Down the Rabbit Hole We Go

Rabbit Hole is a 2010 drama film directed by John Cameron Mitchell, starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. The film is an adaptation of the 2005 play of the same name, and revolves around a couple dealing with the death of their son in a car incident. Kidman stars as Becca, a woman attempting to cope with her grief and move on from her sons death. Becca want's to give away all his clothes and toys, sell the house and move on with her life, her husband, Howie is more maudlin, and wants to keep his sons' room exactly as it was, and resents Becca's attempts to move on.

The couple struggle on for a few months, Becca want's to sell the house though Howie attempts to stop this, he tries to resume sexual relations with Becca in the hope of having another child, however she rebuffs his advances. Later in the film the couple attend a self help group for grieving couples, but Becca finds the group tiresome and contemptible. Howie attends without her, finding solace in the meetings, and begins to bond with the other attendees. Becca meets with Jason, the driver of the car that killed her son. Howie resents her meetings with Jason, but he shows her a comic he is writing about parallel universes called Rabbit Hole, which she thinks is wonderful.

The film endeavors to dissect the differences between the way they process their grief. Becca takes a more typically masculine approach, she compartmentalizes her feelings and avoids all interaction with her husband, becoming detached and depressed, but managing to function relatively normally. Howie on the other hand takes a more conventionally feminine approach, keeping his sons room exactly as he left it, making no changes as if he expects him to return, becoming agitated when Becca attempts to alter anything, clinging emotionally to the last video taken of him, becoming distressed when Becca accidentally deletes it.

The film is superbly acted, led by Nicole Kidman who is incredible as Becca, a woman racked by grief, yet making all attempts to hide it, seeking to function and rebuking all suggestion from her mother that any other situation could be like hers. Attempting to appear normal and buoyant to the outside world when she is screaming and crying in the depths of her mind. Rabbit Hole is a film which should be depressing, however unlike August Osage County which sucked all the humor out of it's original play, there is a sense of hope left in Rabbit Hole, even if much of the humor of the original play is lost, there is still the possibility of redemption.

Rabbit Hole is a rare film, one with a subject matter so depressing, that it should make it's viewers feel positively suicidal, yet the whole film is an exercise in atonement and emotional restitution, it features a masterful performance by Nicole Kidman leading a fine cast, in a challenging film dealing with a difficult subject. Rabbit Hole is a rare film, one that inspires contemplation. Rating: B

Becca: Somewhere out there I'm having a good time.

Somewhere, somewhere....

Somewhere is a 2010 drama film directed by Sofia Coppola, which follows a famous actor, staying at the Chateau Marmont recovering from a broken wrist. The actor, Johnny Marco is forced to promote a new movie, and he feels as though his life is meaningless, whilst staying at the hotel, he goes through an existential crisis, feeling that life is hollow and pointless. Marcos peaceful stay is abruptly disturbed by the arrival of his daughter. A trip to Milan for a film festival underlines his loneliness, and Marco begins to question the meaning of his success.

The film is set at the legendary Chateau Marmont, a famous hotel in Los Angeles, and Coppola was inspired by trips to the hotel with her father, and the feeling of detachment the fantasy of the Chateau brings. The hotel represents a paradox, in that for many outsiders, it is a paradise of luxury and decadence, and yet for Marco, it represents a lonely, disconnected web of corridors and rooms, where he feels more introspective than gratified. The Chateau Marmont is emblematic of Hollywood, an impenetrable fortress for many outsiders, into which it is so hard to be accepted, but the view from the inside is often shallow and unsatisfying.

One of the main themes of the film, like many of Coppola's other films is that of ennui, here celebrity languor is explored, Johnny Marco is successful and accomplished, however he feels like none of it is meaningful, celebrities are often people who are idolized and worshiped, but Coppola paints an unflattering portrait of life behind the curtain of fame, Marco is shown hiring twin strippers to dance for him, having gratuitous sex with women, taking pills and drinking. All these exploits are unsatisfying to him, and he gleans no pleasure from them. Fame is expected to fix ones problems, but Marco is unhappy despite all his alleged success, and his self imposed seclusion is emblematic ohis depression

The films stars Stephen Dorff as Marco, a newly famous actor going through an existential crisis, struggling to deal with his fame and his otherwise broken life. Elle Fanning plays his daughter, Cleo, from his failed marriage. Her arrival forces Marco to change his lifestyle, and as their time together grows he comes to realize the importance of fatherhood, he sees how all the hedonistic pleasures that were supposed to bring him happiness failed, and that it is his daughter who allows him to see what is important in life. The film was all shot on location at the Chateau Marmont, and the film itself is beautiful, shot in a Kubrick inspired almost documentary style like it's predecessor, Marie Antoinette This style shows a cold detachment from its subject, almost a disinterest. Somewhere is a stylish and beautiful ode to fame and loneliness. Rating: A-

Cleo: Why are you taking a bath next door? Is yours broken?

The Meta-Racism of American Movies

Well, as with so many of the posts on this blog, the impetus of this article was a conversation i had with a group of friends at a party the other night, this friend was Italian, and had taken offense at a recent Hollywood film which had a sequence set in Rome. The friend found the depiction of Italian culture to be false and stereotyped, and labelled the film racist, the film was Eat Pray Love. This discussion got me thinking about the way in which Hollywood portrays foreign cultures, often with little success or autheniticity. I had a similar discussion with some french friends six months ago about Lost In Translation, a film set in Japan, and one of my absolute favorite films.

Eat Pray Love is a 2010 film starring Julia Roberts about a woman who experienced a breakdown and decides to spend a year in Italy, India and Bali. The first three months she spends in Rome, where she eats and eats. The film ends up portraying the Italians as simplistic, offensive and more than slightly obsessed about food (okay this part may be realistic). However to label the film racist is simply too harsh, the film is intended to be a celebration of Italian culture, and indeed i ended up wanting to go back to Italy (I lived there for a year). Racism is defined by intention, and this film is not at all ill meaning, the film is intended as a celebration of Italian culture, which simply comes off as being an oversimplified version of Rome, so whilst the film is slightly problematic, it's flaws come from the fact that it is an American film about a foreign culture, that cannot even begin to depict the complexities of a foreign culture.

Lost In Translation is a 2003 film about two strangers who meet in a Tokyo hotel. This movie is far more problematic, as it can easily be accused of ridiculing the Japanese people. The title of this film is Lost in Translation, and it describes two people who go to Japan with no real understanding of the culture, and yet who fall in love with the city and with each other, thus, although narratively the film has no real understanding of the Japanese people, as this is loosely a first person narrative. Despite this, the film is also a heartfelt love letter to the city of Tokyo and it's culture, the city looks beautiful and the way Tokyo is portrayed is intensely meaningful.

The inherent problem with any foreign director making a film about a city of a country is that they don't have an implicit understanding of the complexities or the true ambiance of a foreign city or country. Despite this, labeling these films racist fails to justify their intentions, as in many ways these films are meant as celebrations or valentines to the cities where they are set. Whilst a lot of these films are clearly problematic, their good intentions cannot be overlooked.

Adapting Wonderland

I will start today's post, like so many, with a story, the other night i decided to watch Tim Burton's 2010 adaptation of Alice In Wonderland, a happy accident lead to me actually watching the Walt Disney 1951 animated classic. I had seen the animated film before, but not for some years, and in re-watching the movie, i discovered it to be an interesting an beautiful picture if not a particularly watchable one, i watched the Tim Burton version the following day, and found it to be again a beautiful picture but nonetheless a flawed one.

Disney adapted Alice in Wonderland first in 1923 as a 21 year old student, however the film, which was part live action was never released to the public, and after the success of Snow White in 1938 he decided to make the film, Disney made several attempts to streamline the story and convert Carroll's nonsense literature into something less episodic and more suitable for film, however with limited success, as the movie still feels highly disjointed. Tim Burton's Alice is far more successful, however i use the word more with caution, as the story still has problems, despite being far more effectively streamlined, the story still lacks an emotional connection, and we never really get to know Alice Kingsley as a person, despite her being given a slightly more fleshed out back story than in the original film. The plot of the film is more successful, Burton creates a trajectory and a story arc for Alice that is lacking in the original version, unfortunately the plot, although successful uses a plot device about a character embracing their destiny which at this point is incredibly overused.

Visually both films are stunning, the 1951 film was designed mainly by Mary Blair, who would subsequently become renowned for her work on the theme park ride Its A Small World, the film is a visually delightful psychedelic adventure, no doubt slightly LSD inspired, however the imagery in this version remains reasonably light, the 2010 adaptation is another story. Tim Burton's film, is, to put is simply, a Tim Burton film. The film is visually quite dark, and the world of wonderland was created entirely on a green screen. This was not entirely de rigeur at the time like it is now, and Alice In Wonderland was really only the second film after Sky Captain to use this technique.

Extensive green-screen usage is seen to be incredibly easy, but it is actually incredibly difficult and can be jarring if not used properly, Oz the Great And Powerful used a similar effect for the Brick Road sequences, and with no reference point between the actors and their environments, and no interaction, everything looks out of perspective, and the actors look oddly small, this effect is absent from Alice, and this is partly due to Burton successfully blending the actors with their environments, some characters are entirely CGI, some are a blend of CGI and live action, some are live action that has been modified using CG, such as the Red Queen's head and Tweedledee and Tweedledum. The film is a seamless blend, and although being visually spectacular, the effect was never jarring.

Both films were hugely influential, the 1951 film which rode on the wave of fairy tale adaptations started by Snow White, and it later convinced Disney to search for the rights to other literary works such as Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins. The 2010 film was responsible for the recent wave of fairy tale live action adaptations which include the recently released Malecifent and Oz, The Great and Powerful. The film was also responsible for studios taking fairy tale heroines and making them warriors in armour with a sword, a trend which is rarely well achieved. However both of these films remain visually delighting adventures.

Heartbeats - By Xavier Dolan

Les Amours Imaginaires is a 2010 canadian-french drama film by Xavier Dolan. Les Amours Imaginaires is about a group of three friends, Francis, Marie and Nicolas, who meet at a dinner party, and who slowly start to fall in love. The film, much like Dolan’s first film “J’ai Tué Ma Mère”, deals with the theme of impossible love.

Two friends, Francis and Marie, meet Nicolas at a dinner party, and both pretend to be uninterested in him, soon they become close friends, and they often sleep in the same bed and go on holiday together. Both Francis and Marie become consumed with lust for Nicolas, Francis masturbates to the mere smell of Nicolas’ clothes, and Marie is openly disappointed  when Francis shows up during a dinner she is having with Nicolas. The tension between them culminates in a holiday to Nicolas’ mothers house in the country. While there, Marie becomes annoyed when Nicolas gives Francis a marshmallow, and tells him to eat it slowly, like a striptease. The next day Marie leaves, telling the boys that she has an important appointment in the city, Francis chases after her and they fight, meanwhile Nicolas just watches. The film’s title refers to the act of loving someone, and imagining that they might possibly love you back.

Nicolas is selfish, spoilt and entitled, and what is even more heinous about this situation is that he knows. He knows that Marie and Francis are both in love with him, and he enjoys it, as well as exploiting it for his benefit, this is first seen when Francis and Marie fight, and Nicolas just watches, enjoying seeing his friends fight over him. Nicolas feels no shame or pain at letting his friends down and telling them that he doesn’t love them, even asking Francis; “How could you think I was gay?”, despite having been openly flirtatious earlier in their relationship. Both Francis and Marie take part in damaging and dangerous behaviour, Marie writes Nicolas a love poem, sending it to him ‘by accident’, and Francis engages in numerous relationships with different, interchangeable men, which ultimately give him no joy or satisfaction.

The film is also fantastically acted, and Dolan himself gives a fantastic performance as Francis, a young man who is struggling with a love that is not forbidden or chaste, but a love which simply isn’t real, un amour imaginaire. Also fantastic is Monia Chokri, who plays Marie, a complex and at times unstable young woman who so desperately wants to be loved, that she molds her own personality to be what she thinks Nicolas wants her to be. Her performance is utterly naturalistic that she isn’t even really acting, she is just being, and it is entirely, utterly compelling to watch.

Much like ‘J’ai Tué Ma Mère’, Heartbeats as a film belongs very much to the genre of new queer cinema, yes, one of the characters in the film is gay, and the film itself is slightly campy, but this film is not gay-defined, this film would work just as well with a man and two women, and the film cannot be singularly defined as a ‘gay’ film. This film cements Xavier Dolan’s reputation as one of the most exciting and naturalistic gay filmmakers working today, and the fact that he was only 20 at the time is even more impressive, the film is nuanced, beautifully acted and filmed, and artistic, Heartbeats is absolutely an arthouse film and a film d’auteur, but Dolan allows his opus to not just be thought provoking and visually appealing, but also highly watchable and enjoyable, and Xavier Dolan has confirmed that he is one of the most appealing and exciting young gay filmmakers working in cinema today. Rating: A

Nicolas : Qui m’aime me suive.

Tom Ford's A Single Man Reviewed.

Well my favorite author is Christopher Isherwood, i read Goodbye To Berlin one summer many years ago and got hooked, reading one new one a year since then, i was recently given My Guru and His Disciple for christmas, I will read it when schedule permits! A single Man is an american drama film released in 2009 directed by fashion designer Tom Ford. The film is an adaptation of Isherwood's 1962 novel of the same name and stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

The film depicts a day in the life of an english professor, struggling to come to terms with the death of his lover, eight months earlier. In the film, George decides to commit suicide, and thus the events of his day and the people he meets are peppered with a special importance. The film was directed by Tom Ford, and thus it is no surprise that the film is supremely beautiful. What is perhaps more surprising than the visuals is the script, which is also fantastic, written by Ford himself with David Scearce, the script gives us real insight into the character of George, what makes him tick, the relationship he had with Jim and that he has with Charlie. The film uses voice over sparingly, allowing us to see inside Georges head, without the film becoming a hokey copy and paste from page to screen.

The films leading performances are fantastic, Colin Firth is utterly compelling in the leading role, and we believe in his resounding heartbreak. Also fantastic is Julianne Moore, who plays George's friend Charlie, a former party-girl and divorcee who is coming to terms with her fading beauty and now pointless existence. The character could easily become camp or two dimensional, but Moore is extraordinary as the slightly wild and rather unpredictable Charlie, a character we all think we know.

The story, like much of Isherwood's work is quite heavily autobiographical, A Single Man is one of Isherwood's later works, and the relationship between George and Jim is heavily inspired by his relationship with Don Bachardy. Isherwood was thirty years Bachardy's senior, and he surely knew that Bachardy was going to outlive him, the book is essentially Isherwood's exploration of heartbreak and loneliness. The visuals of the film are explained by the fact that George has decided to kill himself, and thus he sees the world with a special eye, and he sees the beauty in things previously thought of as dull or bland. Also present in the film is the threat of nuclear annihilation, George gives little thought to the idea of destruction, and feels that the desolation nuclear warfare would bring could perhaps not be such a bad thing. The film is visceral in the sense that, at certain moments, mostly when there is no dialogue, the audience is able to feel George's pain, and completely understand the emotional despair that he is feeling.

The music of the film is also fantastic, and Abel Korzeniowski's score is subtly but elegantly used. A Single Man is thought provoking, elegant and beautiful, featuring a top notch performance by Colin Firth and impeccable direction from Tom Ford. Rating: A-

George: the silence drowns out the noise, and I can feel rather than think,

Lena Dunham's TINY FURNITURE

Tiny Furniture is a 2010 independent comedy drama written by, directed by and starring Lena Dunham. The film also stars Dunham's mother and sister as her on screen mother and sibling. Also featured are Jemima Kirke and Alex Karpovsky, who would later become known through the series GIRLS, also written by Dunham.

The film is about Aura, a girl, who returns from college with a useless degree, and who struggles to find her place in the world she discovers upon returning home. She meets a series of old and new friends and she falls back into a life of despondency and discovers a hopeless lack of self definition. The film marks Dunham's screenwriting debut, and is surprisingly strong for a first film, the film is set and was filmed around manhattan, mostly in TriBeCa on digital cameras for a microbudget of 65 thousand dollars, and this film is a good example of the effectiveness of digital cameras in allowing no budget movies to be made.

The film is essentially a precursor to GIRLS, and features the same themes and in most cases characters as the HBO series, the character of Aura is essentially Hannah Horvath in another form, just as insecure and just as deluded. Kirke's character of Charlotte is almost a carbon copy of Jessa Johnsson, bohemian and spiritually free. Only Karpovsky's character is at all different to it's counterpart in GIRLS. The film is essentially Lena Dunham wrestling with the same ideas and concepts that are discussed in GIRLS, it's about someone struggling to define themselves and find their place in the world, and taking terrible advice from their friends and lovers. The film, like GIRLS is also about the offspring of affluent middle class parents feeling entitled, yet feeling like they aren't allowed to complain about the shittiness of their situation.

The film does have it's flaws, it can feel a little meandering and pedestrian, and the characters can feel a little underdeveloped, with many of the supporting characters feeling like little more than cardboard cutouts, and serving like little more than markers to carry the story along. Despite it's flaws, Tiny Furniture features some top notch performances from it's leads and as always shows Lena Dunham as a writer with a real point of view. Rating: B-

Aura: I just got off a plane from Ohio. I am in a post-graduate delirium.