Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. It’s getting ugly out there in terms of the debate on this film. The people who hate it act like it broke into their house and molested a loved one, like they would kill it if they could just get their hands on it. I’m not sure what Alan Ball must have done in the film to cause such rabid hatred, but it’s got me intrigued, certainly. Let’s see what Toronto spy DanielKurland has to say about his reactions to it:
I saw my final film festival movie today, and it was Alan Ball's "Nothing is Private", which was easily the best film I saw at the festival, and in the top three movies I've seen all year. First off, this movie is better than Alan Ball's first movie. Now, it's hardly uncommon for a writer or director to improve upon themselves the second time around, but when your previous film is "American Beauty", this isn't an easy thing to do. I'd wager to say that this film is better than "American Beauty". I love "American Beauty" to death, and I've seen it at least a dozen times, and while this film doesn't have "Pass the fucking asparagus", or "I rule", or Bening's breakdown, or Spacey and Bening singing in the car, it has a hell of a lot of fantastic material in it. If you're not familiar with the plot, it's about a 13-year old girl named Jasira, who recently moved to Texas to live with her single dad, and while with him, learns more and more about sex, and growing up, from some terrible experiences. This sounds like a very glib description, and like it's been done before, and maybe it has, but Ball, again, captures suburbia perfectly, and was probably the perfect person to adapt the book "Towelhead" into this film. Every actor in the movie is great. Ball did a great job directing the "Six Feet Under" finale, and that carries over here, where everyone is giving a multi-dimensional, real performance. The actors for Jasira and her dad I had never seen before, but both were incredible. The father does such a good job at being incredibly deadpan and distant, yet you know that he cares at the same time. Ball has him deliver his lines in this certain sarcastic, yet natural tone that also works incredibly well. Aaron Eckhart, who I love, does maybe his best work to date, as the pedophilic neighbour. There's a scene where him and Jasira are on a date that he plays perfect, whether he's fidgeting at the table, or figuring out what the fuck to do in the bathroom. Toni Collete is also used well as probably the only real friend that Jasira has in this mess, and you see her caring and struggling with what to do. What I loved about this movie isjust how unscathing and far it would go. You see tons of personal moments that Jasira goes through, and you're uncomfortable, and nervous, and hesitant through most of them, just like she is. It's really quite fascinating to see this girl get essentially broken, just due to her not understanding how things should be, and what she essentially wants. Some people will probably have some issues with how far the material goes, there's tons of issues of racism, and a lot of explicit pedophelia, but this stuff is all stuff that is actually happening in the world, and I think it was necessary to show it all to make us empathize with Jasira more, and to be more messed up along with her, accordingly. Ball has his trademark dark humor here again, and the audience was laughing out loud and applauding at a lot of the jokes. There's some very funny stuff in here, and while the overall subject matter is more serious than "American Beauty", I'd say it's more humorous than "American Beauty" was as well. Ball also does a great job at knowing exactly the kind of cinematography and staging to use at this film. He plays with depth of field exactly like he should. There's a shot where Eckhart's character is entirely out of focus, except for his becoming hand in the foreground. There's also a scene at Christmas between Jasira and her parents where just everyone's body positions for where they are sitting, without even saying anything perfectly explain who they are and what they are going through. If I had to nitpick, I'd say that the formula of the movie is a little repititious, but each time the stakes are raised a little, so I didn't mind this. The themes are also very similar to that of "American Beauty" (hell, even the fantasy sequences use an incredibly similar, if not the same, musical motif from "American Beauty"), but it is because it is what Ball is good at. Overall this is just a fantastic movie that I thought did everything right. It's funny when it needs to be, it's crushing and brutal when it wants to be, and every actor does a perfect job. You hate Jasira's father so much, but I'd love to see him get some sort of Academy recognition for this. Ball's first directing effort at film is highly successful in my opinion, and I hope he keeps doing more, even if it again deals with the same issues.
