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Tribeca Review: Departures

PopSugar — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:30:03 -0700

Thanks to PopSugar, who is attending some Tribeca Film Festival screenings and writing reviews for me this week!

Departures won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar this year, and when I caught it last Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival, I quickly saw why it deserved the honor. The Japanese film centers around a man named Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a cellist who moves back to his rural hometown with his wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) after his orchestra in Tokyo is forced to shut down.

When he returns home, Kobayashi gives up his life of being a musician and responds to a want ad looking for someone to work "with departures." Instead of it being a travel agency like he expected, the ad turns out to be a misprint; in fact, the job is working with "the departed." Undertakers hire the company to prepare dead bodies for casketing and then cremation. Although it sounds morbid, the movie has very humorous moments as Kobayashi learns the ins and outs of the trade, but where it is funny it's also sad.

Kobayashi is ashamed of his new job and goes to great efforts to lie about what he is doing to his unsuspecting and loving wife. Kobayashi's boss, Ikuei Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki), is a man of few words, but when he does speak, his meaningful moments are peppered with an unexpected dry humor. Ikuei also provides emotional, respectful, and touching moments as he performs an encoffinment with the family of the deceased looking on. For more of my thoughts on Departures, just read more.

The movie's "departures" aren't restricted to Kobayashi's career - during the film, he wonders if his current situation is punishment for not taking care of his own dying mother years earlier. His father left his family when he was 6, and as viewers, we watch him learn from his new father figure - his boss. As the ritual of encoffinment becomes more familiar, it's hard not to feel the families' stages of grief as they say goodbye to their loved ones. The acting is superb, and the musical score only enhances the many emotions one feels when watching this powerful movie. The end feels a little drawn out, but all in all, director Yojiro Takita has put together a wonderful portrayal of how the living deal with death and love.

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Tribeca Review: Lioness

BuzzSugar — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:00:49 -0700

I was compelled to see the documentary Lioness at the Tribeca Film Festival because the basis is so intriguing. In the press notes for the film, this is the description: "Despite written policy banning women from direct ground combat, military commanders have been using women in direct ground warfare as an essential part of their operations since 2003. Though official policy forbids this operation and publicly denies its existence, this initiative and company of women have a name: they are called Team Lioness. Lioness. . .tells the story of the first group of Lionesses who went to Iraq as clerks, mechanics and engineers but returned a year later as America's first female combat veterans."

Much of the film deals with that last detail - that these women went abroad with the military, possessing expertise in certain fields but not having much training in direct combat. Mainly, it appears from the film, they were brought into hostile areas to help calm and placate the Iraqi women during raids, but when violence erupted, they were often forced to engage in direct combat, something official policy blatantly forbids. From here, the issues become not that women can't handle violence, but rather that these women simply weren't trained for that kind of action and that they innately handle the experience differently than men. For more about this complicated issue, read more.

The film primarily follows five female soldiers and their post-Iraq stories. Some are mothers and wives, some are now living with their parents, all of them have harrowing stories of finding themselves in traumatizing situations, like having one moment to decide whether to shoot (and kill) or be shot at. Through one-on-one interviews and from reading journal entries we learn that the women feel a constant need to check their compassion. More than once they wonder aloud, "What would I do if this happened to me?" They see the fear in the faces of the Iraqi women and figure they'd also be pretty upset if a bunch of strangers demolished their homes. And yet, when in combat these thoughts and emotions seem to work against them. One male chief chided a high-ranking female soldier for hugging one of the women after an emotional day, saying, "Remember you're in charge."

Ultimately, they have to find ways of understanding the situation so that they're not entirely overcome with emotion. As one woman puts it, "We just have to put faith in the intel that these people are doing wrong." Another one insists, "To be honest, it's not our place to question," referring to the war and the government's actions.

What they do question, however, is why they seem to be missing from accounts of the Iraq war. Because they aren't technically supposed to be engaging in direct combat, the military is reluctant to bring any kind of light to the Lioness teams. At one point, one of the women has her former Lioness teammates over to watch a History channel special on a particular mission they were a part of, one that was incredibly violent and gruesome, and there is no mention whatsoever about the women who fought alongside the male soldiers. There are, however, plenty of references to the "brave men" who faced this particular ordeal. This ignoring of the women's contributions seems to be at the painful heart of Lioness. As the movie's tag line puts it, "There for the action. Missing from history." Though it's not an easy movie to watch, it is an important film, as everyone should be aware of the actions and sacrifices of these courageous women.

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Tribeca Review: Gotta Dance

BuzzSugar — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:31:06 -0700

OK, that's it. I think I'm tapped out on the ridiculously heartwarming documentaries about elderly folks doing things like singing Coldplay songs or learning hip-hop to perform during basketball games. It's not that I'm sick of them, it's that they reduce me to an overemotional puddle on the floor. And movie theater floors are sticky. Of course, I think other people should seek out these movies. I've just learned that they're like my emotional kryptonite. . . in a good way.

Gotta Dance is similar to the recent documentary Young@Heart in many ways. Both focus on groups of older people doing things that most older people don't do: singing "the young peoples' music" and "dancing the young peoples' dances." The joy this brings them, and the sense of self-worth and aliveness is so inspiring it brings tears to my eyes. Gotta Dance differs, however, in that these people are physically pushing themselves to do the dances, so there is a much heavier emphasis on the subject of growing old and what kinds of limitations one faces. More than merely having a difference in taste (Young@Heart features elderly people who, though it's not necessarily their taste in music, sing rock songs) this kind of activity poses physical challenges that end up making the dancers feel both old and young. To see what else happens and for more of my thoughts, read more.

The film starts with the auditions for the first-ever senior hip-hop dance team for the New Jersey Nets. We get to know a handful of the hopefuls who end up getting spots on the team and who we follow throughout the film. The team ultimately consists of 11 women and one man and we watch as they learn the moves for their first show, gradually becoming more confident until the nerve-racking debut on the court.

Of course, the show is a smash hit and they soon find their pictures in the newspaper, followed by invitations to appear on morning shows. As the team becomes more popular, their pride grows and their routines become tougher. By this point, I felt like these people were my relatives and friends, and I could have watched them bond over learning how to shake, swivel and stomp to Jay-Z for many more hours. I also enjoyed watching the team's choreographers and leaders, young women from the Nets dance team who treat the seniors with respect and patience, but also determinedly whip them into shape during practice.

The filmmakers (and the folks behind the Tribeca Film Festival) did well to feature the movie at Tribeca, as New York plays its own part in the film. Most of the seniors live in New Jersey, though a few live in New York City. One of them was even dubbed "Miss Subways" back in the day, and others remembered seeing her face plastered on the subway cars.

So many documentaries are somber, frightening or provocative - and they're often important to see. But this makes Gotta Dance a huge relief within a genre somewhat glutted with fear and sadness. The joie de vivre in this film is completely infectious, and just like with Young@Heart, it makes growing old seem like a damn good time.

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Tribeca Review: Tennessee

BuzzSugar — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:36:06 -0700

Here's the good thing I can say about Tennessee: The effort behind the film is commendable. "A" for effort. "D" for most everything else. And you know, I wasn't altogether convinced that it would be a terrible movie simply because Mariah Carey was in it. I wanted to give Tennessee the benefit of the doubt, so I did, but now I just want those 95 minutes of my life back.

On paper, maybe a touching drama about road trips and brotherly love looked like cinematic gold. And some of the shots of bronzey Southwest sunsets are quite striking. But that's where the "pros" of this movie end. You know how sometimes a series of slow and quiet scenes can be evocative, tense and rich? Not so much here. In this case it just makes for an incredibly flat, boring film. The story comes out lackluster and cliché, and none of it is helped by Mariah Carey's mumbling, careless shrug of a performance. It’s not even worth it to go into the details of the plot, really, but still, read more.

Two brothers in New Mexico, one abusive dad in Tennessee. When one brother learns he has leukemia, the two men set off to find their dad, hoping for a match for a bone marrow transplant. The car breaks down, a sad waitress/aspiring singer quickly decides to leave her abusive husband and drives the brothers as far as Nashville. From there, some absurd, melodramatic "twists" take place before the inevitable ending.

At one point I wrote "Crossroads" in my notes because parts of this film strongly reminded me of that road trip thing Britney Spears did in 2002. Tennessee is certainly just as frustrating and just as cringe-inducing (really, there's a singer-songwriter competition with a first-place prize of exactly the amount of money they need?! I wonder what's going to happen!). But the worst thing of all is that Tennessee is also trying so hard to be poignant, it ends up being simply pitiable.

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Tribeca Review: Bart Got a Room

BuzzSugar — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:29:54 -0700

Bart Got a Room isn't high art and it's not fall-down funny, but it's easily the sweetest of all the Tribeca films I caught and the one movie I would wholeheartedly recommend. It's silly and goofy and fun, all the while washed in bright hypercolor Florida shades of pink and turquoise. It trots along quickly to swinging, squealing Big Band tunes, which is a funny juxtaposition of the old timers' Florida retirement community with the painfully hilarious adolescent experience at the center of the plot. At times the film seems to be reaching for something it can't quite grasp, but it still shakes out to be a great indie comedy.

Steven Kaplan plays high school senior Danny Stein, whose life’s challenge has come down to finding a date to the prom. Despite receiving an invitation from his best friend Camille (Alia Shawkat), Daniel wants a girl he can take back to the hotel room after the dance. And the hotel room has become the most important factor of all now that word has gotten around that "even Bart got a room.” The significance of this - and the elusive Bart's identity - is a mystery until the very end, but it’s clear that if even Bart's getting a room, then Danny Stein surely must have a prom to remember. So he goes on a quest for a prom date with the support of his divorced parents (William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines) who are each experiencing their own romantic adventures.

To see what else I thought of Bart Got a Room, read more.

The framing of time in the movie, with cards coming up to indicate “3 Months to Prom,” “2 Months to Prom,” etc. gives it a satisfying structure as Danny's quest for a prom date grows more and more frantic. Meanwhile, he dives into some of his biggest questions and concerns about relationships in general. He wonders if his parents maybe didn’t have to get divorced if they'd been more realistic about what relationships entail ("What's wrong with a little boredom?" he asks of his dad). He starts to realize that his date - and his prom experience overall - doesn’t have to be perfect, either. This whole movie is just sweet and lighthearted with an ending that left me wiping tears even as I laughed, not at all unlike the ending of Little Miss Sunshine. If you liked that movie, and funny indie films about bumbling high schoolers might make you laugh, you’d do well to check out Bart Got a Room someday.

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Tribeca Review: Savage Grace

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:32:38 -0700

As is the case with many movies, you can kinda tell how you'll feel about Savage Grace from how you feel watching the trailer. For me, I thought the trailer was tense, dark and disturbing. Julianne Moore looked powerfully off-kilter, exhibiting that magnificent control she utilizes with every role she takes on, but ultimately the trailer left me with a bleakly ominous feeling. Physically, it was like I'd swallowed cement.

The full movie left me with that feeling times a thousand. Julianne Moore's character is appalling in this story, and yet Moore makes us sympathize with her. But aside from that, this supremely messed up film is just hard to watch. Moore portrays the real-life American socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland whose hostile marriage with plastics heir Brooks (Stephen Dillane) Baekeland produced one son, Antony (Eddie Redmayne). After the dissolution of Barbara and Brooks' marriage, Antony became Barbara's closest friend and confidant. Barbara and Antony's relationship was really close, if you know what I mean. If you don't (even if you do), read more.

Antony's upbringing was transient and often lonely as he moved from place to place, always living the high-class lifestyle of a young socialite. Worse, he often had to care for his mentally unstable mother, to the point of dressing her wrist wounds after she attempted suicide. Irritated by the fact that Antony was homosexual, Barbara desperately wished to make Antony "a real man" and this desire extended into an incestuous relationship, which is believed to be the thing that drove Antony to stab his mother with a kitchen knife in November of 1972, killing her.

Though it's all very creepy, the only performance that truly packs a punch is Moore's, whose Barbara is both hateful and pitiable. Redmayne and Dillane seem to have latched onto the emptiness of these peoples' lives to the point that even their performances ring empty. This is the terribly sad telling of a real-life tragedy, and while it's often fascinating to delve into the inside worlds of the rich and famous, the inside of this particular story is merely full of ugliness and pain. Though interesting enough, the movie isn't artful or polished enough to make the incredibly bleak experience of watching it anything more than depressing.

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Tribeca Review: Trucker

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:30:33 -0700

Trucker largely reminded me of another indie movie titled Come Early Morning, which was written and directed by Chasing Amy's Joey Lauren Adams (who, incidentally, also stars in Trucker). The tone of both movies features a kind of weary, weathered fondness for the southern American landscape (in Come Early Morning it's the South, in Trucker it's the dusty deserts of southern California). At the heart of both movies, too, are hard-edged, tough-talking women in jobs that others in the movie ridicule for not being "women's jobs": Ashley Judd's character in Early Morning worked in construction, while the main character of Diane in Trucker, played by Michelle Monaghan, is a truck driver.

On the surface these two films might blur together in my mind as one unrecognizable narrative of the rough-around-the-edges woman learning to soften and accept love as well as give it. Trucker stands out a bit, though, as a more interesting story, more layered with higher stakes. And while it's not the most memorable movie in general, it's captivating enough and ultimately sends a heartwarming message. To see what I mean, read more.

The movie opens with a scene not suitable for watching with, say, your parents: Diane is seen having a one-hour stand with a young man (played by Joey Lawrence's brother, Matthew!) she picked up for the night. From here, it's established that she lives a loner's life on the road, driving trucks and picking up random men. But she always goes back to her California home where her neighbor Runner (Nathan Fillion) lives to hang out with Diane and pine after her - despite the fact that he's married. Soon drama comes in the form of Diane's young son Peter (Jimmy Bennet) who she abandoned, along with Peter's father (Benjamin Bratt) many years ago. Diane learns that Peter needs stay with her because his father has cancer, and there's a chance that Peter will need to move in with Diane permanently.

The relationship between mother and son is often uncomfortably contentious, with Monaghan's intense Diane walking around like a stick of dynamite about to blow up. Yet, we start to understand Diane's reasoning: she's just not the type of woman who wants to be a steady mom. She wants to be always moving, on the road, and the kid cramps her style. Thus, when the moments that include any inkling of tenderness between Diane and Peter do come along, they are hard-earned. Nathan Fillion is extremely handsome in the movie, though his role confounded me, as it was never explored why he spent all his time with Diane while his wife sat at home right next door. Unexamined and unexplained things like this make the movie frustrating, though by the time the sweet ending comes around, you might just forgive it.

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Tribeca Review: The Wackness

BuzzSugar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:30:52 -0700

Previously, I'd mostly known The Wackness as that weird-looking Sundance movie in which an Olsen twin makes out with Ben Kingsley and which features a ton of pot smoking. While those things are true, I also gotta say I really liked this weirdo pot-smoking movie. I can easily see why The Wackness won the audience award at Sundance this year: it's funny, it's got that tender boy-grows-up storyline, and there's plenty of sex, drugs and a ridiculously awesome, rap-heavy soundtrack.

Also, it's got Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby and Ben Kingsley at the heart of it, which is what ended up endearing this movie to me most of all. Peck plays Luke Shapiro, a kid on the Upper East Side who deals pot and feels alone amongst his classmates. He lives with parents who fight about money nonstop and he sees a therapist, Dr. Squires (Kingsley) in exchange for weed. Luke soon graduates high school and starts another summer of peddling his goods from out of an ices cart. He befriends his therapist's stepdaughter Stephanie (Thirlby) and then quickly falls in love with her. That's not all, though, so read more.

Discovering that his family might be getting evicted, Luke solicits Dr. Squires' help with his business, gaining a higher-end clientele so he can more quickly earn cash. Luke and Dr. Squires become close friends just as Squires feels more and more estranged from his wife. Meanwhile, Stephanie's commitment issues start to worry Luke, as she's the first girl he's ever truly loved. Mary-Kate Olsen's part is minimal at best. She plays a trippy flower child who buys from Luke and, well, makes out with Dr. Squires.

Screening this movie at Tribeca was the perfect move, and not just because the script includes countless quips about Mayor Giuliani. It's shot with a great affection for New York, framing many of the scenes in parks or on rooftops, relying on the soft sunlight to imbue a kind of hominess and comfort to this city that never sleeps. It isn't the glamorous, impossibly clean New York of mindless romcoms, it's the hometown to these kids who have grown up on the Upper East Side but still try to talk like gangsters. They've got money to burn and they burn it on pot, rather than fashion. Sometimes the pot theme lends a sleepy quality to it all, though there are also little dreamlike fantasy interludes in which we catch a glimpse inside Luke's imagination and rather than being ridiculous, it's actually adorably endearing. I guess that's the bottom line here: I thought this movie would be ridiculous and instead it wormed its way into my heart.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics