The Frame » film-2007 http://frame.the-frame.com from the pen of Jandy Stone Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:17:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The Savages http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/08/29/the-savages/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/08/29/the-savages/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:41:30 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=423 Estranged siblings Jon and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) are forced to care for their aging and increasingly senile father when the woman he lives with dies, leaving him without a home. This is not a particularly exciting proposition to anyone involved – both siblings are playwrights (Jon much more successfully than Wendy, who has yet to get one of her plays produced), and both have based plays around their traumatic (or at least neglected) childhood. Neither has seen their father for years. But they make an effort, settling Dad into a nursing home. Writer/directer Tamara Jenkins treats Dad with a great deal of nuance despite his decidedly supporting role – he’s too far gone into dementia to be able to respond to Wendy’s attempts to pretend everything’s fine, but not so far gone that the hurt doesn’t creep into his face when Jon treats him as though he’s not even there. In addition to the parent-child issues, Wendy’s also dealing with her inability to get produced, to get out of a relationship with a married man, and to overcome her sense of inferiority in comparison with Jon – who is, meanwhile, figuring out what to do about his girlfriend leaving for her home in Eastern Europe. So many strands of story and so many levels of (broken) relationships could easily lead to a sloppy and depressing film, especially since Jon and Wendy spend so much time angry at each other. But Jenkins holds everything together very well, with a smart screenplay and steady directorial hand bringing out the best that Linney and Hoffman have to offer. Which is quite a lot.
Well Above Average

]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/08/29/the-savages/feed/ 0 Hannah Takes the Stairs http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/27/hannah-takes-the-stairs/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/27/hannah-takes-the-stairs/#comments Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:13:49 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=417 I’m not wholly against considering films like Little Miss Sunshine and Juno as indie films, despite the fact that they had financing from specialty divisions of major studios and clearly straddle the line between mainstream and indie, but sometimes I’m tempted to just point at films like Hannah Takes the Stairs and say “Now THIS is an independent film.” Swanberg, Gerwig, and a group of other filmmakers including Ronald and Mary Bronstein, Mark and Jay Duplass, and Andrew Bujalsi have made a number of films at this point loosely grouped together by critics under the name “Mumblecore.” Hannah got wider distribution than most of the others, but still was hardly seen outside of New York, Los Angeles, and Austin. Following a largely improvised script, Hannah is a twenty-something struggling through a failing relationship with her boyfriend and the possibility of relationships with two of her coworkers. There isn’t much more plot to mention, and the film comes under perhaps deserved criticism for its lack of development and the frustrating uncertainty of its heroine. On the other hand, there’s a rawness here that feels more real than most films, a rawness that gets polished away by the mainstream, a rawness I found quite refreshing. I certainly wouldn’t say that all films should be more like Hannah, but I think it’s important that there’s a space in the filmmaking/distribution world for these willfully non-mainstream films that push the envelope by refusing to play by the rules.
Above Average

]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/27/hannah-takes-the-stairs/feed/ 0 I Am Legend http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/i-am-legend/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/i-am-legend/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:48:01 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=409 In the near future, researchers create a cure for cancer by reverse engineering the measles virus. Yay! Unfortunately, viruses are tricky buggers and the cure mutates into a rabies-like disease that spreads like wildfire, turning 99% of the population into bloodthirsty zombie-esque creatures. Boo. The fate of humanity rests in the capable hands of Will Smith, as immune medical researcher Robert Neville, working in deserted Manhattan to reverse-reverse engineer the disease. What could have been a routine survival creature feature becomes a good deal more, focusing on Neville’s loneliness and abandonment. He depends deeply on the company of his dog and of the store mannequins for which he creates personalities and stories – a moment when one of the mannequins is “in danger” from the zombies and Neville breaks down in panic could be merely ludicrous but is instead tragically believable in his world of devastation and isolation. It’s quite obviously a Smith tour-de-force, and he doesn’t disappoint. The special effects on the creatures do, but I choose to believe their lack of believability is intentional, because they aren’t the real horror Neville has to face. I only wish the ending had sustained the contemplative quality of the earlier sections – it eventually does become little more than survival horror and never follows through on the implications of Neville’s psychological situation as much as it could have. Still, a solid blockbuster with a lot more thoughtfulness and integrity than most.
Well Above Average

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]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/i-am-legend/feed/ 0 Margot at the Wedding http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/margot-at-the-wedding/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/margot-at-the-wedding/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:45:47 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=408 Aw, Noah Baumbach, what are you doing to me?! I’d heard the bad reviews for this, his newest film, but somehow I convinced myself that the writer/director of Kicking and Screaming and The Squid and the Whale couldn’t possibly make a subpar film, right? Wrong. Nicole Kidman plays Margot, a cynical, bitter writer who takes her teenage son to her estranged sister’s wedding (to a man who disgusts Margot). Then there’s supposed to be some deep interfamilial and personal reevaluation, except that never happens. Instead, we get only a lot of uncomfortable scenes strung together by uncomfortable silences, and while I’m not generally against uncomfortableness in films, there’s nothing to offset it or make it worthwhile. The dialogue feels stilted, and I don’t know who to blame. Kidman actually does a really good job acting the part physically, but as soon as she opens her mouth, everything falls flat. But the dialogue isn’t really bad, either – I can see why someone reading the script would be attracted to it. Somewhere between page and screen it died, though. Perhaps Baumbach isn’t as good an actor’s director as he needs to be. Also, the complete lack of score actually works against the film, despite Baumbach and Leigh’s protestations that score would’ve ruined it (in a conversation on the DVD) – while score does, as they point out, manipulate the audience, it also gives the audience empathy. I could hardly have cared less about what happened to these people, and I wanted to. Badly.
Below Average

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]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/margot-at-the-wedding/feed/ 0 Shoot ‘Em Up http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/shoot-em-up/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/shoot-em-up/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:41:29 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=407 A bit stymied on this one. Point #1: It’s a terrible film. Point #2: It knows it’s a terrible film. Point #3: It’s not a terrible enough film (or terrible in the right way) to fall into the “so bad it’s good” category. It’s basically like the filmmakers decided to rip off every bad action film ever and then go even further. There’s a pregnant woman in danger, being chased by a man with a gun, which pulls bystander Clive Owen into the action to rescue her. But wait! Let’s have him help her give birth while in a gunfight with the bad guys. Uh-oh, she got killed, so Owen has to take the baby with him to protect it. So he enlists the help of a woman who can nurse the baby. But wait! Let’s make her a prostitute who specializes in serving men with breastfeeding fetishes. Eventually they hook up, but not only that, they hook up while in a gunfight with the bad guys. Then they’re chased by Paul Giamatti, and they figure out that something serious is going on. I wouldn’t really feel bad about revealing the “something serious,” but hey. Even a bad film deserves its suspense, right? Eventually there’s a confrontation on an airplane. But wait! Let’s have them jump out and parachute to the ground while in a gunfight. Anyway, the dialogue is so bad it’s obviously intentional, and every time you think it can’t possibly go any more over the top, it does. By the end, my mouth was hanging open in sheer amazement at the audacity of the film. Not necessarily in a good way.
Below Average

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]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/shoot-em-up/feed/ 0 I’m Not There http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/im-not-there/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/im-not-there/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:38:18 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=406 I probably would’ve gotten more out of this if I were familiar with Bob Dylan’s life and music, but even so, I was fascinated by its approach to the biopic genre. Rather than give a straightforward account of Dylan’s experiences, director Haynes instead envisions Dylan as a series of characters, each with a different name (none of which is “Bob Dylan,” just fyi) and played by a different actor — or actress, in the case of Cate Blanchett. In this way, he builds a multifaceted picture of a person constantly reinventing himself, sometimes a kid prodigy twanging out blues rhythms, other times a self-centered hotshot pretending he doesn’t enjoy media attention, still other times a quiet man dealing with the breakup of his family, among others. And to add to the fragmentation, these personas don’t follow each other sequentially, but are woven together throughout. I was also intrigued by the homages to European art films, especially Godard’s Masculin Feminin and Fellini’s 8 1/2 (I’m sure there were others I didn’t catch), but I have no idea what they mean. Someone who knows Dylan better than I might be able to shed some light on whether those references have intrinsic meaning to a story of his life, or if they’re just Haynes playing around. There’s a bit of an unwelcome air of pretension about the whole project, but it’s mostly made up for by its undeniable virtuosity.
Well Above Average

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]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/im-not-there/feed/ 0 Lars and the Real Girl http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/lars-and-the-real-girl/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/lars-and-the-real-girl/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:35:55 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=405 You’d expect a film about a shy man who orders an anatomically correct sex doll off the internet and then acts as though she’s his real girlfriend would veer quickly into Judd Apatow territory, with coarse jokes galore, but that’s not in the least what Lars and the Real Girl is (though the trailers tended to suggest it would be – yet another film mismarketed by the Hollywood machine). Instead, it’s a heartfelt exploration of the psyche of a very damaged man, and the lengths to which his family and friends, indeed, his whole town, will go to try to help him recover. It gets a bit sentimental at times, but there’s enough bittersweetness filtered in that it never gets too saccharine. Ryan Gosling turns in another winning performance as Lars, while Mortimer and Clarkson, as always, provide stellar support. (Seriously, Patricia Clarkson is one of those people whose films you can just about bank on being good.)
Well Above Average

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]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/lars-and-the-real-girl/feed/ 0 The Invasion http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/the-invasion/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/the-invasion/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:31:42 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=404 I was truly expecting the worst from this one, after the horrific reviews it got on release. Folks, it is not that bad. Certainly it’s no classic like the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but it’s a perfectly acceptable little thriller to kill a few hours with. The basic storyline is similar to the original – aliens land and start taking over the bodies of humans, turning them into emotionless husks that otherwise seem the same as ever. Kidman’s ex-husband Jeremy Northam is one of the turned, and he tries to get her to join him; she spends the rest of the movie trying to get herself and her son to safety. There’s a good mix of intense and quiet moments, and I’m not at all sure where the charge of incomprehensibility that a lot of reviewers made comes from, because everything made perfect sense. Apparently they need to watch Made in USA. Or, like, Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Anyway, the moral/ethic dilemma introduced is that supposedly if the alien beings won, there wouldn’t be any more conflict or war, which is introduced by emotion and passion (a similar theme to 2002’s Equilibrium) – the question left open at the end is which is better, peace or freedom. Normally I’m not a huge fan when remakes stick on moral quandries, but this time it works, mostly because these are the sorts of questions that classic sci-fi used to ask before sci-fi turned into mere alien-hunting action.
Above Average

]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/the-invasion/feed/ 0 Michael Clayton http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/michael-clayton/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/michael-clayton/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:28:06 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=403 I rated this Well Above Average upon watching it, so I’ll let it stand, but I’m tempted to knock it down to Above Average. I wanted to be blown away by this – the lone mainstream film in last year’s Oscar race? A thinking person’s corporate thriller? Sounds like one to get excited about. And it was good, don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot to like about it, starting with the trio of main actors, all of whom are outstanding. George Clooney is the eponymous corporate fixer, the guy who gets called in to keep scandal and litigation away from his clients. This time, Tom Wilkinson has gone off the deep end, raving about all the bad things the company he works for does. That’s all tied up with Tilda Swinton and some reports she’s concealing about the unethical things the corporation has done in the name of research. There’s a lot of moral underpinning, too, as Clayton must decide whether to do the right thing and uncover the corruption or take the payoff he desperately needs to support his family. It’s a good story, but unnecessarily convoluted by the introduction of Clayton’s brother’s subplot (which is needed for background, but not in the detail we get). It’s also definitely an actor’s film, which is fine – but I would’ve liked a bit more crackle from Gilroy as writer/director.
Well Above Average

]]> http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/07/21/michael-clayton/feed/ 0 Enchanted http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/03/29/enchanted/ http://frame.the-frame.com/2008/03/29/enchanted/#comments Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:38:17 +0000 Jandy http://frame.the-frame.com/?p=19 EnchantedEnchanted was the number one box office hit of the holiday weekend, with something like the fifth highest Thanksgiving opening ever. So, chances are you and your family have already seen it.

However, if you haven’t, do. I’ve been nervously excited for it since I heard about it, but feared that the story of an animated princess being thrust into the real-life world of New York City would end up being either hopelessly silly or nauseatingly saccharine. But Enchanted is neither of those things. I’ll admit there are moments when it started to slip toward one or the other, but it always came back to being heartwarmingly adorable before much damage was done.

Amy Adams is absolutely perfect as would-be princess Giselle, pushed into a portal-well by her wicked stepmother-in-law-to-be on the eve of her wedding to Prince Edward (James Marsden). Her performance starts out with every action overdone, as befitting her animated past, but gradually becomes more nuanced as Giselle learns to navigate the real world, where princes don’t always catch you when you fall, where suddenly bursting out into song doesn’t guarantee that that special someone will love you back, where not everyone appreciates woodland animals in their homes and restaurants, and where marriages don’t last happily ever after (Robert, who helps her in New York, is a divorce lawyer). Yet coming to terms with the real world doesn’t mean the loss of Giselle’s innocence; rather, her openness and belief in love transforms everyone she comes into contact with, as well. The musical numbers help, too.

Okay, see, now I’m starting to make it sound like one of those family films with a super obvious message that I always rail against. But it isn’t like that. I hardly ever like family films (except Pixar and Aardman), and I haven’t liked a non-Pixar Disney film for quite some time, so that should tell you something. Enchanted is refreshing; a film that both kids and their parents can (probably) enjoy. I put “probably” in there because you should probably check any latent cynicism at the door. But you should do that anyway. Cynicism is overrated. ;)

Speaking of Disney, any fans of Disney’s animated history will be in for a treat, since nearly all of Disney’s classics are referenced. Giselle is quite obviously a mix of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, with a pinch of Belle and a smidgen of Cinderella. The evil stepmother is half Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent and half Snow White’s wicked queen. Lump up all the various Prince Charmings and you’ve got Edward. And there are sight references to Lady and the Tramp, Cinderella, and I’m sure many others that I didn’t catch the first time around. The film is tender towards Disney’s history and conventions, but also gently parodic and willing to laugh at itself, which goes a long way toward guarding against the maudlin tendency.

All in all, if you have kids, especially girls, and haven’t taken them to see Enchanted, I highly recommend you do so. Or go yourself. Because I and my three grad student friends enjoyed it greatly. And did I mention how good Amy Adams is? I know, every review has pointed that out. But it’s worth saying over and over. In fact, I have decided that pretty much every movie would at least 72% better if Amy Adams were in it.

edit: I forgot the one bad thing. Idina Menzel is in it, and she didn’t sing! I mean, COME ON! That’s like having Kristin Chenoweth in the cast of Pushing Daisies and not having her sing every week. Wait… But seriously, as soon as I recognized her, I started waiting for her musical number, and there wasn’t one. So don’t hold your breath for that. But Amy Adams does her own singing, too, and very, very well I might add. This is why we need more musicals, folks! Actors have hidden musical talent that I want to know about.

Well Above Average

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