Archive for November, 2008
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 »