Friday, November 25, 2011

reign over me (2007). directed by mike binder.


i am not crazy when i said i like adam sandler. i do. even though it is far and between that he does quality flicks, preferring instead to stick to what he does best - the adam sandler genre. which is funny too if you like slapstick and dirty jokes - i like 'em. thank goodness that sandler has the sense of doing something else other than what he usually does - and reign over me is a very good exception. 

don cheadle is a dentist, married with kids and thinks his wife is not giving him space for him to do "man things". may be it is the seven year itch, but he's restless, bored with his ordered life, and looking for a way to let out some steam. he then came across his long lost roommate (adam sandler) from college who initially didn't remember him. sandler is disheveled, constantly renovating his kitchen, always on his music head space listening to rock greats. he spent his nights going around the city on his scooter (i don't know what the thing is called) and i suspect he doesn't sleep much. he didn't seem to remember anything much from his past. at first cheadle didn't mind sandler playing an amnesiac, until he found out the reasons for sandler's insistent pretension to forget. 

sandler's playing the down and out guy who suffers so much that he disconnects from the world is endearing. i am sad for him. if you noticed, he always has this inner desperation going, like he's repressing something and ended up doing something else that is the opposite of what he feels. cheadle is great (played with great ease), the nice everyday man looking for a little excitement at the expense of forgetting the good things he has in his life, which is often taken for granted. by the end of the movie, he realized that he doesn't want to be sandler nor his apparent freedom if that means he can't let anyone into his life. the movie is touching at so many levels, it doesn't get too dark and the ironies of everyday life provide a much needed comic relief which is not silly at all, but true. that is the kind of surprise that i like when i watch a film, given adam sandler is in the movie. 

i especially like the cinematography that shows the beautiful new york city, the city and its people after sept 11 bustling like nothing happened, covering deep scars if only time could heal them. 

Friday, November 18, 2011

shotgun stories (2007). directed by jeff nichols.


i know men like son (micheal shannon), boy (douglas ligon) and kid (barlow jacobs) in my own family. men who can't say what they feel, and when they finally say them, they do that with great violence, often unintentional. it used to annoy me when these men choose to be quiet than act on the issue plaguing our family the way i do - but then i begin to understand, that they are merely trying to contain their anger, doing their best to calm down and say not the wrong thing before taking any action. 

else we have men like son and his brothers. their broken family and harsh childhood make them cling for one another for support - the brothers don't speak much, but they look out for one another to make up for the lack of words being said. their mother is estranged, as son speaks of her as the hateful woman who brought them up to hate their father and his other family. their father is a reformed alcoholic who left them behind for a new wife and new sons, so you know it is disaster when son and his brothers turn up at his funeral, spitting and reminding the new family what a vile man their father used to be. you can sense their anger at being abandoned; their life languishing in a dead end town, uneducated, unloved, unable to escape. they have no one who cares but the three of them. son had shotgun marks on his back, it was from protecting one of his younger siblings. 

i don't know if many people appreciate this kind of story telling, because i must say this story touched me in places most movies hardly make an impact. i was looking for movies with micheal shannon after watching him in take shelter (2011), also directed by jeff nichols. i feel sorry for son and his brothers, and it is especially sorrowful to see bad blood from an older generation who hardly cares about them had son and his brothers wage a war against their step brothers. this movie is a character study excellently portrayed by shannon, ligon and jacobs; i like nichols' deliberate direction that lets the story unfold by implication. adam stone's cinematography shows a sleepy arkansas town that holds nothing for its residents, each day reminding them of the cruel realities that their life is wasting away and that there is no escaping it. the town is a prison, symbolic of the prison they live in their minds. 

for people like son and his brothers - while there is no easy way out, the most obvious has got to be to just let go. 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

martha marcy may marlene (2011). directed by sean durkin.


why would it be attractive to anyone to join a cult? if it's attractive to you, then there is something wrong with you. this is the story of martha, who upon joining a cult gets her name changed to marcy may because the cult leader pointed out "you look like a marcy may". the cult has more women than men, their roles are  confined to having sex with the men, cleaning up after them, cooking for them. the women could only eat after the men finished their dinners. the extent of their depersonalization is magnified by the name marlene, the name that the women respond to when answering the cult's only telephone. 

may be those women are lost souls looking for a sense of belonging in all the wrong places. god forbid a girl with daddy issues would come across a man who acts like he cares - because the cult leader in the film is a master manipulator. broken people needs someone who believes in them, and they will re-pay that belief with undivided and fiercely blind loyalty. martha seemed like a smart girl, she must have had more conscience compared to the other girls as she was the only one who managed to escape from the cult. but she has trouble adjusting to the outside world - the grip of the cult leader and its insular life is rooted in her, that she has to fight its persuasive call to come back. 

when we think about it - about how those women could subject themselves to repeated rapes and other forms of degradation without questioning, in fact with pride that they had themselves cleansed by the cult leader, proudly inviting other girls to do the same - we are witnessing an immensely basic human need in action. that people, will do anything to be loved, and that the illusion of it is good enough than having none at all. 

j. edgar (2011). directed by clint eastwood.


for a clint eastwood movie, it is surprisingly bland. neither is he known for insipid story telling, especially when we are talking about the famous j. edgar hoover, the first fbi director who ruled the agency for a mighty 48 years. just when we thought that dictators only exist in backward african countries. 

the film was helmed by good actors. we have di caprio, judi dench and naomi watts to name a few. di caprio did a good job portraying a man in love with power more than anything else in his life. he is constantly scared of losing it, that he justifies spying, planting evidence, making up stories - anything that he could gather to black mail others when the situation demands him to. naomi watts, however, is forgettable. it's not her fault though, the nature of the film that has no real focus, flipping back and forth, loses a lot of details that could have make for a potentially moving story. 

but the film...it is like it has no climax. no punch line. it sort of went on and on without attempting to shed something fundamental about hoover. it is like eastwood had something to say but he decided against it in the last minute. his j. edgar is neither reviled nor admired - he is just another guy with mommy issues and gay but happened to be the most powerful man the fbi has ever had. i don't know why eastwood is so detached - and the absence of his trademark intimate story telling is severely missed in this movie. 

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

the darjeeling limited (2007). directed by wes anderson.


the flight from houston to calgary was a drag. the plane was very small and the guy who sat next to me was very big. by the time i finished watching this movie, i thought, i can endure this flight only because i have watched a gem that makes me laugh and cry at the same time. 

the three estranged brothers played by owen wilson (eldest), adrien brody (middle child syndrome) and jason schwartzman (youngest) are on a spiritual roadtrip in india, wilson in particular hopes to bond with his younger siblings despite his controlling ways typical of an older sibling that has kept his brothers away from him all this while. far from realizing this, they bicker with each other like kids do, only they are not kids anymore but grown adults with non-unique adult issues. with a dead father and an absent mother, it seems like they are used to not having anyone to depend on, but i think they feel abandoned. the scene of the boy's cremation, they are strangers in the village where no one speaks english and yet they are made to be part of the family, which is what is missing from their own family. togetherness and being there for one another. 

it's a pleasure seeing the trio and wes anderson crafting something from his universe of broken people. the nonsensical situations that they are in, the flaws they can not help but kept doing. some people say anderson's films is an acquired taste, that they are too quirky for their own good. may be so, but i find much realism in anderson's twisted family dynamics. 

Sunday, November 13, 2011

inception (2010). directed by christopher nolan.


the first time i watched inception, i didn't like it. there are infinite easier ways of telling the story as opposed to the layered mechanical dreams nolan is proposing. i am a proponent of story first, cgi second. the cgi in this movie is amazing, that at times i feel that it is done at the expense of the story. i don't mind the back and forth story telling, it shows how adriot nolan is in keeping the story tight although it requires audience to pay a closer attention.  

but then again, movies can be about anything. i guess i expect more storytelling from nolan, which is something he is very good at. when i told my brother than i didn't like the story - he merely said, you are getting old sis. 

then i watched it again. i liked it slightly. that was over a year ago. recently i gave it another watch and i began to appreciate the technicality of the story. or rather the stylish pseudo science of dreams (dreaming, rather). the cast is fantastic and it goes without saying that the direction is sleek. i read somewhere that nolan spent about 10 years to make this story, it is indeed a labour of love. 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

the singing detective (2003). directed by keith gordon.


i don't normally like musical. though this film isn't strictly one, it has singing, as the main protagonist liked to call it, warbling. this movie happens to be one of my many favourites too. warped inside the mind of dan dark, a small time detective novel writer imagines himself to be the detective of his written invention, investigating a noirish case of a strangled woman left in drain, himself chased after two dubious figures who has a thing for patti page's how much is that doggie in the window?. but then we are presented with the real dan dark, struggling with a bad case psoriasis, close to losing his mind, very much in physical pain, abusing everyone around him, his suspicion of others shoots up exponentially. he is in pain mentally, of past lives unresolved only for him to relieve it again now that he is bed ridden and has all the time in the world to remember every single detail. we don't know if he is at the edge of sanity because of his skin disease, or he is at the mercy of his disease to reflect the burden of (in)sanity that he's been carrying all this while. 

the film is supported by a great cast, i must mention the excellent robert downey jr (who at the time was struggling with addiction of some sort), mel gibson, robin wright penn and carla gugino - in the tradition of great film noir (though this is not strictly one...here we go again) nothing is what it seems to be. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

jane eyre (2011). directed by cary fukunaga.


i watched this movie because i want to see which one of them is micheal fassbender, who has new movies coming out this year touted as a good watch - shame (2011) and a dangerous method (2011). i still find wasikowska too uptight, while i understand her character as an independent woman trying to survive poverty, being single and betrayal of trusts that could turn any woman into an anxious bucket of sarcasm. eyre is witty and smart, but she is poor and by implication, plain. she has many dark episodes in her life but she wants to be realistic about it without being too naive of how scary the world could be or too scared to shy away from experiencing it. i like fukunaga's direction that gives sense of how stratified society of victorian age favours people of money and dismissed people without money like mere insects - like they have no personality, no feelings, no life. and people with money, they get away with bad behaviour, almost as if such a thing is expected if not condoned. 

we, as people, can still be bought with illusions of power and wealth, like those victorians ages ago. 

Monday, November 7, 2011

my son, my son, what have ye done (2009). directed by werner herzog.


this is a curious movie. but i should have known how curious it could be when i see the name werner herzog and it was produced than none other the master of wierdness, famed director david lynch. to be fair, i haven't watch a lot of herzog's work. i decided to watch this movie because i was taken with micheal shannon's acting and wanted to see more of him. when i browsed through his filmography, i was surprised with the number of films he had done and i have watched but nonetheless did not see him. he is the ultimate everyday man, he is there everywhere, blending with the environment, that he is not seen. 

this movie though, has a curious way of telling its story. it started like any regular cop movie, and then it started to go haywire. it was as if the movie (rather, the director) is saying, fuck off to all known cop movie formulas out there. i am sick of people expecting i do what i should do, so let it rip. 

it is a story of suburban hell, of too much fake happiness that homeowners had to paint pink flamingos on their wall. it's weird, when a mother smothers her grown up son with too much affection that she has to give them cookies when he is about to sleep with his girlfriend. shannon's character had probably been unstable for a long time, waiting for the ripe time to explode. it is wierd (again), that his mother, his girlfriend, his neighbours, his theater instructor, his friends - none of them see how mentally fragile he is, perhaps the real danger lies in basking in too much imagined solace that they failed to see a ticking time bomb, living right across the street. 

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

take shelter (2011). directed by jeff nichols.


this has got to be one of the better movies made this year, though not in the same category as drive (2011) which was more about style than theme. there's nothing wrong with that, movies can be whatever they want to be. a well done movie is not about theme or any particular topic - it's about good execution. take shelter (2011) goes beyond style alone - this movie confronts you with such layered story telling and subtleties that it doesn't need special effects to create tension and suspense. great acting from micheal shannon and jessica chastain, they have got to be my current two favourite actors and i see more good movies coming from them. i like the cinematography by adam stone that presents ohio as a quiet rural place, but not as peaceful as it seems to be. something dangerous is lurking underneath the summer wind blowing the trees. 

the story tackles many issues without confusing the audience, it fact it unites the various elements that by the time the movie ends, the story achieves perfect harmony. shannon is a young husband and father afflicted by visions of apocalyptic storms and mysterious people attacking him and his family. he begins to get very anxious about it as he regularly hallucinates and loses the ability to sleep - all this while trying to hold down a job, pay for his home and car mortgages and find treatment for his deaf daughter. you can feel why this guy is seeing things - while he could be genuinely on the verge of schizophrenia, he has many things on his plate that could make anyone unable to sleep. i like shannon's portrayal of the the ordinary man losing his mind - his anxiety is real and heartfelt as he tries to cope with seeing the unreal while trying to be a responsible father and husband, all at the same time. chastain as shannon's wife provides a good pairing of a couple in love and committed to each other, she is ethereal without being bland, strong without being overpowering, supportive without being dependent. she is the reason why shannon feels he has to get through his difficulties despite all odds. he is strong because of her. this story is about many things - financial worries in times of economic uncertainties and downsizing, the constant enviromental threat (which is a real risk in many countries, such as america and indonesia) and what it means to be committed in a marriage. 

it is about facing good times, as well as real or imagined bad times, together.  this film is must watch, alas it is not widely distributed in the US, i doubt it will be shown in other countries. that's a shame, really. i had to walk 2 miles in order to find a cinema in denver that showed the movies, and it was worth every step i took (disclaimer: i don't have a car here because i am attending a conference, and cabs are expensive. it was a good exercise, i was restless and needed to discard excess energy).