Across the Atlantic Sea

Alright, so I'm not in Manchester. But I am in London, and, thus, I will be posting even less than usual. I have movies I want to write about, gentle readers, but no time in which to do it. That should change upon my return. Until then, rent Before Sunrise and Before Sunset and think of me off having my own European adventure.

Starting Out in the Evening (2007)

Premise: A graduate student (Lauren Ambrose) seeks out a reclusive, out of print author (Frank Langella) as the subject of her master's thesis, while his daughter (Lili Taylor) seeks out an ex-boyfriend (Adrian Lester) recently returned to New York.

Would that this movie had come out here before I wrote my Top 10. There's a large extent to which this movie is about the cruelty of having to grow old, so I briefly considered comparing it to the recently viewed The Savages. That would have been wrong. It would do the movie an injustice. Instead it's closer spiritual cousin is found in Once. Fred Parnes and Andrew Wagner's screenplay, from Brian Morton's novel and directed by Wagner, is as much about artistic creativity as John Carney's beautiful picture. It shows artistic creativity as it comes out the other side: deadened, perhaps lost, an ember awaiting a bellows.

Who is Langella? Where has he been hiding? I've been watching him in movies for years, but now I'm seeing him: his brown eyes, his blue lips. He's a giant, and he's adept at using his physiognomy against himself when needs be. It's a performance that requires a closed man to open himself for reasons you that would seem to be the opposite of those intended, and Langella carries it of so gracefully.

Ambrose has recently reminded me that I like her even if I didn't go in for that show she used to be on. There's genuine passion in her voice when she talks about Schiller's characters, an unmistakable literary love. You can hear the subtle differences in the way she talks about them and the way she talks about everything else. Her voice is rich with subtext even when her character isn't.

I can never get enough of Taylor, and now I feel like I'll never be able to get enough of Taylor and Lester together. Ariel's honest in a way that kills me because she's caring and she's also self-reflexive. As for Lester, he should be doing Shakespeare every day of his life. And complaining about people glowing at him. Every movie couple should be so luck as to have such natural intimacy and chemistry.

What a gloriously literary movie. I could say nothing better about it than it makes me wish I could read the (non-existent) books discussed therein. A+

Pop Culture Round Up: March 15-21

Sorry I haven't posted more this week, kids. Soon as I get the chance, I'll have more for you. Until then, enjoy your PC fun.

Whoa, what? "Reinventing" Cupid? I wonder how that's going to work.

The accent fun continues apace.

That she is. Wait, is her hair blonde in that photo? Oh, no, just light brown and blonde highlights. I can live with that. A bit fug the photo shoot, though, no?

What kind of movie? Eh, Scott Cohen's still cool.

Yay, math! Wait, what? Movie math, peeps. Don't worry.

Pop Culture Round Up: March 10-14

WHAT? If I knew for certain that Buffy would be available, I would upgrade to a faster connection today.

Damnit, I am going to have to get a faster connection. This is the motherload.

Okay, now this trend is just out of control.

Whoa, Cherry Jones as a female president? Sign me up! But what will her relationship to Jack be?

Doesn't everyone know by now that "In the butt, Bob" is true?

Well, aside from the fact that J.M. Barrie was Scottish, I never much cared for Gywneth's accents, and Kevin's spotty attempt is part of the joy of watching Robin Hood, I quite like this list.

I went ahead and let my jaw drop when I read this news. I realize that glorious Rob Thomas wrote a little Dawson's Creek back in the day, but wouldn't you like to see 90210 filtered through V-Mars's neo-noir (and orange and blue) lens? Or maybe kind of whimsical like that other show he created?

I'm all about this list (esp. No. 10) except number six. If you know you are in for a long movie or that you are the type of person that normally has to go, just make a point of sitting on the aisle and perferrably on the same side as the exit. It works, and it's not nearly the distraction that he's suggesting.

Dialogue avec mon jardinier (2007)

Story: An artist (Daniel Auteuil) on the brink of divorce and fed up with Parisian life returns to his country home, where he employs an old school friend (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) as his gardener.

It's a little facile that someone in need of saving in a movie always seems to find someone to save him or her. Unless, of course, you are watching a dramatic-thriller, in which case the person in need of saving will meet an Artful Dodger-type and have to learn to save him- or herself.

Still, as a man in need of saving, you could do a lot worse than Auteuil. He excels at the uptight Parisien in need of saving, even when he's as loose as the philanderer he plays here. He doesn't go in for big scenes so much as quiet implosions, and it makes the man at the centre seem all the more real for it. Plus he gets to laugh and smile a lot more here than I've ever seen him.

As the man who could save the city man with his country wisdom and down to earth nature, Darroussin goes beyond the archetype. As the eponymous gardener, he has just enough linguistic tics and odd habits to make him a believable human being without pushing him into quirky territory. To be honest, there's something luminous, almost angelic, in his dedication to gardening. To watch him rekindle a decades old friendship with ease is all the more touching.

Director and co-writer Jean Becker has little to do between the talent of his co-stars and the stunning backdrop of the painter's country estate photographed by Jean-Marie Dreujou, so he mostly stays out of the way. I can't blame him. If I had that sun dappled garden, Auteuil, and Darroussin to work with, I'd certainly be tempted to stand back and admire. B+

Pop Culture Round Up

"Cynicism is very easy. You don't have to justify it. You don't have to fight for it." Michel Gondry is lovely man.

This is sort of underbaked, but I feel like I know where Molly Redden is coming from. I'd rather see Casino Royale than The Holiday, too.

Would anyone else rather hear about some of the matches in the poll than in this post?

EW's 30 under 30.

For bacon joke enthusiasts.

I wonder if Simon Pegg could take McG in a bar room brawl, though.

He has carved out quite the niche for himself, hasn't he?

“Multiply the number of big laughs in the movie times $10 million, and you get the ultimate domestic box office,” Mr. Pollock said. “Ten big laughs, $100 million.” Leave it to the Times to end an article about comedies on a sour note.

This is explotative and wrong. Good thing those nice folks at the Vulture are around to take the piss out of it.

Victory in our time!

YES! Yes, yes, yes! The greatest show on television finally has the greenlight for a third season. Will that waitress keep Jason's baby? We'll find out! Will Matt and Julie ever get back together? We'll find out! Will Taylor Kitsch take his shirt off? Probably repeatedly! Best! Show! Ever!

The Short Take: the unexpected edition

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Perfect St. Valentine's Day movie: heavy on the explosions and eye candy, light on pretty much everything else. It's delightful popcorn fare that offers little besides Timothy Olyphant's steamy good looks and Bruce Willis and Justin Long getting into silly tiffs. It's everything you want in an action movie. B

Definitely, Maybe (2008)

I think this movie may even been slightly worse than I was anticipating. At least I know that Abigail Breslin's mom isn't dead or out of the picture. In the face of her parents' pending divorce and as the result of her first sex ed class, Maya asks her dad (Ryan Reynolds) how it came to pass that her parents got married and had a child. For reasons that only make sense in as much as they are necessary for the plot to occur, her dad opts to tell her the overlapping story of the three most significant romantic relationships in his adult life and let her figure out which one he ended up marrying. During this time he tells her terrible things about her mom (like how she cheated on him), about himself, and convinces her that he was secretly in love with another woman all along. Aside from a teary-eyed moment, this apparently has no lasting damage on the poor child's psyche. Too bad the entire movie wasn't about Kevin Kline's character. That I'd like to see. C

Being Julia (2004)

This has to be one of the most charming movies I've seen in a long while, and Annette Bening's breathtaking performance as an British stage actress taken in by young American man makes it all the more frustrating that she just can't beat Hilary Swank. I love seeing a woman scorned come out on top. Between Bening and Jeremy Iron's giggling make up scene and Bening's final drink, you pretty much want to pull up a seat and have a beer with her. Plus it's got Bruce Greenwood and Michael Gambon as a ghost. Who can argue with that? A-

The Dreamers (2003)

If I never see this movie again, it will be too soon. It's not that it's that bad, really, but, like The Other Boleyn Girl, it can never seem to make up its mind as to what it wants to be. Why have Matthew (Michael Pitt) narrate much of the story only to show scenes of which he has no knowledge? It's weird sticking point, I know, but it can be easily rectified by not putting so much emphasis on Matthew, Protagonist. The best part of his narration (and his character for that matter) are the monstrously idiotic things he says, and how believable it is that this 20 year old American in 1968 Paris would say or think such stupid things. Even better than that is Eva Green playing Isabelle as a deranged child instead of an adult. If only the movie could stop being so gross and start being as cool as it seems while "Hey Joe" plays over the DVD menu. C

Undertow (2004)

I could not for the life of me figure out why I rented this one not even after I watched the trailer. Do I really like Jamie Bell enough to seek out his movies? That would mean that I have to go see Jumper, so I am guessing not. Having seen it, the only thing I can figure is that a) I read a positive review somewhere (perhaps claiming that it is underrated?) or b) I wanted to hear Philip Glass' sparse and sadly underused score. Director and co-writer David Gordon Green's feature has a groggy, underwater quality to it that draws you in, but it also makes it difficult to connect with the story at large. It focuses on familial overreactions that could benefit from a little more background and exposition. On the other hand, the scene with Dermot Mulroney telling the story of the gold coins has a lasting quality far beyond the rest of the movie. B-

In Bruges (2008)

Premise: After a hit goes awry, boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) sends hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) to Bruges to await instructions. When the instructions come, however, it doesn't appear that either one is up to following them.

Tragic. Comic. Tragic-comic. Tragicomic. If you can imagine these two things smushed up together, overlapping in unexpected ways, you can imagine writer-director Martin McDonagh's sophmore feature. His story of guilt, retribution, and spiritual awakening clinches on a dead priest and a midget (Jordan Prentice) filming a dream sequence. It's hilariously sad.

McDonagh's found the best way to work with Farrell's range, in what's probably the best performance I've seen from him since Tigerland, if only because the role in no way depends upon Farrell's charisma. It loosens him up to be a natural, regular sort of bloke. Ray's a mess, but he's not a soapy over-acting mess. He's the quiet kind of mess that shouldn't be left alone to think about what a mess he's in.

Farrell's has an easy chemistry with Gleeson, as Ray's put upon minder who tries to make the best of the situation, sightseeing Bruges' medieval glories. Ken's the only character who's sadder than Ray in all of this, so watching him try to save Ray is all the sadder. He just wants a chance to do some good, to save the next one.

Would that I could see Fiennes this loose on a regular basis. Harry may have principles, but they're fun ones to watch at work. There's also a terrific pair of women, Clémence Poésy and Thekla Reuten, as Ray's love interest and the inn owner, respectively, that brighten up their scenes considerably.

The tragic and the comic go slapping against each other regularly, turning into each other in a split second. It's equally delightful and sad. A-

P.S. To the man who walked up to the other man with a three year old in the theatre, asked pointedly, "Do you know what movie this is?", and reminded the guy that there was a lot of violence to follow: je t'aime.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Idea: Seeing a chance to swoop into a power vacuum, Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance) encourages his eldest daughter Anne (Natalie Portman) to catch the eye of King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) during a visit. But when Anne out rides Henry during a hunt, his attentions turn to Mary (Scarlett Johansson), Anne's younger and married sister. Exiled to France, Anne returns a changed woman, and she sets out to win the King for herself.

Philippa Gregory's best selling novel has the impressive pedigree of having been adapted for the screen by Peter Morgan. Not only did he pen two of 2006's best reviewed movies, but he also wrote the 2003 mini-series Henry VIII, starring Ray Winstone. All in all, I'd say he knows his stuff.

It also has powerful, impassioned performances going for it. This is the best Johansson that we've seen since Ghost World. Her heart and face are open and exposed for the camera. It's a delicate performance, to make Mary chafe against her oppression and grow up, and it's one suited to Johansson's talents.

Portman is, as always, a working wonder. Anne goes from schoolgirl to vamp to beaten down in so short a time, and Portman carries it off with natural grace. It's too bad she's not much of a yeller, though. She gets a bit raspy at times.

Bana is also quite good, although I feel like he plays two Henrys instead of one. It's not that either isn't believable or well done; it's not even that the first Henry couldn't turn into the second. It's more that we are missing a scene or two that would make the transition easier to swallow.

That's the problem, really, with this adaptation: it can't decide what it wants to be. It can't decide if it wants to be about Mary or about Mary and Anne, and it suffers for it. The focus on Mary suggests that it is the former, as well as the fact that we see and hear nothing of Anne when she is in France. But later in the movie we are treated to scenes involving only Anne that we know right well Mary has no knowledge of. Because of those scenes, it feels like screentime is lost to other important aspects of Mary's story, like when, exactly, she fell in love with Henry (her admission comes out of left field) and what became of her husband.

Largely, though, the movie suffers under Justin Chadwick's ridiculously over the top dramatic direction. Give it a rest with the pathetic fallacy and tell me how you get the light to caress Portman's neck like that, would ya? B-

The best way I could sum him up is to say Bob Dylan has never been about to get out of town before the shootin' starts.

After you read my incredibly long review of I'm Not There., did you wish you could read just a little bit more of my thoughts re: Todd Haynes' take on Dylan's life and his music? And, hey, wouldn't it be cool if I threw in some thoughts about Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story and Velvet Goldmine? Of course you did. So read all about it in my latest Culture article.