Ahoy, squirts! Quint here from sunny (yet still somehow chilly) Santa Barbara where I'm attending the film festival here. I got some time, so I thought I'd put up a few film festival reports for you guys. THE SQUID AND THE WHALE is one I'm really looking forward to written and directed by Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote THE LIFE AQUATIC with Wes Anderson. Sounds good and Variety claims that Jeff Daniels gives his best performance in this film. To anyone who's a huge fan of his turn in PLEASANTVILLE and THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (like me) them's big words. Also below Memento Man gives us looks at Taye Diggs in DRUM, something with the intriguing title WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN, Dave McKean's MIRRORMASK and of course... the celebrity update. Enjoy!
Hi Harry!
Here are the four movies I saw today:
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE * * * (Noah Baumbach, 2005)
Heavily autobiographical tale of the loss of childhood innocence that arises from the pain of divorce. In 1986 Brooklyn, 16-year-old Walt (Jesse Eisenberg from ROGER DODGER) and 12-year-old Frank (Owen Kline, son of Kevin) are brought to a family meeting where their intellectual parents, Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney) tell them that the family is breaking up. Walt seems to side with his father, while Frank gravitates to his mother. Gradually both learn that divorce is not only painful, it’s complicated, with neither parent being totally blameless. Writer/director Baumbach (who co-wrote THE LIFE AQUATIC with Wes Anderson) was visibly moved during the Q&A today, showing that the material, while fictionalized, has many elements that are close to his own experience. The performances feel real (VARIETY even calls this Jeff Daniels’ best performance to date.)
WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN? * ½ (Travis Wilkerson, 2005)
Depicting class struggles in Butte, Montana, the film was allegedly going for cinema verite style. Instead it looks like a bunch of home movies (with many shots way too close to faces) edited together haphazardly. A real mess.
DRUM * * * (Zola Moseko, South Africa, 2005)
Moving portrayal of journalist Henry Nxumalo (Taye Diggs) who writes for DRUM magazine in 1955, just as Apartheid is heating up in South Africa. Henry is changed by the journalistic experience of working on a farm where blacks are whipped in order to keep them working fast enough for the white owner. Henry soon does exposes of racism in prisons. He soon uncovers a plot to move all the blacks out of Sophiatown and rebuild the neighborhood for whites. Beautiful cinematography. The audience I saw this film with gave it a standing ovation (only the second I’ve seen at Sundance this year, following in the footsteps of MARILYN HOTCHKISS.)
MIRRORMASK * * (Dave McKean, 2005)
ALICE IN WONDERLAND meets SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW and LABYRNTH, as filtered through the head of Tim Burton. Helena (Stephanie Leonidas), enters a fantastic world of her own drawings as she searches with Valentine (Jason Barry) for a charm to help her mother in the hospital. Stunning visuals (you’ve never seen anything like this!) accompany a story that may be too dark, strange, and long for the family audience it is intended for. Nevertheless, real fans of the artwork and stories of Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman (who received help from the Jim Henson company) may adore it.
HEALTH UPDATE:
The Eccles Theater holds nearly 1270 people, and I could have sworn that all 1270 of them coughed or sneezed on me today. It gives new meaning to the term, “studio hack.” Sundance seems to be engulfed in disease. Pray for my survival!
CELEBRITY UPDATE:
John Cameron Mitchell (HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH) chomped down on a slice of pizza in the Eccles lobby tonight and was quite congenial.
Until tomorrow, this a sickly Memento Man, signing off!
