Capsule Review: "Children of Men"

Alfonso Cuarón’s “Children of Men” begins with a bang, grabbing its audience by the collar and dragging it through a disturbingly resonant dystopia. Like the best of science fiction, “Children of Men” draws upon that which is familiar and relevant. Much of the film’s imagery seems to have been lifted from our real-world headlines. The year is 2027, and women are no longer able to give birth. The world has fallen into disarray – stricken by nuclear war, terrorism, and warring factions. Theo (Clive Owen), a former activist, is approached by his revolutionary ex-lover (Julianne Moore) with a favor: he is to help the first pregnant woman in nearly twenty years navigate the dangers of England to reach a rumored safe haven known as the Human Project.

Director Alfonso Cuarón, with the help of Director of Photography Emmanuel Lubezki, creates a completely immersive and frighteningly real vision of the future. Several long takes (some bordering 10 minutes) occupy the film’s running time. The camera acrobatics are at once dazzling, a 360-degree turn inside a car or weaving through a combat zone, but they also clearly define the space of England in 2027 and thereby enforce the urgency of the parable. Cuarón’s insistence on letting the shots linger allows the viewer to enter a fully-realized universe of broken glass, rubble, and violence. Very few close-ups are used in “Children of Men”. As a result, the audience can’t help but view the characters in the context of their environment.

Cuarón and Lubezki are aided by a fine collection of talent. Clive Owen channels Humphrey Bogart as the reluctant hero – a man so disillusioned by the state of the world that, initially, he has only enough time and energy to look out for himself. Superlative set design strikes a balance between the contemporary and the fantastical cityscapes of other seminal science fiction films such as “Metropolis” and “Blade Runner”. The rich sound design is ever present. It features sirens, gun shots, human and animal screams and serves as a constant reminder as to the state of this world.

Amidst the impending doom of “Children of Men”, Alfonso Cuarón has injected a strong current of unadulterated hope. Though the film parallels the Christian nativity, Cuarón achieves a great deal of spirituality without beating the religious nail over the head. His is a message of faith, not necessarily in a higher power, but in a better tomorrow.

**** / ****

Capsule Review: "The Insider"

Despite seven Oscar nominations (including Best Picture), Michael Mann’s “The Insider” may be one of the most under-appreciatd and under-seen films of the last 15 years or so. It tells the true story of Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) and Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino). The former is a recently fired tobacco executive who’s compelled to reveal inside information on tobacco products that could be crushing for his former bosses, and the latter is a producer for 60 Minutes who must navigate treacherous corporate and legal waters in order to air Wigand’s story.

Mann’s film runs 157 minutes, yet it’s positively riveting from start to finish, despite a complete absence of gunfire, explosions and car chases. It imparts a great deal of complex information pertaining to law, corporate affairs and media dealings. However, Mann’s direction is so sure-footed and the script, written by Mann and Eric Roth, is so thoroughly researched and dramatically competent that the potentially cumbersome material is engaging and easy to follow.

Mann creates a palpable sense of drama, as Wigand’s struggle isn’t without a sense of loss. A minor spoiler follows, so skip to the last paragraph if you want a totally fresh viewing experience. Wigand’s wife leaves Jeffrey, after he persists in blowing the whistle on big tobacco despite threats on his family. To draw a comparison, Ron Howard’s “A Beautiful Mind” maintains that its protagonist, a man named John Nash who suffered from schizophrenia, stayed with his wife. In reality, Nash’s wife succumbed to the pressure of her husband’s condition and left him. Mann doesn’t pull any such punches, and his film remains true to the events that transpired. His willingness to resist temptations that might comfort mainstream viewers results in a more compelling journey for his main character.

In a robust career, Jeffrey Wigand is Russell Crowe’s strongest piece of acting. From the ground and up, Crowe’s performance is a full-bodied portrayal. His Wigand moves differently from Russell Crowe or other Crowe characters. Wigand has a stilted walk, befitting a man who strains to keep hold of his emotions. Indeed, Wigand is said to have emotional problems in the film, and Crowe offers a few volcanic glimpses. The Australian actor, 35 years old at the time of the film’s release, successfully plays a 48-year-old man and all the emotional and physical baggage that comes with it. Al Pacino offers a later-career best as the determined producer from 60 Minutes. It’s the pairing of these two acting titans, one newly minted and the other a Hollywood veteran, along with Mann’s exceptional talent that makes “The Insider” such a gripping drama.

**** / ****

Review: "Where the Wild Things Are"

In short, “Where the Wild Things Are” is as good a movie as can be derived from a 10-sentence children’s book. That’s not necessarily meant to sound like a putdown. Narratively thin, director and co-screenwriter Spike Jonze isn’t interested in structuring his film around standard family film plot points. “Wild Things” is a melancholy character study focused on Max, a rambunctious young boy played astonishingly well by Max Records. After bouts with his sister and single mother, Max runs away from home and escapes to an island where the wild things are. The film presents a series of vignettes between Max and his new friends, and these events clearly mirror his home life with increased levels of despair.

Shot in ruggedly handsome Melbourne, Australia, director of photography Lance Acord imbues breathtaking imagery with an appropriate autumnal color scheme. After all, this is a film about growing up. The wild things, themselves, are seamlessly and beautifully rendered through puppetry, costumes and computer animation. They’re voiced by an all-star cast, which includes: Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano and standout James Gandolfini. Carton Burwell and Karen O., composers with slightly conflicting sensibilities, collaborated on the score. The former lends his traditional sorrowful tone while the latter offers something more celebratory. The result is a soundtrack that’s wholly unique and fitting.

Spike Jonze has made a career on quirky, independent-minded projects, and “Where the Wild Things Are” follows suit. It’s an art house film masquerading as a studio production, backed by Warner Brothers and costing upwards of $80 million. Jonze is to be commended for following through on his convictions. His adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s book is decidedly sad and dreary, and it certainly would have been easier (i.e. more commercially viable) to go another, lighter route. “Where the Wild Things Are” isn’t so much for children as it is about being a child and all the angst, sadness and uncertainty that comes with it. Its lack of a traditional structure is befitting of these whirlwind emotions (if a bit inactive). As an examination of a child’s psyche, it’s very effective and deeply moving. As a palatable family outing that’s based on a cherished children’s book, well, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is still in theaters.

*** or ***½ / ****

Review: "Paranormal Activity"

Let me preface by saying that I didn’t think that the "Paranormal Activity" trailer - a mish-mash of film footage and audience reaction - was particularly effective. Although, it does highlight the best reason to see this film in theaters: the audience. There isn't much critical material available on "Paranormal Activity". It's been out for just over a week, but there are only 30 [very positive] reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. It's the sort of film that builds momentum through word-of-mouth. Paramount Pictures is well aware of this, which is why their initial distribution strategy is completely dependent upon online demand. I'm willing to bet that this past weekend’s screenings were pretty full as a result.

The film's success, and it is undoubtedly successful, is almost entirely owed to "The Blair Witch Project". The general premise is this: a couple has been experiencing paranormal activity and so the boyfriend has invested in a camera to document the happenings. Produced on a shoestring budget, the film is told entirely from the perspective of the boyfriend's camera, similar to “The Blair Witch”. Also like that late 90’s shocker, the bare-bones budget limits (or perhaps liberates) the filmmakers to base their scares almost solely around things that go bump in the night. The structure of the film is brilliant if simple. During the day, the couple talks about the nocturnal disturbances, conducts paranormal research, consults with a psychic, etc. All of the night scenes begin from the same vantage point: the boyfriend places the camera on a tripod at the foot of their bed, and it surveys the whole room and the dark hallway that stretches beyond. Each night is prefigured by a title card – Night #1, 2, 3 and so on. The structure, like a roller coaster with every subsequent dip (or night scene) being steeper and longer (or more frightening) than its predecessor, had my audience positively writhing. The sound design is likewise wonderfully developed. At the beginning of the film, the soundtrack is sprinkled with bumps and scrapes so indistinguishable and soft as to be almost commonplace or even unnoticeable. As the film progresses, however, those seemingly normal and everyday noises turn into something that is...decidedly not. By the end of my screening, one audience member was audibly whimpering and another was slapping his knee in fits of anxiety.

“Paranormal Activity” is probably a better film than “The Blair Witch Project”, though the latter will always be the innovator and tremendously influential. Still, consider the following. The task before the filmmakers of "The Blair Witch Project" was to derive fear from the forest. Not particularly challenging, as forests are inherently dark, disorienting and filled with strange noises. Oren Peli, the writer and director of "Paranormal Activity", was charged with something much greater and more difficult: filling one's own home (specifically one's bedroom) with terror and menace. He has accomplished just that through a minimalist approach that relies on swinging chandeliers, moving bed sheets, whispering wind [or was it breath] and other things that go bump in the night. Pleasant dreams.

*** / ****

"Ben and Kate", a short film inspired by the Ben Folds Five song, "Brick"

I've finally made my senior thesis film, "Ben and Kate", available on Youtube. Check it out if you haven't seen it already. It's split into two parts, but it's total running time is just under 19 minutes.

First, the film's trailer.

Part I
Part II

Oscar Predictions

I have something of a love-hate relationship with the Academy Awards.  More often than not, I disagree with their choices, and yet year after year, I'm compulsively intrigued and involved.  The nominations are announced tomorrow, and here's my stab at predicting the top eight categories.

Best Picture:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Dark Knight

Frost/Nixon

Milk

Slumdog Millionaire

Alternative:  WALL-E

Best Director:

David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight

Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon

Gus Van Sant, Milk

Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Alternative:  Andrew Stanton, WALL-E

Best Actor:

Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn, Milk

Richard Jenkins, The Visitor

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Alternative:  Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino

Best Actress:

Angelina Jolie, Changeling

Meryl Streep, Doubt

Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

Alternative:  Melissa Leo, Frozen River

Best Original Screenplay:

Milk

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The Visitor

WALL-E

The Wrestler

Alternative:  Rachel Getting Married

Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Dark Knight

Doubt

Frost/Nixon

Slumdog Millionaire

Alternative:  The Reader

Best Supporting Actor:

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

Josh Brolin, Milk

Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder

Alternative:  James Franco, Milk

Best Supporting Actress:

Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Viola Davis, Doubt

Amy Adams, Doubt

Kate Winslet, The Reader

Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Alternative:  Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Welcome (and a belated Happy New Year)!

Hullo friendos,

Gar here in what will (hopefully) be the first of many blog entries.   Those of you who know me well, probably know that the title of my blog - "You're Gonna Need a Bigger Blog" - is lovingly ripped from my favorite film, "Jaws."  And films are exactly what I will be writing about.   Since we're just over a week into the new year, I thought I might start things off with my top 10 most-anticipated films of 2009...

10. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Dir. David Yates)

Director David Yates received something of a critical drubbing for his work on the last Potter film, Order of the Phoenix.  I'm not sure why.  After Alfonso Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban, I thought it was the most visionary of the series.  Yates certainly got strong performances out of his young cast, though they've admittedly had quite some time to grow into the roles.  Roger Ebert complained that the film took itself too seriously.  Nevermind the dramatic necessity to go darker as the series progresses, but I thought there was a good deal of humor.  More than any of the other Potter films, it made me yearn to see what would happen next.

9. Nine (Dir. Rob Marshall)

My ninth entry (haha) is based on a stage musical by the same name, and the musical is based on Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, which is one of the most respected films to come out of Europe.  Rob Marshall directs.  I really responded to his crisp, razzle-dazzle 'um (double haha) direction of Chicago.  He and Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) are certainly responsible for the recent resurgence in film musicals (though I can't say as any of their successors have helped in keeping the trend alive).  Marshall has assembled a large cast that's almost unsurpassed in its quality:  Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren.  So why is the film ranked so low?  Did I mention that Fergie also stars?

8. The Road (Dir. John Hillcoat)

Last year, I had the great pleasure of reading the Cormac McCarthy novel on which this film is based.  Viggo Mortensen stars, and he's certainly had quite the string of successes since playing Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings.  His talents won me over with his turn in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.  On a special note, the film was shot around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  A news article on the shoot quoted the director or one of the producers as saying that that area of PA has some beautiful post-apocalyptic scenery.  As someone who hails from Pennsylvania, I'm not sure whether that's compliment or a put-down.

7. The Lovely Bones (Dir. Peter Jackson)

Peter Jackson certainly has both talent and passion to spare, though I wouldn't quite call myself a disciple.  His films tend to be overwrought by half.  Granted, I've only seen The Lord of the Rings and his King Kong remake.  It's going to be interesting to see how he handles a smaller and presumably more intimate film.  Again, there's an impressive cast:  Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Saoirse Ronan.  

6. Avatar (Dir. James Cameron)

After a 12 year feature-film hiatus, James Cameron is back!  I don't know that a whole lot of information has come out about the film.  IMDb's plot summary reads:  "In the future...a paraplegic war veteran is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by...a humanoid race...those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture."  Cameron's involvement is enough for me.  His work informed my early filmgoing experiences.  I hold him responsible - along with a couple other filmmakers - for shaping my passions and my going to film school.

5. Inglorious Bastards (Dir. Quentin Tarantino)

Lately, Tarantino's work has taken a turn toward the wordy, over-long and generally self-indulgent.  Though I still find him to be an exciting and engaging filmmaker.  Just as Kill Bill was a sizeable logistic and ambitious leap from Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, Inglorious Bastards promises to be another great leap forward.  It tells the story of a group of WWII Jewish soldiers who are hunting for Nazi scalps.  That's pretty damn sick, and I fully expect Tarantino to bring his A-game - idiosyncrasies and all.  Plus, he's got legendary film composer  Ennio Morricone to do the score.

4. Public Enemies (Dir. Michael Mann)

Anyone who has spent any substantive time talking film with me knows that I love gangster films.  Especially period gangster films.  Public Enemies concerns federal agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) and his pursuit of the gangster John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) during the 1930's.  I didn't particularly care for Michael Mann's Miami Vice, but there's no getting around the fact that he knows how to put a film together.  The Insider, Heat, Collateral, etc.  He's got two dynamite actors with Bale and Depp, as well.

3. Up (Dir. Pete Docter & Bob Peterson)

Though Pixar Animation Studio has dabbled in disappointments, as far as I'm concerned, they have yet to make an outright bad film.  Up looks to be another home-run (or at least a triple) from my favorite studio.  It's about a man, nearly 80,  who ties thousands of balloons to his house with the intention of floating to South America.  Once air born, he finds a young boy has stowed away.  What's interesting about Pixar is that their stories are taking baby steps toward riskier territory.  Their first feature film, Toy Story, had recognizable celebrity voices, and being that it was about toys that come to life, the merchandisers must have been laughing their way to the bank.  Thirteen years and eight movies later, they produced WALL-E, a film wherein the first 30 minutes are dialogue-free and the two main characters are robots which bare very little resemblance to humans.  Now, they have a film where the protagonist is a grumpy senior citizen.  No cuddly robots or talking animals.  It seems to me that that will present an interesting marketing challenge, though I expect the young stowaway is intended to dilute some of those concerns.

2. Shutter Island (Dir. Martin Scorsese)

Suspense films represent another genre staple for me.  Scorsese follows his instant classic, white-knuckler, The Departed with another crime thriller.  I've surveyed some pretty strong casts thus far, but this one is absolutely stacked:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Jackie Earle Haley, Patricia Clarkson and Ted Levine.  Based on a Dennis Lehane novel (author of Mystic River), the film will chronicle two U.S. Marshals as they search for an escaped murderess on Shutter Island.  I guess the only reason this film isn't number one is that the plot contains a pretty big  conceit - the murderess escapes from confinement when a storm hits her institution.

1. Green Zone (Dir. Paul Greengrass)

There have been a lot of overtly 9/11 themed films.  I frankly haven't seen many, because they seemed preachy or exploitative or some combination of both.  The few that I have seen have confirmed my suspicions.  Greengrass's United 93 certainly bucked the trend, though.  It's at once a sprawling film, yet he and his writers expertly manage to distill the events of that day into a 90-minute narrative.  The final 20 to 30 minutes are forever etched into my memory, a cinematic envisioning of pure chaos capped by a final moment that was best described by film critic Peter Travers, "At the end, he [Greengrass] imagines a sea of arms reaching into that cockpit in a way that redefines heroism.  Far from being exploitative, the effect is inspiring:  This is the best of us."  With Green Zone, a film about U.S. soldiers searching for WMD's, I'm expecting more of the same.  The docu-drama style of shooting that Greengrass has mastered, chaotic yet structured.  He's an intelligent filmmaker yet never pandering.  Moving but not sensational or sentimental.  Heart-pounding, but never through cheap thrills.  Matt Damon stars, and that's also not a bad thing.

Here's to a great year at the movies!