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Across the Universe ***
The Darjeeling Limited ****
No Country for Old Men *****
Across the Universe is not a film I expect to see more than once; the soundtrack, on the other hand, is something I might turn to again. The real purpose of the film anyway is to re-present the Beatles songs for a new generation, and it succeeds at that, I suppose, though with a threadbare plot and only hints of the turmoil of the 1960s that made people like John Lennon so vital. The characters all have names taken from the Beatles canon (Jude, Rita, Sadie, Prudence, etc.) and the songs fall into place pretty much as you might expect, though there are some creative sequences and the cameos are enjoyable (though I didn't recognize Joe Cocker until the credits rolled). I suppose the chances that you will enjoy this movie are proportional to how much you enjoy seeing and hearing reinterpretations of Beatles songs. This film does that better than most. To me, the Beatles songs are so ingrained into my musical vocabulary that they are roughly equivalent to oxygen atoms--it sometimes takes bad air to make me aware of how much I take breathing for granted. Still, this is not at all a bad film, but, for me, it served more as an alternative visual template for the songs.
By this point, I'm sure most people have made up their mind about whether they enjoy Wes Anderson's style of film-making or not. I, like many, fell in love with Rushmore first, but it was The Royal Tenenbaums that sealed the deal. Like any great director, Anderson's failures (The Life Aquatic comes to mind) are inherently more interesting than whatever else is showing in the multiplex. Darjeeling is his most mature film to date, though; at times hilarious, but most often sadly poignant or, more precisely, less funny after reflection. There is a hint of this in Rushmore in the way both Max Fischer and Herman Blume mask their loneliness and sorrow with hyperactivity (Max) or ironic detachment (Herman). But they are both wounded and pained, almost past the point of being able to communicate it. What Rushmore does with romance, Darjeeling does with family relations, and the results are as often heartbreaking as they are funny. What they never fail to be, however, is endearing. A trite word, perhaps, in these days where the audience is more ironically detached than any character could be and still seem human, but there is nothing trite--characters, music, shots--about this wonderful film.
I saw a matinee of No Country for Old Men with an audience composed largely of retired guys, at least one of whom confused the first preview for the main feature: "Are we in the right film?" he asked his buddy. He seemed similarly confused after the film ended, asking "What the hell was that?" Indeed, the literary stylings of Cormac McCarthy's exploration of human violence--which the Coen Brothers follow almost precisely--are not for everyone. The depiction of violence itself is not the point, at least not in the way the retired guy might have been expecting. But violence--the legacy of violence in the West, the legacy of violence on its victims and its practitioners--is exactly the point of the story, and Tommy Lee Jones, who plays the moral center of the film in somewhat the same fashion as Samuel L. Jackson ends up as the moral center of Pulp Fiction, is our tour guide through this savage land, almost by default. The first half of the film sets us up for a typical underdog-outsmarting-the-gangsters plot, but anyone expecting another replay of this curiously American narrative is probably not going to walk away fulfilled. Anyone who is ready to question why these kinds of narratives are so appealing to so many people, however, will discover a dark meditation on our collective soul and one of the best films of the year, certainly the best film the Coens have ever made (and, to my mind, that is saying quite a bit). And between this and In the Valley of Elah, Tommy Lee Jones has nailed an acting Oscar this year.
SITE NOTE: I'm near the end of my schoolwork for the semester, so you may look forward (?)to more frequent postings here for the next few weeks.
The Darjeeling Limited ****
No Country for Old Men *****
Across the Universe is not a film I expect to see more than once; the soundtrack, on the other hand, is something I might turn to again. The real purpose of the film anyway is to re-present the Beatles songs for a new generation, and it succeeds at that, I suppose, though with a threadbare plot and only hints of the turmoil of the 1960s that made people like John Lennon so vital. The characters all have names taken from the Beatles canon (Jude, Rita, Sadie, Prudence, etc.) and the songs fall into place pretty much as you might expect, though there are some creative sequences and the cameos are enjoyable (though I didn't recognize Joe Cocker until the credits rolled). I suppose the chances that you will enjoy this movie are proportional to how much you enjoy seeing and hearing reinterpretations of Beatles songs. This film does that better than most. To me, the Beatles songs are so ingrained into my musical vocabulary that they are roughly equivalent to oxygen atoms--it sometimes takes bad air to make me aware of how much I take breathing for granted. Still, this is not at all a bad film, but, for me, it served more as an alternative visual template for the songs.
By this point, I'm sure most people have made up their mind about whether they enjoy Wes Anderson's style of film-making or not. I, like many, fell in love with Rushmore first, but it was The Royal Tenenbaums that sealed the deal. Like any great director, Anderson's failures (The Life Aquatic comes to mind) are inherently more interesting than whatever else is showing in the multiplex. Darjeeling is his most mature film to date, though; at times hilarious, but most often sadly poignant or, more precisely, less funny after reflection. There is a hint of this in Rushmore in the way both Max Fischer and Herman Blume mask their loneliness and sorrow with hyperactivity (Max) or ironic detachment (Herman). But they are both wounded and pained, almost past the point of being able to communicate it. What Rushmore does with romance, Darjeeling does with family relations, and the results are as often heartbreaking as they are funny. What they never fail to be, however, is endearing. A trite word, perhaps, in these days where the audience is more ironically detached than any character could be and still seem human, but there is nothing trite--characters, music, shots--about this wonderful film.
I saw a matinee of No Country for Old Men with an audience composed largely of retired guys, at least one of whom confused the first preview for the main feature: "Are we in the right film?" he asked his buddy. He seemed similarly confused after the film ended, asking "What the hell was that?" Indeed, the literary stylings of Cormac McCarthy's exploration of human violence--which the Coen Brothers follow almost precisely--are not for everyone. The depiction of violence itself is not the point, at least not in the way the retired guy might have been expecting. But violence--the legacy of violence in the West, the legacy of violence on its victims and its practitioners--is exactly the point of the story, and Tommy Lee Jones, who plays the moral center of the film in somewhat the same fashion as Samuel L. Jackson ends up as the moral center of Pulp Fiction, is our tour guide through this savage land, almost by default. The first half of the film sets us up for a typical underdog-outsmarting-the-gangsters plot, but anyone expecting another replay of this curiously American narrative is probably not going to walk away fulfilled. Anyone who is ready to question why these kinds of narratives are so appealing to so many people, however, will discover a dark meditation on our collective soul and one of the best films of the year, certainly the best film the Coens have ever made (and, to my mind, that is saying quite a bit). And between this and In the Valley of Elah, Tommy Lee Jones has nailed an acting Oscar this year.
SITE NOTE: I'm near the end of my schoolwork for the semester, so you may look forward (?)to more frequent postings here for the next few weeks.
posted by Chazzbot at 6:00 PM
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