Hey folks, Harry here. Quint has been in a relationship with a mermaid for quite some time now and I have to wonder... How on Earth he hasn't rented BEFORE SUNRISE to watch with her. DUDE, it is a key romantic film. A great one to watch with someone you care about. Stop renting schlocky grade z horror and get all mushy. God I love BEFORE SUNRISE. I had to recently pass on seeing TAPE. I had tickets and gave them to Quint and the mermaid Auntie Meat.... Why? Why would I give up possibly meeting Uma Thurman? Because with these stupid crutches of mine, I just felt dealing with finding a place for them at the PARAMOUNT Theater that would be unobtrusive to other filmgoers... Well, I felt it would just be a pain in the ass. But it kills me, because I am an avid fan of Linklater's work. He's a filmmaker that works hard on his films to deal with the internal processes of being human and interacting with others. It's not schlocky whiney bullshit either... He usually has characters coping, dealing with and discussing the answers to problems, dreams and aspirations. And I HATE that I didn't see TAPE on Monday, and I loathe Quint for having seen it before me. But that's ok. I've seen BEFORE SUNRISE like a dozen times and he hasn't seen it even once. The 'tard! Here's the Seaman...
Ahoy there, squirts. 'Tis I, the ever crusty ol' seaman, Quint, here to give you folks my two cents on Richard Linklater's TAPE, the right hook that follows up his near knockout film Waking Life. Linklater has come up with a damn good one two punch.
As most of you know, I live in Austin. As an Austinite, and someone deeply involved in the local film scene, I can't help but be a fan of Rick Linklater's work. I've seen all of his films, save one... Before Sunrise... Wait!!! Don't throw that rock or insult just yet! I'm working my way to it. I'm not ignoring it, the film just passed me by at the time. I'll be renting it shortly.
Now... where was I? Oh, yeah. Where I stand on Linklater's films... I'm about to commit an unforgivable crime as an Austinite and might get my Austinite title taken away by saying this, but I'm not a huge fan of SLACKER. Don't get me wrong. I respect the film for what it did for not only Austin's film scene, but also the world of Independent Cinema. I dig what Rick attempts to do in the film, but it just never connected with me. I've seen the film 4 or 5 times now and each time I hope I find whatever it is that has eluded me in my previous viewings only to find myself in the same place afterwards.
That having been said, I dig suBurbia. Not my favorite, but it kept me interested and entertained. I love, love, love Dazed and Confused. Great film, great performances, great characters, great soundtrack. Fun movie. I even liked The Newton Boys. I saw it once, dug it, but never really felt the need to watch it again.
Now I hear you saying, "Who cares, you crusty ol' bastard? Those films are old. What about his new one?" I'm getting there! Sheesh. I loved Waking Life. To Death. It's in my top 5 films of the year. You don't need my review, but I thought Linklater was hard pressed to follow that film up.
TAPE is a damn, damn good film. It's not as enthralling or as challenging as Waking Life, but it's not that kind of film. TAPE is a character and dialogue driven film set in one hotel room with a cast of 3: Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman. It's based on a play and it does feel a helluva lot like a play caught on DV tape. That's a big D'uh, though as it's set in one room with only 3 characters.
The only problem the movie had for me was the opening 2 or 3 minutes. It follows Ethan Hawke around the hotel room as he chugs beers, disrobes, does pushups, etc. It didn't feel like part of the story. It actually felt more like a rehearsal. It felt like Ethan was pumping himself up. I guess that's the point, but it really has nothing to do with the main story and kinda stumbles the opening a bit.
Linklater himself said afterwards (I saw TAPE at a local Austin premiere hosted by the Austin Film Society) that the script was based on a one act play, thus it was only about 60 pages and that the stuff at the beginning was kinda filler.
Enough about that, though. One slight stumble in an otherwise enthralling, entertaining superbly acted character piece. I love Ethan Hawke. I have ever since I was a little boy and wished I could ride along with him and River Phoenix in that homemade spaceship in The Explorers. He does some great things in this film, flexing his dramatic muscles as well as showing his great comic timing. Uma likewise throws in a great performance that runs the gamut of emotions.
Given all that, I have to say Robert Sean Leonard stole the show for me. He had the most difficult job of them all, as his character, an indie filmmaker who just got his film into the Lansing Film Festival, has to not only keep up with Ethan's funny and crazy antics, but also undergo major personal changes by the end of the film.
I know I'm not making much sense, but it's just not in my nature to explain huge chunks of the plot, especially in a film like this that is so intricate and depends on the viewer to take the emotional journey along with the characters on the screen. It would be a disservice of the film for me to start breaking down the characters and how they change during the film. That's for the film to tell you, not me.
I can only say that it entertained me on many levels. It's not a popcorn film, yet at the same time it's not a pretentious "look at how evolved I am as a filmmaker!" flick either. It jumps from being funny to being sad to being happy to being creepy to being funny again then to suspenseful then to funny... It's all over the place, yet you never lose interest in any of the characters or their situations.
The movie is shot in DV and it's some of the best DV photography I've ever seen. The DV feel actually compliments the images on the screen instead of feeling amateurish or crappy. There are a few moments where the pixilation was painfully obvious, but after a minute I stopped thinking of the film as a DV picture and just as TAPE.
Sorry if that review ran a bit short, squirts, but this is one very tired old salt. I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow and I expect you'll see most of it up on the page. Interviews, set visits and reviews galore, squirties. All coming very soon. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
