MASTER GARDENER: anything but careless

Photo caption: Joel Edgerton in MASTER GARDENER. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Paul Schrader’s deeply engrossing Master Gardener came out in late May, when my life was rich and complicated, so I’m just getting around to writing about it. Better late than never, because it’s a worthwhile watch.

Joel Edgerton plays Narvel, the titular manager of a grand estate’s extraordinary formal garden. Norma (Sigourney Weaver), the proprietor of the estate, has the means to keep Narval’s operation well-resourced and well-staffed. Narvel combines an encyclopedic knowledge of plants with a meticulous attention to detail. His team of year-round assistants respect him and buy into his leadership. It’s well-ordered, above all, and then Norma asks a “favor” of Narvel that he cannot refuse – to take on her troubled grandniece as an intern.

The grandniece, Maya (Quintessa Swindell), is a puddle of Gen X attitude, but she’s smart enough to know that she needs to put in the time, if not commit fully. Interestingly, Norma hasn’t had a conversation with Maya since she’s grown into adulthood, and puts off their first conversation until well into the internship. Norma is judgy, and didn’t approve of Maya’s late mother. Norma also relishes her power over Maya, Narvel and everyone- and chooses the time and place of each social engagement.

But, back to Narvel – why is he so exacting in his standards, work ethic and expectations of his team? Is he a martinet, a petty tyrant of flowers and mulch? Does he lack perspective, like The Caine Mutiny’s Captain Queeg consumed by the missing strawberries?

It turns out that Narvel has a past.. A shocking past. And running an estate’s formal garden is the last place you would have expected him to be. There were consequences for the bad decisions in Narvel’s previous life, and those consequences are irreversible. Narvel, far more than others, understands how circumstances and events can change lives forever. That’s why he faces every situation so deliberately. He is anything but careless.

Maya, however, has lived a careless life, and her past threatens all of them. In his bad past, Narvel developed skills that equip him face violence now. And now, facing Maya’s problems, he finds a long-denied chance for redemption.

Quintessa Swindell and Joel Edgerton in MASTER GARDENER. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

The cast is excellent. Edgerton is prefect as a contained man whose regrets power his discipline and determination – and harnesses his determination so as not to lose a second chance. Sigourney Weaver also wonderfully nails the emotional remoteness of Norma, who is also very contained – until she lapses into a Queen of Hearts caprice. Quintessa Swindell, who I hadn’t seen before, is charismatic, and takes her Maya from an apathetic insouciance to someone who has learned, for the first time, what being fully committed really is.

Master Gardener is a Paul Schrader film. Schrader wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull., adapted The Last Temptation of Christ, wrote and directed American Gigolo and Affliction. All very good. All very dark.

Master Gardener is the third movie in Schrader’s late-career, self-described ‘Man In A Room’ trilogy, following First Reformed and The Card Counter. I would name it the “Man with a Code Seeks Redemption” trilogy. When I wrote about The Card Counter, my subtitle was “a loner, his code and his past” – and that would work for Master Gardener, too.

Master Gardener is now available to stream on Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox. As readers have come to expect, I’ve included the trailer below, but I recommend that you don’t watch it because of spoilers; the story is much more impactful when the plot elements unspool as Schrader intended.

DVD of the Week: Rampart

In a sizzling performance, Woody Harrelson plays a corrupt and brutal LA cop trying to stay alive and out of jail.  Woody’s Dave Brown is always seeking control.  He manipulates his superiors.  From behind his badge, he unleashes sadistic brute force on every other unfortunate within his sight.  Yet he is a man out of control, whose impulses to bully,  to drink and to seduce increasingly endanger his job security, his finances and what is left of his relationship with his family.  He is already skating on the edge of self-destruction when one brutal incident is caught on video and goes viral a la Rodney King.

Rampart benefits from the one of the best large supporting casts – less an ensemble than a series of great single performances as individual characters tangle with Dave Brown.  Ben Foster (The Messenger) is brilliant as a homeless man with too many drugs and not enough meds.  Robin Wright is also superb as an emotionally damaged lawyer who sleeps with Dave until his paranoia takes over.   Sigourney Weaver and Ice Cube are two LA officials who see Dave as a walking, talking threat to public order and the City treasury.  Ned Beatty is the retired cop who has kept his finger in the police corruption racket. The Broadway star Audra McDonald plays a cop groupie that Dave meets in a bar.   As one would expect, Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon are excellent as Dave’s two amiable but bullshit-proof ex-wives.  Brie Larson and Sammy Boyarsky are especially effective as the daughters, who figure in Rampart‘s most breathtaking scenes.

Rampart is a singularly visual film – we always know that we are in the sunwashed, diverse, sometimes explosive anarchy that is LA.  The movie is structured and shot to heighten the experience of both the chaos that Dave causes and that the chaos that he feels.  This is Oren Moverman’s second effort as writer-director, the first being the searing The Messenger, also starring Harrelson and Foster.  Moverman keeps Rampart spinning along wildly as we wonder what will happen next to unravel Dave Brown’s life.

If you need some redemption to leaven a very dark story, this is not the movie for you.  Rampart reminds us that not everyone finds redemption.  It made my list of the Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.

Rampart: a sizzling portrait of a man spinning out of control

In a sizzling performance, Woody Harrelson plays a corrupt and brutal LA cop trying to stay alive and out of jail.  Woody’s Dave Brown is always seeking control.  He manipulates his superiors.  From behind his badge, he unleashes sadistic brute force on every other unfortunate within his sight.  Yet he is a man out of control, whose impulses to bully,  to drink and to seduce increasingly endanger his job security, his finances and what is left of his relationship with his family.  He is already skating on the edge of self-destruction when one brutal incident is caught on video and goes viral a la Rodney King.

Rampart benefits from the one of the best large supporting casts – less an ensemble than a series of great single performances as individual characters tangle with Dave Brown.  Ben Foster (The Messenger) is brilliant as a homeless man with too many drugs and not enough meds.  Robin Wright is also superb as an emotionally damaged lawyer who sleeps with Dave until his paranoia takes over.   Sigourney Weaver and Ice Cube are two LA officials who see Dave as a walking, talking threat to public order and the City treasury.  Ned Beatty is the retired cop who has kept his finger in the police corruption racket. The Broadway star Audra McDonald plays a cop groupie that Dave meets in a bar.   As one would expect, Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon are excellent as Dave’s two amiable but bullshit-proof ex-wives.  Brie Larson and Sammy Boyarsky are especially effective as the daughters, who figure in Rampart‘s most breathtaking scenes.

Rampart is a singularly visual film – we always know that we are in the sunwashed, diverse, sometimes explosive anarchy that is LA.  The movie is structured and shot to heighten the experience of both the chaos that Dave causes and that the chaos that he feels.  This is Oren Moverman’s second effort as writer-director, the first being the searing The Messenger, also starring Harrelson and Foster.  Moverman keeps Rampart spinning along wildly as we wonder what will happen next to unravel Dave Brown’s life.

If you need some redemption to leaven a very dark story, this is not the movie for you.  Rampart reminds us that not everyone finds redemption.