Film 114 and Film 115 ("Mammoth" and "Monogamy")
"Monogamy"
Starring: Rashida Jones and Chris Messina
Monogamy tells the story of a couple, Theo and Nat (short for Natalie?) played respectively by Chris Messina and Rashida Jones; and when the film begins you can already sense the tension. Theo is a very sexual person and each pursuit of his fiancee is thwarted by her coming up with an excuse (shower, hospital, etc.). Perhaps this is a message or subtle jab at men for being overly sexual and relying solely on that as the driving force of the relationship, because Nat is about so much more. Yes, she's a very attractive, yet typical Brooklynite (hipster?), especially played by Rashida Jones, but the war of the sexes as it relates to relationships and language is the message I received through viewing this film.
Here, we have a seemingly ordinary couple whose relationship seems to have been following a collision course, which perhaps neither wanted to admit to themselves. The hurt that's been boiling in a pot on the backburner is quite evident, even from one of the first scenes: Nat is playing guitar and singing a song, practicing for an open mic night that is coming up. She asks Theo to play with her, which he does, in the comfort of their apartment, but when she suggests he join her on stage for the open mic night, he declines. You can she is hurt by this and that she doesn't understand why he doesn't want to take an interest in her or something she's been looking forward to. It leads one to believe their relationship, for her, has been one disappointment after another, and Nat will spend the film sitting on her epiphany. Circumstances lead her to lay in bed in a hospital, thanks to a staph infection ("I could've died. They said, I could've died," Nat tells Theo and he shrugs it off as an over-reaction, rightly for his character).
Meanwhile, to sort of drive home the point that Theo and Nat are having intimacy issues (through no real fault of Nat's, let's be honest), Theo is a professional photographer (making money taking wedding pictures, mostly), who has a side business of being a paid-voyeur. The twist here is that people actually pay him to stalk them in a sense and take pictures of them doing everyday-life activities to capture them more realistically- and not in a posed sense. Perhaps this is a metaphor for his relationship with Nat. They seem posed together, the typical Brooklyn couple who just had to be together (but by who's standards?).
Things take a weird, but expected turn when Theo is paid by a girl named SUBGIRL. She wants him to follow her and take pictures of her. She looks enticing, white sneakers, blond wig (obviously), neat and clean white tennis outfit and sunglasses (oversized). She looks around for a second and Theo is mesmerized by her, as he crouches behind a bush a far-enough distance away from her. Then, she begins pleasuring herself and that sparks Theo unmet-by-Nat sexual desire. He becomes somewhat obsessed with her and it doesn't help that each encounter amps up the pleasure (she meets up with a man and has sex in a car in a alley). Theo clearly spends all his time thinking about this SUBGIRL and forgets about Nat, laid up in a hospital bed. He does buy Nat a ukelele at the hospital gift shop, but only because he forgot to bring her guitar which she asked for. His disinterest in her well-being sets her up to have her essential epiphany: that she no longer needs him.
I know why the film is titled "Monogamy" but I won't give it away, because it's a nice twist that Theo finds himself discovering. But, with that said, this isn't so much a film about monogamy, although is it about relationships, it is more a character study (of Theo). It worked for me, although it had moments of being quite obvious and the homage the director, Dana Adam Shapiro, pays to Brian De Palma and Alfred Hitchcock are sort of unnecessary. You can be influenced by greatness without making it so obvious and laying it all out there on the screen. The voyeurism is Hitchcock. The sexuality is De Palma. Enough said.
Rashida Jones is lovely and cute. Chris Messina gets what he deserves. The holes fill themselves in.
..................................................
"Mammoth"
Starring: Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal
I enjoy films that tell multiple stories, at the same time as long as it works and comes together nicely in the end (re: Babel, 21 Grams). "Mammoth" tells contrasting, yet very comparative stories revolving around the health care system and hospitals. It also tells the story of culture differences, between America and the Philippines.
Here's the set up: Michelle Williams is an OR doctor, married to Garcia's character who is in the business of video game development (and selling). Both very demanding jobs. Leo (Garcia) is gone from home a lot, traveling to other countries to sell his company's video games. Ellen (Williams) is gone equally as much, being a highly respected and in-high-demand OR doctor. The happily married couple has a daughter who is seemingly raised by her Filipino nanny. Ah, the struggles of rich-white Americans (never enough time to raise their own children, a plight that is more relevant than I think you'd wish to know).
The Filipino nanny has children of her own, struggling back in the Philippines. That's the other story that plays out, as a contrast. You see, Filipinos apparently come to America, take menial jobs in order to make money that they in turn stand back home for their families "stuck" in the third world country, where they don't know excess like we do. I get it. The point driven home here is the sense of guilt you should feel for these poor immigrants who will do anything for their children, and meanwhile we pass our children off to them. Ellen feels guilt for not being their to teach her daughter things. The nanny takes the daughter to a planetarium, which she enjoys; Ellen tries to do the same thing later and it's not the same experience. Ellen also gets upset that her daughter is being taught the nanny's language, but understands once it's revealed that the daughter asked to learn it.
It's a somewhat harsh look at reality, but the filmmakers tell the story well. You feel bad for everyone involved, because they are decent people who want the best for their loved ones (even though Leo strays the line a little bit when he gets too involved with Cookie, a Thailand bartender who takes a shine to him).
Michelle Williams is a stellar leading actress and needs to find more roles where she can put her talent upfront on the screen.
Oh, and "mammoth" has a double meaning here: it's the name of a fountain pen worth $3,000 that Leo encounters thanks to his business partner's indulgences. And, mostly importantly, it is also the Tagalog (national language of the Philippines) word for "mother."
Question:
How much are parents truly missing of their own children's lives? You should never be too busy to have time for your children. You should want to be around for all those pivotal moments in their lives. Yes, I understand that in order to provide the best life for your children often spells disaster in terms of creating a Catch-22 (you must work many hours in order to provide the best life for your children- but at the end of the day, will that matter to them, if you weren't around for them, emotionally?) I don't have any children of my own-- as you probably guessed, because if I did I certainly wouldn't have time to do this film project! But, I can say this about my own childhood. I may not remember all the cool things I was able to have because my parents worked hard to provide for both my sister and I; and the memories of vacations we took may be blurry, but I remember spending time together. Here's what stands out for me the most, though: My father never missed one of my hockey games, from the time I started playing (at 6 years old) until I quit my Junior year of high school (because it was no longer fun for me, which was a value he'd instilled in me years prior). We went on countless trips to countless arenas. He sat in the cold. He defended me when I mouthed off (and I mouthed off a lot). He ignored some behavior, writing if off as typical adolescence. He understood me and what it took to be a parent. That makes him MY DAD.
Starring: Rashida Jones and Chris Messina
Monogamy tells the story of a couple, Theo and Nat (short for Natalie?) played respectively by Chris Messina and Rashida Jones; and when the film begins you can already sense the tension. Theo is a very sexual person and each pursuit of his fiancee is thwarted by her coming up with an excuse (shower, hospital, etc.). Perhaps this is a message or subtle jab at men for being overly sexual and relying solely on that as the driving force of the relationship, because Nat is about so much more. Yes, she's a very attractive, yet typical Brooklynite (hipster?), especially played by Rashida Jones, but the war of the sexes as it relates to relationships and language is the message I received through viewing this film.
Here, we have a seemingly ordinary couple whose relationship seems to have been following a collision course, which perhaps neither wanted to admit to themselves. The hurt that's been boiling in a pot on the backburner is quite evident, even from one of the first scenes: Nat is playing guitar and singing a song, practicing for an open mic night that is coming up. She asks Theo to play with her, which he does, in the comfort of their apartment, but when she suggests he join her on stage for the open mic night, he declines. You can she is hurt by this and that she doesn't understand why he doesn't want to take an interest in her or something she's been looking forward to. It leads one to believe their relationship, for her, has been one disappointment after another, and Nat will spend the film sitting on her epiphany. Circumstances lead her to lay in bed in a hospital, thanks to a staph infection ("I could've died. They said, I could've died," Nat tells Theo and he shrugs it off as an over-reaction, rightly for his character).
Meanwhile, to sort of drive home the point that Theo and Nat are having intimacy issues (through no real fault of Nat's, let's be honest), Theo is a professional photographer (making money taking wedding pictures, mostly), who has a side business of being a paid-voyeur. The twist here is that people actually pay him to stalk them in a sense and take pictures of them doing everyday-life activities to capture them more realistically- and not in a posed sense. Perhaps this is a metaphor for his relationship with Nat. They seem posed together, the typical Brooklyn couple who just had to be together (but by who's standards?).
Things take a weird, but expected turn when Theo is paid by a girl named SUBGIRL. She wants him to follow her and take pictures of her. She looks enticing, white sneakers, blond wig (obviously), neat and clean white tennis outfit and sunglasses (oversized). She looks around for a second and Theo is mesmerized by her, as he crouches behind a bush a far-enough distance away from her. Then, she begins pleasuring herself and that sparks Theo unmet-by-Nat sexual desire. He becomes somewhat obsessed with her and it doesn't help that each encounter amps up the pleasure (she meets up with a man and has sex in a car in a alley). Theo clearly spends all his time thinking about this SUBGIRL and forgets about Nat, laid up in a hospital bed. He does buy Nat a ukelele at the hospital gift shop, but only because he forgot to bring her guitar which she asked for. His disinterest in her well-being sets her up to have her essential epiphany: that she no longer needs him.
I know why the film is titled "Monogamy" but I won't give it away, because it's a nice twist that Theo finds himself discovering. But, with that said, this isn't so much a film about monogamy, although is it about relationships, it is more a character study (of Theo). It worked for me, although it had moments of being quite obvious and the homage the director, Dana Adam Shapiro, pays to Brian De Palma and Alfred Hitchcock are sort of unnecessary. You can be influenced by greatness without making it so obvious and laying it all out there on the screen. The voyeurism is Hitchcock. The sexuality is De Palma. Enough said.
Rashida Jones is lovely and cute. Chris Messina gets what he deserves. The holes fill themselves in.
..................................................
"Mammoth"
Starring: Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal
I enjoy films that tell multiple stories, at the same time as long as it works and comes together nicely in the end (re: Babel, 21 Grams). "Mammoth" tells contrasting, yet very comparative stories revolving around the health care system and hospitals. It also tells the story of culture differences, between America and the Philippines.
Here's the set up: Michelle Williams is an OR doctor, married to Garcia's character who is in the business of video game development (and selling). Both very demanding jobs. Leo (Garcia) is gone from home a lot, traveling to other countries to sell his company's video games. Ellen (Williams) is gone equally as much, being a highly respected and in-high-demand OR doctor. The happily married couple has a daughter who is seemingly raised by her Filipino nanny. Ah, the struggles of rich-white Americans (never enough time to raise their own children, a plight that is more relevant than I think you'd wish to know).
The Filipino nanny has children of her own, struggling back in the Philippines. That's the other story that plays out, as a contrast. You see, Filipinos apparently come to America, take menial jobs in order to make money that they in turn stand back home for their families "stuck" in the third world country, where they don't know excess like we do. I get it. The point driven home here is the sense of guilt you should feel for these poor immigrants who will do anything for their children, and meanwhile we pass our children off to them. Ellen feels guilt for not being their to teach her daughter things. The nanny takes the daughter to a planetarium, which she enjoys; Ellen tries to do the same thing later and it's not the same experience. Ellen also gets upset that her daughter is being taught the nanny's language, but understands once it's revealed that the daughter asked to learn it.
It's a somewhat harsh look at reality, but the filmmakers tell the story well. You feel bad for everyone involved, because they are decent people who want the best for their loved ones (even though Leo strays the line a little bit when he gets too involved with Cookie, a Thailand bartender who takes a shine to him).
Michelle Williams is a stellar leading actress and needs to find more roles where she can put her talent upfront on the screen.
Oh, and "mammoth" has a double meaning here: it's the name of a fountain pen worth $3,000 that Leo encounters thanks to his business partner's indulgences. And, mostly importantly, it is also the Tagalog (national language of the Philippines) word for "mother."
Question:
How much are parents truly missing of their own children's lives? You should never be too busy to have time for your children. You should want to be around for all those pivotal moments in their lives. Yes, I understand that in order to provide the best life for your children often spells disaster in terms of creating a Catch-22 (you must work many hours in order to provide the best life for your children- but at the end of the day, will that matter to them, if you weren't around for them, emotionally?) I don't have any children of my own-- as you probably guessed, because if I did I certainly wouldn't have time to do this film project! But, I can say this about my own childhood. I may not remember all the cool things I was able to have because my parents worked hard to provide for both my sister and I; and the memories of vacations we took may be blurry, but I remember spending time together. Here's what stands out for me the most, though: My father never missed one of my hockey games, from the time I started playing (at 6 years old) until I quit my Junior year of high school (because it was no longer fun for me, which was a value he'd instilled in me years prior). We went on countless trips to countless arenas. He sat in the cold. He defended me when I mouthed off (and I mouthed off a lot). He ignored some behavior, writing if off as typical adolescence. He understood me and what it took to be a parent. That makes him MY DAD.
Comments
Post a Comment