Director: Oliver Assayas
Cast: Clément Métayer, Lola Créton, Felix Armand, Carole Combes
Making autobiographical movies is a tricky proposition; the director must walk a thin line between using their experience to craft a detailed, naturalistic aesthetic and telling stories that no one else cares about. Something in the Air is a fictionalized adaption of Oliver Assayas's non-fiction essay A Post-May Adolescence. It follows Gilles, an Assayas surrogate, during the summer after his second to last year in high school as he bounces between different French socialist organizations, hippy communes and his father's work while he tries to find himself romantically, artistically and professionally.
The film has a loose, meandering structure, which is designed to mimic our hero's lack of focus as he travels from group to group. At times it's a successful series of focused vignettes, but as the revolutionary movements Gilles is associated with begin to splinter and lose power, so does the film. The film's first hour is dynamic and lively, but the second half loses that energy as the story shifts to one of what happens when youthful vivaciousness fades. The film's second half rings true thematically and historically, but it's a slog to watch the dissolution of revolutionary movement not via coup, but via waning interest and mild evolutions in maturity.
Assayas's strong authorial voice gives the film a strong sense of place, but also causes it to veer into self-indulgence. Assayas digs deep into his own record collection, which gives the film a sense of time and place beyond a generic "the 70's". The soundtrack replaces 70's staples from Sticky Fingers and Who' Next (which I doubt they could afford had they wanted to use them anyways) and replaces them with Captain Beefheart and other more eclectic musicians that Assayas has a connection with. Assayas indulging his musical taste is delightful, the conversations name checking his personal favorite political philosophers are less so. I appreciate that the high-schooler's in the film possess an intellectual surety that can only be held by teenagers. To them the choice between being Trotskyite or a Leninist is the equivalent to the choice between Communism and Fascism, but this specificity is draining during long conversations where Assayas references his favorite philosophers even as it gives the film the same detailed textures I liked about his soundtrack.
Roger Ebert ended his review of Midnight in Paris, by saying , "I'm wearying of movies that are for 'everybody' — which means, nobody in particular." I appreciate that Assayas made a movie that is for someone in particular, but as the movie dragged on it felt like I was watching friends tell a story that I wasn't present for and was littered with inside jokes I didn't get. There is someone in particular who will love this movie, but it's not me.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Frances Ha - 2012 - 4 1/4* Stars
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Zegen, Adam Driver
In a world full of formulaic mainstream comedies and formulaic indie's that are generously called comedies, Noah Baumbach's newest film Frances Ha manages to be as funny as the crude, banter heavy mainstream comedies, while having stronger character work than the multitude of indies about post-college ennui. Frances Ha is a movie about the friendship between Frances (Gerwig) and Sophie (Sumner) and how these two women-children's relationship changes as they grapple with impending maturity and responsibility. A generic premise, but one that gains traction from focusing on female friendship (this movie passes the Bechdel test with flying colours) and strong execution.
The coming of age indie is a tired genre and though Frances Ha uses some genre tropes Baumbach and Gerwig's script is so singular that it never feels derivative. Frances Ha's originality is a function of Greta Gerwig, who gives an amazing naturalistic performance; eventhough her character is chock full of eccentricities, they all feel true to life and not screenwriter created manic-pixie dream girl "look at how much of an individual I am" traits. In addition to Gerwig's great performance the screenplay economically creates well-formed characters in short amounts of screen time via specificity. Hip movies walk a thin line between referencing ephemera to create a positive association with the audience and using ephemera as a touchstone to provide information about characters. Frances Ha mainly sticks to the latter; characters aren't working on "their screenplay" they have fixed the second act to their Gremlins 3 screenplay. These details peppered throughout help world-build and contribute to the great chemistry between the ensemble cast.
Frances Ha was shot in black and white; in a post-screening Q&A Baumbach cited Manhattan; an obvious inspiration. The decision to shoot it in black and white is not just an homage it gives Frances Ha a strong visual aesthetic that was missing from previous Baumbach films and separates it from the generic sepia-toned, digital look of a lot of coming of age indies. This aesthetic is present on the soundtrack where classic rock and music snatched from French New Wave films refreshingly replace the Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and other cabin-dwelling, mandolin playing, indie music that are used to show melancholy, inspiration or any other emotion that one might feel in an existential crisis. Shooting in black and white and using classic rock are hardly groundbreaking decisions but it is indicative that every decision in film was purposefully made. On the surface, this is a generic coming of age story, but the direction, acting, writing are all elevated and combine to produce one of Baumbach's strongest films.
*The quarter star is to indicate I preferred this to The Squid and The Whale which I think is a 4 star movie.
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Zegen, Adam Driver
In a world full of formulaic mainstream comedies and formulaic indie's that are generously called comedies, Noah Baumbach's newest film Frances Ha manages to be as funny as the crude, banter heavy mainstream comedies, while having stronger character work than the multitude of indies about post-college ennui. Frances Ha is a movie about the friendship between Frances (Gerwig) and Sophie (Sumner) and how these two women-children's relationship changes as they grapple with impending maturity and responsibility. A generic premise, but one that gains traction from focusing on female friendship (this movie passes the Bechdel test with flying colours) and strong execution.
The coming of age indie is a tired genre and though Frances Ha uses some genre tropes Baumbach and Gerwig's script is so singular that it never feels derivative. Frances Ha's originality is a function of Greta Gerwig, who gives an amazing naturalistic performance; eventhough her character is chock full of eccentricities, they all feel true to life and not screenwriter created manic-pixie dream girl "look at how much of an individual I am" traits. In addition to Gerwig's great performance the screenplay economically creates well-formed characters in short amounts of screen time via specificity. Hip movies walk a thin line between referencing ephemera to create a positive association with the audience and using ephemera as a touchstone to provide information about characters. Frances Ha mainly sticks to the latter; characters aren't working on "their screenplay" they have fixed the second act to their Gremlins 3 screenplay. These details peppered throughout help world-build and contribute to the great chemistry between the ensemble cast.
Frances Ha was shot in black and white; in a post-screening Q&A Baumbach cited Manhattan; an obvious inspiration. The decision to shoot it in black and white is not just an homage it gives Frances Ha a strong visual aesthetic that was missing from previous Baumbach films and separates it from the generic sepia-toned, digital look of a lot of coming of age indies. This aesthetic is present on the soundtrack where classic rock and music snatched from French New Wave films refreshingly replace the Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and other cabin-dwelling, mandolin playing, indie music that are used to show melancholy, inspiration or any other emotion that one might feel in an existential crisis. Shooting in black and white and using classic rock are hardly groundbreaking decisions but it is indicative that every decision in film was purposefully made. On the surface, this is a generic coming of age story, but the direction, acting, writing are all elevated and combine to produce one of Baumbach's strongest films.
*The quarter star is to indicate I preferred this to The Squid and The Whale which I think is a 4 star movie.
Argo - 2012 - 3 Stars
Director: Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Kyle Chandler
Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, thrice is a trend and after seeing Ben Affleck's latest film Argo, I think it's fair to say that Ben Affleck is a pretty damn good director who is capable of consistently making entertaining, albeit superficial Hollywood thrillers. Argo is based on the true story of a CIA agent who went undercover as a film producer scouting locations for a sci-fi film in Iran so he could smuggle American hostages back home during the Iran hostage crisis of 1980.
Argo is a competently shot film that is well-edited, especially during large suspense set pieces where the audience different people performing disparate actions in various locations in close to real time. However, while those segments are well-edited they do strain credulity as we are regularly forced to believe that people halfway across the world are coincidentally performing actions at the last second to save our ragtag group of misfits. When used sparingly yhese kinds of scenarios are classic tension builders in heist movies, but are employed so frequently throughout Argo that crowd-pleasing gears of the movie's plot start showing.
Affleck's pedigree must have helped in casting, where in addition to the names above Richard Kind, Phillip Baker Hall, Bob Gunton and other familiar character actors regularly steal scenes when given the chance to.
It's a fun caper that is already getting some undeserved Oscar buzz, because it's about an important moment in recent American history and is being publicized as a historical drama instead of a light caper. The final shots of the movie was offputting and felt like a cynical attempt to garner pathos for the hero and generate even more oscar buzz, but ultimately Argo is an entertaining two hours and a well-executed, funny, suspenseful, Hollywood thriller, something which is becoming increasingly rare.
Cast: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Kyle Chandler
Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, thrice is a trend and after seeing Ben Affleck's latest film Argo, I think it's fair to say that Ben Affleck is a pretty damn good director who is capable of consistently making entertaining, albeit superficial Hollywood thrillers. Argo is based on the true story of a CIA agent who went undercover as a film producer scouting locations for a sci-fi film in Iran so he could smuggle American hostages back home during the Iran hostage crisis of 1980.
Argo is a competently shot film that is well-edited, especially during large suspense set pieces where the audience different people performing disparate actions in various locations in close to real time. However, while those segments are well-edited they do strain credulity as we are regularly forced to believe that people halfway across the world are coincidentally performing actions at the last second to save our ragtag group of misfits. When used sparingly yhese kinds of scenarios are classic tension builders in heist movies, but are employed so frequently throughout Argo that crowd-pleasing gears of the movie's plot start showing.
Affleck's pedigree must have helped in casting, where in addition to the names above Richard Kind, Phillip Baker Hall, Bob Gunton and other familiar character actors regularly steal scenes when given the chance to.
It's a fun caper that is already getting some undeserved Oscar buzz, because it's about an important moment in recent American history and is being publicized as a historical drama instead of a light caper. The final shots of the movie was offputting and felt like a cynical attempt to garner pathos for the hero and generate even more oscar buzz, but ultimately Argo is an entertaining two hours and a well-executed, funny, suspenseful, Hollywood thriller, something which is becoming increasingly rare.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Tabu - 2012 - 2 1/2 Stars
Director: Miguel Gomes
Cast: Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira, Henrique Espirito Santo, Carlotto Cotta, Isabel Cardoso
There are structural elements in Tabu which must be talked about. I won't give away key plot points, but there are structural spoilers.
Tabu tells two stories; the story of three elderly women in Lisbon in 2011 and a story narrated by a man named Ventura in 2011 Lisbon. Ventura tells the story of a tryst with one of the aforementioned women and his narration is a constant presence throughout the the second half of the movie, which is titled Paradise. In Paradise Director Miguel Gomes uses many techniques to showcase the haziness of memory; some are well-worn like the use of grainy film, while others are daring, but unnecessarily restrictive; outside of the narration there is almost no audible dialogue in the second half of the film. Eventhough Gomes shows characters speaking the audience can only hear diegetic sounds and music.The decision to not use dialogue, while innovative, hampers the film because it prevents the audience from fully-rendering the main characters in Paradise.
The characters are stock-tpes; our hero is a daring rebel, handsome with long hair and a wispy mustache. The man he cuckolds is a stuffed shirt with short hair cut, a proper appearance that hides his unseemly political motivations. The woman at the center is a free-spirit tomboy who feels repressed by the men in her life. It's too bad the characters are so thinly drawn, because the mise-en-scene and sound design are impeccably constructed throughout. During the climax of the film there are two unforgettable shots, but I found myself more invested in the quality of those shots than the life changing events that befell our leads in those unforgettable shots.
Oral storytelling is a building block of civilization, but it's also an incredibly narcissistic act. It's difficult to consistently duplicate, it's slow and it's told from one perspective. The oral tradition is in many ways more about the singular power given to the storyteller, than the sense of community and history it fosters. In Tatu, Miguel Gomes plays with inherent narcissism of oral storytelling as we regularly see African servants in the periphery of our narrator's grand-tale of unrequited loved. The trials and tribulations of the servants are of actual significance, but they are sidelined so an old man can tell his story about the one that got away. While this is a savvy criticism of western culture, I don't think Gomes is trying to implicate the audience for caring about this affair at the expense of the horrors of colonialism, which makes the ironic distance achieved from the perspective he gives us even more alienating when we the film shifts back to the love story we are supposed to care about. Tabu features a Portugese cover of the Ronnette's classic Be My Baby, which is an excellent metaphor for the film. All the technical brilliance, innovation and craft is still present, but there is something off, which prevents the art from having any emotional resonance.
Cast: Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira, Henrique Espirito Santo, Carlotto Cotta, Isabel Cardoso
There are structural elements in Tabu which must be talked about. I won't give away key plot points, but there are structural spoilers.
Tabu tells two stories; the story of three elderly women in Lisbon in 2011 and a story narrated by a man named Ventura in 2011 Lisbon. Ventura tells the story of a tryst with one of the aforementioned women and his narration is a constant presence throughout the the second half of the movie, which is titled Paradise. In Paradise Director Miguel Gomes uses many techniques to showcase the haziness of memory; some are well-worn like the use of grainy film, while others are daring, but unnecessarily restrictive; outside of the narration there is almost no audible dialogue in the second half of the film. Eventhough Gomes shows characters speaking the audience can only hear diegetic sounds and music.The decision to not use dialogue, while innovative, hampers the film because it prevents the audience from fully-rendering the main characters in Paradise.
The characters are stock-tpes; our hero is a daring rebel, handsome with long hair and a wispy mustache. The man he cuckolds is a stuffed shirt with short hair cut, a proper appearance that hides his unseemly political motivations. The woman at the center is a free-spirit tomboy who feels repressed by the men in her life. It's too bad the characters are so thinly drawn, because the mise-en-scene and sound design are impeccably constructed throughout. During the climax of the film there are two unforgettable shots, but I found myself more invested in the quality of those shots than the life changing events that befell our leads in those unforgettable shots.
Oral storytelling is a building block of civilization, but it's also an incredibly narcissistic act. It's difficult to consistently duplicate, it's slow and it's told from one perspective. The oral tradition is in many ways more about the singular power given to the storyteller, than the sense of community and history it fosters. In Tatu, Miguel Gomes plays with inherent narcissism of oral storytelling as we regularly see African servants in the periphery of our narrator's grand-tale of unrequited loved. The trials and tribulations of the servants are of actual significance, but they are sidelined so an old man can tell his story about the one that got away. While this is a savvy criticism of western culture, I don't think Gomes is trying to implicate the audience for caring about this affair at the expense of the horrors of colonialism, which makes the ironic distance achieved from the perspective he gives us even more alienating when we the film shifts back to the love story we are supposed to care about. Tabu features a Portugese cover of the Ronnette's classic Be My Baby, which is an excellent metaphor for the film. All the technical brilliance, innovation and craft is still present, but there is something off, which prevents the art from having any emotional resonance.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The Raid Redemption - 2011 - 4 1/2 Stars
Director: Gareth Evans
Cast: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsayah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno
The Raid: Redemption follows an Indonesian SWAT team as they try to takeout a legendary crime lord who is holed up on the top floor of an apartment complex in the slums of Jakarta. Most of the apartment complex's residents are junkies, drug dealers or other criminals who will do whatever possible to protect their lawless building and its leader. If you are intrigued by this premise, you will like the movie. If you are on the fence about the premise, you should watch the first 15 minutes, if you like them, you will like the movie. If you don't like the premise or the first 15 minutes you won't like the movie and your brain hasn't been turned to mush from playing too many video games.
The Raid has been compared to relentless video games in so many reviews that I was wary of it in the way I am often wary about arthouse fare. Do I really want to watch 90 minutes of uninterrupted asskicking / closeups of butterflies narrated by an elderly Swedish man? To my surprise Gareth Evans showed some restraint and made a well paced movie: the scenes between fights are all competently acted, drive the plot and allow the audience to catch their breath, before the electronic music kicks in and we are ready to see some more skulls bashed via Pencak Silat, an Indonesian Martial Art.
At times the movie is slightly overwhelming and feels like a Streets of Rage type video game where Axel (or whoever you chose) goes into one generic setting, get rushed by several bad guys and stays in that setting until a sufficient number of buttons have been mashed/people have been killed that he can advance to the next stage. To combat this problem Evans wisely creates a number of disparate settings within the apartment complex, which gives each fight an aesthetic that differentiates it from previous fights and gives the fighters different peripheral items to creatively murder people with. However Evans' best defense against monotony is impeccable choreography and cinematography that supersedes the occasional repetitiveness of the fight scenes.
This Sunday I was watching Breaking Bad when a couple of non-watchers entered the room and started asking questions about the show "Is that the dad from Malcom in the Middle?", "Why is the meth blue?", "His name is Heisenberg ... bad ass" and so on. At this point I excused myself for the room and wasted time until I could watch the 12:30 rerun without any distractions. I am not particularly proud of my actions, but what other people would describe as minor annoyances are horrible tragedies that prevent me from watching my show the "proper way". As I watched The Raid: Redemption, my testosterone frequently spiked to such highs that it could only be released by unintelligibly exclaiming "HOLY FUCKING SHIT WAS THAT A HAMMER?" I looked over to my friends who were also screaming unintelligibly and realized in this case I was watching the film in the proper way.
Cast: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsayah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno
The Raid: Redemption follows an Indonesian SWAT team as they try to takeout a legendary crime lord who is holed up on the top floor of an apartment complex in the slums of Jakarta. Most of the apartment complex's residents are junkies, drug dealers or other criminals who will do whatever possible to protect their lawless building and its leader. If you are intrigued by this premise, you will like the movie. If you are on the fence about the premise, you should watch the first 15 minutes, if you like them, you will like the movie. If you don't like the premise or the first 15 minutes you won't like the movie and your brain hasn't been turned to mush from playing too many video games.
The Raid has been compared to relentless video games in so many reviews that I was wary of it in the way I am often wary about arthouse fare. Do I really want to watch 90 minutes of uninterrupted asskicking / closeups of butterflies narrated by an elderly Swedish man? To my surprise Gareth Evans showed some restraint and made a well paced movie: the scenes between fights are all competently acted, drive the plot and allow the audience to catch their breath, before the electronic music kicks in and we are ready to see some more skulls bashed via Pencak Silat, an Indonesian Martial Art.
At times the movie is slightly overwhelming and feels like a Streets of Rage type video game where Axel (or whoever you chose) goes into one generic setting, get rushed by several bad guys and stays in that setting until a sufficient number of buttons have been mashed/people have been killed that he can advance to the next stage. To combat this problem Evans wisely creates a number of disparate settings within the apartment complex, which gives each fight an aesthetic that differentiates it from previous fights and gives the fighters different peripheral items to creatively murder people with. However Evans' best defense against monotony is impeccable choreography and cinematography that supersedes the occasional repetitiveness of the fight scenes.
This Sunday I was watching Breaking Bad when a couple of non-watchers entered the room and started asking questions about the show "Is that the dad from Malcom in the Middle?", "Why is the meth blue?", "His name is Heisenberg ... bad ass" and so on. At this point I excused myself for the room and wasted time until I could watch the 12:30 rerun without any distractions. I am not particularly proud of my actions, but what other people would describe as minor annoyances are horrible tragedies that prevent me from watching my show the "proper way". As I watched The Raid: Redemption, my testosterone frequently spiked to such highs that it could only be released by unintelligibly exclaiming "HOLY FUCKING SHIT WAS THAT A HAMMER?" I looked over to my friends who were also screaming unintelligibly and realized in this case I was watching the film in the proper way.
The Dead Zone - 1983 - 2 1/2 Stars
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen
I am afraid my citizenship might get revoked for admitting this, but The Dead Zone is the first Cronenberg movie I have seen and even worse, I didn't really care for it. There are moments of excellence in the film, so it's not as if I have given up hope on this plucky underdog Jewish-Canadian filmmaker but I, like most people, don't like being disappointed.
The Dead Zone is an adaptation of a Steven King novel about Johnny Smith (Walken) a man who awakes from a coma with the ability to foresee other's futures when he touches them. As someone who has seen Ed Glosser Trivial Psychic too many times to count and is vaguely familiar with Cronenenberg and Steven King, I was expecting a hammy Walken performance, some good horror setpieces and a Twilight Zone type ironic twist. I got all of that, but there was a lot of brooding in between the elements that I liked, which ruined the films pacing and muddled the film's message.
The double-edged nature of supernatural powers is a common theme in science-fiction and while the quandaries faced by Johnny Smith are addressed throughout the film none are given enough screentime to give the story thematic relevance. Should Johnny Smith be playing God with his supernatural knowledge? Does he have a moral responsibility to use his power even if it causes him immense physical pain? Is sacrificing the ability to have personal relationships worth gaining the power he has?* There is lip service given to all these questions and some others (like a brief detour where Johnny Smith is a local celebrity) but most of the conversations about these questions are clunky and one-sided and all of they cannot all be answered in one 90 minute feature. Cronenberg tries to answer all of them, while having a dense plot and in the process ends up answering none of them.
Muddled themes aside there is still a lot to like about this movie: Walken doesn't just give a great hammy performance, he gives a great performance and shows real humanity and restraint throughout. Martin Sheen gives a dynamic performance as an evil, charismatic, politician and Cronenberg wisely gets wooden performances out of the rest of the cast so Walken and Sheen's energetic performances standout even more than they usually would.
After watching the movie, I read the plot summary of Stephen King's novel on Wikipedia and the film, like most adaptations diverges from source material. As I read the summary I kept thinking to myself "this could be a great movie". It's too bad that Cronenberg didn't deliver a film with a more focused thematically or narratively to take advantage of some great performances and source material.
*Most glaringly his lack of personal relationships isn't solely a function of his power, it's also a function of his coma and while there is a movie to be made about people in coma's acclimatizing to society, The Dead Zone is not that movie.
Cast: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen
I am afraid my citizenship might get revoked for admitting this, but The Dead Zone is the first Cronenberg movie I have seen and even worse, I didn't really care for it. There are moments of excellence in the film, so it's not as if I have given up hope on this plucky underdog Jewish-Canadian filmmaker but I, like most people, don't like being disappointed.
The Dead Zone is an adaptation of a Steven King novel about Johnny Smith (Walken) a man who awakes from a coma with the ability to foresee other's futures when he touches them. As someone who has seen Ed Glosser Trivial Psychic too many times to count and is vaguely familiar with Cronenenberg and Steven King, I was expecting a hammy Walken performance, some good horror setpieces and a Twilight Zone type ironic twist. I got all of that, but there was a lot of brooding in between the elements that I liked, which ruined the films pacing and muddled the film's message.
The double-edged nature of supernatural powers is a common theme in science-fiction and while the quandaries faced by Johnny Smith are addressed throughout the film none are given enough screentime to give the story thematic relevance. Should Johnny Smith be playing God with his supernatural knowledge? Does he have a moral responsibility to use his power even if it causes him immense physical pain? Is sacrificing the ability to have personal relationships worth gaining the power he has?* There is lip service given to all these questions and some others (like a brief detour where Johnny Smith is a local celebrity) but most of the conversations about these questions are clunky and one-sided and all of they cannot all be answered in one 90 minute feature. Cronenberg tries to answer all of them, while having a dense plot and in the process ends up answering none of them.
Muddled themes aside there is still a lot to like about this movie: Walken doesn't just give a great hammy performance, he gives a great performance and shows real humanity and restraint throughout. Martin Sheen gives a dynamic performance as an evil, charismatic, politician and Cronenberg wisely gets wooden performances out of the rest of the cast so Walken and Sheen's energetic performances standout even more than they usually would.
After watching the movie, I read the plot summary of Stephen King's novel on Wikipedia and the film, like most adaptations diverges from source material. As I read the summary I kept thinking to myself "this could be a great movie". It's too bad that Cronenberg didn't deliver a film with a more focused thematically or narratively to take advantage of some great performances and source material.
*Most glaringly his lack of personal relationships isn't solely a function of his power, it's also a function of his coma and while there is a movie to be made about people in coma's acclimatizing to society, The Dead Zone is not that movie.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Lost in America - 1985 - 3 Stars
Director: Albert Brooks
Cast: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty
Albert Brooks is one of the great comic minds of his generation, whether doing stand up, performance pieces on late night shows or directing short films on SNL, he always manages to inject his projects with a unique point of view, strong comic conceits and a feeling that anything can happen. Despite his talents, I find it amazing that there was a point in history where Albert Brooks could write, direct and star in a movie and even more surprisingly that he was allowed to keep making movies after his previous projects failed commercially. It's not surprising he never had a big hit, his leading men are brash, neurotic, obnoxious and arrogant. He's Alvy Singer if Alvy actually confronted the blowhard talking about Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall. Brook's descendants include George Costanza and other popular supporting tv and film characters, but none of Brooks' progeny have had success as leading men, because spending a lot of time with them is exhausting.
Lost in America opens with a long tracking shot through David Howard's (Brooks) darkened home, as David listens to Larry King interview film critic Rex Reed. I initially thought was an interview written for the movie, but it is the audio from an episode of King's radio show. In the interview Reed talks about how he'd rather watch a comedy by himself than in a crowded theatre and that he "doesn't respond very well to mass hysteria anyways". It's a petty way for Brooks to open the movie, especially because most of his output seems to be arguing against a "get laughs at any cost" ethos and is more about subverting audience expectations and not pandering to the audience. (See his standup about opening for Richie Havens on Comedy Minus One). Some cursory googling has shown me that Brooks is taking shots at Reed for giving his earlier films poor reviews and while the opening scene provides hooks the audience it also feels childish and exploitative.
Outside of establishing an uncharacteristically strong visual style for a comedy, this opening sequence has very little bearing on the rest of the film, which is about David Howard missing out on a promotion, blowing up after missing the promotion, quitting/getting fired and deciding to sell his house to pay for an early retirement so he can travel the country with his wife (Julie Hagerty) in a Winnebago. The movie's premise opens the door for some insight on how people fall into routines and end up living boring, unsatisfying lives, as they hope each minor improvement in car/job/home quality will solve everything. Unfortunately the Howard's journey off the grid begins with a large deus ex machinas, that undermines everything the film tries to say about upper-class ennui. Choosing to enter an early retirement and leaving the rat race is not equivalent to being forced to work at Der WienerSchnitzel to pay for rent at a trailer park, but the end of the film seems to be promoting this false equivalency.
Lost in America is still the product of a unique comic mind and features some top notch comic setpieces and one off gags. The scene where Brooks gets fired cements him in a class with Bob Odenkirk and John Cleese as one of the great comedic yellers of our time. A scene featuring Gary Marshall as a Casino floorman is a real highlight and is a great piece of sketch comedy. Julie Hagerty gives an off beat performance that is very good and that somehow matches Brook's energy, however ultimately this movie is a disconnected group of funny performances and setpieces that don't build to a larger thematic point, despite its best efforts.
Cast: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty
Albert Brooks is one of the great comic minds of his generation, whether doing stand up, performance pieces on late night shows or directing short films on SNL, he always manages to inject his projects with a unique point of view, strong comic conceits and a feeling that anything can happen. Despite his talents, I find it amazing that there was a point in history where Albert Brooks could write, direct and star in a movie and even more surprisingly that he was allowed to keep making movies after his previous projects failed commercially. It's not surprising he never had a big hit, his leading men are brash, neurotic, obnoxious and arrogant. He's Alvy Singer if Alvy actually confronted the blowhard talking about Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall. Brook's descendants include George Costanza and other popular supporting tv and film characters, but none of Brooks' progeny have had success as leading men, because spending a lot of time with them is exhausting.
Lost in America opens with a long tracking shot through David Howard's (Brooks) darkened home, as David listens to Larry King interview film critic Rex Reed. I initially thought was an interview written for the movie, but it is the audio from an episode of King's radio show. In the interview Reed talks about how he'd rather watch a comedy by himself than in a crowded theatre and that he "doesn't respond very well to mass hysteria anyways". It's a petty way for Brooks to open the movie, especially because most of his output seems to be arguing against a "get laughs at any cost" ethos and is more about subverting audience expectations and not pandering to the audience. (See his standup about opening for Richie Havens on Comedy Minus One). Some cursory googling has shown me that Brooks is taking shots at Reed for giving his earlier films poor reviews and while the opening scene provides hooks the audience it also feels childish and exploitative.
Outside of establishing an uncharacteristically strong visual style for a comedy, this opening sequence has very little bearing on the rest of the film, which is about David Howard missing out on a promotion, blowing up after missing the promotion, quitting/getting fired and deciding to sell his house to pay for an early retirement so he can travel the country with his wife (Julie Hagerty) in a Winnebago. The movie's premise opens the door for some insight on how people fall into routines and end up living boring, unsatisfying lives, as they hope each minor improvement in car/job/home quality will solve everything. Unfortunately the Howard's journey off the grid begins with a large deus ex machinas, that undermines everything the film tries to say about upper-class ennui. Choosing to enter an early retirement and leaving the rat race is not equivalent to being forced to work at Der WienerSchnitzel to pay for rent at a trailer park, but the end of the film seems to be promoting this false equivalency.
Lost in America is still the product of a unique comic mind and features some top notch comic setpieces and one off gags. The scene where Brooks gets fired cements him in a class with Bob Odenkirk and John Cleese as one of the great comedic yellers of our time. A scene featuring Gary Marshall as a Casino floorman is a real highlight and is a great piece of sketch comedy. Julie Hagerty gives an off beat performance that is very good and that somehow matches Brook's energy, however ultimately this movie is a disconnected group of funny performances and setpieces that don't build to a larger thematic point, despite its best efforts.
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