Happy-Go-Lucky

In the opening scenes of Happy-Go-Lucky, the new film by Mike Leigh, Poppy (Sally Hawkins) has her bike stolen.  Instead of throwing a fit, though, she is merely sad that she never had time to say goodbye to the bike, and then carries on.

This is the basic premise of the movie: a happy, 30-year-old British woman who hasn't got a care in the world (or doesn't appear to) and lives life from day to day laughing at everything.  She takes driving lessons from a rather harsh instructor (Eddie Marsan), and yet throughout his tantrums, she continues on joking and looking at the brighter side of things.

Yet as one can guess with a story like this the character arc will inevitably lead to Poppy confronting something really serious that will break down her cheerful demeanor.  Such events are necessary to make Poppy feel like a real character, and its a great credit to Hawkins and Leigh that when this scene comes, it actually does feel genuine and gets an emotional response from the audience. 

The movie is about being happy, though, no matter what happens in your life.  Poppy demonstrates that you can't brush everything away, but you can pick yourself back up and carry on, learning what you have learned.  This movie is like Amelie (2001) because it just wants you to be happy when you watch it (Amelie did lack any dramatic scenes, but that's beside the point).  As Poppy's friend Zoe (Alexis Zegerman) says, "You can't make everyone happy."  "While there's no harm in trying, is there?" chirps back Poppy.

Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman’s new movie Synecdoche, New York was screened last night at the River East theater as part of the Chicago International Film Festival. Kaufman himself, who wrote and directed the picture, was in attendance, and a Q & A with him followed the film.

Synecdoche (pronounced Sin-eck-doe-kee) is about a theater director named Caden (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who lives in New York and is always in fear of death, a major theme of the movie. His plan is to use an abandoned warehouse to build a life size replica of New York and have the people inhabit and play out the various lives of real people.

The movie is dreamlike, set in a surreal world where so many things don’t make sense. The movie contains some 200 scenes set in two-hour running time, and years pass like nothing, mere afterthoughts to these characters. Indeed this is both an annoying and captivating film.

The film definitely stays with you and you think about it long after it is over. I still haven’t concluded whether I liked the film or not; I go between loving it and hating it within the same minute sometimes. It’s really a force of a movie to be reckoned with, and I recommend people see it just to purely talk about the themes addressed in the movie. It’s a smart film, but one feels Kaufman, who was given final cut on this project, needed some restraints to scale it back maybe just a touch.

Kaufman’s Q & A afterwards actually helped me understand some of the obscure elements of the film, but he mostly dismissed “what does this mean” questions by saying you should interpret it the way you want it. What I thought was bold was him saying that he doesn’t care whether you like it or not, it is his vision that he has put out there for anyone who cares to see it to, and love it or hate it.

Previous scripts by Kaufman include Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002) and of course Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He is definitely one of the best screenwriters out there in Hollywood today, and though I have some misgivings about this latest piece, I think it is definitely worth checking out, even if it is the least accessible of his movies.

D2V

A recent article today on artsjournal touched upon the realm of Direct to Video releases, movies that bypass the theaters completely and hit the home video market first and last.  Going D2V is usually seen as a sign that the movie is a failure and that the studios did not want to waste any more money distributing it.  Disney is a culprit of this many times, creating sequels to the classics in their vaults and sending them directly to video to make a quick buck (Aladdin II and III, Lady and the Tramp II, Little Mermaid II & The Prequel, Cinderella II, and on and on).

Recently, though, some filmmakers have experiment with the home video format.  Steven Soderbergh released his independent project Bubble (2005) in the theaters and simultaneously on DVD.  The theaters that exhibited the movie had the DVD on sale in the lobby, so if a patron really liked the movie, they could own it right then and there.

Really, though, I don't think much of Soderbergh's idea.  If people can enjoy the movie in their home theater systems immediately, then they will just buy the DVD for $30 and skip paying the $10 a head movie price.  And as for all the D2V movies out there, well it's a shame that they exist, but there isn't much that you can do about them.  Horror movies are another culprit of the D2V syndrome.  How do we solve this?  Stop making bad movies, but that is too simple (and too complicated) a solution.

Trouble the Water

Recently I ventured to the Landmark Century Theater to see a movie that sounded pretty good.  Trouble the Water is a documentary about Hurricane Katrina, and it's a rather fascinating one at that.  Much of the first half of the movie is footage shot by a woman who couldn't get out of the city because she couldn't afford it.  She takes her camera and films all the neighborhood people, deciding to document the before and after of this storm.

The footage of the rain pounding down, the streets and houses flooding, and eventually of these people up on their roof trying to avoid the water is amazing.  What makes it so good is that it echoes Blair Witch or more recently, Cloverfield, except that this is real, so she isn't filming herself swimming through the water.  Much of the second half is about the clean-up, and how the government did (or didn't) assist with the evacuation and aide of these people.

Mostly what the movie conveys is how fragile our everyday life is and how something unexpected can upset the balance of our lives.  This woman and her husband do return to New Orleans after attempting to live in Memphis, and this more then ever celebrates the human spirit to adapt to whatever environment they are presented.  It also brings up the issue of discrimination, though it keeps this in the background more then the foreground.  This is a great little gem that I encourage everyone to check out.

Russians lift Censor

Over in Russia, there has been a controversy going on: the TV station 2X2 has been airing cartoons such as The Simpsons and South Park, and this has infuriated the religious groups of Russia.  The station was threatened with losing its frequency, but has now earned a second chance.  They are being asked, however, to review the content of their shows.

This of course brings to light the question of censorship, who should be responsible for it, and so on.  It might sound kind of cold, but if Russia wants to censor or The Simpsons, I don't care.  It's not their art, it is art that was created over here in America, and as long as people here can appreciate it (and I'm sure people there do as well), then I say if they feel censorship is necessary, they can.  The only reason I feel this is because I don't feel like it is my right to interfere with that country's way of censorship.

Now if the U.S. tried to ban these shows, I of course would get outraged, which I guess could reflect how lazy I can be that something has to come to my doorstep in order for me to actually take action (isn't that how it is for us all, though?).  Anyways, a show like South Park isn't doing its job right if it isn't being banned from countries and riling up religious sects: that's the point of the show.  So the fact that Russia did attempt to ban this show and others just means that the shows won.

Man on Wire

I recently went to the Landmark Century Theater to view a quite remarkable documentary by the name of Man on Wire.  Directed by James Marsh, the doc tells the story of Philippe Petit, a French wire walker who dreams of rigging a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center in the 1970s, and walking across.

What is remarkable about the documentary is that it recreates Petit's attempt to rig the wire, something he and his crew figured wouldn't be allowed.  They sneak in using various methods, including disguising as World Trade Center workers.  The reenactments at first seem a little cheesy, but are so well integrated into the story that soon you just except that this is real footage.  What helps is the incorporation of home video footage of Petit crossing wires at home, and his various stunts crossing the bell towers of Notre Dame, and the Sydney bridge.

But what the movie and the director achieve is a thrilling story that basically sets out to inspire you to want to go out and achieve the impossible.  Petit does cross the World Trade Center (eight times no less), and even the policemen who come up to arrest him are awestruck.  This is a film that celebrates the average human's dream to achieve the unattainable, and encourages audiences to dream the impossible.

Toronto International Film Festival

Peter Howell of the Toronto Star wrote of how the Toronto Film Festival lacked any of the zing that it has usually held for the past few years.  All the movies that came into the festival already had awards from previous festivals, and not one of the world premieres seemed to make a big impact there.  Howell felt that there was a certain lack of energy at this year's TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival).

But what is the nature of film festivals?  Mainly it is critics and spectators spending hundreds of dollars on passes and running from place to place to see as many films as possible.  Toronto has also been viewed for many years as the launching pad for many films that will be up for Oscar contention this year.  But last year, and apparently this year as well, there were no films that stood up above the rest, that people were sure would be the next Best Picture, or the next Best Actor or Actress awards.

Toronto was criticized for being too elitist, and maybe it is.  Toronto, with Venice, Cannes, and Sundance, is one of the biggest film festivals in the world, and eventually it will elevate to that status over time.  But the festival is mainly being criticized for being to greedy, even though they apparently dispersed thousands of more tickets this year.  Howell thinks that maybe it's time for Toronto to turn the clock back and get some big world premieres in, rather then having other festivals take big films, to restore TIFF's thunder.