The Exterminating Angel
Sunday, November 20, 2005
THE LIFE AQUATIC
Saw Noah Baumbach's The Squid and The Whale at Piper's Alley about a week and a half ago. Hadn't been there in about ten years. It's in the same complex as Second City, Tony and Tina's wedding, a running store, and a bunch of other crap. Needless to say, it's not the most impressive venue in which to see a movie in Chicago.
Plot: The film takes place in Brooklyn in the mid-80s. Kaura Linney and Jeff Daniels are Joan and Bernard Berkman, the Jewish intellectual parents of two boys, Frank, about sixteen, and Walt, about thirteen. Early on, Joan and Bernard announce that they're getting a divorce. The rest of the film chronicles how the family deals with this.
I liked S & W, but probably not for the same reasons as other people. I'm guessing that many liked the film for the performances of Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney, and I'd be partly in agreement there. I thought Jeff Daniels was very good at portraying a man who's a bastard, but has enough intelligence and charm that he could fool some people into sympathizing with him, particularly his elder son. Frank idolizes his father, parroting his opinions on art and literature, blaming his mother for the divorce. Daniels does an epert job of showing us how Bernard 's simmering resentment at his lack of recognition from the world has corroded his soul.
However, I didn't care for Laura Linney as Joan. Has an actress ever received such a free pass? She's consistently in films that critics and and Academy Award voters like, so she's built up a reputation as a very good actress, but I don't see it. She's just pleasant and adequate. She never does anything that interests or surprises. I thought she was awful in this film in particular. I don't believe her Joan, don't believe that Linney knows anything about her. When Joan affectionately calls her sons "Chicken," it sounds repellently false in Linney's mouth.
What I liked about S & W was Baumbach's sentiment and self-pity free portrait of himself. Frank, in his desire to be his father, becomes just as much of an asshole. He provides put-downs of books he's never read, pawns off a song by Pink Floyd as one of his own, and contemplates cheating on his girlfriend because he thinks he can "do better." Frank's deplorable behavior is tempered by the fact that he's a teenager. He doesn't really know how much of an asshole he is, he thinks that he's acting like an adult. I'm not saying that his behavior is that much worse than many adults, only that what makes it poignant is that Frank thinks that he is being mature. I appreciated how matter of fact Baumbach was about his treatment of Frank. He doesn't make Frank into a villain and doesn't empathize with him too much. Indeed, the film could just as well been called "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Douchebag." ¶ 7:00 PM 1 comments
Plot: The film takes place in Brooklyn in the mid-80s. Kaura Linney and Jeff Daniels are Joan and Bernard Berkman, the Jewish intellectual parents of two boys, Frank, about sixteen, and Walt, about thirteen. Early on, Joan and Bernard announce that they're getting a divorce. The rest of the film chronicles how the family deals with this.
I liked S & W, but probably not for the same reasons as other people. I'm guessing that many liked the film for the performances of Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney, and I'd be partly in agreement there. I thought Jeff Daniels was very good at portraying a man who's a bastard, but has enough intelligence and charm that he could fool some people into sympathizing with him, particularly his elder son. Frank idolizes his father, parroting his opinions on art and literature, blaming his mother for the divorce. Daniels does an epert job of showing us how Bernard 's simmering resentment at his lack of recognition from the world has corroded his soul.
However, I didn't care for Laura Linney as Joan. Has an actress ever received such a free pass? She's consistently in films that critics and and Academy Award voters like, so she's built up a reputation as a very good actress, but I don't see it. She's just pleasant and adequate. She never does anything that interests or surprises. I thought she was awful in this film in particular. I don't believe her Joan, don't believe that Linney knows anything about her. When Joan affectionately calls her sons "Chicken," it sounds repellently false in Linney's mouth.
What I liked about S & W was Baumbach's sentiment and self-pity free portrait of himself. Frank, in his desire to be his father, becomes just as much of an asshole. He provides put-downs of books he's never read, pawns off a song by Pink Floyd as one of his own, and contemplates cheating on his girlfriend because he thinks he can "do better." Frank's deplorable behavior is tempered by the fact that he's a teenager. He doesn't really know how much of an asshole he is, he thinks that he's acting like an adult. I'm not saying that his behavior is that much worse than many adults, only that what makes it poignant is that Frank thinks that he is being mature. I appreciated how matter of fact Baumbach was about his treatment of Frank. He doesn't make Frank into a villain and doesn't empathize with him too much. Indeed, the film could just as well been called "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Douchebag." ¶ 7:00 PM 1 comments
NOTHING LIKE THE SUN
Saw Chris Marker's Sans Soleil at Facets...about two weeks ago. First of all, Facets blows. The theaters are small, dingy, and threadbare. You can hear people walking on the floors above the them. Facets also seems to attract the weirdest crowds. They're people beyond the pretentiousness of the typical art house theater. They're just full-blown weirdos. People that seem to think that a viewing of a movie must involve an odd hat or coat.
Anyway, on to the film. I don't know what to say. San Soleil was one of the strangest and most fascinating films I've ever seen. We hear a woman's voice offscreen reading the letters of a man who appears to have travelled extensively in Japan and Africa. We are shown film shot in the countries that the man has written about. Mostly Japan.
What I found fascinating was that San Soleil did not make an attempt to be a typical travelogue. There were no comforting explanations of the local customs. Everything was strange and bizarre, but without being condescending or racist. The film just tried to show us that travel often involves engagement with an alien culture and that we try to explain away all that we cannot understand. This film showed an intellect trying to grapple with another culture, to figure it out. Or, at least, to realize that it could not be understood. Something that most of us do not do. In fact, I think that while many of us tell ourselves that we're going to learn something through travel, we only do it for some minor diversion and to feel good about oursleves.
That's it all I can say, the film was too complex and my memory has faded. ¶ 6:31 PM 1 comments
Anyway, on to the film. I don't know what to say. San Soleil was one of the strangest and most fascinating films I've ever seen. We hear a woman's voice offscreen reading the letters of a man who appears to have travelled extensively in Japan and Africa. We are shown film shot in the countries that the man has written about. Mostly Japan.
What I found fascinating was that San Soleil did not make an attempt to be a typical travelogue. There were no comforting explanations of the local customs. Everything was strange and bizarre, but without being condescending or racist. The film just tried to show us that travel often involves engagement with an alien culture and that we try to explain away all that we cannot understand. This film showed an intellect trying to grapple with another culture, to figure it out. Or, at least, to realize that it could not be understood. Something that most of us do not do. In fact, I think that while many of us tell ourselves that we're going to learn something through travel, we only do it for some minor diversion and to feel good about oursleves.
That's it all I can say, the film was too complex and my memory has faded. ¶ 6:31 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
BACK
Hey, everyone! I know I haven't posted here in quite a while, but I've got my reasons. Like getting a new job and celebrating the Vivster's 30th birthday. I promise I'll be back this week with reviews of films by Marker, Godard, Malle, and maybe Ophuls. So stayed tuned and, in the meantime, I'd like to give a shout out to "The Interpreter," the most self-important, self-serious film that I've seen in quite some time. It was a lot of fun to watch Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn constantly one-upping each other in intensity. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they had broken into a old school Conan-and-Andy staring contest. Oh, and by the way, did I mention how fucking boring it was? For fuck's sake, is this really the best Hollywood can do?
¶ 10:01 AM 0 comments
