Rafi Gavron or How can he and I have an infinite playlist?

I recently saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (yes, I know... what the hell had taken me so long? It's a solid A film that harkens back to the teen films I love from the 90s mixed in with the great vibe of my current living quarters: NYC!) But can we just talk about Rafi Gavron for a second? He's adorably smouldering throughout the film as one of Michael Cera's "gay bandmates" (Aaron Yoo is also not bad at all, but Rafi gave us a shirtless scene so...)

Enjoy:

Now, does this make me a groupie of 'The Jerkoffs'? I think so. And yes, I know how that sounds...

2008 Films

Here are all the films I saw (and graded) from 2008.

Top 5 Films of 2008 (and the Dory Awards can be found here)

In Bruges

I've Loved You So Long (A+)

Milk (A)

Revolutionary Road (A)

Wall•E

The Rest (in alphabetical order)

27 Dresses (C+)

Australia (B+)

Baby Mama (B+)

Be Kind Rewind (B-)

Bolt (A-)

Burn After Reading (A-)

Changeling (C+)

Charlie Bartlett (B+)

Doubt (A-)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (A-)

Frost/Nixon (B+)

Get Smart (B)

Happy-Go-Lucky (A-)

High School Musical 3: Senior Year (B+)

Iron Man (A)

Kung Fu Panda (A)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (B+)

Les Chansons D'Amour (A-)

Mamma Mia! (B+)

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (B+)

My Blueberry Nights (C+)

Quantum of Solace (B+)

Rachel Getting Married (A)

Sex and the City: The Movie (A)

Slumdog Millionaire (A+)

Speed Racer (D)

Synecdoche, New York (B++)

The Air I Breathe (B-)

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (B-)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (C+)

The Dark Knight (A+)

The Duchess (C-)

The Fall (B++)

The Incredible Hulk (B+)

The Other Boleyn Girl (B)

The Reader (A-)

The Women (D)

The Wrestler (A)

Tropic Thunder (C)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (A)

W. (B)

Waltz With Bashir (B-)

Wendy and Lucy (A)

The Dorys 2008, or How here's the best according to moi

An annual tradition begins. 

The guilds may have spoken (yelling quite loudly SLUMDOG!), the Oscars may have read out loud some names (BUTTON! SLUMDOG!NOT-BATMAN!), StinkyLulu gave out the Lulus, J.D. has the Chloes, Nat's working on the  Film Bitch Awards and I figured: why not join the crowd and say what I thought was the best in film for the year? And so the Dorys (read: Door-ees, get it?) were born.

There are 9 Categories in all (Oscar's Big 8 + Ensemble)

Outstanding Motion Picture

In Bruges

I've Loved You So Long

Milk

Revolutionary Road

Wall‧E

Outstanding Direction

Darren Aronosfky (The Wrestler)

Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road)

Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)

Andrew Stanton (Wall‧E)

Gus Van Sant (Milk)

Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Ben Burt (Wall‧E)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road)

Colin Farrel (In Bruges)

Sean Penn (Milk)

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Nicole Kidman (Australia)

Natalie Portman (The Other Boleyn Girl)

Kristin Scott-Thomas (I've Loved You So Long)

Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)

Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight)

Emile Hirsch (Milk)

Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Brad Pitt (Burn After Reading)

Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road)

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day)

Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)

Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)

Michelle Williams (Synecdoche New York)

Outstanding Adapted Screenplay

David Hare (The Reader)

Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road)

Christopher Nolan, Johnathan Nolan & David Goyer (The Dark Knight)

John Patrick Shanley (Doubt)

Kelly Reichardt, Jonathan Raymond (Wendy and Lucy)

Outstanding Original Screenplay

Philip Claudel (I've Loved You So Long)

Dustin Lance Black (Milk)

Martin McDonagh (In Bruges)

Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter (Wall‧E)

Robert D. Siegel (The Wrestler)

Outstanding Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Burn After Reading

The Dark Knight

Milk 

Revolutionary Road

Rachel Getting Married

7 Noms

Revolutionary Road

6 Noms

Milk

5 Noms

The Dark Knight

4 Noms

The Wrestler

Wall‧E

3 Noms

In Bruges

I've Loved You So Long

2 Noms

Burn After Reading

Rachel Getting Married

The Wrestler, or How the women shine in Aronofsky's film

The Wrestler

Directed by Darren Aronosfky

Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.

Who knew the "visionary" director of such films like Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain had a gritty Jersey wrestling movie in him? Well, he did and to say it is a gut-wrenching experience is probably an understatement (I'll confess that I shut my eyes for most of the crazy wrestling scenes) but when out of the rink, Rourke, Tomei and Wood offer a trio of down to earth performances that light up the screen amid the violent and blood-ridden scenes Aronosfky offers us throughout. A

The Reader, or How 2008 is really Kate's year

The Reader

Directed by Stephen Daldry

Written by David Hare

Starring: Kate Winslet, David Kross, Ralph Fiennes, & Lena Olin.

When I finished watching The Reader, I was exhausted. It's an emotionally draining experience. Take that as you will. Daldry and Hare have crafted not much of an emotional roller coaster as much as a carefully executed moral minefield - peppered with enough sex (and sexual tension) to last you a lifetime. 

While it seems the film's off-screen stories (Rudin vs Weinstein, rushed post-production, allegedly knocking TDK from its BP and Best Director noms at the Oscars, being now deemed 'That Holocaust Movie'...) I think Daldry's film is a wonder of a film, albeit one that seems to be poised to divide its audience, much in the same way it does so for its characters. The film centers around a taboo romance between an older woman and a fifteen year old that, while lasting only one summer, changes both their lives forever. 

It's also a thinking person's film. Those wishing to get any emotional schmaltz out of this sex/guilt ridden story will not be rewarded. Daldry and Hare craft more questions than answers, more conundrums than emotional payoffs and the way to understand this is to explore Winslet's unflinching performance of Hannah. She doesn't go for sympathy, and her ice-cold performance is at once puzzling but altogether appropriate in that really the film is constructed around wanting to know what/why Hannah is doing but you have to give props to a film that doesn't cheat itself out for a teary sappy ending. A-

Doubt, or How Meryl will rip your heart out

Doubt

Written and Directed by John Patrick Shanley

Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis.

While the film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's stage play is still an enjoyable 'did-he? did he not?' moral ride, it lacks something which the premise hints at: ambiguity. As a director, Shanley spends less time trying to hit moral ambiguities than in creating horribly didactic film gimmicks (I'm looking at you animal imagery!) that dissolve any punch the moral minefield he concocted for the stage had in the first place. That said, leave it to Meryl, Amy, Viola and Hoffman to make the film the performance showcase it should be and raise it above its directorial crutches - especially when Shanley let's them do their work (with his words nonetheless!) and creates wonderfully (tragi)comic scenes that are at once a battle of the wills and a cross-section of the changing world of the Christian faith in the mid-twentieth century. A-

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, or How if I see Brad gape one more time...!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Dir. David Fincher

Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson & Tilda Swinton.

The premise is a good one (courtesy of Mr Fitzgerald): a man (the eponymous Ben) ages backwards. The short story is an exercise in absurdist fiction, more akin to magical realism than to the meditation on life and death that Fincher and Roth offer in this epic- American film. But for all the beautiful cinematography, sumptuous art direction and dazzling visual effects, Ben Button proved irritatingly confounding to me: why were we being offered such a passive, do-nothing protagonist (not unlike Roth's other famous protagonist, Forrest Gump), being told his story with the aid of the oldest framing device of them all (person at deathbed recollects and adorning his story with snippets of historical events and an array of semi-believable secondary characters?

But what really got to me was the lack of tension; the lack of conflict. Benjamin is such a distant, tabula rasa type character that his motivations seem perplexing and altogether a matter of circumstance than anything indicative of any character arc at all. He just goes hither and thither; becomes a sailor, a lover, a button empire heir out of no will of his own - only the Daisy episode towards the end seems to be more structured around any agon and this is quickly forsaken for what seems like a rushed and foolhardy ending. But for most of the film, Benjamin is just drifting through easily recognizable historical moments and fable-like snippets of 'lessons on Life' which might suggest a great backdrop for this (hi)story but felt empty and too didactic for my taste (that 'backwards clock' framing tale irritated me for its clear "I'm a metaphor!" eagerness).

And I'm not even going into the fact that all the female characters seem underwritten (and so male-centered!): why else borrow an age-old female triumvirate (matron, crone and maiden) and give us the least fleshed out characters of the film? Or the fact that Brad's performance is so bland and uninspiring (he really doesn't have much to do other than gape throughout) he doesn't sell me as a compelling character not even as a constructive plot device. Or even the logical impossibility of the 'Benjamin dies as a baby' image: wouldn't he have been an old man with a baby face if he was born as a baby with an old man face? 

Flawless filmmaking, yes, but a good film needs to be more than an exercise in craft and have some heart, conflict; heck even an interesting lead would have been just fine. /rant over. C+ 

Australia, or How only Baz could make a film like this

Australia

Directed by Baz Luhrmann 

Written by Baz Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie, Ronald Hardwood & Richard Flannagan

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, David Wenham & David Gulpilil

How do you follow a threequel of sorts (Strickly Ballroom, william shakespeare's romeo+juliet and Moulin Rouge!) with a film so confident/ambitious you've named it after an entire country? Well, if you're Baz Luhrmann what you do is explode the 'epic movie', add a pinch of the theatricality that marked your earlier work, stylize it to extremes, enlist a great tech team, a couple of gifted Aussie thesps (and an unknown!) and you head to the outback to shoot Australia. Is the result an accomplished success like his 2001 Oscar-nominated musical wonder? Not particularly; but you have to give Baz & co. props for aiming so high with a project as expansive and unconquerable as the land it tries to portray.

What works:

- Nicole as Lady Sarah Ashley. To those who say that Ms Kidman has no range and little facial mobility I dare you watch her scene with Nullah as she explains the plot of The Wizard of Oz and not be moved (Kidman attempting to sing 'Over the Rainbow' is probably one of my favourite scenes in cinema this year)

- Hugh as the Drover. Need we say more?

- The cinematography. So gorgeous. It almost... almost made me think again about packing everything and going walkabout. But then, Y: The Last Man memories kicked in and well... we all know how that ended, right?

- Brandon Walters. Such a natural thesp... or maybe such a thesp because he's a natural.

- The costumes. Need I say that Kidman's dress is this year's green-library Keira gown for me? (Though Kate's Revolutionary Road's yellow city dress might tie for it)

What almost works

- The CGI backgrounds. Too painterly to be taken seriously and too realistic-looking to be taken George-Lucas-ey. 

- The length. A clip here and a clip there... though where? I still wonder.

There's plenty more to say about this film, but I think I need a couple of more views to be able to critically assess it. For now, let's just say it's a film I would recommend to anyone who loves film-making and who relishes the grandiose nature of The Baz. B+

Revolutionary Road, or How suburban ennui never goes out of style

Revolutionary Road
Directed by Sam Mendes

Written by Justin Haythe
Starring: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kathy Bates, Zoe Kazan & Michael Shannon

There are moments in a movie that so perfectly encapsulate the mood, tone, look and rhythm of a film and its performers that you just have to sit back and catch your breath. Revolutionary Road, adapted from the Richard Yates novel of the same name, has many such moments but one in particular still haunts me. April and Frank (Kate and Leo) are at the dinner table joined by the Givings (including their clinically insane son John - an electric Michael Shannon). Lunch is yet to be served, so the conversation steers in an awkward direction when John, seeing past the well polished facade of the Wheelers, hits a couple of nerves with his wildly inappropriate (though for that, no less accurate) remarks about the Wheelers' plans. It's a moment that offers these very gifted actors a well-written and staged scene: Frank loses his temper, Mrs Givings swoops in to avoid a physical confrontation, John cackles an lashes out at the couple; and April... well, she just sits still holding her cigarette looking ahead even when John is raising his voice and uttering one of the most searing lines in the entire film. Winslet - a truly remarkable force in this film, shines in this scene for the amount of emotions she manages to portray in a single look. After the Givings leave, Mendes has a close up of Kate with Leo squirming in the background unable to contain his emotions; but all we're focused on is Kate's face - stern, thoughtful, impossibly at ease. 

In a way this scene epitomises what the film is about - in a way it is a battle of wills that echoes Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? but it is also much more introspective (look out for the constant close ups of April as she turns a teary eye into a faked smile; and of Frank as he contracts his face, always so at odds in showing how he claims he feels) and more focused on small moments (the breakfast table, a dance at a party) that spiral into big blown out fight scenes (outside the car, around the house). The Wheelers seem unhappy, and maybe they are, but both are so enraptured by their seemingness that is hard to get at what each really wants - it is not for nothing that Mendes turns again and again to shots of mirrors and reflective surfaces, reminding his audience that what these characters show is almost if not more important than what they are, think and feel. And that in itself is the true tragedy of this suburban couple that so vividly comes to life in the hands of two actors that in a decade of working apart come together to give us another tragically romantic story of a couple at odds with what the world has to offer them.

Mendes and his production team deserve a shout out for making this aching story such a beauty to watch: Roger Deakins' cinematography beautifully plays with sunlit rooms that defy their own promise of warmth and homeliness; Kristi Zea's production design meticulously recreates this mythic landscape of American suburbia; Albert Wolsky's costumes are gorgeous (I fell in love with each of April's dresses, and loved seeing 1950s beach wear) and lastly Thomas Newman (who already won me over with his Wall-E score earlier in the year) here just blew me away with a score that simmers and soars apace with Yates' creations. A

Milk, or How Van Sant and Penn serve it up well

Milk

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Written by Dustin Lance Black

Starring: Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Victor Garber, Alison Pill and Diego Luna.

To watch Gus Van Sant's Milk is to be immersed in the world of Castro St in the 1970s. When the film starts, we are welcomed by archival footage of the political world on the streets, where homosexuals were arrested for no reason - it almost suggests to me that if Van Sant had had his way, he would have shot the entire film in a way that looked as if it were all archival footage (he finds ways around this: having pictures come alive, shooting some scenes up so close and so grainy they look old and dusty). If nothing else Milk needs to be the movie everyone who cares about Prop 8 and all other anti-gay laws passed this Nov 4th sees and recommends as widely as they can. For, unlike that other Oscar-baiting 'gay' project that was robbed of its statuette to that horrid Paul Haggis "film," Milk is unabashedly about the out, campy, in your face, 'we're here, we're queer' activist world of the 1970s civil rights movement (with man on man sex, drugs and blowjobs included!). Not something you see everyday on 'mainstream' movies, but which comes at a timely moment in this nation's (cultural) politics.

There are many things to love in Milk, many of which are its performers who so convincingly inhabit the characters they portray. Penn, who I've never really cared for is a revelation as the campy, strong-willed Harvey, and along with Franco he portrays one of the most realistic and (shall we say it?) ordinary gay couples I have seen on-screen. We feel for their relationship because it feels so 'lived in' and this is mostly due to Franco and Penn's performances, whose furtive smiles, annoyed looks and witty dinner table talk sell us on their relationship. Also worth singling out are Hirsch and Brolin, the former for its sunny persona as Cleve Jones (oh to dance and be caught in a dark room with him!) and the latter for embodying the slowly boiling turmoil he reveals with tight fists and crunched teeth. The only person I couldn't stand throughout was Diego Luna - maybe it was his hair, his facial hair, his accent or just his overall demeanour but god I just wanted him out of the frame every time he was on (a testament to how well he played the character? Maybe... but annoying nonetheless).

It may be a paint by the numbers biopic (and there's only so many ways you can make that interesting) but Van Sant's gritty direction, Danny Elfman's score and Harris Savides documentary-style cinematography make the film resonate in a way that exceeds its oh-so Oscar-baity and politically "liberally progressive" message. A

Changeling, or How... ZzZzZZZzzz

Changeling

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Written by Michael J. Staczynski

Starring Angelina Jolie, John Malcovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Amy Ryan.

I can't bring myself to write a full review for Eastwood's Changeling, so instead I'll offer 10 Things That I Could Take Away From It (always trying to be on the positive 'glass half full' side):

1. Ms Jolie is eerily skinny. That said, her superwoman tabloid persona ("Just order another kid from Africa Angie!" I kept saying)  OR conversely her on-screen blockbuster persona ("Where are your guns Ms Collins? Guns, not plates, sweetie! They are better weapons!") kept haunting her performance for me. Is it a good performance? Probably, but it felt too coerced for my taste, with gestures and explosions overpowering the emotion and affection she could have brought to the part.

2. This is from the creator/writer of Babylon 5? I wish that would explain why it was so long, slow and unaffecting...

3. Amy Ryan is a gifted thesp. Seriously, how else do you work wonders at The Office AND play a non-insane mental institution patient in one year?

4. Tom Stern and Clint Eastwood looove half-lighting their actors. [For other examples see Million Dollar Baby and Letter from Iwo Jima] To what purpose? I have no idea... 

5. Jeffrey Donovan is kind of hot. That doesn't take away from his mediocre acting talent as showcased here ("Look audience, I'm trying this accent on for size? Do you think it's working" Sorry Jeff, it's not).

6. Clint's under-directing (or 'minimalist directing') does a disservice to his child actors. Sure, Angie, John and Amy can work with few cuts and few directing notes, but Walter, fake-Walter and Sanford look so much like 'child actors' in a play that I don't buy them crying or feeling remorse, or anything really.

7. The costumes were inspired. I could have done with less of those hats Angie kept wearing - mainly because they worked as a prop to signify 'Look audience, I am submissive, see how I look down and you can't even see my eyes?'

8. The mental asylum offers the best part of the film. But maybe that's cause it so unabashedly reads as a Foucauldian textbook: 'normalcy' is a discourse.

9. I should watch It Happened One Night. Funny how watching a movie just makes you watch another one right? It's also been waiting on my hard drive for a while to be watched and Ms Collins' endorsement just reminded of it.

10. "I want MY  SON BACK" - Can't get over that line, I'm sorry.

Letter Grade: C+

Quantum of Solace or How Craig's 007 is smouldering

Quantum of Solace

Directed by Marc Foster

Written by Robert Wade, Neil Purvis & Paul Haggis

Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Almaric, Jeffrey Wright.

As a follow up to the über successful Casino Royale, the newest James Bond film delivers. What does it deliver you ask? What a good Daniel Craig Bond film should: great chase sequences (in planes, boats and cars!), perfectly choreographed fights (that rope scene is kind of amazing in its craziness), a no-nonsense Bond, an irked and witty M, hot girls whom Bond beds and a lot of 'blowing up' scenes. Oh? Did you want the line "Bond, James Bond"? Bond ordering a Martini to precise (if ridiculous) orders? Fancy gadgets and a suave demeanor that never once disrupts Bond's crisp tux? Yeah... you should probably Netflix those. This Bond is not your father's Bond and thank god! Sure, it's Bond meets Bourne, but is that a bad thing? Quantum is an enjoyable thrill ride that kept a smirk on my face all the time and never once did it have me jonesing for an 'old school' Bond moment. I do wish Almaric had had more to play with than the latent homophobic 'effete=villain' role, and do look forward to a time when action movies won't lecture me on 'green issues' while depicting South America as only politically unstable and relentlessly poor region (though kudos for the anti-American feelings, foreign-policy wise), but remember: things blow up and we do see Daniel shirtless, so I was game. B+

Slumdog Millionaire, or How yes, that's my final answer

Slumdog Millionaire

Written by Simon Beaufoy

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Irfan Khan.

What a wonder of a movie. Boyle's look into the slum world of India is part City of God, part Dickens and part romance. And somehow, it all works. Boyle's film elevates what would otherwise be a hokey setup (a slumdog goes on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and upon answering every question correctly he's arrested and tortured - it is during this framing device where we learn how it is that his lifestory unwittingly prepared him to get the answers right on the show) and turns it into an exploration of the heart at the center of India's slum world through the eyes of a wide-eyed boy (Jamal) who dreams of being with the girl of his dreams. The film succeeds because it doesn't get caught up on the romance of the story and never shies away from the horror (and wonder) of living in the slums. The R rating is well-deserved not for any one shot (take your pick - there are deaths, tortures and a horrific scene involving a singing boy) but for the uncompromising vision of the film. This might be a film that believes in happy endings but it won't let them come without a cost.

Few movies this year have had me entranced in the way Slumdog Millionaire did - holding my breath, cringing in fear of what was to come, laughing hysterically and even swaying along at the Bollywood number at the end. It's not surprising Fox Searchlight is so warmly pushing this film as an endearing audience winning film (I attended one of their free screenings and the film received roaring applause at the end) because Boyle's film works effortlessly to immerse you in this world where there might indeed be horror, poverty and violence but where there's also laughter and a place for hope. This is most vivid in the last scenes in the film where the film shows us a country biting their nails while watching the game show as a tragedy unfolds in the wings.

Shoutouts to Anthony Dod Mantle for the amazing cinematography (the initial establishing shots of the slums are beautiful without being romantic about their subject), Chris Dickens for his editing (making one chase sequence at the beginning of the film rival the intensity and urgency in any Bond or Bourne installment) and A. R. Rahman for the musical score (anyone who incorporates M.I.A.'s Paper Planes into a film score and manage to not remind me of the Pinneapple Express trailer deserves praise). And of course the cast who really sell the reality of their characters; Dev Patel in particular who in his scenes sells us Jamal's anguish, heartbreak and wonder in one look, despite the fact that his performance requires him to be a reactive rather than an active performer (in the game show as well as in the torture scenes). A+

I've Loved You So Long, or How there are no words really...

Il y a Longtemps que je t'aime (I've Loved You So Long)

Written and Directed by: Philippe Claudel

Starring: Kristin Scott-Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius & Laurent Grévill

What a harrowing and soul-crunching film! It could only have been made in Europe where character and quiet, emotional build ups are still privileged over 'big moments' and verbosity. Claudel directs this story of a woman recently released from prison who enters into her sister's life after a 15 year absence with a sense of subdued direction that works to underplay the potential drama and in so doing magnifying its effect. The mundane details, the ease both in pace and dialogue and the very naturalistic performances by an amazing cast make I've Loved You So Long even more of a wonder. But above it all you should definitely check out this film to see Kristin Scott-Thomas performance. The way her eyes dart all around the room, taking in the reality she had so long ago forsaken; the way her body can't seem to take her new-found freedom; the way she recoils from affection and ultimately the way she explodes with such sadness in her eyes you won't recover even after the credits have rolled. A+

Synecdoche, NY or How Meta Can You Be?

Synecdoche, New York

Written and Directed by Charlie Kauffman

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Hope Davis, Diane Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emily Watson.

Kauffman's directorial debut is one of those films that come every once in a while that demands an astute, patient and intellectual audience. It's a thinking-person film, which makes it odd at times, self-indulgent at others and kind of indecipherable at others. Think Lynch's Mullholand Drive or Arnosfsky's The Fountain. The set up: Hoffman's Caden Cotard is an aging hypochondriac theater director whose wife Adele (Keener) is slowly moving away from him, whose work is not as rewarding as he would like and who wants to do something 'important' with his life. When opportunity knocks in the form of a Genius grant Caden decides to stage "real life" in a gigantic warehouse where the... I guess I could try and work through the plot details, but I don't think a synopsis does justice to Kauffman's work (have you ever tried to explain Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Adaptation to your friends and realised just sitting them down and showing it to them was more efficient?)

As JA from MNPP says in an interesting write-up about the film, Kauffman's film is an experiment in meta-filmmaking, showing us what happens when a character so invested in art-creation intends to transform his life into life-as-theater, all the while showing us his life-as-film - just as Kauffman's earlier films, Synecdoche, New York is a sort of Chinese doll. 

The performances and the writing really make the film work - even if it doesn't "work" in the conventional sense of the word; it works in that self-contained way Caden's "theater piece" works. Kauffman's scripts have a way of getting actresses to give interesting and off-kilter performances (think Meryl in Adaptation, Kate in Eternal Sunshine, Cameron in Being John Malkovich) and here, Michelle Williams as the wide-eyed actress who falls for Caden, Keener as the fed-up wife who flees to Germany to become successful, and Samantha Morton as the smitten assistant excel in creating lived-in and real characters in the midst of Kauffman's fantastical world where tattoos wilt and houses are constantly on fire.

These are all different ways of saying: it's a movie worth watching. B++

...and one which I still have at least one untested theory on [Emphasis on the untested part]:

- Caden is actually a homosexual whose fantasy/film/theater life is a constant push-back against this (Random clues? Nowhere in the 'real world' would Michelle, Catherine and Samantha do/love Philip I'm sorry... add to that Caden's daughter death-bed speech, Caden's male-assistant who seems to be a male version of Hazel: could Hazel be the female version of him? Also this would be a way to reconcile the Ellen/Caden switcheroo...? no?)

Happy-Go-Lucky or How it must be hard being happy all the time, no?

Happy-Go-Lucky

Written and Directed by: Mike Leigh

Starring: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman & Samuel Roukin.

Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky is an exercise in peppiness: how much can you take? Poppy - played buoyantly by Hawkins - is one of those 'happy people' who go about life smiling to themselves, starting well-intentioned (albeit awkward) conversations with strangers and who not only think the glass is half full but think the fact that you even have a glass is enough to rejoice.

Annoying? Probably. But instead of putting us in the position to judge and be annoyed by Poppy just 'cause, Leigh crafts a film that puts Poppy's 'happy-go-lucky' attitude to the test giving us several characters from which to anchor your view of her: are you a Zoe (Poppy's flatmate) who can play along but also realizes how she really shouldn't try and be as nice as she is? Or are you a Tim (Poppy's love interest) who finds the quirkiness a breath of fresh air in midst of the dark places he must surely visit as a social worker? Or are you a Helen (Poppy's married and pregnant sister) who finds Poppy's outlook on life irresponsible and naive? 

But the most interesting dynamic Leigh creates is that between Poppy and her driving instructor Scott. A cantankerous man Scott is faced with the abrasively sunny Poppy. From the start it feels like a recipe for disaster but as the film bounces along from Poppy's art classes (she's a primary school teacher - to Scott's horror), to her Flamenco dances (where Katrina Fernandez steals her scenes as the heartbroken flamenco teacher who uses the 'gypsy' dance to find strength to stop herself from crying and wanting to cut her ex-boyfriend's balls for running off with some Swiss girl!), to her bubbly interactions with everyone from a hobo to a bookstore clerk, we find the Scott-Poppy scenes develop into an intriguing character study where Poppy's spritely demeanor clashes with Scott's anger in a scene that brings together the ultimate question of the film: is there room in this cut-throat world (whether it'd be the bully-prone schoolroom or the indifferent streets of London) for Poppy's 'emotional fascism' (as by HE's Jeffrey Wells' words)? Seeing Scott and Poppy break down is an incredible moment where Hawkins' performance stands out and where we see that there's no naivete in Poppy's worldview, but a hopeful nature that - grating or not - is admirable. A-

High School Musical 3: Senior Year, or How it's all in good fun

High School Musical 3: Senior Year

Dir. Kenny Ortega

Starring: Zac Efron, Vannessa Hudgens, Ashledy Tisdale, Lucas Gabreel, Corbin Bleu et al.

After two record-breaking made-for-TV movies and two chart-topping albums, Disney is graduating (get it?) their High School Musical franchise onto the Big Screen. We have the entire crew back (heartthrob Troy, basketball player Chad, brainy Gabriella, bitchy/princess Sharpay and flaming Ryan) who are facing the daunting task of... putting on a show about their Senior Year, and oh yeah, deciding what they want to do with their future. It's pretty much everything you need/want from this franchise with catchy tunes like I Want it All (HSM3's Fabulous) and ballads like Can I Have This Dance (HSM3's Breaking Free) as well as a romantic story, a growing up moral to the story and wonderful choreography all throughout. B+

It is a love it or hate it franchise, so instead of trying to win over newbies, here are 9 random thoughts for the seasoned fans:

9 Random Things About HSM3:

1. Disney realized that Zac is what is all about and made the entire movie around him. I'm not complaining cause he's pretty to look and a better actor with every installment, but seriously... not enough of La Tisdale! As HSM2 proved, she can hold the entire movie together. In HSM3 she has great scene-stealing moments (her entrance with her FABULUS car, her "single spotlight" moment and of course her crashing down on Brit-clone's Sharpay's number at the end) and what she doesn't get in script she makes up for in facial expressions and overall attitude. Oh to be Sharpay: never to be outdone, outwitted or outdressed!

2. What the f@*k was up with the HSM-wannabes? I have already made my thoughts about Jimmy The Rocker Zara clear, and while I love anyone and everyone with an accent, these characters simply screamed: FRANCHISE and at times distracted from the core group of talented cast members. Disney: if you really want to spin off HSM do it in your own time, not on the big screen when you give us an entire towel scene with 'The Rocker' but only a back shot of shirtless Troy, it's unfair!

3. Bigger, indeed. But better? I loved the crazy sequences (still wondering where the dancers for The Boys are Back came from) - especially the Gabriella/Troy cameos in I Want It All, but at times I wondered whether there was too much glitz and glamour and not enough substance. And then I remembered I was watching High School effing Musical and remembered I don't care.

4. Props to Disney for their progressive agenda: The girl picks academics over a boy! The boy picks theater AND basketball!  Behind-the-scenes artists (the composer and the choreographer!) privileged over the on-stage performers.

5. And yet, they left me hanging with Ryan: He's gay. Don't mask it... I mean wtf was that with Kelsie? The only way Disney can fix this is by doing HSM: Juillard, The Series, which in my mind tells the story of Ryan and his roommate Kelsie. Think: Will and Grace + HSM.

6. I know Dame James is already starting the La Tisdale Best Supporting Actress Oscar campaign, but can I claim the Caroline Marx Best Costume Design campaign? Ryan and Sharpay's outfits were like Patricia Field Jr (knee boots for a boy? a hula-hoop-like purse?) and it needs to be rewarded.

7. Who knew an eponymous title song could be so ... blah. Seriously.

8. Four words: Dance-Along DVD Edition. Loved the choreography. And not just the big numbers (Ryan in hot pink pants + Chorus girls!) but also the smaller ones - the rooftop/raining/waltzing scene was a highlight in its simplicity and grace.

9. What type of budget for its theater department do the Wildcats have? I mean, I thought Disney had gone overboard with their high school musical productions in Confessions of a Drama Queen but not to be outdone, they give us Senior Year Musical which looked like a Mel Brooks-financed Broadway show.

[Photos via Tapeworthy]

The Duchess, or How Keira's pretty dresses couldn't get me interested

The Duchess

Dir. Saul Dibb

Writing Jeffrey Hatcher & Anders Thomas Jensen

Starring: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell.

I really wanted to like this film: I've grown to like Keira post-Pirates, I love me some Dominic and the costumes were so pretty. But ultimately, the film meanders too much in trying to concentrate on the petty gossip-like bedroom drama staged around said 'Duchess' while leaving behind the politics and the intricacies of concrete character development which could have really boosted this faux-bedroom drama. I was so bored by the whole thing I fell asleep (in the theater!) and I'm bored already writing this up. C-

W.'s ABC's or How it's a Political Alphabet

W.

Directed by Oliver Stone

Written by Stanley Weiser

Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Toby Jones, Richard Dreyfuss, Thandie Newton, Noah Wyle, Jesse Bradford, Jeffrey Wright, Ioan Gruffud... and the list goes on and on.

Instead of a full-review I thought I'd do something a little bit more fun. And what is better than LEARNING? Nothing right? So in that spirit, for those of you learning your Dubya's ABCs here's an alphabet for the film.

A is for A-List talent involved: Stone, Brolin, Banks, etc. and a great supporting cast (even in small roles!) that saves this film from being a simple exercise in political/cultural history without really being an engaging or interesting film.

B is for Banks, Elizabeth who works hard at becoming Laura Bush - who sadly post-marriage (and post-BBQ in the film) isn't really much of a character.

C is for Close-ups. Stone privileges these all the way through and it helps at times since up close Brolin's face kind of takes a Bush-look. But at other times I kept thinking: why?

D is for Dick Cheney (played by Richard Dreyfuss) who is shown to be the bat-shit scary, creepy guy he is. 

E is for Ellen Burstyn who is always a breath of fresh air in any and every movie she's in and here she sparkles as Barbara Bush with her delicious line readings.

F is for Food. Hard not to notice that Stone surrounds his film with tons of eating/drinking scene. But I wonder: is it a metaphor for consumption? Excess? Hunger? Help me out here.

G is for Gruffud, Ioan who shows us what Tony Blair would look like if he were a million times more attractive.

H is for H.W (played by James Cromwell) along with Burstyn, he makes the family scenes all that more believable - even if they're playing with cliches that go back to Socrates.

I is for "Iraq is not Iran. I know that much" which still cracked me up even after I'd seen it in the trailer so many times before.

J is for Jesse Bradford ... with a paddle! Surrounded by men (some scantily clad and soaking wet!)

K is for Karl Rove (played by Toby Jones) is a self-described "fairy" (as per the dialogue in the movie... though sadly not a fairy-fairy, just a right-wing political Rovian fairy...) But seeing that Toby also played Capote... it left me wondering.

L is for Lots of drinking. Jack gets around in this film.

M is for Musical Score (by Paul Cantelon). It's actually so good. I'm thinking this and Brolin have the best shots at garnering any love at the end of year awards.

N is for Noah Wyle? Seriously? I had no idea... Stone really threw me for a loop with ER's fave alum.

O is for Oedipus Complex - I need not explain this right?

P is for Palin = Bush? They both love running and staying in shape; love Joe-Voter, believe in "Ameri-cuh," hate "nukular" weapons and interweave seamlessly their religious beliefs into "secular" politics.

Q is for Quel Surprise! (ie. I'm using Q for Jeffrey Wright regardless) - as Colin Powell he is believable and conflicted (the only one!)

R is for Rookie not a Pro - is that what Stone wanted us to take from:

S is for Sports Metaphor (Baseball!)? I mean, those scenes in the 'field' are illuminating but they function too didactically to be efficient.

T is for Thandie Newton (as Condolezza Rice) is a hot mess. Was she playing Rice as a drag queen on purpose? There's a line between imitation done well (Tina!), imitation done believably (Josh!) and imitation as camp (sadly... Thandie!)

U is for Underwhelming overall. Really I don't know what I was expecting, but all I got was at most a competent attempt at character study that fails at making it to the (history/film) books. Entertaining yes, but not all that great.

V is for Vendetta and it kinda does feel like Dubya's presidency was just that... revenge against his father, and I don't know how satisfying that is...

W is for Dubya, played by Josh Brolin, who really is amazing as Dubya. And it's not just the swagger and the makeup and the voice... it's the ease with which he achieves this - unlike someone else on the cast (see T). You got give 'im props for almost... almost making you sorry for the guy who's done so much cultural/political/national harm.

X is for X-nay on the Ating-Hay. Stone does try and have it both ways... it's not a complete mockery, but even in the "serious" scenes the character and the dialogue play like a comedy. A dark and sad comedy when all is considered. Dubya might be a jester but his laughs have real repercussions.

Y is for Yale. How fitting I was in New Haven when I chose to watch this - even if the crowd at the Criterion could easily have been H.W.'s age...

Z is for zZzZZz Phew! That was tiring... I'm sleepy now.

Overall Grade: B

Rachel Getting Married, or How "This is not my family"

Rachel Getting Married

Dir. Jonathan Demme

Written by Jenny Lumet

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Mather Zickel and Debra Winger.

The trailer tells us that "This is NOT your family" before correcting itself and pronouncing "This IS your family" - I can thankfully say this is not my family (only Connecticut families could rejoice in a 'let's load our dishwasher' timed-game!) but Demme and his cast make Rachel Getting Married an interesting sociological experiment. When I left the theater I had to ask myself: Do people like this exist? (I don't mean addicts and dysfunctional families - they're a dime a dozen; but families and couples that are so self-consciously multi-cultural and folksy while still showcasing their privilege and wealth)

In any case. I don't usually leave movies asking myself whether what I have just seen could actually happen (that would have made for interesting post-The Dark Knight and post-Wall-E conversations) so instead I can focus on the performances:

Anne is pitch-perfect. She's annoying, she's vulnerable, she's in pain, she's painful. Long gone is the Princess from those Disney movies. Here we have a broken young woman whose 'accident' so many years ago has scarred her more than her pill-addiction could ever have. She's abrasive, and at times we sympathize with her family for not knowing how to handle her and the film is intent on not wanting to lay the blame on only one side of the family which is why when Rachel's "I'm pregnant" explodes into a frenzy of joy in the room we kind of understand Kym's "That is so unfair!" 

I fell in love with Rosemarie while watching Mad Men season 1 earlier this year. And here, as the patient, 'good' sister she has a character as complex - if not more so - as Kym: in Rachel we have so much desperation, so much self-control that her shoulders are always crunched as if she is expecting 'Shiva the destroyer' to ruin her wedding. And yet, you can't blame her of vilify her for being in so much pain over the loss of her little brother and the frustration of being the only no-nonsense of the family (Hawaii in that light looks like a perfect escape no?) I commend the film for never painting it as a simple Rachel or Kym scenario and it's a testament to everyone involved, including DeWitt and Anne.

As soon as she came on-screen, the girl behind me (part of a trio of annoying 20-somethings: probably the only ones in my age group in what I described as an audience "as white and old as any McCain rally) had the audacity to say "Oh. I loove her... I love Debra Singer" - I was /this/ close to turning around and correcting her, but instead laughed to myself and wondered how f

ar her knowledge of this Ms Singer went. Anyways, in a small but plot-pivotal role, Ms Winger plays the elusive, aloof and cold Mom. It is the one absolute-like moment of the film: Mommy's to blame. Or at least a just as unsympathetic: "Mom just wasn't there ... look, she's not even here now" which I had trouble digesting after Demme and Lumet had crafted such a psychological minefield. 

Overall, the film feels like a family visit - at times overlong, at times painfully uncomfortable, at times joyful and hopeful and nostalgic, but always real (how refreshing that de-glamming for Anne means not wearing makeup and not a Theron-like transformation) and when it's done there are things you rather not have seen/done/heard but you know you're better for it. A

Bonus: 

Sexiest non-sexy line reading from Mather Zickel - "Retort"