Hey folks, Harry here with Memento Man nearing the end of this year's Sundance Film Festival... which seems like a decent year. Haven't heard of any slam the door and kick the tires style works of genius, but there are many films that sound like really good movies. Well, let's see what this serving dishes up... shall we?
Hi Harry,
Sundance is starting to wind down, with most of the big stars already back in Los Angeles to be ready for the Golden Globes on Sunday. Here's what I saw today:
NOVEMBER (Greg Harrison, 2004) (**1/2)
GROUNDHOG DAY meets MEMENTO. NOVEMBER tells the story of what happened on November 7, when Sophie Jacobs (Courtney Cox) tells her boyfriend, Hugh (James LeGros), to run into a convenience store to get her some chocolate. While inside, a robber shoots not only the owner of the store and his son, but also Hugh. As Sophie struggles to come to terms with this painful event, she is teaching her photography class one day when an extra slide shows up in the carousel: a photograph of the convenience store where Hugh was recently killed. As events continue to confuse matters, the film suddenly starts again with events on November 7, this time happening in a different way. And then it happens again, splitting this film into three acts, all recounting events differently. Thus the film is interested in such themes as how memory, narrative, and reality all intersect. After the screening, director Greg Harrison and several of his team (including screenwriter Benjamin Brand) came out on stage and talked about what they believe the film to means (which I won't reveal here so that it can be discovered on its own.) An intelligent little thriller that nearly works.
DOGVILLE (Lars von Trier, 2003) (*)
Grand misstep by Lars von Trier, master filmmaker and founder of the Dogme movement. The film is made up of a prologue and 9 chapters; with a running time of 177 minutes, it's about 8 chapters too long. It's shot entirely on a black stage on which white, spray-painted words represent the boundaries of houses, gooseberry bushes, etc. in the mythic old-west mining town of Dogville. Into this minimalist environment comes Grace (Nicole Kidman), the outsider who, it seems, is running from both the mob and the police. Here she longs for a safe place to stay alongside the sometimes sympathetic, sometimes antagonist townspeople played by such skilled actors as Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazerra, James Caan, Chloe Sevigny, Patricia Clarkson, and Paul Bettany. Yet in the midst of this enormously talented cast and crew, nothing of interest arises. DOGVILLE had the largest amount of audience walkouts (second only to HARRY AND MAX) that I've seen at the Festival this year. Only the producer (who refused to do a Q&A, perhaps because he didn't want to be roasted) was in attendance at the screening. Before the film started, he explained that DOGVILLE is part of a trilogy in which the second chapter, MANDALAY, is about to begin production. One can only hope that it has something to say without barking.
BOOK OF LOVE (**1/2)
Cute film in which a married couple, Elaine (Frances O'Connor [who is also in IRON JAWED ANGELS at this year's festival]) and David (Simon Baker [from THE GUARDIAN, as well as L.A. CONFIDENTIAL]) become friends with 15-year-old Chet who works in an ice cream shop (Gregory Smith, from EVERWOOD, who was actually 19 when this film was shot.) One night, Elaine and David invite Chet over for dinner and, as David is passed out on a hammock, Chet kisses his wife, Elaine, which turns into a sexual relationship not long afterward. As Elaine confesses to David, we feel his terrible sense of loss of betrayal and wonder what is in store next for these characters. BOOK OF LOVE has a decent start, but self destructs in the last third of the movie with a forced event occuring while the three characters are at Disney World and a misguided subplot involving Cambodia.
Until tomorrow, this is your Eccles theater sandwich-munching spy, MEMENTO MAN, signing off!
