Hey everyone. Capone here with the third of my reports about my SXSW 2008 experience.
I saw a shitload of features in my four days in Austin, some were big Hollywood releases, and a few are still looking for a home and a release date. As I mentioned in my first report, I'll post my reviews of 21 and RUN FATBOY RUN a little closer to their release dates, which are fast approaching, but there's still plenty to talk about.
For instance…
HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY
H&K2 doesn't come out until April, and I'm excited enough about it to spill the beans on just how utterly great this film is.
Moving beyond its humble "stoner comedy" beginnings, this Harold & Kumar adventure enters the realm of political satire. Make no mistake, there is still plenty of dubage being smoked here. (I fell like every film I saw at this year's festival--including a couple of docs--featured some amount of pot smoking. Not getting "High Times" magazine as a corporate sponsor of this year's festival was a real missed opportunity on the organizer's part.)
There's also a bottomless pool party (toplessness is frowned upon), more inbred/backwoods humor, prison rape shenanigans, and Neil Patrick Harris just looking to take as many drugs and fuck as many bitches as possible. There's a sequence in a brothel in which NPH simply outdoes himself on the crudity scale. The fact that he's come out of the closet between the last film and this one only makes his scenes that much more absurd.
Filmmakers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have not only ramped up the bawdy humor, but they've moved the story into territory beyond simply a search of the perfect food. The boys (John Cho and Kal Penn) are arrested after their smokeless bong (for airplane use) is mistaken for a bomb on a flight to Amsterdam, and they are shipped off to Guantanamo Bay by an overly eager Homeland Security agent (Rod Corddry).
After their escape, the film becomes a great chase film, but it never misses the opportunity to confront issues like racial profiling, presumed guilt, and human rights issues but never in a preachy manner. The films mission is to make you laugh your nuts off. I'm not going to ruin any of the great jokes and surprises the film has to offer. There are a handful of gags the reference the first film, but this film is a stand-alone piece of immeasurable genius.
The film's last 20 minutes--which take place at a certain Crawford, Texas, ranch--are so extraordinarily brilliant that you almost forget to laugh because you don't want to miss any of the dialogue. Maybe the film's message makes more sense than one might think: if the world's leaders just got high every once and a while, the world might be a better place.
I saw some very funny films at this year's SXSW (although I wasn't able to make the FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL screening), but this one was by far the funniest. By judged purely on laughs per minutes, 2008 belongs to HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY.
THE PROMOTION
This was certainly a good year for creative types to step out of their usual roles as writers or actors and get behind the camera to try out that directing thing. With THE PROMOTION, writer Steven Conrad (THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS; THE WEATHER MAN) also directs this tale of two mid-level managers (Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly) vying for the same management position of a grocery store chain, and while the story is clearly meant to be a comedic effort, there's a great deal of surging rage and bitterness seeping through the facades of both men. And it's this bubbling, festering evil that made me love this little goldmine of a film.
Let me dispel comparisons to two other films that cover some of the same thematic ground as THE PROMOTION. This movie is in no way like that hunk of shit EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH, nor is it anything like OFFICE SPACE. That being said, THE PROMOTION could do for vest-wearing, have-a-nice-day grocery workers what OFFICE SPACE did for buttoned-up, tie-wearing cubicle dwellers. Conrad captures the absolutely demoralizing existence of these men so perfectly that I'll never be able to look one of these men or women in the eyes again without wanting to pat them on the back and say, "It's okay."
Now I love me some John Reilly, don't misunderstand. But the powerhouse performance here belongs to Scott, who plays the most understated roles of his career. He's a man with limited ambition--not no ambition, but his goals aren't exactly lofty. Still, when a manager's job presents itself, he finds himself in unfamiliar territory and a competitive heat fills his blood. His wife (played by Jeanna Fischer, who grows sexier by the nanosecond) wants to buy a house, one they can only afford if he gets the job. Out of no where comes a transfer assistant manager from Canada (Reilly), who seems equally qualified for the job and comes complete with his own supportive wife (Lili Taylor) and two kids.
The film doesn't resort to simply one-upsmanship, as you might expect. The two guys actually try to be friends while looking for subtle ways to crush each others career ambitions. And each one takes turns looking bad in the eyes of upper management.
A great group of supporting players sweeten the pot, including Fred Armisen as the frequently absent manager of the store where the two men work (he goes to the movies a lot during work hours; good for him); Bobby Cannavale as a doctor friend of Fischer's at the hospital where she works; and Gil Bellows as the senior manager who will decide the fate of these two men vying for what will essentially be another dead-end job for slightly more money. One of the great things about THE PROMOTION is that it doesn't shy away from some seriously R-rated banter, even though it easily could have. Scott and Reilly really tear into each other in some scenes, but a lot of the dirtiest material comes from minor players, including co-workers in the store and a gang of troublemaking kids that hangs out in the parking lot of the store.
The film allows its characters to suffer the punishing weight of comment cards, gathering up shopping carts, filling end caps, and office politics that kill ambition and morale to completely it's amazing that anyone recovers (and who says they do?). Since the film is set in Chicago, I was getting a real kick out of some of the location shooting as the movie uses the city's lesser-known neighborhoods as its background. But more than all other things, THE PROMOTION had me rolling, sometimes heaving, with laughter. Reilly is the master comic actor (duh!), but I never realized what a talent Scott can be when he's allowed to let go of the Stifler persona. He's rock solid in this role (as he was in SOUTHLAND TALES, but completely different), and I hope this piece gives him acting opportunities that go beyond broad comedy.
This one's a keeper, gang.
MISTER LONELY
Writer-director Harmony Korine has been an endless source of curiosity for me. With his screenplay for Larry Clark's KIDS, he revealed a world and lifestyle that shocked even the most unshockable. As a director of films like GUMMO and JULIEN DONKEY-BOY he filmed he lives of people whose lives simply don't get filmed, the marginalized and forgotten.
His latest work, MISTER LONELY, still focuses on such individuals but in a far more understated and, dare I say, accessible manner. Korine isn't necessarily getting soft or playing it safe at the rip old age of 35. Instead, he's telling his story in a way that fits the more subtle planes his characters exist in. In MISTER LONELY, Korine's most emotionally gripping story, he introduces us to a Mexican man (Diego Luna of Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN and THE TERMINAL) living in Paris impersonating Michael Jackson. He doesn't exactly look like Jackson in the face, but the hair and clothes and thin frame are close enough.
He seems to be making something of a living when he meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (a busty Samantha Morton) at a gig they both have at a retirement home. She suggests that he move to a weirdly perfect commune of fellow look-alikes living in the Scottish Highlands. Once "Michael" arrives at the commune, the film takes on a tone that might seem familiar to those familiar with Korine's work. Filled with impersonators of such figures as Abe Lincoln (the angriest Lincoln ever), Sammy Davis Jr., Madonna, the Pope (James Fox), Queen Elizabeth II (Anita Pallenberg, yes, that Anita Pallenberg), and the Three Stooges, among other, things at the homestead seem relatively calm at first. But a sense of claustrophobia and chaos soon take over, especially as the troop prepare for a performance for the locals. "Marilyn's" husband, a Chaplin look-alike (Denis Lavant) is terribly jealous of his wife's closeness to this newcomer
Connected only by its proximity to the other story, Korine has also included a separate story about a priest (Werner Herzog) and a group nuns living in a Latin American jungle making miracles happen that involves throwing nuns out of airplanes. Korine's builds his quiet, almost serene, piece into a whirlwind of chaos and heightened emotions and ultimately tragedy.
Luna's performance is so utterly captivating and perfect that he genuinely moved me. He's a simple man who needs very little from life, but when he gets a small fraction of love from someone, it utterly changes who he is. It's devastating. You could make an argument that by setting his film in a place where everyone is famous, Korine is somehow commenting on today's society where everyone is a potential reality TV star. Even if that is part of his intention, that in no was detracts from the beauty or subtlety of his film. MISTER LONELY is beyond strange on the surface, but surprisingly universal in its appeal and strength.
THEN SHE FOUND ME
I'd expected something a little softer from Helen Hunt as director. I'm not sure why, but she never struck me as the kind of actress whose first trip behind the camera would be particularly bold. And while the corners of her film THEN SHE FOUND ME (based on the Elinor Lipman novel) aren't exactly razor sharp, I was impressed with this drama-with-laughs effort.
The film opens with nearly 40-year-old schoolteacher April (Hunt) finally getting married to Matthew Broderick. They unsuccessfully try to have a baby for a few months, and out of the blue, Broderick announces that he's not sure he can handle being married, and the couple separates before they end their term as newlyweds. In the midst of April's stressing about her biological clock, she is contacted by a woman who claims to be her birth mother. She'd always known she was adopted but the idea of contacting her birth mother never really crossed her mind. She's always felt someone slighted as an adopted child, thus explaining her desperate need for her own baby.
Turns out her mother is a well-known talk show host (Bette Midler), who seems overly eager for the two to catch up in a hurry. April is none too sure this is what she wants, but agrees to a few meetings to see how things go. Meanwhile at school, April is engaging is some bizarre flirtation ritual with the recently made single father of one of her students (Colin Firth). He's still stinging from his jet-setting wife leaving him with hardly any notice, forcing him to care for their two kids alone.
This odd pairing seems to work, but Firth's character is perhaps more damaged than he first seems, and he seems prone to fits of explosive rage, which he deals with by taking long walks. With these two major life-changing events going on in her life, a third pops up: April is pregnant, the result of break-up sex with her husband, who coincidentally begins calling her looking to possibly get back together.
THEN SHE FINDS ME sounds more cutesy than it really is as Hunt takes the daring step of casting Midler and Firth and Broderick in her film and asking them to take things fairly seriously. Not to imply that the film is laugh free; there are actually quite a few of them. But Hunt doesn't sell out her emotionally charged effort for the sake of a few easy laughs.
I've always liked seeing Bette Midler reigned in a bit; she's actually capable of defiant acting when she isn't trying to please all of the people, all of the time. As for Hunt, there are a couple of really powder-keg sequences in which she simply melts down, and you could have heard the proverbial pin drop in the theater during those strong and simple moments. Firth was the real surprise for me, dropping the semi-suave "British gent that makes the ladies swoon" act and actually giving us a genuine human being of a role. He holds back enough that his character is a bit of mystery. We're not quite convinced he's stable enough to be dating even an unstable woman like April, and it becomes clear after a time that he's hiding a pain deeper than maybe even he realized. It's one of the best performances I've seen from him.
The film has flaws, the biggest of which is that Hunt allows things to get a bit too precious at times. Not everything in this woman's life has to be so damn meaningful or stuffed with emotion. Also, April has a brother who seems to serve no other purpose than to be the biological sibling to her adopted self. But in the end (and maybe because of a very smart ending), I went along with this odd bunch of souls without regret.
I think Hunt should go deeper next time. Comedy is her strong suit, but I think she has a gift for drama that maybe she chickened out of exploring as deeply as she could have this time around. THEN SHE FINDS ME is a problematic but ultimately successful effort, and it makes me eager to see what its director has for us next.
EXPLICIT ILLS
If you have any knowledge about the life of actor-turned-first-time-director Mark Webber (THE HOTTEST STATE), then his first feature EXPLICIT ILLS will make a bit more sense. Not that its confusing by any stretch, but its origins speak to Webber's life with his mother growing up homeless in Philadelphia.
In his film, Webber adeptly weaves small stories into one larger one about the condition and plight of poor and marginalized people in his hometown. Young children living on the streets, drug addicts, single mothers barely getting by. Webber doesn't present this material as a message movie--not even close. What he does instead is pain a tableau of touching stories of the closeness that forms among those in need.
While the cast list is impressive--Rosario Dawson as the single mom with an asthmatic young son and no health insurance; Paul Dano as a struggling actor playing a ninja for a child's birthday party; Lou Taylor Pucci as a drug dealer/junkie who falls in love with a rich girl customer--there are also a great young cast of new actors in their first film who are utterly convincing in there roles as kids adapting to survive.
One of my favorite performances is from a young actor who changes his persona from more of a street kid to one of a brainy kid to impress a girl he likes. It's one of the most unique stories of young love I've seen in a while. Webber's film is not interested in too many big moments (with one or two exceptions); he wants to show the day to day, in all its beauty and suffering grace. And I don't think I'm overstating its case to say that the film shares a kinship with something like GEORGE WASHINGTON.
I honestly don't know how EXPLICIT ILLS will play to mainstream audiences, but I'm guessing if it gets a theatrical release, it will slip quietly in and out of theaters, which is real shame because the heart beating in this film is strong and loud despite its quiet presentation. And of all the features I saw at SXSW this year, this is one my mind keeps slipping back to because I feel like these stories kept going on long after the screen went dark. If it makes it to your town as part of a festival, please check this one out.
Capone
