The Darjeeling Limited

I despise the word “arty.” “Arty” carries with it a sort of elitist connotation. It is considered not something for all people. People use the word to say such statements as: “Oh, I don’t want to see that film, it is too “arty.” “Arty” has kept people away from good movies for far too long. The Darjeeling Limited and a great deal of movies like it are what inspired these negative connotations.

Leaving the screening of the film the other day I remember describing the film like a fish. Not just any fish, but a beautiful tropical fish, dying on the shore. Wes Anderson, the acclaimed director, with the exception of his tour-de-force Rushmore, always makes “dying fish” movies. There lovely for a moment as they have many bright beautiful colours. But ultimately the proverbial water (or emotional resonance) necessary for survival (sustained interest in the film) kills the film fish.

The story begins with a short film called “Hotel Chavieler.” The story is, of course, quirky and introduces us to one of the main characters Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman) and Jack’s ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman.) This short film is actually quite good and actually very funny. Portman’s performance is some of the best of her work I have ever seen. However, the actual film that follows is unfunny, trite and above all, the greatest of cinematic sins, deadly boring.
The movies begins in India where three rich brother including Jack from the short film and Peter (Adrein Brody) and Francis (Owen Wilson) take a train throughout India. Only Francis, the oldest and bruised brother, knows exactly why they are on this journey. Each brother carries with him both literal and figurative baggage and, imagine this, together they confront their pasts through a series of “life-affirming” events, that are in no way interesting or, as the word comedy would suggest, funny.

However, you can never fault Anderson for his lack of style. Ever single frame of this film is shot Anderson-y. There are lots of unique shades of colours. Prefect frames filled to the brim with glorious life, like a bright beautiful tropical fish. But, let us be honest, a fish is just a fish. Without humour and a quality story the film is nothing more than pretty shots combined with annoying clichés.

There is no law of films that insists upon us liking the characters. Some movies even make us loathe the main characters. But in this film, we need to like the character in order to connect with their journey. All I found though, where rich brats, who like everyone else has a few family issues. Boo-hoo boys, boo-hoo.

One day I know Wes Anderson is going to make another great film and he will be hailed and lifted up on the shoulders of critics and handed a golden statue to honour his masterpiece. But until then Wes, please give us films that are, at the very least, not boring.

Paris Je'Taime

Who knew that Joel and Ethan Coen would direct two of my favorite films of 2007? Or, that Elijah Wood made a film about vampires in Paris? Or that Alexander Payne (director of Election and Sideways,) Isabel Coixet (director of The Secret Life Of Words and My Life Without Me,) and Gus Vant Sant (director of Good Will Hunting and Elephant,) would work on the same project?

The film is called Paris Je' Taime (Paris, I Love You) and it is a lovely omage to the city. The film is, in itself, an amazing collection of "petite romances." These stories are all around five minutes long. They range from surrealist stories about mimes in love, to invigorating realism with the story of a street boy in love with a Muslim girl. The stories are both tragic and deeply funny. They, like the city they pay omage to, are full of diverse sights and sounds.

Paris Je' Taime is probably the most romantic film of 2007. It is a romance between Paris and the people who find themselves inexorable drawn to the "city of lights."

I still don't know how I should rate films. I think I am going to start using stars or some other sort of lame system. However, this has made it into my much publicized Top Ten Films of 2007 list. On Sunday I will finally get to see There Will Be Blood and that should make my decision easier. Expect to see reviews for There Will be Blood and The Darjeeling Limited within the next few days. Also if you have never seen a film by the director Isabel Coixet, that I mentioned earlier, I strongly suggest that you do. In fact in the future I will probably dedicate an entire blog to her works.

RIP Heath Ledger

I have taken a while to write this blog. I wasn’t sure in what manner would be best to write about the recent tragedy of Heath Ledger’s death. The first blog I wrote was dry and too news like. The second blog was an honest evaluation of his life’s works. The third blog was perhaps too personal an evaluation of how his work affected me personally. None of them seemed to say exactly what it is I wanted to say about him. So let me say this in as simple a way as possible.

Heath Ledger was a great actor. Even, some would say, phenomenal. While he did star in some really silly roles (A Knight’s Tale), he never chose to simply coast through them. After his first few films he decided to stop making teen flicks and make some truly challenging projects. His turn as Ennis Del Mar a cowboy with unrequited love for another cowboy in Brokeback Mountain is legendary. The performance is in the good company of James Dean’s Jim Stark (from Rebel without a Cause,) or anything in the works of River Phoenix. In other words Ledger will be remembered like other stars that died too young. He will become iconic.

People often use elevated words to describe the recently departed. But, there are no other kinds of words to describe his all too short filmography which will live on well beyond his death.

Let’s hope his final film The Dark Knight will see him off on a high note. Heath you be missed by many and we will never ever forget you.

There something more profound about the other blogs I wrote. But this is the only one that feels right.

Oscar Nom Talk Time: Best Foriegn Film

The hoopla surrounding this years Oscar ceremony has just started to kick into gear. This year the topics of hot debate are the snub of Into the Wild, Enchanted hogging up the music category, Norbit receiving a nomination at all and, as in every year, the Best Foreign Picture category.
I, of course, have very strong thoughts about each of these realties. However, there is one in particular that has grabbed my interest, the Best Foreign Picture category. Films like Persepolis and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days have long been regarded as the must beat films of 2007. Yet, here on the day of the Oscar nominations, all of them are conspicuously absent. I don’t love 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. After all, it is an entirely humorless exercise in human misanthropy. It is about illegal abortion and it is shot in the vein of Italian Neo-Realism. And frankly at times it can be down right boring, but it is powerful. And it does say something very profound about repression and the state of Romania in a time of political toltaltarnism. It did win nearly every award it was capable of winning. So you have to ask yourself, why did this film, along with Persepolis, get completely snubbed?
Well first you have to consider how the films are selected. Unlike all the rest of the awards in the Academy, these films are picked by a group of volunteers who can watch nearly 14 to 18 films in two months. The film are usually not available on DVD, and, either way, participates are required to attend screenings many day. These screenings are held mostly during the day and thus these screenings are excluding many active directors and accordingly the young. So when fresh or controversial films come along the voters are almost entirely old people who aren’t notoriously great for accepting the young and provocative. I believe last year if the entire Academy had voted, Pan’s Labyrinth would have won.
Another thing that tends to be missing for this category are films that are part of movements. It took the French forever to win anything for their first Nu-wave and we have still yet to honor Mexico for its "Renaissance.” Just to let you know Y Tu Mama Tambien came about before this “Renaissance.”
Third there are some really dumb rules. If for instance there is slightly too much English, or one language isn’t prominent enough it becomes completely irrelevant. In an increasingly global world such demands are pretty old fashioned.
And last and perhaps most important, is really necessary that there be a category for foreign language films or, for that matter, animated films? If the films are good enough they too should be included. They should not be forced to sit on the sidelines as major awards are accepted. Also, how come people like Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard can be nominated in Best Actress categories, when their films are almost never nominated in the Best Picture in the general category? In a way it is very egocentric to suggest that only great films come from the States or England and that animation could never be the best picture of the year. I still say that, in its year, Beauty and the Beast should have won best picture.
So Presopolis was excluded because to the old folks it is just a cartoon. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was excluded because it is just too controversial. There is no other reason. It says nothing of either of their qualities as motion pictures or there artistic validity, it is, like always, politics. Yet, let’s be honest, that is part of the fun.
Let the Oscar race begin. Here is your complete list of nominated films. Including a place where Norbit battles it out with La Vie En Rose

1. Best Picture: "Atonement," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."

2. Actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"; Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"; Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises."

3. Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"; Julie Christie, "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"; Laura Linney, "The Savages"; Ellen Page, "Juno."

4. Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"; Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton."

5. Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"; Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"; Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement"; Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"; Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."

6. Director: Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Jason Reitman, "Juno"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."

7. Foreign Film: "Beaufort," Israel; "The Counterfeiters," Austria; "Katyn," Poland; "Mongol," Kazakhstan; "12," Russia.

8. Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, "Atonement"; Sarah Polley, "Away from Her"; Ronald Harwood, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."

9. Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, "Juno"; Nancy Oliver, "Lars and the Real Girl"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, "Ratatouille"; Tamara Jenkins, "The Savages."

10. Animated Feature Film: "Persepolis"; "Ratatouille"; "Surf's Up."

11. Art Direction: "American Gangster," "Atonement," "The Golden Compass," "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "There Will Be Blood."

12. Cinematography: "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," "Atonement," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."

13. Sound Mixing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "No Country for Old Men," "Ratatouille," "3:10 to Yuma," "Transformers."

14. Sound Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "No Country for Old Men," "Ratatouille," "There Will Be Blood," "Transformers."

15. Original Score: "Atonement," Dario Marianelli; "The Kite Runner," Alberto Iglesias; "Michael Clayton," James Newton Howard; "Ratatouille," Michael Giacchino; "3:10 to Yuma," Marco Beltrami.

16. Original Song: "Falling Slowly" from "Once," Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; "Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; "Raise It Up" from "August Rush," "So Close" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.

17. Costume: "Across the Universe," "Atonement," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "La Vie en Rose," "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

18. Documentary Feature: "No End in Sight," "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience," "Sicko," "Taxi to the Dark Side," "War/Dance."

19. Documentary (short subject): "Freeheld," "La Corona (The Crown)," "Salim Baba," "Sari's Mother."

20. Film Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "Into the Wild," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."

21. Makeup: "La Vie en Rose," "Norbit," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

22. Animated Short Film: "I Met the Walrus," "Madame Tutli-Putli," "Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)," "My Love (Moya Lyubov)," "Peter & the Wolf."

23. Live Action Short Film: "At Night," "Il Supplente (The Substitute)," "Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)," "Tanghi Argentini," "The Tonto Woman."

24. Visual Effects: "The Golden Compass," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Transformers."

Dream Oscars... If Only

For some people it is called the Daytona 500, for others it’s the Super Bowl. That one event that comes once a year that highlights the best of the best. For film people, even though it is a flawed and sometimes absurd thing, it is called the Oscars. The one night when the glorious glamour of Hollywood comes to together to celebrate the years best films. However, as the writer’s strike continues and more and more reality programs make their homes on our television sets, we must all prepare for the possibility that this years Oscar night, like the Golden Globes, might be some awful news conference. However, this does not stop any one of us from making our lists of Oscar hopefuls. Tuesday is the day of the famed Oscar announcement. However, instead of making some announcement of who will be nominated, I would instead like to make a list of what I think should be nominated. I of course make this list having not seen many of the films I should (notably, There Will be Blood.) However, this is the list from what I have seen. I am going to skip technical awards too, even the all too important editing, but this is more a time thing than value placement

Best Adapted Screenplay

Zodiac

Into the Wild

Bridge to Terabitha

Gone Baby Gone

No Country for Old Men

My dream pick: Into the Wild

Best Original Screenplay

Ratatouille

Superbad

Before the Devil Knows your Dead

Juno

Eastern Promises

My dream pick: Superbad (proof I am living in a dream world.)

Best Animated Feature

Ratatouille

(Nothing else would be nominated)

My dream pick: Ratatouille

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett- I’m Not There

Catherine Keener – Into the Wild

Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone

Marisa Tomei – Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

Jennifer Garner - Juno

My dream pick: Cate Blanchett

Best Supporting Actor

Javier Bardem-No Country for Old Men

Hal Holbrook – Into the Wild

Vincent Cassell – Eastern Promises

Heath Ledger – I’m Not There

Albert Finny – Before the Devil Knows You Dead

My dream pick: Hal Holbrook (I would say this category is probably as far removed from the actual than any other)

Best Actress

Amy Adams – Enchanted

Ellen Page – Juno

Keri Russel – Waitress

Anna Sophia Robb- Bridge to Terabitha

Belen Rueda – El Orfanato

My Dream Pick – Amy Adams

Best Actor

Chris Cooper – Breach

Viggo Mortesen – Eastern Promises

Emile Hirsch – Into the Wild

Casey Affleck – Gone Baby Gone

Phillip Seymour Hoffman – Before the Devil Knows your Dead

My Dream pick: Emile Hirsch

Best Director:

Tom Haynes – I’m Not There

Joel and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men

Adrienne Shelly – Waitress

Sean Penn – Into the Wild

Sydney Lumet – Before the Devil Knows your Dead

My Dream Pick: Joel and Ethan Coen

Best Picture

No Country for Old Men

Into the Wild

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

Gone Baby Gone

Across the Universe

My Dream Pick: Into the Wild

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

I realize, of course, that Before the Devil Knows Your Dead came out in the United States in early November. However, like many films from 2007, I am just now catching up from my study aboard experience in Spain. And the best of 2007 list that it seems all critics must have will be coming along shortly, after I see There Will Be Blood. As an ardent fan of There Will Be Blood’s director, Paul T Anderson, I can’t wait.

There is much to admire about director Sydney Lumet. His work has spanned decades. And now at 86 years old he has managed to craft one the slickest, most interesting films of 2007. In some ways a shameless melodrama and, in another, a truly poignant comment on the power of greed, addiction and the price we must pay for both. While this film does not compare to the masterworks of Lumet’s oeuvre like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon or The Hill (my personal favorite Lumet,) it is certainly a million times more compelling than your average crime flick.

The plot is wrought with several twist and turns. To give away too much, would be a crime in and of itself. However, the basic setup is pretty simple. Andy, played by the near prefect Phillip Seymour Hoffman and his brother Hank (Ethan Hawk) come up with scheme to rob a small jewelry store. And the twist, the only one that I am willing to give away, is that the jewelry store is owned by their parents. Andy is a seemingly successful man with a beautiful wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei) and his reason for the needing the money is one the most interesting parts of the film. Hank on the other hand just wants to be able to support his daughter and give her the things that she most desires. It would also be a crime to not mention the amazing and surprisingly powerful performance of Albert Finney as the familial patriarch, Charlie, who ultimately makes the toughest choice of all. Albert Finney and Marisa Tomei steal every scene there in. In fact I have never seen Marisa Tomei better, especially in the scenes of total quiet, when Lumet shows us nothing more than her eyes and guilt they bear.

Much has been said on the film’s structure and the unique way the story is told. We see three perspective of every part of the story, and like any good movie place the pieces together as we go. I really enjoyed the structure, but it reminded me too much of too many other films like it. Lumet’s classic style is very much straight ahead, no holds bar and to see him use slick, modern style is on one level fantastic and proves he can hang with the likes of Christopher Nolan or Quentin Tarrantino, but at the same time it would have been nice to see a film more in the vein of Dog Day Afternoon. Although, to be honest, I am not entirely sure the film would work if the story was told that way.

Lumet has just signed on for a three picture deal and the man will probably be making films until the last breathe he takes. And to that I can only say, “keep em’ coming.”

I have not yet decided the best way to rate films like 3 out of four stars, or even perhaps 8 pieces of chicken out of a 10 piece bucket. Any ideas on this would be much appreciated as would any comments at all. Thank you.

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Here, at the request of several people, all of whom are my imaginary friends, is my first film (non-school related) blog.

This entry will look rather boring and will serve mostly as a means of determining interest and familiarizing myself with the blogging world. However, I might as well begin by giving all of you (by that I mean probably just myself) some basic ideas as to what to expect.

Number One, there will probably not be brand spanking new reviews every week. I lack both the time and funds to see the films I should see. Number two, I may also make comments on music and television, but steer clear of the personal stuff, unless of course the two are to meet. Number Three, I may post many posts in one day and then not post for a week. I am not a professional and I can imagine no job I would rather have than being a film critic, so we could kind of call this an experiment in film criticism. While most reviews will be typical review fair, I may sometimes introduce more scholarly arguments and for that I ask for your patience.

I should say that Crash is the film by which I measure all bad films by, it being, in my humble opinion, one the very worst films every made and possibly the worst Oscar Best Picture winner in history. I exaggerate sometimes too.

If there is anything to distinguish me from your average film critic it is that even though I have a steadfast love for the art house, I believe that some great film really does come from the "evil" studios of the Hollywood system. And also, just because something has critical acclaim (Atonement) or "indy cred" (Juno) does not make it a great or even good film. Actually I enjoyed Juno, but its not that good and certainly not Little Miss Sunshine good. See there you go. My first piece of legitimate film criticism.

Anyway I hope that you will bookmark this blog and make it a part of your daily reading schedule. I apologize in advance for grammatical errors, rants, my propensity for making lists and the occasional all too "punny" bit of word play.