There Better Be Blood!

Been waiting for this one for what feels like forever! I'm a huge Paul Thomas Anderson fan - I loved HARD EIGHT(which he would prefer to be called SYDNEY), BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA, and PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and consider them masterpieces, ignoring that most critics add the word "flawed" to that accolade. The press has been tremendous (it seems to have opened everywhere but here in the last few months) but I've worked hard to ignore the banter and bickering from the film world blogosphere about THERE WILL BE BLOOD by not reading reviews, interviews, or articles about said film until I could see it for myself. I succeeded and feel better for it - so here's my review:

THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)

The very definition of an Epic with a capital E, Paul Thomas Anderson’s long awaited loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel "Oil!" is yet another 2007 release that lives up to its hype and redefines the current cinematic landscape. And when it comes to landscapes, the vistas that fill the frames of THERE WILL BE BLOOD engulf from the first shot – a Texas valley in 1898 aided by a jarring wall of cacophonous strings (courtesy of Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead) to the last shot of...oh wait no Spoliers! As oil magnate Daniel Plainview, Daniel Day Lewis owns the film – he’s in nearly every scene and though he seems to be doing an imitation of John Huston, has a sculpted manner that, as just about every critic is exclaiming, has Oscar written all over it. Plainview’s methods in the art of wheeling and dealing are mesmerizing as is his way with words (on acquisition of oil obviously) – “If you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and I have a straw and my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!”

“Greed versus religion” is what I gather was the driving issue behind Sinclair’s book (which I really should read) and it comes alive in the person of Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a young preacher whose family's land becomes entangled in Plainview's conquest of the "ocean of oil" that he declares is his and more importantly - nobody else's. Dano practices a form of fire and brimstone evangelizing that Plainview, when first attending his church calls "one Goddamn Hell of a show." Dano plays twins - which can be confusing because it is the little-seen Paul who first appears and sells out the location of oil to Plainview. Plainview has a child (Dillon Freasier) who he more or less inherited as a son from a man who died in his employment. The boy, who Plainview names H.W., loses his hearing in yet another accident and Plainview admonishes Sunday for being unable to heal him. The clashing confrontations that mount as time moves on form the final acts; I must admit that in the 3rd act I felt that Anderson loses his way a bit but regains for a severely strong finish.

The film is dedicated to Robert Altman but it seems to my eyes to be heavily Kubrick-influenced. The opening sequence, a nearly 20 minute dialogue-free long-form montage in which we see Plainview starting from scratch, digging in fresh earth and slowly building his operation, has the operatic feel and flow from 2001 while the extended real-time pacing and gorgeous studied long shots throughout remind me of the fine tempered fabric of BARRY LYNDON. But Kubrick is only one of the masters in Anderson’s mosaic; I’ve seen comparisons to the grandeur of greed in CITIZEN KANE, the location (the West Texas town of Marfa) is the same as in the classic George Stevens/James Dean classic GIANT (also NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN was filmed mostly there too), and the essence of THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE* is largely felt. THERE WILL BE BLOOD, even with all those obvious inherited influences (or because of them) stands as an amazing achievement for a premiere American film maker and a film to cherish forever. This Epic-scale period movie on a less-than-Epic budget will bubble like the oil in the well before it bursts through Plainview’s derrick in cineaste’s psyches for a long time - regardless of whether or not it takes home the gold come Oscar night. One Goddamn Hell of a show indeed.

* Reportedly while making TWBB Anderson put on his copy of THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE every night as he was going to sleep. I wonder what wife Maya Rudolph (SNL) thought about that!

More later...

Blasting Bogdanovich & 10 Definitive Rockumentaries

Who knew Peter Bogdanovich could rock?

This guy - the refined ascot wearing autuer who directed THE LAST PICTURE SHOW but is best known to the masses as Dr. Melfi's shrink on The Sopranos not only can rock but he can rock for a long ass time. 4 hours in fact - the length of his new rock documentary TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM.

I made it through the whole thing and loved it (I hope my review below won't take 4 hours to read) and it got me to thinking about other great rock documentaries, or rockumentaries if you will, so yeah - I made another official Film Babble Blog list. First though let's take in Bogdanovich as he goes off on a Tom Petty tangent:

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM (Dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 2007)

"Marty took 3 hours and 40 minutes to tell 6 years of Dylan and I figured, if that's the case, why shouldn't we take 4 hours to tell 30 years of Tom Petty?"
- Peter Bogdanovich on Sound Opinions (broadcast January 7th, 2008)

A big package this is - 4 discs, 2 of which are the 4 hour 15 minute director's cut of the documentary, the 3rd disc is the complete 30th Anniversary Gainesville, Florida concert from September 30th, 2006, and the 4th is a soundtrack CD featuring 9 previously unreleased songs. Whew! Hard to claim to be just a casual Petty fan after absorbing all of that. Bogdanovich's film even at its bloated length is engrossing and never lags.

Framed by footage from the before mentioned concert we are taken through the history of the band with interview segments spliced with photos, fliers, home movies, TV appearances, grainy videotape material, and every other source available. The ups and downs are perfectly punctuated with Petty standards - the punchy pop bright Byrds influence that brought forth the break-through single "American Girl" captures the band on a television stage young and green while the promotional video for "Refugee" shows them freshly on the mend from battles with lawyers and declaring bankruptcy.

Of course there are unavoidable rockumentary clichés that are as old than THIS IS SPINAL TAP - recording studio squabbles, the trials of transporting drugs over the borders, and the "Free Fallin'"-out of the band when they aren't on the same page but they are amusingly displayed in a knowing manner that transcends the usual VH1 classic fodder. It's hard not to think of Scorsese's landmark Dylan doc when putting in disc 2 of RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM for the most obvious reason - as Part 2 starts the first words uttered, by Petty, are "Bob Dylan, I don't think there's anyone we admire more". So the collaboration with Petty and Dylan begins - there is great footage from the HBO special Hard To Handle. Bob thrusts his hand behind him while playing his harmonica on the intro of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" to stop the band from coming in too soon and it's an amazing moment - the greatest songwriter ever (as Petty and I call him) directing the best working class Americana band of the mid 80's and beyond.

Tom and Bob's collaboration led to the Traveling Wilbury's - the ultimate supergroup filled out by former Beatle George Harrison, legend Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne of the elaborately Beatle-esque Electric Light Orchestra. Petty's approach was forever altered - which we see as certain band members have to cope with his new direction. Especially former drummer Stan Lynch, (who refused to be interviewed for the film but is presented in archive footage) who says bluntly of Petty's biggest selling album "Full Moon Fever" - "there were more than a couple songs I just didn't like." Through the 90's up to now we see Petty and the Heartbreakers weather grunge (Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl played with them on SNL right after Lynch left), a death of a long time but still considered "new kid" bassist Howie Epstein, and the competition from a world in which "rock stars were being invented on game shows" all with their self declared "I Won't Back Down" spirit.

Though you ordinarily wouldn't think of him in the same company as Orson Welles and John Ford, this masterful showcase of material makes a solid case that Petty is indeed in the pantheon of those previous subjects of Bogdanovich's. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, who seems to show up in every rocumentary or rock related movie these days (even WALK HARD), appears at one point to sing a duet with Petty on "The Waiting" at a recent concert. When the song ends and the giant audience erupts Petty says to Vedder, “Look at that, Eddie - rock and roll heaven.” He's right - for 4 hours and 15 minutes it sure is.

So since Bogdanovich's Petty opus joins the ranks of great rockumentaries and because this year new docs 'bout U2, Patti Smith, and Marty's huge Rolling Stones project will be unleashed on the market it's time to appraise those ranks. So here's:

10 Definitive Rockumentaries

1. A tie - DON’T LOOK BACK (Dir. D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) /NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 2005)

Despite the fact that I hate ties this shouldn't surprise anyone, I mean have you met me? D.A. Pennebaker's document of Bob's 1965 British tour coupled with Marty's wider scoped portrait of Dylan's rise to fame are equally essential so I could not separate them. The Bob shown in these docs, with the wild hair, sunglasses and mod clothing is the same Bob that Cate Blanchett portrayed in I'M NOT THERE - the one most caged in his persona and held to the highest levels of scrutiny. Incredible concert footage flows through both films and hits its pinnacle in May 1966 when Bob faces a hostile crowd and a historic heckler - "Judas!" is shouted from the darkness one night in Manchester. "I don't believe you - you're a liar!" Dylan sneers before launching into a mindblowingly rawking "Like A Rolling Stone". Scorsese and Pennebaker both capture lightning in a bottle and leave us with glorious glimpses of the greatest songwriter ever in his prime serenading the world even when most of the world wasn't quite ready for his weary tune.

2. I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART (Dir. Sam Jones, 2002)

Not a career overview but a capsule of one particular plagued period when a great band - Wilco - made a great record ("Yankee Hotel Foxtrot") and it was rejected by their record company. Chicago critic, and co-host of the great NPR show Sound Opinions Greg Kot puts it best: "It's not a VH1 "Behind The Music" story. It's a not a drugs-groupies-celebrity kind of story at all. This band's story is the music. 20 years from now their probably going to get more of their due than now." Well let's get them their due right now because this a compelling black and white film full of great music both in the studio and on stage. Key scene: leader Jeff Tweedy and guitarist Jay Bennett have a tense awkward argument over a crucial edit while mixing the album that shows how far they have drifted apart as collaborators. Indeed Bennett was asked to leave the band while the film was being made. The band grows stronger and gets a label and has a hit album which gives this rockumentary a happy ending and a nice second placing on this list.

3. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (Dir. Jeff Stein, 1979)

Sure there's that new more extensive and correctly chronological AMAZING JOURNEY: THE STORY OF THE WHO but this hodgepodge of Who with its odds 'n ends, warts 'n all, kitchen sink approach is much more exciting. In the first five minutes explosives go off in Keith Moon's drumkit from a performance on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Show then we zigzag around to such '60s shows as Shindig and Beatlcub, seminal gigs like WOODSTOCK and the Monterey International Pop Festival and then conclude with specially shot for the film footage from Shepperton Film Studios mere months before Moon's death in '78. We don't get narration or anything in the way of historical context - none of the bits are titled and nobody is identified and it is all out of order - but the collage effect satisfies and everything jels together like one of best movie mixtapes ever. Key scene: The Who blow the Stones off the stage on their own TV special with a ferocious "A Quick One, While He's Away".

4. GIMME SHELTER (Dirs. Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)

The 60's dream died here, or so the tale goes - just ask Don McLean. That fatal night at Altamont Speedway where Hells Angels acted as security for a free Rolling Stones gig made what could have been just an assembly line concert film (see LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER for that) into a piece of true crime documentation that could play on MSNBC as well as VH1 Classic. The Stones had shed psychedelia and were getting back to their roots so in 1969, touring with Ike and Tina Turner and we get a good sampling of a Madison Square Garden concert (also featured on the album "Get Your Ya-Yas Out") and a stirring performance of "Wild Horses" at Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama before proceeding to the scene of the crime in California. We see Mick Jagger and Keith Richards watching the Altamont footage in the editing room and they freeze the image of a knife in the hand held above the fighting crowd and it is one of the most chilling images in cinema that has ever been seen. I don't know if Satan was laughing with delight like McLean sings in "American Pie" but he was sure smirking.

5. LET IT BE (Dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1970) Actually the 60's dream died here too. The break-up of the Beatles with their final public performance on a rooftop in London is a tough sad watch but one that's vital in understanding exactly how the mighty can fall. Unfortunately because as producer and former Beatles assistant Neil Aspinall said recently "When we got halfway through restoring it, we looked at the outtakes and realized: this stuff is still controversial. It raised a lot of old issues" - the film may not see the light of a DVD player anytime soon. That's too bad - even though it's not the Beatles at their best it's them at their most human and as uncomfortable as George Harrison's studio squabble with Paul McCartney is (George: "'ll play, you know, whatever you want me to play. Or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play, you know. Whatever it is that'll please you, I'll do it.") we still somehow feel the love in what they were trying to make. And in the end isn't that what they were trying to tell us all along?

6. DiG! (Ondi Timoner, 2004) Though most haven't heard of either of the bands studied here - The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre this tale of the sometimes friendly rivalry will make people listen up. Billed as "a real-life Spinal Tap" DiG! follows these bands with their retro rock through a few years of touring, arguing, getting wasted, busted, and getting up to do it all again. Despite the fact that DW frontman Courtney Taylor narrates, BJM member Anton Newcombe steals the show over and over with his asshole antics and crazy talk like "I'm not for sale. I'm fucking Love, do you understand what I'm saying? Like, the Beatles were for sale. I give it away." Maybe the funniest rockumentary on this list.

7. TIME WILL TELL (Dir. Declan Lowney, 1992) Bob Marley's story is pretty glossed over in this doc but that is okay because it is so full of great footage with many full songs represented. Interview footage doesn't really provide insights - except that Marley was always stoned - but footage from the One Love Peace Concert and various 70's TV shows (particuraly the footage from the Old Grey Whistle Test, BBC 1973 pictured left) is worth many repeat viewings.

8. MADONNA: TRUTH OR DARE (Dir. Alek Kekishian, 1991) I'm sure there are those who will scoff but I added this not just because I realized that this list was too much of a sausage party but because it's seriously a notable rockumentary. There sadly aren't many docs about female artists so this will have to some representin'. This follows Madonna on her controversial Blond Ambition tour and has the backstage bits in DON'T LOOK BACK-esque hand-held black and white while the concert sequences are in color. We do actually get some amusing insights like when Warren Beatty, who briefly dated Madonna during the filming of DICK TRACY, says of her when she's having a dental appointment filmed: "she doesn't want to live off-camera, much less talk. There's nothing to say off-camera. Why would you say something if it's off-camera? What point is there existing? " None I can think of.

9. THE LAST WALTZ (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 1978) Sure Marty and the Band (they were Bob's band in 1965-66 under the name The Hawks) were both represented at the #1 spot on this list but this film deserves to place on its own. It's a doc wrapped around a seminal concert film - the farewell performance of arguably the greatest Canadian band ever who play an incredible set helped out by their friends - including ace work by Eric Clapton,Muddy Waters, Joni Mitchell, Ronnie Hawkins, Ringo Starr, Neil Diamond (!), and their old bandleader Bob Dylan. The interview segments with Scorsese sitting casually around for conversations with Band members Robbie Robertson and Co. were parodied by Rob Reiner as director Marty DiBergi in THIS IS SPINAL TAP and they set a precedent for rockumentary etiquette. But for my money, the sequence in which Neil Young sings "Helpless" with The Band and accompanied by the beautiful backup singing of Joni Mitchell in the wings is one of the most infectious pieces of musical celluloid ever presented. That Marty had to visually edit a nugget of cocaine hanging off Young's nose by rotoscoping in post production only adds to the affecting edge.

10. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN (Dir. Paul Justman, 2002) This film provides a great service - it shines a light on the largely unknown supporting players on some of the greatest music of the 20th century. The Funk Brothers provided the backing for literally hundreds of hits that defined "the Detroit sound" - the memorable melodies behind Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, The Supremes, and many others. This film gives us interviews with Bandleader Joe Henry and various other surviving Funk Brother members and we see new live performances where they play with such soul notables as Me'shell Ndegeocello, Chaka Kahn, and Bootsy Collins. An incredibly entertaining and emotional experience with a band that should be grandly celebrated for, as narrating actor Andre Braugher tells us, "having played on more number-one records than The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys combined."

Postnotes: I tried to focus on wide-ranging documentaries not straight concert films hence the ommision of the Jonathan Demme's amazing STOP MAKING SENSE (which would place high on a list of straight concert films) and other worthy films of that caliber. Some other honorable mentions:

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (reviewed on filmbabble Oct. 11th, 2006)
GIGANTIC (A TALE OF TWO JOHNS) - A great doc about They Might Be Giants, a band who many left behind in college but is still part of our Daily Show lives.
THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY - If you ever have a day to kill you could do much worse than watching this 674 min. production.
MONTEREY POP
METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER - This hilarious doc about a once mighty metal and going into therapy is the real-life Spinal Tap IMHO.
THE FIFTH AND THE FURY- Julien Temple and the Sex Pistols - need I say more?
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILISATION This and its 2 sequels which cover the history of decadent underworld of punk and metal are as essential as rockumentaries can get.

Whew! Okay, that's enough rockumentaries for now. If you think I've left out your favorite - that's what the comments below is for.

This post is dedicated to
Brad Renfro (1982-2007)

He appeared as Josh in one of my all time favorite movies - GHOST WORLD (2001). At least he fulfilled that old maxim to die young and leave a good looking corpse. Sigh.

R.I.P.

More later...

Depp & Burton Together Again At The Multiplex

I went today with my Varsity Theatre co-worker friend Molly to see SWEENEY TODD: DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET at Movies At Timberlyne. I realized as we pulled up that the last time I'd been to this particular multiplex was for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - another Tim Burton/Johnny Depp deal. So I decided that I'll only go to Timberlyne to see Burton/Depp movies from this day forward. So I won't be back 'til 2010 when Burton's live action ALICE IN WONDERLAND is released. Depp as the Mad Hatter - can't hardly wait.

So onto the picture show:

SWEENEY TODD: DEMON OF FLEET STREET
(Dir. Tim Burton, 2007)

I went in to this completely unfamiliar with the original 1979 Steven Sondheim musical (I say "original" loosely - that was based on a 1973 play by Christopher Bond which was based on...oh, you get the idea) so I liked letting it play out with no comparing notions. To me it was essentially the 6th in the Burton/Depp series - which are usually gothic twisted stories with a misunderstood but still magnetic protagonist with an odd affliction or vision and all the visual splendor that a crazy haired madman director can provide.

This time though Depp is singing and not badly I admit. Burton's wife and reporatory member Helen Bonham Carter has good pipes too. In fact all of the cast -Sasha Baron Cohen (BORAT!), Alan Rickman, and Jamie Campbell Bower all sang without embarrasment - I just wish they had better songs to sing. But I'm getting ahead of myself, first let's get onto the obligatory plot description.

Depp in the title role, with all the strained intensity he brought to Captain Jack Sparrow, shows up in London after years in exile. He finds that his beloved wife poisoned herself and a daughter is being held captive by an evil Judge (Rickman) - the same Judge who had him exiled.

His old landlady (Carter) runs a scummy roach-ridden meat-pie emporium and after a taste of one of her 'orrible pies she returns his treasured set of razors - which shine like EDWARD SCISSORHAND's blades in the light. Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower) - the young sailor who brought Todd home, falls in love with Todd's daughter (Jane Wisener) and plots to save her from the evil Judge. Todd, while planing his revenge against the Judge, goes into an odd business venture with his lusty landlady. He, with Barber shop set-up, slits the throats of his customers and drops them through a chute to her basement to be used for meat in her 'orrible pies.

Maybe, as I was told, the editing down to 2 hours from 3 of the original score made for a lot of concessions but the amount of fragmentary non-gripping verses without choruses and then overlong sequences based on a flimsy overdone melody left me buried musically. None of the songs were catchy enough for me to remember right now is what I'm saying. The look of the film with its grey hued tones contrasting with the bright rich red color of blood lives up the best of Burton except that the flour whiteness of Depp's and Bonham Carter's skin almost gave me snow blindness.

Typical of Burton there are a handful of fitfully funny bits - Depp's unchanging gloomy mug in the one sunny fantasy scene song that Bonham Carter sings ("By The Sea") is one that comes to mind. Still the whole thing seems to lack ommph. Full sequences are better than passable but there was no real passion present.

Depp and Burton next time out should sink their teeth into such material not just nibble. I mean a musical mind you, one with a costume ball rape scene and scores of bloody slit throats, should be a full meal not a glorified Hors d'oeuvre. Just sayin' that this choppy LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS meets DELICATESSEN could've been so much more.

More later...

An ATONEMENT Assessment and Award Season Annoyances

The Golden Globes ceremony was reduced to a press conference and the fate of the Academy Awards (the Oscars ya know?) is up in the air all because of the damn long ass writer's strike. Why does this have to happen in a time overflowing with actual quality product to appraise? I mean in most other mediocre years we can blow this off but this time out there are a bunch of deserving films and crowds of actors just waiting around to be recognized then ridiculed (that's where the writers come in) by their peers or whoever.

As for how good movies have been lately, I don't recall reading the phrase - cue that voice-over announcer guy: "...is one of the best movies of the year" in as many reviews in previous years as much as I have for 2007. Like I said in an earlier post I'm holding out on making the Filmbabble Blog Top Ten Of 2007 list at least until I see THERE WILL BE BLOOD (which opens on the 18th) though it will be another month before PERSEPOLIS comes to my area so I know that I'll still feel like I'm jumping the gun. Anyway for the moment I have more movies to catch up on including 2 that have that "one of the best movies of the year" tag hanging on them - first off:

ATONEMENT (Dir. Joe Wright, 2007)

In this production of the acclaimed bestselling novel by Ian McEwan set mostly in the 1930's, we are taken from snooty British sitting rooms to the bloody battlefields of war torn France and then back to occupied London and the journey is gripping every frame of the way. But it is the power of the written word that fuels this film and fills the head of Briony Tallis (a coy Saoirse Ronan) a 13 year old member of a wealthy English family. From an overhead window in her family's mansion she sees her older but not wiser sister Cecelia (Keira Knightly) with Robbie - the son of the housekeeper. Possible Spoilers! - What happens next is seen from 2 different perspectives - Briony's and that of the would be lovers. Later that evening after a tense dinner and the turmoil caused by missing twin brothers again Briony sees, or mis-sees if that's a word, something that changes her life forever. The unfolding and refolding of events here is so juicy that even if you've read the book you'll want to discover yourself so I'll discontinue my ambiguously tortured plot recap.

As the lovers in this romance novel by way of Masterpiece Theater foray McAvoy has the earnest can-do spirit that Robbie had in spades in the book while Knightly seems an empty but still elegant vessel for whatever stressful emotion comes her way. Briony is played by 3 different actresses over 60 years - the before mentioned Ronan at age 13, at age 18 - Romola Garai, and (credited as Older Briony) Vanessa Redgrave - all with the right dash of pathos. The fractured narrative, of which is so popular in modern film these days (Tarentino et al), is actually nicely faithful to the novel's construction. Having just finished the McEwan novel right before going to the cinema I had the text fresh in my brain while viewing. I was at first annoyed how scores of inner dialogue often had to be condensed down to one spoken line but when it sank in I was amazed how much was true to the tone and intent of the 349 page tome. ATONEMENT is a surefire Award season favorite - if that season ever really gets going that is and yes, ahem, it's one of the best movies of the year.

New on DVD:

AWAY FROM HER (Dir. Sarah Polly, 2007)

When I first heard what the story of this film was I thought it might be a candidate for the saddest premise ever. Julie Christie plays a woman suffering from Alzheimer's whose loving husband of 44 years (Gordon Pinsent) has to deal with having her institutionalized and bearing witness to her falling in love with another man - a mute (except for some whimpering) fellow patient portrayed by Michael Murphy. See what I mean? Saddest. Premise. Ever. But that Comic Book Store Guy cheapness is uncalled for because, as someone says about Christie in the film, this has too much class for that. No false rhythms or maniputlations here, even the typical fractured storyline has a one piece of the puzzle at a time thing happening that doesn't feel as it does often as a filmmaker showing off.

In the early scenes there is a romantic, not romanticizing, introduction to this old married couple's current life and situation. On a walk through the snow near their cabin, while admiring some flowers Christie remarks "sometimes there's something delicious about oblivion" as she admits she forgets the color yellow immediately after looking away. For her to be admitted to the Meadowlake Treatment Facility Christie and Pinsent, to his protest, have to be separated for 30 days while she settles in. After this period Pinsent returns to find his wife huddled beside the wheelchair-bound always unhappy-looking Murphy who they both know from the past. That this past is never fully explained but hinted at is one of the film's many subtle charms. Simple lines of dialogue say so much while fleeting shots from the principle's memories say much more so there is no need for elaborate exposition or full flashback scenes - we get all the backstory implications that we need.

Pinsent takes comfort by consoling with Murphy's sardonic wife played by Olivia Dukakis who has been through the same tribulations but from a different angle of angst. Much of the motions these characters are going through can be painful to watch throughout "Away From Her" but the aching adds to the overwhelming beauty of the piece. Polley's fluid pacing and choice of music (Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" sweetly serenades Pinsent and Christie as they slow dance the last night before her hospitalization) is note perfect. There are many quotations throughout as books are read out loud (Auden's "Letters From Iceland", Macloed's "No Great Mischief", and even bits from Alzheimer's info guides) making this the first movie I've seen recently that has "Quotes and Excerpts" listed in the end credits in the same fashion as soundtrack selections. Through all of these well choosen details it's the lead performances by Pinsent and Christie that make this a must see. Christie, acheiving grace through the clouded confusion of Alzheimer's combined with Pinsent's attempt to keep his dignity through his helpless desperation is heartbreaking again and again. Whatever this nearly flawless film's fate award-wise it will be surely loved by people for ages - it's a genuine "tearjerker" and I mean that in the least cynical sense of the word.

And now a film also fairly new to DVD that I don't think anybody said was "one of the best movies of the year":

BUG (Dir. William Friedkin, 2007)

Oh, where to begin about such a movie as BUG. Okay I'll try and break it down: it's a William Friedkin film - he of THE FRENCH CONNECTION, THE EXORCIST, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. fame. It's a paranoid thriller involving a drinking, pot smoking, pale-looking Oklahoma woman with eyes that look cried out (Ashley Judd). She has a ex-con ex-husband (a dependable clichéd role - usually wears a wife-beater of course) played by the Sinatra wannabe jazz crooning SunCom shilling Harry Connick Jr. who she thinks is calling her shabby ass motel room and just breathing on the line. A lipstick lesbian best friend R.C. (Lynn Collins) in a loose bar scene introduces her to an odd but well groomed (for a drifter that is) hitchhiker - a creepy yet still reasurring Michael Shannon. So far so low key but that's how these types of set-ups work. After their tastefully artsy sex scene Shannon soon believes the room is infected by microscopic bugs that Judd struggles to see. He reveals after suffering bloody bites, egg inplantations, and odd freak-outs that he was the subject of military experiments and that the bugs...oh wait, that's a spoiler.

Based on a stage play (it ran in London and Chicago in 2001 and Shannon played the same part) by Tracy Letts that I'm straining to visualize, except that BUG mostly takes place in the same location - Lane's hotel apartment and is very talkie for a suspense flick. It's filmed apparently out in the middle of nowhere (Louisiana actually) and from the few night time exterior shots taken from a plane we definitely get that out in the middle of nowhere feeling inside. As a conspiracy film buff I'm normally a sucker for a premise that involves unseen government agents, ranting protagonists who may or not be crazy, and are set in a world where as the NetFlix envelope said "No one - least of all the authorities - - can be trusted" but I couldn't get onboard with BUG. Its tone as Judd and Shannon descend into hammy madness is transparrent and the intensity it tries for comes off predictible and pretty dismisable - especially the ending. This may be a project that Friedkin feels is one his most personally intense (or something like that - I'm not watching the DVD featurette again) but it's really just another soon to be forgotten Ashley Judd thriller throw-away.

More later...

Politics Schmolotics: A Droll CHARLIE WILSON & A Serious BREACH

Alan Rudolph: "Does Political scare you?"
Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins): "Political doesn't scare me. Radical political scares me. Political political scares me.
Alan Rudolph: "This is politiely politically radical, but it's funny."
THE PLAYER (Dir. Robert Altman, 1991)

Politics doesn't play well at the multiplex. If you don't believe me just ask the makers of LIONS FOR LAMBS. Despite critical acclaim people have stayed away in droves from just about every Iraq-related drama and especially documentary fare like NO END IN SIGHT as well so it appears that these days - political scares moviegoers. Keeping this in mind I made it out to the Lumina Theatre last week to see the Mike Nichols/Tom Hanks comic drama CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (which actually at #6 on the box office charts is doing pretty well) and I cozied up to the warm DVD player to watch BREACH so consider me unafraid of political. Or at least political pop pieces like these:

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (Dir. Mike Nichols, 2007)

The charismatic senator famed for funding arms for Afghanistan against Soviet occupation is a tailor made role for Tom Hanks. He's a charmer with a bevy of buxom secretaries, always a stiff drink in hand, and a penchant for punchy one-liners like "You know you've reached rock bottom when you're told you have character flaws by a man who hanged his predecessor in a military coup". Unfortunately the film is as glib as his character. Hanks glides through many West Wing-esque walk and talks (with the Aaron Sorkin scripting that's got to be a given) and his scenes with Julia Roberts (as Texas socialite and activist Joanne Herring) with such a winking detachment that we never really feel invited in to his story - as fascinating on the surface as it is.

It starts out so promising - for instance Phillip Seymour Hoffman has a show-stopping shouting intro but then even he falls back into a laconic gruff presence. At one point, as if to borrow the gravitas from a far better satirical standard barer, Ned Beatty shows up to give a speech which helps the proceedings a little but NETWORK this ain't. With the A-list gloss stripped away Wilson's war story would be better told as a History Channel documentary. Sure, it sucks that people opt for fake history bullshit like NATIONAL TREASURE over films based on such juicy real events but when it's the too smug for fun CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR - moviegoers might be better off with cinematic junk food.

BREACH (Dir. Billy Ray, 2007) "He was trying to commit the intelligence equivalent of the perfect crime" says Paul Moore of his former collegue Robert Hanssen (from a MSNBC report enititled "Mole" included as a bonus feature on the just released DVD). Hanssen, who sold military secrets to Russia during the height of the cold war, has had his story told before (the 2002 TV movie MASTER SPY: THE ROBERT HANSSEN STORY starring William Hurt) but this time the perspective is through the eyes of an upstart FBI agent wannabe Eric O'Neill (a stoic but moody Ryan Philleppe).

As Hanssen, Chris Cooper, in a career best performance, is suspicious but mostly oblivious to the scrutiny his position and power was undergoing. O'Neill is kept in the dark too at first - thinking that he's assigned to Hanssen because as he is told by a handler (Laura Linney) that he is a sexual deviant. Despite this he builds a grudging respect for the man and even believes that his superiors have no case. This naive view shatters as the world of Hanssen's making becomes mindblowingly clear. Some liberties were taken with the story - in actuality O'Neil knew going in what they were after Hanssen for - and a number of dramatic liberties are taken but the essence of the story remains sharply intact. Like Billy Ray's previous film - the excellent SHATTERED GLASS the tension has a palpable edge missing in a lot of current thrillers. BREACH is a quietly absorbing tightly told tale of homegrown espionage and one that never forgets or lets us forget how high the stakes are.

More later...

IMAXed Out BEOWULF Style

"Just don't take any class where you have to read Beowulf."
- Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) ANNIE HALL (1977)

I went to the first IMAX movie I've seen in a long time at a venue I've never been to before - The IMAX Theatre at Marbles Kid Museum in Raleigh, N.C. The movie was BEOWULF, the new Robert Zemeckis 3-D CGI spectacle based on the Old English heroic epic poem (as Wikipedia calls it). Did I mention it was IMAX 3-D? Because if the flick didn't have the ginormous screen 3-D enhancement I don't think I would've liked the movie much. Anywhere here goes a review:

BEOWULF (Dir. Robert Zemeckis, 2007)

The very loose adaptation of the ancient landmark of World literature presented here won't do any high school English teachers any favors. This throws out all but the basics of the original story and CGI's everything up to 11 - with in-your-face bloody battles, in-your-face grotesque sea monsters and dragons, in-your-face golden villainess Angelina Jolie, and in-your-face uh, everything! It was IMAX 3-D you know so everything is constantly coming at you. Beowulf is played by Ray Winstone who with the benefit of the animation process becomes a buff killing machine Adonis while the other actors - Robin Penn Wright, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich appear confined to video game character aesthetic restraints. I honestly didn't know until afterwards that it was the wonderfully weird Crispin Glover who provided the voice and mannerisms for the colosally disgusting Grendel - good thing too because that might have distracted a bit.

I am not a fan of the 300-style bravado that often dominated the proceedings and the thrill of the 3-D did wear off after the first half only to come back in spurts but overall BEOWULF is a fairly fun ride through ancient mythic vistas and bloody overwrought battles. Like I said before though it was the IMAX 3-D that made the show - I can't really comment on what this film would play like in 2-D. As my father said to make Angelina Jolie into Grendel's mother is quite a stretch but one that doesn't matter as long as things keep coming at you.

More later...

Seasons Greetings And Coming Attractions

Happy New Year from Film Babble Blog!

Ah, that's the stuff - pictured above is my favorite New Year's celebration movie scene of all time. From THE GODFATHER: PART II it shows Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), having just found out that his brother Fredo (John Cazale) betrayed him, gives him the kiss of death and tells him: "I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!" What a way to enter in the New Year!

I just wanted to make a brief post to wish everyone a good 2008 and to plug some upcoming Film Babble.

Coming soon to this blog:

ATONEMENT (Dir. Joe Wright) This film opens Friday at my hometown theatre and I've been plowing through the so far excellent Ian McEwan novel so expect a review very shortly.

BEOWULF (Dir. Robert Zemeckis) I'm heading to the Imax Theatre in Raleigh tomorrow to see this ginormous 3-D retelling of the ancient Anglo Saxon epic poem that I was not a fan of back in high school English Literature class. I'll tell you know how it goes.

The Top Ten Movies Of 2007 - 2007 ended so why not make a list now? Well, you see, some major 2007 releases haven't made their way to my area (particularly THERE WILL BE BLOOD which won't be released here until Jan. 18th) so I will refrain from compiling a list until I'm allowed to catch up. Stay tuned because this being the best year for film in recent memory the list is sure to be a doozy!

More sooner than later...