JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME

All Sharon wants for her birthday from her slacker unemployed 30 year-old son Jeff who lives in her basement, is that he gets off the couch and catches the bus to the hardware store to get some wood glue to fix a broken shutter.  Jeff, a big lump of a man, is more than happy to let his life drift by as long as he gets his daily fix of re-watching 'SIGNS' (the M. Night Shyamalan film) which supplies his dubious rationale for there being order in the chaos.

The moment Jeff sets off to do his mother’s bidding he is convinced that the whole world is sending him clues pointing to his destiny.  The first one leads him to be attacked by strangers,  and then he bumps into Pat his smoothie older brother who seizes the opportunity to start lecturing Jeff again about getting his act together, although he himself is stuck in a lousy job he hates and with a marriage that seems to be falling apart,  and to top it all he’s leased a Porsche that he can totally not afford.

As the brothers argue they spot Pat’s wife Linda passing by with another man, and the two brothers start following her on a manic wild goose chase to see if she is having an affair.

Meanwhile Sharon, who’s been divorced and single for years, is beavering away in her monotonous 9-5 office job and is suddenly getting instant messages on her computer from a secret admirer in her office.

Somehow by the end of the day they all end up in the same place with their stories converging too, and it all suddenly makes sense.  Especially to Jeff, as it turns out the signs were right. and that this is his destiny.

This wonderful wee comedy is the latest work of the multi-talented Duplasses brothers who’s work has come along such a long way since their debut of the quirky 'THE PUFFY CHAIR', and so much more accessible than their mumblecore movie 'BAGHEAD' (which I really loved).  It is still an edgy indie movie but the cast they have assembled makes it all seem so much more ‘grown-up’.  Susan Sarandon is superb as frustrated Sharon who knows she should make Jeff grow up: Ed Helms is the annoying brother Pat who’s fondness for lucking at Hooters every day speaks volumes; Judy Greer  (who stole her small scene from George Clooney in 'THE DESCENDENTS' ) was the passive/aggressive Linda.  But Jason Siegel as Jeff is the most unlikely leading man ever, but was wonderfully convincing as the oversized big kid who so deserved to be proved right especially as we were all rooting for him by the end.

Refreshing and farcical, it’s rather a very pleasant anti-dote to all the blockbuster comedies that Hollywood churn out that these days and that are, without exception, singularly unfunny.

★★★★★★★★

TAKE THIS WALTZ

Even when you observe the relationships in this movie close up they are not what they appear to be on the surface.  Margot a 28-year-old freelance travel writer lives in a colorful cluttered house in the Little Portugal area in Toronto with Lou her husband of 5 years.  They are very affectionate and loving towards each other, but have the odd tense moment when they are not on the same page so to speak and suddenly lose the ability to communicate with each.

On a working trip to Louisbourg, Margot meets a Daniel handsome stranger  who is somewhat of a free spirit, and they end up being seated together on the plane home. Then when they share a cab from the airport, they discover that they are actually neighbors.  By the time the cab drops them off it’s obvious that there is a mutual attraction so Margot promptly announces that she is married and flounces off with the intentions of never seeing Daniel again.

It’s not that she is unhappily married to her very considerate and loving husband, but the presence of this somewhat mysterious and un-attached man across the street stirs something inside her.  Something she finds hard to resist.

Lou is unaware of any of this, and as Margot and Daniel have no idea about how or what can/should develop, we are also kept in suspense for most of the movie as they try and work it out.  What is intriguing (and very refreshing) is that not one of the trio makes demands on the other and the choices that are made are therefore not a result of ultimatums or any pressure, but just by them being able to follow’s one’s instincts.  Well, for two of them anyway.

In this her second feature writer/director Sarah Polley has pulled together this extraordinary intimate ‘dance’ around this relationship/s that had conflict and confusion without any melodrama in a similar vein she did with her stunning debut ‘Away With Her’.  She is a generous writer not just with the parts she wrote for the protagonists but all the supporting roles of the family members that add some layers to this gentle comedy/drama.

Ms. Polley shares the credit in how this shaped out into being such an enchanting bitter-sweet love story with her wonderful cast.  Michelle Williams who seems to be the go-to actress for these subtle smart nuanced women (think ‘Wendy & Lucy,’ ‘Meek’s Cutoff’, ‘Blue Valentine’ and ‘My Week With Marilyn’) and this could even net her a 4^th Best Actress Oscar nomination.  Seth Rogan was a delightful surprise as Lou showing that he is a great ‘straight’ actor too … as was fellow comedian Sarah Silverman in her small but pivotal role of the alcoholic cousin who so acutely spot in compared Margot’s behavior with her own.  And Luke Kirby as handsome Daniel who has lost some hair and weight  and really honed his acting since I saw him last in the cute ‘gay’ comedy ‘Mambo Italiano’.

If I had any one crit. about this movie at all its that at 2 hours it was just a tad too long.  It was great of Ms Polley to let her characters develop and find the path they should take, but they could have done it a wee bit quicker.

Unmissable, especially if you are Canadian as are Ms Polley, Mr Rogan & Mr Kirby and the rather glorious settings of Toronto and Louisbourg. As too is Leonard Cohen who’s haunting song (based on Fredrico Garcia Lorca’s poem) that this movie is named for and which indeed plays throughout a highly sensual scene.

★★★★★★★★★

CAROL CHANNING : LARGER THAN LIFE

This enchanting new profile of the great Broadway star that has just turned 91 years and is still performing, is an affectionate and admiring look at her long career.  It’s heavy on the sentiment but apart from her last brief and happy marriage to her childhood sweetheart (who sadly died shortly after filming) is scantily passes over her personal life.

Miss Channing, as Bruce Vlanch was quick to point out, was one real smart woman despite always playing dizzy blondes.  She really knew how to play dumb starting with her first starring role on Broadway as Lorelei Lee in ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’, but her big break came when Ethel Merman turned down ‘Hello Dolly’ for which Ms Channing won the Tony in 1964.  (She beat out Barbra Streisand who was nominated for ‘Funny Girl’, but years later Ms. Streisand ‘got her own back’ when she got Ms. Channing’s role in the movie version of ‘Hello Dolly’)

The title ‘larger than life’ is very apt as that clearly describes how everyone perceives her.  I think it was either Tommy Tune or Bob Mackie who affectionately said of her that whatever role she played she always played Carol Channing.  This big persona of hers worked wonders on the Stage and was great for TV but was considered not suitable for movies and despite picking up an Oscar Best Supporting Actress Nomination for her part in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie' she made remarkably few films in her long career.

What came through in this touching and gentle portrait of this rather extraordinary woman were both her generosity of spirit and her wonderful sense of humor even when some of it was directed at her.  She has always been such a favorite model for drag queens to impersonate and when she was once confronted by a man who told her that she was the best drag Carol Channing he had ever seen and he asked for her true identity, she responded in a flash ‘I’m a truck driver from Toledo’.

What 'Time Out' described as ‘excessive fawning’ in their review of this movie, I only saw as affectionate and genuine tributes to a well loved old-style Broadway trouper. They so don’t make them in the mold of the likes of Carol Channing anymore, she is unique, a real one-off, so I think its fitting we should honor and appreciate her whilst we can. 

This one is for sentimental show business fans (and queens).  If you want more facts and details, then just stick to reading Wikipedia.


★★★★★★★★

eCUPID

There is a whole swathe of gay men who have very similar tastes to teenage girls especially when it comes to things like pop music, TV Shows & Stars, and particularly in their somewhat besotted belief in ‘true romance’.  This is NOT a criticism but just an observation of how after decades of dealing and reacting against the repressed images that society had of gay men, in our search for positive role models in identifying who we are, the inner child sometimes joyously rears its head.

J C Calciano is a filmmaker that knows just that and his movies play to that fact that in our rose-colored fantasies the path of true love will always win through and two guys can and will live happily ever after no matter what.  There may be the occasional bump in the road, but the journey at least will be funny...... and often campy too.

His follow-up feature to the successful ‘Is It Just Me’ is this sugary sweet tale of a seven year itch relationship where Marshall, one of the partners, is turning the ripe old age of 30 (!) and is desperate for something new. Its 2012 so where else can he look for it than online, and he comes across a mysterious app that guarantees to find true love (if only). The app scans every inch of Marshall’s online world and turns his whole world upside down.  He suddenly gets everything that he thinks that he has ever wanted, but soon realizes that too much of a good thing may not be such a good thing after all.

Now newly single but much more unhappy despite being surrounded by a bevy of hot men clamouring for him, Marshall is giving one last chance to listen to his heart and figure out what (and who) is really important.

This is what it is.  A light-hearted feel-good romantic comedy fantasy.  Nothing more and nothing less.  Of its genre its very good and will appeal to you if you like boy meets boy, boy loses boy, and boy gets boy back again still intact and lives happily ever after escapism, then this one is for you.  Or if you are teenage girl as well.

★★★★★★★

CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT

What better way to celebrate Chinese New Year at Sundance than selecting 'CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT' as my first movie of the day. Evidently that old curmudgeon Chairman Mao banned boxing in China as he said it was the sport of capitalism and thus very bad.  It wasn't until after Mohammed Ali visited China in 1979 as a goodwill ambassador that the sport was allowed, and then encouraged again.

This documentary film by Yung Chang, the award winning director of 'UP THE YANGTZE' follows some elementary school kids as they are selected to train at a local boxing school, also students who are about to take part in regional championships, and one of their coaches a retired boxer who feels he has one last big fight in him. All their journeys are fascinating to observe, especially when they and their families with their traditional small country village lives have to consider the impact that boxing could have in giving the young fighters a lifestyle their parents could never have ever imagined for themselves.  As they all work towards their new goals, we find at the end that it is not always about winning.

Despite the title there is not one actual heavyweight in sight but this an intriguing look at how the sport can pack such a punch in changing these peasant boys lives.

(Review originally published in my SUNDANCE 12 Blog)


★★★★★★★★

NEWLEYWEDS

I’ve been a fan of Ed Burns ever since his directing debut ‘THE BROTHERS MCMULLAN’ some 16 + years ago (it picked up the SUNDANCE GRAND JURY AWARD).  The small slew of movies that he has written/directed and starred in since them have established him as a kind of an Irish/American Woody Allen, but without any the hand ringing angst or caustic sarcasm.  Burn’s endearing and refreshing stories about family lives in his own community (always peppered with references to Long Island where he grew up) that he insists in shooting on minute budgets have not always met with ether critical or commercial success (this one went straight to VOD) but I find them extremely watchable.

The newlyweds in the title are not that young.  Buzzy is in his early 40’s, and Kate is her 30’s and both have been married before.  Buzzy is a personal trainer and Kate is the manager at a chic Manhattan restaurant so they think that as they will spend such little time together, they have a better than average chance of making their new marriage work.  It's a concept they raise in the weekly dinner they have with Kate’s sister and her husband who’s shotgun marriage has survived 18 years to date but is teetering on a very sharp edge.

One day when Buzzy is at work, his very flaky half sister Linda unexpected flies in from LA and expects her new sister in law (who wasn’t even aware of her existence) to feed her and put her up for an indefinite period.  Linda’s plans are as loose as her morals and she helps herself to Kate’s expensive coat to go meet her ex boyfriend to persuade him that he has made a bad mistake in dumping her and marrying someone else.  He disagrees, so a drunken Linda picks up the nearest man in the Bar and drags him back home at 5 am and Buzzy, thinking the apartment is being burgled, discovers her legs akimbo making out on the kitchen countertops.  Oh yes, she has lost the expensive coat too.

Her behavior gets worse, especially when she meets Kate’s very broke ex husband who comes around once in awhile to ‘borrow’ money off her.  This time instead of getting cash he gets laid.

Meanwhile Kate’s sister’s bitterness and anger (at life and her husband) explodes and so she also comes cap in hand to Kate’s apartment demanding to be fed and sheltered and having a shoulder to cry on.

It's a test of the new marriage to see if it can survive all the outside pressures of their very unbalanced and deeply unhappy and troubled relatives who selfishly want Kate and Buzzy to be as miserable as them.

Tightly written and very well acted this rather engaging drama shows that even the smart Tribeca crowd can succed at having a happy relationship after all.  Well, a couple of them at least.


★★★★★★★

ITALY, LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

In 2009 I remembered being totally enamored with an irrepressible young Italian gay couple that documented the struggle of acceptance of gay rights in their Country and being totally horrified about the vitriol and power of the Far Right Political Parties that seem to make the American Evangelistic Conservatives seem like real sweethearts by comparison.  One of the most impressive things about their award-winning movie 'Suddenly Last Winter' was Luca and Gustav’s unceasing optimism and their determination to succeed.

Now they are back with another extremely watchable movie as they question whether they want to remain living in Italy today, or follow the exodus of many of their creative and talented friends who have moved to Berlin, London, Barcelona as they believe its only way to have the future they want.  Their concerns are not just about the high cost of living and the lack of job security, and the sheer indifference to human rights, but also of a reactionary political system that empowered the morally corrupt Berlusconi to remain in charge for so long.

The couple cannot agree what is best for them. Gustav believes the time has come for them to go abroad, whilst Luca is convinced that there are many good reasons to stay and that Italy is full of passionate and committed people who every day carry on a silent battle to change things for the better.
They compromise by agreeing to take a  road trip around the whole country for six months to see if they can fall in love with it all over again.

They set off on their journey in a tiny old Fiat 500 in search of stories and people, and to try and rediscover what heart the country still has.  They find it much divided and full of contradictions and the struggle they uncover as people simple try to survive from day to day is widely different  from the elegant glamorous trouble free country that we foreigners perceive it to be.  Its shocking to discover that there are still areas in contemporary Italy where if any honest elected politician dares to instigate any change they will  have their car/house torched by the Mafioso and have to contend constant threats to their lives.  Its not totally all gloom and doom that they uncover and there are glimmer of hopes like in Bari where the new Governor is not just a Communist and Catholic but is also openly Gay and is actually getting things done. 

After hearing peoples stories, seeing the mountains of abandoned toxic waste, the unfinished unwanted monstrous structures which were started with European Grants that suddenly disappeared, and whole swathes of coastline littered with illegal buildings, the couple appreciate that have a great deal to consider before they can decide what to do when their journey is finished.  Gustavo is a Northerner and is very pragmatic and has a very strong political sensibility, whist Luca being Roman is sarcastic and fatalistic.  They do make a great pair.

Do they choose Berlin or Rome to live in next?  They try and keep us guessing, but it’s not spoiling it by telling you its Rome, as it’s clear from their movie that despite all Italy's issues and  problems etc they love it as much as they love each other.

Great wee film doing the Festival Circuit mainly in Italy right now, but it is available to download in Itunes.it (if you are clever enough not to need sub-titles) and they have a Facebook page where you can find all future screenings. It's so worth seeing, and it may make you even (re) appreciate the country that you call home too.

★★★★★★★★

KAWA

This is an old fashioned coming-out story in which a 40 year old married man and father of two finally accepts his sexuality but by trying so hard to please everyone, no-one ends up happy at all.  Based on an autobiographical novel by acclaimed New Zealand novelist Witi Ihumaera (‘The Whale Rider’) that the author held back from publishing for 20 years in deference to his young daughters, which in itself is a clue to how sad this wee tale of repression is.

Set in Auckland, Kawa is the eldest son in a traditional Maori family and has always been pressured by his father to follow in his footsteps.  He now owns a large house, has a great job with its own swanky corner office with views over the harbor, and a wife who adores him.  The trouble is since the age of twelve, Kawa has liked men. Even surrounded by all the trappings of his success and with two children, he is very unhappy and without giving his wife a reason, he rents an apartment and moves out of the family home.

He has been seeing Chris, a very attractive young actor, (hardly dating, as its sex then off home) and Chris is obviously in love with him.  Kawa still cannot bring himself to give up either his wife or his old life so he flits between Chris and them until he gets found out and is forced to confront his family with the truth.  The reality is that Kawa doesn't seem to know what or whom he wants even though he is loved by both of his partners, and even his father comes around to his son’s sexuality in the end.

The pros of this movie is that there is a powerful scene where Kawa’s father makes his son the official head of the family and all the men do this overtly masculine traditional warrior dance.  And then is the stunning landscape of the beautiful unspoilt New Zealand countryside and coast.

But that is really overshadowed by the  downside of the negativity where every scene dealing with Kawa’s homosexuality portrays the gay scene as completely sad and rather desperate.  The setting may be contemporary Auckland but the gay community featured here is clearly from some decades past.


★★★★

THE DECOY BRIDE

There are some late nights when one is brain-dead but too tired to sleep when you drift into unchartered territory in Netflix for something light and frothy to keep you afloat for a while.  In my case it’s a very unwise move as its not a genre that I like or am even too familiar with so inevitably I end up choosing to watch something that instead of sending me gently to sleep and sweet dreams, just bores me stiff.

This is one such movie.  I chose it as it’s a Brit Comedy and with actors whom I like viz. Kelly McDonald (‘No Country For Old Men’, ‘Trainspotting’ etc) and David Tennant (‘Dr. Who’).   The rather inane plot goes like this: Lara Tyler is one of the most famous movie stars around, but all she wants to do is marry her fiancé, writer James Arber who has written just one best-selling book that she has become obsessed with. Besieged by the paparazzi they escape to the tiny Scottish island of Hegg (which Arber had pretended he came from) to try to wed in peace. However when the news media track them down, and with the locals smelling a payday, Lara becomes upset and runs away. In desperation her entourage of handlers decide to stage a fake wedding, hoping that the press will fall for the scam and leave the island. Local girl Katie who has just returned to Hegg nursing a broken heart is recruited to pretend to be Lara.

It’s easy to guess what happens just from these few lines and its a story where there are no ‘baddies’ at all (even the paparazzi in this case) and everyone lives happily enough after all, even if they didn't really deserve too.

I would sum it up as a harmless enough, pleasant and slightly amusing comedy.  I was feeling bad about being more than a tad heavy about what is essentially an innocuous and harmless wee movie and then I read 'The Village Voice's' take on it all which is so viscous that its actually funny.

Michael Atkinson started his review with : Pernicious tripe suitable only for masochists and the intellectually disabled.  Wow !

Decide for yourself….if you must.

★★★★★

MARINA ABRAMOVIC ; THE ARTIST IS PRESENT

This is a feature length documentary on MARINA ABRAMOVIC the celebrated Performance Artist as as she prepared for her major retrospective as Museum Of Modern Art in N.Y. in 2010. Premiered at SUNDANCE 2012 this is reprinted from my Festival Blog.

It is a major event for any living artist to be given a retrospective such as this and for Abramovic its essentially a chance to finally answer the question that has prevailed her whole body of work over the past four decades ‘is this art?’

It’s confession time for me (again) as I had not come across Ms Abramovic before but I was totally bowled over with this very intimate look as she started to prepare for her MOMA installation.  As well as getting some young artists to re-enact her ‘historical pieces’, she had decided to create this new one where she sits motionless and silent on a chair for six days a week for three months.  Opposite her was another chair where MOMA visitors can sit down quietly in front of her individually and she focuses all her attention upon them.  She is intent on exploring the physical endurance and limitations of the human body.

The reactions of all the ‘sitters’ was simply astounding and in this beautifully filmed documentary you share their sense of discovery as the camera reveals the intensity of the moment.

Asides from  the MOMA show the documentary included an appreciation of some of Ms. Abramovic’s career to date and of the way that her highly emotional work is intrinsically involved in her life. She is not only one of the most important artists of our time, but also a very warm and wonderful person too.  I am so so smitten.

P.S. I have just re-watched it now that HBO has released it on V.O.D. , and all I can say is that it is even more powerful the second time around : hence the rating that I given it.   TOTALLY UNMISSABLE.


★★★★★★★★★★

ROMANTIC'S ANONYMOUS

One of the things I really liked about this quirky Gallic love story was that it was not about a flawlessly perfect beautiful young couple but rather about a painfully shy somewhat ordinary pair in their early/mid forties.  It's the sweet (literally) tale of Angelique a talented chocolatier who is so introvert that any small compliment makes her faint, and when she turns up at the near bankrupt Chocolate Factory owned by Jean-Rene, who breaks out into a sweat just being close to any woman, she doesn't have the nerve to tell him that she doesn’t want the job of Sales Rep he mistakenly offers here, but she actually wants to be its chocolate maker.

She accepts the job however after he somehow surprisingly finds the confidence to ask her out to dinner on a date, but as neither of them yet recognize that they are both as anxiety ridden as each other, it's a disaster.  Jean-Rene keeps having to sneak off to the bathroom when he has stashed away an attaché case stuffed full of clean shirts, and when he has sweated his away through them all, he runs off into the night abandoning her.

Luckily for Jean-Rene, Angelique is not easily put off and still turns up for work although only to find that no-one wants to buy the Company’s chocolate anymore as it is considered too old-fashioned.  What all the Confectioners crave for is Mercier Chocolates but M. Mercier has died and he took the identity of his secret Chocolatier to his grave.  It’s actually Angelique but her pathological shyness makes it impossible for her to admit to this so she concocts a scheme where she helps the Factory re-create the Mercier ones allegedly following the instruction of the mystery maker via a web cam.

The chocolates get made and win an Award and lots of Orders and the Factory is saved.  Jean-Rene and Angelique even get to make out but as much as they like it, it also panics them even more than usual and sends them scampering away separately for support.  In her case it's the 12-Step Romantics Group that she attends every week, and in his case, it’s his small loyal band of workers who appreciate that their future and their haphazard boss’s lie in the same place.

On the eve of my new citizenship it may sound a tad disloyal to say it, but unlike the Americans, the French are truly masters of gentle romantic comedies made by adults and for adults.  This wee fairy tale may be accused of being a tad like the chocolate they had been making, but I found it a wonderfully uplifting feel-good story of how tough it can be for all people who are chronically shy to make their romance work.  People like me that is.


P.S. The only reason I have not rated higher is that is has two musical numbers which are wincingly embarrassment : one is of Angeligue singing 'I Have Confidence' from The Sound of Music and swinging her case like Julie Andrews did.  Why oh why do the French ALWAYS do this? 


★★★★★★★★