The PC has been out of pocket lately, working on lesson plans, taking a hubristic stab at a Dostoevsky-meets-McCarthy-meets-O’Connor novel, and just generally neglecting to review films. However, he has been watching movies and so would like offer a quick run-down of what he has seen (complete with ratings). He apologizes in advance for the lack of detail, but figures this is the best way to catch up:

1. Two Lovers (dir. James Gray, 2008): 4.5/5
2. We Own the Night (dir. James Gray, 2007): 3.5/5
3. The Yards (dir. James Gray, 2000): 4.5/5 (In general, Gray seems to borrow a lot from Scorsese, but that’s a good thing)
4. Henry Poole Is Here (dir. Mark Pellington, 2008): 3.5/5
5. Frozen River (dir. Courtney Hunt, 2008): 4.5/5 (Amazing performance here from Melissa Leo)
6. Eastern Promises (dir. David Cronenberg, 2007): 5/5 (Interesting, well-acted, and surprisingly underrated)
7. Adventureland (dir. Greg Mottola, 2009): 4/5
8. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (dir. Sidney Lumet, 2007): 4.5/5
9. In Bruges (dir. Martin McDonagh, 2008): 4/ 5
10. Mongol (dir. Sergei Bodrov, 2008): 4/ 5

- por Bernardo Brum

Começando com uma cena de sexo (repare: a deusa Eva Mendes desnuda nos primeiros cinco segundos) e terminando numa maré de incerteza e frustração, bastaram duas horas de projeção – e nenhum complemento extra, talvez, apenas assistir Amantes – para ter uma desconfiança – James Gray é, definitivamente, um nome promissor.

Em Os Donos da Noite, Gray mostra um domínio pra lá de eficiente do modelo clássico, para assim, contar a história de uma dolorosa e indesejada – porém, também necessária redenção – fica claro desde o primeiro momento que Bobby Green não quer seguir a carreira policial do pai e do irmão, quer apenas seu clube e sua namorada, e tudo isso desmorona simplesmente porque não pode mais andar na corda bamba de se inteirar com o submundo que seu estilo de vida e sua boate/casa de jogos representa e ao mesmo tempo ter a vista grossa da lei simplesmente pela questão da família.

Família esta que está presente a cada frame da obra. A todo momento, ela clama por ajuda, entra em discussão, explode, se desintegra e tenta, a todo momento, agarrar-se aos unicos laços, garantidos no período de sua formação, que talvez, e apenas talvez, consiga mantê-la de pé contra um mundo de crimes que não respeita nenhuma convenção.

Utilizando a jornada clássica do herói de forma totalmente anti-glamourizada, e que só parece existir, de fato, para que haja uma desconstrução de um protagonista que em momento algum quer embarcar nisso, mesmo depois de ver-se obrigado por alguma moral restante dentro de seu espírito “livre” a passar-se por traficante ou fazer parte de uma corporação, James Gray traça um curioso paradigma. Aqui, a corrupção da essência, a falência moral do personagem de Joaquin Phoenix se forma a partir do momento que ele têm de cooperar com um sistema que não acredita, não quer, não apóia. Só o sangue que o mantém preso a esse sistema, e implacavelmente, acaba tragando-o sem cerimônia. Tudo é dolorosamente pessoal – a perda do progenitor, por exemplo, não é vista de fora. O diretor e a câmera nunca saem do carro. Assim como Bobby, assistimos o mundo desmoronar de fora para dentro – e minar nossas esperanças. Esse tom extremamente pessoal guia o filme inteiro, por mais impiedoso e por mais que a alma, em algum momento, grite por algum distanciamento de toda aquela maluquice.

É curioso ver que, mesmo impregnando-se desse modelo antigo, assim como faz Clint Eastwood (certamente, uma das grandes influências do diretor), James Gray se utiliza disso apenas para jogar a todo momento com as expectativas do espectador em relação ao personagem e as expectativas do próprio protagonista, para assim, fazer uma história clássica, sim – mas sutilmente invertida e frustrante. O rei das festas, drogas e jogatinas agora está enfiado num uniforme de protetor da lei. Está de volta para casa, de volta para a família. Não resta dúvida que ele ainda ama o lugar de onde ele saiu. Então, por que tanto desconforto estampado no rosto?

4/5

Ficha técnica: Os Donos Da Noite (We Own The Night) – 2007, EUA. Dir.: James Gray. Elenco: Joaquin Phoenix, Eva Mendes, Robert Duvall, Mark Wahlberg

Die Brüder Robert Grusinsky und Joseph Grusinsky (gespielt von Joaquin Phoenix und Mark Wahlberg) stehen auf verschiedenen Seiten des Gesetzes: Während Robert als Bobby Green im Dienst der Russenmafia einen Nachtclub im New York der 80er Jahre leitet, arbeitet Joseph für das NYPD gegen die organisierte Kriminalität.
Zwischen den beiden kommt es zum Konflikt, als sie durch eine Razzia in Roberts Nachtclub aneinandergeraten. Als die Polizei Robert gegen die Russen einsetzen und die Unterwelt ihn zur Sabotage der Polizei einsetzen will, muss er sich entscheiden, wo er hingehört.

“We Own the Night” ist ein sehr klassisch gemachter Thrillerschinken ohne große Ansprüche und bringt die reichlich konventionelle Story über die Bühne ohne solche an den Zuschauer zu stellen. Der Plot bleibt über weite Strecken vorhersehbar.
Immerhin ist der Streifen sehr gut besetzt: Phoenix und Wahlberg geben ein starkes Ungleiche-Brüder-Paar ab. Robert Duvall kann als Vater der beiden überzeugen. Eva Mendes als Femme Fatale wird hauptsächlich als Räkelfleisch verheizt, macht aber zumindest eine bessere Figur als noch kurz davor in Ghost Rider. Auch die Bösewichte werden gut gespielt.
Der Streifen ist sehr düster inszeniert und kann mit ein paar angenehm deutlichen Darstellungen der Folgen von Gewalt aufwarten; die Autojagd ist sogar sehr geschickt visualisiert. Dahinter bleibt das Ganze aber sehr platt und unreif.

Vielleicht gab es bisher keinen Film, der so nah dran war “GTA III: The Movie” zu sein. Über ästhetische Anbiederungen an “Sex, Drugs & Crime” kommt “We Own the Night” aber kaum hinaus, bietet in diesem Rahmen jedoch solide Hausmannskost.

5/10 Tüten Koks.

Weitere Meinungen?

Maguels Movieminute bezeichnet den Film als “Polizeifilm der besseren Art, zwar nicht unbedingt originell, aber allemal unterhaltsam und sehenswert!” und vergibt 7/10.
Malte Bauer fand ihn ebenso “vorhersehbar” und “langweilig” wie ich, hatte aber immer noch 6/10 übrig.
On Movies spricht von einem “movie worth seeing, but it won’t necessarily knock your socks off.”

One of the year’s best dramas arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow.

Writer-director James Gray’s Two Lovers opens, as his previous We Own The Night began, with a succinct visual metaphor of what’s to come. Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix), a deeply troubled young man draped in heavy winter clothes, throws himself off a pier into an icy body of water. Pulled to safety by passers-by who witnessed his plunge, he remains dumbstruck, unable to express gratitude for their efforts to save his life. Those themes of hopes rejected and stalled self-destruction form the backbone of the film’s searing character study and help establish it as one of the past year.

Skittish and sorrowful, Leonard stands on shaky ground both in his head and in his life. Diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and numbly devastated by an engagement that ended with ruthless logic by his lover’s family, he’s returned to the Brighton Beach home of his parents (Moni Moshonov and Isabella Rossellini) with nothing more ambitious in mind than working for their dry cleaning business and keeping to himself. The Kraditors are moving ahead, however, on the verge of merging their business with that of the neighboring and prosperous Cohen family. As a way of cementing the union, both sets of parents wouldn’t mind if Leonard struck up a romance with the Cohen’s smart, sensitive daughter Sandra (Vinessa Shaw).

Leonard and Sandra’s early flirtation is tentative, halting, almost childlike, and you get the sense that such gentle charm uses about all the energy Leonard can manage. That ennui changes once he meets his fiery upstairs neighbor Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), who’s come to live in their fortress-like Brooklyn apartment house as a kind of voluntary exile rendered by her boss and lover Ronald Blatt (Elias Koteas). Leonard is instantly transfixed by Michelle, who’s a beauty in the most painfully Daisy Buchanan-esque sense: always promising, in an elusive way, something great in return for love and devotion. Leonard pursues her to the best of his ability but finds his attentions first gently ignored and then rebuked. Disappointed, he pulls Sandra further into his orbit, settling into a comfortable relationship with her until the opportunity to win Michelle rears its dangerous head once again.

Gray co-wrote the script (with Ric Minello) based on the Fyodor Dostoevsky novella “White Nights,” and that author’s thoroughly downbeat worldview is well-suited to Gray’s visual vocabulary, which interprets Brooklyn and Manhattan alike as vast mazes of dreary buildings occasionally brought to ephemeral life by splashes of light and color. Gray’s films are always romantic in tone if not in attitude, and their characters are kept in almost chiaroscuro proportion to the urban megaliths surrounding them. That Two Lovers is set largely near the steely Atlantic during wintertime only heightens the sense of lifelessness surrounding the human drama. But unlike his earliest films (Little Odessa and The Yards) here Gray is getting more proficient at achieving a balance between the two contrasts. With Two Lovers the setting works in service to the characters, not the other way around.

Those characters, for their part, are played well and without ostentation, though some cast members inhabit their roles more than others. Phoenix gives Leonard a fragility that makes his vacillation between Michelle and Sandra not just believable but tightly suspenseful. The scenes in which Leonard attempts to fit in with Michelle’s group of clubbing friends is almost heart-rending to watch. Likewise Sandra’s futile attempt to convey her tenderness to Leonard, especially with a third-act gift that’s symbolic on probably a half-dozen different levels while simultaneously thumbnailing her character. Shaw is an underrated actress capable of showing great volume of emotion with the simplest of body movements, and here she takes a part that in lesser hands would have been irretrievably bland and makes a fleshed-out character worth liking – even loving, as we come to hope Leonard will.

Paltrow’s career has been dogged by skepticism for years, and in making Michelle both attractive and then repulsive she has in some ways the heaviest load to bear. By and large she succeeds, though in some scenes – as in her moments alone on the wind-swept rooftop with Phoenix – she seems to hold too much back; there’s a sense of a missing depth that might bring both characters into greater clarity. Of course that might be the fault of the script, but as everything else is planned and executed with clockwork precision such an oversight seems unlikely. Michelle is a woman who can’t get past her own selfishness to believe in anyone else’s sincerity. She’s a time bomb, one probably everyone but Leonard can recognize as such. Paltrow never quite lets that danger materialize.

Rossellini, regal even when talking on the phone, gives perhaps the film’s most poignant dialogue late in the film. Without spoiling anything, anybody who’s ever left home will recognize what she says as exactly the words you want to hear upon departure. It also arrives just as the events of the story collapse in on themselves, making what’s still to come seem as bitter as the winter wind howling around Leonard as he returns to the waterfront. 

The ending is raw, uncompromising, and multi-faceted. Everyone – almost everyone – gets what they want, which in the finest Russian literary tradition only seems charged with the potential for more misery. Whether you approve or agree with Leonard’s final decision, you can’t argue with its logic or question its unconventional contrast to most Hollywood dramas. You’ll definitely have an opinion about it, though, one way or another. Two Lovers is a movie audacious enough to make you think.

-Michael Kabel

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(Note: An earlier version of this review originally ran for the film’s theatrical release.)

On se souvient tous avec émotion de la scène d’intro du film “We Own the Night”, ou de ses tailleurs cintrées dans “Hitch”. Malgré une peau parfois un peu luisante au niveau du visage (enfin, c’est que mon avis), Eva Mendès fait partie de ces actrices qui se retrouvent régulièrement dans les top 100 des plus belles meufs du monde, et avouons que c’est bien justifié.

Alors histoire de perpétrer sa légende personnelle, l’actrice d’origine cubaine a décidé de poser devant l’objectif d’Ellen Von Unwerth, photographe culte spécialisée dans le charme artistique (quel beau métier), pour un photoshoot dénudé dont on ne sait pas où il s’est déroulé, ni pour quel magazine il a été réalisé. C’est peut être juste pour se faire un kiff et avoir de belles photos à poster sur son Twitter.

Via

Plus de photos d’Eva Mendes si vous pensez que ça vaut le coup de

An exquisite romantic drama from burgeoning master craftsman James Gray.

James Gray’s Two Lovers opens, as his previous We Own The Night began, with a succinct visual metaphor of what’s to come. Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix), a deeply troubled young man draped in heavy winter clothes, throws himself off a pier into an icy body of water. Pulled to safety by passers-by who witnessed his plunge, he remains dumbstruck, unable to express gratitude for their efforts on his behalf. Those themes of hopes rejected and self-destruction stalled form the backbone of its searing character study and help establish the film as one of the year’s best so far.

Skittish and sorrowful, Leonard’s on shaky ground both in his head and in his life. Diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and quietly devastated by an engagement ended with ruthless logic by his lover’s family, he’s returned to the Brighton Beach home of his parents (Moni Moshonov and Isabella Rossellini) with nothing more ambitious in mind than working for their dry cleaning business and keeping to himself. The Kraditors are moving ahead, however, on the verge of merging their business with that of the prosperous Cohen family. As a way of cementing the union, they wouldn’t mind if Leonard struck up a romance with the Cohen’s smart, sensitive daughter Sandra (Vinessa Shaw).

Leonard and Sandra’s early flirtation is tentative, halting, almost childlike, and you get the sense that such gentle charm is about all Leonard can manage. That changes, however, once he meets his upstairs neighbor Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), a charming but needy young woman who’s come to live in their fortress-like Brooklyn apartment house as a kind of voluntary exile rendered by her boss/lover Ronald Blatt (Elias Koteas). Leonard is instantly transfixed by Michelle, a beauty in the most painfully Daisy Buchanan-esque sense, the kind that’s always promising, in an elusive way, something great in return for love and devotion. Leonard pursues her to the best of his ability but finds his attentions first gently ignored and then rebuked. Disappointed, he pulls Sandra further into his orbit, settling into a comfortable relationship with her until the opportunity to win Michelle rears its head again.

Gray co-wrote the script (with Ric Minello) based on the Fyodor Dostoevsky novella “White Nights,” and that author’s thoroughly downbeat worldview is well-suited to Gray’s visual vocabulary, which interprets Brooklyn and Manhattan alike as vast mazes of dreary buildings occasionally brought to ephemeral life by vivid splashes of light and color. Gray’s films are always romantic in tone if not in attitude, so that their characters are kept in almost chiaroscuro proportion to the urban megaliths surrounding them. That Two Lovers is set largely near the steely Atlantic during wintertime only heightens the sense of lifelessness surrounding the human drama. But unlike his earliest films (Little Odessa and The Yards) here Gray is getting more proficient at achieving a balance between the two contrasts. With Two Lovers the setting works in service to the characters, not the other way around.

Those characters, for their part, are played comfortably and without ostentation, though some cast members inhabit their roles more than others. Phoenix, his recent over-publicized eccentricities notwithstanding, gives Leonard a fragility that makes his vacillation between Michelle and Sandra not just believable but tightly suspenseful. The scenes in which Leonard attempts to fit in with Michelle’s group of clubbing friends is almost heart-rending to watch. Likewise Sandra’s futile attempt to convey her tenderness to Leonard, especially with a third-act gift that’s symbolic on probably a half-dozen different levels while simultaneously thumbnailing her character. Shaw is an underrated actress capable of showing great volume of emotion with the simplest of body movements, and here she takes a part that in lesser hands would have been irretrievably bland and makes a fleshed-out character worth liking – even loving, as we come to hope Leonard will.

Paltrow’s career has been dogged by skepticism for years, and in making Michelle both attractive and then repulsive she has in some ways the heaviest load to bear. By and large she succeeds, though in some scenes – as in her moments alone on the wind-swept rooftop with Phoenix – she seems to hold too much back; there’s a sense of a missing depth that might bring both characters into greater clarity. Of course that might be the fault of the script, but as everything else is planned and executed with clockwork precision such an oversight seems unlikely. Michelle is a woman who can’t get past her own selfishness to believe in anyone else’s sincerity. She’s a time bomb, one probably everyone but Leonard can recognize as such. Paltrow never quite lets that danger materialize.

Rossellini, regal and commanding even when talking on the phone, gives perhaps the film’s most poignant dialogue late in the film. Without spoiling anything, anybody who’s ever left home will recognize what she says as exactly the words you want to hear upon departure. It also arrives just as the events of the story collapse in on themselves, making what’s still to come seem as bitter as the winter wind howling around Leonard as he returns to the waterfront. 

The ending is raw, uncompromising, and multi-faceted. Everyone – almost everyone – gets what they want, which in the finest Russian literary tradition only seems rife with the potential for more misery. Whether you approve or agree with Leonard’s final decision or not, you can’t argue with its logic or question its unconventional contrast to most Hollywood dramas. You’ll definitely have an opinion about it, though, one way or the other.

-Michael Kabel
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Quando eu assisti Vidas Amargas pela primeira vez (e por todas as revisões), eu senti, desde a primeira cena, uma sensação de que algo muito ruim se anunciava. Bastou o James Dean entrar em cena e eu fiquei suspenso, durante todo o filme, com a respiração alterada e a expectativa do pior que deveria chegar. Two Lovers me causou a mesma sensação de suspensão, de uma tragédia que só esperava um espaço para se instalar.

Na narrativa de pouco menos de duas horas que James Gray envereda, acompanhamos a vida (sim, é um resumo de uma vida) de Leonard, interpretado com um brilhantismo alucinante por Joaquim Phoenix, que disse ser esta sua última atuação (fez bem, nunca mais faria nada superior), um rapaz que depende de remédios para controlar sua depressão, que voltou a viver com os pais após ter sido abandonado pela ex-noiva, que pensa na morte durante todo o tempo de sua quase vida. Os pais de Leonard querem que ele se envolva com Sandra, filha de um possível futuro sócio do pai, no ramo das lavanderias a seco (a vida é tão distante que nada ali se molha, a não ser Leonard, desde a sufocante primeira cena do filme). Leonard não se opõe a vontade dos pais e aceita conhecer Sandra, mostrando sua consideração pela família (tema principal da filmografia de Gray).

No meio do caminho, Michelle surge, a vizinha “problemática” de Leonard. No meio do caminho, surge o amor. No meio do amor, surge um triângulo, um losângo, um absurdo geométrico de instabilidade sentimental, de impossível definição e cálculo. Não bastasse o filme ser um dos grandes estudos de personagem já feitos, não bastasse a atuação antológica de Joaquim Phoenix, não bastasse as excepcionais interpretações de Isabella Rossellini, Gwyneth Paltrow e Vinessa Shaw, não bastasse todos os planos serem de um deslumbre estético de posicionamento, tempo, perspectiva, não bastasse ser uma aula de cinema, Two Lovers é ainda das histórias mais perfeitas e tristes já relatadas no cinema moderno. E no final disso tudo, a tragédia de “serem felizes para sempre”.

4/4

Thiago Macêdo Correia

ou: Amantes (James Gray, 2008) – Silvio Tavares – 4/4

Many angles on this topic. Here’s one that may get you thinking. There will be a discussion after class.

Entertainment

I give you the ink

And here’s the proof.

Comedies, spoof

Mockumentaries,

Thriller stinging

Story lines, character

Breaking points,

Climatic orchestra

Score in the backdrop

On the stage of

Hip hop, pop,

Endless lists of

Must see NBC’s,

Antenna’s steaming

The streaming of

Zenith proportions

Actors distortions to

Imitate the lethal

Weapons of star

Dazzling amazement.

Good verse bad

Has been had

Corruption growing

Exceedingly, excessively,

Spreading like vines splitting

Poisonous vile, these red

And blue lines of pride and glory,

These painful miseries

That paint cinema reality.

We’re all dying to see

It come to DVD.

We’re chomping at the bit

To get it to fit our schedule,

Our four way time table,

Planner, organizer, label

Under garbage, hide it

In multitudes of boxes

in the garage.

Movies about proving who’s

The better man, who will deep

Down do what’s right,

Who own the night,

Loose sight of common

Sense, murder intense

Scenes, heroes chasing

Dreams, these all seem

To flow succinctly

With each other.

There’s no more grey lines,

The rapper delights,

Hackneyed, trite, overtly right

Are the common themes that

Dress the shelves of Blockbuster

And the Red Box return—day after.

Sow seeds, ABC soil, pray to

Almighty that it buries beneath

The path, stores up wrath says He,

Heed My word, eat it, absorb

It like a spunge cleaning out

The sink, we think and think

But still don’t let go of the bullets

That stun, that kill, that keep

Reality surreal

The night is gone and the Day

Soon to appear. We listen,

We watch and We all will

Hear the explosive uprising

Of Christ the thing,

Somewhere between this

Momentary entertainment

And the Second Advent,

I search with my eyes til

They fade into the dark,

Til I can breath and see

Light.

God, you are entertainment,

You are in and to and through,

Wrapped around our weeds in

The concrete world, wielding the

Sword, splitting the atom, The Day

Is surely coming, don’t let it be for You,

I wish I would’ve, could’ve, should’ve,

Keep the cards, throw in the chips,

Empty your wallet, make Him

Your best bet, be aware of

Mindless murderous entertainment.

  1. A Man Apart  

2. The Bank Job

   3. Entangled พยัคฆ์ดุกระสุนเดือด

  4. We own the night เฉือนคมคนพันธ์โหด

5. BulletproofMonk  คัมภีร์หยุดกระสุน 

     6. DOOMSDAY

  7. The rising sun

  8.  Chain Reaction

  9. Training Day

 10. The fugitive

Links and recaps of our favorite and most popular posts.

Pictured: WordPress

WordPress, benevolent deity that it is, lets its bloggers monitor lots of features about their blogs, including their most popular blog entries. Lately we’ve been getting a lot more traffic than we used to, especially for some of our comic-book related articles. We can’t say that’s especially surprising – character speculation is often the bulk of the fun surrounding a comic book film. A few others are getting noticed around the Intertubes, too, and that’s also great with us.

These are our most popular and also some we think deserve more recognition so, please, pay attention. Presented in no particular order of importance:

1. Since we’re supposed to be an “online journal of dissent,” we should mention some reviews in which we diverge from popular critical response. We bashed Revolutionary Road for the overreaching mess that it was and loathed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as a formless and largely pointless chick flick in epic film clothing. On the other hand, we liked The X-Files: I Want To Believe and continue to champion the work of writer-director James Gray.

2. We featured seven lesser known comic book adaptations last October. That post includes video of each goofy, inspired, or goofily inspired effort, some of which are cringe-inducing and some are charming in their own weird way. Trust us when we say that until you’ve seen Dr. Strange’s afro in his clip, you can’t truly appreciate the 1970s. We also have David Hasselhoff playing a part recently done by Samuel L. Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal as an ersatz Superman. And if that’s not quality blogging, what truly is?

3. For that matter, our piece in which we give Hollywood a plot, suggest a director, and even cast The Flash’s jump to the big screen is getting a lot of traffic the last couple of weeks. We’re glad for that, since we were  up many a night getting each casting choice just right. And while we’re hijacking story meetings, our picks for ten villains for the third Batman movie has also met with a pretty great response.

4. We did a post about why most films set in and around the Civil War absolutely suck. It’s not our most popular piece, but it’s been getting some attention lately and we’re glad for that. Including it here is a bald attempt to keep that going. Seriously, of all film genres and all of America’s wars, the Civil War seems to get the shortest shrift when it comes time to make a film, despite big budgets and big stars willing to tackle the material. Oh wait, that’s actually sometimes part of the problem.

5. One of the fringe benefits to thinking about movies all… the… damn… time is that you start to remember smaller or less-remembered films that you want to share with friends or, for that matter, anyone who comes to your blog looking for pictures of Hellboy or Leo DiCaprio. (Lots of people do.) Our list of five movies that deserve a DVD release was an effort to get at least a handful of those kinds of movies a little more attention. Last summer’s make Your Own Film Noir box set collection was another. We even made a list of movies for the holidays.

If this if your first visit to the blog, thanks for checking us out. If you’re an old fan, thank you very much and sorry for the delays we sometimes can’t manage to climb over. In either case, please watch more movies. That’s what we plan to do.

- Michael Kabel
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Crime auteur James Gray shifts gears with new romantic drama.

Having previously worked exclusively in the New York crime film sub-genre, writer-director James Gray shifts creative gears with the new ensemble romantic drama Two Lovers. If that sounds like an unusual change of course, fans of his previous films – Little Odessa, The Yards, 2006’s under-appreciated We Own The Night- will recognize the budding auteur’s trademark color palette and visual vocabulary right away in the trailer below. And of course there’s also the presence of Joaquin Phoenix, Gray’s designated leading man.

Two Lovers, loosely based on among other sources the Dostoevsky novella “White Nights,” also reveals a growing ambition for the upstart filmmaker, as it’s potentially the most emotionally complex work of his career. Leonard Kraditor (Phoenix) returns to his Brooklyn home after getting diagnosed with bipolar disorder. His parents (Isabella Rossellini and Moni Monoshov) are preparing to sell their dry cleaning business to their neighbors the Cohens, and suggest to that end that Leonard begin a courtship with the family’s daughter (Vinessa Shaw). That budding romance, built on tenderness and compassion, is set against Leonard’s rising passion for his energetic neighbor Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), the kept woman of a businessman (Elias Koteas) who misuses her affections. Obviously, much of the dramatic tension turns on Leonard’s choice of women.

Gray’s films often frustrate film goers and critics alike. His bleak visual style, in which endless shades of grays, browns, and blacks surround the characters and only sometimes reveal bursts of color, is admittedly something of an acquired taste. His actors, Phoenix especially, give low-key performances, and combined with the dreary settings his films’ end results are routinely dismissed as leaden or ponderous. Nevertheless, his confidence and his proficiency in conveying emotional complexity have grown by leaps and bounds with each film, and there is a distinct, if not exactly welcoming, narrative voice taking shape throughout. Gray is primarily interested in the unspoken distance between his characters, and a recurring theme in his work suggests that freedom of choice is often only illusory because circumstances (like the monolithic cityscapes surrounding them) confine them past the point of any real hope of action. 

All of which makes him an apt fit to bring anything by famously miserable Russian literature patriarch Dostoevsky to the screen. Gray’s also assembled his best cast yet to tackle the material. Phoenix has grown impressively as an actor throughout his career (His best performance to date, not coincidentally, was in We Own The Night.) Paltrow has labored for years in projects unworthy of her screen presence, while Rossellini and Koteas improve any film in which they participate. Shaw was memorable in her brief turn in 2007’s 3:10 To Yuma; a standout performance could likely present a breakout.

Finally, depending on the accuracy of some reports Phoenix is quitting acting, part of a larger ongoing story that actually doesn’t merit elaboration. But some early reviews point to his turn here becoming a perfect career coda if those rumors are true. Two Lovers opens in limited release this Friday.

-Michael Kabel

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Ook dit jaar al belachelijk veel voor de buis gehangen eigenlijk:

• 1 Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death (****): opnieuw een rollercoaster van een half uur, met hopen visuele gags, geweldige animatie en boosaardige serial killer die het gemunt heeft op… bakkers.
• 2 The Trials Of Darryl Hunt (****): documentaire uit 2005 over Darryl Hunt, een neger/zwarte/Afro-Amerikaan* die op 19-jarige leeftijd opgesloten werd voor een verkrachting/moord die hij niet beging en bijna twintig jaar laten pas vrijkwam. De film is een verbijsterend voorbeeld van hoe gerechtigheid’ volledig bepaald kan worden door willekeur, racisme, ongegronde vermoedens en vooringenomenheid. Toen na tien jaar vastgesteld kon worden dat de spermastalen onmogelijk van Hunt hadden kunnen zijn, werd niet een beslist om het proces over te doen. Pas toen er, bijna twintig jaar na de feiten, een nieuwe bekentenis was, zou de vrijlating van de man in versnelling komen. Wat vooral bijblijft: de onvoorwaardelijke steun die Hunt jarenlang kreeg van diverse organisaties en vooral de vergevingsgezindheid van de man. In dergelijke situatie zou ik die gevangenis vast verlaten hebben als een op wraak beluste maniak.
• 3 Wall-E (***1/2). Voor velen dé film van 2008. En het moet gezegd: de film heeft prachtige momenten. De eerste 20-30 minuten zijn nu al klassieke animatie. Opmerkelijk hoe ze er in geslaagd zijn om een onnozel robotje zo veel empathie te doen opwekken. Vanaf dan komt de film echter in een stroomversnelling, moet de boodschap en toekomstwaarschuwing in hoofdletters verkondigd worden en halverwege de film begint deze te bieden wat verwacht wordt; lawaai, actie, conventies. Ook daar zit de waarde van de film ‘m vaak in de details en slimme humor, maar het neutraliseert enigszins de impact van dat vrij gezapige, maar heel indrukwekkende begin.
• 4 The Terminal (**1/2): bij het opmaken van m’n Spielberg-Top onlangs, bleek dat ik deze nog niet had gezien. Daar is nu verandering in gekomen, al weet ik niet of ik mezelf daar gelukkig om moet prijzen. The Terminal is immers een zwakke film voor een regisseur van dit kaliber, en een film die te lang blijft aanmodderen om echt in impact te hebben. Nochtans is Tom Hanks prima als in de luchthaven gestrande Oost-Europeaan met een missie. Zijn tics, wat vreemde gedrag en aangedikt accent zijn karikaturaal én geloofwaardig, wat het des te spijtiger maakt dat het scenario niet wat bondiger en spitser was. Catherine Zeta-Jones had ook meer in beeld mogen komen.
• 5 Shoot ‘Em Up (***1/2). Wie houdt van compleet over the top, karikaturaal geweld, ergens tussen Sin City, The Matrix en Planet Terror, die heeft aan deze film ene vette kluif. De film is immers nog geen dertig seconden bezig en je krijgt al een schietfestijn gepresenteerd waarbij horen en zien vergaat. Clive Owen heeft de perfecte I-don’t-give-a-fuck-smoel, Paul Giamatti is uitstekend als bad-ass pyscho en het tempo blijft constant in het rood steken. Van karakteruitdieping, geloofwaardigheid of enige diepgang is geen sprake, maar daar mikt dit ook niet op. Als testosterononzin benadert dit de vijf sterren.
• 6 Southern Comfort (****). Bescheiden meesterwerkje van Walter Hill, die zijn winning streak van The Warriors en The Long Riders nog even voortzet (en dat ook na deze film zou doen met 48 Hours). Zoals dat hoort bij Hill is dit ook een film voor venten over venten. Venten in een crisissituatie. Een groepje soldaten van de nationale garde gaat op trainingsweekend naar de moerassen van Louisiana en krijgt het al snel aan de stok met enkele locals die niet met zich laten zeiken. Het gevolg is een jachtpartij waarbij jager de opgejaagde wordt. Southern Comfort maakt bijzonder goed gebruik van sfeer en setting (je zakt als het ware mee tot je knieën in het vuile moeraswater) en kan teren op prima een stel prima acteurs (o.m. Keith Carradine en Powers Boothe). Voor een heel stuk bewandelt de film de lijn tussen Deliverance en First Blood, maar het is de met cajun-muziek opgezweepte finale die een gewéldig hoogtepunt vormt.
• 7 We Own The Night (***1/2). James Gray is gespecialiseerd in films als deze: prenten over loyaliteit in moeilijke situaties. De film is voorspelbaar, ouderwets en zelfs door Gray al eens gemaakt (zie: Little Odessa), maar met volk als Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Duvall en Mark Wahlberg zit je doorgaans wel goed. En ik ben ook benieuwd naar zijn Two Lovers, die de moeite zou zijn.
• 8 Ascenseur pour l’echafaud (****1/2). Klassieker van Louis Malle die nog steeds het bekijken waar is. De plot heeft een vrij hoog Hitchcock-gehalte, bevat talloze mooie beelden, uitstekend acteerwerk (vooral van Jeanne Moureau) en wordt gedreven door de legendarische soundtrack van Miles Davis die met ene internationale line-up zorgde voor een van de klassieke jazz-soundtracks van de 50s.
• 9 The Ipcress File (***1/2). Michael Caine (DE Michael Caine) als snotneus in een variatie op de Bond-films. Door en door Brits, met een wat vergezochte plot, maar wel het bekijken waard.
• 10 Pars Vite et Reviens Tard (***). Degelijke moderne Franse politiethriller met een onderhoudend doomsday-scenario. In het moderne Parijs wordt de terugkeer van de pest aangekondigd door een halvegare die goed vertrouwd is met middeleeuwse geschriften, etc.
• 11 Mindhunters (**). Serial killer thrillertje. Begon vrij veelbelovend – zet een aantal profilers-in-opleiding op een eiland en zorg ervoor dan een van hen eeen psychopaat is – maar zoals steeds begon het halverwege te stokken, haperen en sputteren. En LL Cool J is een verschrikkelijk acteur.

• Intussen aan ‘t kijken naar de HBO comedy van Flight Of The Conchords en het eerste seizoen van Mad Men. Shitty, it ain’t.

NP: Minutemen – The Punch Line

* schrappen wat minst correct is

I was quite determined to watch two movies last Sunday.  There’s been a drought of good movies recently and I was beginning to feel bored and wanted to prove otherwise that there must be some nice ones showing this week.  So I chose to feed my senses with We Own the Night and Lust Caution.  Starting off with We Own the Night that stars Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix, one thing I learned all these years is that you can almost tell the ending of a motion picture by its title, as with this movie.  Jaoquin is so far off from the little boy I used to remember, he is a good actor and I can tell he has a bright future ahead of him.  You might be surprised with Mark’s role though.  I am so used to seeing him play the lead as a though guy, but not in this movie.  He also looked less bulky compared to his last movie The Shooter.  Nevertheless both of these actors together with Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes stars in this highly engrossing film that will not disappoint moviegoers looking for some weekend entertainment.

Joseph Grusinsky: Remember. It’s better to be judged by twelve people, than carried by six.

* Mark Whalberg e Joaquin Phoenix no filme We own the night/Nós controlamos a noite (2007)

La noche es nuestra (James Gray, 2007)

Una de las más importantes constantes del cine policíaco (de gángsters, de mafias, etc.) americano es el peso de la familia, la importancia que ésta tiene por encima del individuo. El mejor y por todos más conocido ejemplo de esta característica es la trilogía iniciada con El Padrino (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972), donde Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) se veía arrastrado a tomar las riendas de una de las familias mafiosas más importantes de Nueva York cuando se había jurado a sí mismo que él no era como su padre o sus hermanos. La familia, entendida como núcleo humano de la sociedad y como asociación criminal, antes que nada. La frontera entre la familia real y la criminal se diluía finalmente para Michael Corleone, y en eso estaba su verdadera tragedia: ya no sólo se trataba de proteger a los de su sangre, sino también a un enorme mastodonte económico. Martin Scorsese individualizó a la mafia gracias al espíritu profundamente americano (los Corleone son de origen siciliano)  inoculado en éstas en films como Uno de los nuestros (1991) o la reciente Infiltrados (2006). James Gray se une con La noche es nuestra a esa tradición tan propia del cine americano en la que un individuo se enfrenta a la decisión de sacrificarse en pro de la causa familiar, sea esta de naturaleza benigna o maligna. La película ofrece una revisión de la pugna de Michael Corleone, pues en este caso el individuo se sitúa inicialmente en el bando delictivo, aunque de forma indirecta, y es su familia de policías (su padre y su hermano) los que le reclaman su colaboración para desmantelar una red de narcotráfico. Gray adopta una postura más cercana a Coppola que a Scorsese; es decir, el tono es más épico y contenido que callejero y directo, una cierta grandilocuencia de época en la puesta en escena (pausada, reflexiva, sinuosa, temporalmente dilatada…) que desprende la trascendencia propia de la gran tragedia humana resultante del enfrentamiento invisible entre dos familias que son a la vez dos modelos, más que de vida, de moral.

La sangre llama a la sangre

El dicho superior es quizá un buen resumen de La noche es nuestra, pues las dos interpretaciones de la frase le vienen como anillo al dedo a la película. Bobby Green (un magnífico Joaquin Phoenix que, a medida que avanza el relato, cada vez parece más un espejo a punto romperse) es hijo del jefe de policía Albert Grusinsky (un firme Robert Duvall) y hermano del capitán de policía Joe Grusinsky (Mark Whalberg), pero su decisión es la de romper con la tradición familiar y se dedica a regentar un famoso club neoyorkino propiedad de un importante mafioso ruso traficante de drogas (Buzhayev). Bobby vive al margen del delito y no se mete en problemas, y no tiene conocimiento real de que su jefe sea un criminal, pese a saber que la droga corre por el lugar. Evita utilizar su apellido real para que no le relacionen con la policía, algo que también beneficia a su familia. Pero todo da un giro cuando, tras detener al sobrino de Buzhayev, Joe es tiroteado y casi muere. En ese momento, Bobby debe tomar una decisión: ayudar a su familia, con todo el peligro que eso conlleva, o seguir con su estilo de vida, hedonista y despreocupado, que en absoluto le disgusta. “La sangre llama a la sangre”: el ataque a Joe, el derramamiento de sangre, hace que Bobby se decida por sacrificarse en favor de los de su sangre. Y ahí es donde La noche es nuestra muestra todo su potencial y su propia tragedia, bastante alejada de la de Michael Corleone: Bobby también se sacrifica por los suyos, y su causa, si bien no es atractiva, sí es noble; pero esa causa, lejos de reportarle algún beneficio, se convierte en una maldición que no le llevará a la felicidad, que no hará que todo acabe bien, que derramará más sangre durante su transcurso. Y así, Bobby Green se unirá a una cierta tendencia que viene caracterizando a algunos de los personajes de las películas de este 2008: la de los ’sacrificados’, aquellos personajes que son capaces de aniquilar sus identidades y renunciar a sí mismos para renacer como valedores de una moral basada en la preservación de una civilización, la occidental, claramente en crisis y al borde del colapso. Junto a Bobby Green encontramos a los últimos Batman y James Bond o a la Christine Collins de El intercambio (Clint Eastwood, 2008), que comentaré próximamente. Volviendo a La noche es nuestra, esta concepción de Bobby como ’sacrificado’ se ve reforzada por el hecho que, finalmente, por la causa de la familia, él reemplaza a su propio hermano como valedor legal de esa moral sabiendo que no por ello será más feliz.

Las dos caras de la familia

La noche es nuestra también es interesante por cómo realiza un análisis de la família como microcosmos social e impulsor de una determinada moral y los medios para defender esa conducta. Las dos familias que encontramos en el film de James Gray son la de los Grusinsky (los policías) y la de los Buzhayev (los mafiosos). Los Grusinsky tienen una larga tradición como agentes de la ley, y sus celebraciones son sanas fiestas en la parroquia del barrio o comidas familiares; Albert Grusinsky, el patriarca (Duvall), ha inculcado a los suyos la disciplina como un pilar básico en la vida de todo buen hombre, y el sacrificio, el trabajo duro o la aceptación de la posibilidad de que no todo salga según lo previsto son factores con los que su familia debe convivir día a día. Es un hombre firme, que quiere y protege a los suyos tanto como les exige (más aún cuando necesita a Bobby), que es capaz de darlo todo por su familia; esto es, en el fondo, por su moral. En el otro lado encontramos a los Buzhayev, que aparecen mucho menos como conjunto pero que sin duda que entrocan directamente con el concepto de familia mafiosa siciliana (cinematográficamente, con los Corleone) en la que, recordemos, la frontera entre la familia real y la criminal se confundía (en La noche es nuestra, el sobrino de Buzhayev es quien provoca la investigación por parte de la policía). Así, en el fondo los Grusinsky y los Buzhayev defienden dos morales opuestas pero basadas en lo mismo: la familia como necesidad y prioridad absoluta. En el primer caso esa familia es la base de la sociedad y también aquello necesario para preservar el orden establecido y, por decirlo de algún modo, correcto (son policías); además, en tanto que base social, también debe ser preservada (de ahí el papel de Bobby, que sólo cambia su parecer cuando atacan a su familia). Por contra, los Buzhayev poseen un proceder mucho más endogámico o, para simplificarlo, egoísta: la propia familia, la sangre, es lo más importante, y si ésta está bien no hay nada más de lo que preocuparse. La moral recta y la moral relajada, y sin embargo ambas basadas en la defensa a toda costa de la familia, quizá lo único que a absolutamente todos los seres humanos nos horroriza perder.

I’m a huge fan of books, movies, and music.

Hint, Hint, think gift cards.

Below are my favorites of the year:

Books:

1. “Leading with a Limp”  (Dan Allender)
2. “Humility”  (C.J. Mahaney)
3. “It”  (Craig Groeschel)
4. “Sex, Romance & the Glory of God”  (C.J. Mahaney)
5. “Under the Unpredictable Plant”  (Eugene Peterson)
6. “The Emotionally Healthy Church”  (Pete Scazzero)
7. “Jesus Wants to Save Christians”  (Rob Bell & Don Golden)
8. “The New Christians”  (Tony Jones)

Movies:

1. Dark Knight
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Valkyrie
4. We Own the Night
5. Vantage Point
6. 3:10 to Yuma
7. Get Smart
8. Traitor
9. The Golden Compass
10. Juno

Music:

1. “Viva la Vida” (Coldplay)
2. “New Surrender”  (Anberlin)
3. “Dial M”  (Starflyer 59)
4. “A Hundred Million Stars”  (Snow Patrol)
5. “Appeal to Reason”  (Rise Against)
6. “Dark Horse”  (Nickelback)
7. “Human”  (The Killers)
8. “Sleep Through the Static”  (Jack Johnson)

What did I miss? What were your favorites of 2008?