A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005) by Yiyun Li
Screenplay(s) read:
Moon – Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones. Draft: 11th November 2007.
Films:
Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Creatures begins with some stylish visuals, but it never gathers any kind of narrative momentum. It is probably because none of the characters is engaging, or even likeable. The male characters are portrayed as violent monsters but the female characters are really not any better. A superior film in this genre is the Wachoski brothers’ Bound, which has style AND substance.
Une femme est une femme (A Woman is a Woman)
Goddard is at his most whimsical and free flowing best in Une femme est une femme, afun musical with the thinnest of plots and a bunch of inside jokes. Goddard’s camera is in love with Anna Karina and she is the object of desire of two men. Jules et Jim? Well, the characters in Une femme est une femme like that Truffaut film too.
Moon
Like a good sci-fi should be, Moon uses a believable scientific premise to explore human emotions and to pose questions (the ideas of memory, identity, individuality) on our humanity. Sam Rockwell is brilliant in what is basically a one man show. It’s not a conventional “action” driven movie (as in there isn’t any huge explosions or gun fights scenes). It’s shame that an intelligent film like this one didn’t do better at the box office (it made less than $5 millions in the U.S.).
Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive is David Lynch’s masterpiece. The creepy characters, scenes that simmer with menace, and visuals full of symbolism – all the Lynch trademarks – come together in a hypnotically dreamlike (or nightmarish) narrative. Questions are posed in every scene. The answers are ambiguous but this is after all an inexplicably puzzling world that doesn’t allow any clear answers anyway. Naomi Watts gives a tour de force performance that rightly made her a star.
Books:
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li
Two of the stories in this short stories collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Princess of Nebraska, were adapted into films by Wayne Wang, with screenplays written by the author Yiyun Li herself. It has been said that (and it’s a point that I agree with) short stories tend to make better film adaptations. It is impossible to fit all plots and characters of a novel into a 2hr film, not that fidelity is that important in film adaptation anyway, but short stories give filmmakers room to expand and create. Both films adapted from this short stories collection expand upon the source materials quite a bit.
Screenplays:
Moon - Screenplay by Nathan Parker
I learned quite a bit reading the screenplay of Moon. I don’t want reveal too much about the plot of the story, but the plot twists of the story makes it very tricky to write. Screenwriter Nathan Parker uses a very sensible way to make it easy to for the readers to follow.
After the success of Clerks, Kevin Smith’s Mallrats was a flop both commercially and critically when it was released. The much bigger budget doesn’t improve the quality of the script and the direction, and the supposedly clever dialogue loses their effectiveness by the unconvincing delivery. Jay and Silent Bob are more interesting than the main characters.
The Princess of Nebraska
The companion film to the quiet A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. The Princess of Nebrasksa, also adapted from a short story by Yiyun Li and directed by Wayne Wang, is a story about an indecisive young woman’s journey. It has a much more kinetic style of camerawork and editing which mirrors the protagonist’s state of mind. My complaint is the boyfriend plot is a bit confusing and doesn’t add much to the story.
Sugarland Express
Steven Spielberg’s first feature film, Sugarland Express, seems a bit timid, and lacks the energy of his previous TV movie, Duel. There are quite a few scenes with a lot of police cars, which are designed to inspire some awe, but somehow they seem to slow down the momentum of the story without actually generating much excitement.
Book:
Starting Out in the Evening by Brian Morton
This is another instance where a wonderful film adaptation inspires me to seek out the source novel. Brian Morton’s Starting Out in the Evening is a great read. I was interested to see the changes made to the narrative in the adaptation process, not that I’m one of those people who insist that the film should always be completely faithful to the source material.
An observation: the cover of the novel has the father and the daughter sitting on a park bench with a bit of distance between them, which is also the image used in the poster for a film I watched last week, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, also about a father and a daughter. It’s a good image, but is it going become a cliché?
Father and daughter on a park bench in "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers"
A Single Man – Screenplay by Tom Ford and David Scearce – Based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood
Crazy Heart – Screenplay by Scott Cooper – Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb
Films:
The Driver
The Driver is basically an American version of Jean Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai, butnot quite as good. It even has a French connection in the beautiful Isabelle Adjani (a peculiar casting, but then it adds more mystery to the already mysterious character). While not as cool as Alain Delon (then again, who is?), Ryan O’Neal does a good job as the nameless driver whose existence is to drive. Just like in Le Samourai, we don’t really know much about the character. The film is about him doing his job. The detective here is not nearly as formidable an opponent as the detective in Le Samourai, which makes the duel less interesting. The Driver is actually a very well made film, it is only when it’s compared to Melville’s masterpiece that it comes up a bit short.
Did You Hear About the Morgans
“Tell, don’t show” is not exactly what they teach you in screenwriting classes. So, a red flag is raised when the first thing we hear (before we even see anything) in Did Your Hear About the Morgans is Hugh Grant leaving a phone message telling us all the background information that the screenwriters couldn’t bother to show us. The movie that follows is just cliché after cliché. If follows that sacred RomCom formula to the T. Hugh Grant has played this character in countless other movie, and he seems bored doing it.
Romantic comedy is a genre that really needs a reboot. There are just too many lazy efforts. (500) Days of Summer last year tried something different and it was refreshing. Now we need more of that.
Catwoman
After the Morgans, Hillary and I decided to make it a crap movie night. I had heard a lot about Catwoman, which has the reputation of being one of the worst movies in the decade. Now I finally have an excuse to see it. The opening scene shares the same kind of lazy exposition voice-over with the Morgans, so immediately we know we’ve picked a good one. The movie doesn’t disappoint either. The protagonist has no personality and no motivation. The villains are barely one-dimensional (even by comic book adaptation standard). The story makes no sense. In comparison, Did You Hear About the Morgans has become a yardstick of movie excellence.
The Car
A mysterious, driverless car appears out of nowhere and begins to run people down in a Southwestern small town. No reason is given to anything. Why does the car run people down? Why the car? Why these people? Why this town? Why anything? It’s wtf all the way. The human characters are all so bland that I couldn’t care less if they were run over or not. There’s one quick shot in the movie where an extra (or a stunt person) was run over by a galloping horse (accidentally? I couldn’t really tell). That moment is the only scary moment in the entire movie, and it has nothing to do with the car. (I hope that guy was alright).
Two-Lane Blacktop
Two-Lane Blacktop is a car movie, and more. The characters talk almost exclusively about cars. They care about cars. But at the same time, they don’t really care about anything. They race, but they seem more interested in helping each other out, fixing each other’s cars, keeping each other company, than winning the race.
I love how the camera pays attention to things or characters that turn out to be insignificant to the film. Too often in movies when we see a shot of something, it must has something to do with the plot or it’s foreshadowing something. A guy sitting in a diner is just a guy sitting in diner, why does he have to mean anything?
Le Professionnel
It seems that all the great car movies are American, so I’m very interested in finding any foreign films that are either about cars or have great car scenes. I wanted to see Le Professionnel because I read somewhere that it has a great car chase scene. That scene, a car chase sequence with two beat up cars in the city of Paris, turns out to be average at best. The rest of the film has nothing to do with cars. But it is decent movie about a former soldier returning to take revenge on the government who betrayed him. Ennio Morricone’s music (though a bit overused) adds a much appreciated tragic and fatalistic layer to the film.
Screenplay(s):
A Single Man - Screenplay by Tom Ford and David Scearce
Adapting a novel often means externalizing thoughts and emotions. A screenwriter has to convey internal feelings via actions. Compared to Christopher Isherwood’s novel, the script is therefore less ambiguous.
Crazy Heart - Screenplay by Scott Cooper
The script has some fantastic descriptions of music and of playing music, which are not as apparent in the film. It’s a great character study where Bad Blake is in every single scene, and it is the kind of scripts that attract actors.
Trucker begins with such promise – A short opening scene of Michelle Monaghan’s character having a one night stand sets up an intriguing character by efficiently establishing her disdain of relationships. Who is she? Why is she a trucker? Why is she scared of commitment? Unfortunately, we never really find out because the movie goes downhill fast soon after her kid shows up (around the 10 min mark – the inciting event). The mother/son scenes are never convincing, especially the on-the-nose dialogue out of the kid’s mouth. I’d like to get to know more about her (without the kid). In the end, I found myself rooting for her to ditch the kid. On a fashion note, Ms. Monaghan looks very trucker chic.
The Princess and the Frog
The Princess and the Frog is a typical Disney fare, which is actually a compliment. The music is nice. There are some colorful sequences. It’s a decent family movie that doesn’t take any big risks, which is exactly the kind that parents like to take their kids to.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginairum of Doctor Parnassus is all over the place narratively. But that’s kind of expected of a Gilliam film. Heath Ledger passed away in the middle of filming, so Gilliam rewrote it and we now have Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell playing the Ledger character in the imaginary world. That’s not the confusing part, in fact I think it actually works out quite well. Colin Farrell has the most substantial part and steals the movie. The confusing part is the rest of the movie, where it’s quite obvious that more attention was paid to creating the CGI than to developing the story.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a remake of a 1934 film of the same name.
What I really like about The Man Who Knew Too Much is the interactions between the husband (James Stewart) and wife (Doris Day). It is great writing that the couple’s actions and reactions to each other supply so much backstory – about their relationship, about perhaps even problems or arguments in the past – without ever directly mentioning any of it.
Our Man Flint
Derek Flint is the original “International Man of Mystery”, and James Coburn plays the character absolutely straight, which is exactly the correct approach to this absurdly funny satire of spy movies.
Our Man Flint has inspired numerous other spy parodies, most notably the Austin Powers series, which uses the exact distinctive ringtone of the “presidential hotline” telephone.
Australia
I’ve to admit I tend to be quite forgiving with any film that has Nicole Kidman in it. That being said, Australia is a mess. There are just too many stories to form a cohesive narrative. Director Baz Luhrmann tries a bit too hard to make an epic in the vein of Titanic. I think he tries too hard to please too broad a spectrum of viewers. As a result, it’s a melodrama full of cliché characters. Sure, the Outback scenery is amazing to look at, and with all those aerial shots, they look almost too unreal and too overwhelming, like they’re computer generated graphics. Luhrmann uses the same approach to shooting his two beautiful leads. At times, they look like they are in a Vanity Fair photo shoot. When they’re in one of the many slow-motion running scenes, they remind me of those Lurhamnn directed Chanel commercials.
Ponyo
Inspired by Han Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, Ponyo is a delightful film. The story has a magical quality to it. Miyazaki still refuses to use computer animation, so he and his team at Studio Ghibli hand drew every frame of this dreamlike, and at times trippy film. It’s a feast for the eyes.
It’s a mystery to me why Ponyo wasn’t nominated for an Oscar in the animation category. Up (this year’s winner) is a very good film, but even those guys at Pixar practically worship Hayao Miyazaki.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The first 2 acts of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs are uninspiring. Most of the jokes do not really work for me. Eating food fallen from the sky just isn’t that appetizing. But the surreal 3rd act, where everything that the first two acts set up manages to come together, saves the movie. The scene with the chickens, and the one with the gummy bears are the highlights of this otherwise rather lame animation feature.
Book:
A Single Man (1964) - A novel by Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man is an intriguing account of a day in the life of a college professor who has a lost his partner a few months ago. He makes connections with different people throughout the day, but none could fill his void. Isherwood’s prose is poetic, subtle, and vibrant; the ending enigmatic. A beautiful piece of literary work.
The Hollywood formula demands obvious villains, which is an easy way to create conflicts. Good vs evil is simple enough for everyone to understand. But by assigning such definitive quality as “good” or “evil” to a character more often than not reduces it to an one dimensional caricature. Crazy Heart is refreshing because it doesn’t try to make any of the characters “bad” or “evil”. It teases us a bit, but I think writer/director Scott Cooper cares about the characters too much to make them any less than three dimensional. When Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) and Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) fall in love, they fall in love by having conversations. We hear them, and we feel it. None of those (cheating) musical montages!
Crazy Heart is not without flaws though – it probably tries a bit too hard to be uplifting. But there are enough pluses (the music, for one) for me to really like it.
A Serious Man
Coen Brothers’ darkly humorous (are there any other kinds for the brothers?) A Serious Man poses some complex questions on faith and rationality, which I really enjoyed.
The Young Victoria
The Young Victoria is beautiful to look at. Everything is gorgeous – the sets, the costumes, the cinematography. There is one fantastic shot of a long line of wine glasses that took my breath away. The problem is, the story is just not that interesting, and the storytelling is just too unambitious to make it an engaging film.
The Hurt Locker
I love that we never see the enemies in The Hurt Locker. There’s a sense that nobody really knows why they’re doing what they’re doing. They (and we) think they do, but we (and they) aren’t really sure. They shoot their enemies. But are they certain those are their enemies? They feel outraged when they found the body of a local boy they’ve befriended. But is that really that boy’s corpse? In a tremendous scene where snipers exchange fire, one soldier shoots and kills an “enemy”, but neither he nor the viewers are sure whom he’s really shot. Most movies are about the protagonist overcoming obstacles to achieve his/her goals. The Hurt Locker has that, but in a way, the protagonist’s need of adrenaline rush and his goals are almost secondary to the bigger picture of the uncertainty of surviving in a war zone.
The Blind Side
The Blind Side is like one of those feel good Lifetime movies. There’s never any real danger of anything. It’s hard to believe any of the characters. It’s designed to appeal to a certain demographics and in that sense, it’s a very good business product.
Precious
Precious Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire deals with exactly the kind of things The Blind Side doesn’t want to think about. MoNique’s explosive performance really steals the film.
Whip It
Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut is a fun little film.
Inglourious Basterds
Without a doubt, Tarrantino is an excellent writer. The five chapters in Inglourious Basterds are basically five long scenes. Some are better than others, and the good ones are superbly good, such as the first scene.
Chrisptoh Waltz’s Col.Hans Landa is one great Nazi villain. Yes, he’s an obvious villain. To us. But to himself, he’s a good guy. An intellectual detective. A Nazi Sherlock Holmes (that pipe moment is hilarious). And that’s what’s makes a great villain – the “villain” cannot think of himself as a villain. This is not a screenwriting secret, but obviously, it’s easier said than done. How do you create an obviously “evil” character (to us) and have him believe that he’s a “good” guy? Inglourious Basterds is full of these characters. In fact, most Tarrantino films are full of these characters. He is an excellent writer.
Coraline
Coraline seems terribly scary as a kid’s movie. I’d be terrified if I saw it as a kid. But I’d also remember it well into my adult life until the point I re-watch it and realized that it’s not that scary after all. That’s certainly one way to make a memorable film – just scare the bejesus out of kids. Of course, it helps that Coraline has some real imaginative, Tim Burton-esque visuals.
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Not many novelists get to write the script and direct the film adaptation of their own books. The novel version of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee has a long middle section that is essentially a long flashback and I wondered how Rebecca Miller would deal with it in the film version, as casting would be very important.
Casting Blake Lively, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Robin Wright Penn, is a great decision. By intercutting the past and present is also a good artistic choice, and so is having more scree time for present day Pippa. Even though that in effect diminishes our understanding of young Pippa’s anguish and the parallels of the mother/daughter relationships, I care about present day Pippa more, who is the real protagonist. Casting Keanu Reeves to play a character who cannot lie is another stroke of genius. He, as some critics has mentioned, is the most “honest” actor.
On the downside, some of the scenes feel a bit rushed
El secreto de sus ojos
El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) is fantastically constructed crime thriller. Calling it a crime thriller really doesn’t do it justice. Even though there’s a crime to solve, and the case is pursued by the protagonist with the obsessiveness worthy of a great crime thriller, writer/director Juan José Campanella’s elegant film is much more than that. The protagonist uses the case as an inspiration to write a book (is it a memoir, or is it fiction?), and we see what happened 25 years ago (is what we are seeing actual events? or it that just the writer’s novel?) But the ambiguity doesn’t confuse a mesmerizing story that slowly reveals the secrets in these people’s eyes.
Ricardo Darín is once again excellent (Darín is also in two of my favorite films, both written and directed by the late Fabián Bielinsky- the cheeky and clever Nine Queens, and Bielinsky’s masterpiece, El Aura), and so is the beautiful Soledad Villamil.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
The joy of Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, in addition to a wonderfully over the top performance from Nicolas Cage, is its unpredictability. There are enough “bad cops” movies to have a general formula – but this Herzog film pretty much goes wherever it feels like.
Books:
The Damned United by David Peace
I saw the film first, then read the screenplay, and read the novel last. It’s adaptation in reverse. Peace’s novel is a fascinating read for a football fan. Brian Clough’s doomed reign at Leeds was a bit before my time, but I was fully aware of his accomplishments at Nottingham Forest when I was growing up.
I really like the parallel timeline of the novel, which everything comes full circle. The repetition, though clearly illustrates Clough’s obsessiveness, gets a bit tiring after a while. But then again, I’d imagine getting inside someone like Clough’s head would get tiring after a while too. Compared with Peter Morgan’s screenplay, Peace’s Clough is more self-obsessive, and not as likable. It’s him him him. What I like about the screenplay/film is Clough’s friendship with Peter Taylor, which apparently is a creative choice by Morgan during the adaptation process.
Pick of the Week:
A lot of good films this week. Both The Hurt Locker and Precious are superb films that I like a lot. But the Argentinean film, The Secret in Their Eyes really spoke to me with its elegance, and is my pick of the week.
An Education – by Nick Hornby. Based on the piece of memoir by Lynn Barber. Draft dated: 4th April, 2007
This week I’m focusing on mostly 2009 movies. Watching some that I missed, and watching a couple for the second time.
Films:
To Kill a Mockingbird
I picked To Kill a Mockingbird as one of the films for our library’s Black History Month Film Series. A faithful adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the film maintains a novelistic quality. Even though it’s told from the little girl Scout’s perspective, the story doesn’t restrict itself to the goals and wants of any one character. It seems grand in scope for a movie, but it’s not really an epic. The narrative begins like a wide shot and takes its time to gradually zooms in to main point of the story in the final scene of the film. A classic.
Harold and Maude - Harold's Jaguar Hearse
Harold and Maude is one of my (and Hillary’s) all time favorites. Hillary especially baked a ginger pie for us to watch the movie with. It’s all set up to be one of those fun food and movie occasion, except I don’t like ginger. Oh well.
When I drew up my list of car movies to watch, I completely forgot about Harold and Maude. Well, it’s not strictly a car movie, but it does have a memorable car. Yes, I’m talking about Harold’s awesome Jaguar E-Type hearse. Even though I’m still taking a break from car movies, I’m catching up all the back episodes of Top Gear. I’m sure Jeremy Clarkson et al. would be mighty impressed by Harold’s craftsmanship.
An Education
Carey Mulligan, the star of An Education, has obvious star quality. She’s terrific and pretty much carries the entire film.
Up in the Air
Upon 2nd viewing, and after reading the novel and the screenplay, I can really appreciate what Jason Reitman the director’s has done. I think Up in the Air the movie is better than the screenplay (well, better than the draft I read anyway), and the screenplay (that same draft) is better than the novel. The screenplay makes his goal more focused, and adds the subplot of his protégé which really adds to the main conflict of the story, and has sharper and wittier dialogues. The movie version makes the protagonist’s goals bigger (e.g. to get 10million miles on American Airlines rather than something like 500k miles on a small airlines in the novel), which is the Hollywood way. The visuals are efficient, rather than fancy or spectacular, but they suit the movie. The interviews with real people who have been laid off is a great touch. It has a future classic feel to it, like some of Frank Capra’s best movies – those that reflect the social conditions of the time.
The Messenger
I’m usually not terribly interested in movies about returning soldiers. I feel that they are mostly about the same kind of characters facing the same kind of problems. But The Messenger has a fresh take on this genre. The returning soldiers deliver bad news to families of fallen soldiers. Each of those brutal scenes is like a battle in and of itelf. I like that first time director Oren Moverman keeps his commentary to minimum by shooting it in an almost documentary style. The film feels sincere and we feel for the characters.
Where the Wild Things Are
I had high hopes for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, but ended up quite disappointed. Maybe it’s just me and my dislike of manic kids. Maybe not. The visuals become dull after a while. The parallels between the Wild Things and the real world are intentionally loose, but they are loose to a point of not having any impact.
Julie and Julia
Julie & Julia is a clever adaptation of two memoirs. The movie is light and enjoyable. And what more can we say about Meryl Streep?
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Animation suits Wes Anderson’s style. You could say he relies a bit too much on style instead of substance in his last several features, that he spends too much energy on being cool rather than telling compelling stories. But in Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson has license to be cool. The format gives him freedom to try things he can’t do with live action. As a result, I think it is one of the coolest animations I’ve seen. A highly enjoyable film!
In the Loop
The 2nd viewing of In the Loop is all about enjoying the sharp, acerbic, witty, filthy, over the top dialogue. It’s laugh out loud funny about the serious and ridiculous subject of political gamesmanship. This is a brilliant satire.
Screenplay:
An Education - Screenplay by Nick Hornby
Several of Nick Hornby’s novels have been adapted into successful movies: Fever Pitch (twice), High Fidelity, About a Boy. It’s probably safe to say his novels have a cinematic quality. So why not skip the middle step altogether, and just write for the screen? An Education is an adaptation from a memoir by Lynn Barber. The draft I read is very close to the film version with just a few slight differences. Some of Hornby’s descriptions are not as well expressed on screen as on the page. However, I like one change the film version makes – in the 3rd act, when David takes Jenny’s family out – in the script, he borrows Danny’s Rolls Royce, but in the movie, he uses his own Bristol. As Jenny’s father debates whether he should pay for gas, the door handle falls off. It’s a great touch to show both what’s behind David’s facade, and Jenny’s father’s realization of it.
Pick of the Week:
I like both Up in the Air and The Messenger a lot. But Up in the Airedges it, simply because I’ve read the novel and the screenplay and saw what changes the filmmakers made to improve the source material.
The Damned United – 2008 draft script by Peter Morgan (from the novel by David Peace)
I took a break from car movies this week. Not that I’m bored with them. Not at all. There’re sooo many more car movies I’m looking forward to watching. But in preparation for the K-State Libraries Black History Month Film Series I’m organizing, I felt that I should try to re-watch some of these films. We are showing three films this year: 1. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 2. To Kill a Mockingbird, and 3. Akeelah and the Bee. The three movies depict prejudice in three different eras: 30′s, 60′s and today, with very different approaches.
Films:
In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night is not part of the libraries’ film series, but I thought I’d have a Sydney Poitier double bill at home with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Now that I’ve seen it (for the 1st time), I wished I’d chosen this movie as well! Though Poitier has top billing, the real protagonist is Rod Steiger’s Police Chief Bill Gillespie. It’s he that goes through the most dramatic transformation. For the sake of the plot, they have to explain the murder in the final act, but it actually gets in the way of the meaty part of the movie, as the murder mystery is not nearly as interesting as the dramatic tension between the two leads. Apart from this minor complaint, this is an engaging film which also illustrates race relations from less than half a century ago (hard to imagine!).
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner approaches race relations from an entirely different angle than In the Heat of the Night. Once again, the white man is the real protagonist. It is Spencer Tracy’s struggle to come to terms with having his daughter marry a black man that really drives the story. It is he that is the most changed man at the end of the movie. Overall, it’s a very entertaining film with several charismatic stars. Like In the Heat of the Night, it serves as reminder of how far we have come since the 60′s in terms of racial acceptance.
The Invention of Lying
After reading the screenplay, this movie is quite a disappointment. There are quite a few holes in the execution of an interesting premise – saying whatever is in your mind is not the same as telling the truth. Ricky Gervais’ character simply decides not to say what’s on his mind.
The movie begins with a voice over to explain the world of no lies, whereas in the screenplay, we have several scenes of the history of the world of no lying. The old adage of “show, don’t tell” is never more true than in here. Yes, the voice-over takes up less time but it makes absolutely no impact in convincing the viewers of this absurd world. The entire concept hinges on the viewers suspending their disbelief, and if that fails, the whole film fails, which is basically what happens here. Some of the lines are funnier on paper than on screen, and it doesn’t help that the visual is quite dull. This is surely the weakest of Ricky Gervais’ s works. I do, however, look forward to Gervais’ next project which brings back the wonderful partnership of Stephen Merchant.
Book:
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - by Rebecca Miller
I remember watching Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity, a film adaptation of her book of the same name. Comprised of three short films, the film has such a literary quality to it that I had a strong urge to read the source material, and I was not disappointed. Miller, daughter playwright Arthur Miller, is keenly observant of her female characters, especially about their relationships with their families. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which has been adapted into a movie, is mostly about mothers/daughters relationships. I like the structure of the story, but I can imagine the difficulties of translating it into a film. The central character would have to be played by two different actresses, and so much would be dependent on the believability of the casting. I look forward to seeing the film version.
Screenplay:
The Damned United - screenplay by Peter Morgan
I have become quite a big fan of screenwriter Peter Morgan. The Damned United the screenplay is slightly different from the film, but I will need to re-watch the film. I’m actually very interested in the adaptation process of this film – from the novel (which I’m reading right now) to the screenplay to the film. Perhaps a paper on this topic in the future.
Pick of the Week:
In a light movie-watching week, In the Heat of the Nightis the pick of the week.
Director Lee H. Katzin and Steve McQueen trusted that the inherent beauty of racing would be enough to captivate viewers of a feature length motion picture. They were right. Le Mans is shot like a documentary with minimal dialogue. We are immersed in the race and it’s fascinating. With so few scenes with dialogue, whenever a character speaks, the scene takes on added significance. The poignant scene where the female lead asks McQueen about why racers race gives meaning to all the racing in the entire film.
Bullitt
Unlike the scene with the female lead in Le Mans that elevates the film, the scene with the female lead in Bullitt brings the film down from excellent to just very good. The entire film is about this taciturn cop doing his job. This “girlfriend” subplot doesn’t really belong in the first place. The long scene where she tells him that she doesn’t understand his world is just too on-the-nose to work.
When you talk about Bullitt, you have to mention that famous car chase in San Francisco. And it’s a great chase.
Smokey and the Bandit
One of Burt Reynolds’ many “redneck” car movies. The plot is simple, almost simple minded, but the movie is actually quite entertaining. Jokes are of the low brow type, and some are funnier than intended. As Bandit puts it perfectly, “When you tell somebody something, it depends on what part of the United States you’re standin in, as to just how dumb you are.”
The Terrorizers - directed by Edward Yang
The most “urban” of the three Taiwanese New Wave directors (the other two are Hou Hsiao Hsien and Tsai Ming Liang), Edward Yang is strangely the least known outside of Asia. It’s a shame that only one of Edward Yang’s films is available on DVD in the U.S.. That film, Yi Yi (now available as a Criterion Collection DVD), is a masterpiece epic of everyday life small moments. In fact, most of Yang’s films are about everyday life small moments.
The Terrorizers has a complex, multi-thread, and fragmented narrative and it challenges the viewers to solve the puzzle.It is often (wrongly, I think) compared to Antoinoni’s Blow Up, mainly because each film has a photographer and a mysterious murder. When asked in an interview, Yang brushed aside that notion, and talked about his admiration for the works of Resnais and Pialat, which I actually see greater resemblance to Yang’s style.
The Love Bug
The Love Bug, the first in the Herbie franchise, is a moderately fun Disney movie for kids.
Book:
Up in the Air - a novel by Walter Kirn
Up in the Air, the movie, was one of my favorite films of 2009, and it is actually better than the book. Directed by Jason Reitman from a script by Reitman and Sheldon Turn, the film distills the best quality of the novel and adds subplots and details that actually strengthens the story and the character. Up in the Air, the novel, has a good first 100 pages or so but slowly loses steam.
Pick of the Week:
The Terrorizers – A close one. Le Mans is great but Edward Yang’s The Terrorizers is a masterpiece.
Car movies marathon continued. Watched another 6 car movies – one of them brilliant, and one of them absolute crap. Finally watched The Orphanage, after hearing about it for so long.
Films:
Thirst
Thirst has a fresh take on the vampire genre. It is sexually charged, and the moral conflict is deeply felt. As much as I admire Chan-wook Park‘s craft and imagination, and even though he uses gore for a purpose, and the violence is never just for violence’s sake, sometimes I find it difficult to get through his films. I know, I’m a wuss. But it is to Park’s credit that he can make his films as much an ordeal for viewers like me as for his characters. It’s quite overwhelming to witness his characters expressing their loath in such extreme (though stylized) violence. Nevertheless, by the end of the films, I’m always glad that I’ve persevered.
Vanishing Point
The Challenger is an apt car to use to rebel against the establishment. Richard C. Sarafian‘s film documents one man’s almost existential journey without much overt reason nor explanation. But it’s never boring. Cut to the chase, literally, from the get-go, Vanishing Point is one awesome chase film!
The Orphanage
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona from a fantastic script by Sergio G. Sánchez, The Orphanage uses mood and suspense to scare the hell out of me, which is the kind of horror films I like. It puts all those gore-fest “horror” movies to shame. The ending shows the influence of Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), who is the producer of the film, and supplies additional layers to an already rich story. Great film!
The Innocents
After The Orphanage, I decided to watch another creepy horror film that mostly utilizes suspense to scare. The Innocents is an adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. Not nearly as scary or as intense as The Orphanage, The Innocents nonetheless manages to create a sense of schizophrenia.
Flawless
Apart from very good art direction that re-creates 60′s London, the Demi Moore/Michael Caine heist film Flawless is too by the book to offer anything original. Characters lack strong motivation, and their actions are never convincing.
Not for or Against
I’m very fond of Cédric Klapisch‘sChacun cherche son chat(aka When the Cat’s Away), which shows us the change of a Parisian neighborhood by having us follow the female protagonist’s search for her missing cat. I also like L’auberge espagnole, which is about a group of students studying abroad in Barcelona. Not for or Against is a French heist thriller, which begins with a robber’s rationale of his way of living and ends with a camerawoman living it. Is money that important? Is Klapisch for or against it? I think he offers quite a few clues to his own neutral statement.
Cannonball Run
Cannonball Run was so painful to get through its modest 95 mins. It’s as if nobody on the set even bothered to try. So many stars and such lazy effort that it’s actually offensive. I actually got mad watching this “comedy”. Roger Moore playing Roger Moore is the only semi-decent thing in the entire movie.
Convoy
Not strictly a “car” movie, in fact I think Sam Peckinpah has made a western with eighteen-wheelers. The emphasis isn’t really on character development as on what the characters represent. Similar to Vanishing Point, and many other 70′s American films, the truckers/trucks here are used to symbolize the people’s disenchantment with authority. I love the one beautiful, balletic “truck chase” sequence in the sand in slow motion.
Christine
A straightforward and effective thriller. Fun use of songs. Christine is one badass car.
Corvette Summer
Similar to Christine, the Corvette in Corvette Summer is treated as a romantic object of desire. But unlike Christine, this motif is not explored past one scene. The actions of the characters in this movie are all unreasonably naive to the point of dumbness, even for a 70′s teen movie. Annie Potts is charming, but still not enough to save the movie.
Ronin
One spectacular car chase, and two decent ones. The rest of John Frankenheimer‘s Ronin is quite nondescript. It’s almost like the film exists solely for the car chases.
I began my car movies marathon with two classics. Also, I re-visited El Mariachi and saw its two sequels for the first time.
Films:
Interview with a Vampire
Director Neil Jordon made The Crying Game, which I suspect was the reason he was hired to direct Interview with a Vampire in the first place, so I don’t believe he would be prudish about sexuality on screen. But how come all the obvious sexual potential between, well pretty much all characters in movie, is blatantly ignored? Was the studio afraid that by exploring the sexual attraction between the male vampires or the sexual tension between Brad Pitt’s Louis and Kirsten Dunst’s child/woman vampire would turn away viewers? The picture looks good, but with an undermined sexual subtext, the actual plot/action is just not interesting enough.
El Mariachi
Desperado
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Watched all 3 movies in the El Mariachi trilogy back to back to back. El Mariachi, made with a now legendary ultra-low budget of $7,000 by Robert Rodriguez (his book: Rebel without a Crew, is a must-read for any aspiring independent filmmaker), is a much better film than the other two multimillion dollar productions. (Desperado especiallyis a huge disappointment).
In the 1st film, the mariachi is just a musician, but is forced into violence. That reluctance is what makes the film good, and his internal conflict is what makes his actions plausible. But in the two sequels, with Antonio Banderas assuming the role of the mariachi, he’s way too much of a action hero. Killing is his day job, and music has become just an excuse for him to carry around a guitar case. Without the reluctance, the character is one dimensional. I just don’t care about him nor his goals (whatever they are). Granted, Rodriguez has flair with his cinematography and his gunfight choreography. He has shown what he can do with only $7k. But however inventive the action scenes are or however cool they look, the lack of emotional attachment to the characters negates any narrative purpose they might have. And without narrative purpose, the actions are just things exploding, or people getting machine gunned. Rodriguez is a better filmmaker than that. The 3rd installment, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, is better than Desperado. It’s watchable every time Johnny Depp is on screen. But the confusing face-change plot completely derails the movie, and never really recovers.
Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
The film has many flaws – there is no character development, the plot is paper thin, the acting is horrendous – but H.B. Halicki‘s distant perspective is actually quite refreshing. The way the Mustang (named Eleanor, and has top billing) tears through L.A. like a wounded and cornered animal does it for me.
Gumball Rally
The granddaddy of illegal cross-country street car racing movies, and sets a formula which pretty much all similar movies follow.
