Three Micro Reviews

Moon, an intelligent sci-fi film with a great performance by Sam Rockwell, doesn't shy from its influences, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris (not to mention a few other 70's and 80's sci-fi films). It is far from perfect, but a good movie and one that deserves  a larger audience. Note to first time director (and son of David Bowie) Duncan Jones: when stationed on the dark side of the moon, the earth is not visible. But I understand the power of that shot.

Where the Wild Things Are is not a movie for kids, but for adults reflecting on what it was like to be a kid...especially those adults who read Maurice Sendak's amazing book. The movie captures the tone of its source wonderfully, and is visually impressive. But the movie does suffer some from a middle that drags: the very part of the story where Jonze and Eggers had the most freedom to expand on the original material, to show us the wild side of their imaginations. Overall, an enjoyable film, albeit for a specifically-targeted audience...thankfully one that includes me.

A Christmas Tale is a wonderful display of controlled chaos with a great ensemble cast. It is a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family that comes together at Christmas. Despite a running time of 150 minutes, I never tired of watching as the family clashes and comes together and clashes some more. The director clearly loves his characters, and not despite their imperfections, but because of them. After all, humans are nothing but imperfect. Why not embrace the flaws?

Moon

Score: 71%

Where the Wild Things Are

Score: 68%

A Christmas Tale

Score: 79%

The Headless Woman

An enigmatic and brilliant film from Argentinian auteur, Lucrecia Martel, The Headless Woman invokes Bunuel, Antonioni and Lynch, yet remains unquestionably the work of its creator. But to be fair, this is not a film for everyone. Average moviegoers will not enjoy this film. Even at the Cannes Film Festival, the audience booed and/or walked out.

I can't argue with someone who doesn't enjoy this film from a subjective point of view, but anyone who dismisses the film entirely is without justifiable evidence. Nobody can say this movie is not visually and aurally stunning and masterfully executed. Martel creates more with just sound than a lot of directors can visually. Shot in wide screen and with a soft focus that blurs the background and periphery, the viewer is forced to share the point of view of Vero, a bourgeois dentist, as she meanders through her daily routines in a state of shock following a hit-and-run accident, where she may or may not have killed a young boy. The soft focus works wonderfully in this film, not only to create the hazy confusion that is Vero's mental state, but also as a subtle visual divider. Adding to the confusion is the lack of establishing or transition shots, leaving the viewer to piece the puzzle together as the film unfolds. And Maria Onetto is excellent as Vero, in a role with very little dialogue.

Martel tosses the audience into the film without any knowledge of who Vero is, or more importantly, who she was prior to the accident. This is a complaint by some critics who feel we should know who she was in order to understand how she has changed post-accident. Despite the fact that there are subtle (and not so subtle) hints about who she was, it is also quite clear she is not herself. She seems almost amnesiac, walking through life as if in a waking dream. She doesn't seem to even  recognize the most familiar of things, such as the names of her family, or even that they are her family.

The lack of a resolution to the mystery of whether she killed a young boy is probably the reason why many people reacted negatively to this film; but the film is not about finding a resolution to the mystery. It is about examining Vero and her family's reactions to it and the choices they make when dealing with the consequences of her actions. Most viewers want their films to wrap up neatly at the end, to have all the questions answered for them; but this film provokes us to seek our own answers, to confront the ugly truths about our world and ourselves.

The Headless Woman
Score: 80%