BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

This movie was unquestionably the biggest breakout hit of SUNDANCE 2012.   I will fess up that it hadn't even entered my radar until  everyone (that I respected) at the Festival was raving about it, and so much so that the Organizers thankfully scheduled an extra P + I Screening so i could join a packed and very excited line of die-hard film professionals to see if it lived up to the hype of the circuit.  This is the Blog I published at the time:-

Set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina this is a gritty story about a father and daughter. Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in "the Bathtub", a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink's tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe; for a time when he's no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink's health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.

It is a magical realist tale and is stunning visually and also extremely tender and touching especially with the scenes between father and daughter ….(she is played by an amazing wide-eyed sensational 6yr old called Quvenzhabe Wallis).    It is also quite unlike anything I have ever seen before.

Manohla Dargis in 'The NY Times' went as far as declaring it not just the standout of this year’s Sundance, but one of the best movies to play there in the past two decades.  I’m not qualified to know if that is true, but I will say that it is unquestionably one of the best movies what we saw this week.  I will also confess that it never even surfaced on our radar until others started talking it up so enthusiastically, and I will also own up to the fact that that was not sure exactly what this allegory completely meant at first, but after a second viewing the penny started to drop. I had also forgotten how wonderfully moving the soundtrack is : kind of blows you away.


P.S. It has opened this week in NY to rave reviews and there is even talk of this being the first movie of 2012 that has started the buzz of possible Oscars even


★★★★★★★★★★

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

The original idea behind this latest movie version (the 17^th) of this much beloved romantic 19^th Century novel was to give it a glam Hollywood treatment with stars like Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbinder attached to play the leads, but the moment that Brit director Andrea Arnold came on board it was inevitable that this would be anything but that.  Arnold who won an Oscar for her first short movie, has made a name with her gritty realistic dramas, and that is exactly the spin she took when she wrote the screenplay for this, her 3^rd feature length narrative.

Arnold’s stunningly bleak mist ridden Yorkshire moors filmed in half light and shadows are the setting for a very contemporary take on the doomed love story between the servant Heathcliff and Cathy the daughter of the House. Filmed without any incidental music and just the cruel fierce winds and the constant pounding rain as the soundtrack which dramatically heightens the tensions of the struggle that Heathcliff in particular must endure as the adopted son who is hated by his siblings.  And to make him even more of an outsider, Arnold controversially casts James Howson an untrained black actor as Heathcliff.

With its sparse script the movie focuses on its visuals to tell the story that is filmed mainly with hand-held cameras.  The cast of enthusiastic first-timers put in very believable performances, but the love story that shines through however is not theres but the one that Arnold has with the beautiful Yorkshire landscapes.

With a overly long running time of 2 hours the film drags a tad too, much especially in the second half, but it is an interesting edgy and unexpected take on Miss Bronte’s work, and although she may turn over in her grave at the very idea of it, I for one am pleased I got to see it.

P.S. Now I am curious to see other versions so if anyone has a copy of ‘Arashi ga oki’ the Japanese version made in 1998, please let me know.  And maybe the earlier treatment for 1955 from Mexico which naturally is titled 'Abismos de pasión'. 


★★★★★★★★

YOUR SISTER'S SISTER

This 4th feature film directed by Lynn Shelton ('HUMPDAY') tells the story of Jack who hasn't recovered from the unexpected death of his brother, and one year on is still drifting aimlessly through life broke and without a job. His best friend Iris, who also happens to have once been his brother's girlfriend, stages an 'Intervention' and insists he literally gets on his bike and catches a Ferry to a remote island where her father has a hideaway. When he arrives at the house in the middle of the night he discovers its already occupied by Hannah, Iris's sister, who has the same of idea of escaping the world as she has just broken up with her girlfriend of seven years. So both trapped in the house and feeling sorry for themselves they get absolutely smashed and end up in bed for some very unfulfilling sex.

Meanwhile next morning Iris, finding herself at a loose end in the city, turns up at the house unexpectedly and is totally surprised to find her sister there and that's when the fun starts as these three lonely souls all have their own hidden agendas.

This wee entrancing and delightful movie was evidently shot in just 10 days and binds together so well with spot on performances by the three actors. Iris is played by Emily Blunt, Rosemarie Dewitt plays Hannah her sister, and Mark Duplass is the quick-witted Jack. Mr.Duplass (one half of the filmmaking Duplass Brothers who wrote, directed, produced and sometimes acted in, three excellent movies : 'The Puffy Chair', 'Cyrus' and 'Baghead') actually conceived the plot which he took to Lynn Shelton (he had starred in 'Humpday') and most of the script was improvised. Maybe that's why it felt so fresh and engaging 

Mr. Duplass and Ms Shelton are very busy people it would seem. They both act in another movie at Sundance 'SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED' and if that is not enough for the prodigious Mr Duplass he also wrote the screenplay for his actress wife Kate Aselton who's directing debut 'BLACK ROCK' is premiering here too. Mr and Mrs Duplass also both star together in the TV series 'The League'  ! 

(This review was part of my SUNDANCE 2012 Blog and is reproduced here now as the movie begins its theatrical release).


★★★★★★★★

THE ANGEL'S SHARE

Director Ken Loach is drawn back to working class Glasgow again for his latest comedy drama about a young thug who’s given a second chance and turns out to be a good wee lad after all.  Robbie is in Court for the umpteenth time after a particular brutal assault on another young man, but his Lawyer pleads with the Judge for leniency as he is about to become a father for the first time.  He avoids going to prison this time and instead is given a sentence of Community Service.

He’s out doing just this with a gang of other offenders painting a church hall when he gets a call that his baby is about to be born. Harry the Social Worker accompanies him to the hospital and witnesses his girlfriend's father and uncles pummeling him as a warning to for him to keep away, and he takes pity on Robbie and takes him to his house recover.  To celebrate the birth Harry gives the new young father a glass of vintage whisky, which he at first wants to spoil by adding coke, but reluctantly drinks it neat.

As a treat Harry decides to take the whole crew doing Community Service to a Whisky Distillery in Edinburgh and after the Tour they are given a wee dram each, and Robbie suddenly discovers he actually really likes the taste.  But far more than just stirring up his taste buds he starts to realize that he has a ‘noise’ for this and can actually distinguish one whisky from another. Back home he decides to starts to learn up on them and by the time that Harry takes him to a lecture and a Whisky Tasting, Robbie surprises everyone with his new found natural ability to identify even rare whiskies. 

Whilst he is turning over a new leaf and paying back his debt to society he is still constantly under threat from both his girlfriend’s relatives and also the friends of the boy he had harmed, and it soon becomes obvious that he will have no alternative than to leave town to start a new life with his new family somewhere else. Something that will take money, which he doesn’t have.  So when he learns about a cask of priceless whisky is about to go on auction soon, he conjures up a rather clever plot on how to steal some of the precious liquid which could possibly net him and his Community Service gang a cool £250,000.

Despite its setting this movie lacks the grittiness  that one expects from a Loach working-class drama, and its all a little bit too cozy and sweet to be anything other than a rather ordinary feel-good heist comedy.  And one that relies on rather feeble stereotypical humor about kilts and Irn Bru (a popular Scottish cola). Disapointing as this is after all the work of an acclaimed edgy Director who's had 14 of his movies shown at Cannes (and winning 9 awards  there including the Palme D’or once). Paul Brannigan the untrained actor with an authentic facial scar playing Robbie is the real thing alright as he was actually plucked from a life of crime to go 'straight' especially for this film, but the script from Loach’s regular collaborator Paul Laverty doesn't serve him that well.

A pleasant enough movie that could (and should) have been better, and one you will need a good ear for thick Scottish brogue to understand it too.

P.S. "Angels' share" is a term for the portion (share) of a wine or distilled spirit's volume that is lost to evaporation during aging in oak barrels.

★★★★★★★

COSMOPOLIS

Eric Packer, a very young and handsome billionaire insists of having his whole fleet of stretch limos drive him to the other side of Manhattan because he wants to get a haircut at his favorite barbers which is located in the slightly salubrious poor neighborhood that he grew up in.  The trouble is that so many roads are closed as the US President is visiting town, and there is also a famous Rap Singer's funeral, and so traffic crawls along at a snail’s pace and the journey ends up taking the entire day. 

In his car, which is like a mobile office, the journey is constantly punctuated with a series of odd and unconnected incidents. He gives his new wife a lift whilst he tries (unsuccessfully) to persuade her to have sex with him (she claims she is saving her energy for her work), so he picks up a hooker to make out with him instead, and then later persuades one of his female bodyguards to also put out too.  During a business meeting he is simultaneous having a rectal examination by his Doctor as part of his daily physical check up (who informs him that he has an asymmetrical prostate).

The ride takes his Fleet through the angry Occupy Wall Street protesters who attack and deface the limo, and much to the chagrin of his anxious security chief, Packer gets out of the car to be confronted by publicity seeking anarchist who pushes a custard pie in his face in the front of photographers.  The constant threats to Packer that the Security Chief has been filtering through all day, become a reality as Packer finally meets an aggrieved mad and heavily armed ex-employee who is out for some revenge.

This bizarre and somewhat ludicrous movie is the latest work from David Cronenberg the Canadian filmmaker who’s best known for his horrific thrillers.  His work is an acquired taste, and apart from the superb ‘Eastern Promises’ it is not one that I have ever really appreciated.  The movie starts out promisingly enough but develops into something far too surreal that makes it nigh on impossible to get any real sense of what all these incidents add up too, or the subtext of Mr Cronenberg’s script. The menacing threat that runs throughout did get my interest piqued somewhat and although as the movie drew to an end and my boredom/annoyance/confusion had set it, the closing scene did impress me somewhat.

This movie’s redeeming grace is in the caliber of the acting: ’Twilight’s’ Robert Pattinson who plays Packer proves that besides being a very pretty face, he is also a very beguiling and talented actor. (He actually replaced Colin Farrell who (thankfully) had to withdraw to make 'Total Recall') The people who pop in and out of the limo include Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, and Sarah Gaddon: the pie is thrown by Mathieu Armalric and the mad would-be-killer is played by Paul Giametti.

You really have to be a fan of either Mr Cronenberg or Mr Pattison to sit through one, and if you can make sense of it all, do please let me know.


★★★★★★★

DUCK BEACH TO ETERNITY

Spring Break is a somewhat notorious vacation when college students head to the sun and just party wildly to dawn every day.  Its primary aim seems to be one of excess, whether it be alcohol, partying or just sex and cramming as much of all three into one single week.   Hard then to imagine what a Mormon version of that would be like, as according to church rules all of that is completely forbidden, but that is exactly what this fascinating new documentary is about.

It follows four of the 1000+ Latter Day Saint Church members aged between 20 and 30 year olds who hold their annual Spring Break in Duck Bay in North Carolina, which becomes like a Mormon Jersey Shore for a few days. These chaste and devout clean-living singles are there to hopefully meet their future ‘Eternal Companion’.  The central message of the church is after all that they should get married and have children and as soon as possible as this is part of fulfilling our purpose on earth as we get ready for the next life at the same time.

The aim of their precious few days is too have as much fun as they can without losing their modesty, sobriety and virginity.  They cruise the beaches by day barely trying to contain their excitement at being surrounded by so many other Mormons but seeming few make any connections as even devoutly religious people want to hook up with a hottie too.

Of the four people the filmmakers had elected to follow, one is a geeky male nerd who teaches Latin in a Brooklyn High School and is socially awkward; another is good looking real estate broker from Utah who spends a lot of time in the gym (instead of sex?) and although he readily and sincerely quotes all the churches teachings about relationships, he seemed very much like a ‘player’ to me. 

Of the two female subjects, one was unusually 34 years and divorced (shock horror!) she articulately and convincingly explained that the reason that her marriage hadn't worked is that she had chosen her partner, and not listened to God.  Evidently he picks out winners, which was later backed up by the fact when it turned out that she was one of the few to make a ‘connection’ that weekend, and even an atheist like me could see that he did look like a good catch.

The second female, a dancer from Utah, was annoyingly bubbly and effervescent 24/7 and seemed like 'the girl most likely to succeed' and even though she went on a few dates with the real estate broker, nothing happened.  Then the moment she stopped seeing him in the space of three weeks she met and dragged another man down the aisle at the temple.  God evidently works in a very mysterious way and also very quickly too at times.

It’s all very intriguing for a non-church member to take on board, although as much as diverting and funny that I found this ‘Girls (and Guys) Gone Mild’ film, I could not escape from the fact that seeing these bright intelligent people chanting the totally bizarre mantras of their prophet Joseph Smith is simply downright scary. 

Even if I could be brain washed into believing I discovered from this movie that there are another two things which are deal breakers for any move I may have made into Mormonism.  First the ONLY thing you are allowed to do with your partner when dating is to kiss each other standing up, but far far worse than that is you cannot drink coffee!  I can live without my vodka and beer ( and heaven knows without any sex) but a life without Starbucks would not be worth living.

P.S. The film is currently doing the Film Festival Circuit and you can track all the screenings from their website (something that I would really recommend) http://www.duckbeachmovie.com/

★★★★★★★

SOME DAYS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS

And watching this movie certainly didn't make it one of the better days.  It’s a mash of three separate stores about a group of four struggling Portlanders whose lives are going nowhere, just like this film.  These are disparate characters out of step with the rest of the world, but writer/ director Matt McCormick ensures that as we don’t engage with any of the protagonists, we really cannot care less.

I will confess that I also find the new hit cult TV series 'Portlandia' written and starring Carrie Brownstein (also one on the actors in this film), totally unfunny.  Maybe it's the fact I just don't get this hip Oregon culture?

This film has been described elsewhere as poetically melancholic.  Melancholic yes … to the point of downright depression, but I failed to see the poetry at all.

There is only one thing I liked about this movie.  That’s the title.


★★

BERNIE

Nearly every time I leave my comfort zone cinematically speaking and go see a movie that I instinctively know that I am not going to like/possibly loath even, I end up wishing I had stayed at home.  I saw nothing in the trailer that I thought I would like about this one at all, but much to my surprise film critics that I admire rated it so highly that I thought that maybe my first impressions were wrong.  104 very long minutes later, I knew otherwise.

Based on a true story, Bernie is an overweight very effeminate Assistant Funeral Director in the small town of Carthage in East Texas.  A deeply religious man who takes great pains to become a beloved figure in the local community, his special interest is in fussing around elderly women whose husbands he had just buried. He paid them all more attention than they had ever had from their dearly departed until one day this rather creepy hobby of his paid off big time when he met Margery Nugent.

Ms. Nugent was not only as rich as hell but she as old as the hills and as miserable as sin.  The latter part didn’t deter the intrepid Berne one single iota and for once all his flattering and fawning paid off as he hit the jackpot.  He became Marjorie’s ‘companion’ and together they traveled the world as she showered him with gifts always picking up the expensive tabs.  Eventually though her ornery old self came through and she started treating him as her personal possession and would not allow him to do anything at all other than run around and wait on her hand and foot.  Mean spirited and nasty she just pushed him to far one day and eventually she ended up forcing him to make her a candidate for the Funeral home.  She didn’t actually make it there as after shooting her, he dumped the body in a freezer in the garage.

As she was hated by most people including her estranged relatives, Bernie managed to fob off Margery’s  disappearance for a very long time until eventually her nosey Stockbroker missing his commissions got the Sheriff to listen to him, and then soon it was all over for Bernie.   But as he had been liberally spreading Margery's fortune around town doing good works for so many organizations he was considered a hero and not a killer and it looked like he may actually get away with it.

The main trouble I had getting on board with this movie was that it was very obvious very soon where this somewhat of an annoying story was going even though it took far to long to get there.  Even worse the miserable Margery was played so badly by the (normally fab) Shirley McLane whose face has now been so ‘greatly altered cosmetically’ it was nigh on impossible to even notice when she changed from scowling to happy in her rather pitifully caricature performance. It unintentionally transformed this comedy into a farce.

There were two redeeming features that made me at least sit there to the end.  Firstly the plot was interspersed with interviews with some of the local community which were both hilarious in their comments and their O.M.G. outfits.  And secondly Jack Black’s performance as Bernie was a revelation to me as I had simply no idea that he was this good an actor.


Next time I will stay at home with a DVD or even with an old widow woman of my own.


★★★★★

HEADHUNTERS

Roger Brown is a short man with big ideas as well as a Napoleon complex. He has a tall beautiful wife for whom he has bought an ultra-modern luxury house and whom he lavishes with expensive gifts, neither of which he can afford, and anyway she would in fact just prefer to have a child.  To finance this lifestyle he supplements his income as a Headhunter by moonlighting as an art thief.

One day in the Art Gallery he had bought his wife he meets a handsome Dutch executive Clas Greve who he feels would be perfect fit for a high-ranking job he has to fill. Over lunch the next day Roger also discovers that Clas owns a long-lost priceless Rubens Painting and when he later goes to steal it, he discovers that Clas has already actually robbed Roger of his wife’s affection.  In his anger Roger is now determined that Clas will not get the important job that he has already interviewed for, but that decision inadvertently starts of a whole stream of terrifying nightmarish and deadly experiences for Roger who had no idea that devious Clas, an ex army mercenary, was not actually at all who he had appeared to be, and had a totally different agenda.

The violence that follows in what is essentially a manhunt is seemingly endless and beyond brutal.  Roger’s fight to just stay alive lands him in the shit …. literally …in this manically paced thriller that has you sitting on the edge of the seat (although in my case I was not clutching it for dear life, but covering my eyes as some of the many excessively bloody scenes.

This Norwegian movie based on a best selling novel has more than the odd cinematic nod to the styles of both Hitchcock and the Coen Brothers, although in the latter case it’s rather surreal cruelty seemed even too exorbitant even for them.  As unlikely as the rather clever twisted story was, the ending was still something of a surprise.  I’m not sure if it is the one that I would have chosen, but then again I probably don't have it in me to have such a nasty imagination as the writer has.

That said, I must confess I did love it even though I was so outside my comfort zone. Great acting too from a cast I didn't recognize although if I did still own a TV I would have spotted that Mr Coster-Waldou who plays Clas is currently in 'Game of Thrones’.  Scandinavian filmmakers seem to excel at this genre of movies, so much so, that just like the Swedish ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ there’s a Hollywood version already in the works.


★★★★★★★★★

NATE AND MARGARET

On paper Margaret and Nate’s friendship seems odd verging on highly unlikely.  She is a 52-year-old unmarried woman with an odd sense of style who cannot recall her last relationship and works in a Coffee Shop for minimum wage whilst she yearns to follow her dream of being a Stand Up Comic.  He is a 19-year Film School Student, gay although he’s never been kissed, let alone been on a date.  They live next door to each other in a Chicago apartment building and are the very best of friends who hang out together every spare moment of their time.

Just as it looks like Margaret may have found her stride and actually be funny enough to get a professional gig in a comedy club, Nate meets his first boyfriend James who he allows to come between him and Margaret.  James is cute but shallow and when he rushes Nate into a romance it all backfires badly.

Something bad happens and Nate breaks up with James, and then falls out with Margaret and the pair find that they are not so inseparable after all.  Or are they?

This delicate and very touching take on what is essentially a type of a May to December relationship succeeds so well as the two characters are beautifully written and genuinely really best friends even though other people in their lives simply cannot understand how this possibly can be.  The performances by the two actors are so spot on … young Tyler Ross as the quiet serious Nate, and Natalie West as the hesitant and awkward Margaret.  (I didn't recognize Ms. West but I knew that she looked very familiar, as so she might as she played Crystal in the 'Roseanne' TV Series for years).

It's a small gentle movie about real friendship and the work of writer/director Nathan Adloff. It opens this week in NY, BUT the good news is that it is also On Demand NOW, so if you are in the middle of nowhere (cinematically speaking) like me, then you can still get to see it.  And this quiet wee gem definitely deserves an audience.

★★★★★★★★

MOONRISE KINGDOM

If I could get to choose to come back in my next life to a world created by a filmmaker it would have to one by inspired fantasist Wes Anderson, and preferably the one where ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ is based.  In this his 7^th feature he conjures up an idyllic 1965 New England sunny summer on an unspoiled storybook near-perfect island where first love can bloom and innocence bounds everywhere, even in the adults.

Young Sam is a skinny geeky-looking 12 year old who is very serious about his life, especially regarding Suzy the object of his love, whom he persuades to run away to the other side of the island so they can start a new life together.  He’s an orphan who’s been abandoned by his foster parents and he’s considered something of misfit in the Scout Troop Camp that he has escaped from.  Suzy, also 12 years old, has temper tantrums, two very small brothers and eccentric lawyer parents who she knows consider her as troubled because she found a leaflet in their big mansion home called ‘Coping With The Very Troubled Child’.  Sam and Suzy are old before their time (he smokes a pipe and she wears blue eye-shadow) and they both are certainly a lot wiser than the adults in this wonderfully enchanting tale.

There’s trouble brewing for the runaways as a hurricane is heading their way, as are the assorted grown ups who are determined to spoil their paradise.  Anderson has filled the cast with many of his regular adult stars who excel in the small but significant roles they play. Led by a rather splendid  Bruce Willis as the comical local Police Captain (who is the Island’s only policeman). He’s incidentally having an affair with Suzy’s mother played by Frances McDormand who’s in the search party with her dithering husband (Bill Murray), and the pair are tragically funny as the unhappily married parents. Then there’s Ed Norton who is pitch perfect as the wacky chain-smoking inept Scout leader egged on by his bullying Chief (Harvey Keitel) and his crooked cousin Ben (Jason Schwartzman), and it’s beautifully rounded off with the subliminal Tilda Swinton as the dramatically caped official figure known only as Social Services. And the whole story of the young couple’s tryst is narrated by a deliciously droll Bob Balaban

Mr Anderson struck gold with the casting of his two young lovers (Jared Gillian & Kara Hayward) who are innocence personified and so delightfully both odd and cute, and you wonder why they actually want to grow up so quickly given the state of the adults in their world

Anderson has paid great attention to every single detail to make this movie such a sheer visual and audio delight, and with a script he co-wrote with Roman Coppola it is equally both touching and sweet whilst being hilariously funny. You have an overwhelming sense that it was all such a labor of love and one can only imagine the joy that making this movie must have been for them all.

I know that Anderson’s movies and his take on life are not to everyone’s taste, and I am truly sorry, for those that don't ‘get them’.  As Manohla Dargis summed up so beautifully in the 'NY Times' : 'he makes films about small worlds in which big things happen'.  They are worlds of innocence and sheer joy, and I for one  would hate to miss out on any one of them.  Especially this one.

★★★★★★★★★★