Beyond the Hills

“Beyond the Hills,” which opens in limited release this Friday, March 8, and then is available on VOD on March 14, is a humanistic character study about the impossibly deep commitments of faith, but it becomes a torturous exorcism movie in its third act.

“Beyond the Hills,” which opens in limited release this Friday, March 8, and then is available on VOD on March 14, is a humanistic character study about the impossibly deep commitments of faith, but it becomes a torturous exorcism movie in its third act.
This is a repost of my review of the film from the Chicago International Film Festival back in October.

Rapid Response: Torn Curtain

“Torn Curtain” finds Hitchcock dipping his toes into a pool he never has before: politics. It’s one of Hitchcock’s more disappointing films.

I don’t think I ever thought this day would come: the day that I would find an Alfred Hitchcock movie I didn’t like.

They say that Hitchcock’s last perfect film was “The Birds” in 1963, and from then on he struggled with old age and a changing of the guard in Hollywood to more jarring, violent and hyper kinetic films. Although I’m still very keen on “Frenzy,” with something like “Torn Curtain,” how is Hitchcock really supposed to compete when the rest of the world is looking to James Bond for their suspense?

“Torn Curtain” struggles because it finds Hitch trying to adapt to New Hollywood and the surrounding culture, but in completely the wrong way. With “Frenzy,” Hitch would embrace the despicable sexual instincts of his murderers and what they would be realistically likely to do to his blonde-bombshell victims. Here, Hitchcock tried to make his film as tied to the Cold War as the 007 movies, and he dips his toe into a pool he never had before: politics. Continue reading “Rapid Response: Torn Curtain”

Rear Window: Hitchcock's most emotional film

Starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” is one of his most deeply emotional movies. Read more about “Rear Window” in this analysis of the film.

“Rear Window” has been mercilessly scrutinized, fitting for a movie about people obsessed with minute details. We fully understand how the movie is put together, how Alfred Hitchcock creates suspense minimally and how he ties all those tingling suspicions into a story of voyeurism, privacy, neighbors and curiosity.

But those who have seen the film will know how emotionally wrenching it is. Tangential to the main mystery, Hitchcock colors an entire community of lonely people struggling with marriages, romances or careers. These livelihoods serve not to add clues to the murder mystery but to emphasize the one core idea running through “Rear Window,” a fear that could be shared by anyone, not just Hitchcock: “What if you are witness to something terrible and can do nothing to prevent it?”

Poor L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies (James Stewart) is witness to a lot of such trauma, even within his own life. But as is true outside of the window, he’s pretty powerless to do anything about it. His romance with the wealthy and glamorous Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) is troubled. The two of them are incompatible people, yet she’s clearly in love. He knows she’s perfect but can’t foresee a way to make it work, and she can’t do a thing to change his mind. Continue reading “Rear Window: Hitchcock's most emotional film”

Rapid Response: Persona

Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” is like a lucid dream: beyond description, but impossible to forget.

Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” is like a lucid dream; the images are so vivid long after you’ve left it, but it feels impossible to describe even as it’s happening. It’s a shocking, intense masterpiece that I am not yet fully equipped to write about.

Bergman’s films always connect on a gut, spiritual level. His early masterpieces “Wild Strawberries” and “The Seventh Seal” are both deeply religious and symbolic works of art, and his later masterpiece “Fanny and Alexander” is a more down to Earth art house feature, one that is tender and disturbing at once.

“Persona” is rooted deeply in both approaches, and yet its starkly avant-garde styling and free-form, utterly pretentious story and editing makes it an extremely perplexing watch. Somehow though, Bergman is a talented enough director to overcome the idea that his film is pretentious at all. “Persona” is raw and deeply emotional, an extremely gut wrenching story that embodies the naked existence of man and of art. Continue reading “Rapid Response: Persona”

'Argo' absolutely deserved to win Best Picture

“Argo” may not try anything completely new or daring, but it’s an ambitious achievement and a new classic. “Argo” is the most deserving of all the Best Picture nominees.

Argo Affleck Best Picture
Image courtesy of CNN

As it became increasingly certain that “Argo” would walk away with a Best Picture Oscar Sunday night, the articles claiming why “Argo” was not worthy of the movie industry’s top prize were a dime a dozen. Heaven forbid that in this Internet age we have something other than a contrarian opinion, or that we commit the even worse sin of agreeing with the Oscars.

Because a funny thing happens when something or someone becomes the assumed front-runner: people get begrudgingly accepting of whatever it will be. Everyone knew “Argo” and Anne Hathaway and Daniel Day-Lewis would win, but was anyone really happy about it until they finally did and gave the touching (or in Day-Lewis’s case hilarious) speech they were always meant to?

The Academy’s stamp of approval suggests to most that something is good and for the most part deserving, but the real gem is something else entirely.  Yet somehow I doubt that every critic who writes about the Oscars for a living would be infinitely happier if “Holy Motors” was the indisputable winner, because a win for a movie like that wouldn’t say as much about this year in movies as “Argo” will.

No, my movie of the year didn’t even get nominated for Best Picture, but I’m prepared to say that no movie deserved to win the Oscar this year more than “Argo.” Continue reading “'Argo' absolutely deserved to win Best Picture”

Sound City

“Sound City” is Dave Grohl’s nostalgia soaked love letter to classic analog rock told through a unique documentary form.

If there’s one thing the documentary “Sound City” proved to me about the music industry, it’s that Dave Grohl can do anything. Yes, outside of the long haired drummer for Nirvana and the sometimes tender, sometimes quirky and always intense front man of Foo Fighters, is a director who knows how to put an entertaining and thought provoking movie together.

Even if “Sound City” devolves into a making-of movie for his latest album in its last half hour, Grohl has made a nostalgia soaked love letter to classic, analog rock where doing the same through music has only gotten him so far.

The film starts with a man going through the long process of setting up analog recording equipment the old-fashioned way, and then Grohl hastily proceeds to constructing a throwback style movie as well. “Sound City’s” wishful opening comes complete with a brat pack era voiceover, a 90’s driving montage in a hazy filter and a “Real World” typeface; it confidently wears on its chest, “These were the good ‘ol days.”

Grohl’s purpose for making this film was to document the stories behind a recently shuttered but legendary recording studio in Van Nuys, California called Sound City. This dumpy palace that should’ve never had as good of equipment or as good of sound as it did opened in the ‘70s and became home to some of rock’s greatest albums and stars. Tom Petty recorded “Damn the Torpedoes” here. Mick Fleetwood met Lindsey Buckingham and Steve Nicks in Studio A. Continue reading “Sound City”

2013 Oscars: Final Predictions

I just finished watching a Katie Couric special edition of “20/20” in which they talked about everything that makes the Oscars iconic, but none of the reasons why I actually care about the awards. Hearing about Bjork’s swan dress is cute, but I’m in this for the movies.

Every year I come up with elaborate reasons why this year’s winner will mean something. For “The Artist” it was that even a silent, foreign, black and white comedy could win Best Picture and make people interested in a great form of movie history for just a little while. For “The King’s Speech” it was that the love for Old Hollywood was alive and well, even if I was pulling for the generational landmark that would’ve been a victory for “The Social Network.” And for “The Hurt Locker,” it signified a turning point in our view of the campaign in the Middle East, as well as a long denied achievement for women everywhere, which really is something to cheer about.

And yet just as I study every nominee and understand every nuance of the race, all of that is forgotten as quickly as the next year, and the only things that are left are the great movies themselves.

I think this year’s Oscars matter because above all, they will honor a lot of great movies, more than in most years. I may not think “Argo” is the best movie of the year, nor is my pick even nominated, but I think that whatever wins, it will be a victory for quality (except for “Les Miz” obviously).

Here then are my final predictions for what will take home gold on Oscar night. This year has been so exciting, so tumultuous, so long and so controversial that if I have to make one correct prediction, it’s that I will be wrong… possibly a lot.

Argo Ben Affleck

Best Picture

  • Argo
  • Lincoln
  • Silver Linings Playbook
  • Life of Pi
  • Django Unchained
  • Zero Dark Thirty
  • Amour
  • Les Miserables
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild

I don’t think I ever wanted to admit that there was going to be a sure fire winner for Best Picture, and I don’t think I ever could. The “Argo” freight train of success is still relatively fresh news. A lot has happened since it premiered at Telluride back in September, and there was a time just six weeks ago when nominations were announced that it looked to be a dead and gone afterthought. Now it has swept every major guild prize and award in sight, and it is poised to make history no matter what happens. All the comparisons that have been made to explain its victory in the context of past winners will be erased because its victory (or loss) will be completely unprecedented. Pundits will now point to it as the example.

If it wins, it will be because it is a great film, but also because it is an agreeable film that was able to weather the storm of controversy and barrier to entry better than any other.

“Lincoln” hardly seems formidable, and in fact “Life of Pi” or “Silver Linings Playbook” look even stronger with more recent wins in the bag, but it remains an even greater film in my view and is still, on paper, the predictable Oscar winner.

Brian’s Pick: Argo

Dark Horse: Lincoln, followed by Silver Linings Playbook, then Life of Pi

Should Win: Life of Pi Continue reading “2013 Oscars: Final Predictions”

Amour

Michael Haneke’s “Amour” is a film that requires no sentiment or tears shed on its behalf. That’s because for films about mortality, few are as quiet, observant, simple and without incident as “Amour.” And yet Haneke, known for his solemn, chilling art films like “Cache” and “The White Ribbon,” has made a bleak masterpiece that does away with big, philosophical ideas and focuses in on the beautiful love story at its core.

“Your concern is no use to me.” That’s Georges’s (Jean-Louis Trintignant) message to his daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) as his wife Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) lies on her deathbed. What use does it serve, he asks his daughter, for Eva to worry when her only solutions are more unsuccessful surgeries, more time under life support in a nursing home and more pain?

Haneke’s film skillfully observes that death is a part of life, but it’s the general agony that disturbs the most, not the absence of transparency into this woman’s suffering, and not the lack of drama. “Amour” is a love story, one about the sheer burden of keeping a love or marriage together, but it’s a far stretch from the sappy tearjerkers of the world. This art film unsympathetically challenges this romance and remains a distant observer to their tireless passion. Continue reading “Amour”

Off the Red Carpet: 1 Week to the Oscars

We are now less than two weeks away from the Oscars. The guilds are still chiming in, but the last of the major awards has spoken, and as conflicted as I am to say it, I’m finally jumping on the “Argo” train.

Two things convinced me.

The first was the win at the BAFTAs, the British Oscars so to speak. In a place where it arguably doesn’t have the same cultural, zeitgeist leg to stand on, “Argo” held strong against “Les Miserables” and Michael Haneke in the Best Director race.

But more importantly, it took this long for me to realize that “Argo” was always the front-runner. Way back in September at the Telluride Film Festival, “Argo” thrilled audiences in a way that finally declared Oscar season open. It was the first in a long line of contenders in a year that over eight months hadn’t yet proved why it was so great for movies.

And now it’s still here. “Argo” survived where “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Les Miserables” all peaked and faded and “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Django Unchained” buckled under their own controversy.

“Argo” is here to stay, and we were stupid to think that it wasn’t always.

Next week in place of this roundup, I’ll have my final Oscar predictions in all 24 categories. It’s been a fun ride writing this column this season. Thanks for sticking with me. Continue reading “Off the Red Carpet: 1 Week to the Oscars”