Writer Nick Hornby’s (High Fidelity, About a Boy) most recently adapted screenplay is quite the morally ambiguous tale. However, because of his sophisticated writing, Lone Scherfig’s pristine direction, and the entire cast’s wonderful performances, An Education is able to tell an inappropriate story with great taste and thought.

Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a sixteen year old intellectual whose path in life has been meticulously determined by her parents. Her inquisitve and independent mind, however, gravitates towards things outside the linearity and banality of school. Literature, art, music, films, other cultures. She serendipitously comes across David, a charming man in his thirties who shows her just what she wants, and the two eventually form a romantic and, therefore, taboo relationship.

Carey Mulligan delivers one of the best performances I’ve seen this year, and the supporting cast is just as powerful. Peter Sarsgaard, who plays David, is attractive with his charm, but a hint of sliminess permeates through his good looks. Alfred Molina does very well as Jenny’s father, a stern but ultimately naive man who’s easily deceived by anything that might benefit his daughter.  The film’s heavy themes are expertly balanced in the modest performances. Never does An Education become extremely melodramatic, and this is a testament to the elegant style of British filmmaking.

The art direction is both dazzling and quiet as well. The film transports us to 1960’s England, displaying their way of life through jazz clubs, auctions, concerts, fine dining, etc. Each place we’re taken to feels so wholesome and comfortable, and they never become distractions to what the movie is trying to say.

The film clashes traditional ideals of education against the more independent approach to learning. Jenny’s character is present in so many of my college peers who have difficulty finding value in going to school just to get a pointless degree when we’re capable of learning so much more about the world through travel and experiences. An Education handles these thoughts impressively, and it ends by showing us how young Jenny truly is, despite her vast knowledge of pop culture.

Unfortunately, this movie crumbles in the final ten minutes, and it’s heartbreaking to watch. After telling its story with poise and profoundness, An Education falters in its final moments, wrapping up in conventional fashion. The movie also fades out with a voice over, but it’s completely out of place because there is no other narration present in the film.

An Education is a graceful coming-of-age story that provides laughter, reflection, and wonder. The colors of the world coincide with the deep characters, and the elegant pacing of the film (minus the last ten minutes) flows very well with the great writing. As the end of 2009 approaches, numerous top ten lists will be made; I see myself putting An Education on mine.

8.5 out of 10

Lezioni d’amore è un film americano del 2008 diretto da Isabel Coixet. I maggiori interpreti sono: Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper, Peter Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Penelope Cruz | Ben Kingsley | Dennis Hopper | Peter Sarsgaard | Patricia Clarkson,Isabel Coixet

I feel bad about this loyal FilmWipe readers.  For the second night in a row of my long awaited comeback, I am going to talk about how much I have hated a film.  Don’t get me wrong this film is no Rudo y Cursi. There are actually moments that are actually enjoyable.  However, the plot made my eyes, ears and brain wish that I was being kidnapped by the SS and whisked of to Krackow for instant execution.  Every single predictable minute was as excruciating as sand papering my genitals and then squeezing lemon juice on to them.  I would guess that within 30 second of the film making itself clear I knew what exactly what was going to happen.  I will be h0nest I feel the need to give a bit of the plot of the way in this review to clearly explain what is so bad about this.  Anyway, sit  back relax and find out why you should avoid, avoid, avoid An Education.

The film follows Jenny (Carey Muligan) a school girl growing up in suburban 60s London, aiming to go to Oxford.  She is repressed by her father, Jack (Alfred Molina) who makes her work obsessively in order to fulfil the ambition.  One day she is caught waiting for a lift in the rain.  After waiting for a long time for a bus on a rainy day, she is offered a lift home by David (Peter Sarsgaard).  He chases after her for several weeks impressing her normally hard line parents enough to letting her go on trips with him.  He shows her a life she could only imagine.  However, things turn sour when he proposes.  This leaves Jenny in the position of trying to decide whether she stays at school and goes to Oxford or leaves and gets married.

The acting in the film is generally very good.  Carey Muligan is superb as is Alfred Molina.  The father daughter relationship between the pair is both gritty and yet touching and has certain element of truth in relation to the era.  However, I did not understand the rationale behind Peter Sarsgaard and Dominic Cooper’s (Danny) casting.  The pair are both excellent actors, but should have been playing each others role.  Cooper is young and charming.  His obvious chemistry with Muligan (exhibited only for a brief second) was so intense it made the remainder of the relationship between Jenny and David seem flimsy at best.  Similarly Peter Sarsgaard would have suited the role of Danny much better.  Also it would have made the characters relationship with Helen (Rosamund Pike) seem plausible.  As it was Rosamund Pike looked as if she was doing an impersonation of Gary Glitter by dating someone dramatically younger than herself.  It looked appalling on screen and detracted from the film as a whole.

The script was excellent.  Nick Hornby (Writer of High Fidelity and About a Boy) wrote an excellent script with some absolutely brilliant lines.   However, the overall plot was dismal.  The idea of the fallen school girl seduced from her path of academic excellence, drawn instead to a sordid life of fun that almost costs her the dream but instead through hard work and determination achieves anyway, has been done so many times it might as well have been a plot line written by Plato (It probably was).  It would have been more interesting to see Jenny lose her future as a result of this relationship.  Instead the disappointing attempt to play everything safe was both weak and expected.

The worst bit of the film had to be its ending.  After rushing through the reclamation of Jenny’s life  the film flips to Oxford where she is a student.  Here Jenny gives the most patronising sentence  about the last hour and half which is comparable to the ending of the new crossroads “it was all a dream”.  Rubbish.

Overall this is ok.  It is worth watching, but is more of a present for someone you don’t like.  Treat them to this and they will get the message.

1/10 – Tiresome

Esta ocasión repasaremos la carrera de la tal vez mi actriz preferida: Maggie Gyllenhaal, quién cumplió 32 años el pasado 16 de Noviembre. Comenzemos con lo personal, la hermana de Jake Gyllenhaal esta casada con Peter Sarsgaard y tienen una hija llamada Ramona.

Y por qué es mi tal vez actriz favorita? Simplemente porque es demasiado aventada, o no? Quién la haya visto lo ha de saber también como yo. Si, ya se, la vi por primera vez en The Dark Knight, y agradezco a Dios que hubieran quitado a Katie Holmes (Gracias!!) con su actuación deshabrida.

(referring to when she started acting) “Even in elementary school, I took it really seriously. I was always doing plays.”

Aquí hay un recorrido en el tiempo por las múltiples facetas de Maggie Gyllenhaal:

En la SECRETARIA, interpreta a una chica masoquista que consigue trabajo con un jefe sádico…ya pueden imaginarse el resultado. La película esta muy bien, aunque sí la recomiendo para adultos, a menos que quieran quedarse como yo cuando la vi: :O  WTF?  La enseñanza de la película es: sí son secretarias, nunca se equivoquen con la máquina de escribir. Aunque después de ver esta película no creo que se vuelvan a equivocar…

Toda una estudiante promiscua en los años 50 en LA SONRISA DE LA MONA LISA, quién no tiene prejuicios y hasta tuvo una relación amorosa -y corta, claro- con su profesor de italiano, bajo la tutela de Julia Roberts y compartiendo créditos con Julia Stiles (10 cosas que odio de ti).

“I want roles that challenge people to question where they are in life.”

Una madre con antecedentes penales a causa de las drogas y el alcohol que quiere ganarse el cariño de su hija de cinco años a quién no ha visto en años, esto es en SHERRYBABY, una genialísima película donde su actuación es tan convincente que dan ganas de golpear a la madre sustituta.

Una adolescente dark que trabaja como niñera de unos niños que pelean contra una MONSTER HOUSE…claro, sólo dobló la voz.

Logra que Will Ferrell pruebe las galletas con leche, y por ahí se convierte en su novia, en MÁS EXTRAÑO QUE LA FICCIÓN, mostrando su lado sarcástico y dulce a la vez.

Y, pos supuesto, es la novia de Harvey Dent, el interés de Bruce Wayne y una parte del plan del Joker en…THE DARK KNIGHT, siendo Rachel Dawes.

Estas son sólo algunas de las memorables actuaciones de Maggie, y bien vale la pena verlas; y más aún las películas independientes. Feliz Cumpleaños (atrasado) Maggie!

“There are two ways to be cool: One is to be disinterested and make it seem like you must be doing something much more interesting than everybody else if you are this disinterested. The other is to be extremely interested. You are not trying to please anyone, but you are really invested are really focused.”

I am looking for movies that are actually about something and that are questioning something. Movies that are provocative in some way and I am also looking for roles that I think will force me to grow or learn something about myself or the world in order to play them well.

The Movie Overdose attempts to contain the apocalypse with a review of Roland Emmerich’s 2012. We chat about how we would change Eddie Murphy for the better, what kind of sequel we want for Star Trek and whether we are glad to see Sean Connery coming back, if only in voice form. Tom slightly dampens the praise given to An Education and Sam revels in the madness of Running Scared and the flawed ambition of Dogma. The conclusion involves a discussion of actors that, no matter what, we always look forward to seeing on screen.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 42

Email us, follow us on Twitter and subscribe through iTunes on the links on the left side of the page.

The sooner we all accept the fact that this movie will be fantastic, the sooner we will realize world peace.  Or, you know, go watch a good movie.

Sam introduces Andrew to The Shins in "Garden State".

(Zach Braff, 2004)

November 19, 2009

by Joel Crary

Recently I’ve come across several articles on hipsters and indie cinema that point to “Garden State” as some sort of (un)holy text, for better or worse. Of note is one written by a personal friend of mine, music and culture enthusiast Matt Buttler, who seems to be arguing on his blog that hipster-dom is a sort of necessary result of the postmodern condition – that is, a culture of anti-ideas rather than ideas, seeming creative dead-ends rather than new avenues, etc. Matt is responding in part to an article printed in Adbusters last year that made the claim that hipsters marked no less than the end of civilization. This week, Vadim Rizov, who may be my favourite film blogger, posted a rebuke of Twitter users who took part in a meme that defined “indie” film as such and such, more often than not incorrectly out of ignorance, citing “Garden State” as the film that kick-started a useless paradigm and stigma about independent cinema.

I don’t think of myself as a hipster, which is, of course, a classic hipster assertion to make. I turned 30 last week and I feel as though I’ve largely outgrown those kinds of definitions. If the definition of a hipster comes down to a lifestyle of constantly attending awful rock shows, making bad or extreme fashion choices, drinking a beer with too many consonants in its name and exhaling sarcasm instead of air, I’m about one for four. This isn’t to say that I’ve never bought an ironic t-shirt, thought that compilations weren’t a spiritual necessity or spouted asinine opinions about contemporary society that had no basis in informed fact. A lot of that comes out of the energy of being young and submitting to the false recognition that life is short, that cool is exclusive or that certain existential dilemmas can’t be solved with a little perspective.

I was first attracted to “Garden State” because of the music. About a year before its release I took the advice of a friend and started listening to online radio stations to discover new songs, and that’s how I came across “Breathe In” by Frou Frou, the former dance pop duo comprised of Imogen Heap and Guy Sigsworth that would come to pop up on “sounds like Morcheeba” Amazon recommendation lists. I bought the record while on a trip to New York City in June of 2003. Less than a year later, the album’s first track, “Let Go”, was featured prominently in the teaser trailer to “Garden State”, which began opening in theatres on July 28th, 2004.

The teaser presents a series of images and brief snippets from many of the more visually alive sequences in the film. Writer/director/star Zach Braff is shown prominently wearing an expression of near catatonia as bizarre things happen around him or to him. A group of people scream for dear life as his plane crashes to the ground. A room full of people move in fast forward as he sits perfectly still on a couch. He is shown wearing a shirt that has been stylized in sync with the wallpaper behind him, causing his torso to blend in to the background. He discovers a torn gas pump handle still attached to his car. Throughout all of these moments, the same expression, the same glassy-eyed acknowledgment that he should be reacting to these incredible circumstances, but somehow can’t. Quotations from Newsweek and efilmcritic.com sell Braff as a young visionary. All the while, Frou Frou’s lilting dance number drives the preview forward, filling the cracks with heart and the melancholy observation that there is beauty in breaking down.

Perhaps my personal discovery of Frou Frou was instrumental in finding “Garden State” so appealing initially. Those who knew of Braff knew him from the popular television sitcom “Scrubs”, in which he played a goofy medical intern with a bizarre imagination. His prominent presence in a film represented something fresh for a young generation, a new and unique kind of auteur that the youth could call their own without admitting to it. His devoted online presence fueled his fandom and drove scores of people to the theatre and video stores, turning “Garden State” into a cult classic. Studios began their cookie-cutting process and the inevitable backlash followed. For some, the movie has come to stand for all that is unbearable about Generation Y, a collection of misguided individuals who assembled their cultural histories from soundbytes and conveniently located hyperlinks that teach them all they need to know about how the world works.

When we first see Andrew Largeman in a non-dream state, he is tucked tightly in bed in a purely white room, looking up at the ceiling. His phone rings. It’s his father, calling to tell him that his mother has died. Andrew reacts to the message as though he’s trying to do rudimentary math in his head – the previous generation dies and leaves the next alone in mental disarray. We discover that Andrew gets through life on a cocktail of lithium and other anti-depressants that keep him functioning, but only barely. Throughout the course of a weekend, he abandons his meds and allows his emotions to surface, whereupon he is able to forgive himself for his mistakes and deal more truthfully with his own life.

The emotional sad sack with psychological issues is the hipster prototype. Kids understand dour and upset. The world is a massive letdown, but that’s sort of comforting. There is a solace in not being all right. It means that a person can be different, more fully individualized in a global village that has suddenly and dramatically shrunk in size. There is a relief in thinking that no one understands. And that’s how the hipster subculture thrives: by a superficially singular yet mutual understanding of a collective’s ironic apart-ness. Back in 2001, Donnie Darko excitedly turned to Gretchen Ross and asked, “What emotional problems does your dad have?” as though emotional problems were trading cards that could be negotiated for a complete set. In “Garden State”, Andrew Largeman sports a proud collection, as does old high school friend Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), though someone has stolen his Wolf Blitzer.

Sam (Natalie Portman) enters Andrew’s life in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. Her affliction is epilepsy. Her medicine is a sense of humour and music. She dares to utter the name of a band that will change Andrew’s life, pouring on the significance of The Shins before a brief few bars of “New Slang” plays over her grinning face. It’s a moment with little precedent on film. Certainly, characters have luxuriated in music and called artists by name, but an actual, for real “indie” rock band? The past decade has marked a period of time in which pop radio married itself to hip hop and music video channels stopped playing music videos altogether. How would a young woman in Jersey know of a band out of Portland with a couple of 7-inch singles and a full-length debut released on Sub Pop?

It’s unspoken in the film, perhaps because modern narratives still don’t know how to discuss 21st century technology without sounding infantile or corny, but Sam in particular is a child of that technology. The Internet has expanded the definition of what can be called authentic, while simultaneously enforcing authenticity as a prime secular ethic. Anyone can now be the first to hear anything. The moment in “Garden State” when Sam plays The Shins for Andrew, a band he’s never heard of, attracts hipsters by presenting itself as a moment of unbridled authenticity. The boy listens to the girl’s music and it/she changes his life. She pulls him out of his medication-induced clouded haze to realize that life is worth encountering by showing him that a song can still mean something to two people at the exact same time.

Music’s always had that power. The soundtrack to “Garden State” is lathered with good, solid songs. They emerge from the narrative like a thoughtfully chosen playlist, repeatedly evoking the right kind of modern emotion. Every song spirals around the loneliness a person can experience when coming of age. Mark tells his mother that he’s only 26 and that he doesn’t want to feel rushed. At 24, I listened and thought, yes, I didn’t want to feel rushed. There’s something about being 23, 24, 25, 26 that makes the rest of a life feel unacceptable somehow. People speed by like blurs and rarely stay. The future is an infinite abyss.

What “Garden State” does well is sustain a mood and vision that is quite apparently of its writer and director. Braff deserves due credit for it. He has yet to follow it up, and when he does, he won’t be telling the same story. The film is the acute result of being a certain age, feeling a certain way and resisting the belief that everything will change. “Garden State” is about the process of letting go.

Music video for “New Slang” by The Shins:

Evening all.

We had another decent turn-out this afternoon for our society visit to the Arts Centre to see An Education, which seemed- on the whole- to be a hit with our members. Varsity was FULL AS, so we went to Bar Fusion (mostly. Where did you other guys go? Why?!).

Here’s my review of An Education. Remember, anyone who wants to contribute a review or article to this blog can do so! Just email it in to the society.

David

———————————
An Education (dir. Lone Scherfig, 2009) ****

reviewed by David Sugarman

A couple of years ago, The History Boys took a wry look at college students in the 1980s and their attempts to get into Oxford. And starred Dominic Cooper. Now, An Education details the story of a young woman in the early ’60s as she prepares for her A-levels. And stars Dominic Cooper. Where The History Boys struggled was in providing full characterisation for all the boys, a problem that An Education sidesteps by focussing on a single protagonist, Jenny (Carey Mulligan).
Jenny is offered a ride home in the car of David (Peter Sarsgaard), a young, roguish – and Jewish, a fact exploited to great hilarity in several scenes- fellow with no discernible occupation and a great talent for smooth-talking. Caught up in the moment, Jenny falls for David’s romantic, seemingly exotic life. David’s friends, the slick Danny (Cooper) and his ditzy blonde girlfriend (Rosamund Pike) reinforce the contrast between the apparent freedom offered by David and the boredom suffered by her teachers and parents.
Mulligan and Sarsgaard give admirably restrained performances in roles that could have become rather melodramatic, and both give a sense of great maturity, even if beneath the surface the characters are anything but mature. I think I laughed at pretty much every joke in the film, and while it drifted to a somewhat predictable conclusion, I’m happy to forgive An Education that fault.

An Education is a dramatisation of the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber written for the screen by men’s book specialist Nick Hornby.  It tells the tale of Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan), a 6th form student who is destined for great things in 1960s Twickenham as she discusses Camus with her friends in the local cafe preparing for a scholastic life at Oxford and is under the strict tutelage of her father played by Alfred Molina.  All of this is turned upside down when she meets an older man, David (played by Peter Sarsgaard, whilst waiting at a book shop who sweeps her and her parents off their feet and shows her another world, far away from the books and Latin homework.  What follows makes Jenny the talk and envy of both her fellow sixth form school girls and teachers.

Whilst this is a fine ensemble film, there is a bright star at the centre of this film and it is Carey Mulligan.  As Jenny, Mulligan starts as a naive schoolgirl but Mulligan manages to bring with that naivete an arch, somewhat saracastic and occasionally pretensious streak.  After all, how many 17 year old girls break to French to make a particular point or discuss Camus in the local cafe.  She also has a lovelorn admirer, Graham, who doesn’t always get the rub of the green or Jenny’s undivided attention.  But for all of the attention on Carey Mulligan (which is undoubtedly deserved), this is very much an ensemble piece with many great performances.

What I really liked about this film is that there are few black and whites with characters drawn in shades of grey and the performances backing that up.  Alfred Molina’s father is a bit hapless and alternates between being strict and being easily persuaded to allow his daughter to do things which seem to face in the face of his cautious nature.  However, Molina manages to make Jenny’s father a likeable character as he clearly wants the best for Jenny even if he is not quite sure what that is or how to achieve that.  Clearly he thinks Jenny going to Oxford is the best and he is relying on what he has been told is the best way of her doing it.  It’s hard to take against him. 

Likewise, Peter Sarsgaard’s David is clearly something of a creep and potentially a paedophile and some of his scenes are completely cringeworthy, however, it is easy to see how Jenny would fall for him and his easy charm with her parents means that it is not just Jenny falls for him.  Peter Sarsgaard is the perfect actor to play this slightly off-kilter creepy yet charming role.  His friends played by Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike are equally intriguing characters.  Cooper’s character clearly sees the advantage of having David around and appears to be clearly devoted to his girlfriend but, at the same time, despite being something of  a wideboy he is clearly attracted to the smart, cultured Jenny and feels equally uneasy about the nature of David and Jenny’s relationship. 

Rosamund Pike is a revelation as the ditzy Helen who is a perfect counterpoint to Jenny, playing almost a 60s WAG but she mines the comedy potential of this role without being dumb.  I would have liked to have seen more of the teachers, of whom we really only get a cursory glance, particularly Emma Thompson who I always enjoy.

Beyond the acting, director Lone Scherfig has given this film a remarkable lustre and it feels of its period without being hokey and relying on cliche whilst scenes in Paris are imbibed with the sheen of a Fellini movie and feel every bit as magical as they should to Jenny, contrasting the bright palette with the muted tones of greys, browns and blacks you see in Jenny’s home life.  This film is a brilliantly judged balancing act which was thoroughly enjoyable and in Carey Mulligan, I have no doubt that a star is born.

9/10

Switching gears from the horror/noir/gothic kick I’ve been on lately, I would like to devote this post to Lone Scherfig’s new film An Education.  While this movie is not a horror film per se, it does touch upon one of the themes that has come up recently in discussing such previously blogged-about  films as Rosemary’s Baby, The Others, The Exorcist and even Sunset Boulevard.  Namely, this movie shares with these other films the major thematic touchstone of the “trapped woman”.  The idea of a 1960’s British teenager who falls in love with an older man might not readily conjure up the images of, respectively, a woman raped by the devil, a woman trapped inside a haunted mansion, a girl possessed by the devil, or a delusional elderly woman secluded from the outside world due to her own warped convictions, An Education puts its heroine, Jenny, in a position that is just as helpless and harrowing as that of Rosemary’s, Graces’, Regan/Chris’ and Norma’s.  The one thing that keeps An Education, fine film that it is, from reaching the artistic heights of these others is the ending.  But, we’ll get into that later.

First off, you should absolutely eat up all of the superlative praise out there on the interwebs for Education’s lead actress Carey Mulligan.  This girl has chops.  She carries almost all of the emotional weight of a very emotional narrative, and does so without once ringing a false note.  She will win many awards for her work in this film and she will deserve all of them.  Playing alongside Ms. Mulligan is Peter Sarsgaard, who does what Peter Sarsgaard does best: play a creep.  I do not mean this in a pejorative sense; this film is reliant upon an actor in the David role who is able to come across as both creepy and charismatic simultaneously.   David seduces half-his-age Jenny and quickly reveals himself as a morally fuzzy suitor; yet despite Dave’s rough spots, the audience must never doubt that Jenny can be wildly attracted to this man.  Sarsgaard skates this line with aplomb.  Alfred Molina is his usual excellent self in the role of Jenny’s strict but vulnerable father.  Other notable cast members are Emma Thompson as the headmaster of a private school and Olivia Williams as a private school English teacher, a role that has interesting parallels to her role in one of my favorite films of the 1990s: Rushmore.  In Rushmore, Williams plays a private school teacher seduced by a much younger boy, whereas in Education she plays a teacher advising a young girl who is seduced by a much older man.  Her facial expression is very similar in both films — she plays both roles so well that I think she should slap a trademark on the “I’m upset at this romance involving incongruently-aged people” face.

An Education is Nick Hornby’s first foray into scriptwriting since 1997’s Fever Pitch (not the 2005 Jimmy Fallon Red Sox film, although this was also based on Hornby’s novel of the same name).  Education’s script is very well-written, with a slowly building sense of dread punctuated with moments of deep despair along with a sprinkling of humor.  Much of the light-hearted moments are piled on in the beginning of the film, and I noticed that many people in the audience at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Vancouver, BC really wanted to keep the good times rolling long after the initial Jenny/Dave meet-cute stops being cute and one realizes that Jenny has painted herself in a corner that she may never get out of.  Gleeful guffaws became nervous laughter which tapered off into pointed silence as the situation worsened and a story that could have veered into RomCom treacle instead carried through with the sometimes uncomfortable implications of its setup and its characters.  Imagine that.

However, as I brought up earlier, the ending left me feeling like a double-crossed Bubble-Lub.  The film earned my trust and then squandered it with the employment of a voiceover and a syrupy pan out in the final scene of the film.  I’m not entirely anti-voiceover, but there had not been a voiceover up to this point in the movie, so why introduce one  in the very last scene?  Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, The Others and Sunset Boulevard all have very effective endings.  The endings of all of these films ensure that the feeling that had been cultivated throughout will linger in the filmgoer’s mind long after the theatre has been deserted.  Sunset Boulevard, which employs heavy voiceover from the beginning (granted, the acerbic voiceover of a dead man), is witty enough to eschew voiceover in its final scene in favor of a Norma Desmond monologue that is, in the final shot of the film, drowned in black like the overpowering delusions within Norma Desmond’s mind.  Boulevard features one of the best endings in the history of popular film.  An Education, however, fizzles.   I realize that it isn’t fair to require that every film hold up to the standard of Sunset Boulevard, but still you get my point.  The narrative ending of Education didn’t bother me necessarily, but the spell invoked by the film prior to the final scene was broken by an uninteresting and too-neat visual and auditory wrap-up that comes across as lazy.  It just doesn’t do justice to a very well-paced, well-acted and otherwise well-made movie.  Regardless, I still recommend it — I simply suggest that you ignore the ending in the way that a teenager might look past the glaring faults of an otherwise sophisticated lover.

If people die the moment that they graduate, then surely it’s the things we do beforehand that count.

– Jenny

When I posted the trailer for An Education a couple of months ago, I eagerly anticipated this movie. I mentioned on my Oscar Watchers group when I posted the release dates of film that I was so excited that I could pee. This movie has a Metacritic score of 85. It’s a fantastical account of a girl that is not having an academic education, but an education of life.

Newcomer Carey Mulligan gives an Oscar caliber performance as Jenny, a 16-year-old private school girl living in 1961 Twikenham, London. On a rainy walk home from school orchestra practice, a car pulls up.

A suave real estate agent, David (Peter Sarsgaard) offers her a ride. She gladly accepts it. In the car ride, they chat about Jenny’s plans to be an independent woman when she gets her grades up to attend Oxford University. They strike an immediate accord with each other.

Jenny’s father, Jack (Alfred Molina) wants to know where his money is going for her education. That is his only intention in her daughter’s life. Bumping into David around the neighborhood, David wants Jenny to meet his friends, Danny and Helen (Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike), but the problem is that Jack wants let her out. David comes by to sweet talk Jack and Marjorie (Cara Seymour) into their little adventures. David is Jenny’s outlet in having the freedom that she wanted.

As Jenny and David’s relationship continues to grow, Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) and Headmistress (Emma Thompson) become foils for Jenny when she talks about her budding relationship with David. She tries to warn Jenny not to be caught in the ways of love. She needs to educate herself first, before pursuing the life of a wife and mother. Soon, Jenny’s world is turned upside down when she learns that David is not what he appears to be.

It’s a bubbly romp that transported me to that time with the music, the fashion and the locales displayed on screen. The performances were solid from most of the cast. Carey Mulligan gives off an Audrey Hepburn vibe when she was dolled up. The movie’s plot is typical with a May/December relationship. You could guess what is going on.

Judgment: This movie should not be missed. Watch out for star being born.

Rating: ****

These days when people talk about 60’s style, they’re most likely referring to the sharp suits and curvy skirts of “Mad Men.”  There’s been no shortage of ink devoted to Don Draper and Co., and deservedly so: the show is a bonafide pop culture phenomenon, inspiring the masses to slick their hair and tuck in a pocket square, and turning costume designer Janie Bryant into a budding style icon.

But, from across the pond, there’s another buzzworthy project offering a different take on the time, with a distinctive British flair.  “An Education,” the Nick Hornby-penned film about a schoolgirl in pre-Swinging 1960’s London, is a classic coming-of-age tale.  And while most of the praise for the film is being leveled at Carey Mulligan in the lead role — she’s amazing, so no complaints here about that — it’s worth noting the solid work from co-stars Peter Sarsgaard, Rosamund Pike and Dominic Cooper.

Sarsgaard and Cooper, for their part, also have the enviable task of wearing some of the finest threads the era had to offer.  Dressed in natty suits, cut slimmer than their American counterparts at Sterling Cooper, and showcasing some of the sharpest hats, scarves, tie clips and shoes of the decade — and at least one killer tux.

I’ve always been a big fan of 1960’s European style on film — from French New Wave classics like “Breathless,” to Italian masterpieces like “8 1/2″ and the British school uniforms of “If…” — so it’s great to see it featured so prominently in “An Education,” as Jenny (Carey Mulligan’s character) becomes seduced by the expensive duds and idle rich lifestyle of her new, slightly mysterious friends, played with charm and a little sleaze by Cooper, Sarsgaard and Pike.  The styling alone is worth the price of admission.  See some more stills after the jump.

(Photos via IMDB)

Dir. Lone Scherfig
(2009, PG-13, 95 min)
★ ★ ★ ½

I want to be Jenny when I grow up. Set in 1960s England, An Education is built on the character, who is only sixteen, and on the performance of her portrayer, Carey Mulligan, who is twenty-four. As written by Nick Hornby (based on Lynn Barber’s memoir), directed by Lone Scherfig, and acted by Mulligan, Jenny is a singular creation: confident but shy, worldly but naive, cosmopolitan but sheltered, yet she is never a contradiction in terms. She is a blossoming young woman, smart, who recognizes the perils of stepping into an unfamiliar world of adults, considers them, and undertakes them anyway, because she must do something that matters, instead of be churned through school and university and deposited into marriage or one of the limited career options available to women in that day and age.

Jenny is an early feminist, a modern voice in a world that doesn’t know what to do with her yet, and she asks questions no one is yet prepared to answer. She wonders about a woman’s future, finding that her devoted English teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) and the severe headmistress (Emma Thompson) are living contradictions to whatever hope they try to give her about toeing the line. Her father, Jack (Alfred Molina), is concerned with her financial security, and quite sincerely does not understand what other pleasure there can be in life; he pushes her hard to achieve so she can go to Oxford, but if she can marry well, there’s no point of schooling, is there?

An alluring older man comes into her life: David (Peter Sarsgaard), who appreciates music, visits France, knows glamorous people, and goes to classical concerts and jazz clubs. He is an all-access pass to everything she wants in life. Is he a creep for his unwholesome interest in a sixteen-year-old girl? Yes, we suspect, and that fact is not lost even on his friends Danny and Helen (Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike), who share knowing glances. But their romance is not played as a victimization; that would be unfair to Jenny, who understands, better than her easily smitten parents, what she’s getting into, but abandons caution for the sake of love and discovery. Consider a scene in Paris where she regards lovemaking; she is no victim and no fool.

But she is still a girl, and she learns a lot of things the hard way. Yet she also has a lot to teach. For her befuddled family, teachers, and peers, she is a harbinger of the free-spirit generation that will shape the later ‘60s and ‘70s — a bohemian revolution of girls and boys who will discover that their schools and universities aren’t the only education they need.

An Education (Lone Scherfig, 2009)

I wonder what it is about contemporary British films. Does familiarity breed contempt? Is there any rational grounding for my preference for European cinema or is it mere orientalism? Even when British cinema is done really well -and it’s seldom done better than it is here- there’s something about it that annoys me. The Tasteful music, the same old faces (Richard Griffiths doing his 226th Uncle Monty), the overly literary script, the middlebrow sensibilities, the general lack of audacity. Maybe it’s just me. 

This film has enjoyed enough gushing reviews to get me out to the local Odeon, but my inner snob was still dubious about anything with a Nick Hornby screenplay, even if has been handed to a Danish dogme director. The former’s presence is more keenly felt than the latter, Scherfig opting to keep her cover with subdued, simple direction and pretty photography; the family house is a dull bottle green, the outside world a little more showy and intoxicating.

It’s a punchy script with lots of barbed dialogue but the satires of period suburban attitudes can get a bit too Abigail’s Party. At one point, Emma Thompson’s icy headmistress actually asks, “Are you aware that the Jews killed our Lord? We’re all very sorry about what went on in the war, but there’s no excuse for that sort of thing”. Alfred Molina’s hapless dad is the butt of most of these jokes; an excellent turn from an underrated character actor. 

The setup is that in 1961, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a 16-year-old from Richmond taking her A-levels. Her domineering parents have their hearts set on getting her into Oxford and she is forbidden a life outside study. When grown-up David (Peter Sarsgaard) sets his sights on her, everything changes, even though we gradually deduce that he’s a gangster of some description.

The main thing to be said for the film is that it gives us a new star in Mulligan, and a very, very watchable one at that. Knowing and vivacious, there’s something of Genevieve Bujold in the way she can juggle the duality of her young girl/young woman part. Her eyes have a most mischievous twinkle to them. At times she’s a pretentious wannabe (waffling about Meursault and dropping French phrases into conversation), at times she’s a mature and assertive young woman (wanting everything to be just right on the occasion of her deflowering, she firmly forbids David from baby talk or pet names).

As her counterpart, I found the smug Sarsgaard eminently punchable upon first sight. He charms everyone (including Jenny’s hitherto controlling parents, who apparently are suddenly happy for their little girl to go off on dirty weekends), but his permanent fishy pout and Colin Firth-with-smallpox-scars features irritated me and he didn’t even have the good grace to sing ‘Where Do You Go To My Lovely’ at any point.

We begin at school, where semi-animated titles set to perky music show schoolgirls balancing books on their heads, playing lacrosse and learning Latin. Jenny is shown to be the class swot, and her father Jack a suffocating grotesque (“Oxford don’t want people who think for themselves”). She likes Graham, a nervous boy from the school orchestra, but when he comes home for tea the parents savage him. Good attention to detail as he accepts a slice of battenberg, and the corner he picks up breaks off- nothing goes right for the lad. Jack and Marjorie have given Jenny a very sheltered childhood. As we see her lying on her back and singing along to Juliette Greco, she confides that her wildest fantasies are to “watch French films and look at paintings”.

David presents himself as a “music lover” when he spots Jenny standing in the rain and offers to give her cello a lift home. Flowers follow, and Jenny’s friends are agog when the two meet in the street and he invites her to a Ravel concert and “supper”. Parental opposition is predictable but what isn’t is how easily David charms them; they are wrongfooted when he walks in at the exact moment Jack is shouting “I’ve got nothing against the Jews…”.

At the concert we meet David’s friends, Danny and Helen (a vacant bimbo played by Rosamund Pike). For all her vapidity, Helen is good at pinpricking Jenny’s teenage pretensions; “You have a French conversation teacher? Is that why you keep speaking in French for no apparent reason?”. Over a bottle of champagne in an opulent jazz club, Jenny is persuaded to play truant so she can join the three at an auction of Pre-Raphaelite paintings next week. When she finally gets home her mum is waiting up, pretending to scrub a stubborn casserole dish. The emotional constipation is a little touching.

After the first date and first truancy, the next frontier is a dirty weekend in Oxford- suggested whilst the four are in Danny’s flat, filled with objets d’art. Meanwhile Jenny has started flunking her mock exams and Molina throws a very spiteful, yet curiously controlled and passionless, tantrum. When Jenny dares to venture downstairs, she is as surprised as we are to find her parents getting drunk with David (“Why are you drinking? It’s not Christmas”). David tells a bullshit story about C.S. Lewis being his university tutor and the dirty weekend is in the bag.

It’s all cod-Brideshead scenes as the boys play badminton in Danny’s front room, waiting for Helen to show Jenny the art of silken undergarments. Once in Oxford the boys drive on past the touristy college shots and head for the nearest pub, where they eye up the old ladies and snigger that there is “lots of business here”; our confirmation, if it takes Jenny a while to catch on, that they’re crooked. In the B&B Jenny tells David she wants to remain a virgin until her 17th birthday and he is an absolute gent, merely asking for a glimpse of her tits.

Le lendemain matin, Jenny sees the boys at work and doesn’t like it. In Blues Brothers dark glasses, they make her wait in the car and emerge from a little old lady’s house with a painting under their coat. “You’re so bourgeois”, David tells her when she storms off in tears. His following speech wins her around although we’re struck by how much he’s starting to sound like Jack (“these restaurants and concerts don’t grow on trees”).

After Oxford, Paris. Jenny takes a shopping list from her schoolfriends (Chanel, Gauloises) and her indiscretion earns her a stern warning from Emma Thompson. Her birthday is grim, the parents and Graham both giving her Latin dictionaries, under David turns up with armfuls of flowers, gifts and the news about Paris. Poor Graham slips out and no-one notices.

Paris is cod-new wave shots of the Eiffel, bookstalls, the steps of Montamartre and Jenny is in her element. Again, she is assertive when David makes the weird suggestion breaking her hymen with a banana (“I’m not losing my virginity to a piece of fruit”). She stands away from him, looking down at their view of the Seine, for the post-coital fag.

At school the English teacher declines to accept her gift from Paris (“because I know where it came from”) and pleads with Jenny to go to Oxford, provoking a tirade against establishment values. “I’m sorry you think I’m dead”, replies the teacher, and we cut to the four partygoers at Walthamstow dog track; Oxford is starting to look distinctly distant. The boys meet a gangster, David is jealous when Danny pays attention to Jenny. He drags her outside and proposes.

Jenny’s teacher is devastated to spot the ring on her finger (“It’ll ruin your life”) but Jack chortles that “you won’t need university now”. Time passes, Jenny leaves school without taking her exams, and then a coincidence reveals to Jenny the dark secret that David has been guarding. When required to face the music, he behaves rather badly. The wedding’s off.

Molina makes a fumbling confessional apology to Jenny’s closed bedroom door, a cup of tea and plate of biscuits in his hand. “All my life I’ve been scared, and I didn’t want you to be scared. That’s why I wanted you to go to Oxford.” It’s touching, it made me weep and while it lasted the film had won me over.

Jenny goes back to Emma Thompson; ready to play the contrite fallen woman, in a wrap-around cardigan and an ankle-length tartan dress. The head enjoys her moment of vindication as she tells Jenny a second chance “would be wasted on you”. In her poky flat, the English teacher agrees to give Jenny private tuition and at this point the film jumps the shark.

A montage of Jenny studying like a demon, with sentimental music, culminates in the offer from Oxford sitting on the breakfast table. Jenny cycles round Oxford in blue jeans as a voiceover tells us she went to university after all and dated boys her own age, before going on to presumably have a wonderful and successful life. But if she gets off scot free and goes to Oxford as if nothing happened, why did this story need to be told? Was there any consequence to anyone’s actions?

“This whole country is bored. There’s no life, colour or fun”, Jenny tells her headmistress at one point. A few private lives are put under the microscope to show the tensions bubbling under Western society before the swinging sixties. An Education is a well crafted film with fine acting, lots to look at and some entertaining dialogue. I just feel that the British cinema of that actual time -Richardson, Schlesinger- already said all of this better (and so does Mad Men for that matter). Worth it for Mulligan and Molina though, and if you liked films like The History Boys you’ll aboslutely eat this one up.

The film was set in 1961.An intelligent teenager girl in suburban Twickenham was waiting for bus in a downpouring day. A stranger, a soft spoken older man (Peter Sarsgaard), drove by and offered her a ride.

That ride took her home, but also brought her into a world of adult fun and fancy – weekend trip to Paris, classical concerts, smoky jazz clubs, auctions, dressing up glamorously with the help from stranger’s glamorous friend Helen (Rosamund Pike).

I had very little knowledge about the 60’s. When I told a friend that I was going to see An Education, he wasn’t terribly impressed by the sound of it.

“I suppose this is kind of films that you saw before. They are always very similar to each other.” He said.

I laughed. Maybe he was right. I like the coming out of age films. I can see them again and again. If the film is well directed with a strong cast, I would never get bored. What we know about the sixties – feminism, sex revolutions, hippies, Vietnam War.  What about the beginning of that period in Britain?

Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams)

An Education is not a slow film. It is incredibly smooth and upbeat. The plot isn’t complicated. There are a lot of smart dialogues throughout the film. Carey Mulligan played Jenny, a pretty, innocent but rather head strong girl. Carey interpreted so well Jenny’s naivety and intelligence. When she finally got to Paris, she put her hair up and wore a dress with floral prints; she was stunning just like Audrey Hepburn!

Peter Sarsgaard did not present a slimy lady killer. His gentleness, sleepy eyes, even the flirtatious cliche lines with Jenny’s mother seemed all so harmless, light-hearted and boyish lost.  Emma Thompson is the best actress to play the imperious school-mistress.

Helen (Rosamund Pike)

Rosamund Pike perhaps was far too smart to play a beautiful dumb bimbo. Educated in Oxford, Rosamund has this depth in her beauty– pale, sophisticated, feminine, intelligent, witty, very British.

You sit there and wonder where Jenny is heading to and what she will turn out to be. It’s an education about life.

Without a doubt, this could be the best British film of the year 2009.

The film was based on Lynn Barber’s autobiographical essay in Granta Literary magazine. Screenplay by Nick Hornby. Directed by Lone Scherfig.

Trivial: In Lynn Barber’s early career, she was a journalist writing for Penthouse, she also published a book – How to Improve Men in Bed.

In some ways, this film is a victory for style over substance. A quintessential coming-of-age drama where a smart, pretty, and articulate schoolgirl becomes romantically involved with an older man, An Education also looks to capture London in the swinging sixties. as well as that sense of a generational change in values and outlooks.

More precisely, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is sixteen years old, living with her parents in the pleasant but dull suburbs of Twickenham, and entirely focused on gaining a place in Oxford University, where she hopes to read English. Jenny also has a fine cultural palette, with a particular appreciation for all things French. However, it is her Audrey Hepburn-type looks that attract the charming and wealthy David (Peter Sarsgaard) to her in the first place.

It does not take long then for Jenny to become besotted by his interest in her and, after he as won over her parents with a cocktail of half-truths, David gives her a taste for all of the social possibilities that drab suburban life has denied her thus far. This leads Jenny down a path where she is confronted by a choice between the possibilities of a life of easy fulfilment and having to graft away for years to come for rewards that she is becoming increasingly disillusioned about.

Danish director Lone Scherfig delights in concentrating, though, on Mulligan’s enchanting smile, bright eyes, and fine cheekbones. Lighting up each scene the she is in, Mulligan equally imbues her role with a natural, captivating and precocious naivety that is only let down by having to utter some rather contrived dialogue at times. Already signed up for a leading role in Oliver Stone’s follow-up to Wall Street, as well as a Jim Sheridan movie, there is little doubt that a star has been born in this film.

Alongside her, Sarsgaard might be a mite concerned, though, that between his roles here and in Orphan, he is being typecast as a character who ends up having inappropriate relationships with minors. This is an intentionally flip comment in keeping with the “jolly japes” nature of David’s liaisons with Jenny over the film’s first two acts. Indeed, the fact that two decidedly creepy bedroom scenes actually provoked a good deal of audience laughter helps to substantiate this observation.

On the other hand, while some of his gestures were cloyingly cheesy, Sarsgaard does carry off the role of a silver-tongued rogue in credible fashion. That said, the hints at a more perverse and insecure personality underneath fail, in the end, to be better explored in Nick Hornby’s screen adaptation of an autobiographical essay by British journalist Lynn Barber.

What is well conveyed though is that sense of a changing times. Near the end, Jenny’s father Jack (a jowly Alfred Molina) admits that he has lived his whole life in fear. Despite his pompous and oftentimes ridiculous personality, not to mention his single-minded focus on Jenny’s education, Jack’s actions are always well-meaning in terms of wanting to do what is best for his daughter. The problem is that his frame of reference for life has become entirely outmoded and Jenny constantly desires more than what he feels is appropriate to offer.

Holding them together, then, is Jenny’s wistful and occasionally surprising mother (Cara Seymour). She, along with Jenny’s English teacher (a very repressed-looking Olivia Williams), does more than enough to suggest that this period of social change was as much evolution as it was revolution.

Indeed, for all of its flaws, this drama does have a real allure to it, mostly inspired by Mulligan’s commanding central performance. However, the humorous escapades, the knowledge that all cannot be right with David, and the tension as to how it will all resolve itself give good additional weight to the film, even if the final third is something of a disappointment. An interesting companion piece, on the whole, to Andrea Arnold’s equally noteworthy Fish Tank.

I originally intended to see Orphan in the movie theater, but I simply was not able to. I bought it new with some reservation – I prefer to buy used DVDs because they’re cheaper and it’s part of the whole recycling thing. But I had heard enough good stuff about the movie to want to watch it sooner rather than later, and I was in a horror movie buying mood on the day after Halloween.

I was not disappointed. It was the first of my horror movie purchases that I watched, and it pushed most of my horror movie buttons. Creepy child sociopath; issues of sex and sexuality; insanity; and representation of human anxiety. Isabelle Fuhrman presents a spectacular performance as Esther, an adopted child who seems too perfect. Knowing this is a horror movie, everyone knows that Esther is going to end up being a bad seed, and Fuhrman shows that eerie, sweetly manipulative side to Esther with aplomb, neither underacting nor overacting like many child actors. And (spoiler alert) since she had to basically play a deeply disturbed adult trapped in the body of a child, it was imperative that Esther be handled with, pardon the pun, kid gloves by an actress of precision and skill. Fuhrman took on the role as if she was made for it – it is not surprising that she blew away the casting directors and inspired new Esther character traits.

Fuhrman is flanked adeptly by Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard, taking on deceptively difficult roles. Vera Farmiga’s performance reminded me strongly of Jennifer Connelly’s in Dark Water. The secondary conflicts of adopting children, stillbirth and grief, recovering from alcoholism, and maternal feeling of inadequacy brought a new dimension to a standard bad seed story and made the movie into something that I think will be an essential in any horror collection in the future.

The line that was eventually cut from the previews (if not the movie itself) that it must be harder to love an adopted child as your own is, in my opinion, integral to the movie. The point of it is not that it is true, but that many parents who adopt children (especially older children) or those considering adoption worry that it is true. Children in the foster system are disadvantaged at the start – they don’t have the attention or affection that they need, they often don’t have stability or security as they go from home to home, and they can feel like society’s trash. This can lead to behavioral problems and personality disorders that most foster and adoptive families have to brace themselves for. And I say this with complete support and encouragement for anyone looking to foster or adopt – it is not an easy road, but I feel it is a good one, better for the children in the long run. Esther and the movie Orphan is an expression of that anxiety, although it is no more a commentary on antisocial personality disorder in orphans any more than Damien from The Omen is indicative of Satan incarnate in biological children (ETA: I realized belatedly that this is an inaccurate comparison, since Damien was born of a jackal and replaced his mother’s real child – Instead, make it the child in The Bad Seed). They are simply cinematic expressions of that anxiety.

At the same time, you’ve got the other secondary plots that play out beautifully, although the script on them is a bit clunky near the beginning, a bit too cliche on the matter of a “dark past” for the nice family. However, Farmiga and Saarsgard take the time to show both the love and the underlying suspicions without giving into the temptation to become caricatures. You believe their progression into a troubled family, but the most beautiful part is that even at their worst and most suspicious, they never stop loving each other. The subtleties and multi-layers in this movie are beautiful to watch because they never lose their complexity.

I gave away part of the twist above, but hopefully, if you read through the review, you have already seen the movie and appreciated the surprise. I’m an excellent audience in that way, though – I rarely figure out the twist ending.

Even if Orphan does not become a favorite for you – maybe it doesn’t push your own personal horror buttons – I know it’s going to be at the top of my list.

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Olivia WIlliams, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina

Director: Lone Scherfig

Writer(s): Nick Hornby, Lynn Barber

Cinematography: John De Borman

Original Score: Paul Englishby

Running Time: 95 Mins.

Upon watching An Education throughout I had but two thought’s running through my head, firstly that it was really rather good overcoming my expectations that I was in for just another British coming of age kitchen sink drama and secondly, and more surprisingly, that The Daily Mail hasn’t had more to say about the rather unethical central romance that in many director’s, and indeed writer’s, hands could have felt rather more seedy.

Written by Nick Hornby, best known for his novels including About A Boy and High Fidelity, An Education is adapted from a memoir and somewhat glamourises it from what I have read elsewhere, that in itself proves not to be a problem though as spun out as it is, we could not have wished for a more fulfilling film. Yes it is essentially a coming of age drama but there are hugely enjoyable layers with characters written so that they are not just grittily real as is often the case, but have a sense of fun and warmth to them, often lacking in films such as this.

The talking point as far as performance goes has to be newcomer Carey Mulligan, playing the 16 year old Jenny, she portrays Jenny not as a lost waif but as a strong willed person open to the experience of life, torn between the prospect of getting into Oxford to read English (as her father pushes towards) and the want to do soemthing more with her life than get old and boring, so to seemingly help make this decision enter’s David into Jenny’s life, a charming man twice Jenny’s age, it is to Sarsgaard’s credit that manages to always make David likeable and never creepy. Even when he asks Jenny to remove her top to “have a look”, there is the sense that this is a respectful man, however there is always that underlying sinister feeling that there is more to David than the surface charm would suggest.

As An Eductaion moves along at a brisk pace, it does so in a way that keeps you interested, and while you always have a feeling that David’s secrets will out, and they do, it doesn;t feel like a join the dots exercise while never really pushing any boundaries or leading to a twist as such. The film does not appear to frown upon Peter for his (eventually rather large) misgiving’s but it equally doesn’t seem to want us to make a judgement call on Jenny either, that she is sucked into Peter’s glamorous world that includes friends Danny (Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike) is totally believeable especially given the lenths they will go to to achieve the lifestyle.

If the film has an issue it is that David’s charm would have won over Jenny’s parents quite as easily as it appears too, after only two meetings she is allowed to go on weekends away to Paris, seemingly because he is polite and well spoken and apparently has money, so while Molina is brilliant as Jenny’s father his performance is somewhat undermined by the disbelief I felt as the relationship between David and the parent’s wasn’t shown to be a little more sunstantial than just the wow factor. That said, if it were covered in mroe detail the sense of pace may have been lost for a largely needless plot expansion. 

VERDICT

An Education doesn’t break boundaries, but what it does do is present a solid coming of age drama with a hugely enjoyable edge, and overcoming a rather large taboo by making its character’s both believeable and warm despite theri scruples.

***

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a decent horror movie. Like, one that is not about some teenagers who get attacked or something. At first I was a bit skeptical about ‘Orphan’ as well, but it turned out to be great! It is about a mom and dad who recently lost their baby and then decided to adopt 9-year-old Esther. At first she seems sweet and well-behaved but then she turns out to be not as innocent as she seems.

This movie is incredibly disturbing, but very clever. I was absolutely perplexed by some of the things that happened. I went to see it with a friend and we just grabbed a hold of each other at times, it’s just so intense. The great acting really helped.

Now I think I want to see this movie again. The reason for that is that there’s a bizarre twist at the end (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it for you) and I just want to see it again knowing that. That’s the only problem about Orphan. At least for some people I guess. It’s that the twist is so bizarre that it may not feel realistic anymore, or even ridiculous. That isn’t my opinion though, it’s what I heard some people say. But just go check it out is my advice

Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPFQ8I04bvE

Suddenly, the French are cool again. The last two movies I’ve seen feature female leads obsessed with the culture of France.

In An Education, an Audrey Hepburn-esque Carey Mulligan sings along to French records and wants more than anything to see Paris. Meanwhile, Youth in Revolt’s Portia Doubleday wishes for a French man named Francois, leading the adorable Michael Cera to try out a skinny mustache and … well, I don’t want to give too much away.

Besides an affinity for the City of Lights and its country, the movies don’t share much except that they’re both worth seeing.

An Education is sophisticated — as most Peter Sarsgaard movies are — but has some funny moments. It’s a simple story about a teenager falling in love with an older man that, even though you know where it’s going, draws you in completely.

Nick Hornby’s script, even better than About a Boy, can claim part of the credit. Another reason is the soundtrack of old and new music that perfectly captures the 1960s setting; Ray Charles, Duffy and Juliette Greco (below) are all here.

Director Miguel Arteta’s Youth in Revolt is a dark comedy that showcases Michael Cera in a role that’s different than the ones we’ve seen him in before. His character, Nick Twisp, might not seem like a stretch at first, but the character changes when circumstances call for him to break the rules he’s always followed in order to win the girl he loves. (Nick Twisp: a name as brilliant as Holden Caulfield, don’t you think?)

This movie’s also quirky and smart, although it borders on wacky at times. I’m not really a fan of wacky, but I’ll watch Michael Cera in anything. Lucky us, he and his co-stars were at the AFI FEST screening we caught at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, posing for pictures and introducing themselves to the crowd.

IMDB says Youth in Revolt hits theaters Jan. 10, while An Education is already out in limited release.

Photo courtesy of An Education.