Men on Film

Sorry for the title, but right when I thought of writing this post, this sketch from In Living Color popped into my mind. I love the fact that I got a kick out of that sketch when I was just a kid and didn't really understand all the humor. Also helloooo gay stereotypes. In the early 90s that was ok I guess.

But anyway, this post is all about film, specifically three films that I saw on my flight from Newark to Amsterdam. Seriously, I should have been trying to sleep but I kept watching movies! These three films got me so excited, and I knew I had to post about them.




1. Austenland - As a Jane Austen fanatic, the minute I saw this trailer I was itching to see the whole movie. The filmmakers are the same behind Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, so it definitely has that sense of quirkiness to it. Jennifer Coolidge alone is just amazing comedically. But it's so much more beyond that. Kerri Russell plays the role of today's girl -- the girl that loves literature, all things old fashioned, and maybe needs to have a reality check. I definitely identified. The male leads -- Bret McKenzie and JJ Feild -- WOAHHHH MAMA. They are the cutest things ever, and know how to make the most subtle thing steamy-sexy-mama-likey. But I'm telling you, this is so much more than a predictable romantic comedy. It has instantly become one my favorite films. Please please I beg of you, see this movie! Sadly, I could not find a positive review via Rotten Tomatoes. Effing critics.



2. Enough Said - A lot of people were talking about this movie because it was one of James Gandolfini's last film roles. Also Julia Louis-Dreyfus got (rightly) nominated for a Golden Globe. I liked the So Cal aesthetic of this film. Especially epitomized in Catherine Keener's character. Ughhhh, she's so good. And I have a newfound love for Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I know, right? I guess I didn't realize just how incredible she was. I mean, the e-cigarettes and rejecting Reese Witherspoon bit at the GGs was genius. The relationship complications within the film are so relatable, and caused me to examine aspects of my own past and current relationships. But mostly the acting is superb. Ugh, I suck at writing about movies. Just see the damn film.



3. In a World... - This is written and directed and starring Lake Bell, who I knew was funny before but yeah she's pretty brilliant. The subject matter is a bit oddball: the voiceover industry. The cast of characters was one of my favorite parts about this film... Tig Nataro, Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry, Nick Offerman... Lots of funny and talented people. But Lake Bell is the star and she is just so wonderfully awkward.


As a precaution, I must warn you that because I watched these movies on a plane, there were probably some inappropriate things cut from them. So I apologize in advance if there's some disturbingly raunchy sex scene in one of these and you think "My god! Why did Allie recommend this?! What a sicko!"

The year is 1965

Do you remember your first love or crush as a kid coming into adulthood? I do. That's what Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom is all about.

It may be easy to criticize Anderson for continuing to make the same stylistic choices over and over again until it's become stereotypical, but I appreciate the continuity. 

If he didn't make a movie with precise costumes, sweeping zooms, and that indescribable soundtrack, I'd be a little disappointed.

 

Moonrise Kingdom is like an old dollhouse in your grandmother's attic, and Anderson is still playing with the figurines, setting them up in epic ways.

I also fell a little bit in love with the character of Sam.

Some critics have compared it to Saving Private Ryan and Full Metal Jacket.

Did you see Moonrise Kingdom? What did you think of it?

Must Watch

I'm a little late on seeing Bill Cunningham New York, but oh my dear, I recommend it to any and all.

It's about one of the first true street style photographers, Bill, who now works for the New York Times. He's quite a character. As you'll find out in the film, for a long time, he lived in a very small apartment in New York's Carnegie Hall building. Recently he and other artist tenants who had lived there since the late 40s were forced to vacate. Turns out there's a documentary on that subject, called Lost Bohemia, which I'd very much like to see.

ANYWAY. Bill. Oh, what a character. He wears the same thing every day -- a blue coat that is actually a Parisian street sweeper's uniform -- and rides around NYC on a bike (he's had around 28 of them stolen). He doesn't care for money, luxury, or fine food. He cares about style!

Just watch this film for yourself and feel your heart grow with love for this dear man who is most definitely a humble visionary of our time.

Midnight in Paris

I exited the theater last night with Cole Porter playing in my head. It was 11:15 p.m. and a beautiful night; barely anyone on the streets, and as I made my way up to the bus stop, I noticed the bright full moon, and the dim glow of the street lights, and the distant silhouettes of dancers at the corner mambo room. Wallingford was all of the sudden covered in a romantic haze--and this probably had to do with the fact that I'd just seen Midnight in Paris.

It starts out as a visual love letter to Paris (which totally reminded me of the opening of Manhattan). Beautiful shot after shot of the city... Men playing bocce ball in the Parc du Champ de Mars, the Louvre's glass pyramid at sunset, Parisian side streets pelted by rain, and the money shot of the lit-up Eiffel Tower at night. One cannot help but wistfully smile to themselves... Woody Allen reminds his borderline cynical American audience that yes, Paris is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Some may find Owen Wilson an odd choice as a lead in a Woody Allen film, especially in the oh-so classic neurotic protagonist role that Allen himself created. He even wears the same thing Allen always wears! The button-down plaid shirt, tweed jacket, belted khakis sort-of-look. Geek chic, people.

But I thought Wilson was really great, proving that he can do more than the obnoxiously over-the-top comedy films (Hall Pass, ahem). I loved his looks of utter surprise and confusion as he enters another world--another time, really...

So a little bit about the plot if you don't know: Wilson's character Gil Pender, and his uptight fiance Inez, played by Rachel McAdams, are visiting Paris with her parents. Wilson is a Hollywood writer who is now trying to break in to the world of novels. Inez is not supportive of him at all, and also doesn't see Paris the way Gil sees it, through the lens of a hopeless romantic, longing to know what life was like when the American expats were all feeding off of each other's creativity... Maybe it's this longing that inexplicably sends him back in time (not in a ridiculous Hot Tub Time Machine kind of way, mind you); he's just sort of beckoned into an old Peugeot by some Frenchies in flapper costumes and ends up at a party... where Cole Porter is crooning at the piano! And Zelda (Alison Pill) and Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston) sweep Gil up and take him on a champagne-fueled ride; they arrive at a nearly empty bar, where Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), yes, Ernest Hemingway, is sitting alone, brooding, with a bottle of wine (my god, if the real Hemingway resembled the actor in the film at all, wow, what a man).

(At this point, I'm cracking up because Hemingway is being soooo Hemingway, talking about courage and truth and what is real and war and dying. He's speaking the way that he wrote and it's just making my English lit. major brain erupt with laughter. Yes, my brain was laughing. And my mouth. Deal with it.)

Gil is just dumbfounded to be surrounded by these amazing figures from the past, but goes along with it because he's in the golden era--the Jazz Age, the 1920s! He's a little drunk, yes, but it's really happening! And he goes back every night after that to meet more people like Gertrude Stein (played by Kathy Bates), Salvador Dali (played by Adrien Brody), Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, T.S. Eliot, Henri Matisse... He also meets the lovely Adriana, played by Frenchy Marion Cotillard, who is the muse/mistress to Picasso, and tells Gil of her previous artiste affairs with Modigliani and Braque. They have an instant connection, and Gil begins to question his relationship with Inez.


So would you go back in time to a "better" era if you could? I think we sometimes put the past on a pedestal, thinking that it was perfect "back then" (whatever "back then" you may be dreaming of). But that's the great thing about Paris: it's somehow remained this golden city, still a place to find la vie boheme. Artists and writers continue to flock there for inspiration. And as Gil expresses in the film, everywhere you look around the city is a work of art.

I remember when I first got to Paris via train from Frankfurt, Germany. It was the end of my European study trip, and Paris was the cherry on top of the travel experience. It's a place you can easily build up in your mind, thanks to movies like An American in Paris, songs sung by Edith Piaf, and photographs taken by Robert Doisneau. When I exited the Gard du Nord, I couldn't believe it: Paris was everything I had imagined. Nothing disappointed. It was the most magical city I'd ever been to (although I unfortunately did not run into either Oscar Wilde or Simon de Beauvoir).

Allen makes us want to live that Parisian lifestyle, joie de vivre and all that jazz, falling in love at every turn of the corner. No one else makes movies like he does. He's why I go to the movies.

"Somewhere"

Starring Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning / 2010

Is it cliche for a 20 something girl like me to love Sofia Coppola films? Probably. But whatever. Somewhere, her latest, is slightly different than her previous films. It is especially different from her last--2007's Marie Antoinette, an opulent masterpiece of a biopic. Somewhere is much more minimal, in a lot of senses: the soundtrack is minimal, the dialogue is minimal (although that's become a regular fixture in her films), even the story is minimal. We don't know a lot of details about the characters' lives; Sofia chooses to withhold a lot of information that may to some seem important, and instead gives us an uber-realistic portrait of a slightly estranged relationship between a father and daughter. Shots are long and at times jarring.

As always, Sofia delivers a visually evocative film; it is said that she thinks in terms of images rather than story, and I agree, as I think back on the quietness of certain scenes in all of her films--from The Virgin Suicides to Lost in Translation. Somewhere could be the quietest yet. But the quietness isn't for nothing. It's conveying the awkwardness between a father and daughter who don't usually spend much time together, as well as the emptiness that the father, a Hollywood actor living a solitary life in L.A.'s Chateau Marmont, is feeling.

All in all, Sofia lets the thoughtful motifs she creates speak for themselves, and in doing so challenges viewers to to have a totally different--and gratifying--film experience.

(I should also say that Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning are amazing. They work really well together. Dorff is perfect as the lonely Johnny Marco who is unknowingly searching for meaning in his life. And Fanning as 11 year old Cleo is just, WOW. She can convey so much with a mere look. For a kid, her acting is so subtle and never forced. Really magical.)

A Few Thoughts on "Bridesmaids"

Last night was very exciting for me: I got to see Bridesmaids, which, from the moment the mere movie poster was released on the Internet, I knew would be a crazy awesome film. And it was!

Finally, comedic firecracker Kristen Wiig gets the leading role she deserves, as Annie Walker, maid-of-honor to her best friend Lilian, played by the equally amazing Maya Rudolph. The SNL alums worked so well together. You could tell they were just having a blast playing off each other. And it wasn't all laughs between the two of them. There were some really emotional moments, as the two dealt with how their relationship would be radically redefined by a major milestone like getting married. I actually almost cried at times.

Kristen really encapsulated what a lot of young women these days go through. Annie Walker is in a toxic "relationship" with a loathsome wang (played perfectly by stud muffin Jon Hamm); her career has suffered major setbacks; her life in general is kind of in the dumps. On top of that, she has the daunting task of handling maid-of-honor responsibilities. Throw in a kooky cast of bridesmaids--Ellie Kemper (Erin on "The Office"), Wendy McLendon-Covey (of "Reno 911!" fame), Melissa McCarthy (Suki from "Gilmore Girls"), and Rose Byrne (Marie Antoinette, Get Him to the Greek)--and a lot of wonderful hilarity ensues. I mean, these gals are great at physical comedy. And cursing up a storm. So enjoyable.

The ensemble cast might be the strongest part of the movie. Melissa McCarthy stands out in such an outrageous role; that woman is talented through and through. And I love Kristen and Rose Byrne's interactions, Rose playing such a miss goody two-shoes character. In the above image, the two give an impromptu and competitive performance of "That's What Friends Are For" at Lilian's engagement party.

One of my favorite cast members was Chris O'Dowd (Pirate Radio, my current TV fave "The IT Crowd"), who plays Officer Rhoads, the love interest of Annie Walker. He's the total opposite of Jon Hamm's character; he's so nice and thoughtful--almost too sweet. I made lots of "awww" sounds whenever he was on screen. Seriously, he's too adorable.

A lot people are comparing Bridesmaids to The Hangover, like it's a "female version of The Hangover." But really the only thing the two have in common is the wedding theme. Why the hell do we need to compare an all-female lead film with a decidedly male film anyway?! I saw The Hangover, I enjoyed it, but Bridesmaids is in a whole other league. It doesn't need to rely on crudeness and violent stupidity to make it a laugh-out-loud enjoyable film; not to mention the lack of female presence in The Hangover. Pretty sure it doesn't pass the Bechdel Test (note: I just checked, and it doesn't. And Bridesmaids does. Booyah!). In fact, Bridesmaids might not pass whatever the opposite of the Bechdel Test is: has at least two MEN in it, who talk to each other, about something else besides a WOMAN.

Yep, Bridesmaids is more than women being catty and competitive with each other... Which they ARE, but hey, let's deal with it and really explore that issue in women, says Bridesmaids. And Annie's issues go further than the need for finding a guy--this can't be classified as a romantic comedy--her passion and career are lost on her; she's in a scary place; and during the movie, she rekindles that passion of hers. AND she finds an awesome dude in the process who totally supports and encourages her. Bonus points.

So a big thank you to Kristen Wiig and Amy Mumolo, who co-wrote Bridesmaids (they completed the first draft of the film in like, four days!). Thank you providing strong female presence and perspectives in this totally approachable and entertaining comedy, portraying women as the complicated, hilarious, loving, generous, vibrant, resilient creatures that we are!

PS: One more incentive to see it... Wilson Phillips. I'll say no more.

Jane Eyre

Last night, I was lucky enough to see a preview screening of the new film adaptation of Jane Eyre. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you all to SEE IT! It's a really beautiful film, matching the even more beautiful story.

If you haven't read the novel (you idiot... just kidding), there are a few parts that are a bit confusing because they brush over them in a quick manner.

And the end... well... I'll just say it reminded me a bit of the ending of Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice in that it strayed away from what happens in the novel and is altogether stupid. BUT, that said, everything else in the film was glorious!

Jane Eyre is a very Gothic piece-- creaks in the floorboards, mysterious voices in the night, howling winds, the whole shebang. I loved all of those aspects. The filmmaker, Cary Fukunaga, captured the bleak moors, the foggy landscape, the dreary Thornfield Hall, so perfectly. The landscapes really draw you in from the beginning till the end.

Mia Wasikowska plays Jane Eyre so very well. She's such a complex character. Seemingly very strong and virtuous, which can be kind of a turn-off. It's like, how am I supposed to relate to this girl who doesn't seem to struggle with the decisions she faces? But Wasikowska provided glimpses of weakness, of doubt, and of longing.

And there's Michael Fassbender, playing another classically complex literary character, that of Mr. Rochester. Dear God. The man plays the hell out of this role. He's perfect. He's very attractive. I've never really known what I'm supposed to think of Mr. R. He's cocky and charming, harsh and demanding, tortured, deceitful... And sexy. I mean, it's clear both in the book and in the film that Jane's very attracted to him; she could have gone to India with a nice, non-game-playing man like St. John Rivers (played cutely by Jamie Bell), but she can't help but love that bastard, Mr. Rochester.

The above still is my favorite part of the film, I think. I'm contemplating seeing it again, just for that scene. It's right after Jane saves Rochester when his room is mysteriously on fire, and they have..... a real moment. It's hot. In the period-piece sense, of course.

So tell me, are you familiar with the story of Jane Eyre? What do you think of it?