Hey folks, Harry here with that knee-capping badass mofo, CAPONE and his looks at 3 high quality films that cry out for your attention this weekend. The only one I haven't seen yet is THE DYING GAUL, which sounds damn good. Here ya go...
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here with reviews of three films opening
this week (at least in my neck of the woods), two of which feature Peter
Sarsgaard in vastly different roles. Enjoy...
Jarhead
I've grown to learn that when director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, The Road
to Perdition) is attached to any film, that film will be very difficult to
categorize and summarize. His latest, Jarhead, is not a war film; it's not
an anti-war film. If anything, it's a film about the mental preparation for
a war that barely happens once it starts. The war in question is Operation
Desert Storm, which saw more than 500,000 U.S. soldiers head to the Middle
East, and sit around for months with nothing to do but train and prepare
mentally to fight a battle that was effectively over in a few days. Mendes'
film focuses on the required mindset of a Marine readying for a war and how
the process of readying to kill for your country can drive someone
completely insane, especially if he never gets the chance to kill.
A pumped up Jake Gyllenhaal plays Anthony Swofford (on whose autobiography
the film is based), who jokingly says he got lost on the way to college and
got himself enlisted. Through his training as a sniper scout, he is our
entry point into the daily chipping away and retooling of the soul and ego
of a military man. Mendes makes it perfectly clear that Marine training is a
type of brainwashing, a lesson already learned and clearly borrowed from
Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. There are a couple of scenes in Jarhead
that struck me as remarkably similar in tone and even visuals to Kubrick's
essential work, but Mendes' borrowing doesn't end there. Even more blatant
references to Apocalypse Now (ironically shown to the soldiers as a
motivational tool at one point) are present and much appreciated.
The busy Peter Sarsgaard (in two films opening this week; see The Dying Gaul
below) plays Swofford's sniper partner, Troy. He's probably the most
underwritten character of the bunch, but Sarsgaard adds much-needed depth to
Troy that saves him from being too obscure. His reasons for joining the
military are different, but no less significant. And he acts as Swofford's
conscience and sounding board when he strays. Jamie Foxx (in what is
technically his first role since winning the Oscar for Ray) is the group's
sergeant, who displays more of a philosophical and heart-felt persona then
we're used to seeing in films about war. Foxx doesn't have as much screen
time as many of his co-stars, but he doesn't need it. His performance is
mighty enough for three films.
The film does a remarkable job of showing how much of the men's behavior and
mental punishment is driven less from the leadership and more from one's
fellow soldiers. They almost are being dared to be tougher and more
disciplined while maintaining the overwhelming desire to kill. Supporting
roles by Lucas Black and Evan Jones really drive home the duality of this
war. Jones is desperate to kill, so much so that he mutilates the bodies of
already-dead Iraqis just to hate his enemy a little bit more. Black (the
young boy from Sling Blade and more recently seen in Friday Night Lights),
on the other hand, is the Marine with the thickest Southern accent and the
most liberal and informed opinions about why the war is being fought. Throw
in a couple of cameos from Chris Cooper and Dennis Haysbert, and you've got
yourself a beautiful and disturbing film.
Once the war begins and the Marines set up camp near the burning oil fields
of Kuwait, the film takes on an otherworldly tone. And it's in these last
few scenes that Jarhead goes from being a great film to being one of the
best ever about the process of and preparation for battle. It alternates
between grim and uplifting, as does war, and the level of frustration these
soldiers feel when they are denied the taste of death is excruciating,
almost as painful as the realization that now they will be sent home as
trained killers with no release. Jarhead captures this and many other ugly
truths with perfection.
The Squid and the Whale
Could also be titled When Hippies Raise Children. One of my absolute
favorites from this year's Chicago International Film Festival (and yes, I
am still preparing a massive recap of some of the 35 films I saw at CIFF
this year; sorry for the delay) was this work that personifies bitterness.
Tracking the disintegration of the Berkman family circa the early 1980s, The
Squid and the Whale is an explosive, difficult-to-watch and partly
autobiographical work from writer-director Noah Baumbach (best known for
co-writing The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou).
The story centers on older son Walt (Jesse Eisenberg of Roger Dodger), who
idolizes his writer/professor father, Bernard (the acid-tongued Jeff
Daniels), whose promising career and talent is in gone in the toilet. Walt
is something of a sponge who absorbs all of his father's opinions on books
and people and spits them back out as his own without ever having read the
books or met the people. He's a snob who hasn't bothered doing the homework
to become one. His spirited mother, Joan (Laura Linney), is starting to have
some success as a writer, and Bernard is ridiculously threatened by this.
Consequently, Walt starts despising his mother for making his father feel
bad. You see how this works, yes? Let us not forget younger brother Frank
(Owen Kline), who is normally quiet but engages in the most deviant and
sickening behavior of anyone in the film, all in the name of getting the
attention of his parents whose separation is chronicled here.
The things that come out of the mouths of this family are almost
unfathomable. The cruel intentions (especially between the parents and
between Walt and his mother) know no bounds and the inappropriate behavior
and words that pass between the players is nothing short of shocking. Having
said all this, The Squid and the Whale is probably the best of all of the
recent indie works (including Thumbsucker or The Chumscrubber) looking at
the self-destruction of the classic family dynamic. Throw in William Baldwin
as a tennis pro whom Joan hooks up with and the damn sexy Anna Paquin as one
of Bernard's students, and you've suddenly added an uncomfortable sexual
dynamic to the whole glorious disaster. Daniels' work, in particular, is
probably the best of his career as he plays the emotionally driven and
ultimately pathetic Bernard. And while Walt's blind faith in everything his
father says is infuriating, it's at the core of this film.
There is no real story to follow in The Squid and the Whale, just a series
of cringe-worthy events that make up the all-too-believable structure of the
Berkmans' life. This is a truly great work, but only attempt to see it if
you have a strong stomach for pomposity and ferocity.
The Dying Gaul
When it comes right down to it, there is nothing more exciting for a movie
lover than watching a group of great actors simply doing what they do best.
The screenplay can be weak or nonsensical, the directing can be sloppy or
amateurish, but if the acting is good, that makes the other shortcomings
hurt a lot less. Not to imply that The Dying Gaul is a badly made movie.
It's not. In fact, it's fairly spectacular on all fronts, thanks to a wicked
screenplay by first-time director Craig Lucas (whose previous writings
include the play Prelude to a Kiss and the films Longtime Companion and The
Secret Lives of Dentists). But The Dying Gaul is about superb acting from
three of the finest.
Peter Sarsgaard plays Robert, an undiscovered, openly gay screenwriter on
the verge of selling his autobiographical, openly gay script for $1 million
to studio exec Jeffrey (Campbell Scott), if Robert agrees to make a few
changes to the script (namely, making one of the story's two gay male leads
a woman and making the other straight). While the two men work on the
script, Jeffrey's wife, Elaine (Patricia Clarkson), strikes up a friendship
with Robert and discovers that the script, called "The Dying Gaul," was
written after the death of Robert's longtime lover.
The film follows a complex and fascinating series of events that bring the
three players closer together while setting them up for an inevitable (and
highly combustible) climax. All three alternate between being the victim of
each other's whims and being the inflictor of great pain and misery. What
begins as a set of sweat relationships turns into callous deception and
emotional cruelty. Clarkson is perhaps the most tragic of the characters,
since she clearly does not have an evil bone in her body, but through her
obsession over unwrapping the mysteries of Robert's life, she's driven to
awful deeds.
If it seems I'm being a bit vague about The Dying Gaul, it's in your best
interest that I remain that way. The payoffs here are in the subtle but
devastating turns each character makes, and I don't want to ruin that for
anyone. The Dying Gaul provides juicy thrills and a twisting, melodramatic
ride through the lives of three endlessly interesting creatures. The film is
playing in Chicago at the Landmark Century Center Cinema.
Capone
If you want JUICY thrills and a TWISTING, melodramatic RIDE - Drop me a line!
