My husband convinced me to go see the new Walt Disney film with him yesterday. It helped that my granddaughter gave it two thumbs up. I knew to get her approval it had to have beautiful princesses and romance, and some cuddly character. She is eight. She will go to see about any hideous movie, but those enhancements make her enthusiastic. "Brave" is not her cup of tea. She prefers the true love in "Tangled" or even "How to Train Your Dragon". "Frozen" is back to the basics in some obvious ways. There are two princesses and therefore two possible romances, a cuddly reindeer, bouncing trolls, a snowman and lots of beautiful ball dresses, a la "Beauty and the Beast". The animation is spectacular, with all the ice and snow and transparency. Loosely based on "The Snow Queen", there is drama, humor and of course the parents die. Classic fairytale stuff. But the writer, Jennifer Lee, is shrewd. There are better messages than usual: don't rush into a relationship with someone who is virtually a stranger, learning about love requires some mistakes and missteps, and true love can be between sisters. These twists help make the movie more acceptable to a mother's modern sensibilities.
The songs are gorgeous in a popsong, Taylor Swift kind of way, sung with passion by Kirsten Bell and Idina Mendel. And embedded in those songs is a theme of loving yourself and finding your own way in a sometimes confusing world.
More radical still: the prince is a bad guy. Whoa! News flash. And the finale kiss that breaks the spell is between sisters. For a child, these changes may go unnoticed, as the lowly iceman ends up with the younger princess, Anna. For them the romance is intact. But the beautiful queen, Elsa, is alone at the end, and happy about learning to control her emotions and keep her heart and kingdom warmed up. She still has her power, the icy one, but she is balanced and comfortable with both sides of herself. Very Jungian and mature.
This film is probably outdoing itself with merchandise sales, and the Disney team is congratulating itself on it's messages and feminist sensibility. It's cynical, but the sheer beauty of the film leaves me enchanted while being annoyed by the obvious manipulation. And the reindeer Sven melted my heart. Not Olaf, the snowman or the trolls, but they had me at the reindeer.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit
My friend and I saw "Nebraska" yesterday afternoon. As I began watching, to be honest, my heart sank a bit at the black and white, then I was afraid, like "August: Osage County" it was going to try to take it's humor from profane language instead of earning it. But as I settled in, the tone of gentle satire won me over. I was afraid Payne was ridiculing the Midwest, where most of my family still alive resides, but instead, he is showing you how much our judgments about rural and farming and small towns make us miss the dignity and honor of making the best bed to lie in you can in the circumstances. This family, at first appearing as disfunctional and repellant as the family in "August", reveals itself to be passionate and complicated, tender and kind, behind the veneer of "not caring" or insensitivity. Bruce Dern is lovely as the confused old man who believes his Publisher's Clearinghouse announcement means he's won a million dollars. Will Forte is sweet and complicated as his son. June Squibb is good as the wife who seems to be a monster, but is really at the end of her rope from love not hate. And Stacy Keach does a nice turn as a fellow trying to take a piece of the pie.
By the end of the film, I felt it honored what seems on the surface to be simple lives, but turns out to be as full of longing and regret as any novel by Tolstoy. The scene with Dern's old girlfriend in the post office is touching, and reveals the suffering underneath all the watching of TV and stoicism. And Forte's slow dawning of the complexity of his parents' lives and their imminent deaths is so well acted and everymanish that we take this journey with him, his discovery being that his parents loved and lost, were desperate, had unfulfilled longings and ultimately, that they loved him and his brother as best they could. It's a lovely film, and true hearted one, and that black and white landscape grew on me, metaphorically, as the deceptive veil to the truth that we all are the same underneath, big city or small town, driving a hybrid or a farm truck.
By the end of the film, I felt it honored what seems on the surface to be simple lives, but turns out to be as full of longing and regret as any novel by Tolstoy. The scene with Dern's old girlfriend in the post office is touching, and reveals the suffering underneath all the watching of TV and stoicism. And Forte's slow dawning of the complexity of his parents' lives and their imminent deaths is so well acted and everymanish that we take this journey with him, his discovery being that his parents loved and lost, were desperate, had unfulfilled longings and ultimately, that they loved him and his brother as best they could. It's a lovely film, and true hearted one, and that black and white landscape grew on me, metaphorically, as the deceptive veil to the truth that we all are the same underneath, big city or small town, driving a hybrid or a farm truck.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit
Wes Anderson is an always interesting filmmaker. I get irritated with his melancolic rich kids, but there are gems in every movie he makes, and his design and color are superb. I'm especially fond of "Djarleeng Limited", with Adrian Brody, Jason Swartzman and Owen Wilson playing three brothers who are estranged and lost because of their father's death and mother's (Anjelica Huston) taking off for a nunnery on an Indian mountaintop. They take the train on a "spiritual journey" cooked up by Wilson, and have adventures and mishaps that somehow do bring them together, after fighting and squabbles. The color is gorgeous, since India was made for Anderson's palette, and one of India's greatest stars (Irrfan Khan) turns up as a father who experiences a tragedy.
Wilson is perfect as the anxiety ridden oldest brother who runs off at the mouth and wants to organize his brother's lives. Brody is a man about to become a father who jumps at the chance to run away from the responsibility. Swartzman is the baby brother who has a sometime girlfriend (Natalie Portman) who likes to be cruel and disappear. He's looking to be saved from her. Their grief at that father's death and the subsequent dread expectation that it's time for them to grow up is touching and hilarious. Huston is great as the mother who feels she's done all she can to save them and is now saving the world instead a la Mother Teresa. Her mannerisms remind us that her oldest son is struggling to be her, but can't quite get the hang of it.
My favorite subplot is when the three are off the train, walking along a river, and see three boys slip off a raft and go underwater. They each aim for one child, and two are saved, but Brody cannot save his child. He is devastated, and they go to the village with the child in his arms, and stay through the grieving and the funeral. The father, Khan, is the gentle compassionate father these boy-men need, and his kindness to them goes a long way to healing them. While in the village, Brody is given a baby boy to hold, and you can see he is now a man, accepting his own fatherhood and the deep grief and joy it will bring.
There are lots of great comic bits, and Anderson manages to give us a real feel for India and the crazy/wonderful world it embodies. These brothers learn to embrace life again, give it another try, because India is so teeming with life and color and feeling. Ironically, India does become the spiritual journey they are seeking, despite themselves. They let go and float in the river of India.
Wilson is perfect as the anxiety ridden oldest brother who runs off at the mouth and wants to organize his brother's lives. Brody is a man about to become a father who jumps at the chance to run away from the responsibility. Swartzman is the baby brother who has a sometime girlfriend (Natalie Portman) who likes to be cruel and disappear. He's looking to be saved from her. Their grief at that father's death and the subsequent dread expectation that it's time for them to grow up is touching and hilarious. Huston is great as the mother who feels she's done all she can to save them and is now saving the world instead a la Mother Teresa. Her mannerisms remind us that her oldest son is struggling to be her, but can't quite get the hang of it.
My favorite subplot is when the three are off the train, walking along a river, and see three boys slip off a raft and go underwater. They each aim for one child, and two are saved, but Brody cannot save his child. He is devastated, and they go to the village with the child in his arms, and stay through the grieving and the funeral. The father, Khan, is the gentle compassionate father these boy-men need, and his kindness to them goes a long way to healing them. While in the village, Brody is given a baby boy to hold, and you can see he is now a man, accepting his own fatherhood and the deep grief and joy it will bring.
There are lots of great comic bits, and Anderson manages to give us a real feel for India and the crazy/wonderful world it embodies. These brothers learn to embrace life again, give it another try, because India is so teeming with life and color and feeling. Ironically, India does become the spiritual journey they are seeking, despite themselves. They let go and float in the river of India.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit
My husband and I were excited to go see "Monuments Men" yesterday, and disappointed with the film afterward. I have a good guess as to why it was not released in time for Oscar consideration and it's not what George Clooney says, post-production timelines. This film is embarassing, not because it's so bad in the general ocean of movies, but because we expect so much more with this cast and the fascination of the story. Everybody looks bad in this, except maybe for John Goodman and Jean Dujardin. The cast is made to look bad by sloppy cliched writing, sad to say.
I give Clooney and Grant Heslov (screenwriters, producers and Clooney directs) full credit for picking the material and for the fact that the story is tricky to tell on screen. The documentary "Rape of Europa" succeeded brilliantly in telling of the looting of art by Nazis during World War II, and had the Nazis' own extensive photos and documentation to help. The group of men who were tasked to save as much of the art as possible were not highlighted in that film, and it's inherently a great story. But how to tell it? They decided to focus on seven of the most prominent men, and unfortunately, that leaves us getting thumbnail sketches of each, with little or no backstory. This causes cliches to rise from their ugly corners and swallow up the characters. Most of the cast looks dreadfully uncomfortable with their scenes, knowing they are embarassing.
Cate Blancett has a scene we've seeen time and again, where she and another Parisian spit in the champagne glass of the nasty Nazi before it's filled. Matt Damon stands on a mine while his friends stand by him and refuse to leave. Awful! Bob Balaban and Bill Murray share a cigarette with a scared boy soldier. But the scene in which John Goodman and Jean Dujardin stop in the countryside and Dujardin gets out of the jeep to go up to a horse is straight out of "Michael Clayton". Couldn't they think of any other cliche for the beauty of nature in the midst of war? It even had a tinge of "Warhorse".
If this were a film for the history channel or HBO it might be respectable. But it's just retro filming not unlike what we see in some films made during World War II. Message films, and in case we are too stupid to get the message: Clooney's character lectures at the beginning and end of the film to made sure we get it. There is no trust in the audience, and no real understanding of why that is bad policy for a film meant for educated, older filmgoers. And by the way, a lot of the cast is looking mighty long in the tooth for their roles, including Clooney, Murray, Balaban, and Goodman. And if you didn't notice, the scriptwriters kill off the Brit and Frenchman, so only us Americans are left standing. Maybe that is factually true, but it's a bad choice.
I'd didn't like "The Ides of March", with it's similar cliches and predictable plot, preaching to the converted about politics and it's dirty side. Maybe Heslov and Clooney should take more time with their material, pop the balloon of their swollen heads, and work harder and longer on their films, even if it ups the cost. We're a long way from "Good Night and Good Luck" now, and a film is not a bully pulpit. Beware the ides of vanity.
I give Clooney and Grant Heslov (screenwriters, producers and Clooney directs) full credit for picking the material and for the fact that the story is tricky to tell on screen. The documentary "Rape of Europa" succeeded brilliantly in telling of the looting of art by Nazis during World War II, and had the Nazis' own extensive photos and documentation to help. The group of men who were tasked to save as much of the art as possible were not highlighted in that film, and it's inherently a great story. But how to tell it? They decided to focus on seven of the most prominent men, and unfortunately, that leaves us getting thumbnail sketches of each, with little or no backstory. This causes cliches to rise from their ugly corners and swallow up the characters. Most of the cast looks dreadfully uncomfortable with their scenes, knowing they are embarassing.
Cate Blancett has a scene we've seeen time and again, where she and another Parisian spit in the champagne glass of the nasty Nazi before it's filled. Matt Damon stands on a mine while his friends stand by him and refuse to leave. Awful! Bob Balaban and Bill Murray share a cigarette with a scared boy soldier. But the scene in which John Goodman and Jean Dujardin stop in the countryside and Dujardin gets out of the jeep to go up to a horse is straight out of "Michael Clayton". Couldn't they think of any other cliche for the beauty of nature in the midst of war? It even had a tinge of "Warhorse".
If this were a film for the history channel or HBO it might be respectable. But it's just retro filming not unlike what we see in some films made during World War II. Message films, and in case we are too stupid to get the message: Clooney's character lectures at the beginning and end of the film to made sure we get it. There is no trust in the audience, and no real understanding of why that is bad policy for a film meant for educated, older filmgoers. And by the way, a lot of the cast is looking mighty long in the tooth for their roles, including Clooney, Murray, Balaban, and Goodman. And if you didn't notice, the scriptwriters kill off the Brit and Frenchman, so only us Americans are left standing. Maybe that is factually true, but it's a bad choice.
I'd didn't like "The Ides of March", with it's similar cliches and predictable plot, preaching to the converted about politics and it's dirty side. Maybe Heslov and Clooney should take more time with their material, pop the balloon of their swollen heads, and work harder and longer on their films, even if it ups the cost. We're a long way from "Good Night and Good Luck" now, and a film is not a bully pulpit. Beware the ides of vanity.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit
Last night we saw the Peter Weir film "Green Card", with Andie MacDowell and Gerard Depardieu. The have pretty good chemistry, and it's light fare, unlike most of his films. MacDowell was a limited actress, but has an interesting face and in certain roles, is right. This is one of those roles. She's uptight, needs a little loosening to enjoy life, like Jean Simmons in "Guys and Dolls". She doesn't want to take a risk, but once she does, in marrying Depardieu's character George, so she can appear married to get the coop apartment with the greenhouse that she covets, her whole world turns upside down. Sarah Brown went to Havana, drank rum milkshakes and discovered love. Bronte, MacDowell's character, has to be instantly intimate with George, in order to answer questions correctly for the Immigration people, when their marriage is deemed suspicious. Is George her type? Definitely not. But he warms her up, understands and listens, and even helps her persuade a society matron to donate her trees to a project of Bronte's.
There are some great scenes, including taking pictures on the roof to construct a past together for the authorities, their touching descriptions of each other for the immigration officiers, and the best scene is at the mansion of the society lady, where Bronte, who fears George is not a composer, discovers he can play the piano in an extremely funny dissonant piece, and then on the spot plays a melody and recites a poem spontaneously for the purpose of getting her the trees she so desperately wants for her gardens for the poor.
The use of Manhattan is lively and true. There is a sense of all nations converging, highlighted by African drumming on the street and a terrific soundtrack. This film is a trifle, but fun to see. It's a love letter to New York, and better than anything Woody Allen ever did. And we get to see Depardieu before he turned into a blimp, like Orson Welles and Marlon Brando. They were gorgeous when they were young.
There are some great scenes, including taking pictures on the roof to construct a past together for the authorities, their touching descriptions of each other for the immigration officiers, and the best scene is at the mansion of the society lady, where Bronte, who fears George is not a composer, discovers he can play the piano in an extremely funny dissonant piece, and then on the spot plays a melody and recites a poem spontaneously for the purpose of getting her the trees she so desperately wants for her gardens for the poor.
The use of Manhattan is lively and true. There is a sense of all nations converging, highlighted by African drumming on the street and a terrific soundtrack. This film is a trifle, but fun to see. It's a love letter to New York, and better than anything Woody Allen ever did. And we get to see Depardieu before he turned into a blimp, like Orson Welles and Marlon Brando. They were gorgeous when they were young.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit
I do love musicals, and occasionally watch something like "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" or "Calamity Jane". They are silly, but if the songs are good, if the chemistry is right, well, I can forgive a lot. I usually say my favorite musical is "Les Miserables", but that means seeing it in the theater. I'm not a fan of the recent film. And I have a big soft spot for "Annie Get Your Gun", because of the delightful songs and spectacle and feminist edge to the story. But last night we saw "Guys and Dolls" again. You know how I know how much I like it? Something was defective with the DVD we'd had for years, and I actually ordered another. I really wanted to have it at my fingertips.
The story is sillier than silly, but it somehow works. Some Times Square petty gamblers are looking for a spot for a craps game, and Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) is the facilitator, but can't get a space because the police are determined to jail them all. He can get a garage if he has a thousand bucks, so he bets Skye Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can't take a Salvation Army prude (Jean Simmons) to Havana for the night. The subplot is the threat of Nathan and Adelaide breaking up because she's given him an ultimatum after a fourteen years engagement to marry her or it's over. The chemistry is so great between Brando and Simmons, and because Frank Sinatra is perfectly cast and Vivienne Blaine is adorable, and mostly because of Stubby Kaye, as Nicely Nicely the film is sheer fun. The dance choreography is goofy, the costumes bright and colorful and a handful of the songs are super terrific. At the beginning and end, Kaye leads two rousing, clever songs, and his tenor, in contrast to his chubby form (think opera) brings comic delight to the viewer. "Sit Down You're Rockin the Boat" is a finale that leaves me humming and singing for hours after.
Brando actually insisted on singing himself, and he does fine, and Simmons is as well. Their attraction is believable and the scenes in Havana funny and charming. You really believe they fall for each other that night. That they are both gorgeous helps. Their sudden commitment contrasts with the interminable engagement of Nathan Detroit and his doll. Both ways happen in life, and nobody has to change their stripes to get married. Sarah Brown is in her Salvation Army uniform when she marries, and Adelaide is in full frou-frou. There is a nice little message about not trying to change the other person, and the movie is long over before you realize Nathan and Skye have no legitimate way of earning a living. Oh, well. You can't have everything.
The story is sillier than silly, but it somehow works. Some Times Square petty gamblers are looking for a spot for a craps game, and Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) is the facilitator, but can't get a space because the police are determined to jail them all. He can get a garage if he has a thousand bucks, so he bets Skye Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can't take a Salvation Army prude (Jean Simmons) to Havana for the night. The subplot is the threat of Nathan and Adelaide breaking up because she's given him an ultimatum after a fourteen years engagement to marry her or it's over. The chemistry is so great between Brando and Simmons, and because Frank Sinatra is perfectly cast and Vivienne Blaine is adorable, and mostly because of Stubby Kaye, as Nicely Nicely the film is sheer fun. The dance choreography is goofy, the costumes bright and colorful and a handful of the songs are super terrific. At the beginning and end, Kaye leads two rousing, clever songs, and his tenor, in contrast to his chubby form (think opera) brings comic delight to the viewer. "Sit Down You're Rockin the Boat" is a finale that leaves me humming and singing for hours after.
Brando actually insisted on singing himself, and he does fine, and Simmons is as well. Their attraction is believable and the scenes in Havana funny and charming. You really believe they fall for each other that night. That they are both gorgeous helps. Their sudden commitment contrasts with the interminable engagement of Nathan Detroit and his doll. Both ways happen in life, and nobody has to change their stripes to get married. Sarah Brown is in her Salvation Army uniform when she marries, and Adelaide is in full frou-frou. There is a nice little message about not trying to change the other person, and the movie is long over before you realize Nathan and Skye have no legitimate way of earning a living. Oh, well. You can't have everything.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit
Since Chiwetel Ejoifor is in the news due to his nomination for "Twelve Years a Slave", I asked my son if he had ever seen him in anything else. He hadn't. I recommended "Talk To Me", the 2007 film that should have gotten more attention than it did. Based on a true story and person, Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr., a famous DJ on a Washington D.C. radio station, Don Cheadle plays Petey, and Ejiofor is his producer, Martin Sheen the owner of the station and Taraji P. Henson Petey's girlfriend. The cast also includes Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps. This movie is fun, funny, touching and educational at the same time. Ejoifor playes Dewey Hughes, who recruits Petey to jazz up the station and appeal to Black listeners. Petey is an ex-con, and player, a bullshit artist and nevertheless engaging. Sheen is doubtful, but takes a chance on Petey, with successful results.
The film is also about the friendship between Dewey, college educated and wanting to elevate the Black man, and Petey, who refuses to be elevated, even when he gets his chance at superstardom on TV with Dewey as his agent and manager. They couldn't be more different, but they love each other. One of the highlights of the film is Petey's getting on the radio to talk people down during the riots after Martin Luther King's death. He prevented a lot of violence from occurring.
The sets and costumes are delightful and take us back to the sixties and seventies, and to an era when radio had a tremendous impact on people. The acting shines, and, as I'm as much a fan of Cheadle as Ejoifor, it's a dream team. Henson and Sheen are irresistable as well. Take a ride on the soul train and see what all the fuss was about.
The film is also about the friendship between Dewey, college educated and wanting to elevate the Black man, and Petey, who refuses to be elevated, even when he gets his chance at superstardom on TV with Dewey as his agent and manager. They couldn't be more different, but they love each other. One of the highlights of the film is Petey's getting on the radio to talk people down during the riots after Martin Luther King's death. He prevented a lot of violence from occurring.
The sets and costumes are delightful and take us back to the sixties and seventies, and to an era when radio had a tremendous impact on people. The acting shines, and, as I'm as much a fan of Cheadle as Ejoifor, it's a dream team. Henson and Sheen are irresistable as well. Take a ride on the soul train and see what all the fuss was about.
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