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.