Finally.
Ron Howard, a director often derided for being a very “commercial” filmmaker (somewhat unfairly, I think), makes the David Frost–Richard Nixon post-Watergate interview into a compelling piece of historical fiction. The film is two-thirds build up and one third interview, but the characters are fully realised and the film avoids pigeonholing Nixon as a buffoon and Frost as a nimble Brit. Both are has-beens-to-be and in equal need of something to make a lasting impression on history, and the interview is it, as it culminates in one of the most fascinating moments in American history. Even more fascinating is an apparently fictitious phone call between Nixon and Frost shortly before the interview, a conversation that deftly reveals a lot about both speaker and listener.
“Slumdog Millionaire” is Danny Boyle’s Oscar little-engine-that-could, an Indian fantasy originally intended for DVD that ended up making millions and winning numerous top awards. The film is well made if over edited; the film seems a bit too audience friendly and formulaic – and if anyone says it’s not formulaic but “strikingly original”, they’re dead wrong. It’s a good movie with potentially star making turns for Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, but hardly worthy of the heap of acclaim it’s gathered.
Watching the first act of David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, a more meditative spin on “Forrest Gump”, I thought I was watching one of the most meticulously crafted, well structured and simply magical films in recent memory. That impression lasted more or less in tact until the third act, which takes the story of Benjamin Button and does very little that’s impressive with it. Kudos to the special effects and make-up teams, as well as to the luminous females of the film: Cate Blanchett as Button’s primary love interest; Tilda Swinton, who has one of the film’s best scenes; and Taraji P. Henson as Button’s guardian. Of the three nominees mentioned in this entry, this is the film that most deserved the Best Picture Oscar.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Short cuts
I finally managed to make time for Von Trier’s “The Idiots”, the middle entry in his so-called “Golden Hearts Trilogy”. It’s as unsettling as one can expect, being a film about a group of friends (colleagues?) who spend their time “spazzing” – pretending to be mentally handicapped – as a way to, in the words of Jack Black, “stick it to the man”. Notorious for its orgy scene, “The Idiots” lacks the visual grace that the sexually compelling “Breaking the Waves” had, instead opting for breaking the cinematic illusion regularly and powerfully. And yet, none of the distancing techniques manage to distance the viewer too much; the final scene arrives with the force of a blow to the psyche as Von Trier simultaneously shows us crippling grief and the manipulative power of lies at 24 fps. All in all, the “GHT” marks a deserved watershed in Danish cinema and the Dogme movement itself.
“The Girl on the Bridge”, filmed in gorgeous black-and-white, casts Vanessa Paradis as a suicidal young woman “saved” from death by a circus knife act performer, played by French star Daniel Auteuil. The film is a simple love story unusually told; it is worth a watch for romantics who want a little edge to their dramas, though it’s far from unforgettable.
Chen Kaige’s “Together” is an unashamedly sentimental film about a peasant father who will do anything to realise his son’s musical talent. The film treads familiar territory and one expects most of what happens to happen (family feuding, family secrets revealed, the slightly bonkers music teacher with a nemesis) but Chen handles the material well enough that the final payoff will bring a quiver to just about anyone’s eye.
Acting powerhouses Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney lend their talents to the dark family comedy “The Savages” as siblings who need to figure out not only what to do about their increasingly demented father, but with their own lives. The films makes for rather heavy viewing, presenting the viewer with images of smoke trailing against a grey sky and gloomy conversations about life’s purpose. That said, the acting is superlative, the writing observant and dry, and the cinematography crystal clear and to the point.
“The Girl on the Bridge”, filmed in gorgeous black-and-white, casts Vanessa Paradis as a suicidal young woman “saved” from death by a circus knife act performer, played by French star Daniel Auteuil. The film is a simple love story unusually told; it is worth a watch for romantics who want a little edge to their dramas, though it’s far from unforgettable.
Chen Kaige’s “Together” is an unashamedly sentimental film about a peasant father who will do anything to realise his son’s musical talent. The film treads familiar territory and one expects most of what happens to happen (family feuding, family secrets revealed, the slightly bonkers music teacher with a nemesis) but Chen handles the material well enough that the final payoff will bring a quiver to just about anyone’s eye.
Acting powerhouses Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney lend their talents to the dark family comedy “The Savages” as siblings who need to figure out not only what to do about their increasingly demented father, but with their own lives. The films makes for rather heavy viewing, presenting the viewer with images of smoke trailing against a grey sky and gloomy conversations about life’s purpose. That said, the acting is superlative, the writing observant and dry, and the cinematography crystal clear and to the point.
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