Thoughts on BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

Who is Benh Zeitlin? How is this his first feature film? How on earth did the movie happen?

I don't understand this.

Benh Zeitlin is the co-writer, director, AND co-composer (my favorite score of the year so far) of BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, a first for the guy which doesn't make any sense when you watch the film. It feels so assured in its style, its tone, its look, its treatments of its main characters, almost everything feels contradictory to the fact that it is a first film.

Which makes me so envious. (I watched an interview online and he looks like he is 22 years old. I felt so bad about myself and my ambitions. But it turns out he's about to be 30. So I feel a little better. Just a little.)

It is weird how certain ambitious films work for and me and others don't. Terrance Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE is a mess, yet a beautiful one, and the almost as equally ambitious PROMETHEUS falls flat on its face for me. BEASTS is one of those where I can get past the messiness and find the greatness. So, very much like a first film, it isn't perfect. However, what ultimately is presented to us is a colorfully ambitious film that isn't afraid to go big and take chances.

The story is this: Hushpuppy (played by non actor Quvenzhané Wallis, who is used extremely well) lives with her daddy in an isolated island off the coast of Louisiana and must come to terms with an oncoming threat of her town being destroyed by a storm and her father's fatal heart condition. 


Oh, also there are magical beasts called Aurochs. 

The world presented here is filled with garbage, wet and grimy, sticky and muddy. The Bathtub, the isolated village the film lives in, is dirty. but next to the grime is a magical quality that I can't pinpoint exactly how it is achieved. A film professor told me once that the audience always wants their trash to be aesthetically pleasing. Beautiful garbage he says. And this is what BEASTS looks like.

In fact most of the film works by having two unlike things together on screen.

Almost every scene has two opposing concepts conflicting with each other. Beauty and disgust. Joy and sadness. Physically impoverished and emotionally rich. Life and death. The film walks the line between each conflicting themes pretty effortlessly. Something is in conflict with its opposition in every shot of the film.

BEATS also creates an individual conflict for the audience. The film is told with a 6 year old's perspective of the world which is really the main reason why this movie works for me. We see through her eyes extreme poverty, apocalyptic natural disasters, whore houses, and death.

These moments do two things: they bring us back to the feelings we had as a child dealing with the darkness of the world, and the naivety we had when dealing with them. But our own experiences and knowledge continually undercuts this with a tinge of sadness. Its a conundrum really. Feeling a child's naivety while keeping our adult cynicism in the backseat feels really odd and strange, but also new and exciting. I would really compare this film to Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. Both films deal with a child-like perspective on the world, yet they allow us to think of our own childhood memories which will ultimately always lead us to compare our thought process then and how we think now.

The unbalanced feeling I had while watching BEASTS really did excite me.

At the heart of the film is what Hushpuppy ultimately does. It is what we all do in our lives without realizing it and that is creating our own narrative about our lives. Quite a few times she says that "In a million years, when kids go to school they gonna know, once there was a Hushpuppy and she lived with her daddy in the Bathtub." She matters, everyone will know who she is, her actions affect the entire world. Which is so heartfelt and sad. We know very few care for this girl, who lives off the land in shanty houses separated from the rest of us. But it is hard to want to contradict her. I think this is what we all want to believe. That we have made a large impact on the world. What the film does is give that to her.

This film has gained some criticism for being exploitative and promoting anti-government agendas and isolationism. That the narrative is bunk and its depictions of its characters as unflattering. I don't quite get why some people are delving into the politics of this film. It is definitely an emotional ride rather than claiming a political statement. It has these elements, yes, but they are never dwelled upon and are pushed aside for the emotional story of Hushpuppy. It is a much more visceral film than what these critics are saying.
A good article about the polarizing effect this film has can be read over at IndieWire.

This is one of the bests movies of the year and I highly recommend seeking it out. Seriously, the audience I saw it with applauded and didn't move from their seats until the credits had ended, which is a rarity for a non-superhero film. Go for the amazing performance Wallis gives. Or go for the incredible visuals. Just go see it. In a summer of emotionally empty summer films (I'm looking at you Dark Knight Rises) BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD is much needed. It really will affect you in some way or another.

Mitchum In Paris

Yeah...

I think I was in a loopy mood one night when I made this video. I had watched three 40s-50s films back to back to back and whenever I do that I start to get in a trance. It isn't necessarily feeling like I've jumped into a time machine and back to when these films were made. I just can't shake off this dreamlike quality. 

So I finished with OUT OF THE PAST, a classic Hollywood noir starring Robert Mitchum. And in this dream like state I thought, "Man, Robert Mitchum. he balls so hard." because I had listened to Watch the Throne's "Niggas in Paris" on loop at work. So in my dreamlike state I thought it would be a good idea to mesh the two. I don't think this video balls as hard as Mitchum does, but I'll leave it up to you to make up your own decision about that.*

*If you don't choose Mitchum, then we cannot be friends. Look at him. How is Humphrey Bogart more famous than this guy? Bogart has a nasty grill. It's like the inside of a fig newton bar has been caked in the gaps between his teeth.

Wong Kar Wai's IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE set to "In Ear Park"

Here's my history with this beautiful, vibrant, subdued, and quiet film that is deceptively small but large in magnitude. I blind-bought it (I did a lot of blind buying Criterion films last year) and watched it one night. My thoughts about it were pleasant and overall positive. I went to work right after.

The next day I woke up and surprisingly the movie was on my mind. After a few minutes of this, I decided to put the DVD back in and re-watch it. This time I really enjoyed it. There were moments from the first viewing that I didn't catch, didn't quite understand. And this second viewing was the key to unlocking certain mysteries.

But I didn't stop there. I drove back to my home town that day. It was late. Probably two or three in the morning and I wasn't ready to go to bed. I brought IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE with me on a hunch. The cover was tempting me. I put it in again and watched the film for a third time in two days. The subtleties, the mysterious, the scope of it kept increasing.

I've probably seen the film around 10 times now in the span of a year and I am still in love with it. It has led me to watch many of Wong Kar Wai's other great films. Even 2046, the companion piece to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Kar Wai calls it an echo, but it is totally a sequel), which I was reluctant towards, was exceptional. But nothing has quite topped this film. I don't think many will for me.

I said all of that to present a video I made. A music video if you will. I have recently fallen in love with the editing process and wanted to edit this movie into something. Here it is.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

   Miranda July’s debut Me and You and Everyone We Know is a very cute and quirky and overall important movie to me. It brings up the issue of human connection during a digital age. And anybody who knows me will know that if there is a movie about human connection, I’ll most likely poop back and forth with it. Forever. (Instead of asking how one could do that and more importantly WHY anyone would want to do that, it would be better if you just watched the movie). 

Christine, July’s character, is working on an art project where she sets a camera on still photos of two or more people and plays out conversations with them, giving them a dialogue, a story, anything to give the still photo more life. Many of the characters in the movie are, in a way, these still photos. They live together, work together, eat together, but don’t communicate very well with each other. One subplot is entirely through a web chat where the line between innocent and perverted is hard to see. (pooping back and forth. Forever. POOPING BACK AND FORTH. FOREVER) Christine with her art project in hand, stands face to face with the person who receives art project submissions and is told to mail it in to avoid it getting lost. 

Why I find the movie so moving and important to me is because I DO those things. Someone calls me and I let it go to voice mail, wait a few minutes, and TEXT them back. It doesn’t matter who it is. I just don’t like talking on the phone. Why is that? I’ve asked myself this question a few times before, but I really tried to answer it after watching this movie. Was I scared of bad conversation? No. Do I not like talking to the caller? Not usually. Then what was it? Laziness. Pure, fat –ass –waking – up – at – 3:30 – pm laziness. (This whole “not taking any classes” thing is ruining any chance of a good sleep schedule. A social life at that) 

There are just as many instances of skewed communication as there are people trying to make some. Richard, a divorced father of two played by John Hawkes, literally sets his own hand on fire in order for his kids to just TALK with him.  I might be that type of person who has to have a family member burn something of themselves in order to become aware of them. I don’t want to be that type of person. 

 So this movie actually makes me want to answer phone calls, eat lunch with people, actually TALK and express EMOTIONS with them. And poop back and forth with them. Forever.

Drive: A Review

Think of his sweet jacket as a cape.

Carey Mulligan

We should totally hang out

We should make out too.

That was my haiku about Carey Mulligan.

Oh, my darling Carey Mulligan. So soft, so quaint, so innocent. Your dimples can express the beauty of the world more than Renoir, Michelangelo, and Bob Ross ever could. Your smile seems to reach out and grasp my inner being and comfort it until it transforms from hard, cold, and angered into warm dripping slurp. Oh Mulligan My Mulligan…

DRIVE, a film by Danish filmmaker Nicholas Winding Refn, has all of the recognizable tropes of a crime/noir film but never seems to have a conventional moment.  But the unconventional is no new territory for Refn who on his last two films embody the term. 2008’s BRONSON is a menacing biopic of Michael Peterson, a story of the most notorious prisoner in Britain that discards the notions of how a biopic should be and incorporates the pacing and feel not so unlike the late Stanley Kubrick. 2009’s VALHALLA RISING, about a one eyed mute near the year 1000 AD that has supernatural abilities, seems content in prioritizing mood over narrative. So, hearing the news of Refn’s next project, centered on a stunt driver in LA taking a heist job gone wrong in order to protect the girl he loves, had me extremely excited. Knowing the man’s previous projects, I knew he would make the popular setting and familiar story unique in the distinctive Refn way. And unique it is, by bridging the incredible style and mood Refn has shown in his previous works with a heftier story. 

The story is this: A part time stunt driver, a part time car mechanic, a part time heist driver (played by Ryan Gosling with an intense and commanding presence I thought he could never show) falls in love with his neighbor Irene and her son (played by the beautiful, rapturous, enchanting Carey Mulligan). Irene’s husband, Standard, gets released from jail a short time afterward. Standard needs to pay back protection money from some gangsters unless he wants to risk his family's livelihood. Driver, for Irene and her son’s sake, decides to help Standard on his last job. As expected, the job goes poorly and Driver must right the wrongs that have occurred in order to protect Irene and her son. 

 

Aren't these two just the sweetest things?

The relationship between Driver and Irene is subtly emotional. Driver is shy and meek around her. Because of this, the scenes involving the two are more about quick glances, long pauses and the unsaid. His motivations throughout the film become entirely believable because of this relationship. The restraint from the two of them comes off stronger than immediate passion and leaves room for more impactful moments later on.  

The subtle love story is only a starter for DRIVE. Once Driver is cornered into a position of life and death, some dark side of him comes out. His driving skills, his knife and gun skills all come off as instinctual. He kicks ass. He kicks ass hard. The dichotomy of the shy Driver and the killer Driver is one of the most interesting aspects of the movie. The internal conflict between the peaceful, quiet side he wants to embody versus the dark, murderous side he wants to avoid is fascinating. The dark part of him seems to terrify him as the film progresses. And not only does that scare him, but knowing that he has to have this side to survive and protect his loved ones scares him as well. 

Driver’s character is one of the most interesting protagonists this year, which is a shame considering everyone else in the film isn’t as remarkable. The other characters are all well acted, but come off as cardboard cut outs from other crime films. The two main antagonists are bad guys because they are. Ron Perlman’s Nino is a bad guy because he is rude and vulgar. Albert Brooks’ Bernie is also bad, but worse because he is higher up than Nino. It’s these stereotypical characters that come off as stale, which is saying a lot considering the film is everything other than. 

The action is dramatic and short like a violent punch to the audience. There is probably ten minutes of actual action, but the tension that leads up to these moments makes the action seem present throughout the film. Refn shoots these scenes with a menacing yet beautiful tone that only dreams can convey well.  The settings of these action sequences come off as a little off, where the floor might drop out from under you at any moment. The tone of the action is also helped by Refn’s musical choices. There seems to be two styles of music. There are moments of 80s synth pop and moments of ethereal techno vibes. The music together seems to mesh John Hughes movies and Refn’s own. I couldn’t help but be astonished that this type of style could work for an action film. It is incredibly refreshing.

 

DRIVE is a film that I needed to watch a second time. It wasn't that I didn't like it at first. My first reaction was rather positive. But DRIVE is one of those films that leaves an impression inside of you after you leave the theater. I needed the second viewing so I could discover what that internal feeling was. Sadly, I'm not a good enough writer to articulate this feeling. To me, DRIVE is not a film to be watched, but to be felt. And with all good movies, that feeling lingers.

 

Cantagion: A review.

Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion could not have come out at a better time. Contagion, a film depicting a catastrophic epidemic, opens on the weekend of the ten year anniversary (strange to call it an anniversary) of the tragic events of September 11. It is hard to not think about the aftermath of 9/11 and its affect on the world populace and I think it is best to keep these thoughts in mind while watching this great film. 

Let’s get the “well duh’s” out of the way. The film looks fantastic. The directing is spot on. The pacing is swift and the film is entertaining throughout. All of this comes with a Soderbergh film. What did stand out to me even more was how improvisational each scene felt. The pauses, the stuttering, the “uhs,” all feel organic and genuine. Scenes that lesser movies would have made cliché come off as authentic. Deaths come at a shock to characters who can’t take it in immediately.  Only when several months have passed is when it finally hits. And it hits hard. The dialogue and acting, involving Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne and many more, easily makes these people feel like real people and that this horrible epidemic is really happening. 

What Contagion also does well is creating tension early on, just by showing everyday habits everyone does that nobody thinks about doing. Knowing that the virus could be transmitted by a touch or a cough, any focus on a door handle, a hand rail, a handshake, a hotel bed all carry a huge weight and significance. Each of these seemingly small and irrelevant objects and gestures  could potentially carry a massive death sentence. Knowing the encroaching doom that is bound to occur really creates a tense and scary experience. 

But on a closer look, through all of the tragedy and horror, there are glimmers of hope in the film: A sick patient trying desperately to reach over and lend a cold patient her blanket; a man giving up his vaccine for another less advantaged child; concern over someone’s well-being instead of whether they will get them sick. Moments like this are sprinkled throughout the horror and the rioting and the anarchism. Soderbergh isn’t interested in shedding a too bright light on horrifying events, but he does recognize the strength and warmth that can make shape and reveal itself.

Which brings me back to my previous point. Because the aftermath of 9/11 was present in my mind, Contagion became a little more than just an entertaining film, but an incredibly moving one. A lot of the film is dire, hundreds of thousands of people are dying, people are robbing and kidnapping, rioting and chaos is rampant throughout the world and it represents this horror exceptionally well. But where Contagion truly shines is in these small, yet powerful moments of kindness that rise above the doom and gloom of the world just enough to keep one afloat.

An Exercise in Writing Part II

Greatest Movie Ever Sold – Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame came out with a new documentary about the process of gaining sponsors for the movie industry. In a Meta way, Spurlock’s film IS the process he has to go through to fund his film. While clever and entertaining throughout, I came out feeling just slightly more informed than I had been before. Although I found it a little slight, if you are a fan of Super Size Me, this documentary is bound to please you. 

X-men First Class – Two words. McAvoy. Fassbender. The two leads playing Dr. X and Magneto are the driving force of this well made film. The relationship between these two characters is the main reason X-men is so beloved by fans and this film does not disappoint. While I found the story to be rushed and certain secondary characters plot lines to be present only for the hardcore fans, X-Men First Class is still a first class summer blockbuster. (Heyoo…)

The Tree of Life – Terrance Malick (The Thin Red Line, The New World, Days of Heaven) is not for everyone. His fascination with unanswered questions, his deliberate pacing, and overly philosophical stories can turn some people off. Tree of Life is no different. What some people can find boring, I experienced an enriched lyrical way to tell a coming of age story. The fragmented timeframe expertly shows how we remember our past. We never really remember things in broad terms, but we remember the feelings, the smells, how someone says something, or how the light was shining in through the window. I can’t argue with someone who finds it hard to mold into this type of storytelling because I find it difficult at times, but I feel elated when I come out of a theater realizing that through almost 100 years of cinema I have not seen anything quite like it.

Midnight in Paris – Do you like Woody Allen movies? Do you like looking at a gorgeous city? Do you like looking at gorgeous people like Marion Cotillard or Rachel McAdams? (Maybe Owen Wilson is cute to you ladies?) Do you like a great soundtrack? Do you just like movies? How about pointless questions? Do you like those? Because I’m giving them to you. Midnight In Paris is a delight to watch from start to finish. With a character who believes he was born a generation to late, someone like me who also believes this at certain times, connected with the movie very easily. Woody Allen’s latest is one of the year’s best so far. 

Transformers Dark of the Moon – I admit I was a fan of the first Transformers but after hearing the putrid reviews of the second movie from the internet and from trustworthy friends, I avoided it like a plague. What brought me to this movie is a mystery but I sat for a overly long 2 ½ hours to only get 30 minutes of honest exciting action. Is it worth going to the theaters to see it? Definitely not. I would hold off until a rental so you can skip the first 2 hours to get to the nonstop action of the last 30 minutes.Or not rent it at all and watch something worthwhile. Because it's incredibly stupid. But you probably know that already. So go read a good book. I hear books are good.