Good Bye, Lenin (Wolfgang Becker) at MoMA. I guess I'm not really all that into stories of people deluding each other through hard times until somehow everything irrationally turns out okay, even though it shouldn't. That said, I'm sure this could have been an interesting movie, but everything was just so overstated. For example, why on earth did someone decide that it would be much cooler if all the cars arrived at their parking spots in fast motion? How does this add anything to the overall experience, particularly since the characters rarely leap out of the cars in a state of emergency anyway? And why were sounds from flashbacks mixed so loudly? And why does the main dude's girlfriend not just leave him? Why is a full third of the movie taken up by asinine voiceovers telling the recent history of Berlin/Germany via weirdly condescending rhetorical structures? Is this really just an overlong, bad children's television show with an out-of-control budget? Why does every single character have the same exact dull reaction to absolutely everything that happens, ie blink, act confused for about five seconds, then play along? If you remove the conceit about the Berlin Wall and the kitschy East German state-mandated products, would anyone at all have sat through this movie? Is there anywhere in this film an actual moment of beauty or truth or anything more memorable than minor visual gags?
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The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson) with Amy at BAM. It seems by now that everybody and their brother has discovered and pointed out the usual "flaws" in Wes Anderson's movies. They're too stylized, they're inwardly focused on camaraderie, or lack thereof, between white males, probably related. They're soundtracked largely, sometimes entirely, by British rock music from the '60's. If you can't deal with one or more of these things, it seems at this point like you might as well just give up.
However, it seems to me that this is still rich territory and that Anderson could probably continue to mine it for as long as he likes. What I'm more interested in are the differences or at least backgrounded by all the obvious repetition. Since
Rushmore, the films have become more convoluted, expanding beyond or reaching for something besides cleverly plotted storylines and protagonists lunging after their goals. If you continue to assess Anderson's work simply by noting the absence of things he excelled at early in his career, you either are now or probably will in the future be missing out.
Certain scenes show that he hasn't lost his flair for sustaining our interest in a creative but traditional fashion, like the montage of distant people set in separate walled rooms on a train-like platform, or the sequence comparing the brothers' two different funeral experiences. As much as Anderson seems to mock the brothers on their ridiculous "spiritual quest," he may be slyly referring to his awkward exploration of spiritual themes, mood and beauty apart outside of the course of the narrative on its way from plot point to plot point. Not every spiritually meaningful filmmaker has been as strict ascetic as Bresson or Bresson, and I hope Anderson won't discard his sense of fashion or visual flair just in an attempt to leap from one pigeonhole to another.
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Zodiac (David Fincher) at home on DVD. This is such a great male ensemble cast, and a surprising one for a cop/killer movie. Anthony Edwards was really great, and I'm surprised to see that he's almost never works these days, but then I suppose anybody would enjoy a break after eight years on
ER. It's shocking how unassuming these guys are (Jake Gyllenhaal's drink of choice is an Aquavelva; Mark Ruffalo's detective has an unabashed affinity for animal crackers), when you generally expect a Russell Crowe or a Bruce Willis or someone like that to be hunting down a serial killer. Even the prime suspect just seems like a quiet, boring guy. The sound struck me in a similar way; it's not in your face or ear-bleedingly loud, but there are a lot of great, subtle touches, like the acoustics of the crime scene at the corner of Washington & Cherry, and the soundtrack blends in really nicely.
In fact, it's such a technically accomplished film all around that I can't help but be a little disappointed that the premise failed to grab me. Or perhaps it's not the premise, but that we seem to be circling around the center of something but never quite closing in on just what ought to be so fascinating about this story. Sort of like how Chloe Sevigny floats in and out but never really quite registers emotionally. Still, after the super-macho, aggressive nihilism/neo-fascism of
Fight Club, I feel a lot better about Fincher as a director, or maybe as a person.
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Fred Claus (David Dobkin) at Kips Bay. I felt like there were seeds of a really good idea here. Except maybe for Kevin Spacey's character, who felt like an unnecessary addition to a pretty full dramatis personae--I count ten different relationships that are developed, not counting Ludacris' elf DJ. Willie the elf is well-written though minor, as are most of the characters.
There is one scene, however, that probably deserves some sort of recognition. Vince Vaughn's Fred Claus attends a meeting of the local chapter of Brothers Anonymous, where Frank Stallone (brother of Sylvester), Roger Clinton (brother of Bill), and Stephen Baldwin rant and rave about their brothers before Fred tries to complain about how awful it is being the brother of Santa Claus. I suspect there are probably a few other ridiculous celebrity brothers in the circle, but they aren't named directly.
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Walk Hard (Jake Kasdan) at 64th & 2nd. I got a pass for this preview screening just outside
Fred Claus. It may have been the first digital projection I can remember attending, and it was really bright and clear. I'd like to see something a little less intentionally synthetic-looking done that way, since I felt the lack of flicker kind of enhanced the super-obvious aging makeup and CG crowds. I was actually looking forward to the scrolling end credits, since that's traditionally the one part of the film that's most difficult to read because of flickering and jittering, but they shut off the projector before the main end titles were complete.
The crowd was really ready to laugh, but there are definitely moments here and there where certain gags fall flat or wear out their welcome. Then again, the entire concept is built around a style of filmmaking that tries too hard, so it's difficult to separate the unintentionally less-than-hilarious from the intentionally less-than-hilarious. Frankie Muniz's Buddy Holly reminded that he might actually seem more like Casey Affleck's brother than Ben does.
There are, perhaps, too few non-referential jokes, since maybe a little periodic relief would liven up the rest of the parody.
Also, I was noticing that Jenna Fischer has noticeably thinner lips than most actresses, but that's neither here nor there since she still looks really good.
Possibly the best quote in the entire movie, from near the end where Tim Meadows' aging drummer is describing the priapic effects of his little blue pills to similarly elderly Dewey Cox: "If your boner lasts for more than four hours, call more ladies!"
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Labels: Film, Lists
