30th Five Films, 2007
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Quietly on By (Frank V. Ross) at the IFC Center. Ross directs Anthony Baker in another awesomely physical role. Baker plays Aaron, a twentysomething guy who lives at home, working hard and saving up money until there is a nervous breakdown (the point at which the film begins) and he just starts sitting around the house. Aaron is that guy who you hang out with but nobody really likes. He never has anything else to do, and as such always overstays his welcome, pushing people to the limit, even though he can't always see that's what he's doing. I was squirming in my seat much of the time, as it can be grueling to watch a mostly harmless guy constantly condescended to, and filled with so much self-loathing.
Ross, who's in Joe Swanberg's Young American Bodies, says he'll be starring in his next film, though he didn't reveal any details beyond that.
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Frownland (Ronald Bronstein) at the IFC Center. This would have made for an awesome double bill with Quietly on By. Perhaps that's what they were thinking when programming these on consecutive nights. Not part of The New Talkies, this was nonetheless another intimate, low budget film about awkward young people. I found the characters to be a bit less sympathetic than in Ross's film, and thus it was easier to watch them get belittled. The humor all has a dark, mean edge to it, and no one wins.
Bronstein said this was based on the negative experiences and feelings he remembers from being new to the city and very lonely. Keith (Dore Mann) is obviously something of a caricature, but his misadventures still resonate. He lives somewhere around Greenwich Village or maybe the Lower East Side and sells coupons door to door in Staten Island. He has a ferocious stuttering problem and minimal social skills. His roommate is a complete and total jerk. The film ends on a sour note, but no more sour than the constant tenor of the rest of the picture.
Unlike most screenings I attend, this felt like THE PLACE TO BE. Even though the theater was small, it was jammed, with a number of the mumblecore directors and some others standing in the aisles. There is no DVD available and no future screenings planned. Hopefully that'll change.
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I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (Jeff Garlin) at the IFC Center for a Stylus review.
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M (Fritz Lang) at Museum of the Moving Image. Like a lot of early sound films, I think, Lang tries to use dialogue and physical acting separately, which makes the movie longer and slower than it ought to be. For example, if a character hears a piece of bad news, she'll contort her face and maybe gesture to show that she's in pain, then she'll say a line or two about it, and maybe finish off with another physical action, whereas eventually directors would get the idea that acting could probably be a lot more economical and communication to the audience speeded up. I'm sure part of this is the acting tradition in expressionism, but it just doesn't feel effective.
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Fury (Fritz Lang) at Museum of the Moving Image. I prefer Lang working in the classic Hollywood style, where his taste for dark themes and devious schemes matches nicely with swifter pacing rather than getting dragged down by lack of momentum, at least in my opinion. I'm pretty sure this is the first Spencer Tracy movie I've seen, hard as that is to believe.
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Quietly on By (Frank V. Ross) at the IFC Center. Ross directs Anthony Baker in another awesomely physical role. Baker plays Aaron, a twentysomething guy who lives at home, working hard and saving up money until there is a nervous breakdown (the point at which the film begins) and he just starts sitting around the house. Aaron is that guy who you hang out with but nobody really likes. He never has anything else to do, and as such always overstays his welcome, pushing people to the limit, even though he can't always see that's what he's doing. I was squirming in my seat much of the time, as it can be grueling to watch a mostly harmless guy constantly condescended to, and filled with so much self-loathing.
Ross, who's in Joe Swanberg's Young American Bodies, says he'll be starring in his next film, though he didn't reveal any details beyond that.
+ +
+ +
Frownland (Ronald Bronstein) at the IFC Center. This would have made for an awesome double bill with Quietly on By. Perhaps that's what they were thinking when programming these on consecutive nights. Not part of The New Talkies, this was nonetheless another intimate, low budget film about awkward young people. I found the characters to be a bit less sympathetic than in Ross's film, and thus it was easier to watch them get belittled. The humor all has a dark, mean edge to it, and no one wins.
Bronstein said this was based on the negative experiences and feelings he remembers from being new to the city and very lonely. Keith (Dore Mann) is obviously something of a caricature, but his misadventures still resonate. He lives somewhere around Greenwich Village or maybe the Lower East Side and sells coupons door to door in Staten Island. He has a ferocious stuttering problem and minimal social skills. His roommate is a complete and total jerk. The film ends on a sour note, but no more sour than the constant tenor of the rest of the picture.
Unlike most screenings I attend, this felt like THE PLACE TO BE. Even though the theater was small, it was jammed, with a number of the mumblecore directors and some others standing in the aisles. There is no DVD available and no future screenings planned. Hopefully that'll change.
+ +
+
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (Jeff Garlin) at the IFC Center for a Stylus review.
+
+ +
M (Fritz Lang) at Museum of the Moving Image. Like a lot of early sound films, I think, Lang tries to use dialogue and physical acting separately, which makes the movie longer and slower than it ought to be. For example, if a character hears a piece of bad news, she'll contort her face and maybe gesture to show that she's in pain, then she'll say a line or two about it, and maybe finish off with another physical action, whereas eventually directors would get the idea that acting could probably be a lot more economical and communication to the audience speeded up. I'm sure part of this is the acting tradition in expressionism, but it just doesn't feel effective.
+ +
+ +
Fury (Fritz Lang) at Museum of the Moving Image. I prefer Lang working in the classic Hollywood style, where his taste for dark themes and devious schemes matches nicely with swifter pacing rather than getting dragged down by lack of momentum, at least in my opinion. I'm pretty sure this is the first Spencer Tracy movie I've seen, hard as that is to believe.
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Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007
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