Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

The 1988 movie "Arlington Road" is a scary movie in the best sense:  it makes you think.  Starring Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins, and featuring Joan Cusack and Hope Davis, that makes four amazing actors in one film.  This film was shot before Robbins' best supporting Oscar and Bridges best actor Oscar.  They are in a "little" movie that should have gotten a lot more attention, but the subject matter was too dicey to play widely. 

Bridges is a college Professor Michael Faraday who is struggling with his grief over the death of his FBI agent wife killed by a right wing group.  He's trying to raise his boy alone, and when new neighbors move in who are super friendly and embrace the son into their family, he is initially happy.  But something is fishy:  the couple Oliver and Cheryl Lang (Robbins and Cusack) , seem to get creepier and creepier.  Have Faraday's obsessions with cult groups from the murder of his wife tipped him over into paranoia and madness?  His girlfriend (Davis) tries to calm him down, until one day she sees something that makes her suspicious as well.  It's a roller coaster of revelations that spirals at warp speed into tragedy.  I can't tell you more.  But the stranger down the street motif is the stuff of real life headlines, and our fear is not in question after the Boston marathon bombing and other similar plots.  Who is nice and friendly?  What does that tell us about the people around us?  Nothing. 

It's a fun dip into our own paranoia and conspiracy theories.  But after the film is over, you sit there thinking of how little we know others or ourselves, in a world turned upside down.  This film is way before 9/11, but it's worth watching as a mediation on our states of mind after.  Now we are constantly asked to report suspicious characters at airports, inform on others, and prepare for the worst.  What has our post 9/11 world done to us inside?

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I'm fond of the 1946 movie directed by Orson Welles, starring Welles, Loretta Young and Edward G.  Robinson.  It's gorgeous to look at, with those closeups that black and white does so well.  Robinson is a Nazi hunter looking for Nazi's who slipped through the nets and disappeared in the U.S.  Clues lead him to the perfect college town of Hartford, Connecticut.  As in Hitchock's "Shadow of a Doubt", there is evil lurking behind the charming houses and lovely lawns.  He suspects Charles Rankin, a professor and tinker with clocks, who is repairing the clock tower in the square.  The Nazi Kindler was known to be fascinated with antique clocks, but Robinson really has no proof until someone turns up dead in the woods by the college.  By this time Rankin has married Young, and though she senses something, she refuses to believe her new bridegroom is anything other than what he seems. 

The cast is great, and the movie filled with small quiet moments that are just slightly off.  It's creepy and fun at the same time.  Welles makes a fine villain, and the danger to the wife, her brother, her father, and even her dog pulls us along a tense line of anxiety.  I think of all that talent lost in whatever anxieties Orson Welles fought with over his short career.  He ended up hidden beneath layers of fat, like Marlon Brando.  His few jewels still shine, but what might he have directed and acted in haunts us like the early death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

Poor M. Knight Smalayan.  He went from "The Sixth Sense" adulation to god knows what.  I haven't even seen any of his films since that awful one where everyone's committing suicide because of the trees.  Two of my favorite actors, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel were in it, and I felt embarassed for them.  My husband loves "Lady in the Water", and we own "The Village", though it's a one trick pony, but the only two we can agree on are "Sixth" and "Signs".  I like "Unbreakable", but then Samuel L. Jackson is fascinating to me, but not enough for my husband to watch it.  But I'll always have a place in my heart for "Signs".

First off, the actors are perfect:  Mel Gibson as the pastor and widower, Joaquin Phoenix as his younger brother who was a baseball player, Abigail Breslin as the tiny daughter, David Caulkin as the son and Cherry Jones as the sheriff.  Thinking of what's happened to Gibson is sad, but that role was his apex, and he really could act.  People forget that.  Set in Amish country outside Philadelphia, a family struggling with grief and fear and loss is confronted by an alien invasion.  The corn field is made into a pattern overnight, and there are strange sounds and the dogs bark like something's up.  How this broken family copes and redeems itself in the process is the beautiful plot.  It's scary and hilarious at the same time.  I love seeing Phoenix do comedy like this, and wish he would more often.  He needs to be in a Wes Anderson movie.  The tension and the fondness you feel for these characters is powerful.

There are scenes I will never forget:  Phoenix, Breslin and Caulkin with aluminum foil cones on their heads to keep the aliens from reading their thoughts, the tender care the dad takes with the son when he has an asthma attack.  I love the scene when Jones has to tell Gibson his wife is dying.  Her compassion in the film engenders ours. 

This sci fi owes something to Steven Speilberg's "ET" and "Close Encounters", but it stands on its own firm feet as a film about how we handle adversity, and whether we tear each other apart or rise to the occasion.  It's a loving family film that ironically is not for kids.  Too scary.  He's addressing us parents directly, and on our side, unlike Speilberg, who shows parents as incompetent and blind.  Depending on your mood, you can slide one or the other into the DVD player.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

A hidden jewel in the DVD cabinet is "Powwow Highway", a Sundance winner from 1988,  one of my favorite films.  I'm Indian, so I may be biased, but in our redskinned hearts we love this movie, and Gary Farmer, who stars.  It's contemporary, honest and authentic.  Farmer is the guy in the cult film "Dead Man" by Jim Jarmeush, and his presence on screen is always powerful.  Farmer plays Philbert Bono, and A Martinez is Buddy Red Bow, two guys who couldn't be more unalike.  Bono believes in the old ways, and lives life as a quest.  Red Bow is a modern Indian, who is an activist and cynical about his own history and that of his people.  The two set off for New Mexico in Bono's "pony" to bail out Red Bow's sister, who is in jail.  Graham Greene, Wes Studi and Amanda Wyss bring their star power to the film. 

At 87 minutes, this movie is tight, action packed and emotionally moving, while being funny as well.  There is a learning curve here for Red Bow, that we get to witness, and a sense of what the benefits can be from not turning away from who you are and your history.  Farmer is the moral compass, and yet he's complex and real at the same time.  Red Bow lets go of some of his righteous anger, and gains compassion and a home.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

Well, the Oscars are now gone with the wind.  I enjoyed the show.  I like Ellen Degeneres, and also, let's face it, no one after Bob Hope has really come up to his standard.  I like a woman host.  I like her gentle humor.  And really, I don't care about the host, it's all about the awards, the dresses, wait...about the dresses and then the awards.

I was pleased "12 Years a Slave" won best picture.  I felt sad for "Gravity", but it's difficult to compare the two.  One is filled with narrative and characters galore, the other is silent and rests on the shoulders of one actor.  The actoring wins were unsurprising.  Yet not disappointing.  Leto and Nipongo were perfect choices, although Jennifer Lawrence was a strong contender for supporting actress.  McConnahey was expected, and he did a great job, but I would have prefered Chitwel Edjofor.  Blanchett was amazing, but the movie was awful, and subtly misognistic.  Blanchett owes nothing to Allen; she pulled that character out of the fire by herself.  But I saw tears in Sandra Bullock's eyes, and she carried her film without melodrama and showiness.  I admit I wish she'd won.

I'm thrilled a Black director's picture won artistically it was amazing and daring, yet thrilled Cuaron won as director, because his message was sublime and timeless and he executed it flawlessly.

I feel Spike Jonze deserved original screenplay and Ridley adapted screenplay, and wasn't it great a Black screenwriter actually won?

So, no real complaints, other than who was not nominated, and that's an old story now.

As to fashion, though I am a person dressed in jeans and sweaters and clogs, well, like the rest of the world, we live our princess dreams through this show, so without any qualifications or knowledge I'm happy to pipe up.  I think Sandra Bullock had the best dress, and was elegant and regal.  I loved Jennifer Lawrence's red strapless as well.  Angelina Jolie was the overall beauty of the night, with only Cate Blanchett to rival her.  I do not like dresses slit to the waist in front, and black doesn't work so well on Oscar night.  There.  I've made my stand.  Meryl Streep was less hideous, but she represents what I imagine I would look like if I had the misfortune to be invited.  Julie Roberts can't really dress for this occasion either.  Luckily, it means nothing about their acting ability, except they can't act their way into elegance.  I liked pale pink this year, on Camila Elves and others.  I think the Good Witch costume of Ellen was perhaps the best pink.  Jared Leto was the prettiest of them all, in his white jacket tuxedo.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I'm an admirer of Peter Weir's films and have been since seeing "Picnic at Hanging Rock" decades ago.  "The Last Wave" is unique, and "Witness" and "Master and Commander" are watchable again and again.  But my all time favorite of his is "Fearless", starring Jeff Bridges.  For years I brooded about why it didn't get nominated for best picture, with only Rosie Perez was nominated as supporting actress.  I think Bridges should have won for this role, but he wasn't even nominated.  I finally received some satisfaction when he won for "Crazy Heart", though he should have for "True Grit", "The Contender" and "The Fabulous Baker Boys" or even "Starman".  Maybe he makes acting look too easy, or he can't shake the "Dude" from "The Big Lebowski".  It's always a mystery to me why the rest of the world doesn't agree with my taste, but there you have it.

"Fearless" is about a man who is in a horrific airplane accident, and survives unscathed and leads many others to safety.  If you are about to fly, don't watch this movie.  This crash is believable, capital B.  He is in a strange kind of shock afterwards.  His best friend and architect partner was sitting next to him, but Bridge's guy moved to comfort an unaccompanied boy as the plane descends rapidly.  That saves his life, and his guilt over surviving is also in the mix.  The boy becomes obcessed with Bridge's character, and causes his own son to be jealous.  His wife (Isabella Rosselini) is hurt and later angry because he won't talk about the experience.  He connects with a fellow passenger (Perez) who has lost her toddler son and is practically catatonic with grief.  They become best pals, and his sense of omnipotence comforts her.  There is a scene where he proves to her she could not have kept the child in her arms due to velocity and gravity.  It's one of the greatest scenes about how we are powerless to save those we love that I have ever watched.  Her spouse and his become jealous, but we see that they are in a different, parallel universe after such a trauma.  His partner's wife and his own pressure him to lie to the insurance people and he is coping with the fact that he saw him beheaded.  He cannot speak.  His shock and grief are beyond words. 

Now when I see this film I think of 9/11, but it was made long before.  The power of the film is that it seems to come from a place of deep, profound understanding of what tragedy, loss, grief and slow re-engagement with life look like.  Rafael Yglesias wrote the novel upon which the film is based, and his writing is excellent.  That helps.  But the director, cinematographer and actors bring the story alive.  Bridges is incandescent in his delusion, his heartbreak and courage.  Perez is his match.  She embodies the grieving mother so well that she incarnates the universal experience of losing your child.  Yet this film is not depressing.  It shows us the healing process that allows most of us to embrace life again, perhaps more fiercely, after losing a loved one.  A great film.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

We watched an oldie but goodie last night:  "Roxanne", Steve Martin's retake on Cyrano de Bergerac.  Martin plays Charlie, a fire chief in Oregon with a huge nose.  Daryl Hannah plays a grad student in town for the summer and searching the stars for a comet she found.  Shelley Duvall is Charlie's best bud, who owns most of the town and runs a cafe.  Damon Wayans, Fred Willard and Michael C Pollard are some of the hilarious characters who are volunteer firefighters.  These firefighters make the Marx Brothers look solemn, even the Three Stodges.  There are plenty of laughs and it's a delightful film overall.  However, the gender divide rears it's ugly head every time we see it.

My husband thinks it's fine that Hannah can't act and Martin ends up with her in the end.  Why not?  Every man to his fantasy, and Hannah is gorgeous to look at.  He admits it's a stretch that she plays a astrophysicist, but it don't bother him nohow. 

I see that on Planet Earth Martin should end up with Duvall, who has humor, sensitivity and is rich and pretty damn cute.  They have more in common, and they are both going to stay in this small town, Nelson, until the day they die.  It's paradise.  I can't buy the dream, and even with great effort cannot imagine the life Hannah and Martin would lead.  Also, like all women, I identify with Duvall not Hannah.  I'm not six feet tall with blond hair, blue eyes, pouty lips and a bod that is a man's ideal.  I'm not Duvall either, but she seems real and authentic in her role.  Believable, I think its called.

Now the thing is this, they put Duvall's character in the movie for a reason, since it's not part of "Cyrano", any version of it, so why?  Because they know us gals are going to have Hannah leaving at the end of the summer and then Martin will wake up and discover the true Cinderella.  They are fobbing us off, while pleasing every man who has viewed this film.  It's a cheat.  What really happens is he gets to sleep with her a few times, then she leaves.  She's not going to give up her career for him, I mean, he isn't John Jr.  Get real.

So when we watch together, we are in our own separate little worlds, his an absurdist dream and mine, of course, honed with the pragmatic edge of the real world.  Yes, men are from Mars and women from Venus.  I rest my case.