Hey folks, Harry here with a damn fine report from The NoWhere Man... who not only went somewhere and met somebody... but also saw a lot of movies up in SUNDANCE. Out of the whole selection... the film I most am hankering to see is BEAT. It sounds like my type of movie!
I wrote five reports for my friends, and upon seeing that you were collecting them, thought that it couldn't hurt to share them. Read on.
Friday January 22nd
THE NEW WATERFORD GIRL and DON'T THINK TWICE
The Sundance Festival has come dangerously close to my neighborhood, and so I checked out "The New Waterford Girl" along with a short film by Sarah Polley. "The New Waterford Girl" is in competition for an audiance award, and they want us to vote for how much we liked it. Everybody was given little slips of paper numbered one to five. You tear through the number that you vote. 1 means it was bad, 5 means that it was excellent.
Sarah Polley came out to introduce her film. She said that it was okay to laugh, and that we should support Canadian cinema. She also said that The New Waterford Girl was a very good movie too.
Sarah's movie was called "Don't Think Twice". It was mucho bizzaro, but I sort of liked it. It was about a guy who looked like Willem Dafoe, and his girlfriend. The joke is that he is still dominated by his ex-wife and talk about starting a family with his girlfriend is just goofy "pie in the sky" stuff. The film had real sophistication to it. It got a big laugh from the audiance, but I can see why Sarah said that its okay to laugh. The tone is sort of sad and gloomy.
I really liked "The New Waterford Girl". The most cynical will point out that it has lots of "cliches", and they're right. The film is about a 15 year old girl who is a bit of a misfit. She really wants to get out of her dead-end Candian town of New Waterford (hence the title), and away from her nutty family. The film also climaxes with a boxing match, that has about that much to do with the plot. If that isn't enough, she falls in love with her teacher; and makes friends with the wild new girl from New York. This isn't Freddie Prinze Jr. material though. Its cheerful and witty, and has lots of heart. The best scene of the film, happens at the beggining, introducing us to a funeral/wedding, since both ceremonies needed to be performed and it was just cheaper this way. ("This is suppose to be the happiest day of my life.") The film pokes fun at the town's fanatical Catholic beliefs, but rather good-naturedly. I liked the moment where a girl saved herself from harrasment, by pointing to a statue of the Virgin Mary and saying "She's watching you." The story is kind of messy, and complicated but never confusing. It reminded me of that great film "Mermaids" with Bob Hopkins, Cher, and Winonna Ryder. The lead character looks more like Lucas Haas then anyone else, but she did remind me of Ryder in that film. With the short black hair, and the sarcastic "I'm smarter then you" outlook toward the world that she resents. All the Catholic stuff helped make the connection clear as well, and there lots of other similarities. Its wouldn't quite call "The New Waterfront Girl" a rip-off of Mermaids though, since it focuses more on the teenage girl, and is somewhat lighter in tone. I gave "The New Waterfront Girl" a 4. (***1/2 out of ****)
Saturday, January 23
BLOODY ANGELS
Didn't see any celebrities this time around, and the film wasn't very good. I wanted to see Panic, with William H. Macy, but it was sold out, and this film called "Bloody Angels" still had some hard tickets left. So I decided to go along with Bloody Angels. The box office won't sell tickets for a film until one hour before the film starts. The film started at 5:20, and I got there at 4:10, so I had to wait ten minutes before I could buy tickets. They take themselves pretty serious.
I was first in line so I more or less got my choice of seat. We got to vote for this film too. Like I said there were no celebrities. We also didn't get an introduction, nor was there a short film. The movie just started right out.
There was a lot of peeing and herpes jokes in "Bloody Angels". If this film gets distributed wide, which it just might; I predict lots of unintentional laughs. Its a gritty Norse police drama, gloomy and pretty dumb. The film is about a cop who is investigating the murder and rape of a retarded girl. The suspects' brother is being picked on by the local gang, for being associated with the crime, and the cop forms a friendship with him. I may have gotten some plot details wrong. I'm still not clear about the Angel details. The film wants to be the Norse French Connection I guess, but it lacks the energy and fire. The whole thing isn't as clever or gritty as the filmmakers think it is. They don't show us the more disturbing stuff. When the cop finds a videotape detailing the murder and rape, we never see anything very explicit. The scene wants to be brutal, but is weary to offend. As for the ending, I suppose we want to think that even good people are capable of bad things. The only problem is that these aren't good people. If there was some kind of emotional development, some sort of innocence lost, the film would have worked. But it doesn't. I yawned a lot. "Bloody Angels" got lots of 5's from the audiance, but I gave it a 2. (** out of ****) I guess I was being nice. I sometimes fear that I am prejudiced towards films that I see ahead of everyone, and for foriegn films. Often I really like movies with these superficial attributes. "Bloody Angels" is good proof that I harbor no such thing.
Wednesday January 26th
BEAT
I had to wait for this one but its worth it. It's called Beat, and is about the night that William S. Burroughs shot his wife. The director Gary Walkow introduced the film to us. "This is my third time being up here at Sundance intoducing my film," he said, " each time I feel like I'm at my Bar Mitzvah." He told us that he read "Howl" in high school and did a film version of it for his class. It was in 8mm and his Dad opted to edit it. Looking over Dad's shoulder, telling him where to cut, he realized that he really liked this. Thats when he decided to be a director.
"Beat" is fantastic. My only complaint is that its too short. At its center are two amazing performances by Kiefer Sutherland as Burroughs, and Courtney Love as his wife. I don't believe in acting, and still don't, but Love is perfect in this role. If she doesn't get an Oscar nomination, there is no justice. The characters all use hipness as a front for being unsure and insecure. And is it any wonder? Those who aren't hip end up suffering extraordinarilly Burroughs at first seemed like an eccentric weirdo, but as the film develops we sympathize with him. In fact he ends up as the most real character in the entire film. Not because he cries the most, but because a lot of the time he is trying not to cry. He doesn't really acknowledge or articulate any of his feelings. He openly has an affair with a boy friend, and is clearly stuck in a marriage that isn't working, but isn't without love.
And then there is Courtney Love as his wife Joan. Everything about her is perfect, her face, her voice, her body. All perfection for this role. Shes the only person who could possibly take on "Bill" Burroughs. No one else is this strange, smart, and strong. Her little catch phrase is "I dare you", and ends up being her final words. Everybody else melts down, but Love keeps her cool. She really is hip, and everyone else is just a poser. The ending of this film is terrific, she has little concrete fear, and is just plain cool. We are left with tons of questions, none of which are really answered.
This film reminds me a lot of "Rough Magic" in the sheer look and feel of it all. Obviously though, look at the subject matter. Its about a bunch of writers and poets, who smoke all the time and wear hats, and live in Central America. There is a charm to it all, its really a quite pleasing place to spend a movie. Despite what you would think considering the plot, this isn't a very dark movie. I was surprised how modest it was. There wasn't that much foul language or violence, and all the sex took place off-screen. Not a very vulgar movie; interesting.
Walkow was suppose to stay for questions, but he bolted. Thats all right though, I'm not quite sure that I could ask him anything. This is one of the best films of the year 2000. I can't wait until you all see it. I voted a 5 for this film. (**** out of ****) Watch it for Courtney Love and Kiefer Sutherland. Seriously.
Friday, January 28th
COMMITTED
The movie was called "Committed" and has a corny double meaning. It stars Heather Graham as a New York woman who takes her marriage vows very seriously, and when husband Luke Wilson leaves her without saying where he went, she tracks him down to Texas, and tries to find the right way to confront him. She is so commited to her marriage, that she gets comitted to the loony bin. There are several other characters that provide some color. My favorite was played by the sexy Goran Visnjic, who serves as Graham's love interest in the film, sort of. He's a paper mache sculptor who sits next to her car, and drinks beer with her, Johnny Cash music blazing from his home. He is infacutated with her, but she tries hard to brush him off, afterall she is still married. Later in the film, there is a great scene where he seduces a Heather Graham effigy, and there is suspence in whether or not she is passively watching or not and sharing some sort of psycho-sexual bond with him. She also has a brother, who remarkably exudes both intelligence and stupidity simataneously. He gets one of the films bigger laughs early in the film, when he tries to make out with his sister. Even though, I wonder if we were really laughing at her then him. Heather Graham is a hottie though, and works well in this role. She has that wide-eyed openess and vulnerbillity that is exploited within the confines of the film.
In the interest of quick soundbytes that can easily be quoted, Comitted is a cute film, but nothing to be comitted over. I was reminded of another light romantic comedy that I saw at Sundance, The New Waterford Girl. Committed is more inventive and slickly written then New Waterford Girl, but it lacks that films heart. For all of New Waterford Girls cliches and formulas, it felt that the filmmakers were drawing on their own experiences and memories. Not so in Comitted. Those looking for some sort of truth or weight will have to go someplace else. This is better then something like "Never Been Kissed", but it requires the same mindset. Pretty silly and plastic entertainment. I gave the film a 3. (*** out of ****) Its worth seeing, but like I said not a masterpiece. The good boys and girls who stayed through the end credits were treated with two exciting tidbits of information.
1. There is a difference between a snake handler and a snake wrangler.
2. Heather Graham has a song in this movie that she sings.
Good questions to have asked the cast, which we were told might have been here. They weren't but ah thats all right.
Before the film we had a weird short film, that I remember liking even though I can't remember what happened in it. Something about a young woman walking around the subway. It was crude doodles, wondering around photographs like that little guy on Sesame Street. Thats more or less all I have to say.
Saturday, January 29th
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
I went to see "The Virgin Suicides" tonight, and later was involved in a Q&A session with one of the actresses. This was her first feature film, and she was Canadian. Her first name was A.J. but I don't recall what her last name was. I got to ask the second question: "Why do you think that the girls committed suicide." Everybody laughed and I thought "Oh shit, I asked a stupid question and embarrased myself in front of a quasi-celebrity." But she gave me a stupid answer. "Well, because back then there wasn't any other way of getting out. I mean they couldn't have just taken off or something, and they felt that suicide was the only way out." It won't work, and when you see the film, you will understand why it doesn't work. She does not hint at what the girls were escaping from, but the film points to a reason that is simataneously too obvious and vaugue to be the real answer. Perhaps the message of the film is that in this world there are only two choices for young women: virgin or whore. You are only one or the other. In a place like this suicide could indeed feel liberating. The films strength of course, is that its a tough question to answer, and its that question that drives everything in it. We see the girls from an outsider point of view, from a bunch of boys. We realize that there is a point where they will do this, but we don't know how they reach this point. Crucial emotional developments happen off-screen behind closed doors. For all we know, the girls were molested; a suggestion that I have just developed and yet still doesn't fit all the way.
The girls come from a strict Catholic family. While some will believe that this is crucial in finding out why the girls killed themselves, (Towards the conclusion that I think is important, but onto itself is just a red herring.) I think that Coppola is further exploiting the teenage sexual stereotypes. They are young innocent virgins, and including the stuff about Catholicism just makes it all so more explicit.
This film is about teenagers, but its not for them. It has a degree of complexity and sophistication that you shouldn't even look for in John Hughes movies. It doesn't stop and end in teenage-world, but is told with maturity and hindsight. We are given the impression that there is stuff here that cannot "unhappen" and mysteries and secrets that will stay uncovered. The film is like "The Wonder Years" with unihibited sarcasm and darkly comic poignancy. This is a very funny, very horrifying, and finally very sad film. Its weird, and I don't think it takes many prisoners.
During Q & A, lots of people mentioned Francis Ford Coppola, and pondered his involvement with this film.
No.
Sofia Coppola has a distinct highly personal vision. She's very indulgent and takes lots of chances. Not many people would have the figurative balls to pull off the opening sequence that she does. In these ways she's a lot like Dad. But, thats about as far as it goes. Shes on her own here, and with this one film, I feel that I can already call her one of my favorite directors. The film is being picked up by Paramount Classics and will be distributed April 4th. I'll see it again then, and probably review it again, that time with spoilers (I don't quite think I spoiled much by saying that the girls commit suicide, the Sundance guide mentions it, and when it happens its still a huge surprise.) I'll also post these comments. Although we did not get to vote for this film, I would have given it a 5. (**** out of ****) Its a hell of a way to end the week. I think that I will have a very hard time waiting until April to see it again.
The NoWhere Man
