1) BREACH - a stellar performance by Chris Cooper as the real-life spy Robert Hanssen makes Billy Ray's latest expose on the dark side of Washington's power brokers (he did the compelling "Shattered Glass") a must-see. D.C. never looked so ... SNOWY! (It was filmed in Canada, except for some scenes with Laura Linney in the DC Metro). And the actress playing Ryan Phillippe's East-German hottie of a wife is a revelation, especially when you realize she is the very North American actress Caroline Dhavernas, star of Fox's all too-brief series 'Wonderland.'
2) ZODIAC -- another compelling film for intelligent filmgoers: more about the obsessiveness of solving a puzzle (in the great tradition of both 'All the President's Men' and 'J.F.K.') than about the real-life events that surround the story. As in "Breach," the film is propelled forward by a trio of riveting performances: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr. -- and actor who by all measures is at the top of his game. True to his previous films, David Fincher ("Se7en") films the Zodiac murders in agonizing, excruciating detail.
It is nice to see a movie that devotes so much attention to period details (from 1969-71): from the clothes to the music to the overhead shot of the downtown San Francisco construction site that was to become the Transamerica Tower. If the movie ends without resolution for any of the characters ... hey, reality bites!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Two movies in 2007
TWO! That is all I've had time to see so far this year, what with seeing all the Oscar movies in January, and now catching up on the 2006 Foreign Films that are now in wide release. (I will devote a future post to them), and the usual glut of slasher flicks this time of year.
1. "Factory Girl" -- Sienna Miller is brilliant! She really 'burns up the screen' and is utterly convincing. It is unfortunate that the movie around her doesn't live up to her performance. Sure, Guy Pearce is an eerily-accurate Andy Warhol (right down to his skin -- which makes him look like a burn victim); and the movie pulls no punches depicting his behavior in a negative light. But consider this:
Problem #1: Casting. As in Jimmy Fallon, as Edie's gay, blue-blooded sidekick. He's still Jimmy Fallon, (ready to mug for the camera as if he's on SNL) and he's got no business being in the Sixties, hangin' out at the factory!
Problem #2: Casting, As in "WTF is Hayden Christiansen doing in this movie??" I know what he is trying to do (God love him) -- but he is completely unequipped to carry it off. His scenes make you cringe.
Problem #3: The director (George Hickenlooper): he is a documentarian, and he makes up for his lack of imagination by digging up every camera trick from 'Easy Rider' to denote drug use and the Swinging Sixties. Forty years ago, it was cool. Now it is lame.
2. "Puccini for Beginners" -- I had to love this movie because it is an indie, filmed in Manhattan, with a good cast and lots of witty, intellectual banter, with a passing reference to Opera! And coincidentally, I saw a movie last year at the Houston Film Festival fitting that description exactly (the clever, but shoe-string budgeted and a bit amateurish "I Will Avenge You, Iago!").
"Puccini" is a better movie, but still light as a feather. And don't be fooled, Opera lovers: the references to opera are very fleeting--it's the mark of a lazy screenwriter to make the lead an opera fan (so she must be sensitive) yet drop the conceit after one scene. And if I criticize 'Factory Girl' for reverting to 'Easy Rider'-era imagery, then it's only fair to call this film out for its repeated Annie Hall references: the 'strangers who join in on the conversation' trick works two of the ten times it is employed here.
The movie uses the streets of the Villages as its backgound -- the bookstores, movie theaters, and cafes-- and savvy Manhattanites (like me) can pinpoint exactly where they filmed (Greenwich Village Cinema on W. 12th!).
The cast is first-rate: I confess to being a huge Elizabeth Reaser fan (she was in "Stay" "The Family Stone" and last year's ISA winner "The Sweet Land"--a prize for you if you've seen even ONE of these! If you haven't, she has a four-episode 'arc' on Grey's Anatomy this season), stage actor Justin Kirk, and the hard-working, never successful Gretchen Mol. What sets this movie apart is having an openly bisexual protagonist who (shock!) has an active and fulfilling sex life! Instead of pandering to what it thinks a straight audience will accept by stripping the gay character of any sexual desires (Hollywood), or relegating him/her to a sex-obsessed comic relief sidekick (Hollywood again).
Sure, we've seen the lesbian romantic comedy before--"Kissing Jessica Stein"--but that was rather chaste, as I recall. And the genre can use another one or two--it has a lot of catching up to do.
1. "Factory Girl" -- Sienna Miller is brilliant! She really 'burns up the screen' and is utterly convincing. It is unfortunate that the movie around her doesn't live up to her performance. Sure, Guy Pearce is an eerily-accurate Andy Warhol (right down to his skin -- which makes him look like a burn victim); and the movie pulls no punches depicting his behavior in a negative light. But consider this:
Problem #1: Casting. As in Jimmy Fallon, as Edie's gay, blue-blooded sidekick. He's still Jimmy Fallon, (ready to mug for the camera as if he's on SNL) and he's got no business being in the Sixties, hangin' out at the factory!
Problem #2: Casting, As in "WTF is Hayden Christiansen doing in this movie??" I know what he is trying to do (God love him) -- but he is completely unequipped to carry it off. His scenes make you cringe.
Problem #3: The director (George Hickenlooper): he is a documentarian, and he makes up for his lack of imagination by digging up every camera trick from 'Easy Rider' to denote drug use and the Swinging Sixties. Forty years ago, it was cool. Now it is lame.
2. "Puccini for Beginners" -- I had to love this movie because it is an indie, filmed in Manhattan, with a good cast and lots of witty, intellectual banter, with a passing reference to Opera! And coincidentally, I saw a movie last year at the Houston Film Festival fitting that description exactly (the clever, but shoe-string budgeted and a bit amateurish "I Will Avenge You, Iago!").
"Puccini" is a better movie, but still light as a feather. And don't be fooled, Opera lovers: the references to opera are very fleeting--it's the mark of a lazy screenwriter to make the lead an opera fan (so she must be sensitive) yet drop the conceit after one scene. And if I criticize 'Factory Girl' for reverting to 'Easy Rider'-era imagery, then it's only fair to call this film out for its repeated Annie Hall references: the 'strangers who join in on the conversation' trick works two of the ten times it is employed here.
The movie uses the streets of the Villages as its backgound -- the bookstores, movie theaters, and cafes-- and savvy Manhattanites (like me) can pinpoint exactly where they filmed (Greenwich Village Cinema on W. 12th!).
The cast is first-rate: I confess to being a huge Elizabeth Reaser fan (she was in "Stay" "The Family Stone" and last year's ISA winner "The Sweet Land"--a prize for you if you've seen even ONE of these! If you haven't, she has a four-episode 'arc' on Grey's Anatomy this season), stage actor Justin Kirk, and the hard-working, never successful Gretchen Mol. What sets this movie apart is having an openly bisexual protagonist who (shock!) has an active and fulfilling sex life! Instead of pandering to what it thinks a straight audience will accept by stripping the gay character of any sexual desires (Hollywood), or relegating him/her to a sex-obsessed comic relief sidekick (Hollywood again).
Sure, we've seen the lesbian romantic comedy before--"Kissing Jessica Stein"--but that was rather chaste, as I recall. And the genre can use another one or two--it has a lot of catching up to do.
Elizabeth Reaser
Monday, March 05, 2007
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