Movies

Greetings from Tim Buckley: fascinated yet resentful

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Imogen Poots in GREETINGS FROM TIM BUCKLEY

Greetings from Tim Buckley is a fictionalization of the events around singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley’s appearance at an actual 1991 tribute concert for his father, Tim Buckley.  (The movie’s title comes from the name of the concert.)  The tribute concert was emotionally charged for Jeff Buckley because he had only met his father once before Tim’s death from a drug overdose.  Jeff was not invited to Tim’s funeral, so he accepted the gig primarily to clarify and express his feelings for the father who had abandoned him, but whose career path he was following.  The concert came as Jeff Buckley was just launching his career.  Jeff Buckley himself accidentally drowned six years after the concert at the age of 30.

In the movie, Jeff (Penn Badgley) arrives in NYC for the concert, meets his father’s admirers and musical partners, passes the time hanging out with a concert intern (Imogen Poots) and then performs.  Throughout the film, the audience observes Jeff while he is internally processing his own fascination with and resentment of his father.  Unfortunately, the final scene imagines an encounter that lets Tim off the parenting hook to some degree.

Penn Badgley (Margin Call) has gotten critical praise for his singing.  Indeed, one of the high points is when Badgley’s Jeff shows off to the girl by riffing on seemingly every album in a record store.  Badgley may not have Jeff Buckley’s freakish four octave singing range, but his pipes are pretty impressive.  I was more impressed by his characterization – it must be difficult to act miffed by one’s absent father and not lapse into whininess.  Poots, so outstanding in Solitary Man and A Late Quartet, is good here, too.

Primarily a movie for music fans, Greetings from Tim Buckley is also a film for those who want to see an actor depict interior conflict with very little external action.  Greetings from Tim Buckley is available on VOD from Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Vudu, Google Play and other outlets.

DVD/Stream of the Week: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset

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Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in BEFORE SUNRISE

The year’s best romance (and one of the year’s best movies), Before Midnight, is coming to theaters on May 31. So it’s time to get ready by watching (or revisiting) its prequels, Before Sunrise and Before Sunrise. 

In 1995’s Before Sunrise, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is an American writer in his early twenties who has been moping around Europe after a breakup.  He meets a French woman, Celine (Julie Delpy), on a train and talks her into walking around Vienna with him before his early morning flight back home.   They banter and flirt – and sparks fly.  As they connect more deeply, each begins to explore whether this can be a real relationship, more than a transtice encounter or a one night stand.

Nine years later, in Before Sunset, Jesse and Celine have another encounter, this time in Paris just before he is again scheduled to fly back to the US.  (Before Sunset is only 80 minutes long.)

In the upcoming Before Midnight, it’s been another nine years and Jesse and Celine are 41.  To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that their journeys have reached another stage, which is played out in a Greek coastal resort.

Co-written by director Richard Linklater and with characters developed by stars Hawke and Delpy, the series is deeply affecting because the movies are unusually authentic movie romances.  All three stories are constrained by time and set in beautiful European locations.  All three are about two intelligent people who are attracted to each other and are connecting deeply.   All three stories are unencumbered by the conventions of more superficial romantic comedies; in this series, there are no goofy best friends/roommates, obnoxiously intrusive parents – and no weddings.  There are no races to the airport to keep Jesse from leaving.

Most importantly, the filmmakers let the audience figure out what happens next.  As in real life, there’s no pat happy ending, and there’s the ambiguity of yet unwritten personal history.  At the end of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, we don’t KNOW whether they are going to get together…but they could.  And we want them to.

Both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on VOD from Amazon , iTunes, Vudu and other VOD outlets.  Before Sunrise is free with Amazon Prime.

Kon-Tiki: slow raft to Polynesia

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In 1947, Norwegian ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl and a five man Scandinavian crew constructed a Stone Age raft and floated almost 5,000 miles from Peru to French Polynesia to prove his academic theory.   Kon-Tiki tells the story of that voyage, which was a helluva challenge.

The balsa wood raft was tied together with indigenous fibers.  The crew had an intermittently operable radio, a sextant, some canned food and little other modern technology.  The raft could not be steered, so there were many nerve-wracking days when they were drifting toward a current headed the wrong way.  There were storms, sharks and all the usual hazards (except for Life of Pi’s tiger in the boat).  The crew gets more and more sunburned and their blond beards grow bushier and bushier.

It’s a good story, but not really suspenseful.  After all, Heyerdahl’s book about the expedition sold millions of copies, especially to boys of the Baby Boom generation (like me), and his documentary on the voyage won an Oscar in 1951.  So it’s not really a spoiler to acknowledge that they made it safely to their destination. 

Kon-Tiki portrays Heyerdahl as an affable but testosterone-fueled guy with unflinching (and oft misplaced) confidence that everything is going to work out for him.  As a result, he recklessly puts at risk his life and his crew’s (as well as his marriage).  It’s a mildly interesting characterization.  As they say, it’s better to be lucky than good.

So Kon-Tiki is okay. I just wish it had acknowledged and addressed this fact:  Heyerdahl was wrong.  His theory that ancient Peruvians floated west and settled Polynesia flew in the face of nearly all anthropological, linguistic and archaeological evidence.  Since the 1940s, of course, new scientific tools have been discovered, and DNA analysis now confirms that he was entirely, utterly, completely wrong.  And, because he lived until 2002, Heyerdahl had to know it or live in ridiculous denial.  So why not make a film about a guy who endures an amazing, life-risking ordeal just to find out that it was all in vain?  I think that would have made the film more memorable.

In the House: a clever movie about an addictive story

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IN THE HOUSE

In the clever French movie In the House (Dans la maison), we met a high school  literature teacher who is continually disappointed by his lackluster students.  Then a new student shows a special talent for creative writing.  Every day after school, the teacher provides extra coaching to the young writer, who starts spinning an episodic tale about his creepy infiltration of his friend’s family.  We want to know what’s gonna happen in the next installment, and the teacher becomes hooked – even obsessed.  Although the teacher is supposedly the mentor, soon the student is controlling the teacher. 

The wonderful French actor Fabrice Luchini plays the teacher.  Luchini is a master at playing socially awkward and inappropriate situations a la Seinfeld, Larry David and, of course, Woody Allen.  (In my favorite Fabrice Luchini movie Intimate Strangers, he plays a tax lawyer who can’t bring himself to tell a woman that she’s sat down in the wrong office – thinking that she’s seeing a new therapist, she’s unburdening the intimate details of her marriage.)

In the House’s cleverness is not surprising, because it is directed by Francois Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women, Potiche).  Always her best in French films, Kristin Scott Thomas is very good as the teacher’s wife.

In the House is a funny and slightly creepy exploration of the creative writing process – and altogether satisfying.

DVD/Stream of the Week: Shotgun Stories

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SHOTGUN STORIES

I am celebrating Mud this week by recommending writer-director Jeff Nichols’ Shotgun Stories.  Nichols followed Shotgun Stories with Take Shelter and now Mud, which together constitute his “Arkansas Trilogy”.  Shotgun Stories was also the breakout film for Nichols’ favorite leading man, Michael Shannon, who has since gone on to Boardwalk Empire, next week’s The Ice Man and the upcoming blockbuster Man of Steel.

Shotgun Stories opens with three brothers finding about the death of their no good father.  He had abandoned them and their mother in poverty – and was such an indifferent father that he named his children Son, Boy and Kid.  After walking away from his family, he found religion and started another, more prosperous, family with another set of three sons.  The three older sons crash the funeral to express their bitterness, and it becomes clear that the two sets of brothers are headed for a clash.

Shannon plays the oldest brother, who has been forged into stony strength and determination by deprivation and long-smoldering resentment.  Nichols uses that resentment to light a fuse that burns fitfully but inexorably for most of Shotgun Stories’ 92 minutes.

Shotgun Stories ranked #7 on my Best Movies of 2007.  Shotgun Stories is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix and iTunes.

 

At Any Price: psychological drama on the corporate farm

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Dennis Quaid in AT ANY PRICE

At Any Price is – at long last – a movie about today’s Farm Belt that farmers will recognize.  American cinema has been romanticizing the small family farm for at least a quarter century since, to survive, US farmers have moved on to industrial scale agribusiness (with all its tradeoffs).  The corporate farmer at the center of At Any Price is Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid).  Henry is a driven man, consumed by a need to have the biggest farm and to sell the most genetically modified corn seeds in southern Iowa.   Henry is also stupendously selfish, utterly tone-deaf to the needs of anyone else.

Despite Henry’s dream to hand the business to one of his two sons, they despise him. The older son has avoided conflict by escaping to a vagabond life in international mountain climbing.  The younger son, Dean (Zac Efron), plans his escape as a NASCAR driver and seems well on his path.  Stuck on the farm for now, he can barely tolerate his father’s incessant grasping.  But he’s small town royalty, he’s got a pretty girlfriend (Maika Monroe) and he’s as good-looking as Zac Efron, so life isn’t unbearable. 

But Henry’s smug perch on top of the haystack is not as impregnable as it would seem.   Along the way, he has cut some corners and stepped on other people, and it catches up to him.  Henry’s empire threatens to topple, Dean clutches at his big career chance, and the two men – each and together – must react to developments that they never saw coming.  Writer-director Ramin Bahrani spins a deeply authentic psychological drama as each man is forced into some uncomfortable self-examination.

It’s interesting that such a realistic exploration of New Agriculture in Middle America comes from Bahrani.  Himself North Carolina-born, he has used nonprofessional actors to make three brilliant movies about struggling immigrants in America:  Chop Shop, Man Push Cart and Goodbye, Solo. Goodbye, Solo was #5 on my list of Best Movies of 2009.  Here’s a recent interview with Bahrani in the New York Times touching on At Any Price.

One of Bahrani’s insights is that the impacts of today’s capitalism aren’t necessarily from the malevolently rapacious (like Henry F. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life), but from the indifference of the selfish.  With almost every step that he takes, Henry Whipple screws other folks, but he’s convinced himself that he’s a prince of a guy.

At Any Price is a showcase for Quaid and Efron.  Quaid’s portrayal of Henry is brilliantly textured, projecting a self-righteous bluster which barely masks the desperation threatening to erupt through his pores.  And I’ve come to always look forward to seeing Efron, who, in Me and Orson Welles, The Paperboy and Liberal Arts, has proven that he is more than just the pretty boy of High School Musical.

Bahrani’s actors have taken full advantage of his screenplay.  The character of Dean’s girlfriend is especially well-written.  Beginning as a simple teen from a broken family looking for some fun, her journey takes several surprising turns.  The actress Maika Monroe pulls it off with a memorable performance.  In many ways, the story is anchored by Kim Dickens (Deadwood, Treme) as Henry’s wife and Zac’s mom, resolutely dragging her men out of their self-created sinkholes.  Veteran character actor Clancy Brown (the guy has 209 acting credits on IMDb) is superb as Henry’s chief rival.

We are left with two men who finally must appreciate who they really are, whether we like them or whether they like themselves.  After seeing At Any Price, I didn’t leave the theater thrilled, but that’s probably because a brilliant examination of two ambiguous men is more thought-provoking than stirring.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist: a thriller with an intense star (but with Kate Hudson, too)

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THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

Director Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) brings the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist to the screen.  A young Pakistani man flourishes at Princeton and on Wall Street, and he becomes an American Master of the Universe.  But then September 11 changes his world, as Americans reacting and overreacting to terror start treating him badly.  Suddenly, he no longer sees a fit with his American girlfriend, a flighty, overprivileged artist.  He returns to Pakistan to teach in a university, and becomes an intellectual leader for Pakistanis seeking to resist the West.  The movie becomes a thriller when the question arises, has he become a terrorist? 

The thriller works – if you haven’t read the novel, you don’t know whether the guy we’ve been rooting for is or is not a terrorist until the final minutes.  The best thing about the movie is the remarkably intense performance of British actor Riz Ahmed as the protagonist.  Ahmed is a compelling screen presence, and he clearly has impressive acting range when you contrast his hyper-alert role here with the dim terrorist he played in the hilarious terrorist parody Four Lions.  As one would expect, Liev Schreiber is also excellent as the guy who must determine whether Ahmed has become a terrorist. 

What didn’t work for me?  First there was the odd choice of Kate Hudson as the girlfriend.  The character is just too vapid to captivate a Wall Street whiz kid, and Hudson just doesn’t project the sensuality to make up the difference for a guy in his early 20s. 

The story also suggests that non-violent, democratic nationalism can have widespread appeal in Pakistan, and, while I would hope that Pakistanis embrace that path, I’m not sure that it’s a likely outcome. 

If you need a sermon on the blowback from our War on Terror,  then you can sit in the pew for The Reluctant Fundamentalist.  But, for an ambiguous thriller, Homeland is a better choice.

Outrage Beyond: glorious gangster exploitation

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Takeshi Kitano dares a Yakuza to shoot him in OUTRAGE BEYOND

Takeshi Kitano returns to star in the Japanese gangster movie Outrage Beyond.  It’s a sequel to writer-director Kitano’s 2011 Outrage, of which I wrote:

If you’re looking for a hardass gangster movie with deliciously bad people doing acts of extreme violence upon each other, Outrage is the film for you.  But what makes Outrage stand out is the pace and stylishness of all the nastiness, as if Quentin Tarantino had made Goodfellas (only without all the extra dialogue about foot rubs and the Royale with cheese)…Kitano, much like Charles Bronson, has the worn and rough face of a man who has seen too much disappointment and brutality.

Outrage was more of a tragic noir, because you know that most of the characters probably won’t survive – and they know it, too.   There is less foreboding in Outrage Beyond, which is just glorious exploitation – gangster mayhem splattering the streets.  Because this is a Yakuza film, Kitano delivers the minimum one full body tattoo and one severed finger.  But he also makes ingeniously lethal use of a pitching machine in a batting cage, and “Let’s play baseball” is the cruelest line in the film.

I saw Outrage Beyond at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Mud: a big dose of realism about love

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MUD

In the brilliant drama Mud, two Arkansas boys venture onto a river island and discover a man named Mud (Michael McConaughey) hiding from the authorities.  Ellis (Tye Sheridan of The Tree of Life) is a hopeless romantic, consumed by an ideal view of love.  His more hard-eyed buddy Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) is on the outlook for cool stuff.  Both are ready for the excitement of a secret adventure.

Mud is another triumph for writer-director Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter).  The story has aspects of a boyhood adventure and of an escape thriller which hook the audience.  But Mud is, at its heart, a coming of age story in which Ellis (primarily) gets a big dose of realism about love and human constancy.

Neckbone doesn’t have many illusions about human nature.  His parents aren’t in the picture, and he lives with his wacky uncle Galen (Michael Shannon) in a trailer.  Neckbone has a knack for immediately getting to the core of situation by bargaining an errand for a pistol or asking “Didja feel her titties?”.

A step down from Neckbone’s trailer lifestyle, Ellis lives on a floating shack tied to the riverbank.  His parents are together, but, it seems, not for long.  Somehow, Ellis believes in an ideal and forever love.  There are many relationships for Ellis to observe:  his parents’ troubled journey, the sacrifices Mud makes for his lover (Reese Witherspoon), the mysterious relationship between Mud and another houseboat dweller (Sam Shepherd), a rich man’s (Joe Don Baker) own obsession with his sons, his partnership with Neckbone and Ellis’ own first foray into dating.  It’s all a bigger mouthful than Ellis was expecting.

The two kid actors are great.  So are McConaughey, Shepherd,  Witherspoon, Baker and Nichol’s favorite actor, Shannon.  Mud primarily succeeds because Nichols has created compelling characters and woven a top-rate story, both gripping and thoughtful.  Mud is one of the best movies of 2013.

Elway to Marino: a great story in 1983 and a better story now

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Dan Marino in ELWAY TO MARINO

ESPN’s fine documentary series 30 for 30 has produced another winner in Marino to Elway, an insider’s view of the 1983 NFL draft.  That year, an astonishing six QBs were picked in the first round, including Hall of Famers John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly.  That crop of QBs would lead the AFC Super Bowl teams in eleven of the next sixteen years.  The impact to NFL history aside, the draft contained some forehead slapping individual stories:

  • Elway’s threat to play baseball for the New York Yankees if he were drafted by the Baltimore Colts;
  • five QBs getting drafted ahead of Marino, whose stock dropped because of inaccurate rumors of drug use;
  • Jim Kelly swearing that he would never play in Buffalo and jumping to the USFL’s Houston Gamblers;
  • Steeler first round pick Gabriel Rivera, an amazingly fast defensive tackle who paralyzed himself in a drunk driving accident after just 6 games in the NFL;
  • plus an assortment of draft busts and the machinations of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and Raiders owner Al Davis.

Elway and Marino were represented by the same agent, Marvin Demoff, who kept a daily journal.  That journal, plus interviews with Demoff, Elway and Marino, is the core of the movie.  But there are also interviews with Colts General Manager Ernie Accorsi, and first-rounders Rivera, Ken O’Brien, Todd Blackledge, Chris Hinton and Jimbo Covert. 

It was a great story in 1983, and Elway to Marino fills in the blanks with nugget after nugget.  It’s a must see for NFL fans.