June Ponderables, And Some TV Too

City of Sadness - (1989) - 35mm Film
Seen: Monday, June 1, 2009

Realizing how out of sync I was with the story of Hou Hsiao-hsien's City of Sadness makes perfect sense retroactively, because its narrative follows a four-year period of Taiwanese history that I know very little about. A quick read-though of a handy Wikipedia page filled in a lot of the historical gaps and now it's clearer. Just after the Japanese surrender to the allies in WWII, Taiwan becomes free for the first time in 51 years. Problem is, mainland China has its eyes on the island country, and pitted against the Taiwanese rebel fighters, the stage is set for war, just when Taiwan looked to be free. During these four years of particularly intense strife, Hou Hsiao-hsien follows a family that awaits the return of four brothers from WWII, sees their partial reunion, then deals with their political and social maladjustment. It's a historical film, to be sure. But as a Taiwanese himself, this is a personal film for Hou--and likewise to the Taiwanese people--even more so. Unavailable on DVD, this newly struck 35mm print was on direct loan from Taiwan for its Doc Films screening. The theater packed a full house--marvelous!


Up - (2009) - Film
Seen: Wednesday, June 3, 2009

It pains me to say it--just look at that lovable, pudgy kid at left, Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), from Pixar's latest feature Up--but I can't think of a more disappointing release from the animation giant in its history. Frankly, I don't get it--did I see the same movie as you all? I enjoyed myself enough to say it was a good experience on a few levels: 1) to marvel at its technical prowess; 2) for the introduction to two cute characters, Russell, the boyscout who befriends codgery old Carl (Ed Asner), and a dog named Dug, who with the aid of a special collar is able to narrate his adorably doggie kind of thoughts--pretty priceless; finally, 3) for a sequence that without any dialogue leads us through Carl's life with his wife Ellie. It's a brief montage of their time from kids to Ellie's death, which hits Carl hard, and left me quivering to keep the tears from spilling out. On the other hand, beyond the sequence just described, the rest of the film felt like filler. Carl remained bitter solely for the sake of narrative conflict, it seemed. There was so little redeeming about him, a hard trait to have for a kid's movie that's supposed to portray the elderly as nonthreatening. Also, shouldn't Charles Muntz have died long before Carl was able to catch up with him in the jungle? As a child Carl watched Muntz's adventurous exploits on newsreels that look to make him at least 25 or 3o years his senior. That would make Muntz over 100-years-old by my calculations. Something doesn't add up...(unforgivably terrible pun)


I Heart Huckabees - (2004) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, June 7, 2009

More than anything else I remembered about 2004's I Heart Huckabees was the Film Comment cover in response to its fall release. I remember that cover better than the movie, which can easily be explained away because I never saw I Heart Huckabees in the theater in 2004. The movie slipped away from me. And it's funny, because even though I have no memory of the film itself, I do remember its ad campaign and the miles of critical essays about it upon its release. For some odd reason, I have a place in my heart for I Heart Huckabees as a defining movie of 2004, despite not seeing it until almost five years later.

I have fond memories of the idea of the movie, rather than the movie itself? Do you remember movies like this too? I am glad to report Huckabees, as it is to the future-me now who is now residing in 2009, is cute, and had a fun energy. I really relished Lily Tomlin onscreen, who I don't see nearly enough of anymore. Dustin Hoffman is one of those actors who is able to absorb a character so the audience is not left thinking about "Dustin Hoffman," the star persona; in Huckabees, he is no different, he just lets it all go. Ditto that for Jude Law, spastic and delightful; Naomi Watts, simply mad (and cute); Mark Walberg, hilarious and an impossible companion; and Jason Schwartzman, the oddest comic master. French actress Isabelle Huppert adds extra eclecticism to an already strange brew of existential dilemmas. One of the dulling experiences in life is revisiting movies you loved as a kid that as an adult are bad, or worse, unwatchable. Even though I didn't see Huckabees in 2004, the anticipation I built up for it over the past five years might as well be the proxy for my hypothetical love of it then. What a relief to have the years match my expectations.


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - (2008) - DVD
Seen: Monday, June 8, 2009

Andrea at the Spinster Aunt blog saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on New Year's Eve. As a holiday devoted entirely to the celebration of the passing of time, it was an apt moment to see it, and as she has noted, it influenced her reception of it very much. I am sure now that my experience with Benjamin Button would have better if I saw it at the same time. My viewing mate at home, here, late in the middle of June, said it reminded him of Forrest Gump. Hearing that, and knowing the movie tastes of my movie companion, I knew right away his thoughts on Benjamin Button were less than satisfactory, but thought maybe that could be chalked up to the circumstances of time, just as it had for Andrea in the inverse manner.

I fell somewhere in between. Remembering the sweet melancholia of Andrea's experience, and being unable to separate myself--physically, we were in the same room--from the spells of dramatic sighs made in disapproval, especially when that little hummingbird whisked into the frame, it was hard to get my intellectual and emotional bearings on the film set straight. Just like the feather wafting along the arc of Forrest Gump, I suppose Button's hummingbird was repeatedly too overt to take sitting down quietly. But, then again, in a movie like Button that is created outside of time, in both character arc--Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) literally ages in reverse, starting life as an old man in an infant's body, and ending it as a baby with the wisdom of ages--and as a retrospective, a biopic really, that transports us to a different time in history altogether, the hummingbird felt like an acceptable time marker. A little reminder perhaps that the structures of time we adhere to may be just as whimsical as that CGI hummingbird...


The Fisher King - (1991) - DVD
Seen: Wednesday, June 10, 2009

There was sudden buzz about The Fisher King, a movie I have long meant to see, when a friend began tutoring the screenwriter of the film. Ta-da! To the top of the queue it went. From director Terry Gilliam, it has a distinct dsytopic look, like a glance into a steely future that looks a lot like early 1990s New York. Set among gaps between buildings scraping the stratosphere, cramped tenements, and an open stretch of Central Park, its lead character, Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), is a slightly meaner version of Howard Stern who inadvertently sends a call-in listener on a murderous rampage to years later befriend Parry (Robin Williams), one victim's husband, after he's lost his job and is relegated to anonymity and working-class status. The tenuous relationship between Jack and Parry--who appears to be a schizophrenic--is analogous to the city scenery Gilliam presents, with the backdrop alternating from metallic, modern edges (Jack, in his rich and famous heyday) to scrappy stoops and storefronts (Jack and Anne, played wonderfully by Mercedes Ruehl, in her cluttered apartment) to the city streets and park lawn (the public places where Jack has the least control over Parry's whims). It's a tightly woven story that in its most basic sense is about action and consequence. But such a moralistic tale has never felt less didactic.


Year One - (2009) - Film
Seen: Saturday, June 20, 2009

Read my capsule review of Harold Ramis's Year One at Scarlett Cinema!


















Maborosi - (1995) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, June 21, 2009

My thoughts on Hirokazu Kore-eda's Maborosi at Scarlett Cinema...













Duck Soup - (1933) - DVD
Seen: Wednesday, June 24, 2009


As it was spoken on Twitter...













Food, Inc. - (2009) - Film
Seen: Saturday, June 27, 2009

Another great reminder to be mindful of our food sources. The documentary structure is a little clunky, but forgivable. Read my review on Scarlett Cinema!
















RoboCop - (1987) - DVD
Seen: Saturday, June 27, 2009

Here is a still from the best scene of the movie. You probably already know this because you've been watching RoboCop since you were 8-years-old, but for those of you who, like me, have not seen the movie before, a man gets mowed down right in the middle of the office by this cumbersome, Jetsons-esque robot cop at left. In the ivory tower, just beside a conference table the capitalist suit is shot to a pulp--Blammo! I liked RoboCop because it's a really good bad movie. As an action flick, it could have been reduced to a cliche if it weren't for its very fun Reaganomics commentary.

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Lastly, I caught up with some brilliant TV shows this month. I wrapped up the last episodes of The Wire, and began an altogether different series, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, a show so irreverent and politically incorrect it makes those of us with the darkest senses of humor seem sweet. I love it, naturally. Maybe more on It's Always Sunny in the next post...

Another for the Top Ten

Flight of the Red Balloon (2008)
Seen: Sunday, April 20, 2008

If I have any weakness when it comes to critiquing a film, it's one thing: plot. It is the driving force of American cinema, particularly that coming out of Hollywood; its formulas are tried and true and practically hammered into any movie-goer's head from the time they are toddlers. So it's not so much that I haven't digested the three-act plot structure, it is just the least interesting part of a movie to me personally.

That can work for and against me given the movie. If we're talking about a summer blockbuster, for instance, or an early spring release of a chintzy romantic comedy, the odds are I could recite the plot even if I haven't watched the movie. No surprise there, in general those stories are predictable enough. On the other hand, when that rarer gem of a movie experiments with classic structure and plot points, I am usually in a mild daze--at least temporarily.

Lining up who is who, and why he suddenly appeared two scenes ago with the woman (and was he holding the clue in his hand?) always eludes me, always to my own shame and embarrassment. It can get you down, being the dummy who pieces the story together hours after the movie has faded to black. Press notes help immensely in this regard, so do smart friends who can memorize the dialogue of a scene after seeing it only once. But I've only got the notes for probably less than 1% of the movies I see, and even fewer friends with enough patience to summarize the story for me in their free time (though, thank goodness some were around for last year's Bourne Ultimatum!)

With that, it's a lucky day when a movie comes along so pretty and meditative--and in the case of Hou Hsiao Hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon, it manages to be both of these things without a hint of heavy-handedness--that I get to indulge my visual sense without a care in the nearly narrative-free world.

In Flight of the Red Balloon, the audience gets to be Parisian for a couple hours. Paris's marvelous landscape is show in a range of sequences: interior and exterior, panorama and close-up, with a meticulous attention to the mundane and urbane manners of the people in this metropolis. It is a curious and privileged peek at a single French woman's familial dynamic with her young son and his nanny, and also at their politely intrusive neighbors, much like the bird's eye view of the peculiar red balloon that follows little Simon (Simon Iteanu) home and about town. We hover around them, behind curtains and columns, bookshelves, or just beside Suzanne (Juliette Binoche) on the sidelines of a puppet show where she plays a character's voice. Simon sits at the kitchenette table with his nanny Song (Fang Song), and as his mother whirls through the front door and empties a small sack of groceries before them, this simple task has never looked so pleasing.

It is also an idyllic picture of city dwellers, and in the case of Suzanne and Simon who are left to contend with their downstairs neighbors, easily one that is simpler to look at from a distance with a lazy grin than experience firsthand. There's something about this romanticized picture of city life where space is so tight that people's emotions collide publicly like little bumper-to-bumper accidents. Somehow, the idea of Suzanne yelling at me down the stairwell seems so sweet! But again, that's easier to witness onscreen than experience firsthand.

As a foreigner himself to Paris's landscape, director Hou Hsiao Hsien of Taiwanese nationality seems to be taking an indulgent insider's tourist trip for the rest of us. I haven't read any French reviews of the film, but I'd be curious to see how that audience perceived Hou's vision of their city. In any event, Flight was for me what I love most about the movies: pictures that are personal but are not bound to strictures of narrative; the kind that find a relaxed life of their own, and impart something beautiful to their audience, even if there isn't a great overarching message. That much I can get right away, with or without press notes.