11-26-2008
Rachel Getting Married
Last week, I finally got out to see “Rachel Getting Married.” I’d been intrigued by the movie ever since I found out it was directed by Jonathan Demme and had Anne Hathaway playing a train wreck recovering alcoholic/drug addict. I didn’t really know what to expect, but saw the movie had gotten good reviews in it’s initial limited release. Of course, reviews don’t mean squat to me; that’s why I go.
What to say about this movie? It’s paced very strangely. Hathaway plays Kym, a troubled young woman just released from rehab so that she can go home for her sister’s wedding. Early in the movie, allusions are made to Kym having been part of some dreadful family trauma, but it is not explained till later in the movie.
First and foremost, Hathaway is brilliant. She displays a tough exterior hiding a touching vulnerability. Returning to her family brings out all sorts of buried issues, and she isn’t sure how to cope with being thrust back into her family life again.
The family, including sister Rachel, played bewitchingly by Rosemarie DeWitt, is torn between wanting Kym back and unsure of how to cope with all the drama that she brings. Right from the start, Kym causes difficulties for her sister when she learns that Rachel has chosen her friend Emma to be her maid of honor instead of Kym. The scenes between Kym, Rachel and Emma are fraught with tension, with Emma feeling that Kym is a self-centered bordeline sociopath and Rachel feeling love for her sister yet hatred at the way Kym’s pathos monopolizes the family.
Special mention needs to be made of Debra Winger as Rachel and Kym’s mother Abby. Winger brings a cool detachedness to the role, reflecting how her influences on her children have long-suffering consequences. Winger is brilliant as ever. She displays an awkwardness around her children, suggesting that Abby has never been comfortable with the title “mother” and all it brings.
As a movie, “Rachel Getting Married” suffers from pacing issues. The rehearsal dinner drags for way too long, and there is a 5-10 minute sequence of the reception showing music and dancing a little else. Demme appears to want to suggest how life goes on despite the chaos and pathos around the family, and while that’s an admirable thing to portray, in the context of a movie it means that the movie derails because these sequences drag away from the characters and the plot.
Despite those issues, the movie is worth seeing for the performances of Hathaway, DeWitt and Winger.
Posted by Candace in Movies | No Comments »
11-19-2008
Minority Ghettos
So, ever since election night this year, I’ve been in a tizzy. The whole evening left me with very mixed feelings. I mean, yes, Obama won, and that’s great (Friends don’t let friends vote Republican). Yet on the same night Prop 8 passed. I think this is the first time in American history that people voted to actually strip another group of people of their rights.
What makes the whole thing even more depressing is that evidently an overwhelming portion of the African-American community voted in favor of Prop 8.
I remember back when I lived in New York arguing with a friend over whether black people could be racist. She said no, I said yes. Her reasoning was that racism implied having the power to oppress.
Well, evidently the African-American community has reached that plateau this year with a vengence.
That’s not to let white people off the hook, who were very narrowly against Prop 8.
However, there’s something especially sad about seeing another minority, one that has experienced awful prejudice and oppression, voting to oppress another.
I don’t think I said should be surprised though. Human history is replete with examples of this. The Irish in 19th century America were horribly disenfranchised. Signs posted all over the country said, “No Irish allowed.” Yet the Irish were very vocal about not freeing the slaves.
Gay people don’t get a pass either. I’ve heard and seen gay people define themselves with a separateness from other minorities. For instance, the whole thing about MichFest and trans people has been a source of surprise and sadness.
It’s almost as if even as an oppressed group, there is something innate in people that makes them say, “Well, at least we’re not like them.”
I have to wonder, what happens when there are no minorities to oppress. People do like to draw a line in the sand: extend rights here, but no farther. Still, if there’s one thing that history teaches, it’s that fighting against extending rights is a losing battle.
Maybe by the time gay people achieve equality, humans as a whole will find aliens that they can then discriminate against.
Posted by Candace in Rants | No Comments »
11-12-2008
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The last movie of the summer I saw was Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” I’d read a little about it and was curious. Scarlet Johansson is one of my favorite actresses currently. She brings passion and humor to most of her roles, and Penelope Cruz is almost always brilliant.
Allen himself tends to stick to what he like: neurotic characters in love or criminals. “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan” are both brilliant. I saw “Match Point” in the theaters and found it brilliant but disturbing. Allen’s output got more erratic after he ditched Diane Keaton as his muse for Mia Farrow. Now Johansson seems to serve as his inspiration, and he’s made some interesting films with her, including the aforementioned “Match Point” and “Scoop.”
At movie’s opening, Vicky and her friend Cristina have journey to Barcelona. Vicky is working on her dissertation on Catalan Identity. Vicky seems very set in her ways, is engaged and ready to be married. Cristina is more free-spirited, uncommitted to anything but trying to “live for art.”
Of course, upon exploring Barcelona, Vicky finds she isn’t nearly as settled as she thinks, as she falls into a torrid one night stand with Juan Antonio, played well by Javier Bardem, who I liked in “Love in the Time of Cholera.”
Allen sets the movie at a languid pace, as Vicky has tremendous guilt feelings over her brief dalliance with Juan Antonio and then Cristina starts to have an affair with him.
Things get really interesting when Juan Antonio’s wife Maria Elena, played by Penelope Cruz with wild abandon, shows up. A love triangle between Maria Elena, Cristina and Juan Antonio emerges as Allen probes what it means to be an artist.
In many ways, the central character is Barcelona itself, which Allen films with the reverent love he showed for New York in his 70s movies. Allen films the architecture and scenery in vivid colors, and always makes them central to the important scenes of the movie.
Yet for all that, the movie seems to drift a lot. I found the constant voice-over narration a cheap device. I’d rather see the actresses and actors develop their feelings and wonder what is burbling beneath the surface than have a voice tell me what they are feeling.
For those who like their movies tied up in neat little bows, this is probably not the film for you. It doesn’t really resolve. Allen probably was trying to reflect on real life and how events sometimes seem to overtake us without our really planning them, and how they may leave us feekling lost and unsure. That is certainly the implication of the last shot of the movie, of Vicky and Cristina in an airport.
While I wouldn’t say this is a triumph like “Manhattan” or “Annie Hall”, Allen has succeeded in creating another strange study on the heart and how it affects our lives.
Posted by Candace in Movies | No Comments »
11-11-2008
Destruction
Over the last few months, I’ve been taking OEC, Outdoor Emergency Care, as part of my training to become a ski patroller. A few weeks ago, we discussed gunshot wounds and care in class. The instructor talked about the different types of bullets, and told us about one bullet that is designed so that it essentially shatters as it penetrates the skin, ensuring a large amount of shrapnel that will do the most damage. While listening, I could only think, ‘What does it say about us a species that we would actually spend time and effort designing something like that?’
Why do we seek to destroy life so much?
I just don’t understand our human obsession with guns and things that go boom. I have actually fired a gun, and found it terrifying. No thanks. Someone explain this to me, although frankly if it is explained I think I will still never understand.
Posted by Candace in Rants | No Comments »
08-24-2008
Blah blah blah
As I approach my 40th birthday, I’ve been reflecting on the past year a lot. I have to say that my life has been something of a shitstorm, starting with the departure of one of my best friends for Texas last summer.
I sometimes feel like I’m on a treadmill, running as fast as I can to keep things positive. Every step forward is met with one back. While talking with someone earlier today, my analogy was with a merry-go-round, spinning quickly while the horses go up and down - peaks and valleys.
Part of my struggles relate to friendship. Several other friends have moved on, and while we are still friends the nature of the friendship obviously changes with distance.
40 does seem to be a traumatic age for women in particular. My favorite scene in “Knocked Up,” a movie I liked almost in spite of its somewhat sexist approach, was where Debbie was talking about how she and her husband aged differently and ruminating on how age affects women.
I can’t say I’m completely excited about turning 40. I mean, it’s the halfway point of life in many ways.
Even so, things look up in some ways. Guess I’ll go get back on that treadmill again.
Posted by Candace in Rants | 1 Comment »
08-23-2008
Hellboy 2
So, in an act of semi-desperation, ie get me out of the apartment, I went to see “Hellboy 2.” That and “Sex and the City” are at this point the only two big movies of the summer I haven’t seen. Now “Sex” reigns alone in that category. I was going to see that with a friend, but when she moved to Chicago for her residency, it fell by the wayside, especially since I’ve never really watched the TV show.
OK, on to “Hellboy.” I saw the first one in the theaters and enjoyed it. It was a little weird, but just sort of dark enough with enough humor that anyone could really enjoy it. Also, quite frankly, Selma Blair is the bomb. I watched “Feast of Love” just to see her play the lesbian softball player. OK, I know it’s cliche, but I couldn’t resist.
“Hellboy 2″ finds our demon-hero being outed by the press when he crashes through a window while on assignment for whatever supernatural agency he works for. I know the agency is named, but it in the long run doesn’t seem to matter so much, because what “Hellboy” is about is alienation.
Our hero, and his girlfriend Liz and fellow agent Abe, are, depending on your viewpoint, gifted or dangerous. There is a fantastic scene in the movie where Hellboy rescues a baby who is danger of being killed by an elemental. Hellboy keeps the baby close while doing battle with the elemental and debating whether or not to kill it, since it doesn’t seem to Hellboy that it is dangerous.
After Hellboy reunites the babe with its mom, instead of being showered with adoration, he is greeted with fear and revulsion, even by the mom of the rescued baby. Liz comes to Hellboy’s defense, saying “He’s only trying to help; that’s all we ever try to do.” Yet you can see that the crowd, while perhaps appreciating Hellboy’s heroics, are not ready to accept him.
The whole scene reminded me of a line from one of my favorite book series, the Kim Harrison Hollows series, where Ivy tells Rachel that she can find redemption among her strength-crippled kin, because regular people, even Inderlanders, will always fear her because of her strength.
That strikes me as a perfect allegory for life. It may not necessarily be strength, but there is always something it seems that makes people feel apart, and this is a theme that “Hellboy 2″ explores well.
The rest of the movie is a standard fantasy-action picture. It’s interesting to see the elves portrayed as more complex, darker than the goody-two-shoes version in Tolkien’s universe. Elves seem to attract a variety of portrayals, from those who show them as evil baby-snatchers to those, like Tolkien and Gael Baudino, who show them as saints. I’ve always felt it should be more in between, and in “Hellboy 2,” you have the elves in full-blown civil war, fighting over their destiny and, by extension, the destiny of humanity and the earth.
Of course, this being a movie based on a comic book, our hero and his fellows will be involved in the denouement, and it is handled well, even if the CGI is at times a little too over the top and distracting as a result.
Still, “Hellboy 2,” much like its predecessor, is a fun romp, and worth a trip to the theater.
Posted by Candace in Movies | No Comments »
07-28-2008
The Dark Knight - review
So, yesterday, after playing some tennis with Elizabeth, I decided to go and see “The Dark Knight.” I had hoped that waiting a week might make the theater a little less crowded, but such was not the case. It was completely packed. However, the crowd wasn’t peppered with screaming children, unlike some movies I’ve been to this summer, so it wasn’t bad.
I didn’t see “Batman Begins” in the theater, but did catch it on DVD. I had no idea that R’as al Ghul was actually a character from the comics until I did a little research, since I am, as mentioned before, not a comic girl. I enjoyed the first one, though I felt Christian Bale was a little wooden at times, but I got that he was trying to project gravitas and pathos, both weighing him down at the same time.
You can’t talk about “Dark Knight” without talking about Heath Ledger. This was one of Ledger’s last films that he made before his untimely death. Ledger was a gifted actor, and I can honestly say, his complete hotness aside, that I enjoyed him in everything I saw him in. Whether it was the earnest young knight-to-be of “A Knight’s Tale,” the wildman courting Julia Stiles of “10 Things I Hate About You,” or the closeted cowboy of “Brokeback Mountain,” Ledger consistently found new emotional depths and made you like him.
What then, to make of his performance as the Joker, perhaps the most iconic villain of the Batman universe? From the moment he steps onscreen at the start of the movie, Ledger’s Joker projects more darkness, more menace, more evil, than any villain in any previous Batman movie. There is a scene very early on involving a pencil and a mob henchman that made me, as well as several people around me, jump. The casual brutality, the joy that Ledger’s Joker takes in creating chaos, is terrifying and almost too much to take.
The performance is all the more brilliant because you don’t really see Ledger. He completely disappeares into the role, and his haphazard clown makeup adds even more to the craziness he inhabits.
In fact, knowing that Ledger, a meticulous method actor, died shortly thereafter, it is hard not to wonder whether the depths he must have plumbed to convincingly portray such manic evil didn’t somehow affect him.
Michael Caine, as Alfred, says to Christian Bale, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” It is clear that Ledger took this part of the script to heart. Ledger’s Joker likes to set up no-win situations, trying to bring the entire city down to his level of gleeful anarchy.
I won’t talk too much about the rest of the movie. Christian Bale was good again, though I don’t know why he speaks so differently when he is in costume than when he isn’t. Maggie Gyllenhaal is much better than Katie Holmes as Rachel, Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend, and Aaron Eckhart is great as Harvey Dent. Supporting players Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman are also excellent.
There is one very poignant moment which shows how different Batman is from his fellow superheroes. Waking up in bed when Alfred brings him breakfast, Bale’s Bruce sits up, and the camera pans over his back, covered in bruises. Bruce Wayne is not endowed with super powers. He is a man, fighting crime with all the technological prowess he can.
I definitely recommend this film. It is much grittier, more real feeling than most “superhero” films.
Posted by Candace in Movies | No Comments »
07-05-2008
Did Pearl Jam kill taping?
Last night, I went to see Blues Traveler. A week ago, I was at Widespread Panic. What I noticed, aside from the fact that the audience never really seems to age, is the diminishing size of the taper sections at both shows. Five years ago, the taping section at Panic was 5-6 rows deep. Last week, there was one row of tapers.
I have a theory that Pearl Jam unintentionally destroyed taping as it used to be. I love Pearl Jam, and they always said they were fine with audience taping. Then they started their bootleg series, where they record EVERY show on a tour and release it, in full glory. These releases sound fantastic. They are soundboards with some audience thrown in. Each date costs about $15.
Shortly after Pearl Jam embarked on this epic project, bands in the jam community started doing it too. When the surviving members of the Grateful Dead reunited in 2003, they offered the entire tour up for sale. String Cheese Incident and Widespread Panic soon did the same. Now, if I want a Panic show, for $15 I can get a perfect copy. I’ve noticed that since around 2005, trading is down and the number of tapers is reduced.
In a way, it makes sense. Why lug all that gear around, deal with drunk people who may fall into it or spill beer on it, rain threatening to short it all out etc., when for $15 you can just buy a better copy than you can make?
Nevertheless, I miss the taping community. It was always so welcoming, and there is something great about hearing a true audience recording. While the quality doesn’t match the official releases, there is something electric that is captured on those recording, a palpable audience community releasing joy at hearing their favorite songs played live and in the moment.
To all my fellow tapers, we’ll see you at some future gig. May we never disappear!
Posted by Candace in Music | No Comments »