Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
This is just a sort of grab bag of other reviews I got from Seattle today. First up are a couple of quick capsule reviews:
Bright Young Things
Directorial debut by British comedian Stephen Fry is inconsequential and, I'm afraid, as empty as the people it's about. 1930's London is all about hedonism and coke-snorting debauchery for the privileged.
The press can't get enough. They're always on the lookout for a new scandal, and if the papers are sued for the stories they run, they will simply fabricate new, even more scandalous ones. Anything that sells; whatever can be gotten away with.
Not much has changed. The film is well acted, with playful dialogue to go around. Henry Braham's photography is about the best I've seen since EYES WIDE SHUT; all the period details are in place.
What surprised me is how not one of the characters seems to rise above this material. There's no one to really get on board with -- not Adam (Stephen Campbell Moore), whose constant debt leaves him little to do except finding more creative ways to get himself out. Not Nina (Emily Mortimer), the airhead he wants to marry; a subplot with her being sold back and forth only makes her seem ditzier. And, not Agatha (Fenella Woolgar), who suddenly goes insane for no reason.
Only once does anyone stop to acknowledge his or her vapid existence. Even then, why bother? If you've got the money and connections, why not live it up every chance you get? Not much has changed there, either.
Criminal
We're conditioned, with movies like MATCHSTICK MEN and HEIST, to second guess everything that happens in CRIMINAL, a remake of the film NINE QUEENS (never saw it). And, the moment Richard (John C. Reilly, at the top of his game) takes up with Rodrigo (Diego Luna), we're on red alert.
I have to admit, I saw the ending coming, and it kind of caught me by surprise, anyway. CRIMINAL is breezy and entertaining, just not memorable. The territory is too familiar.
Garden State
Having watched the teaser trailer for Zach Braff's GARDEN STATE an embarassing number of times, I expected the worse. But, the film doesn't disappoint. Weird and a little stilted at times, sure, but there's something to it.
Largeman (Braff) heads home after 9 years to attend his mother's funeral. Everybody recognizes him as that guy who played a retarded quarterback in that movie. He's been on prescription medication forever, and he's kind of a zombie when we first see him. But, along comes this girl to make him re-evaluate his life... yada yada.
The best thing about GARDEN STATE is it's direction. I like the way the images linger. The performances are effective, especially by Braff, whose character's slow snapping-out-of-it process is convincing, and Natalie Portman; their scene in the rain is a thing of beauty. They have a sweet relationship. The film has one too many endings, but I bought it.
J-Man
Here’s a more in-depth look at GARDEN STATE:
I saw Garden State a few days ago at the Seattle Film Festival. It was sorta good, but I suppose my high anticipation for the film these past few months probably played a role in my eventual disappointment of the film.
Ever since I watched the memorable Garden State teaser (the one with the Frou Frou song) in theaters this past late March and read the flattering Sundance reviews (one of which remarked that it was "Cameron Crowe meets Wes Anderson meets Hal Ashby"), I was hooked. Suffice to say, it did not live up to expectations.
Andrew Largeman (played by the film's writer/director Zach "Scrubs" Braff) is a successful movie/TV actor finally returning home to New Jersey for his mother's funeral. Back at home, Large (as he is affectionately called by loved ones) has to confront one of the main things he had so vehemently suppressed all these years: his dysfunctional family. With his mom dead, he and his father (played by the fine Ian Holm) are the only surviving members of their nuclear family, and hence, Large has to struggle and cope with his dad for the next few days until he departs for L.A. again.
The turning point of Garden State, however, is not the funeral of Large's mom. It is Large's random encounter, and eventual bond with a young woman, who just so happens to be an entertaining pathological liar. Her name is Sam, and she ultimately and unexpectedly, fufills Large's emotional needs, as she helps him confront his father and his depressive and numb state-of-mind. The actress who plays Large's love interest, Sam, is Natalie Portman. Between this film and Mike Nichols' upcoming Closer, I believe this is Portman's semi-comeback time; the best performance I've seen of her since, well, The Professional, her powerful screen debut a decade ago. (Now if I can only erase memories of her wooden turns in Anywhere But Here and the Star Wars prequels out of my mind...)
Unfortunately for me, I did not "buy" this relationship. It is eerily reminiscent of the lovers in Nichols' The Graduate, in which Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin, experiences self-actualization and successfully confronts the fears he had long harbored after finding parts of his own self in Katherine Ross' Elaine. However, in this case, Large and Sam just didn't click for me. (Note: I also suppose that The Graduate parallels are not a coincidence; in interviews that I've read, Braff has mentioned that one of his favorite movies is Nichols' 1967 landmark film.)
The film I saw this past March, by the way, was Eternal Sunshine, which I loved. Jim Carrey's Joel and Kate Winslet's Clementine are probably one of my favorite offbeat, quirky on-screen pairings, up there along with Ashby's epononymous Harold and Maude. I just don't think Braff's Large and Portman's Sam have that irresistibly non-formulaic chemistry.
Still, Braff shows promise as an emerging writer/director---one to watch for in the near future. There is some vision in Braff's directorial debut as evident in some remarkably beautiful scenes. Some of the dialogue in Garden State is honest as well as natural. Maybe his next film will do it for me. B-
-Just call me Clemato.
Thanks, guys.
"Moriarty" out.
