Movies

DVD pick of the week: The Girl on the Train

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The Girl on the Train (La fille du RER) is an absorbing mother daughter drama set in the Paris suburbs.

The young woman  is  Emilie Dequenne, the Belgian actress who won the best actress award at Canne when she was only 17 in the Dardenne brothers’ Rosetta.  In contrast to Rosetta, she doesn’t play a force of nature, but a slacker bobbing through life on a tide of random influences.  She lives with her single mom (Catherine Deneuve), and they get along, despite the mother’s unwelcome tips on job hunting.

The daughter meets a guy, her life takes some resulting turns and then she makes a really bad choice.  The mom seeks out an old beau, now a celebrity attorney to help fix the situation.

I missed seeing this in the theater because the trailer emphasizes a faked hate crime (and I wasn’t eager to see a topical movie).  But the movie is not about the faked hate crime, which occurs late into the story.  The story is character driven.  The daughter drifts first part of the movie and is controlled by events until she finds herself in a desperate situation; she panics and sees the most stupid option as a solution.  The situation then forces the mother to re-open a chapter in her life that she had chosen to close – how far will she open the old door?

It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2010 So Far.

See the rest of my DVD recommendations.

Solitary Man

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Solitary Man: Michael Douglas plays a man whose selfishness and charm know no bounds, and whose impulsiveness drives him into spiraling self-destructiveness.   Douglas’ performance  keeps us caring about this unattractive character and there is humor in his comeuppances.  Mary-Louise Parker, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Jenna Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg and Olivia Thirlby round out the excellent cast.

Winter's Bone

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Winter’s Bone is the year’s best live action movie so far.  A 17-year-old Ozarks girl is determined to save the family home by tracking down her meth dealer dad – dead or alive.  The girl’s journey through a series of nasty and nastier Southern Missouri crank cookers is riveting – without any explosions, gunfights or chase scenes.  Every moment of this film seems completely real.  Winter’s Bone won the screenwriting and grand jury prizes at Sundance.

With just her second feature, Debra Granik has emerged as an important filmmaker to watch.  She presents an unflinching look at this subculture without ever resorting to stereotype.  Granik hits a home run with every artistic choice, from the locations to the spare soundtrack to the pacing to the casting.  I’ll be watching for her next film.

As the protagonist, 20-year-old Jennifer Lawrence is in every scene.  With a minimum of dialogue, she creates a lead character of rarely seen determination.

Dale Dickey is exceptional as a criminal matriarch.  John Hawkes (the kind Sol Star in Deadwood) also gives a tremendous performance as the ready-to-explode Uncle Teardrop.

I Am Love

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I Am Love (Io sono l’amore) – the operatic tale of the family of a zillionaire Milan industrialist and how each family member seeks happiness – is less than the sum of its parts.  The movie has many successful components: another fearless performance by Tilda Swinton, searing love scenes, and some nice small touches in the screenwriting (an aristocratic family’s treatment of the new wife during a tragedy, the re-taking of a man’s suit coat, among others).  But the soundtrack’s musical crescendos at the most emotionally charged moments are too distracting, as are the over-the-top plot points in the third act.  And the character of the favorite son is written to be impossibly sweet and naive.  Marisa Berenson (whose career has been pretty quiet since 1975’s Barry Lyndon) is excellent in a small role.

There is some mouth-watering food porn (especially the glazed prawns); if this movie could generate a wider audience, the line “I made your mother prawns” would become a catch phrase, as in “I made your mother prawns and we hiked the Appalachian Trail”.

The film making is described in the New York Times.

Toy Story 3

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Toy Story 3:  It’s the best American movie of the year so far, and belongs in the elevated class of Toy Story and Toy Story 2.  I would recommend the film for anyone, not just kids.  Adults will howl at the enhanced roles of Ken and Barbie, an impassioned duet of “Dream Weaver” and the funniest scene in movie history involving a tortilla.

Pixar understands that the best animation in human history is not enough by itself, and tells great, great stories.  Pixar screenwriting is incredibly superior to that of other animation studios.

The preview version I saw was in 2D.  The 3D version should make the opening and climatic scenes even more compelling.

Micmacs

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Micmacs is the latest delight from French master Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie and the very underrated A Very Long Engagement).  France’s top comedian Dany Boon plays an oddball who is twice victimized by armaments sellers.   He is adopted by a group of eccentric and highly skilled outcasts who support his campaign of revenge against the arms manufacturers.

As in Amelie, Jeunet creates a gentle, charming and whimsical universe in modern Paris.  In Micmacs, he is ceaselessly inventive.  And he proves that sometimes the most effective political attacks can be the most gentle.

This film has been cursed with an absolutely insane and baseless R rating.  There is no violence, sex or language which justifies this rating.  It is a crime because this movie is a great choice for a bunch of 12-year-olds.  I would have given this film a PG.

Please Give

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Please Give:  This is another smart comedy from Nicole Holofcener (Love, Actually) starring the irreplaceable Catherine Keener.   Keener and husband Oliver Platt are waiting for the demise of the detestable neighboring nonagenarian so they can expand their Manhattan apartment.  Holofcener, a master at intelligent, character-driven comedy, has a Best Picture Oscar in her, but not this time – good, but not great.

Toy Story 3

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Just saw a preview of Toy Story 3.  It’s the best American movie of the year so far, and belongs in the elevated class of Toy Story and Toy Story 2.  I would recommend the film for anyone, not just kids.

Pixar understands that the best animation in human history is not enough by itself, and tells great, great stories.  Pixar screenwriting is incredibly superior to that of other animation studios.

The version I saw was in 2D.  The 3D version should make the opening and climatic scenes even more compelling.