My blog's Re-Dedication

Goodbye Naomi ... hello Jessica!

Are you like me? Have you watched all five of the lovely actress Jessica Chastain's movies that have been released this calendar year, and you still can't get enough of her? Well, this posting is for YOU!

I predict 2011 will go down in Hollywood history as the year of the "Jessica Chastain Harmonic Convergence." In case you've been under a cinematic rock these past 10 months (or watching the latest 3-D / comic-book summer-time nonsense that invades our screens every year), I have included at the end a brief rundown of her five break-though performances so far in 2011 (with more complete reviews to come).

In a quirk of filming schedules and studio politics, all five of these films have been released in quick succession, leading one to think this woman is a work-a-holic, and on every studio head's speed-dial. In fact, I understand The Debt was in the can for a year before the studio released it; Tree of Life director Terence Malick takes a notoriously long time to complete a film (Tree was shot in 2008, in Smithville, Texas mainly--with Sean Penn's work scenes filmed in the downtown Houston office building where FFG has his day job -- shout out to 1100 Louisiana!).

For that reason, she deserves the place of honor on my blog once reserved for the likes of Sandra Bullock and Naomi Watts.*

I'm basing my assessment of her star potential purely on her film work to date. All I know about her personally is the following (courtesy of imdb): Born: Jessica N. HowardMarch 29, 1981 in California, USA. She is obviously too busy filming to sit down for cover stories and fashion shoots, which no doubt will come in time. [I respectfully offer one bit of (self-interested) career advice: "Buy a house on Lake Travis in Austin -- just to get away from it all!" And ... don't hook-up with tatooed-biker bad-boys.]

I plan to post lots more glamour shots of her in the coming months -- I expect her to be a fixture on the red carpet during awards season (mark my words!) The question is not if she will get nominated, but how many!? I read a debate among people who predict Oscar nominations year-round (not an occupation to be proud of) concerning which one of her performances should be promoted in the two acting categories, since Academy rules now prevent multiple nominations for the same actress!

Here are her five best performances in 2011:

TREE OF LIFE

I'm still wrestling with this head-scratcher of a film (I need to see it again before reviewing it), but one thing is certain -- at the movie's center is the role of "Mother" -- and the film would not have worked if not for the unknown, angelic redhead whose performance was every bit the equal of Brad Pitt's "Father." A Star is Born.

THE DEBT

In the summer's best action movie, JC had to convincingly play a trained Israeli Mossad agent in WWII Berlin, whose mission is to capture and guard a Nazi war criminal, all while passing herself off as a German and a younger version of the great Helen Mirren. A piece of cake for JC.

THE HELP
I can think of numerous things this movie could have benefitted from, but here is the most-obvious one: MORE JESSICA CHASTAIN!
She is a delight as Celia Foote, the well-meaning, if ditzy, newlywed who is shunned by the society ladies of Oxford, Mississippi, and bonds with the maid who is also an outcast. While all the performers seem to be having fun with their roles, Jessica overcomes the screenplay's many broad brushes with dramedy and creates a sympathetic character you wish the movie had more time for.
Not that the movie needed to be longer.

  

TEXAS KILLING FIELDS
While Aussie Sam Worthington wrestles with his Texas accent (sometimes it is there, sometimes

 it does a disappearing act), his co-star from 'The Debt" (JC) breezes into her few scenes like a Texas Tornado -- all gun-toting attitude and gumption, playing a detective from a neighboring county working similar crimes, who is also his ex-wife, btw. Her accent? She nails it!

TAKE SHELTER
Another completely convincing performance as a young, Midwestern wife and mother dealing with the increasingly erratic behavior of her husband.

  

Not enough of a good thing, you say? Here is the good news: we have two more Jessica Chastain-starring films to look forward to by the end of the year!!

• CORIOLANUS - directed by Ralph Fiennes
• WILDE SALOME - directed by Al Pacino

 And a third is currently in post-production:

• THE WETTEST COUNTY (IN THE WORLD) -- A crime-drama centered on a family of Depression-era bootleggers in the American South

These are indeed heady times for Jessica Chastain -- and for this blog, too (I cannot wait for awards season!)

• * Poor Naomi has succumbed to the "Sandra Bullock curse": she made one-too-many bad movies for the foreignfilmguy to sit through. In Naomi's case, "Mother & Child" was her "Two Week's Notice" (that lame Hugh Grant rom-com was Sandy's undoing). I couldn't bring myself to sit through "Dream House" in spite of its all-star cast. It looked as bad as Sandy's pre-Oscar "All About Steve." On the bright side, now that I have shifted my allegiance, Naomi should be in line to pick up her first Academy Award (a la Sandy's "The Blind Side"). I hope for her sake Naomi doesn't follow it with that other curse: the "Best Actress winner break-up curse"! Yikes!
• You can still read an updated tribute to Naomi Watts' many excellent performances in an upcoming post.

3rd Annual Cinema Arts Festival

Houston's BEST Film Festival closed with not one, but two memorable and important film events.


The evening showing of Lech Majewski's The Mill & the Cross (a full review to come) followed an afternoon screening in the same MFAH theater (a great venue, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) of a newly-discovered silent film classic, Upstream (1927), directed by John Ford, with live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin and his ensemble (of Rice University music students, one of whom bears a striking resemblance to Zooey Deschanel).








For a clip of "Upstream", please visit my facebook page, until I can successfully upload it here.

Opening Night of Houston's "Cinema Arts Festival"

For your listening pleasure … A special performance by Russian classical violinist Philippe Quint (star of the opening night film "Downtown Express"), accompanied by his Julliard classmate Melissa Marse, performing 2 minutes of Tchaikovsky (not bad sound quality from my iPhone!)

Contagion

3*** stars

Dir: Steven Soderburgh (SS)

Finally, a horror movie for germa-a-phobes!

 

Released in early fall -- no doubt timed to coincide with the start of another flu season -- Contagion is designed to freak-out even the most casual of handwashers. For the more serious hand-sanitizer-junkies among us, this movie is a cautionary tale about how a virus can go 'viral' -- effectively tracking a disease from its origin in Asia to its seemingly easy and rapid-fire transmission to reach world-wide pandemic status.  Every time the camera lingers, ever so briefly, on a doorknob, a subway railing, credit card or pen that changes hands, will send a shiver up your spine -- even a bowl of bar peanuts takes on a new menace when it is filmed in close proximity to an obviously ill Gwyneth Paltrow (she looks terrible, too -- all red-faced and sniffling -- kudos for taking the unglamorous* role).

• * That is putting it mildly, as the movie charts her character's fate in grim detail. I should let you vote on which Hollywood beauty suffers the worse, more-abrupt fate in movies this year: Ms. Paltrow or Christina Hendricks in Drive.

SS assembles a cast worthy of an "Ocean's 14" movie, only he uses them for a higher purpose. Matt Damon is good as Gwyneth's husband. Kate Winslet is also aboard, as a CDC investigator sent to godawful Minnesota (at least that's how the state is portrayed by SS, complete with snow and bitchy bureaucrats).

As he did so effectively in exposing the multitude of effects of the world-wide drug trade in "Traffic" (the gripping 200- Oscar winner), SS intercuts between several different storylines across the globe to detail the numerous agencies involved in identifying, then trying to contain, a public health threat of this magnitude. This device is less effective here, mainly because so many of the stories followed here are under-developed or half-baked. Jude Law makes a valiant effort to infuse some life into his character, but his story seems too contrived. That description goes double for the Marion Cotillard subplot -- she plays a WHO official sent to China to investigate the origin of the epidemic, and is caught in a ludicrous plot device. (She disappears for a large chunk of the movie, so it is hard to care about her fate, or understand her actions). SS is obviously more interested in the head of the CDC (an imposing Laurence Fishburne) and the team of scientists who franticly attempt to isolate the strain, then develop a vaccine -- lead by the riveting Jennifer Ehle, in another unglamorous role.

As I left the screening, passing by the ubiquitous racks of 3D glasses next to the ticket-taker, I thought of an effective way to market Contagion: every ticket holder gets a surgical mask and travel-size bottle of Purex. I would certainly use mine!