Wanderlust

Movie Review: Wanderlust

Director: David Wain

Reviewed: 12 March 2012

jamesintexas rating--**1/2 (4 Stars = Highest Rating)

Wanderlust is Paul Rudd's movie. And I like Paul Rudd. Here, director David Wain wisely focuses on Rudd more than Jennifer Aniston, half of a power couple from NYC who purchase, lose, and abandon their micro-loft in the West Village in the span of about five screen minutes. George loses his job because his company is shut down by the Feds, presumably. Linda fails to get HBO on board with her documentary on penguins and testicular cancer. On their sojourn to Atlanta to live with a loathsome brother Rick (played unctuously by Ken Marino), George and Linda alternate singing and fighting, brilliantly captured in a two minute montage of the emotions of a long car ride. When the drive becomes overwhelming, they pull off the road, and instead of traveling down a small road to a Deliverance-style confrontation, they encounter nudist Wayne (Joe Lo Truglio) who helpfully tries to direct them but ends up causing a car accident. So, the couple stay overnight in Elysium, a commune led by the daffy Seth (a scene-stealing Justin Theroux), salty Carvin (Alan Alda, quite good), among other recognizable faces.

And thus, they consider joining the cult, rejecting the outside world and committing fully to living there instead of depending on George's brother Rick's insulting generosity.

Wain's positioned Elysium as an alternate lifestyle in direct opposition to the kind of impersonal big-city existence established in the first five minutes of the film. There are truth circles, lots of hallucinogenic drugs, the specter of free love, vegetables, yoga, and the omnipresent site of Wayne wandering around starkers. In an establishing shot one morning, I believe it is their first morning, Wain shows the entire compound in all of its glory: goats and horses wandering around, people working with nature, Seth's shouting out to the world against war. Wain satirizes this kind of existence, but his players are loving at all times. There are small undercurrents of menace at times, but in general, the performers commit to their characters and their bits or scenes work. Kathryn Hahn's angry cult-member seems consistently on the edge of lashing out; Kerry Kenney's clueless mama bear Kathy consistently delivers some of the funniest line readings. Lauren Ambrose glows as a pregnant cult-member (it took me the entire movie to remember her from Six Feet Under).

Theroux dominates this movie in a quiet way. His character is decidedly the leader and the mouthpiece for the group's philosophy which he espouses in a way that seems trapped in the late 80's; he lists the litany of technology that besets the couple and keeps them from self-actualization-walkmen, diskmen, and at one point he's amazed by Rudd's car CD-player). His quiet confidence juxtaposed against Rudd's manic nervousness reveals a choice that Linda has to make. Should I stay or should I go when George reveals a desire to retreat to NYC?

And that conflict is what I think ultimately pins the movie down and keeps it from true greatness. A radical character shift in Seth precipitates final confrontations and pay-offs that do not work (though I love the idea that he betrays his principles for a whole "$11,000"). There's a subplot involving Rudd's inability to abandon his monogamy that struggles. Rudd, gamely, indulges in the same sort of "Slappa-da-bass, mon!" improvisation that made I Love You, Man so wonderful. His three minute extended sequence of dirty talk is a highlight for the film. Yet, the film never congealed for me, it never moved beyond a series of successful sequences or bits.

I like how cars end up in the pond without ever being shown how they arrived there.

I like Michaela Watkins' bitter sister-in-law character and her commitment to solving her unhappiness.

Jo Lo Truglio is winning, even when nakedly discussing his upcoming book about a Beltway insider.

Shoot, State and Stella alums Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and director Wain are winning in two short sequences satirizing a morning news team.

However, the movie loses its steam with the final third. The laughs become less frequent. George's final fight with Theroux is just silly (considering his commitment to his body and capoeira), and both Aniston and Malin Ackerman seem underused or curiously sidelined.

Wain displays the love for a community in this film that dominated Wet Hot American Summer and to a certain extent Role Models. I wish that he pulled this film together more; it felt like at times, a better idea for an entire television season of bits and mini-stories (ala Portlandia) than a cohesive film. But, I will keep enjoying and laughing at his films.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Movie Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Reviewed: 23 February 2012

jamesintexas rating--*** 1/2 (4 Stars = Highest Rating)

Confusing. Still not sure what happened. Loved it.

Full disclosure: I loved director Tomas Alfredson's Scandanavian vampire thriller Let The Right One In, and though I've never read much John LeCarre, I mean to, and I'm in love with spy thrillers from having devoured Ian Fleming's Bond series as a young boy to speeding through the Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish crime thrillers of today. So, the idea of Alfredson focusing on the Cold War chess game between Britain's upper levels of intelligence (aptly nicknamed "The Circus") and the very real threat of the Russians appealed to me before I even stepped into the theater. The cast looks and sounds great in the trailer and the poster.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy invites much speculation, much frustration, and much consternation. Yet, throughout it all, I loved the attention to period detail and technology, a brilliant score by Julio Iglesias that underscores and does not lead you emotionally, as well as a lead performance by a nearly silent Gary Oldman as George Smiley, retired spyman who is brought out of retirement. Oldman is a fantastic actor, and I've loved his work in JFK, Bram Stoker's Dracula, the latter episodes of the Harry Potter series, as well as a marvelous vampy turn in The Fifth Element. Zorg in that film has to be one of my all-time favorite film characters! Gary Oldman can go big, and it is crucial that Alfredson directs him to go small. Tiny gestures, movements of the face and body, one line with voice raised in the entire film all combine into a character that remains a cipher, confusing and morally ambiguous. Even at the end.

Smiley begins the film ousted from the Circus with Control (John Hurt, excellent as always) due to a botched exercise in Budapest which opens the film. As new leadership takes over, British higher-ups contact Smiley about coming out of retirement; seems they believe, as did Control, that there's a mole in the Circus, and Smiley's assigned a secret task force to figure out who it is. The characters swirl around as possible suspects: Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones, David Dencik, among others. Smiley himself was even considered a possible suspect by Control who labeled the suspects with the eponymous nicknames, taped to chess pieces. He must infiltrate his former workplace, research backgrounds and possible scenarios, and Smiley does the quietly devastating work of looking at his coworkers under the microscope.

This film works as an unconventional spy thriller because it returns to the roots of spying and the office politics of any government bureaucracy. I love the interplay among the main characters, as well as the shadowy world of the Circus, the central location of the film which is itself depicted in both the routine, mundane office work of spying and also a strange, bacchanal holiday office party, where Smiley observes his wife's behavior.

It seems apt to describe this as chess and other spy films which deal in explosions, inundation with technology, and simple, reductive espionage light types of situations as checkers. Recently, Bond films have focused on Bond the race car driver and Parkour enthusiast, not necessarily Bond the sleuth, the spy who noticed the tiny details and violations of social decorum. In From Russia With Love, Bond noticed that Red Grant (Robert Shaw) ordered red wine with fish at dinner, thus betraying himself as a Russian spy and leading to one of the greatest battles of all time on the Orient Express train. In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, George Smiley notices tiny details, and these details register on Oldman's weathered, impassive, mask-like face. He raises his voice once in the film, and I wonder if he says more than 100 words in total, while appearing in nearly every scene. Filmspotting podcast host Adam Kempenaar quoted T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in his interview with the director of this film quite aptly: "We must prepare a face to meet the faces that we meet." And, I think he has touched upon the themes brilliantly. Through clothing, affectation, voice, posture, these spies and bureaucrats are preparing "faces" for each other, and Smiley's face is prepared to encounter anything-his wife's infidelity, Control's death, a botched job in Budapest, a possible deportation and probable death for a main character-with the same tremor of emotion and stillness.

Highlights include the opening scenes in Budapest where Mark Strong feels that something is awry in his mission, as well as a scene involving a deportation and an arriving airplane on a runway, which is a large scale version of the chess game Smiley has been playing. Smiley's recreation is swimming in a river with his head above water, struggling gamely but making progress. London feels dirty, grey, washed-out. The film builds and builds, but it never coalesces into some gigantic out of character action extravaganza or build-up of score. The final confrontations involve the raising of a voice, a confusing violent act, betrayals and scenes without fireworks.

As a result, the final sequence of shots which sum up Smiley's rise to power is both terrifying and exhilarating. I love the color and the background of the Circus's room; I love that we don't see who Smiley is addressing in the room; I love the French version of Bobby Darin's "Beyond The Sea" (sung by Alberto Iglesias) playing in the background. Gary Oldman is a fantastic actor, and though I don't think he will win tonight for Best Actor, I really think that he could win for this film. His work is masterful, Alfredson's film is adult and intense, and we haven't even dug into the well-crafted supporting work from Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Mark Strong especially, but really everyone in this cast is exciting and holds their own. But Oldman rules the roost, and this film is a tribute to his craftsmanship as an actor and his confidence in Alfredson's direction.

In short, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is flat-out brilliant. The best spy thriller in years.

A Separation

Movie Review: A Separation

Director: Ashgar Farhadi

Reviewed: 23 February 2012

jamesintexas rating--**** (4 Stars = Highest Rating)

An uncomfortable classic. A talkative swirling amalgamation of emotions of several families set in modern day Iran, A Separation is a masterpiece that confronts in subtle, sophisticated, simultaneous ways class, religion, divorce, gender, power, as well as education and nationalism.

A family deals with an impending divorce.

A son deals with his father's dementia.

A daughter deals with her parents' fighting and her own education.

A woman hired to take care of the husband's father deals with her own faith crises, her care of her younger daughter, the constraints of working in an unfamiliar man's home, and her marriage.

A wife deals with her desire to flee Iran but not her daughter.

A husband deals with his desire to rule his wife in all things while also confronting his lack of employment and the family's imminent poverty.

A teacher deals with the ramifications of one conversation in passing.

A judge deals with the conflicting stories, the mountain of paperwork, the crush of cases and people, as well as the very real possibility that the law cannot adjudicate every single matter and point of conflict among human beings.

A focused, unrelenting film, Farhadi's sets up most of the film in the tight quarters of the family's apartment, the small car traveling the streets of Tehran, or the bustling chaos of the police station (home of the overworked judge). No one in this film is a stereotype; everything that I thought I knew was wrong. Standouts include Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Maadi) as the married, contentious couple.

Unexpected, emotional, overwhelming, Farhadi's cast leads a brilliant display of intensity and emotion as "way leads on to way," and consequences of actions pile up. However, I should state, this is not a labyrinthian maze of legalistic hodepodge; this is not a mystery or criminal thriller. The actions and consequences are grounded in the very real reality of a grieving family, an unhinged father waiting outside of a school, the veracity of promising on a Quran for a person of faith, the idea that pride is more important than a financial settlement.

Explosive in its own quiet way, A Separation exposed for me my own complete ignorance of modern day Iran. As a well-read person, I still felt floored by the multiplicity of cultures, classes, faith levels in this story. The Iran I thought I knew from the news and debates about policy is light years away from this very human, very tragic, very painful story of the separation within a family, within a community, within a country, within a world?

And the final shot is devastating, artful, and open-ended in the most frustrating and brilliant ways that great art can be.

I cannot recommend this movie more highly. It is a masterpiece, a triumph of acting, writing, directing.

Hugo 3D

Movie Review: Hugo 3D

Director: Martin Scorsese

Reviewed: 23 February 2012

jamesintexas rating--*** (4 Stars = Highest Rating)

A fine movie. A wonderful kids' film. A Martin Scorsese labor of love with his quintessential worship of the beginning of the film industry and his tireless devotion to the intricacies of film preservation. A strong use of 3D technology in an intelligent way. However, I don't think that Hugo holds up for me as much as other Scorsese films or connected with me emotionally. It feels too long, too labored at times. It feels didactic and preachy. It feels like a children's movie, and that's okay.

Hugo (precocious Asa Butterfield) is an orphan living in a Parisian train station, monitoring and winding the clocks and evading the nefarious police officer (hilarious Sacha Baron Cohen). He encounters toymaker Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley) and his plucky niece (Chloe Grace-Moretz) and undergoes an adventure leading him to a key that unlocks the automaton left behind by his deceased father (Jude Law) which unlocks an unseen connection to Georges and the birth of the film industry. The two children become friends, chase scenes ensue, secrets are revealed. It maintains a consistent tone throughout, and it always feels workmanlike, craftsmanship-wise. Scorsese is delivering great usage of effects, sound, art direction, and minor characters are richly sketched.

However, it seems rote at times and left me a bit cold and unaffected; Hugo attempts to hit the right marks, tries to reach for an emotional height but doesn't quite reach it. Some of that is because of the limitations of the source material (the amazing Brian Selznick's graphic novel/children's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a much better title). Lines like "machines come with the exact number of parts that they need" make easy parallels to Hugo's own life and feelings of inadequacy. It is difficult to see Christopher Lee, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emily Mortimer, Ray Winstone, and Jude Law all underused; the film could have used more of them.

I love the early filmmaking history contained in this film; when I read this book, I envisioned many of the scenes, but it was powerful to see the sequences of the train running into the screen and the audience cringing, as well as the way special effects were delivered in a very organic and creative way.

As for the 3D technology, the camera propels through the train station, there's a cool effect in the opening shot where a clock merges into the movement of traffic around the city centre, as well as fantastic turns and twists following young Hugo as he crawls through the underworks of the train station and the clocks. At times, it was breathtaking and used quite well.

Ultimately, Scorsese does not deliver a bad film. He's far too film-literate and cares too much to not deliver. However, I can't say this film has the exhilaration of a Goodfellas, the punch of The Departed, the visceral messiness of a Gangs of New York, the grit of a Raging Bull or Taxi Driver. It feels like Scorsese making a children's movie and doing it well. And that's what he is doing. He's made a film for his daughter, and there are no f-bombs, no Bill the Butcher-type villains meditating on "my violence conquering your violence" a thread through many of Scorsese's pictures as voiced by the warden in Shutter Island, no Rolling Stones' songs kicking in the background, no Robert DeNiro. And that's okay, I guess, but I wanted more.

I'll always want more from Martin Scorsese, the greatest living American director.

(And yes, P.F. Kluge, I spelled his name right in this review! Full disclosure: in 1998, I misspelled Scorsese's name Scorcese in the Kenyon College Collegian, and I've never forgiven myself. Professor Kluge asked me on the path near Cromwell Cottage one morning, "Sheridan, how do you spell Scorsese?" When I told him how, he returned, "Good. You're right. Too bad that's not how you spelled it in the Collegian last week." And, chagrined and chastised, I have never made that mistake again. Thanks, Professor Kluge.

Tuba Atlantic

Movie Review: Tuba Atlantic

Director: Hallvar Witzo

Reviewed: 18 February 2012

jamesintexas rating--*** 1/2 (4 Stars = Highest Rating)

Weird. Strange. Unique. Tuba Atlantic concluded the set of the five films nominated for Best Short Films 2012 that I saw in one straight shot at Houston's Sundance Theater, and in many ways, I left with the most love for this film above all else. An unlikeable protagonist, a strained transatlantic sibling relationship, a frigid tuba perched on a windswept shore, machine guns, an actual angel of death, Tuba Atlantic is a hodepodge of quirky elements that come together wonderfully in a brisk 25 minutes. This film is my choice for the 2012 Best Short Film Academy Award.

The opening sustained long shot reveals Oskar (Edvard Haegstad), an older man living alone in Norway, to have cancer; his doctor gives him the countdown of six. "Six months?" Oskar asks. "Six days" his doctor replies. During his last days, the government sends out a young woman Inger (Ingrid Viken) from the Jesus Club to be his angel of death, and she dutifully checks off the Kubler-Ross stages of death as Oskar advances. As he considers his life, Oskar also desires to reconcile with his brother who moved across the water to New Jersey; their childhood was consumed by building the massive tuba that remains covered outside of Oskar's home. A shot of a picture on the wall reveals itself to be only half of the truth, as Oskar has hidden his brother's face from view. The angel of death engages in philosophical discussions with Oskar, and eventually, the tuba comes into play. Wonderfully.

There's great comedy here with Oskar's penchant for machine gunning and dynamiting the seagulls around his home. I really enjoyed the radio conversations that punctuate Oskar's day. The relationship with the angel of death is a humorous one that does not descend into schmaltz or maudlin territory. The ending works pretty well. The detail of Oskar plugging his phone cord in when he finally wants to communicate with his brother was brilliant; I remember my Irish grandfather doing something similar: turning down his hearing aid when he knew he didn't want to hear what his Italian barber had to say. Witzo's film is dealing, very skillfully, with the ways that people hurt and heal, grieve and forgive, reach out and react.

I think this film is enjoyable on multiple levels. It is existential and about facing death. It confronts issues of faith in a straightforward way. The face off in worldview between Oskar and Inger is low key, yet profound.

And for me, in the past three years, I've read Stieg Larsson's Millenium series, 3-5 Jo Nesbo Norwegian detective novels, Henning Mankell and Hakan Nesser's Scandanavian thrillers, as well as starting a series set in Iceland. All deal with horrific violence, abhorrent murderers, damaged heroes raging against the elements and the corruption and the brutality of the world. So, it is just flat out refreshing to see this Norwegian tale of a crabby old man, tuba player, vexed by a thirty year argument with his brother now in New Jersey who yearns to talk to him one last time. And one who rages against his world by machine gunning seagulls. And inspiring others to do the same. Well-done.

Time Freak

Movie Review: Time Freak

Director: Andrew Bowler

Reviewed: 18 February 2012

jamesintexas rating--**1/2 (4 Stars = Highest Rating)

A whimsical look at time travel, Time Freak is nominated for Best Short Film 2012. When I think about time travel, I tend to think big ala Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris or Marty McFly in Back to the Future; however, in Andrew Bowler's film Time Freak, the paradox is that we have learned to travel through time, yet we remain stuck in our immediate lives that there is no time to pursue the bigger questions.

The main character develops a time travel machine, and as a result, he remains trapped in a loop of the immediate reality: replaying an interaction with a dry cleaner, perfecting a meet cute with an ex-girlfriend, fixing a conversation with a friend. On a certain level, Bowler is confronting the existential questions of a film like Groundhog Day with quicker editing and payoffs. Ultimately, I don't think the camerawork or concepts develop as strongly as I would have hoped, and the performances are serviceable, but I think this film is more fun to think about than to watch.

The end joke is clever, but ultimately this film lacks profundity or grace in its construction and editing. It should not win the Academy Award.

Pentecost

Movie Review: Pentecost

Director: Peter McDonald

Reviewed: 18 February 2012

jamesintexas rating--*** (4 Stars = Highest Rating)

Peter McDonald's short film (nominated this year for Best Short Film) Pentecost is incredibly brief (eleven minutes) and registers on another level for me because of my experiences as an altar server in my Catholic Church for about six years. The droll, incredibly funny dialogue related to matters of altar serving won me over quickly. A priest speaks to his team of servers before working an important mass with the Arch Bishop; he's a coach in the football locker room, delivering a sermon to his players.

Damian Lynch, a young boy injures a priest in a freak incense accident (and believe me, those things can happen; I once passed out during a service due to too much incense), and as punishment, his dad removes his beloved football pictures from his bedroom walls. In order to redeem himself, Damian is called out of his suspension by the parish to serve one last mass, this time with the Arch Bishop. If he pulls this off, his dad will restore his privileges.

A deeply funny film, touching on serious issues of identity, differences between parents, loyalty and, incredibly, revolution, McDonald delivers a quick punch of a film with incredible control and grace. An insider's look at this world; immediately after watching it, I wanted to show it to my entire family. Ultimately, this film might be seen as too slight by the Academy to take home the award, but it was wonderful. Funnier in eleven minutes than many movies are in ninety.