"A Serious Man" begs the question "why?"

Joel and Ethan Coen, "the Coen brothers", are probably my favorite filmmakers. Raising Arizona, Fargo, Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski, No Country For Old Men. These movies are masterpieces in my mind. Sure, the brothers have made some stinkers here and there (most of them starring George Clooney, whom I have long loathed for reasons I won't get into at this moment). But for the most part, these guys are immensely talented, succeeding tremendously in virtually every arena, from comedy to drama to suspense. Though what exactly are the elements that bind their films? That is, what are the trademarks of the Coen brothers? Hard to pinpoint, not only because of their variety, but the originality of the movies themselves transcend categories. Overall, they are unconventional, and indeed often ridiculous. The dialogue is sharp, witty and grandiose (The Big Lebowski is probably the most quotable movie ever, way more than Casablanca). Finally there is an insidious sense of irreverence and nihilism that may manifest as abrupt, grotesque violence (e.g. the woodchipper scene in Fargo, virtually every scene with Javier Bardiem in No Country for Old Men), or sudden, seemingly anticlimactic endings (Barton Fink) or animalistic howling in despair (Rasing Arizona, Fargo, Miller's Crossing) or, as their latest film, A Serious Man, demonstrates, continuous onslaught of punishment upon the innocent.

A Serious Man essentially is the story of Job set in a Midwestern Jewish community during the late 1960s. Larry Gopnik, played by Michael Stuhlbarg (yeah the entire cast is pretty much unrecognizable) is Job in this case. He is a happy physics professor with a wife, kids, house, the whole bit, and then suddenly for no apparent reason his life falls apart. Gopnik, the scientist in search for answers, tries to understand why he is suffering such misfortunes despite leading a virtuous life. Finally after much persuasion and desperation, he turns to the temple, where the rabbis are as useless as tits on a bull.

Gopnik's pitfalls and search for meaning are more comedic than tragic when presented through the eyes of the Coen brothers. His suffering reminded me of the hilarious lemonade vendor's "slow burn" from Marx Brothers' Duck Soup [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZOlrZNIod0 ] only about 90 minutes longer and in color. The laughs aren't big or even all that frequent though, and overall I'd say there's nothing supremely impressive about this movie as compared to their previous work. Perhaps the one striking thing about this movie is that it seems to paradoxically put forth the message that there is no message... shit happens and then you die. So let's all get drunk and play ping-pong!

P.S. I tried on three separate occasions to see this movie but was denied, once because it was sold out, and twice because the internet said it was playing at the theatre when it actually was not! When I went to buy tickets the first time and the vendor told me it was sold out, I was like "Are you serious....man?"

"Wild Thing" you make my heart bleed

I was really looking forward to seeing Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jone's adaptation of the children's book. And while the movie was good in a lot of ways, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

Spike Jones also directed the mind-bending Being John Malkovich and Adaptation and the kick-ass "Sabatoge" music video by the Beastie Boys. For this movie, he joined forces with writer Dave Eggers, who wrote A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and What is the What?, two books with bounding pulses of vitality. Eggers also created the ridiculous/inspiring Pirate shop/writing center at 826 Valencia in San Francisco. Just how intensely emotional can Eggers get? Here's the last line from AHWOSG:

What the fuck does it take to show you motherfuckers, what does it fucking take what do you want how much do you want because I am willing and I'll stand before you and I'll raise my arms and give you my chest and throat and wait, and I've been so old for so long, for you, I want it fast and right through me-Oh do it, you motherfuckers, do it do it you fuckers finally, finally, finally.

What is the What? is a postmodern biography of a Sudanese "Lost Boy" refugee, accounting atrocities beyond your imagination. And so, with these two minds collaborating on a children's book about a boy, Max, and his monsters, the possibilities were endless.

I think visually the film is a success. The wild things themselves look so wonderful, so lifelike, any kid would love to party with 'em. It's really cool to watch them jump around and smash into things. Also the location of the film, a remote area outside Melbourne Australia, is breathtaking. Even the handheld camerawork is good, tumbling down stairs and through forests and tunnels.

The story is pretty straightforward. Max throws a temper tantrum and drifts off into this imaginary world to escape the tribulations of reality, where he becomes king of the wild things. They engage in typical childhood rough-housing, dirt clod wars and the like.

But the monsters threw me for a loop. I couldn't get a handle on what age they were supposed to be. They're nieve and playful like young children, but also combative and overly sensitive like adolescents. They fight and whine A LOT. Max just wants them to get along, but it's draining for him and the audience, and there's a sense of relief when he finally comes back to the real world. Seriously the drama was overwhelming, and for no real clear reason.

One of the joys of working with children is regularly experiencing their effortless imagination and wild freedom, which this film exudes. If only Max could conjure a remedy for Eggers' bleeding heart...

"The Informant!" He's wearing a wire, but that ain't half of it.

The Informant is Steven Soderbergh's newest film starring Matt Damon, and is based on the true story of Mark Whitacre, a man who sought to expose a global conspiracy of price fixing by multinational corporations...but for all the wrong reasons. Indeed it's one of those stranger-than-fiction stories that leaves you shaking your head in disbelief and muttering ai yai yai (sic?)

So here's the setup: Mark Whitacre is an upper management biochemist at the ADM corporation, which makes additives in various food products. When the factory he oversees has trouble meeting demand, he fabricates to his superiors an insidious plot to subvert ADM by its Japanese competitor, involving extortion, viruses etc. This lie prompts an investigation by the FBI, which threatens to uncover an even greater plot: ADM in cahoots with its competitors to fix prices of their additives worldwide and rip off a planet of consumers! Rather than be caught on the wrong side of this potential disaster, Whitacre turns FBI informant and snitches the entire scheme, with the delusion that he will ascend to ADM CEO once the Fed cleans house.

Got all that? Maybe not. Suffice it to say that Whitacre, through the course of the film, weaves such a tangled web of bullshit that he finds himself in deeper and deeper trouble, with everyone else simply pleading for the truth. As his lying becomes seemingly pathologic, the film evolves from comedy to tragedy.

Now Soderbergh's most known for his Ocean's Eleven movies, Sex, Lies and Videotape and Oscar-nominated Traffic and Erin Brockavich. He certainly has made some great movies; I think Traffic was just awesome, and his lesser known film The Limey, was also very cool. He recently made Che: Part I and II, which didn't get a lot of attention but were, from my understanding, quite historically accurate, if a bit overly deferential. In The Informant!, though, Soderbergh doesn't score a lot of style points. The strength of the movie is the story itself, and doesn't need a lot of flair, and in fact the Muzak soundtrack and cheeky opening disclaimer were a bit annoying.

There's one particular editing technique Soderbergh used in The Limey, Out of Sight and Erin Brockavich that I thought was really neat, transcendent even. He films two people conversing, then cuts to a scene with the two people together, silent, with the sound from the previous conversation still playing. It allows us to see two people together both silent and conversing simultaneously, which in reality, is impossible if you think about it. Here's a youtube link that shows what I'm talking about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uxY8Wsygpw

If this movie doesn't sound like your bit of whimsy, you might at least listen to the This American Life podcast "The Fix is In", which basically tells the entire story (but without Matt Damon in a god-awful tie and mustache).

Coming up next time: Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. Can't wait!!

"The Hurt Locker" is the bomb.

Last week I saw The Hurt Locker, and, to begin with, it is an excellent movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen. I had noticed it playing in a few select theaters in Los Angeles last month, as well as its incredible 98% rating on the aggregate site rottentomatoes.com. So when it finally came to Fresno I rushed to see it, knowing full well that movie gems don't stay long in this city. In fact, all that is wrong with Fresno can be summarized by the simple fact that this great movie is playing on a single screen in one theatre, while the retarded new GI:Joe movie and G-Force, a movie about GUINEA PIG soldiers, are literally playing in every single movie theatre across town on multiple screens! Cabron.

Anyway, the film takes place in Iraq in 2004, roughly one year after the invasion. It tells the story of three soldiers of Bravo company who belong to a U.S. Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) unit, whose job it is to dismantle improvised explosive devices (IEDs). As we have all come to learn from reports on the warfront, IEDs are a major cause of death among soldiers and civilians, so the team has a very dangerous assignment, which makes for an extremely suspenseful movie.

To be clear, The Hurt Locker is not a true "war film." Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Paths of Glory, Patton, For Whom The Bell Tolls are classics of this genre, offering bold statements on the act of war by emphasizing its atrocities and bravery. The Hurt Locker really does not render an opinion on the war in Iraq itself, but rather explores the mindset of the soldiers who have enlisted to fight it.

In the movie, Bravo Company is headed by Staff Sgt. Will James, a cocky yet understated team leader who gets a rush from donning a bomb suit and walking out to diffuse an IED, much to the chagrin of his fellow sergeant and specialist. His character reminded me of some of the surgeons, ER and critical care doctors I've worked with. Faced with life-or-death situations on a regular basis, these types acquire callous and irreverent attitudes from the knowledge that life is short and fleeting, and in scenarios where most people panic and cannot think straight, their minds are sharp and actions deliberate. Subtlety and restraint are all but lost on them, yet to call them reckless thrill-seekers is to overlook their remarkable talents. But I digress...

There was so much that I liked about this movie. The story was very well-paced, with moments of great suspense. Seriously there were scenes in this movie where James approaches a suspicious something, an illegally parked car, a pile of debris, and the tension was so high my palms were sweaty (another aside, walking out alone in the bomb suit, he totally reminded me of the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where Dave, in his space suit, goes to turn of HAL.) The performances were also top notch. While the cast is made up of relatively unknown actors, save for cameos by Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes, the characters are well developed and complex, and their relationship is a battle unto itself. The action in the movie was pretty exciting too.

The Hurt Locker is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who also directed Point Break, a kick-ass movie about surfing/sky-diving bank robbers chased by FBI agents played by Keanu Reeves and Garey Busey. It's probably surprising to many that a woman could direct such high quality action films, which I guess just goes to show that gender norms are for the birds. My favorite scene in Point Break was when Reeves takes aim at Patrick Swayze but can't bring himself to shoot him, and instead lies on the ground screaming in frustration and shooting his gun high in the air. The scene was lampooned to great effect in Hot Fuzz.

In conclusion, this movie does not begin to address the tragic folly that is the war in Iraq. And I think that there are some people who would even argue that this movie is a form of military propaganda, because it does not explicitly state that war is hell, as so many other films have already clearly demonstrated. But that would be an unfair critique. The message of this movie is that war offers a strange attraction to those who enjoy to live life on the edge. And if you enjoy films that keep you on the edge of your seat, definitely go check this one out. BOOM!!

"Public Enemies" comes through like gangbusters

This week I saw "Public Enemies", the newest film by Michael Mann. I really like Mann's movies, which include "Heat", "Last of the Mohicans", "The Insider", "Collateral", "Ali" and "Miami Vice", so I was looking forward to seeing this one. In fact, the night before the movie premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Holly and I went to the theatre eagerly to buy tickets. The vendor literally laughed in our faces. "Tickets were sold out months ago!" Pendejo. 

Anyway the movie is about John Dillinger and the war between bank robbers and the lawmen during the Great Depression. So the film has a lot of potential, given that "Heat" was a fantastic cops & robbers movie with THE best bank robbery and shootout ever filmed. But to my surprise, the bank robbery scenes were the least interesting parts of this movie, which is not to say it was a let down. Rather, the movie's greatest suspense came during the jailbreaks and narrow escapes.

A bit about Mann's movies. They are macho but at the same time very thoughtfully executed. They feature tough guys, tough women, sophisticated action sequences, curt dialogue, booming sound and occasionally sublime cinematography. His more recent films have been shot digitally to capture a more realistic look, like something you might have filmed with your home camcorder, but actually looks good. The end result of Mann's attention to realism is a more moving visual experience, compared to the ostentatious Transformers, Harry Potter or other movies loaded with CGI visual effects.

Dillinger is of course played by Johnny Depp, who does a good job. He is smooth yet down-to-earth with honor-among-thieves principles. His girlfriend Billie, played by Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, is terrific. She is sweet but no lay-down Sally, as her penchant for the bad boy brings her, and the audience, into the exciting underworld of crime.  Billy Crudup plays J. Edgar Hoover, who takes the old-timey high pitched speech of the 30s to a new level. Alas, the scene stealer in this movie is Baby Face Nelson, played by the same guy who played Tommy in "Snatch" (remember "before ze Germans get here"). Nelson is the crazy Scarface-esque mofo who remorselessly shoots innocent people, a foil to Dillinger, the suave modern Robin Hood handing out cash to the poor. Christian Bale plays Melvin Purvis, the G-man on the hunt for Dillinger. I don't know about you, buy I'm a little Bale-d out, especially after seeing "Terminator Salvation". As an aside, the Terminator series should have been terminated after T2 grumble grumble.

Throughout the movie, you enjoy the wild escapades of Dillinger, his girl and his cronies. But gradually you feel the weight of the law, and it's not long before the crimes catch up with them. In "Miami Vice", Colin Ferrell, in his infinite undercover cop wisdom, warns the bad guy's girl "Probability is like gravity: you cannot negotiate with gravity." Naturally the era of the tommy gun-toting bank robbers came to an end, just as the days of the gun-slinging outlaws ended when the wild west's frontier was claimed. But as you'll see, it was a fun ride while it lasted...

A blog is born

Hi there! This is my new movie blog, thanks for visiting. Holly suggested I start one of these after listening to me rant about movies for the millionth time. Now that intern year is over and I've got some more free time, I decided to give it a shot. We'll see how long it lasts...

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