Margot At The Wedding: Monster’s Ball (Spoilers!!!)

“I don't need to go to a campus bar to be reminded of my lack of success with a bunch of thrill seeking snotty college kids.”
-- Max from Kicking and Screaming (1995)

“Stay out of my life. I can't believe you'd talk to me like this. You left all those fucking ticket stubs and letters lying around! You wanted me to know. It was fucking torture, Joan! FUCKING TORTURE!”
-- Bernard Berkman from The Squid And The Whale

“Stop picking on me.”
-- Margot Zeller from Margot At The Wedding

Marcia Gay Harden’s Mrs. Carmody has nothing on Nicole Kidman’s Margot Zeller this holiday season at the multiplex. Mrs. Carmody is the religious zealot in Frank Darabont’s disturbingly brilliant film, The Mist-- she is just as frightening as the monsters outside the Food Market. Margot Zeller in Noah Baumbach’s stunning new film, Margot At The Wedding, leaves an emotional path of destruction wherever she goes. Mrs. Carmody and those monsters seem like amateurs in comparison. Margot Zeller is the richest performance in Nicole Kidman’s hit and miss career. The role should put to rest any fears that Nicole Kidman is box office poison. She thrives as Margot Zeller-- a one woman firestorm of calculating venom and paranoia with a savage tongue which spares no one in its path. Recently, Ms. Kidman has made some poor choices. Bewitched, The Stepford Wives and The Invasion must have looked great on paper, but the execution was sloppy. She had a trio of good roles with Moulin Rouge!, The Others and The Hours. Fur, Dogville and even The Human Stain seemed lacking in true emotional impact. Cold Mountain was all hype and no glory. In retrospect, Birth seemed liked a cinematic mirror to her marriage to Tom Cruise. Margot At The Wedding may be her best part since To Die For and the most fun she has had since Eyes Wide Shut.

Margot At The Wedding is a far darker film than Noah Baumbach’s previous film, The Squid And The Whale. Margot Zeller is certainly cut from the same cloth as Jeff Daniels’ Bernard Berkman, but I have a strong feeling that Margot could do away with Berkman in a matter of seconds. Margot, accompanied by her son, Claude (Zane Pais) goes on a surprise journey to her sister’s wedding. She is not expected, not welcomed. Margot and her sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) have not spoken in a long time. As soon as they reunite with each other, we can see why. Margot is a furious hurricane. She starts with everyone and everything. Nothing is sacred to her. As soon as she meets Pauline’s fiancé, Malcolm (Jack Black), she begins to plant the seeds of doubt about Pauline’s second marriage. The first marriage may have been destroyed by Margot. She is a successful short story writer who wrote about Pauline and her first husband. Malcolm gives her plenty of fuel. He is unemployed artist. Margot believes that Malcolm is beneath Pauline in every way. Going so far as to say he is the kind of guy they used to reject when they were younger.

As Pauline, Jennifer Jason Leigh displays a laidback and carefree attitude that is the antithesis of her sister. The sibling bond is very believable. The body language between Leigh and Kidman is perfect-- several glances and movements say more about estrangement than any dialogue. Pauline is one of the best roles that Jennifer Jason Leigh has had in many years. Her spouse, Noah Baumbach, has written one of her best roles since her howitzer precision of dynamic characters of the 1990’s. She was good in supporting parts in The Machinist and Palindromes. She proved her directing skills with Alan Cumming in The Anniversary Party. Pauline stems from some of her best work in Short Cuts, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Mrs. Parker and The Vicious Circle, The Hudsucker Proxy, Existenz, Georgia and Single White Female. She has been a fireball of hot and cold action since Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Pauline encapsulates a diverse career of choices. Before Margot At The Wedding, I was beginning to wonder if she would make the equivalent of glorified cameos in the films of Todd Solondz and Brad Anderson. Thankfully, Pauline is a mature return to leading lady perfection.

Jack Black’s Malcolm is the halfway point between the characters he played in High Fidelity and School Of Rock. Malcolm is the perfect mix of comedy and tragedy. Malcolm seeks refuge within Pauline’s comfortable existence. He is a happy slacker in her home which is the childhood home of Pauline and Margot. We have seen variations of this character before played by Jack Black, but Baumbach manages to get the audience to sympathize with Malcolm throughout most of the film. He, like everyone else, becomes a target for Margot. Speaking of targets, newcomer Zane Pais, shines as Margot’s son. From the film’s opening moments on the train ride to Pauline’s house, we see the toll it takes being her son. He steps outside between the train cars and screams.

The myth of adulthood, not to be confused with Alfred Rosenberg’s The Myth Of the Twentieth Century, is at the heart of the Noah Baumbach’s films. Kicking and Screaming was the epitome of twenty something stagnation-- how I miss Chris Eigemen. None of the characters were ready to move on with their post college lives. This same theme is prevalent in the films of Wes Anderson and Judd Apatow. Adulthood is the Holy Grail-- the children are not sure what it is and the adults act like selfish, little children. It is no accident that Noah Baumbach wrote The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou with Wes Anderson. Anderson and Baumbach share a fascination with the subject matter. Yet, Baumbach’s characters in The Squid And The Whale and Margot At The Wedding are malevolent versions of Anderson’s childlike adults. While Royal Tenebaum, Steve Zissou and Patricia Whitman have followed their own bliss or just escaped any sort of parental or grown up responsibility, they are not the mean spirited characters who have sprung up from the last two Noah Baumbach films. Bernard Berkman would not win the father of year award in The Squid And The Whale. He seems to relish in his new found separation from his wife. To be fair, Laura Linney’s Joan takes advantage of her newfound liberation. Baumbach is a master of the dysfunctional family genre-- drawing on his personal life to create a very memorable and painful chronicle of divorce. Along with Knocked Up and The Darjeeling Limited, Margot At Wedding takes the genre down a darker and more sardonic path.

The beauty of Margot’s character is that Baumbach manages to convey an empathetic desperation. Margot has problems of her own. Her marriage to her husband, Jim (John Turturro) has reached the end of the line. She is having an affair with a fellow writer, Dick (Ciarin Hinds) who lives near Pauline. Did she only attend the wedding to spend time with Dick? In her own frenetic way, she still wants to shape Claude and protect him from the world. She treats him like a child, but he finds ways to revolt. Here is the kicker; she is so paranoid she thinks everyone is out to get her. In Margot, Noah Baumbach has created the epitome of a selfish and vindictive woman whose narcissism and toxic personality can destroy an entire family. Margot Keller is the ultimate monster of 2007. I will take my chances against the monsters in The Mist.

Atonement: Bending Reality (Spoilers!!!)

“Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to... depend greatly on our own point of view.”
-- Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

“I am very, very sorry for the terrible distress that I have caused you. I am very, very sorry...”
-- Briony Tallis from Atonement

What we think we see is not always what we see. This is the central theme of Joe Wright’s astonishing film version of Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons and The Quiet American) wrote the screenplay. The truth is fluid. At the heart of Atonement, there is a distortion of the truth. Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a precocious thirteen year old girl, is an aspiring writer. The Tallis family lives on a beautiful, sprawling estate in the English countryside. In the glorious summer of 1935, Briony observes the romance between her older sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and a servant’s son, Robbie (James McAvoy) whose Oxford education was provided by the sisters’ father. Briony has a fierce and vivid imagination. She does not understand what is going on between her sister and Robbie. This misunderstanding leads her to identify Robbie as the executor of a crime. Her misunderstanding has horrific consequences for everyone involved. She has no knowledge of adult behavior and passion. The ripple effects will span several decades causing endless pain and mental suffering.

Atonement is a beautiful looking film. The English countryside and the Tallis estate look as sumptuous and inviting as they have ever looked before. Seamus McGarvey treats every shot as a landscape. Within these visuals, beautiful things come to life. There is something extraordinary about Keira Knightley in this film and in Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice; where the camera seems to adore her much more than it ever did in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. As Cecilia, she is given a role where she never overstays her welcome. Her scenes with James McAvoy’s Robbie are short, but passionate. McAvoy is every bit her onscreen equal. Like Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, there is a definite onscreen chemistry between the two. Her actions throughout the film say enough. Ms. Knightley has an ethereal sexiness that has been prevalent since Bend It Like Beckham. In one scene, she rises from a fountain like Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. As Cecilia, she proves her beauty is unique.

As Robbie Turner, James McAvoy delivers on the promise of his role as Dr. Nicholas Garrigan in The Last King Of Scotland. McAvoy was pleasant in Starter For Ten and Becoming Jane. He was a delight as Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. With Atonement, he enters David Niven and Ralph Fiennes territory. Yes, he is that good in the film. After Robbie is convicted of a crime he did not commit, he is sent off to prison. World War II begins and Robbie is given the choice to stay in prison or fight in the British Army. When we see Robbie again, he is in Northern French countryside. The British forces are retreating. Robbie’s journey takes him to Dunkirk. The chaos of the British evacuation at Dunkirk is told through a magnificent five minute steadicam shot. This five minute shot is reminiscent of Sergio Leone’s work in Once Upon A Time In The West, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. The horror, chaos and devastation of war are on full display in these five minutes. The sequence does not work as a trite polemic, but a full blown indictment of eternal human folly. The film begs to be seen in a theater for this scene alone. As Robbie is making his way to Dunkirk, he stops in a movie theater showing Marcel Carne’s 1938 film, Port Of Shadows starring Jean Gabin and Michele Morgan. I could not think of a more appropriate film to be playing as Robbie enters Dunkirk. The film is about a military deserter who finds love and danger in a French port city. In a couple of more years, I think James McAvoy could have Jean Gabin stature.

The core of Atonement’s success rests with the three portrayals of Briony Tallis. The first third of the film, Briony is played by Saoirse Ronan at thirteen years old. It is here where Briony’s misunderstanding of the human condition has life altering consequences for the whole Tallis and Turner families. Her perception of the reality is a perverse distortion. She sees only what she wants to see. Was it her crush on Robbie that caused this perverted vision? Was she jealous of Cecilia? This is the ultimate version of cherry picking information. The results are tragic. When World War II begins, Cecilia is a nurse in London. Briony (Romola Garai) is in training to be a nurse as well. She is still an aspiring writer. It is in this segment that the nature of storytelling comes into focus. Can storytelling rectify the mistakes of the past? Briony is writing a novel about the unfortunate events of that summer. This is her atonement. She believes that by writing the truth she can wash away her sins and make everything all right again. Sadly, life is not that simple. Cecilia refuses to see her. One cannot blame her? Briony will spend her full life trying to atone for actions during that summer. In the end, Vanessa Redgrave play’s the older Briony. She is a famous novelist who has written a novel called Atonement. In these scenes, we see that the writer believes that he or she is God. They want to make everything right-- the novel as the ultimate panacea.

Briony is a metaphor for England as well. While the title certainly refers to the trials and tribulations of Briony Tallis, I believe the title also refers to England. The atonement of a nation that helped appease Adolf Hitler under Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. The horror that comes with having to evacuate the European continent under the Nazi menace. Yet, the British (Robbie) promise to come back to right this horrible wrong with the rest of the Allied Forces. England, like Briony, made horrible choices that had far reaching consequences. They misunderstood the monsters right at their door. Atonement is an astonishing testament to the need to right the wrongs in our lives.

Breach: Masters Of Deception (Spoilers!!!)

"He handed us fiction after fiction, and we printed them all as fact. Just because we found him entertaining."
-- Chuck Lane from Shattered Glass

Billy Ray is a master of tales of deception. With only two films, Mr. Ray managed to make the fine of art of deception inside the Beltway his canvas. And what an intriguing canvas he has painted for us both times. Billy Ray's directorial debut, Shattered Glass told the story of the great fabricator, Stephen Glass. Glass was a journalist for the New Republic magazine. During his three years as a staff writer for the magazine, 27 out of the 41 articles he wrote for the magazine ranged from semi-fabrications to complete fictions. Hayden Christensen's Glass remains one of his best performances. Sometimes, I wish his Anakin was allowed to show this much depth. Glass would only turn out to be the forerunner of Ray's obsession with the art of lying and deception. Stephen Glass has nothing on Breach's Robert Hanssen. Robert Hanssen was the Veteran FBI agent who was arrested on February 18, 2001. Hanssen had been selling secrets to the Russians for most of his career. Glass took short cuts to get to his fame quicker and paid a steep price for it. He made it all up, but it could not go on forever. No one bought his novel, The Fabulist, when it came out in the summer of 2003. A novel by a serial liar is a tough sell. What made Hanssen become a real life double agent?

Chris Cooper continues to shine in whatever role he is given. Lone Star, Adaptation, Silver City, American Beauty, Jarhead, and Syriana are just some of the films that come to mind when I think of this incredible actor. Cooper plays Robert Hanssen as a straitlaced, devout man of faith. He is the ultimate family man. He is an expert on the Soviet Union and when he not bashing the Soviet Union for its godless ways, he is busy going after the careerist bureaucracy of the FBI. How will the bureau catch this FBI mole? This mole that is said to have done the most damage to our National Security. The Bureau assigns an agent-in-training to be Hanssen's assistant-- his gofer and their internal spy. The agent-in-training is Eric O'Neill played pitch perfect by Ryan Phillippe. Phillippe continues his growth as an actor that began with The Way Of The Gun. With Breach and his previous role in Flags of Our Fathers, Phillippe is getting better and better. The young, FBI surveillance officer is the perfect counter mole to Hanssen's mole. Hanssen has just been appointed the Bureau Director of Computer Assurance Services. O'Neill is his new assistant. The film is seen through O'Neill's eyes.

The new department is just a cover. It does not exist and he a way to isolate Hanssen from everything and everyone else. The newly created department serves as a way to get neophyte, Eric O'Neill into Hanssen's inner circle-- a very small circle. O'Neill's lack of experience may serve him better than a veteran agent that Hanssen might be able to sniff out immediately. O'Neill thinks he has been assigned him because of sexual deviancy allegations against Hanssen. While he is a sexual deviant, this was just a way to hook O'Neill. Pervert hunting is not the story here, but O'Neill's role is built on deception working for the ultimate deceiver. Hanssen is the coldest boss from hell. He grills and drills everyone in his surroundings and is the epitome of anal retentiveness. Phillipe's O'Neill begins to admire and even worship his target. Cooper's Hanssen has the same kind of magnetic pull that Christensen's Glass had in Shattered Glass. O'Neill empathizes with his enemy.

O'Neill gets fed up with his assignment and demands a meeting with his supervisor, Kate Burroughs, played with cool conviction by Laura Linney. Is there any role that Laura Linney cannot play? I am reminded of her gifts every time I watch her in films like The Squid And The Whale, P.S., Love Actually, You Can Count One Me, Driving Lessons, Kinsey and many others. Burroughs eventually tells him the truth. Hanssen has been spying for the Russians for most of his career. His secrets and lies have been blown by two defectors. Hanssen does not know this. A whole department has been set up right down the hall from him. Burroughs wants O'Neill to go through everything to find some piece of evidence to catch Hanssen in the act. O'Neill has to find a way to separate the man from his palm-pilot. While the film does make it seem that O'Neill has some sort of emotional connection to Hanssen, he could live without the daily lectures on religion and the daily ribbing. His loyalty must be to Burroughs' unit. His loyalty is a sight to behold as he risks everything for the service of his country. His duty for his country has a high cost on his life. It places great strain on his marriage. It is not national security that is at stake. Inside the beltway, it is only individual careers that are at risk of any kind of damage.

I cannot say the enigma of Robert Hanssen is answered in this film. Billy Ray may not be interested in the why either. The fabrications written by Stephen Glass served as way for him to bypass the required hard work. He wanted his fame more than anything else. And all he got was short lived infamy. Robert Hanssen is a different beast in that he was not in it for the money like Adlrich Ames. Hanssen may have done business with the Russians, but he did not believe in Communism like Kim Philby. Why did he do it? Billy Ray is obsessed with deception and its practitioners. Hanssen thought he was better than everyone else. He wanted to be appreciated for his work. He wanted the office with a window. There must be better ways to go about getting that special office. We never know why he did it, but we can speculate. Breach is the first excellent film of 2007. It has been many years since I have seen such a powerful film so early in the year.

Thoughts On The Lookout (Spoilers!!)

"No more of these informal chats! If you have a disciplinary issue with me, write me up or suspend me and I'll see you at the Parent-Teacher conference."
-- Brendan Frye from Brick

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a long future in front of him. After several films, he has distanced himself from the character, Tommy Solomon on the long running NBC sitcom, Third Rock from the Sun. His portrayal as Neil in Greg Araki's suburban shock and awe epic, Mysterious Skin marked a mature and refreshing departure from playing it safe. As Brendan Frye in Rian Johnson's perfect Brick, he became Ralph Meeker, Dick Powell and Alain Delon for 21st Century noir. With roles in Havoc and Shadowboxer, he is determined to make those mean streets as fresh as anyone else on the other side of the screen. With Scott Frank's directorial debut, The Lookout, all bets are off. Levitt and a great cast fulfill Frank's vision of neo noir more than I ever thought possible. Scott Frank is one of two people who have adapted Elmore Leonard's classic crime novels to the screen. He did wonders with Out Of Sight and Get Shorty. If he only wrote Dead Again, that would have been enough to rest on for one lifetime. Malice, The Interpreter and others grace his name, but his work for Branagh and his Little Man Tate for Jodie Foster show a real writer at work. It should come as no surprise, that he paid attention to Soderbergh, Branagh, Becker, Foster, Sonnenfeld and Pollack. The results are nothing short of dazzling. I hope Scott Frank will direct more films in the future.

When we meet Chris Pratt (Levitt) at the beginning of The Lookout, he seems to have everything going for him. A promising high school athlete who is on top of the world. A tragic accident on Prom night changes everything. Chris Pratt is the epitome of damaged goods as we see him four years after the accident. He is a janitor at a small bank in his Midwestern town. He has brain damage. Through Levitt's voiceover, we learn that he is in therapy. He has no sense of chronology after the accident. Through intensive therapy, he has to relearn the most basic of activities. It is an extreme short term memory loss. In an apartment he shares with blind ex-criminal, Lewis (Jeff Daniels), there are labels on everything to remind me him of what he has to do for each activity that we take for granted. One recurring motif is locking his keys in his car, but he always has a spare in his shoe. As Chris, Levitt seems to inhabit this damaged soul with staggering beauty. A touching and brutal performance of trying to regain power and control.

It is no accident that Chris is a janitor at a bank. He really wants to be a teller there, but because of his situation, he is at best a janitor. The once popular hockey player is reduced to a nobody-- a nobody who falls into a bad group of people. A group of criminals headed by Matthew Goode's Gary Spargo befriend Chris. They make him feel like he matters and is one of the gang. I turns out that Spargo is a former classmate and wants Chris to be the lookout for a robbery. Spargo and his crew need him to carry out a robbery of the Kansas City bank he works at as janitor. Isla Fisher plays Luvlee Lemons, a former stripper that seduces Chris. This is all made to make him feel like he matters. Spargo gives Chris a passionate speech about how they are taking the money from the corporations robbing the farmers of their hard earned money. Spargo is no Robin Hood. Spargo uses the worst way to get Chris to join his plan-- insult his relationship with his father. Robert Pratt (Bruce McGill) is a wealthy man who is able to make sure his son gets everything he needs. Spargo goes so far to say that he will never get true independence from his father or anything other than his basic needs covered. Matthew Goode plays this role with such conviction, that it will be hard to see him play any other kind of character. What will Chris do? Will he let his new friends get the better of him? Or will he have the power to do the right thing? "Whoever has the money has the power." This is one of the main themes of the film and how Chris absorbs this line is one of the film's many pleasures.

On the surface, The Lookout is a very old crime story, but one told with such freshness that I could not help but be in awe of what I was watching. I did not read up that much about this film before I saw it. Many times, I will read as much as possible on a film. It does not ruin it for me at all to know some surprises. I guess for me it is the execution of the ideas that is the real pleasure in the long run. I was moved by Levitt and his circumstances. Chris Pratt is an amazing character to spend 99 minutes of your day with and his interactions with his family and friends are part of the pleasure. As Lewis, Jeff Daniels does not disappoint. He brings all the trademarks of his previous triumphs to the role. The Squid and the Whale, Infamous, Good Night and Good Luck, Blood Work, Two Days in the Valley and many others are on display for us here. Lewis keeps us guessing as to what he might do next. Chris and Lewis seem to be made for each other as room mates. They have chemistry about them and each helps the other through their trials. It is Chris though that is in the most pain. The night of the accident, two people of his friends died in his car. His girlfriend is injured and they have never talked since the accident. Chris carries an inner pain in him that is painful at times to watch. When he finally breaks down, we realize we are witnessing the continuing maturation of an actor. The Lookout continues Joseph Gordon Levitt's winning streak.

Vacancy: Robby Krieger Works the Front Desk During Our Dark Age (Spoilers!!!)

"Well, see. Blue's dead. Frank's divorced. I lost my house. Nicole thinks I'm a total jackass. And now we got nine kids who are gonna get expelled from school, and you're not even gonna help them."
-- Mitch Martin from Old School

"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right. Unless you were goin' all the way. Kurtz got off the boat. He split from the whole fuckin' program."
-- Captain Benjamin L. Willard from Apocalypse Now

The great joke is that Vacancy gave me a lot to think about while watching it. I had no idea it was going to be Two For The Road meets Breakdown with a touch of Hostel. I saw it with a crowd of kids who wanted nothing more that to yell at each other. They could care less about the trials of Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale. I doubt they have seen Old School or Bottle Rocket for that matter.
Mention the film's director, Nimrod Antal, to them and they might think you insulted them. Antal's Kontroll made all of this possible. One of those favorites on the festival circuit that you hear so much about. It is a great little Hungarian film and worth the piles of hype. With a name like Nimrod, you better come out fighting and Mr. Antal does not disappoint. Is Vacancy a great film? Hell no. Far from it, but it is the one of the oddest bits of casting in quite some time. Luke Wilson, Kate Beckinsale and Frank Whaley seem very out of place in this latest wave of torture suspense porn. Vacancy is not really a horror film in the traditional sense. It is a suspense thriller that indulges us with the notion that America is in the middle of its dark age. Jonathan Mostow's Breakdown kept coming to me while watching it. I thought of a lot of other films too, but we will get to those later.

There is a golden rule that needs to be observed in these types of films. Never get off the Interstate should be the most important one of those rules. I really wanted to yell at Luke Wilson's David Fox to just get back on the main highway. Having driving through Needles late one night one my way back home from California, you just want to stay on the main road. Shortcuts should be avoided. Richie Tenenbaum, Mitch Martin, Anthony Adams or any of the other characters Wilson has played in the past would not make this kind of mistake. Other mistakes, sure, but they would not do anything this careless. David Fox has bigger problems. He and his wife, Amy (Kate Beckinsdale) have reached the end of their marriage. Divorce is only two signatures away. As we learn throughout the film, it is their child's death that has made their marriage a wasteland. Having said that, the tension between the two of them throughout the first act begs for Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Could you imagine the two of them in this film? I would love to see Frank Whaley try to mess with Richard Burton. Do you really want to mess with one of The Wild Geese? Whaley would be begging to be tortured by Kevin Spacey's Buddy Ackerman again in Swimming With Sharks. For that matter, who in their right mind is going to mess with George and Martha from Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? I would rather take my chances with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner from The War Of the Roses.

Speaking of Frank Whaley, is his Mason the epitome of America's hedonistic and voyeuristic dark side? Is he the unholy union of David Cronenberg's Videodrome and Brain De Palma's Body Double? Is Mason and sick buddies the end of the road for America's dark age. A superpower ready to eat away at its very core. David and Amy Fox should have never gotten out of their car. The motel where they end up represents not so much the death of the American Dream, but the perversions of the fruits of victory. The open American road is full of places that sell fireworks and adult videos. In one sense, Vacancy captures this in ways I never thought possible. David and Amy have stumbled upon one of those places we do not want to ever end up-- the ultimate roach motel. When the front desk clerk is Robby Krieger, trouble starts there. Folks, it is not good. First of all, if the motel still has a VHS player and no cable television-- get the hell out there as soon as possible. David discovers the videotapes and decides to watch them. The product is not from the San Fernando Valley. It is homemade, amateur torture porn. And it was shot in the same room much to David and Amy’s horror.
These are Mason's previous victims. What is worst is that Mason and his crew love to watch the tapes. There are cameras everywhere and they record everything. Mason's main control room looks like an out of date video dub house. Could Vacancy have been released at a better or worst time? As it turns out there is a whole underground network that loves to watch these videos. Where is Frank the Tank, Beanie and Old Blue when you need them? Where the hell is Royal Tenenbaum? Personally, I would never think of starting trouble with Selene from the Underworld films.

The third act of the film proves to be a test of survival for David and Amy. Their new ordeal makes them realize that they only have each other to depend. Maybe if they can get though this nightmare, they can give their marriage a second chance. That is a tall order as they play cat and mouse with their captors. Hiding in crawlspaces and going through underground tunnels. Can they turn the tables on their tormentors? The third act of this film reminds me of last week's Disturbia-- Rear Window for the millennial generation. I like that film a lot more, but I did not expect anything of that film either. There is so much chaos in these third acts. Vacancy has enough to keep me interested. Vacancy continues the downward spiral of life in the violent ward. We are living in the dark ages. I have one piece of advice. Beware of the person who says they can lead us out of these dark ages.

The Brave One: The Creeping Fear (Spoilers!!!)

“That woman deserves her revenge... and we deserve to die.”
-- Budd from Kill Bill: Vol. 2

“Just tell me one thing, Burke. You're going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study. Not to bring back. But to wipe them out.”
-- Ellen Ripley from Aliens


Jodie Foster comes full circle as Erica Bain in Neil Jordan’s revenge thriller, The Brave One. Erica Bain is the composite sketch of the many characters Jodie Foster has played since Taxi Driver. In some ways, Erica Bain is the female version of Travis Bickle, but that would be selling her short. Erica Bain and Travis Bickle are the observers of their eras. Erica is a popular radio host while Travis was a taxi cab driver. Each one saw and had their own takes on the New Yorker experience. Each has an attachment to this great city. While Travis Bickle lived with the fallout of the Vietnam War, Erica Bain lives with the fallout of 9/11. Erica Bain is a long way from Iris Steensma from Taxi Driver. De Niro was a different kind of beast in that film. Foster’s Bain does her deeds in a fearful manner at the beginning. The queen vigilante delivering the goods and cleaning up the streets of the New York City that she loves so much. The New York City she claims in voiceover narration is losing a piece of itself everyday. The voice narration gives the film a Taxi Driver feel. It is impossible for the film to escape it. In many ways, The Brave One is a valentine to New York City. Bain has some things in common with Death Sentence’s Nick Hume and Death Wish’s Paul Kersey—the law does not work for the average citizen. When the law the does not work or even worst in Bain’s case, is an endless waiting line, it is time to do the job yourself. In Erica Bain’s case, fear rips apart her soul and creates the NPR avenging angel.

Erica Bain survives a brutal attack at the beginning of the film. She and her fiancée, David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews) are walking their dog through Central Park one night. They are attacked by a gang of thugs who happen to videotape the heinous crime. David is killed and Erica is in a coma for three weeks. Waking from the coma, she has crossed the point of no return. Her world is different now. She lives in a constant state of fear whenever she walks the streets. The city she loves so much is now a series of nightmare alleys. The radio host feels unsafe in her own city. The Brave One manages to create a sense of fear that resembles post- 9/11 anxiety. Death Sentence kind of did this, but Foster’s Bain is the perfect metaphor for who we are in this strange time. She goes and buys a handgun illegally. The gun gives her a tool to deal with her fear and the results are what we expect. The gun is the great enabler. As time goes on, she gets less nervous using it and other weapons. She deals a fatal blow to two hoodlums on the subway. And for the audience, this is the start of a major catharsis for us. This is about cleaning up the streets, but it is also about striking back and taking control. Whether we like it or not, Bain is acting out for all of us. Jordan and screenwriters, Roderick and Bruce Taylor, have given us a shooting gallery of criminals for her to go after in the film. Speaking of Neil Jordan, this may be his most crowd pleasing film-- if that is the right phrase. After Breakfast on Pluto and The Good Thief, there seems to be a wide release desire in his heart. This may be his most commercial film since Interview with a Vampire. The Brave One lacks the cutting edge ferocity of his smaller films, but still packs a very mean mainstream punch.

The Brave One has one other thing going for it besides Jodie Foster; it is Terrence Howard’s portrayal of Detective Mercer. Howard seems to be able to do no wrong in my opinion. He sparks each role with his dynamic slow burn intensity. Hustle and Flow, Crash, The Hunting Party, Four Brothers and many other films which benefit from his charm and interactions with his costars. He has great chemistry with Foster’s Bain. Mercer is the policeman’s policeman. He believes in the law and its power. He and his partner, Detective Vitale (Nicky Katt) investigate the series of vigilante crimes. It must be noted that Katt’s Vitale is the film’s only comic relief. While at first it might seem out of place in such a somber film, you are thankful for Katt’s delivery. It gives the film some much needed humor. Mercer’s relationship with Bain is part of the film’s power. It seems that Bain is using Mercer to find out what a detective looks for at a crime scene. She is playing and using him throughout the film. Mercer is no fool; we get a sense that he suspects her as the vigilante in the film’s third act. As much as he respects the law, he must come to terms with the reality of the crime that Bain has survived-- only in the movies.

Many have claimed that Jodie Foster is not breaking new ground with her role as Erica Bain. In many ways The Brave One continues a post-Clarice Starling tradition for Jodie Foster. The Brave One is a variation on previous roles in Panic Room and Flightplan. No one wants to give her credit for playing against type in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, A Very Long Engagement or Inside Man? After The Accused, she could no longer play the victim and not triumph. I think her role in The Brave One owes more to the likes of Kill Bill’s Beatrix Kiddo and to Ellen Ripley in the Alien films. It is easy to say this is Death Wish, Dirty Harry and Taxi Driver with a female twist. Erica Bain is just the latest addition to women who have been wronged and decide to fight back and seek revenge. Foster’s mannerisms reminded me a lot of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in Aliens more than anything else. Bain is in good company with The Bride and Ripley. The brutality of the crime against Erica and David is not comic book violence in the least. It is real and visceral. At first it is not revenge, but it is a wounded animal striking back. She is not always comfortable in her role as a vigilante. She does not have the addictive rush to killing that Kevin Costner possessed in Mr. Brooks earlier this year. She never learns to get rid of her fear. Her fear is always there, but the gun empowers her. The fear is always on the perimeter. We cannot go back to the way things were six years ago. Fear in America seems to the theme du jour at the multiplex this year.

Thoughts On The Host (SPOILERS!!)

"We may be witnessing a Biblical prophecy come true - the beasts will reign over the earth."
-- Dr. Harold Medford from Them!

Bong Joon-ho made The Host for me. He might have thought he was making it for himself, but let us be very clear he made the finest monster film in quite some time. Not since the original Gojira and other early Toho Kaiju films has there been such a reason to celebrate. I give you Jurassic Park, but the American remake of Godzilla is not only bad, but insulting to the mighty reptile. I was going to save this for another blog, but this film has been a long time coming. Bong Joon-ho made Memories of Murder and that was good enough, but that film cannot begin to prepare you for the perfection that is The Host. The two most dangerous books in Western Civilization are Catastrophe: The End of Cinema? and APE: Monster of the Movies by David Annan. I cannot begin to describe the impact of these books that were purchased at a Brentano’s that no longer exists in Chevy Chase, Maryland back around 1975. It all starts with those books. Between those two books, it is all in there. Godzilla, King Kong, Things To Come, Planet Of The Apes, Soylent Green, Them!, Gappa, The Beginning Of the End, The Day The Earth Stood Still and so many others. In Catastrophe, you get Weekend, Alphaville, Roma and other art house films to boot. The books were like a prophecy of demented cinematic bliss. The obsession comes from there. The seeds are planted with loads of images. The love of the monster film starts before these books, but the deal is sealed forever with their purchase. I joked with my Mom earlier this week about these books and how dangerous they turned out to be. She told me I was nuts. She would have bought more of them, if she knew of their true impact.

So what does all this have to do with The Host and the brilliance of South Korean Cinema? The Host is only the latest in a series of films from South Korea that are truly pushing the envelope. Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, 3-Iron, The Quiet Family, Shiri, Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War, Memories Of Murder, The President's Last Bang, Joint Security Area and A Tale Of Two Sisters are just a few of the films that have put Korean cinema on the map and made it such a powerful contribution to world cinema. Chan-wook Park's Oldboy made a vivid impression and the hype building up on the internet before it came out drove me insane. I just wanted to see it. I had seen Park's Joint Security Area years before, and was very impressed by it. But Oldboy is one of those Memento moments that sears in your brain and never leaves. Park became an icon by the end of the notorious hammer corridor fight. Korean cinema cane be seen as extreme and its directors push things to edge. Genres are meant to be put in the blender. Rules are meant to be broken. Conventions are meant to be shattered. I do not even think a Japanese director could get away with it, but your Chan-wook Park's and Bong Joon-ho's do not care about rules. They care about telling stories.

The Host is a monster movie, political satire, sheer lunacy and the ultimate in dysfunctional family dynamics. Think Little Miss Sunshine, Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster, Jaws, Alien, and either version of The Blob all mixed together.
And the film has such an original tone of its own because while it may share some of things from those films, it never wants to be just like them. It pushes the boundaries to a point where you know that you are witnessing the creation of something new and wonderful. Our monster movie begins as a United States military scientist played by Scott Wilson orders a Korean technician (Kim Hak-sun) to dump lots of formal Hyde down the sink several years ago. All because the bottle have dust on them. The formal Hyde goes into the Han River and over the years a great mutant beast has been growing. Cut to the present and we have a mutant tadpole that begins comes out the Han River to terrorize the streets of Seoul. This tadpole has a tale as lethal as Godzilla's. A mutant born of American military might and carelessness.

It is just a normal day for the Park family and their snack bar along the Han River. The Parks make the Hoovers of Little Miss Sunshine seem rather normal. That is quite a thing to pull off. We have the grandfather, Hee-Bong (Byun Hee-bong) and his three adult children: the unemployed white collar worker, Nam-il (Park Hae-il), his archery champion sister, Nam-joo (Bae Doo-na) and the their slacker man-child brother, Gang-du (Song Kang-ho). It is Hee-Bong's granddaughter, Hyun-seo (Ko A-sung) who has her act together. She is all that! She is Gang-du's daughter. He protects her and loves her very much. Gang-du is going out of the snack bar to get some beverages and notices that a lot of people are staring at something hanging from underneath a bridge. It is the monster. No one knows what to make of it. Than it jumps into the river and disappears. Than from behind Gang-du we see people falling into the river and running. The creature is on land. Imagine if Jaws could come on the land. It is a scene of absolute shivering terror. The tadpole can come on land. Meanwhile, Hyun-seo is out and about. Everyone is running and she gets caught up, but Gang-du grabs her as the monster is running toward them. But it is not enough, the monster has taken her. He has grabbed on to the wrong little girl. Has she been devoured by the creature? We think so until a cell phone call is received by her. She is being kept in the monster’s sewer home. How the hell can she get service from the sewer when I cannot even get it from inside most buildings? The family must combine forces to find Hyun-seo because the government, military and police will not help them.

Hyun-seo must have been separated at birth from Ivana Baquero's Ofelia in Pan's Labyrinth. Hyun-seo is the epitome of bravery and resourcefulness. She outwits the monster, by playing dead and trying to find ways to get out while it is gone. The creature swallows its victims and than spits them out to eat later. The sewer is a pit full of skulls and bones of previous victims. The family meanwhile has been forced into a quarantine station with many others from the Han River incident. They manage to escape and become enemies of the state. The government and the United States military claim there is a disease associated with the monster that some of the victims may have. This is a metaphor fro SARS and Avian Bird Flu. Is the government lying? Clearly, Bong does not favor the American military presence in his country. We are the ugly Americans in this film. But authority in general is not portrayed in favorable light. The Park Family must fight with each other, their fellow citizens, and the government and finally deal with the dreaded beast. Their quest to find Hyun-seo is one of last year's best chases in a long time. Each of them will endure the worst possible ordeals to find Hyun-seo.

While Mr. Bong takes the best of old science fiction and horror films that were created out of the Atomic Age, he has done something more remarkable. While the later Godzilla films attempted to tackle the environmental issues in the later films of the first series and the second series of the 1980's and 1990's, they never came off more than high camp. The second series did this a little better, but the Toho was more interested in destroying continuity more than anything else. No other series in the history of pop culture has been re-invented more than the Godzilla films. The Host is a cautionary tale of about the cost of human error and the survival of our planet. The Host is a warning of the true shape of things to come if we do not get our act together.

Away From Her: Hal Hartley’s Influnece and Julie Christie’s Eternal Power (Spoilers!!)

“Wouldn't it have been lovely if we'd met before? “
-- Lara Antipova from Doctor Zhivago

“Look, Mr. McCabe, I'm a whore!”
-- Constance Miller from McCabe And Mrs. Miller

“Is it true that a long time ago, firemen used to put out fires and not burn books?”
-- Clarisse from Fahrenheit 451

Who knew that Hal Hartley would have such a dramatic effect on several motion pictures released in 2007? I have not seen his just released, Fay Grim, but I am sure it is a fine follow-up to his 1998 film, Henry Fool. Two of Hartley’s actresses have made two of the finest directorial debuts in recent years. Adrienne Shelly’s directorial debut, Waitress, is bittersweet. Her work in Hal Hartley’s The Unbelievable Truth and Trust remains some of the best raw acting in American independent cinema of the early 1990’s. Shelly picked up a lot from Hartley while serving as his muse. Her Waitress is smart, funny and perfectly sweetened. Shelly could have written the main role for herself, but wrote a career making part for Keri Russell. Still, Shelly gave herself one of her best parts in years as Dawn. The film serves as fine reminder that not all romantic comedies have to aim for the lowest common denominator or star Drew Barrymore. Sadly, Adrienne Shelly was murdered on November 6th of 2006. It depresses me that she is not alive to see and reap the rewards of her greatest work. Shelly’s work in Hartley’s films was iconic. Her death is a loss of so many great future works-- the loss of a great mother, wife, actress, writer and director.

I had no problem with Hal Hartley’s 2001 film, No Such Thing. If I would have known that Sarah Polley would some day direct Julie Christie in a film, I would have said, “faster, more intense.” Sarah Polley not only channeled Hal Hartley while making Away From Her, but also Atom Egoyan who directed her in The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica.. It helps that Mr. Egoyan serves as an executive producer on the film. While I see traces of both director’s style in her film, I see an original voice as well. Sarah Polley, like Shelly before her, has crafted an unexpected tale for us. Polley has adapted the film from Alice Munro’s short story, “The Bear Who Came Over The Mountain.” Sarah Polley has always had a keen eye for the material she chose as actress. The Sweet Hereafter, Go, Last Night, The Weight Of Water, Guinevere, Existenz, Don’t Come Knocking, My Life Without Me and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen represent a diverse selection of films for such a young actress. She brings a lot of class to her most mainstream film, Zach Snyder’s 2004 remake of Dawn Of The Dead. She had the chance to work and observe Wim Wenders, David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam and Doug Liman as well. Sarah Polley’s accomplishes a lot with her film. A film about a couple struggling with the devastating effects of Alzheimer's Disease has the potential to feel like a television movie of the week. Yet, the film never has that feel at all.

The story of Fiona (Julie Christie) and Grant (Gordon Pinsent) feels fresh. The film follows the Ontario couple who been married forty years. In their twilight years, Fiona begins to forget things. Little things at first, but one night she wanders away and gets lost. Grant has to go look for her. It is decided that a nursing home is the best solution. Their marriage is about endure its greatest test. The nursing home has a strict no visitors policy for the first thirty days. This required so new patients can get a feel for their surroundings. This forced long term separation will have horrible results for Grant. When he returns to the nursing home, Fiona has forgotten who is he and she has affections for a fellow patient, Aubrey (Michael Murphy), a wheelchair bound mute. Fiona is moving away from Grant. Can he get her back? Is he willing to make a very important self sacrifice? Grant must make painful choices to ensure Fiona’s happiness. Grant’s scenes with Aubrey’s wife, Marian (Olympia Dukakis) are an unexpected pleasure. It never dawned on me that the film would take this route. The film’s view of Alzheimer’s disease is frightening. The loneliness and depression of the nursing home is vividly depicted in the film. The destructive havoc that the disease is subtle, but powerful. With other actors and another director, the film might not work.

Julie Christie’s performance as Fiona ranks up there with some of her greater performances. There is a lot of Oscar buzz for her performance as Fiona. She was nominated for her part in Alan Rudolph’s 1998 film, Afterglow as well. Do not call it comeback, Julie Christie has never phoned it in. Her work in Finding Neverland and No Such Thing deserves mention. Wolfgang Peterson wasted her and Peter O’Toole in Troy.
I always thought I had discovered her in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago back in high school. Her Lara remains one of the best reasons to major in English in college. Lara is the ultimate muse. But I discovered her much earlier in Demon Seed and Fahrenheit 451. Two science fiction cult classics directed by David Cronenberg and Francois Truffaut respectively. She won an Oscar for her work in Darling in 1965. As Diana Scott, she is the epitome of the Swinging Sixties period in London’s fashion scene in John Schlesinger’s film. She was great opposite Tom Courtenay in Billy Liar. Warren Beatty would be one of her best leading men. Their work together in McCabe And Mrs. Miller, Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait remains some of the best and smartest chemistry onscreen. The Go-Between, Far From The Madding Crowd and Don’t Look Now only remind us of how powerful her presence is over the years. Fiona is a wonderful addition to a long list of triumphant screen roles. Fiona is an older Lara, Constance Miller, Phyllis Mann and Jackie Shawn. We have been blessed to have witnessed a great actress deliver five decades of incredible work and no signs of slowing down. I am sure people will want to compare her work in this film to Peter O’Toole’s Oscar nominated role in last year’s Venus. On the surface that may be a fair comparison, but Christie has never lost her edge. It is as though that Lara has never left the building.

Southland Tales: Almost Zeitgeist Now (Spoilers!!)

“Listen to me, as if I were Cerberus barking with all his heads at the gates of hell. I will tell you where to take it, but don't... don't open the box!:
-- Dr. G.E. Soberin from Kiss Me Deadly

“A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything.”
-- Miller from Repo Man

“I’m here to save you. The world is coming to an end, Donnie.”
-- Frank from Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales wants to be the ultimate Ragnarok And Roll film. Southland Tales wants to be the It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World of Apocalyptic cinema.
The film’s huge ensemble cast and the maddening climax scream out Charles K. Feldman’s 1967 Casino Royale at times. Richard Kelly’s ambition and enthusiasm cannot be denied. Southland Tales was initially going to be a nine part interactive experience-- it was narrowed down to six parts. There is so much going on that there is the Southland Tales: The Prequel Saga graphic novel that has the first three chapters. The decision to use a graphic novel as a primer for his film was very Lucasian of Kelly. The last three parts make up the feature film: Temptation Waits, Memory Gospel and Wave of Mutilation.

The film received a very cold and harsh reception from the critics—more devastating than Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny. The film was booed there. He is in very good company-- Sofia Coppola, Michelangelo Antonini and Robert Bresson have been booed there in the past.. Kelly cut the film’s original running time from 160 minutes to 144 minutes. I wonder in cutting the running time if some ideas got lost in the process, or maybe the film never did have steady flow. Think of Southland Tales as a more entertaining version of the 2003 film, Masked And Anonymous. The sad news is that Southland Tales is not in the same league with his previous film, Donnie Darko. It is obvious in both films that Mr. Kelly is obsessed with the end of the world. He cannot help reminding us via Justin Timberlake’s Private Pilot Abilene’s voice over narration that “This is the way the world ends, not with a whimper, but with a bang.”

Mr. Kelly uses the lines from T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Hollow Men. He uses them throughout the film and distorts them to set the mood of a wartime landscape America in 2008-- the all too near future. His premise works best as an alternate America. The film opens with quite a bang-- home video footage of a nuclear attack in Texas on the Fourth of July Holiday in 2005. Right after we see the mushroom cloud, Abilene’s voiceover narration kicks in to full gear. We learn that America is at war not only with Iraq and Afghanistan, but now we are fighting Iran, North Korea and Syria. The Draft has been reinstated; the government has taken control of the internet via US-IDENT; National ID cards exist; and the whole country is in an Orwellian nightmare. Richard Kelly goes so far down the rabbit hole it threatens to engulf the entire film. The film uses a wide array of newscasts and internet feeds to inform us of the current events of film. Think Strange Days, Brazil, Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, Robocop and any other dystopian film you want to throw in there. Kelly seems to have been influenced by the works of Philip K. Dick, James Morrow, Steve Erickson and William Gibson as well. The inspiration from Philip K. Dick is complete as police officer, Bart Bookman (Jon Lovitz) utters “Flow my tears.”
Timberlake’s Abilene voice narration serves to guide us throw this hybrid of genres and plots. The voice narration was inspired by Willard’s voiceover narration in Apocalypse Now. Kurtz read from The Hollow Men in that film too. Abilene’s narration reminds me of the narration from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia more than Apocalypse Now. Because of its Los Angeles setting, the film begs to be in league with Magnolia and Short Cuts.

At its heart, Southland Tales is a satire-- Richard Kelly’s dystopian rift of post-9/11 America. It is funny, chaotic, infuriating, uneven, sloppy, and has a few moments of sheer genius. It has a little bit of everything in it. If you think you see another film or book in here, chances are you are right. Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly and Alex Cox’s Repo Man haunt the whole film. I mention these two films because the director is paying homage to both of them throughout. Richard Kelly has stated that Kiss Me Deadly, Pulp Fiction, Doctor Strangelove, and Brazil influenced his film. But watching it, I could not get over how much of an impression Kiss Me Deadly made on him. Repo Man And Pulp Fiction just paid homage to Kiss Me Deadly, but Kelly uses the Aldrich film as a blueprint for a third of his film. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse and Richard Kelly’s new film, 2007 may be the ultimate year in self-indulgent cinema. I do not think this is a bad thing in either case, but it will alienate a lot of the audience. It also seems that Kelly is in a race with Tarantino to pay as much homage as possible to all the films that have influenced him. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Boxer Santaros is channeling Ralph Meeker’s Mike Hammer through most of the film. If it not Meeker’s Hammer then it is Laurence Harvey’s Raymond Shaw from the original The Manchurian Candidate. This does not surprise me at all-- Richard Kelly wrote the screenplay for Domino that was based on Harvey’s daughter, Domino Harvey. The other touch that comes to mind is the name of Curtis Armstrong’s character in the film, Dr. Soberin Exx. That comes directly from the Aldrich film as well. As far as Repo Man is concerned, the last twenty minutes of the film owe a lot to the end of the Alex Cox film.

Speaking of Dwayne Johnson, he is the real standout in this cast of characters. In fact, when Kelly stays on his story, the film has a real kinetic flow. When Boxer is off-screen, I am afraid the film gets lost in its own pop mythology. The film is a victim of its own ambitions which strangle and give the film several moments of cardiac arrest. What does Boxer Santaros have to do with this end of the world satire? After he has gone missing, he returns from the Nevada Desert and re-surfaces in Venice Beach, California. He suffers from amnesia; he is in the care of entrepreneurial porn star, Krysta Now, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. Gellar’s Krysta is a version of Jenna Jameson. On paper this must have appeared as a great idea. I want to say that his commentary on the mainstreaming of pornography is novel, but there is nothing shocking or original in that department anymore. In fact, that part of the film makes perfect sense. We live in an era where Jenna Jameson is a household name. Krysta is branching out with a music career, a sports drink and has her own daily talk show which discusses a range of topics from terrorism to teenage horniness. Boxer and Krysta have written a screenplay with apocalyptic overtones that shadow the events in the film. It is here where Mr. Kelly’s original intent of making a satire of Hollywood and life in Los Angeles shine. Both of them are trying to pitch their screenplay, but everyone wants Boxer. He is a former action movie star who has ties to the Republican Party. His wife, Madeline Frost Santaros (Mandy Moore) is the daughter of Senator Bobby Frost (Holmes Osborne). Frost is part of Eliot/Frost Republican Presidential ticket for the 2008 election. Yes, there names refer to the poets T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost and their poetry is infused in the characters dialogue throughout the film. Miranda Richardson plays Madeline’s mother, Nana Mae Frost, who is in charge of US-IDENT. She is the big brother watching the whole country.

The rest of the cast deserves mention because it is such a peculiar ensemble cast.
Seann William Scott as the twin brothers, Roland and Robert Taverner is actually quite good in the film. As we learn more about his character, the film delves into the more science fiction aspects with time travel and the fourth dimension. Kelly is going back to Donnie Darko with this part of the film. The scenes between Scott and Johnson recall their last pairing in The Rundown. It is great to see Christopher Lambert as the arms dealer, Walter Mung, who drives an ice cream truck, Walter Mung. Past and present Saturday Night Live performers portray the Neo-Marxists who make up the rebellion in the Venice Beach area: Amy Poehler, Cheri Oteri, Jon Lovitz and Nora Dunn. The Neo Marxists want to foil the upcoming election and have plans for Boxer. John Larroquette, Curtis Armstrong, Mandy Moore, Will Sasso, Wallace Shawn, Bai Ling, Kevin Smith and many others make up the unique cast. Kevin Smith as Simon Theiry looks like a cross between Rick Rubin and Odin. The film is littered with 1980’s actors. It is a good touch. It underscores the obsession with pop culture very nicely.

I like the film’s soundtrack done by Moby. He gets the tone just right. His music is the perfect soundtrack for a Los Angles on the brink of chaos. While his score helps maintain the mood, the use of Jane’s Addiction’s Three Days is perfect near the end of the film. The song is the perfect synchronicity as the fates of the Neo-Marxists, Boxer and Will Sasso’s Fortunio Balducci converge. The film is billed as a musical and there is a song and dance number done by Justin Timberlake lip-synching to the Killers’ All These Things That I Have Done. This song and dance number could not have come sooner; the film’s manic energy ran out before this scene. It is a much needed jump start.

There is so much I have not told you about the plot. It is impossible to explain the film. At times, I feel it is like trying to explain David Lynch’s Inland Empire or Mulholland Drive. He is clearly influenced by David Lynch in some ways. I see shades of Lost Highway in Donnie Darko. There is only one David Lynch. There have been some saying that this film is Kelly’s Dune and Donnie Darko was his Eraserhead. Does this mean The Box will be his Blue Velvet? I really do not think that is the analogy I would go with right now. Having said that, I always thought Southland Tales would be the bridge between Repo Man, Strange Days, Robocop and Mulholland Drive. Having watched the film, I can honestly say that it is not the bridge I thought it would be. At its best, Southland Tales is a Richard Kelly style love/hate letter to Los Angeles. At its worst, it is stale and dated political commentary. His use of Santa Monica and Venice Beach helps keep the film grounded in a familiar, if distorted reality.

Southland Tales is a mixed bag of a film. It is as though Richard Kelly used a sketchbook of ideas rather than a finished screenplay to make his film. Was he afraid this would be his last film? Is that why the film is packed with so many thoughts and ideas? I can understand his rationale if that is the case. He would have benefited had he had a co-writer and a producer to tell him he could not do certain things. He needed a “no man” on the set. George Lucas could have used one of these too while making the Prequel trilogy. Maybe down the road, a Jerry Harvey type will emerge and release the uncut film on DVD or show it on a Z-Channel via the internet. Maybe Richard Kelly will release it himself on DVD. I have a feeling this film will have a huge cult following on DVD in the years to come. Still with all of its faults, I cannot help but admire this film’s ambition and audacity. I admire Richard Kelly’s vision. For me, it was a trip worth taking. I would gladly take it again. One viewing is simply not enough.

In The Valley Of Elah: Over There And Back Here (SPOILERS!!!)

“Maybe there's no such thing as heroes. Maybe there are just people like my dad. I finally came to understand why they were so uncomfortable being called heroes. Heroes are something we create, something we need.”
-- James Bradley from Flags Of Our Fathers

“And all the jarheads killing and dying, they will always be me. We are still in the desert.”
-- Anthony Swofford from Jarhead

If In The Valley Of Elah was intended to be Paul Haggis’s polemic against the Iraq War; it does not work as well as it should. I believe In The Valley Of Elah is much more. It is not meant to be seen as a polemic, regardless of what others are saying. To look at the film in such black and white terms is to dismiss it as another film of the week. It contains some of the best acting of Tommy Lee Jones’ career. In The Valley Of Elah is based on a Playboy article by Mark Boal. The film is also a remarkable improvement of Paul Haggis’ previous effort, Crash. I know the film won a best picture Oscar, but I found the film had a made for TV quality about it. The film benefited from some quality performances, but Haggis’ television roots were very evident. I like Crash, but it was over praised; a kind of Short Cuts lite. It is of no consequence because his new film is a staggering achievement brought to incredible life by Tommy Lee Jones. One can only assume that Paul Haggis paid very close attention to Clint Eastwood’s directorial style. Somehow Eastwood’s method sank in from Million Dollar Baby, Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. I understand where the cynicism of Flags Of Our Fathers came from. I am sure that was part of Paul Haggis’ contribution to that underrated film. This is a police procedural on the surface with much deeper issues beneath.

Watching Tommy Lee Jones’ portrayal of Hank Deerfield unfold throughout the course of the film is astonishing. Tommy Lee Jones has a commanding presence, much more than he has had in the past. He is a great, but underrated actor. As an audience, we take him for granted. We sometimes miss his greater work in Cobb, Rolling Thunder, JFK, Rules Of Engagement, The Executioner’s Song, and especially his directorial debut, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. He was doing great work long before The Fugitive and he has done a lot of stellar work since. He helped make the Men In Black films, The Client, Natural Born Killers and Space Cowboys very enjoyable movie going experiences. It seemed that Andrew Davis and Oliver Stone knew they were dealing with gold early on in his career. Still with all that has come before, Jones digs deep for the role of Hank Deerfield. Because Hank Deerfield owes more to the characters that George C. Scott played in such films as Hardcore and Rage. It also brings to mind Jack Lemmon in Missing and Michael Douglas in Traffic. In some ways, Jones performance recalls Philippe Noiret in The Clockmaker. I have never seen this side of Tommy Lee Jones. It is raw power unleashed. As the film progresses, Roger Deakins’ camera shows a man, father, and husband coming to terms with the effects of war on every facet of life. Deerfield does not have to say much; his face reveals everything. Jones is not channeling Scott, but rather taking those angry and distraught father figures to their logical conclusions. Paul Haggis originally wrote the part for Clint Eastwood, but Eastwood did not want to act in any more films. Tommy Lee Jones was the only logical choice.

When Hank Deerfield gets a call from Fort Rudd, New Mexico, that his son has gone AWOL. He is confused because he thinks his son, Mike is still in Iraq. It is important to note that the film takes place in November of 2004 during the Presidential election and the U.S. push into Fallujah. Hank decides to go to Fort Rudd to find out what happened. Hank is a retired military MP; he is a Vietnam Veteran who has done his service for his country. He leaves behind his worried wife, Joan, played by Susan Sarandon. When he gets down to Fort Rudd, his worst fears are realized. His son’s body is found in pieces and burned. The dismembered death is made to look like drug gang murder. His investigatory skills are above everyone else’s in the film; he knows more about crime scenes than anyone else on the police department. He is a thorn in the police and military’s side. He enlists the aid of an inexperienced police investigator, Emily Saunders played by Charlize Theron. Theron and Sarandon have small parts in this film, but they create vivid portrayals with their brief onscreen time. As Joan, Sarandon does some of her best work in years. As we learn, their other son was killed in an Army helicopter accident ten years ago. When Joan yells at Hank over the phone about losing both of her boys to the military, we feel her loss. The investigation is a tug of war between the local police and military led by Jason Patric’s Lt. Kirklander. At first, the soldiers in Mike’s company do not say much about what happened. As time goes on, the truth to seep out. We learn about Mike through a series of videos found on his cell phone; we learn about him through his fellow soldiers. As we learn about Mike, the videos and photos show us soldiers at war; they provide the vital clues about Mike’s death. There is no on/off switch. There is no time to decompress. How do we expect men and women to be in harm’s way one day and back here the next? That is one of the core issues of the film. It seems with each soldier’s tale; we get a clearer a picture of Mike Deerfield. Their stories make sense to Hank. He understands this all too well. As war veteran, he realizes it is not just this war, but all wars have this effect on the soldiers who fight them. When the ugly truth of how and why Mike was murdered comes out in a confession, Hank understands what has happened. His facial expressions during the final confession reveal the torture and fatigue of a whole nation.

The film attains a mythic stature due to its title. In The Valley Elah refers to the biblical tale of David and Goliath. It is a very fitting title. The David versus Goliath motif could refer to many things in the film: Hank’s investigation of hindered by the U.S. military, Emily’s battle with her own police department, or it could be the individual against the Goliath of the War itself. The film’s title refers to many things. Hank tells the story to Emily’s son one night. He cannot read C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to him because he does not have the patience for it. He decides to tell this story to the boy named David. Hank decides to tell him the biblical origin of his name. It is a scene of touching simplicity which is very powerful. The story is seen as way of easing David’s fear of darkness; he sleeps with the door open so the hallway light comes in. After hearing the story, he decides he can let the door close a little bit. It is not only David who undergoes a profound change. Hank’s metamorphosis is the core of the film.
On his way to Fort Rudd, he drives by a school that has the American flag hanging upside down. This angers him and he stops at the school. He gets someone from the school to correct this problem. An upside down flag is used as a distress signal. By the film’s end, Hank sees things differently. It is a remarkable change for such a character. Dissent comes from the least likely places and people. By the film’s end, distress is the language of our times.

Eastern Promises: Cronenberg’s Bloody London Diary (SPOILERS!!!)

“My feelings? About ten years ago, I hid them somewhere and haven't been able to find them.”
-- Whit Sterling from Out Of The Past

“I should have killed you back in Philly.”
-- Tom Stall from A History Of Violence

“Forget any of this happened. Stay away from people like me.”
-- Nikolai Luzhin from Eastern Promises

Twenty years ago, I witnessed my first real fight. I was sixteen years old when I saw the effects of flesh pounding flesh take place. It was a party up the road from my parent’s house. The typical high school party where I first learned the rules that you deliver the goods to the crowd. I knew both boys who were fighting with each other. I had never seen real blood come from punching machines before. It left a vivid impression on me. Long after the fight had ended, after many hours of driving around, I had returned home. I told my Mom everything that had transpired earlier. For me, it was the ultimate experience of seeing bloodshed up close and personal. I must drive by that house several times a week. The impact forever sealed on my memory.

Since Spider, David Cronenberg has taken a visceral and realistic approach to bloodshed. That is not to say what came before was child’s play, but what has come after is very raw and unsettling. The Canadian director captures violence and its raw fallout like no other. This is not comic book violence. Every blow feels real to the audience.

Eastern Promises continues a winning streak for David Cronenberg. It is the third film in a row that shows us a director who has come to terms to with his raw attraction to flesh and the violence associated with that flesh. Spider was a wake up call more for us than Cronenberg. It showed a director willing to cross his own Rubicon. He might have done this with Existenz and Crash, but Spider represented a goodbye to all that. Cronenberg takes Ralph Fiennes where we have not seen him before and we are the luckier for it. Fiennes’ Spider is one of his most rewarding performances. To do this film, Red Dragon and Maid In Manhattan in the same year shows a level of range that most do not possess over a single lifetime. Spider was only a warm up for A History Of Violence-- a film based on John Wagner and Vince Locke’s 1997 graphic novel of the same name. It tackles the repressed, violent soul of Tom Stall/Joey Cusack. Who better to bring out the catharsis of American violence than Viggo Mortenson? Mortenson continues his run as Cronenberg’s visual arm in Eastern Promises. Their two films back to back prove that this director and actor work very well together. Mortenson has had such a varied career. sp far. He won immortality as Aragorn in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and rightfully so. Before and after those films, he has had audiences fixated with his performances in A Walk On The Moon, A Perfect Murder, Witness, Crimson Tide, The Indian Runner, The Young Americans, Hidalgo, Albino Alligator and countless others. Yet, it is for David Cronenberg that he has saved his best work; Aragorn was merely a ticket to see something better and more profound. Tom Stall in A History Of Violence was only the tip of the iceberg. Eastern Promises’ Nikolai is a progressive throwback to his darker days. Mortenson’s Nikolai with his chiseled features and cheekbones recalls the Kirk Douglas of The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers and Out of The Past. Remember the days when Kirk Douglas was a bad guy. Mortenson’s Nikolai is the perfect compliment to his role from A History Of Violence. Nikolai is the Joey Cusack who never went into hiding. As with Christopher Walken, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Reed, Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum and Ralph Fiennes, Cronenberg manages to give his leading actors some of the most memorable roles of their careers.

Eastern Promises follows the life of the Russian born, Nikolai Luzhin, a driver for one of the London’s most notorious Russian Mafia families. The family is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. The family is headed by Semyon, played with vicious cunning by Armin Mueller-Stahl. Semyon is the pleasant face of the Trans Siberian Restaurant in London, but beneath the surface, his Semyon is a cold and calculating monster who will do whatever it takes to stay at the top of the London underworld. This is Stahl’s most sadistic turn since his performance as the Nazi War Criminal, Mike Laszlo, in Music Box. Nikolai’s careful routine is broken when he crosses paths with Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts). As an actress, Naomi Watts seems to possess the courage and risks that Nicole Kidman used to take. Watts’ post- King Kong career continues to show an actress taking unexpected risks. Watts’ Anna has been affected by the death of a young Russian girl who has given birth to an infant. Anna is desperate to find out the lineage of the infant girl. Her quest takes her to opposite ends of the spectrum—her Russian born Uncle Stephan (Jerzy Skolimowski) and to the Russian criminal underworld headed by Stahl’s Semyon. She finds a diary belonging to the dead girl-- a diary soaked in the blood of immigration and strife. Her uncle, Semyon and Nikolai are all active participants in the reading of the diary. Her Uncle urges her to stay away from the likes of Nikolai. Nikolai urges her to stay away from him and his kind. The diary is a powder keg that has ramifications throughout London.

Mortenson’s Nikolai is nothing we expect. He is a distant cousin of the ruthless Russian Mafia hit man, Joshua Shapira, played by Tim Roth in James Gray’s Little Odessa. Like Roth’s Shapira, Mortenson’s Nikolai makes his rounds in London while Shapira did his business in Brighton Beach, but Nikolai has so many shades to his character. For a driver, he seems to have earned the resentment and distrust of everyone around him. Who is he? He is the driver for Semyon’s family. His 47 tattoos tell a larger tale. He finds trust in Semyon’s son, Kirill played by Vincent Cassel in a career defining performance. He seems to channeling Tim Roth’s Shapira in his role as Semyon’s enforcer. The teaming up of Cassel and Mortenson is a wonderful combination. Given Cassel’s volatile work in La Haine, Brotherhood Of The Wolf, Read My Lips, Crimson Rivers and Irreversible; this is a teaming up for the ages. Kirill is a loose cannon; he is Sonny Corleone without the bravado and brotherly love. Whores and a deep resentment of his father define Kirill. He seems more loyal to Nikolai than his father. Stahl’s Semyon in some scenes comes across as Don Corleone in a much harsher tone. In one scene where he is talking down to Mina E. Mina’s Azim, one could be forgiven for thinking he is watching a stunning homage to the opening scene of The Godfather. One is almost begging to hear Semyon say:
“Bonasera... Bonasera.”


We have visited this London before. Steven Knight’s intelligent script recalls his 2003 scripted film Dirty Pretty Things. Stephen Frears was able to work his magic and bring Knight’s tale to life about the immigrant side of life in London. Cronenberg delves further into the immigrant’s tale by weaving a complex tale of the Russian criminal underworld in London. Howard Shore comes back once again to give us another unforgettable score. Shore’s sonic desires continue to compliment Cronenberg’s visions. This partnership shows no sign of winding down anytime in the near future. Eastern Promises contains one of the finest and most unique action sequences since the hammer corridor fight in Oldboy. Nikolai does battle with two Chechen hit men in a bathhouse in the nude. Nikolai has been betrayed and set up. It is the epitome of Cronenberg’s visual lust for violence. It is one of the most thrilling sequences I have seen in years. The scene alone is worth the price of admission. It is a testament to David Cronenberg’s skill and range that he still knows how to make flesh bleed in new and different ways. As with real life, we are never comfortable with the throat slashes and the other deep flesh wounds. Eastern Promises delivers!

The twist at the end, you have to take on faith!

David Fincher's Magnificent Obsession: Thoughts On Zodiac (SPOILERS!!!)

"It's to David Fincher's credit that his films take place somewhere beyond our edge-- yet in a recognizable extension of our nightmares."
-- David Thomson from The Biographical Dictionary of Film (2002)

It was with hell bent rage that I went through our house last night looking for Sharon Waxman's Rebel's On The Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered The Studio System. I must have searched through every room of the house. Boxes, closets and shelves examined for this elusive book. No luck, I could not find it. Even after spending 158 minutes with David Fincher's Zodiac, I still felt the need to spend some more time with him. David Fincher is one of those "rebels". This is a film about obsession and the consequences of obsession. And no I do not think Brain De Palma could do a better job with the material. The thought never even crossed my mind while watching the film. Brian De Palma is an expert at the themes on display in the film, but Fincher seems more at home than any other director. Zodiac is Fincher's beast. Robert Graysmith's book could not be in better hands. The ultimate tale of obsession told with attentive detail to every aspect of the hunt for the infamous serial killer. With this film, David Fincher proves himself to be the ultimate rebel who owns the backlot.

During the summer of 1992, I had no idea what a David Fincher film would entail. "A David Fincher film" had little or no meaning to me while watching Alien 3. The music video and commercial director had not yet registered on my map. It does seem right that a film director who cut his teeth as a technician at Industrial Light And Magic would direct the third installment of bountiful Alien franchise. Hell, he did matte work on Return Of The Jedi. It is not until the end of watching Seven that I realized we are dealing with someone with immense talent and skill. The Game is a wonderful parody of the doomed and dumb white males that Michael Douglas portrayed in films from Fatal Attraction through Disclosure. It is a maddening and suspenseful trip that never lets up. Does the film ever end? Is there any real closure? Fight Club gives us so much to think about, one wonders
how it could ever be released by a major studio. Fincher manages to craft a film that can peacefully co-exist with Chuck Palahniuk's prophetic novel. The film also reminds us that Pitt and Fincher should work together more often. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button cannot get here fast enough. Anything would have would have been a letdown after Fight Club and Panic Room is a mixed bag at best, but Jodie Foster and Fincher are together at long last. Panic rooms were on the wish list of every executive after the film was released. An impressive body of work leads us Zodiac. After all, this is the ultimate cold case. The killer has not been found. Imagine if Kevin Spacey's John Doe in Seven had never turned himself in? Detective Mills and Somerset may never have found him. That is just a hypothetical situation. The horrifying reality of Zodiac is there is not any closure. David Fincher has made the American equivalent of Joon-ho Bong's Memories Of Murder. The truly sad thing is that David Fincher has made two astonishing contributions to the serial killer genre. I doubt he will want to do another one after such an epic undertaking. He is the only director who could bring Caleb Carr's The Alienist to the big screen and make it work.

David Fincher attacks Zodiac with a Michael Mann approach. The police procedural parts of the film echo Michael Mann's "Men at Work" ethos in such films as Heat, Thief, The Insider and Miami Vice. Fincher takes it further with this film taking it to epic heights. The scenes of the newspaper reporters and editors in the offices at The San Francisco Chronicle bring to mind Alan J. Pakula's All The President's Men. Steven Soderbergh loved the opening credit sequences of All The President's Men. David Fincher loved the actual film. Zodiac is based on Robert Graysmith's bestseller of the same name. A serial killer is terrorizing the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960's and 1970's. The serial killer taunts the police with his letters and cryptic messages. The film is a thinly fictionalized account of the obsessive hunt for the killer. It shows in the way the characters interact with each other. The trio of Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the tightest in decades. Each actor is at the top of his game. Downey is the essence of seduction as Paul Avery, the crime reporter who is covering the Zodiac killer story. Mark Ruffalo is electric as San Francisco police Detective, Dave Toschi. He taught Steve McQueen how to wear a gun in Bullitt. And Jake Gyllenhaal is Robert Graysmith, a quiet, political cartoonist who is excellent at solving puzzles. He is the film's Boy Scout. The film belongs to each of these actors at certain points of the film. They work so well together, it is joy to watch them interact with each other throughout the film. The case consumes each of them. The hunt for the Zodiac killer is the only thing that matters. Everything else takes a backseat. Graysmith wants to be in on the chase so badly-- screw cartoons, he wants to work with Avery and find the killer. When Avery comes over and introduces himself to Graysmith, it is one of the film's warmest touches. Their evolving friendship during the first half of the film is a pleasure.

The case takes its toll on everyone involved. The never-ending chase and search for suspects. The handwriting analysis of the letters and just trying to figure out where this guy will strike next has the whole city on the edge. The film's strength is not to play it like a traditional serial killer that shows the killer going about his business. The scenes that do show the killer and his victims are indeed chilling and as an audience, we feel as helpless as the victims. It is to Fincher's credit that he never goes overboard on these parts of this film with excessive violence or gore.
“I like killing people because it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangerous anamal."
That is the first cipher from the Zodiac killer that stomped law enforcement agencies including the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., but it was decoded California schoolteacher and his wife. More letters with misspellings would continue to come over the years. The thing that is made clear is that Zodiac is an attention seeker-- a publicity whore. Is he responsible for all the crimes or is he taking responsibility for crimes he just read about in the papers? Who he is? Did they ever have a solid lead? Did the police make a mistake early on by claiming he was African American? During a screening of Dirty Harry at a local movie theater, Toschi has to walk out of the movie. He is frustrated that they are not even close to finding the killer. The man who taught McQueen how to wear a gun is disgusted because Eastwood can kill the Zodiac on the other side of the screen. On this side of the screen, that kind closure does not exist.

If the film belongs to Downey and Ruffalo at certain times, than the third act belong to Jake Gyllenhaal. As the years go by and the case and story go nowhere, Avery has been let go. His wild life of drinking and drugs has taken its toll. The case has taken its toll on Toschi and his partner, William Armstrong played by Anthony Edwards. The case costs them their partnership. Graysmith has been consumed by the case. His first date with Melanie played by Chloe Sevigny turns into all about the Zodiac. Their marriage over the years falls apart due to his obsession with the killer. He loses his job and to him his only job is the Zodiac. It is his only reason for living. Out of the whole ordeal, he was able to write two bestselling books about the case-- Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked.
Three lives altered and weakened by the cost of obsession.

The marvel of the film is how Fincher and his cinematographer, Harris Savides not only take us back to the 1970's San Francisco, but at how they make us forget about the world we live in today. We are so used to our technology like cell phones, computers, the internet and 24 hour cable news. The film takes place long before any of this is around. It is the pre. pre-internet era. The mail and the simple telephone are the only tools they had to work with back then. The genius of the film is making us forget they we better technology today. The film transports us back to a different time with no problem. Savides shoots the film in beautiful high definition digital. San Francisco has never looked more beautiful. The rest of the cast is excellent. Dermot Mulroney is great as Captain Marty Lee. Philip Baker Hall is great as Sherwood Morrill, the handwriting expert. Brain Cox is a delight as Melvin Belli. Elias Koteas, Donal Logue and James Legros are great as the other police officers from surrounding areas. And John Carroll Lynch is down right creepy as Arthur Leigh Allen. The less said about him, the better.


As with my review for Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, I have written a very passionate review of Fincher and his film. I do not apologize for either review. A lot of filmmakers are my heroes. When they triumph, it is a reason to celebrate and hope that the MBA studio chief does not call the shots. When they fail and disappoint it can be heartbreaking. Watching Steven Soderbergh’s The Good German was not a happy affair. It was a hard review to write, but at least Thomas Newman did a great job with the soundtrack. David Fincher has created an epic film about the hunt for a serial killer. An obsessive quest with staggering results for everyone involved. A film that has some meaning for us today. A film about an unseen enemy. An enemy that cannot be found and strikes out without warning. A film that say more about the times we live in right now. Fincher has made the perfect film for the post 9/11 era.

Into The Wild: The Great Wide Open (Spoilers!!!)

“Wandering around our America has changed me more than I thought. I am not me any more. At least I'm not the same me I was.”
-- Ernesto Guevara de la Serna from The Motorcycle Diaries

“I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace.”
-- George Hanson from Easy Rider

“If you want something in life, reach out and grab it.”
-- Christopher McCandless from Into The Wild

It is very fitting that Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction bestseller, Into The Wild, is being released on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. Sean Penn has created one of the most vivid cinematic journeys of self discovery about American open road. Into The Wild has a Kerouacian undercurrent. How can it not? Christopher McCandless seems to have a little of Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise in him. It is to Sean Penn’s credit as a director that he never gives McCandless a deliberate Beat imitation. The film is not the work of a hack trying to rip off what has come before him-- not at all. The film feels as fresh and alive as anything to come out in recent American cinema. Into The Wild has the discovery urge of Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries, the naturalistic beauty of Jean Jacques Annaud The Bear and the fatalistic charm of Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man.

McCandless never feels like a carbon copy of someone else. Through Sean Penn’s direction, Emile Hirsch gives him a contagious curiosity that spreads to the audience. We are eager to see where his journey takes him next. With each new chapter, we wait to see what will unfold for our reckless hero.

Emile Hirsch has given splendid performances in other films-- The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys, The Emperor’s Club, Alpha Dog, Imaginary Heroes and The Lords Of Dogtown benefited from his presence. He tried too hard to be Tom Cruise in the Risky Business clone; The Girl Next Door, but it as Christopher McCandless where everything comes together-- a career defining moment. It is here where Sean Penn’s directing talent shines. He has always been a gifted and talented actor. There was never any doubt about his range. Yet with his directorial debut, The Indian Runner (1992), another side was shown. David Morse, Charles Bronson, Viggo Mortenson and Dennis Hopper benefited greatly from Mr. Penn’s direction. In The Crossing Guard and The Pledge, Jack Nicholson played characters he used to play in such films as The Last Detail and The King Of Marvin Gardens. Sean Penn, the director, wants to give his actors the deepest and most meaningful performances of their careers. As a result, his work has only gotten better.

We travel from box to box. We leave our homes to spend our days in another confinement. Christopher McCandless possesses a Bukowskian rage against the standard American Dream-- perhaps his is an extreme redesign of the American Dream. He wants to get back to back to nature-- following the words of Jack London, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy and the other great writers he discovered during his college education. When he graduates from college in 1990, he wants to say goodbye to routine life. The impulse to rebel is evident from the earliest moments after his graduation from Emory University in 1990. He wants to rip apart from his middle class existence. At a graduation dinner, his parents, Walt (William Hurt) and Billie (Marcia Gay Harden) offer to buy him a new car. He rejects this gift as soon as it offered. We see that there has always been tension between father and son. Chris has other notions at hand. He gives his parents the bait of attending Harvard Law School. They buy and this gives him time to go on his great adventure into the great vast American Wilderness. Christopher was not meant to get a law degree or an MBA. He is an adventurer at heart. He has played the game for too long. He has done everything that is expected of him. Now is the time for him to live.

Sean Penn tells the film in a series of flashbacks. The film’s narrative is broken, but not in the usual way of Alejandro González Iñárritu films. Sean Penn begins at the end, but giving us a vivid series of flashbacks which never confuse us. Christopher’s sister, Carine (Jena Malone), provides a very useful voice over narration. Through her, we get a sense of what Christopher is going through and the effect it has at home on her family. What we learn from her narration is at times shocking and ultimately fills in the keys of this man’s life. As Carine, Jena Malone does not have the same amount of screen time as in Donnie Darko, The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys, Saved! and The United States Of Leland, but her contribution is just as powerful. The film is divided into chapters and has the words of Christopher’s letters to his friends appear across the screen in bright yellow capital letters. Once Chris has left his old world behind, he adopts the pseudonym, Alexander Supertramp. This is the point of no return; he rejects material possessions and human attachments. He sends the remainder of his college fund money to a charity and burns the money he has. Alexander is on the road to his paradise-- his great Alaskan Adventure.

Alexander Supertramp’s two year journey takes him across the country and finally to Alaska. His journey takes him from South Dakota to Southern California to the Sea Of Cortez and then to his final destination. He meets a variety of people along the way. They shape his life, but in many ways he shapes their lives as well. Everyone who encounters Alexander/Christopher seems a better person at the end of their encounters. His rejection of his parents and their way of life leads him to seek out parental surrogates. His parent’s troubled marriage convinced him to seek something different. A traveling hippie couple, Jan (Catherine Keener) and Rainey (Brian Dierker), act as his parents on the road. Vince Vaughn’s Wayne Westerberg seems like the wild uncle he never had and Hal Holbrook’s Ron Franz is a grandfather figure to him in the film’s final chapter. The scenes with Ron are very touching-- some of Hal Holbrook’s best work in recent memory. His friendship with Kristin Stewart’s Tracy is interesting. He meets her in the Slab City section of the film where he reunites with Jan and Rainey. She is quickly enamored with him, but he is such a solitary creature. She is the most available girl in recent memory, but he does not think it is a good idea. Instead, they perform a duet at night. She is an accomplished musician with the guitar. He plays the keyboards. Each of these characters and their segments demonstrate Christopher’s humanism, free spirit nature and his let the chips fall where they may attitude. It is the antithesis of what his life would have been had he not gone on the road. It is this carefree attitude that will be his undoing in the end in the Alaskan Wilderness. His lust for adventure, his risk taking and his fresh outlook on life spoke very deeply to this viewer.

We know what is coming throughout the film; his demise is a staggering and tragic ordeal. His recklessness will lead to his end. It must happen, but we do not want it happen. Hirsch has inhabited and created a vivid character. A real life persona who seemed to have a little bit of Jack Kerouac, Jack London, Ernesto Guevara and other free spirits within him. Eric Gautier’s camerawork makes everything look beautiful. Alaska is as majestic, mysterious and dangerous as Christopher has anticipated. Eddie Vedder’s songs are a welcomed addition to an already blissful soundtrack. We are not the only ones who like him; Sean Penn’s admires this character greatly. Who knows? He might have played this part many years ago. Penn’s film has an uncompromising magnificence. McCandless lived his life his way. The same can be said for Sean Penn and the films he has directed and his activism outside film. The director and the material are a perfect fit. This goes beyond anything he has ever done before. Into The Wild is one of the great American road films of our time. This is a journey worth taking.