An Unknown Unknown

There's a point early in A Complete Unknown where Sylvie (played by Elle Fanning), the girlfriend of Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet), is preparing to leave for a semester in Rome, and she says that she doesn't want to think about how much she'll miss him, but that she also doesn't really know anything about him. Which I think speaks for the movie as well.

We do get a story, told in entertaining fashion, of Dylan's arrival in New York, his introduction to the folk scene with the help of Pete Seeger (Ed Norton), his on and off again relationship with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), and his eventual turn towards rock music (the film is based on the book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald).  The only real insight on Dylan that we get is in response to Sylvie's comment that I mentioned above, where Dylan more or less says that the past doesn't matter, that moving forward is what's important. 

We do get some interesting tidbits that fill out the biography, such as Dylan's friendship with Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) and how he met his long-time road manager, Bob Neuwirth (Will Harrison). The culminating scene at the 1965 Newport Folk Fest, and the reaction to his electric set, is very well done.

For the lack of insight into Dylan, I think the film does a good job giving insight into Seeger, whose devotion to folk music and his peaceful nature are severely tested as Dylan becomes more famous and less interested in folk. I really liked Ed Norton's performance, and was glad to see him get an Oscar nomination for it.

In the end I did like this movie, though I did feel like there was a bit of a hole at the center due to Dylan's basic unknowability (even if that was more of a feature of the movie than a bug).

We got six previews before the movie, some of which seemed more appropriate than others given who you'd expect would turn up for an Oscar-nominated movie about folk music:

Becoming Led Zeppelin was the most appropriate, being a film about a music group that got its start in the 1960s. It's a documentary, the first one about the band made with cooperation of its members. Having the band involved piqued my interest.

Perhaps the least appropriate was Until Dawn, based on the video game of the same name. A group of teens, led by a girl investigating the disappearance of her sister, are murdered, only to be brought back to life a la Groundhog Day to be murdered again by someone (or something) else. The only way to break the cycle is apparently to survive until dawn.

Two other movies focused on the more youthful segment of the audience were Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts, both part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Where I have literally only seen about 80 percent of one MCU film (the original Iron Man) I'll pass judgement.

The more artsy counterpart to Until Dawn is Presence, Steven Soderbergh's film told from the point of view of the poltergeist that haunts the house the Payne family just moved into. I like the idea of this movie, but am not really interested in seeing it.

I had the opposite reaction to The Alto Nights, about mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Both roles are played by Robert DeNiro, which is a little too stunt casty for me. I was surprised to see Barry Levinson as the director, as between the casting and subject matter I assumed it was another Martin Scorsese film. 

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Pro-Clave

Our family closed a three movie Thanksgiving weekend (the second movie being Wicked, which my wife loved and the boys tolerated) with Conclave, the story of a papal election focusing primarily on the dean of the College of Cardinals, Thomas Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes. He's more or less in charge of the proceedings, and has to promote the candidacy of his friend and American cardinal Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci) against those who want the church to return to a more conservative and traditional orientation, whose leading candidate is Venetian cardinal Goffredo Todesco (Sergio Castellitto).  All without overt politicking, which is expressly forbidden.

On top of that, Lawrence has to manage various intrigues involving other cardinals, such as a Nigerian cardinal (Lucian Msamati) with a mysterious relationship to a nun, a Canadian cardinal (John Lithgow) who is angling to get himself elected, and a mysterious Mexican cardinal assigned secretly to Kabul (Carlos Diehz) who arrives just before the conclave starts. He's assisted in handling these issues by the nun in charge of the domestic arrangements, played by Isabella Rossellini, whose appearance brings to mind the brief, show stopping role Judi Dench played in Shakespeare in Love.

The movie is directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), and he does a great job of getting as much emotional mileage possible out of what could be a fairly dull subject, palace intrigue notwithstanding. It's also beautifully shot, I expect a nod for cinematography once the Oscar nominations come out.

All of which complements the acting, which is at a very high level. Fiennes stands out as the conflicted cardinal, and has picked up a few award nominations so far. Rossellini's role may be too slight to grab an Oscar nod, though she's been nominated elsewhere. I was also impressed with John Lithgow, who showed just the right balance of ambition and (false?) piety, while playing down his usual instinct to make a meal of his role.

There is a surprise at the ending, which is the same as it was in Robert Harris's book (which I also recommend). I think it was done reasonably well, enough so that it elicited an audible gasp from my wife.

I do recommend seeing this, especially if you're someone who like to see all of the Oscar nominated movies. I expect this will be among the 10 Best Picture nods, though I'd be surprised if it won.

We saw this at a local independent theater, so only four previews:

Pan's Labyrinth, which was being shown as part of a late-night screening series

A Complete Unknown, as mentioned previously

Nosferatu, the Robert Eggers version of the classic vampire story. My wife was strangely interested in seeing it (she's not normally a horror person). Can't say it did much for me, but I'm also not much of a horror person.

Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning, which I am unlikely to see since I don't think I've seen any of these movies since the second one. 

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2011, #10: The Illusionist

This year's "It's never heard of you, either" entry in the Best Animated Feature category is Sylvain Chomet's (The Triplets of Belleville) adaptation of an unproduced Jacques Tati screenplay. It's beautiful but very melancholy, and the storytelling loses a little something along the way. The titular magician has a companion; a young girl. She comes off as a needy, ungrateful little thing. In reading about the movie after the fact, it turns out that she apparently believes the main character to be doing something more than sleight-of-hand. Okay, so I misread her. Apparently she's only an idiot. Huh. In reading further, it seems Tati may have intended this film-to-be as a comment on his failed relationship with an illegitimate daughter. Ouch!

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2011, #8-9: Krrish, There Will Be Blood

Krrish
After you've seen a 3-hour Bollywood musical that itself was a curious ripoff of Flowers for Algernon, Forrest Gump, Close Encounters, and E.T. -- and did I mention that it was a musical? -- I guess one can't help being a little let down when the sequel, Krrish, is a fairly standard superhero film. If you're looking for a rainy-day movie, you could do worse than the loopiness that is Koi...Mil Gaya, the original, and give Krrish a pass.

There Will Be Blood
...and with that, 2007 becomes only the second year for which I've seen all the Best Picture Oscar nominees (the other is 1976). I'm a little take-or-leave with Paul Thomas Anderson (mostly because I don't find Robert Altman all that worthy of copying), so I was happy to see those tendencies restrained here.

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2011, #7: The Proposition

Flies. So many flies. More films written by Nick Cave, please.

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2011, #6: Pickpocket

I'm not sure why someone who gets all Nietzschean about being above the law would settle for rolling people on the Metro. Why set the bar so low? Entertaining for reasons Kirsti got into, and a good point of entry into the work of Robert Bresson, which I'd heard was stylized & difficult (this was not, particularly).

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2011, #4

The Green Hornet

Here's all anyone really remembers about The Green Hornet: Bruce Lee as Kato. Who played the title character on the TV show? You don't remember. You looked it up on Wikipedia just now, like I did. I only saw an episode for the first time about a year ago. It hasn't aged well. Aside from Lee and the killer theme song, it was boring as hell.

Despite very separate origins, The Green Hornet and Batman are now forever linked because of their television incarnations, which shared a network, production company, sets, and a narrator. Batman of course was famously campy, while GH played it straight. So now that Frank Miller and others have turned Batman into a crabby psychopath, it only makes sense that The Green Hornet takes a lighter touch.

Rogen's Britt Reid is a slacker billionheir to a newspaper fortune. When his dad dies, Britt meets the old man's mechanic/barista, Kato (Jay Chou), they start hanging out and become costumed vigilantes. People are skeptical, as I was, about Seth Rogen in an action movie, but Rogen & Evan Goldberg apply much of the same sort of comedy + buddy + action-violence formula that worked (at least for me) in Pineapple Express. Less blood this time, but more explosions and kung-fu. I was able to suspend enough disbelief for all this. Once you get around the idea of a powerful newspaper in 2011, other things are easy to roll with.

Michel Gondry has some nice moments here. There's an especially cool montage of gossip spreading through the LA underworld that's reminiscent of his music videos. It's a pity the film was converted to 3D. I'd think a director like Gondry would do interesting things with the medium if allowed to shoot in 3D; why not give him the toybox?



*it was Van Williams. You did not know. Liar!

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2011, #2-3

8: the Mormon Proposition
A long argument for revoking tax-exempt status for religious groups, this is 3/4 a look at how the LDS Church funneled tons of cash into front groups and commanded members to campaign and contribute in support of California's Prop 8. The other quarter is how the church treats its LGBT members. Sadly not going to change any minds -- Mormons will either not see it or dismiss it as a biased attack. Mormon-hating fundies will continue to hold their noses at their coalition with them, for their perverse "greater good."


My Name Is Bruce
A fanboy calls on Bruce Campbell (as himself) to use his extensive cinematic knowledge of how to get rid of nasty demons to rid a small town of a nasty demon. A few laughs, but looked much better on paper.

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2011, #1

Exit Through the Gift Shop
"Street Artist" Banksy cobbles years of footage of himself, Shepard Fairey, and other graffiti/stencil artists doing their thing, all meticulously documented by a compulsive videographer named Thierry Guetta. In the course of making the film (more accurately, in the course of wrenching Guetta's footage away from him and turning it into something usable), Banksy convinces Guetta to go do some street art of his own. He adopts the persona "Mr. Brainwash" and does a little street-stencil work before hiring a stable of designers and artists to churn out a ton of derivative pop art, displaying it all in a huge, wildly successful 2008 art exhibition.

Or does he? Long before Exit Through the Gift Shop was released, rumors were circulating that Mr. Brainwash was a hoax put on by Fairey and/or Banksy. Guetta is quite the character. Artistically he's akin to Mark Borchardt and Tommy Wiseau, but does appear, at least, to be very good at turning trash into cash -- he's first shown putting hundred-dollar tags on "vintage" clothes at his trendy LA boutique. He's maybe a little too good at this to be real; as the years of videography go on, and then as his (seemingly very expensive) art show comes together, I thought at least once, "where's this money coming from again?"


If Mr. Brainwash is indeed a hoax, does that make EThGS a mockumentary? I don't think so, It's still about creating subversive art, and it's quite possible that Banksy has documented a creation of a human installation.

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Movie Log 2010: #4-5

We attended another Movie Dictator night. This time the hostess had no real theme except both movies were probably right next to each other on her shelf.

Wind - The dvd case called this "A Rocky of sailing movies." Not *the* Rocky, mind you. More like the Rocky V of sailing movies. So the US loses the America's Cup for the first time in a century, and it's up to Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey to get it back. That actually happened (minus Modine and Grey), and it is possible to make a film about known events and still create some suspense. But not Wind. The most suspenseful bits were seeing which of Ms. Grey's noses would appear at any given time -- Wind was shot the time of her rhinoplasties, and she looked noticeably different when reshoots rolled around.

Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! - Apparently Kate Bosworth's agreement to play Sandra Dee in Beyond the Sea had some stipulation that she also make a Sandra Dee film, or at least someone's idea of one. Bosworth plays a Nice Girl in West Virginia who is prone to exclaiming things like "Yikes-a-bee!" and "Shake-a-doo!" She works with a nice boy (Topher Grace) who's one of her best friends. If you've read the title of the film, you have an idea of what happens next. If you've seen a motion picture before, you know what happens after that.

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Movie Log 2010: #3

The Lion In Winter - I suppose it's more of a commentary on our times than on the material, but it was refreshing to see a film that didn't feel the need to set up EVERYTHING for the viewer. The Lion In Winter presupposes some knowledge of British history, drops you in, and when it was over, had me running to the Intarwebs to brush up on Things I Could Have Learned by Playing More Academic Quizbowl. I bought Katharine Hepburn about half the time, which is a very good average for me. That said, the film suffers from Filmed Play Disorder. One scene in particular had the main characters all standing in a line squabbling and not moving. While watching such a non-cinematic, yet well-written, movie, I was thinking I'd love to see a production of The Lion In Winter performed by the adult cast of Arrested Development. Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Harper as Henry and Eleanor, determining the lineage between Tony Hale (John), Will Arnett (Richard) and Jason Bateman (Geoffrey). Special appearance by Ben Stiller (in Tony Wonder persona) as Phillip. I think it'd be a license to print money.

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Movie Log 2010: #1-2

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Pure delight. Never mind that it spent about 10 minutes with the actual plot of the book.

Cashback - a pretty good (and Oscar nominated) short film gets stretched into a fairly limp feature. Or rather, a feature is built around it, as the short appears in the first 1/3 of the movie more or less intact.

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Movie Log 2009: #12-23 (B-fest recap)

Aside from Plan 9, which I slept through, and Godzilla vs. Megalon, I hadn't seen anything on the bill.

Firewalker - This year's mini theme was misleading titles: lots of walking here, but not on fire. A good light opener.


Frankenstein vs. the Wolf Man - According to the always-accurate Wikipedia, Lugosi's age (and possibly his habit) led to a number of stand-ins. It sounds like his actual screen time was less than his notorious non-appearance in Plan 9! Screenwriter Curt Siodmak later wrote Donovan's Brain, which came a few hours later.
Here's the "New Wine" production number. Fa-do-laa, fa-do-leee.

Murder in the Air - just a little air travel, but only attempted murder while there. Ron Reagan breaks up a ring of saboteurs posing as a patriotic organization. Their symbol is a tattoo of an encircled arrow. Hmmm...that symbol...allegedly patriotic but up to no good...I KNEW IT!

Scream Blacula Scream - I was hoping the annual blaxploitation spot would honor Rudy Ray Moore and we'd get Human Tornado. This was fine too. SPOILER ALERT: Our Misleading Title theme is broken.
Some outfits are better off NOT seen in the mirror:



Don't Knock the Rock - An odd little film -- perhaps science fiction now that I think about it -- which explores parental concern over rock & roll. Apparently the crooning of middle-aged men causes teens to go crazy and dance on furniture:


The biggest threats to sofas are Alan Dale and Bill Haley. Little Richard, probably insane enough to give parents legitimate concern, is also on hand to perform "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally," but is unusually sedate. Aside from Bill Haley, the highlight is The Treniers and "Out of the Bushes." Strangely, their put-out-or-else anthem "Get Out of the Car" didn't make the cut.

Donovan's Brain - I fell asleep during the last 10 minutes. Man, Nancy Reagan was brittle even back then.

The Tingler - Although our auditorium was not wired for "Percepto," this was enjoyable enough. Vincent Price did what you'd expect, and William Castle isn't so bad.

Captive Wild Woman - This, on the other hand, was a steaming pile of crap, and should have been good evidence for keeping Ed Dmytryk blacklisted. Mad scientist John Carradine, prepping for his role in Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex*, turns a circus gorilla into Acquanetta, who becomes attracted to animal tamer Lloyd Corrigan. At 61 minutes, this is padded with interminable scenes of lions and tigers being "trained" -- that is, of the whip/chair/pistol school -- and made to fight each other. I was rooting for the cats.

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation - Confrontastic! Written and co-starring Gary Conway of I Was a Teenage Frankenstein non-fame. Michael Dudikoff is sent to a Caribbean island, where ninjas' black pajamas render them invisible on the white sandy beaches. And I'm surethe fabric really breathes:


The Terror of Tiny Town - too shrill. Hurt my ears.

The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant - This may set a new standard for mad scientists: In the name of SCIENCE!, by all means take the head of an escaped lunatic (and your wife's abductor) and graft it onto the body of your kindly, mentally-disabled gardener/handyman. Because not only is that idiot's life not worth a damn, your wife probably won't mind at all if she has to look at her attempted rapist's face every day. It's for science. SCIENCE!


Megaforce - If I'm remembering it right, this is the film that inspired Chris Gore to start Film Threat magazine. He, like myself and countless other nerdy kids in the '80s, read Starlog magazine religiously. Its shill job for this horrid movie made him decide that *his* movie magazine would never mislead its readers so grossly. This was a glorious celebration of spandex, smokebombs, and the greatest greenscreen shot EVAH.

Check out Bostwick's great shadowpuppet:

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Movie Log 2009: #6-11

Song Sung Blue - I have heard that it's easier to make a decent living playing tribute shows than it is to break into music performing your own material. Your audience already exists and you go out and cater to them. If that's not a myth, then doing your own thing must be nigh-impossible, because the folks in this film, husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute act in Milwaukee, are barely hanging on -- and then things start to get worse.


Velvet Goldmine - I couldn't tell whether the filmmakers loved or hated glam rock. They managed to craft Bowie-esque songs that were exactly as inane as the geniune article. No small feat there.

Coraline - I find Neil Gaiman to be hit-n-miss. I read Coraline, but remembered nothing of it so can't speak to the film's fidelity. But what's here was enjoyable enough, and the 3-D is outstanding.

Rize - huh. yeah, clowning & krumping. Some pretty moves, but I don't know that I learned much.

Michael Clayton - When your gambling has you $75K in the hole to "The Greek" from The Wire, you may have taken some wrong turns in life. All I'm saying.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster - I'm getting wary of the documentarian-becomes-part-of-story school of nonfiction filmmaking. Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, Nick Broomfield...now Bill Maher's in on the act. In his look at performance-enhancing drugs in sports (and "legitimate" medical use, and porn, and the Air Force) Chris Bell also does some welcome self-reflection, examining the moral issues of steroid use among himself and his two brothers, all bodybuilders. The Bells are all good people, and their conflicts between themselves, parents, and spouses over to use or not to use are heartbreaking. Bell may only have one movie in him, but it's a fine one.

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Movie Log 2009: #3-5

The Good Girl - I didn't hate this like Kirsti did, but still...the only Mike White-penned stuff I think worthy of his buzz is his Freaks & Geeks work.

The Butterfly (Le Papillon) - Did you know Michel Serrault is French for "Michael Caine"? It's true. He was apparently in every other French film made since Les Diaboliques, which was the only Serrault film I'd seen previously. Cute, slight; some problems with the end.

Strange Illusion - This didn't remind me of Andy Hardy so much as the teens in various mental hygiene movies. I was perplexed by an early scene where the main character goes fishing with his doctor. I guess that's what life was like before health care went all to hell.

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Movie Log 2009: #1-2

New Years resolutions and all...


The Wrong Man - Hey, social studies teachers! Here's something to liven up your classroom discussions of the Bill of Rights and Miranda. I must confess after seeing Henry Fonda as a killing machine in Once Upon A Time in the West, I was rooting against him a little here. Good Bernard Herrmann score.


Sunshine State - AAAGH. When John Sayles is on his game, he's terrific. This stumble was clumsy and preachy and obvious, and a great waste of Edie Falco and Angela Bassett.

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Movie Log 2008

House of Wax (1953)

The last few 3-D movies I've seen, I've gotten more enjoyment seeing them "flat" than under the intended conditions. Here, the best gratuitous effects sequence comes in a long paddleball bit. Seriously. The film itself is great fun. Vincent Price, not yet known as a horror icon, leaves a surprising amount of scenery intact. The worst ham in the ensemble turns out to be Carolyn Jones, who had me eagerly awaiting her death within seconds. Whatever resemblence the 2005 "remake" bore, I'm sure they had Jones' portrayal in mind when casting Paris Hilton.

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