Jack Goes Boating (2010)

We thought Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut, about a limo driver who meets a woman and wants to better himself to please her, and their friends, a volatile married couple, was terrific. We saw it on its coastal opening day, last Friday the 24th, in New York. Adapted by Robert Glaudini from his 2007 play, which starred the same cast in three roles: Hoffman as Jack the limo driver, John Ortiz as his best friend Clyde, and Daphne Rubin-Vega as Clyde's wife Lucy. Amy Ryan stars as Connie, the woman who works with Lucy. I wrote about Hoffman in Pirate Radio, and Ryan in Changeling. Ortiz played Willie Colon in El Cantante (2006), and was in Miami Vice (2006), as well as small parts in American Gangster (2007) and Public Enemies. Rubin-Vega is probably best known for playing Mimi in Rent on Broadway (she chose not to do the movie because she felt she was too old), and was in, among others, Flawless (1999), which I loved, starring Hoffman as a transvestite who befriends a very straight Robert De Niro.

Snowy New York plays a big part in this movie, despite its fall release there (I suspect there will be snow by the time this is in wide release) and it does break rule #3. Music is also very important here, featuring songs by, among others, Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes (White Winter Hymnal is my favorite and you can play it and two other great ones from this link or clips from more at this one). The soundtrack is out now on CD and download from the usual sources.

Some may not appreciate the pace, but as my Jack put it, the slow pace is essential to the awkwardness of the characters. One scene, a conversation in a limo between Jack and Clyde, is entirely shot from behind (the passenger seat), in real time. Seeing this was a spur of the moment decision, when we had a couple of hours free that day. We hadn't seen the trailer, had not even heard of the movie before we walked into the Beekman in midtown. Though there are beautiful images in the trailer, I'm glad I didn't see it first, but you may be a captive audience when it comes up on then screen. In any case, be sure to see the whole movie when it hits your area.

I'm Still Here (2010)

We could not keep our eyes off the train wreck of Joaquin Phoenix, or "JP," in this mock-umentary of the star's so-called retirement from acting for a hip-hop career. Phoenix returned to apologize to David Letterman for pretending to crash and burn on The Late Show in March 2009. Before its release on Friday, September 10, and up until after its disappointing (box-office-wise) opening weekend, there was doubt as to whether it was really a documentary (I predicted it wasn't when I wrote about Two Lovers just after the first Letterman appearance--I also covered my faves of JP's previous work in that post). On opening day, September 10, the L.A. Times printed some hints (no spoilers on the first page, plenty on the second). We saw it that day, with 5 other moviegoers, just after 5:00 PM. Then, on Thursday the 16th, director Casey Affleck (brother of Ben, husband of Summer Phoenix, therefore JP's brother-in-law as well as good friend, Casey was nominated for an acting Oscar and more for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), was in the ensembles of Zach Braff's The Last Kiss (2006), Oceans Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen (2001, 05, 07), and more, and wrote and starred in Gerry (2002), which I did not like, despite John Waters' stating "Do not sleep with anyone who doesn't love this movie.") announced in the New York Times (no spoilers) that he wanted to "come clean" about this, his directorial debut. One fan on imdb opined that Affleck talked because the moviemakers expected a Borat opening and instead got Gigli, and ifc.com (Independent Film Channel)'s Matt Singer expressed a similar opinion. In our theatre four of us laughed a lot, and I'm sure many more will go to see it now that the "secret" is out.

You know those movies you hate because the lead character is someone that drives you crazy? This is not one of them. We truly thought it was funny in a cringe-y sort of way and hoped it was not real. Not for prudes, this movie has gratuitous male nudity, naked hookers (not really gratuitous when they're hookers, after all), excessive drug use, lots of bad language, and a few gross-outs. After you see it, read this article on "I'm Still Here-y Theories," written before the announcement.

Kisses (2008)

Not exactly sweet, this tale of neighbors Dylan and Kylie, Irish preadolescents who escape their abusive suburban lives for a night on Dublin's streets searching for Dylan's runaway brother is thoughtful and beautifully photographed (by director/writer Lance Daly, Jake Corbett, and David Grennan, all uncredited). Daly does take credit for the subtitles, helpful for us Yanks (though not every line is captioned--go figure). It sounds depressing but has its light moments amid the squalor and humor amid the tragedy.

Two things to watch for: it begins in black and white, but this isn't Oz, with a dramatic switch to color. It happens gradually. You can decide for yourself what the dramatic turning points are. Also, prolific Irish actor Stephen Rea (just seen in Ondine) is uncredited in a cameo. I spotted him immediately, but thought I was mistaken when his name didn't appear at the end. Imdb confirmed my sighting. About halfway through the short running time (72 minutes) a busker teaches Dylan about his namesake Bob Dylan, and then tunes from Bob's oeuvre accompany many scenes following.

To describe the talented young stars, I've copied and pasted from the press kit (it did not have the hoped-for music credits, but if you want to read the whole thing you can download it from the bottom of this link): "As the filmmakers were coming to the final stages of casting, during which they visited scores of schools and saw over a thousand children, they set up a test to find their Kylie – they placed an uncomfortable wooden chair in the middle of the room with a padded leather one set over by the wall. All of the girls who came in to read for the part sat where they were told, in the uncomfortable chair, except for Kelly O'Neill, who almost immediately crossed the room to the better chair and dragged it into place. This act of independence immediately endeared the budding actress to the filmmakers." "Casting director Nick McGinley saw over a thousand children, choosing the most independent, headstrong characters with the strongest personalities. In the process of casting Kylie, Kelly O'Neill emerged as a front runner, but the filmmakers were worried that the prospective young Dylans would be overshadowed by her larger than life presence. She instructed her potential co-stars to make her tea and bring her biscuits during auditions - instructions which most followed without question. The only candidate who seemed immune to Kelly steamrolling them with the sheer force of her personality was Shane Curry, who without a second's thought told her to get lost and make her own tea."

In limited release, it made a rare appearance this side of the pond, and will be out soon on video, when you can enjoy it yourself. It gives more proof to Jack's assertion: someone else's family is always worse than yours.

Ondine (2009)

We thoroughly enjoyed Irish director/writer Neil Jordan's latest fish tale, starring Colin Farrell as Syracuse, AKA Circus, who finds a beautiful woman, Ondine, alive in his fishing net, and then begins to love her, as does his smart, wheelchair-bound 10-year-old daughter Annie, who lives with her mother but spends plenty of time with her da (not a typo, that's what the Irish say instead of dad). I learned about selkies (mythical Irish mermaids-with-legs) from John Sayles' wonderful The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), and Annie is convinced Ondine is one. Jordan won his Oscar for writing the brilliant The Crying Game (1993) and was nominated for directing it. I also liked his Mona Lisa (1986), and one of my all-time favorites is the very dark comedy The Butcher Boy (1997), adapted by Jordan and Pat McCabe from the novel by McCabe. One reviewer asked if there is any role that Farrell (after I chose my faves in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, he had a cameo in Crazy Heart) can't play? Don't know of any yet. Young Alison Barry is adorable in her debut as Annie. Ondine is played by Alicja Bachleda (new to me, she has a number of credits in Poland), and she and Farrell are now an item after they met on this movie. The score is by Kjartan Sveinsson, keyboardist of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós, and the music is fabulous (also including songs by Lisa Hannigan). I hope to see a soundtrack CD one of these days, but it's not showing up now. Here's one song, which is supposed to be the tune that Ondine sings (though I can't for the life of me pick out in that clip the first five notes - mi so mi re do - which I thought she sang repeatedly), and in this link Jordan discusses Bachleda's singing it herself (her soprano voice is gorgeous).

Stephen Rea, a Jordan regular (Oscar nominated for The Crying Game, he's been in all of Jordan's movies, as well as plenty more directed by others), brings warmth and humor to his character of the priest. David emailed me about this movie, quoting his favorite line, "Misery is easy...happiness you have to work at," which is said by Rea. David also said the accents gave him some trouble at first, which is saying something, since he is Scotland-born and raised. Because he likely saw it at a theatre in L.A. with a good sound system, it must have been the sound mix. Jack and I certainly had trouble understanding all the words. The photography, by Christopher Doyle (his varied work includes Happy Together (1997) and In the Mood for Love (2000) for Wong Kar Wai, Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) for Philip Noyce, and Made (2001) for Jon Favreau, among many), is beautifully gray (the entire movie was shot in County Cork, Ireland). I felt cold upon leaving the theatre, due in no small part to watching many swims in the sea, when the dry characters are wearing coats and hats.

One reviewer on amazon gives some background on selkies and ondines, without spoilers. I have, so far, seen this movie 1½ times. The half came first: it was on video-on-demand on our plane from Lima to Houston in July and the video system (luckily not the plane) crashed. I may see it again, with closed captions, to get the dialogue I missed the other times. The DVD will be released later this month, so I will have a chance soon. I recommend you see it, too, one way or the other.

The American (2010)

George Clooney is dour and serious as the title character in this too slow, unthrilling thriller. Here are the good parts: beautiful vistas and street scenes in Sweden and Italy, the assembly of certain mechanical objects, Clooney exercising in his room, and pretty girls, occasionally naked. Even the music annoyed me (heavy handed). Jack and I couldn't figure out why Clooney picked this project. It must have seemed better on paper. After I wrote about my favorite Clooney work (and there's a lot) in The Men Who Stare at Goats, he was in Fantastic Mr. Fox and was nominated for an Oscar for Up in the Air. Rowan Joffe (writer of 28 Weeks Later (2007)), son of director Roland Joffe (Killing Fields (1984), The Mission (1986)) adapted the script from a novel, A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth, which a number of people on imdb said was good. Dutch director Anton Corbijn has directed music videos, shorts, and one feature (about the band Joy Division) before tackling this one and wrestling it to the ground.

I wish I had written "Those who believe they’d be happy watching George Clooney do nothing for two hours can now test that theory." Here's a link to the entire spoiler-filled review. With a 62% on rottentomatoes and 6.9 out of 10 on imdb, it was #1 at the box office last weekend (its first, it opened on Wednesday 9/1/10). There's no accounting for taste.

Wild Grass (Les herbes folles - 2009)

This interesting and beautiful yarn about the aftermath of a purse-snatching won the Special Jury Prize and Special Award at Cannes and was nominated for its Palme d'Or. Directed by 88-year-old Alain Resnais, it stars his orange-haired paramour Sabine Azéma (61) and André Dussolier as the owner of the wallet and the one who finds it later, respectively. Dussolier (64 years old, he was in the excellent Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne - 2006), the narrator of Amélie (2001), and in Micmacs, among many others) is described by the policeman (Mathieu Amalric, star of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), and many other roles) as looking 50. Ha! He looks his real age. In an early scene, Jack and I thought Dussolier's character is getting together with his two daughters, one son-in-law, and one son. Turns out one "daughter" is supposed to be his wife of 30 years. Anne Consigny (A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël - 2008)), who plays his wife, is 47, but looks 40. Her real-life son, Vladimir Consigny, plays her son here. Emmanuelle Devos (star of the wonderful thriller Read My Lips (Sur mes lèvres - 2001), also was in A Christmas Tale, as well as a good part in Coco Before Chanel) is great as Azéma's work colleague. Resnais has been directing since 1936, and is best known for Hiroshima mon amour (1959) and Mon oncle d'Amerique (1980), which I meant to see but didn't. Cinematographer Eric Gautier (Irma Vep (1996), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), Into the Wild (2007), A Christmas Tale, Taking Woodstock, Summer Hours, and all the Assayas movies in the latter post) has fun with color, light, and mood under the direction of the old master.

A google search of "'wild grass' 'soundtrack jazz'" shows many writers criticizing the music (score by Mark Snow (composer of the X-Files theme) plus many songs) as banal, corny, flighty, weird, overemphatic. So shoot me, I liked it. Always nice to hear jazz on a soundtrack. I would have thought that the original French would be les herbes sauvages, for wild grass. Folles means crazy. That's more like the movie. There's a lot of craziness up on the screen. The average on rottentomatoes for the movie as a whole is 65%. I can't say that we loved this but it was well worth seeing nonetheless. Note to my long-time readers: Rule #2 has been broken.

The Switch (2010)

Cute, albeit predictable. If you've seen the trailer, you know that Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) decides to get pregnant via donated sperm, and her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman) replaces the donation with one of his own. Bateman gives a satisfyingly wry performance and, of course, Aniston has great hair. It was pretty low on our list but at a convenient time Friday and was better than we expected. Allan Loeb (who co-adapted the script for 21 (2008)) adapted this screenplay from the short story The Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides (whose novel was the basis of Sofia Coppola's good but unfunny The Virgin Suicides (1999)) and Loeb co-wrote the screenplay for the upcoming sequel to 1987's Wall Street. Co-directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck, in their second feature (their first was Blades of Glory (2007)), have a bit more trouble with the pace here than their previous farce, perhaps because this isn't a farce, but attempts to tug at the heartstrings.

There's some funny stuff, though. A homeless guy with Tourette's brings a lot of laughs in the very beginning, and Jeff Goldblum (some of his best are The Fly (1986), Jurassic Park (1993 and 1997), and Igby Goes Down (2002)), brings some more as Bateman's friend Leonard (plus he improvises a bluesy intro to Happy Birthday on the piano near the end--I knew it was he before the camera panned up to his face). Bateman ((my faves are Juno (2007), Hancock (2008), Extract, Up in the Air, and, of course TV's Arrested Development, which won him a Golden Globe)) is mostly great as a pessimistic buzzkill (is that redundant?) and so is the kid, Thomas Robinson. Aniston (I didn't watch Friends but I liked and liked her in Office Space (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), and especially Friends with Money (2006) and He's Just Not That Into You) does the best she can with the script, and Juliette Lewis (Oscar-nominated for Cape Fear (1991), she was also great in Kalifornia and What's Eating Gilbert Grape (both 1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), and more) has her moments as Kassie's friend. Oh yeah, and Patrick Wilson plays the guy whose most important trait is his good looks (as in the excellent Little Children (2006)).

Full soundtrack info is on imdb, including the mandatory Hill sisters credit for Happy Birthday, and another of the songs is Sea Green, See Blue by Jaymay, which is also in happythankyoumoreplease as well as Serendipity (2001). The incidence of Rule #3 is late in the movie, but is there, along with nice set dressing in the lush interiors and gorgeous establishing shots of New York City, where every shot was filmed.

Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)

We were lucky enough to be among about 400 people here in the heartland to attend an advance screening (September 2010) of this adorable and uplifting tale of young, attractive, 20-something New Yorkers trying to figure out how to be grown-ups. Written and directed by and starring Josh Radnor (best known for starring in the series How I Met Your Mother (2005-2010)), his feature debut was as beloved by the audience here as it was at Sundance in January, where it won the Audience Award. Radnor, as Sam, a writer who can't quite get his life together, is rumpled and appealing. Malin Åkerman (Swedish-born, she first came to my attention as the fetching Juna in the wonderful and cringe-y The Comeback on HBO and was very funny as the train wreck wife in the remake of The Heartbreak Kid (2007), as well as one episode of the brilliant-but-canceled Love Monkey, and more) plays his best friend Annie, who suffers from alopecia, plays the whole movie with eyebrows shaved off and a bald cap on her head, and makes us feel her pain and frustration. 9-year-old Michael Algieri is sweet as Rasheen. It's nice to see Tony Hale (who will always be Buster Bluth from Arrested Development to me, though he has a 15-year-long and varied resumé) playing it straight while getting some laughs as Sam #2. Zoe Kazan's (after I wrote about her in The Exploding Girl, she was in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and It's Complicated) character Mary Catherine goes through some major changes and she's fully up to the challenge. Football princess (her great-grandfathers Timothy Mara and Art Rooney founded the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively, and the ownership has been passed down through the generations) Kate Mara (I haven't seen that much of her work, but I liked her series arcs on Nip/Tuck (2003) and Entourage (2009), as well as her small part in Brokeback Mountain (2005)) is lovely as Mississippi, a sensible girl who keeps telling us she isn't. Liev's little brother Pablo Schreiber has the most winning ear-to-ear smile, plus his character Charlie is the best boyfriend ever. Cinematographer Seamus Tierney does some interesting things with focus; and watch for an instance early on of my #3 Rule for movies. I'm not going to say more because I want you to enjoy it for yourselves.

One of the ten producers is Jesse Hara, Radnor's boyhood friend, and it is also his feature debut. The music - score composed by New York singer/songwriter Jaymay, and songs sung by her, Kate Mara, and others - is first rate. Here's a taste plus another song from the movie, by Brendan Hines, full of cuss words. The movie is now out, but the soundtrack isn't! Here's a list of the 23 songs in it.

I promised Radnor last night at the premiere that I would publish this post when I saw it (which I did) and then again when the movie gets released, which I'm doing now. He told me that he decided to run the words together so people would remember the title. Remember it. See it as soon as you can (preferably opening weekend to help the movie's ratings at the box office). Jack and I, and everyone I asked, loved it. You will, too.