Capone's Art-House Round-Up with ST. VINCENT, WHIPLASH, KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON, and 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH!!!

Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here, with a few films that are making their way into art houses or coming out in limited release around America this week (maybe even taking up one whole screen at a multiplex near you). Do your part to support these films, or at least the good ones…


ST. VINCENT
Sometimes a film works just because the performances and the chemistry among the performers works. Welcome to ST. VINCENT, from writer-director Theodore Melfi (whose only other feature was 1999's WINDING ROADS), a story that isn't about being original or believable. Its sole purpose is to introduce us to characters who we care about and who care about each other, even if their means of expression are a bit off kilter (bordering on unrecognizable). The film doesn't work (or exist) without Bill Murray as Vincent, the cantankerous drunk and gambler who has the great misfortune (in his estimation) of having Maggie, a single mother (Melissa McCarthy), and her 12-year-old son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) move in next door.

ST. VINCENT is a story loaded with characters in various stages of desperation. Maggie's is a bit easier to spot, as she holds down a job at a local hospital but doesn't make enough money to hire a full-time babysitter for her son. Vincent has gambling debts up to his eyeballs, and is looking for a way to make a quick buck, so the two strike an uneasy agreement to have Vincent take care of her son for a few hours after school until she gets home for dinner.

Naturally, Vincent takes the kid to a local dive bar and the horse track, where a nasty loan shark (Terrence Howard) threatens him; he also introduces Oliver to his pregnant stripper/prostitute friend Daka (an almost unrecognizable Naomi Watts), who is literally a hooker with a heart of gold who hides that goodness behind an abrasive personality. The film's cast of colorful characters also includes a funny turn by Chris O'Dowd as Oliver's Catholic school priest/teacher full of good advice.

As much as you might think you've seen Murray in roles like this, you actually haven't. There's something less amusing and more pained about Vincent than the typical role Murray takes on. And the more we learn about Vincent's past, the more we understand his present condition. ST. VINCENT is a film about how we find value in ourselves through the eyes of others, and when Oliver is given the task of giving a presentation about a modern-day saint in his life, we see a man given his own meaning back to him through the eyes of this young man who loves him unconditionally—something Vincent has only experienced once before in his life. McCarthy also is quite strong here in a more dramatic part, and I'm pretty sure she barely utters a joke throughout the film.

ST. VINCENT finds a way to be sweet without being sticky or sickening about it. It skillfully finds a way to deal with dark material without sacrificing laughs, which is no small achievement. It's a terrific film that, in big and small ways, opens our eyes to what many of these actors are capable of, in the context of a plot that is simple yet elegant.


WHIPLASH
A double prize winners at this year's Sundance Film Festival, WHIPLASH might be the scariest film out right now as it traces the terrifying training of 19-year-old drummer Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller of THE SPECTACULAR NOW), a student at a top music conservatory, who is hand picked by the toughest instructor at the school, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) as an alternate in his competition-level jazz band. It becomes clear that Fletcher is an abusive (physically and emotionally) teacher, but his methods result in great playing and accolades for the group.

A great number of the scenes in WHIPLASH feature Teller torturing himself (and bloodying his hands) to get his playing up to the level required to impress Fletcher, a task that becomes all the more important when Andrew is moved to core drummer after an incident involving misplaced music. Andrew attempts to date a girl, but soon realizes that his music must come first; his father (Paul Reiser) tries to get Andrew to dial back the intensity and long hours, but Andrew drive is unstoppable, and the film doesn't necessarily present that as a good thing, since the better and more focused Andrew becomes, the more he cuts people off.

Writer-director Damien Chazelle (GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH; writer of GRAND PIANO) captures the often-destructive drive that inhabits both Andrew and Fletcher flawlessly, and Simmons is so scary (even when he's attempting to be a calming force) that he begins to make even the audience nervous when he arrives on the screen. There's a long sequence set on the stage of Carnegie Hall that is meant to be end of Andrew's career as a drummer that is so nerve-wracking that you are almost in total disbelief at how it turns out.

WHIPLASH is so full of energy, nerve, electricity, pain, suffering and tears that it feels like an entire life being played out before you eyes in a matter of minutes. Chazelle moves the camera in an out of Andrew's drum kit that you fee like you're at the heart of the music. Watching this film is an extraordinary experience that will likely leave you as winded as it does exhilarated.


KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON
Not unlike Whiplash, the documentary KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON is about a young musician under the instruction of an older, wiser player. And that's about where the similarities end. In this wonderful doc from first-time director Al Hicks, we follow five years in the lives and relationship of 93-year-old jazz legend Clark Terry and his piano-playing protege Justin Kauflin, who happens to be blind. The film is both an extraordinary music history lesson about Terry and his influence on everyone from Miles Davis and Quincy Jones (he was also the first African-American player in the "Tonight Show" band), and about the importance of passing on musical knowledge to future generations of performers.

Shot over five years, KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON also deals with the hard realities of growing old, with Terry going through a couple of health scares during the course of filming. But at its core, this is the story of a friendship that is bound together by great music. Terry walks Justin through song after son until he gets it right; but Terry also teaches the young man lessons about how to treat people, getting over stagefright before a big competition, and remembering to enjoy the music and not get lost in practicing all the time. He also introduces Justin to Quincy Jones, which has lasting ramifications for Justin.

KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON is nothing but positive energy keeping out the bad, and while its utter lack of cynicism and negativity may be too much for some to take, it's wonderful to occasionally find a film that dares to be about good people doing great work. Plus the wall-to-wall music is a rare treat and a bit of culture all rolled into one. But when a doc's subject can gather the likes of Jones, Bill Cosby, Dianne Reeves and Herbie Hancock to speak to his significance as a musician and teacher, that's a special thing.


20,000 DAYS ON EARTH
I'm a firm believer in the flexible definition of "documentary," and few films in recent memory stretch it further than co-directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's take on the life and career of musician, screenwriter and all-around creative force Nick Cave, who seems to have agreed to be a part of this project as a way to celebrate his 20,000th day being alive. The film takes the form of a free-floating narrative, with bits of remembrances, interviews, archival footage and photos, and the sorts of things you'd find in a typical doc thrown in for structure. But Cave's process isn't about constructing a timeline as much as it is throwing light on a man who has lived in the dark for so long. And if he doesn't feel a bit of music video fully captures him, he and the directors stage something that does for 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH.

Some of the best footage is of Cave in the studio—recording or rehearsing—as well as small moments of him on stage toward the end of the film. He barrels through a song as if he'll collapse if he doesn't get it out of his system, like psychological detox. I could watch him for weeks just in front of a microphone, dipping into the audience and pulling back. There are other moments of Cave sifting through photos that an archivist has pulled for a book of some sort on his career, and he provides commentary on each pre-selected image.

There are a few revealing interviews with the likes of actor Ray Winstone, Warren Ellis and former band mate Blixa Bargeld, but it's the staged conversation between Cave and one-time duet partner Kylie Minogue that is by far the most hypnotic and confessional. Her popularity pulled him into the mainstream briefly, and his dark reputation gave her a bit of much-needed edge at the time. 



Cave's wife Susie is a major source of inspiration and stability for Cave after years of self-abuse via drugs and alcohol, but she is never interviewed and is barely shown on camera (I'm guessing by choice). But somehow her absence from the film underscores her significance in his life. And when all is said and done, 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH is an impressionistic, yet somehow complete, portrait of a man who has always been the quintessential cool rock star, while maintaining his vulnerability and boundless creativity. It's a sometimes puzzling but always illuminating work of art, which seems fitting.

-- Steve Prokopy
"Capone"
capone@aintitcool.com
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