Drive
Cannes Best Director winner Nicolas Winding Refn offers a cool, suave exercise in style and form in the world of 80s actions car flicks. Although many American audiences were fooled by the distributor's ad campaign for the film (exhibit a: the Michigan woman suing for the film "not being enough like The Fast and the Furious"), the white-hot intensity of the film is just as compelling in its quieter moments as its talkative moments as its action-packed, bloodied and gorey sequences. Ryan Gosling's quiet and unblinking charismatic central performance of the driver functions very much as that of a speeding car — smooth and effortlessly straight shooting throughout until the slightest motions, movements, and well judged changes leave a dramatic impact upon the viewer. Gosling's effortless emanation of cool, Nic Winding Refn's mechanical precision in his direction and probably the best soundtrack of the year as style serves the story the substance it otherwise might lack in its screenplay. Perhaps not quite the ride for everyone, but I fell right into it.
Grade: A
Hugo
An excruciating first hour of cliche, expository set-up, what ever the opposite of charisma is apparent in young leading star Asa Butterfield and boring directorial protocol eventually opens itself to any viewer willing to commit to the film up until that point to a pearl of sincere and lovely passion for the art of film, experience of cinema and history of the art as a beautiful love letter to the medium by master director Martin Scorsese. I was privileged to be at the NYFF (not so) secret world premiere unveiling of the film that will forever be remembered as Scorsese's 3D picture, Scorsese utilizes the technology as a cyclical means to position it as another step in the development of the technology sprung forth by the brilliantly innovative mind of Georges Méliés (similarly to how The Artist captures a film industry in its transition to sound, or even comparable to Midnight in Paris' yearning for nostalgia no matter at which point in history you're in). I can say it is the very first film I've yet to see that I simply can't see as anything other than the rough 3D cut in which I saw it, it eventually leans back to a convoluted and confusing conclusion wrapping up various and sometimes unrealized subplots that young audiences will likely snub at the box office this upcoming holiday season in favor of Alvin and the Chimpmunks, but it would certainly, I think, be a worthwhile and rather lovely adventure to immerse yourself in on a brisk day during the winter break catching a holiday matinee at your local cineplex.
Grade: B-
The Ides of March
George Clooney's political parable gets off to shaky footing in the first half building the premise of this tale by representing politics with high Hollywood gloss and unrealistic glamour. But perhaps that is simply the lens in which, again, youthful charismatic Ryan Gosling views his work trying to get the principled Pennsylvania governor Mike Morris (played by director/writer/producer extraordinaire Clooney) elected in an electoral environment vaguely resembling 2008's Obamania. Years of experience of manipulation, backstabbing and corruption in Paul Giamatti's Mark Penn-esque character and Philip Seymour Hoffman's Bob Shrum-esque character eventually lend their way to the decidedly darker and much more effective second half of the film that, though not necessarily making a fresh statement, completely embody the climate of disappointing disillusionment and disenchanting tainting of an ideal in one's head. Ryan Gosling shines again in his character's universal, though perhaps unprofound, emotional journey dirtying his way to stay in the political game he so believed in. The very last scene ends on the most perfect note possible.
Grade: B+
Into the Abyss
Shaking off the first few minutes of most Werner Herzog documentaries that his lovably manipulative sounding questioning of his subjects borders on self-satire at this point, Herzog examines a fascinating topic that plays right into his thematic hand. He looks at the fallout from a horrific triple homicide over a stolen vehicle in Texas in 2001 that led to a life sentence for one of those involved and a death sentence for his co-conspirator. The Death Row inmate himself should be the most fascinating window into the dark depths of humanity Herzog is so skilled in his romantic sensibilities at delving into, but Herzog never takes advantage of the opportunities in the mind of this obviously childlike but darkly twisted individual who refuses involvement with the crime to his final day (despite a lack of doubt by virtually anyone else). Everyone other than the two inmates themselves make for fascinating interviews, between the lieutenant, the family members of some of the victims and a man once in charge of dealing with Texan death row inmates on their final day who now renounces the practice. Considering the depth of potential material, in my mind still untouched in popular conversation concerning the subject, it felt like Herzog presented a fascinating and emotionally compelling first half that never paid off in the second.
Grade: C+
Like Crazy
Perhaps I'm just spoiled by the likes of films like Everyone Else, Blue Valentine, and Weekend (at the end of the list), but Like Crazy seems shockingly thin, disposable, and nonsensical in the recent independent canon of neorealistic young-doomed-romance dramas with ~vague open-ended endings~. But I was just thrilled the film ended at all. The relationship between these irritatingly immature graduate students feels rushed and inauthentic from the start, going on to the central premise of the film that offered a lot of promise in the largely ignored topic of people visiting with student visas to disappointingly sum it up to little more than an idiotic decision from Felicity Jones' character to purposefully overstay her student visa, with everyone involved fully aware of the consequences, that no one from her parents to Anton Yelchin's character as her boyfriend stopped her from doing despite brief and weak initial protests. Not that the whole theme of love making young people making stupid decisions isn't already highly overdone or anything, but these are GRAD students making PROFOUNDLY idiotic decisions that separate the viewer emotionally from their plight and should remove any sympathy for their troubles considering how easy the fix for their emotional happiness would have been in the first place (UM how about NOT violating your student visa so you'll be able to come back to the United States without that many problems in the first place?!). Films like Everyone Else and Blue Valentine allow their characters to be flawed and make poor decisions to each other at certain points that have unfortunate implications on each of their lives upon retrospect, but those were actually believable and understandable in the first place. It's like a nice sounding pop song on the radio, think Cassie's masterpiece "Me & U," that might sound nice and romantic to people on first glance but obviously, obviously, won't hold up to much emotionally substantive scrutiny.
Grade: D
Martha Marcy May Marlene
With fascinating subtlety and unsettling quietude, debut director Sean Durkin has managed to craft a mature film of the disturbing trauma of involvement with a cult without ever using the key phrase itself. Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen's eminently more talented younger sister Elizabeth goes back and forth showing a portrait of a young impressionable girl slowly roped into the world of a cult-leader played to chilling effect by John Hawkes to the aftermath dealing with a paranoia and fear that may well make it impossible for her to ever be able to comfortably assimilate back into regular society. Impressively invisible editing make you think you're descending into Olsen's convincing madness until another misjudged open-ended indie ending that, while good in premise, awkwardly punctuate the film emotionally.
Bonus: Check out John Hawkes' gorgeously haunting rendition of "Marcy's Song" via youtube.
Grade: A-
Melancholia
Said to be one of von Trier's most accessible films, which apparently simply means that it's as heavy-handed as Antichrist but simply less interesting. The film opens with highly pretentious but at least memorable imagery set to beautiful Wagnerian moaning. The first half features some lovely photography and some nice, though uneven, subtlety by Kirsten Dunst as it follows her marriage for much too long and not as well as Le Festen did in the 90s. The second story belonged more to Charlotte Gainsbourgh as the planet Melancholia (it's called that because it represents Justine's depression, get it? Get it?!) slowly beings hurling towards the Earth. Wildly uneven in tone, uninteresting in subject matter and featuring a shocking downturn in Dunst's once softly touched but now distractingly self-aware and over the top performance allows for the more talented Charlotte Gainsbourg to wipe the floor with her and offer the only fascinating and excellent part of the second half of the film (apart from the sound mix, perhaps). Spoiler alert: the world is destroyed in the end. It left a bad taste of ashes in my mouth and I unfortunately left myself wishing for more clitoral clippings and bloody discharges. Something I'd never thought I'd be missing.
Grade: C-
Paranormal Activity 3
Perhaps I'm not the greatest judge of this one. First of all, I haven't seen the first two. Secondly, I saw it with the worst audience I've ever watched a film with having watched it with my sister at home in Danbury, Connecticut (home of the "Smug Bro"). But people were literally jumping in their seats, burping out loud, holding entire conversations, loudly screaming for extended and highly unnecessary periods of time, throwing food, it was a what's-what of what not to do. And it shouldn't have affected my viewing of this film probably, but it did. Even separate from the audience experience, the film seemed to be boring up until the last scene where it made a turn, simply, for the stupid. Again, I haven't seen the first two, but I thought the creepy thing about it was that the titular paranormal activity was an unexplainable kind of ghostly force. Witches? Since when are witches scary? Am I also supposed to be screaming now at Dracula and Frankenstein?
Grade: F
Puss in Boots
Sadly not as funny as the trailer made it out to be. The slight and inexplicable movements of cats are oftentimes hilarious and had long gone unexplored comically until the character of Puss was introduced to great comedic effect in Shrek 2 and stealing the show. Antonio Banderas has been having quite a good year with this box office chart-topper and Almodovar's The Skin I Live In. There's some funny moments but none of the supporting character remotely reach the level of interest of Puss in this prequel leading up to the events at which we would come to meet this character in the second Shrek installment. Salma Hayek's...cat character thing (I don't remember her name) was really typical and lame while Zach Galianifaksadfigaefdg's Humpty Dumpty was more irritating than he's yet been on film before, and not even in the remotely funny way. But, I mean, whatever. Light entertaining fun. Not the worst thing you can be dragged to see by your children (my friend and I did note we were two of the younger viewers in our audience for this one anyways).
Grade: C
Shame
Following Steve McQueen's brilliantly revelatory first collaboration with Michael Fassbender, Hunger, McQueen does grow as an artist going in a different direction in character, subject matter and setting in this film. I don't even believe in sex addiction, personally, but the film captures the condition if it does exist seem the most convincing as they could possibly have made it. Sequences of it go on and are enchanting, and segments of Fassbender's performance are extraordinary (as well as other segments of him, ahem). Carey Mulligan comes in with a glowing supporting performance as the best she's ever been, and the two would handily deserve nominations for their bold, fresh and daring work. The film itself looks nice but doesn't have quite the visual flair that I had been hoping for based on Hunger, and I have to think of Fassbender's performance as just the slightest bit less challenging than in Hunger. And parts of it are as slow as they can be in Hunger, but again missing the visual fascination that I had with that film. But it's a strong film overall with natural moments of brilliance shining through.
Grade: A-
Take Shelter
Making an odd double feature with Martha Marcy May Marlene with confusing rumblings of the subway underneath the Angelika theater in New York confusing me at times as to what was the soundtrack and what was outside noise, Take Shelter works best as Michael Shannon's impressive descent into a hereditary schizophrenia that unravels and reveals itself throughout the film through various dreams and increasing hallucinations. He recognizes it and acknowledges it but his vulnerability still leaves him to fall victim to his paranoia as a "storm" approaches. And the tragedy of him not wanting to abandon his family the way that his family was as his mother fell into her psychosis is a very powerful notion as well. His performance is the central showcase of the film, though aided by a screenplay full of strong characters (including another top performance from Jessica Chastain) and some fantastic editing work. Unfortunately, of all the cliché open-ended indie endings this year I feel like this one is the most misjudged, making it more about the relationship with his wife (though lovely) than the more interesting psychological material apparent throughout the rest of it.
Grade: B+
Weekend
Quiet, but never boring. Artistic but never pretentious. Realistic and always believable. On one level, Andrew Haigh's take on the British indie romance this year is a seminal moment in the history of Queer Cinema as the very best film to capture the contemporary gay experience of its time since the controversial (to this day) Boys in the Band in 1970 captured the personality conflicts of a generation first coming to comfortable terms with their sexuality with a still strongly instilled legacy of guilt and confusion. On another it's simply the most romantic and realistic relationship film of the year, gay or straight. Just like with any other gay relationship, the same sex aspect of it is importantly distinct and recognized but simply not the most important part compared to the largely universal emotions at play between these two characters. Very small moments are beautifully realized and are important brush strokes on this portrait of a brief inner-city romance painted by Haigh and played by the two central actors with tender care. Tom Cullen impressively plays someone trying to naively reconcile his sexuality with a more assimilated straight culture surrounding him who calls for someone trying much more actively to express his queer identity in forms of social protest and resistance, played by Chris New. Both impressive performances working together in sync, Tom Cullen's heartbreaking revelation of his past circulated in foster homes and Chris New's slowly breaking down shell of his hard exterior can have a full room of viewers of any age or background leaving the theater and going home in tears. Beautiful, subtle and realistic retrospection makes this one of the very best films of the year.
Grade: A+
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