Short Cuts: "Making Mud Pies, 007?"

Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Directed by Guy Hamilton; written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz (adapted from the novel by Ian Fleming); starring Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, Bernard Lee, and Desmond Llewelyn.

REVIEW: Changeling (C-)

A full disclosure before I address this movie: For the last decade, there has been no actress who's bothered me more than Angelina Jolie. I don't know her and I don't mean to make any personal judgments about her. I think she has acting talent and I commend her efforts (whatever her motive) for bringing awareness to the plight of refugees worldwide.

But that doesn't mean I have to respect her lifestyle and it doesn't mean I have to like her movies. It doesn't mean I have to fawn over her children or her fashion sense, or that I have to ignore the fact that as arguably the most overexposed celebrity in the world, it's virtually impossible for her to disappear into any role. It doesn't mean I have to drop to my knees while she simply alternates between sexy killer (Tomb Raider, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Beowulf, Kung Fu Panda, Wanted) and tortured hero (Beyond Borders, A Mighty Heart, Changeling). It doesn't mean I have to listen to her pretentiously deliver the wisdom of an old soul as she waxes nostalgic about Hollywood's golden years (she's the oldest 35 year-old I've ever heard; you're not Meryl Streep, honey). And it certainly doesn't mean I have to accept the ridiculous notion that she has "died for my sins". Please.

I say all of this as a defense, because if you know this about me (and enough people do), you're ready to dismiss my criticism for Changeling as criticism for Jolie. But it's not. There is plenty enough wrong with this movie that has nothing to do with her, and it wouldn't be fair to tear down a movie for one performance anyway. Jolie gets a pass for this one, even though the costumed character of her Oscar-baiting performance reminded me more of an emaciated clown than a distraught mother. To be most accurate, this was Madame Tutli-Putli brought to life (let's forget I recently made the same comparison for a different movie). But Jolie was fine in her part, predictably balancing elegance with extreme emotional outbursts. So if wasn't her that I had a problem with, what was it?

For starters, the lack of a compelling story. On the surface, the true life tale of a mother battling with the corrupt L.A.P.D. over the true whereabouts of her kidnapped child sounds fascinating, but digging deeper it ends up being a bit of a bore. Equal parts Zodiac and L.A. Confidential, it lacks both the chilling moments of the former and the suspenseful intrigue of the latter. There's almost no way to form a natural connection with the characters (natural being the operative word, assuming you can ignore the manipulative filmmaking), which makes sitting through it for 141 minutes pretty tiring. There's a noirish feel around the entire production (especially in the visual style and setting), but Changeling is glaringly lacking in two of the most important elements of noir: character and tone.

Who are these people, and why should we care about them? Christine Collins (Jolie) is depicted as a saintly single mom, but we know literally nothing about her aside from the fact that her husband left her and her son, and now she works as a manager at the telephone company. She’s certainly the victim of a great tragedy here, but I guess I needed something else to latch on to. Besides, it seemed more like Angelina Jolie playing Angelina Jolie than anything else. Give me more background on Christine Collins and I’ll be better able to empathize with Christine Collins.

Even more one-dimensional than Collins is Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan from USA’s “Burn Notice”), the tough talking L.A.P.D. cop who writes his own rules, emotionally wavers between mildly annoyed and extremely irritated, and, for no identifiable reason, speaks with an Irish brogue. In the other corner is John Malkovich (Burn After Reading), a historically great actor who recently seems to be phoning in these blaring performances just so he has an opportunity to shout on cue. Add in a stereotypically insane villain, some annoying kids (who apparently don’t age at all during their adolescence), and evil mental hospital nurses who look like they just came off the set of an old horror movie, and you’ve rounded out the overall poor cast of characters. If not for Christine’s boss and Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) showing some flashes of believable emotion, there might not be a real person on screen throughout the movie.

In fact, the cityscapes and period touches feel more realistic than the people speaking, and it would be fair to predict Changeling receiving some Oscar consideration for its art direction (an opportunity for Best Costume was missed by having Jolie wear the same outfit throughout the movie). Beyond that, I would be surprised if the movie made any splashes during award season.

Oh wait, I forgot. The person responsible for this mess is also the person most beloved by the Academy in recent years: Clint Eastwood.

To take nothing away from a legendary career that spans four decades, I wonder if anyone has yet to gain the courage to tell Mr. Eastwood that his recent projects (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, all three Best Picture nominees or winners) aren’t quite as good as he’s tried to make us admit. The guy has a gift for manipulation, and I’m talking about his filmmaking, not his business practices. In Changeling, it’s evident in the cheap thriller moments (chicken spooks detective at ranch) and subliminal musical scores (throughout the legal proceedings), as well as unnecessary flashbacks (the ax and the ruler) and exaggerated running time (just because it’s long doesn’t mean it’s epic).

Angelina Jolie saves the world again at a theater near you...

I don’t want to call Changeling a bad movie as much as I want to call it a missed opportunity. On paper, the story really should have made for something more substantive, more moving or at the very least, more relatable to 2008. Kids are still going missing and the L.A.P.D. is still accused of corruption, but Eastwood fails to connect any dots and make this story relevant in the way that (never thought I’d compare these two “directors”) Ben Affleck did last year in Gone Baby Gone. Alright, so that movie took place in the present day – maybe that’s unfair. But at least Gone Baby Gone was mostly entertaining, wasn’t it? The same can’t be said for Changeling. Now excuse me while I inexplicably buy a ticket to see Eastwood’s Gran Torino next month…

Grade:
Writing - 6
Acting - 7
Production - 6
Emotional Impact - 6
Music - 4
Social Significance - 5

Total: 35/50= 70% = C-

Taking It Home: Ballast

Over Spring Break in 2001, I led a community service trip to the Mississippi Delta. Fifteen college students coming from Boston, none of us, including myself, having ever been south of Memphis. Our work was to assist in the classroom at several schools in the area, from Little Rock to Clarksdale.

To say that we were shocked at what we saw in the Delta is a significant understatement. This was an area that, according to those teachers who hosted us, first received electricity in the 80's. This was an area with the worst performing schools in Mississippi, itself already the worst performing state, academically speaking, in the country. This was an area that by all measures appeared to be still living under Jim Crow laws; never I have see a place so racially segregated. Although "Whites Only" and "Colored Only" signs were not actually displayed, they sure seemed to be implied.

Like most service trips to developing areas, the members of our group left (hopefully) with a new worldview and a new appreciation, in this case, for our own educational backgrounds. Whether or not we actually accomplished anything of significance during our week there was, unfortunately, unknown and unprovable. I've shared my observations of that world with people in the years since, but I'm afraid I haven't been nearly as successful as Lance Hammer's compelling Ballast, one of the year's best films and one of the most accurate depictions of the Delta that I've seen since that trip seven years ago.

What makes Ballast so extraordinary, aside from the beautiful technical production and arresting performances, is that it allows the viewer to relate so intimately and effortlessly with its characters. It is a coincidence that Hammer's film has come at a time when financial and racial tensions in this country are so high, but this is a timeless story that ultimately speaks more about people than place. Hammer makes no overt statement about power, discrimination, privilege or circumstance (if he makes any political statement, he admits it's toward gun control), and this is not a film about race relations or desperate poverty. It is a film about grief, forgiveness, redemption and hope.

In a Q & A session following the screening of Ballast, Hammer (whose background is in architecture and whose Hollywood credits range from Batman to The Man Who Wasn't There), said his concept for the film originally dealt more directly with the racial history of the South, but that as a white man from Los Angeles, "it was naive and innocent, and it was the wrong thing" for him to do so; he realized "how little authority" he had to speak about the issue. Instead, he developed a story that he thought would "speak very delicately about universals" and "the dignity of persevering in the face of adversity." Hammer said he desired to get out of the Hollywood blockbusters and instead "talk about something as truthful."

I really admire his commitment to accuracy and truth in making Ballast, especially in relation to the landscape of the Delta. The physical location is untouched and raw (Hammer spoke about the irony of his background as a production designer and how the ideal of a "real" set was, in this case, organically perfect). There is little sunlight, but yet it's always light; it's a bright, cloudy landscape that prevents you from knowing what time it is throughout the day. Incidentally, Hammer said they used no lights during filming (learn more production details in an interview with Lance Hammer by Getafilm favorite Craig Kennedy).

There's something that concerns me about the reaction to Ballast, however, and it has to do with the praise I just awarded it. At the screening I attended, a majority of the questions and compliments for Lance Hammer were about the aesthetics of the film, or his screenwriting process, or the experience of the actors involved. In other words, it seemed few people were interested in the story or the themes or the lessons or even the history of the Delta. Granted, I saw it at the Walker Art Center so the audience was primarily comprised of contemporary artistes, but come on, people, let's check in with reality for a second. Those amazing performances felt so real because they were real. The outstanding cast (Michael J. Smith, JimMyron Ross, and Tarra Riggs) was found in the Delta, living lives perhaps similar to those of their characters in Ballast. When the actors felt something in Hammer's screenplay wasn't authentic, they would reinvent the scenario to reflect the reality they knew.

Maybe because they're not technically categorized as documentaries, it's so easy for us to lose sight of the truth in films like Ballast, Chop Shop, and The Pool. Even in my reviews of those latter two films, I highlighted the artistry of the filmmaking as much as anything else. Are we connecting more with the scenery than we are with the story? With the colors and lighting more than the characters? I hope not, but the Q & A experience after Ballast forced the question upon me. Fortunately, Hammer did his best to redirect the conversation back to the issues at hand, such as hope in the midst of despair and protecting the potential of a child. I kind of hoped Hammer would have addressed the title of the film and his interpretation of its symbolism, but of course I didn't think about that until later on.

I know it's possibly the last place in the country to which most people would willingly travel, but a few days in the Delta will give you a very different perspective about the lives of your fellow Americans (or for those of you who are abroad, the lives of Americans you may never meet). If never make it there, it will at least be worth your time to check out Ballast.

What did you take home?

(Note: Lance Hammer pulled out of a distribution deal with IFC so he could maintain full control of Ballast. He's currently taking it on the road himself - check here for a list of "tour" stops.)

Reel Life #2

Back again with another installment of Reel Life, an occasional feature where I highlight news nuggets that I believe lend themselves well to film adaptations. As I explained in Reel Life #1, this feature gets to the heart of my blogging and general film philosophy: bringing that which I see on screen into real world applications for my daily life. With these examples, the flow just happens to be in the opposite direction. As always, please share your comments on these stories and feel free to suggest or email me others that you find. All rights reserved if any Reel Life stories ever make their way to the big screen...

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"In Poverty and Strife, Women Test Limits"

I suppose it's not surprising that news and public interest about Afghanistan has been low in the midst of a presidential campaign, but it's likely that attention will soon return to the war-torn country. The U.S. is sending additional troops as the Taliban regroups, and the poppy growing business is going gangbusters.

Which is why it's interesting to find a story about the province of Bamian, where women are regaining their identity after years of mistreatment and abuse. I feel like there is a story of hope in this similar to "The Kite Runner", which aside from being one of the most popular novels of the last decade, also made for one of the better movies of last year.

Story Potential: Moderate
Project Possibilities: Feature length film (based on novel); documentary short

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"1 Man's Goal: 50 Jobs, 50 Weeks, 50 States"

Remember Christopher McCandless, the young nomad idolized by Sean Penn in last year's Into the Wild? Daniel Seddiqui doesn't appear to be as irresponsible or even as interesting a character as McCandless, but his story is still unique. Having "failed" upwards of 40 job interviews, the 26 year-old Californian (he holds a degree in economics from USC) set out to work 50 different jobs in 50 different states, holding each position for one week. At the time of this article, he had just finished up working as U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist in Colorado and then a rodeo announcer in South Dakota.

At its best, this could be an inspirational goofball story, something like Forrest Gump. At its worst it would just be like any of the hundreds of reality TV shows that profile random jobs. Either way, let's hope Seddiqui has improved on his job interviewing skills by now.

Story Potential: Limited to Moderate
Project Possibilities: Feature length comedy; feature length documentary

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"Sixth foot washed ashore in Canadian mystery"

The most tragic aspect to this story from last summer, aside from people actually having lost their lives, is that it's probably going to be picked up as a "C.S.I." episode long before it's made into a film. I'm not a fan of horror movies and I generally don't like to let my imagination run wild about how people die, but the circumstances around this care are too bizarre to forget: six feet wash ashore near Vancouver, British Columbia. Five of them are right feet, one of them is a left foot (I believe this last one was recently found out to be a hoax). All of them were wearing tennis shoes, and no other body parts were found. What happened?

Even though there is no proof these deaths were the work of a serial killer (the theories are wild and the identities of the victims are unknown), I'm imagining something along the lines of Zodiac.

Story Potential: High
Project Possibilities: Feature length film

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"Indian beggar gets bank account"

Pretty much what the title of the article says: Laxmi Das, a beggar in north Calcutta who was disabled by polio four decades ago, has opened a savings account at the Central Bank of India. During those years of desperate poverty, she collected over 200 lbs worth of coins - it took bank employees three days to count the change.

Beyond the incredible fact that Ms. Das was able to physically secure so many coins for so long, her story illustrates the brilliance of that archaic ideal known as "saving". What's the average American's credit card balance? $5,000 or something outrageous like that? Our economy is in the tank and we can't afford our previous vacations and TVs and commercialized holiday gifts this year.

Hmm, maybe we should pay attention to the story of woman who has so little but has saved so much. I hear President-elect Barack Obama is accepting applications for Treasury Secretary...

Story Potential: Limited
Project Possibilities: Feature length documentary

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"Siblings accused of killing Andover man"

Perhaps the most disturbing story of this Reel Life installment comes from my own backyard (not really, but Minnesota at least). It's the horrific tale of two grown siblings accused of murdering their estranged older brother in cold blood (using weapons including a crossbow) and disposing of his body in a bonfire. The motive? Money, of course - an inheritance.

Actually there's no way I would ever want to see this movie, but there's something horrifyingly intriguing about the dissolution of family bonds that lead to something like this. It's impossible for me to understand how people can deliberately murder their own flesh and blood.

Story Potential: Moderate
Project Possibilities: Feature length film

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"Obama wins history-making election..."

Seems like it was right out of a Hollywood movie, doesn't it? Well, not yet at least. It's extremely premature for me to promote the idea for a movie about Obama, but it seems like an appropriate follow up to my MLK, Jr. biopic.

The questions is when, not if, a movie will be made about Obama. Personally I hope it's not for another few decades, but considering the timing of Oliver Stone's W., who knows how soon we might see it?

Story Potential: High
Project Possibilities: Feature length film; feature length documentary

The Alphabet Meme

Fletch at Blog Cabins has tagged me for a meme he created - it will soon conquer the movie blogosphere!

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The Rules

1. Pick your favorite film to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. Return of the Jedi belongs under "R," not "S" as in Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi. This rule applies to all films in the original Star Wars trilogy; all that followed start with "S." Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs under "R," not "I" as in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Conversely, all films in the LOTR series belong under "L" and all films in the Chronicles of Narnia series belong under "C," as that's what those filmmakers called their films from the start. In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.

6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.

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Fletch and I have insanely similar taste so I was tempted to just copy and paste his entire list, but that wouldn't have been any fun. NOTE: these do not include documentaries, because I didn't have time to do that much research - I just used this site recommended by Fletch. Also, don't confuse these with the best movies I've ever seen or some favorite classics (some of them are in fact bad movies). I'm thinking about these in terms of "Movies I Could Watch At Any Given Moment, Regardless of Mood", so most of them will be fluff:

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Back to the Future

Cidade De Deus (City of God)

Die Hard

Empire Strikes Back, The

Fight Club

Good Will Hunting (over The Godfather?!?!)

Happy Gilmore (just barely over High School High)

Innerspace

Jurassic Park

Krieger und die Kaiserin, Der (Fletch used Lola Rennt, so take that)

Lord of the Flies (1990 version)

Magnolia

Notting Hill

Office Space

Power of One, The (otherwise known as my favorite of all time - ever, with a bullet)

Quinceañera

Rushmore

Shawshank Redemption, The

Top Gun

UHF

Vertigo

What's Up Doc?

X-Men (wow, not a lot of options here)

Y Tu Mamá También

Zodiac (slim pickings here as well)


I feel like I ended up picking whatever was listed in the first few pages for each letter, so they're almost all recent movies. Lazy, I know.

I think this is why I have such a hard time making "favorites" lists, or at least narrowing them down. How can you remember the thousands of movies in your head?

I'm asking you:
Alexander at Coleman's Corner in Cinema
Miranda at Cinematic Passions
Marilyn at Ferdy on Films
Rick at Coosa Creek Cinema
Nick at Fataculture (;-P)
The Mad Hatter at The Dark of the Matinee
Matthew at From the Front Row
Jonathan at Hollywoodland Flash
Pat at Doodad Kind of Town
Kathie Smith at Kathie Smith

Only if you're interested, of course, and if you haven't already done it. And if you don't have a blog or I didn't tag you - go for it, even in the comments!

REVIEW: Happy-Go-Lucky (A)

What's the difference between an optimist and a pessimist - besides "attitude"? Perspective developed through experience? Patterns of thinking learned early in life? Enjoying the rain instead of cursing it? Surely I don't know, but I'm always fascinated and, frankly, frustrated at how easily people toss the terms around.

Does that make me a pessimist? I've been labeled as much by different people at different times in my life, and I've brushed it off with some ease, often calling forth every pessimist's favorite defense: "I'm a realist." Whatever that means.

Either way, I know what (or rather, who) I'm not: Poppy Cross, the subject and saint of Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, which aside from perhaps pointing to Leigh's need for cathartic release after 2005's Vera Drake, also serves as one of the most uplifting and confounding films of the year. Those with a better handle on Leigh's filmography than me (I saw it as part of the Walker's recent Mike Leigh retrospective) have noted that it maintains Leigh's commitment to character while at the same time completely separates itself from his typically dire, dour stories. Seems reasonable, but all I know for sure is that it's been a while since I've related to so many characters in the same film.

There's Zoe (Alexis Zegerman), Poppy's loyal roommate of a decade who shares her glass three-quarters-full outlook on life but doesn't show it with nearly as much giddiness, likely because she's much better than Poppy at picking up on the nuances of other people's emotions. There's Tim (Samuel Roukin), Poppy's latecoming love interest who appears to be too caught up in the newness of love to understand Poppy's true emotional state; it's all joking and laughing and kissy flirting, but does he realize there may not be much beyond that? There's Helen (Caroline Martin), Poppy's older, pregnant sister, who chastises Poppy for her carefree lifestyle while at the same admitting that she's unhappy with her own marriage and life. There's Scott (Eddie Marsan), Poppy's woeful driving instructor, whose outlook on life is pessimistic at best and homicidal at worst.

And then, finally, there's Poppy (Sally Hawkins), an effusive sprite who believes her mission in life is to change the world one giggly grin at a time - she's the life of the party and the sun that breaks through the gray London sky. Although this bright disposition works wonders in her job as a kindergarten teacher (at times she seems like one of the students), it hampers her relationships with adults in her daily life, namely those I just mentioned but also her other friends, colleagues, and even strangers. Moreover, it's clear that she is unable to access some of her own emotions: joining a friend at a flamenco class, Poppy nervously laughs and stomps about, oblivious to the pain and passion that's supposed to be driving her movements. Sally Hawkins runs wild in this performance, and the early Oscar buzz she's received is deserving, perhaps only because of the amount of energy she is able to consistently channel through Poppy.

Speaking of which - while there are aspects of Poppy's character that seem true to life, she continuously toes the line of caricature (giggling upon discovering her bike stolen: "I didn't even get to say goodbye"), which threatens to prevent us from taking much of Happy-Go-Lucky seriously, or at least makes it difficult for us to understand Poppy's emotional potential. It's not that Mike Leigh doesn't have a handle on the emotions he's illustrating - not at all, just that some of the transitions are so jarring you find yourself rubbing your sore facial muscles as you leave the theater. Laughing, cringing, frowning, smiling, smirking, worrying - it's hard to know how we're supposed to be feeling and why (i.e., the scene with a homeless man and most of the interactions with Scott). If I had to direct any criticism in any area, it might be toward this emotional rollercoaster ride.

But at the same time, maybe that's the genius of Happy-Go-Lucky: Leigh allows us to connect with so many different characters at so many different times. Sometimes I felt like Scott, manically irritated by Poppy's inability to have any kind of serious conversation; sometimes I felt like Zoe, appreciative of the positive influence Poppy has on people's lives; and sometimes I felt like Poppy, confused as to why everyone is so uptight and unable to experience the joyful moments in life. All of these feelings were valid, and none of them felt forced upon me.

Poppy Cross, stuck on smiling...

As most "realists" would tell you, people like Poppy are due for a rude awakening. It's fitting that she has a small one in Happy-Go-Lucky, and it's refreshing when the resolution is both positive and realistic. I don't feel any more like Poppy now than I did when I saw it nearly a month ago, but I've since caught myself occasionally reflecting on my attitude in a particular situation. While there is terrific acting (especially by Marsan), brilliantly funny dialogue, and effortlessly relatable characters, it may be for that reason alone - that self-reflecting significance, that Happy-Go-Lucky should be considered a must-see.

Grade:
Writing - 10
Acting - 10
Production - 9
Emotional Impact - 8
Music - 5
Social Significance - 5

Total: 47/50= 94% = A

REVIEW: Role Models (B-)

I share your disappointment, guys - while funny, this movie wasn't as good as it could have been...

Find my review from the Star Tribune here. The 20-30 words I lost on the editing room floor are unfortunate, but I found it a pretty funny movie that's still reliant on too many stale, immature jokes to set it apart from so many similar movies.

Stay for an extra scene early in the end credits. Then, while watching it, step back and think about what you and everyone around you is laughing at. I mean, come on, are our standards really that low for hilarious comedy these days?

Grade:
Writing - 7
Acting - 8
Production - 9
Emotional Impact - 8
Music - 5
Social Significance - 4

Total: 41/50= 82% = B-