Un Prophète

I want to go to prison in France! There the lady guards say "please" as they order you around, everyone gets his own baguette with every meal, and dudes on the playground wear fitted brown suede jackets, while others sun themselves with reflective tanning devices.

Everyone's talking about Un Prophète. Jacques Audiard's follow-up to 2005's The Beat My Heart Skipped is indeed good, but I fail to see how it merits the extent of the critical acclaim that it's received. It's such a masturbatory boy-director Tarantino/Doyle/Godfather-esque etc derivative bit of aimlessness in many ways, that I would write it off were it not touching and illuminating in other ways. I like the matter-of-fact and poetic way Malik (Tahar Rahim) is haunted by the fellow prisoner he is forced to kill, for example. And this might not be an indication of it's greatness, but every mention of literacy in the first half of it made me tear up uncontrollably. I'm loving the films coming out of France (and Europe in general) over the past decade dealing with immigrant populations and the richness and realness that gives lives and stories. Watching the prison interiors of Prophète evoked for me Steve McQueen's Hunger (2009), and Manijeh Hekmat's Women's Prison (2002), and I think that has as much to do with the common cinematic depictions as with the foreign depictions of prison-life. But each of those films was dealing with prisoners quite different from the straight-up criminals depicted here, and it's this glorified corruptness- even with the unjust truths it also portrays- that keeps me from really buying the film.

Andréa described this film as "powerfully depressing" as we left the theater.  I think that's saying something, right?

I hate Scarlett Johansson

For lack of absolutely anything better to watch at Andrea and Mark's one night, I found The Other Boleyn Girl (Justin Chadwick,  2008) on their DVR. Watchable? Yes. Worth it? Questionable. It's always somehow titillating to see sexuality depicted in far off history. But this is so Hollywoodized, I could not tell you whether it's at all accurate.

I guess one of the main draws might be the costumes, one of which Lucas and I saw on display at the Landmark on Pico a while back (this green number depicted above). But I guess that brings me back to...fluff.

Plus, I hate Scarlett Johansson. So it was kind of fun to see her Mary Boleyn get destroyed by Natalie Portman, I mean Anne Boleyn. But then, of course, she got to get all self-righteous in the end. Damn.

alice in wonderland, 3D

The latest adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Tim Burton, is in 3D and aesthetically at full throttle. I took Micah to see it, mostly for the air conditioning and cocoon of a movie theater, and thus arrived with few expectations. I left feeling surprisingly inspired, empowered and thoroughly entertained.

Mia Wasikowska plays a superb 19 yr old Alice. She embodies an unlikely mix of tomboyish insistence, adolescent insolence, and a coming-of-age intelligence that is, in sum, refreshing to encounter in a big budget film. Of course her best lines are lifted straight out of the texts, but they are perfectly believable coming out of Wasikowska's mouth. The other strong acting highlights are Helena Bonham Carter, as a most fitting evil but vulnerable Queen of Hearts, and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, who does, literally, steal the show in almost every scene he is physically in. The nearly tactile nature of Wonderland that Burton and all his massive team managed to effect allowed for a magical experience of that other world of lore.

Special effects aside, the "moral" of the story that especially moved me was the transformation of Alice from an uncertain, yielding teenager to an empowered and discerning young woman. The question, "are you THE Alice?" echoes throughout the film, as Alice gets thrown into an adventure that feels like someone's else with the same name. She can't believe that she could possibly be the protagonist of a prophetic slaying of the Jabberwocky story, and yet, by the end of the film, she realizes that she is much more than she thought, and that she has not, in fact, lost any of her "muchness". As is so often in life, girls do lose their sense of innate confidence and agency through the vagaries of adolescence and adulthood, from the immense societal and familial pressures to be selfless, to caretake others at all costs and, above all, to accommodate men. When Alice returns to the original world, she knows exactly how to politely but firmly decline the offer of marriage by a man she does not love, and sets off to pursue an unmarried career in the unknown. It may have been the especially susceptible day I was having, but I found this to be a much needed reminder of the work I have yet to do to remember how much power I have to make fearless choices.

Daddy Longlegs

Having been a second parent but not a dad for the last five years makes me an unusual watcher of films about fathering. Daddy Longlegs, directed by brothers Josh and Ben Safdie, is an autobiographical film about their incompetent and delinquent father, Lenny, who is played by Ronald Bronstein. I found myself constantly chagrined and irritated throughout the film, as I watched the hopelessly narcissistic and negligent dad attempt to parent his kids for 2 weeks out of the year. As is often the case, the single father is represented as the absolutely magical vessel for FUN, while he simultaneously fails to create all the most basic structures and boundaries that are foundational to a happy childhood. The Safdie brothers and Ronald Bronstein were extremely defensive of any gender based readings of their film in the Q&A that followed the screening, but Emily and I could not find any other useful lens through which to interpret the film. It was terribly problematic in its "vilification" of the mother as an older, less attractive bitchier version of Lenny's girlfriend, despite the Safdie brothers' vehement denial of any such negative characterization of their mother. Overall, the three of them were shockingly bad at discussing the film and the questions that came up in the sense that they seemed really offended and unable to really engage with any of the questions that any of us had, probably as a result of it being such a personal project. In a certain light, the film is about custody, which has become an increasingly loaded and hot button issue (eg., the Fathers' rights movement). From another angle, it's about lionizing and romanticizing a selfish and inept father figure. Either way, it's a self-referential, insular aggrandizement of a tired brand of masculinity and paternity.

Sunset Community Film Festival

I've been a fan of Wayland He's Life of Wayland since Rebecca Devlin first shared it with me a few years ago. At the 6th Annual Sunset Community Film Festival, held at Ulloa Elementary School in San Francisco on March 5, He made dozens more fans. His latest short, a funny animation called Worm War I, won the audience award for best film, and I heard many a serious discussion between 6th graders and uproarious laughter from the 3rd graders sitting behind me about the video.

The entire program, chosen and compiled by youth media group SCREAM members, was very good and it was professionally well presented. The best part was sitting in a theater full of an audience of young people, watching a program entirely made and presented by young people, and experiencing the extreme pleasure of everyone involved. Half of the time I had no idea why they were laughing, but they sure were having a good time.

Barbara Hammer and Silas Howard at the Hammer

What a great night. I wish this conversation could have lasted a lot longer- they were just getting started. But what an excellent combination, whoever thought this one up!

WTF

I can't believe I finally finished it. After three viewings over the course of two weeks I have finally finished watching David Lynch's enigmatic Inland Empire (2006). Clearly (well, I use that word loosely...), this film is about Laura Dern's character Nikki Grace's psyche. It's about psychology, movies and reality vs. make-believe in a hodge-podge of visual styles and genres, but mostly horror. I bet if I watched it again I'd get it, but I can't imagine I will ever, ever be driven to do that. If you know me, you know that I'm all about film and media that make you go, "WTF?!" But WTF?! And Whatever.

secretary

I watched Secretary, directed by Steven Shainberg, for the second time with James recently. I love Maggie Gyllenhaal because of this film, and I enjoyed her as the main character, Lee Holloway, just as much years later. This film positions sadomasochism as a marginally mainstream attitude towards intimacy, and I have referred to it as a kind of introductory tale for the uninitiated. This is a love story between Lee, a secretary, and her boss, Mr. Edward Grey. It all seems like a recipe for classic objectifying fucked up gender relating when Mr. Grey starts commanding Lee to do menial tasks around the office in an obsessively meticulous way. But the power dynamic shifts when the viewer realizes that Lee enjoys and eroticizes the controlling encounters, especially when they involve spanking. As these scenes are replayed and subsumed into her own fantasy and masturbatory life, the power differential actually swings in the other direction- Mr. Grey loses control of his own desire for control. Because Lee is not ashamed of her own desire, she makes open and honest gestures of love that Mr. Grey repeatedly rejects out of fear. In the end, it is Mr. Grey who we pity in his repression and naked need for love, yet both characters are ultimately humanized in their idiosyncratic yet totally plausible bid for everlasting love.

Nordwand Schmordwand

This looks miserable, right? Well it was. There was also a lot of ACTING! bleh. This was a big night out to the Royal with Andrea and Mark. And I guess I never got bored enough to think of leaving. But this movie was a one-trick-pony. What did we need this for? We didn't.

Les chansons d'amour

I finally watched Love Songs (Christophe Honoré, 2007)- and I loved it! Never has a musical worked so well, in my book. I actually didn't mind at all when the cast broke out in song, it seemed as natural as I ever do when I sing while walking down the street. And it was such a relief of a story. French, yes, and refreshingly real! The guy who looks like Albert from Little House on the Praiarie aka Ismaël (Louis Garrel) would drive me up a tree with his silly joker antics. But other than that, this movie did not annoy me at all, remarkable for a musical movie. The songs are actually good. And I'm sure if my French were better I would have appreciated it even more. I love the sexual fluidity, the matter-of-factness of the affairs and the way they affect everyone's lives in the film. And I love that it ends up GAY gay. And I love that it just ends abruptly in the middle of just another love story. And that it's to a Barbara song- no proprietary musical last song-ness. Yum.

The Yacoubian Building

Hmmm...this was a tough one. Admittedly, I am ignorant of classic Egyptian film and Egyptian cinema in general. But The Yacoubian Building (Omaret yakobean) (Marwan Hamed, 2006), touted far and wide as the biggest-budget Egyptian film to date and a great cinematic accomplishment, was hard to take. I'd been expecting something pretty great, since this was the talk of the International Film Festival Rotterdam during my first year there, and I was really disappointed to have missed it then. It was so soap opera-like that I wasn't sure I could finish it. Upon finally viewing it, the main thing I took away from it was that the story entailed a lot of gross sexual coercion in the name of social advancement. That and the realization that I don't know enough about Egyptian history...or ANYTHING about Egyptian history for that matter.

When Taha (Mohamed Imam) became involved with a more radical sect of Islam, it was such a relief to focus on something substantial, something beyond the shame of characters stuck in poverty and feeling yuck-o about sexual favors demanded according to class and status. I guess there was also a fair share of political corruption. And it was thick with the message that violence breeds violence. But the homosexuality stuff was a bit much, not to be celebrated as I'd been lead to believe. The film has caused great controversy in Egypt for  its depiction of homosexuality. But when the Bey Hatim Rasheed (Khaled El Sawy) indulges in a flashback montage in which he is talking to [hideously rendered] portraits of his parents, and his homosexuality is explained by an assertion that his black African caretaker molested him as a child, I had to groan. The grossest part was probably the clown-like face and particularly the smile of the aged Pasha (Adel Imam) who somehow easily won the heart of the hot young thing of the film, a woman who'd been vehemently discerning till that point.

 I haven't read the book, but it MUST be better than the movie...

When the Patriarchy Let's You Down

Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) (Ellen Kuras & Thavisouk Phrasavath, 2008) is not a typical documentary. More than most docs, it attempts to- and succeeds in- telling its story through images more than words, and that works for the most part. It's an interweaving of recent interviews with amazing footage captured in the 1980's when Kuras first started following her Lao tutor, Thavi (co-director Phrasavath) with a camera. Nerakhoon dramatically reveals long-buried and/or never-revealed ugly secrets of US imperialism and dirty work that left allies abandoned and families in ruin, in particular that of Thavi. To that end, it's also the story of botched patriarchy and how political betrayal ruined his father and eventually his family. The doc also reveals truths about new refugees in the US, the living conditions of new immigrants and the price of assimilation. Are things really better for refugees once they reach the US? Does their chance for survival truly increase? It's a story of multiple betrayals, what we're willing to forgive, who we trust.

Once the family gets to the US, the doc moves seamlessly back and forth between Laos and US, between 1984 and the present, requiring its audience to find clues to figure out where we are, why we're there. From Ellen Kuras we expect beautiful images, and she delivers. There are a lot of orange robes of novices, Buddhism all over the place. And then there is unexpected and horrible community destruction due to gang coersion and involvement of young new immigrants. What emerges is a highly compelling collaboration between documentarian and subjects, revealing the interconnectedness of humanity.

Viva Women Directors!

I am ecstatic! Driving home from watching the Oscars, I felt high like I felt when Obama was elected (which in itself felt like when Mandela left prison and when the borders were opened between East and West Germany).

OH MY GOD!!!!!! Kathryn Bigelow!!!!!!!!! Viva women directors! Viva women filmmakers!!! Viva our voices being heard!!! Viva women calling the shots!!! This is a dream realized- Finally a woman has won the Oscar for Directing. My next dream is to see a woman win for Cinematography- starting with a lot more women DP's being hired. What a beautiful day!!!


(As I just wrote to a kick-ass 19 year-old friend whom I've known since she was 4... Only 3 times before in the 82 year history of the Oscars have women even been NOMINATED for Best Director:
Lina Wertmüller in 1976 for "Seven Beauties" 
Jane Campion in 1993 for "The Piano"
Sophia Coppola for "Lost In Translation" in 2003
Today is an historic day! In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win for Directing. Sad but true... and WONDERFUL! She also won Best Picture for "Hurt Locker!" Now what I really want to see is a woman win Best Cinematography. THAT is a male-dominated field...)

Maverick Mother

Australian humor is a particular brand of humor, something I'm not necessarily accustomed to. It's somewhat innocent and cheesy, like Canadian humor, yet it can be raunchy, but not as bad as British humor. That might threaten to ruin Janet Merewether's autobiographical 2007 doc, Maverick Mother. But somehow it works, her fantastical dramatic interludes serving only to illustrate her seemingly cliche desires to procreate, and they keep the tone of the work lighthearted and flowing.

My viewing partners and I questioned not the acquisition of sperm demonstrated here, but Merewether's stubborn, then annoying, then obnoxious, then incredible persistence in contacting the "father" long after he'd ceased to respond, seemingly making it clear that he wanted nothing to do with the wishes she'd manifested. But other than that, I found it entertaining and relatable as an illustration of modern motherhood. Well done.

skim milk and soft wax

Dani Leventhal's most recent video, Skim Milk and Soft Wax, evoked a mixture of apprehension and appreciation. Dani's earlier work, Draft 9, being one of my favorite videos, meant that my expectations were high and that I was probably going to give a generous reading of her treatment of a high-stakes issue, i.e., the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the Q&A that followed the screening at Syracuse University, Dani expressly stated, in the face of pointed questions, that her work is definitely apolitical although she knows that she is handling a controversial topic. This resolved some of the uneasiness I had felt at moments throughout the video- primarily because it is quite hard to read her political stance on the issue. Being Jewish American, Dani has been facing an extremely difficult and nebulous path away from the Zionism that she was raised in. I think as with all "political" controversies, there lies at the heart of the issue deeply ingrained and primarily emotional stances that are staked out and defended, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a perfect example. Most Jews I have known (and often loved) believe in the myth of endless persecution and the redemption of the land of milk and honey for completely understandable reasons, few of which are actually political in any legislative or juridical sense. And yet these very personal feelings, rooted in misinformed notions about security and righteousness, quickly turn into convictions that lead to political and militaristic decisions that have grave human rights consequences for Palestinians. This being said, I think it very brave of Dani to even attempt to represent her journey into the deconstruction of the meta narrative of her heritage, and I think her video is invaluable for her honesty. It's particularly interesting to see how her father figures largely in it as a major voice of her internalized Zionism. Basically, the video is a document of their journey back to Israel together, a beloved land of her father's and a nostalgic site of confused feelings for Dani, as she awakens to the reality on the ground, beyond the story she's been indoctrinated in.

i'm through with white girls

I'm hoping that writing about I'm Through With White Girls, directed by Jennifer Sharp, will be a good way to start posting on this blog. I've been anxious about writing about movies in a casual blogging format- my tendency is to overly deconstruct films and this medium calls for a broader stroke.


Anthony Montgomery plays Jay, a black hipster geek who womanizes white women in a mildly offensive way. He's a serial monogamist who cowardly breaks up with each girlfriend with the same hastily written note. The film opens with a lighthearted series of angry exes reading his break up note, which piqued my interest because it was fairly articulate self-aware bullshit. He decides that his problem is that he needs to find a "sista", or "operation brown sugar" as his graphic novel friends dub the recent epiphany. The movie attempts to address racial stereotypes by eventually uncovering that what was masked by a superficial focus on color was actually a deeper pattern of fear and lack of integrity. As every romantic comedy requires, the perfect woman appears in the form of Lia Johnson. She plays Catherine, who is hot, a best selling feminist author, and also quirky enough to complement Jay.




They're both chain smokers, weird, and have believable chemistry. She mistrusts men, and he has to deal with the fact that his relationship woes have been because of him and not the women that he dated. I enjoyed this movie for a couple of reasons: for a formulaic romantic comedy, the main characters are refreshingly smart and deviations from the norm, and I laughed out loud several times. The one major criticism I have of the film is that it's frustrating that Catherine, who is a successful, beautiful writer, would be vulnerable enough to be attracted to someone who she has to take care of. But sadly, this is so typical in the world in general.