Looking Through the Bent Backed Tulips

I'm not going to look for themes every time I write my little list, but after spending a good deal of my time this last week reading up on earthquake relief in Haiti it's easy to see, more than usual, the huge gap between the rich and the poor. In light of all that horror it's a quaint coincidence and also fitting that some of my favorite movies of the last week are about how the other half lives.

1/11 Grey Gardens (1975) Netflix Watch Instantly, 3/5 stars, RT: 100%

Documentaries become dated. I have to judge this one a little harshly because of personal experience. I don't know much about the Beales, the crazy and self-sure cousins of Jackie Onassis, but Grey Gardens' main success was in showing me just how crazy they were. Okay. I'll be real here for a second and explain my subjectiveness. I've spent more time than I'd normally like to admit looking at the worst that the internet has to offer. Social deviants and unconventional lifestyles have to be pretty insane to get past my perverse inoculation if they want to actually startle me. Grey Gardens can't be faulted for this, but it at least explains why I wasn't fully engaged with the work. I'll be clear and fair once more on this point: the Beales are totally nuts, but it's pretty tame. After about eighty minutes I was more interested in the process of the film making than the subjects being presented. The editing of the scenes and the natural camera work I especially enjoyed. I'd still like to see the HBO dramatic adaptation staring Drew Berrymore and Jessica Lange that came out last year.

1/11 City of Men (2007) DVD, 5/5 stars, RT: 75%

I watched this out of order. It's a case of my slight OCD nature battling with itself. I won't bore you with the complete story, but I'll place final blame on Netflix's dubbed stream. Fun fact about me: I can't stand dubs. Despite all that noise I loved this movie. City of Men's real impetus for existing is to catch up with the characters from the Brazilian TV series of the same name (which I've not yet seen), but really traces back to City of God. God completely hit me over the head when I saw it many years ago. It might have been the first truly grim modern film that I had seen. It's a comment on my own tastes and the zeitgeist as a whole that the last decade has seen a lot of critically acclaimed poverty/crime fetish movies and series that I've loved (Slumdog Millionaire, The Wire). I'm not sure that's an inherently good or bad thing. In this case I think the judgement lies with the people of Rio de Janerio. I can't speak for them (or for Mumbai, or for Baltimore, to reuse my previous examples). It's a failure on my part here because I can't nail down any real reason why this is the case, but Men was more uplifting to me than God. It's to the film's credit that I really want to go back and watch the TV series, yet I think I could go without seeing City of God again. Crazy.

1/13 Passing Strange (2009) DVD, 4/5 stars, RT: 100%

Shameful. Shameful that I've only just recently discovered my love for musicals. They've never really been anywhere out of sight, so I have no excuse. Passing Strange is unique from the other musicals I've seen recently because it's the actual filmed final performance of the Broadway play. Rather than getting Hollywood actors, multi-take production, and lip-synced performances you can see the pure product. This probably sounds dull to anyone that turns their nose up at musicals of all forms, but hear me out real quick. This is a rock opera. Okay, I'm losing you again. It's an effin' rock and roll semi-autobiographical story about a young black musician from the 1970's discovering (and losing) himself in Amsterdam and Berlin. I feel bad because that's a terribly oversimplified synopsis. I don't want to oversell this. The final act is blunt and the first half of it is just more of the same from the previous act. If you think you might like musicals but don't know where to start, you can't go wrong with something modern like this. I want to see a lot more. One of my resolutions this year is to see more live plays, in general.

1/14 Departures (2008) DVD, 5/5 stars, RT: 81%

The Golden Globes are on tonight and it's reminded me of the simple, heartwarming speech that Yōjirō Takita gave when this won Best Foreign Film at last year's Oscars. The movie is pretty simple and heartwarming itself. Daigo, an average cellist, is forced to move back home after his orchestra in Tokyo is dissolved. He applies for a job that requires no previous work experience: preparing the bodies of the recently departed (the help-wanted ad has a typo that mentions departures, leading Daigo to think it's a travel agency). The setting and specific traditions are novel for American audiences, which gets it free points. Departures is completely predictable and full of archetype characters, yet it also plays with that and surprises you. Without giving much away, I'll say that there's actual arcs to the side characters that you don't totally expect. I'll end here with a simple, stereotypical rule that's yet to fail me: French people and movies make me feel melancholic and affectionate, Russian hurt my head, and Japanese consistently just make me happy.

1/17 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) Malco Paradiso Theater, 4/5 stars, RT: 66%

In a totally unoriginal move, most of what I'm going to say up front about this movie is about Heath Ledger. He's not really the main character of this movie. I can't really tell you who is. There's a lot of layered messages here about chance and coincidence versus choice and fate. You can't escape the connection between Ledger's real life death and the plot of this movie unless you're watching this thirty years from now and don't know the history of the production. I got most of my surface enjoyment of this movie from that association and I feel slightly profane for that. Tom Waits was marvelous as the Mr. Nick/Satan/whatever. At the end of the movie I got the impression that all his tricks and "evil" actions were more to preserve balance and provide a helpful service. I liked that aspect of the story a lot more than the mechanics of the magic mirror that were the crux of the plot. This unexpected subtext entertained me more than my preconceived perception of what the story was about. From what I've seen of Terry Gilliam (this and Twelve Monkeys) his movies are unique and complex. It bothers me slightly that the films leave you with little to focus on, but they offer up myriad minute moments that please. I am very glad that he is a film maker, as Gilliam is the most literary of any of the big auteurs that I'm familiar with.

I made it to the movie theater this week. It's been about a month since the last time I had a chance. I've been more frugal with my money lately and with Netflix and fairly good home set-up I can afford to wait. But I'm very glad that I went.

I'm not going to apologize for the lack of big name movies this week. If I started that habit now it would become one I'd have to repeat each week. Lastly for now, I've decided to make this a Sunday event. It makes the most sense with my current schedule. See y'all next time!