Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
So, as we were leaving the parking garage after watching Life During Wartime, the cashier asked "What movie did you see?" Told her. "What did you think?" She's obviously polling her customers. "We really liked it. What have the others said?" "The last group said it was weird, crazy, and perverse." "It was. But it was so interesting."
Life During Wartime picks up the lives of the extended family Solondz depicted in Happiness (1998), boldly examining the aftereffects of incest, pedophilia, and suicide on the perpetrators, yes, but more significantly on those left behind to clean up the mess. As Solondz shows, the clean-up is consistently imperfect. Because is characters cannot, do not know how to talk truthfully about what they witnessed, they are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Moreover, because the situations are realistically complicated, there's no way the characters can resolve the problems. They are doomed to plodding along as best they can.
The first scene, between Joy and her husband, Alan, is a good example of Solondz's expertise with dialogue and keeping his audience de-stabilized. They are dressed up, in a booth at a nice-ish restaurant; she is weepy, he is teary, and we don't know why. Come to find out, they don't seem to know either. Because he is so solicitous and she seems so dysfunctional, my sympathies were with him, especially when she cannot pull things together when he gives her a thoughtful anniversary gift. Then he begins to say how hard he's worked at cleaning up all areas of his life, but that one area continues to give him trouble. Oops, I'm beginning to understand why she's crying. And then the server comes to the table, recognizes his voice, calls him a pervert, and spits on him. Joy begins to apologize for him, saying that he's changed. Clearly, things are much more complicated that they initially appeared to be.
Solondz's films are not for the fainthearted or the squeamish. No gore, no on-screen violence, just lots of uneasy truths.
Highly Recommended. With the foregoing caveats--plus the recommendation that you see Happiness first.
Life During Wartime picks up the lives of the extended family Solondz depicted in Happiness (1998), boldly examining the aftereffects of incest, pedophilia, and suicide on the perpetrators, yes, but more significantly on those left behind to clean up the mess. As Solondz shows, the clean-up is consistently imperfect. Because is characters cannot, do not know how to talk truthfully about what they witnessed, they are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Moreover, because the situations are realistically complicated, there's no way the characters can resolve the problems. They are doomed to plodding along as best they can.
The first scene, between Joy and her husband, Alan, is a good example of Solondz's expertise with dialogue and keeping his audience de-stabilized. They are dressed up, in a booth at a nice-ish restaurant; she is weepy, he is teary, and we don't know why. Come to find out, they don't seem to know either. Because he is so solicitous and she seems so dysfunctional, my sympathies were with him, especially when she cannot pull things together when he gives her a thoughtful anniversary gift. Then he begins to say how hard he's worked at cleaning up all areas of his life, but that one area continues to give him trouble. Oops, I'm beginning to understand why she's crying. And then the server comes to the table, recognizes his voice, calls him a pervert, and spits on him. Joy begins to apologize for him, saying that he's changed. Clearly, things are much more complicated that they initially appeared to be.
Solondz's films are not for the fainthearted or the squeamish. No gore, no on-screen violence, just lots of uneasy truths.
Highly Recommended. With the foregoing caveats--plus the recommendation that you see Happiness first.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Restrepo (Junger and Hetherington)
The War (Film) March continues, this time with a documentary of a company's deployment in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Combining digital footage shot by soldiers and the documentarians, as well as post-deployment interviews, the film provides witness neither to the tedium nor the excitement of war. Instead, it asks the audience to face the unrelenting terror (and frustration) (and grief) of establishing and holding an isolated outpost deep in Taliban territory.
This film certainly asks us to wonder why the Bush administration thought we could successfully fight two wars simultaneously when one was in this inhospitable and foreign land.
Highly recommend.
This film certainly asks us to wonder why the Bush administration thought we could successfully fight two wars simultaneously when one was in this inhospitable and foreign land.
Highly recommend.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Dinner for Schmucks (Jay Roach)
On the surface, nothing about this movie appealed to me, from the title to the stars. However, we had a couple of under-25s around, an un-air-conditioned home in early August, and assurances from A. O. Scott (NYTimes) that it was a passable comedy in which "nearly every scene...draws laughter from an impressively eclectic array of sources, both obvious and new." Sounded good enough for our purposes.
We were led astray! Let me be clear: do not waste your money or your time. If you need an air-conditioned spot for a couple of hours, pile into your car, get stuck on I-95, and listen to commercial radio. It won't be any more excruciatingly boring--and it will be a lot cheaper.
Avoid.
We were led astray! Let me be clear: do not waste your money or your time. If you need an air-conditioned spot for a couple of hours, pile into your car, get stuck on I-95, and listen to commercial radio. It won't be any more excruciatingly boring--and it will be a lot cheaper.
Avoid.
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