Films such as Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, Altman’s The Player and Lynch’s Mulholland Drive are some of the most definitive movies in the “gritty inside Hollywood” canon; and really, the always interesting David Cronenberg’s latest work, Maps to the Stars (B-), doesn’t even belong in the same discussion with them. But as a bleak portrait of just how soulless and bizarre Tinseltown can be, it’s really quite a fascinating freakshow recommended only for those perversely fascinated with the underbelly of glamour and glitz. Julianne Moore plays washed-up actress “Havana Segrand,” whose character name alone gives you all the clues you need to know that the film will occasionally be over-the-top ridiculous. Moore plays against type and blurs every line between public life and intimacy as we see her in astonishing rawness playing a callow climber. She’s a touch point between several characters in a dysfunctional family including Mia Wasikowska as a whack-job returning to town after a mysterious absence, her child-actor turned rehab-teen brother played deliciously by Evan Bird and their dad (a miscast) John Cusack who is somewhere between psycho and therapist as a self-help guru. It’s a cautionary tale without answers and a puzzle box of an ensemble drama without an easy resolution. Shades of a less well thought out Magnolia hang over the multi-story proceedings like the story it could have been, with a pinch of Cronenberg’s own 1996 sex-in-car-wrecks drama Crash thrown into the stew, sending anyone without the patience for this type of thing running for the Hollywood hills, the exit door or the eject button. Still, despite its messiness, its baffling final act and its complete lack of mainstream appeal, it was an intriguing pulp curiosity and kept me fascinated throughout. Cronenberg invites his audiences to be the ultimate voyeurs, a notion repeated in his best work (History of Violence, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Eastern Promises, Videodrome – someone please give this guy an award already!) and even in his experiments (oddities such as Naked Lunch and eXistenZ). His Brundlefly mash-up with a Hollywood tell-all lends the film its sly signature. The movie is crude, tonally jumbled and often half-baked in comparison to his modern masterpieces, but it still plumbs magnificent depths. There’s no GPS system that will take you to where you’re gonna go here, but I liked the journey just fine.
Tag Archives: Dark comedy
“Birdman” is Style Over Substance
First things first, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s tragicomic backstage character drama Birdman (B) is often brilliantly bonkers, and Michael Keaton gives a command performance at the film’s core as a fading Hollywood film star trying to reinvent himself on Broadway while suffering an all-out mental breakdown. With long tracking shots through claustrophobic corridors, a percussive jazz score rat-tat-tatting through the spiraling series of devolving events and tidbits of comic book flourish and fantasy that would be at home in a Terry Gilliam film, this dark delving into the damaged psyche of a thespian on the brink of obscurity pounds its themes with a bit too much prescience. The film comes most alive in its moments of inspired mania that spring from real-life conflicts such as dealing with harsh critics and handling acting egos with kid gloves. Quite frankly, supporting performances by Ed Norton as an obnoxious actor in the on-stage drama and Emma Stone as Keaton’s real-life daughter steal the show a bit with audacious turns of their own. Stone gets a great soliloquy encapsulating the essence of modern-day relevance. The film is a brittle amalgam of too many themes boiling in one big pot; but its insider’s take on exorcising one’s demons, conquering the temptations of fame and reconciling the notions of love and admiration is likely to appeal to artists’ temperaments more than the mainstream. It’s a treat to see Keaton get to sink his teeth into such a flight-of-fancy performance, and both West Coast and East Coast entertainment industries get their share of skewering in this uneven but often shrewd satire.
Film Adaptation of Stage Show “Venus in Fur” Doesn’t Fully Convince
It is uncertain if the story takes place in a theatre, in a crypt or in a metaphor as an arrogant writer/director gets his comeuppance from an unexpected auditioning actress in director Roman Polanski’s French language movie Venus in Fur (B+). A superb Mathieu Amalric is pretty clearly channeling the controversial auteur himself; and Polanski’s real-life wife Emmanuelle Seigner is sensational as the titular seductress. The threadbare tinderbox of a plot could likely be described as a battle of the sexes as it dishes out delicious dialogue to each of its participants. A master of controlling tight quarters and portraying power play brinksmanship, the director challenges himself with a talky narrative nearly all set in one room; but he takes his characters on a visceral, intellectual and sometimes sexy journey that transports them completely. Clever lighting, pacing and wordplay render the proceedings more cagey than stagey, as if the characters from the Before Sunrise movies were having a mythological fever dream. It’s a late-career gem from one of film’s enduring provocateurs.
“Wolf of Wall Street” a Twisted Tale
Equal parts extraordinary and exhausting, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (B+) is a cynical cautionary tale wrapped in a fetching fantasia of decadent and grotesque true-life characters. Aside from the master director stunningly realizing his vision, Leonardo DiCaprio sinks his teeth into his role with grandeur. I don’t think the actor has ever been in such command of his craft, and it may be the greatest performance he has ever given. Somewhere in the second, third, maybe fourth act, however, the storytelling teeters a bit into true-crime formula. But there are so many devilish parts to relish. The film features the most seminal sequence involving stairs since Battleship Potemkin and some of the most darkly comic moments set to film involving addiction to drugs and dollars. No detail gets missed, from an ironic playing of “Mrs. Robinson” to fake get-rich-quick commercials. There are prolonged vignettes so good they needed to remain fully intact, but there are just too many of them. Scorsese wields a three-hour sledgehammer when subtler tools could have made a bigger statement. All in all, this is Leo’s tour de force and quite possibly the ultimate indictment of corporate corruption gone amuck.
“Inglorious Basterds” (2009) Finds Revisionist History in Wartime
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (B+) is an audacious piece of revisionist history that imagines what WWII might have been like if a couple of clever factions of bounty hunters, cinephiles and revenge seekers could have tried to kill Hitler at a movie screening. Leave it to Tarantino to take such a high-concept idea to such delicious detail and cast his film with such relish, especially with Christoph Waltz as a particularly menacing Nazi officer and Brad Pitt as a motormouthed mercenary. Some moments are uneven, but overall, this one hits the mark.
“Punch Drunk Love” is Director PTA Having Fun
At around an hour and a half, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love (B-) is a quirky trifle from a director who’s accustomed to directing an opus. Adam Sandler’s character is a schmuck with rage issues, but he’s paired with the super-sweet Emily Watson in a romance. To the tune of Jon Brion’s harmonium and through bizarre sequences with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and others, this is PTA’s version of After Hours. Sandler glows from the great writing and direction.
Related article: I reference Adam Sandler’s acclaimed role in this Wall Street Journal story.
“Election” is a Fabulously Funny Allegory of Modern Sensibilities Played Out in Student Body Politics
Alexander Payne’s Election (A) is a hilariously dark comedy set in high school about the lengths one student (Reese Witherspoon) will go to rise to the top ranks of student government. Witherspoon’s “Tracy Flick” can heretofore be a metaphor for overly motivated political animals. Matthew Broderick is amusing as the teacher who may find he’s created a monster. Chris Klein is fun as the jock rival for Flick’s political ambitions.
“Your Friends and Neighbors” Features Snarky Ensemble
Neil LaBute’s Your Friends and Neighbors (B+) assembles a perfectly nasty ensemble of characters to showcase the darkness of modern-day suburbia. Although big stars such as Ben Stiller give the film marquee value, it’s LaBute’s tart dialogue on central display. Catherine Keener and Jason Patric are among the most deliciously hateful, with the latter’ third-act soliloquy one of the film’s most memorable. Fans of dark comedy will be tickled crimson with this bloodbath of the bourgeoisie.
“Boogie Nights” Shows the Human Hues of Blue Movie Industry
It’s an industry in which every inch of every moment matters. Working in a raw medium, the artists must maintain stamina to create their most convincing moods. And when an actor says, “I’m ready to shoot my scene right now!” it is best for the camera crew to oblige. The denizens of the adult film industry are the subject of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (B-), a sometimes glorious, sometimes tedious glimpse at a cottage industry in L.A. in the ’70’s and ’80’s. The ensemble of Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Heather Graham and Julianne Moore create a family even while casually shooting hardcore scenes and dealing with graphic situations. The film’s first half is as carefree as its second act is sometimes hard to watch. Ultimately it’s a triumph of acting and atmosphere, albeit short on plot.
“Fargo” a Comic Noir Triumph
They say that God is in the details. If this is the case, filmmaking brothers Joel and Ethan Coen find a multitude of moviemaking miracles in the strange terrain of Fargo (A-), a curious murder mystery full of sardonic humor, offbeat characters and unconventional wisdom. This is a great case of bleak chic, from the super-serious pregnant protagonist superbly played by Frances McDormand to ransoms, outlaws, a triple homicide and a wood chipper. In both their verbal and film language, the Coen Brothers’ Dakota pop is sure to take you where you’ve never been before.
“Flirting With Disaster” Uproariously Funny
Ben Stiller headlines an all-star cast in the hilarious domestic comedy of errors, David O. Russell’s Flirting with Disaster (A-). His adopted character’s cross-country search for his biological parents leads him hilariously into the arms of drug-dealers, FBI agents and a merry band of fellow travelers played by comic legends ranging from Lily Tomlin to George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore. Moore is outrageously tart playing against type. The story has a way of getting more and more perilous from what seemed like a pretty simple premise, and Russell’s dark searches within Pandora’s Box lead to some awfully funny findings about love and relationships in the modern age.
Jim Carrey’s “Cable Guy” Unwelcome
Jim Carrey steals the show in director Ben Stiller’s lame comedic indictment of a world saturated by television, The Cable Guy (C). The comedian’s highjinks are funny in parts, but the film’s weighty messages often blunt the laughter in all the wrong places.