Film: Waking Ned Devine

Director: Kirk Jones
Genre: Comedy
Source: Ireland (1998)
Rating: PG
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Watch
Grade: B-

I haven't watched this movie in about a decade, but it still entertained. It's not particularly profound or innovative film making, but it is a delightful little story. Ian Bannen and David Kelley make a really funny pair, and the image of Kelley riding a motorcycle naked will always by hilarious. There are great themes about community and friendship, but they're pretty much there on the surface, so I don't have much interesting insight.

Great bonus this time around: James Nesbitt! After seeing him in films like (the similarly themed) Millions and shows like Jekyll, it's great to see him here earlier in his career. He's not playing a weighty role like some of his future gigs would be, but he's still sharp as Pig Finn, the pig farmer.

It's just an entertaining little romp that you can give to anyone to enjoy. Not much else to say.

Sad confession: I've watched a ton of British and Irish film in my life, but I still found the accents really hard to follow for about ten minutes or so. Is that just me? Or do they start "really Irish" and then tone it down a bit.

Alternate Film Title: "Skinny Naked Man on Motorcycle!" (I mean, come on.)

Book: Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Blogger (or Bloggess, I guess is her Internet appellation) Jenny Lawson is undoubtedly funny. She has the ability to take any normal story to an 11, and often in unexpected ways. She's like Dave Sedaris but a little more offensive and with less attention to detail, less of a filter, and less philosophical insight. I tore through her book in a matter of days, and though her childhood is neither as terrible or as disturbing as she claims, and though her ability to make any situation awkward and light mental imbalances may be at times cringe-inducing, it is all also pretty funny.

But also exhausting. I have to imagine spending extended time with Jenny, if she's anything like her writing voice, would try anyone's patience after a while. There's great humor, but also who wants to always be at 11 all the time? 

Still, that's a minor complaint, and if I got a little tired of her constant mountain-out-of-molehill-making, I still really enjoyed the read. She thinks differently than most people, and that ability to see things from a skewed perspective means that I never knew where her stories and her head were going to take her, even if her life itself (this being a memoir and all) didn't go anywhere particularly exciting. She's still a satisfying bit of good cheer, and if the writing may get a little redundant, it also had me laughing out loud repeatedly. (Seriously. People were looking at me funny at the gym.) And that, at the start of the school year, is just what I needed.  

Grade: B

Film: The Third Man

Director: Carol Reed
Genre: Film Noir
Source: UK (1949)
Rating: Approved (Probably PG)
Location/Format: Turner Classic Movies
Grade: A-

Possible book idea: A historical piece on the working relationship, influences, and personal lives of Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles. Part biography, part film analysis. Seriously, I love these guys together.

A classic (maybe one of the classic?) film noirs, The Third Man has a lot about it that's easy to like, and Joseph Cotten is right at the top of that list. His opening voice-over is genuinely funny, and he plays the genre's "ordinary man" with both a sense of humor and a sense of simmering emotion--is it outrage? lust for the woman? confusion? I'm not always clear, but there is a complexity to the role and his reading of it that I love. He is increasingly becoming one of my favorite classic film stars, which is nice since he turns up in so many movies (with or without Orson Welles). As far as the rest of the movie, the film's twists and turns are effective as well, as are the unusually jaunty score and the supporting characters.

But let's be honest here. This film lives on above all because of two (related) things: its depiction of post-war Vienna and its masterfully shadowed cinematography. 

Vienna here is all brick piles and shadowed corridors, and cinematographer Robert Krasker rarely finds a scene he can't ratchet up the tension on by throwing in a dutch angle or two. It's hugely effective, because as Cotten's character Holly Martins loses his grip on what's true, what's real, and what's right, so do we. We are constantly thrown off balance, just as he is, and the cinematography serves as a metaphor for the fluctuating moral orientation of Martins and his associates. It's stunningly effective, and I think I could easily use this (or clips of this at the very least) in my Film Studies class. Similarly, the shadows that creep around Vienna--sometimes attached to foreboding figures, sometimes lurking in doorways, sometimes covering up our protagonists all together--work beautifully too. I'd love to get my hands on a great blu-ray version of this, because I think the bonus crispness would only add to the effectiveness with which Krasker and Reed are painting with light and shadow here. It's really hard to look away--and why would you want to?

This is another one I feel I could watch again and again and draw something new each time--and that's a good thing, since my wife missed it and only caught the wry final shot, after which she immediately asked if we could watch it together sometime.

Man, sometimes the classics are classic for a reason.

Alternate Film Title: "The Ugly American" (not because Cotten is ugly, just because there are so many culturally crossed wires throughout the film...

Film: Gimme Shelter

Director: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
Genre: Documentary
Source: USA (1970)
Rating: PG
Location/Format: HuluPlus
Grade: A-

Well, this was fascinating. I've "known" about Altamont and how the Hell's Angels killed a man at a Rolling Stones show for ages, but this documentary opened my eyes to what went wrong as well as the fallout of the situation. It was traumatic and tragic, and it exposed a side of Mick Jagger that I had never really seen before.

Mayles/Zwerin allow silences to play out pregnantly in this film, but it's the people doing the talking who seem to get their ire. They show large sections of "planning" conference calls in which the poor organization of the Altamont concert is apparent: a lack of parking, a lack of planning, a lack of security. Knowing what we know now, it's impossible not to be shocked at the lack of foresight these big promoters and businessmen had, but of course at the time they must have been expecting another Woodstock: peace, love, and understanding. In failing to plan, the concert organizers come off as money-grubbers who took no thought for the people they were supposed to be planning for. Yes, the Stones were on stage when the stabbing occurred, and yes, they technically presided over the mayhem, but by repeatedly emphasizing the packed stage (so many people just milling about while bands were trying to play), showing Jagger's deer-in-the-headlights look, and allowing the band's viewing of the footage to devolve inot shocked silence, Mayles/Zwerin clearly allow their sympathies to shine through. It's great commentary-through-editing, and the film's structure really worked for me in that regard.

That's not to say that the Stones come off as angels, either. Early footage of Jagger playing up the rock-star angle, including lines like "Something always happens when we play [Sympathy for the Devil]," and other examples show why parents and "responsible adults" didn't really like him and were quick to point the finger at him as responsible for the ills in the world. He enjoyed pushing buttons, playing the bad boy, and pushing the limits of good taste.

Still, Jagger's sins seem minor here. Of course, noticeably absent from the film is the perspective of the Hell's Angels, other than a clip from a radio show in which a spokesman blames Jagger for blaming them. Similarly, there is no real explanation or investigation into the victim himself, which makes this more of a film about celebrity than about tragedy in the specific. I think at least acknowledging the victim a bit would have strengthened the emotional weight of the film.

Still, I came in to the movie just looking for something in the background while I worked, and I ended up not getting anything down because I was so drawn into the movie's drama. I was distressed, moved, and left with a sadness and malaise that I didn't expect. Powerful film-making.

Alternate Film Title: Nah, Gimme Shelter is about perfect--a little bit of a plea, a little bit of a demand, a little bit of an allusion to the storms that overwhelm us.

Film: Days of Heaven

Director: Terrence Malick
Genre: Drama
Source: USA (1978)
Rating: PG
Location/Format: Criterion Blu-ray
Grade: B+

I think I overhyped Days of Heaven for myself. The last two Malick films I watched--Tree of Life and Badlands--are both in my top ten (or twenty) movies of all time. Both films had a profound impact on me and left me reeling with the beauty and power of cinema. And I'd heard so many times that Days of Heaven is one of the most beautiful films ever shot. And it really is beautiful. The artistry of those fields, of the sky, of the interplay of golden light and breathtaking landscapes. It is a film I want to watch again for a number of reasons, not least of which is to drink in the visuals again. As in Badlands, I feel like Malick knows how to film fire like no one else. It's gorgeous, and the whole movie really is rich in that regard.

And yet.

Much as I was drawn in by the beauty of the film, I had a hard time connecting with this film. Perhaps it was the gratingly harsh accent of Linda as she narrated the movie. (Really, I am not sure what she added to the film, and it's one reason I feel like I must have missed something, since she seemed so . . . irrelevant to the plot and flow of the film.) Perhaps it was the way the film cut through moments and scenes and weeks before I knew what was happening. Perhaps it was the abrupt and seemingly incongruous ending. But it just didn't grab me the way I hoped it would. It seemed choppy--not with the artistry of Tree of Life, but with like it was put together by a hand trying to cram in so much that it forgot to work out the pacing.

Still, that house on the bare landscape. Sam Shepard (and holy cow, is that guy the man, or is that guy the man? It's so easy to just get wrapped up in his fantastic performances, from this film to The Right Stuff to Mud just this past summer--and then you realize, wait, he is also a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright? Some people are just dripping with talent). The magic hour glow. All of the pieces of greatness are there, and so I'm left with the dissatisfaction of the subjectivity of film, when you're left to wonder what captured everyone else that you missed. I won't dispute the beauty of the film, but I found myself disappointed with the screenplay and the editing.

I wholly admit, this was just a gut reaction, and as I said, I want to see the film again, and as I also said, I did like it. I had just hoped (maybe even expected?) to love it. And this time through I didn't. 

On the other hand, that's just another reason I'm glad I own it. It really will allow me the opportunity to watch it again, to watch it with commentary, to study it and figure out what I'm missing. I love that. 

Alternate Film Title: "Richard Gere's Translucent Duster"

Film: Mary and Max

Director:Adam Elliot
Genre: Animated Comedy Drama
Source: Australia (2009)
Rating: NR (PG-13?)
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Watch
Grade: A-

It's hard not to fall in love with the characters of Mary and Max (and with the film Mary and Max). The two are so delightfully odd--and so tragicomically (is that a word?) real--that you can't help but see in them every time you were left out, or didn't fit in, or weren't . . . valued. They are misfits, but they--like most misfits--don't understand why they're misfits. They just see the world ignoring them. The film wears its heart on its sleeve, and of course any heart exposed like that is an open wound too tender to the touch. But mostly it's about finding someone else who sees your heart, and carefully places it back in your chest, and bandages you back up. 

And then maybe shares some chocolate with you to help you feel better.

There's a delightful sense of fun and optimism in the film that stands out against its caricatured character design and black and brown palette. It has been said that the difference between comedy and tragedy is distance, but Mary and Max suggests that perhaps the difference between the two is more about whether or not you have someone to share it with. Mimes killed by falling air conditioners, an increasingly absurd series of goldfish deaths, alcoholism, suicide attempts, broken hearts, agoraphobia--life is filled with chaos and unfairness, but that doesn't mean we have to lose hope. Finding another voice to talk to in the darkness can make even the worst of experiences bearable. And that in itself is beautiful.

I picked this film as an extra credit film in my high school Intro to Film Studies class. We started out the semester looking at "the state of film today" before we jump backwards into film history, so I wanted to show my students something with mass appeal and star-powered and big-business and contrast it with something personal and unique and small. I'll find out soon if any of them took me up on it. I hope so. This is a film with a lot of beauty, a lot of humor, and a lot of soul. I loved it.

Alternate Film Title: "Unexpected Eric Bana Cameo"

Film: Elysium

Director: Neil Blomkamp
Genre: Sci-Fi
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Glynn Place Stadium Cinemas
Grade: C

Neil Blomkamp has an amazing eye for sci-fi visuals and creating interesting technological worlds. He also approaches political metaphor like a drunken three year old trying to play with the family dog--stumbling around with obvious good intent but no sense of nuance or finesse, banging hands together and blatantly thumping what should be caressed. In a future world, the 1% live in a perfect space paradise, while the 99% live in a ghetto Los Angeles. Apparently there is no middle class. Also (in case the economic metaphor wasn't enough) the poor people want to illegally enter Elysium, passing themselves off as citizens, in order to receive the free health care that the rich are inexplicably unwilling to share with anyone else. 

You see where we're going here.

When the film focuses on these ideas (or on the cloying and unnecessary flashback scenes), Blomkamp's hands are so heavy that lesser issues like a love story get caught in their orbit, and the film gets clunky. It's weird, but I thought District 9 handled both the political metaphor and the protagonist's backstory much more effectively, so this seemed like a step back in that regard.

Also, in a step back for French accents everywhere, Jodie Foster's choices were . . . odd, to say the least. Her character was a poorly drawn caricature who Blomkamp had no interest in giving depth to. Maybe that's why she decided to try and spice things up with that ridiculous (and only semi-stable) accent? I don't know.

I liked Damon a lot here, though, and I liked Sharlto Copley here too, who seemed to be having so much fun playing the mentally unbalanced private military contractor (OK, OK, political metaphor, I hear you! Keep it down please!) that even though my Filmspotting mentors criticized it for being over the top, I thought he brought a charismatic sense of danger and violence to the screen, which I hadn't really expected.

The film is violent, for sure, and often needlessly so. But the rough design of the world made up for it. The guns, the tech, Damon's exo-skeleton: all of it was interesting and made for some great world enrichment. The film doesn't go to great lengths to explain how the exo-skeleton enhances Damon's strength, for example. It instead shows things like Damon gripping the side of a car and bending the metal as his hand squeezes the door. I like that, and it's that little attention to detail that makes Blomkamp stand out.

As a film, this is bigger budget than District 9 but not as interesting. It's silly and overly simplistic, even if I did see real potential in this world. But that won't stop me from seeing the next Blomkamp movie either. He's trying to create interesting sci-fi universes with something to say to the contemporary world, and even if he's not as good at it as he thinks, I can't fault him for trying. After all, he's shooting for something beyond mere Avengers-style popcorn entertainment, and I'd like to see more directors do that.

I'd just like him to have a little deftness while he's doing it.

Alternate Film Title: "Is That an Exo-Skeleton Outside Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to See Me?"

Film: Clear History

Director: Greg Mottola
Genre: Comedy
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: Unrated - Probably R?
Location/Format: HBO
Grade: B-

Your enjoyment of this movie will depend entirely on your enjoyment of Larry David and his Curb Your Enthusiasm-style inappropriate humor.

I for one find that quite funny.

This little film about an investor and ad executive who makes a principled stand about the wrong thing at the wrong time is basically a cavalcade of hilarious people: John Hamm, Bill Hader, J.B. Smoov, Danny McBride, and even Michael Keaton (where has he been?) all show up to flesh out Larry David's world. Though his loss of millions is the driving storyline, as in Curb David takes time to get annoyed about the little things: people who won't back up when there's only space for one car, silverware placement, past sexual indiscretions of love interests. David is a master at mining the absurdity of these minor inconveniences, giving free reign to the id as he calls people to the carpet--even when he is the one obviously at fault.

The film works overall, but it really is just like an extended episode of Curb in a slightly different setting. It's good background material while checking out Amazon. I would watch it again, if just for more Michael Keaton.

Seriously, where has he been?

Alternative Film Title: "The Howard: Ayn Rand Ruins More Stuff"

Book: American Born Chinese

Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese is a light bite of Asian American identity lit, with a few solid ideas, an engaging illustration style, and a nice interweaving of three stories. I enjoyed it, and it certainly doesn't take long to read or process, but I'm not sure it quite lives up to all the hype. While it's awesome to see the graphic novel expand into new domains, and while I could easily see putting this on a middle or high school reading list, I didn't find it as rich as something like Persepolis, which gives a much more nuanced look at cultural identity and cultural conflict. Granted, that novel is dealing with a "modern" identity in an increasing backwards-looking Iran, while ABC is interested in how Asian and white American identities go together (as well as a stop-the-self-hatred/be-yourself sort of theme that's so common in YA lit), so it's not exactly parallel, but given the two I think Perspolis just has more to say and says it more interestingly.

I'd like to see Yang pursue a longer work, and I'd like to see a little more complexity in how he approaches the issues he's interested in, but that's not to say I didn't like the book. I did, it just didn't stick with me as much as I'd hoped it would. I'd rather go back to something like No-No Boy or Bone for a richer exploration of how second generation Asian Americans deal with the question of identity, but either way I'd still recommend this, especially to younger readers (note: I saw another reviewer commented on the racy themes in the book, and I might just be desensitized and/or have forgotten in the week since I finished, but I don't remember that at all. There's a couple of mentions of breasts, but I think that's about it. I could be wrong though. So, I guess maybe review it before you give it to a middle-schooler. Totally high school appropriate though).

Grade: C+

Film: Arbitrage

Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Genre: Drama
Source: USA (2012)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Watch
Grade: B

A surprisingly taut dramatic thriller about a financial guru (investor? consultant? CEO?) for whom everything seems to go wrong at once. Richard Gere is the standout here as businessman and self-proclaimed patriarch Robert Miller who finds himself in the midst of a razor's edge business deal while his personal life spirals out of control around him. Gere is sharp and commanding, and the film is a reminder that the guy is a solid actor. I didn't realize until I was writing this review that apparently he was nominated for a Golden Globe, and it makes sense. He really inhabited the character, making him both compelling and abhorrent all at once.

The storyline was also surprisingly engrossing. Miller believes every problem in his life can be solved with money, and while often that proves to be the case, director and writer Nicholas Jarecki does a nice job creating situations in which it is clear to the audience and everyone else involved that trying to buy his way out of his own actions is both gauche and despicable. Except that maybe it can work, and the film's willingness to move towards ambiguity instead of a simple morality tale elevates it more than I expected. Maybe the rich really are different than you or me. 

Not everything in the film works. Tim Roth's accent is so broad that I wonder how no one took him aside and told him to dial it down a few dozen notches (and I liked the physical work he was doing, so you know the accent was distracting). Similarly, at times the financial dealings of this upper echelon were simplified so much for the audience that it seemed silly--multimillion dollar accounting projects being tallied in a basic Excel spreadsheet? OK, I guess so. (Fortunately, Brit Marling, who I want to see in more movies, sells the scene pretty well, so I didn't roll my eyes too much.)

It's not a classic movie, but it came out of nowhere to surprise me, and I always like that. Plus, it reminds me that Richard Gere should get a little more work. Not a bad way to spend a couple hours.

Alternate Film Title: "What's an Applebee's?

Film: The 400 Blows

Director: Francois Truffaut
Genre: Drama
Source: France (1959)
Rating: Unrated
Location/Format: Hulu Plus
Grade: A

My shame as a cinephile is that I've never had that much interest in exploring the French New Wave, but The 400 Blows has single-handedly shown me the error of my ways. Following the trials and tribulations of young Antoine Doinel, the film surpassed my expectations at pretty much every turn. From the opening shots of the Eiffel tower, to the final (and famous) freeze frame of Antoine's face, Truffaut has created a masterpiece that is bursting with feeling--feelings of nostalgia, of sadness, of youthful enthusiasm, of discovery. The film manages to be both a warm-hearted coming-of-age film as well as a tragic exploration of adolescent abandonment.

A lot of the credit has to go to young Jean-Pierre Leaud, who embodies Antoine with a simple authenticity that never feels like acting. His face is haunting long before the closing shot, and Antoine comes to represent for me that youth who shouldn't be forgotten but is. He has parents, but not good ones--at the very least they are so wrapped up in their own dramas that they only see his misbehavior. He has teachers, but they only see his errors. He has friends, but they've got their own responsibilities. And so the series of events he finds himself in are both entirely of his own making and not wholly his fault. His fate is a failure of society, which is what makes his final run for freedom so heart-breaking.

Truffaut highlights this with repeated shots and images of Antoine being constricted--he is placed behind dividers as a punishment in school, he is left in a tiny bedroom, he is placed in a tiny jail cell. The walls seem to close in on him, and though he briefly and occasionally finds freedom in the streets of Paris, again and again he is limited both physically and (we fear) emotionally as well.

There are brief respites. It is telling (and I am not the first to suggest) that one of the ways Antoine finds an escape is through the movies themselves, as he travels with his parents one evening to get away. It is one of the last "good days" it seems, and other smarter film scholars than I have written about the scene's significance. But that's what I like about the film. Each little vignette seems to have a lot to say about the way Truffaut views the world. There is creativity and life in the film that are invigorating.

I'm not sure where to go next as I explore the French New Wave, but I'm no longer intimidated by doing so. And I immediately added this film to my syllabus this semester for the high school Intro to Film Studies class I teach. I'm excited to keep researching it, and I'm interested to see what my students think about it. I hope they will love it as much as I do.

Film: The Goodbye Girl

Director: Herbert Ross
Genre: Comedy
Source: USA (1977)
Rating: PG
Location/Format: Turner Classic Movies
Grade: B

An enjoyable little romantic comedy that is probably remembered more fondly than it needs to be due to a real fireball performance by Richard Dreyfuss. He is funny, appealing, self-deprecating, and energetic, and it's easy to see why it would be an Oscar winning performance (though more on the "people's favorite" side of the Oscars than on the "greatest performances" side, if you know what I mean). 

The relationship Dreyfuss's Elliot and Marsha Mason's Paula is pretty standard fare, and not particularly compelling, but Elliot's relationship with Paula's daughter Lucy is really were the spark is. Dreyfuss plays Elliot just right as that rare kind of adult who just genuinely does see this kid as a real and interesting little human being, rather than as a "kid" (if that makes sense) and it gives their rapport both a precociousness and a seriousness that work.

Much of the movie feels pretty contemporary (though the "gay Richard III" seems awfully homophobic-panic-like now) and Ross does a good job both working writer Neil Simon's clever dialogue and getting the movie out of the apartment in which I imagine most of the play was set. Not all directors do that, but this feels like a movie, not just like a play adaptation, and that's a good thing.

For me, however, Marsha Mason was a bit of a misstep (though I may be in the minority here, seeing as how she was also nominated for an Oscar). She was Simon's wife at the time, but I thought she was a little too big in her performance--mugging a little too often, gasping a little too loudly in the "she's out of shape and working out!" scenes. It wasn't wince-inducing, it just felt a little heavy handed.

There's nothing great or weighty here, but it's a nice little romantic comedy. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

Alternate Film Title: "Between This and The Odd Couple, Neil Simon Must Have Had Some Terrible Roommates"

Book: Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones works on many levels as a contemporary answer to Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, but Ward shouldn't be seen as just an imitator, and she doesn't have her sights set on creating a dialogue with African American literature alone. Medea and mythology, the Bible and hip-hop--all of them run through the book like currents of water. She writes with a poetry that startles, slapping you across the face with metaphors and imagery that embeds itself in your soul. The final third of the book is harrowing, as hurricane Katrina--which has been alluded to all through the book (and is discussed on the book's jacket, so this isn't a spoiler) finally arrives, and Ward doesn't coddle her characters, even as she leaves a space for hope. It's compelling stuff, and it's a reminder of how much good writing is still going in literature today.

It's a rough book--sexually explicit at times, heart-breaking at times, violent at times--and one I could see causing trouble among more conservative readers. But Ward gives us such a fragile and rich character in her narrator Esch that the sharp edges were totally worth it. This is a girl who loves and wants to be loved, that is bound to her flawed and hardscrabble family with bonds deep enough to cut. I loved the way Esch saw the world, even when it broke my heart.

At its heart, it's a novel about motherhood, in all its forms: absent, present, soft, hard, tender, violent, protective, independent, and so on and so forth. Ward's characters interact in so many different ways, but underneath many of these interactions are peaks and valleys that their mothers left in them. I like that concept, and a second reading I think would bring out even more fruitful material, but I had to tear through the book faster than I wanted due to school starting.

Still, this is good stuff. I think it could have some life in it beyond the typical span for contemporary fiction. I look forward to Ward's next book.

Grade: A-

Film: The Way, Way Back

Director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Genre: Comedy
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: PG-13
Location/Format: Island Cinema
Grade: A-

The tag line of The Way, Way Back is "We've all been there," and though it speaks to the "average guy" sensibilities of the film's protagonist, it also could serve as a warning that Faxon and Rash (cowriters, codirectors, and costars of the film) are not really breaking any new ground here. Fortunately, with a great cast and some clever writing, they don't really need to. Instead, they serve up an audience-pleasing coming-of-age tale that, if not innovative, is still deeply satisfying and honest.

Allison Janney and Sam Rockwell stand out among a really solid cast (I mean, Toni Collette, Faxon and Rash, Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry, and Steve Carrell playing against type), but they do have the "larger-than-life" personalities, so maybe it's not a fair comparison. Carrell and Collette are solid in flashing us pieces of adulthood's messiness. Perhaps it's living in an island community, but Janney's obnoxious, self-centered, mile-a-minute personality reminded me of so many people I have come in contact with here--people who are still living like they're 20 even at 50--that I couldn't help but laugh every time she was on screen. Sam Rockwell gets the flashy part, and he works it. He just seems so comfortable in his own skin that it's easy to see both why Duncan is drawn to him and why others at time get exacerbated with him.

And Duncan is a pretty good character, which fairly-new newcomer Liam James does well with. He reminds me more of teenagers I actually know than most film kids, what with his inability to express himself, awkwardness around girls (and people in general), and trouble smiling. He reminds us that teenagers see more than we give them credit for, but they don't always know how to process it. His gawkiness feels natural, and I like that his big moments don't fully take that away. But Rockwell's relationship with him reminds us that even the most self-conscious teenagers just want to be valued. As a teacher, that resonated.

The film isn't perfect. The big climactic moment--where, as the formula requires, our young protagonist has to prove himself once and for all--is particularly ridiculous as far as this kind of things go, but the film's final few minutes do a nice job making up for it.

Alternate Film Title: "Summer Job Nostalgia"

Film: Mimic

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Sci-fi Horror
Source: US (1997)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Watch
Grade: F

This film is a mess. Lighting so dark it's impossible to see what's going on, editing so sloppy it's impossible to tell what's going on. Stupid plot twists and characters (the boy who knows shoes!). I fell asleep for a little while and didn't even care.

Glad Guillermo got back in his groove.

Alternate Film Title: "Roaches Check In, But They Don't Check . . . Aw, Who Cares"

Film: And God . . . Created Woman

Director: Roger Vadim
Genre: Drama
Source: France (1956)
Rating: PG
Location/Format: Hulu Plus
Grade: B+

It is absolutely no surprise that this film made Bardot a household name (though it's far from her first film). She practically drips sex appeal here, from the initial curve of her naked body that Vadim presents her with, to her casually loose clothing (when it's not temptingly form fitting) to her sultry walk, to her increasingly untamed hair and growing wildness. The film blames her (to some degree) for the way men lose control around her, as that sensual wantonness becomes increasingly dangerous.  

Though Bardot is obviously fun to watch, however, Vadim's film fascinated me for the distance it places between the film and the viewer. Most of the film is shot in long and medium-long shots, with few close-ups. The result is that those close-ups become incredibly impactful--moments of intimacy (in a film that is all about intimacy and "knowing" someone, in all senses of the word) that force us to briefly stop seeing Bardot as sex-on-legs and remember that she is a person, and a somewhat tortured person at that, unable to fit together her conflicting desires into a satisfying life. The raucous dance at the film's climax only serves to highlight that lack of control she both produces in others and cannot tame in herself. 

The story tends toward the melodramatic for contemporary sensibilities, and I'm not fully clear on Vadim's message: Is Juliette to be condemned for following her appetites (the men certainly aren't)? Is she to reform? Is a pattern beginning that will be repeated again and again? Or is this about the uselessness of men's attempt to dominate and box women in to pre-defined roles? Though none are innocent, to what extent are the film's events Juliette's fault versus society's fault versus Carradine's versus Michel's versus Antoine's? I'm not sure the film makes it clear, or even knows. That distance mentioned above that is so intriguing also prevents us from understanding fully how characters have grown and changed.

I think mostly what we do have is Biblical allusion to the fall: the innocent man (Michel), the seductress (Bardot as Eve--sensual, a mother to animals, barefoot), the serpent (Carradine, I think), the temptation, the fall from grace. In that regard, the film's conclusion (though it seems ambiguous) can be read as an entry into the real world. Adam and Eve are a little more broken, a lot wiser, but still committed to one another. That reading of the film makes me like it a lot, and though it may not fully stand up to the test of time, there's enough to explore here to make me want to go back to it.

Plus, it would be a chance to watch Bardot some more.

Alternate Film Title: "Sex Kitten: The Movie"

Film: We're the Millers

Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Genre: Comedy
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Glynn Place Stadium Cinemas
Grade: C

I had the opportunity to choose between this and Fruitvale Station, and since I was in the mood to laugh more than cry, I chose We're the Millers. I wouldn't say it was a mistake exactly, because I really would have struggled with a serious drama, but I wouldn't say this is a particularly funny movie, either. It tries to be, though at times it confuses raunch for comedy (I think they can be related but they're not interchangable). Jason Sudeikis is doing his usual "keep an awkwardly plastered on smile going while terrible things happen around you" for much of the film, but I happen to enjoy that shtick so that's ok. And there are a couple of really funny moments. Will Poulter has great potential, and of course Nick Offerman and Ed Helms are pretty solid. But there's a lot of "wacky scenarios" that are just dumb, and overall I laughed a lot less than I had expected to. 

Part of the problem is a horribly miscast Jennifer Anniston, who I never bought as a stripper, or really as anything other than Jennifer Anniston. She's cute, but in a girl-next-door way, not in a smoldering sex symbol way, which would really fit the part better. Instead, when she transforms into her "role" as Mrs. Miller, she basically just looks the way we always see her, so there's no real interest there. She's a funny and talented comedienne, in her way, but she just never seems to fit comfortably in the role.

Similarly, Emma Roberts' character is given very little to do, and her inclusion in the film seemed mostly to set up a mildly funny scene with a carny later in the film. Character growth seems forced and inauthentic (though perhaps that's expecting too much from the film in the first place), and the predictable ending is somewhat anticlimactic.

I guess in the end it was pretty much what I expected, I just thought it could have been more.

Alternate Film Title: "Killer Whale Lust"

Book: The Bloody Red Baron

The second book in Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series, The Bloody Red Baron, does not have quite the complexity or depth of the first book, nor does it have character development that extends quite so deeply. And I can't speak for everyone, but for me Kate Reed is not quite as interesting a character as Genevieve Dieudonne from the first novel.

That said, the story is pretty fun (think about Batman's nemesis "Man-Bat" and you have a rough idea where we're going here), the writing is still sharp, and the world continues to fascinate.

Of course, the real fun of Newman's novels are in picking out the cameos by both fictional and historic figures. In that sense The Bloody Red Baron does not disappoint, and I found my recent forays into silent movies continuing to pay off (Rotwang! From Metropolis!). Heck, even Snoopy made an appearance here, and I was thrown back to elementary school days practicing "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron" on the piano. Fond memories.

I will say that something about these books always feels a little off to me, but I can't tell if it's because I'm having so much fun playing spot-the-character that I skim over the plot a little too much, or if it's that Newman's world (with all the spycraft and plot devices) falls short on real characterization. Regardless, something's just a little off for me to really love these books.

Still, I can like them a lot without loving them, and I still plan to continue the series. It's still too much fun to ignore.

Grade: B-

Film: Tootsie

Director: Sydney Pollack
Genre: Comedy
Source: USA (1982)
Rating: PG
Location/Format: Turner Classic Movies
Grade: A-

A few months ago I saw a clip from an interview with Dustin Hoffman where he talked about putting on the makeup to play Dorothy and realizing for the first time what a tragedy the price we put on looks has. He said that he realized that he was an ugly woman, and that it struck him how sad it made him because he thought he was such an interesting, intelligent person with so much to offer, but that people would ignore him because he wasn't attractive--and that he himself would have ignored a woman who looked the way he looked. Questioning that reduction of women from complex, wonderful beings to a mere physical commodity is at the heart of Tootsie, and though we have made progress since then, that reduction still happens today everyday. I look at Internet message boards like Reddit, for example, and find that contributions are immediately viewed differently when the poster is revealed to be a woman--and immediately a search for whether or not the woman has posted risque pictures of herself, etc. becomes part of the discussion chain. It's not the same thing exactly, but there are elements in that social dynamic that relate to what Pollack, Hoffman, and Lange are doing with Tootsie. 

This was a rewatch for me, but it had been several years, and I was surprised by how much I continue to enjoy this film. Hoffman really is excellent as both Michael and as Dorothy, and though the film does feel dated in some of its gender politics, it still manages to be both compelling and funny. Teri Garr doesn't have much to do besides be a bit of a whiney shrew, but Jessica Lange gives a pretty thoughtful--and surprisingly sad--performance as Michael's new love interest. And Bill Murray, I mean, he's Bill Murray. He nails it pretty much every time.

It did strike me that the conclusion to this film feels a little too easy, but perhaps I was just hoping to see more interaction with the "real" Michael and Lange's Julie. Still, overall a really great film. I think it stands up.

Alternate Film Title: "Sexism and the Single Girl-Boy"

Film: Eyes Without a Face

Director: Georges Franju
Genre: Horror
Source: France (1960)
Rating: Unrated--probably PG-13
Location/Format: Hulu Plus
Grade: B+

Films like Eyes Without a Face can't help but bear the burden of their age a bit--the special effects are clearly dated--but I was really taken by the unique feel of this film. It's almost dreamlike at times, and it is always, for lack of a better word, haunted. The film opens on the discarding of a dead body, but even before that the opening credits give us a clue that things are "off" somehow. As the credits roll, the side of a road flashes by us, but as though we are facing backwards in a moving car. We can't see where we're going, and so we feel immediately a lack of control--like perhaps we are being taken somewhere against our will. It's effective, and it works for the film on a number of levels--are we the kidnapped girls, taken against our will? Are we Christiane, caught up in our father's mad scheme? Thus even before anyone appears on screen we are primed to empathize with the victims even more than we already would.

And don't get me wrong when I criticize the effects. Perhaps the "gore" doesn't look as effective as it would today, but there is plenty of imagery in the film that is deeply resonant. Most significantly, when Christiane puts on her mask, she floats through the film like an ethereal specter--largely silent, willowy, coldly frozen. Actress Edith Scob moves with a birdlike, otherworldly quality. Her long limbs and piercing eyes do an incredible job depicting her fear, her confusion, and her possible insanity.

Similarly, Pierre Brasseur's implacable stoicism as Doctor Genessier is incredibly effective. He is the mad scientist of so many movies past, but played as the calm, affectless (and merciless) experimenter rather than the wide-eyed wildman. It's extremely effective, and it makes his bouts of egomaniacism all the more believable.

The film is full of other great imagery as well: the cages of the dogs, the second graveyard scene, the final shot as the credits roll. These are fantastic and powerful visual cues to Franju's more artistic take on this unusual story. And I thought the unusual use of music (often using no music at all for some of the most dramatic scenes) was ahead of its time as well.

It's a great little film, and one that I would like to watch again to really analyze more.

Alternate Film Title: "World's Worst Policemen?" 

Film: Cronos

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Horror
Source: Mexico (1993)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Hulu Plus
Grade: B

Del Toro's first outing goes a long way in laying out the kind of worlds he'll be dealing with in most of his movies so far--a blend of supernatural and folk tale with a heavy dose of childhood innocence. He's Spielbergian but with more of a horror grounding.

The film is one of the stranger vampire movies I've seen, and it clearly has elements of a "first film"--a little bit too loose in its pacing, a little low budget in its special effects, and a little flat in its climax. But it also delivers great characterization, a sharp sense of humor (another del Toro trademark), and a nice dynamic between generations. Here the question of whether immortality is a blessing or a curse is addressed (as it often is in vampire movies), but with a wholesome kindness that is all del Toro's own. I love the relationship betwen Aurora and her slightly-too-obviously-named grandfather Jesus Gris is tender and sweet, and it is the beating heart at the movie's core.

Federico Luppi is really excellent as Jesus, exploring both the joy and the terror of realizing the transformation he is undertaking. He has a haunted look about him, and that look gets even deeper as the movie slowly tears him apart. I bought into his journey, and so I bought into the film as a whole. 

Others are more of a mixed bag. Ron Perlman is a difficult actor. In most roles (exception: Sons of Anarchy and Hellboy), I have a hard time buying into his characterization because he's so, well, Ron Perlman all the time. Here he is a little heavy-handed in playing his character--becoming a bit more of a caricature that doesn't quite match up as belonging in the same world with Luppi's nuanced characterization. I like Perlman overall, but he was just a little heavy-handed here.

Still, overall it's a fine movie, and I really enjoyed seeing the beginnings of del Toro's strong visual style. There are a few great scenes--the internal workings of the Cronos device, the "coffin" scene, the mortuary scene, the final battle in front of a neon sign--that show what flair del Toro has and what is in store for the future. It's definitely not my favorite of his films, and it doesn't have the sophistication of something like Pan's Labyrinth) but it's a good sign of things to come. 

Alternate Film Title: "A Good Antidote to Sexy Twilight Vampires"