Hey folks, Harry here with a pair of reviews from Rav and Massawyrm. Now both these guys sit on rugs outside student co-ops trying to sell bad acid and incense, but don't let that fool you, neither of them have any taste at all when it comes to talking about film.... as is evidenced by the pair of reviews below. Hehehe, just kidding actually neither of them are worth the sum total that their cadavers would bring at the University of Texas, but they really do have a strong sense of denial, and that really is special these days, when so many are open to new experiences, they just splash in the bathtub and scrub each other's backs. They really are special!!! Here's their looks at I AM SAM, which I'm actually kinda looking forward to, and had they not scheduled the press screening in the early A.M. after a night of FLESH GORDON, well I might have made it, but priorities being what they are....
Heres a review of I am Sam if you guys like,
I am Sam follows Sam (Sean Penn) a retarded man who winds up getting the homeless woman he lives with pregnant, who also runs off and leaves him with the baby one day. Sam pushes on and with the help of his Beatles-crazy neighbor (Dianne Weist) he begins to raise Lucy. After being picked up for solicitation one day, a social worker begins to take notice of the situation and begins to look into the living situation. Eventually Lucy is taken out of his custody and after finding a lawyer (Michelle Pfeifer) with a "Nice Ad" in the yellow pages, Sam fights for his daughter.
This film just wants to be loved so much, and I guess only cynical bastards, like me, won’t love it. This is this year’s Pay It Forward. This is a film made solely for the hopes of getting an Oscar and/or milking the pockets of many middle-aged house-wives in search of emotion exploitation.
The story is damn near preposterous, a retarded man working a minimum wage job can raise a kid for seven years???? Last I checked even families working non-stop have problem’s raising newborns these days. Okay, so we suspend the disbelief for a bit and the audience now gets treated with the true delima. Do you really think a retarded man should be raising a child? I sure as hell don’t think its a good idea, but thats just me. But then again if we looked at it from that perspective we wouldn’t get to watch the troubled mentally handi-capped man try to overcome extra-ordinary problems now would we?
The film only focuses on Sam never really on Lucy, in fact it focuses on more of Michelle Pfeifer’s lawyer character than it actually does on Lucy. Dakota Fanning does a bang-up job playing Lucy, but sadly her place in the film is more that of "emotional currency." Something that seems normal in Jessie Nelson’s past films, as she wrote Stepmom and The Story of Us. They also live in a utopia where everyone can live happily and work together.
Sorry to have gone on that rant, I am Sam is not a horrible film, just a film strung together solely on strong performances. Some moments actually have you forgetting you are watching Sean Penn and not a documentary on retarded men raising children, ultimately his performance creates a character that is somewhat of a mix of Giovanni Ribisi from the Other Sister meets Dustin Hoffman from Rain Man. Michelle Pfeifer creates a lawyer character with a rather interesting family life, that begins to steal the spotlight at times, nearly saving the film. Dianne Weist’s reclusive Juliard major is a great addition to the film, and every scene with her is just pure gold. Last but not least is Sam’s group of mentally challenged friends in the film, I don’t remember any of the actor’s names but I would have believed all of them to actually be mentally challenged people if it had not been for the recognizable faces of a few (and that is a complement by the way). Imagine Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and focus his idiosyncracities into four different characters and then you have a good idea of his friends in the film.
The film features a soundtrack comprised entirely of Beatles covers and a little Hans Zimmer original score. I think it is needless to say that the soundtrack is one of the best things about the film.
Maybe I am a little jaded because I saw the better mental-disorder film (A Beautiful Mind) before it or maybe it just couldn’t measure up to Flesh Gordon the night before at the drafthouse. Maybe I’m just a fucking asshole that needs to cut the film some slack, or maybe its all of those. Either way I despise this film, although I know it has some good qualities to it. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it, maybe.
Maybe.
Rav- The Japoteur Ravkill@msn.com
Here's that never dependable canker of cinema taste, Massawyrm, try not to ruin your holiday...
Hola all. Everyone's favorite Chain-smoking, Dr. Pepper swilling, indie schilling AICN whipping boy here with a review of the upcoming film "I am Sam". Now, this is one of those "For Your Consideration" type of films. You know the kind, Oscar nominated starpower in Oscar style roles tugging heart strings left and right, all the while carrying a powerful social message. Yeah, there's nothing new here, but underneath it's glossy veneer and beyond it's problems there's really a good solid film. Perhaps even an Oscar nominated one.
Essentially the film is about Sam (Sean Penn), a mentally retarded adult who manages to find his way into a homeless woman and as the film opens, has a child with her. Well, she bolts the moment the kid is born and Sam is left to care for the infant. Well, with the help of a shut-in neighbor, he manages to care for his new daughter until her 7th birthday and she is taken away by the state. Enter Michelle Pfeiffer as the attorney who tries to help him get her back. Touching, ain't it? Well, actually despite the fact that it has all the makings of a Lifetime movie of the week, it manages to be gripping and entertaining, even emotionally moving at times.
But then, there's the whole corporate sponsorship issue. At times this movie gets bogged down in product placement. Now, I'm all for a little product placement here and there; it often adds a touch of realism. Nobody drinks GENERIC BRAND cola. They drink Dr. Pepper (and if they don't, they should. This review brought to you by the good people at Dr. Pepper who remind you to drink responsibly this holiday season.) But seriously, I don't mind a Coke machine here or a pack of Camels there (This portion of the review brought to you by the good people at R.J. Reynolds who remind you to smoke responsibly this holiday season.), but when the shot structure of the film itself centers around corporate logos, there becomes a problem. Such is the case with "I am Sam". The opening shots of the film are close ups of the opening duties for a coffee shop. First the sugars, neatly fitted into the sugar caddy. Then a wipe down of the coffee machine. Then a nice, sustained shot of a hand turning a row of Starbucks mugs so the logos perfectly face the camera. Guess what? Sam works at Starbucks. Could it have been any coffee house? There are millions of independents, but they don't have the green Starbucks has to pay to be in a film, and lord knows we can't invent one for a movie. So Starbucks it is. With it's oh so courteous staff and great atmosphere. This was only slightly less offensive to me than Tom Hanks corporate schilling speech about decisiveness and Normalcy and Starbucks coffee in "You've Got Coffee" I mean "You've Got AOL" or rather "You've Got Mail". Now, Rav (who saw this with me), assures me that I'm over reading it. The guy did work at a Starbucks after all, and their logo is everywhere, so it would stand to reason that you couldn't have a shot that didn't have the logo or name of the shop in it at all. It's just not possible.
Okay, fine. Then explain why when he leaves his job he goes to work at a Pizza Hut (complete with another beginning of the day sequence displaying prominently the logo)? Or perhaps the fact that a shoe buying sequence takes place in a Payless Shoe store (actually the most tasteful product placement along with a great cameo by Brent Spiner as the shoe salesman)? Or that the only landmark they could find to show distance between two places (when Sam and his Daughter are walking back and forth from his apartment to her foster home) is an open, busy, 7-11 (the camera is positioned on the storefront and they walk on and off camera in front of it). Or maybe explain the Nike logos on all the kids soccer uniforms? Sadly this aspect of the film comes off like "You've got Mail", "Josie and the Pussycats" or even more appropriately George Clooney's brilliant comedic product placement sequence in "Return of the Killer Tomatoes".
I say sadly because this really is a good film. Penn's performance is stellar and very Oscar worthy (I'd be surprised if he didn't get a nod). One critic after the show said that the performance was just a retread of Hoffman's "Rain Man" performance, but I disagree. Sam is portrayed brilliantly by Penn, and you really have to look hard to see Penn beneath his character. He just immerses himself in it so deeply that there is no trace of Penn left to the character. Every look, every smile, every word is Sam's, not Penn's, and that my friends is the mark of a great performance.
Michelle Pfeiffer turns in a great performance herself as the Lawyer struggling to handle a case, a fracturing family of her own and a mentally handicapped individual all at once. There's one scene in particular, however, that almost flashed "Oscar performance" at the bottom of the screen. It just seemed TOO overdramatic. Now, this was more of a direction flaw than an acting one, but I think that one moment may cost her the Oscar, if even the nomination. She's really good though, especially in a year lacking of good female roles.
And what really shines in this film is the handling of the material. No one is villianized, which is usually the case in family dramas. You see, most dramas like this have polarized sides, grouped neatly for us as good and bad, so we know exactly who to cheer for. Here that's not the case. In fact, you could easily find yourself pulling for the State, as Sam really isn't competent to raise a child. As you watch this you get the feeling that his seven year old daughter is taking care of him and not the other way around. You realize that by the time she's a teenager, she would have to be totally dependant upon herself and would miss out on years of growing up just to look after her father. And you know, no matter how much they endear us to Sam, there's just no way you could see things working out if he gets custody.
Then we're ushered into a perfect ending that really sells this film. Its very fitting and very satisfying and ultimately, like I said, this works out to be a good, solid film. This is the film to take your mother to on a Sunday afternoon, I know I will. I'm just gonna make sure to take some extra cash in case we have a hankering for pizza and coffee afterwards.
Till next time friends, Happy Holidays, see you all next year and smoke 'em if ya got 'em. I know I will.
massawyrm@hotmail.com
