Living in the valley

Crazy Heart
Written and Directed by Scott Cooper
Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb

Jeff Bridges' performance in "Crazy Heart" moved me to tears. Bridges relinquished all inhibitions to portray the sinking desperation of alcoholism and the yearning for what could have been. His performance is raw, vulnerable, and proof that material for older actors comes along far too infrequently. Bridges plays Bad Blake, a 57 year old country musician who once had his day in the sun and now spends his nights playing bowling alleys and dive bars in between downing whiskey and bedding aging groupies. Bridges could have easily played Blake with one note- as simply mean or grumpy or cynical. Instead, he gives Blake an inherent likability and charm that allows us to understand why he became famous in the first place.

Blake's clearly down and out when he meets Jean, a small-town reporter in New Mexico who wants to do a story on him. Initially, Blake only seems interested in getting Jean into bed, but eventually something about her moves him to start making better choices. Jean, played so wonderfully by Maggie Gyllenhaal, is much younger than Blake. I don't know if their age difference exists in the original novel, but it works. Jean is a single mother and level-headed, not at all spontaneous in the way Blake is. In fact, it's obvious that her interest in Blake both scares and excites her, and she knows that falling for him would be far too risky an undertaking. I think that Blake sees in Jean and her young son all of the goodness of a youth he ravaged through.

Fans of country and blues music will especially like this movie, and actual touring musicians even more so. In an uncredited role, Irish actor Colin Farrell plays Tommy Sweet, once Blake's protege, and now one of the hottest country acts. The relationship between Blake and Sweet is interesting - not adversarial, but far from father-son.

This movie is about the peaks and valleys in life, how one day you're on top, and whether through your own actions or simply by circumstance, you end up in a valley. Though it may look like hell, it's so easy to stay there. Bridges' outstanding performance shows how hard it is to climb out, but how sweet it is once you meet the level road.

If you don't ever see this movie, at least listen to the film's title song. It says it all. Isn't it amazing how music can do that? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwwkqABItLA

In Defense of Carrie Bradshaw

Sex and the City 2
Written & Directed by Michael Patrick King

When Sex and the City aired on HBO, I wasn't a fan. I would occasionally watch an episode, but I certainly wasn't a die-hard follower of Carrie Bradshaw's misadvantures. I thought Carrie was materialistic, superficial, and trivial, and found her problems to arise out of shallowness and self-involvement. However, while watching the SATC sequel, I finally understood her. After her years-long quest to get Mr. Big to love her, he finally does, and yet, she finds herself restless in the certainty, unhappy that Big chooses the couch over a night on the town. This sequel deals with the reality of marriage and the compromises that go with it. Underneath its over-indulgent costumes, hijinx, and vulgar double-entrendre, this movie is really about the power of female friendship, and the freedom allowed American women to make choices, no matter how frivolous, insensitive, or irrational those choices may be.

But let me get to what I find to be the most interesting aspect of this movie: the controversy it has ignited for its supposed caricature of Arab culture. Some critics, like Ebert, gave the movie scathing reviews. For once, I must disagree with Ebert and come to the defense of Carrie and her entourage. I feel like Elaine in that episode of Seinfeld where she admits to hating "The English Patient." I like this movie... not for the trendy clothes or the risque dialogue but for the overall message it conveys.

In one scene, the women are attending a gay wedding ceremony in Connecticut (where gay marriage is legal) complete with Liza Minelli and a gay men's choir singing show tunes. Cut to the girls arriving in Abu Dhabi where women are required to wear head scarves, and public affection can land you in jail. The juxtaposition is striking. Do I have to ask - where would you rather live?

What I find most exasperating is that the same people who have always loved SATC for its liberal stance on sexuality and feminism, are now turning their backs on Carrie and her pals. The critics claim that their disdain for the film is based solely on its portrayal of Arab culture. Could it be, however, that these critics, however subconsiously, simply will not allow these over-40 women to get away with the same shenanigans they were up to in their 30's? The same critics who have lambasted the movie for being politically incorrect are apparently unaware of their own bias toward women over 40. The sad part is that some of these critics are women themselves!!

I'm one of the last people to take offense at jokes about aging actresses. But if you're going to make statements about what is considered unseemly behavior for a woman over 50 (Samantha's character) or about how a woman of a certain age should dress, then what was women's lib for? So that female critics can spew negative remarks about female characters who have chosen to neither marry nor procreate, and who dare to still follow their libidos at 50?!!

Regardless of director King's intentions, SATC 2 is much more a celebration of being American than a derisive commentary on another culture. This movie is about all that America and its people represent: transparent emotion (and sometimes transparent clothing), frivolity, abundance... but most of all freedom: freedom to love, freedom to be restless, freedom to dress how you like. In some countries, freedom is more yearned for than sex itself. And for some very lucky, priveleged American critics, that is a hard concept to accept.

A life of high-flying solitude

Movie #6: "Up in the Air"

Directed by Jason Reitman; Screenplay by Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner; Based on book by Walter Kirn


With all the talk of "Up in the Air" being about the current state of the economy, don't let anyone fool you. The book version of "Up in the Air" was written far before the downfall of the stock market and auto industry. This movie is about people. It's about all the small, trivial things that make human relationships so poignant and staggering. From the touch of a hand to the sheer joy of forgetting the world around you as you dance tipsy on a dance floor, "Up in the Air" wants you to reflect on the moments of your life that make you happy.

For me, "Up in the Air" has the same intangible quality, and ability to touch a nerve, that the film "American Beauty" has. When I saw "Beauty" in the theatre, I sat and cried while the end credits rolled and everyone else headed for the exit. Why, I don't know, but the film moved me deeply. Yes, the part where the neighbor boy shows off his video of a plastic bag blowing in the wind is far beyond pretentious. Things really can't be that bad if you have a roof over your head and money to burn as the characters in these movies do. But their situations echo the lives of those of us who have enough money and possessions to sometimes feel guilty for our luck, but not enough that we don't sometimes desire more. Such situations are rich material for the satire of "Beauty" and "Air."

In "Air," George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a professional terminator of jobs. He travels state to state to different companies, firing employees. He travels most days of the year and hordes frequent flier miles. Marching into this life of self-induced isolation comes new colleague Natalie. Played by Anna Kendrick, Natalie is fresh out of college and full of business-like pragmatism. She believes the company would save loads of money if they did the firings online, a possibility that would put an end to Bingham's life as the happy transient. To show her that in-person firing isn't as easy as it looks, Bingham takes Natalie on a crash-course in firing, which of course, turns out to be more of a crash-course in life.

Along the way, Ryan meets Alex, played wonderfully by Vera Farmiga. She, too, travels frequently for her job, and one night in a hotel bar, they find they have an equally unnatural passion for travelers' perks. This flirtation quickly leads to a sexual relationship which they rekindle in various cities when their schedules allow. I appreciate how the movie shows the evolution of their relationship in a natural way. They don't have some big talk about moving the relationship out of bootie-call mode into something more serious. It just happens. Ryan and Alex are two people who may or may not have different motives, but when they're together, they're on the same page, they are in the moment, and they are seemingly in love in that "I could kiss you all day and not get tired of it" kind of way. What I love about their chemistry is that it's not portrayed as two jaded 30 & 40-somethings who are bitter because they haven't yet succeeded in love. Their affection for each other is fresh and reminiscent of what it looks like to be in love for the very first time.

What is clearly evident throughout the film is Ryan's loneliness and his self-imposed exile from family and potential relationships. A major part of the plot is Ryan's sister's wedding, which shows the family dynamics in a very realistic light. His sisters are played amazingly by Amy Morton and Melanie Lynskey (the bride). To me, the scene that is the crux of the movie is one in which Ryan is called on to convince his sister's fiance, who is suffering from cold feet, that he should get married. In the scene, the fiance tells Ryan how lucky he is that he's single with no responsibilities or commitments. How Ryan responds is what makes this movie for me, because ultimately this movie isn't about Ryan and Alex, or Ryan and his family. It's about Ryan.

"Up in the Air" looks at life as the limbo we experience between birth and death, and how we decide to either cherish it or flush it down the toilet. By the end of the film, Ryan realizes he could have something more, and even if he doesn't get it right away, he's had a taste of it and knows that he wants it.

The women in this film are wonderfully written. Alex and Natalie are strong, intelligent and capable of behavior typically only portrayed by men in movies. I hope mainstream cinema welcomes more films like this in which women have practical agendas, not just hopes and dreams.

Young women making choices

"An Education" Directed by Lone Scherfig; Screenplay by Nick Hornby; Based on memoir by Lynn Barber
"Precious" Directed by Lee Daniels; Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher; Book by Sapphire
 
Two of this year's most heralded film performances came from relative newcomers. In "Precious" and "An Education" respectively, Gabby Sidibe, 26 and Carey Mulligan, 24 create subtle, authentic performances, the kind that few young actors could hope to match. Both play characters facing divergent paths.Though the characters' specific circumstances differ greatly, both performances reinforce the idea that the choices young adults make, no matter how small, will affect the rest of their lives.

Before seeing "Precious", I read the novel "Push" by Sapphire on which the film is based. I was impressed with the book's rawness and with the author's refusal to water-down the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse endured by Precious. Without giving away major plot points, I'll simply say that Precious has a lot to overcome from her past and plenty to face in her future. Illiterate and pregnant, she enters an alternative school for female teens who have failed within the traditional school system, and she finds camaraderie, confidence, and most importantly, an advocate in teacher Ms. Rain. With new-found strength, Precious decides to leave her abusive mother. However, it's clear her struggles will not end when the reader turns the final page.

Originally, Sapphire was opposed to a film adaptation. She had been courted by other directors and declined their offers. In an interview with Charlie Rose, she said she feared a film version would somehow stereotype the characters in a way that the book does not. I don't know how Sapphire reacted to the film, but I agree that the book has a kind of mystical quality, in the vein of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, that encourages the reader to feel the characters more than actually see them. In contrast, the film version refuses to shield its viewer from the harsh reality of Precious' life.

Sidibe plays Precious to perfection. Though quiet and often appearing emotionless, Precious is not a frightened rabbit. She mouths off to teachers and pushes around her little girl neighbor. At the same time, she has an elaborate fantasy life which involves her becoming a much-loved celebrity. Her real life, though, is dark, and director Lee Daniels does not shy away from it. The Harlem apartment she shares with her mentally and physically debilitated mother is all dark and shadows. Until she encounters Ms. Rain, the only light in Precious' life is in her fantasies.

"An Education" is about a far less challenged, yet equally interesting, young woman. Jenny is a British high-school student in the 1960s. Like Precious, she has a toughness which dwells beneath a sweet-faced exterior. Though she engages in idle chatter about how she plans to wear all-black at university and slips French phrases into conversation, actor Mulligan allows Jenny to rise above angst and neuroses. Fueled by her hard-working father, she spends the majority of her time studying and attending orchestra rehearsals in the hope of making it to Oxford. These hopes are challenged when Jenny meets David, a much older man who sees in her all that he has left behind.

David woos people. It's how he gets by in life. He even wins over Jenny's father, which seems an unbelievable feat. What is most interesting, though, is that out of all the people David encounters, the one who seems least impressed by him is Jenny. David has money and all the right connections, but he knows little of art, literature, and language, at least not in the way Jenny does. For a time, though, Jenny chooses to ignore his veiled provincialism in order to travel, go to concerts, and simply escape the reality of what she sees as a one-dimensional life.

Though the movie is called "An Education", it's less about Jenny learning hard lessons about men than about her realizing, earlier than most, that her options are far more unique than she was led to believe. Through her brief, yet valuable, affair with David, she discovers she can create her own path. 

What I find most intriguing about Precious and Jenny is that they are so much more complex than they appear, and prove that, though young and vulnerable, they are not easily taken in, and even in the most dire or difficult circumstances, they wish for a life less ordinary.

Ebert's List

Now this is a list:
Roger Ebert's Top Films of the Decade

Please notice #5 on the list- "Me and you and everyone we know". I can't believe this movie is actually on Ebert's list of top movies of the decade- not because it's not a good movie, but because so few people have seen it and even the ones who have may not appreciate its depth at all. However, I am not one of these people, so Rog and I have #5 in common. :)

Kudos also to Ebert for placing Spike Lee's "25th Hour" #8 on the list.

Not sure how I feel about "Almost Famous" and "Crash" being on there, but I figure Ebert has a soft spot for young journalist coming-of-age stories ("Famous") and not sure what fascinated him about Crash. Yes, it was well-received by critics and audiences, but I see it as more of a "message" movie than a piece of art.

Feel free to comment on the list. Now I have some movies to watch: Numbers 1, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14, 16-20. :)

Oscar Oscar!

It's coming upon Oscar nomination time, and anyone who follows movies knows that this is the time of year when all the heart-tugging, tear-inducing movies and performances emerge at the theater. I've recently seen "Precious" and "An Education" and will be posting about those soon. As for other movies I'm looking forward to, "Up in the Air"and "A Serious Man" top the list.

How about you, reader? Any hidden gems this year that you wish got more attention?

The new America

Movie #3: Goodbye Solo
Directed by Ramin Bahrani; Written by Ramin Bahrani & Bahareh Azimi

Touted by Roger Ebert as the "new great American director", Ramin Bahrani, director of 2005's "Man Push Cart" and the more recent "Goodbye Solo", must be flying pretty high right now. After only five movies under his belt (according to imdb.com), Bahrani has obviously impressed critics with his films about the immigrant and minority experience in America. Ebert calls "Goodbye Solo" a "masterwork." While I liked the film, my review is not quite as glowing as Ebert's.

Set in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the film follows a black, Senegal-born cab driver named Souleymane (Solo, for short) and William, an old man with reddish-blonde hair and a face that more than shows the traces of a life lived. One day, William gets into Solo's cab and makes him a deal: he'll give Solo a large sum of money to drive him one-way to Blowing Rock, a place where it's so windy, the snow appears to be falling backwards. Solo seems almost immediately concerned with why William wants to go to Blowing Rock and never come back. The entire film hinges on Solo's concern for William and his obsession with figuring out why someone would want to turn his back on life. One thing is for sure- Solo is one of the most compassionate characters I've seen on screen in a long time, and William, one of the most enigmatic.

The opening scene is one of the best things about this movie. Unlike mainstream Hollywood movies that open with a long line of credits moving to the rhythm of a Top-40 hit, "Goodbye Solo" opens mid-scene, the two main characters already engaged in conversation as they sit in Solo's cab. No pretense, music, or credits- just dialogue which provides exposition and character development at the same time. Not enough movies utilize this device. Perhaps writers and directors don't think their audiences are smart enough to figure out what's going on without some ultra-obvious montage at the beginning of a movie. This movie's opening scene reminded me of a play- spare and efficient, not in a way that's trying to make a statement (like the set of Lars Von Trier's "Dogville," for example), but in a way that best serves the story.

Solo has been driving cabs for three years and is ready for a change. He has taken his flight attendant exam at least once, but he keeps getting rejected. Solo seems to have little problem learning the material, and the viewer is ever so gently led to believe that perhaps discrimination plays a role in his not getting hired. Solo is married to Quiera, a Mexican-American woman pregnant with his child who also has a young daughter named Alex from a previous relationship. Solo and Alex have a wonderful relationship- he relates to her somewhere between a father and a friend. Solo is joyful, open-hearted, talkative, but he is not naive. He's got layers. Anyone watching him from the outside would think that Solo's got it pretty good- a wife, a beautiful step-daughter, a house, and a job, but things aren't so rosy on the inside. Quiera wants him to stick with driving the cab- they've got a new baby on the way, and she expects more from him than what he's currently giving. Solo doesn't see it this way. He's in pursuit of more happiness even if that means disappointing his family in the process. The viewer isn't provided with Solo's back story- what his life was life in Senegal, etc. and perhaps that's for the better.

William is Solo's opposite. He is tight-lipped, stoic, closed-off. One can tell just by looking at him that he was at one time a major bad-ass. Even Solo refers to him as "an original player" when he sees the tattoo on William's bicep and learns that he used to ride a motorcycle. As with Solo, the viewer is given no real back story on William. He tells Solo that his wife left him 30 years ago and that he has no children, but these statements come into question later in the film, and William remains an enigma to the end. All we know is that he is wounded inside, probably by something pretty big. Solo is intuitive enough to immediately sense William's pain, and for some reason, he becomes obsessed with saving him.

Bahrani provides us with characters who are America's outsiders: the immigrant, the Mexican, the old man. Those of us who live in less integrated places wouldn't expect these people to inter-mingle in real life. However, it's obvious that Bahrani strives to exceed stereotypes and focus instead on humanity. What's interesting about Solo is that he's equally comfortable in the company of white William as he is with his black, native Winston-Salem friends and his African immigrant friends. Is Solo the exception or the rule? Is Winston-Salem a model for the new America in terms of cross-culturalism? Is Bahrani looking at identity from within rather than from the outside? Or is this some kind of world that Bahrani only wishes exists? Bahrani is native to Winston-Salem, so I won't make any assumptions other than to say that this is a location Bahrani knows well and perhaps wishes were more akin to the place he creates in the movie.

Maybe I'm being cynical in questioning the reality of the relationships in this movie. It's not like Solo and William become best-buds- there is always a lack of trust on William's part. However, the extent to which William lets Solo in, no matter how small, seems unrealistic at times.

What I appreciate most about this movie is that it's a non-traditional love story. It is rare that we see films focusing on male friendship and all that can be revealed between male friends without a word spoken. We've all seen the films where boy wants girl, boy gets girl, and boy loses girl. This film is framed in much the same way... it's as if Solo and William engage in a short-lived love affair full of mystery, obsession, secrets revealed and of course, a bittersweet ending.

This is Solo's movie, and for sure an acting triumph on the part of Souleymane Sy Savane in only his second film. The viewer realizes that this is only the beginning of truths learned for Solo, that for all the hope America represents for him, there are plenty of sad, cynical stories to be found beneath its glossy veneer.