Whatever Works

Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) sees the big picture. As a genius who is well versed in Quantum Mechanics, he understands that we are all just beings who are destined to die, and that we should all take whatever slices of life that make us happy. He is also fully aware that somewhere out there, people who paid good money are looking into the bubble and viewing his life. Nobody believes him of course, but that doesn’t mean he won’t let us in.

Boris is a crotchety, cynical old man who believes that people are taking the wrong view on life. People tend to think that others are essentially decent people and will do the right thing when the situation calls for it. He doesn’t buy it, and rails constantly on this point. His friendships are based on allowing him to vent incessantly and then discussing these topics.

Enter Melodie St. Ann Celestine ( Evan Rachel Wood ). A runaway from Mississippi has arrived in the Big Apple to get away from her highly religious parents. Boris thinks her a empty headed zombie who doesn’t have the looks or the brains to last in New York, but he allows her to stay a couple of days to make the decision to go home. Months pass, and its apparent to all that even though she is highly impressionable, she is a good influence on Boris.

When her parents come to town (Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr.), they tell tales of searching for her high and low. The police found nothing but dead ends, but they just prayed and found their way to her doorstep. Their time in NYC changes them completely as they are quickly drawn into romantic entanglements that were taboo where they came from.

In the end, its all about finding out what it is that makes you happy. Its not so much your goals, knowledge and standing in life, its got more to do with luck and engaging the world. It does seem to me that this was yet another self-indulgent Woody Allen film thats a an exercise in saying “its fine to do whatever you want.”

Larry David is a person that I can usually only tolerate for small periods of time (personally I was here to watch Evan Rachel Wood). He does effectively channel Woody Allen in this film, which is interesting considering that snippets of his life are played out on screen. The love with a woman a few decades younger than him, the neurotic, high strung awkward man who people seem to want to know and be around.

The screening I was at, it appeared that the film was made in soft focus, there is an almost bubble like view throughout, and this is probably to enforce that “the audience is watching”, but it seemed that I shouldn’t have noticed this fact.

I will say that this is probably his best film in this decade. I laughed at several points and liked the movie as a whole, which is more than I’ve been able to do with his other films in recent memory. But as people seem to like letting me know, my tastes in movies is extremely flawed.

Recommendation: Solid DVD Rental

Terribly Happy, SIFF 2009, 9/10

Robert (Jakob Cedergren) is a cop from Copenhagen who has done something both understandable and inexcusable. As punishment, he is banished to the town of Skarrild to be the local law enforcement and recover so he can return to the city.

As with any small town, it only appears quiet and peaceful. Children caught stealing are given a whooping and sent on their way. Outsiders basically either adapt or are never seen from again, likely to be found drowned in the local bog. The new bike store manager disappeared soon after arrival. The most powerful man in town is Jorgen (Kim Bodnia) and is married to a beautiful outsider Ingelise (Lene Maria Christensen). Her daughter walks the street, pushing a baby carriage with teddy bears as passengers, the nights when the parents fight. And the town fathers play cards lamenting that they don’t have a fourth person to play with anymore.

As Robert gets used to Skarrild’s ways, the beautiful Ingelise enlists his help to protect her from her husband . When he decides to do so, he finds that the small town of Skarrild has their own brand of justice. The love triangle that ensues mirrors classic noir films, with dark, cynical and hilarious results.

I love Danish black humor, it just tickles me in the right places. This film, adapted from a novel by best-selling Danish author Erling Jepsen, adds in a little bit of Western Noir and very beautiful Denmark landscape as a character. Director Henrik Rube Genz (“Someone Like Hodder“) makes it look easy bringing us a film that shows how corruption and compromise finds its way into everyone’s hearts sooner or later and causes all manner of heartache.

Whatever Works is Woody Allen’s latest film with Larry David as a crotchety old man and a naïve, impressionable young runaway from the south (Evan Rachel Wood). When her uptight parents, (Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr.) arrive to rescue her, they are quickly drawn into wildly unexpected romantic entanglements.

Cheri has Michelle Pfeiffer starring as a ravishing Parisian courtesan who takes a naïve young man half her age – rising British star Rupert Friend — into her boudoir to teach him a thing or two about women.  But of course, he learns all too well and turns out to be her perfect match.

Seraphine, SIFF 2009, 9/10

Seraphine Louis aka Seraphine de Senlis (Yolande Moreau) is leading a simple existence, doing odd jobs to supplement her income as a housekeeper for a rich landlady. She is not considered to be a bright lady, and says that her ‘guardian angel’ told her to begin a new hobby, so she collects blood from a butcher when he isn’t looking, steals candle wax from the church, and mixes them with local flora to make colors for her new passion, painting.

In 1912 Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), a German art collector comes to town and rents out a house that Seraphine often cleans. At a party the landlady holds for the local art community, stumbles upon one of Seraphine’s paintings that was discarded by her employer. Taken aback at finding out that his housekeeper is the artist, he takes her under his wing and encourages Seraphine to pour herself into her painting.   When WWI has the Germans invading France, Uhde is sent on the run, leaving Seraphine to fend for herself, with a renewed purpose to subsist and paint.

Several years after WWI, Wilhelm finds himself back in Senlis to retrieve art taken from him during the war and is stunned to find that Seraphine has not only still alive, but that she has dramatically improved her art. Becoming her patron, she finds herself flush with cash for the first time in her life, and loses her hold on reality even as she paints the best pieces of her life.

A final break from reality lands her in an insane asylum, where she paints nothing for the final years of her life. She is still cared for by Uhde even though his finances have dwindled due to the Great Depression’s effects on the European economy.

I normally stay away from biopics at the theater, they tend to be dry and overbearing in their gushing over how brilliant that person is. But several folks told me that I just had to see this film, and bad planning on my part landed me at a screening. I must say, I can see why this movie won 15 awards including a Best Actress for Yolande Moreau.   The interaction between Yolande and Ulrich makes this film work. Wonderfully capturing the period of early 20^th Century France and the descent into madness that Seraphine takes; this is a film that I’m glad I caught.

Karamazovi, SIFF 2009, 9/10

In the early 1990s, an experimental ‘alternate drama’ festival bringing actors performance artists and their audiences close to real situations, has the Czech Dejvicke Theater troupe engaged to put on Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (as adapted by Evald Schorm) for the workers at a Polish steel mill. The troupe runs through the play by using various portions of the mill as stage and prop, adding a rather interesting industrial atmosphere to the play.

The Brothers Karamazov is about Fyodor Karamazov (Ivan Trojan) being resurrected from the dead to hold his sons accountable for their roles in his death. On a deeper level, its about the amorality of an increasingly atheist Russia.

Eldest son Dmitri (David Novotny) is almost a carbon copy of his father, both boozing and debauchery being favorite pastimes; culminating in fighting over the same woman (Lenka Krobotova) just before Fyodor’s death. Alyosha (Martin Mysicka) is the youngest and is only a half-brother, but very close to Dmitri. Ivan (Igor Chmela) is an atheist who is feared by both Dmitri and Fyodor. Smerdyakov (Radek Holub) is possibly Fyodor’s illegitimate son, and confesses to being his murderer even though its probably just a scheme.

The troupe’s run-through at a Polish steelworks showcases the extraordinary power of this particular adaptation, adding a secondary storyline showing the actors offstage as they interact with one another and factory workers.  One such worker is a maintenance man (Andrezej Mastalerz) whose son has suffered a recent bad accident.  They also see the other performances that were brought in by the stage manager, a dance duo and a hand puppeteer who channels Dostoyevsky during a radio interview.  And for good measure, one of the actors is needed back in Prague to finish a movie, but to do so is to miss critical performances.

I did not see a better movie at SIFF this year. The happenings of stage and “real life” were so well interleaved that it sometimes wasn’t obvious to the transition. The text of the scenes that were played out had parallel themes in the off stage conversations that it was eerie in its execution.  The movie expertly avoids being a movie version of a stage play so well by offering up unique camera angles as it moves from one scene to the next and the strong acting put on by Trojan.

Spring Breakdown – 5/10 – Saw this only because it was between 2 movies that I wanted to see.

I was actually going to write a review for this, but then I found one online that sufficiently captures how I felt about this movie.  The folks at DVD Verdict do this for a living, so I have no problems not doing additional work.  See their wonderful review at:

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/springbreakdown.php

80 films, 31 Countries, 25 days and 4 journals later, here are the SIFF 2009 results:

SIFFool Serious (say Full Series fast) are a group of Passholders who rate all the films they see, and are not affiliated with SIFF.  All see at least 20 films, most see well over 100.  Our ratings are more reliable than the Audience awards simply because of the sheer number of films seen.  Audience awards are skewed because of theater size and audience attendance. These are the ballots I help count every year, and results can be seen at my desk.

* Seen as part of my run.

Country of origin-  I usually attempt to see films from as many countries as possible, but the programmers this year sucked at their scheduling of events.  Too many times did 2+ hour films be pitted against 90 minute films, so seeing a 2 hour film often meant skipping 1 other time slot.  Also, single entry countries like Kazackstan, Krygystan, Turkey and the Czech Republic were pitted against each other in the same timeslot at different theaters, ensuring that audiences would be limited.  This is why I missed out on several films that I have heard were wonderful.

For this the top five countries that I saw films from are:

USA – 25
France – 8
Hong Kong/Spain – 5
Denmark – 4

[1-5 – Waste of Film  ---- 6 – DVD Rental ---- 7-10 – See where you can]

9/10
Chef’s Special (Spain)
Moon (United Kingdom)
Seraphine (France)
Terribly Happy (Denmark)
The Karamazovs (Czech Republic)

8/10
A Woman’s Way (Greece)
Carmo, Hit the Road (Spain)
In the Loop (United Kingdom)
Inju, the Beast in the Shadow (France)
My Suicide (USA)
Swimsuit Issue (Sweden)
The Beast Stalker (Hong Kong)
The Escape (Denmark)
The Hurt Locker (USA)
The Sniper (Hong Kong)
Zift (Bulgaria)

7/10
(500) Days of Summer (USA)
A Wind Blows in the Meadow (Iran)
A Woman in Berlin (Germany)
About Elly (Iran)
American Primitive (USA)
Apron Strings (New Zealand)
Black Dynamite (USA)
Hansel and Gretel (S.Korea)
I Sell the Dead (USA)
Krabat (Germany)
Little Soldier (Denmark)
Sexykiller (Spain)
Stella (France)
Tears of April (Finland)
The Clone Returns Home (Japan)
The Hills Run Red (USA)
The Merry Gentleman (USA)
Wonderful World (USA)
Yes, I Can See Dead People (Hong Kong)
ZMD:Zombies of Mass Destruction (USA)

DVD Rental
$9.99 (Israel)
a girl and a gun (Austria)
Amreeka (USA)
Anarchist’s Wife (Spain)
Beket (Italy)
Birdwatchers (Italy)
Black Dogs Barking (Turkey)
Cold Souls (USA)
Dead Snow (Norway)
Deadgirl (USA)
Downloading Nancy (USA)
Eldorado (Belgium)
Fear Me Not (Denmark)
Fifty Dead Men Walking (United Kingdom)
Four Boxes (USA)
Grace (USA)
Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (USA)
Kanchivaram (India)
Katia’s Sister (Netherlands)
Kimjongilia (France)
Miao Miao (Hong Kong)
My Dear Enemy (S.Korea)
Nak (Thailand)
No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (Taiwan)
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (France)
talhotblond (USA)
The Girl From Monaco (France)
The One-Handed Trick (Spain)
Treeless Mountain (USA)
Warlords (Hong Kong)
Welcome (France)

Waste of Film
33 Scenes from Life (Poland)
Back to the Garden, Flower Power (USA)
Be Calm and Count to Seven (Iran)
California Company Town (USA)
Give Me Your Hand (France)
Hooked (Romania)
Spring Breakdown (USA)
The Baby Formula (Canada)
The Headless Woman (Argentina)
The Missing Person (USA)
The Square (Australia)
We Live in Public (USA)
Yes Men Fix the World(USA)

My running tab:

Hank & Mike – Sponsored Suicide. Need I say more?

Still Orangutans – Movie shot in 1 take, awesome. Story left something to be desired.

Erik Nietzsche: The Early Years – Pass

Sukiyaki Western Django – Most fun I’ve had at this festival

A Secret – Not bad. Could have used a little more work.

When Did You Last See Your Father- Why didn’t I go see Bliss instead?

Otto, Or Up with Dead People – Porn or commentary on Capitalist hedonism, pick one.

Great Buck Howard – Nondescript comedy that was average

Jar City – Good detective film that went too long.

Sparrow – Overstylized action pic that attempted to be noir.

Four Women – Interesting premise, uninteresting result

Late Bloomers – Unexpectedly good comedy

Girl Sparks – Would have been better if it was shorter.

You, the Living – Poem to the living. Swedish dark comedy.

Shadow of the Holy Book – Learn and get involved!

Blind Mountain – No
Captain Abu Raed – Great film
BenX – One of the best at this festival
Fighter – Excellent
Young People F’ing – OUTSTANDING!!!
32A – Pretty good Irish coming of age film
Garden Party – LA is a city that uses its inhabitants as they are willing. Good show.
Ploy – Review posted.
Mirageman – Review posted
Savage Grace – Review posted
American Teen – Review posted
Let the Right One In – Fascinating Vampire friendship story.

Vexille- review posted
The Last Mistress –review posted
The Mother of Tears — Asia Argento’s tits on the big screen…
Continental, a Film without Guns — interesting
The Elite Squad –awesome!
Milky Way — put some audience members to sleep
The Children of Huang Shi — good period piece
My Effortless Brilliance — good insight into male bonding
Epitaph- Japanese ghost story in 1942 done ok
Fantastic Parasuicides – Very fun film
Terra – Great animation for all audiences
PVC-1 – Great exercise in filmmaking, story is a downer.
Mongol – an awesome movie about Genghis Khan, we need more of them.
Blood Brothers – Chinese Gangster film. Had to have been done as a college final project
Camille- You’d think a zombie love story with Sienna Miller would be good.
Katyn – Depressing, simply depressing.

Later,

sin

32A, SIFF 2008

The tween years are an interesting time in children’s lives. They are either just teenagers or about to cross that threshold, puberty hits at different times for people, and forays into relationships outside of friends and family begins.

Marian Quinn (Come to) brings us a coming of age story about Maeve (Ailish McCarthy), a Dublin Catholic schoolgirl worrying about measuring up to her peers in 1979 Ireland. She recently got her first bra, and begins the process into womanhood. She goes through many firsts in life (first kiss, first love, first drink, etc), but spurns her mates in the process, and learns some harsh lessons about life and friendship.

Her best mates Ruth (Sophie Jo Wasson), Orla (Orla Long) and Claire (Riona Smith) are spurned by Maeve’s independent forays and missing out on Ruth’s journey to meet her father, leading to a broken relationship between the girls. This leads to a painful breakup between Maeve and Ruth, with the other two stuck in the middle of the drama. The portrayal of the loss of a close friendship is emotional, as this is a first for them all.

Like real life, not everything wraps up nicely. Parents get involved; the school threatens expulsion, the childhood friends navigate recovery from the betrayal and eventual reconciliation. Life goes on, letting us all know that the themes of growing up are universal; we all have harsh lessons to learn in life. It’s how we recover from these missteps that lead us to discover who we are.

I suspect I will see more of Ailish and Sophie in years to come. Their honest portrayals of youth growing up and solid delivery of the material should propel them into future movie roles.

Recommend.