Julie & Julia

Warning to everyone: when you finish watching this movie you will want to eat! It is a good idea to have some fruit, crackers, crue d'ete, and such waiting for you complete with a good bottle of full-bodied French Wine. I am having a sip now.
Like the Joy of Cooking, Julia Child's predecessor in the cooking world, this movie contains all the elements of the joy of movie watching. The most crucial ingredient us one of America's treasures, Meryl Streep, who seems to be having the time of her life bringing us an ebullient charicature of Julia Child. Next, we can delight in the magical illusion of cinema. Just as King Kong was 3 feet tall, so Streep is 5'6" - not nearly the alpine exaggeration of a woman's physique that was Child's 6'2". But Streep owns the frame in every scene, relentlessly physical and broad, and her stature is embellished by tricks of perspective and set dimension.
But what about the sauce for this film? Simple! Period piece in Paris. And Streep looks so fabulous in those hats. The side salad is the sumptuous and sexy Stanley Tucci as the perfect, doting, supportive, long-lashed and all knowing Mr. Child. And the bread and butter? Amy Adams, also a remarkable actress, plays Julie, the doting blogger who cooks every single recipe from Child's famous cookbook in one year, and earns fame doing it, providing both the counterpoint for Child's fantastical, imagined, eternally positive character, and also a ground in the real present.
Or is it so real?
Adams plays "straight man" to the more interesting (I think) Julia Child life-story as Julie fancies it. Julie has arguments, embarassments, and frustrations never entertained by her hero, Julia. But even the protrayal of her life is based on her book, based on her blog, and then translated by Nora Ephron into a screenplay. A memoir, a cookbook, a blog, a book, a screenplay, a film - all layers of movie construct tenderly baked together into a lovely escapist souffle! Yum!

Taking Woodstock

This was easily one of my favorite films of 2009. Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the title of this comedy says it all - "Taking ...stock". That is what the main characters do. That is what our generation was doing at the time of Woodstock. That is what the music was about. Everyone was taking stock. They were re-evaluating the ideals of loyalty, love, commerce, beauty, lifestyle, everything! They dreamed a better world.
And, ironically, every step of the way, Woodstock was about making money. It is the secret we don't acknowledge when we think about that era. It is the darkest secret of the Teischberg family we follow through the biggest event of their lives. The stock of Woodstock was not just the music, but the hope of young people in 1969 for a better world. And smart people were able to make a fortune with it.
Kudos to Ang Lee for letting us experience, just for a brief moment, the love and hope that brought us together in that era. I had the privilege of sitting in an audience of older people. They seemed to be 55 - 70 years old. I wondered why they might be interested in this film about youthful lust for life and grand expectations. Then the feet started tapping, the heads nodding, an occasional uh-huh escaped from the movie enthusiasts. I heard a man's voice behind me say: "I was there", and I realized that I was surrounded by this same generation of people I was watching on screen. I wondered what they had really hoped for then, whether they lived their lives with certain ideals in mind, and how their fortunes had panned out. I wondered if they were disappointed. And I was grateful I could be there with them, once again, experiencing Woodstock.
Taking Woodstock is directed by Ang Lee.

Tyson

This movie is a surprise! And so is Mike Tyson. I confess I don't follow boxing, but I acknowledge it is one of the great theaters of human struggle. And the sport makes for some of the greatest movies of all time! High stakes for any film, and this inventive and captivating documentary rises to the challenge.
Mike Tyson, himself, is the best choice to tell his own story. Not only is he coherent; he is downright eloquent. He provides a personal history that is tragic and honest. His hardened, solid exterior belies a personality delicately balanced on a history of brute achievements, leaning into the chasm of disaster and failure that threaten to swallow him up.
The director, James Tobak, has the good sense to let Tyson shape his story in large chunks. The shooting and editing support this. He is often shown sitting in front of a fence or rail detail that is broken into rectangles and squares, and the film is set up almost the same way, broken into pieces of conversation, pictures side by side, vintage footage and interview multilayered as Tyson's voice overlaps himself, engaging us with every word.
Mike Tyson is tragic in the classical sense. His powerful recounting of his decision to give up fighting is mesmerizing. He is thoughtful and introspective, at one point elaborating on the meaning of his tatoos and how they fit into our cultural, iconic understanding of them.
This is a movie you should see, if not to understand Mike Tyson; then to understand that there are plenty of us whose every battle is really about the neighborhood we grew up in, and the kids who broke our glasses, taunted us, and made us run home from school. For Mike Tyson, he has never quite beaten those bullies.
Tyson is a Sony Pictures Classics release by James Tobak.

Observe and Report

Seth Rogan is a funny dude. But I felt that in Observe and Report, he just dared me to laugh. I mean, is it wrong that I just accept this movie as a send up of strange, wonderful, sad, funny, and scary America? Rogan's character, Ronnie, is so familiar to me that if I laugh at him too much, I feel I am just like Ray Liotta's Detective, at the short end of his very short patience, handing out crushing bad news just to make fun of Ronnie as he crumbles. No - I am even more like the detective/voyeur hiding in Liotta's closet gleefully anticipating Ronnie's reaction to the bad news. Upon exiting mid conversation and excusing himself to leave, the detective apologizes: "Sorry - I thought it would be funnier than this." I know the audience members caught themselves thinking the same thing.


That said, I enjoyed the film very much, and there are many funny moments. I like the relationship between Ronnie and his mother, I like his whole team, their flaws, their interests, and their friendships. I like Ronnie and his unwaivering, if insane determination. Every character is solid and unique. I laughed out loud at many careful details, like photos of the security guard twins pinned to the "suspect board" with "Dick color?" on a note beside them. And I love the outrageously drunk Brandi. And the Mall Manager's exhasperation. And the Danny McBride Crack Dealer! And Aziz Ansari's inspired "F-U" sequence as Sadaam!

But the movie also brought up some issues I've been pondering about how people think of themselves. I work on an airport where there exists a paintball business. Grown men bring their children out to learn to shoot each other. Granted it is all in good fun, and the paintballs hurt, but are not fatal. Like Ronnie, they aren't allowed to shoot each other with real guns, and they are pretend infantry, or guerillas, or whatever, just as Ronnie is a pretend cop.

They even have pretend wars that look like real ones. Once they hosted a Vietnam staging, complete with helicopter to drop off the infantry. I could never figure out why anyone would want to relive that, or if they really were. It felt so disrespectful to those veterans who had really experienced Vietnam for people to make a recreation out of it. A pretend real war game with pretend victims just didn't seem right. Just who were they trying to be?

Then one day, parked in our lot, was a protest car. Things, I thought, are now superbly absurd. Across the car's windshield was written "No War". I watched the people standing around the car, and concluded they clearly weren't with the paintball players. Or were they? Was this car protesting war, or protesting pretend war? Or was it a pretend protest? Everyone looked very serious, protesters and paintballers alike. Were they as confused about their roles as I was? I expect they were. But they were also living out some sort of weird contract that they would respect each other's choices in the roles they had taken on.

And here I come back to the beauty of Ronnie in Observe and Report. Despite everything, he does come to accept his role in the pretend-cop universe. Even better, he comes to understand it, and embrace it, as do the people around him. So as we voyeurs emerge from the movie theater where we spied on Ronnie in order to laugh at him, we realize that Ronnie really does know who he is. And because of that, I guess he wins!

Observe and Report is a De Line Pictures/Legendary Pictures production directed by Jody Hill.

Knowing

I went into Knowing nervous about how far into silly-dom it would try to take me. And try it did, but Knowing is also scary and beautiful. It tells an intriguing story with a twist on the ever popular apocalyptic themes so popular since the 40s and 50s.

In it, science professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), poses questions to his class regarding Randomness vs Determinism. He asks if things happen randomly, or if they happen because of an unbroken chain of prior events. The theme comes up over and over.

Later, we see him grappling with this idea again when his son is given a paper pulled out of a time capsule. The paper is covered with numerals which seem random, but which quickly reveal patterns to the professor, successfully listing past catastrophes and seeming to prophesy future ones.

Armed with the knowledge of what the pattern forbodes, the professor leads us through a gleefully cataclysmic thriller, attempting to solve the last few numerical sequences and avoid impending disaster. Two fantastic sequences involve a plane crash and a subway train disaster, together worth, in my opinion, the price of the movie ticket.

I paid the price of the ticket, however, because I have long been interested in how we know things, and I wanted to see what the film had to say. We learn because of patterns, and some of them are red herrings. This is the premise upon which the mystery of the movie develops. I did at one point think the movie should have been called "Believing" rather than Knowing; however I quickly changed my mind. The story was so well told that I remembered...no, I knew what the statistics meant. Famous Temple mathematician John Allen Paulos once showed that a 15,000,000 to 1 chance in a Lottery is zero chance, and suddenly I really understood how that could be. I also understood that when John in the movie shows the unfailing number sequence to match world events with validity and reliability beyond a doubt, that he is absolutely correct. I loved that I could still feel excited about that, despite 2 gruelling years of Stats in University!

Even still, the number sequence is a contrived and nonsensical device used to convince the audience there is "Purpose". In the film, an "earth overseer" of sorts telepathically inserts the number sequence into the minds of the children who record it. These children then become sombre and "all-knowing" - another horror movie standard. This idea of earth caretakers is another an old fantasy/sci-fi favorite, better done by Arthur C Clarke in such works as Childhood's End, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. We also guess early-on that the overseers may be aliens, but they more resemble the "Low Men" of Stephen King novels. Other symbols provide the audience a comfortable shorthand of ideas, including the dilapidated old mansion from horrow films, and rabbits as symbols of fertility, changing of seasons, and rebirth.

But the story is presented with sumptuous camera work, color, and flawless arrangements in the frame. It is stunning to look at. My favorite scene among so many of beauty is near the end when Cage is photographed in the woods on a flat bed of black stones, which, themselves, provide visual connections throughout. I could have stared into that scene for much longer with great satisfaction.

So you must come to your own conclusions about the randomness of events, and what mankind might become in the future. But the movie left me on a very optimistic note. It promises that, at least in this movie world, when our species re-invents itself and begins anew, we will all be vegetarians. How wonderful that new world would be!

Knowing is a Summit Entertainment release directed by Alex Proyas.

Festival Quickies: Herb and Dorothy

What is art?
I usually cringe at that question. Is it "Form and Content"? Every standard by which we define form and content has been challenged by the artistic community. Is it "a product of human creativity"? Possibly - but does that broad definition, then, include every product of human creativity? Is it subjective - does the observer, or the experiencer decide if it's art? Never is this so hotly discusssed than when we experience minimalist, and conceptual art. And yet, New York couple Herb and Dorothy plunged in to the world of contemporary art with confidence, dedication, and joy, managing to amass one of the most important collections in America.

Herb and Dorothy were legends in the NYC art scene, and this documentary tells the story of how a postal worker and a librarian, living in a small, one-bedroom, rent controlled apartment collected over 4000 pieces of art. It is a story of love and passion. It is also the story of a work of art.

Herb and Dorothy weren't absolute novices. They both attended art school and attempted many pieces themselves. But real life took over, and their passion never subsided, so they started collecting other artists.

However, their collecting had a structure. They made rules about how they would decide on a purchase. They had to like the piece, be able to afford it, and it had to fit in their apartment! Indeed their collection ultimately fulfills the first definition of art - it has form and content.

The content of the collection includes pieces from notable artists, and some not so noteable. We get to meet some of the artists and hear stories of how their lives were affected by Herb and Dorothy. In fact, the documentary stands as a work of art on its own; with a well crafted unveiling of their life. But most significantly we come to understand that it is possible for two people to work passionately on a partnership that, itself, evolves into art. It has form and content, it is the product of their creativity, and most of all, it speaks with to the world with great conviction and emotion. Herb and Dorothy's life is the greatest artistic achievement in this film.

Festival Quickies: "Kisses"

Director/Writer Lance Daly knows how to tell a story! Featuring two unknown young actors, "Kisses" takes tween-aged neighbours Kylie and Dylan on a journey to escape trials of a harsh homelife. They hop a barge and sail into downtown Dublin, and their adventure swirls from delirious to terrifying to romantic to melancholy, sometimes all inside a single scene.

My favorite moment happens on the barge where the generous and sympathetic operator pulls out a harmonica and sings his own, gleefully accented rendition of a Bob Dylan song. The boy Dylan, usually withdrawn and morose, stares up at him with an incredulous look, as if it has never occurred to him before that such a person could exist, who lives his life with kindness and exhuberance. Then his gaze shifts to Kylie, maybe realizing that she might be such a creature, too.

Their picaresque tale moves them thereafter from innocence to experience with a twist. Even in their darkest times when they encounter the worst kind of people, they also discover in themselves the best in human nature, and a possibility for real love and self sacrifice.

These young actors are terrific. The photography is as well, combining black & white and color with great effect. The stark, B&W shots of the Dublin low-rental area are beautiful and heartbreaking.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire

I know I have pestered most of you to go and see this movie. But if you haven't yet (and I cannot imagine anyone really resisting my pester for very long), I am going to give you some good reasons right here.

1. Slumdog Millionaire isn't just the best movie of this year; rather, it's one of the best movies of the last 5 or 6 years.

2. The story isn't just about a poor kid answering questions on a game show; it's about Mumbai, it's about survival, it's about love, its about integrity and faith in people, it's about families, and persecution, and abandonment, and tolerance, and care, and our place in the world and ... well everything. And, it's about destiny.

3. The cinematography is stunning, startling, serene! It begs to be seen in the theater 10 feet high. Anthony Dod Mantle makes even the garbage dumps magnificent. The vastness of the multicolored roofs on the labyrinth of slums is just as delicious as the lofty riches of the new towers downtown. The intense pigments of daytime and the wet darkness of nighttime are equally intoxicating. Shame on you if you wait for the DVD.

4. Action scenes. Friends and I had just talked about lazy camera work in too many action movies these days. Jiggling the camera just doesn't do it folks. It isn't creative and it conveys only nausea to me. Then we saw Slumdog Millionaire. During the first moments, the kids are running through the slums pursued by police, and it is poetry! At one point in the chase, the children leap off a roof, and the camera freezes them for one split second in mid-air. Suddenly, the entire audience is jumping with them, suspended for an instant in that giddy change from forward motion to downward, enjoying the delight of flight. Now that's the way to film action!

5. The soundtrack crosses all cultures. It is spicy and danceable and broad, it makes you want to move. It is exhilarating. Once you see the movie you will want to own the soundtrack.

6. The storytelling is rivetting, compelling, non-stop, unapologetically romantic and flies forward at an unable-to-peel-your-eyes-away pace. It unravels in a series of short stories, each illustrating a piece of the main character, Jamal's life, and how it relates to the game show answer he has correctly guessed. The ending is hugely satisfying.

7. The three main characters are each played by three actors at different ages, and every single performance is true.

Seeing this movie is like trying to describe your first skydive to somebody who has never jumped. You just have to experience it for yourself. Then we can talk! But be sure to see it soon - because the Oscars are coming!!

A Christian Colson production directed by Danny Boyle (yes, of Trainspotting) and Loveleen Tandan. Written by Simon beaufoy, based on the prize-winning novel Q & A by Vikus Swarup. Starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Irrfan Khan.

The Unborn

Hey - this wasn't my first choice, but there have been many horror flicks I really enjoyed, so I gave it a chance.
My first reaction after it ended was this:
"What is Gary Oldman doing in this movie?"
And then I said:
"What the HELL is Gary Oldman doing in this movie?"
Okay - I didn't say hell.
Yes, the same Gary Oldman who has played Beethoven, Sid Vicious, Pontius Pilate, Dracula, Lee Harvey Oswald, Rosencrantz, and Drexl Spivy! Just what is he doing in this movie? I am still mad about it.
And furthermore, when, oh when, are we going to see Idris Elba in some really good roles. NOTE to Hollywood! We want more Idris! Get him cast in something good! And, oh yah, please hurry!
Okay...on to the movie musings.
It started off so creepy that I had high expectations. I know when the mysterious tapping starts, or when people start looking in mirrors where things might appear along with their reflection, or when somebody hears a strange noise upstairs, that I am going to be scared ALL NIGHT. And that irrational fear of ordinary events happening in an extraordinary way can be completely quashed in a hurry with screaming, monsters you can see, too much gore, big huge fight scenes, and other obviousness. Where's the creepitude when all that happens? Gone out the window with the barely discernible little child's voice saying something chilling.
So those are my thoughts on this movie. Started well, finished laughable. And please everyone, make a note to yourself. If your best friend in the world, who ignored warnings and came to save you anyway, should be lying on the floor helpless, bleeding from the stomach, and obviously possessed by a demon who makes her waggle her head strangely and make demon sounds; please don't just run away and leave her there, getting on with your mission, and never think about her again. That's just rude.
Postscript: If there is anything worth seeing in this film, besides Idris Elba of course, it is the fantastic work done with aerial shots of Chicago. Spectacular!

Valkyrie

There are an infinite number of stories to tell about WWII. Valkyrie is the story of Colonel Clause von Stauffenberg's plan to assassinate Adolph Hitler, and it is a story worth telling! The film's best trick is to keep you in suspense even though you already know how it turns out!
This is also a story most people do not know. We have been taught that Hitler's forces were terrible people, and I often wondered how they could be united in agreement with his ultimate plan. Turns out they weren't, and that there are people with integrity everywhere. Valkyrie was an operation taken over by a small group of high officers, and their attempt to use it to unseat the Fuhrer near the end of his weakening push for supremacy.
The cast is excellent, the performances are believable and forceful, and the story is well told cinematically: sad, gripping, and hopeful all at the same time. It is a solid movie all round.
Just a small note - the casting is interesting. Eddie Izzard, whom I know mainly from his standup comedy, plays a collaborating communications officer General Erich Fellgiebel. Bill Nighy moves from the latest Pirates of the Caribbean and Hot Fuzz to his very sympathetic role here as Friederich Olbricht, who is against Hitler, but having trouble doing something about him. And Terrence Stamp is a person who actually lived through the Blitz as a child, and not only played idealist Colonel General Ludwig Beck, but acted as consultant to the director for the scenes where von Stauffenberg's family is hiding from the bombs.

Valkyrie is an MGM, U/A Release directed by Bryan Singer, starring Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Terrence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, and Tom Wilkinson

Doubt

I know that, for most of you, the movie Doubt is somewhere near the bottom of your list. Because, understandably, most of us in the age of Saw V can't imagine how a bunch of nuns and priests could be interesting. But I have just seen the movie, and I can tell you that not only is it interesting; it will engage your attention at every moment, it will speak to everyone, and it is downright suspenseful!

My attention never wandered, not even for a second. The movie is tight. There's not a wasted word, scene, or even gesture.

Meryl Streep plays Sister Aloysius. Even in 1964, she's the old school's "Old School" - the fire and brimstone principal eliciting terror in the students and teachers alike. But she proves a keen observer of people, and when Sister James, played by amy Adams, approaches her timidly with her suspicion of an inappropriate relationship between a priest and the school's first black student, Sister Aloysius responds with "So, it's happened."

From there the movie surges forward, balancing on the crest of the controversy, and falling on neither side of the truth. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the accused Father Flynn, and he's perfect. He is eloquent, likeable, sensible, but also loves the power he has over his congregation, and over the nuns. He's maybe a little creepy - or maybe not. Streep gives Sister Aloysius the same kind of contradictory character. She is strict, scary, and unlikeable, but will defend the welfare of her female teachers and especially the children to the death, even, she says, to her own damnation. At times we want to scream at her, we want to hate her, and then...we want to cheer her on. She's maybe right. And maybe not.

No matter where you stand in your own opinion of the truth, your mind is going to be working at it non-stop. In one of my favorite scenes, Sister Aloysius talks to the mother of the boy in question. As the boy's circumstances are revealed, piece by devastating piece, I changed my mind over and over again about what might be best for him. As my mind revolved around each new idea, so Sister Aloysius moves about the boy's mother, and the wind twists them up together. It is pivotal. They circle and dance around each other as their conversation dances around the truth, sometimes backing off, sometimes embracing it. At the end of the scene Sister Aloysius is left alone in the wind, with everything she thought she knew about family love and motherhood unravelling and scattering with the leaves.

This cast is amazing. It was a privilege to see them all together in this powerful piece. I highly recommend it, especially if you doubt you will like it!

Doubt is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play by John Patrick Shanley. It is a Miramax production directed by John Patrick Shanley starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis.

Gran Torino

Gran Torino is the best B movie out there!

Sure it's got some implausible story points, so what! Who doesn't want to see a modern-day older and dirtier Harry? There's a saying that goes "Old age and treachery always overcome youth and skill." Waylon Jennings even sang a song about it. This movie embodies it in the highest form of wish fulfillment for young and old, both.

Clint Eastwood is a fearless actor and director in portraying himself in the harsh light of old age. I don't know if you, reader, remember Eastwood as a young actor, but he was beautiful. I have so much respect for him because through the years he has never flinched when it comes to showing his age onscreen. In Gran Torino he is and plays a man in his late 70's, with a face worthy of a character who has seen a lot of life, a lot of death, and has developed a very narrow opinion about what is valuable in human relationships.

Just a short aside here on the matter of suspension of disbelief. In order to really enjoy this story, there are a few things you have to accept about the movie world. For instance, that asians might be good natured enough to put up with scathing name-calling in their own home; that the Christian mythology, which hasn't served a man for 78 or so years, suddenly might become his guiding force; and most of all, that a gang might consist of only about 6 thugs, whose elimination would presumably end their violence against any opponent.

And if you can accept those things, then this is a well crafted story. Walt Kowalski allows himself to progress from an opinionated, growling (really!) racist, to a man who deeply cares for his asian neighbors. He also goes from a man resigned to guarding his lawn, to a man who ferociously protects the strangers he has come to love.

And he kicks ass.

Gran Torino is a Warner Brothers movie starring and directed by Clint Eastwood.

The Reader

The Reader

This movie will stay with me for a long time. What is doesn't have is heroes. What is does have is questions, the kind we ask ourselves every day. The puzzle we must always solve involves how much of ourselves to reveal. What parts of our inner workings, feelings, and past do we allow out in the open in order to maintain order and integrity. What is integrity, anyway?
The story takes place in WWII Germany, a place and time that was a puzzle for most people living through it. It involves a boy's sexual awakening with an older woman, and the feelings that emerge between them. It is sensual, and beautiful.
A key scene is an ordinary family dinner for the boy, Michael, after his first sexual experience. He has a secret! He looks around at his family as they eat in silence, tickled at the memory of what he has just done, and the wonder that they don't know. It is a great scene which will evoke memories in just about everyone. We each imagine what he is thinking. Maybe: "Here I am eating an ordinary dinner just like every day, and only an hour ago I was naked with a woman." Or: "I am a sexual being and they don't know." Or: "My parents - they have done this, too. It is a secret we have in common." He watches them eat, and keeps it to himself. It is the start of a life of secrets. Later, he keeps it from his friends. Eventually, he keeps it from a court of law, even though he knows a secret about his lover, Hanna, which would change her future for the better.
The story is well told, and every new development in Michaels life begs the question: "How much do I really want other people to know about me?"
David Kross is spellbinding as the young Michael Berg, played with painful reserve as an adult by Ralph Fiennes. Kate Winslet plays Hanna Schmitz throughout her life with a harshness of expression that belies her fear, ignorance, and sensuality. These three performances are incredible and real and Lena Olin and Bruno Ganz add depth to the story and the questions that arise from it.
I'm thinking about it so much I might just have to go see it again!

The Reader, presented by the Weinstein Company, stars Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. Directed by Stephen Daldry. Screenplay by David Hare.