Almost Famous

“Don’t let those swill merchants rewrite you.”

Directed by Cameron Crowe (2000) Starring: Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, Kate Hudson

Almost Famous has definitely become a victim of the hype-machine.  Most of the people I met in high school who had seen this movie talked about it in hushed religious tones.  Suffice it to say, I wasn’t terribly impressed the first time I watched it, but seeing a guy go after what he was passionate for is a fairly brilliant story.  Glad that I stuck around for a second viewing.

William Morris (Fugit) is a young music writer who lands a commission with Rolling Stone on the band Stillwater.  Along the way, William becomes enamored with the lovely Penny Lane (Hudson).  In a rather equivalent situation, he also admires Stillwater’s front man Russell Hammond (Crudup).  The story alternates behind words of wisdom from Penny about being around a band and William desperately trying to get an interview with Russell.

Why is Penny Lane an issue?  She always comes off a little too idealized to be considered a real character.  While she’s not perky enough to be an official Manic Pixie Dream Girl, there isn’t much that’s revealed about her that alters William’s original idealization. It’s not enough that he’s in the observing role for much of her antics.  While the moments in New York suggest that there are real emotions behind her persona, she isn’t fully realized by the end.  The movie drops off to let William finish his story (since this is his story) with Rolling Stone, and the last word comes from mentor Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman): “And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in the world is about that very same problem.  Good-looking people don’t have any spine.  Their art never lasts.  They get the girls, but we’re smarter.”

But like I said earlier: The strengths of Almost Famous lie in its basic plot, sans extended romance.  The ability to run off and write about a band for a national magazine, away from the perpetually nervous mother and unhappy school life in order to see everything that goes on behind the scenes while on tour is a fantasy for a fifteen year old kid, especially now.

The Darjeeling Limited

Written By Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, and Jason Schwartzman

Directed by Wes Anderson (2007)

Starring: Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Amara Karan, Anjelica Huston

When I think about The Darjeeling Limited almost two weeks after watching it, I mostly come back to the smaller moments.  How well-used The Kinks’ “This Time Tomorrow” is as they run for their train, the loving look Adrien Brody gives to his newly-purchased cobra, the fascinating movements in and around the train car.  And I keep thinking to myself “Well, maybe it’s all of these smaller moments that I like about the movie, instead of the film as a whole.”

Then I think about the weird motifs and themes: The white people coming to India expecting sudden spirituality, only spending their time getting high.  The year of mourning they take after their father’s death, but denial of their reactions on the way to the funeral.  Actually, it seems like it’s an entire movie based off of denial of emotions: Peter (Brody) doesn’t want to acknowledge whatever fatherly affection he has for his unborn child, but is automatically devoted to his new pet.  Peter (Schwartzman) is obsessed with his ex-girlfriend, but approaches all love and romance coldly, then turns these dramatic life moments into short stories.  I can’t even figure out what’s going on with Owen Wilson’s character at first blush.  Just that it was similar to his own life.

The movie is appreciative that making planned vacations is idiotic at best, although that’s putting it simply.  Francis pulling out a very exact schedule as compiled by his assistant Brendan (Wallace Wolodarsky) for his brothers to find spiritual enlightenment is hilarious.  The turning point comes when they get kicked off of the train and experience real India through a terrible river accident.  When facing death again, the movie shifts to the day of their father’s funeral which adds a lot of depth to the zany selfishness of the characters previously.  Instead of being a lark about American idiots using a saintly stereotype of India to excuse their own bad habits, the movie is about three flawed people who are in the middle of mourning.

The Hit

Directed by Stephen Frears (1984) Starring: Terence Stamp, John Hurt, Tim Roth, Laura del Sol

Willie Parker (Stamp) has become an informant for the British police.  Ten years after putting a British mobster in jail, he is living peacefully in Spain when Mr. Braddock (Hurt) and his protege Myron (Roth) arrive to transport him to Paris, where he’ll be knocked off.  In The Hit, Stephen Frears creates a quiet thriller out of three–later expanded to four– characters on a car trip, knowing that in the end, one of them will be killer and the other will be killed.

What I noticed immediately– Frears plays with expectations for a thriller, just with the sound.  What is expected to be loud comes off muted, what should be ignored is the loudest noise in the scene.  It matches the tempo of the Spanish-inspired score well as the group makes their way across the Spanish desert.  The scenery is used to its best advantages, softly colored in white and beige, matching the clean suit of Braddock and Willie’s all-white outfit in the heat.  Only a few scenes have the color stand out– when the group is joined, reluctantly, by Maggie (del Sol) in an aqua dress, when they take a break by a lush waterfall, and when blood is splattered on a gas station’s window.

Willie takes his kidnapping in kind.  He expected as much, but also knows that the police will be following them.  Braddock, although a professional, has left behind a trail riddled with accidental murders.  Strangely, that doesn’t seem to be on Willie’s mind much.  He speaks calmly, saying that he’s already accepted death.  Often, he talks to the hot-headed Myron in a joking manner, even when Myron is urging Braddock to just do-in Willie in Spain.

 

Myron, young and on his first assignment, defers to Braddock’s judgment.  He follows his lead, wearing sunglasses to cop a cool attitude, although he is far from professional.  Myron comes off like he was just picked up off the streets, talking loudly and causing problems wherever they go.  However he is not a hard-criminal like Braddock, and spots some mercy for Maggie when she would have otherwise been killed.

Maggie proves to be more complicated than an accidental hostage.  She pretends not to understand English and manipulates Myron in order to stay alive.  Braddock recognizes that Maggie is smarter than she seems, while Willie acknowledges that she is not ready to die just yet.

The Hit is excellent, with a fabulously clear transfer, courtesy of Criterion.  Its an interesting crime pick, full of psychology for the four leads as they are trapped in and around a car.  Frears defies genre conventions, creating a beautiful criminal drama that made its mark in Britain’s film renaissance.

God is Brazilian

Deus e Brasileiro

Directed By Carlos Diegues (2003) Starring: Antonio Fagundes, Wagner Moura, Paloma Duarte

Taoca (Moura) has dreams that he is being hunted by a loan shark at Heaven’s gate.  One day, as he lays about in his boat, he runs into an old man, claiming to be God (Fagundes).  God is sick of dealing with the mistakes humans make on earth and is looking for a saint in Brazil while he takes a little vacation.  He’s chosen Quinca of the Mules, but the guy is hard to track down, so he enlists Taoca on a journey through the country.  On the way, they meet Mada (Duarte), a virtuous woman who became lost when her mother left for Sao Paulo.

Taoca complains almost the entire time he is with God and God complains back, always harking back to his vacation and finding Quinca.  Taoca is responsible for lying, creating an alias for God as a Professor from Sao Paulo doing research.  Mada initially follows them in order to see where her mother escaped to, but she becomes devoted to the Professor as they make their way further into the interior.

Something I Really Appreciated: The film showed a lot of Brazil, from the tropical island where Taoca lives to deserts, forests, slums, and small towns.  Most films will focus just on one of the big coast cities, usually Rio, so seeing so much of Brazil’s landscape was pretty amazing. God insisted that he couldn’t do miracles without some kind of consequence, which I thought was an interesting spin and also complicated how they got from place to place.  Usually, they would conveniently be able  to earn money through “Magic Tricks”, which through a loophole, aren’t miracles or hitch rides.

While Taoca’s character was mostly annoying, he often had some great insights on the human condition, including his own critique of how God saw the world and humans, which was a nice counter to all of the negative viewpoints that God had.  That said, there was a lot of evil shown in the movie, which was usually pointed out by Mada.  Every character they meet usually has some flaw, whether big or small, but it usually stemmed from their conditions.

The movie is funny and unique with it’s twists on the God Coming to Earth theme, though it is very Catholic-centric, if that’s the sort of thing you worry about in a Religious film, from a Catholic country.  Lord knows, that was one of my biggest concerns.

 

ALA Conference Recap

Last Saturday I took a six hour drive to Washington, D.C. in order to attend Book Nerd’s Paradise.  Really, ALA can be summed up best by this video:

This video was made on Friday, and when the majority of my book club lined up for John Green and David Levithan’s signing on Sunday, John Green was considerably less energized.  To be fair, that line was like an hour and a half long and they had full conference schedules.

However, later that day at a pizza lunch David Levithan proved that he was not just a talented writer and editor, but that he can SING.  Motherfucker goddamn!  As well as being totally in the theme with Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

A rather blurred picture of me, with Giraffe and "Tales of the Madman Underground"

There were many awesome authors at ALA and many publishers and companies who all seemed to have a lot of free stuff that they wanted to give to members of a teen bookclub wandering around in matching t-shirts.  Seriously, story of my life.  I came home with eighteen books and I only bought five.  Also received posters, free CDs, book catalogs, notebooks, tote bags, comic previews, and a mango smoothie.

Authors I got signed books from: John Barnes, Holly Black, Libba Bray, John Green, David Levithan, G.M Malliet, and Adam Rapp,

Since I am a library dork, I got stupidly excited over a book-return conveyor belt which checked in the books as you returned them.  I have seen the future, and it is both practical and expensive.  Lovely.  But this system combined about three steps of the book checking-in process into one (return, check in, and sort) and it also gave the patron a screen to check that everyone had been returned correctly as well as a receipt for documented proof.

Monday was a lot like Sunday, except subtract the free lunch and add on a whole lot of tired.  My friend Anna and I ended up slumped against a wall before noon, just waiting around for the great giveaway.  That is when, on the last day of the conference, publishers decide that it is cheaper to give books away rather than ship them back to wherever they came from.  My particular group waited forty minutes in line at the Simon & Schuster booth, but success!  I got the galley for Pete Hautman’s new young adult novel.

Monday night featured the Printz reception, which we arrived to late, thanks to the subway.  We missed Adam Rapp’s acceptance speech for Punkzilla, but saw all the other ones.  Libba Bray was entertaining as all hell, but gave a rather trippy speech as she accepted the Printz award for Going Bovine. I did get to see her challenge Rick Yancey to an existential throwdown, so all’s good.  The reception– cake, booze for the over-21-set– will remain in mind as a fierce argument about Zombified Unicorns and Unicornified Zombies.  Loosely based on a new short story collection Zombies vs. Unicorns.

Have I told y’all lately that Libba Bray is insane?  As in, sincerely crazy.  She gave a wonderfully trippy acceptance speech and I am enjoying Going Bovine. I just wish I had read it before the conference!

Tuesday was Library Advocacy Day!  The day I wish I had brought my camera more than anything. ;_;  But this was the dealio: We went to Capitol Hill and had a rally about how libraries need support.  We’re hurting from the economy, but demand for libraries is going up!  More people need the job-searching services, free internet, and books that they offer.

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Considering the subject matter, is it too weird that I think of Wristcutters as one of the cutest movies ever?

image from http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2007/10/am_poster_post_wristcutters_is.php

Depressed after his girlfriend dumps him Zia (Patrick Fugit) cleans up his apartment… then slits his wrists.  When he wakes up, he’s in the land of Suicides.  It’s just like on earth, except worse.  No one smiles and he works at a pizza joint called Kamikaze Pizzeria.  While the world remains quite dreary, he makes a friend in Eugene (Shea Whigham), a Russian rocker who killed himself onstage.  After running into a former acquaintance, Zia learns that his ex-girlfriend Desiree has committed suicide as well and he convinces Eugene to go on a road trip to find her.  On the way, they run into Mikal (Shanyn Sossamon), who is trying to find the People in Charge, because she thinks it’s a mistake that she’s there.

What strikes me most about this film is that it creates a beautiful cinematic world.  The land of suicide is very dreary, where no one smiles and the landscape is bleak and dotted with trash.  Yet it has weird and wonderful quirks.  In Eugene’s car, there is a black hole under the passenger seat where Zia often drops things.  While the populace can’t smile, they still fall in love and even perform miracles from time to time.  They end up being little pointless miracles, like a match flying up into the sky after being tossed aside or changing the colors of a fish.

The movie is a little grim, because how could suicide not be?  The movie will flash into other characters’ suicides and there’s a poignant scene at a gas station where the nozzles are always torn away from the pumps by people who get caught up in their own thoughts as they drive away.

It is a really effective and imaginative indie movie.  The world is a kind of limbo or a hell with echoes of “No Exit” running throughout.  There’s a sense of redemption and a sense of moving on and still questions remaining, like who are the People in Charge?  and can a person commit suicide again?

I saw the ending coming, but I don’t think that subtracts much from the movie as a whole.  It remains as an intelligent, cute romance-road trip movie, which I like.

Interstate-60: A Road Trip of Awesome

From Left to Right: OW Grant, Neal Oliver, and the Eightball

 

Interstate-60: Episodes of the Road became, suprisingly, my favorite quirky movie for this year, possibly ever.  At it’s most basic form, it is a Coming-of-Age story, but i’ts just so unique and awesome.  It’s a feel good movie and a comedy and just a quirky movie of American fantasy. 

The story starts out at a bar, because apparantly all great stories start out at bars, as explained in the voiceover by Neal (James Marsden).  Neal is the golden boy, main character, but the most intriguing character is O.W. Grant (Gary Oldman), the answer to America’s wishgranter myth.  He’ll almost never play it straight with you, because he just likes to fuck around.

In Neal’s world, he is an indecisive, struggling artist with dreams of a woman he ends up sketching or painting away, while his girlfriend psychoanalyzes him and his Dad tries to force him into law school.  While at his 22nd birthday lunch, Neal announces his wish aloud after being urged by Grant: He wants answers.  And the best way, in Grant’s eyes, to give him answers is to knock him out with a paint can.

This leads, in the hospital, to a visit from Ray (Christoper Lloyd) and a deck of very unusual playing cards, meant to test Neal’s perception.  But then Ray disappears, and life becomes not quite so normal. Things are just slightly out of place of normalcy and Neal decides to follow the signs– literally.  While at work he sees a billboard with the picture of the girl he’s been drawing on it.  This leads back to Ray, who gets Neal to deliver a package for him to Danver, down a highway that doesn’t exist.

A lot happens within the first twenty minutes to accurately explain what happens in I-60, but it gets easier after that.  It’s just your typical fantasy road trip, full of danger, intrigue, romance, lawyers, drugs, and art.  Whether it is the art, as seen in the art world or the art as seen by Neal, or the art of Life.  “All of them answers, and all of them reasonable.”

This film is fun because there aren’t any rules once you reach Interstate-60 in the story.  Anything can happen, and most things do.  Neal learns about what he could have become as well as what is happening all around him, from slavery disguised as ecstasy to how a man decides to fill up the last days of his life. 

The treat is all of the unique characters who bring out both the fantastical parts of the story and a level of stricking realism.  Not one character is perfect, but they know what they want and are honest about it.  It could be considered a weakness in story telling, a cast of one dimensional characters just created to feed a plot-driven story, but I think that’s the charm of the story.  Part of seeing in a new perception is meeting all of the characters along the way.

If there is a fault in this movie, it’s that they clearly ran out of budget for some sound effects because I’ve heard better in Saturday morning cartoons. 

This movie is a treat and I consider it a must see film.  Even you don’t like it afterwards, it’s an important film to watch.