Review: Entertaining "TRIANGLE OF SADNESS" is Not as Clever or as Sharp As it Thinks It Is

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 of 2023 (No. 1910) by Leroy Douresseaux

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Running time:  147 minutes (2 hour, 27 minutes)

MPA – R for language and some sexual content

WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Rubin Östlund

PRODUCERS:  Philippe Bober and Erik Hemmendorff

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Fredrik Wenzel (D.o.P.)

EDITORS:  Mikel Cee Karlsson and Rubin Östlund

Academy Award nominee

DRAMA

Starring:  Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Vicki Berlin, Dolly De Leon, Zlatko Buric, Sunnyi Melles, Iris Berben, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies, Ralph Schicha, Henrik Dorsin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Alicia Eriksson, and Woody Harrelson

Triangle of Sadness is a 2022 satirical film and black comedy from writer-director Ruben Östlund.  It is the Swedish Östlund's first English-language film, and it is an international co-production between four nations:  Sweden, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.  The film follows a celebrity couple, who are both fashion models, as they join a doomed luxury cruse for the super-rich.

Triangle of Sadness introduces Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean).  Yaya is a successful fashion model, and Carl is male model, who is not as successful as Yaya.  Yaya expects Carl to pay for their meals, although she makes more money than him, and her ambition is to be a trophy wife.  Yaya is an “influencer,” and she is in a relationship with Carl for the social media engagement it earns them.

Carl and Yaya are invited on a luxury cruise aboard a super-yacht in exchange for its social media promotion.  Among the wealthy guests are the Russian oligarch, Dimitry (Zlatko Buric), and his wife, Vera (Sunnyi Melles), and Jarmo (Henrik Dorsin), a lonely tech millionaire who flirts with Yaya.  Paula (Vicki Berlin), the tightly wound head of the ship's staff, demands that the staff obey the guests' every request, even the absurd ones.  The ship's Captain (Woody Harrelson) will not leave his room and seems to be drunk all the time.  The captain's neglect of his duties, Paula's insistence on placating the super-wealthy guests, and the guests crazy demands culminate in a single disastrous evening.

Eventually, a small group of the yacht's guests, including Carl and Yaya, find themselves on what seems to be a deserted island.  Now, the balance of power has shifted from the wealthy and powerful to a rather skillful cleaning woman, Abigail (Dolly De Leon).  Will the guests adjust to this new status, and how well will they adjust?

There are some fun, outrageous, and outrageously funny material, moments, and scenes in Triangle of Sadness.  The film critiques and mocks the obscenely wealthy, but I think that its strongest points are made when it takes swipes at how some people get rich and famous.  Some are wealthy because they sell things that are destructive to humanity (things used in war), and some are rich and famous … for being rich and famous.  Some people's wealth does not make their lives better, such as the lonely Jarmo.  Some, like the Russian, Dimitry, merely happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right stuff to sell.

For all his film's political commentary and moral lessons, writer-director Ruben Östlund seems to be a tad too mannered.  It's as if he doesn't know that while his film is edgy, he seems to be dulling the sharp edges that would really go after his social and political targets.  Is Östlund saying that the super-rich and famous are obscene and that they need to be brought down to the level of ordinary people in order to regain their humanity?  By the end of the film, it seems that way.

I would recommend Triangle of Sadness (which takes its title from a modeling term used in the film) to fans of foreign movies.  Most movie fans can get a similar message, more or less, from the classic Eddie Murphy-Dan Aykroyd film, Trading Places (1983).  I like Triangle of Sadness because it is a genuinely good film, but it feels like Ruben Östlund left the hardness of its allegories and metaphors on the cutting room floor.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

NOTES:

2023 Academy Awards, USA:  3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober), “Best Original Screenplay” (Ruben Östlund), and “Best Achievement in Directing” (Ruben Östlund)

2023 BAFTA Awards:  3 nominations: “Best Supporting Actress” (Dolly De Leon), “Best Casting” (Pauline Hansson), and “Best Screenplay-Original” (Ruben Östlund)

2023 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture” (Dolly De Leon) 

2022 Cannes Film Festival:  2 wins: “Palme d'Or” (Ruben Östlund) and “CST Artist-Technician Prize” (Andreas Franck, Bent Holm, Jacob Ilgner, and Jonas Rudels)

The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Steven Spielberg's THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 of 2022 (No. 1863) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Sugarland Express (1974)
Running time:  110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
Rated – PG
DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins; from a story by Steven Spielberg and Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins
PRODUCERS:  David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Vilmos Zsigmond (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Edward M. Abroms and Verna Fields
COMPOSER:  John Williams

CRIME/DRAMA/ACTION

Starring:  Goldie Hawn, William Atherton, Ben Johnson, Michael Sacks, Gregory Walcott, Steve Kanaly, Louise Latham, Dean Smith, and Harrison Zanuck

The Sugarland Express is a 1974 crime drama, road movie, and action film directed by Steven Spielberg.  The film is Spielberg's directorial debut in theatrical films.  Based on a real life event, The Sugarland Express focuses on a young woman and her prison-escapee husband who go on the run in order to retrieve their toddler son from foster care.

The Sugarland Express opens in 1969 and introduces 25-year-old Lou Jean Sparrow Poplin (Goldie Hawn).  She visits her incarcerated husband, 25-year-old Clovis Michael Poplin (William Atherton), at the Beauford H. Jester Unit, a pre-release center of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.  Lou Jean wants to tell Clovis that their son, two-year-old Baby Langston (Harrison Zanuck), has been placed in foster care by the Child Welfare Board.

Lou Jean convinces Clovis that she is breaking him out of prison, although he only has a few months left in pre-release, so that they can retrieve their child.  After sneaking out of the prison, the couple ends up in a car crash.  They waylay a Texas Highway Patrolman, Trooper Maxwell Slide (Michael Sacks), and taking him hostage and taking possession of his patrol car.  Clovis and Lou Jean go on the run, headed for Sugarland, Texas, the home of Baby Langston's foster parents.  Meanwhile, Captain Tanner (Ben Johnson) of the Texas Highway Patrol, leads an ever-growing caravan of police cars in dogged pursuit of Lou Jean and Clovis.

In anticipation of Steven Spielberg's upcoming “semi-autobiographical film, The Fablemans, I am perusing his filmography.  I started with the television movie that first got him noticed, Duel (1971), and now I am at his first theatrical film.

The Sugarland Express is based on a real event that occurred in Texas in the spring of 1969.  The film's lead characters, Lou Jean and Clovis, are not so much likable as they are pitiable because they are so stupid.  Goldie Hawn gives a good performance as Lou Jean, but this isn't a “Goldie Hawn picture,” although her name is placed above the title on movie posters.  However, Trooper Slide and his boss, Captain Tanner (played by the great Ben Johnson), are quite likable or even lovable.  Still, this film is not so much about the characters as it is about the situation.

I think that what makes this film really work is how Steven Spielberg plays out the situation as a film narrative.  I've always said that he gets the best out of his cast, crew, and creatives.  The Sugarland Express is a slow-moving train wreck because the conductors, Lou Jean and Clovis, don't know what they are doing and do not really think out their decisions.  Yet, they are … pulling a train of cop cars, and Spielberg's attention to the thrilling and exciting aspects of this situation:  car chases and crashes, shoot-outs, colorful locales, etc. add some zing to this express to Sugarland.

He finds time to give us just enough of a taste of the Bonnie and Clyde-like Lou Jean and Clovis and of Captain Tanner and Slide to keep the audience interested in the fate of the characters, if not the well-being of all.  Even the Poplins' fans and admirers are a motley lot of lovable regular folks.

As the film races towards its end, Spielberg turns The Sugarland Express into a mesmerizing thriller.  Every performance, small and large, takes on dramatic heft, and the audience knows one thing – this shit is for real, now.  Seriously, it is in the last half-hour of The Sugarland Express that we can see the style and techniques that Spielberg used in his second film, Jaws, a legendary blockbuster movie and one of the most influential films of the last half-century.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, September 3, 2022


NOTES:
1974 Cannes Film Festival:  1 win: “Best Screenplay” (Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, and Steven Spielberg); 1 nominee” “Palme d'Or” (Steven Spielberg)


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "DRIVE MY CAR" is an Extraordinary Drama and is One of 2021's Best Films

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 47 of 2022 (No. 1859) by Leroy Douresseaux

Drive My Car (2021)
Original title: Doraibu Mai Kā (Japan)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Japan; Languages: Japanese, Korean Sign Language, English, and others
Running time:  179 minutes (2 hours, 59 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
WRITERS:  Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe (based on the short story by Haruki Murakami)
PRODUCERS:  Teruhisa Yamamoto
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Hidetoshi Shinomiya
EDITOR:  Azusa Yamazaki
COMPOSER:  Eiko Ishibashi
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring:  Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Peri Dizon, and Satoko Abe

Doraibu Mai Kā is a 2021 Japanese drama film directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.  The film is also known by its English title, Drive My Car (the title which I will use for this review).  The film is based on author Haruki Murakami's short story, "Drive My Car," which is included in Murakami's 2014 short story collection, Men Without Women.  Drive My Car the movie focuses on a recent widower who is directing a play and dealing with the fact that he must accept someone else driving his beloved car.

Drive My Car is set in Japan and introduces actor and well-known theater director, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima).  He was married to Oto (Reika Kirishima), an attractive screenwriter who suddenly died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Two years later, Yusuke accepts a residency in Hiroshima, where he will direct a multilingual adaptation of Uncle Vanya, the 1898 play by the renowned Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov.  Yusuke also discovers that the theater company financing Uncle Vanya, the Hiroshima Arts and Culture Center, requires that Yusuke not drive his car, but instead be chauffeured in his own car.  He objects at first, but a reserved young female chauffeur, Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), reveals herself to be a skilled driver.  So Yusuke accepts someone else driving his car.

Yusuke begins casting the play and discovers that one of the auditioning actors is Koshi Takatsuki, a former colleague of his late wife, Oto.  As he works through the play with the cast, Yusuke deals with his grief, but discovers that the young actor, Koshi, and his young driver, Misaki, are also dealing with grief, regret, and inner turmoil.

Apparently, the complicated feelings and trauma of the characters in Drive My Car echo the emotional turmoil of the characters in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.  I have never read Uncle Vanya, nor have I ever seen a production of it.

That does not stop me from seeing Drive My Car as probably the best film of 2021.  The film is meditative and contemplative and has a smooth, calm pace which heightens the film's sense of intimacy.  This tranquility allows director Ryusuke Hamaguchi to direct a film in which it really looks like the actors are engaging in self-examination.  The film's themes of regret, of accepting others as they are, and of self-acceptance feel genuine.

One might think that Drive My Car is dull or even complicated, but it is not.  The film is rather straightforward, and the confrontations between characters can be intense but feel constructive.  Drive My Car may be too slow for most American audiences, but I think that serious film lovers will find themselves engrossed by this hauntingly beautiful and most painfully human film.  They may even find it helpful.  Watching the film, I felt as if I were experiencing something I needed to see and hear a long time ago.

This film received many honors, including winning the Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film.”  Still, I would have liked to have seen some of its cast, especially lead actor, Hidetoshi Nishijima (Yusuke), and supporting actress, Toko Miura (as the drive Misaki), earn Oscar acting notices.  Yusuke and Misaki's scenes at the latter's old home during the last half hour of the film are some of the best in years and some of the best performed.  Other cast members:  Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada, and Park Yu-rim, are also worthy of award notice.

Drive My Car's cinematographer, Hidetoshi Shinomiya, made the film one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, of the year.  From majestic exterior vistas to shadowy and cozy interiors shots, Drive My Car looks both intimate and epic.  Eiko Ishibashi's film score, with its futuristic flourishes and electronica sensibilities, accentuates Shinomiya's cinematography,

That is the thing about Drive My Car.  Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has great collaborators, including his co-writer, Takamasa Oe, and he could not have made Drive My Car the achievement in cinema that it is without them.  He could not have made a film in which some of its best scenes occur inside a moving car such an sublime film experience.  Drive My Car.

10 of 10

Friday, August 12, 2022

NOTES:
2022 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best International Feature Film” (Japan); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Teruhisa Yamamoto), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi), and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe)

2022 BAFTA Awards:  1 win “Best Film Not in the English Language” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Teruhisa Yamamoto); 2 nominations: “Best Director” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi) and “Best Screenplay-Adapted” )Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

2022 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win : “Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language” (Japan)

2021 Cannes Film Festival:  3 wins: “Best Screenplay” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe), “FIPRESCI Prize” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi), and “Prize of the Ecumenical Jury” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi); 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review "Excalibur" is Epic, Unforgettable (Happy B'day, Liam Neeson)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 77 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Excalibur (1981)
Running time:  140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER:  John Boorman
WRITERS:  Rospo Pallenberg and John Boorman; from an adaptation by Rospo Pallenberg of Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alex Thomson
EDITOR:  John Merritt with Donn Cambern (no screen credit)
COMPOSER:  Trevor Jones
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/FANTASY/WAR

Starring:  Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi, Paul Geoffrey, Nicol Williamson, Robert Addie, Gabriel Byrne, Keith Buckley, Katrine Boorman, Liam Neeson, Corin Redgrave, Niall O’Brien, Patrick Stewart, and Clive Swift

The subject of this movie review is Excalibur, a 1981 drama and fantasy film from producer-director John Boorman.  The film is mostly based on Le Morte d’Arthur, the 15th century Arthurian romance written by Thomas Malory.  Excalibur focuses on Merlin the magician, King Arthur, and Morgana Le Fey.  It depicts how Arthur unites a land, creates the Round Table, and builds Camelot, while forces conspire to destroy it all.

John Boorman’s Excalibur is the acclaimed director’s lushly filmed take on the Arthurian legend as adapted from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur.  Early in the film, we see Arthur’s illicit conception when his father, King Uther Pendragon (Gabriel Byrne), use magical trickery to seduce, Igrayne (Katrine Boorman), another man’s wife, and impregnates her with the child that would become Arthur.  Later, Merlin (Nicol Williamson) claims the infant Arthur as the price Uther must pay Merlin for providing the magical disguise Arthur used to seduce Igrayne.

Later, young Arthur (Nigel Terry) pulls the sword of kings, Excalibur, from a stone, which makes him King Arthur.  The film tells the story of the rise of Arthur’s kingdom and the righteous birth of The Knights of the Round Table.  Then, things go bad when Arthur’s wife, Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi), takes Arthur’s best, bravest, and most favored knight, Lancelot (Nicholas Clay), as her lover.  Arthur’s sister, Morgana (Helen Mirren), a crafty sorceress, connives until the balance of power shifts from Merlin to her.  The film concludes with Arthur’s final battle, this against his son, Mordred (Robert Addie), whom Arthur fathered with Morgana.

Boorman, his screenwriting partner Rospo Pallenberg, cinematographer Alex Thomson (who earned an Oscar nomination for his work here), composer Trevor Jones, and costume designer Bob Ringwood (who earned a BAFTA Award nomination for his work in this film) came together to create an exquisite rendition of the tale of King Arthur and Camelot.  The film is full of Christian symbolism, in particularly dealing with Christianity supplanting the old gods and necromancy in favor of men.  There is also a lot of sexual subtext, much of it is surprisingly gay; there is lots of man love and admiration of the virility, honor, bravery, and skill of men.  Men really admire and love great men in this story, and women, for the most part, are trouble in this film.

Boorman wanted to emphasize the story over the characters in his take on the Arthurian myth, and he uses the stunning visuals to evoke feelings, but to also get the viewer to think about the things for which the stories of King Arthur and his kingdom stand.  However, the actors really don’t surrender and play the role of puppets.  They play up to the symbolism and imagery.  They don’t treat their roles as figurative, but as interpreters of the things that this myth teaches us about the better parts of human nature – humility, charity, bravery, and sacrifice, and an understanding to forgive the trespasses our friends, loved ones, countrymen, and fellow humans make against us and we against them.

In Excalibur, John Boorman composes his scenes and photographic shots as if each were a giant painting, a series of representational works meant to tell a powerful tale about universal ideals.  There is something grand in Excalibur, and in spite of its faults:  some poor dialogue, the tendency for the film to suddenly take big leaps forward in the narrative time, and Boorman’s assumption that we should be familiar with these characters and their motivations, it succeeds.

8 of 10
A

Monday, May 23, 2005

Updated:  Saturday, June 07, 2014

NOTES:
1982 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Cinematography” (Alex Thomson)

1982 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Costume Design” (Bob Ringwood)

1981 Cannes Film Festival:  1 win: “Best Artistic Contribution (John Boorman) and 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (John Boorman)

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "The Tin Drum" is a Masterpiece (Remembering Maurice Jarre)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 118 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Die Blechtrommel (1979)
The Tin Drum (1980) – U.S. release
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  West Germany
Running time:  142 minutes (2 hours, 22 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR:  Volker Schlöndorff
WRITERS:  Jean-Claude Carrière, Franz Seitz, and Volker Schlöndorff, with Günter Grass providing additional dialogue (based upon the novel by Günter Grass)
PRODUCER:  Franz Seitz
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Igor Luther
EDITOR:  Suzanne Baron
COMPOSER:  Maurice Jarre
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring:  David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Katharina Thalbach, Daniel Olbrychski, Tina Engel, Berta Drews, Roland Teubner, Tadeusz Kunikowki, and Heinz Bennent

The subject of this movie review is The Tin Drum (original title: Die Blechtrommel), a 1979 West German drama and black comedy from director Volker Schlöndorff.  The film is an adaptation of the 1959 novel, The Tin Drum, written by author, Günter Grass, which is the first book in Grass’ Danzig Trilogy.  The Tin Drum the movie follows a most unusual boy who, on his third birthday, decides not to grow up.

The 1979 West German film Die Blechtrommel won the 1980 Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film.”  It is the story of Oskar Matzerath (David Bennent), a young boy in 1930’s Danzig, Germany who decides to stop growing at the age of three.  Oskar carries a small tin drum around his neck that he beats often, much to the chagrin of the adults, and Oskar has the unique physical gift of being able to scream at such a high pitch that he can break glass.

Although Oskar’s body stops growing, mentally and psychologically he keeps aging, and as he grows he witnesses the rise of Nazism and the beginning and the end of World War II.  With everything going on around him, however, Oskar’s world revolves around pleasing himself.  Despite Oskar’s self-centeredness, the film also examines the chaotic and tumultuous lives of the adults around him, especially his mother, Agnes (Angela Winkler), and his mothers two lovers, a German shopkeeper named Alfred (Mario Adorf) and Jan Bronski (Daniel Olbrychski), a handsome Polish man who works at a Polish post office in Danzig, either of whom could be Oskar’s biological father.

Many consider The Tin Drum to be one of the great films to come out of West Germany in the last quarter century.  The film, however, isn’t one of those beautiful and genteel foreign films or one of those French films shot to mimic the immediacy of realism.  The Tin Drum is an unflinching and dense psychological examination of people caught in complicated relationships who also have to navigate the narrow straights of their own interior lives.  It’s also a sweeping cinematic observation of Nazi Germany that unfurls its ideas simultaneously through symbolism and blunt literalism.  Like some glossy, Hollywood eye candy flick, The Tin Drum doesn’t allow the audience to look away; it’s like watching a miraculous apparition unfurl before one’s eyes or like watching a mesmerizing accident.

The focus of the story is, of course, Oskar, who is mostly not likeable.  In fact, there’s something menacing or even evil about him.  He seeks to shut himself off from the world or at least totally funnel existence through his wants, but what’s most fascinating is watching Oskar’s life grow (his personality doesn’t change) with the rise of Nazism.

This is powerful stuff, the kind of thing that stands out amidst all the pedestrian films.  The Tin Drum has had a somewhat controversial existence in the United States because there is both full and partial nudity of children, which some people saw as kiddie porn.  The film is not pornography or pornographic; this film is art.  The nudity and frank sex (including a sex scene between children) is actually handled quite carefully and with imagination by director Volker Schlöndorff, as he handles everything in his masterpiece.

9 of 10
A+

Updated:  Saturday, March 29, 2014


NOTES:
1980 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Foreign Language Film” (West Germany)

1979 Cannes Film Festival:  1 win: “Palme d’Or” (Volker Schlöndorff – tied with Apocalypse Now1979)

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Barton Fink" is Something ... Else (Happy B'day, John Turturro)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 72 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Barton Fink (1991)
Running time:  116 minutes (1 hour, 56 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some scenes of violence
DIRECTOR:  Joel Coen
WRITERS:  Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
PRODUCER:  Ethan Coen
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Roger Deakins (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Roderick Jaynes (The Coen Brothers)
COMPOSER:  Carter Burwell
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring:  John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney, Tony Shalhoub, Jon Polito, and Steve Buscemi

The subject of this movie review is Barton Fink, a 1991 period drama co-written and directed by Joel Coen and co-written and produced by Ethan Coen, although both brothers likely shared in producing and directing the film.  Barton Fink focuses on a renowned New York playwright who is enticed to Hollywood to write film scripts for a film studio only to discover hellish truths about his new job and home.

In 1991, The Coen Brothers, co-writer/director Joel and co-writer/producer Ethan, took the Cannes Film Festival by storm with their film Barton Fink, winning the Golden Palm as Best Picture and the award for Best Direction (an award that Joel has since won twice more).  John Turturro also won the Best Actor award for his role as the title character.  As much as I like the Coens' work, this is by far my least favorite film of theirs.

In 1941, intellectual New York playwright Barton Fink (John Turturro) moves to California to write a B-movie script for a major studio.  His new boss, Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner) wants that Barton Fink touch for a new Wallace Beery wrestling movie.  Fink takes up residence in the Hotel Earle, a rundown establishment with a sheen of faux-grandeur.  He eventually meets his neighbor, the blustery, strange, and mysterious Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), who claims to be a traveling insurance salesman.  Although he meets many interesting characters, Fink is busy fighting writer’s block, and his new home becomes a hell for him as his deadline to deliver a script looms.

The first warning to a viewer before he sees Barton Fink is that the film is surrealistic, a situation in which the story contains lots of symbolism.  This is not standard, linear filmmaking, so the viewer has to closely watch the film for visual hints and listen to the soundtrack for audio clues to understand the story in lieu of having literal, obvious story details.  Don’t read this sentence as it may spoil the surprise of unraveling this film’s mysteries:  Hotel Earle is hell, the hell in which Barton suffers writer’s block, and Charlie Meadows is not only a killer, but he may well be “the devil.”  If you try to take this film literally, you will find it atrocious and boring.  Creative people, especially writers, will certainly understand, through Barton, the intense frustration that writer’s block can cause a scribe.

Still, for all its pretensions to art and its portrayal of the intellectual’s strong need to produce “something good,” Barton Fink is a misstep.  I will give a hearty nod to the Coens' ambitious intentions.  The acting is very good.  It’s less technical and more show.  It’s flamboyant and colorful and immediately describes the characters to the audience, none of this serious method stuff, just old-fashioned, grand pretending that fills the screen.  I really liked the film’s element of suspense and mystery.  The hotel is automatically creepy, but it’s nothing compared to the unusual landscape of the relationship between the characters.  One thing that certainly kept my interest was trying to figure out what these people had going on amongst themselves.  I could understand when two people were connected, but the joy was figuring out why they had a relationship.

Overall, the film is slow and occasionally plodding, especially in between moments of drama and intrigue, but the brothers have a way of waking you up just when you think that their film is loosing steam.  I recommend this to fans of the Coens’ films and to people who like that different kind of film that is called “art,” the ones that are about something other than just entertaining you.

No sirree, Bob.  The Coens might entertain you, but never at the cost of giving you cheap candy, not when they can use their talents to make a complicated confection, even if the end result doesn’t quite taste right.

5 of 10
B-

NOTES:
1992 Academy Awards, USA:  3 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Michael Lerner), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Dennis Gassner and Nancy Haigh), and “Best Costume Design” (Richard Hornung)

1992 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (John Goodman)

1991 Cannes Film Festival:  3 wins: “Best Actor” (John Turturro), “Best Director” (Joel Coen), and “Palme d'Or” (Joel Coen-won unanimously)

Updated:  Friday, February 28, 2014

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Cries and Whispers" is Incredible Intense (Remembering Ingmar Bergman)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 78 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Cries and Whispers (1972)
Viskningar och rop – original title
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Sweden
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – R
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Ingmar Bergman
PRODUCER: Lars-Owe Carlberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Sven Nykvist
EDITOR: Siv Lundgren
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring: Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullman, Inga Gill (voice), Anders Ek, Erland Josephson, Henning Moritzen, and Georg Arlin

The subject of this movie review is Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop), a 1972 drama written and directed by legendary Swedish filmmaker, the late Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007). The film follows two sisters who watch over the deathbed of a third sister and all the complicated history between the three women. At the time, Cries and Whispers was only the fourth foreign-language film to be nominated in the “best picture” category at the Academy Awards.

Ingmar Bergman is one of the world’s most renowned film directors, and his 1972 film Cries and Whispers influenced much of filmmaker Woody (Annie Hall) Allen’s work. This is the first Bergman film that I’ve ever seen and, as the film’s tagline says, it, for me, was a haunting and shattering experience.

Two sister, Marie (Liv Ullman) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin), take care of their terminally ill sister, Agnes (Harriet Andersson), all under the watchful gaze of Agnes’s loyal servant Anna (Kari Sylwan), in Agnes’s Swedish manor, circa 1900. The sisters’ relationship, like the relationship of real people, is complicated, and Agnes’s looming death forces them to confront each other, as well as forcing Marie and Karin to relive painful moments with their husbands from the recent past.

Cries and Whispers starts off quiet slowly; in fact, it takes much patience on the part of the viewer to stick with this film. However, about a third of the way into the movie, you can catch its deliberately languid rhythm. Bergman gives every scene such astonishing individual attention that his film becomes a composition of pictorial frames. Each frame is like a separate painting that when viewed with the aid of light and speed becomes a complex and engrossing story. Director of Photography Sven Nykvist (who won an Oscar for his work here) washes the film in vivid, dark colors, especially red, so that the movie looks like one continuous oil painting.

Of the many things that I got from this film was Bergman’s fidelity to the visual purity of film. His dialogue, which is sparse, is efficient and rich in telling the story. However, so much of the film story is dependent upon what the viewer sees on the screen, be it in the facial expressions and gestures of the actors or the lavish and colorful settings. From actors, to props, to settings, each one creates a mood conveyed through sight that communicates to the viewer. Bergman, like the great painters, is telling a story with his canvas, and his entire painting doesn’t just contribute to the story, it is the story, from the frozen expression on a character’s face to the overwhelming crimson that covers the manor’s walls. It’s a visual feast that harkens back to silent films, before sound corrupted the purely visual sensations of cinema.

As much as Bergman’s prowess is on display in the story and composition of the film, the acting is superb, first rate, and award winning work. They’re all good, and each actor tells his or her part of the story, using the human body as an artistic tool. My favorite is Kari Sylwan as the maid Anna. She is the film’s moral center, the loyal servant who steadies Agnes in her suffering, her sickness being the catalyst for this tale. Hers is a quite and bravura performance, one of the best supporting roles that I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch.

Anyone who seriously loves cinema as an art and as a visual artistic experience has to see Bergman, and this, though not his most famous work, is a good example of what a film artist can do in the medium. I won’t provide spoilers of the story, but there are many scenes that could shatter the nerves and unsettle the viewer.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1974 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Cinematography” (Sven Nykvist); 4 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (Marik Vos-Lundh), “Best Director” (Ingmar Bergman), “Best Picture” (Ingmar Bergman), “Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced” (Ingmar Bergman)

1974 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Actress” (Ingrid Thulin) and “Best Cinematography” (Sven Nykvist)

1973 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film” (Sweden)

1973 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Technical Grand Prize” (Ingmar Bergman)

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Review: "Crossfire" is a Timeless Social Film (Remembering Robert Ryan)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 123 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Crossfire (1947)
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Edward Dmytryk
WRITER: John Paxton (based upon the novel The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks)
PRODUCER: Adrian Scott
CINEMATOGRAPHER: J. Roy Hunt (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Harry Gerstad
COMPOSER: Roy Webb
Academy Award nominee

CRIME/DRAMA/FILM-NOIR

Starring: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly, Sam Levene, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, George Cooper, George Cooper, William Phipps, Tome Keene (as Richard Powers), Lex Barker, and Marlo Dwyer

The subject of this movie review is Crossfire, the 1947 Film-Noir drama and murder mystery from director, Edward Dmytryk. The film earned a best picture Oscar nomination, the first B-movie to receive that honor. Crossfire is based upon Richard Brooks’ 1945, The Brick Foxhole, which dealt with the murder of a homosexual victim. The victim in the film is Jewish.

Edward Dmytryk’s film Crossfire is an excellent crime drama about murder that resulted from unchecked bigotry. The filmed earned five Oscar® nominations including nods for “Best Picture,” and “Best Director.” In the film, police Captain Finlay (Robert Young) is trying to solve the murder of Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene), a man who befriended a group of soldiers at a bar. At first glance, the perpetrator would seem to be the drunk and depressed Cpl. Arthur Mitchell or “Mitch” (George Cooper), as his friends call him. However, Finlay and an Army Sgt. Peter Keeley (Robert Mitchum) believe Samuels was murdered because he was Jewish, so they set about trying to sniff out the anti-Semite who really committed the crime.

The film is very entertaining, and is also a quite-effective mystery. The characters, even the bit players, are excellent, engaging, and intriguing. Robert Ryan earned an Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance as the slyly genial, yet menacing Montgomery. Quite a bit of the credit for this film’s success must be given to the John Paxton’s adaptation of Richard Brooks’ novel. Paxton’s script (which changed the novel’s murder victim from a gay man to a Jewish man) is filled with witty and effective dialogue, most of it brief, yet efficient enough to color and to establish even the smallest character parts.

Dmytryk, a master film craftsman, gives the entire work a finish and polish that makes the film’s defects charming rather than distracting. Crossfire is a movie that has stayed with me, and I often find myself, for a few moments, remembering it.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1948 Academy Awards: 5 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Robert Ryan), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Gloria Grahame), “Best Director” (Edward Dmytryk), “Best Picture” ((RKO Radio), and “Best Writing, Screenplay” (John Paxton)

1949 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Film from any Source” (USA)

1947 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Best Social Film” (Edward Dmytryk)

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Review: Women Make Almodavor's "VOLVER" Spin (Happy B'day, Penelope Cruz)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 63 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Volver (2006)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Spain
Running time: 121 minutes (2 hour, 1 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexual content and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodóvar
PRODUCER: Esther García
CINEMATOGRAPHER: José Luis Alcaine (director of photography)
EDITOR: José Salcedo
2007 Academy Award nominee

DRAMA with elements of comedy and fantasy

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave

In his new film, Volver, two-time Academy Award winner Pedro Almodóvar (All About my Mother, Talk to Her) gives us three generations of women living in a world where the living and dead coexist. In this film, it is natural for the people of the La Mancha region of Spain, with its ever-present east wind, to practice a culture of death in which the deceased remain present in the lives of their living relatives. Also, José Luis Alcaine’s cinematograph for Volver is easily among the year’s best.

Abuela Irene (Carmen Maura), who died in a fire four years ago, is apparently revisiting her hometown in La Mancha. Irene wants to resolve the problems she didn’t or couldn’t during her lifetime, especially her relationship with her estranged daughter Raimunda (Penélope Cruz), who has her own problems. Raimunda has to surreptitiously bury her husband, Paco (Antonio de la Torre), after their daughter, Paula (Yohana Cobo who plays her part with such naturalness), kills him when he tries to rape his own daughter. After appearing first to her sister, the elderly Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave), Irene also visits her daughter Sole (Lola Dueñas), who makes a living as an illegal, home-based hairdresser. Meanwhile, fellow villager, Agustina (Blanca Portillo), is seeking out Irene for help with her own family issues.

If there are men who were born to make movies, Pedro Almodóvar is undoubtedly one of them. That’s evident in his beautiful films filled with vibrant colors, narratives, and people; in fact, José Luis Alcaine’s vivid cinematograph for Volver is easily among the year’s best.

Almodóvar also understands women. Here, in Volver (which mean “coming back”) his female characters make it through life by lying when necessary – either to protect themselves or the feelings of their loved ones. These women also survive the troubles of life because they have persistent vitality and a treasure trove of goodness in them. That’s how Almodóvar makes you root for them. These are good, simple, plain folks who, if possible, won’t let their complex interior selves bring harm to their loved ones, but they’re still capable of making bold moves to enrich their lives.

To play such funny, spontaneous, and intrepid women, Almodóvar guides a cast capable of deep, genuine emotion and of playing characters that sometimes take the hilarious path out of trouble. You’ll never look at Penélope Cruz the same way again after seeing her in this movie. Her Raimunda is a painterly performance, full of subtle color and audacious, but gentle strokes. Cruz is layered and flavored like a buffet of earthy dishes, and I was sad whenever her Raimunda left the screen.

The same can be said for the rest of cast: from Blanca Portillo as the troubled, gentle soul, Agustina to Carmen Maura as Irene, back-from-the-dead and looking to heal wounds and bandage hurts. Almodóvar’s Volver is why I like foreign cinema. It doesn’t mind telling stories that are as rich and as complex as literary fiction. But Almodóvar does the telling in a purely visual style that makes one appreciate storytelling shown on the screen.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 nomination for “Best performance by an actress in a leading role” (Penélope Cruz)

2007 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Penélope Cruz) and “Best Film not in the English Language” (Agustín Almodóvar and Pedro Almodóvar)

2007 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Foreign Language Film” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Penélope Cruz)

2007 Image Awards: 2 nominations: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Penélope Cruz) and “Outstanding Independent or Foreign Film”

2006 Cannes Film Festival: 2 wins: “Best Actress” (Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave to the female ensemble cast) and “Best Screenplay” (Pedro Almodóvar); 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Pedro Almodóvar)

Saturday, April 14, 2007

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Review: "Days of Glory" Chronicles the Forgotten WWII Fighters, the "Indigenes"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 118 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Indigènes (2006)
Days of Glory (2006) – International English title
Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – R for war violence and brief language
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: FRANCE with Algeria, Morocco, and Belgium; Languages: French and Arabic
DIRECTOR: Rachid Bouchareb
WRITERS: Olivier Lorelle and Rachid Bouchareb
PRODUCER: Jean Bréhat
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Patrick Blossier
EDITOR: Yannick Kergoat
2007 Academy Award nominee

WAR/DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring: Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Roschdy Zem, Bernard Blancan, and Matthieu Simonet

Indigènes or Days of Glory (as the film is known by its English title) earned a 2007 Oscar nomination for “Best Foreign Language Film” as a representative of Algeria. Indigènes recreates a chapter largely erased from the pages of history and pays overdue tribute to the heroism of a particular group of forgotten soldiers who fought and died during World War II. Days of Glory chronicles the journey of four North African soldiers who join the French army to help liberate France from Nazi occupation during World War II.

Saïd Otmari (Jamel Debbouze), Yassir (Samy Naceri), Messaoud Souni (Roschdy Zem), and Abdelkader (Roschdy Zem) leave their country, Algeria, a French colony, to fight for France, which they call the “Motherland.” They chafe under the command of the Sergeant Roger Martinez (Bernard Blancan), a French Algerian. The men fight passionately for France, although they’ve never been to the country. Still, despite the North Africans’ bravery and loyalty as they travel fight from Italy to France, they face daily humiliation, inequality, and naked bigotry from the French. The four men eventually find themselves alone in a small French village defending it from a German battalion. This pedagogical or educational film is also a reminder that the controversies of French World War II history remain today, especially as the French government has denied the surviving North African soldiers their pensions.

Days of Glory is a good, but not great, historical film. Its strength is in the chronicling of the prejudice and bigotry these non-white or non-European soldiers faced while sacrificing their lives, limbs, and peace of mind for France, a country that many still believe largely did not fight for itself against the Nazis. For war movie buffs, the best combat sequence takes place in the movie’s closing act.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film” (Algeria)

2006 Cannes Film Festival: 2 wins – “Best Actor” (Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Bernard Blancan – To the male ensemble cast) and “François Chalais Award (Rachid Bouchareb); 1 nomination: “Golden Palm” (Rachid Bouchareb)

2007 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Foreign or Independent Film”

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Review: "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" is a Good Neo-Western (Happy B'day, Tommy Lee Jones)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 162 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
Running time: 121 minutes (2 hours, 1 minute)
MPAA – R for language, violence, and sexuality
DIRECTOR: Tommy Lee Jones
WRITER: Guillermo Arriaga
PRODUCERS: Luc Besson, Michael Fitzgerald, Tommy Lee Jones, and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Chris Menges
EDITOR: Roberto Silvi

DRAMA with elements of comedy and western

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cesar Cedillo, January Jones, Dwight Yoakum, Melissa Leo, and Levon Helm

Ranch hand Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) found a treasured friend in an illegal (undocumented) Mexican worker, Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo), who becomes a cowboy at the ranch Peter manages. However, a hot headed and ruthless border patrol officer, Mike Norton (Barry Pepper, who exquisitely channels bad vibes to play Norton), kills Melquiades and buries him in an unmarked grave to hide his crime or error (depends on how you look at it). When Pete learns of Melquiades’ death, he kidnaps Mike and has him dig the body out of the pauper’s grave in which it was buried. Then, Pete drags Mike and Melquiades’ corpse on a harrowing journey by horseback across the border to Mexico in order to bury Melquiades in his hometown.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada has all the trappings of a western and the narrative is ripe with scenes of black humor. Like a western, it deals with revenge and justice, and the black comedy comes through the macabre situations involving Estrada’s increasingly gruesome corpse (not to mention a drolly humorous love/sex triangle). Still, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a story of friendship and obligation. As a famous talk show host recently said of her close relationship with a female friend, perhaps, we don’t have a term to describe the familiarity and understanding that defines the bond between Pete Perkins and Melquiades Estrada. Tommy Lee Jones unadorned and simple, yet masterful direction helps us to understand that a friendship means so much that a man would risk his standing and his professional life to do right by what’s left of his friend on this earth.

Jones, who seems to wear the western well – even quasi ones such as this, also deals with the themes of alienation and the search for meaning in life and love, and in this case the love between two men, as well as between women and men. In his film, souls seem as sparse as much of the landscape that surrounds them. Jones’ characters grasp at connectivity, and Jones uses the subtleties to enrich the film. He shows that even the most lonesome souls find partnerships – even for a little while. It makes The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada a work that eagerly reflects humanity in all its unattractiveness and its most desperately hopeful light.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2005 Cannes Film Festival: 2 wins: “Best Actor” (Tommy Lee Jones) and “Best Screenplay” (Guillermo Arriaga); 1 nominations for the Palme d'Or (Tommy Lee Jones)

Saturday, July 29, 2006

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Review: "Nil by Mouth" (Happy B'day, Gary Oldman)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 29 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Nil by Mouth (1997)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: U.K. and France
Running time: 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – R for graphic drug use, non-stop strong language, brutal domestic violence and some nudity
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Gary Oldman
PRODUCERS: Luc Besson, Gary Oldman, and Douglas Urbanski
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ron Fortunato
EDITOR: Brad Fuller
COMPOSER: Eric Clapton
BAFTA Award winner

DRAMA

Starring: Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Laila Morse, Edna Doré, Chrisse Cotterill, Jon Morrison, Jamie Foreman, Steve Sweeney, and Leah Fitzgerald

Nil by Mouth is acclaimed actor Gary Oldman’s directorial debut. It’s what I call “cinema de unflinching,” in particular that “cinema’s” sub-genre “film de raw.” Oldman, an extremely talented actor who can simultaneously bury himself in a role and also exude movie star wattage, composed a film that stands as one of the most powerful family dramas of the 1990’s because of its dogged pursuit of portraying the effects of drugs and alcohol on a poor family in notorious South London.

Ray (Ray Winstone) is a coke snorting, alcoholic bully who brow beats his wife Valerie (Kathy Burke) and his brother-in-law, Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles), who lives with the couple. After Raymond savagely attacks Billy and kicks him out of the apartment, both men spiral downward, as Ray drinks more and becomes more paranoid and Billy does little other than feed his dope habit. Meanwhile, Val and the rest of the women in the family valiantly hold the family together and look for a few good times in a drug-addled world of poverty and crushing of claustrophobia.

The film starts off quite slowly, and I am certain that it will be difficult for many non-Brits to understand the London dialects (as it was for me). Still, the acting is good, quite good, actually. Oldman gives this film a good pace and a high level of intensity, considering that this film is heavy with the kind of dialogue that reveals character. However, when Nil by Mouth bogs down on a plot point, it is almost anal, and I occasionally found myself drifting away from it. Nil by Mouth is raw and unflinching, but it did not always hold my attention. Still, the script is well-written and well thought out; when you consider the movie as a whole, the screenplay seems rather brilliant.

All in all, Nil by Mouth is a satisfying and rewarding film viewing experience. Oldman makes the right choice in terms of satisfying the audience by letting his film family work through their difficulties. Rather than call it a Hollywood ending, I’ll describe it as artfully handled.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1998 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Luc Besson, Douglas Urbanski, and Gary Oldman) and “Best Screenplay – Original” (Gary Oldman); 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Ray Winstone) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Kathy Burke)

1997 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Best Actress” (Kathy Burke) and 1 nomination: “Golden Palm” (Gary Oldman)

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Review: "Crash" Crashes into Itself (Happy B'day, David Cronenberg)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Crash (1996)
Release date: March 21, 1997 (USA)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada/UK
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – NC-17 for numerous explicit sex scenes
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: David Cronenberg
WRITER: David Cronenberg (based upon the novel by J.G. Ballard)
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Suschitzky
EDITOR: Ronald Sanders
Cannes winner

DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger Rosanna Arquette, and Peter MacNeill

After being seriously scarred in a near-fatal collision (that was his fault and cost a man his life), television director James Ballard (James Spader) finds his soul mate in Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter), fellow crash survivor and wife of the man killed in the accident. Anxious to connect with the widow, Ballard joins Dr. Remington in a study of cars, sex, and death in which they focus on the point where the three meet. Together, with a band of misfits that include Ballard’s wife, Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger), and Vaughn (Elias Koteas), a fetishist who recreates and eroticizes famous car crash deaths (James Dean and Jane Mansfield’s seem to be his favorites), they probe the eroticism of the automobile and the sexual violence of auto accidents.

To call David Cronenberg’s Crash “weird” would be kind of dumb and simple. To call it an obtuse art project would be close. The film continues Cronenberg’s look at the effects of technology, in this case machines, in particularly the automobile, on the human body. The film seems to take place in the near future, sort of a tomorrow or the day after that. Sensations increasingly have become the method of communication between humans, and mechanical things intrigue people, in particularly how they can be an extension of the human body and also extend perception of or enhance sensation. Cronenberg gives us lots of sex scenes that involve cars, car crashes, and death as aphrodisiacs.

Those who like film as art with an emphasis on the visual sensation or the visual communication of film will find interest in this. However, Crash too often comes across as a boring exercise in creating mildly disturbing images. Sometimes, those images are disgusting, but in a way that makes you roll your eyes. Still, Cronenberg is, as always, daring in the way he challenges audiences to come with him as explores the darker side of humanity merging with machinery.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
1996 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Jury Special Prize” (David Cronenberg); 1 nomination: “Golden Palm” (David Cronenberg)

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Review: "Babel" Stumbles on its Ambitions

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 42 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Babel (2006)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France/USA/Mexico
Running time: 143 minutes (2 hours, 23 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, some graphic nudity, sexual content, language, and some drug use
DIRECTOR: Alejandro González Iñárritu
WRITERS: Guillermo Arriaga; based upon an idea by Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro González Iñárritu
PRODUCERS: Jon Kilik, Steve Golin, and Alejandro González Iñárritu
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rodrigo Prieto
EDITOR: Stephen Mirrione

2007 Academy Award winner and Best Picture nominee

DRAMA

Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Elle Fanning, and Nathan Gamble

Richard and Susan Jones (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett), an American couple, are vacationing in Morocco when Susan falls victim to a random act of violence. From that event unfolds a web of interconnected people across four countries – the United States, Mexico, Morocco, and Japan. Two Moroccan boys find themselves thrust into an international event. In the U.S., Amelia (Adriana Barraza), an undocumented Mexican worker living in the states for 16 years, works as a nanny. She crosses the border back into Mexico with her two charges, Debbie (Elle Fanning) and Mike (Nathan Gamble), the children of the Richard and Susan, and finds trouble at the border between two nations. In Japan, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), a deaf mute teenaged girl, tries to make an intimate connection with a series of boys and men. This disparate group of people shares a common destiny.

In his film, Babel, director Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams) examines the necessity and difficulty of human communication when the human race is separated by the gulf of clashing cultures and the sometimes sprawling distances. With writer Guillermo Arriaga, who also worked with him on 21 Grams and Amores Perros, Iñárritu weaves a convincing, if overly long tale, that makes his point about human communication. There is a commonality people share, but when we most need to communicate, language, customs, politics, and distances are often the severe static in the lines of communication.

There is no question of Iñárritu’s skills as a filmmaker. He draws from his actors the most subtle and intense performances. He guides each actor towards performance as truth, and each actor seems so genuine as his or her character that you might buy that fictional character as a real person. Brad Pitt, seemingly always in a battle to prove that he’s more than just a pretty face, is an actor capable of sincere emotions, and Iñárritu encourages Pitt to test himself – to be honestly vulnerable instead of being macho pretending to be exposed.

Iñárritu’s best work in the film is probably guiding Adriana Barraza as the nanny and Rinko Kikuchi as the deaf mute teen. They give the kind of great performances that make unknowns like them shine as if they were the brightest movie stars. For one film, these two women are as good as a Meryl Streep or Kate Winslet. Barraza and Kikuchi’s performances emphasize another notion that Babel plays with, and that’s the idea of someone being a stranger in a strange land in their own homeland.

For all the skill and talent that goes into creating great performances and transforming a narrative about connectivity into a truly international film, Iñárritu and Arriaga have created four storylines that individually need more time. Each one could be its own movie, but forced together and loosely connected, it all feels a bit artificial. It’s not that Babel is an insincere effort or a bad film. It’s quite good, but some of the movie feels forced. In fact, the Japanese storyline is tacked on and would be better as its own separate film.

Babel is an ambitious misstep because the filmmakers could have made the same points with a shorter film and fewer storylines. Still, I can give them credit for having a grand and bold vision that makes Babel more than most films ever try to be.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score (Gustavo Santaolalla); 6 nominations: Best achievement in directing (Alejandro González Iñárritu), Best achievement in editing (Stephen Mirrione), Best Motion Picture of the Year (Jon Kilik, Steve Golin, and Alejandro González Iñárritu), Best Performance by an actress in a supporting role (Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi) Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Guillermo Arriaga)


2007 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: film music, 6 nominations: film, directing, editing, original screenplay, sound, cinematography


2006 Cannes Film Festival: 3 wins: director, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Iñárritu), and Technical Grand Prize (Stephen Mirrione for editing); 1 nomination for the “Golden Palm (Iñárritu)


2007 Golden Globes: 1 win for “Best Motion Picture-Drama; 6 nominations: director-motion picture, score-motion picture, supporting actor-motion picture (Brad Pitt), supporting actress-motion picture (Barraza, Kikuchi), and screenplay-motion picture

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

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