Capone's Art-House Round-Up with THE LAST FIVE YEARS and the Oscar-nominated SONG OF THE SEA!!!

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…


THE LAST FIVE YEARS
I suspect you'll know within the first five minutes of THE LAST FIVE YEARS whether it's something you'll enjoy and embrace. Because by the time the first five minutes are done, you'll have heard Anna Kendrick sing the gut-wrenching first number "Still Hurting" though tears (yours and hers), and you'll just know. I'll admit, sitting down to watch this film, I didn't know it was a 2001 musical (which originally opened at the Northlight Theater in Skokie) or that it had been an acclaimed off-Broadway "musical play" in 2002 from the award-winning Jason Robert Brown. But I'd heard "Still Hurting" before; it's become one of those go-to audition songs, and I have no idea where I first heard it, but it still moves me deeply.

The original production was a simple, two-character show with the male and female roles alternating songs that chronicle their five-year courtship-marriage-breakup. Using only song, she chronicles their time from the end to the beginning; he remembers it from the happy beginning to the crushing end. And the only time they appear on stage together is in the middle of the show, when their timelines intersect, when he proposes to her. Set in New York City, the film follows the same dual timelines, but allows the couple—struggling actress Cathy (Kendrick) and rising-star novelist Jamie (Jeremy Jordan)—more time on screen together. And while still only one sings at a time, we actually get to see reactions to their words from the other person, which we didn't get in the stage version.

From the barely containable energy of new love to the emotional crippling of a love gone sour, THE LAST FIVE YEARS captures it all so beautifully, thanks in large part to some creative and ambitious staging by director-adaptor Richard LaGravenese, who has added small bits of dialogue that truly enhance the piece without altering the impact of the songs. The story captures not only a romance in all of its trials and tribulations, but also gives us quite specific issues between the couple having to do with his success versus her frustrating life as an auditioning actress forced to do summer stock in her Ohio home town just to keep working. She resents him to a degree; but he's also insensitive to her frustration. He makes it very clear that he will not resign himself to failure just because she is losing in her chosen life. It's a blunt but necessarily honest line he must draw, and it plants seeds of doubt and resentment from that point forward.

The juxtaposition of their best moments and their worst is deliberately jarring, and Kendrick plays both sides of Cathy so convincingly as an actor that you almost forget that she's also a damn fine singer. As much as you might have enjoyed her pipes in PITCH PERFECT or INTO THE WOODS, THE LAST FIVE YEARS is an exquisite showcase for what is undoubtedly the best singing work she's ever done on film. To my knowledge, I've never been exposed to Jordan's work anywhere before this, and his delivery is a bit more broadly theatrical, which under any other circumstances would work just fine, but next to Kendrick, he looks like he's overdoing pretty much every aspect of his performance. But it all somehow still works, if only because the character of Jamie has more in his life to be excited about. In the context of their story, Jordan's mannerisms make sense.

I've seen THE LAST FIVE YEARS a couple of times now, and I'm desperate to drag a couple of friends with me so I have an excuse to go see it again. It's really quite good, if you're prepared to have your heart ripped out several times over during the course of the film. You're ready to burst with excitement when things are going well because two people have never been this in love (they literally have to sing about it); and when they start to act like jerks to each other about petty things, you want to throttle one or both of them. Emotions will run high on both sides of the screen. Any small misgivings I might have about the film—and even a couple of the songs (I will never like "The Schmuel Song")—are erased when Kendrick sings, without a doubt. But even some of the small choices she makes in her acting make all the difference to telling us so much about Cathy and her flaws.

As with the stage version, the film doesn't choose sides, but I'm guessing that won't stop audience members from bringing in their emotion baggage and picking one side over the other. And any choice you might make with regards to that may change over the course of the film. That's not only a sign of a great work, but it also means you've become invested in this small but wonderful story of love and loss. THE LAST FIVE YEARS is about the person we fell in love with right before we became the person we are today, but the only way we could have gotten there is by losing them. It's a great experience that is unlike most musicals you'll see on the big screen. Seek it out.


SONG OF THE SEA
From director Tomm Moore, maker of the Oscar-nominated animated work THE SECRET OF KELLS, comes his next distinctly Irish fare based on legend and mythology, SONG OF THE SEA. Using a more modern-art visual style, Moore gives us the story of young Ben and his little sister Saoirse, whose mother died when Saoirse was born, but under very unusual circumstances. Since this brother and sister live in a lighthouse with their father (voiced by Brendan Gleeson), much of their lives and legends revolve around the sea, including the eventual discovery that the non-speaking Saoirse is actually a Selky—a part human, part seal creature—like their mother.

When the children are eventually taken away from the sea by their crotchety grandmother, they immediately begin a journey to get back to their father by the sea, where Saoirse has a coat that makes it possible for her to finally transform into her Selky form and finally talk. Song of the Sea is loaded with tall tales that it mixes and matches to make a fairly delightful film. It's as much a tribute to the dying belief in these ancient myths as it is a showcase for many of the creatures that spring forth from those stories. There are fairies who have been turned to stone by marauding owls who suck out their souls; there's a magical, musical conch shell given to Ben by his mother. But when Saorise plays it, all sorts of great things happen.

You may not be aware, but SONG OF THE SEA is one of the films nominated for Best Animated Feature this year (you know, that category that doesn't feature THE LEGO MOVIE), and it absolutely earns its place among the other nominees. With music by Irish band Kíla and composer Bruno Coulais (who are reunited after working together on THE SECRET OF KELLS), this new film keeps things simple but doesn't forget to unleash its darker, more dramatic side every so often.

It's a film younger kids will enjoy, but there is plenty of complexity and artistry to draw in older ones and adults. It's a melancholy story peppered with magic, thrills, mysticism and a whole lot of Irish accents. A must see for Oscar completists, but even if you're not, I think you'll still find SONG OF THE SEA rather enchanting.

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