Hey folks, Harry here with Massawyrm and his look at three films. I've only seen one of these - REEL PARADISE - which I enjoyed a helluvalot more than he did. But that's nothing different. Here ya go - gotta finish my SERENTIY piece.
Hola all. Massawyrm here with a trio of indies – Thumbsucker, Memory of a Killer and Reel Paradise.
Thumbsucker
Yet another in a long line of independent “The kids are fucked up in Suburbia” American Beauty rehashes, Thumbsucker is the story of Justin Cobb, a teenager with a unique problem – he still sucks his thumb. Unfortunately beyond the premise of thumb sucking, there’s nothing else unique about this film whatsoever. As pedestrian and run of the mill as indie films come, we’re offered little to no real bright spots in a film with such a talented cast and a director who clearly has a good eye.
Now Thumbsucker is by no means a bad film, it’s simply a film very light on content written and directed by someone who made some very weak choices. But I will say this – the film is gorgeous. Beautifully shot for a film of its type, Mike Mills certainly shows that he knows what to do with a camera. And the film is extremely elegant, smoothly letting us get to know the characters with a minimal amount of filler. The cast is superb, each actor doing a great job of presenting his or her motivations in the short time Mills allows us to get to know them. And for these reasons alone there are people who will like it. But despite how well put together the film is, it never gives us anything to really chew on, nothing nearly as profound to consider as it pretends to give.
Effectively, Thumbsucker is a modern adaptation of the psychobabble classic, “I’m okay, you’re okay” and that’s where the wheels really fall off of this thing. Despite sucking his thumb, despite being introverted, there is nothing wrong with Justin Cobb – and we get to see that from the very beginning of the film. But he thinks different and begins a long string of addictions in hopes of finding something to make him normal. From thumb sucking to Ritalin, from Ritalin to achievement, from achievement to pot, from pot to sex, from sex to love. And wouldn’t you know it, nothing makes him whole. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad premise, but each addiction, each problem, is simply left by the wayside and is almost instantly replaced with no fuss, no complications, and no messy cleanup. The story just moves on. And there are some genuinely interesting complications, however brief they may be, that this film could have explored. Instead, it chooses not to.
The biggest, most glaring flaw of this film is that Mike Mills never wants to stay in a room for very long. That is to say that almost every scene is comprised of one person saying something revealing about their character to someone else and then immediately cutting to the next scene in which someone else says something revealing and so on and so forth. There are very few actual conversations in this film and rarely are we presented with any conflict whatsoever. A monologue here, a brief dialog there and we’re moving on. Next problem, next addiction, next revealing statement. A perfect example of this is perhaps the most interesting subplot in the film in which Justin is about to make love once again to the girl he’s in love with, only to have her declare that she’s simply been using him for experience because she knew she couldn’t be hurt with a guy like him. Here’s a real chance for conflict, here’s a real chance to see some pain and agony, here’s a real chance to really feel for Justin. Instead he looks crushed, says “That’s fucked up”, walks home and we never hear about it again – we never see her again. Thumbsucker treats every problem, every conflict, every emotional foible with the same emotionally detached ‘moving right along’ solution. Everything just cinches up easily without ever really being wrapped up. Justin Cobb simply walks away from everything with nary an emotional scratch.
And ultimately we’re never really allowed to care about him or any of his problems, because ultimately the message of this film is that we all have problems and there is no such thing as normal. We simply have to deal. As the films Zen Master/Dentist Keanu Reeves says “The answer is that you have to go through life without an answer. I think.” Okay, fine. Thumbsucker is a film about people trying to find meaning only to discover that there is none. Not terrible, but not terribly interesting either.
The other problem is the films only attempts to really disturb the audience – a staple of “The kids are fucked up in Suburbia” sub-genre – proves to be disturbing, yes, but never in an entertaining or enlightening way. Rather than presenting us with genuinely disturbing ideas or situations, Mills chooses to cut immediately from titillating teenage experimentation sequences smack dab into the middle of familial expressions of love. One scene has Justin sitting in his room fanaticizing about his girl, as she lays stripped down on his bed asking “So are you going to fuck me,” which is interrupted by his father who enters the room and lays down on the bed in a similar position. Another scene has him fondling the same girl which cuts mid fondle to Justin sitting at the dining room table to have his mother wrap her arms around him. Now I’m not certain what Mills is attempting here; I can only assume he’s trying to take our mind from one extreme to another to make us squirm at where our minds naturally go. Sure it’s uncomfortable – but it doesn’t say anything, it doesn’t do anything. It just makes us uncomfortable for no other reason than to do so.
When all is said and done, Thumbsucker is far too simplistic for the complexity necessary for this type of film. Mike Mills is certainly talented, and I’m curious to see what he can do with some good material – but here, the choices he made in what to adapt, how to adapt it and the overall message of the film itself are just poor, proving to be another film to place firmly in the overrated column. Recommended only for those that can’t get enough of this type of film and felt The United States of Leland, Chumscrubber and Imaginary Heroes were some the best films in recent years. Otherwise, it’s worth a pass.
Memory of a Killer (De Zaak Alzheimer – The Alzheimer Case)
Every film lover has his or her weakness, that one specific type of film that you will willingly digest anything and everything within its confines in order to find the truly best of it, no matter how obscure the film may be. For some it is vampire films, for others cat burglar movies, and for some it is the aforementioned “The kids are fucked up in suburbia” film. For me, however, my weakness is hitman movies. I love me a good hitman movie. From classics like Lee Marvin’s ‘The Killers’, to modern masterpieces like ‘Leon: The Professional’ to relatively unknown gems like ‘Killing Time’, I simply devour this type of film whenever it is presented and no matter what budget or language brings it to me. So I was delighted this week to discover the Belgian hitman movie De Zaak Alzheimer is being released here in the states under the title Memory of a Killer and that it happens one clever little hitman film.
Memory of a Killer is the story of Angelo Ledda, a hitman long past the age of retirement who is called in for one last job. Yes, yes. I know – it’s an old story. However, this time he really is too old for the job, as he is quietly wrestling with the onset of Alzheimer’s, and his mind is rapidly deteriorating. When Angelo discovers his target is a twelve year old girl at the center of a child prostitution ring, he refuses – only to have someone else finish the job and try to take him out to wrap up any loose ends. But despite his failing memory, Angelo’s instincts see him through as he attempts to avenge the girls death by taking out everyone involved in the case. Unfortunately for him, as his mind gets worse and worse, he can’t quite remember who he’s killed and what mistakes he has or hasn’t made. Meanwhile, a pair of detectives are trying to solve Angelo’s murder spree while confronting corruption that seems to go to the highest levels of their department trying to protect the powerful people Angelo is after.
Part Memento, part Professional, Memory of a Killer is a very cool take on an old tale. The visuals are interesting and the way Angelo’s failing memory is dealt with is both clever and gripping. Jan DeCleir gives a great performance as the hitman on the edge of sanity, giving a real depth to the type of character that is usually very stone-faced.
The only real problems with the film is that the budget and cinematography are very European, so at times it looks more like a made for TV movie and there are some points where it tends to move just a bit too slow. However, as the film builds towards its climax it just gets better and better leading up to one hell of a cool ending. Both funny and very edge of your seat, it is a taut, well constructed thriller that offers a new take on my favorite kind of story. It’s playing in limited release here in the states now – check it out if you get the chance.
Reel Paradise
Reel Paradise, an independent documentary produced by View Askew, covers the journey of independent film distributor/non-fiction author/IFC Television host John Pierson and his family as they take up residence in Fiji for a year to show films to the residents of the island. What could easily have been an interesting social experiment and a film detailing the purest love of movies possible, quickly devolves into a pretty dull documentary about the day to day life of the Pierson’s in the twelfth month of their one year stay.
The film starts off fairly strongly, introducing the theatre, John Pierson and the history of how he came to find this remote island in Fiji – but starts to break down as soon as you realize two important facts: 1) that the entire motivation of the trip was something Pierson thought would be cool and would make for an interesting documentary, not for any particular love of Fiji or its culture and 2) he invited the crew of the film not at the beginning of the experiment, when things would be the most interesting, but rather the end, once they’re fully acclimated and can only recap the troubles they’ve had. But for the first twenty minutes or so things are fairly interesting and would have made for a great short or 60 Minutes piece. Unfortunately, the film is 110 minutes long. As the film drags on, it moves further and further away from discussing film itself and what it’s like to show films to a population that normally gets zero exposure to them and becomes more and more about the day to day doldrums of living in Fiji. Reel Paradise actually spends more time discussing the burglary of the family’s laptop and computer equipment than it actually discusses the movie theatre. And when I say discusses, I mean we watch the family argue about it and narrow down suspects we’re never introduced to – repeatedly.
The idea of Reel Paradise is an interesting one, but the execution of it is tragic. We’re given only one conversation about what kind of movies to show to the locals (something Pierson’s young son seems to know a hell of a lot more about than Pierson himself), and the crew never interviews the population themselves about the movies he shows, their thoughts and feelings about them, which of course should have been the focal point of the documentary itself. 110 minutes later I still have no idea what kind of impact these movies had upon people who had never before been able to watch a movie. This film should have been a discussion on the medium and a showcase of what over saturation has done to our populations love of film juxtaposed against those never exposed to it. We’re shown footage of the locals rolling in the aisles over films like Jackass, The Hot Chick and Bringing Down the House , and while John talks briefly about why he schedules films like that, the conversation is very one sided and is decidedly “outside looking in”.
This is a vanity piece, a film about a white family in a foreign country sharing their (our) culture in the form of film and in return getting a film made about them and their family unit. If for some reason you have a desire to see a fairly uninteresting family argue about who broke into their house, how many boys their 16 year old daughter is going out with (a topic the film screw seemingly shot no end of footage of) and talk at length about how they’re showing movies for free out of the goodness of their hearts, then this is the movie for you. However, if you want an interesting discussion on film, the love of film and an outsiders perspective on the films we love and loath, this ain’t gonna cut it for ya. Overall, this is a weak puff piece not worthy of even mentioning again.
Well, until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.
Massawyrm
Behold My Awesome Brain and Weep Mere Mortals!
