FARCE/FILM Episode 30: Midnight Cowboy, The Room

--> Episode 30: 01/31/10 <--

Hosts: Colin George, Tyler Drown, Brian Crawford, and Suman Allakki

Intro: 00:00

Discussion: 01:41

(Culturally Significant American Films)

Top 5: 14:21

I Can’t Believe You’ve Never Seen: 21:18

(“Midnight Cowboy”)

I Can’t Believe You’ve Seen: 29:33

(“The Room”)

Farce/Film Movie Round-up: 48:43

(“Gummo”, “Metropolitan”)

Events and Outro: 01:12:20

"The Room"

Colin:
Crawford:
Tyler:

"The White Ribbon" Review

I'm not sure anyone knew exactly how to feel when the credits rolled and "The White Ribbon" ended. Standing outside the theater afterwards, a woman asked me for a supplementary opinion. I hesitated before replying, "It's one you have to sit on." She seemed disappointed, either in the film or my inelegant response, and shuffled down the sidewalk. A week later, I honestly still haven't made up my mind on Michael Haneke's latest, which leaves not on a moment of epiphany or quiet resolution but at the height of uncertainty. Perhaps appropriate, given its thematic wallpaper of suspicion and doubt, but unlike "A Serious Man," which last year made an ambiguous ending absolutely incendiary, "The White Ribbon" is never quite satisfying in its conclusion.

Still, its palpable atmosphere and methodic pacing yield countless small rewards. There's a simple craftsmanship to Christian Berger's crisp black and white photography that lends the rural setting a muted authenticity, and Haneke draws humble, earnest performances from his cast that transcend the coarseness of his plot. The film is set in Germany just before the onset of the first World War, and Haneke paints the rural village of Eichwald as a crucible for guilt and cruelty amidst a series of malicious and unresolved crimes that turn the town against itself.

The film boasts an impressive recreation of 1913 Germany on an aesthetic level, but Haneke's modern sensibility sometimes spoils the illusion that "The White Ribbon" is classic filmmaking. For one, his poor use of voiceover sticks out like a sore thumb. It feels pointlessly neurosurgical for him to dictate the plot to the level of transcribing what has, is, and will happen in narration, especially when his characters and images speak so strongly for themselves. Secondly, his film has an off-putting frankness exorcised by several harsh characters that are so staunchly unpleasant and 2010-era transgressive that they seem misplaced in a period drama and even now feel hyperbolic. From the widower doctor who sexually abuses his daughter to the anonymous pummeling of a retarded child, Haneke paints his Hell in broad strokes.

Mostly, however, "The White Ribbon" plays like a mix of moody whodunit and bleak parable, which unfortunately never quite add up to more than the sum of their parts. There have been better films about the suffering we inflict on one another, just one being Lars von Trier's controversial "Antichrist," which is certainly no more subtle, but impressed me at least with the emotional gravity it wields. The bleakness of Haneke's film feels forced and dishonest by comparison, shoehorned into every corner of Eichwald under the auspice of a greater looming threat. That Haneke never reveals the culprit of the crimes is, of course, the point, but it leaves the finished film feeling slightly unhinged.

What Haneke does achieve is a gorgeous, thoughtful, and well-paced mystery that's occasionally too cold and enigmatic for its own good. He plays with powerful concepts that he never quite tames, and they make their hurried dens in the wrong places as a result. "The White Ribbon" is absolutely uncompromising in its refusal to defer to audience expectation, even at its own expense in delivering a rounded narrative. On a technical level, its execution is all but flawless, but its content is sure to polarize those viewers who submit themselves to Haneke's bitter meditation on malice, and who probably won't know how to feel when it fades out.

It's one they’ll have to sit on.

3.5/5

"An Education" Review

Right off the bat "An Education" surprised me. To briefly judge the movie by its poster, (which depicts a heavily airbrushed Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan lying side by side on a stone walkway, heads propped against the other's shoulder) the advertised film completely fails to distinguish itself. I came into the theater relying wholly on the positive critical consensus. Then the film kicked in with the thumping piano of Floyd Cramer's "On the Rebound," and any notion that I was in for another dry, art-house romance was instantly dispelled.

Danish director Lone Scherfig ("Italian for Beginners," "Wilber Wants to Kill Himself") follows that cue throughout, unfurling "An Education" with effortless charm and strong performances buoyed by the witty screenplay of English novelist, Nick Hornby ("High Fidelity"). What's most impressive about his script, however, is how nearly it adheres to coming-of-age drama convention, and how nimbly it jukes each potential cliche. "An Education" offers a smart, savvy, and admirably unpretentious spin on the May-December relationship film.

A triumph in partnership of pen and performance, Hornby has a way of writing characters that leap off the page, and Scherfig couldn't have asked for a better cast. Jenny (Mulligan) is rebellious, but her insubordination is backed by a genuine intelligence that makes her endearing rather than grating to watch, even when she's heading down the wrong path with her swanky suitor, David (Sarsgaard). Much has been made of Mulligan's stellar performance, but Sarsgaard deserves equal credit for humanizing his slippery character. Even when every red flag is raised, like Jenny, we want to believe David is a decent guy. His suave demeanor and honest eyes easily win us over.

He and his partner Danny (Dominic Cooper), and Danny's significant other, Helen (Rosamund Pike) whisk Jenny into a world of permanent vacation, a cocktail of high-class restaurants, concerts, hotels, and nightclubs. Cooper plays a stoic sidekick and Pike is hysterical as a perfect dolt. She has a wispy vacuity that makes her a mirror antithesis to Jenny and a reliable laugh for the audience. The ensemble is rounded out by Cara Seymour as Jenny's mother, and Alfred Molina, who breathes sardonic life into her consternated father. Olivia Williams also memorably stars as Jenny's proctor and mentor.

The characters and the writing only take the film to a discernable point, however, after which "An Education" grapples to recover from self-seriousness. The light, affable tone that makes the first three quarters of the film so memorable is all but forgotten when Jenny discovers the almost insultingly poorly concealed evidence of David's other life at the onset of the third act. Hornby spends so much time building up his characters as smart, believable people that the simplicity of David's mistake rings immediately false. Come on, the glove compartment that you've seen your girlfriend take cigarettes from isn't the place to keep relationship ruining secrets. Just sayin'. From there, Jenny's life spirals predictably down the toilet and though the drama works, the film never recovers its critical sense of humor.

So though "An Education" takes a major dive near its end in terms of comedy, the film on the whole works throughout, and Nick Hornby substitutes enough offbeat humor to more than compensate for the atonal ending, and still never succumbs to the stifling melodrama the genre is so often tainted by. I'll be surprised if the film doesn't pick up a best picture nomination next month, and while it would probably find a retroactive home somewhere in my 2009 top ten list, I think it falls just a hair shy of greatness. Nevertheless, it's a film with heart and a rare joviality that makes it a standout among its peers. Ignore the poster and enjoy.

3.5/5

FARCE/FILM Episode 29: A Town Called Panic, The White Ribbon

--> Episode 29: 01/24/10 <--

Hosts: Colin George, Brian Crawford, Tyler Drown, Sonic Kim, Jon Mauer

Intro – 00:00
Top 5 – 03:39
A Town Called Panic – 16:19
The White Ribbon – 38:06
Events, Discussion, Outro – 56:45
(“Strange Brew”, “Lost: Season 1”)

"A Town Called Panic"

Colin:
Crawford:
Jon:
Sonic:
Tyler:

"The White Ribbon"

Colin:
Crawford:
Tyler:

Alexander Payne's 'The Descendants' Underway

What’s that? I almost dozed off amidst all the talk of “Spider-Man” reboots and “Avatar” box-office milestones. According to /Film, something much more exciting is now under way, which believe it or not has nothing to do with comic books or James Cameron.

Rather news arrives that Alexander Payne has officially begun pre-production on his fifth feature film, “The Descendants,” which will be shot on location in Hawaii and has a tentative 2011 release date with George Clooney set to star. The story is based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings about a “wryly introspective attorney” (a real stretch for Clooney) who travels from Oahu to Kauai with his two daughters to confront a real estate broker who had an affair with his now comatose wife.

The material sounds like a perfect fit for Payne’s droll sensibility, and Clooney will be joining the ranks of Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”), Jack Nicholson (“About Schmidt”), Matthew Broderick (“Election”), and Laura Dern (“Citizen Ruth”) in giving life to the director’s hilariously flawed comic protagonists.

Excluding his contributions to “Paris, je t’aime” and HBO’s “Hung,” "The Descendants" marks Payne's return to the director's chair after an almost six year absence. And it’s good to have him back.

FARCE/FILM Episode 28: An Education, The Lovely Bones

--> Episode 28: 01/19/10 <--

Hosts: Colin George, Brian Crawford, Jon Mauer, Maxwell Lee Haddad

Intro – 00:00
Top 5 – 01:39
An Education (spoilers) – 08:21
The Lovely Bones - 24:42
Discussion – 40:40
(The 2009 Golden Globes)
Events and Outro – 59:21

"An Education"

Colin:

Crawford:

Jon:

Max:

"The Lovely Bones"

Colin:

Max:

Burton gets 'Maleficient'

Perhaps it's merely further confirmation that Tim Burton has forever resigned himself to reimagining classic films, but news broke today that the prolific director, whose take on “Alice in Wonderland” is set to open this March, will be partnering with Disney once again to remake their seminal animated film “Sleeping Beauty,” with a potentially interesting twist--

Titled “Maleficent,” the film will allegedly go the “Wicked” route, bringing the evil queen to the forefront of the story, and thus relegating the slumbering princess and her suitor to the back-burner.

What isn’t clear yet is what this means for the backlog of other upcoming Tim Burton projects, including “Dark Shadows,” which is based on the Gothic sixties soap opera, and the feature-length adaptation of his short, “Frankenweenie.”

Personally, of the above, this is the project I’m most interested in seeing made, but conversely, the one I’m most apprehensive about Burton taking. After all, if “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and the “Alice” trailer are any indication, “Maleficent” will be a heavily computer-animated eye-sore with characters as deep as the flat screen monitors they were born to.

But to be fair, Burton has won me over in the past, with thoughtful pieces like “Big Fish” and “Ed Wood,” which manage to balance drama with his signature weirdness. In a perfect world, I’d love to see “Maleficent” handled in the stop-motion style of the Henry Selick/Burton collaboration, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” but I won't hold my breath.

Either way, we can no doubt look forward to seeing Burton branded “Maleficent” merchandise cluttering our local “Hot Topic” soon.

Thanks to /Film.