Super 8

A few months ago, my dvd player died on me. Cut off from my collection, and craving a cinematic experience, I dug through my old VHS tapes and found something I had not seen in at least fifteen years, “E.T.” Now, I am a Spielberg fan, I’ve watched “Jurassic Park,” “Jaws,” and the first 3 “Indiana Jones” films so many times that, frankly, much of the joy has been lost. But for whatever reason I had not done that with “E.T.” so I popped it into the VCR and I was amazed. I was transported to my childhood. It was great nostalgia, yes, but it also worked as it’s own experience.

“Super 8” is the new film by J.J. Abrams (“M:I-3”, “Star Trek”) and it attempts to emulate those early films of Steven Spielberg, and it’s mostly successful. In pure Spielbergian fashion, it centers on a young boy named Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) living in small town Ohio and dealing with a death in the family. But that’s not all that’s going on, Joe and his buddies are also heavily involved in making a zombie film for a local film festival. However, the plot thickens during a night shoot, when a train derails in front of them. The train belonged to the army and soon, military goons swoop in to recover it’s mysterious cargo.

To say more about the plot would be unwise. But sufficed to say that the film has just as much in common with 50’s sci-fi as it does Spielberg. Like any good summer film, “Super 8” features top-notch pyrotechnics. The train derailment sequence was beautifully choreographed and there is a very nice scene at a gas station that I will leave you to discover. But the great thing is how Abrams spaces out the action, allowing us to spend time with the characters and get to know them. The first shot of the film beautify illustrates that Abrams priority is story and character.

The group of kids, played mostly by newcomers, are all excellent, almost too excellent as their amateur filmmaking adventures are often more fun and involving than the actual mystery surrounding the train. Unfortunately, the mystery is where the film falters a bit. The solution just wasn't as clever as it’s clues. The emotional resolution doesn’t quite work either. At the end of the day “Super 8” is not quite as good as the Spielberg films it’s emulating, but it’s close. Damn close.

It’s great to see a summer movie where the character development doesn’t feel like padding, that has ambitions beyond the mere technical. It’s a fun movie, and it’s worth your time.

Grade: B+

Black Swan

We all have our limitations. We try to deal with them and overcome them as best we can but sometimes our limits are just that. Overcoming limitations is the central theme is Darren Aronofsky’s dark fairy tale ‘Black Swan’ about a young ballerina named Nina (Natalie Portman) who finds herself cast in a part beyond her range in a new production of ‘Swan Lake.’

Nina is a truly fragile character. Emotionally she feels 12 years old. Her mother Erica (played by the fantastic Barbara Hershey) seems to have done a lot of work to make sure she stays that way. Nina’s bedroom feels like a prison cell and the dozens of oversized stuffed animals feel like the guards.

One of the nice details of the film is the way it refuses to glamorize the world of ballet. The dance routines look more painful than enchanting. The company director Thomas (Vincent Cassel) has dark designs on Nina. He casts her in the lead of his new production of ‘Swan Lake.’ The lead is a duel role, the virginal White Swan and her seductive evil twin, the Black Swan. Thomas points out that Nina is perfect for the White Swan but completely unsuited for the Black Swan, a role that requires a sensuality and spontaneity that Thomas hopes to draw out of Nina. The way he sets about doing that is rather unsavory. While Nina’s mother is certainly no angel, Thomas feels like the biggest threat to Nina. This is interesting because he is the only character who wants Nina to actually succeed in the part of the Black Swan. The other dancers whisper behind her back and her mother feels that the role is too much for her.

The mother might have a point. Rehearsals continue and Nina’s progress is slow. She’s breaking out in strange rashes. Most importantly She is unable to be spontaneous and ‘in the moment,’ one of the most important skills in acting. The situation is so bad in fact, if we hadn’t watched her practice her routines until her toes bled, we might wonder if her heart were really in it. The stress is getting to her. She grows envious of Lilly (Mila Kunis), a new dancer who recently joined the company. Duality is a theme in ‘Swan Lake’, and therefore, by necessity it is a theme here too. Lily is everything that Nina is not: free, warm, in the moment and sensual. This duality between Lily and Nina provide some of the films most bravado sequences. It’s a subplot that develops slowly but never fully. I would have liked to see their duality played up a little more.

The film is very well executed. The grainy cinematography by frequent Aronofsky collaborator Matthew Libatique is wonderfully atmospheric and haunting. The acting is top notch. Natalie Portman’s decent into on screen insanity ranks as one of the best performances of the year and she absolutely deserves all the accolades she’s been getting. As does Barbara Hershey, who is wonderfully manipulative, aggressive yet very fragile in her own way.

The film isn’t perfect though. Not by a long shot. The Thomas character is over the top even for this melodrama and his character is not nearly inspiring enough for me to believe that he is the great director he’s supposed to be. The tension could have been ramped up. The special effects sometimes intrude on the actors. Also, quite frankly, Aronofsky is holding back. He has done much more intense and intimate work. After ‘Requiem for a Dream’ and ‘The Wrestler’ I expected more from him. Perhaps that was unfair. I probably would have praised the film much more highly if I was unaware of his previous work.

Grade: B-

Unstoppable

Unstoppable doesn’t have memorable characters, it doesn’t have powerful performances, but it does have a rather interesting set-up and is, for the most part, a satisfactory popcorn experience.

The movie stars Denzel Washington as Frank Barnes, a railroad engineer in West Virginia on the verge of retirement and Chris Pine (Star Trek) as Will Colson, Barnes’s juiced-in greenhorn replacement. They have differences but come to respect each other. If that sounds boring and unimaginative, you’re right. But that’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is what’s happening over in Pennsylvania. There, an incompetent conductor (Ethan Suplee) has to leave a slow moving train to throw a switch on the track. While he’s away from the train cab, the throttle lever slips, and the train speeds off with nobody at the controls- — oops! We then watch as Suplee contacts yardmaster Hopper (Rosario Dawson) who tries to co-ordinate efforts to stop the train. If that doesn’t sound bad enough, the train is also full of toxic chemicals and is speeding towards Colson’s hometown.

The multiple points of view reminded me a little of the superior ‘Die Hard’ movies which also derived much of their suspense from sequences of complex logistics against impossible odds.

Of course everything that Hopper and her evil corporate overlord (Kevin Dunn) do to stop the train is a laughable failure. It’s a good thing our heroes happen to be in the neighborhood.

‘Unstoppable’ is a by-the-book, paint-by-numbers movie. It’s a formula, it’s manipulative, but it works. Denzel play’s a lower key version of his persona. Chris Pine plays off his considerable charisma and the other actors play their stock-characters effectively.

The film is unique and admirable in several ways. Its large rail yards are the real thing, no fake matte paintings. The chase scenes, featuring massive, speeding locomotives also appear to be done for real. The film features incredible stunt scenes and seemingly little CGI. Not only do the images appear authentic, but the actions do too. The actions of Hooper and co to stop the train are, of course, bad ones, but they seem more like choices made by desperate people in a tough jam then the ridiculous action movie fodder that we’re used to getting. Scott and his screenwriter Mark Bomback don’t cheat. They certainly milk the premise, but they don’t stretch logic, reason or the laws of physics.

Where the film starts to have trouble is towards the end where it becomes clear that Tony Scott is the films biggest enemy. His reliance on quick cuts, shaky cameras and fast zooms become a bit overwhelming towards the end of the film. I had a migraine by the end of the film. Even at the end, after all the action scenes had where over, the camera was still zooming around like a little kid on a sugar binge.

In spite of these problems, the film is an enjoyable diversion. You probably wont remember any of the characters or lines of dialogue. The film is about big trains going real fast. If you want to see an action movie this weekend and ‘Tron: Legacy’ doesn’t appeal to you, you’ll probably be all right with this.

Grade: C+

The Social Network

So is it true? Is any of it true? Is none of it true? Did Mark Zuckerberg steal the idea for Facebook from a pair of Olympic rowers? Did he cheat his best friend out of his shares of Facebook? Is Mark Zuckerberg that much of an asshole?

The real life Zuckerberg says David Fincher’s new film ‘The Social Network’ is a piece of fiction. But Mark has a clear, vested interest in discrediting it. However there is further cause to doubt its source material. The film is based on a book by Ben Mezrich called ‘The Accidental Billionaires.’ Now some years ago Mezrich wrote another book based on a true story called ‘Bringing Down The House.’ The problem is that according to The Boston Globe, significant parts of that book were just plain made up. Truth fudging is accepted in film, but is kind of a no-no for books labeled ‘non-fiction.’

The story gets complicated here because ‘The Social Network’ isn’t exactly based on ‘The Accidental Billionaires.’ At the time the book was sold to Columbia Pictures it was just an outline. Screenwriter Arron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing) used that outline as his starting point and did the majority of his own research independently. He found transcripts of Mark's former blog concerning the creation of Facemash (a website Zuckerberg wrote while in an inebriated fit over a girl) Facemash allowed users to compare the looks of female Harvard students. The initial idea was to compare the girls to farm animals, but he thought better of it. The blog transcript appears in the film almost verbatim. Looking at Sorkin’s work, I know that he is an idealistic man consumed with details, but as a storyteller his loyalty is always going to be to the story he’s trying to tell.

The Facemash incident not only gets Zuckerberg in trouble with the Harvard Admin board, it also earns him and his roommate Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) the scorn of every girl on campus. But Mark also gains the notice of the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence) who want him to build them a social networking site. The site would mirror MySpace, but be exclusively for Harvard students. Around the same time Mark asks Eduardo to help him fund a new social networking site that uses exclusivity as its core idea. Before long Facebook is up, the Winklevoss twins are threatening legal action, and Eduardo is at the end of his wits just trying to eek out a profit for him and Mark before it all goes to Hell. To help, Mark hires Napster co-founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) as a consultant. Eduardo sees Sean as a paranoid moocher and a bad influence on Mark. But Mark sees Parker as a rock-star beyond reproach, and begins to push Eduardo away, leading to more legal trouble.

The obvious comparison is to ‘Citizen Kane’ and it’s not completely undue. Both are well-crafted, controversial films told in flashbacks and based on the lives of media tycoons. But ‘Kane,’ loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst had the decency to change all the names (though it was obvious who it was about). Also while Charles Foster Kane was clearly based on Hearst, co-writer/director Orson Wells put just as much of himself into the character, resulting in a film that is a much more personal statement about greed, ego, etcetera. The two movies are also very different stylistically. ‘Kane’ is a grand, operatic film encompassing its subjects entire life. ‘Social Network’ is more down-to-earth and centers on Zuckerberg’s early days. The later is not a fault of the movie as Zuckerberg is only 26 and therefore has nothing but early days.

The best structural comparison would be to Akira Kurosawa’s film ‘Rashomon’ and it’s countless imitators. That film told the story of a crime from the point of view of four witnesses who all claim to be the culprit (go watch it, if you haven’t already). ‘The Social Network’ is told in flashback by Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and various hostile witnesses called in two law suits brought against him. Kurosawa used the point of view in ‘Rashomon’ to say that memory and emotional testimonies are inherently unreliable. ‘Social Network’ does so too, but in a subtler way. We don’t see events replayed from different points of view so much, as we are made aware that the witnesses have their own agendas.

I have no clue how ‘The Social Network’ will be viewed in 20 years. I doubt that it’ll be held in the same esteem as ‘Kane’ or ‘Roshomon.’ But that said, ‘Social Network’ is a fantastically well-made film. Its complexly structured script is brimming with multi-tiered conversations and exceedingly technical details would defeat many filmmakers. Yet Fincher finds a way to make it not only watchable, but also enthralling. He boils it down to a simple core and builds on it so no matter how complicated the film gets, we always see the basic human drama going on. At the end of the day ‘The Social Network’ isn’t about coding, or theft. It’s about an awkward guy who just wants to belong and sit at the cool kids table, even if he manages to alienate the few people who might actually want to be his friends.

The film is a technical marvel as well. This is to be expected from David Fincher who, like Zuckerberg, is a tireless perfectionist (he did 99 takes of the opening scene alone). The film has a chillingly effective score by ‘Nine Inch Nails’ front man Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It adds a sense of playful menace to a film that is really toying with its audience. Mischievousness in story telling is a trademark of Fincher’s films (Se7en, The Game, Fight Club), but he’s more sly about it here.

Going in, I wasn’t certain if Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook and I’m still not. The way the film depicts him, he is certainly brilliant enough to have come up with it on his own, but he’s also arrogant enough to have stolen it. I know that a lot of the little details are true, but the answers to the big questions are really only known to Mark Zuckerberg and possibly Eduardo Saverin. The filmmakers understand this and they don’t try and give us any definitive truth. They give us truth and myth. Truth plus. A lot of movies based on fact do this, they say "based on a true story" and expect you to assume that it's all true. But Sorkin and Fincher have done something different here, by creating a film where the truth of the story we're being told is always being questioned by it's characters, they invite discussion and skepticism of the film itself. In it's own quiet way, 'Social Network' may be Fincher's most subversive film yet. This is a film that demands your attention and in exchange it gives you something to think and talk about with your friends. So you tell me, is it true?

Grade: A+

The American

The first image of Anton Corbijn’s new film “The American” is of a snow-covered cabin in Sweden. For the first 30 seconds or so there is no sound. None. No wind rustling through the trees. No chirping birds. Perfect solitude. Then, so quietly you’re not even sure you can hear it at first, there is a piano. Inside the cabin George Clooney is held up with his girlfriend. They are perfectly contented in their isolation, like Adam and Eve. Too bad for them that this is a thriller, and that soon comes to a violent end.

Clooney plays a man named Jack, or maybe it’s Edward, or maybe none of those things. Jack/Edward has an unusual job, he claims to be a photographer but in reality he builds custom weapons for assassins. After the nastiness in Sweden, he’s fed up, frightened and justifiably paranoid. But his handler convinces him into one last job. Jack/Edward gets the specifications for the rifle he is to build-a collapsible sniper rife with the machine gun’s firing speed.

He hides out in a small Italian town in the mountains of Abruzzo. There are wonderful scenes of Jack /Edward building the rifle. The components laid out in rows on the table of his dingy hotel room. He is good with machines but he is distracted. He spends his days talking with an old priest; he spends his nights with a prostitute named Clara (the absolutely gorgeous Violante Placido). Otherwise he sits and waits.

The film very much rests on Clooney’s performance. At this point in the year I would not be surprised if he were nominated for an Oscar. The director knows how good Clooney is and builds the film on his skill. A lesser actor might have required a script with more exposition, more action to keep us interested or more intrusive music to help us notice what we need to see. But luckily for this film, George Clooney has gotten very, very good at playing lonely, detached and mysterious. He plays his character as a nervous man constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. All the drama, and suspense in the film is in his face.

As an assassin film, it does owe a lot to the heavyweight champs of the genre. The entire set-up is reminiscent of a section from “The Day of The Jackal” where the assassin goes to see an old man about a custom rifle. Both films have explosive bullets and scenes were an assassin tests the weapon in a secluded field. The mood of the film, the Zen mindset of the protagonist and camera work owe a lot to Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samurai” which is an excellent film you should go rent right now.

There are better films of this type out there but not in theaters. But there aren’t better Clooney performances out there. Also don’t believe the ads; this is NOT an action film.

Grade: B

Strange cinema incoming!

All sorts of great movies are hitting theaters this fall; I just want to quickly mention two of the strangest, most ambitious projects that have caught my eye.

The first one is 'Black Swan,' the latest film by Darren Aronofsky who is one of the most unique voices working in film today.   His 2008 film 'The Wrestler' famously catapulted Mickey Rourke back into the public eye.  Aronofsky's films are emotionally vivid and honest.  They seem to come from that part of the human psyche that most of us prefer to ignore.  'Black Swan' is a psychological thriller about two young ballet dancers (Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis) competing for the lead in a new production of Swan Lake.  Aronofsky has been working on the project since 2000 and has compared the tone to 'Rosemary's Baby.'  It does look frightening.

Click here to view trailer in Quicktime HD

The second film I want to bring to your attention is Jasper Noé's 'Enter The Void.'  I have not seen any of Noé's other films but I'm told that they are expertly crafted though at times difficult to watch.  His latest work is a "psychedelic melodrama" about the ghost of a young drug addict who wonders the streets of Tokyo watching over his sister.   The first images I saw reminded me of 'Blade Runner.'  I, of course, cannot speak to the quality of the actual film but the trailer is frightening, beautiful and touching.

Click here to view trailer in Quicktime HD

Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow!

1939.  A scientist takes a journey across the Atlantic knowing that when he arrives he will be killed.  Why does he go?  Because the secret he knows is so terrifying that it could destroy the very Earth itself!  So begins “Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow” a film that has just about everything a ten year-old boy would love to see.  It’s chuck-full of airplanes, ray guns, rampaging robots, monsters, mystic lands, tiny elephants, and lots of radioactive villainy!  As the saying goes, this movie is so much fun there ought to be a law.

One of the great pleasures in cinema is seeing new technology used to tell an old story.  Released in 2004, ‘Sky Captain’ was one of the first movies to be shot entirely against blue screen.   Though using experimental techniques, first time director Kerry Conran always uses the effects in service to the story, and the result is a ghee-whiz, popcorn confection that could stand next to the first ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark.’  Like those films, ‘Sky Captain’ feels like an old friend right away.  Part of that effect must be due to the film lavish retro style.  The lighting is reminiscent of early two-strip Technicolor films from the period.   The production design more than slightly resembles Max Fleischer’s Superman cartoons.

I won’t tell Warner Brothers legal department if you don’t.

The story itself is, of course, absolutely ridiculous and yes, predictable.  I don’t think there’s really any suspense as to whether or not Joe “Sky Captain” Sullivan (Jude Law) will be able to thwart the dastardly scheme of the evil Dr. Totenkopf (Sir Lawrence Olivier in a tastefully done posthumous role).  After all, Sky Captain is the kind of guy who saves the world every other Wednesday.  Nor do I doubt whether or not he and his “girl Friday” Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) will settle their screwball bickering and get back together by the end.   The invention is not in the story; it’s in the gadgets and the absurdity.  It is very satisfying to find a movie that is this much fun, that can make me smile so wide and so often.

           

This movie is like a dream, a near perfect distillation of childhood fantasy.  It excites the imagination in a way few others do.   I find it strange that the general public didn’t seem to connect with ‘Sky Captain’ when it came out.   This is exactly the movie that the Star Wars prequels wanted to be.   However, I have confidence that in time this film will be rediscovered.

If you’re looking for a deep, insightful journey into the human mind, look elsewhere.  But if you’re looking for a top-shelf piece of escapist entertainment that lets you forget your troubles and grin for an hour and forty minutes, well that’s a job for Sky Captain.

Grade: A

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 This 1941 Superman Cartoon by Max Fleischer was undoubtedly a strong influence on 'Sky Captain' and is just as much fun as the movie.