Review: 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them'
Although there is a unique, conceptually ambitious movie that exists in first-time writer/director Ned Benson's The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them, the audience, unfortunately, probably wouldn't know it, after seeing this re-cut version of his film(s).
Initially conceived as a more "experimental" movie-watching experience, the original vision for Rigby was for audiences to watch two films, a sort-of double feature that followed the same story but told from the differing perspectives of its male and female lead characters, and affixed with the respective titles, Him and Her.
This original vision played at last year's TIFF, and was bought and sold to The Weinstein Company. Now, eight months later, Benson and Harvey "Scissorhands" (infamous for re-editing acquired films so as to perform better theatrically) have combined both versions, Him and Her, to create this third version, : Them. However, the result in denying audiences the two-film experience, and doing away with the filmmakers' exploratory attempt to create a third, more powerful synergistic effect, does not work for this film- the takeaway is one of non-satisfaction, as the film fails to successfully mine the focused riches that either singular film might have offered in their own right (Read Jasper's review of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her/Him, here).
At its best, the film reveals an authenticity about the human condition, and our search for reason and meaning in a world that may offer none; at its worst, it reveals that it might just be the film itself that suffers from its own existential crisis.
The story of a broken marriage at the hands of a family tragedy, the film stars Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, with her as the titular character. It should be said early that the title while lending itself to hints of mystery, or perhaps Beatles-referencing, is loyal to neither, and only serves as being an intriguing title for an art house film. The film, at just over two hours long, is a free-flowing collection of scenes intimate, fragile, and most impressively, honest, about how family and lovers take to dealing with such new heartbreaking territory. Benson crafts each scene to hold such emotional weight and authenticity that the whole thing feels massively charged with real life understanding and empathy in a way that only skilled filmmakers and actors could achieve. Similar in nature to the dark drama Rabbit Hole, also about a couple dealing with the tragic loss of an infant child, Rigby: Them follows each estranged spouse as they try to figure out how to go on and make sense of their lives.
Rigby: Them is certainly confident film-making. Even this third version feels like a well-made film, technically speaking. But there's just no denying that, after combining two films that were intent on remaining separate so as to allow the audience to see the differences in perspective, memory, and understanding that would manifest itself on screen, the story here feels aimless. We have no distinct protagonist to follow here; certainly not Eleanor Rigby, who, despite Chastain's incredibly lived-in performance and commitment, we feel we never truly connect with due to the film's impartial coverage between its leads. Nor with McAvoy, who gives a fine turn here as well- but with such elastic back-and-forth scene-work, seeing each character in such removed emotional areas, and for a good part of the time Eleanor and Colin (McAvoy) are shown dealing with their own friends and family (making good, yet sparse use of James Hurt, Viola Davis, and Bill Hader), the pair's most important scenes fail to give way to anything more transcendent. At its best, the film reveals an authenticity about the human condition, and of our search for reason and meaning in a world that may offer none; at its worst, it reveals that it might just be the film itself that suffers from its own existential crisis. The good news is that Him and Her will find their theatrical distribution come October, when the film can be more properly understood, and therefore, reviewed, in all three versions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ng4MD66WyU
Review: 'To Be Takei'
In 2012, a Tennessee Senate Committee approved a bill that would prohibit teachers in that state from discussing homosexuality in the classroom, soon enough known as, the “don’t say gay” law. However, the bigoted legislation was met with opposition by the LGBQT community, and especially by one man, with enough pop culture and political credibility to counter the measure and start a movement. In a characteristically clever and tongue-in-cheek response, the man would oppose the bill by simply lending his name, stating, "Anytime you need to say the word 'gay,' you can simply say 'Takei!'" And so, the slogan and life affirmation was born, "It's OK to be Takei!"
From his star-making role as Sulu in the cult-worshiped television series Star Trek, the movie provides an account of his entire life's story. This documentary, while broadly told in the assemblage of footage and weaving of its subject's story, reveals even more depth to his more caricatured present-day public persona- as a War-afflicted youth, a sexually struggling young adult, and a fervent political activist, who's own battles and life events inspired countless people across the world.
This documentary will probably be sought out and watched mostly by the star's already devoted and loyal fan base, and probably more enjoyed by them too. Not to say that Takei isn't revealed to be a man full of humor and dignity, which he's employed in all of his life's work and pursuits -it's just that the level of depth and attention given to his whole life, opening with his simple domestic home life with partner and husband Brad Takei, might disarm some, as if the whole conception is half biography/half reality television show. Some of these "candid" moments play incredibly flat, given the level of discomfort Brad has in front of the cameras during the entirety of the movie. However, this adds to his charm and likability, and to that of the couple themselves. And in seeing a thorough storyline of George and Brad, at home, out and about, doing press events, we see how normal George is in his present-day life- which goes to highlight how that wasn't always the case.
To the (my) millennial generation, "George Takei" has taken on a persona and "third-person status" that has entered the pop culture lexicon, bigger than the person himself. With his suggestively sly trademark quip "Oh my..." and guest appearing "as himself" on shows like The Big Bang Theory, as well as having been popularized for his meme-sharing Facebook page (which, as of this review, has more than 7.5 million fans), it's understandable to acknowledge that Takei the person has been overshadowed by these more superficial significances in mass media consumption. We learn soon enough though, that behind the comical charade of which we all partake (Takei included), that there is a man, a human, who has endured more singular persecution than most anywhere have or do, be it in show business or anywhere else.
While the documentary itself might have been improved with a few more tweaks and edits, everything that's inside is more than enough to show how, behind his beloved celebrity figure, there is a man full of honor...
Moving past George and Brad's simple life at home (and past the Star Trek story for framing references) we move into more honest, emotive storytelling. We return frequently to the story of his earliest childhood living in Los Angeles, and of his family's Japanese-American ancestry which, after the attack on Pearl Harbor and this country's introduction into World War II, became the target for racial discrimination, forcing a young George, his family, and all others of Japanese descent, into internment camps all over the country. This harrowing story, which is often forgot (or at least willfully ignored) is once again presented into the modern public consciousness with a multitude of black and white archival footage, aiding in our understanding of the events by way of George the movie star's own personal stories and experiences. The events of having his family lose their house, business, and rights as American citizens, would seem likely to harden any person, giving rightful bitterness and ill-will to the country who betrayed their own. Takei however, would embark on a life of optimism and positivity through all of life's events, with his signature grin and bass-toned laugh that joins his daily speech throughout. He even wrote a musical about these childhood events (called Allegiance, in which he stars and sings, which we return to continuously).
As if the incredible discrimination faced by George wouldn't already be enough for any person to take on, Takei also experienced young adulthood as a gay man (he realized his orientation in the fourth grade) during a time when homosexuality was unaccepted in the larger culture's consciousness. These personal hardships would, again, seem likely to evoke feelings of resentment or contempt for the institutions around them. And perhaps Takei's ever-constant laugh hides or masks a deeper avoidance of some of these emotions (in a telling part of the movie, an agitated Brad calls out Takei for "always laughing after he says something serious," to which Takei voices even heartier amusement from). Though it would be off-base for this reviewer to offer this as psychological analysis, the actions perceived in the film at the very least give a window into the soul of a man who had to make his way in the world against all odds. So as composed and self-assured a homosexual man as the celebrity is today, it is of course interesting to see him recall events of his past- of hiding his sexuality as a youth and when he began to break into the industry with his first acting roles, as well as outwardly saying that he wasn't gay on Howard Stern's radio program in the 1990's- which we then see transition into his second life's work, advocating civil rights for the LGBQT community.
Throughout watching the slices of life with Brad (busier than ever with events and appearances) and the World War II recounting stories, the third focal point of the documentary showcases Takei's "coming out," and his taking to championing gay rights ever since (as stated in this review's first paragraph). We see Takei speaking in numerous television segments, in countless media and political events, parades, and the like. Takei's life work stands as a champion of the causes, from being a hero for all costumed "nerd-dom," for Asian-Americans, and those in the LGBQT community. We finally see George performing in Allegiance, and in the show's climax, singing through weeping eyes, the story of his parents' resilience to, after the discrimination they endured, to continue to live on with pride and dignity. While the documentary itself might have been improved with a few more tweaks and edits, everything that's inside is more than enough to show how, behind his beloved celebrity figure, there is a man full of honor, who has not only endured life's greatest hardships but proved inspiring through his life's advocating and work, which continues to this day. In this respect, we learn how entertaining, inspiring, and honorable it is, to be Takei.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUkA3RvwcWw
Review: 'Love Is Strange'
For a movie whose universally-commentating title would imply it to reveal unexpected and unusual events, arising from said declarative statement, this new-age love story sure is misleading.
In fact, writer/director Ira Sachs' latest effort, Love Is Strange, almost seems to take on the motivated spirit of championing how love, across all genders, is so not strange in this mildly droll outing. Though perhaps it is love's surrounding societal factors that threaten it and relationships of all kinds, even in this twenty-first century, that Sachs is intending to tap into. For we not only see a story of how later-in-life homosexual partners are forced to confront the failings in both the institutions that they both live in as well as the bond between them, but also the same dealings faced by husbands and wives.
The setting is present day upscale New York, and in this first scene we see longtime partners, the more divaesque seventy-something Ben (John Lithgow) and more rationally-centered and more English George (Alfred Molina), getting ready for their wedding day, of which they've waited forty plus years until was finally legally recognized in the state. Their tastefully designed tuxes and highly refined lifestyles (further evidenced by their love for their beloved uptown apartment) are captured by the film's even more exacted direction and photographing, which frames the rest of the movie and its high-brow characters in richly swathed intelligentsia culture.
So it would make sense that Ben and George's new life gets turned upside-down when a loss of income forces the pair to sell their apartment (and before that, when newly married George is fired for violating the rules of the private Catholic school where he teaches) forcing them to ask their closest family and friends to put them up while they look for a new place to call home. While their closely-knit and much loving friends of course offer their homes, none alone is separately big enough to take both in. As such, the newlyweds are forced to spend their first weeks as husband and husband in different households; Ben with two gay police officers, and George with his nephew's family and their high school-aged son.
If only there was a little more life injected into its human-component instead of being just a commentary on humans navigating through life and love, we might have enjoyed living in these peoples' lives as opposed to simply observing so.
The rest of the story, from this point on, is focused on how the taking in of the couple weighs on all involved, and exposes the flaws and shortcomings of each relationship including the families they stay with. Except the story doesn't really commit to this. Barely so, and not really, playing into the film's carefully crafted and highly refined aesthetic presentation of modern living. The problems that rise to the surface, even when speaking to bigger and more honest emotional truths, are so coolly internalized by these fairly disconnected New York socialites that the experience makes for an even bigger distance with its audience, not unlike the studying and taking in of art in a gallery. Though the circumstances presented give way to exposing understandable struggles from all characters- the pair's journey to find cheaper housing (while maintaining their comfortable lifestyle), novel-writer Jane's (Marisa Tomei) sense of growing isolation from her art-installation husband Elliot (Darren E. Burrows), and George's elderly age and a late discovered heart issue, the problems mostly file under that of "highly privileged" living, or at the very least, relate to how the film never demands its characters go through any messier emotional territory. It's a slice-of-life, restrained and polished adult love story, if the slice that's being served is of fine dining taste.
None of which is to say that Love is Strange is meritless, as the sheer reality of the story and its conflicts could (and do) befall any and all types of sexually-identifying people. And why shouldn't this of-the-times entry into Queer cinema celebrate its characters by truly humanizing them instead of flamboyant caricatures? It's just that scenes such as Ben and George's taking in of a classical concert being treated as matter-of-factly as a more intimate and stolen nighttime conversation between George and his nephew's son and temporary bunkmate Joey (Charlie Tahan) on the subject of true love, it's near impossible to crack through anything but a well composed shell, which it really doesn't intend for you to do. Yet on this merit, the film knows exactly what it intends to be, and executes itself as an aesthetically-made and pleasing adult film about adult life in all of its adult glories and downfalls. Though the film ends with realizing themes of mortality, the payoff is little earned, really, and we're only left to realize that we should understand that we should be appreciating its beauty, instead of just appreciating its beauty itself. If only there was a little more life injected into its human component instead of being just a commentary on humans navigating through life and love, we might have enjoyed living in these peoples' lives as opposed to simply observing so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdfA5Ff5e78
Review: 'The Trip to Italy'
It takes just one scene into The Trip To Italy until "Steve Coogan" receives a call from his best mate "Rob Brydon," and is surprised to hear that the same publication that planned their previously shared trip abroad intends to once again send them off to eat fine foods and take in rich culture, all chronicled alongside their comically philosophic ramblings and best Michael Caine impersonations; and just like that, we're plopped in a top-down Mini-Cooper, gliding through the breathtaking hills of the beautiful Italian countryside, back with the British whip-smarts on another jolly jaunt of leisure and laughs.
To give a brief overview, The Trip to Italy effectively serves as the sequel of sorts to the film (and before that, the British TV series, of the same name) that previously featured the real-life British celebrities Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, playing meta-versions of themselves, who are treated to an all-expenses-paid-for trip abroad in the even more succinctly titled, The Trip. And although the formula here follows the same strides as its predecessor as a non-stop riffing, mostly improvised buddy film-done-BBC (once again, written and directed by Michael Winterbottom), this reviewer found the film to capture a freshness just as unique and worthwhile as its polished predecessor, with its gorgeous camerawork capturing the magisterial landscape along with even more dialed in and "funnier" comedic bits.
Even if you have yet to see the first Trip outing, it won't be hard at all to jump right into the game of the movie. I admit, I myself, a fan of the first film for its high-meets-low brow package, featuring enough nuance and detail in its impeccably crafted cuisine courses as in its measured and just-narrative-enough storyline, wasn't sure if a second film could capture the same unique experience that the first one so wonderfully did. I further secretly hoped to see any scene just as funny as Coogan and Brydon's previous Michael Caine-off (wherein the first film, the two, seated formally at a fine-dining restaurant, proceeded to one-up each other with side-achingly hilarious impersonations of the knighted Englishman throughout the years), which would deem the film just as worthwhile. And how pleasantly satisfied I soon was, for but not at their first seated full-course meal did the two begin to recall their previous Michael Caine-off, and have me falling right back into side-splitting hysterics. Without giving too much away, the pair elevate the charade even higher, by bringing in more of Michael Caine's contemporaries from his most recently popular blockbuster film.
How pleasantly satisfied I soon was, for but not at (Coogan and Brydon's) first seated full-course meal did the two begin to recall their previous Michael Caine-off, and have me falling right back into side-splitting hysterics.
With these constant impersonations, audiences will either find the trip taken with these two ever-renewing and rewarding, or the shtick may tend to wear. But Brydon here is in full comedic form, bouncing around from moment to moment like a yippy dog building off of its own excitement of trying to excite Coogan's more upturned and debonair self. And the chemistry here could not be more perfectly played (having honed the relationship over years of work), and could not reveal a more complementary chemistry. Brydon, whose lesser-known celebrity (to American audiences, at least), is comprised of having an equally disorienting fascination with Lord Byron as with his revolving carousel of celebrity impersonations, including a wheel-house "Hugh Grant" and a newer-worked "Al Pacino." What's interesting here, or perhaps at least noticeable, is that in The Trip to Italy, there are a few instances where the same impersonations and comic beats arise that make the audience aware that they had just given their laugh to the same bit in earlier scenes. Perhaps this points to the fact that this sequel had the luxury of knowing what "worked" in the first film, and played those hands in more than multiple turns. In this sense, a small handful of the comic workings feel a bit repetitive, and we wish that the story would move on to the next new location and scene. However, it's a small price to pay when you realize that the story is probably all strung together by Coogan and Brydon's improvisational dialogue.
There is however, amidst all of the readily funny, off-the-cuff joke-making, a focused narrative that the characters follow throughout. And what works in this film, much like in the first, is that both characters, amidst the "funniness" they create amongst themselves, are each dealing with independently personal matters that they are forced to acknowledge and confront, even during their vacations away from their real worlds. Here, Coogan's "Coogan" is seen a bit more weighed down by the time spent apart from his now high school-aged son Joe (Timothy Leach), living mostly with his divorced wife, and we often circle back to Coogan trying to reconnect with him over the phone and Skype. Meanwhile, and played with even richer of revealing affairs, Brydon's "Brydon" is seen confronting his own insecurities, as during one stop on the trip he puts himself on tape to audition for an "American Michael Mann movie" for the part of an Italian mob's banker, but can't escape falling back on his best Pacino impersonation to read the lines. Here, and in a stolen scene where he calls his wife from the hotel room in full Hugh Grant-mode, is soon enough left to trail off into defeated mock-self conversation with the bumbling Brit's voice after his busy-at-home wife resigns herself off of the phone. Moments like these provide the film well enough dramatic earnings that provide a nice counter-balance to the overall lighthearted nature and give a grounded baseline for the rest of the movie's many offshoots to springboard from.
And of course, the film will delight and inspire audiences of all kinds simply with its many locations that it captures, including Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi, and ending up in Capri. The stunning Italian countryside, moving to the breathtaking coast, where Coogan and Brydon day-trip by sailboat, and all around, are shot in truly inspired fashion, in no small part from the work of cinematographer James Clarke, who manages the none-small feat of providing an aesthetically beautiful backdrop to frame the characters' story in as well as fawning audience awe over. The details in the locations and delicacies abound in every cultural landmark and in every dinner dish, serving as such visual treats that when the story takes its momentary dips in inspiration, there still stands more than enough sensory satisfaction to enjoy.
The Trip to Italy is that rare type of movie whose largely improvisational filmmaking style is grounded in such weighted thematic and visual impress, that to watch the movie unfurl feels constantly new and fun. Most impressively, even in its grandly impossible and beautiful world, it impressively manages to capture a sense of real life, most all thanks given to its talented leading actors' who create a third entity between them, a special instance from the combination of their greatly realized comic personas. One of my favorite scenes was nearer to the end, when Coogan and Brydon, again, sitting across from each other sharing a meal over a gorgeous Italian coastal line, got into a bit about Coogan's "celebrity" (or lack-thereof)- where Brydon built up to such funny momentum that even Coogan- whose movie-long poker face stood resilient amidst his counterpart's manic-delivery- finally broke, and couldn't help but wholeheartedly laugh at what was another well-earned and hilarious scene. Even if you weren't there for the first trip around, this is definitely one that I'd recommend tagging along to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55OtglvtXuI
Review: 'Magic in the Moonlight'
At seventy eight years old, Woody Allen proves that he still has a few tricks up his sleeve.
In the auteur's latest original screenplay and feature film, Allen circles back around to an inspired part of his youth, his love of magic, to dream up this charming and lovely outing. While the magic in the film readily spawns from its theatrically-inclined characters, the beautiful French Riviera landscapes and palpable chemistry between its cast (a pause to acknowledge the brilliance from longtime Allen-collaborator, casting director Julie Taylor) deems this an enjoyable, if only somewhat slightly too tamed, film.
Our "Allen" in this 1920's-set mad-cap comedy is Colin Firth, as grouchy yet gentlemanly Stanley, a world-class magician who, when not performing as Chinese conjurer Wei Ling Soo, snaps at the foolishness of the easily dupable sea of socialites around him. Which soon leads Stanley and his indulgently superior self to a challenge of sorts; when an opportunity arises from show biz pal and lifelong friend Howard Burkan (Simon McBurnay), who tells the magician of an impossibly gifted young psychic in the form of a doe-eyed American gal, Sophie (played by a fully hypnotizing and movie-stealing Emma Stone) Stanley immediately shoots down the idea that spiritual forces should take the credit. It takes no convincing for the spiritually-poppy-cocking showman to hop from across the pond with Simon, under false identities, to the beautiful south of France, to attempt to expose the pretty young thing for the fraud that Stanley knows she is- or for the mystifying enchantress that she possibly could be.
Leave it to one of the oldest working writer/directors (or people working in show business, for that matter) to evoke flirt and spark so naturally captured on camera that it evokes the timeless cinematic romances of a Bogart and Hepburn. Firth's pompous parading of his 'bountiful' intelligence plays strong and firm, which makes for rewarding moments for Stone as Sophie's spot-on visions and visionary self to continue to stupefy his rational sensibilities. The cat and mouse effort strings the film along in innocent fashion, and although Firth serves admirably here, it is Stone, like that most-talented lead in a high school play, who we can't help gushing over every step of the way.
The cat and mouse effort strings the film along in innocent fashion, and although Firth serves admirably here, it is Stone, like that most-talented lead in a high school play, who we can't help gushing over every step of the way.
In what makes for an incredible forty-ninth (!) feature film, the writer/director's latest love affair is intoxicating in so many ways. Though even with its whip-smart story and dialogue, it will probably end up finding its place mentioned among other just-s0 warmly received Allen films. It's not that it's a poor film- even the least dialed-in original effort from the cynically-comforted comedian still offers rich returns of cinema- it's just that after all the provided amusement, it still leaves this audience a little too sober to deem it a sweeping achievement. Where this reviewer would argue that 2011 saw his last great punch-drunk knockout hit (With kudos to a career-best Cate Blanchett in last year's Oscar-winning Blue Jasmine) with the fully realized Midnight in Paris, this one trolleys along just so-so, providing nostalgically warm-hearted intention in earnest and measured form.
If Magic in the Moonlight falls short of being a more stirring type of movie, it's not for its lack of philosophically-pointed rhapsodizing, clearly voicing some of the director's most trademark sentiments in spritely fashion. And although Firth's relentless upending of his fellow man's talking-to's of simple joys to achieve simple happiness, whether through magic tricks or the belief of communicating with loved ones from "the beyond," may seem very familiar when compared to the director's past films, this story surprises by going one step further, in what reminded me of the final scene and line from Manhattan. Stanley wades ever deeper into the unknown, despite his own principles and self-discipline, to perhaps believe that Sophie and her gifts might just be proof that life is something more: that life is something grander, more limitless, and truly, magical. And while the promise of an enchanted world might not end up self-fulfilling (might, not), Allen reveals that even he knows that magic, and non-explanation exists, if only in the very real, overcoming feeling that is felt when merely seeing a lover's smile. For this, it seems that the magician has pulled off his greatest trick: to "have a little more faith in people."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAwbwKURvm0
Review: 'Boyhood'
Although movies and films have chronicled life and its oft-times messy process of growing up and maturing, never before has one been done like this. Richard Linklater, already an accomplished director with culture-defining films such as Dazed and Confused, offers a new film that sees a young Texas boy, along with his fragmented yet loving family, quite simply, live their lives, all chronicled in a sweeping twelve year shoot that sees its core cast grow up right before your eyes.
Though the name Ellar Coltrane probably doesn't ring any bells, even with ardent cinematic fans, he will definitely be remembered hereafter for this starring lead effort, here playing Mason, who's point of view we follow from his early adolescent, all the way through his young adult life. We see a young Mason experience all that youth living offers: from playing outdoors, having to survive embarrassing school moments as new haircut, along with the heavier, more emotionally driving key life moments, such as all that goes with living between houses with divorced parents, with Patricia Arquette as his Mom, and Linklater favorite Ethan Hawke as his Dad (Linklater's real-life daughter, Lorelei Linklater, also stars in the film as Mason's sister Samantha), who also are seen aging along with Coltrane. The magic in the film is seeing life, in all of its simple, fun, heartbreaking, and tragic moments, depicted in a lovingly crafted and expansive story.
The experience of watching a scene with young Mason, ending, and cutting to the next scene featuring the actor, having aged in more than a full year's time, is incredible to behold.
Boyhood stands as a remarkable film, and not because of any specialized story. In fact, there are no over-arching themes or messages that would more likely be written into a fiction film. And this is because of what makes the film so magical, so transporting. It simply captures fragments, scenes, and instances, of simple family life. The experience of watching a scene with young Mason, ending, and cutting to the next scene featuring the actor, having aged in more than a full year's time, is incredible to behold. It is purely captivating, all because it is so real, and universal.
The movie, from a filmmaking and technical point of view, should be acknowledged for how the story was so effortlessly told. Again, the movie isn't about any one thing, save for this boy and his family itself, but rather, shows all of life unfolding. Surprisingly, or perhaps understandably, the movie doesn't intend to feature glamorous or self-serving scenes, and the experience is all the better for it. The mundane-ness of it all grows to fascinating levels, all because of its universality and we can relate exactly to it.
For an independent film, Boyhood's ambition is astounding. Though for independent veteran Linklater, the show is pulled together in a truly brilliant effort. Never before has honest, authentic filmmaking been more present, more alive, or spoken to growing up and the human condition than in Boyhood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0oX0xiwOv8
Review: 'Venus In Fur'
Roman Polanski adapts his second consecutive stage play, after 2011's Carnage, with Venus In Fur. With roots in theater, Polanski takes to staging another play, unfolding in real time. At a ninety-six minute run time, Polanski directs only two actors here, the accomplished and talented Emmanuelle Seigner as Vanda and Mathieu Amalric as Thomas, and the experience is nothing short of rewarding, funny, and socially poignant.
The takeaway here, and if you're familiar with the original text, stage play, or Greek goddess Venus herself, then you already know, is one that comments on the female role in today's society. Amalric plays Thomas, a theater director whos first appearance conveys an artistic angst and frustration that all of the auditioning female actors could not properly play the character Wanda, a nineteenth-century aristocrat who becomes a dominator to a high-society gentlemen with certain, emotional and physical satisfactions to fulfill. Thomas, at first entirely put back by Vanda's late arrival, and boozy yet charming first impression, agrees to let her audition, taking to finally read scenes with her.
The chemistry is effortless, and fulfilling, and for a movie like this, that is exactly what is required.
To deliver a good film, and not even that- but even a watchable one, with the limitation (or opportunity) of shooting only two actors for the entire duration, would seem a difficult task to accomplish. Yet it is Polanski's directorial skill in capturing captivating, alive performances, and from equally skilled performers. Mathieu as Thomas is wonderful to watch, breathing tortured, specific energy into his angstful artist, showing the character's relation to the sexually perverse socialite character yet ultimately making him relatable, and human. And Seigner delivers one of her finest performances, turning from the comically disheveled, rain-soaked actor, and to the sophisticated and aware performer Wanda, with measured composure in each part. The chemistry is effortless, and fulfilling, and for a movie like this, that is exactly what is required.
The inter-twining story lines, from when Thomas and Wanda talk about their modern situation, to the performing of the characters in the stage play, is invigorating to watch. The entire story, while light and in motion, feels like a constantly fluid experience, and is enjoying and fun to watch. Each new scene, divulging of information, that eerily parallels the play itself, builds upon the last in well-earned heightening and tension. It is provocative, intelligent, and culturally commentating (to the source material's credit).
Venus in Fur gives the ready viewer a sexy and funny experience, in intelligently written and performed vision. The staging lends itself to a more quick-moving and swiftly maneuvered play, giving the film a certain lightness. But the film achieves a solid adaptation and makes the viewer experience a fresh message of the strength in female's role in society and culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1LZ6JoUkJc&feature=kp
Review: 'Under the Electric Sky'
Although it might be pretty obvious to say at this point, EDM (Electronic Dance Music) has infiltrated into and taken a commanding place in the pop culture landscape. And how could it not? What with its bouncy beats and larger-than-life theatricality of its live music experience, wrapped up in YOLO-minded philosophy, the music scene has become the place to reach the masses of the young (or the young at heart). And nowhere is that experience more perfectly captured than in the music scene's most celebrated music festival, Electronic Daisy Carnival, or EDC for short. The festival, now held in Las Vegas, stands as the largest musical festival in the world with 345,000 people making the yearly pilgrimage to their music's mecca. In a movie that attempts to substantiate the festival's most positive of emotional experiences chronicling life, love, and community, we get the sometimes-in-3-D documentary, from Focus Features, Under the Electric Sky.
Under the Electric Sky is a construction of all of the positives about rave culture, largely, of how it appeals to and invites all peoples: the social outcasts, rejects, and weirdos, and allows them a place to "be themselves" (all decked out in and sharing beaded bracelets and necklaces referred to as "candy"). With these sentiments, this movie functions as half music-concert, half human interest piece, revealing the somewhat normal types of people who attend the festival.
Electric Sky follows five stories of fans, each attending the festival to fulfill their own personal wishes. Sadie, a small-town Texas student who suffers from bullying and chronic anxiety (who also brings her Grandfather's ashes to scatter during a song of one of her favorite DJ's), a frat-pack of Massachusetts guy friends who RV in memory of their fallen friend, long distance lovers and young professionals who's six month separation will be broken at the festival, six friends in an open relationship (rave family), a pair of veteran ravers who fell in love at EDC 15 years ago, and a wheelchair-bound youth who feels free when hearing the unbound energetic music, are our movie's central focus, and are see celebrating as one, under the same "electric" sky.
If you don't have a political problem with realizing that at the end of the day you're just watching our entire consumer culture sweating it out to bass blaring pop music in the desert, and in fact, if you find the subject curious, or just want to see what exactly the music and festival means to these people, then this movie will provide you with that experience.
Our movie's subjects certainly provide an eclectic mix of people for us to watch and to understand what the experience means to them. The fascinating thing about all subjects' motivations are that they believe, in their heart of hearts, that the scene allows for true freedom, the kind that breaks free from typical society convention. What we then get are a mixture of all types of people- the socially awkward types, along with the MD's in training. EDM provides the truest and most cathartic release for these people to leave not only the bureaucratic "real world," but the physical limitation of their mind's perceiving reality. If you don't have a political problem with realizing that at the end of the day you're just watching our entire consumer culture sweating it out to bass blaring pop music in the desert, and in fact, if you find the subject curious, or just want to see what exactly the music and festival means to these people, then this movie will provide you with that experience.
And it's not hard to see the appeal of it all- EDC, the brainchild and creation of Insomniac's Pasquale Rotella, is seen as a modern day P.T. Barnum, directing performance artists, massive art installations, epic firework displays, and a reverberating sound system, across the sprawling festival grounds in the final days before the weekend fest. This wonderland is captured in stunning and incredible measure, with cameras capturing the most unbelievable of sights from the grounds level, as well as in somewhat impressive 3-D when craning and sweeping over the massive crowds during the movie's standalone live musical numbers (credit to filmmakers Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz (Katy Perry: Part of Me). These musical moments, as well as the montage-heavy sequences, feel quite cinematic, yet balanced with the human interest stories, the whole thing feels a little too undefined an experience. The film splits very neatly down the middle, alternating between following and cutting between these people's trips and focusing on the live music as well, featuring the fest's biggest names, including Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, and Above & Beyond.
And in what might be the film's most limiting factor, or most carefully side-stepped aside, it takes thirty minutes to finally touch on the scene's most popular fixture- the drugs. We quickly side bar into seeing some behind the scenes footage of medical assistants patrolling the grounds as well as aiding ailing festival-goers, showing their "no-tolerance" allowance for ingested substances such as the crowd favorites, ecstasy and "Molly." The film, and its spokespeople, very emphatically stress how they oppose the drug-taking that occurs here, and how the drugs are not responsible for people feeling "overwhelming love," towards each other. And with only a PG-13 rating and the fact that this isn't a news journalistically-exposing documentary, audiences will be deprived of the more graphic moments that actually are witnessed at EDC.
Under the Electric Sky ultimately proves to accomplish what it sets out to. Even if it acts as more of a PR piece that inflates the emotional reasons for attending the communal event rather than showing its much darker underbelly, electronic music and the spectacle that is EDC, are still this culture's most widely celebrated music and past-time. This dual experience, of celebrating the pure, artistic and creative expression of this new music, alongside its destructively superficial, money-capitalizing and destructive qualities, makes the music scene a divided one at best. Yet for EDM's truest and most devout disciples, this movie should validate their vices. For the rest of us, however, the film might not have as deep or heartfelt a connection as its high-on-life, or just plain high, festival-goers.
http://youtu.be/icDEYGe7o4U