Category: 2013

Enough Said (2013, Nicole Holofcener)

For most of Enough Said, I marveled at how director Holofcener–apparently in an act entirely lacking irony–created the perfect film to fail the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test, which is all the rage, requires two female characters talk about something besides men.

Well, besides talking about men, the characters in Said do not do much. Lead Julia Louis-Dreyfus otherwise makes acerbic observations about those around her or the minutiae of her life; I wish I could know how the film played if one is unfamiliar with a certain show about nothing starring Louis-Dreyfus, but I cannot. It probably wouldn’t be much better, because Holofcener isn’t just lazy at the plotting, she’s lazy with the characters.

Here’s the idea (straight out of a “Seinfeld”). Louis-Dreyfus starts seeing James Gandolfini (even though he’s fat–she’s supposed to be out of shape too, in one of Enough Said’s more absurd requests for the viewer to suspend their disbelief). She’s a masseuse. Her new client–an exceptionally wasted Catherine Keener–turns out to be really cool and they become friends. Oh, and Keener’s Gandolfini’s ex-wife. Which Elaine–sorry, sorry–which Louis-Dreyfus figures out and keeps to herself.

The film wastes the more interesting empty nest subplot involving Louis-Dreyfus bonding with her daughter’s friend, Tavi Gevinson. Sure, they fail the Bechdel test too, but not as bad as the rest of the film.

Bad editing from Robert Frazen. Great performance from Gandolfini.

Enough’s pointless and slight.

1.5/4★½

CREDITS

Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener; director of photography, Xavier Grobet; edited by Robert Frazen; music by Marcelo Zarvos; production designer, Keith P. Cunningham; produced by Stefanie Azpiazu and Anthony Bregman; released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Eva), James Gandolfini (Albert), Tracey Fairaway (Ellen), Toni Collette (Sarah), Ben Falcone (Will), Catherine Keener (Marianne), Eve Hewson (Tess), Tavi Gevinson (Chloe), Amy Landecker (Debbie), Toby Huss (Peter) and Kathleen Rose Perkins (Fran).

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Fast & Furious 6 (2013, Justin Lin), the extended version

For the most part, Fast & Furious 6 is a delightfully absurd action concoction from director Lin. The film drops the Fast and the Furious “family” into a James Bond movie; thank goodness, because it’s hard to imagine Roger Moore able to outdrive the bad guys here. And it’s even set in London (and later Spain). It’s not original, but screenwriter Chris Morgan does fold familiar action movie plot lines into a new situation. Lin’s making a non-fantasy (just absurd), non-realistic action extravaganza. It has to be seen to be believed.

But then there’s how much time is spent on Vin Diesel courting Michelle Rodriguez (she’s back from the dead, with amnesia–apparently Morgan doesn’t just like to lift from Empire Strikes Back, he likes to lift from “Days of Our Lives” too) and Lin handles it pretty well. Some of it. One spinning conversation is terrible, but the car race immediately proceeding it is fantastic work.

The thing about Furious 6 is Lin and photographer Stephen F. Windon do create breathtaking car race and car chase shots; they’re in the quickly edited sequences, but clearly done with deliberate, careful intent. And the car race between Diesel and Rodriguez is phenomenal stuff.

Some good acting from Evans, some bad acting from Gina Carano (though one of her fight scenes with Rodriguez is awesome). Everyone else is fine. Lin manages to get better performance from Dwayne Johnson here too.

Furious 6 is mechanical and superficial, but beautifully made and likable enough.

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2013, Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine)

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden has way too long of a title. The subtitle is a reference to something the viewer will probably be unfamiliar with until the epilogue (it’s the title of a book by one of the documentary’s players), but at least it shows a certain engagement from the filmmakers. Their enthusiasm for their project doesn’t forgive its problems, but it does make them seem far more affable.

Unless, of course, one reads about how there are no tortoises on the Eden island, something the documentary implies many times throughout its really long two hour runtime.

Some of the other problems are side effects of the film itself. Directors Geller and Goldfine cut from 16:9 interview and modern location footage to old, black and white 4:3 footage, which they imply was taken by the island’s settlers. It’s always implied (the filmmakers have no presence until the epilogue either), but it eventually becomes clear a lot of this footage ostensibly from the 1930s is just modern stuff run through a filter.

And the titular Affair? The big mystery? It’s nowhere near as interesting as the lives of the people living on the island the filmmakers do interview. These sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters of mostly German expats who went to the end of the world to get away from Hitler (in some cases) is far more interesting than the mystery. The mystery doesn’t have enough information to be mysterious.

Galapagos is long, professional and meanderingly pointless.

1.5/4★½

CREDITS

Directed by Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine; screenplay by Goldfine, Geller and Celeste Schaefer Snyder, based on books, journals, articles and letters by Dore Strauch, Margret Wittmer, Friedrich Ritter, Hinz Wittmer and John Garth; director of photography, Geller; edited by Bill Weber; music by Laura Karpman; produced by Geller, Goldfine and Snyder; released by Zeitgeist Films.

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This Is Water (2013, Matthew Freidell)

This Is Water is incredibly slick. Director Freidell is literally visualizing a commencement speech David Foster Wallace once gave. Wallace will mention cars on a freeway, Freidell has the cars on the freeway. Often, Freidell visually represents parts of the speech–in stylized graphics–in his shots.

It’s slick.

And that slickness, whether it’s how well Freidell brings everything together to make a cohesive, predictable narrative, but how he comments on that narrative. The narrative, which isn’t Wallace’s creation, has depth because of how it plays against Wallace’s narrative outline. And Freidell is translating it.

Wallace’s speech–which basically espouses a humanist belief (I think someone lifted it for a “House M.D.” monologue too–has a shifting point. He appeals to his listeners vanity, then explores their vanity. Freidell’s playing with the same thing–only by engaging with their expectations for a short like This Is Water.

It’s rather cool.

3/3Highly Recommended

CREDITS

Edited and directed by Matthew Freidell; screenplay by Matthew Freidell, based on a speech by David Foster Wallace; directors of photography, Matthew Freidell and Catherine Asanov; produced by Allison Freidell, Whitney Willison and Jeremy Dunning.

Starring Hunter McClamrock (Man), Jaycie Dotin (Woman), Shey Lyn Zanotti (Mother), Phoenix List (Child) and Rhoda Pell (Cashier); narrated by David Foster Wallace.

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BLT (2013, John Cunningham)

BLT runs twelve minutes. It’s probably about four minutes too long to be effective, since most of the run time is spent with Stephen Molloy (as a successful businessman) lecturing a homeless man, played by Ross Owen Williams. Director Cunningham’s script makes too many value judgments in the dialogue–Molloy’s just too obviously a prat–for the back and forth to seem sincere.

But Molloy and Williams are good and the short’s well-made (Cunningham also edits and photographs, doing well at each); if it were shorter, it might work out.

Because BLT is all about the punchline and the punchline does pay off quite a bit (Cunningham sort of paces out the punchline into three stages).

And Cunningham directs BLT well. He makes it feel real big; the problem’s not the directing. It’s the script–Cunningham’s not building to anything but that punchline. Everything else feels way too forced.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Edited, photographed, written and directed by John Cunningham; produced by John Cunningham and Rhona Cunningham.

Starring Stephen Molloy (Businessman) and Ross Owen Williams (Homeless Man).

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The Last Days of Peter Bergmann (2013, Ciaran Cassidy)

The Last Days of Peter Bergmann is something of a procedural documentary short. A man, using the alias Peter Bergmann, checks into a hotel in an Irish town. A few days later, he is found dead on a nearby beach. Unable to ascertain his identity, the police use CCTV footage from around town, from the hotel, to try to discover something about the person.

Director Cassidy, a few years later, takes that footage, along with interviews of the people who interacted with the man, and cuts together this strange little film. Cassidy weighs it heavy at the end–there’s a reveal of sorts–but Cassidy keeps Last Days very flat.

The police inspector talks about the haunting quality of the man on all the CCTV footage around town–something David Cantan and Jack Quilligan’s music helps emphasize–but Cassidy has no judgement. There’s no metaphor, no thesis, just the unexplainable.

3/3Highly Recommended

CREDITS

Written and directed by Ciaran Cassidy; director of photography, Kate McCullough; edited by John Murphy; music by David Cantan and Jack Quilligan; produced by Morgan Bushe.

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Time Trap (2013, Michael Shanks)

Time Trap is a good combination of humor and visual effects mastery. Director Shanks–who also did the special effects–does some amazing work on the short. It’s about some space guy who crash lands on Earth after the world’s ended and he has to create time bubbles to look for parts to his spaceship.

So there’s a lot of effects, which are almost uniformly amazing, and then some humor stuff with the space guy, played by Mark Taylor. Taylor doesn’t have any lines and his face is covered so it’s hard to say what he brings to it.

Shanks figures out a good system–the localized time travel, which allows for cool effects but also comedic moments–and Time Trap is a solid short.

There are some fantastic shots in the film, combining the live action and the CG; Shanks is an impressive filmmaker. His script just lacks oomph.

2/3Recommended

CREDITS

Written, directed and edited by Michael Shanks; director of photography, Edward Goldner; music by Shanks; production designer, Nicholas Issell; produced by Shanks and Chris Hocking.

Starring Mark Taylor (Fripp).

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Lay Over (2013, Jordan Hayes)

A lot of Lay Over is obnoxious. Loud and obnoxious. It's a Before Sunrise knock-off with Jordan Hayes's Canadian traveller in L.A. for just one night and she meets nice accordion player Noah Reid, who shows her the town. So there are all these montage shots of L.A. set to loud and obnoxious music.

The short does have its strengths, however, whenever Reid shows Hayes things from his childhood. There–thanks to Reid's fantastic performance and Hayes (who also directs) slowing down for a minute and allowing the viewer presence with the characters–Lay Over gets good.

As a director, Hayes is fine. It's a short shot at night on DV; there's only so much she can do. There are occasionally pretentious shots and they're annoying, but it's fine. Max Topplin's photography leaves a lot to be desired.

Unfortunately, the end is predictable and insincere. It kills the short's accumulated good will.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Edited and directed by Jordan Hayes; written by Hayes and Noah Reid; director of photography, Max Topplin; produced by Hayes and Topplin.

Starring Jordan Hayes (Sam) and Noah Reid (Owen).

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Enemy (2013, Denis Villeneuve)

Enemy opens with an incredibly cruel and unpleasant scene. It's almost like a dare to the viewer to keep going. The film only runs ninety minutes and the first thirty or so minutes is summary. Sort of. Director Villeneuve and screenwriter Javier Gullón spend this first third encouraging the viewer to guess where Enemy is going. As it turns out, that invitation is the film's only red herring–amid the litany of implied ones.

The film concerns an unhappy college lecturer (Jake Gyllenhaal), who happens to find he has a doppelgänger in an actor. Gyllenhaal's discontent has already driven his girlfriend (Mélanie Laurent) away; he fixates on this doppelgänger. The investigation is both Hitchcockian and not. Describing Villeneuve's style, which has as much to do with the sterile Toronto setting as it does anything else, is difficult and probably not particularly useful. It's exceptional filmmaking, but Enemy moves so fast, Villeneuve doesn't want the viewer to linger. Not because there are problems, but because lingering distracts from the film's purpose.

Once Gyllenhaal confronts the doppelgänger, the film's focus flips. Not to Gyllenhaal in the other role, but to Sarah Gadon as the doppelgänger's wife.

While Gyllenhaal is fantastic, Gadon is even better. The film never explains itself, but all of Gadon's thoughts and suspicions are discernible. Her expressiveness guides the viewer through the film.

The music from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, Nicolas Bolduc's photography, Matthew Hannam's editing, it's all great.

Villeneuve, Gyllenhaal, Gadon, Gullón–they make something very special here.

4/4★★★★

CREDITS

Directed by Denis Villeneuve; screenplay by Javier Gullón, based on a novel by José Saramago; director of photography, Nicolas Bolduc; edited by Matthew Hannam; music by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans; production designer, Patrice Vermette; produced by M.A. Faura and Niv Fichman; released by Entertainment One.

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal (Adam + Anthony), Mélanie Laurent (Mary), Sarah Gadon (Helen) and Isabella Rossellini (Mother).

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Anna (2013, Jorge Dorado)

Anna is an exceptionally stupid movie. Apparently, no one involved with the film has seen films like Inception or The Sixth Sense because Anna apes big reveals from both of them rather obviously. It’s not a matter of guessing the twist ending, it’s a matter of trying to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing instead of guessing the twist ending.

One possibility for the filmmakers going with the incompetency of Guy Holmes’s script is Mark Strong. As the lead, Strong seems compassionate and authoritative, but it turns out he’s a moron too. Some of the problem might be how poorly the film establishes its reality, where mind detectives consult and go into people’s memories for supplemental evidence in court cases. But these mind trips have no bearing in court… like I said, it’s a dumb movie.

But it’s really well-acted from the leads. Strong’s character is doing his job for the money so maybe Strong was just doing the role for the money. He’s excellent, Taissa Farmiga is fantastic as the titular Anna. They’re both able to transcend the script. Because besides having an unimaginative approach to setting, it’s a good looking film. Dorado’s decent with composition and Óscar Faura’s cinematography is breathtaking.

The supporting cast–who are all suspects–don’t do as well as the leads. Brian Cox cashes a paycheck, Saskia Reeves looks lost, Richard Dillane isn’t bad. Indira Varma’s not good, however; a combination of mediocre accent and terrible writing.

Anna isn’t entirely worthless, just extremely close.