Juste la fin du monde

Canada’s talented Xavier Dolan brings us an adaptation of a play about a writer who returns to his family after 12 years to tell them that he is dying.  In an angry version of the Chilean film The Life of Fish, he comes face to face with his past and his family and also those that have appeared since he left. The movie has some good moments and some pertinent observations on families and the ability of their members to listen to each other and to accept their differences.  Unfortunately the film spends much of its time in in your face close-ups and hysterical shouting punctuated by occasional reveries in flashback of Louis the protagonist.  Most of the individual conversations and group scenes are frustrated by a lack of opportunity to really talk and Louis ends up maintaining his reserve.  It is thus not a wholly satisfactory film despite the calibre of the acting with a lack of back stories emerging and a bunch of not especially sympathetic characters.  Nathalie Baye is effective as the mother, Marion Cotillard is good but fails to nail the sister-in-law, Gaspard Ulliel is a silent observing Louis but for me the most impressive were Lea Seydoux as the sister and Vincent Cassel as the hot-headed brother Antoine.  A mixed success that probably deserves a lot of the negative critiques but is still a film blessed with much of Dolan’s talent.

★★★

War Machine

Tries to be a satire on the American intervention in Afghanistan and falls short, despite some wry observations about US arrogance and naivete in the field. Ends up on a pretty serious and even mawkish note.  Brad Pitt almost pulls off a caricature of an American general.  Support cast are more effective especially Meg Tilly as his wife and Tilda Swinton as a German politician.  There is a whole war scene late on for no clear reason after the remainder of the film covered the backstage politicking.  Well, it was all based on a Rolling Stone article exposing a real General and series of events. Probably Ben Kingsley imitating the Afghan leader had the most fun.  All told another failed project with better intentions and good components that just doesn’t hang together.

★★

Collateral Beauty

Choral musing on death and grief, this film was panned by critics but is not perhaps bereft of any merit.  It does address different reactions and layers to death, albeit in a contrived and theatrical way and there are some interesting ideas on advertising and the stories we tell ourselves or want to hear.  Then there is a good cast, with often tricky roles to portray. Will Smith holds the centre as a mass of blocked uncommunicative pain, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet and Michael Peña are reasonably credible as his colleagues.  Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley gallantly lead a theatre troup and Naomie Harris chimes in as a fellow sufferer among the parents of dead children club.  The trouble is that the whole package is not very credible, is handled in too much of a pretentious way and has some plot twists that beg disbelief.  So, perhaps the right questions being asked with the wrong attitude.  I can’t say I felt it was a total turkey but it is not much better.  What a waste!

★★

Graduation

This film took me several attempts to complete, perhaps because the depressing subject of corruption on a daily basis in a developing country is one I am only too familiar with.  This film is by Cristian Mungiu and is set in Brasov, a provincial city in Romania.  Romeo is a successful local doctor whose main goal in life is seeing his 18 year old daughter graduate High School and get enough grades to accept a scholarship to study in Britain and therefore get out of the hellhole he feels Romania has become.  On the eve of the exam, his daughter is assaulted and injures her arm, this and the shock impeding her performance.  Romeo seeks to find a way to help his daughter get the grades she needs anyway, via a sympathetic cop who had been a schoolmate of his and who can help him find the way to protect his daughter’s prospects.  And so we embark on a descent into the mud and mire of favours, connections and the like which plague these countries.  All very quiet and natural and frightening in their extent.  Romeo (Adrian Titieni) could come out of a Dardenne movie, such are the obstacles and woes he has in life: a depressed wife, a school teacher mistress who wants him to commit to her, a difficult daughter, rocks thrown through his house and car, which we never know the origin of but which symbolise the wild west nature of this run down middle class suburb, not to mention his job at the local state hospital.

Mungiu writes a good script and his direction is sure, showing often more hints of what happens than the real thing.  The film is a bit slow but very convincing, even if it depresses you a lot. And we really never know if there is any real way out…most people are dreaming and subsisting.  There is a great scene in a children’s playground where a minor act of violence erupts because of the inability of the society to follow the rules but then again we see that sometimes the rules are too harsh and inappropriate.  What a situation!  So, a good watch as long as you feel strong and a moving movie on the effects of corruption.

★★★★+

La noche que mi madre mató a mi padre

Spanish comedy with a good cast that spare this from being a real flop.  The pretext is a couple who are planning their next film and are doing a sort of casting, not only of Spanish actors but also of Argentine actor Diego Peretti who they want to have in the film.  They all meet in the couple’s house (Belen Rueda and Eduard Fernandez) and the others include scriptwriter Susana (effective Maria Pujalte) and Carlos and Alex.  Most of them seem to have been related in some way, either ex’s or suchlike and there are all sorts of other issues underneath to emerge.  Well, the night ends up being nothing of what you would expect.  Personally I felt it needed much more farce and slapstick and were it not for the actors I would have switched off earlier.  It’s just not good enough to pull off the rather forced script.  Very sub-Almodovar.

★★

Table 19

Harmless enough comedy about 6 people sharing a table at a wedding and lumped together because they are misfits.  The wedding is your typical embarrassing type full of karaoke wailers and inappropriate speeches but the main focus is how this bunch of losers can bond and take a step forward in life via the accidents of the weekend.  Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robertson play a disillusioned husband and wife on the verge of a break up, the glorious June Squibb plays an old forgotten nanny of the bride, Tony Revolori is a young adolescent seeking his first girlfriend, Stephen Merchant is a British white collar thief and Anna Kendrick, who never completely convinces as an everygirl and here the ex-best friend of the bride recently dumped by the best man.  There are some poignant moments in this film and the odd good line.  Most of the comedy, especially the slapstick is distinctly underdone so in the end this becomes a somewhat uneven but not completely unenjoyable little American film.

★★

Anesthesia

I generally like choral movies but this one is rather a forced spectacle thanks to the direction and screenwriting of Tim Blake Nelson.  The main character is a philosophy professor (Sam Waterston in good form) who talks about how we are all anaesthetised and becoming increasingly separate from each other with perilous consequences.  The film then proceeds to demonstrate that with various interwoven stories involving members of his family and complete strangers including a violent drug addict and a bored trophy wife.  Some of the scenes are very clichéd and even embarrassing but oddly enough it is reasonably watchable despite the parts that make you squirm.  Glenn Close, Kristin Stewart and Gretchen Moll give good support.

★★

Born to be Blue

Canadian film on part of the life of Chet Baker, famous trumpeter who fought a battle against drugs most of his life.  After leaving his native prairie Oklahoma and becoming a success in the 50´s despite being disregarded by most of the main black artists of the time, Baker is assaulted in a drug payback affair and loses all his front teeth and ability to play.  With the support of his girlfriend Jane (Carmen Egojo, good) he fights his way back to getting a chance to record again and appear at the famous Birdland club in NY.  The final part of his life after the timespan of this film is spent in Europe, addicted to heroin but ironically playing his best music.

The film is much what you would expect from this type of bio: tortured artists who is hell to live with, supportive partner who ends up having to save herself, not very welcoming family background and then some key moments, which in this case include singing and trumpet playing.  The music is good as is the photography, moody and suitable for the era.  There were screenplay decisions I did not fully follow – at one point Chet is making a film of his own life and Jane is the actress playing his first wife.  And one or two scenes do not lift above cliché level.  However, while it seems slow paced our appreciation of Ethan Hawke in the lead grows and one or two of his scenes are really touching given the fact that he was clearly not the nicest person.  Hawke’s portrayal is really quite understated and yet moving.

★★★+

The girl who played with fire: Millennium 2

Part of the Stieg Larsson trio of whodunnits which are perhaps the most dynamic of the Nordic thrillers top hit the screen with fairly grotesque storylines, plenty of physical and psychological violence.  It is a pretty well put together murder mystery with new twists to keep us engaged but at the end of the day, were it not for Noomi Rapace’s very physical and chameleonic performance we wouldn’t really care too much about it all.  The setting of Stockholm is perhaps the other feature to shine as well as the centrepiece, journalist Mikael Blomqvist who is played by the recently deceased Michael Nyqvist.  Entertaining enough.

★★★