A Quickie With Lisa Marie: The Artist (dir. by Michel Hazanavicius)

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I was concerned before I saw Michel Hazanavicius’s critically acclaimed, silent film The Artist. This is the film that’s currently being touted as an Oscar front runner and has been acclaimed by critics the world over. Whenever I see this type of acclaim, I usually end up disappointed in the actual film because hype that positive is very difficult to live up to. (Case in point: The Descendants.) However, having seen The Artist, I can now say that this is the rare film that actually is almost as good as the critics say it is.

Starting out in a highly stylized Hollywood in the 1920s, The Artist introduces us to silent film star George Valentin (played Jean Dujardin who shows the same charm and style that he used to ironic effect in the director’s previous OSS 117 films). Valentin is the biggest star in the world and he is cheerfully dismissive of the idea of “talking” film. However, once the age of the talkies begins, Valentin finds his star on the descent while his protegé, former extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), becomes a star in talking films. Defiantly, Valentin continues to make silent films but is there anybody around still willing to watch them? Obviously, the storyline of The Artist is a familiar one but the film is more about how Hazanavicius tells this story than the story itself. The Artist is ultimately a triumph in pure and exuberant style.

At first, I have to admit that I was a little bit dubious about The Artist being a silent film. It sounded rather ominously like a gimmick and I was worried that The Artist would turn out to be one of those films that I felt obligated to enjoy as opposed to actually enjoying. Having seen the film, I can say that it is indeed a gimmick but it’s that rare gimmick that actually works extremely and genuinely well. Director Hazanavicius both pays homage to the conventions of silent cinema while also contrasting them against the harsher reality of loneliness and depression.

Much like the best of the old silent actors, both Dujardin and Bejo have amazingly expressive faces and they can say as much with their eyes as they could say with dialogue. Familiar character actors like John Goodman, James Cromwell, and Malcolm McDowell are also perfectly cast and used throughout the film’s narrative. Ultimately, however, the film is really stolen by Uggie, who plays Dujardin’s little dog and is just about the most talented canine I’ve ever seen on-screen. Seriously, he was adorable (and I say this as someone who is terrified of dogs both big and small) and he gets a chance to shine in a compelling sequence where he desperately tries to save his master from a fire. Seriously, Uggie gives such a great performance that I was surprised to discover that he wasn’t actually Andy Serkis under heavy CGI.

Technically, of course, The Artist isn’t really a silent film. It has a very rich and expressive musical score and there are two scenes in which Hazanavicius allows a few sound effects to be heard. Only towards the end of the film do we get to hear anybody speak and its truly jarring in the best way possible. If nothing else, The Artist makes us realize how much we take for granted the blaring soundtracks of most films. We’re so used to hearing things that we’ve forgotten how to listen. Luckily, The Artist is here to remind us.

The Most Underappreciated Film Of The Year: Joe Wright’s Hanna

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Sometimes, it seems like it’s easier for me to write about the films I dislike as opposed to the films that I truly love. Case in point: I had little trouble writing up my thoughts on Anonymous and Straw Dogs but it’s taken me 8 months to write a formal review of my favorite film of 2011: Joe Wright’s pulp fairy tale, Hanna.

Taking place in a world much like our own but definitely not the same, Hanna opens in the frozen wilderness of Finland where 16 year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) lives in an isolated cabin with her father, Erik (Eric Bana). In the film’s electrifying opening montage, we see that Hanna’s life revolves around training for combat, memorizing the encyclopedia, and memorizing several “false” back stories that have been prepared for her by her father. It also quickly becomes apparent that Erik has never allowed his daughter to be exposed to the real world. Finally, Erik tells Hanna that she is “now ready” to choose whether or not to open up a box containing an old transmitter that well alert the rest of the world of their existence. When Hanna finally opens the box, Erik promptly disappears and Hanna is left to fend for herself.

It quickly becomes apparent why Erik has spent years training his daughter because, by opening the box, Hanna has given away her presence to a coolly corrupt and ruthless CIA agent named Marissa (Played by Cate Blanchett and one of the most compelling villains in recent film history). Marissa has her own reasons for wanting both Erik and Hanna and she quickly sends a team to Erik’s cabin. Hanna is captured and transported to a memorably sterile CIA safehouse. In a shocking sudden burst of violence, Hanna escapes from the safehouse and finds herself having to survive in the “real world” while being pursued by Marissa.

Hanna, Marissa, and Erik eventually meet their fates in a desolate theme park that (in a neat bit of symbolism) is dedicated to the Brothers Grimm. Along the way, Hanna meets and travels with a likable family of English tourists, allowing her to have her first chance to actually experience a “normal” life and Marissa recruits Issacs, one of the creepiest film henchmen ever. Seriously. Isaacs is played by Tom Hollander and he was just so exquisitely sleazy that my skin crawled just watching him on-screen.

In many ways, Hanna may sound like a simple action film but, in the best tradition of the French new wave and the better grindhouse filmmakers, Joe Wright both embraces the conventions of the action film while unexpectedly subverting them and using them to tell a more universal story about the struggle to both establish and maintain identity in an increasingly soulless world. Much as Godard did before he gave up his artistic soul to political ideology, Joe Wright uses his cinematic talents to create a unique world that, while heavily stylized, also comments on our own existence. The Chemical Brothers, meanwhile, provide the perfect soundtrack to Wright’s pulp vision.

Hanna may be my favorite film of 2011 but it’s also the most underappreciated of the year, at least as far as Oscar season is concerned. There’s been so mention of the film’s score and a few critics’ groups have tossed a “young artist” mention or two at Saoirse Ronan but otherwise, the film has pretty much been ignored. I think part of the problem is that Hanna was released in April and not December. If the films had been released in December, I think Ronan would, at the very least, be a dark horse for best actress.

The main complaint that most critics seem to come up with when discussing Hanna is that the film is too much of a genre piece. Yes, it’s well-made and it’s well-acted and yes, it’s a compelling film with an intelligent script but, in the end, it’s just a genre piece. A fairly typical response comes from the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw who, after praising all of the film’s virtues, concluded with, “…(I)t ultimately squanders all of them, undone by a lack of subtlety and restraint.”

To this, I can only respond, “Oh? Really?” Seriously. Amazingly enough, some of the critics who criticized Hanna for a perceived lack of subtlety are the same critics who are now falling over themselves to praise the rehash of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I suppose the difference here is that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was directed by David Fincher and is the product of the American film establishment whereas Hanna was directed by Joe Wright and was produced by outsiders.

Those who claim that Hanna is too genre are missing the simple fact that Hanna is an insightful film that uses the conventions of the action genre as a metaphor for the sometime painful search for identity that every teenager (and especially every teenage girl) has ever had to go through. Myself, I never had to flee from government agents or battle assassins when I was 16 but I did have to start discovering how to survive in the real world, away from the security and comfort of home. As opposed to the pretend feminism of Fincher’s film, Hanna is a film that truly celebrates “girl power” and promotes independence and empowerment. It’s also, as far as I’m concerned, the best film of 2011.

A Quickie With Lisa Marie: Young Adult (dir. by Jason Reitman)

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

David Fincher’s rehash of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo isn’t the only “feel bad movie of the holidays.” There’s also Young Adult, a rather dark comedy that reunites the director and screenwriter behind Juno, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody.

Young Adult is the story of Mavis (played winningly by Charlize Theron), a former high school mean girl who has grown up to be a lonely, alcoholic ghost writer of young adult literature. Mavis is struggling to write her latest book when she gets an e-mail announcing that her former high school boyfriend Buddy (Patrick Wilson, who defines dreamy) is not only married but his wife has just given birth to their first child. Mavis does what we would all do if we found ourselves in similar circumstances: she promptly returns to her old hometown and plots to break up Buddy’s happy marriage*. (Or as Mavis puts it: “We can beat this thing.”)

Once she returns to her hometown, Mavis not only struggles to reconnect with Buddy but also runs into another former high school classmate, Matt (Patton Oswalt, who deserves every sort of award nomination that there is for his performance here). As opposed to Mavis, Matt was an outcast in high school who, during his senior year, was beaten and permanently crippled by a bunch of bullies who had decided that he was gay. Much as Mavis has won fame as a writer, Matt has won his own sort of fame as “the hate crime guy.” Despite themselves, Mavis and Matt start to bond over their own inability to move on with their lives past high school.

As you might guess from the plot synopsis above, Young Adult is a not a laugh-out-loud comedy. Instead, it’s a comedy of awkward moments and “Oh no, she didn’t!” moments. It’s not always an easy movie to recommend because Mavis is an apologetically unlikable character. However, as the film goes on, you can’t help but respect the fearless way that the film tackles a character that doesn’t really offer up much chance for a crowd-pleasing redemption. Obviously, for this to work, Charlize Theron has to give a brilliant performance in the lead role and she does. However, the film truly belongs to Patton Oswalt, who plays his role with a perfect combination of anger, self-pity, and sarcasm. He provides this film with its own fractured heart and we’re all better off for it.

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* Okay, technically, maybe not everybody would do that. But I would.

Poll: What Are You Looking Forward To In February?

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, at the end of each month, we ask you, our loyal readers, what movies are you looking forward to seeing in the future? Last month at this time, we asked you what you were looking forward to seeing in January and the clear winner (with 42% of the vote) was the 3-D rerelease of Beauty and the Beast.

So, what about February? Are you most excited about seeing the re-release of the Phantom Menace? And, if so, why? I was only 13 when that movie first came out and even then, I thought it was the most boring thing I had ever seen. Or perhaps your enthusiastic about a new film coming out? And again, I have to ask why. There usually aren’t that many good films released in January and February.

So, with all that in mind, what are you planning on seeing?

As always, you can vote for up to four films and write-ins are accepted!

Happy voting!

6 Trailers To End The Year With

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Well, here we are at the end of 2011 and you know what that means. It’s time for one last 2011 entry of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers!

1) New Year’s Evil (1981)

I’ve never seen this film but I’ve read about it and the plot actually sounds like it has potential: a killer is determined to kill a different person in each time zone across America over the course of one long, New Year’s Eve night. I get the feeling the execution was probably lacking but seriously, time zones are weird.

2) Student Bodies (1981)

This little satire of the slasher genre shows up on cable occasionally. I’ve never managed to make it all the way through but I do appreciate the gag with the killer continually stepping on chewing gum.

3) Screwballs (1983)

With a name like Screwballs it has to be …. uhmm, good?

4) Spring Break (1983)

Obviously, there was a serious lack of attractive people in the 1980s.

5) Ski School (1991)

Oh wait. The kinda attractive people were at the ski school. Emphasis on kinda.

6) My Tutor (1982)

However, as always, the truly cool people, were learning how to speak French.

With love, Happy New Year!

A Quickie With Lisa Marie: Higher Ground (dir. by Vera Farmiga)

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last August, I saw a wonderful film called Higher Ground. Despite the fact that it had gotten a rapturous review in our local news paper, I was one of the only people in the theater. Higher Ground played for a week before leaving and it’s been rather ignored during Oscar season. And that’s a shame because I think that Higher Ground is one of the best films of 2011. It’s certainly one of my personal favorites.

Taking place over the course of several decade, Higher Ground follows Corinne (Vera Farmiga) as she goes from being married and pregnant at 18 to eventually following her husband into joining a commune of self-described “Jesus Freaks.” The commune, while being undeniably well-meaning, is also male-dominated and follows an extremely fundamentalist interpretation of the bible. The previously fiercely independent Corinne quickly settles in to being a compliant housewife with her social life being pretty much limited to hanging out with the other housewives in the commune. As the years progress, Corinne struggles to balance her own independence with her own religious beliefs until finally, she starts to both question her faith and the life she’s lived for the past 20 years.

For the most part, American cinema doesn’t have a very good track record when it comes to religious themes. Regardless of whether a film is pro-religion or anti-religion, the final result often times seems to be heavy-handed, simple-minded, and finally rather condescending. (I always roll my eyes whenever a white, Southern-accented preacher shows up in a movie because I know that he’s going to turn out to be a villain within the next 30 minutes). It’s very rare to find a film that treats religion and the issues of faith (and the lack of it) with anything resembling intelligence. Higher Ground is one of those rare films and, for the reason alone, it deserves to be seen. A typical and lesser film would have taken sides and would have given us a bunch of easy judgments and hissable villains. Higher Ground, however, is far too subtle and intelligent to give us any easy answers. In the end, its portrait of religion and faith is intriguingly ambiguous and one that forces the viewer to reconsider their own feelings as well.

Ultimately, Higher Ground is triumph for Vera Farmiga, who both stars and makes her directorial debut with this film. As both a director and a star, she contributes some very subtle work here and, as a result, the film almost takes you be surprise as you suddenly realize just how wrapped of you gotten in its story. Farmiga’s direction is so assured that she even gets away with a few showy fantasy sequences where Corinne reveals what’s going on behind her devout facade. It’s a triumphant directorial debut and I’m looking forward to seeing what Farmiga does in the future.

What Lisa Marie Watched Last Night: A Friend of the Family (dir. by Stuart Gillard)

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

What did I watch last night? I watched A Friend of the Family, a 2007 film that shows up on the Lifetime Movie Network every couple of weeks.

Why Was I Watching It?

Ennui.

What Was It About?

Well, it’s yet another Canadian true crime, exploitation film that has found a second life on Lifetime. Newly weds Allison and Darrin (Laura Harris and Erik Johnson) move to a small town in Canada. Darrin befriends and goes into business with David (Kim Coates) and David is like so obviously a serial killer but Allison is the only one who notices. And then, when Allison attempts to let people know that David’s the one who has been killing all the blonde waitresses in town, everyone responds by saying that she’s the one who is being silly and emotional!

What Worked

It all worked! Well, okay, not all of it but enough of it worked that I had fun curling up on the couch and watching it. Laura Harris was a sympathetic heroine (and she played her character with just a hint of instability so you wondered sometimes if maybe she was just imagining it all), Kim Coates was creepy in that Kim Coates way, and Erik Johnson — Oh. My. God. So. Cute.

Add to that, I could relate to this film. Nobody believed me when I said the janitor in high school was a serial killer and I’m still pretty sure I was right about that.

What Didn’t Work?

You know what? It all worked, as far as I’m concerned.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

There were several, most of them having to do with Alison’s struggle to get people to listen to what she was saying. Seriously, men need to lean how to shut up and listen when it comes to potential serial killers living next door.

Lessons Learned

The main lesson was the same one that’s taught by most Lifetime movies: If you ever think the guy next door might be obsessed with you and plotting to kill you, take the law in your own hands. Seriously, all the men in your life are worthless when it comes to these situations.

Film Review: Shame (dir. by Steve McQueen)

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier this month, Jeff and I saw the new film Shame. Shame has gotten a lot of attention because 1) it’s rated NC-17 and 2) it stars a frequently naked Michael Fassbender (or, as me and my girlfriends call it, “the Full Fassbender.”) I’m sure that some people out there will find Shame to be either too shocking or too disturbing or too explict for its own good but you know what? Those people are idiots. Shame is one of the best films of 2011.

(An extra benefit of Shame being rated NC-17 is that I was asked to show ID before I was allowed to enter the theater. Usually, this is where I would do one of my patented “Don’t Tell Me What I Can’t See!” rants but, honestly, I had just recently “celebrated” my birthday and being mistaken for 16 made my day.)

In Shame, Michael Fassbender plays a succesful, outwardly confident New Yorker named Brandon. Though the film never offers up a clinical diagnosis, Brandon is a sex addict who spends his time having anonymous sex with prostitutes, watching pornography on his computer, and apparently masturbating every chance he gets. We discover this via an opening montage which quickly establishes both the pattern of Brandon’s life and that sex for Brandon is more about maintaining order than getting any sort of pleasure. We watch as Brandon awkwardly flirts with an attractive co-worker and reluctantly goes out drinking with his boss and it quickly becomes obvious that Brandon is incapable of maintaining any sort of “real” relationship.

Eventually, Brandon’s life is disrupted when his self-destructive sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) shows up at his apartment and proceeds to move in with him. Though Sissy and Brandon are obviously close, it also becomes apparent that Sissy is everything that Brandon isn’t. Whereas Brandon is rigidly controlled and closed-off, Sissy is erratic and demanding. With Sissy’s arrival, Brandon quickly starts to spiral as his own behavior lurches out of his control, leading to one harrowing night that forces both Mulligan and Fassbender to confront who they are, each in their own individual way.

Obviously, for Shame to work, it has to strike a perfect balance. With this material, it’s very easy to go overboard and come up with something that feels histrionic and false. Fortunately, director Steve McQueen finds that perfect balance. McQueen mixes scenes of clinic observation with almost lyrical montages in a style that reminds one of some of David Cronenberg’s better film.

McQueen’s direction is matched by the performances of Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Playing the role of Brandon, Fassbender finds the perfect balance between self-loathing and narcissism and he makes blatant self-destruction both scary and compelling. It’s impossible to imagine this movie working with anyone but Fassbender in the lead role. He has more than enough talent and charisma to keep us watching even when we want to look away. (And, let’s be honest, the fact that he’s naked for most of the film helps too.) As Sissy, Mulligan runs the risk of being overshadowed by Fassbender’s performance but she more than holds her own while paying a character that will probably inspire mixed feelings in most viewers. Debatably, Mulligan gives an even braver performance than Fassbender. It takes guts to be this potentially unlikable on-screen and it takes talent to make us still care about the character and, fortunately, Mulligan has both.

I’ve heard a few people complain about the fact that McQueen declines to spell out any easy motivation for why Fassbender and Mulligan behave the way that they do. I would argue that this is the film’s greatest strength. Any possible explanation that McQueen could have offered would have just served to render what happens on screen simplistic. Ultimately, the characters played by Fassbender and Mulligan are mysteries to themselves as well as to the audience. That said, McQueen does offer up several clues. To his credit as a director, McQueen has faith in the ability of his audience to notice those clues without having to have things spelled out.

After watching Shame, all I can say is that perhaps, in the future, all movies should be rated NC-17.

A Quickie with Lisa Marie: Like Crazy (dir. by Drake Doremus)

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Like Crazy tells the story of Anna (Felicity Jones) and Jacob (Anton Yelchin), two college students who start dating as graduation nears and eventually come to discover that they love each other “like crazy.” Unfortunately, U.S. immigration officials don’t care how much they love each other and when the British Anna overstays on her visa, she is promptly sent back home and told that she cannot reenter the U.S. While Anna continues to pursue her literary career in England, Jacob runs a succesful design business in America. Anna and Jacob struggle to maintain their long distance relationship, even while both of them are tempted by others (played quite well by Jennifer Lawrence and Charlie Brewley, both of whom give nuanced performances that make their characters into more than just romantic complications).

While the plot might sound like the formula for your standard romcom, Like Crazy is actually a surprisingly mature and realistic film that also manages to be gloriously romantic and just a little sad (yes, Lisa cried a lot). You really come to care about not only about Jacob and Anna but you also come to feel less like your watching a movie and instead like you’re literally eavesdropping on real life. This is director Drake Doremus’s third film and his work here is almost like a blue print of how to make a film like this work. When the film starts, his hand-held cameras is jittery and nervous, reflecting the rush of hope and fear that we all feel at the beginning of a new relationship. As the film progresses, Doremus’s camera also calms down and it makes it impossible for us to look away, even when it almost feels as if we’ve intruded too far on the lives and feelings of our two lovers.

Doremus is helped by the fact that his two lovers are perfectly cast and totally believable and likable delivering dialogue that was reportedly improvised during filming. I’ve seen Anton Yelchin in a few films but this is the first time that he ever truly impressed me as an actor. One need only compare his vulnerable performance here to his more showy (and less effective) performance in The Beaver to see just how much Yelchin benefits from the improvised nature of Doremus’s film. As Anna, Felicity Jones proves that a previously unknown actress doesn’t need a gimmick (like a dragon tattoo) to give a breakthrough performance. Yelchin and Jones have a very real chemistry and you sincerely care about them.

The end result is a wonderful film that deserves to be seen. Like Crazy was one of the best films of 2011 and it’s a shame that it’s being overshadowed a bit by the bigger, more traditional films that have been released at the end of the year.

Film Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene (directed by Sean Durkin)

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Martha Marcy May Marlene was, for me, one of the most surprising films of 2011. I wasn’t expecting much when I went to see it because so much of the film’s publicity centered on the fact that it starred Elizabeth Olsen, the younger sister of the Olsen Twins. Needless to say, we don’t usually associate the Olsen Twins with challenging and mature filmmaking and, even though they had nothing to do with Martha Marcy May Marlene, it was impossible to read or hear about the film without them being mentioned. For a lot of people, this led to Martha Marcy May Marlene being dismissed by association. That’s really not fair to the film or Elizabeth Olsen (or the Olsen Twins, for that matter). Martha Marcy May Marlene is a haunting and disturbing little psychological thriller and one of the best films of 2011.

Olsen plays Martha, a young woman who, one day, shows up at the home of her older sister and her husband (played by Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy). Though the film never gets into the specific details, it becomes apparent that Paulson and Olsen are the products of a dysfunctional background. Olsen escaped by running away from home while Paulson found her exit by marrying the rather arrogant Dancy. Hoping to repair their own strained relationship, Paulson agrees to let Olsen stay with them, despite both the objections of Dancy and Olsen’s refusal to say where she’s been. No sooner has Olsen moved in then it starts to become apparent that she’s not the same person that Paulson remembers. When Paulson asks Olsen if she wants to take a swim in the nearby lake, Olsen responds by stripping off her clothes in front of Dancy and when Paulson and Dancy are trying to conceive their first child, Olsen sees nothing wrong with casually walking into the room and laying down on the bed beside them. More ominously, Olsen soon reveals herself to be paranoid of strangers. As Paulson struggles to understand her sister, we see flashbacks of a much more open (and trusting) Olsen joining a cult-like group, led by a magnetic John Hawkes.

Director Sean Durkin makes an assured debut with this film, subtly shifting between the present and the past and filling the screen with beautifully placid images that somehow manage to leave the audience with an unshakeable sense of menace and foreboding. As a storyteller, Durkin keeps the audience guessing and wondering about both who Martha once was, who she eventually became, and who she’s going to be in the future. Wisely Durkin doesn’t provide any easy solutions as much as he poses questions and then suggests a possible answer.

If you’re like and you’re a true crime and/or exploitation junkie (I’m both), you’ll realize immediately that the character played by John Hawkes is pretty blatantly based on Charles Manson and his followers are the equivalent of Manson’s “family.” What’s interesting is how Hawkes manages to keep his character both threatening and intriguing even after this become apparent. Hawkes radiates such charisma in the beginning of the film that the scenes where he eventually reveals his true colors are shocking, despite the fact that you know they’re coming. It’s a performance that proves that Hawkes is one of the best character actors working today and Durkin skillfully contrasts Hawkes’s more subtle form of domination with Hugh Dancy’s more obvious technique with the film ultimately suggesting that both of these patriarchal characters are just two sides of the same coin.

Ultimately, though, the film is dominated by Elizabeth Olsen who gives a performance that is simply brilliant. Alternatively innocent and calculating, Martha is a fascinating character and Olsen brings her to haunting life. As a result of Olsen’s brave performance, Martha Marcy May Marlene joins with Hanna and Shame as a great modern film about the search for identity. This has been a year full of strong female performances and Olsen gives one of the strongest. The next time some shyster tries to sell you on the idea that Rooney Mara is the actress of the future, tell them to go see Martha Marcy May Marlene.