Loose Ends

Man, this whole "job and family thing really gets in the way of blogging.  Here are some short observations about what's been on my screen.

22 Jump  Street 

Don’t make my mistake.  Do not watch 22 Jump Street in a public, yet quiet, place.  I watched it while riding as a passenger in an airplane, and I spent roughly 90 minutes biting my knuckles to keep from guffawing.

This is my kind of comedy.  It’s clever, it’s packed with gags that hit us in rapid succession, and it even blows up a car.  Really, what more could you possibly want?

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Eh.  I’m getting too old for this $#!^.

Noah

Noah drags through its first act, then turns on the juice once the rain starts falling.  If you can get past the fact that everyone’s Caucasian and has British accents, then it’s easy to accept lava monsters and ancient industrialized civilizations.  Soon, you can immerse yourself in Aronofsky’s tale of justice and mercy, prophecy and insanity.  Just don’t make it the last film you see on a 9.5 hour flight.  This is not a movie to see when you're punchy.

Cats & Dogs

What a delightful film.  I’ve seen it, with my kids, I don’t know how many times.  It just never gets old.  

The Wrestler

Darren Aronofsky doesn’t make bad movies.

PI, the feature that brought him to my attention, was odd and engaging and unforgettable. REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, his followup, ranks among the best movies I never want to see again. THE FOUNTAIN is one of only two DVDs I purchased that year.

THE WRESTLER, Aronofsky’s latest, does everything that movies are supposed to do. It introduces me to people and places that exist entirely outside of my experience and makes me care about them. Then it builds on that foundation to tell me a story that captures my imagination even as it breaks my heart.

In the film, Mickey Rourke plays “Ram” Robinson, a ‘roided out wrestling superstar who is well past his prime. Ram’s a decent guy, and he loves wrestling. But what do you do when the thing you love falls out of love with you?

This material could be an after school special or a DTV movie, but Aronofsky uses it to meditate on love and mortality and even honor, in a way. He evokes memorable and truthful performances, and his empathy for his people and their lives resonates with us well after the credits roll. In this director, we’re encountering a serious talent, a guy whose movies are worth seeking out. THE WRESTLER is a fine addition to his resume, and I recommend it without reservation.

Below

It's WWII. We're aboard an American submarine on patrol in the North Atlantic. Bruce Greenwood is the skipper. So far, so good.

The sub picks up three survivors of a sunken hospital ship and, before you know it, things get bad. So does the movie.

BELOW, you see, is a "ghosts on a sub" movie. It's a terrific premise, one that promises a combination of claustrophobia and creeping horror. Unfortunately, the film is happy to settle for jump scares, sound effects, and confusion. Greenwood lazily channels Sam Neill in EVENT HORIZON, and the rest of the cast can't even keep up with that.

What a disappointment.

The Fountain

THE FOUNTAIN swept me up and away. I loved it.

I took two runs at this movie. First, I tried watching it on the Metro, but its imagery and structure simply is not compatible with viewing on a tiny screen while bumping along at rush hour. Second, I woke up before dawn and watched it on the enormovision, in glorious surround sound. In this environment, THE FOUNTAIN enfolded me in its dream-like worlds, washing over me like a languorous wave. When it ended, I knew I'd been on a journey. It took me a day or two to figure out where, but I viscerally loved the experience even before reason kicked in.

This movie does something different: it challenges the viewer to work with both intuition and analysis, offering few easy answers, and it does so while playing very loosely with the classic three-act structure. We meet Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, lovers in different worlds and times, haunted by tragedies past and present and looking for ... something. In one construct, they're conquistador and queen; in another, scientist and patient; in a third, voyager and phantasm. In all three, we sense an overtone of sadness and defiance, acceptance and denial, enlightenment and desperation. The tales, one or more of which may be happening in the imagination or serving as an allegory of a state of mind, engage us in their own right and as part of a larger whole.

By the time THE FOUNTAIN climaxes in visions reminiscent of Dore's Paradiso illustrations, as well as Hindu and Mayan creation mythologies, we're carried away, outside of ourselves. Darren Aronofsky's doing something audaciously different here, and he succeeds wonderfully. This is a film worth seeing.

ADDENDUM

ecently, I've been subjected to repeated showings of the STAR WARS prequel trilogy. While watching it, I've been bothered by the utter lifelessness of Natalie Portman's Queen Amidala. While watching THE FOUNTAIN, I realized what was missing: gravitas. Portman's idea of Queenly bearing appears to be limited to having good posture and speaking in monotone. Rachel Weisz's Queen Isabella, on the other hand - now, there's a queen to inspire devotion and desire! Weisz's commanding, yet vulnerable, presence radiates monarchy: a personal state of being that lies beyond the powers of either Portman's talent or Lucas's direction.

For that matter, Weisz's entire performance in THE FOUNTAIN is simply brilliant. I've always respected the actress, who can bring class even to pulpy entertainments such as THE MUMMY RETURNS, but this picture takes her career to a whole different level.