F.I.L.M. of the Week (December 3, 2010)

3 12 2010

With the smash hit “Inception” hitting shelves next week, I thought now would be as good a time as ever to revisit a little-known movie of its star, Leonardo DiCaprio.  I’ve featured virtually every supporting cast member in the “F.I.L.M. of the Week” column before, and it’s time for the Academy Award-nominated DiCaprio to join their ranks.

(For the sake of reference and shameless promotion, I’ll list the other stars and their criminally underseen gems: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s, “The Lookout,”  Tom Hardy’s “Bronson,” Ellen Page’s “Hard Candy,” Marion Cotillard’s “La Vie en Rose,” Cillian Murphy’s “Sunshine,” Michael Caine’s, “Children of Men,” and director Christopher Nolan’s “Following.”  Ken Watanabe … perhaps coming soon?)

So for Leo’s entry, I submit “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”  This is one of his early movies, four years before “Titanic” superstardom, and at 19, he shows the same mastery of acting as he does in the psychologically tormented characters that he played in 2010.  Here, his Arnie suffers a different mental affectation: a developmental disability that was supposed to take his life at the age of 10.

Eight years later, his care is left largely in the hands of older brother Gilbert Grape, played by a younger, red-haired Johnny Depp.  Gilbert struggles with his circumstances: he’s frustrated living in the small town of Endora, Iowa, where nothing seems to happen.  He’s tired of being stuck in a job at the down-home town grocery store, preventing him from using the modern supermarket that has opened nearby.  He’s fed up with his family whose apathy leaves him with all the responsibilities since his obese mother is practically immobile, his father has deserted the family, and his siblings are caught up in their own little worlds.

But when the yearly exodus of trailers comes through the town, Gilbert is offered some relief from his dreary existence by the prospect of romance with Becky (the ever-so-’90s Juliette Lewis).  Her presence shakes up his life, making him more hesitant to add sensuality to his grocery delivery for the maritally frustrated Betty Carver (Mary Steenburgen).  But there are more profound changes that happens in Gilbert and his life, and director Lasse Hallstrom unravels the Grape family saga with such sensitivity that it’s irresistible and profoundly satisfying to watch.

There’s so much emotional depth endowed to this character that isn’t externalized by Depp, and 10 years before his first Oscar nomination, anyone who saw this movie could have seen it coming.  But the real star of “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” is DiCaprio, who surrenders to the character to the extent that it’s possible to forget who you’re watching.  To think that this is the same actor who wowed us in “The Departed” and “Inception” becomes hard to believe as we watch his overwhelming physicality draws our eyes to him for the entirety of the movie’s two hours.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (November 26, 2010)

26 11 2010

It’s Black Friday!  While my shopping today was limited to Amazon.com, there’s something more to celebrate … IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME!  (Officially, at least!)

What better way to celebrate than by watching a Christmas movie?  May I propose “Love Actually,” my pick for this week’s “F.I.L.M.”  It gets you in the holiday spirit like no other with its abundant tales of all sorts of different loves in the Christmas season.  This isn’t a traditional Christmas movie in the tradition of “Elf” or “The Santa Clause,” but the holiday plays such an integral role in the storyline that it’s hard to call it anything else.  It reminds you of the joys of the Christmas season so well that it’s become a sort of traditional holiday kick-off for my family.

Platonic love, impossible love, irresponsible love, mourning love, familial love, interlingual love, desperate love – you name it, this movie offers it.  Some might call it overambitious or cluttered, but I think Richard Curtis’ script is an enormously satisfying blend of love that makes flawless connections between its characters.  He packs the movie full of humor and heart, tied with a bow of such irresistible charm that you’ll wish every gift under the Christmas tree could provide such joy.

All your favorite Brits (and Laura Linney) are feeling the bliss and pain of love in overdrive with all the madness surrounding the holidays catches them.  The perpetually single Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) is undeniably attracted to one of the women working for him (Martine McCutcheon), which makes for a difficult situation.  The clumsy writer Jamie (Colin Firth) finds himself falling for his Portuguese housekeeper while working France, despite the fact that neither can speak the same language.

Sarah (Linney) is madly in love with her co-worker Karl (Rodrigo Santoro) but can never work up the courage to say anything.  Daniel (Liam Neeson) is mourning the death of his long-suffering wife while trying to help his young stepson get noticed by his crush.  Karen (Emma Thompson) is trying to put on a happy face for her family while her husband (Alan Rickman) isn’t being entirely honest about his affairs.

And playing behind it all, there’s washed-up and rehabbed rock star Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) trying to reclaim his former glory by shamelessly converting an old song into Christmas jam, “Christmas Is All Around.”  He’s a hilariously self-depracating mess, making ill-advised remarks like, “Kids, don’t buy drugs; become a celebrity and they’ll give them to you for FREE!”  Nighy delivers one of those divine, once-in-a-decade comedic performances, and he absolutely steals the movie.

I didn’t even touch on about half of the storylines in the story, not to mention the subplots.  There’s just so much there for everyone in “Love Actually” that it’s practically irresistible.  While you might not click with one storyline, there are a dozen others that you are bound to love!  Like the poster says, it’s the “ultimate romantic comedy,” and you’ll be amazed at how entertaining and fun Richard Curtis and his army of British actors can make the dying genre.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (November 19, 2010)

19 11 2010

Looking for a warm Thanksgiving-themed movie to watch while the turkey is in the oven?  Take a bite out of the delectable comedy “Pieces of April,” my timely pick for “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”  I watched the movie back in March because of Patricia Clarkson’s Oscar-nominated supporting role, but there’s so much more to love about the movie than her.  I’ve been an enthusiastic fan for quite some time now, and I held back posting about it until now, when the timing seems right.

Think about, we get a plethora of Christmas movies but no love for Thanksgiving?  By the time November rolls around, all the stores are already decorated to sell Christmas gear, XM Radio has already started their Christmas station again, and the retailers start to post their holiday sale information.  There’s so much to celebrate about Thanksgiving, one of the few holidays we have left that isn’t heavily commercialized.  So for all those who think that Thanksgiving is just the day before Black Friday, step away from the wallet and sit on the couch and watch “Pieces of April.”

Since Thanksgiving is a holiday about family, it makes sense that this a movie all about family, both the ones we are forced to be a part of and the ones we make ourselves.  April (Katie Holmes, pre-Tom and Suri madness) is the twenty-something rebel living in New York to maintain a distance from her dysfunctional family, but welcomes them to her tiny apartment for Thanksgiving dinner, potentially the last for her mother Joy (Clarkson), embittered by her breast cancer diagnosis.  The movie follows both sides as they think they have the hardest part of the deal: April actually attempting to cook a turkey and her family making the journey from suburbia.

Each encounter difficulties, with April’s oven breaking and Joy’s negativity forcing them to take some trite and unnecessary delays.  However, April finds that her cooking struggles force her to interact with her neighbors, with whom she had never associated before.  She finds that she can actually be friends with these people, and that’s what makes “Pieces of April” such a great movie for such a great holiday: it’s all about the relationships, both appreciating the ones you have and being open to making new ones.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (November 12, 2010)

12 11 2010

There are plenty of political documentaries out there to watch, each of them pointing out a specific flaw in the system and offering an optimistic solution.  Most find that they can make the most effective film by focusing very narrowly on their subject.  Alex Gibney proves an exception with his Academy Award-winning “Taxi to the Dark Side,” my pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”

I got a chance to attend a seminar and discussion with Gibney at the Houston Cinematic Arts Festival today, and it was a very interesting and enlightening hour.  Gibney talked about how he learned the importance of voice, story, and individual perspective while working on “The Blues,” and these three things have shaped the way he has made all of his movies since then.  He said that it’s often hard to keep these things in mind, particularly the story since the process of scripting a documentary is backwards.  But, as he stated, “If you don’t pay attention to the story, no one will care about the themes.”

I watched a few of Gibney’s movies to be able to ask an intelligent question at the seminar, and I found myself really wanting to ask him about “Taxi to the Dark Side.”  It’s such a fascinating movie because at the core, it’s about three soldiers who torture and kill an innocent taxi driver named Dilawar on the Bagram Air Base.  Yet Gibney knows that their story cannot be accurately and honestly told by keeping the perspective limited to just the men, the victim, and the base.  He expands the scope of the movie not only to cover the United States’ torture policy and the complicated ethical arguments surrounding it, but also to include how the American public has become desensitized to torture.  We leave the story of the three normal soldiers for extended periods of time to cover the highest officials in the country but the movie never forgets that their story is at the center of the movie.

The movie was made in 2007 whenever George W. Bush still occupied the Oval Office, so I wondered what exactly Gibney hoped to achieve by making the movie when he did.  I asked him how the times affected the way he made “Taxi to the Dark Side,” wondering what it would look like if he made the movie in 2010 when Barack Obama calls the shots.  He replied, “I don’t think of myself as a crusader; I think of myself as a storyteller.”  In response to his claim, I can only be in full support.  Gibney clearly has an opinion and isn’t shy about expressing them in his movies; however, he offers up so many facts and ethical questions that you can’t help walking away from the movie questioning why you believe what you do.  You can choose to change or stay the same, but everyone is bettered by further understanding of their own values.

Gibney concluded his response to me by stating that “Taxi to the Dark Side” centered around this question: how do we retain our values in the face of a pernicious threat?  No matter your opinion on what went down in Iraq, we all have to admit that we lost a sense of American righteousness and justice in the eyes of the world over the past decade.  Terrorism has threatened our security and stability as a nation like few things ever have, but are we willing to discard our most American values to stop it?  What price are we willing to pay for our safety?  Gibney doesn’t offer us any easy answers, and that’s what makes this such a great movie.  Rather than throw solutions in your face like other activist documentaries, his “Taxi to the Dark Side” merely raises the questions and leaves you pondering them for days.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (November 5, 2010)

5 11 2010

With Danny Boyle set to have the world eating out of his hand again with “127 Hours” opening in limited release today, I thought it would be wise to check out his full catalogue to see how this stylistically virtuoso director flew under my radar for so long.  I didn’t make it all the way through, so my judgement isn’t final.  However, I did conclude that the vibrant energy he brought to “Slumdog Millionaire” is nothing new; he has been perfecting it over the course of a decade.

In case the tacit implication wasn’t clear in that last paragraph, I still think that “Slumdog Millionaire” is Danny Boyle at his peak. Easily his most realized and lucid directorial work, it is clear that Boyle is a director worthy of Hollywood’s most coveted trophy.  However, I found that among his other films, “Sunshine” stuck out as another masterwork.  Set in 2057 when the universe is about to implode, the intelligent science-fiction movie is easily Boyle’s most underrated.

There’s a sense of claustrophobia not unlike that present in Ridley Scott’s “Alien” as the crew of the Icarus head towards potentially imminent demise on a mission to reignite the dying Sun.  The seven ethnically diverse crew members (because this is an international mission, after all) face immense psychological distress as the fate of the universe rides on their shoulders.  All seem ready for sacrifice – or are they?  As the ship moves closer towards the Sun, the astronauts begin to act more out of self-interest and less out of humanity’s interest.

The movie is more of a psychological journey than a visual one, although Boyle does a nice job of seamlessly integrating some very dazzling effects into the movie.  This journey is effective because of the movie’s authentic feel, accomplished through scientific consultation and the method acting procedures Boyle put his cast through.  “Sunshine” may not sound entirely original, and to a certain extent, it isn’t.  But imagined through Boyle’s eyes, it’s a blazing cinematic trek to the edge of space filled with excitement and suspense.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (October 29, 2010)

29 10 2010

I feel a little corny using a movie I watched in a class at school as the “F.I.L.M. of the Week,” but to be fair, the class is Economics, which has many practical applications to life.  So on that note, “I.O.U.S.A.” is nothing like those History Channel specials you watched in your middle school history classes to provide a good nap.  In the Halloween season, this could be the scariest movie you will see because it provides a look into your future.  And the future doesn’t look bright.

I’m in no mood to spout off notes for you, and trust me, I took notes on the movie for my class.  I could easily just copy and paste from there, but that would do neither of us any good.  This documentary goes into great depth on one of the most pressing issues our great nation faces – no, it’s not healthcare.  I’m talking about our national debt.

Do you know what it is?  What contributes to it?  How much it is?  Take a wild guess.

Did it come anywhere near to $13.6 trillion?  That’s the current stat, and it will only grow the later you read this post.  If that number alone doesn’t frighten you, does knowing that you owe $44,000 as an American citizen do the trick?  “I.O.U.S.A.” takes you beyond the number you can observe on the National Debt Clock and explains in simple and understandable terms what is going on with our debt.  I don’t want to get into a political debate here, but whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or a Tea Party supporter, you can’t deny that this is a HUGE problem.  Featuring interviews and excerpts from prominent politicians and businessmen like Warren Buffet, the movie is wholly convincing to anyone no matter where they fall on the political spectrum.

Simply put, our government is overcommitting itself.  Thanks to the fiscal irresponsibility of the Baby Boomers, they put us into a terrible position in regards to our debt.  And now they are hitting retirement age, vastly increasing expenditures of Social Security and Medicare.  With healthcare on top of all that, our country simply cannot weather a debt that could grow to $70 trillion in a matter of decades.  If this movie doesn’t scare the pants off you for predicting a vast change in your quality of life in the very near future, I don’t know what will.  Thank goodness President Obama is making this a priority for the next two years; this is something all Americans can agree needs to be addressed and fixed.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (October 22, 2010)

22 10 2010

Tom Hardy wasn’t first on the table for discussion after anyone saw “Inception,” simply because there was just so much to talk about.  Yet once all the disagreement over the ending and what Christopher Nolan intended to be real was over, everyone could pretty much settle on one thing – that British guy Eames was a great scene stealer.  He did, after all, deliver one of the movie’s few laughs with “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”

Curious on what could have prompted Nolan to cast such an unknown actor in a high-profile role in a $175 million movie, I went back to Hardy’s roots and discovered his big breakout, a small British action-thriller entitled “Bronson.”   It’s a great masculine movie, filled with merciless fighting and almost ceaseless violence.  (Sounds like a great date night rental, doesn’t it, ladies!)

While he was born Michael Peterson, Britain’s most dangerous prisoner will go to the grave as Charles Bronson, his fighting name.  He’s a ball of destruction that ultimately becomes too much for the country’s jails to handle.  Strangely enough, this is a man sprung from a fairly affluent middle-class family who had nowhere to go but up.  And perhaps that’s one of the movie’s messages – it doesn’t matter where you come from if you have violent tendencies.  They will take over you.

These violent outbursts land Bronson in the slammer, which hardly calms or rehabilitates him.  He sees it like a stage where his violence is his show for a hardly-impressed audience of guards.  The film perfectly captures the theatrical nature of Bronson’s violence, even spoon-feeding it to those who don’t pick up on it from Hardy’s brilliant portrayal of obsession.  Because of this, “Bronson” is more than just your average prison thriller.  It’s a portrait of a potentially demented man who will throw a punch no matter what the consequences are guaranteed to get the testosterone pumping through your body.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (October 15, 2010)

15 10 2010

While my struggles to choose this “F.I.L.M. of the Week” were documented in today’s factoid, I finally found a perfectly acceptable movie to feature here: Shane Black’s noir sendup “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”  Starring a pre-anointed Hollywood savior Robert Downey Jr. and a post-Batman Val Kilmer, the movie is a hilarious and thrilling story of murder, intrigue, betrayal, and cinema.  (And, as Downey’s character reminds us, ultimately a tale of friendship.)

The very meta movie works largely in part to Downey’s irresistible narration.  A part of the events yet telling them from afar, his perspective is certainly a strange one.  At times, he is omniscient; at others, limited.  Yet almost all the time, he’s a bumbling genius flying by the seat of his pants through a set of unforeseeable events.  After robbing a game store, his Harry runs unknowingly into a casting session for a role that is eerily reminiscent of the events of his law-breaking night.  Taken for an incredible method actor, the producers claim him to be their “big discovery” and fly him out to Hollywood for the next round of preparations.

Once in Hollywood, Harry deals with culture shock at a party, a little unsure of how to act around California socialites.  However, he reunites with his high-school sweetheart Harmony (Michelle Monaghan) unexpectedly and a romance begins to bloom.  Taking him for a detective, not an actor (which he also is not), she involves him in the investigation of her sister’s curious death.  Harry, along with actual investigator Perry van Shrike (Kilmer), probe deeper and find themselves entangled in a web involving two murders and some very scary connections.

While the plot may get a little confusing at times, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” is incredibly entertaining because of its clever blend of humor and mystery.   The performances from Downey and Kilmer are dynamic and light up the screen.  The plot is intelligent, and the fresh narrative style makes the somewhat hackneyed plot very fun to watch again.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (October 8, 2010)

8 10 2010

HungerThis week’s “F.I.L.M.” is Steve McQueen’s “Hunger,” a short volume of harrowing power.  The movie follows the Irish hunger strikers in 1981 who essentially martyred themselves after Britain refuses to recognize their rights while in prison.  The focus is specifically on Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), the leader of these strikers who ultimately died protesting for what he believed in.

“Hunger” is an incredibly striking visual movie, and McQueen goes into great depths to acquaint us with the conditions in the prison.  There is very little dialogue save a 23-minute conversation between Sands and the prison’s priest trying to talk him out of the protest, 17 minutes of which come from a single unbroken shot.  For those wondering, it is the longest shot in cinematic history.

Beyond the film’s notorious unbroken shot, there are plenty of haunting images that McQueen fills out heads with, particularly from the “no wash” protest that precedes the hunger strike.  We see the beatings and the tortures of naked prisoners in all their graphic form, and we watch in horror as the bruises appear on their skin at the hands of their captors.  We see the walls covered in excrement and the halls flooded with urine.  Believe me, fewer movies make you want to follow the law more than this one.

On the other hand, Fassbender’s Bobby Sands makes us question how far we are willing to stick with our beliefs.  He fights for equity from prison all the way to the grave, and while there were less drastic measures with which to make his point, his message gets across loud and clear.  Fassbender is as committed to the role as Sands is committed to the cause.  He goes to the physical and emotional limits of the character, and the performance is incredibly raw and forceful.  Fassbender will go places, mark my words.  Watch “Hunger” and say you knew it before he goes big.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (October 1, 2010)

1 10 2010

Long before there were your creepy Facebook “friends” who could stalk your photos, there were people like Sy Parrish, the creepy photo developer in Mark Romanek’s “One Hour Photo,” the “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”

Robin Williams plays the SavMart employee whose fixations drive him to violate all notions of privacy.  With no family or friends to speak of, he lives vicariously through the Yorkin family, whose pictures he has developed since the birth of their son.  Sy compulsively saves their pictures, compiling them on a giant wall in his home.

One day, obsession turns to possession, and he manages to convince himself that he is a member of their family.  We never figure out what leads him to these delusions, be it greed, envy, loneliness, depression, or some other compulsion.  And it is precisely because of his undefined motive that “One Hour Photo” is so scary; we could know someone like Sy.  Or he could know us.

Williams is absolutely frightening in the lead, and his performance is only aided by the shock value when we realize this is the man who gave us “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Flubber.”  It’s not just his movie though.  Mark Romanek’s direction is sharp, and his script is full of many keen observations on the meaning of a photo.  In the era where we tag ourselves in picture after picture on Facebook, “One Hour Photo” is one of the rare movies that becomes more relevant as the technology in it becomes irrelevant.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (September 24, 2010)

24 09 2010

This week’s “F.I.L.M.” is “A Mighty Heart,” the movie that chronicles the 2002 search for kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.  Running parallel to the hunt is the story of his pregnant wife, Mariane (Angelina Jolie), as she deals with his disappearance – and ultimately, his death.

(I think the story of Pearl’s captivity and beheading is well-known enough that I didn’t need to preface that with a spoiler alert, but if anyone thinks I’m ruining the surprise, let me know and I’ll take out that last part.)

On his last day on assignment on Pakistan, Daniel ventures into some sketchy areas to interview a very mysterious but powerful figure.  When he doesn’t come home that night, Mariane instantly fears that his disappearance was a kidnapping.  And as the days go by without word from him, the investigation takes on a graver importance.  The Department of Justice takes over the search; the CIA releases a report denouncing allegations that Daniel was an agent for them; even Colin Powell acknowledges the situation.

While the hunt for the kidnappers is mostly gripping, it doesn’t feel like anything we haven’t seen before.  “A Mighty Heart” works best when Angelina Jolie is on camera giving her tour-de-force performance as Mariane Pearl.  Clearly people that dismiss her celebrity as due to her beauty clearly haven’t seen “A Mighty Heart” (or, for that matter, any of her Oscar-nominated and -winning roles).

Jolie has a pitch-perfect range and totally nails Pearl’s every move.  While at the beginning she doesn’t show much emotion, we don’t feel distant at all.  In fact, it only draws us in more.  When we reach the tragic end, it’s absolutely heartbreaking to watch her let it all out.  It’s Angelina’s movie, and she owns every moment of it with as much grace as she has on the red carpet.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (September 17, 2010)

17 09 2010

I don’t know why I have let “I Am Sam” wait in the wings so long for its moment in the sun through the “F.I.L.M. of the Week” column, but it certainly reflects nothing on the quality of the movie.  For those of us who like to feel good, this a movie that will comfort your soul – although it will take you on an emotional rollercoaster ride leading up to your eventual soothing.

The title may be taken from the opening sentence of “Green Eggs and Ham,” but “I Am Sam” owes more to The Beatles than it does to Dr. Seuss.  The movie follows Fab Four fanatic and Starbucks employee Sam, played with complete control by the virtuoso Sean Penn, as he fights to maintain custody of his daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning in her breakout role – at the age of 7).  The state has good reason to take her as Sam is mentally challenged; Lucy came into the world because her mother exploited Sam’s lacking logical capacity.

Despite whatever cognitive disabilities he may have, Sam’s ability to love his daughter is uninhibited, and he makes a wholehearted attempt to keep her.  He consults a harried lawyer, Rita Harrison, (Michelle Pfeiffer) for help, who on first glance won’t give his case the time of day.  But for entirely misguided and selfish reasons, she agrees to take Sam on pro bono.  As she gets more involved with the case, Rita winds up being taught how to feel by his undying love for his daughter.

I know it sounds clichéd to say that a movie about the power of love is a really moving thing, but every once in a while, there comes a movie that comes along that can repackage old emotions and make them feel warm and cozy again.  “I Am Sam” tackles a tough ethical question: should a mentally handicapped person be able to have custody of a child that is more intelligent than they are?  No matter what your opinion on the matter is, it’s pretty hard not to be affected in some way by this testament to love that can transcend any boundary.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (September 10, 2010)

10 09 2010

There’s been plenty of attention paid to the Oscars on this site recently, and there will be significantly more starting next week.  The Venice Film Festival will wrap tomorrow; Toronto began yesterday; Telluride came and went.  The race is now beginning to take shape.  Exciting, isn’t it?

I find myself getting a little too carried away with the whole awards season, as do many other people.  We think that Hollywood is obsessed with the Oscar hunt, spending millions upon millions pushing their movie in an attempt to secure it a place in cinematic history.  But not everyone is amused.

Case in point: Christopher Guest.  His 2006 ensemble comedy “For Your Consideration” is a dead-on satire of the Oscar chase, seen from the eyes of the people whom the outcome directly affects.  It’s a reminder for those of us who get caught up in the craze that the whole thing is really a silly game and doesn’t deserve the serious attention we give it.  So I’m hoping that by entering it into the “F.I.L.M. of the Week” series, I might remember how trivial these awards really are in the grand scheme of things.

It all starts with a rumor as some idle Oscar buzz around Marilyn Hack, played with hilarious gusto by the ever hilarious Catherine O’Hara, and her performance in “Home for Purim” gets the star’s attention.  The movie is still shooting when the word gets out, and all of a sudden, it becomes all that anyone can can talk about.  The actors, the directors, the writers, the technical crew, the producers, the agents – everyone suddenly begins to believe they are a part of something special.

Dynamics begin to change around the set as the arbitrary layer of prestige is added to the production.  Hack’s performance is affected as she tries to pull typical over-the-top emotions just begging for Academy attention.  Beyond Hack, everyone starts acting solely out of self-interest to push themselves into awards contention as well.  This is more than just a movie about the Oscars; it’s a cautionary tale of what can happen if we get too wrapped up in layers of self-importance.

There’s a great exchange between Harry Shearer’s B-list actor Victor Allan Miller and his makeup artist.  While fixing his hair, the artist says, “The Oscars are the backbone of this industry,” to which Miller replies, “In an industry known for having no backbone.”  In just two lines, Guest smacks the nail on the head of Oscar frenzy.  Actors are involved in more compelling drama off screen than on, and their lives become an act to satisfy the politics of awards gimmicking.  The Academy or any other significant voting body couldn’t in their right minds honor a movie that so deftly lambasts their institution, but “For Your Consideration” has a home here.  I’m an Oscar maniac and won’t hide it; however, I’ll have Guest’s movie in the back of my head all season telling me to recognize these movies for their art, not their campaigning.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (September 3, 2010)

3 09 2010

My so-called Comedy Week comes to a conclusion today with this “F.I.L.M. of the Week,” a little indie comedy by the name of “Rocket Science.”  It’s a great high school movie, covering a group that gets very little cinematic coverage – the debaters.  Conceived by documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Blitz after observing Spelling Bee contestants and reflecting on his own adolescence, he creates a very authentic high school environment where youth is neither sneered at nor idealized.

The movie’s hero is perhaps one of the unlikeliest debaters, a fifteen-year-old with a stutter by the name of Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson).  With his speech impediment, he is not naturally drawn to the art of rhetoric.  Like so much in life, he winds up doing it to get a girl, in this case the team’s star debater, Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick).  After her previous partner dropped out of school because of an embarrassing mid-speech moment at the state championships, Ginny enlists Hal to be her new sidekick.  His venture into the world of debating is a funny-sad mix of love, lies, and betrayal (only not set against the backdrop of an implausibly corny ABC Family series).

Blitz and the movie received plenty of accolades from the Sundance Film Festival and the Independent Spirit Awards, and all laurels are much deserved.  “Rocket Science” is an honest look at the development of our selves and values in high school, something everyone goes through in those for years.  As someone still undergoing these changes (albeit in their final year), I definitely found that the film spoke to me on a very personal level.  Much like you don’t need to be Greek to connect with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” you don’t need to be a debater to get this movie.  The lessons can apply to any group or activity in high school.

Want to know how Anna Kendrick became Golden Globe, SAG, and Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick?  Look to “Rocket Science” for the answer.  Jason Reitman, writer/director of “Up in the Air,” wrote the part of Natalie Keener specifically for her after seeing her play Ginny.  I certainly wouldn’t have stumbled upon “Rocket Science” had it not been for Kendrick’s wowing turn in “Up in the Air,” and I’m certainly glad I discovered both her and this both heartwarming and contemplative movie.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (August 27, 2010)

27 08 2010

Comedy Week kicks off here on the “F.I.L.M. of the Week” series with a look at “Shopgirl,” an inspiredly funny adaptation of Steve Martin’s novella that is also tinged with a fair amount of melancholic reflection.  The movie takes a look at an unassuming girl entering the urban jungle of Los Angeles to find herself confronted with a choice between two very different relationships with two polar opposite men.

Mirabelle (Claire Danes) didn’t expect much when she moved from Vermont to LA and began working the glove counter at Saks.  Yet suddenly, she is faced with some very big problems, namely love.  Unsure of what it is, how to find it, or how to recognize it, she sits back passively waiting for it to come to her.

Sure enough it does come, although in two very different forms.  First, she meets Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman).  He’s a bumbling fool with no set of social skills, but he does have the best of intentions and all of his heart to offer Mirabelle.

Second, she meets Ray Porter (Steve Martin).  Unlike Jeremy, he’s a smooth operator who always does things with class.  Despite being music older than Mirabelle, they both find themselves falling for each other.  He’s a very wealthy entrepreneur with all of his wallet to share with her, buying her first fitted dress.  Yet he often feels a little too distant, hiding away parts of himself.

“Shopgirl” is everything a romantic comedy should be, scorning formula to provide a thought-provoking rumination on love in the modern world.  In the context of these two relationships, Mirabelle is searching for love although unsure of what shape or form it will take.  The movie doesn’t hold back and is willing to delve deep into the psychological ruin of not finding love.  But it’s precisely because it goes there that there’s just an irresistible charm about this movie.  Even when the going gets rough for Mirabelle, we still feel light as a feather.


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