It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)

Everyone should see this great little movie by the creators of the fab Half Nelson (2006) and Sugar. Starring Keir Gilchrist as a New York 16-year-old who commits himself to a psych ward, it is remarkably uplifting. And who knew Zach Galifianakis could succeed in a dramatic role after all his slapstick work in The Hangover (and its upcoming sequel), Youth in Revolt, Up in the Air, Bored to Death, and Dinner for Schmucks? Jack commented that Galifianakis really looked medicated--good acting AND makeup. Gilchrist (Tara's gay son Marshall on United States of Tara) is touching as the straight teenager with two love interests played by Hollywood princesses Emma Roberts (daughter of Eric, niece of Julia, seen in Lymelife, Valentine's Day, others) and Zoë Kravitz (daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, was in No Reservations, more). The ubiquitous Viola Davis (series arc on United States of Tara, plus Eat Pray Love, State of Play, and her breakout role in Doubt) plays the psychiatrist we would all want our kid to have. Lauren Graham (loved Evan Almighty, Flash of Genius, and the series Parenthood), Jim Gaffigan (Away We Go, lots more), Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show, Spider-Man 2 (2004), Music and Lyrics (2007), The Proposal), Jeremy Davies (Secretary (2002), Solaris (2004), Lost), and many others play supporting roles, including  Matthew Maher (Dogma (1999), Gone Baby Gone (2007), more), who I'm pretty sure was uncredited in I'm Still Here.

The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini, a New Yorker who was himself briefly hospitalized for depression at age 23. The borough of Brooklyn plays itself. There's also some excellent animation, as we expected from something with this subject matter. Co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck wrote the adapted screenplay and did the same on Sugar.

The David Bowie fantasy sequence in the middle is in and of itself worth the price of admission. Then there's some great indie music (complete list here, CD track listing here, with a few clips) complementing the score by indie greats (and Feist's first band) Broken Social Scene. The pace may be a bit slow at first, but chill. You'll get used to it. Though everything I've read points to this being a teen movie (directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck even screened The Breakfast Club (1985) for the cast and crew before the start of photography), we highly recommend it for all but very young kids.

Kings of Pastry (2010)

This documentary about 16 patissiers (pastry-makers) auditioning for the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) was great fun and, Jack said, more suspenseful than most of the scripted thrillers we've seen lately. Co-directed by 85-year-old D.A. Pennebaker (best known for the Bob Dylan doc Don't Look Back (1967) and numerous other "rockumentaries" and videos) and his wife since 1982, 58-year-old (since I told his I have to tell hers) Chris Hegedus (together they were Oscar-nominated for The War Room (1993), and Hegedus won the Directors Guild of America Award for Startup.com (2001)), it follows several of them before the competition, traveling between Chicago, Alsace, Lyon, and Paris, with Rule #2 exhibited immediately. Jack watches Top Chef and No Reservations, I watch no food TV shows, but we both liked the movie a lot. Going on my updated list of food movies, it's short (1:24) and, I have to say it, SWEET!

Life During Wartime (2009)

Fellow cringe-lovers, rejoice! Todd Solondz' sequel to his unhappy Happiness (1998) is finally here, albeit with not a single actor reprising a role. Jack and I were alone at Monday's matinee and laughed heartily at the characters' discomfort and the in-jokes (one we missed was the reason for the I'm Not There (2007) movie poster in a dorm room: cinematographer Ed Lachman shot it before this one, in which Puerto Rico passes for Florida). Where Happiness was about three sisters, their parents, and their neighbors, now one sister and the mother have supporting roles, and the father is out of the picture. 

This story revolves around Joy (Shirley Henderson - my faves were Trainspotting (1996), Topsy Turvy (1999), and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002)) and Trish (Allison Janney - probably best known for The West Wing, she had some great performances in Big Night (1996), The Ice Storm (1997), American Beauty (1999), Juno (2007), and Away We Go), still in denial about their sordid lives, Trish's husband Bill (Ciarán Hinds - this year's winner of a Career Achievement Award at the Dublin International Film Festival, he was in the excellent The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Circle of Friends (1995), Oscar and Lucinda (1997), Road to Perdition (2002), Margot at the Wedding (2007), and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), and Trish's kids, Timmy, Chloe, and Billy, now 8 or so years older. 

I don't want to give away the plot of the first one, and this one can stand alone anyway, but it is interesting what Solondz chose to emphasize and what he left out. Here's another reviewer's line that I wish I had written: "Solondz treats his characters with all the compassion of a child frying ants with a magnifying glass," Colin Covert in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, who did not like the movie. We like anti-heroes and awkward situations. That's what made it fun for us. We loved Trish's dreadful parenting (the scenes with young Chloe are priceless).

One in-joke that I did get was the late appearance of the character Mark Weiner, from Solondz' brilliant first fiction feature, Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) (apparently he regrets an early documentary and would leave it off his resumé if imdb would let him). I had forgotten that Mark was also in Solondz' baffling Palindromes (2004), where the protagonist Aviva (her name is a palindrome) is played by ten different actors (of varying races, ages, and genders) in the same movie. I didn't know Solondz was setting us up for the casting changes in this one. His other movie, Storytelling (2001), has some serious ant-frying, especially a scene that apparently was blocked by a red box on the screen for some showings. I don't remember seeing a red box, but then, I saw it in L.A. before I moved. Maybe there was less censorship in Tinsel Town in those days.

Life During Wartime is the name of a seminal Talking Heads song. But, in this movie, as in Dollhouse and Happiness, there is an original title song sung by a character with a guitar. Another in-joke. Here's the title track as sung by Devendra Banhart and Beck over the credits (Henderson also sings it during wartime, er, the movie).

In case you're interested, here are the casting changes from Happiness to Life During Wartime:
Joy: now Shirley Henderson, was Jane Adams.
Allen: now Michael K. Williams, was Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Trish: now Allison Janney, was Cynthia Stevenson.
Bill: now Ciarán Hinds, was Dylan Baker.
Timmy: now Dylan Riley (with beautifully thick eyelashes), was Snyder Justin Elvin.
Chloe: now Emma Hinz, was Lila Glantzman-Leib.
Billy: now Chris Marquette, was Rufus Read.
Helen (the other sister): now Ally Sheedy, was Lara Flynn Boyle.
Andy: now Paul Reubens (AKA Pee-wee Herman), was Jon Lovitz.
Mona (the mom): now Renée Taylor, was Louise Lasser (the dad was played by Ben Gazzara).
Mark Weiner: now Rich Pecci, was Matthew Faber.

Former child actress Gaby Hoffman (Field of Dreams at age 7 in 1989, Everyone Says I Love You in 1996, and more) has a cameo as Billy's girlfriend Wanda.

Though we had a great time, this movie is not for everyone, and definitely not for children. On rottentomatoes 69% of critics liked it and only 50% of users. One needs not to run screaming from the room at the suggestion of what Trish calls "sicko-pervy" behavior. And we, who stay in our seats, are Solondz' core audience.

Mao's Last Dancer (2009)

Based on the autobiography of Li Cunxin, this is a beautifully formed story of an extraordinary ballet dancer from his youth in Communist China to his time in America in the 1980s. It stars Chi Cao, who took a leave of absence from the Birmingham Royal Ballet to make this, as Li (amusingly to anyone who knows Chinese names, the Americans in the movie, even his close friends, call him Li, which is his family's name (like Smith), perhaps because his personal name Cunxin, pronounced “schwin sing,” would be too hard to say). Chi (bafflingly fifth billed on the poster) is terrific as the adult Li, and we also liked the kids who portrayed him growing up, Wen Bin Huang as the little boy and Chengwu Guo as the teenager, all three making their screen debuts.

Australian Director Bruce Beresford (Oscar-nominated for Breaker Morant (1980) and Tender Mercies (1983), his work includes Crimes of the Heart (1986), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), and Evelyn (2002)) gives us just the right mix of foreign locations and customs, gorgeous ballet sequences choreographed by fellow Aussie Graeme Murphy (occasionally in slow-motion in, I would guess, a nod to the martial arts "flying" sequences that started with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)), 1980s hair and disco dancing, and the personal journey of the protagonist. 

Bruce Greenwood (I wrote about him in Dinner for Schmucks) is wonderful as Houston Ballet Company's director Ben Stevenson. Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet (1986), Twin Peaks (TV 1990-91 and film 1992), Sex and the City (TV only 2000-02), Desperate Housewives (2006-10)) is good with his Texas accent, and gets second billing to Greenwood, though he doesn't appear until the second half of the movie. I also liked Joan Chen (The Last Emperor (1987), Twin Peaks (TV only 1990-91), What's Cooking, and Lust, Caution (2007)) as Li's mother, who has the body language of a Chinese peasant down pat. 

All the dancers here are really dancers: Amanda Schull, who plays Liz, danced and starred in Center Stage (2000) when she was in the San Francisco Ballet; Madeleine Eastoe, as Lori, has worked with Murphy in Australia: and Camilla Vergotis (Mary) is also Australian, currently a soloist with the Hong Kong Ballet; and many more.

The book was adapted by Jan Sardi (Oscar-nominated for adapting the screenplay for Shine (1996), and other work) and the cinematographer Peter James also shot Meet the Parents (2000), among others. Thanks to Kathleen for recommending this. We can see The Town anytime (and will), but this won't be around for much longer!

The Social Network (2010)

We liked this unauthorized version of the founding of Facebook and the legal battles thereafter. Jack said Jesse Eisenberg made us root for his unlikeable character and I say he is officially no longer interchangeable with Michael Cera. We saw this on opening day, before the crowds, and read the reviews after (why do these writers feel the need to tell us how it ends before we've seen the beginning???). We also waited (and I recommend that you wait, too, as there are spoilers) to read the long cover story in New York magazine (called "The movie Facebook doesn't want you to see"), wherein it was revealed that director David Fincher needed 99 takes for the fabulous first scene, in which Eisenberg's twitchy Mark Zuckerberg is revealed to be a dick. Speaking of Cera, Kate's little sister Rooney Mara, who had a part in the Cera-starring Youth in Revolt, plays Erica Albright in that first scene (as well as the rest), and has been cast as Lisbeth Salander in the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, now filming, also with Fincher (Oscar-nominated for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) at the helm.

The movie has screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's (best known for The West Wing, of which I watched only a few seasons, Sorkin has put his rapid-fire dialogue to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-07), Sports Night (1998-2000), The American President (1995), and the brilliant Malice (1993), among others) fingerprints all over it, despite its officially being called an adaptation of Ben Mezrich's book, The Accidental Billionaires (more on that in the New York article) (Mezrich also wrote the book from which 21 (2008) was adapted). Near the end of the New York article, Sorkin says, "This isn't a documentary." And the filmmakers don't let the truth, or the approval of the real people, get in the way of their story.

So this goes on the ever-growing list of Eisenberg's movies that I have loved (in order, with most favorite first: Zombieland, The Squid and the Whale (2005), this one, Roger Dodger (2002), Adventureland, A Solitary Man). Andrew Garfield (new to me in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) does a first rate job as Zuckerberg's best friend Eduardo Saverin, as does Justin Timberlake, better known as a musician in *NSYNC, etc. (his role as Sean Parker is a wink to that career) but is getting good as an actor (I particularly liked Alpha Dog (2006)). Supporting help is provided by the impassioned Max Minghella (Bee Season (2005), Art School Confidential (2006), and more) as Divya and Armie Hammer as the identical Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler. Appropriately, for someone playing an entitled Harvard man, or two, he is the handsome great-grandson of industrialist-art collector-philanthropist Armand Hammer (in a few scenes Josh Pence plays Tyler--you will notice here and there they are not identical and then suddenly they are). Douglas Urbanski, normally a producer (of nothing I have seen), has a funny scene playing Harvard President Larry Summers, and Sorkin has a cameo as the ad executive pitched by Zuckerberg and Saverin.

For the soundtrack you have the complete list on imdb, and the reelsoundtrack list with six songs' streaming music, but there's a spoiler in the latter in the description of when the songs occur. The movie is rated PG-13, which seems wrong to me. Here's the list if you're considering letting your youngsters see it--note the typo in the drug reference: should be "snort cocaine OFF a girl's stomach." Yikes! I kept quoting Silas Botwin from Weeds, who said, "I love college!"

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010)

I feel so much hipper after watching this documentary about Basquiat, the Haitian-Puerto Rican-American graffiti painter turned international art star. Directed by Basquiat's friend Tamra Davis, this is a loving portrait of the artist as a young man. I had liked the 1996 movie directed by another of Basquiat's friends, artist Julian Schnabel (who is in the documentary), in which Jeffrey Wright gave a fictionalized portrayal of the mercurial painter. This one has a good deal of footage of Basquiat himself, painting, dancing (occasionally at the same time), and speaking with Davis (who has directed episodes of various TV series as well as other documentaries and the movie Billy Madison (1995), among others), mixed in with interviews with people close to him and other vintage photography of the 1970s and 80s. The interview with Basquiat was originally a documentary short in 2006, and Davis met backers who asked her to flesh it out into a feature length doc. The poor radiant child (the term is from the title of an article about Basquiat by René Ricard, also in the doc) died of a heroin overdose in 1988 (six months after the death of his good friend and mentor Andy Warhol) at age 27, the same age as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix were in 1970 and Jim Morrison in 1971. This is not Ray (2004) or Walk the Line (2005), in which we saw the artists' druggy decline, however. This is a mostly upbeat hour and a half about the mostly upbeat guy who mostly loved what he did. Langston Hughes' poem Genius Child is featured at both beginning and end.

The trailer and the movie start with Dizzy Gillespie's jazz classic Salt Peanuts, and there is a prodigious number of wonderful music clips (listed on this page) from a wide variety of musical genres. The movie will be released on DVD October 26. Jack and I recommend you watch it.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

The good news: the aerial photography, sets, and locations are magnificent: Susan Sarandon is endearing; the songs are good; and Michael Douglas steals the show. The bad news: the script is weak, the pacing is off, Shia LaBeouf is a bit annoying, and Carey Mulligan's talents are wasted. I would say to skip it, except the richness of the cinematography needs a big screen. So you'll have to determine your own priorities when you decide whether to pay an ever-inflating ticket price (how appropriate) to see this, set in the 2008 economic crisis, about a young trader (LaBeouf) who is dating the daughter (Mulligan) of disgraced financier Gordon Gekko (Douglas) in the sequel to Wall Street (1987).

Director of Photography Rodrigo Prieto (my favorites are listed in Broken Embraces, after which he shot State of Play) should get a nomination for his luscious work here, as should Production Designer Kristi Zea (Oscar nominations for As Good As It Gets (1997) and Revolutionary Road, also designed, among others, Goodfellas (1990), Philadelphia (1993), the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004), The Departed (2006), and The Joneses, the last an opulent display of wretched excess just like this one) and Set Decorator Diane Lederman (Summer of Sam (1999) and others). The views of New York City, from the air, on the ground, and out the windows of multi-million dollar apartments and offices, are spectacular, as are the furnishings in those apartments, and all the non-NYC places.

We expected more from director Oliver Stone. Though W. was a little disappointing, Stone did, after all, win Oscars for directing Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and for adapting Midnight Express (1978), and I thought Natural Born Killers (1994) was good and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) and Talk Radio (1988) were brilliant. Stone has a cameo in this one, in an art gallery, when I laughed out loud at the art and therefore didn't hear the piece's name, which I hoped was funny, too.

The music, some by David Byrne and Brian Eno, is listed in its entirety on imdb, and you can listen to eight songs on reelsoundtrack blog. Imdb also lists a prodigious amount of trivia, if you care. Jack and I, who have consumed Cracker Jack lately, knew the prize gag was anachronistic, which is mentioned on the goofs page, but the Prius model is right for 2008, though imdb says it isn't. No matter what they say about the giant mobile phone, it's a good gag and it was in the trailer. We're glad Stone got Douglas (see my faves in A Solitary Man) to reprise his Oscar winning role of Gekko. If you, too, love Michael Douglas, you will like this article about him from the UK.