drama

Argo: the first Must See this fall

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Ben Affleck directs and stars in Argo, unquestionably the best Hollywood movie of the year so far.   In this true story from the Iran Hostage Crisis, a down-on-his-luck spy rescues six Americans hiding in the Canadian Ambassador’s Tehran home by pretending to make a cheesy Hollywood sci fi movie. The scenes in Tehran and Washington are pure thriller, leavened by the very funny Hollywood thread.

It’s a gripping story.  Setting up the audacious plan is only the beginning. It must be sold to risk averse government officials.  And it must be sold to the “house guests”, who clearly understand how risky it is.  The diplomats must learn their cover identities as Canadian filmmakers well enough to withstand interrogation.  And the team must be shuttled past layer upon layer of suspicious, trigger happy and completely unpredictable revolutionaries.  Helluva story, well told.

Thanks to director Affleck, editor William Goldberg and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, Argo is brilliantly photographed and constructed.It is economical story-telling at its best, with each shot revealing critical information – the lethal chaos in the streets of Tehran, the paralyzing fear of the house guests, the determination of Affleck’s operative.

It’s a deep cast.  John Goodman and Alan Arkin are hilarious as the movie industry guys.  Scoot McNairy and Christopher Denham are especially good as house guests.  Farshad Farahat is compelling as the commander of the final revolutionary checkpoint.  The rest of the cast is equally superb:   Bryan Cranston, Philip Baker Hall, Richard Kind, Michael Parks, Clea DuVall, Adam Arkin, Chris Messina and Victor Garber.  Watch for a bit role played by 80s horror maven Adrienne Barbeau.

This could have been jingoistic, but Affleck starts the movie with an animated historical primer to remind (or teach) the audience about why the Iranians were so angry.  And he generously included another American perspective during the end credits.  Much more nuance than the standard Hollywood movie –  good for Affleck!

DVD of the Week: Detachment

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My DVD pick this week is the gripping drama Detachment, with Adrien Brody’s best performance since winning an Oscar for The Pianist.  Detachment is on my list of Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.

Detachment is a gripping drama about the failure of American public schools from the teachers’ point of view.   Adrien Brody plays a long-term sub on a 60-day assignment at a high school that has burned out virtually every other teacher.  I can’t use the words  “grim” or “bleak” to describe this school environment – it’s downright hellish.    It’s making their very souls decay.

The students are rebellious and disrespectful, and somehow manage to be zealously apathetic.  No parents support the teachers, but some enthusiastically abuse and undermine them.  Administrators demand better test results but offer little support beyond “flavor of the month” educational fads.   The ills of the high school in Detachment are exaggerated – this is not a documentary – but there isn’t an urban public high school in American that hasn’t endured some elements of Detachment.

Brody won an Oscar for 2002’s The Pianist, and, in Detachment, he makes the most of his best role since.  Brody plays a haunted and damaged man with strong core beliefs, who, faced with a menu of almost hopeless choices, picks his battles.

Detachment’s cast is unusually deep, and the performances are outstanding.   James Caan is particularly outstanding as the veteran educator whose wicked sense of humor can still disarm the most obnoxiously insolent teen.  Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) is excellent as the young teacher hanging on to some idealism.  Blythe Danner and William Petersen (CSI) are the veterans who have seen it all.  Lucy Liu plays the educator who is clinging by her fingerprints, trying not to flame out like the basket case played by Tim Blake Nelson.  Marcia Gay Harden and Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Cedar Rapids) are dueling administrators.  Sami Gayle and Betty Kaye are superb as two troubled kids.  Louis Zorich delivers a fine performance as Brody’s failing grandfather.  There’s just not an ordinary performance in the movie.

For all its despair, Detachment doesn’t let the audience sink into a malaise.  Director Tony Kaye (American History X) keeps thing moving, and his choices in structure and pacing work well.  This is an intense film with a dark viewpoint.  It is also a very ambitious, thoughtful and originally crafted movie – one well worth seeing.

DVD/Stream of the Week: Time Out

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Aurelien Recoing in TIME OUT

In Time Out (L’emploi du Temps)(2001), a middle-aged guy (Aurelien Recoing) loses his job with an international consulting firm in France and can’t bring himself to tell his family.  Instead, he pretends to still have that job, and then invents a new, better job in Switzerland.  He doesn’t spend his days at the local bar – he actually goes on faux business trips from which he calls his family.  He even dresses in a suit and visits the Swiss corporate HQ where he claims to be working, prowling the cubicles and lounging in the lobby while talking on his cell phone like a big shot.  The lengths to which he goes in convincing his family (and embracing denial for himself) are pathetic, then creepy and finally chilling.

Ironically, he has a smart and supportive wife (Karin Viard); we can tell that, had he told her the truth immediately, she would help him out.  He also has very successful father with the bucks to keep the family afloat until he finds something else.  But so much of his self-identity is wrapped up in his career, that he just can’t bear the thought of disappointing them.

Of course, he can’t keep up this charade forever.  There’s the matter of income, for example, which drives him to join a scam.  And then there is the web of lies that must eventually unravel.  His wife intuits that something is amiss and starts sniffing around….

Recoing is outstanding as the man inside a pressure cooker of his own making.  The great French actress Karin Viard (Polisse, Potishe, Paris) is, as always, perfect.

Time Out is a superb film because of the acting and the writing.  Director Laurent Cantet (2008’s popular The Class) co-wrote the screenplay with Robin Campillo.

Time Out is available on DVD and on Netflix streaming.  (I have not embedded the Miramax trailer because it, replete with swelling music from another film, makes the movie look heart-warming and  melodramatic, and it is neither.)

Farewell, My Queen: a palace teeters on the brink

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This lavishly staged  and absorbing costume drama depicts Marie Antoinette’s Versailles at the onset of the French Revolution.  The story is set during the three pivotal days following the storming of the Bastille.  We view the Upstairs Downstairs of the palace through the eyes of the Queen’s personal reader, played compellingly by Lea Seydoux.  Seydoux’s performance is key to the movies’ success.  When Upstairs, we see her flattering the Queen and observing the Queen’s intimate moments – without becoming an intimate. When Downstairs, we see her unfiltered personality and opinions.

The performance by Diane Kruger as the Queen is equally good.   Her days are designed for her entertainment, and a battalion of servants scurry about to gratify every caprice.  In the days before remote controls, the ADD monarch uses her servant to skip from whim to whim.  She is supreme, but also vulnerable because she craves another person and because she comes to realize that the monarchy itself is threatened.

Virginie Ledoyen plays the Queen’s intimate friend the charismatic social climbing Duchess of Polignac.  In a secondary but essential role, Ledoyen exudes the sexual magnetism that has captivated a queen.

The fourth star of the film is Versailles itself – the movie was shot in the actual palace.   Farewell, My Queen is directed by Benoit Jacquot, and he makes Versailles come alive as a palace, not the museum it is today.  An army of servants bustle about to serve the royals and the nobles.  Even the ostentatiously clad resident aristocrats scuttle like cockroaches for a peek at the king or queen.  It’s a real treat – even those of us who have visited the Queen’s bedroom in Versailles haven’t seen it at night, lit only by the fireplace and candles.

Unfortunately, the ending wraps up the stories of the historical figures Marie Antoinette and The Duchess of Polignac but fails to address the fate of the palace servants who we’ve been following and relating to throughout the film.  I understand that Seydoux’s character is fictional, but we want to know what happened to those vivid characters that are themselves worrying about their own lots.

You might also want to read this superb Mick LaSalle review.

In the Family: debut of a brilliant director

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6-year-old Chip has two daddies, Cody and Joey.  When his biological father Cody is killed in an auto accident, Cody’s sister takes custody of Chip, and Joey fights to get his son back.  Writer-director Patrick Wang stars as Joey, and what makes In the Family more than just another social issue picture is Wang’s authenticity as a writer and brilliance as a director.

Wang uses long scenes shot by a static camera and an almost silent soundtrack to draw in the audience.   We watch Joey being told of Cody’s death through a hospital window and we only hear the passing truck traffic.  We see the kitchen when Joey and Chip come home after the funeral – Joey sits stunned, fingering the mail, and Chip, yearning for some normalcy, sets up beverages.  The film climaxes with Joey’s testimony at a deposition, mostly shot from the end of a conference table.  These are some of the most compelling scenes that I’ve seen this year.

The problem with In the Family is that it is 2 hours and 47 minutes long.  There are long films that need to be long (e.g., Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), but this isn’t one of them.  There’s probably a 130 minute indie hit somewhere inside In the Family.

It’s clear that Patrick Wang is a fine actor and an unusually talented writer-director (who needs to find an equally talented editor).  I’m certainly looking forward to his next work.

As yet without a distributor, Wang is self-releasing In the Family in various cities.

Take This Waltz: a women’s movie, in the best possible sense

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Take This Waltz is a woman’s movie, but in the best possible way.  It’s not a shallow chick flick and there’s no wedding scene.  Instead, it’s an exploration of attraction and fulfillment from a woman’s perspective.

Margot (Michelle Williams) and Lou (Seth Rogen) have been happily married for five years.  They are affectionate and playful with each other, but they have hit a patch where it’s easy for one to kill the other’s buzz and for a romantic moment to misfire.  But Lou is a fundamentally good guy who loves Margot, and he is definitely not driving her into the arms of another man.

But Margot meets Daniel (Luke Kirby) and is fascinated by him. He is completely attentive – not in a chocolates and flowers kind of way, but by observing her deeply and pointing out things about her personality that she hasn’t recognized herself.  Daniel exhilarates her, and she can’t keep herself from engaging with him.

Michelle Williams is once more transcendent.  She is our best actress.  We know that Rogen can play a goodhearted, ambling guy, but when his character is profoundly hurt, he delivers a tour de force.  Sarah Silverman co-stars as Margot’s sister-in-law, a recovering alcoholic whose relapse sparks a fierce moment of truth telling.

Take This Waltz could not have been made by a man.  In particular, there is a remarkable shower scene in which women of a variety of ages and body types have the type of frank conversation that women share with each other.  Although they are all naked and fully visible, the scene is shot as to be devoid of any eroticism or exploitation.  All that is there is the content of the conversation and the female bonding.

33-year-old Canadian actress Sarah Polley wrote and directed;  Polley’s debut feature was Away From Her, my pick for best movie of 2006.

Take This Waltz is a beautifully shot film, but generally not in a showy way.  The film opens with Williams backlit as she prepares a batch of muffins; it’s a simple kitchen scene, but Polley showcases Williams as Margot reflects on her choices and their consequences.

In one extraordinary scene, the camera swirls with Margot and Daniel on an amusement park ride blaring “Video Killed the Radio Star”.  Their faces show fun, then an urge to kiss, then regret that they can’t kiss, then fun again and, finally, disappointment when the music and the ride end way too harshly.

Later, Polley reprises the muffin baking scene, paired with “Video Killed the Radio Star” in an unexpectedly rich way.  After just two features, Sarah Polley is established as one of today’s top filmmakers. Take This Waltz makes my list of Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.

Elena: a vividly dark peek into contemporary Russia

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Elena is a superbly crafted film that vividly peeks into a dark, very dark contemporary Russia.  Directed and co-written by Andre Zvyagintsev (The Return), Elena is the triumph of drama over melodrama.  There is an absolute minimum of on-screen action and no histrionics at all, yet the story simmers throughout.

Zvyagintsev builds the story upon his characters.  It is set in a toney apartment in a quiet upscale Moscow neighborhood, home of Vladimir and Elena.  Vladimir is pushing 70 and rich.  I doubt that any softies got rich in post-Soviet Russia, and Vladimir is a hard man, devoid of sentimentality except for his estranged daughter.   Late in life, he has married the working class Elena, his one-time nurse, now in her 50s.  They have a comfortable, frank, affectionate and practical relationship.

Both have adult children from previous marriages.  Vladimir’s daughter Katerina has no use for her father, but he subsidizes her lifestyle of perpetual partying.  Vladimir and Katerina finally share a moment, bonding over their shared cynicism.

Elena’s nogoodnik son Sergey lives in a hard scrabble suburb and embraces his chronic unemployment with alarming indolence.  His equally lazy and selfish teenage son, having an indifferent high school career, is now facing the dreaded Army unless someone can bribe his way into a college.

Elena is desperate to rescue her grandson from his self-inflicted predicament, but only Vladimir’s money can help, and Vladimir despises Elena’s trashy and shiftless family.  The movie is built on this conflict, and it is Elena’s story.   As Elena, the actress Nadezhda Markina reveals Elena’s affection, desperation and determination with her eyes, face and movements.  Perfectly framing Markina’s outstanding performance by isolating it, Zvyagintsev delivers the film in a series of long shots, with terse dialogue and a spare soundtrack. There is no expository dialogue explaining the plot or swelling music manipulating our reaction.

Elena is a dark movie that asks its audience to invest patience, thought and energy – so it’s not for everybody.  Elena is also one of the year’s best films, and an extraordinary example of a very pure breed of filmmaking.

Where Do We Go Now?: comedy as a matter of life and death

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Christians and Muslims live together in a very isolated Lebanese village.  The men, none too bright, flare any perceived grievance into testosterone-fueled tribal fury.  Knowing that any trivial incident can spark an escalation to sectarian slaughter, the women, aided by the imam and the priest, work tirelessly to extinguish every possible provocation.  The women will stop at nothing, including sabotaging the village’s only TV, faking a miracle, medicating the pastries and even hiring a van full of Ukrainian strippers.

This story could have been played broadly like Lysistrata.  There are many funny moments, but Where Do We Go Now? is more than farce.   To these women, war is not theoretical.  We can tell from their language, which references men crouching in the attics and looking under beds, that they have survived past sectarian violence.  And we see the village cemetery, filled with the headstones of young men.  The women and the clerics have seen war, and they are desperate to avoid it.  That desperation adds a sting to the comedy, and makes Where Do We Go Now? a pretty good movie.

The Deep Blue Sea: a woman who loves too much

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Simon Russell Beale and Rachel Weisz in THE DEEP BLUE SEA

In The Deep Blue Sea, an ordinary love triangle becomes a profound tragedy.   A woman (Rachel Weisz) leaves her affluent and prestigious older husband (Simon Russell Beale) for a younger man (Tom Hiddleston) who is more vital, but aimless, troubled and unreliable.  The younger man cannot match her love for him.

The fling is doomed.  The tragedy is that she knows it, but cannot help herself.  As with many addictions, her passion for him drives her to do what she knows is self-destructive.

The story is set is grim post-war London and director Terence Davies  vividly paints the period and place.

One magically evocative scene takes place in an underground station serving as a bomb shelter during the Blitz.  A man sings Molly Malone in a plaintive tenor, with his fellow Londoners joining at the chorus, as the camera slowly pans the train platform filled with people waiting out the raid.  In another scene, a pub is filled with singing patrons.   Everyone is having fun, sharing a moment of trivial conviviality, but Rachel Weisz is looking at her lover and having a moment of profound feeling.

Weisz is excellent, and all of her scenes with Beale are especially searing.  The Deep Blue Sea is well-crafted and deeply, deeply sad.

DVD of the Week: Take Shelter

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My DVD pick is Take Shelter, #2 on my list of  Best Movies of 2011 and probably the single most overlooked film of last year.

Michael Shannon (Shotgun Stories, Agent Van Alden in Boardwalk Empire) is perhaps our best creep actor. And what’s creepier than watching a solid parent and spouse enduring a full-fledged psychotic breakdown?

Shannon plays the most grounded guy in America until he starts having terrifying dreams and then hallucinations. One of his parents is mentally ill, and he is determined to resist a breakdown and protect his family. Unlike in a lesser screenplay, Shannon’s protagonist is very aware that he may be going crazy and is digging his fingernails into sanity.

Shannon gave a breakthrough performance in Shotgun Stories, by writer/director Jeff Nichols. (In the excellent Shotgun Stories, Nichols created a dysfunctional family with a father so dismissive of his offspring that he non-named them Son, Kid and Boy.) This time, Nichols has given Shannon the role of a lifetime, for which Shannon should have received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

This is also the performance that should have earned Jessica Chastain her Oscar nod as Shannon’s wife. Chastain must react to her husband’s behavior, which starts out quirky, becomes troublesome and spirals down to GET ME OUT OF HERE.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5U4TtYpKIc]