Tim Blake Nelson

THE INVISIBLES: choosing to live again

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Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol in THE INVISIBLES. Courtesy of Cinequest.

In the engrossing dramatic parable The Invisibles, Charlie (Tim Blake Nelson) has become so disengaged from his job and his marriage that he becomes invisible – at first metaphorically and then literally – to those around him. Charlie is finding this disturbing enough, but then he happens on an entire community of invisible people like him in a parallel dimension. Can they return to the world of the visible? And do they want to?

The invisibles hang out together in a decrepit bowling alley, led by Carl the affable bartender (Bruce Greenwood). Charlie learns that the invisibles have each experienced a loss, a disappointment or a betrayal so devastating that they have each given up on life in some way. But there’s no more emotional pain in the invisible world, and the bowling alley is a hub of merrymaking.

Charlie and his wife Hannah (Gretchen Mol) have suffered a grievous loss; Hannah has been working hard to recover, but the grief has paralyzed Charlie into a toxic mire of denial, avoidance and apathy.

As Charlie finds himself torn between his love for his wife and the comfort of the invisible world, The Invisibles explores the how people react to the pain of loss and the painful process of getting beyond it. The ingenious metaphor of the parallel universes is the creation of writer-director Andrew Currie. He wrote and directed Fido, one of my Zombie Movies for People Who Don’t Like Zombie Movies.

Tim Blake Nelson is an acting treasure, and he’s at the top of his game here. Mol and Greenwood are excellent, too, as is Nathan Alexis as one of the invisibles.

Cinequest hosted the world premiere of The Invisibles today and will present a second screening tomorrow, March 11. The Invisibles is highlighted as one of two Must See films in my Best of Cinequest.

Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol in THE INVISIBLES. Courtesy of Cinequest.

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.

Cinequest – Detachment: nightmare for teachers

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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.

For Presidents’ Day: the Lincoln movie

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Daniel Day-Lewis in LINCOLN

In late December, we’ll see a movie about perhaps the greatest American made by perhaps our greatest filmmaker.    Steven Spielberg is directing Lincoln, based on Doris Kearn Goodwin’s absorbing Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field play the Lincolns.  The dazzling cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Jared Harris, Jackie Earle Haley, Hal Holbrook, John Hawkes, James Spader, Bruce McGill, David Straithern, Tim Blake Nelson, Walton Goggins (Justified) and Dakin Mathews (the horse trader in True Grit).

New Movies I'm Looking Forward To

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Edward Norton corrects Edward Norton in Leaves of Grass

I’ve just updated Movies I’m Looking Forward To.  We’ve got Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Howl, The Social Network and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger all coming out in the next two weeks.  Here are some new entries:

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger: Woody Allen’s latest comedy about romantic entanglements and human self-delusion. Stars Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Josh Brolin.  Releases October 1.

Tamara Drewe:  Steven Frears (The Queen, The Snapper, Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity) brings us a sex comedy.  A writer’s colony in the English countryside is disrupted when a local woman returns with a nose job that has made her into an irresistible hottie.  She enjoys being irresistible.  Releases October 8.

Leaves of Grass:  A college professor is tricked into returning to Oklahoma by his pot-dealing identical twin brother.  Hilarity ensues.  Edward Norton plays both twins.  Strong supporting cast with Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss and Tim Blake Nelson.  Rolling out slowly across the country.

Tabloid: A reputedly very funny Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, Mr. Death, Gates of Heaven)  documentary tracing the story of a woman who had her dead dog cloned; it turns out that, years before, she was accused of manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave.  Debuted at Telluride; wide release not yet scheduled.

For trailers, go to Movies I’m Looking Forward To.