Ingrid Michaelson in Concert (Finally) and a Few Movies
This past Sunday, I finally got to see Ingrid Michaelson in concert. The show was supposed to be the inaugural show at Thompson's Point, Portland's latest venue for concerts, outdoor concerts. In the Old Port, we now have the Maine State Pier, as well, and they've played host to dozens of artists over the past few years. Let's face it, Portland is just an amazing place to be, nowadays, for live shows. Of course, it rained all day Sunday, but instead of canceling the show, they moved the show to the State Theatre, and I was one of the lucky 1800 people to get into the venue (because they originally sold like 3000 tickets to the original venue). I have definitely had opportunities to see Ingrid Michaelson, but I never took those chances, until this year. I was not disappointed. She put on an amazing show and I was thoroughly impressed with her catalogue of songs and even her ability to still play some cover songs.
"Stuck in Love"
starring: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Nat Wolff, Kristen Bell, Logan Lerman, Liana Liberto
written and directed by: Josh Boone
Greg Kinnear plays a writer, father, ex-husband named William Borgens in Josh Boone's film "Stuck in Love." He has been in a three-year long funk, mostly because he has spent the entire time pining for his ex-wife (played by Jennifer Connelly- so really, who can blame him, because if you find yourself married to someone like Connelly, one would think you do whatever it takes to make it work). But, the director/writer is not so much interested in this relationship as he is in exploring the effects it has had on the children/teenagers involved. It's not necessarily about the grown man's inability to let go, because Boone knows that's territory that's been explored and exhausted several times. Instead, he goes for the less obvious and more difficult pawns affected.
As William holes up in his beachside house, unable to write, pulling himself away from his Richard Ford novel only long enough to sneak peeks through the windows of the house that Erica shares with her new beau, his college-aged daughter, Samantha (Lily Collins), announces that she's inked a deal to publish her first novel. Meanwhile, the girl's high-schooler brother, Rusty (Nat Wolff), toils away on his own writing projects. Romantic tensions surface when nice-guy Lou (Logan Lerman) threatens to break down Samantha's anti-relationship stance and when Rusty wins over a classmate, Kate (Liana Liberato), only to have her drug problems resurface. Familial dissonance comes courtesy of the subtly lingering resentments that result from William's heavy-handed insistence on turning his kids into writers and, in more pronounced fashion, via Samantha's refusal to have anything to do with her mother, whom she views as the responsible party in her parents' breakup.
All this is a lot for one film to handle, and while Boone occasionally hits on some moments of familial truth (much of them having to do with William's desire to shape his children into versions of himself), he doesn't always handle the various threads with much grace. This is especially evident in the ways they resolve, which feel unnecessarily rushed and exude a whiff of social conservatism. Thus Samantha's sexual self-determination is revealed as a pose adopted by a young woman who just hasn't met the right guy yet, while the film's conclusion hints at an unlikely reconstruction of the nuclear family.
Everything ties together too nicely for it too really seem like it could have happened this way and so this indie film that could have been something, made something of itself, becomes lost in itself. It fails because I expected more.
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"Things Behind the Sun"
starring: Aria Alpert, Rosanna Arquette, Ruben Anders, Don Cheadle, Kim Dickens,
written and directed by: Allison Anders
I went into this not knowing anything about filmmaker Allison Anders, but apparently she drew on her own experiences when writing and thus directing this film, which is semi-autobiographical in its nature. She's a single mother in real life, with a passion for rock music (also intensely personal filmmaking). With this film, Anders dissects the aftershock of rape.
Sun stars Kim Dickens as a Florida singer who attempts to bury her pain as a rape survivor under a cloud of booze, casual sex, and self-destructive behavior. Alerted that a Dickens song about rape is shooting up the college-rock charts, editor Gabriel Mann pushes his magazine to run a story about her, and when he insists that he knows who raped her—information unknown to the police—he's sent to get that story. When he arrives in Florida, it becomes clear that his involvement with Dickens and her decades-old rape goes well beyond curiosity and professional duty, and as Mann and Dickens fall into an uneasy flirtation, each is forced to wrestle with the event that defined them both. Anders wisely shifts the focus to Dickens, whose mixture of childlike vulnerability and drunken bravado rivals Jennifer Jason Leigh's raw, electrifying performance in Georgia. Also on board is the terrific Don Cheadle, who invests the seemingly thankless role of Dickens' manager, protector, and long-suffering semi-boyfriend with pathos and gravity.
Unfortunately, this film didn't grab my attention like I wanted it to, like I think it should have, given its intense and passionate story.
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"Take Care"
starring: Leslie Bibb, Tracee Chimo, Kevin Curtis, Nadia Dajani, Betty Gilpin, Michael Godere, Marin Ireland, Elizabeth Rodriguez
written and directed by: Liz Tuccillo
This is an indie rom-com that takes its sweet time getting where everyone knows it will, which makes it slightly better and more tolerable than its Hollywood counterparts. It stars Leslie Bibb (who has been all over the place ever since I first saw her in the WB failed-experiment known as "Popular," which I thought was actually pretty decent). Bibb is Frannie, a young woman who has been immobilized by a car accident (breaking both an arm and a leg). She quickly finds out that living independently is significantly more difficult when she cannot even get around her apartment (she's basically bedridden). Her family and friends have "abandoned" her in this time of need, so she decides to turn to her ex-boyfriend, Devon (dubbed the Devil, by her friends), because as we find out she took are of him when he got sick with cancer.
It's definitely a romantic comedy, but sometimes it lacks the romance, and other times it lacks the comedy. The film moves slowly and a bit painfully at times, which is kind of a deathblow for a romantic comedy, especially when the absence of the love interest/story leaves very little left to drive the story forward.
When Devon arrives, Frannie has hit a mentally low and morally-low point, and she guilts him into taking care of her. Devon has a girlfriend though, Jodi, and her jealousy introduces much of the comedy and conflict. There's also an interesting parallel between Jodi's emotional neediness and Frannie's physical neediness that I think should have been explored a bit more and slightly better to make a more interesting rom-com. Their contrast and similarities gives the characters more depth than other rom-coms, which is a benefit for this film.
The naturally-evolving relationship between Devon and Frannie eventually becomes very charming. Leslie Bibb has an effortlessly appealing and relatable screen presence and Sadoski's Devon gives the film a thoughtful and interesting layer. And before we know it, we have a romantic and funny romantic comedy.
And somewhat surprisingly one realizes that “Take Care” has actually crafted some genuinely engaging characters. It's worth spending some time with.
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"Red Flag"
starring: Alex Karpovsky, Keith Poulson, Jennifer Prediger
written and directed by: Alex Karpovsky
I became familiar with Alex Karpovsky thanks to the HBO show "Girls" which he plays kind of the same guy he seems to play in the films I've seen him show up in, randomly (re: Lena Dunham's "Tiny Furniture" for one). He seems to be a part of the New York City group of actors and filmmakers that have been on a hot-streak as of late. For be it for me to say he's been typecast by his friends, and with this film, "Red Flag," he seems to have typecast himself as the bumbling, hard-to-speak, fool in the same vein as Woody Allen.
With this film, written, directed, and produced and subsequently starring himself, Karpovsky plays a character aptly named Alex, who is recently heartbroken (having been dumped by his girlfriend of nearly five years, Rachel, who has come to the realization that perhaps many women do when they date guys like this, that she can no longer carry him while he clowns around with the idea of fulfilling his dream of being a filmmaker- because ultimately, women want security). Alex has recently finished a film titled "Woodpecker" and he decides to travel through six southern states to showcase his film and moderate Q&As after. The set up is that he views this trip as a way for him to "have the opportunity to reflect on things and gain perspective"- a very similar twentysomething point of view and approach to life when faced with obstacles, the only trouble being that most twentysomethings are not self-aware enough to gain any perspective.
So now, Alex heads out on a two week tour in rental cars and dinky hotel rooms grappling with finding distractions and developing self-destructive compulsions that veer him further and further from the goal of perspective. He even finds some short-term relief from his heartbreak in the form of a glasses-wearing, dark haired girl named River (the fantastic Jennifer Prediger), who compliments Alex's film. He takes the chance to have sex with her, awkwardly, outside; and then, perhaps equally as awkward and passive, he dismisses her and any interest she has in him. Enter Alex's friend, Henry (Onur Tukel, looking like Robin Williams in "Good Will Hunting), who agrees to join him for the remainder of the road trip. Alex is quietly contemplating and obsessing over the idea of getting back with Rachel, even though he quite clearly has a difficult time even talking to her on the phone.
You are hoping for Alex's redemption and his inevitable epiphany before everything blows up in his face (which is more likely to happen by the end of the film), because that's really the set up. But, with this being an indie film, it doesn't have to follow that formula, and instead can play everything off like real life, because let's face it, not everyone gets the happy ending, especially when they are as unaware and stuck on themselves like Alex. We are stuck with a character who would rather stay in a perpetual state of self-loathing, instead.
This is a decent film, especially if you are like these characters, and can identify with the twentysomething way of life and looking at life. Unfortunately, I have the benefit of hindsight, being 33 years old, and honestly these type of characters tend to piss me off now more than ever, because I really want them to realize things faster.
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(Bon Iver cover) (With Bess from Secret Someones)
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(With Ben Thornewill of Jukebox the Ghost)
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- Soldier / Poker Face / One of Us / With or Without You / Undone (The Sweater Song) / Call Me Maybe / Ghost
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- Encore:
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(Elvis Presley cover)
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(Icona Pop cover)
"Stuck in Love"
starring: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Nat Wolff, Kristen Bell, Logan Lerman, Liana Liberto
written and directed by: Josh Boone
Greg Kinnear plays a writer, father, ex-husband named William Borgens in Josh Boone's film "Stuck in Love." He has been in a three-year long funk, mostly because he has spent the entire time pining for his ex-wife (played by Jennifer Connelly- so really, who can blame him, because if you find yourself married to someone like Connelly, one would think you do whatever it takes to make it work). But, the director/writer is not so much interested in this relationship as he is in exploring the effects it has had on the children/teenagers involved. It's not necessarily about the grown man's inability to let go, because Boone knows that's territory that's been explored and exhausted several times. Instead, he goes for the less obvious and more difficult pawns affected.
As William holes up in his beachside house, unable to write, pulling himself away from his Richard Ford novel only long enough to sneak peeks through the windows of the house that Erica shares with her new beau, his college-aged daughter, Samantha (Lily Collins), announces that she's inked a deal to publish her first novel. Meanwhile, the girl's high-schooler brother, Rusty (Nat Wolff), toils away on his own writing projects. Romantic tensions surface when nice-guy Lou (Logan Lerman) threatens to break down Samantha's anti-relationship stance and when Rusty wins over a classmate, Kate (Liana Liberato), only to have her drug problems resurface. Familial dissonance comes courtesy of the subtly lingering resentments that result from William's heavy-handed insistence on turning his kids into writers and, in more pronounced fashion, via Samantha's refusal to have anything to do with her mother, whom she views as the responsible party in her parents' breakup.
All this is a lot for one film to handle, and while Boone occasionally hits on some moments of familial truth (much of them having to do with William's desire to shape his children into versions of himself), he doesn't always handle the various threads with much grace. This is especially evident in the ways they resolve, which feel unnecessarily rushed and exude a whiff of social conservatism. Thus Samantha's sexual self-determination is revealed as a pose adopted by a young woman who just hasn't met the right guy yet, while the film's conclusion hints at an unlikely reconstruction of the nuclear family.
Everything ties together too nicely for it too really seem like it could have happened this way and so this indie film that could have been something, made something of itself, becomes lost in itself. It fails because I expected more.
..................................................................................
"Things Behind the Sun"
starring: Aria Alpert, Rosanna Arquette, Ruben Anders, Don Cheadle, Kim Dickens,
written and directed by: Allison Anders
I went into this not knowing anything about filmmaker Allison Anders, but apparently she drew on her own experiences when writing and thus directing this film, which is semi-autobiographical in its nature. She's a single mother in real life, with a passion for rock music (also intensely personal filmmaking). With this film, Anders dissects the aftershock of rape.
Sun stars Kim Dickens as a Florida singer who attempts to bury her pain as a rape survivor under a cloud of booze, casual sex, and self-destructive behavior. Alerted that a Dickens song about rape is shooting up the college-rock charts, editor Gabriel Mann pushes his magazine to run a story about her, and when he insists that he knows who raped her—information unknown to the police—he's sent to get that story. When he arrives in Florida, it becomes clear that his involvement with Dickens and her decades-old rape goes well beyond curiosity and professional duty, and as Mann and Dickens fall into an uneasy flirtation, each is forced to wrestle with the event that defined them both. Anders wisely shifts the focus to Dickens, whose mixture of childlike vulnerability and drunken bravado rivals Jennifer Jason Leigh's raw, electrifying performance in Georgia. Also on board is the terrific Don Cheadle, who invests the seemingly thankless role of Dickens' manager, protector, and long-suffering semi-boyfriend with pathos and gravity.
Unfortunately, this film didn't grab my attention like I wanted it to, like I think it should have, given its intense and passionate story.
.....................................................................................
"Take Care"
starring: Leslie Bibb, Tracee Chimo, Kevin Curtis, Nadia Dajani, Betty Gilpin, Michael Godere, Marin Ireland, Elizabeth Rodriguez
written and directed by: Liz Tuccillo
This is an indie rom-com that takes its sweet time getting where everyone knows it will, which makes it slightly better and more tolerable than its Hollywood counterparts. It stars Leslie Bibb (who has been all over the place ever since I first saw her in the WB failed-experiment known as "Popular," which I thought was actually pretty decent). Bibb is Frannie, a young woman who has been immobilized by a car accident (breaking both an arm and a leg). She quickly finds out that living independently is significantly more difficult when she cannot even get around her apartment (she's basically bedridden). Her family and friends have "abandoned" her in this time of need, so she decides to turn to her ex-boyfriend, Devon (dubbed the Devil, by her friends), because as we find out she took are of him when he got sick with cancer.
It's definitely a romantic comedy, but sometimes it lacks the romance, and other times it lacks the comedy. The film moves slowly and a bit painfully at times, which is kind of a deathblow for a romantic comedy, especially when the absence of the love interest/story leaves very little left to drive the story forward.
When Devon arrives, Frannie has hit a mentally low and morally-low point, and she guilts him into taking care of her. Devon has a girlfriend though, Jodi, and her jealousy introduces much of the comedy and conflict. There's also an interesting parallel between Jodi's emotional neediness and Frannie's physical neediness that I think should have been explored a bit more and slightly better to make a more interesting rom-com. Their contrast and similarities gives the characters more depth than other rom-coms, which is a benefit for this film.
The naturally-evolving relationship between Devon and Frannie eventually becomes very charming. Leslie Bibb has an effortlessly appealing and relatable screen presence and Sadoski's Devon gives the film a thoughtful and interesting layer. And before we know it, we have a romantic and funny romantic comedy.
And somewhat surprisingly one realizes that “Take Care” has actually crafted some genuinely engaging characters. It's worth spending some time with.
.....................................................................................
"Red Flag"
starring: Alex Karpovsky, Keith Poulson, Jennifer Prediger
written and directed by: Alex Karpovsky
I became familiar with Alex Karpovsky thanks to the HBO show "Girls" which he plays kind of the same guy he seems to play in the films I've seen him show up in, randomly (re: Lena Dunham's "Tiny Furniture" for one). He seems to be a part of the New York City group of actors and filmmakers that have been on a hot-streak as of late. For be it for me to say he's been typecast by his friends, and with this film, "Red Flag," he seems to have typecast himself as the bumbling, hard-to-speak, fool in the same vein as Woody Allen.
With this film, written, directed, and produced and subsequently starring himself, Karpovsky plays a character aptly named Alex, who is recently heartbroken (having been dumped by his girlfriend of nearly five years, Rachel, who has come to the realization that perhaps many women do when they date guys like this, that she can no longer carry him while he clowns around with the idea of fulfilling his dream of being a filmmaker- because ultimately, women want security). Alex has recently finished a film titled "Woodpecker" and he decides to travel through six southern states to showcase his film and moderate Q&As after. The set up is that he views this trip as a way for him to "have the opportunity to reflect on things and gain perspective"- a very similar twentysomething point of view and approach to life when faced with obstacles, the only trouble being that most twentysomethings are not self-aware enough to gain any perspective.
So now, Alex heads out on a two week tour in rental cars and dinky hotel rooms grappling with finding distractions and developing self-destructive compulsions that veer him further and further from the goal of perspective. He even finds some short-term relief from his heartbreak in the form of a glasses-wearing, dark haired girl named River (the fantastic Jennifer Prediger), who compliments Alex's film. He takes the chance to have sex with her, awkwardly, outside; and then, perhaps equally as awkward and passive, he dismisses her and any interest she has in him. Enter Alex's friend, Henry (Onur Tukel, looking like Robin Williams in "Good Will Hunting), who agrees to join him for the remainder of the road trip. Alex is quietly contemplating and obsessing over the idea of getting back with Rachel, even though he quite clearly has a difficult time even talking to her on the phone.
You are hoping for Alex's redemption and his inevitable epiphany before everything blows up in his face (which is more likely to happen by the end of the film), because that's really the set up. But, with this being an indie film, it doesn't have to follow that formula, and instead can play everything off like real life, because let's face it, not everyone gets the happy ending, especially when they are as unaware and stuck on themselves like Alex. We are stuck with a character who would rather stay in a perpetual state of self-loathing, instead.
This is a decent film, especially if you are like these characters, and can identify with the twentysomething way of life and looking at life. Unfortunately, I have the benefit of hindsight, being 33 years old, and honestly these type of characters tend to piss me off now more than ever, because I really want them to realize things faster.
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