The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

If you're going to see it (and I suggest that you do) take the time and invest in a theater experience. Benjamin Button makes gorgeous use of digital format and although the story isn't new the point of view is. Screenwriter Eric Roth made a name for himself with Forest Gump, which is unfortunately a little too similar to Benjamin Button, but he also wrote Munich and his scripts are moving in a very romantic way. This is life as magical realism.

Don't worry too much about the romance between Cate Blanchet (radiant as always) and Brad Pitt. It's difficult to see Benjamin Button as anyone other that Pitt, which has less to do with his acting than it does with his persona. I think the stardom that we have afforded him is hurting how we watch him. He is aptly cast, beautiful and adoring but he simply cannot escape his household name. I would recommend that he disappear from the public eye, just for a bit, so that we may view him in a different light. That said, the lifelong bond between Daisy and Benjamin is a necessary element, but it doesn't carry the film and it doesn't need to. The first few acts are mesmerizing, and they refrain from romantic pandering. Movie posters and trailers made us think that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is about something it's not, and this time I didn't mind. Love is an easy ploy, and if it gets people into the theater to see this film, I am more than satisfied.

Keep in mind that this film is based on the idea of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, not it's plot synopsis. What David Fincher found fascinating was the ennui. The same goes for the film; it's overall effect is terribly emotional, but the performances (while strong) are only part of a much bigger picture. In this version, it's the film that steals the show.

Valkyrie

For some reason I thought Valkyrie was an action film, which may have been what ruined it for me. It suffers from predictability (it’s fairly clear that Hitler was not assassinated by a group of rogue Nazis), which left it dangling between a character piece and a made for TV movie. The whole character idea was scratched the moment they cast Tom Cruise in the lead and the rest of the sad bunch (Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson) just stand in front of the camera and deliver poorly written lines. Valkyrie is depressingly mundane and entirely formulaic, which made my distaste for it a little difficult, considering that there’s nothing actually wrong with the picture. As long as you don’t think that working Nazis and World War II into a cute little formula is wrong. Personally, I find it offensive and although it may be an important film to see based on subject matter, it is not enough of an excuse for turning something grand into something simplistic.

If you just need, need, need to see a movie about the Third Reich save yourself from Valkyrie and see Good. I saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival and although it’s far from perfect it tackles Nazi psychological frustration in a way that Valkyrie simply isn't willing to. Good is based on a play, and feels like it, but it’s characters are convincing in an oddly theatrical way. Don’t try to figure out what Viggo Mortensen is doing with a British accent while inhabiting the role of a German professor. Apparently the rules of reality don’t apply to World War II pictures and I for one miss The Hunt for Red October approach.

Frights

Let the Right One In
New Swedish vampire film.

Shiver
Like The Mist but more about scary creatures than group dynamics.

Twilight
Based on the best selling young adult novel, a young vampire falls in love with a mortal.

The Haunting in Connecticut
A based on a true storyish film about a family that moves into a haunted house.

It may be too early to tell, but as we head into the winter movie season, it looks as if we are leaving the torture dramas behind. It could be Haloween's influence, but two of these films don't come out for another month. New horror films are centering around the paranormal and supernatural. Are we returning to fairy tale fears because our lives have finally gotten real enough? Does watching someone loose a foot in Saw XXII hit too close to home?

Let the Right One In

I can't watch scary movies very often because the characters follow me home. Let the Right One In is a new Swedish vampire film by director Tomas Alfredson and it's worth seeing. Read Manohla Dargis' review if you need convincing after the trailer. Ingmar Bergman could make a romantic comedy creepy so my guess is that Let the Right One In has similar tendencies.

Let the Right One In Trailer

When is the Election Again?

Remember our president? The one that's in office right now? The new Oliver Stone film W opens Friday.  I dare you to stay out of the theaters this weekend.  

 

Rachel Getting Married

A good bet for a flick. Rachel Getting Married opens in Minneapolis Friday at the Uptown Theater. If you like Dogma films, or are wondering what the hell that means, give it a try. A.O. Scott gave it a favorable review, nothing stellar but delightful to watch. 

Ballast

Wednesday is your chance to see Ballast at the Walker Art Center, which seems to be stepping it up a notch in the film department. Manohla Dargis has been fawning over this film since she saw it at Sundance, it's her new sweetheart. Check out her review and the trailer. If you don't live in Minneapolis you probably live somewhere way cooler where this movie is playing at every street corner. Fork up the twenty bucks already.

Mike Leigh Retrospective

The Walker is hosting a Mike Leigh Retrospective this month. Brush your teeth and go out in public to see one of them. Naked was last night and if you missed it I challenge you to see it on your own. Then watch it again. Then we can talk. Happy Go Lucky is tonight, but I also put a stamp of approval on Secrets and Lies, Topsy Turvy and who am I kidding. They're all good.

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival starts September 4th - I’ll be there for the final weekend doing my best to figure out which films were well received and who our bright new film stars are. Actors, directors, screenwriters and such. If you have a recommendation or find yourself on the TIFF website don’t hesitate to comment, I’m more than willing to see or sleuth any film you might want to know more about.

Yes, the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading is screening, but that movie will be in theaters in about ten minutes. I'll just take a picture of Clooney instead.

Tiff Website

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The title hints at a threesome between two girls and a country, but Woody Allen had a different idea. Using his muse Scarlett Johansen, Penelope Cruise and a simplistically romantic Javier Bardem, Allen gives us yet another version of his youthful frustration fables. An engaged Vicky (a delightful yet flat Rebecca Hall) and a newly single Christina (Johansson) travel to Barcelona for the summer only to find themselves subduly charmed by Juan Antonio, a painter who’s passion crazed wife tried to kill him. Or he tried to kill her, but it doesn’t really matter. Penelope Cruz plays the role of ex-wife Maria Elena with a confidence that outshines anyone in the film and makes Hall and Johansen seem like they’re playing house – which may have been what Allen intended all along. He likes his women young and confused. Bardem is underused and serves as an idea as opposed to a character but in giving us his wife, a headstrong know-it-all, Allen manages to make his bourgeoisie American ladies seem as humorously frustrating and cliché as ever. The movie is funny if you’re not afraid to laugh when the rest of the theater is quiet. With a stereotypical travelers guide to Gaudi and a mildly annoying narrator, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is watchable but nothing new.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona Trailer

Wanted

Someone told me that Wanted made them want to have sex. Just in general, not with anyone in particular. It made me want to by a gun and use that gun in a kickboxing class. It was better than the Indian Jones debacle and just as satisfying as Iron Man - maybe not critically (whatever that means), but in terms of how much enjoyment I got out of it or how connected to the film I was. Crazy fun and totally self aware, Wanted was a blockbuster with some pizazz accompanied by a one-two punch. For every effective and awesome scene there is an equally flabbergasting retarded one (you know, the whole good versus evil thing) but in the end it’s completely watchable and a pretty good ride. By pretty good, I mean see it in the theater.

As a warning, when I say bad, I mean it. Really bad. Not bad like that was a weak moment but wow, whoever wrote that scene really loved Smokin’ Aces. About three quarters through the film I envisioned men in a board room going, “And then let’s put them on top of a building, for the scenery and such. And then, better yet, lets have it be in the middle of an earthquake, because being an assassin alone isn’t quite dangerous enough. This will give them a chance to be calm in the face of shaky circumstances. And then, no this is perfect, we can have the building turn into a robot that moves about the city while they fight it out. Yea. That’s perfect”. My thoughts exactly.

None of that happens in the movie, but it could have. My theory is as such: If you like action, action that doesn’t take itself seriously, think Hot Fuzz or Hellboy, you’ll really get into this film. Now, this kind of lonely man of honor flick is not be confused with a Nicolas Cage explosion of hilarity, you laugh with Wanted, not at it. There is a Karate Kid feeling to it for the first half – a good old fashioned wimp to ass-kicker story that also involves a fly. And it pokes fun at complacency, Office Space owns this market, but it works and gives the audience and James McAvoy and nice boost .

Wanted is good for:

• Cheap Dates! It’s second run now (I paid three dollars to see it but would have paid ten). Make sure your lady or man likes action though. Otherwise rent The Notebook.
• Dudes. I don’t know when dudes go out with other dudes to see movies but this would work for that.
• Movie geeks. It teeters on the edge, but it’s just smart enough to be art house trash. You know, Cronenberg style.

An Old Mistress

The American title of Catherine Breillat's new film is The Last Mistress but it's direct and appropriately inferred title is An Old Mistress. I agree with most of Manohla Dargis' views, this film was her pick of the week lasting twice that title, but what Dargis doesn't admit to is one audience requirement: must like period piece.

This move is near perfect - simple yet developed story, superb acting, tightly edited and compiled and finally, as my patience is wearing thin on three hour epics, a clean 110 minutes. There is plenty of full nudity and sexual encounters (Last Mistress received an NR rating) but, sorry gentlemen, it's far from gratuitous. Mistress is a period piece and no amount of flesh can change this. And ladies, when approaching this film keep in mind that it's French. With a French story. It's more Dangerous Liasons and Madame Bovary than Jane Austin and her feminist love stories. If you enjoy a good period piece, The Last Mistress is incredibly depressive, more about the foils of monogomy that a spirited lover. Watch when in a good mood and in the company of others.

Asia Argento is outstanding, her ability to change moods in a single shot just by slightly moving her mouth and changing her gaze is unparalleled since the likes of Julietta Masina. We owe more to her than to her character Vellini and the same goes for her lover Ryno ( Fu'ad Ait Aattou). It's always nice to see classics acted out by the gorgeous considering, deep down, we know that it is far from fact.

Manohla Dargis NY Times Review
The Last Mistress Trailer