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%

Cloverfield

My quickest review yet, summed up as follows: the cast of The Hills wanders onto the set of a Godzilla movie and thankfully die.

Cloverfield
Score: 38%

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Wanting to get in the Halloween spirit, I decided to watch a horror movie I had been putting off for quite a while: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Although the movie has its moments, almost all of which occur in the first two acts, for brevity's sake I will primarily be focusing on what I didn't like.

Let's begin with the lack of originality. This movie is Man Bites Dog meets Scream. I'm not a fan of Scream (or its shitty sequels, for that matter) but will admit it is far more original and clever than this film. And I'm not even going to compare this film to the immensely superior, Man Bites Dog. Behind the Mask borrows heavily from both of these movies but still only manages to produce a mediocre movie.

In fairness, this is a low budget horror film, so I shouldn't nitpick the script nor bother discussing the quality of acting. But I guess it's not nitpicking when the script is filled with plot holes (big, gaping ones too). The script is at its best during the mockumentary stretch, but the humor is too sparse to carry the movie, let alone make up for the very weak third act. For a movie (and director) so obsessed with the glory of 80's slasher films, the third act is a rushed nightmare of lameness. Part of this has to do with the tired "joke" that all of this has to play out in cliched horror movie fashion; but mostly, it's the lack of an attempt to emulate 80's slasher movies. Sure, the setting is fine, but all of the kills are boring and practically bloodless. The best kill in the film was an accident not involving the killer!

The bottom line: there's just not enough that works here to overlook what doesn't. There's enough here for one viewing, but that's it. I don't want my time back, but I would not give this movie anymore of it, even if a sequel arrives sometime in the future.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Score: 40%

Quick Hits

Some other films I watched recently that I don't have time to write posts.

Hobson's Choice
Score: 80%

The Visitor
Score: 70%

Into the Wild
Score: 62%

Momma's Man
Score: 66%

Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father

A heart-wrenching film, Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father, will leave you emotionally exhausted. This is a film that shows the best of humanity, through the pure love of friendship, family, and two amazing parents. But it also depicts the worst of humanity, and a broken judicial system. Some have argued that the movie is manipulative, and that's a somewhat fair argument, although I disagree with the use of the word manipulative and its negative connotation. A good man was murdered, and his friend created this movie, initially to memorialize him, and to share the film with friends and family only. But as new events sprang from this tragedy, the film changed, along with the purpose of the film. Does the filmmaker have an agenda? Sure, but I think every filmmaker has an agenda. Given the highly subjective nature of the documentary, and how close the director is to the subject, I see it less as manipulation and more as an unfettered emotional release of love, hatred, anger, and frustration in the face of tragic circumstances as they are unfolding, channeled through a camera's lens. It's impossible to really critique such a film. I did find moments in the film to be overwrought and heavy-handed, too frenetic at times, overly stylized in places, but certainly nothing that robs the movie of its real power; it never distracts and the movie maintains its firm grip on our hearts, squeezing and never letting go.

Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father
Score: 70%