I've Been Busy with Life, But I've Still Watched Some Movies (Found Another Favorite of the Year, too)
Wednesday night I went to see She and Him (the amazing, beautiful and awesomely hipster Zooey Deschanel and musical partner M. Ward) play at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, which is an outdoor venue on the waterfront outside of the financial district in the big city. I saw these two perform about 2 maybe 3 years ago at the House of Blues in the same city and it was a wonderful performance back then. This time around, they put on a heck of a show as well. The band Camera Obscura opened for them and put on a subdued performance of many of their songs from their catalogue.
Here's the amazing setlist for She and Him. Lots of great renditions of old songs. Zooey has an amazing smoky, blues-jazz voice that I could listen to for hours. In fact, I'd love to date her and I would want her to sing to me every night!
But, Friday night made up for Thursday's disappointment. The State Theatre has become an excellent advocate of local music and they have hosted some great local bands' shows (i.e. The Fogcutters 2 annual shows around Christmas time which have been amazing). Friday night, they had 5 acts including: The Other Bones (good electronic pop), The Wrecking (typical, mediocre radio-friendly rock), Maine's mellow and mild answer to Eminem, rapper Spose (from Wells, Maine, in case he forgot to tell you!), the Mallett Brothers (a surprisingly great alt-country band who pretty much stole the show, along with Spose, I suppose), and the main act: Rustic Overtones (who are admittedly getting old and worn-out, in fact, most of the crowd dispersed for their set, which was last and began around 10:45).
Saturday, I hung out with my nuclear family as we celebrated one of my cousin's engagement out in Bowdoinham. It was great to see and spend time with extended family that I have not seen in years. Then, in the evening I went out and had a few drinks with a coworker and her boyfriend and his friends. It was a great night, full of laughs and alcohol-induced good times.
Sunday, I spent the entire day with my great friend, Vanessa. We hit up an excellent breakfast place in Lewiston called Forage, which has all locally grown foods and homemade baked goods. Their bagels are to die for. Trust me. Then, we checked out the expansion and toured the facilities of Baxter Brewing, which has made a home inside one of the old, otherwise abandoned mills in downtown Lewiston. It was great to see the mill being used and I was proud of an old college buddy of mine, Luke Livingston, who is the owner of Baxter Brewing. As someone who just recently started drinking beer (when I turned 30, actually), it was really interesting to listen and learn about the science involved in making beer. I mean, I knew that there was a lot of math and science involved, but to hear it explained, I think will definitely help me appreciate it more. I've never been one to drink just to drink. I enjoy finding good-tasting beer. It's more of a social tool then a tool to get me drunk and forgot about things going on in my life. Unlike some people that I know in my life, I never wanted to use alcohol as an escape.
Anyway, then Vanessa and I headed back down to Portland and had dinner and drinks at Flatbread with some more of my newly acquired (does that sound weird when I'm talking about people?) friends. It's been great to be back in Portland, but especially to expand my circle of friends. I've certainly met some great people that I'm glad to have in my life over the past 11 months or so (since moving back to Portland after a disastrous attempt at cohabiting with my ex-girlfriend in Freeport). Portland just feels like a place I belong.
...............................................................
Film 194
"The Bling Ring"
starring: Emma Watson, Katie Change, Israel Broussard, Claire Julien, Taissa Farmiga, Leslie Mann, Gavine Rossdale, Stacy Edwards
written and directed by: Sofia Coppola
With "The Bling Ring" I may have found my second favorite film of the year. Albeit, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Sofia Coppola's films to date, so I may have been a little biased going into seeing her latest project (because, let's face it, with money tight and ticket prices up there these days, we all pick and choose carefully which films to see in the theatre). That being said, I believe Sofia Coppola is a great filmmaker of my generation. She understates many scenes and prefers to let certain scenes remain silent or minimally quiet in order for the scene to tell the story all by itself. I appreciate those moments in all her films. I also enjoy her dissection of celebrity (in the many forms it can take and be within a person). Let's look at her filmography briefly to get a scope of what she's tackled so far in her brief career:
The Virgin Suicides (in my Top 5 all time favorites)
Lost in Translation (I'm still wondering what Bill Murray whispers to Scarlett Jo at the end)
Marie Antoinette (might be considered a "miss" but I thought it was wonderfully crafted)
Somewhere (celebrity holes up in a hotel with his daughter, self-imposed introspection)
The Bling Ring
Sure she's only done 5 films in almost 15 years, but she comes out of the gate swinging every time.
Here, in "The Bling Ring" Coppola is using the rich and famous as the catalysts to perhaps show us ourselves, or the darker side of ourselves that are seemingly obsessed with celebrities and how we fight an internal struggle to be just like them or at least understand that they, too, are simply just human beings, when push comes to shove. She is perhaps holding up a mirror to our unhealthy obsessions with "un"reality. And I totally get her point and I thought she did a great job. At the center of the story are 5 celebrity-obsessed, bored, uncontrolled/un-monitored high schoolers (whose parents remain "hidden" or have a non-present, even though Leslie Mann's mother character to Emma Watson's character is there with her daughter, you can absolutely see a disconnect). I really enjoyed seeing how these kids/teenagers are really just set free upon the world with absolutely no parental guidance, because unfortunately I think it's a sad reality for many, thousands, of kids these days. Parents are clueless, or do not want to put in an effort, when it comes to "raising" their children. This seems to be rampant in California, and especially L.A. I suppose, because look at what happens in this true story. The film subtly tackles the concept of entitlement in our culture, especially nowadays- whether its the general idea of entitlement, like the sense of entitlement to our own fame and notoriety, or the sense of entitlement to be closer and closer to celebrities we often idolize and put upon a pedestal (perhaps the fact that they are on a pedestal entitles us to knock them down, I don't know). I appreciated this aspect of the film the most, because as a teacher, I have come in contact with a lot of children these days who come to school with a sense of entitlement and it bothers me, extremely.
So, the story goes like this (and Sofia Coppola is working off an article that appeared in Vanity Fair a few years ago): 5 teenage friends decide to rob the homes of celebrities they admire, nay, worship in order to say they are that much closer to these celebrities than their friends, because they brag about it openly (especially on Facebook, the social tool with which they chose to display all their conquests' treasures). They're teenagers, after all, so they are THAT stupid! The "Bling Ring" leader is somewhat sociopath Rebecca (played with deadpan soullessness by Katie Change), who first convinces her new "BFF," social outcast and new kid in school (for dropouts), played by Israel Broussard, to not only first break into unlocked cars, but then to break into his friend's house (who happens to be out of town). Rebecca then gets an itch to find and break into celebrities' homes, from the likes of: Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox, and the crowning achievement, Lindsay Lohan. Rebecca idolizes these celebrities, while the others in the crew seem to do it simply for the thrill (aside from Emma Watson's social climber character who uses her infamy once she is caught to prattle on about the "learning experience" it has all been, which you can totally see through and know that it's all simply a ploy for her to get famous- and unfortunately this girl did because we as a society have deemed these seemingly unworthy subjects of interest, actually interesting. We've given them the credit and status they do not deserve. Look at Kim Kardashian- simply famous for putting out a sex tape years ago, and now we all want to "Keep Up With" her. What is wrong with us?! Why are these nonentities so damn important to our lives?!) And then, there's Paris Hilton, who actually makes an appearance in the film (which I'm convinced is simply because she is the dirtiest, most shameless attention whore of them all), and let Coppola film in her actual house (which, by the way, includes a nightclub room and many, many photos of herself throughout the house, including on pillows). Ridiculous much?!
I loved Coppola's different approaches to filming the scattered scenes. She opens with a night-vision, single-shot of the teenagers hopping a fence, acting ninja-like (and as the film progresses, we realize how un-ninja-like these teens actually are), which is later revealed to be Orlando Bloom's home. Also, Coppola chooses to do a single, long shot of Audrina Patridge's home invasion, again, in mostly night-vision green and black. Why these celebrities' homes were so damn easy to break into is beyond me, by the way.
I loved this movie. I love Coppola as a writer and director. She's subtle in her approaches. She doesn't hit you over the head with her ideas. She lets the story play. She lets you think. She lets the scenes sit there on the screen for awhile. She turns the volume down, often letting entire scenes present and play out with silence. It's almost uncomfortable to watch her movies, but it's a good uncomfortable. It's a much needed one, too.
.....................................................................
Film 195
"The Chameleon"
starring: Ellen Barkin, Famke Janssen, Marc-Andre Grondin, Emilie de Ravin, Nick Stahl
Here is a film where French filmmaker Jean-Paul Salome is trying too hard to make another "Talented Mr. Ripley" with his film about a "straight from the headlines" story of stolen identity. It is based on the suspicious true life case of a missing boy of a troubled clue-collar family in the Louisiana bayou suddenly reappears in France and is taken home to be reacquainted with his family (who considered him dead after 4 years).
Nick (played by French actor Marc-Andre Grondin) is suspiciously shaken-up, quiet, and appears vulnerable when he is questioned by the FBI and police about his disappearance and kidnappers. Then, he becomes increasingly bizarre when we meet his loving-without-questioning sister (played by Emilie de Ravin, from "Roswell" on TV in the '90s and "The Hills Have Eyes" fame), his decrepit, drug-addicted mother (Ellen Barkin) and menacing and cynical half-brother (played by the creepy Nick Stahl). Oh yeah, throw in an FBI agent who smells Nick's bullshit story from the beginning (played by the convincing Famke Janssen who, when given a good role can actually deliver) and you've got the ingredients for a messy story of disbelief and foul-play that just never adds up to much other than B.S. It's very melodramatic, thanks in large part to Grondin's under-acting and over-reaching on a character that is completely unlikable from the start. The setting of the Louisiana bayou is dank, rightfully so, I suppose, for the story. The mood is never uplifting nor does it ever attempt to present that the truth may set everyone free by the end. Family is a dangerous word with these characters, and yet they seem to cling to each other for dear life, even accepting Nick into their lives when you can really tell they're not completely convinced he is actually their missing person (missing piece to the family puzzle). Yes, there may be reasons why everyone buys into the lie that Nick is selling them, but rather than answer these questions for us (which is totally okay that Salome doesn't), the filmmaker instead goes toward cliches like a drug-addicted mother, a thug half-brother who threatens, an on-the-verge-of-tears sister, and a fight-the-good-fight-to-expose-the-lies FBI agent.
Maybe I could've like this film if I hadn't seen "The Talented Mr. Ripley" years before and been way more convinced by those characters that "sometimes it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody" because that's who Nick really is- even though we end the film not really knowing too much about him and/or why he has chosen to take on the lives of other people like he did here.
I was not convinced that this story worked for many reasons including: the writing and the style with which the filmmaker chose to unravel the details for us.
........................................................
Film 196
"Lucky Girl"
starring: Elisha Cuthbert
(Made for TV movie, in Canada)
Here is a typical Made-for-TV movie with all the right ingredients. Camera and editing techniques like the fade to black, for commercials. The quick edits during the action. The after-school special or Lifetime movie acting. The simple story. The moral or lesson (is there really one, at the end?). The music soundtrack. And to think, after this, Elisha Cuthbert really broke free, from being a Canada actress and broke into the American mainstream once she got her role on the TV show "24" and films like "The Girl Next Door." I adore her. I have a crush on her. Yes. She's beautiful. She's blonde and blue-eyed. But, she can also act.
"Lucky Girl" is an enjoyable cautionary tale with a cliche plot.
Elisha Cuthbert plays Kaitlin, a seemingly very smart 17 year old student, in high school, especially when it comes to math. In one of the first scenes she answers a difficult math problem without even looking up from her notebook or having paid attention to the the teacher. Unfortunately, the caution in the story is that she ultimately lets her talent "go to waste" and "get the best of her" as we travel with her down the dark and dank road of gambling addiction. The film portrays the downward spiral (specifically of gambling addiction) rather well for a TV movie, of course it speeds through a few sections, but I think the filmmakers got it right in the time that they probably had (about 2 hours, I'm thinking).
Kaitlin starts out simply betting on sports' games (football in particular) with her peers at school. She gets in way over her head and bets far more money than she actually has and falls in debt with a few boys, who don't necessarily take to kindly to being owed (hell, I don't think I've seen a serious movie where a few guys physically beat up a girl- in a high school bathroom, like these guys do to Kaitlin). She lies to everyone around her. She gets involved with a 22 year old guy with his own problems. She continues to lie and cheat and steal her way out of the debt, but you can see it is all taking an emotional toll on her. Kudos to Elisha Cuthbert for being able to transform from the typical, girl-next-door beauty, into someone suffering from addiction. Things go from bad to worse to awfully dreadful (to the point where she agrees to sell her body for debt forgiveness- until mom comes to the rescue).
I found in this film, a guilty pleasure. I was unexpectedly enjoyable. For what it was- a well-made made-for-TV-movie about something difficult for people to confront.
...................................................................
Film 197
"Haywire"
starring: Gina Carano, Ewen McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas
directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh has had quite a career in the film business. He's had a lot of ups and downs, hits and misses. But, I have to hand it to the guy, he hasn't changed his approach to filmmaking. He's a bit of a minimalist, in the best sense of the word. He usually lets the story unfold on its own. And sometimes it does, slowly, most of the time; and sometimes as the story unfolds, you kind of realize he doesn't have much of a story at all. Sometimes the story is a bit of a character study/analysis, but then you realize the character isn't enough to really base an entire film about, but by then it's too late- you're invested in the film, or the actors/actresses playing the roles have your faith that something will happen.
Soderbergh is also good with taking on the challenge of putting an non-"professional" actress into a leading role and creating the story around their "talent." For example, I did enjoy his film starring adult film industry actress, Sasha Grey, in "The Girlfriend Experience." And here, in "Haywire" the director has taken Gina Carano (whom I admittedly didn't know anything about except that she looks an awful lot like Gina Gugino, a professional actress, until I Googled her). Carano is a retired MMA fighter, so she seems to have done all her own stunts and fight sequences in this film. And she's great at what she does. The film's plot is pretty much based on her ability to fight very well.
As opposed to his other aforementioned film with the beautiful Sasha Grey, Steven Soderbergh is not selling his audience on sex or the sexiness of a woman who can hold her own and fight anyone and come out on top. Although, I have to admit, there is something psychologically enticing and sexy about watching Gina Carano fight, flip, and do her thing against all these bad guys in "Haywire." It's a spy-thriller, in a sense, with some politics thrown in. Gina Carano plays Mallory Kane (the name just sounds both equal parts tough and sexy, an outsider contracted by the U.S. government to perform its dirty work (i.e. finding and taking back hostages). There is a lot of double-crossing from agents across the board and throughout the film Mallory Kane discovers that she ultimately cannot trust anyone. We never really understand why she is on the run the entire film from several people who want to kill her (because she is great at her job). That's what Soderbergh's story is missing- the answers to all the questions. He relies too much on the audience simply enjoying Carano's obviously athletic and sometimes Bruce Lee-like warrior antics.
Soderbergh's film relies too heavily on one trick: Gina Carano (who is not a professional actress, and he knows this so he fills on the other roles with bigger name actors like Ewen McGregor and Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas, who play the "bad guys" I suppose). I would like to see her in more films simply for her talent as a skilled and trained Martial Arts fighter, and to be honest, she actually does a decent job acting with what she's got. I think Soderbergh and the writer perhaps sold her a bit short, in the end.
Watch it to appreciate her, and know that you don't really have to pay attention to the plot because if you spend too much time thinking about it, you will realize it doesn't exactly make sense, and that you've wasted time thinking about it.
Here's the amazing setlist for She and Him. Lots of great renditions of old songs. Zooey has an amazing smoky, blues-jazz voice that I could listen to for hours. In fact, I'd love to date her and I would want her to sing to me every night!
- Intro(Reprise (I Could've Been Your Girl))
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(Mel Carter cover)
-
-
-
(The Miracles cover)
-
(Frank Sinatra cover)
-
(Alex North cover)
-
-
(NRBQ cover)
-
-
-
(Sonny West cover)
-
(M. Ward song)
-
-
-
- Encore:
-
(Blondie cover)
-
(Chuck Berry cover)
But, Friday night made up for Thursday's disappointment. The State Theatre has become an excellent advocate of local music and they have hosted some great local bands' shows (i.e. The Fogcutters 2 annual shows around Christmas time which have been amazing). Friday night, they had 5 acts including: The Other Bones (good electronic pop), The Wrecking (typical, mediocre radio-friendly rock), Maine's mellow and mild answer to Eminem, rapper Spose (from Wells, Maine, in case he forgot to tell you!), the Mallett Brothers (a surprisingly great alt-country band who pretty much stole the show, along with Spose, I suppose), and the main act: Rustic Overtones (who are admittedly getting old and worn-out, in fact, most of the crowd dispersed for their set, which was last and began around 10:45).
Saturday, I hung out with my nuclear family as we celebrated one of my cousin's engagement out in Bowdoinham. It was great to see and spend time with extended family that I have not seen in years. Then, in the evening I went out and had a few drinks with a coworker and her boyfriend and his friends. It was a great night, full of laughs and alcohol-induced good times.
Sunday, I spent the entire day with my great friend, Vanessa. We hit up an excellent breakfast place in Lewiston called Forage, which has all locally grown foods and homemade baked goods. Their bagels are to die for. Trust me. Then, we checked out the expansion and toured the facilities of Baxter Brewing, which has made a home inside one of the old, otherwise abandoned mills in downtown Lewiston. It was great to see the mill being used and I was proud of an old college buddy of mine, Luke Livingston, who is the owner of Baxter Brewing. As someone who just recently started drinking beer (when I turned 30, actually), it was really interesting to listen and learn about the science involved in making beer. I mean, I knew that there was a lot of math and science involved, but to hear it explained, I think will definitely help me appreciate it more. I've never been one to drink just to drink. I enjoy finding good-tasting beer. It's more of a social tool then a tool to get me drunk and forgot about things going on in my life. Unlike some people that I know in my life, I never wanted to use alcohol as an escape.
Anyway, then Vanessa and I headed back down to Portland and had dinner and drinks at Flatbread with some more of my newly acquired (does that sound weird when I'm talking about people?) friends. It's been great to be back in Portland, but especially to expand my circle of friends. I've certainly met some great people that I'm glad to have in my life over the past 11 months or so (since moving back to Portland after a disastrous attempt at cohabiting with my ex-girlfriend in Freeport). Portland just feels like a place I belong.
...............................................................
Film 194
"The Bling Ring"
starring: Emma Watson, Katie Change, Israel Broussard, Claire Julien, Taissa Farmiga, Leslie Mann, Gavine Rossdale, Stacy Edwards
written and directed by: Sofia Coppola
With "The Bling Ring" I may have found my second favorite film of the year. Albeit, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Sofia Coppola's films to date, so I may have been a little biased going into seeing her latest project (because, let's face it, with money tight and ticket prices up there these days, we all pick and choose carefully which films to see in the theatre). That being said, I believe Sofia Coppola is a great filmmaker of my generation. She understates many scenes and prefers to let certain scenes remain silent or minimally quiet in order for the scene to tell the story all by itself. I appreciate those moments in all her films. I also enjoy her dissection of celebrity (in the many forms it can take and be within a person). Let's look at her filmography briefly to get a scope of what she's tackled so far in her brief career:
The Virgin Suicides (in my Top 5 all time favorites)
Lost in Translation (I'm still wondering what Bill Murray whispers to Scarlett Jo at the end)
Marie Antoinette (might be considered a "miss" but I thought it was wonderfully crafted)
Somewhere (celebrity holes up in a hotel with his daughter, self-imposed introspection)
The Bling Ring
Sure she's only done 5 films in almost 15 years, but she comes out of the gate swinging every time.
Here, in "The Bling Ring" Coppola is using the rich and famous as the catalysts to perhaps show us ourselves, or the darker side of ourselves that are seemingly obsessed with celebrities and how we fight an internal struggle to be just like them or at least understand that they, too, are simply just human beings, when push comes to shove. She is perhaps holding up a mirror to our unhealthy obsessions with "un"reality. And I totally get her point and I thought she did a great job. At the center of the story are 5 celebrity-obsessed, bored, uncontrolled/un-monitored high schoolers (whose parents remain "hidden" or have a non-present, even though Leslie Mann's mother character to Emma Watson's character is there with her daughter, you can absolutely see a disconnect). I really enjoyed seeing how these kids/teenagers are really just set free upon the world with absolutely no parental guidance, because unfortunately I think it's a sad reality for many, thousands, of kids these days. Parents are clueless, or do not want to put in an effort, when it comes to "raising" their children. This seems to be rampant in California, and especially L.A. I suppose, because look at what happens in this true story. The film subtly tackles the concept of entitlement in our culture, especially nowadays- whether its the general idea of entitlement, like the sense of entitlement to our own fame and notoriety, or the sense of entitlement to be closer and closer to celebrities we often idolize and put upon a pedestal (perhaps the fact that they are on a pedestal entitles us to knock them down, I don't know). I appreciated this aspect of the film the most, because as a teacher, I have come in contact with a lot of children these days who come to school with a sense of entitlement and it bothers me, extremely.
So, the story goes like this (and Sofia Coppola is working off an article that appeared in Vanity Fair a few years ago): 5 teenage friends decide to rob the homes of celebrities they admire, nay, worship in order to say they are that much closer to these celebrities than their friends, because they brag about it openly (especially on Facebook, the social tool with which they chose to display all their conquests' treasures). They're teenagers, after all, so they are THAT stupid! The "Bling Ring" leader is somewhat sociopath Rebecca (played with deadpan soullessness by Katie Change), who first convinces her new "BFF," social outcast and new kid in school (for dropouts), played by Israel Broussard, to not only first break into unlocked cars, but then to break into his friend's house (who happens to be out of town). Rebecca then gets an itch to find and break into celebrities' homes, from the likes of: Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox, and the crowning achievement, Lindsay Lohan. Rebecca idolizes these celebrities, while the others in the crew seem to do it simply for the thrill (aside from Emma Watson's social climber character who uses her infamy once she is caught to prattle on about the "learning experience" it has all been, which you can totally see through and know that it's all simply a ploy for her to get famous- and unfortunately this girl did because we as a society have deemed these seemingly unworthy subjects of interest, actually interesting. We've given them the credit and status they do not deserve. Look at Kim Kardashian- simply famous for putting out a sex tape years ago, and now we all want to "Keep Up With" her. What is wrong with us?! Why are these nonentities so damn important to our lives?!) And then, there's Paris Hilton, who actually makes an appearance in the film (which I'm convinced is simply because she is the dirtiest, most shameless attention whore of them all), and let Coppola film in her actual house (which, by the way, includes a nightclub room and many, many photos of herself throughout the house, including on pillows). Ridiculous much?!
I loved Coppola's different approaches to filming the scattered scenes. She opens with a night-vision, single-shot of the teenagers hopping a fence, acting ninja-like (and as the film progresses, we realize how un-ninja-like these teens actually are), which is later revealed to be Orlando Bloom's home. Also, Coppola chooses to do a single, long shot of Audrina Patridge's home invasion, again, in mostly night-vision green and black. Why these celebrities' homes were so damn easy to break into is beyond me, by the way.
I loved this movie. I love Coppola as a writer and director. She's subtle in her approaches. She doesn't hit you over the head with her ideas. She lets the story play. She lets you think. She lets the scenes sit there on the screen for awhile. She turns the volume down, often letting entire scenes present and play out with silence. It's almost uncomfortable to watch her movies, but it's a good uncomfortable. It's a much needed one, too.
.....................................................................
Film 195
"The Chameleon"
starring: Ellen Barkin, Famke Janssen, Marc-Andre Grondin, Emilie de Ravin, Nick Stahl
Here is a film where French filmmaker Jean-Paul Salome is trying too hard to make another "Talented Mr. Ripley" with his film about a "straight from the headlines" story of stolen identity. It is based on the suspicious true life case of a missing boy of a troubled clue-collar family in the Louisiana bayou suddenly reappears in France and is taken home to be reacquainted with his family (who considered him dead after 4 years).
Nick (played by French actor Marc-Andre Grondin) is suspiciously shaken-up, quiet, and appears vulnerable when he is questioned by the FBI and police about his disappearance and kidnappers. Then, he becomes increasingly bizarre when we meet his loving-without-questioning sister (played by Emilie de Ravin, from "Roswell" on TV in the '90s and "The Hills Have Eyes" fame), his decrepit, drug-addicted mother (Ellen Barkin) and menacing and cynical half-brother (played by the creepy Nick Stahl). Oh yeah, throw in an FBI agent who smells Nick's bullshit story from the beginning (played by the convincing Famke Janssen who, when given a good role can actually deliver) and you've got the ingredients for a messy story of disbelief and foul-play that just never adds up to much other than B.S. It's very melodramatic, thanks in large part to Grondin's under-acting and over-reaching on a character that is completely unlikable from the start. The setting of the Louisiana bayou is dank, rightfully so, I suppose, for the story. The mood is never uplifting nor does it ever attempt to present that the truth may set everyone free by the end. Family is a dangerous word with these characters, and yet they seem to cling to each other for dear life, even accepting Nick into their lives when you can really tell they're not completely convinced he is actually their missing person (missing piece to the family puzzle). Yes, there may be reasons why everyone buys into the lie that Nick is selling them, but rather than answer these questions for us (which is totally okay that Salome doesn't), the filmmaker instead goes toward cliches like a drug-addicted mother, a thug half-brother who threatens, an on-the-verge-of-tears sister, and a fight-the-good-fight-to-expose-the-lies FBI agent.
Maybe I could've like this film if I hadn't seen "The Talented Mr. Ripley" years before and been way more convinced by those characters that "sometimes it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody" because that's who Nick really is- even though we end the film not really knowing too much about him and/or why he has chosen to take on the lives of other people like he did here.
I was not convinced that this story worked for many reasons including: the writing and the style with which the filmmaker chose to unravel the details for us.
........................................................
Film 196
"Lucky Girl"
starring: Elisha Cuthbert
(Made for TV movie, in Canada)
Here is a typical Made-for-TV movie with all the right ingredients. Camera and editing techniques like the fade to black, for commercials. The quick edits during the action. The after-school special or Lifetime movie acting. The simple story. The moral or lesson (is there really one, at the end?). The music soundtrack. And to think, after this, Elisha Cuthbert really broke free, from being a Canada actress and broke into the American mainstream once she got her role on the TV show "24" and films like "The Girl Next Door." I adore her. I have a crush on her. Yes. She's beautiful. She's blonde and blue-eyed. But, she can also act.
"Lucky Girl" is an enjoyable cautionary tale with a cliche plot.
Elisha Cuthbert plays Kaitlin, a seemingly very smart 17 year old student, in high school, especially when it comes to math. In one of the first scenes she answers a difficult math problem without even looking up from her notebook or having paid attention to the the teacher. Unfortunately, the caution in the story is that she ultimately lets her talent "go to waste" and "get the best of her" as we travel with her down the dark and dank road of gambling addiction. The film portrays the downward spiral (specifically of gambling addiction) rather well for a TV movie, of course it speeds through a few sections, but I think the filmmakers got it right in the time that they probably had (about 2 hours, I'm thinking).
Kaitlin starts out simply betting on sports' games (football in particular) with her peers at school. She gets in way over her head and bets far more money than she actually has and falls in debt with a few boys, who don't necessarily take to kindly to being owed (hell, I don't think I've seen a serious movie where a few guys physically beat up a girl- in a high school bathroom, like these guys do to Kaitlin). She lies to everyone around her. She gets involved with a 22 year old guy with his own problems. She continues to lie and cheat and steal her way out of the debt, but you can see it is all taking an emotional toll on her. Kudos to Elisha Cuthbert for being able to transform from the typical, girl-next-door beauty, into someone suffering from addiction. Things go from bad to worse to awfully dreadful (to the point where she agrees to sell her body for debt forgiveness- until mom comes to the rescue).
I found in this film, a guilty pleasure. I was unexpectedly enjoyable. For what it was- a well-made made-for-TV-movie about something difficult for people to confront.
...................................................................
Film 197
"Haywire"
starring: Gina Carano, Ewen McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas
directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh has had quite a career in the film business. He's had a lot of ups and downs, hits and misses. But, I have to hand it to the guy, he hasn't changed his approach to filmmaking. He's a bit of a minimalist, in the best sense of the word. He usually lets the story unfold on its own. And sometimes it does, slowly, most of the time; and sometimes as the story unfolds, you kind of realize he doesn't have much of a story at all. Sometimes the story is a bit of a character study/analysis, but then you realize the character isn't enough to really base an entire film about, but by then it's too late- you're invested in the film, or the actors/actresses playing the roles have your faith that something will happen.
Soderbergh is also good with taking on the challenge of putting an non-"professional" actress into a leading role and creating the story around their "talent." For example, I did enjoy his film starring adult film industry actress, Sasha Grey, in "The Girlfriend Experience." And here, in "Haywire" the director has taken Gina Carano (whom I admittedly didn't know anything about except that she looks an awful lot like Gina Gugino, a professional actress, until I Googled her). Carano is a retired MMA fighter, so she seems to have done all her own stunts and fight sequences in this film. And she's great at what she does. The film's plot is pretty much based on her ability to fight very well.
As opposed to his other aforementioned film with the beautiful Sasha Grey, Steven Soderbergh is not selling his audience on sex or the sexiness of a woman who can hold her own and fight anyone and come out on top. Although, I have to admit, there is something psychologically enticing and sexy about watching Gina Carano fight, flip, and do her thing against all these bad guys in "Haywire." It's a spy-thriller, in a sense, with some politics thrown in. Gina Carano plays Mallory Kane (the name just sounds both equal parts tough and sexy, an outsider contracted by the U.S. government to perform its dirty work (i.e. finding and taking back hostages). There is a lot of double-crossing from agents across the board and throughout the film Mallory Kane discovers that she ultimately cannot trust anyone. We never really understand why she is on the run the entire film from several people who want to kill her (because she is great at her job). That's what Soderbergh's story is missing- the answers to all the questions. He relies too much on the audience simply enjoying Carano's obviously athletic and sometimes Bruce Lee-like warrior antics.
Soderbergh's film relies too heavily on one trick: Gina Carano (who is not a professional actress, and he knows this so he fills on the other roles with bigger name actors like Ewen McGregor and Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas, who play the "bad guys" I suppose). I would like to see her in more films simply for her talent as a skilled and trained Martial Arts fighter, and to be honest, she actually does a decent job acting with what she's got. I think Soderbergh and the writer perhaps sold her a bit short, in the end.
Watch it to appreciate her, and know that you don't really have to pay attention to the plot because if you spend too much time thinking about it, you will realize it doesn't exactly make sense, and that you've wasted time thinking about it.
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