I am Shiva the destroyer, your harbinger of doom this evening.

Rachel Getting Married (Demme, 2008)
Although it’s fairly limited in its scope—presenting the days leading up to and including the wedding of Rachel, a Ph.D. student, and Sidney—Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married establishes its small universe of dysfunction quite well. Anne Hathaway is surprisingly good (I’ve never much cared for her) as Kym—Rachel’s sister who has just gotten out of rehab to attend the wedding. The rest of the ensemble cast is decent, if fairly unremarkable. The film’s universe is littered with musicians, wedding guests, and extended family members who make a nice backdrop to the intense family drama that unfolds and nicely give us a sense of Rachel and Sidney as a couple—something that the script and acting don’t set out to do.

I’ve read a lot of reviews that lambast the film for its shaky, handheld camera work, but I thought the visual style worked well with the film’s premise. The fact that it looks like a home movie only re-inscribes our presence within the domestic sphere, making us feel like guests at the wedding who witness the awkward family fights that occur. The home movie aesthetics are even more justified by the presence of a Sidney’s cousin, a soldier home on leave who is virtually always shown wielding a handheld camera. The fact that we see him filming so often seems to suggest a link between his footage and the film itself—as if Demme’s film is actually a compilation of home movie footage shot by the characters within the film’s diegesis.

Though the visual style didn’t bother me in and of itself, the film’s flaws, for me, were in fact a product of its ability to recreate so faithfully the feeling of home movies. The footage of the wedding itself drags on a bit too long. Once again, I actually felt like a guest at the wedding: this is a testament to how well the film establishes its diegetic universe and characters, but at the same time, attending the wedding of two people you don’t know very well is quite tedious. I understand why the wedding and reception scenes are necessary: something needs to happen in between the dramatic moments, after all. But I don’t think the film would have suffered had more of these scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

Overall, I certainly felt like I was inhabiting the world Demme created for Rachel Getting Married. At times, it’s a world I didn’t necessarily want to be a part of, but that too suggests something of its power.

Rating: 3.5/5

Can't films be therapeutic?

Waltz with Bashir (Folman, 2008)

Initially I wasn’t sure if I liked the animation style because it seemed a bit choppy. There was something disturbing and awkward about the way the images moved. (Perhaps it’s just because the opening sequence damn near terrified me.) It didn’t take long for me to change my mind about that, though. The animation brings the story to life in a way that seems appropriate to its thematic issues: just as Ari Folman’s memory of his involvement in the war in Lebanon is sporadic and incomplete, the characters move in fits and starts, stumbling through the background Folman has created for his subconscious. I love documentaries, and I’ve seen quite a few particularly interesting and personal ones already this year (Dear Zachary and My Winnipeg come to mind); perhaps this makes me more invested in the notion that film can be powerfully cathartic for those dealing with traumatic memories than most viewers. Regardless of my personal investment in the form, though, I think Waltz with Bashir stands out as a disturbing, frustrating, and gripping account of the effects of war, the fallibility of memory, and the power of film.
Rating: 4/5

East Lansing Film Festival (ELFF), Day 1

Trouble the Water (Deal and Lessin, 2008)
If you’ve been avoiding this one because it’s a documentary about Katrina and therefore serious and depressing, I feel sorry for you. Of course, I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t think documentaries can be entertaining and fun, but that’s neither here nor there. Trouble the Water is both serious and entertaining. Most of the footage is shot by aspiring rap artist Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband Scott, who survived Katrina by hunkering down in their attic with their extended family members. Kim introduces us to her neighborhood in the 9th Ward with a humorous and confident outlook tinged with uncertainty: she assures us that they’ll all come out of the hurricane okay because they have no choice—no transportation out of the city. Laughing and filming in the face of the disaster, Kim’s attitude won me over early in the film and (to employ an empty and over-used phrase) gave the tragedy a human face. The courage and compassion shown by Kim, Scott, and their family throughout the film provided a moving account of true heroism. As much as the film critiques the government and military for their failure to act both before and after the hurricane, it also left me with the feeling that we’re looking in the wrong places for help. Trouble the Water is a powerful example of the strength of community organizers and the resilience of communities. This film was a great way to kick off my film festival experience.

Rating: 4/5


The Pool (Smith, 2007)
I have the sense that I might have enjoyed this film more if I hadn’t been exhausted from a long day of teaching and emotionally drained from seeing Trouble the Water. It didn’t help that the seats in Wells Hall are anything but comfortable. So I think it’ll take a second viewing before I can really give this an accurate rating. That said, I did rather enjoy the film. Although I felt that it lagged in places, I suspect this was due to the circumstances in which I was seeing it, rather than the film’s pacing and flow, which work to introduce us to its characters and their world. The friendship between Venkatesh, a boy working in a hotel in Goa, India, and Jhangir, who works in a restaurant, is allowed to unfold quite naturally. While the slow pace initially built up my suspense as to why Venkatesh was so obsessed with the pool of a nearby house, eventually I no longer cared why the titular object was so important because I was so drawn into the relationships surrounding it. Though The Pool offers a relatively simple story, these relationships seem quite deep and moving.

Rating: 3.5/5

Spring Break Movie Binge

What I watched on my spring break...
Monday:

Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Smith, 2008): I liked the earlier film The Amateurs (Traeger, 2003), which has the same basic premise but an older cast, much better than this one. Somehow the story seemed more believable, and the side storylines were better developed throughout. Once the romance plotline of Zack and Miri comes to a conclusion at the end, the plotline involving the porno and the other characters pretty much drops out. We don’t get detailed characterizations of the supporting characters, leaving the whole plot feeling like a rather awkward vehicle for a typical romcom plot. This is a shame because Rogen and Banks just aren’t that funny in the title roles. In fact, I was left wishing that Justin Long’s character had a more sustained role to play, as he was the funniest one. Rating: 2.5/5


Lars and the Real Girl (Gillespie, 2007): I can’t really describe what I felt was missing from this film, but I was left with the feeling that it had great potential and didn’t quite live up to it. There were some solid performances, the premise is fairly interesting, it didn’t devolve into absurdity, but it didn’t stand out much either. Solidly acted and constructed, but not all that compelling. Rating: 3.5/5


Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father (Kuenne, 2008): The filmmaker sets out to make a documentary about his friend Andrew, who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend Shirley. While Kurt is in the process of filming, Shirley flees to Canada, avoiding arrest for the murder. As the extradition process drags on, Shirley announces that she is pregnant with Andrew’s child. At this point, Kurt decides to make the film a letter to the unborn Zachary so that he will have something to know his father by when he grows up. That’s as much as I knew about the plot going into it, having refused to read more detailed reviews: Kurt keeps aspects of the story hidden until the end, and I suggest you don’t read about them. The way information is revealed is part of the power of this film, which makes you work through the stages of grief with Andrew’s family and friends. With no pretense of objectivity, this is the most emotionally intense movie I’ve seen in quite a while. You should see it, but only if you're willing to surrender a few hours to raw emotions. Emotions aside, I thought it was fairly well done. I liked Kuenne’s style of editing and use of home movie footage. The style is over-the-top, but so is the situation, and thus I thought it worked well. Rating: 4/5


Man on Wire
(Marsh, 2008): After 15 minutes or so, I considered turning the film off. The black and white re-enactments seemed heavy-handed and distracting, and I scoffed at the film’s attempt to turn its key event—a man walking a wire strung between the towers of the WTC—into a thriller. But it did work as a bit of a thriller by the end. The suspense that captured my attention, though, didn’t come from wondering whether or not Philippe Petit and his crew would succeed (for they clearly did) or whether or not he would fall (he obviously didn’t), but from wondering just how Petit (who comes across as a bit of a playful yet arrogant bastard) convinced so many people to help with the endeavor. Why were so many people willing to help Petit achieve his bizarre goal? Where did they get the time and money required for the equipment and the several trips across the Atlantic? The film doesn’t fully answer these questions, but it did leave me with one more: Where do any of us get the drive, motivation, time and nerve to pursue our goals? Rating: 4/5

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Gordon, 2007): Deceit, treachery, injustice—the world of competitive video gaming is filled with outrageous scandal. Or so The King of Kong would have us believe. Indeed, the film succeeds so well in exaggerating the drama of rivalry that I absolutely hate Billy Mitchell—the world Donkey Kong champion and “villain” of Gordon’s documentary. This is not to say that I unconditionally rooted for Steve Wiebe, the film’s “hero,” as he challenged Mitchell for the world record either. In fact, some of the most poignant moments of the film, I thought, were critiques leveled at the competitive gaming culture by Wiebe’s own children. Wiebe’s daughter remarks that she didn’t realize the Guinness Book of World Records was such a big deal, and he tells her that “a lot of people read that book.” Her response critiques the seriousness with which the film has us treat its subjects: “A lot of people ruin their lives trying to get into it too.” Even as the film critiques its subjects, though, we can’t seem to shake our investment in the dramas of gaming culture. When it comes down to it, it’s fun to submerge ourselves in that drama. So much so that after the film, I checked the Donkey Kong records on Twin Galaxies and was quite dismayed to see the title back under Mitchell’s name. Damn you, Kong! Rating: 3.5/5

Thursday/Friday – Foreign Films:

Withnail & I (Robinson, 1987)
Country: UK
Convinced by his roommate that they need to escape from their apartment—and the drug-induced ennui that goes with it—Withnail asks his Uncle Monty if they can stay in his cabin in the country for a while, but doesn’t realize that Monty will be dropping by unexpectedly. Will Marwood escape the clutches of Monty—a “raving homosexual”? Or will the Jake the poacher murder them all as they sleep? Watch as hilarity ensues. Thanks for the recommendation, Julia! Rating: 4/5

Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
Country: Hong Kong
I finally got around to seeing this, and it’s simply beautiful. I’m not sure how to explain the beauty of this movie, but if you enjoy the visual and kinetic aspects of film (and aren’t too turned off by somewhat incoherent narratives), you should see it. My three favorite shots are: the pager clipped to the fence, the model airplane resting on the woman’s shoulder, and the flip-flop floating in the water. Out of context these probably don’t sound very enticing, and I’m likely not doing a good job of convincing you to see the film. But the film moves at such a rapid pace that when it slows down for a bit and lingers on a shot, it nearly takes your breath away. Rating: 4.5/5



4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Mungiu, 2007):
Country: Romania
The story is simple, and the style minimalist, leaving viewers trapped in the dark mise-en-scene and unrelenting long takes to experience the horrors of life in Communist Romania along with the film’s two central characters—Gabita, a college student trying to procure an illegal and quite dangerous abortion, and her roommate Otilia, who takes care of all the gory details. If this sounds stark and depressing, it is, but in a very powerful and moving way. I wanted to be trapped in the world Mungiu creates longer and was disappointed when it ended. Rating: 4.5/5

I'm Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you

Milk (Van Sant, 2008)
I walked into this one with trepidation: I tend to loathe bio-pics and am usually disappointed by movies marketed with a GLBT label. What could be more painfully trite and formulaic than a gay bio-pic? I’d like to say that Milk exceeded my expectations on both accounts; alas, it did not. While Sean Penn was pretty magnificent in the role of Harvey Milk, the film seemed to conspire at every turn to minimize the effects of his performance. The dialogue was often awkward and unwieldy, and I thought the strongest moments were when Penn wasn’t speaking, but reacting to something while framed in a close-up shot. I also rather like Emile Hirsch as Cleve and would’ve liked more of his story. One fault of the bio-pic formula, in my opinion, is that the world surrounding the main character is too limited in scope: we’re really only able to care for many of the characters as they affect the story of Harvey Milk (or whoever the subject of the biography is), which makes the whole endeavor feel rather false. On the whole, though, the film was slightly better than I expected: it was a rather good bio-pic, but didn’t break out of that formula enough for me to consider it a rather good film.

Rating: 3/5

Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it.

Revolutionary Road (Mendes, 2008)

Sam Mendes traps viewers in the rather claustrophobic world of his two main characters—Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, respectively). While the tedium of this entrapment is part of the film’s pointed and depressing look at 1950s suburban life, after a certain point, I couldn’t take it anymore. Kate Winslet did a fine enough job in the role, but DiCaprio was pretty bland. The script didn’t give them much to work with either. The story demands to be told in subtle moments and body language, and the performances are too exaggerated to work in the small space the film creates. In the end, like the suburban life it critiques, the film is altogether too bland and typical to have kept my interest for long.

Rating: 2.5/5

If You've Ever Seen a One-Trick Pony than You've Seen Me

The Wrestler(Aronofsky, 2008)

Mickey Rourke’s character is the heart and soul of Darren Aronofsky’s film, and without a superb performance by Rourke the film would have been a total failure. Fortunately, Rourke is spectacularly heartbreaking in the lead role. As a character study or actor spotlight, I think the film achieves a great deal, even if some of the supporting performances are less than remarkable. For instance, the scenes between Randy the Ram (Rourke) and his daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) do their part to add to the general tone of the film, but they do so through quantity rather than quality. The tension between Randy and his daughter adds to the sum of his misfortunes and loneliness, but the scenes themselves are pretty forgettable. Wood doesn’t add much to a fairly flat role. Marisa Tomei is good as Cassidy/Pam, the lovable stripper who becomes Randy’s only possible salvation.

And while the comparison the film sets up between them—both, having sacrificed their bodies to the entertainment industry, were treated like pieces of meat and then cast aside—is quite obvious, it works well and doesn’t seem too belabored. (The possible exception is the scene in which Cassidy discusses The Passion of the Christ and its portrayal of Christ being beaten. But as this is a brief moment, I’ll forgive its lack of subtlety.) The treatment of bodies as meat is made even more obvious when The Ram takes a job as a butcher at a grocery store deli. Again, the potential for heavy-handedness abounds here, but Rourke is so good in the role that the scenes behind the deli counter are quite fun. I particularly loved the use of sound here: as Randy walks through the halls of the grocery store about to emerge behind the counter for the first time, we hear traces of the crowd at a wrestling match cheering for The Ram. Though the reduction of people to sheer bodies and pieces of meat is pretty clear throughout the film, the cinematography and sound editing here nicely draw attention to this theme by stylistically enhancing the parallel between The Ram’s wrestling career and his new job as butcher. While this could have come off as insulting to the viewer’s intelligence, I think Aronofsky pulls it off well.

Overall, the formal and stylistic elements of the film aren’t anything special, but the acting is superb and the absence of much formal innovation allows the film to succeed at what it sets out to do without turning into a fashionably obvious piece of fluff.

Rating: 4/5

Who wants to be a 'millonaire'?

Slumdog Millionaire (Boyle, 2008)

This is a film that I’ll probably have to watch again to assess fairly. On the first viewing I was utterly captivated by the editing and cinematography, so much so that I didn’t even mind the unnecessarily cheesy emphasis on destiny (“it is written”), which would have made me gag in any other film. I did think it took away from what would have otherwise been an interesting commentary on different forms of knowledge and a privileging of the experiential knowledge of the poor over the type of knowledge sanctioned by and passed on through formal education. It’s highly possible, then, that on a second viewing I will be more frustrated by the film’s unrealized potential. For now, though, I think it’s nicely crafted and quite captivating. In fact, the film is oddly fun, considering its unyielding portrayal of life in the slums.

Rating: 4.5/5