celluloidnotes

PICK OF THE WEEK:
Duplicity
dir. Tony Gilroy
Starring: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen

Going a little mainstream on the pick of the week, and putting some blind faith in tony Gilroy’s ability to deliver in his second directorial adventure. It’s another spy thriller, which is hopefully as surprising as his great Michael Clayton. Like every other spy thriller this year it stars Clive Owen. Meh, I’m going with it.

Knowing
dir. Alex Proyas
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne

Remember when Nicolas Cage used to do films that were at least mildly interesting, I don’t anymore. This film is about Cage’s family and their son who discovers an artifact that predicts natural disasters. Sounds like a snooze-fest that you surely be on next week’s top ten list.

Sin Nombre [limited]
dir. Cary Fukunaga
Stars: Paulina Gaitan

Sin Nombre was second in the running for this weeks PICK OF THE WEEK. It’s a story of two teenagers from Honduras who hop aboard a freight train bound for America. Both are running from their past. The trailer is very enticing.

I Love You, Man
dir. John Hamburg
Stars: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones

Next up from the Apatow factory: I Love You, Man. All of the promo has given very little away about this film, or there is really no plot. Expect a funny first act, a mildly funny second act - with lots of zaniness, and a third act where morality surfaces and everyone learns a little something about themselves.

Lesbian Vampire Killers
dir. Phil Claydon
Starring: James Corden, MyAnna Buring

I don’t know what to say. Only AWESOME comes to mind. (Kind of looks like an Edgar Wright film, no?)

The Great Buck Howard
dir. Sean McGinly
Starring: John Malkovich, Colin Hanks

This honestly looks like it could be a great film, or another semi-boring idea that got watered down by focus groups. Great guest stars (Conan O’Brian, Martha Stewart, Tom Hanks), and Malkovich is always great (we think).

Super Capers
dir. Ray Griggs
Stars: Justin Whalin, Ray Griggs, Danielle Harris

Not sure about this. It almost sounds like it should be thrown in with the Scary Movie lot, but who knows. I’ve got no faith in this and the early signs seem to say I’m right.

Last Week’s Top Ten:
1. Race to Witch Mountain
2. Watchmen
3. Last House on the Left
4. Taken
5. Madea Goes to Jail
6. Slumdog Millionaire
7. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
8. He’s Just Not That Into You
9. Coraline
10. Miss March

New review up over at Tiny Mix Tapes of Carlos Reygada’s brilliant Silent Light.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the introduction:

From the first frame, Silent Light wraps you in its warm, naturalistic cinematography. The opening 10 minutes, marked by the profound blackness and the sound of crickets, typify the powerful, minimal mise en scène of director Carlos Reygadas. Stars slowly surface through the darkness as the camera pans the sky, settling on the horizon as the sun begins to rise behind two silhouetted trees. The soothing sounds of this lush plain begin to give way, turning the serene landscape into a tormented portrait of the natural world and ultimately of the characters within the film. Unseen cows begin to moo, and birds chirp frantically, lost in the shadowy trees. Slowly, the mooing begins to sound distressed. We wonder, is this what it sounds like when a cow screams? Yet the beauty of the shot lends an aura of inevitability to the scene. This is what the world looks and sounds like in the absence of humanity.

Thanks for reading, as always.

PICK OF THE WEEK:
Silent Light
dir. Carlos Reygadas
Starring: Cornelio Wall, Miriam Toews

Carlos Reygadas third feature, and second venture into his neo-neo-realism, is an absolutely brilliant film. It opens in New York this Friday, and is sure to continue to be ignored as it has been outside of Cannes and the Mexican Award ceremonies for the last couple of years. If you happen to be in New York I highly recommend catching this for it’s week long engagement at IFC, if you are not in New York keep an eye in about five years when it finally hits DVD.

Bride Wars
dir. Gary Winick
Starring: Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Candice Bergen

Zzzzzzzzz. And zzzzzz.

The Unborn
dir. David S. Goyer
Starring: Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet

The Unborn seems to be getting a lot of attention in the early throes of 2009, an odd situation two months deep into Oscar season. Gary Oldman makes this film semi-interesting, but early reports indicate that this isn’t anything to get too excited about.

Not Easily Broken
dir. Bill Duke
Starring: Morris Chestnut, Taraji P. Henson

When did the end of Oscar season start to get so boring? The age of the internet has been blamed over and over for the short attention spans of kids these days, I now solely blame Not Easily Broken, I had a whole string of random thoughts before I realized that I was still watching this trailer and then I quit watching it. Couldn’t take it.

LAST WEEK’S TOP TEN:
1. Marley & Me
2. Bedside Stories
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Valkyrie
5. Yes Man
6. Seven Pounds
7. The Tale of Despereaux
8. Doubt
9. The Day the Earth Stood Still
10. Slumdog Millionaire

For readers in the Minneapolis area:

If you are like me, you enjoy a good cup of coffee, a nice tumbler of whiskey, rain storms, and movies. Particularly movies that are not going to be found at your local Blockbuster. Also you probably enjoy all of these things at locally run businesses (damn those FOXNEWS sponsored thunderstorms…).

This isn’t just a random rant about something that pissed me off so stick with me here.

I frequented Cinema Revolution for many years - prior to moving away - it’s easily one of the best video stores (if not the best) in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and they are in trouble. The store is having some financial difficulties and I thought I’d throw something up in hopes that you value what John and Cinema Revolution do for the community as much as I do. The store is run by volunteers who support film screenings around town, host cinema discussion evenings, allow you to rent local filmmakers (often for free) and have a selection that no one else in town can compare to. So here’s a little bit of an e-mail John Koch (owner) sent out to some today, about why Cinema Revolution is important:

We believe that a local store run by live local people is something of value - a store that curates film as a gallery would curate any other form of art, a store that actively promotes film in the community, a store with a real, tangible personality. Cinema Revolution creates an artistic context for your DVD rental experience; we help guide you through innumerable choices, and celebrate films that otherwise are marginalized or ignored. We are active in the community as well. Through the nearly five years of our existence, we have shot a feature film using all local talent, we have held dozens of film screenings through Cinema des Artistes and our Film Society, commissioned new original short films from local artists, held weekly live film discussion groups, started a local record label, and have helped actively promote countless festivals, performances and screenings by local producers. It is a major part of our mission to connect, support and inspire our local artistic community. If you value what we do for the community, we ask you to please help us continue in these endeavors.

So, if you can donate a little bit to help them out, if you can’t do that, make an effort to rent some films from there, go to a screening hosted by Cinema Revolution, or participate in one of their weekly film discussions.

Here are the details sent out about how you can help out:

We are seeking to raise $5,000 by September 15th to help make our move to a new location a reality, as it cannot be done without this additional support. The suggested donation is $20 (and if 250 people can do this, we will make our goal), but please feel free to give at any level you can afford. With your collective help we can make this happen.

We are also seeking volunteers to help in this fundraising effort. If you are interested in helping out, contact john@cinemarevolution.com. We are also open to any suggestions or advice anyone may have to help us along.

In just the past two years we have lost legendary video stores Discount Video and Box Office Video. We have seen the Oak Street and Bell Auditorium film programs vanish, we have watched the entire film editorial staff at the City Pages lose their jobs, and Hollywood fare is now seeping into our beloved Lagoon Cinema. Please help keep an active, inspiring film culture alive in the Twin Cities and donate securely via PayPal today at www.cinemarevolution.com (Click on the link below).

Please note that if for any reason we do not achieve our financial goal, your generous donations will be refunded directly through PayPal. If we should raise more than our goal, the extra money will be applied to growing our movie collection to help fill our new space. Also be aware that we are not organized as a non-profit organization for tax purposes, so your donation is not tax deductible.

That’s all I’ve got, it’s well worth a little bit of your time or money to help keep filmmaking in the city alive. Adios.

(In honor of the end of this year’s Cannes Festival I thought I’d review last year’s co-winner - which still has yet to see a formal theatrical release in the US)

From the first frame Silent Light wraps you in warm, naturalistic cinematography. The opening ten minutes prepare the viewer for the type of intense mise-en-scene that the film will bring. The screen opens to blackness and the sound of crickets. Stars slowly trickle onto the screen as the camera pans the sky. The image settles on the horizon as the sun begins to rise behind two silhouetted trees. The natural sounds of this lush plain turn the serene landscape into a tormented portrait of the land, and ultimately of the characters within the film.

Cows begin to moo, and birds chirp frantically, all off screen. Suddenly the mooing begins to sound painful, as though the cows are screaming. The sound continues through the cut as you see the family in their kitchen heads bowed in prayer. They sit silently as the retching sound of the cows, the sereneness of the birds are crickets are joined by the incessant ticking of the clock on the wall. Johan (Cornelio Wall), the father of the family, raises his head after many minutes of silent prayer and says “Amen.” Thus begins Reygadas (Japon, Battle in Heaven) beautiful opus. A simplistic, yet incredibly nuanced meditation on redemption and family, reminiscent of Tarkovsky or the great family dramas of Bergman.

The story tracks the internal life of Johan, a married Mennonite man, with seven children. Johan has fallen in love with another woman, Marianne (Maria Pankratz), and is tormented because he believes that God wants him to be with Marianne, but he fears the consequences of leaving his wife, Esther (Miriam Toews), and children.

Reygadas worked for months in an attempt to get actual Mennonites from the Mexican community to play the roles in this film, continuing his tradition of using only non-actors. Traditionally Mennonites believe that a photographic reproduction of people is immoral. In the end he was able to use a cast entirely comprised of people from the Mennonite community and shot the film in their village.

With shots that last for up to ten minutes, unedited, the film takes it’s time throughout the nearly two and half hours of running time. The cinematography creates the perfect tone for the story. The tortoise paced tracking shots that define almost every scene often reveal more about the tormented nature of the characters than the dialogue ever does. The visual themes and tropes dominate the screen with their nuance, making the film an esoteric experience in cinematic art. A notion that Reygadas does not deny as he has frequently cited his belief that cinema should not be literature, or story, but something else, just cinema.

The result is a beautiful lyrical film. Reygadas best film to date. As usual he pulls engaging, heart-felt performances from these non-actors. Especially impressive is Wall who plays the enduringly confused Johan. There is an endearing subtlety in his ability to oscillate from the divided and simple man of the opening scene to the man who drives his pickup in circles around a friend while belting a Mexican love song out of his window. His great performance is part of what makes this film pull together into the gripping film that it is. Silent Light has more than earned every accolade heaped upon it, and Carlos Reygadas has again proved that he is a filmmaker to watch, while further separating himself from the rest of Mexican cinema.