Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Master (2012)

Strong performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a smooth cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as his angry protégé are among the strengths of director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson's sixth feature, likely to earn him (and them) more Oscar nominations. Anderson's oeuvre (Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), and some shorts) is all pretty terrific and this is no exception, though Phoenix's (last in these pages in I'm Still Here) Freddie Quell is as hard to like as Daniel Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. Hoffman (most recently in The Ides of March) shines, as usual, as the intense Lancaster Dodd and Amy Adams (The Muppets and so much before) supports as his wife.

Cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. (Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007) and Tetro, among others) shot the glorious images entirely in 70mm (or is it 65? I've read both) and production designers David Crank and Jack Fisk (won the Art Directors Guild award for Excellence in a Period Film for There Will Be Blood as well as being Oscar-nominated for the same work, and were recognized for The Tree of Life (we didn't like that movie but loved the production design) and Water for Elephants, among others) deserve recognition as well (Fisk is married to Sissy Spacek). Costume designer Mark Bridges (won the Oscar for The Artist and worked on, to name a few, all of Anderson's features, Blow (2001), The Italian Job (2003), and The Fighter) also does a great job with the 1940s and 50s wardrobe.

So far the movie has won the FIPRESCI Prize (International Competition), Best Director, and shared Best Actor for Hoffman and Phoenix, as well as a nomination for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. More to come, despite tepid audience response (59% average on rottentomatoes) but love from critics (85%). Those fascinated by the work can read a spoiler-filled review and blog post from the New Yorker.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

Jack and I loved this documentary about Rodriguez, a folksinger/songwriter who was hugely popular in South Africa 1969-72 but then disappeared, and the two guys from Cape Town 25 years later who set out to discover what happened to him. Maybe you've read what they found, but, in case you haven't, I won't give it away here. I had no idea and was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. His music, lyrics, and voice have some Phil Ochs, some Bob Dylan, and a sound all his own. I bought the movie soundtrack and a few more mp3s from Cold Fact and Coming From Reality (both 1970) to fill out the collection after seeing the movie today. Here is a link to some tracks from Cold Fact.

At Sundance in January it won the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for World Cinema-Documentary and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in that category, and won five other awards so far. On rottentomatoes it averages 95% from critics and 96 from audiences. Wow. Thanks to Lucinda for recommending it so strongly.

See this movie. You'll love it. Then write me at babetteflix at gmail and I'll tell you how to hear more music.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Samsara (2011)

Wowzers! I loved every minute of this wordless "documentary" with breathtaking photography and gorgeous music, shot entirely in 70mm film with notable use of time lapse techniques. Filmed in 25 countries, from a Van Nuys Costco store to a Namibian village, from the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to the Château de Versailles, from Philippine prisoners to the Bangkok "Ladyboys of Cascade Bar." I can be this specific because I found a link to the credits on the movie's facebook page. The credits are candy for the world traveler and the photography geek.

Some scenes teem with humanity, others have only landscapes. Some feature performance art, others show one or a few people simply staring at the camera. The title is a Sanskrit word that means the ever turning wheel of life.

With Jack out of town following his favorite American football team, I spent 102 minutes today in meditation with this masterpiece. I didn't see the previous work of director/co-writer/cinematographer/co-editor Ron Fricke (he performed all those duties on Baraka (1992) and all but directing on Koyaanisqatsi (1982)) and co-producer/co-writer/co-editor Mark Magidson (performed those duties on Baraka) but now I want to even more.

Sitting with my head on the chair back, I let the images and sounds wash over me. I've missed a few yoga sessions and this felt like a make up class.

The haunting music is by Michael Stearns (Baraka, more) and Lisa Gerrard (known for her vocals in the group Dead Can Dance, she worked on The Insider (1999) with Pieter Bourke, Gladiator (2000) with Hans Zimmer, and Ali (2001) with Bourke, among others) with Marcello De Francisci (nothing I've seen).

Other than a few advisories (for parents: the ladyboys display clothed sexual characteristics of both men and women and there's a short sequence in a factory making sex dolls; for vegetarians: a few scenes show meat being processed) this is highly recommended for yogis, meditators, photographers, world travelers, dancers, and/or wannabes of all kinds. Make a point of seeing it on the big screen if you can.

Placeholder for 6 movies

Yeah, I was behind in blogging when I left town on September 22, and since then I've been home for about 10 non-consecutive days, so here are brief summaries in the order in which we saw them, which I hope to flesh out soon, randomly. Please don't judge me for quoting myself later--a gal gets only so much inspiration. As of tonight three* are still playing on first-run screens in this area and one** in a second-run movie house.

Farewell My Queen, seen on 9/5. Beautiful costume drama about the spoiled Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), her devoted servant (Léa Seydoux), and her best friend (Virginie Ledoyen) with both of whom she cuddles every chance she gets. Noémie Lvovsky has a wonderful turn as the head ladies' maid who speaks volumes wordlessly. We liked it a lot.

**Premium Rush, seen 9/14. Awesome special effects of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle messenger appearing to weave madly in and out of Manhattan traffic. An inventive action movie with Michael Shannon playing yet another crazy guy, this one evil.

Celeste and Jesse Forever, seen 9/19. A grown-up romantic comedy co-written by and starring Rashida Jones as a career woman pulling away from her Peter Pan husband played by Andy Samberg. We loved it. Shot mostly with a handheld camera, this induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS) on the big screen. Lucky for you, it isn't playing on any now and you'll be fine watching it at home.

*The Master, seen 10/3. Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as his angry protégé. Amy Adams supports as the cult leader's wife. Beautiful photography, wonderful period (1940-50s) set dressing and costumes.

*Looper, seen 10/5. Joseph Gordon-Levitt again, this time playing a young Bruce Willis, much the same way Josh Brolin played a young Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black III. Only here, in addition to imitating the voice, Gordon-Levitt's eyebrows and certain facial characteristics have been altered digitally so that he resembles Willis. Good acting and well-crafted story about time travel in the near future--the third feature from director/writer Rian Johnson.

*End of Watch, seen 10/18. Pretty darn good, this veers wildly yet successfully between being a goofy buddy picture and a violent cop drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. There are some bloody images that will stay with you. It's also a serious MPMS inducer since a subplot is that Gyllenhaal's character is documenting his life with a hand-held camera. Apparently I was warned but didn't look at my notes before we picked something to see while we were out of town last week.

Completed full posts will be linked to the titles as I complete them.

Arbitrage (2012)

This tight thriller about a magnate in over his head with his mistress, financial dealings, and family kept us engaged when we saw it 3 weeks ago. Star power is provided by Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, and Tim Roth in the main roles as the magnate Robert, his wife Ellen, his CFO daughter Brooke, and the detective trying to prove Robert committed one of his crimes, respectively. Gere (my favorites: his first major role Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Breathless (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), of course Pretty Woman (1990), Dr T and the Women (2000), Unfaithful (2002), Chicago (2002), Bee Season (2005), The Hoax (2006), and I'm Not There. (2007), among others, proving he can do respectable, crazy, and combinations of the two) shows us Robert's desperation as he gets backed further into his corner. Sarandon (last in these pages in Jeff, Who Lives at Home) effortlessly plays a classy Ellen who would have every excuse to throw tantrums. Marling's (Sound of My Voice) Brooke gets madder at her father, but then she has more to lose. Tim Roth (at 51 he has 81 roles on his resume--my faves include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) in which he played Honey-Bunny's Pumpkin, and Everyone Says I Love You (1996)) made me laugh as his character slouched around asking probing questions in a flawless New York accent (he is British).

Nicholas Jarecki wrote one other screenplay before this and makes his feature directing debut here. He has a 2014 movie on imdb with no details, so he is expected to be a star. The moody soundtrack by the prolific Cliff Martinez (Contagion and more) can be sampled on amazon's page, and then there are lots of songs, listed on imdb.

Rottentomatoes' critics weighed in at 85%, audiences at 71. Jack and I vote with the critics. This is throughly entertaining.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Liberal Arts (2012)

Sweet, Jack and I agreed after we saw it yesterday, but not a chick flick, he confirms. Josh Radnor's sophomore effort (ha!) about a 35-year-old falling for a sophomore at his alma mater is brainy, romantic, and even better than his first, Happythankyoumoreplease. He directed, starred in, and wrote both screenplays. Apparently this one got Sundance's first-ever standing ovation earlier this year but failed to win any awards. His character Jesse, presumably named after his long-time friend and producer Jesse Hara, can be summed up in this exchange: "Don't overthink it," she says. He replies, "You've got the wrong guy." Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) is perfect for the part of the 19-year-old Zibby joking with her older man. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the wonderful Richard Jenkins (mentioned most recently in Darling Companion) makes us feel Professor Hoberg's pain at his own aging and Allison Janney (last seen on the big screen in The Help) is very funny as the sexy Professor Fairfield. John Magaro (new to me) has a nice turn as a lost soul and Zac Efron (Me and Orson Welles) is adorable as a free spirited guy who hangs around campus (in my own checkered academic career, I spent time on several campuses, and there were many guys like Efron's Nat).

Anyone who has read any of the PR for this movie knows that Radnor went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, a lovely, vernal campus northeast of Columbus near the middle of the state, set and shot much of the movie there and in surrounding areas. In fact, imdb lists only Columbus and Gambier as filming locations, but I distinctly remember seeing a credit for the New York crew.

There's nice usage of classical music, and half of the 20 songs I counted at movie's end (16 are listed here--you can also preview those 16 here) are classical (9 of the official soundtrack are of that genre). As a singer I particularly appreciated the closing song of the credits, I Want a Kenyon Man, sung by the College's female a cappella group, Colla Voce, and that track is available for free download from  a page on Kenyon's alumni site. The movie's soundtrack is credited to Ben Toth, better known as vocal coach to many stars, including Radnor for a performance of She Loves Me in New York after Liberal Arts wrapped.

This is thoroughly entertaining, better than rottentomatoes' numbers might suggest (critics averaging 69% to its audiences' 70). You'll enjoy the 97 minutes you give it.