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Capone Reviews WAITRESS And AWAY FROM HER!!
Hey everyone. Caponein Chicago here.
WAITRESS
In late 1996 (this would predate my time with Ain't It Cool News), I was basking in what may have been my first- or second-ever Chicago International Film Festival. I went to an ill-attended screening of a little indie work called SUDDEN MANHATTAN, the feature debut from the film's writer, director and star, Adrienne Shelly. The only reason I went to see this movie was because I had a mad crush on Shelly, who had charmed me with the neurotic, put-upon characters she played in Hal Hartley's THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH and TRUST. She popped up with some amount of frequency in a handful of independent films, but nothing really captured what I loved most about her as those early Hartley works, but that didn't stop me from searching high and low for every film I could get my hands on in which she starred.
When SUDDEN MANHATTAN played at the Chicago festival, it screened at a sort of run-down older theater in the city that has since closed its doors. I went to support Shelly's work, but mainly to see her on the big screen again. Little did I know that Adrienne would show up to the screening for a loose and informal Q&A that ended up feeling more like a handful of friends in someone's living room than a structured, impersonal event. The discussion in the theater led to a smaller group of us (about five, including Shelly) heading down the street to a nearby pub and continuing to talk for another hour about Chicago, New York, Hartley and the pains it took her to get her film made. That was my only personal encounter with Shelly; I'm not claiming any friendship with her or deep connection as a result of this conversation. But when I heard that she was murdered last November, well, I didn't take it well. What bothered me most was that nobody I talked to about her death seemed to even know who she was, and that's a terrible shame that I suspect will be rectified by the film she was finishing up when she died, WAITRESS, a dazzling, deeply felt work that draws its strength from an absolutely transcendent performance by star Keri Russell, and the sure-handed pen and eye of writer-director Shelly.
My exposure to Russell as a leading actress is limited. I never watched "Felicity," and her performances in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and THE UPSIDE OF ANGER were small enough that I couldn't really judge her talents adequately. WAITRESS changes all of that and almost drop kicks her into a new world of possibilities as a gifted actress with an undercurrent of humor and maturity that makes her perfect for just about any kind of role, be it dramatic, comedic or anything in between, which is where this film rests. Russell plays Jenna, a waitress at a pie diner in a stiflingly small town who has the uncanny gift of inventing some of the universe's greatest pie recipes on a daily basis. She's married to a real shit named Earl (Jeremy Sisto), whose jealousy and insensitivity knows no limits. Her best friends are her fellow waitresses, played with great enthusiasm by Cheryl Hines as Becky (a slightly dialed-back version of Flo from the TV show "Alice") and Shelly, as the mousy Dawn. The owner of the diner is Joe, played in a wonderfully frank, honest and funny performance by Andy Griffith.
Jenna's inner thoughts (in the form of letters to her unborn baby) serve as our narration through her struggle to escape her marriage, but her plans sound more like pipe dreams since Earl keeps all the money and controls all aspects of their lives. Her dream is to invent a pie that can win her $25,000 at a pie contest, but Earl won't let her even consider the dream, despite the fact that they could clearly use the cash. Her life gets just a little bit worse when she discovers she's pregnant, a fact she never really embraces, as is evidenced by one of her pie creations, the "I Don't Want Earl's Baby" pie (she names her delicacies after the frame of mind she's in when she invents them). Jenna goes to her OB/GYN to confirm the bad news, when she discovers her long-time doctor is gone, replaced by the young, good-looking, quirky Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion).
WAITRESS doesn't have an agenda or message beyond "Do what's best for you," nor does it have a conventional plot. This is a healthy slice-of-life serving filled with delicious amounts of interesting characters, sometimes difficult character choices, and loads of charm and sass. Some may be put off by Jenna's constant anger at very existence of her unborn child, but I just found it funny that Shelly was gutsy enough as a screenwriter to write a character who would normally think of such an event as a blessing and turn it around into something truly unwanted. Jenna keeps the pregnancy from Earl for a while, but when he finds out, he makes her promise him that she won't love the baby more than him. It's a creepy scene, and underscores Earl's insecurities better than simply having him be physically abusive.
A love affair begins between Jenna and her doctor, and even that doesn't play out the way I thought it would. I kept waiting for the big confrontation when Earl finds out his wife is cheating, but Shelly doesn't make things that predictable. In fact, for a film, featuring characters that could easily have been made obvious and canned, Waitress surprised me more than once, sometimes with small decisions or actions, sometimes with its candor, and sometimes with its emotional depth. Don't fall for the cutesy ads you see for this film, because there's a lot going on here besides tasty-looking pies and romantic-comedy clichés.
I whole-heartedly adore this film, but I don't want you to think it's because of Shelly's passing. It's the kind of work that manages to be both a crowd pleaser, while still being a little devious and off-color. What saddens me about the work is that it would have clearly opened up many doors for Shelly as a writer and director. She would have been a likely candidate for the next big wave of romantic comedies, and Hollywood might have appreciated her slightly more cynical view of love, while never missing an opportunity to make us laugh. It's this lost potential that comes with Shelly's death that gets me now that I've seen WAITRESS. She clearly had great stories to tell and fascinating characters to introduce us to, especially her female characters. Jenna is one of the most fully realized women I've seen in the movies in years. But you shouldn't go for any of these reasons; go because this movie is full of life, conviction, spirit and humor. Shelly made the best movie of her career, and we're all the better for it.
AWAY FROM HER
In many ways, it seems wholly appropriate that I'm reviewing this film alongside Adrienne Shelly's WAITRESS. Both were made by established actresses whose first features as directors are so solid and impressive that it almost makes you fear that we may lose a life in front of the camera for a life and career behind it. In the case of AWAY FROM HER, the actress behind the camera is Sarah Polley, and the thing that is most shocking about her first film is that this 28-year-old, relatively newly married woman has perfectly captured the lives of a long-married elderly couple about to enter the final chapter in their lives when one of them begins showing signs of early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Polley establishes a level of knowing and maturity about memory and history that makes it impossible not to marvel at her skills. Some of this may come from the film's source material (the Alice Munro short story "The Bear Came over the Mountain"), but there is also a level of contemplation and reflection that even the likes of Ingmar Bergman didn't discover until much later in his career.
The couple in question is played by the beautiful-as-ever Julie Christie and Canadian acting icon Gordon Pinsent as Fiona and Grant, one of those perfect couples who have almost never been apart for more than a day or two. Both are fiercely independent and exceptionally intelligent, but they also are deeply in love and can't stand not being together. But soon Fiona's short-term memory begins to fade, and one day she strays from their country home into the snow and forgets how to get home. Gordon finds her hours later wandering the streets, freezing. Lest you start thinking that this movie is about a woman suffering from Alzheimer's, it's not — not entirely at least. This is more Grant's tale, about how a man so deeply committed to his wife has to learn to let go of her despite the fact that she is still very much alive. After the couple decides that Fiona should move into a high-end, extended-care facility, the work begins. The hospital administrator (Wendy Crewson) says that once Fiona is moved in, Grant cannot come visit her for 30 days, in an effort to get Fiona established in her new surroundings.
When they are reunited, things have already changed. Fiona has latched on to another patient, the almost silent Aubrey (Michael Murphy), as sort of a stand-in caretaker to him. She recognizes Grant, but seems to focus on the more negative events in their past, including some past betrayal from his years as a university professor. Polley doesn't rely on flashbacks in AWAY FROM HER. In fact, the brief glimpses we get of Fiona and Grant in younger days are just that: glimpses, flashes of two people in love. Instead, Polley saves her chronological trickery for more modern-day scenes, in which Grant is seen talking to another woman, Marian (Olympia Dukakis), about some incident at the home. We soon realize that she is Aubrey's wife, and that something clearly happened at the facility between Aubrey and Fiona that forced Marian to bring him back home.
But this is no elderly mystery story. It's merely an excuse to have us follow Grant as he visits Fiona on an almost daily basis. Rather then spend time with her, he often sits at the opposite end of the room, watching her from a distance. He also spends a great deal of time talking to one of the nurses on staff played by the astonishingly convincing Kristen Thomson, a Canadian theatre actress whom I've never seen before, but would relish the chance to do so again. She's so authentic in the role that I thought Polley had hired a real nurse with some acting inspirations. She tries to help Grant understand what Fiona is going through, and is sometimes critical of the facility's strict policies. But her story is just as interesting as anyone else's in the film, and I missed her when she wasn't on screen.
Each encounter between Grant and Fiona becomes increasingly uncomfortable and unsettling for us, as well as them. They don't have anything in common any longer, and the one thing they held most dear about their relationship -- their ability to communicate -- is now disintegrating before their eyes. Christie's work here is extraordinary. If this film had come out late last year, her Oscar nomination would have been a sure thing. Over the course of the film, the far-away, glassy look in her eye becomes more and more pronounced, and it breaks our collective hearts every time we see her. Meanwhile, Grant finds a great deal of common ground with Marian, and the two begin dating unapologetically. It's all part of the moving-on process.
How someone as young as Polley could have made a film about these characters and experiences seems hard to contemplate, but if you know a little something about her history (particularly her mother's death when Polley was 11), it maybe doesn't seem so out of character. In all her roles (from Atom Egoyan's THE SWEET HEREAFTER to MY LIFE WITHOUT ME to the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake), Polley always struck me as a young woman with an old soul. She has simply never disappointed me as a performer, and I'm pleased to report that her first feature in no way let me down either. This is a marvelous love story, a tale of mourning the living, and a chronicle of being forced at an older age to face the fact that your vision of yourself as part of an elderly couple growing old together by the fireplace drinking tea isn't going to happen. New chapters of a person's life don't stop being written just because you get gray hair, and AWAY FROM HER reminds us of that sometimes terrifying fact with a grace and dignity that is easy to embrace. This is a lovely work from a gifted filmmaker whose range of talents are just now coming to light.
Capone
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first, motherfuckers¡
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but only now
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i'll also go and read the article now
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for her ultimaly passing, i have seen a trailer it looks kinda quirky, but im a fan of nathans and will try and cath it.
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What a great set of reviews, Capone. Great work. You've done a lot to interest me in two movies I would have otherwise probably not seen.
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Great review; profound movie. The thing you didn't mention is that the movie represents the most accurate - and perhaps first - on-screen representation of Canada's quiet soul. It's a film about human connection but is also a film about what it means to be Canadian.
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...oops
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...I don't know beans about her acting. But I would like to cram her mouth with my "Pie FIlling". ALso, is it wrong that I make my dog wear a Felicity wig?
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I have a short film playing, so I get free passes, and I'm dying to see it.thanks for a great write up and a nice tribute to Shelly, Capone. you do Chicago proud, sir.
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Shelly made a name for herself in films shot in my hometown of Lindenhurst, NY. Ever since I first saw her I felt that she was amazingly beautiful in a real way. The timing is the worst. Just knowing that she'll have a successful film that would open up possibilities for her film making after she has already died is the worst part of it.
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a screenplay she wrote into a movie. I don't know who will direct it, but hopefully who ever it is will do a good job.
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He's such a great actor... Typecast by his own show and Matlock. Check out A FACE IN THE CROWD or NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS for some really great great work by him.
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...actually been convicted yet? I know they know he did it, but what's happened to him in the meantime? Please don't tell me they just sent him back to wherever country he crawled out from (and no, this is not meant as a launching of another immigration debate! Unfortunately there are plenty of Amurrican-born-n-bred assholes right here who might've done the exact same thing; only difference is they woulda hauled out their Constitutionally-protected Uzis and armor-piercing bullets). Nope, all I wanna know is: DID THE GUY GET PUNISHED, and if not, WILL HE?
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Is in prison, having confessed to the murder. Although I cannot say for certain he has been convicted, if he hasn't, he will be. I expect this piece of shit to have his rectum examined for the next 60 years or so.
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Everybody sees in it what they want to, and, though Christie is a marvel to behold, the LONG movie she's in is ultimately confused and boring. Polley gets this credit for choosing the subject, not her treatment of it. The end is profoundly ambiguous, at least, but would you know it from her swooning camera? Does SHE know it? I don't think so.
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that review was as tasteless as it was poorly written and horribly misguided.it's one thing to imply that Shelly's death has made critics a little more lenient, it's another to joke about her being murdered by a guy to stop her from doing more post production work.the perfect moron reviewer for a dipshit with a screen name like yours who obviously shares the same mentality and minimal grasp on indie filmmaking.also telling is the fact that 2 seperate deuchebags responding to his review refer to their girlfriends as "the gash". if this is the type of shit you "trust", then guess who I don't give a fuck about...you give up? you and that piece of donkey shit Cale...
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...you've missed the point to such a degree here it's simply mind-boggling. Take a film 101 class or stick to the summer blockbuster Talk Backs
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Did you see the movie? She seems as clueless of the content of her own movie at the end as Spielberg was of the Color Purple. You tell me. One reviewer said the end was either a reward or a punishment. Can you really have it both ways, without at least acknowleging that it might BE both things. Don't SNIPE at me; explain yourself. Dope.
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The movie is EXTREMELY Canadian.
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but BadMrWonka did it for me. seriously, what a shitty review, that would never get put up on this site.
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Let's introduce him to Adrienne Shelley's husband, shall we? I hope to god his style of writing is just an act...stupid assholes are bad enough; it's the smart ones with vocabularies that are truly scary. Whether or not the film works, his review was in the worst possible taste; there are certainly better ways to express dissatisfaction with a film than that. And I must add, if Puppy Shit is reading this guy and "trusting" him, that dude more than lives up to his handle.
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Polley is clearly in control of the movie from the first frame to the last. I despise reviewers such as yourself that are nowhere near as smart as the films they are reviewing, but don't know it. Do you think it's sheer chance that the only operatic camera move comes in the last shot; she just decided to throw it in? Idiot. There's nothing ambiguous about it and it's sad you can't see that.The camera move encapsulated the very essence of the film: Life is cyclical and our two characters have just found that out. Their journey is complete at the same time a new one begins. All is in order.Seriously, you're about half as smart as you think you are and the movie is about 10 levels over your head. Go see the Transformers; no complexity there. Let the adults talk.
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When you said that you saw her a few year s back at a local Chicago theater, you wouldn't be talking about The Portage, would you?...I'm from the Chi, and when I was a about 13 or 14, I would go see all of the $2 shows ($1.50 on Mondays) second-run....in fact I saw 'Die Hard With a Vengence' there (hey!!...whatup Bruce!)...Just cool to make a Chicago connection, ya know!....
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...is one of those girls who can pull off being cute, sexy, and still manage to be a good actor. I've never watched Felicity but I loved her on Scrubs. Nathan Fillion is good too, so I might actually see a dramatic film for once.
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i'm sorry, but you would literally have to be made of stone not to feel SOMETHING for 'waitress.' knowing what we know (as opposed, possibly, to a lot of the people in the audience who didn't sit through the credits to see the in memoriam title), i found it ultimately impossible to separate true life from the film, making parts of it that would just be simplistically heartwarming - like shelly's little girl obviously waving to her mother off-camera - genuinely tragic. i am a hard-assed bitch but, 2 hours after getting out of the film, i am getting choked up just writing this.
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I went a little overboard with that Emperor's Wrinkles comment and the Canadian crack. I actually liked the movie and loved some it. But I was ultimately disappointed by what I felt was a certain narrative clumsiness that IS reflected in its length. At the end, we know this is only a brief reprieve, as the movie itself has told us, so after a whole movie spent letting go, is there no irony in that? It left me wanting, but that's my opinion, what the fuck's it got to do with Transformers or Spiderman 3? Maybe I deserved it after how I started this off in the first place. But I stand by my opinion that the movie's let's say MILDLY overrated because the fetching Sarah Polley is at the helm, and if it were the return of Don Shebib everybody wouldn't be falling over themselves to shower it with quite so many hossanas. Anyway, gotta go watch my DVD of "Army of Shadows." That's right, bee-yatch! Transformers, my ass...
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DePalma returns to the Chicago underworld with "The Untouchables: Capone Rising"
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but Julie Christie. My God. Have you seen the picture of her in the unbuttoned shirt that all the papers are running today with their reviews? 67! I'd so hit it. I don't recall her being nearly so hot for quite some time. Certainly not in Troy or Finding Neverland.
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Sshhhhkkkk!
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Its compelling and despite the sad material moves at a very fast pace maybe because I was engrossed. And what is confusing about it. Its a very clear and simple but well told story. Could you not follow the plot points.
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Both of them seem to confuse snark, smugness, and ill-advised rhetoric for quality journalism, and both seem to fall back on pedantic name-calling as an alternative to actually describing what they don't like about something. That kind of review is all-too-prevalent these days, and it bespeaks a lack of literary skill. The best thing I can say about you, Cale, is that you seem to own a working dictionary. I hope that makes up for the tact and grace you obviously were born without. What a dick.
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I was overreacting to what I feel is the overpraise the movie's gotten, and the move's not confusing so much as confused, to ME. The ending particularly. What were your feelings? Was it heartwarming? Triumphant? I said it was ambiguous and Pdorwick's quiet Canadian soul went postal. Since we know this moment is temporary, it struck me that Grant's reaction would be ambivalant at least. Or maybe not. I know mine was.
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Maybe we should just ignore him.
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The husband is happy for the temporary happiness, but he along with everyone knows that it could dissapear in a second. Its a very haunting memorable ending. I dont see whats confusing.
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I cant seem to find it.
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infected the rest of Europe.
What a BS depressing ending. -
He spends a full four paragraphs desperately trying to "push buttons" about how Shelly is supposedly a no-talent hack before he even gets into talking about what he didn't like about the movie. This is the reason internet critics get such a bad rap. The TBer who alerted us to it, Puppy Shit, later insulted one of the other TBers who called him out by saying "Go study for your PSATS." Is that to imply he's immature? As immature as someone who gets his kicks desperately defying everything that could be described as "sentimental" in favor of exaggerated disrespect for the dead in order to let the internet world know how witty you are? I don't know why I bother with this sometimes. (By the way Lovecraftfan, the link to the review is in Puppy Shit's first post.)
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you forgot his zinger back at me after I ripped him a new one:"Cry to your film professor."what does that even mean?
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Thanks you fucking scumbag for ruining the movie!!!!! I've been traveling and haven't been able to see it yet. Put a fucking spoiler warning by your post you fucking idiot. You should be banned for that. I hope you get raped in the ass you fuck stick.
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Spoil yourself
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Oh gee, yet another internet writer who thinks being an ass and a hater makes him look "hardcore" and smart instead of like a fucking twat.
He's just an extension of the "shock jock" radio personality taken to the internet.
An intellectual for the Howard Stern crowd ( then again,so is anybody with a HS diploma ). -
I suggest you read up on Cale and his website, and read a few more of his "reviews" before you come to his defense so quickly.the man survives on shock value, not insight. if you read up on him, and still want to defend him, then we'll talk further.
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i'm a woman. and i didn't say i cried at the movie, i said that after the fact, thinking about the fact that the writer will never do anything again - including raise her child - because she was senselessly murdered, i got choked up. i also didn't see rocky balboa. i am also a production designer with a lot of experience in the industry making films that may or may not be judged by their own merits, but as an actual filmmaker, i feel that i get to say whatever the fuck i want about it and be confident in the fact that i've worked hard for the right to my opinion.
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... "heartwarming" tales about women who cheat on their husbands. yeah, the husbands are boorish characters, because they have to be, or the theme of feminine fuck-around-ary wouldn't be nearly as sympathetic. what kind of movie would it be where the guy resembles an actual human? oh, right, the kind they wouldn't make.
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