pretty heavy stuff.
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Alright, what'd I miss? This one ranks #118 on IMDb's Top 250. I've heard it heralded as this great piece of Americana film, a great script. The epitome of non-conformity and self-will. I didn't get it. Sure, Luke's a likable enough character, but its more for Paul Newman's charisma as an actor, rather than anything Luke the character does. Sure, there's the scene where he eats the 50 eggs. As Luke answers why he does it, "So we'd have something to do." Exactly! Because there's nothing going on. There's supposedly a ton of Christian symbolism. The 37 on his prison uniform is a reference to Luke 1:37. ("Everything is possible with God.") But how it all ties into the story... You got me. And that score was just obnoxious. Maybe I'm just to young to appreciate this classic.
Signs (2002)
One director I'm dropping from my list of favorite young filmmakers is M. Night Shymalan, who seems to be suffering from George Lucas disease. You know, the phenomenon that causes the money people to greenlight a film and all the cast and crew the enthusiastically to jump aboard for the reputation of the writer/director and not the common sense of his script. So the aliens are vulnerable to water, huh. Lucky for us it didn't rain ANYWHERE in the world the day of their invasion. The aliens, who are smart enough to space travel, obviously forgot to do their homework and decided to invade a planet 70% covered with this poison water, not to mention our atmosphere is made of the stuff, too. And they must have been wearing socks the night they were running through a dew-covered cornfield at night. I just can't believe that nobody went up to Mr. Night and said, "Hey M, um, what about this water and the aliens stuff?"
Off the rant, what Shymalan's done in his previous films, and done very well, is take a standard genre and put his own twist on it, establishing an air of realism ("What if this really happened?") making a very personal story out of it. It worked great for the ghost story in The Sixth Sense. It worked for the comicbook hero in Unbreakable. But the B-movie alien invasion story is too much of a stretch. The other two films warrant a certain level of suspension of disbelief that doesn't translate in Signs. In the end, it's not more than a stylized B-movie. That, and it was just 5-10 years ago our pop culture was inundated with the X-Files, Independence Day, Men in Black and Mars Attacks. The alien invasion movie is as dated as grunge music and flannel shirts.
While the theme is admirable (that there is somebody out there on our side, that there are no accidents), I almost found it offensive (that's really too strong a word, maybe bothered) at the seemingly neutered religious conotations, just vague, politically correct hyperbole. But there I go probably taking it far too seriously than I really should.
Two favorite parts (really): The opening credits with their Hitchcockian score, and the scene of the kids wearing the aluminum hats. That was funny.
Sunday, April 13, 2003
About a Boy (2002)
I think there are two kinds of art in the world: Stuff that's made for sheer entertainment, and stuff made to preach a point. The great thing about any art, be it paint, music, architecture, film, is that it has the power to not just give a short thrill but also the power to resonate into the caverns where we ask the questions about the meaning of life. Sadly, in our pop culture there is far more of the former then the latter, and far more often than not, the latter is so bluntly moralistic, it has no entertainment value whatsoever. About a Boy pleasantly surprised me in that it has a very blatant moral, but it's equal parts of genuine wit, humor and pathos charm you away from being turned off by its moral-of-the-story ending. It's entertaining with substance.
Hugh Grant plays Will, a self-absorbed, shallow playboy who thinks that Jon Bon Jovi said "No man is an island," and that that statement is a load of rubbish. He comes to the conclusion that single mother's are the new dating goldmine, and through his involvement in a support group for single parents (inventing an imaginary toddler for himself) he meets Marcus, the social pariah of his school, the epitome of everything uncool. The film then unfolds through their budding relationship. The title About a Boy refers to both Will and Marcus as they both mature through the story, as they both learn that people need people, that no man is an island, and that we all need backup.
I love subjective point of view in a movie, and directors Chris and Paul Weitz (American Pie!) use both the differing perspectives of Will and Marcus to tell the story, which I thought was unique and offered numerous humorous ironic takes on scenes. It's based on the book by Nick Hornby, the British author who wrote the source material for High Fidelity, so the witty sense of humor is very similar to that film. Badly Drawn Boy provided the soundtrack. About a Boy just had everything I like in a movie.
In the Bedroom (2001)
Continuing the theme of "Single Mothers who Ruin Your Life," is In the Bedroom, the last of Oscar Best Picture nominated films for me to see. If you haven't seen it and plan on seeing it, just stop right here and come back later. I'm likely to give away spoilers, and trust me, the less you know seeing it, the better. You've been forewarned.
I don't if I've seen a movie that's made me think quite so much in a very long time. For that I liked it. It's definitely not the typical Hollywood film that spoonfeeds scene to scene with an ending that ties it up in a nice little bow. What I keep wrestling with, and whether in the end I personally like it or not, is the ending and what Todd Field, the writer and directory is saying and what these last 2 hours were all about. The story has 3 pretty well defined acts: The first establishing the characters and relationships of the well-educated and respected Dr. Matt Fowler and his choral teacher wife Ruth, their college-age son Frank, his single mother girlfriend Natalie and her separated but not yet ex-husband Richard. Lobster trap conversation that opens the film serves as the symbol that tells us exactly where these characters are headed in Act One. Act Two has some brilliantly underplayed scenes of the Fowlers' grief for which Tom Wilkinson as Matt and Sissy Spacek as Ruth deserved their Oscar nominations. It's near the end of Act Two that I realized there could be absolutely no satisfying ending to this story. And in Act Three Matt takes justice into his own hands. It plays out like a film of Hitchcock's only without the glamour. There's power in a title, and I think that the In the Bedroom is a sorry title for the story, probably at the hands of the marketers. The title of the short story it's based on is Killings, but that probably gives away the ending. But I think that more aptly fits the theme as we connect the wicked, white trash, wifebeater Richard with the sophisticated and intelligent Matt and what then draws them to their eventual common bond.
What I found most disturbing in the film was the final scene, where Ruth gets up from bet to make Matt breakfast, completely unfazed, though very aware of what has just happened, while Matt appears extremely disturbed as he gets into bed and removes his Band-Aid. Is Field saying that Matt's revenge has healed his emotional wounds, as his finger has healed? Or is it to contrast that Matt still isn't healed despite his healed finger? The look on his face as the film fades to black shows that Matt is clearly has no closure, and that I think is the point. I don't think Field is justifying revenge and unforgiveness, but instead portraying their insufficiency to placate grief. Obviously, it has satisfied Ruth, but never in the film do we identify with her or even like her, so her character arch proves to be the very opposite of the story's goal. It's Matt's story from beginning to end, so it's with Matt's dissatisfaction we are left with.
Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
From deep stuff to fluff, Once Upon a Time in China is another martial arts flick I got my hands on. It's the film that launched the career of Jet Li as the title character of Wong Fei-hung, one of the most prolific characters on Chinese pop culture. Like Robin Hood and James Bond in the West, Wong Fei-hung has survived multiple incarnations over several generations from newspaper serials to pulp fiction to some 70+ Hong Kong films. Jet Li serves as the definitive Wong Fei-hung to the MTV generation as some six sequels have spun off in the past 10 years. The story takes place in 19th century Canton as the influence of the British and Americans is slowly invading the Chinese way of life. Unlike most Hong Kong martial movies, this has story that for the most part holds the movie together. The action sequences are absolutely amazing, just jaw-dropping. The music, cinematography and translation are a bit silly and overdramatic at times, but I soon forgot about all that during the kung fu climax. From what I hear, Once Upon a Time in China is THE classic film to come out of Hong Kong. Today, before the Mariners game came on, there was an 80s Chuck Norris film on, and it's shocking to me that he ever had a job when this stuff was available.