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dir. Jon Favreau
writ. Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
char. Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, Ron Kirby
feat. Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow
There isn't much new in Iron Man. We've seen these elements before, a bit from Minority Report, some Terminator, even some Ghostbusters there at the end. So why does it all work? It's because we're comfortable with these pieces and if the filmmakers don't fuck it up too badly, we will play along. The technical mumbo jumbo is kept light and fun and the action is, well, decent. Tony Stark begins as the guy we all want to be, the billionaire playboy jet-setting around the globe, then becomes the guy we ought to want to be, the superhero with powerful toys and noble intentions.
There is an origin story where many bad guys are killed. Then there is the development of the suit, complete with a sassy computer as comic relief. Then there is the romantic subplot with the lovely assistant, eking along in the background throughout the picture. There is the big first mission where bad men who are abusing innocent civilians (to no clear purpose) are avenged by the good man in big metal suit. And of course, we have a supervillain who will try to outdo our hero. While it's best not to question why our supervillain becomes so supervillainous, at least he makes for a big bad opponent for our hero. Well, sorta.
I think anyone who liked this film (myself included) should ask if you really ever care to see it again. If like me, the answer is no, then how did this happen? Is it really as simple as a few easy pleasures and the relief in them not screwing it up so badly that it hurt to watch? Are we just suckers for the genre, ready to go along with a paint-by-numbers story so long as the pieces fit, getting our fix in the process. Or are we just content to be appeased for now and then wait for the sequel to really pass judgment?
dir. Shira Geffen & Etgar Keret
writ. Shira Geffen
The modern independent film now has stock characters. The grumpy, impossible-to-satisfy mother that will never approve of her daughter's choices. The hard-working immigrant often considered dumb because she doesn't know the language. The newly married wife who is jealous of every woman her husband sees.
We don't want to see these characters anymore. They broadcast a certain kind of story, eliminating the chances of surprise and eradicating the possibility of redemption since I will be annoyed by them for far too long to forgive them when they change their ways. Go ahead, shove the mother off a cliff. See if I care. Just take her off the screen.
Thankfully, there are some beautiful moments, and while the circular tale of the little girl mysteriously walking out of the ocean may not fully resonate when it ends as a memory of her caretaker's younger days with arguing parents, at least it's alluring and arouses some curiosity.
I only just learned that the filmmaking team are a married couple, both fiction writers. I thoroughly enjoy Keret's writing and wish he had a hand in the writing of this film as well. The movement of the characters feels like his stories though the words do not, and that is unfortunate.
dir. Tomu Uchida
writ. Keinosuke Uegusa, Taijun Takeda (novel)
Issue films. Racism films. Yes, they are unavoidable. And on occasion, a filmmaker manages to tell a story that takes on an issue while not being crushed under the weight of heavy aphorism-laden philosophizing. Sadly, The Outsiders is not such a film.
Still Uchida manages to have a few moments, the best of which comes when the main antagonist, a native Ainu, is forced to reckon with his "impure blood," throwing all he believes in, all he's relied upon for his sense of identity, into question. Unfortunately, such moments are rare and not the focus of this picture, too beleaguered by self-righteous violence between native Ainu and Japanese immigrants.
dir. Tomu Uchida
writ. Senzo Nada
Twilight Saloon opens on a slow tracking shot of a quiet bar, the stools still on the tables from closing time the night before. A man sings an operetta while the camera slowly reveals the room, finally showing the audience that the singer is actually up on a high stage, singing beside the pianist playing the tune. Our singer botches a part of the song and is corrected by the piano player, then finishes the tune. And so we are eased into a film that will take place over a single night in the bar, deftly painting portraits of the various employees and patrons who live their lives there.
It's a sentimental and beautiful film that manages to be sweet without turning saccharine. The pachinko playing regular who makes his living at the game, then selling his prize cigarettes for his liquor money oversees the scene, more of a manager than the actual one, backing a loan for a troubled waitress and setting up the singer with his big shot for an real opera gig and a chance to escape the bar life. There is a jilted lover back for revenge, a bitter and possessive ex-con unwilling to move on with his life, and a stripper with a heart of gold. Yet somehow it still works, warm and sincere until the lights go dark in the saloon at the end, all the characters a bit wiser and better off than the night before.
dir. David O. Russell
writ. David O. Russell & Jeff Baena
feat. Jason Schwartzman, Mark Wahlberg, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Isabelle Huppert
I Heart Huckabees dares to take on big questions about the meaning of life and the definition of existence in a comedic film while slyly avoiding committing to any answers, toying with the characters and the audience, feigning engagement in an honest search for ultimate meaning while pointing out in the process that there are no answers. It brilliantly pokes fun at opposing camps, those believing that everything is connected and those that insist everything is meaningless. And all the while the film never stops moving, maintaining a breakneck pace that echoes the speed of life, illustrating that there is never the time to stop and figure it all out.
The performances are impressive. Hoffman and Tomlin brilliantly playing antagonistic spouses and fellow detectives, easily shifting from adamant opposition to one another's current viewpoint to lusty interludes, both agitated and attracted by their contradictions. Schwartzman could be the grown up version of his character from Rushmore, still ambitious and well-meaning, but with greater doubts about the world. Wahlberg works perfectly as the doltish fireman whose eyes have suddenly been opened to worlds of thought he never knew existed, eager to pick them up and twirl them around, quick to believe and also quick to change track. Law effortlessly slips into the smooth talking corporate prick role, pretending to care but more concerned about his own image and keeping on the fast track. Watts works wonderfully as his partner and the face of Huckabees, the corporate behemoth ala WalMart. Law and Watts are both ripe for disruption, Watts much more so as she seems flimsy in the intellectual deparment, a natural match for Wahlberg. Watts flopping around in her bonnet and apron is one of the funniest bits of physical comedy I've ever witnessed in a film, truly outrageous, a wild twist on fashion and marketing.
As there are no answers, the film contradicts itself repeatedly. In one terrific scene, Schwartzman and Wahlberg eat dinner with a good Christian family where the conversation explodes into a philosophical battle illustrating how those with strongly held and strongly differing views are incapable of open, thoughtful communication about these ideals. It's a pointed scene, easily taken as a jab against a modern Republican ethic by which a charitable deed makes up for all the other cumulative wrongdoing wrought around the world in the name of freedom and democracy, though it's more complicated than that, also showing an unwillingness in both groups to accept and consider challenges to their own ideas. No other scene in the film so succinctly demonstrates the impossibility of universal truth, of a single unifying belief system that will work for all. It's the beauty of the film and of life, and it all comes with a laugh.
dir. Jon Favreau
