Hey folks, Harry here... I post my plea, and immediately Ghostboy responds with this look at ALL THE REAL GIRLS with an extra review of Cronenberg's SPIDER for good measure. Well, seems like David Gordon Green has a good sophmore effort in ALL THE REAL GIRLS, which is nice to hear. But what the heck do I know, I haven't seen it... Get on to someone who has... Like Ghostboy here...
Hello people.
Being an independent filmmaker, this is a slightly disappointing time of year. The time when you receive all the rejection letters from the various Dances festivals that you knew you were going to receive anyway. But that's just the way it works.
Unless you're lucky, or even REALLY lucky, like one filmmaker whose second film is playing at Sundance next week. Here's an advance look at...
ALL THE REAL GIRLS
'All The Real Girls' is the new film from David Gordon Green, who previously made 'George Washington,' regarded by many (including myself) as one of the finest independent films ever made. His sophomore film is very different and very similar at the same time, and I before I get into it I'll just say that it isn't in the same league as 'George Washington.' It doesn't have the same power and quiet majesty. But it is a different film, and needs to be regarded as such, even though its similar style likens it to Green's first feature.
Like 'George Washington,' this is a quiet, meditative piece. Like that film, it begins with two central characters talking quietly about kissing. They are Paul (Paul Schneider) and Noel (Zooey Deschanel), and they like each other, and we find them as they fumble their way to a first embrace.
Paul is 22, and has lived in the sleepy North Carolina mill town that is the film's setting all his life. He lives with his mother (Patricia Clarkson), who dresses as a clown for birthday parties. Until he met Noel he's never been in love. He's slept with plenty of girls -- twenty six, to be exact, starting when he was thirteen years old; no relationships, simply one night affairs that left more than a few broken hearts. Paul isn't a bad guy; he's sweet and gentle and easy to like, but he's never felt the need to make a lasting connection with anyone.
Noel is younger, eighteen years old, and the sister of Paul's best friend Tip. She's been away at a boarding school most of her life, and has returned home and seems to want to 'dumb down,' so to speak. She's more educated than most of the people in town, but also more naive. She falls for Paul pretty quickly, even though Tip warns her that her heart will be broken. But Paul feels something different when he's around her. They fool around, but there is a shyness to their romance, a tentative tenderness. When he learns that she's still a virgin, he tells her he doesn't want to have sex with her, even though she's willing, because he doesn't want to ruin her first time. He realizes that he loves her.
This is a love story, but it's about as traditional as 'Punch Drunk Love.' Paul is even vaguely reminiscent of Barry Egan; he gets mad and breaks a window at one point, and when he and Noel fight for the first time, he walks away, fuming, and kneels down and punches the dirt as hard as he can. Green seems fond of finding strange ways for people to express their emotions physically; consider the fishhook scars Paul discovers on Noel's stomach, which were the result of an unexpected tragedy. There is a lot of hurting here; but the movie is about first love, and first loves never really have happy endings. There's a sense of desperation throughout their affair, but by the time its over they both can smile. They've tasted love, and can move on.
Much of the movie is loose and freewheeling, but in a slow and dreamy sort of way. There is a definite focus on the environment, mirroring the Terrence Malick films that Green loves; many shots linger on the factories, the clouds, the rolling Carolina hills, all gorgeously photographed by Tim Orr. There are scenes appear to have no real purpose, but they all add to the colloquial feel of the film; wait an hour after its over, and all the seemingly random moments will start to gel. As will the conversations and the characters, all of whom speak with that slightly surreal dialogue that I imagine will become a trademark of Green's. A sampling of the lines (perhaps slightly paraphrased, since I'm quoting from memory):
"Man, I'd like to spend a few afternoons with her, and make some...pizzas."
"I had a bad dream, and you were a river and you weren't moving and you were frozen."
"We gotta die but we don't have to grow old."
That last one, which sounds like a pretentious platitude, turns out to be a character just reading a bumper sticker off a broken down car; it's the kind of touch that grounds the poetic.
As with 'George Washington,' many cast members are first time actors, and they add an interesting degree of unprofessionalism and unfailing realism. Even the recognizable faces in the film (mainly Deschanel and Clarkson) aren't very recognizable. Schneider helped develop the story with Green, and I wouldn't be surprised if much of Paul is made up of himself. I'd like to see him in another movie, because he's so perfect here that I can't imagine seeing him play someone else.
I have a great deal of praise for this film, and yet I can't completely love it. At least not in the immediate way I loved 'George Washington' (I honestly meant to stop using that as a point of reference, but that's unfortunately hard to do). It's an ephemeral experience, the kind that is a bit hard to embrace. But I think this is an important film to Green, and to Schneider. It's a personal story, and out of it they've made a lovely and mature film that will connect with some and leave others unfazed.
I think Green has the potential to be one of the finest directors of this generation. Like the characters in the film, now that he's gone through this story, he can move on to even better things.
I believe this film hits theaters in February. A month later, the latest effort from Canada's resident weirdo is released. Of course, I'm talking about David Cronenberg and his new film...
SPIDER
Imagine a Rubick's Cube, and the way it twists on itself, constantly thwarting your attempts to solve it. Now imagine a Rubick's Cube trying to figure itself out, and you'll have a decent idea of David Cronenberg's 'Spider.' It is an intricate and introverted little film, objective and subjective at the same time. Few films have tapped into the notion of insanity so successfully as this one.
The main character of the story is Dennis Clegg, played by Ralph Fiennes in a nearly silent performance; he mumbles maybe a dozen words throughout the whole film. As the film begins, Clegg has been released from a mental asylum, and he makes his way to a halfway house run by one Mrs. Wilinson (Lynn Redgrave). He quietly settles into the routine of the place, and yet remains highly disturbed and uneasy; he is paranoid and clearly far from sane, and his condition is probably not helped by the fact that the halfway house is in the same town he grew up and went crazy in.
He spends his days and evenings walking around the town, and he begins to spy on a family; a young boy, his beloved mother (Miranda Richardson), and a patriarch (Gabriel Byrne) with a growing acohol problem. The little boy is nicknamed Spider, and he loves listening to his mother describe the way arachnids spin their webs. He adores his mother, is a little afraid of his father. The mother is starved for affection, and afraid that her husband is spending too much time after work at the local pub. There are problems in this household, quiet and unresolved, and Clegg watches it all through the window or from down the street. They never notice him. Before too long, it's clear that he's eavesdropping on his own memories, and that he is little Spider all grown up.
Clegg writes his thoughts down in a tiny notebook, in his own personal heroglyphic style. He attempts interaction with another loony (John Neville). He is afraid of gas, and fond of falling asleep in a certain garden. Basically, we follow his day to day life, real or imagined, and Cronenberg isn't afraid to let things get very slow. There's probably enough material here to fill a tightly paced thirty minutes (and make no mistake, at just over an hour and a half it is still a very short film), but by slowing things down, Cronenberg allows Fiennes room to create a beautiful and finely textured performance, and leaves his psyche open for patient audience members to ponder.
That's not to say that the film is without incident. Spider's father takes a liking to a drunken floozy who happens to look exactly like his wife (and Richardson, who shines in both roles), and Clegg begins to find himself reminiscing upon events he couldn't possibly have witnessed. The snail's pace leaves us unprepared for a few good shocks, as Clegg's mind begins to play tricks on itself and us; indeed, this is a head trip, but it's not about having fun with the audience. It is simply a puzzle, or even a rorsach test. It is a look into a sick mind, which is as complex as the film itself is simple. It is Cronenberg's most reserved film, but also one of his most fascinating.
And that wraps it up for this installement. As a closing note, I'd just like to mention that I think 'Punch Drunk Love' was the best film of 2002. I'd put my whole top ten list here, but really, what's the point? Everyone knows what was good.
I'm outta here...
